The international trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus arrived online last Friday, but most of us were too busy mourning John Hughes to notice. So, because I’m a diehard Gilliam fan and because most of the good reactions are hitting the web today, I’m going to just pretend this post is called “The Last Four Days in Bloggery.”

I am a huge defender of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen so I’m seeing a lot of similar stuff I like here, even if the visuals are a little too computer-generated to exactly have that Georges Méliès feel. But the hot air balloon really clinched it for me. And I’m definitely in agreement that this colorful, CG-rific Lewis Carroll-esque fantasy film looks better than that other one starring Johnny Depp (I’ll take a premature guess that I’ll like it more than that other one starring Parnassus‘ Lily Cole, too).

I can’t say I believe the trailer is going to bring too many people in. It’s very rushed, both in visuals and exposition, and even with the credits it should confuse unknowing viewers regarding the four-actors-in-the-same-role thing. Plus, with my appreciaition in the minority, I wonder if it’s going to be a bad thing that this looks like Gilliam’s biggest financial flops. Will “Academy Award Winner Heath Ledger” help fill seats?

Check out four days’ worth of film blogger responses to the trailer after the jump:

…Read more

Today’s Venice Film Festival announcement included mention of a film called Repo Chick, directed by Alex Cox. The film is not listed on IMDb, but it would seem reasonable to assume that it’s a sequel to Cox’s 1984 cult classic Repo Man, no? As Cox writes on his blog, “It isn’t really; it’s a story of different characters in a different world” — but that hadn’t stopped Universal, the studio that owns the 1984 film, from issuing a cease and desist, claiming that Cox has made “an illegal sequel” to their property.

Cox had decided to ignore the filing and continue work on the movie — there is apparently significant effects work to finish up in the month left before its Venice premiere — until receiving news that Universal had their own Repo action up their sleeves. They’ve apparently taken a Jude Law film called The Repossession Mambo off their shelf, finished two years ago and left mysteriously in their vault ever since, and have announced plans to rush it into release under the title Repo Men (according to this story, it’s actually Repo Men!, jaunty exclamation point required). Cox is convinced this is an attempt to confuse audiences, distracting them from his non-sequel to Repo Man with a non-sequel of their own. He writes:

I still have a contract with these guys and - if they ever want to make a film based on my original work - they have to ask me to direct it. What fun that would be! … I’m sure [The Repossession Mambo] is an excellent film, which Universal accidentally forgot to distribute, and now are passing off, in their innocence, as the new Repo Man. Only a cynical person might see any attempt to catch the upward draft of Repo Chick, and give loft to a turkey.

What do we think: dasterdly intellectual property violation or unfortunate coincidence?

That’s Jude Law in the image to the right, dressed up for his role in Sally Potter’s new film, Rage, which debuts at the Berlin International Film Festival this weekend. So far the masquerade is a big hit on the internet, but will this photo actually help the movie to be as popular? The last time movie bloggers got this excited over a transvestite, we were looking at a femmified Cillian Murphy from Breakfast on Pluto. And that film only grossed $829,000 in the U.S. Of course, Potter’s famous gender-bending film Orlando did six times that much, so perhaps she’ll deliver another arthouse success. For now, let’s see what people are saying about that photo:

• Defamer’s got jokes: “Jude Law, whose new look suddenly precludes him from playing nanny to his children, lest he be moved to have an affair with himself.”
• Film Experience has got jokes: “It somehow escaped me that Jude & Judi had made a film together for auteur Sally Potter. I love it when name actors do one for their art. Well played, ladies.”
• Cinematical’s got joke headlines: “Jude Looks Like a Lady.” They’ve also got a gallery of the rest of the film’s stars.
• I Watch Stuff smells Oscar-bait: “It’s amazing how much eyeliner some guys will pile on to plead for an Oscar nomination.”
• The following intolerant sites are creeped out by or scared or terrified of the image: IESB.net; Filmonic; FilmDrunk
• Because they’re totally insane for the Blingee, Best Week Ever invites you to Blingee your own pretty Jude Law image.
• Jeff Wells finds the new image less interesting than Potter’s discussion on her own blog of Rage’s cutting style. He does, however, also quote her on the subject of Law’s appearance and performance: “Law, whose beauty has sometimes been held against him as an actor, made the courageous decision to accept the role of Minx — a ‘celebrity super-model’ — and took on a kind of hyper-beauty for this persona…a ‘female’ beauty which gradually unravels as the story unfolds. Strangely, the more he became a ’she’, coiffed and made-up, the more naked was his performance. There was great strength in his willingness to make himself vulnerable. It was an extraordinarily intense part of the shoot.”

• “Some believe that with the country reeling from the economic breakdown on Wall Street, moviegoers will go for comedy,” says Variety, which predicts My Best Friend’s Girl to top the weekend over Lakeview Terrace. Of course, there’s also Ricky Gervais yukking it up in Ghost Town, but The Hollywood Reporter notes that film has tracked so poorly that Paramount cut back its screen count. I guess moviegoers won’t go for just any comedy in depressing times.
• Forget all the rumors about Russell Crowe or Colin Farrell playing Watson to Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s adaptation. Jude Law is now reportedly in talks to play the detective’s associate. And so I must elementarily deduce that Sherlock Holmes will surprisingly not be a hit.
• The kid from A Christmas Story will make his directorial debut with Couples Retreat, which will star his usual collaborators Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, as well as Jason Bateman.
• Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi have been cast in a film about the beginnings of the Internet porn industry. But will any of its target audience leave the computer long enough to go see it?
• Finally, though this isn’t big news, the 3-D animated adaptation of my favorite kid’s book of all time, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, has rounded out its voice cast with James Caan, Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Tracy Morgan and Mr.T!. I can not wait.

The Guardian has a clip from Wong Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, which apparently opens in the UK this week, and it looks TERRIBLE. Well, actually, it *looks* lovely, but the clip is interminable. A smug-faced Jude Law spouting ludicrous pie metaphors, Norah Jones rocking the up-inflected, hand-wringing, school-play style of acting. Luckily when Cat Power starts singing, they stop talking, which is some kind of improvement, but the drippy, moony gazes over the dessert, and the magical realist melty ice cream animation are still awful. Watch it here, and read about the film’s US release date limbo here.