To the Owl-Copter!

[cleolinda]

SO MUCH LINKSPAM OMG. Nazi-hunter says he's closing in on 'Dr. Death.'

Afraid of laundry? You will be after reading this.

Times Reporter: "I Was A Fat Thug Who Beat Up Women And Sold Bad Coke."

Barbie wins case against Bratz.

Time Travel Agency Posters for Your Favorite Eras.

invisibl olimpiks. "Invisible pommel horse" is still my favorite.

Wondermark #426; In which a Tree gets the Talk.

'Daily Show' Tackles Bizarre Trend of Middle-Aged Women Enjoying Sex [Cougars].

My Pick To Win Project Runway: Whoever Finds The Dark Crystal.

Will the real Dr. Horrible please stand up?

The fifty worst sex scenes of all time. Y'all, there are some bad ones in there. ("A mysterious celebrity mountaineer"? Really?)

Images: Comic-Con '08 Preview: 27 Sneak Peeks (The Spirit, Star Trek, Dollhouse, Terminator, Punisher, Land of the Lost, Ender's Game, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Fringe, Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, RocknRolla, Drag Me to Hell, Quarantine, Unborn [o hai, Gary Oldman and Beth Beth Beth!], Ninja Assassin); Hi-Res Terminator , Harry Potter and Watchmen Photos; 'Star Trek' ComicCon Posters Work Like the Backs of Collectable Movie Trading Cards; 'The Women' poster; How Rad is the New 'Mummy 3' Poster?; My Top 5 Favorite Things About the 'Beer for My Horses' Poster.

Trailers and clips: The Harry Potter 6 IMAX Tease is Online; MTV Exclusive: ‘Mirrors’ Trailer Premiere; 'Spirit' Trailer Now Live; Trailer for Simon Pegg's 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People'; McConaughey's 'Surfer, Dude' Gets a Trailer; 'Mandy Lane' Has Trailer, But Still No Firm Release Date.

trailer_spot: Watchmen, Body of Lies, Twilight, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

Fans stay up all 'Knight' for Batman movie ("With a running time of two and a half hours, Medved is declaring 'The Dark Knight's' opening day 'Dark Friday,' predicting attendance at work could be dramatically down"); Check Out The Midnight Madness For The ‘Dark Knight’; 'Dark Knight' Made More Money At Midnight Than 'Meet Dave' Will Make In 400 Years; FHM's Interview with Heath Ledger on Playing The Joker; Soundtrack.net interview with Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard; Meet Batman's best buds: Nolan and Bale; The Dark Knight's IMAX Cinematography: Redefining Stunning Visuals; Dead Men Tell No Tales, But They Do Market Movies (or, why all the Heath Ledger talk has not been exploitative: "This is a celebration of what he did best - entertain people. Why would any actor not want that to be appreciated? I know he would have. The bottom line is it would be totally rude not to. Respect the man. This is what he did. This is what he wanted to do"); TDK Critic Fires Back at Upset Fans; David Letterman Entranced By Maggie Gyllenhaal's Tale Of A Percocet-Pushing Nurse Feelgood. I have to add, I saw her on last night's Daily Show, and she was, like, really rapturous/turned on about "being saved by Batman." Like, she swooned on about this for like five minutes, which was cute, but I kept wanting to whisper in her ear, You know he's not real, right?

Has SciFi Finally Worked Its Way To Hollywood's Big Kids Table? "So the insiders have discredited the internet community [talking about an Oscar for Ledger] as know-nothing buzz-generators, who don't and won't have any impact on whom Hollywood deems worthy of praise. Then they go as far to say that a vote for a well done piece of acting would just be creepy because of an untimely death. It feels like grasping for straws. I wish they'd just say what they meant, that it's an action movie and we just can't be forced to take that seriously."

You know what I really think the problem is? They don't like being told who they should vote for six months in advance. I mean, we'd all like to think that the Oscars reflect the actual pop-culture zeitgeist, but the truth is, the awards are the choices of a small group of a few hundred people. And those people guard that privilege tightly. They want it to be their choice, and they don't want to be told or urged or guilted into voting for a particular actor, particularly one 1) in one of those sci-fi movies that the unwashed masses go to see, gasp, and 2) who they can't pass over without looking bad, so thanks for putting them in that position, *huff.*

New 'Terminator Salvation' Execution-Style Shot; Did Christian Bale Rob Edward Furlong Of His Big Comeback?

Watchmen! As ETA'd late yesterday ("Well, it's not as bad as the Twilight cover..."): Entertainment Weekly's cover article with new pics. (See "Images" above for hi-res versions.) Also: The Beginner's Guide to the 'Watchmen' Trailer; Trailer to comic comparison (I'll be honest, I really kind of want to print out trailer caps and leave them, bookmark-style, in my edition of the graphic novel. But then, I have that urge with a lot of movie-book pairings); 'Watchmen' trailer isn't music to our ears (although I did think it was really effective in the second, non-singing half. Also: Zack Snyder explains); from discogravy: "Quick, Hooty, my faithful ward! To the Owl-Copter!"

Comic-Con Sold Out; io9's (Semi) Annotated Picks for Comic-Con [Comic-con 2008] ("11:55-1:30 Warner Bros.: Watchmen. Let me put this to you gently and eloquently: FUCK YEAH HOLY CRAP YEAH").

Mummy III's Fraser Missed Weisz. Yes, I miss her too, which is why YOUR MOVIE IS DEAD TO ME.

Jarvis Cocker Scoring 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'? Fine, I'll Buy Another Wes Anderson Soundtrack.

Christian protests may leave 'The Golden Compass' as one of a kind. Do you ever start wailing out loud for about five minutes solid about something you just read and then you kind of... taper off and... realize that you're... alone? And that you've either been talking to yourself, or to the box on your desk? And you're not sure which is worse, really? I mean, I'm just asking.

(*sob*)

Producers Plan $90 Million Dollar 'Papillon' Remake. Come on, y'all. Let Daniel Craig finally fulfill his McQueen-reincarnation destiny.

Hyde Park Looking to Remake '10.'

Frog Bites Disney.

Darren Aronofsky Almost Confirmed for RoboCop Reboot.

Another Take on the Wendigo Legend in 'Maneater.' See, here's why I'm lucky: you all have that song stuck in your head now, right? I always get the Nelly Furtado "Maneater," which I love, stuck instead. Here, go save yourselves.

Fergie to join the cast of musical ‘Nine.’

Mike Myers Over The Moon For New Musical Biopic.

Lesbian Vampire Film Wraps. Um, excuse me, it's a Lesbian Vampire Killers film.

Comments

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

Medved is declaring 'The Dark Knight's' opening day 'Dark Friday,' predicting attendance at work could be dramatically down

Hee. My sister just said most of the interns at her job called in sick in order to see the movie.

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

Ugh, can I just say. The HDM news is so depressing. I wasn't even particularly fond of the movie, but COME ON. That doesn't mean I don't want more of them. I have been hoping they'd film that trilogy for six years. SOB. O cruel world.

[summersdaughter.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the new Mummy movie either. Evie is made of win, and I can't bear to see her replaced. :( Did she get killed off or do we even know?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

She's been recast as Maria Bello.

[girlalmighty]

Dude, so I followed the link on Fergie and did some googling and... apparently Maury Yeston created a new part and song just for Kate Hudson. I don't know how to feel about that, but I am looking forward to seeing who they cast as Claudia. Penelope Cruz as Carla's hot, though.

[kth524.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a new part. They cast her as Stephanie, right? I looked it up on IBDB because I didn't think that was a character either and there IS a character with the name Stephanie in the musical, but I think it was just a very minor part. I'm 98% sure she's the one that sings the part in Folies Bergeres that goes, "He makes a FILM, get it? A FILM!" But I think they did write a new song.

[kudzita.livejournal.com]

NOOOOOO I LOVE HIS DARK MATERIALS THIS IS NOT FAIR WAHHH!

By which I mean, no, you are really not alone.

[swordmage.livejournal.com]

In. Total. Agreement.

*sniffle*

[msilverstar]

Rachel Weisz FTW!

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Heck yeah. :-)

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

"Christian protests may leave 'The Golden Compass' as one of a kind."

Rrrrrrr. If they don't like them, why don't they just not watch them and let the rest of us enjoy them in peace??

Yes, I miss her too, which is why YOUR MOVIE IS DEAD TO ME.

And yeah, I'm not sure I'll see that one either. Sorry, Maria Bello, but . . . no.

[christigilly.livejournal.com]

I'm a Christian. I haven't read the book yet (too many others in line before it). But I LOVED "The Golden Compass" movie! Why don't "they" listen to me, instead of those other Christians?

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

I almost called out of work today after my midnight show. But I knew that my coworkers knew that I was going to the show.

Also, Heath Ledger's performance was nothing short of epic, and to not talk about that because he's dead is stupid. Especially since when you see this performance, the tragedy of his death takes on new heights, because it is probably the best work he's done to date, and knowing that it's the last complete performance makes you wonder what he could have accomplished had he lived.

And I may have left a wet spot on the seat when I saw the Watchmen trailer.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Ohh, his performance was so kickass. I just wanted to follow that character around all day (well, at a safe distance. Hee)

And the Watchmen trailer . . . even if I didn't love Dark Knight so much, I'd be tempted to go back just for that. :-)

Frog chick

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

Damn it, Disney finally tries for some of that old fairy tale magic and proceed to COMPLETELY FUCK IT UP in new and original ways.

As a side note, do they even have black people working there? I mean, the choice of fairy tale, setting and name kinda screamed "dumbasses in blckface" to me from the start.

Re: Frog chick

[fallingmallorn.livejournal.com]

*cough* There's a lot of black people at Disney. They're actually pretty big on being diverse, ethinically and otherwise. I've been following the press about The Frog Princess The Princess and the Frog for months now, mostly because this will be the film that they return to traditionally hand-drawn 2d animated fairy tale films, and that makes me eighty-seven kinds of excited. It's not so much Disney fucking it up as the public interpreting even the slightest amount of political incorectness and scream "ZOMG OUR POLITICAL RAGE, LET US SHOW U IT!1!one!!1!1!!"

Example: One of the initial beefs with the princess character was that she was described as a chamber maid, and that a black woman doing a job involving manual labor would be demeaning. Apparently these people completely forgot about/had never seen Snow White and Cinderella's years of unpaid labor in their own homes. Oh, moviegoers. You and your fickleness.

< /Long Comment is Looong> *worked at Disney*

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

I'm just sort of wondering what's so bad about the name "The Frog Princess." It's the name of the original fairy tale. Seriously, people.

[ponygirl118.livejournal.com]

They're making a movie about the Georgia books. Yeesh. & I'm dying from love of the Watchmen stuff.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Invisible pommel horse is my favorite, too. It always makes me laugh.

Will the real Dr. Horrible please stand up?

Yes, but, I mean, Dr. Horrible is Neil Patrick Harris. And they've got Nathan Fillion. Dr. Steel, PFFT.

Speaking of Joss Whedon, I have to say, I've just arrived very, very late at the Firefly party (Dave finally gave me his DVDs to watch), and...it is fantastic! Why did they ever cancel this show?? (Have you seen it? So. Much. Fun.) Every single character is awesome. Why did they cancel it? DUDE.

P.S. Also, I may be in love with Jayne. What does it say about my taste in fictional men that two of my favorite characters (i.e. Deadpool and Jayne) are a) semi-unprincipled but badass mercenary killers; b) just a little bit crazy; and c) kinda womanizers, oh dear.

I think I have issues.

(But they're so...endearingly lost. Aw.)

Yep. Issues.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

Firefly, as you're now learning in watching the series, had a long over-arching story that really needs to be watched in proper sequence to make sense.

FOX deliberately aired it out of order, bitched when people were confused, and canceled it.

They also canceled Buffy (which was rescued by another network), Family Guy (which attained HUGE popularity on Adult Swim and suddenly FOX brought it back and acted like they loved it), Dark Angel... lots of shows what were awesome, basically.

So, to answer your question, they canceled it because they suck.

[zhai.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering for a good while how The Frog Princess ever made it past the execs in the first place. It seemed like a disaster waiting to happen even before Katrina.

[fallingmallorn.livejournal.com]

Dear New Line/WB/Whatever The Hell You're Called Now,
If Hollywood stopped making a movie just because of Christian protests, no movies would ever get made. Generally, the kind of soopah-hardcore Christians that would protest against a movie could always find something sinful or wrong in it. Narnia? "It was too violent! Women shouldn't fight!" Someone will always find something objectionable about any material you put out there. It's just the way it is, and you know it.

Also, Dakota Blue Richards was amazingly adorable and perfect as Lyra. You made a fantastic film with The Golden Compass, and as a longtime fan of the books, that it was one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've ever seen. You captured the spirit and feel of the novels wonderfully, while introducing newbies into a wonderful world. Also, your special effects are pretty damn hot.

If you give up on your main character and refuse to make the rest of the triology, I will be forced to don a black cape and stand outside in a blinding thunderstorm. As lightning strikes the trees behind me, I will have to shout "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" < /Darth Vader>

Please don't make me go through suck drama. I'm already a Theatre Major. That's all the drama I need.

Questionably yours,

fm, High Lady of the Unnecessarily Long and Ranty Comments

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I was sort of okay with new The Mummy movie, I mean, upset that Rachel and Oded were out, but willing to keep an open mind. But the article in SCIFI magazine about it made me go 'ehhhnnn'. Rob Cohen said that he asked Rachel to do it and she basically said she didn't want to play a character with a 21 year old son or go to China, to which he said 'well, the kid is 21 and the movie is set in China'. I can see both sides of that argument. Then Cohen went on to say that, basically, British women aren't sexy and so he cast an American woman (Bello) doing a British accent, which he seems to think is sexier. That's when he lost me.

I fully admit that that's my own paraphrasing and Cohen could have been quoted out of context or the quotes were mangled somehow. He just came off as trying to 'fix' the franchise, which I don't think it needs.

Thanks for that Watchmen Beginner's Guide link, btw, I know nothing about it except that Patrick Wilson is in it and I like Patrick Wilson. It was quite helpful to me.

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

Mummy III's Fraser Missed Weisz. Yes, I miss her too, which is why YOUR MOVIE IS DEAD TO ME.
I hear that.


Christian protests may leave 'The Golden Compass' as one of a kind. Do you ever start wailing out loud for about five minutes solid about something you just read and then you kind of... taper off and... realize that you're... alone? And that you've either been talking to yourself, or to the box on your desk? And you're not sure which is worse, really? I mean, I'm just asking.

(*sob*)
I suspected this might happen but it doesn't lessen the pain. I WAS IN OXFORD WHEN THEY WERE FILMING IT. I WILL LOVE THIS MOVIE FOREVER AND EVER UNTIL I AM DEAD AND THEN SOME.

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

I'm so sad about the Golden Compass. :(

[oldfeatheryhat.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm not sure if you've been tracking the new Mamma Mia movie that just came out, but let me say: Pierce Brosnen, singing ABBA songs, wearing blue spandex bell-bottoms. Sparkly blue spandex bell-bottoms. It was nothing short of amazing.

(Also, Dark Knight was showing in the theatre next to ours, and we kept hearing random "thump-whump" noises coming from that side. Go figure.)

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to bleach my brain after reading even HALF of that "Fifty Worst Sex Scenes" list, but it was worth it just for the LOL-bringing description of all the sex in The Man Who Fell To Earth.

[cleojones.livejournal.com]

DAMN YOU NEW LINE!!!

DAMN YOU CHRIS WIETZ!!

DAMN YOU TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS HAVING CHRISTIANS!!!


*weeps*

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

NAZIS: I thought that Mengele was Doctor Death?

MUMMY: No Weisz? Meh, I go to the MUMMY movies for the Mummies, not the mommies (see what I did there?!)

COMPASS: I want the rest of HIS DARK MATERIALS, dang nabbit!

SEX SCENES: I liked the sex scenes in KISSED. And a lot of the other ones smack of "female nudity good, male nudity baaad"

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

So...so does this mean that there won't be anymore Bratz? Stores will have to stop selling them? HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE GIANT CORPORATIONS

The fifty worst sex scenes of all time.

Okay, I've gotten as far as the Crank one, but...what. What the hell.

And I have to agree with you on the Oscar voters thing. All the raves about Ledger's performance (note: I haven't seen TDK yet ;_;) is probably just making a lot of voters dig their heels in and go "nu-uh! You aren't my mom!". Not to mention that a lot of Academy voters are fairly older people, yeah? Who I suspect are less likely to look favorable on the prospect of a action flick* picking up any of the big awards. I predict that we might get a grudging nomination (like the one Depp got for Jack Sparrow) as a way for the Academy to go "look! See? We're hip! We're still relevant!", but that in the end the statue will go to an actor in a more Oscar-bait type role, regardless of how Ledger compares to other performances this year.

And as Batman related aside, have you seen this yet (http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/9011/wait20for20itfi2.gif)? (.gif, no TDK spoilers) It popped up on my flist today, and has been cracking me up.


*Which reminds me of the whole "genre fiction vs 'proper literature'" thing. It is equally stupid.

[teirkin.livejournal.com]

I'm the goddamn Batman!

Lolz.

[redglasses.livejournal.com]

Seeing 'lesbian' and 'vampire' together just makes me thing of Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jesus_christ_vampire_hunter/), and there is basically no way this other movie could hope to compare.

[smapdi-j.livejournal.com]

I don't know who you are, but I love you. That movie's been a hit with my circle of friends since high school.

"We're running low on skin. I suggest we harvest another lesbian."

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

Hey Cleo, I know you don't like to read other's reviews so you can save yourself since you pretty much write them yourself, but I was recently granted the honor to write a review of the Dark Knight for a local magazine (my first time) and was hoping you'd show to your readers so I can get it out there =) thnx

http://renopassport.blogspot.com

[tonks07.livejournal.com]

Barbie pwns sluttly Bratz dolls.At least Barbie had jobs. I hope they stop making them. The big heads scare me.

That Harry Potter teaser,yea-LAME. It took me like 5 minutes to actually understand what the single line being said was. These movies are kind of getting worse as they go on.Plus,no Dumbledore funeral=major fail.

The Dark Knight is AMAZING!! (psst,m15m has been kind of quiet lately.Dark Knight would be awesome to do. :P ) But seriously,where is Heath's Oscar nomination? AT least nominate him! It is an amazing preformance.Gary Oldman was kicking some serious butt as Gordon towards the end as well.

The Mummy 3-I'm in serious conflict about it.The trailer makes it look kind of cool,if a little over CGI filled..but no Rachael Weisz.She really made those movies awesome.They should have just not had her character insted of just bringing in a new actress. I may wait to rent the dvd of this unless it gets really good reviews.Which I kindof doubt.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

psst, m15m has been kind of quiet lately

Um, I posted two last month?