Tropic Thunder is taking heavy fire, not for Robert Downey Jr.’s blackface performance, but rather for Ben Stiller’s spoof movie-within-a-movie, Simple Jack. Is this a case of political correctness gone too far? Or does Hollywood have serious flaws in how it portrays people with disabilities? The latter may have been Stiller’s point all along…
Our friend Kevin Kelly shares the tale of his journey to the fabled Skywalker Ranch to see Clone Wars and meet the elusive George Lucas. The film, essentially a two hour trailer for the upcoming animated series, gets into some pretty wonky territory when it asks the question we’ve all wondered: What would Truman Capote be like as a Hutt?
Karina checks in with what she’s watching. An Elliott Gould retrospective sheds some light on Little Murders and Jean-Luc Godard’s refusal to direct it. Also, Azazel Jacobs, director of the upcoming Mamma’s Man, Doris Day in Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, and soft-core porn sci-fi web show, The Fold.
(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
FilmCouch 83
4:07 - Tropic Thunder
16:50 - The Clone Wars, Skywalker Ranch
25:30 - Karina’s Media Diet
I was lucky enough to be able to go to San Francisco on Sunday night for a screening of Star Wars: Clone Wars. On Monday, Warner Bros. took us out to George Lucas’ Big Rock Ranch for an interview with Lucas himself, along with director Dave Filoni and producer Catherine Winder. However, it pretty much turned into The George Lucas Show, and given his newfound love affair with television, that might actually become a reality. As long as it doesn’t become a reality show, I’d be okay with it. Some highlights from the interview include:
- Is there an entertainment industry inside the Star Wars universe?
- Why The Clone Wars, why now, and why make it animated?
- More about the live-action Star Wars television show they’re working on.
- Why George might only work in television from now on.
- Some skinny on the next Indiana Jones movie.
Read the full interview after the break.
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