Nicole Kidman is set to star in
Nicole Kidman is set to star in a biopic about Diane Arbus.
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“Dear hipsters, No matter how much you loved Napoleon Dynamite, Vote For Pedro shirts aren’t cool anymore.”. The Google Ads on this entry feature Vote for Pedro shirts. Hee.
Interview with Soso Whaley, director of Mickey D’s and Me, counterpoint to Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me. “Even without seeing [Super Size Me] I could tell from the clips and the description by Spurlock that this was nothing more than junk science masquerading as legitimate scientific discovery.”
Depressing article on how much hassle it was for the makers of Mad Hot Ballroom to clear all copyrighted music in the film. “If I had known all that I had to go through, I’m not sure I would have done it.”
AFI’s top 100 movie quotes. Anything missing from the list or something that should be dropped?
The scoring of movies and the -atsi movies scored by Philip Glass.
Neal Stephenson on the larger lessons of Star Wars. “Nothing is more seductive than to think that we, like the Jedi, could be masters of the most advanced technologies while living simple lives: to have a geek standard of living and spend our copious leisure time vegging out.”
Finding a rough model for how films fare at the box office. “They assume that revenue relies on three major factors: the size of the possible audience, the initial desire of audience members to see the film (which is often dictated by the amount spent on marketing and publicity), and audience response to the film.”
The friendship and rivalry of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Interview with Errol Morris. He says he’s going to be doing some more commercials for Apple.
Drawing Restraint 9 is the first collaboration by super-couple Matthew Barney and Bjork.
On the art of the movie trailer. “There are few more cynical forms of art, or of advertising. Trailers are full of deception. Because what they want you to do is to see the movie they want you to see, not the movie that it is.”
Rolling Stone interview with George Lucas from 1977.
Nancy Cartwright says The Simpsons movie is now in production. Will one of the entertainment industry’s biggest pieces of vaporware actually get shipped?
65,000 photocopies of 300 different films made into a 14-minute short. Quite clever.
Jason Scott on why he decided to license his straight-to-DVD documentary under a Creative Commons license. “It was in some ways a tough decision, because you want to ‘protect’ yourself, but then you realize you’re not really ‘protecting’ anything; all you’re doing is being a paranoid twitch-bag. And once you realize this, then it becomes a little easier.”
The Blurb Racket is a weekly roundup of movie blurbs put back into context. “…Travolta is as smooth as ever…” is actually “…although Travolta is as smooth as ever, the picture is a bust, a grimly unfunny comedy with no connection to reality, and worst of all, running on and on for two dismal hours”.
If you’re going to see Revenge of the Sith again, look for these easter eggs. Both the Millennium Falcon and George Lucas have cameo appearances.
Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock has a book out about fast food.
“A sampling of what prominent film critics wrote in their reviews of the earlier ‘Star Wars’ films”.
The blog for Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July’s acclaimed new movie. The most recent entries are about the film’s win at Cannes.
Mr. Sun goes to Revenge of the Sith with his youngling. “Why didn’t Obi-Wan finish off Anakin? That weakness of the mind cost millions of lives. Put down the coffee, Master Kenobi โ coffee is for closers.”
The public choice economics of Star Wars: A Straussian reading. “The core point is that the Jedi are not to be trusted”.
The top 100 movie voices. Peter Sellers should really be higher on the list.
Movies that have been considered the greatest ever.
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