Next week, I’ll be seeing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

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Remember when I reported this?

It’s still happening.

(Thanks to Chattaway for finding this link.)

By the way, I saw Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies last night. It’s the best Tony Scott film I’ve seen in years.

Once a month, I talk with Kim Ketola about movies, faith, and culture on her “Along the Way” radio program. She runs a great show, and isn’t afraid to ask tough questions.

This week, Kim and I talked about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Bella. Then she asked me for my thoughts on the film Sex and the City. (Listen to the podcast here.)

Since I haven’t seen it, I didn’t give Kim a review. (Unlike some of the other Christian film critics I know, I try to see a movie before I start talking about its strengths and weaknesses.) Frankly, from the clips I’ve seen of the popular television series that inspired the movie, I doubt that I would know how to appreciate it.

I did, however, feel compelled to offer a response to the preposterous accusations that a Focus on the Family blogger fired at a colleague of mine who reviewed Sex and the City last week.

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Twitch has just posted a very interesting picture…

Here’s today’s Overstreet Quiz Question:

Jeffrey Overstreet has nieces and nephews named after which of the following fantasy-novel characters?

• Ender of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
• Daeneris of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
• Phinehas of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories
• Atreides – the family name of the messianic Paul in Frank Herbert’s Dune
• Auralia of Jeffrey’s own novel Auralia’s Colors

Make your guess!

And, while this should not influence your answer, note io9′s report that Wolfgang Petersen is no longer working on an adaptation of Ender’s Game. Hmmm… if I recall correctly, Ron Howard, M. Night Shyamalan, and Wolfgang Petersen have all, at one time or another, been connected to this project.

Who would you choose as the ideal director for Ender’s Game?

Variety breaks the news that the lead actress in Malick’s upcoming Tree of Life is Jessica Chastain.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Leonardo DiCaprio will star in Ridley Scott‘s big-screen version of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Story here.

Wow, with Cormac McCarthy‘s Blood Meridian and David Ignatius‘ Body of Lies already on his plate, looks like Scott’s got a hankerin’ for big literary adaptations.

And the director of Thank You For Smoking and Juno says…

I’m gonna direct Jim Carrey in Pierre Pierre, in which he’ll play a self-indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London!

Well, of course you are! Why didn’t we think of that?

 

Sam Phillips’ Don’t Do Anything set for June¬†3rd release!¬†

Listen to a collage of clips from the upcoming Sam Phillips album on her MySpace page! 

There are also some interesting new details she’s posted about herself:

Smelly Bibles: When I was eight years old, I was given my first Bible at Hollywood Presbyterian Church by a minister who looked like a football star/leading man. Around the same time my beloved dance teacher gave me a small bottle of perfume, which I loved too much to use. After reading the story of Mary pouring her best perfume oil on Jesus’ feet, I decided to pour my whole bottle of perfume on the Bible. Since that perfume was my only treasure at the time, it was an extravagant expression of faith. That smelly Bible was one of my first attempts to make art.

In one of the most important election years in the history of our United States, I am bringing out a record called “Don’t Do Anything”. This is not a political statement. The line of the song it’s taken from is “I love you when you don’t do anything”. I might have written this to my child, a lover, a friend, a dead person, or all of these. Maybe I wanted someone to write it to me. Maybe an extravagant expression of faith is the last thing we need this year. Maybe it’s the first. There is a lot to do in between.

Favorite Books: Lately, I like the ones with pictures. Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art; My Life and Times by Henry Miller; Ed Ruscha: Photographer; You Are The Measure by Gordon Matta-Clark, and everything by Jean Giono, because he writes such beautiful pictures.

Favorite Films: After a recent visit to Forest Lawn I watched The Loved One and loved it. Because I have a child, I have seen most of Miyazaki’s animated films, which are all unique and wonderful.

Is it any wonder I’m crazy about her?

And now this, from the latest Sam Phillips newsletter:¬† (more…)

• Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard.¬†
• David “Faramir” Wenham.
• Johnny “Sweeney Scissorhands” Depp.
• Christian “Batman” Bale.
• Stephen Graham of This is England.¬†¬†
• Giovanni Ribisi of Saving Private Ryan and Heaven.
• Stephen Dorff.¬†
• And Michael Mann, director of Heat, Ali, Miami Vice, The Insider, and The Last of the Mohicans.

What do they have in common?