Friday night, sleepy

[cleolinda]

Well, after last night's two entries, I don't have much else to say.

Thousands protest over civil rights.

Daily Show writer explains writers' strike -- if digital content isn't worth anything, how come Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion?; 'The Colbert Report': Striking writers edition; Letterman Opens Own Wallet To Pay His Staff; Writers strike: What’s it mean for actors?

U2 New Song on Facebook.

Timbaland gives Duran Duran a new sound.

Beatles music likely to go digital in ’08.

Alizée returns!

For sale: a piece of the Eiffel Tower.

‘Tree of Smoke’ wins National Book prize.

Readers prefer Vonnegut to Mailer, Styron.

Man arrested for toad tripping.

Boy, 12, has found his true calling: animal calls.

Serendipity 3 closed after failing second health inspection. This only a few days after breaking the world record for most expensive dessert, by the way. I'm sad because I just want to have their regular hot chocolate before I die. (If you know of a better restaurant hot chocolate I should be setting my sights on, let me know. Note: Not fond of super-dark chocolate; can handle "dark" milk chocolate.)

Flying Spaghetti Monster to star at American Academy of Religion.

If Daleks shilled Viagra.

Dostoyevsky meets Batman.

Matt Damon turns down People’s Sexiest Man Alive title.

Tidbits: Fabio calls Clooney ‘low-class scumbag.’

Discworld's Pratchett Does TV.

trailer_spot: Other Boleyn Girl, Definitely Maybe, Persepolis, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, National Treasure 2.

"For your consideration" movie ads.

‘Sweeney Todd’ Looking Like A Bloody Good Time; more audio (full "My Friends") via kth524; jigglykat was actually at the "Evening with Tim Burton" screening.

Casting Now Complete for "Half-Blood Prince." "Newsround is reporting that, Hero Fiennes Tiffin (age 9 and nephew of actor Ralph Fiennes) will play the 11-year-old Tom Riddle." AWWWWW. Also: Contest to Visit Set of "Half-Blood Prince" For FaceBook Users; MTV DVD Exclusive: ‘Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.’

New Cloverfield photos. I don't know what happens to Lizzy Caplan, but it ain't good. Also: I keep checking my RSS feeds, but someone please come get me the moment an official HD trailer comes online, please? I WANT TO SEE MONSTARRRRRS.

Report: Mathieu Amalric Cast As 'Bond 22' Villain; "M" Takes Off To Panama.

The Golden Compass: New Lyra Featurette; More on TGC Ending & Changes.

I Am Legend Does Last Minute Reshoots--possibly for the ending?

'Get Smart' Poster Premiere.

Reilly to Perform in Cirque du Freak; John C. Reilly Will Drink Your Blood.

Van Sant's Milk Starts Filming in January, with "Sean Penn as gay-rights icon Harvey Milk."

Ron Howard's Angels and Demons Delayed Due to Writers Strike.

Tom Cruise as Hugh Hefner? Wow... that's a total non-fit in pretty much every conceivable way.

Tim Burton to Direct Alice in Wonderland and full-length Frankenweenie.

McG Set to Direct Terminator Salvation.

New Incredible Hulk Photo.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers sings for ‘August Rush.’

Not So Happily Ever After For Fairy Tale Princess in ‘Enchanted 2.’ Warning: I felt slightly spoiled by this article, in that it kind of indicates what the ending of the movie might be.

More costume pics from The Duchess. I love the little cameo at her belt.

Kristen Stewart in Twilight after all?

'Look' Trailer and Poster Premiere ("Capitalizing on the fear that we're always being watched, Look is shot entirely from the point of view of security cameras as it presents to us several interweaving storylines over the course of a random week in a random city"; it also won the Grand Jury Prize at CineVegas).

Darabont' s The Mist had lots of help from Stephen King and Thomas Jane.

Rogen and Banks Make Kevin Smith's Porno.

Review: 'Mr. Magorium' is really, really bad.

Review: Exciting 'Beowulf' jumps off screen; From Motion Capture to 3D: The Technology of Beowulf; Beowulf Cast Exposed; ‘Beowulf’ raises question: What is animation?

Ian McKellen: Justin Timberlake Should Play Me In A Musical. I love him so much.

Comments

Wait, what?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I thought the Hogfather movie came out last year on British TV. Is this a different version, or are they re-releasing it? (Never mind, I see that it is the same one that kind friends let me see. Pratchett's cameo is very good.)

Re: Wait, what?

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

This is the US release. It's also supposed to be available at Borders in the US version as of Nov 13th. See nadwcon2009 for related news. :)

Re: Wait, what?

[marginaliana]

Ooh, DVD! Excellent, since I don't get ION...

[claidissa.livejournal.com]

On the Sexiest Man Alive bit...I feel sort of bad for the runner-up who gets it now that Damon's turned it down. Like..."oh, we were going to give this to Matt Damon but he went all humble on us so I guess you can have it."

[marginaliana]

UGH Why must Tim Burton ruin every childhood classic ever whyyyyy?

Okay, I'm done whining. Will counter negativity with yay Pratchett! Not that I get ION, but maybe someday... :D

[agentsculder.livejournal.com]

Love that "For Your Consideration" poster for Walk Hard. That gave me a good giggle.

And Tom Cruise as Hugh Hefner? Does not compute.

[nekoama.livejournal.com]

That last Beowulf article brings about exactly why I can't watch Beowulf and why it really shouldn't be nominated for Animated Feature. Sure, it's computer graphics, but there's no animation to it. It's actors in suits moving and the computer translating those movements, and then someone tweaking the little nuances to make it look better, but it's no more animating than me taking the frames from an old cartoon and fixing it a little. It could take me a year, but I still didn't animate it, I just tweaked it to make it look better. And like the article says, calling it animated is also a disservice to the actors, who did all the real acting work that, in a real animated film, would be the job of the animators.
I'm glad to see news media taking the side of animators instead of being all OMG NEW TECHNOLOGY YAY.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I... don't understand how Beowulf is animated any more than, say, Lord of the Rings was. Isn't this why we have a special effects category?

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

Gollum was more animated because they took a very ugly dude in a unitard and made him Gollum.

Beowulf is completely "animated". And by animated, I mean they used track suits and the computer people made everyone look smoother and creepier, versus skeletal, hairless and fish-like.

[christwise.livejournal.com]

Hey! I think Andy Serkis is rather cute. :( Would so hit that. However, using the Gollum voice mid-coitus is a dealbreaker. Calling me "his precious" is not.

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

Meh, I'm more of an Elijah girl, myself. But hey, whatever rocks your boat.

I still say the worst thing to say mid-coitus is "...and knowing is half the battle!".

[christwise.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm an Elijah girl too. And a Viggo girl, and an Orli girl, and and and...

Seriously, I'm just so in love with everything to do with that movie... why hello Andrew Lesnie (http://www.google.com/search?q=andrew+lesnie&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a), you're looking awfully cute today.

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

You know who I'm in love with, still? Craig Parker. (http://www.craig-parker.net/) deeelicious.

[christwise.livejournal.com]

It's a shame that so many people have only seen him with the heinous blond wig. Under that though is a hot hunk of man.

Same goes for Marton Csokas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marton_Csokas)

[edenlass.livejournal.com]

yes! andrew lesnie does deserve some love.:)

[nekoama.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much the only way I'll accept motion capture anyway, to make life-like, non-existant humanoids in an otherwise live action movie, or to re-create dead people like Chaplin. If you're just going to perfectly replicate Jolie, then just flim her. :/

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I may be pulling this out of my ass, but I want to say that each Oscar category's nominees are chosen by voters only in that field--actors for Best Actor/Actress, costume designers for Best Costume, etc.--and then the entire membership votes on the winners. And I have a feeling that traditional animators--hand-drawn and computer alike--are not going to take very well to the idea of Beowulf being "animated."

[nekoama.livejournal.com]

Really? That's a relief then, because I can't think of a single animator who would call Beowulf animated. And we were all going to burn down the Academy if it did get nominated. (it was a big kablooey last year when Happy Feet won and I think some are still angry)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? What happened with Happy Feet?

[nekoama.livejournal.com]

Nothing news-worthy or anything like that, but most of my peers don't consider Happy Feet animated either, since it's also mo-cap. So when it was nominated and then won the Oscar it was a WTF to everyone, especially winning over Cars. To the average person animating inanimate objects with no limbs or flexible body movement to speak of, and to make it belivable, may not seem all that important, but to animators it's astounding. To think that that kind of acheivement lost out to a bunch of guys in suits tapdancing translated into a computer (and not very well, the animation in Happy Feet was generally... bad) is pretty mind blowing. The only animators I know who like/don't mind Happy Feet say they ignore the bad animation and think the story's cute. I obviously can't speak for the whole industry, but in my small corner penguins had a black mark until Surf's Up redeemed it.
Animators are very partial to their trade.

[rclementmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm not in the industry, so you have a lot more insight into this, but I seem to have observed--in all the categories--that there's sometimes a tendency to see nominations or wins for the Big Shiny New Thing rather than the thing were the artistic merit may be higher, but the 'wow' factor is higher. Titanic springs to mind. That movie may have been a technological marvel, won a bajillion dollars at the box office... but was the *whole package* better than "L.A. Confidential"? It's spectacle over art, in my opinion.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

I know you read Wonkette media - have you heard about Megan Meier?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

She has (http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/547319.html#cutid1).

Dear God, ugly story; I want to scrub myself reading about it.

For what it's worth, my friend copperwise wrote what I think is a good and needed entry on the need to wrest some good from something that horrific (http://copperwise.livejournal.com/566184.html).

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I don't read Wonkette, but I read three (?) of the Gawker blogs. Yeah, I posted about it. Last I heard, Jezebel had officially outed the family's name. I don't intend to post that link.

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

I understand.

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

Hm, MSNBC's reviewer says that Magorium is really, really good (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21791253/). Interesting. :)

[elisa0984.livejournal.com]

Mixed reactions about Burton doing Alice in Wonderland, particularly with Disney. He's certainly good with the atmospheric quality that you need in Alice. It's the kind of story that stands up to multiple interpretations in that regard. And yet you have to wonder how far will he take it. Through Disney in and you have a new set of worries. Is this going to be another animation? Will it combine the two stories again or stick with simply Wonderland?

And the question on everyone's lips: Which part will he give to Helena? (If there is a God it will not be the Queen of Hearts.)

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I Am Legend Does Last Minute Reshoots--possibly for the ending?

God, I hope not. I was just explaining the plot to my little brother -- once he heard "Will Smith" and "zombies" he scheduled his entire life around opening weekend -- but I already told him I hope they don't change the ending because I thought he'd like it just fine the way it was.

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

Damn, that animal-call kid is going to be a dish when he grows up.

/dirty old woman

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

"Vonnegut was the American Mark Twain. He even looked liked him. Everybody loved Vonnegut, whereas Norman was a much more controversial figure,” says J. Michael Lennon, the literary executor for Mailer, who died Nov. 10 at age 84."


So...Mark Twain wasn't American?

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

...buh?
It's hard to think of a writer more "American" than dear old Samuel Clemens.

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

I guess Lennon just means that Vonnegut was an American American...I wonder if he's also a chair of the American Redundancy Department of Redundancy.

[khaman.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's some serious lit-fail there.

[notemily.livejournal.com]

without knowing anything about it, I assume Frankenweenie is a porn film about a disembodied penis.


......

hot chocolate

[edibility.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much you travel, but the best hot chocolate I've ever had came from Angelina Maison de l'Afrique on Rue de Rivoli in the first arr. in Paris. If you get off the Metro (the 1 train) at Tuileries it is just a block away.

I don't like super chocolaty either, but I enjoyed this more than anything else I had in Paris. Well, maybe not more than the crepes. Or the flower-shaped gelato. Or the bread. Oh, you get the picture.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

OMG there are no words for how excited I am at the prospect of Alice. I used to intensely dislike the story as a child, primarily because I didn't follow the illogical storyline, but this year I've fallen for it completely. There's just so much fun in all that nonsense (forget what literary critics have said about the "undertones" - I prefer to think of it in my innocent naive way. hee) and Tim Burton could do an amazing adaptation of it, considering his more child-like films have been adorable nonsense, anyway. Squee.

Frankenweenie is cute as a short, but I'm not sure how it will translate to a full-length feature. Huh. Still...ALICE!!!!

[nohara-megami.livejournal.com]

TALK TO YOUR DOC-TOR (BUT NOT THE DOC-TOR) BEFORE TA-KING VI-AG-RA!
Is it possible to die from laughing?

Re:Burton doing Alice
I think if I hadn't already had a near death experience about the Daleks and Viagra, I would die of happiness when I read this.
I have to admit that I am afraid that Burton might make Alice a little bit to dark like American McGee's Alice, which I do love, but of all the people to get the oddness and overall fantasy feel of the original Alice, I have faith that Burton could do it.

[cosette-esk.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I read that as "Discworld's Pratchett Dies" and nearly fainted. I need like, brain glasses or something O_O

[glyphs.livejournal.com]

Kristen Stewart in Twilight after all?

Aww, this makes me happy. Okay, to be honest I'm really not that familiar with her acting skills, which really is the important thing, but looks-wise I could totally see her as Bella. Now I can only hope that I won't be totally disappointed by whoever they cast as Edward. Sometimes I think it's really not a good thing that I can get so attached to characters in books since it usually only leaves room for disappointment if they're made into movies. But I can't help it; I LOVE the Twilight series! I don't care that they're "young-adult" and I'm 23.

[idrach.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm a little the opposite of you. Lookswise I always thought Emily Browning looked a little more like the author's description of Bella, but I've also seen Kristen act, and I think she'd do a better job of bringing Bella to "life". I don't know about her acting skills lately, but she was really good in Speak, which was a difficult role to do. In the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I'm a bit of a fan of hers.

I'm a little interested in seeing who'd they pick to be Edward; I just know it'll be a divisive fandom issue.

[glyphs.livejournal.com]

I think Emily Browning looks-wise would certainly work, too. Well, and hasn't Stephenie herself said that in her "dream cast" for the movie, Emily would be one of her picks? So she would obviously have the author's approval. I'm also curious about Edward. Again I remember reading that Stephenie's pick for him would be Henry Cavill based on looks alone and I would definitely agree with that. He's not quite how I picture the character in my head but is pretty dang close. Alas, that probably won't actually be who's cast considering IMDB says he's 24. I agree about fandom issues though...it's guarenteed at least some people are going to be unhappy no matter who's cast.

[idrach.livejournal.com]

YAY ALIZEE!

Also: Tim Burton will probably do an interesting version of Alice, but what I really want to see is Marilyn Manson's version.