“I came from the music business way back and it was kind of taboo for a rapper, especially a white rapper.”
– Mark Wahlberg
Throughout his film career we’ve gotten to see Mark Wahlberg’s fake penis, his mad driving skills, and watch him finger a girl on a roller coaster. Now in Four Brothers we finally get to see him sitting on the toilet having a heart to heart with two of his adopted brothers.
Since his breakout role in Boogie Nights, Wahlberg has put Marky Mark in the past and embraced mainstream and edgy roles. In the violent action drama Four Brothers, he plays Bobby, one of four brothers who, when their adopted mother is killed, set out to hunt down and murder her killers.
“I want the fans to pick it up and enjoy it and be like, ’Wow, this is badass!'”
– Dane Cook
I’ve seen dozens maybe even hundreds of threads about comedians on SuicideGirls over the years and Dane Cook is the one that seems to inspire the most love and vitriol, but I’m not sure why. Though when I got a chance to talk to Dane about Retaliation his new double disc comedy CD/DVD he seemed to have a pretty good handle on why that is.
“We had so many deleted scenes and funny outtakes that we literally dont have enough room on the DVD to use it all.”
– Judd Apatow
Real comedy fanatics have been cuckoo for Judd Apatow since the wonderfully hysterical Ben Stiller Show on FOX. Throughout the ’90s Apatow was involved with a number of comedies like The Cable Guy and Celtic Pride. But it was really after his stint as producer of Paul Feig’s Freaks and Geeks that he hit his stride. From there Apatow created the TV series Undeclared and produced the hit films Anchorman and Kicking & Screaming. Along with his main star and co-writer Steve Carell, Apatow has created the funniest project of his career. It’s about stereo salesman Andy Schitzer, who has never been with a woman, and his co-workers who try to get him some serious pussy.
“In order to construct a story, you’re not really pondering what you’re looking at.”
– Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant has made many films which have become touchstones for generations such as Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting and Elephant. His latest one, Last Days, tackles the early ’90s by doing a fictional story of the last three days of Kurt Cobain’s life.
The Cobain-like character [played by Michael Pitt] wanders around his desolate property inviting in Mormons and salesmen to say whatever they want to him while he grunts. The various supporting characters drift in and out of the film almost like dreams. Last Days chronicles the story of a man who has everything but is very depressed.
Amidst all The Avengers success, Warner Bros. has kicked up its ad campaign for The Dark Knight Rises. Six new promotional character posters have been released. Two posters of each Batman, Catwoman, and Bane. A new theatrical poster was released as well.
Playing off the triumph of The Avengers, ABC has ditched AKA Jessice Jones for a new television series based on The Hulk. As ABC is owned by Disney, the series is likely to have tie-ins to The Avengers. To top things off, the series is being developed by Guillermo del Toro. It will not be ready for the coming season, but they are shooting for the following one.
Edgar Right has been pushing for an Ant Man movie for a long time. He tweeted a picture a few weeks ago that simply displayed: Ant + Man=Antman. The image created some buzz, and then he confirmed his intentions to Empire Magazine, saying he hopes to be shooting by the end of the year.
The Wolverine movie will begin shooting in August. Hugh Jackman confirmed this in a recent tweet. The new film is scheduled to hit theatres on July 26, 2013.
Two trailers for the CW’s Arrow have been released in the last week. A shorter trailer catches the idea of the series and has an awesome scene with Green Arrow shooting tennis balls. The longer trailer goes into the story a bit more, revealing that Green Arrow is going after a list of corrupt people given to him by his father. The series will air on Wednesday at 8:00 PM.
Ridley Scott has been working on a sequel to Blade Runner. Now it looks like they have a screenwriter as Hapton Fancher, the original Blade Runner scribe is in talks to come on for the sequel. More than thirty years after the original, the sequel is bringing the members of Blade Runner back together.
The Star Wars television series is still on the horizon. In a recent interview, Producer Rick McCallum gave an update on the long awaited television series. McCallum said that the series currently has over fifty scripts, the problem is each hour long script has more visual effects than any of the Star Wars movies. Lucas wants to wait on making the show till he can find a way to make it for less than $5 million an episode.
Finally, Scotty has finally been beamed up. The ashes of James Doohan who played Scotty on Star Trek have taken for space amongst the unmanned Dragon spacecraft. They are expected to dock at the international space station in the next few days.
“This film is really my way of saying we’ve had enough.”
– Nadine-Labaki
Nadine Labaki is my kind of woman. A Lebanese filmmaker, Labaki has lived life and experienced war and tragedy, so the perspective in her art is perceptive and philosophical. Certainly not superficial. You would think coming from a conflicted region, Labaki’s films would be serious and perhaps difficult to take. She actually makes comedies. Her first film, Caramel, was a romantic comedy. Her second, Where Do We Go Now?, is a comedy about religious conflict between Christians and Muslims.
How can such a subject be funny? Well, Where Do We Go Now? opens with a procession of Muslim women marching and swaying in rhythm, so you know there’s something different here. The men of their unnamed village are always on the brink of fighting. The women do everything they can to distract the men, from drowning out news broadcasts to bussing in a group of bikini models. With a light touch, Labaki gets people thinking and talking about important matters. Speaking with her in person was equally impressive. Though she was from the other side of the world, she spoke my language both literally (English) and spiritually. We had a gentle conversation about the culture and film making of Lebanon.
“I’ve been looking at my address book and its fatter now than it ever was before.”
– Tilda Swinton
In the movies Tilda Swinton comes off very angel-like and that’s not a pun for Hellblazer fans. She seems very delicate with a strong touch of pathos, though in person she’s warm, sweet, very funny and all business. But I suppose when an actor has sheparded a passion project for five years like Swinton did with Thumbsucker you need to be that way sometimes.
Swinton plays Audrey Cobb, a woman with two children. At the age of 17 her son, Justin, still sucks his thumb. She wonders how she could possibly be grownup with a son going to college. In her early 40s, she is, like Justin, struggling to find out who she is and to accept her shortcomings. As a mother she knows that she doesn’t have all the answers to Justin’s troubles, and that she is sometimes too busy dealing with her own doubts to help him. Audrey hides from these realities through an obsession with a TV heartthrob, Matt Schraam [Benjamin Bratt], whose TV character seems to have all the neat answers.
