Oh crap, stuff happened this week!
In this week’s “Can you imagine?” story, early on in his career, David Lynch was obviously seen as a talented young director. But what to do with him? Even George Lucas approached him to direct Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi.
He was even considered to direct Fast TImes at Ridgemont High. Cameron Crowe reveals some conversations he had with Lynch, as we look back at Fast Times on it’s 35th Anniversary.
“I had a meeting with David Lynch,” told Variety. “He had a very wry smile on his face as I sat talking with him. He went and read it. We met again. He was very, very sweet about it, but slightly perplexed we thought of him. He said this was a really nice story but ‘it’s not really the kind of thing that I do, but good luck.’ He got into the white VW bug and drove off.”
Seriously, in the “what if” category, can you imagine those two films if they had been helmed by Lynch? I think the landscape of film would be very different now.
In this week’s “Yay, Ghibli!” story, Studio Ghibli is back open for business!
The latest news as reported on Studio Ghibli’s official website is that the company has officially reopened its production department to begin work on Miyazaki’s first feature since 2013. The company stopped production on all features and shorts in August 2013, just after Miyazaki confirmed his retirement. Fortunately, both the filmmaker and studio are back and ready to work.
Additional details on Miyazaki’s new film have not been released. It’s been widely speculated the movie will be a feature adaptation of his first CGI short film, “Boro the Caterpillar,” which was supposed to open at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo last month but has since been delayed. Longtime Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki said fans should expect to see the feature sometime in 2019 before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympic games.
Huzzah!
In this week’s “Ooo, scaary..” story, Lionsgate says their rebooted Hellboy film will be mor elike a hottor film.
Yesterday, we learned that Lionsgate’s new Hellboy reboot film has dropped the Rise of the Blood Queen subtitle and will officially be known as just Hellboy. And perhaps that title better reflects director Neil Marshall‘s approach to the film, which comic creator Mike Mignola describes as being more in line with the original source material.
In a new interview, Mignola talks about his own (surprisingly limited) involvement with the upcoming movie, clarifies the film’s central character, and confirms the appearance of one of the comics’ most recognizable teams.
Speaking with Newsarama, Mignola described his connection to Guillermo del Toro’s prior Hellboy movies and how it differs from his work on the reboot:
““I was super involved [with] Guillermo del Toro’s movies way more than this one. In those I worked in pre-production and I was on set a lot of the time. As time went on, he and I had different idea on what should happen. And this new movie, I don’t have much hands-on involvement. I’m not doing any concept art. I am doing consulting, but I think from day one in discussions about the look and feel of this new movie, the director seems to be very much closer to the tone of the vision I wanted it to be.”
Well fine. But you can’t take away my love of Guillermo del Toro.
In this week’s “Terminator news” story, Terminator 6 is coming, and James Cameron will be producing. And it will be directed by Tim Miller, the guy that directed the first Deadpool movie.
Will Schwarzenegger be in it? Yes. But he will be starring not as a Terminator, but as the human the Terminators were modeled after.
There’s an interesting twist. In fact, it may be just the right twist to set this franchise back on track. Maybe. I’m certainly intrigued to hear more when more becomes available.
In this week’s “Who directed Tombstone?” story, the answer to that question is apparently Kurt Russell.
According to Val Kilmer, who played Doc Holliday in the film, after the first director was fired, Russell stepped up and kept things moving.
In a lengthy blog entry Thursday, Kilmer made it plain and clear: “Kurt is solely responsible for Tombstone’s success, no question.”
Initially, the late screenwriter Kevin Jarre was set to direct the picture, but he was replaced a month into production after, the story goes, he became overwhelmed in the duty and fell behind schedule. Jarre was replaced by the late George P. Cosmatos, who had to hit the ground running.
That is where Kilmer’s tale begins.
“I was there every minute and although Kurt’s version differs slightly from mine, the one thing he’s totally correct about is how hard he worked the day before, for the next day’s shot list, and tremendous effort he and I both put into editing, as the studio [Hollywood Pictures] wouldn’t give us any extra time to make up for the whole month we lost with the first director,” Kilmer wrote. “I watched Kurt sacrifice his own role and energy to devote himself as a storyteller, even going so far as to draw up shot lists to help our replacement director, George Cosmatos, who came in with only two days prep.”
Russell admitted as much in a 2006 interview with True West magazine, when the actor said he made it clear to studio brass he did not want his name listed as director, but that he did help out behind the scenes quite a bit.
According to Kilmer, Russell spread himself thin to make production work.
“I was very clear and outspoken about what I wanted to do with my role, and actors like Powers Boothe, who we just lost, and Bill Paxton, were always 100% supportive, even in the blistering heat and sometimes as the day would fade, at the possible expense of their own screen time,” Kilmer wrote. “I would even go up to [Russell] and whisper, ‘Go for another…’ meaning another take when I thought he could go further, but in the interest of the schedule, he would pound on,” Kilmer wrote. “Very Wyatt-like come to think of it.”
The two close friends even lived together for a short while as they hammered out their roles, Kilmer wrote.
“He and I worked so hard I eventually moved in with him and slept on the sofa when Goldie wasn’t in town, so we could use the extra 20 minutes writing or going over schedule, etc. And I got all the best lines and he knew it and still laughed and joked every single day,” according to Kilmer.
Kilmer doesn’t flat out say Russell directed Tombstone, but wrote, “I have such admiration for Kurt as he basically sacrificed lots of energy that would have gone into his role, to save the film. Everyone cared, don’t get me wrong, but Kurt put his money where his mouth was, and not a lot of stars extend themselves for the cast and crew. Not like he did.”
I love these behind the scene stories.
In this week’s “Adding a Sutherland is always a good idea” story, director James Gray’s sci-fi epic, Ad Astra, has just added Donald Sutherland to the cast.
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones and Ruth Negga also are attached to the project, which is described as an adventure film about one man’s (Pitt) journey across a lawless and unforgiving solar system to find his missing father, a renegade scientist who poses a threat to all of mankind.
Gray will direct the feature film from a script he co-wrote with Ethan Gross. New Regency, 20th Century Fox and Bona Film Group are financing the pic. Fox will distribute in the U.S. and internationally in every market except Greater China, where Bona Film Group will distribute.
In this week’s “Interesting” story, with all the uncertainty and apprehension about the upcoming Justice League movie, you would think you’d want to be more specific, or at least positive, in describing it.
Ben Affleck has spoken up to defend the film and assuage our fears about it. Sort of.
Affleck commented on the upcoming Justice League movie, which was directed by Zack Snyder before he left due to family tragedy. Former Marvel Studios favorite Joss Whedon, who had recently jumped across the aisle to direct Batgirl, stepped in to handle reshoots. The two-director situation is unusual, but shouldn’t have fans too worried, Affleck said, diplomatically calling Justice League “an interesting product of two directors.” Interesting.
“It’s a little bit unorthodox. Zack had a family tragedy, and stepped off, which was horrible. For the movie, the best person we could’ve possibly found was Joss. We got really lucky that he stepped in. [Justice League is] an interesting product of two directors, both with kind of unique visions, both with really strong takes. I’ve never had that experience before making a movie. I have to say, I really love working with Zack, and I really love the stuff we’ve done with Joss.”
Oh dear. So…many…interpretations….
In this week’s “BBC boobs” story, the BBC News accidentally showed actress Anna Paquin’s breasts on the air.
Ok, well, while the news was on, in the background to the left, you can see someone is watching True Blood, and a scene comes on where Paquin takes off her top and, well, there you have her breasts showing, plain as day.
Apprently Paquin got wind of this and thought it was hilarious.
”Now that I know what u guys were talking about this some of the funniest s**t I’ve seen in a while!!! Thanks for the giggle! #FreeTheNipple,” Paquin tweeted, going on to retweet and respond to fans getting in on the fun, at one point sharing the hashtag, “PhotoBoobed.”
So, yeah, now “photoboobed” is a thing on Twitter. Have fun!