Monday’s specials:
CHATTAWAY DISCOVERS NEW NARNIA STORY!
Yikes! Chattaway has stumbled onto one of the things I’ve dreaded… the first of the new stories about Narnia, NOT from the mind of C.S. Lewis. Here’s the Amazon info page.
Speaking of Narnia…
NEWSWEEK ENTERS NARNIA
The inevitable splashy article that contains enough information to qualify as a review of the movie:
Will the movie be too religious for a wide audience? Might it not be religious enough for Lewis’s Christian fans? … The speculation is understandable, partly because the climax of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” can be read as an allegory for Jesus’s death and resurrection—though how many of us read it that way when we were 8?—and partly because, after “The Passion of the Christ,” movies are increasingly regarded as things to play tug of war with, rather than share. In any case, NEWSWEEK was given an exclusive look at a rough cut of the movie. “Narnia,” a $150 million production cofinanced by Disney and the educationally minded Walden Media, is a PG-rated movie about, and for, families. A movie that features a pitched battle with children, Minotaurs, polar bears and talking wolves, but no bloodshed. A movie that understands the pulse-quickening value of peril and betrayal, but prizes loyalty and forgiveness. It’s faithful to the novel, and only as Christian as you want it to be.
“Only as Christian as you want it to be?” Couldn’t the same thing be said of The Passion of the Christ? What the heck does that mean?
GRESHAM REMINDS EVANGELICALS… LEWIS WAS A SMOKER AND A DRINKER!
Christianity Today has a new interview with Douglas Gresham about C.S. Lewis.
WILCO WILL ROCK
Wilco’s aiming for a 2006 release of a new studio album. Their double live album comes out November 15th.
CRITERION’S NEW FILM PUBLICATION
Focus is the new online film journal by Criterion. Cool.
Why do people insist on trying to expand on something that was fine the way it was? Making a movie from a great book is fine, but trying to continue the story to me is kind of sad. You do not know if the author would have approved of such a thing or if he even did a good job at keeping with the origional intention of the work. It’s like making a sequel of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” or continuing the story after the fish gets eaten in “Old Man And The Sea.” Why can’t we just enjoy the stories and leave them alone? Everyone wants a piece of Narnia.
“A piece of Narnia”, no kidding. More like a piece of $$$$$.
Great interview with Gresham! Looking forward to the next installment.
It was a bit tough to stretch my Michael Mann allegiance to Collateral, but I managed it. And I was excited about the Miami Vice retread until this trailer.
Miami Vice was such a killer show because Mann did so much with so little (same with Manhunter). It seems that the bigger budget he gets, the looser his films are. Couldn’t they find something better than Linkin Park for a soundtrack?
The Firefly thing, on first crack, seemed very cool. I’m worried about the fact that Whedon has not spoken to the guy. I certainly wouldn’t have started blowing my own trumpet until I had at least talked to “the man”. A lot of enthusiasm, but maybe not a lot of good networking skills, which in Hollywood is just about as important as having money.
Personally, I cannot wait to see Mann revisit [i]Miami Vice[/i]. BTW, I loved Collateral.
unlike Sin City, Miami Vice doesn’t even look like it could live up to its title. acutally looks like a Bad Boys sequel, with a white cop this time.
anybody want to tell me what was so good about MV in the first place, besides the socksless designs. i’m a bit nostalgic for the A-Team, but even i know that would be a bad idea (as would a feature-length Smurfs movie done by Dreamworks, but that won’t stop me from trying to sell it).
although i must say i like the prospect of bill murray reprising his role of don johnston from Broken Flowers in a cameo. not that that’s gonna happen, it just should.