Movies!
George Lucas, Free to Follow His Instincts
After reading the depressing prediction of future Indie film by Mark Gill, I found this great article in the NY Times about George Lucas. While hardly perceived as an “Independent” he does have an interesting unique approach to the movie making business that defies traditional big budget doctrine… have fun.
(By the way, here are a few photos I took at a visit to the Letterman Digital Arts Center at the Presidio a few years ago.)
The single biggest change should be to only make movies that we absolutely love. Not ones we like. Not ones we need to do as a favor. Not the ones we do because they seem like a good “piece of business.” Not ones we do because we think, hope or wish that “the kids” will like them. Not the knock-offs of the ones that worked at the box office last year. In a word, we should only pick the films we’re passionate about—and that have an audience.
Mark Gill from his keynote at the L.A. Film Festival’s Financing Conference
Dark Knight Selling Out Three Weeks Early
It makes sense that there’s a rush for tickets — it looks action-packed and film fans are anxious to see Heath Ledger.
Or it could just be that Batman Begins was really fucking awesome and people can’t wait to see part two. Either way, I’m buying my tickets now.
Hulk. Smash! Yes. Hulk. Smash. Yes. Smash. Big Hulk smash. Smash cars. Buildings. Army tanks. Hulk not just smash. Hulk also go rarrr! Then smash again. Smash important, obviously. Smash Hulk’s USP. What Hulk smash most? Hulk smash all hope of interesting time in cinema.
1-star review of The Hulk in Hulk-speak
(via kottke)
Is Pixar making a live action film?
With an unrivaled parade of blockbusters, I always figured it would be a matter of time until Pixar branched out into other types of films. I know I would be really interested to see what kind of live action films they could produce.
I think Wall•E could be a test to see if they can create an ET-like film that engrosses kids, but consists of a dramatic storyline. If it does well, I expect we’ll see Pixar move beyond just family-fare and see if they can work their magic on other genres as well.
Though I would expect that before Pixar released a feature film, they would produce a variety of live action shorts, as they’ve done over the years to test their latest animation technology.
Death Race Trailer
Not enough action for you this summer? One too many sensitive super hero franchises not filling your summer action fix?
The Death Race remake looks to the brainless action flick of the summer, in the vein of the Statham’s Transporter. My guess is it will be about 1/10 as classic as Death Race 2000, but make 10 times as much money.
Disbeliefnet
The site for Bill Maher and Larry Charles upcoming movie Religulous.
The site is meant to be a parody of the religious community site Beliefnet, which was purchased by Fox Entertainment last year.
The Happening... isn't
After seeing Lady in the Water, I finally became interested in the next M. Night Shyamalan movie… yes, I’m that guy that just doesn’t care for his movies… except Lady in the Water.
The Happening seemed interesting at first. I’m intrigued about the idea of an environmental thriller, especially given the current mystery of the honeybee and colony collapse disorder.
But now that I’ve seen the preview in theaters and on TiVo a half dozen times, I’m thinking that I’m just not that into a 91 minute snuff film. Given Shyamalan’s trademark of giving ridiculous amounts of anticipation in order to create a small amount of suspense, I’m thinking that waiting to see who will violently off them self next just doesn’t sound like good entertainment to me.
It sounds depressing.
The Pixar Story
Last night I watched a little documentary called The Pixar Story. The origins of Pixar is quite interesting. John Lasseter was working at Disney and after seeing Tron became interested in computer graphics for animation. Then after spending eight months doing a treatment for the first CG feature, The Brave Little Toaster, was fired by Disney (he now oversees all animation for the company).
It interviews George Lucas who originally started Pixar and why he sold it to Steve Jobs. It discusses the creation of Pixar hit up to Cars and how Pixar changed the animated genre.
But most interestingly it discusses how Pixar creates its films, what inspires the writers, directors, producers and animators.
It is a truly fascinating and inspirational look at one of the most creative and successful companies around. It is worth checking out.
If you have Starz, the documentary will be on all this month, otherwise I recommend renting it.
Finally the X-Files trailer is out!
This is probably my most anticipated movie in a summer chock full of blockbuster goodness.
(Higher quality versions available here)
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