Sing along with me!

Are apocalyptic movies going to be a monthly event until… well… the end of the world?

Here comes M. Night Shyamalan again…

There’s a spoilerific story at Hollywood Elsewhere, along with some snarky (and funny) comments.

If you want to avoid any spoilers about the new Will Smith actioner I Am Legend, don’t read this.

I wasn’t interested before. But now, having read this sketchy summary, I am very, very interested….

When blogger Jeffrey Wells turns against a filmmaker, his disgust with them becomes a sort of performance art.

Once in a while though, he’s surprised.

And watching him admit his bewilderment upon seeing Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is more arresting and intriguing than any of the film’s marketing. Going into the screening with very low expectations, Wells was blown away.

I went to last night’s screening of Sweeney Todd (Dreamamount, 11.21) with a guarded attitude. Here we go, another flush of the downward Burton swirl, get ready for it. The man has been in a kind of losing-it mode since Planet of the Apes and he’s had his day… live with it. And then it began, and less than two minutes in I knew it was exceptional and perhaps more than that.

Ten minutes later I was feeling something growing within me. Surprise turned to admiration turned to amazement. I felt filled up, delighted. I couldn’t believe it…a Tim Burton film that reverses the decline! Call me a changed man. Call Burton a changed man. Sweeney Todd is his best film since…Beetlejuice?

Color me stoked. I’ve been a Burton fan since Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and I too have been discouraged by the disappointments of Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, and Big Fish. But this… this has made me hopeful.

Oh joy.

Hollywood is to fill in the Bible’s “missing years” with a story about Jesus as a wandering mystic who travelled across India, living in Buddhist monasteries and speaking out against the iniquities of the country’s caste system.

Film producers have delved deep into revisionist scholarship to piece together what they say was Jesus’s life between the ages of 13 and 30, a period untouched by the recognised gospels.

The result is the Aquarian Gospel, a $20m movie, which portrays Jesus as a holy man and teacher inspired by a myriad of eastern religions in India. The Aquarian Gospel takes its name from a century-old book that examined Christianity’s eastern roots and is in its 53rd reprint.

Of course, if Hollywood decided to make a $20m action film about “the lost years” of Mohammed, I suspect there would be bombings and slayings¬†somewhere in the world as a result. At the same time, the American media would be noisy with declarations that such a project was a show of “intolerance” and disrespect to Muslims. But this is Christianity, so… hey, let’s celebrate yet another fiction that’s bound to offend the believers! And if Christians dare furrow their brows, they’ll be described as enemies of freedom of speech.

If that isn’t depressing enough:

The producers say they are hoping for commercial and spiritual gains. “We think that Indian religions and Buddhism, especially with the idea of meditation, played a big part in Christ’s thinking. In the film we are looking beyond the canonised gospels to the ‘lost’ gospels,” said William Sees Keenan, the producer, who is currently making Lindsay Lohan’s Poor Things.

“We are looking at new themes. In our story Jesus was loyal to the untouchables [in India] and he defended them with his life by saying that everyone could read the Vedas [Hindu holy books],” said Mr Keenan, a “lapsed Catholic”.

Um, actually, the four gospels that the church does embrace make it¬†pretty clear that Jesus knew the value of meditation. You don’t have to dig¬†into sources of dubious integrity to find that.¬†

And the producer’s words fail to show me how this film will¬†”look at new themes.” It sounds like the story affirms what we already know about Christ’s compassion, and that it also brings back tired speculation and previously debunked theories.

But apparently it’s more exciting if we get our information about Jesus from sources other than those books canonized in the tradition of Christian faith by those who were most concerned with preserving the truth about Christ and debunking untrustworthy sources.

“Thanks,” of a sort, to Peter Chattaway this head-shaker.

And thanks to Michael Leary for pointing out this equally exciting development:

A German filmmaker is planning a fictional film on twin brother of Jesus Christ which will take shape once he gets a Indian co-producer for the film that would be shot in Indian background.

Germany production company fieber.film is working on a decade old project which was abandoned after death of a producer in an accident.

Robert Sigl’s “The 13th disciple”, a fiction based on a story about Jesus’s twin evil brother and their re-incarnation in the current age, is participating in the international film festival of India (IFFI) scouting for Indian co-producers.

“Film is about two archeologists touring India to research about Jesus lifespan in India. The story reveals about Jesus’ evil twin brother who used to practice some different sect,” fieber.film’s producer Mario Stefan stated narrating the story at film bazaar of International film festival of India organized by national films division corporation (NFDC).

Will the Coen Brothers’ amazing adaptation of ¬†No Country for Old Men be the only great literary adaptation of the year?

At GreenCine Daily, I’ve discovered that Joe Wright’s take on Ian McEwan‘s Atonement does have at least one rather vocal nay-sayer. That would be Ed Gonzalez of Slant. I’ll be seeing the film tomorrow.

And by the way, Gonzalez isn’t happy with what Marc Forster‘s done to Khaled Hosseini’s¬†The Kite Runner either. Not at all. His review is kind of a surprise, since a friend of mine who has seen it called the movie “the best movie of the year.” Nick Schager is also disgusted with the film.

I saw the Coen Brothers‘ riveting new film No Country for Old Men a few nights back, and was powerfully impressed by how perfectly it captures the tone of Cormac McCarthy‘s novel, and how the cast is note-perfect (with one exception) as McCarthy’s characters.

So I’m delighted to find the Coens and McCarthy talking with each other in TIME Magazine. They’re perfect collaborators. I thought so when I read the novel for the first time, as scene after scene felt like they’d been taken from a Coen Brothers movie.

My review will be at ChristianityTodayMovies.com in a couple of weeks.

First came the announcement: The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper’s classic novel of fantasy and adventure, was becoming a movie.

Then came the trailer, and hopes quickly began to crumble. It looked awful. And the story had clearly been revised to be more “accessible,” rewriting the particular context and characters of the book.

Then came the announcement that the title had been changed to something a little… what… catchier? Now, The Dark is Rising would be called The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.¬† Bleccch.

And now, the latest! When I received my official invitation to the screening yesterday, the materials indicated that the title has been changed again! As if admitting that their movie is a total failure as an adaptation, they’ve apparently dropped the original title entirely, and now the movie is just called The Seeker. (On the official site, I see the same thing. But the trailer has not yet been updated: It still has that clunky, long-ish title.)

Now, I’m not pre-judging the film. Trailers often send the wrong signals, and who wants to judge a film by it’s title? All I’m saying is this: If it’s a good movie, somebody’s doing a remarkable job of convincing us otherwise.

 

At Hollywood Elsewhere, the buzz for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s new film is building… with some substance this time.

My favorite American director. My favorite actor. I’m getting impatient.

WHOAH! Here’s a review by Marjorie Baumgarten at Variety. And lo and behold… Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood did the soundtrack!!

Certain to be rewarded with year-end accolades, Anderson’s film is a true American saga – one that rivals “Giant” and “Citizen Kane” in our popular lore as origin stories about how we came to be the people we are. In “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” it’s not the gold that destroys men’s souls but greed; in “There Will Be Blood,” the commodity that drives the greed is oil.

Anderson was in attendance and answered a few questions following the screening. The film, which is based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, really only uses “about the first 150 pages of the novel,” according to Anderson. “The book goes on to Hollywood and Washington” and was just too expansive for his purposes, though he said that those opening chapters contained Sinclair’s clear descriptions of the workings of the derricks and the precipitous moods that hung over communities that were about to sell their land to the oil prospectors. These are images that are also conveyed vividly in the film. Additionally, Anderson’s usual mix of stunning landscape shots and long takes blend with his close-up scrutiny of the hidden meanings of faces and comportment.

Daniel Day-Lewis is at his brilliant best as the story’s Daniel Plainview, a man whose humanity diminishes as his fortunes increase. Never an exemplar of human kindness, Plainview becomes truly monstrous by film’s end. Spanning three decades from 1898 to 1927, the approximately two hour and 40-minute film begins and ends with Plainview as a solitary figure. In fact, the first 15 minutes pass without any dialogue. Community is merely a useful tool for getting what Plainview wants and needs. Another constant nuisance is religion and false piety, represented by the character, Eli Sunday, played by Paul Dano. That the film stars none of the director’s recurring repertory of actors is another intriguing element that lends a fresh sense to the undertaking.

Essential to the success of the movie is the original score by Jonny Greenwood, the Radiohead guitarist and BBC composer in residence. In addition to some uniquely haunting orchestral arrangements, there’s this insistent string motif that sounds like the buzzing of an insect inside one’s head, a sound that grows louder and more unavoidably distressing whenever soulless events are about to occur. Greenwood’s astonishing score is sure to be one of the most remarked-on aspects of the movie.

UPDATE #1:And now this…

It’s more than a “departure” for the director; it’s a monumental display of “evolution” that’ll wow the established fans and impress a helluva lot more new ones. This is a dark, compelling and effortlessly engrossing film, one bolstered by a lead performance that ranks among the very best of Lewis’ impressive career.

The film will most often be compared to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, so I guess I can get the ball rolling on that particular crutch — but it’s also an apt comparison. Which is not to say that There Will Be Blood will necessarily be dissected and revered 75 years from now, but the stories are certainly similar enough.

UPDATE #2:
From Twitch:

Paul Thomas Anderson has demonstrated tremendous instincts as a filmmaker in his previous four features, but, for me, he’s always been more of a promising director with great potential than a master. There Will Be Blood shows that he has absorbed the lessons of those directors that have inspired him — notably Robert Altman — and found something new to say, and a new way to say it. He’s built on everything he’s done before and surpassed his previous achievements. It’s definitely not perfect, but it is sweeping and majestic as it moves down a lonely, powerful path.

Update #3:
The Hollywood Reporter raves:

Both an epic and a miniature, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” uses the fewest possible brush strokes, spread across a vast canvas, to paint a portrait of greed at the beginning of the American century. Built around another powerhouse performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, it’s a certain awards contender and will be a strong draw for serious moviegoers.

This one looks like a must-see!

Darren Hughes calls Secret Sunshine¬†“the truest depiction of evangelical Christianity I’ve seen on film.”

Victor Morton doesn’t quite agree. (You have to scroll down for his review.)¬†¬†

And J. Robert Parks has mixed feelings about it.

GreenCine Daily has even more reviews of the film from Toronto and from Cannes.

Meanwhile, here are a wild array of reactions to a screening of the new cut of Southland Tales, the latest from Richard Kelly the director of Donnie Darko.