Is the soul an organ? The new film Cold Souls somewhat treats it at such, to the point of giving it a physical manifestation. The soul of “Paul Giamatti” (played by Paul Giamatti), for instance, resembles a chickpea. And in the film, a great Charlie Kaufman-esque comedy from filmmaker Sophia Barthes, souls are traded, trafficked and stolen, just like kidneys and livers. After Paul puts his soul in storage, it’s nabbed and brought to Russia for the benefit of a young actress who thinks the essence of a famous American actor will improve her craft.
The lesson here is that you shouldn’t store your soul, no matter how much of a burden it may be, particularly if you’re a celebrity or of a profession where your soul might be in high demand on the black market. The movies have long informed us of other ways we might lose an organ, intentionally or not, so if you wish to keep all your insides inside, take heed of the following five methods: …Read more
In a huge blow to women in film, Catherine Harwicke was officially announced to be exiting the Twilight franchise after a weekend of rumors. Summit Entertainment’s press release politely claims the decision was rather mutual because the first sequel, New Moon, is being rushed into production yet Hardwicke desired more prep time. Gossip in the blogs, however, says it had more to do with the director being difficult during the first film’s shoot. Whatever the reason, Summit will be pressured to hire another female filmmaker. I bet Lexi Alexander could use the gig after her miserable weekend.
Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone “fired blanks” at the box office over the weekend, placing 8th with only $4 million, which was less than a third the opening of the last Punisher in 2004. As for other new releases, Cadillac Records grossed $3.5 million, though on far fewer screens, and Frost/Nixon made $180,000 from only 3 locations, earning it a per-screen average of $60,000! And from a mostly 35+ audience. Four Christmases kept its top spot on the box office chart with another $18 million.
Due to the troubled economy, a number of producer deals at Paramount and Universal will not be renewed, including that of the prestigious duo of Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. Though The Hollywood Reporter claims the producers will continue prepping Jurassic Park IV at the studio, ComingSoon.net just heard from them directly that the sequel has died with Michael Crichton’s recent passing.
Michael Crichton died unexpectedly of cancer yesterday at the age of 66. In his honor, I thought about posting a montage of clips from movies he wrote and/or directed and/or which were adapted from his novels. But the one I found, despite making some of the lesser adaptations (Congo; Timeline) seem better than they actually are, wasn’t quite as long or in depth as I’d hoped. And I couldn’t merely include a scene or trailer for a single film, because it’s impossible to choose one work that best exemplifies his career. No, not even Jurassic Parkis worthy.
So, I’m going a little indirect and showcasing this recut trailer for Twister, a movie Crichton scripted with his then wife, Anne-Marie Martin. Not only do I think Twister is underrated, but I think this is one of the better recut trailers around, mainly because the voiceover sounds more legit than most amateur efforts. The fact that Crichton had penned the screenplay to Twister was immediately a surprise to anyone watching the movie, which hardly even seemed to have a foundation of story or dialogue prior to being shot. It had seemed that director Jan De Bont went into a wide expanse of Midwest farmland with a loose synopsis to His Girl Friday and a lot of ideas for spectacular CG tornado effects to be added in during post.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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