HobbitWatch - Report #3: Will Del Toro Direct "The Hobbit"?
Entertainment Weekly asks Guillermo Del Toro if he's been asked to direct The Hobbit.
I've heard some rumblings, but nothing official. ... I tried my best to read Lord of the Rings, the trilogy. I could not. I could not. They were very dense. And then one day, I bought The Hobbit. I read it and I loved it. So it would be a privilege.
HobbitWatch - Report #2: Doubts of Douthat, Suderman
Sharing some of my own concerns about Peter Jackson's Hobbit project, here are Ross Douthat and Peter Suderman.
HobbitWatch - Update #1: Jackson Finds "Hobbit" Direction "Impossible"
In case you missed the earlier announcement, here it is...Read more
Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2007
1. I'm Not There - Original Soundtrack
What a marvel: a two-disc marathon of Bob Dylan songs covered by excellent artists, and almost every single attempt is a knockout. There have been a lot of bad covers of Dylan songs. Too many. But in a year when Dylan was everywhere — on the big screen, on the radio, and all over Bryan Ferry's latest record — the soundtrack to Todd Hayne's inspired new film I'm Not There turns out to be a celebration of Dylan that stands above any other tribute to a songwriter that this longtime Dylan fan has ever heard. It’s a thrilling memorial concert, but fortunately Dylan is still here to experience it. (And he’s in such fine form, he may have his best work still ahead of him.)
-All Music Guide review
Overstreet's Favorite Recordings: 2007
1. I'm Not There - Original Soundtrack
What a marvel: a two-disc marathon of Bob Dylan songs covered by excellent artists, and almost every single attempt is a knockout. There have been a lot of bad covers of Dylan songs. Too many. But in a year when Dylan was everywhere — on the big screen, on the radio, and all over Bryan Ferry's latest record — the soundtrack to Todd Hayne's inspired new film I'm Not There turns out to be a celebration of Dylan that stands above any other tribute to a songwriter that this longtime Dylan fan has ever heard. It’s a thrilling memorial concert, but fortunately Dylan is still here to experience it. (And he’s in such fine form, he may have his best work still ahead of him.)
-All Music Guide review
Peter Jackson to Make "The Hobbit"
But who's going to direct it? Jackson? Del Toro?
More questions:
- Will Holm be Bilbo? Will McKellen be Gandalf? Will Serkis be Gollum? (I ssssuspectsss three "yessssssses," to those questionsses, my precious.)
- Most importantly... will it really be The Hobbit, or some huge, epic, dark attempt to match or surpass The Lord of the Rings? Remember folks... The Lord of the Rings is epic mythology. The Hobbit is a children's story...
- Isn't it just a little satisfying to see that New Line is turning to the work of a devout Catholic to restore all of the money they're not making from Pullman's His Dark Materials?
- If Jackson directs and Walsh adapts... will we get the Jackson/Walsh magic of The Fellowship of the Ring, with careful attention to character development? Or will this be the Jackson/Walsh of The Return of the King and King Kong, who are so preoccupied with blowing our minds with massive action sequences that we are never really drawn in to care much?
- The Hobbit has exactly zero major female characters. No doubt this will be viewed as a problem that must be resolved. How will they resolve it?
- Will this "second movie" that will supposedly bridge The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring be a story worth telling, or a contrived plot designed to reunite actors from the original trilogy and give a boost to Orlando Bloom's career?
The headline we've been waiting for...Read more
A Dark Day for Seattle Music
Terrible news. The beating heart of the Seattle music scene stopped beating yesterday.
That abrupt, last thump was a solo set from David Bazan (formerly of Pedro the Lion).
I've lost track of how many concerts I've enjoyed at the Croc. So many memories: Sam Phillips, T-Bone Burnett, Over the Rhine, They Might Be Giants, not to mention that full day of waiting there and eating and drinking on a tip that R.E.M. was going to play a surprise live show (they didn't that night, but did a few months later)...
This is just awful.Read more
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
For decades, viewers have marveled at the deeply engraved face of actor Tommy Lee Jones. Now, seeing his directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, it all makes sense. You’d have extravagant furrows in your brow too if your imagination lived in territory like this.
The Three Burials is about border crossings, but instead of playing the guy who arrests illegal aliens — as he did in Men in Black — Jones is playing Pete Perkins, a guy who watches with grim dismay as border patrolmen and Mexicans crossing over illegally clash in South Texas. It's not the border that troubles him. He's bothered by the way that these American enforcers those who strive so intently to trespass on U.S. soil.
THX 1138 (The Director's Cut) (2004)
Do you ever get the feeling that, to the government, you're just a number?
Have you ever visited a church service, or a political rally, or a company meeting where you had the strange feeling that everybody had been brainwashed into "talking the talk" and going through the motions?
Does the world sometimes feel cold and impersonal, and leave you longing for something more?
If you said "yes" to any of these, it's likely that THX 1138 will draw you into its nightmare and leave you haunted and exhausted.
Many of the best science fiction stories have prophesied a future world in which, for the sake of efficiency or control, the world has fallen under the rule of a harsh, invasive government that subjects its citizens to dehumanizing procedures. George Lucas's 1971 "art film," THX 1138 clearly follows in the tradition of George Orwell and other such troubled prophets. It's an oppressive film — a friend of mine calls it "punishing" — and if you suffer from claustrophobia, I'd advise you to steer clear of it. But it gives us a unique window on the mind of the man who would bring us that famous band of rebels striking back against a cruel empire.
Read more
Pixar Fun: Spot the In-Joke!
Jim Hill has just posted a fantastic guide to all of the ways in which one Pixar movie has been referenced in another Pixar movie.
Did you know Nemo appears in Monsters Inc.?Read more