Is it any wonder that there is a group of film lovers out to send M. Night Shyamalan back to film school? After going from two Oscar nomination for The Sixth Sense in 1999 to winning five Razzies (which are awarded for the worst achievements in filmmaking) this last year for The Last Airbender, it’s easy to see why film buffs are raising money to send Shyamalan back to NYU. After they have raised the funds, they plan on filming the occasion as they present Shyamalan with a check. If he refuses to take it, they will use the money to start a film scholarship at NYU in his name.
However, Shyamalan isn’t the only multiple offender to be found guilty of making mediocre movies. Hollywood is overflowing with shitty directors who keep serving up the same crap, or worse regressing artistically with each successive release. There are several big name directors who desperately need a lesson in the basics. I therefore propose that all of the following head to NYU with Shyamalan.
The original Scream could be credited with literally saving the horror film industry. It came along at a time when the slasher genre had petered out with badly done sequels of classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th’. There just didn’t seem to be a market for the ‘R’ rated horror flick anymore.
Director Craven and screenwriter Williamson proved them all wrong with Scream, which broke box office records and also gained a lot of critical acclaim – something most horror movies never got from mainstream film critics.
Fast forward nearly 15 years from the original film; Craven and Williamson return to the ill-fated town of Woodsboro, presenting more thrills and chills in what has become one of the most successful mainstream horror franchises in history.
On Saturday night, the bold and the brightest came out (both literally and figuratively) to support the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s Evening With Women, raising almost $500,000 for its many programs, including LGBT youth advocacy and HIV/AIDS healthcare. It coincided with the non-profit establishment’s 40th anniversary, cementing it as a stronghold in the movement toward queer and women’s equal rights.
“The best ideas come from Jack Daniels.”
– Destin Pfaff
“I like horror movies, that’s all I really wanted to do,” said filmmaker turned Millionaire MatchmakerDestin Pfaff when SuicideGirls first spoke to him just over a year ago. “I was so against getting sidetracked. And she sidetracked me – magically,” he said of his reality TV star boss, Patti Stanger. “I love matchmaking, and will always do it,” Pfaff adds, however, 2011 is the year he gets his film career seriously back on track.
His first full-length feature film, Sushi Girl, has just gone into production. Co-written and produced by Pfaff, the title of the film refers to the female (played by newcomer Cortney Palm) that serves as the centerpiece of a reunion dinner for members of a gang who we’re involved in an ill-fated diamond heist.
The cast features an eclectic and surprising mix of names, which includes Mark Hamill, a.k.a. Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu in Neverending Story, and Sonny Chiba, whose breakout role was that of Takuma Tsurugi in the martial arts classic, The Street Fighter.
“And that’s where you really see where the problems lie…”
– Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones’s debut feature Moon (2009), a retro-1970s science-fiction/art-house epic that ingeniously managed to hit a lot of the same notes that Kubrick and Tarkovskiy hit despite a miniscule budget and having only one principal character (played by Sam Rockwell), nabbed Jones a BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer and dumptrucks full of other nominations and accolades.
His most recent feature, Source Code (starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright) could be pitched as “Die Hard by way of Quantum Leap served in eight-minute repeating chunks of Groundhog Day.”
“There’s much more to the Saw movies than just Jigsaw…” –
– Darren Lynn Bousman
Don’t blame Darren Lynn Bousman for giving me a relatively swift interview – he’s a busy guy. Apart from Saw IV, which he’s currently out doing promotion for, he’s also shooting a film in Toronto called Repo!: The Genetic Opera, and is heavily involved in pre-production for his next film, a remake of the 1981 classic Scanners that will be shooting in Toronto in the coming months.
As if all that isn’t enough, he’s also taking part in preparations for the next Saw film, scheduled to hit theaters in October 2008. He won’t be directing that one, however – three times up to bat is enough. The reigns on Saw V are being handed over to the series’ longtime production designer and second unit director, David Hackl, and how long the gravy train will keep rolling along is anyone’s guess.
