Is it that odd to imagine a Waterworldmusical on Broadway? After all, Xanadumade it to the big stage, so anything is possible for infamous turkeys like this one. Sure, it looks rather silly in the video below, the way Patrick Warburton and company have made it, but with the right creative team Waterworld could really work as a kitchy cult attraction. Maybe team up two randoms, the way Marvel has with the upcoming Spider-Manshow directed by Julie Taymor and featuring music by Bono. Honestly, there seems to be nothing that Broadway producers could announce that’s any more ridiculous than what’s already been done there.
So, terrible movie-turned-musical ideas may continue to be easy gags, and they’re possibly even going to make me laugh, but ultimately I would like to go see Con Air: The Musical (from 30 Rock) and Planet of the Apes: The Musical (from The Simpsons) and musicals made out of Waterworld, The Postman, Battlefield Earthand especially Ishtar. Who would love you, Mariner? I would.
Check out the commercial for Waterworld: The Musical after the jump.
A number of our bloggingfriends have picked up the Alphabetical Favorites meme. The idea is that you list 26 favorite movies, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some people are adding comments, but I think it’s more interesting to just toss the titles out there, to see how they fit together within a single list and how they match up to other lists. Also, it’s been a hell of a week and I’m exhausted. I will say this: after not being able to think of a single movie beginning with the letter “J” that I enjoy more than Joe Versus the Volcano, I noticed that several commenters at the House Next Door had slotted the same film in the same face. So much for Todd McCarthy’s contention in his Doubt review that John Patrick Shanley’s first directorial effort was “misguided.”
Earlier this year, I thought that it was way too late for a Sex and the Citymovie. But then it made a ton of cash, so I guess I was wrong. Still, I’m going to continue similarly thinking it’s too late for another X-Filesmovie. And even if I’m proven wrong and the masses get out to theaters this weekend in search of the truth, I’ll keep on believing that X-Files: I Want to Believeis way past its time.
To celebrate Mulder and Scully’s tardiness, here are 10 other movies that came out too late:
The Godfather Part III(Released in: 1990; Should have been released in: 1976) - Never mind the fact that had this third installment been made years earlier, Sofia Coppola wouldn’t have been cast and therefore wouldn’t have given her terribly infamous performance. The more important matter is that sequels arriving more than a decade after the previous installment are almost always doomed. The longer the wait, the higher the expectations, and the greater the disappointment. Of course, not everyone agrees that it was also too late for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Live Free or Die Hard, Rambo, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, etc. …Read more
New Line is showing a promo video for the Sex and the City movie at New York Fashion Week. Jezebel says: “Samantha’s L.A wardrobe is all in primary colors; Charlotte is mainly wearing Prada, and Miranda continues to wear suits. Because she works.”
Did Xanadu invent the mashup? The Underwire looks at the evidence.
Speaking of the disasterpieces of the 80s, RC at Strange Culture wonders if there were any legitimately “good” films released that entire decade. “In fact, most 80s films are so quirky they might as well be instantly considered period pieces, even if at the time they had every intention of being contemporary or non-script in their portrayal of time.”
At Pajiba, The Boozehound Cinephile pairs rum with Juno. “Once I lost myself in the film, the rum-and-coke flavor allowed me to fantasize that I was making out with Alison Janney and that she tasted like a rum-cola slushee, so that part was an A+.”
Robert Greenwald, who has made a living making unabashedly partisan documentaries about Wal-Mart and Iraq since scratching Xanadu off his resume, has teamed with Senator Bernie Sanders to launch a viral video campaign against Fox News. The first video, which you can see at FoxAttacks.com, calls for viewers to put pressure on the mainstream media to put pressure on the Bush administration. My favorite line from the Hollywood Reporter story: “One media observer said the video lacked balance and journalistic credibility.”
IFC has picked up three films expected to screen at the Toronto Film Festival, including Harmony Korine’s Mister Lonely. In keeping with their previously announced plan to focus their attention on the First Take initiative, IFC will release all of these new acquisitions simultaneously in theaters and on VOD.
“Jeff Goldblum and his hometown of Pittsburgh, whether it likes it or not, have combined to create a surprising summer delight,” effuses an un-bylined AP story floating over at The Hollywood Reporter. That’s an, uh, interesting way to introduce the pay-cable debut of a film that made its festival debut 15 months ago and hasn’t been heard from since.
We haven’t done an installment of The Micro Five in a couple of weeks, so let me give you a refresher: the basic idea is not to create a definitive (read: totally subjective) Top Five list, but to pick a super-specific topic and examine how five films handled it differently. You can read previous installments here, here, here and here.
This time out, we’re looking at musical numbers of the 80s. The Hollywood musical is thought in some quarters to have lost its way in the late 70s/early 80s (although recent reappraisals have been kinder to the era that produced curiosities like One From the Heart.) Still, the influence of MTV on all aspects of 80s culture (but especially youth culture) by the end of the decade led to an normalization of song and dance scenes (but especially dance scenes) in non-musicals. See my take on five numbers involving John Hughes, Spike Lee and Christopher Walken, after the jump.
***Lionsgate will distribute a still untitled doc about religion, shot partially in Israel and around the middle east, directed by Larry Charles (the TV vet who wrangled Borat) and featuring comic/blowhard Bill Maher. Charles and Maher promise Variety that it’s a comedy, but let’s hope the jokes are better than this clunker from Charles: “Nietzsche said God is dead, but he didn’t see the grosses for Passion of the Christ.” Ooooh, topical!
***Scott Foundas takes a look at Shortcut to Happiness, the long-delayed movie Alec Baldwin doesn’t want you to see. “Filmed in 2001, then waylaid by investor bankruptcies and other infernal torments, the result, like so many troubled A-list productions, is less compelling than all the behind-the-scenes Sturm und Drang.”
***Dig out that sequined, halter-top, parachute-pants jumpsuit–Xanadu is back! Variety says the Broadway spoof of the eyesore 80s musical is riding good reviews to box office glory. Not bad for a production featuring almost wall-to-wall ELO, but I’ll have to see it in order to believe that it’s got anything that can top the tight rope dance from the original (starting at about the two minute mark on the clip embedded above).
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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Is it that odd to imagine a 
A number of our blogging friends have picked up the Alphabetical Favorites meme. The idea is that you list 26 favorite movies, one for each letter of the alphabet. Some people are adding comments, but I think it’s more interesting to just toss the titles out there, to see how they fit together within a single list and how they match up to other lists. Also, it’s been a hell of a week and I’m exhausted. I will say this: after not being able to think of a single movie beginning with the letter “J” that I enjoy more than Joe Versus the Volcano, I noticed that several commenters at the House Next Door had slotted the same film in the same face. So much for Todd McCarthy’s contention in his Doubt review that John Patrick Shanley’s first directorial effort was “misguided.”
Robert Greenwald, who has made a living making unabashedly partisan documentaries about Wal-Mart and Iraq since scratching 
