Linky-Link 4: Resurrection

[cleolinda]

Heh. The Disney email newsletter: Only One Movie Gets Better Every Time You See It. To be fair, it really does. Things even I thought were a bit long the first time around seemed to fly the second, and I've heard from numerous people who kind of liked it or didn't like it at all who were won over the second time. I just find it interesting that Disney would send this email out the weekend that Lady in the Water, Shyamalan's first movie away from Disney (they told him they didn't like the Lady script but they'd give him $60M to make it anyway; pride hurt, Shyamalan walked) opens.

(If the POTC3 picture was a photoshop, then someone put a hell of a lot of effort into it [or: more where that came from]. It seems like at least some of them--the more faraway shots, for example--are definitely real.)

Ouch. The "rotten" rating is going down as we speak--from 24% to 21% in two hours. "Lady in the Water challenges us to believe in the power of myth. But the big challenge here is surviving the tedium of Shyamalan's meandering inventiveness. What's supposed to be fanciful storytelling is really just audience punishment." And that's one of the good reviews.

From celli, a link to chaodai's thoughts on yaoi the movie: "if anyone ever tells you their movie is a tone poem, you actually have to beat them to death with a copy or aristotle's poetics before running off to the hills. look it up. it's the law."

Ghost Rider website/trailer on the internets. Am I the only person who sees this and thinks, "How profoundly, incredibly lame"?

Dakota Fanning, 12, to play rape victim in blatant Oscar grab. You think I'm kidding? "The screenplay for Hounddog - a dark story of abuse, violence and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South, written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier - calls for Fanning's character to be raped in one explicit scene and to appear naked or clad only in 'underpants' in several other horrifying moments. Fanning's mother, Joy, and her Hollywood agent, Cindy Osbrink, see the movie as a possible Oscar vehicle for the pint-size star." Seriously, isn't there a way to write a child victim role where the abuse happens offscreen? Why do we have to watch simulated child rape? Unfortunately, the worst of it's already been filmed.

Colin Farrell has a close encounter. Of the crazy kind. This lady and the Crazy Us Weekly Guy™ need to hook up, for real.

Comments

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I'm still going to see it, whatever the reviewers say. They were all wrong about POTC2 anyway.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, there's "not as good as the first one" and then there's "doesn't make a damn lick of sense." But yes, point taken. : )

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

The Dakota Fanning thing . . . yeah, at that age she should not be in something explicit for whatever reason. You're right in the 'offscreen' comment; I'd suspect something graphic would be emotionally stressful enough to film for an adult, let alone a preteen.

On a lighter note (which isn't difficult):

(they told him they didn't like the Lady script but they'd give him $60M to make it anyway; pride hurt, Shyamalan walked)

WHAT??? Oh man, some studio please offer me 60 million for one of my stories. You can tell me you don't like the script all you want. ;-)

That's gotta be a nice place to be in, though, that he can walk away from an offer like that and know that someone else'll snap up his stuff in a heartbeat.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you can access this (http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1210892_1_0_,00.html), but it's an excerpt from a book coming out in conjunction with the movie. Here's the relevant part:

Her problems with the script came spewing out of her without a filter. The boundary between candor and anger, Night couldn't identify it.

You said it was funny; I didn't laugh... You're going to let a critic get attacked? They'll kill you for that... Your part's too big; you'll get killed again... You've got a writer who wants to change the world but doesn't, but somebody reads the writer and does? Don't get it... What's with the names? Scrunt? Narf? Tartutic? Not working... What's with all these rules? Don't get it... Lin Lao Choi — and good luck finding a six-foot Korean girl — is going to explain all these rules and all these words? Not buying it. Not getting it. Not working.

[...]

Cook told Night he could still make the movie at Disney, even if the executives didn't understand it. He said, ''Prove us wrong, Night. Just make the movie for us. We'll give you $60 million and say, 'Do what you want with it.' We won't touch it. We'll see you at the premiere.''

''I can't do that,'' Night answered. Spend a year of his life trying to prove them wrong? No. What a waste of energy. Their lack of faith in Lady in the Water would infect the whole project.

''C'mon.''

''I want to thank you for six great years and four great movies,'' Night said.

And so now LITW is being released by Warner Bros., who, as skyblade said, doesn't know how to market a movie if it doesn't have "Harry Potter" in the title.

[madam-rptr.livejournal.com]

Dakota Fanning, 12, to play rape victim in blatant Oscar grab.

Oh.my.god. This idea makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. Her "mother" and "agent" should be ... man, I don't know what...ugh and two more doses of blech.

[neveth.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Sounds like someone's living vicariously through her daughter, and I hates me those people.

[remys-haven.livejournal.com]

Dakota Fanning is going to be the next Tatum O'Neal. She won an oscar at nine. If Dakota Fanning does win an oscar....she can only go downhill.

Anyway, I think that Lady in the Water will be good. Fuck the critics.

xxxoo ash

[koritsimou.livejournal.com]

chaodai always has a well-thought out perspective on movies, etc, which is what I'd expect from a former LOST writer. He seems like a guy i'd want to get a beer with, yanno?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Is he not writing for the show anymore? I thought he still was.

[skyblade.livejournal.com]

Ghost Rider is by the guy who brought us Daredevil, so I don't think we're looking at a masterpiece. The Old West backstory has me intrigued--but you know how I'm a sucker for Westerns.

The toys have done a disconcertingly good job at capturing Cage's likeness, though. (http://64.34.172.56/g/albums/2006_SDCC/Hasbro/Marvel/Ghost_Rider/IMG_1398.jpg) ()

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Much as I have a total anathema to Nicholas Cage playing Johnny Blaze, he may yet redeem the film. We'll see. The boy can upon occasion act.

I'm an old school Johnny Blaze fangirl. I'm praying they put the Penance Stare into the film.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

The whole business about "how graphic should a child rape scene be allowed to be?" is actually pretty controversial IIRC. I think it came up when Jena Malone did Bastard Out of Carolina as well. I was in a drama class (reading plays, not acting them) in college in which the subject was addressed in relation to Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive (in which the nub of the issue is avoided by Vogel's writing the play such that the child-abuse scenes are done in flashback and acted by the same 30-year-old woman who plays the survivor as an adult.) I find the whole idea sort of disturbing - Dakota Fanning's incredibly precocious, yeah, but does she really have the maturity to make an informed decision to consent to this kind of traumatic experience? Because it's got to be traumatic, simulating a rape that explicitly. It's not that I have an issue with her doing it per se if she *is* mature enough to make the decision, but I feel like the adults in her life are manipulating her decision-making because *they* want her to get that Oscar, which is pretty much not cool.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah--I loved the Vogel play, btw. It was performed locally, and I found out afterwards that (IIRC) the uncle and the niece were husband and wife in real life. And the scene where he gropes her was STILL hella icky.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

I could not disagree more about Ghost Rider. The stupid is having Nicholas Cage portray Johnny Blaze, although I'm withholding judgement until I see the film.

Ghost Rider is one of the classic visual designs in 20th century comics. Hell, Ghost Rider is one of the classic 20th century comics, period, in all of its hallucingenic glory. His backstory is great (man sells soul to devil to save best friend's life, finds himself possessed by a vengeance demon as penance, subsequently forever cursed to seek out and wreak vengeance on those that are evil), his design is great, and his powers were great.

But then, if you (general rhetorical you, not you specifically) can't see the brilliance of a flaming skeleton riding a hellfired motorcycle who has a power called the Penance Stare, then you should probably forfeit your 1) sense of the absurd and 2) never, ever have any contact with the technicolored, fantastical world of comics.

He's like Fin Fang Foom and Beta Ray Bill: an aquired taste. There's nothing else like Ghost Rider.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I saw the trailer at Duckon and it looked like they are capturing the mood of the comic quite well. Also, Nick Cage usually picks interesting (if sometimes not actually good) scripts, so that bodes well.

I am cautiously optimistic.

[bluestocking7.livejournal.com]

So child porn is (RIGHTFULLY) illegal in this country, but it's okay to show Jena Malone or Dakota Fanning as a victim of sexual abuse and rape on the screen and call it "Oscar worthy"? I agree - it should be handled off screen.

also...

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

I do hope that the producer of Hounddog film hired a shrink for Dakota Fanning to talk to. Otherwise, she's going to be one seriously screwed up child. Think about how good of an actress she is at such an age; the adult who plays opposite her will also be a good actor; how could that not scare the shit out of a child?

(And on the flip side, how on earth does an actor play a rapist without feeling a little sick to his stomach? I mean, geez...)

Re: also...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I hope it's not David Morse, but he's the only big male name in the movie, so... it probably is. On the upside, I seem to remember that he originated the uncle role in Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive," which involves incest/abuse as well. And it's a very sensitively handled play, and he seems to be a very nice, professional guy, so... maybe they hired him to make it easier on Dakota.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Okay, never mind child rape, this disturbed me:

"The subject matter is very tough," Robins told me, "but I was attracted to it because in the end it's a story about human understanding, about a little girl who's dealt a very bad deck of cards, but finds solace in the music of Elvis and survives."

The music of Elvis is a lot of things, but consoling?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I'd hate to see what the character grows up to be like, is all I'm gonna say.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

The first time I saw Pirates, I was on the "basically liked it, but...eeeeh..." side. And the second time I saw it, I walked out absolutely enraptured. I don't know exactly what it is, but somehow all the humour and the stunts and the plot twists go down a lot easier, and a lot more enjoyably, after the first time you see it. Which is fairly rare.

I am going to see Lady in the Water , but I have a bad feeling about it. It does look odd.

The Dakota Fanning story really disturbs me. It disturbs me in that every report I've heard regarding this mentions how "explicit" and "graphic" the scene is. A 12 year old playing a rape victim is hard enough for me to imagine as it is (because, hell, I suspect a scene like that is difficult to play no matter how old you are), but the fact that it's been described as so horrible troubles me a little. And I don't care that she's very talented/mature/precocious - I personally don't believe that this kind of subject matter needs to be violently displayed on a movie screen. Ugh.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The worst part is, I'd think it'd be the *aftermath* of the rape, the character dealing with it psychologically, would be where the acting would come in. Is it really all that hard to scream and/or cry while an adult is on top of you? So the Great Acting isn't even going to come from the "explicit" scenes--just mental trauma to the actress.

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

Am I the only person who sees this and thinks, "How profoundly, incredibly lame"? Definately NOT.

The thought of that Dakota Fanning movie makes me want to gouge out my eyeballs, to prevent any accidental viewing. *shuddering deeply*

[speakerwiggin.livejournal.com]

Javi rules!

Link-Link 5: HYPERLINK! wait... that's actually a real word.

Dammit!

[dgriswold.livejournal.com]

Seriously, isn't there a way to write a child victim role where the abuse happens offscreen?

Yes. They did it pretty well in Mysterious Skin which actually seemed pretty explicit, but on close viewing was clearly directed (and what reading I've done backs me up on this) in such a way that the young kids had no idea what they were filming. Not perfect - they could still pop in the DVD of their performance at the age of 12 and get scarred - but they were given some distance.

That said, if it's Dakota Fanning it's probably a starring role. Which means she'd get interviews about it, and have to be able to discuss it. Even if the abuse DID happen entirely offscreen, she'd still have to know the basics of what she was acting like, which could be plenty damaging. In Mysterious Skin, the stars were older versions of the kids who actually got abused.

As for the actual seeing naked dakota fanning and/or simulated rape of her, yeah, I have no interest in watching that. It will probably backfire, or the worst of it will be cut.

[sweetestillness.livejournal.com]

Mysterious Skin was an amazing movie, and very well shot to avoid traumatising the children acting in it, and it still made me uncomfortable. I don't even want to think about what Hounddog is going to be like in that department.

[violetsocks.livejournal.com]

Dakota Fanning, 12, to play rape victim in blatant Oscar grab.

Well, fuck. I have a highly obnoxious 12 year old cousin who worships Dakota Fanning. I can't imagine her mother letting her anywhere near the movie, but all the same I hope she doesn't take this too hard. And I agree with you about that kind of shudder-worthy shit like that being completely unnecessary in a film. In the right hands, it would be even more terrifying if left to the imagination of the viewer.

[quenbolyn.livejournal.com]

Yes, Pirates does get better every time you see it. When I watched it the second time, I was almost quivering in my seat by the end. I've tried telling some of my friends - who were a little disappointed after that first viewing - to see it a second time, but all I get are those crazy "You're just a fangirl" looks.
*puts away Captain Jack T-shirt*

And I'm going to see Lady in the Water tomorrow. Screw the critics. I think I have yet to agree with a single thing they've said this year.

[maramala.livejournal.com]

I was going to poke fun at Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider, but Dakota Fanning in what amounts to child porn made me pause.

Oh no! Not Dakota Fanning! (insert several minutes of stunned silence)

Okay, that's that.

On a lighter note, I'm disappointed that Lady in the Water wasn't a remake of Mermaid in a Manhole, which would've been awesome, in a creepy, stomach-churning, eye-gouging kind of way.

[thunderphoenix.livejournal.com]

I was in Barnes and Noble today getting my Star Trek book fix, and I spotted what are apparently books about Captain Jack as a young pirate for younger readers. I almost had to pick it up, just to see what kind of hijinks Little Jack got into.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[meandstuff.livejournal.com]

To me it seems like a distinct lack of faith in her daughter's abilities on Dakota Fanning's mother behalf to apparently push her into a role like this simply for the sake of Oscar-baiting. Especially since that kind of baiting doesn't always work. After all, Jodie Foster didn't win the Oscars for Taxi Driver, even if she was nominated.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but if she is such a good actress, surely one can assume that eventually in her lifetime she will receive some form of recognition for her talent without having to sacrifice psychological health at such a young age.

[maliekai.livejournal.com]

That second paragraph is EXACTLY what I was going to say.

[maliekai.livejournal.com]

It's the thought of nudity/partial nudity on a 12-year-old actress's part that makes me so sad. That's just uncalled-for, and I don't care how it's being handled, it's a form of child pornography -- certainly it's exploitation.

[derangeddarling.livejournal.com]

So, on the fifth viewing, I'm wondering if maybe they only show us Jack taking Tia's ring to give us a glimpse of the heart shaped locket (which zomg matches Davy Jones' music box) which is on the table next to it.

[derangeddarling.livejournal.com]

Also, i agree with everyone else about little Dakota. I think she's adorable and I love her, and I don't want to see her do something so potentially emotionally damaging. I got into a big fight with a friend about it (he thinks she is old enough to make her own decision about it.) I was like, there is a reason minors don't get to decide everything for themselves...And her mother's behavior is awful. What good is an Oscar if the role ruins your daughter's image, or worse messes with her head? =/
-sigh-
And a 12 year old girl does -not- need to be naked for millions of people to see. Why would her mother let her do this. grrr!

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

OT, but have you seen this? Edible chocolate roses FTW! (http://flickr.com/photos/chocolaterosesbylisa)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Whoa, those are amazing.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Only One Movie Gets Better Every Time You See It

Curiously, that's something I use to say about... M. Night Shyamalan's movies. *scratches head* No kidding. I saw the Sixth Sense for the first time? I was kind of 'mneh'. By the fifth time I watched it though? ZOMGBATMAN! Worship Level.

This accounts for about every Shyamalan's prod that I was able to see more than once (still have to do that with Unbreakable, which COMPLETELY PISSED ME OFF), save for The Village. Which I loved at first sight. Heh.

I read about 1/3 of the review for Lady in the Water that you posted (the link for) yesterday and stopped at it because (a) didn't want to 'spoil' myself with someone else's opinion, however competent it was, and (b) it didn't seem to rail so much about the movie as on Shyamalan's Ego, which... I'm really not interested in (...maybe that's how I'm 'saved'?). If the movie'll do something for me, it'll do, regardless of what the author possibly ever intended it to be.

The Dakota Fanning thing is... scary, expecially by her agent and OWN MOTHER's declarations (!!!).