Anyone questioning the dearth of original ideas in modern-day Hollywood might want to take a look at this week’s new releases, which include Battleship, a film based on a board game, and What to Expect When You’re Expecting, a film based on a pregnancy guide. Yes, friends, the movie industry in 2012 is all about brand recognition, so when they run out of sequels and remakes and reboots and adaptation of comic books and TV series and novels, they’re going to have to really start stretching. Not by trying new ideas or telling untold stories (don’t be silly), but by merely adapting things into movies that really have no business being adapted into movies. After the jump, a brief survey of some of the strangest source material in movie history.
It’s kind of refreshing to find out that filmmaker Cass Warner Sperling — granddaughter of Warner Bros. co-founder Harry M. Warner — will be relying on Kickstarter and not her family name to get the funds to finish her intimate documentary on iconic actor, filmmaker, and artist Dennis Hopper. Hopper: In His Own Words is near completion and is comprised mainly of a lengthy interview Sperling did with the star for a different documentary about the family biz, The Brothers Warner.
“When I interviewed him he hadn’t been on the lot since the ’50s, but he told all of these magnificent stories of his career, including how he went through these situations with drugs and how he confronted his demons and decided to not only survive but carry on with his art form,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
Hopper shared his rehab nightmare, in which the actor fled a treatment facility with a friend after a powerful antidote didn’t agree with him. He eventually saw a doctor, and the experience scared him so much Hopper quit drugs for good. The doc will also feature stories of Hopper signing a deal with Warner Bros. at 18 years old, working with James Dean on Rebel Without A Cause and Giant. The actor famously clashed with director Henry Hathaway and told Sperling he was blackballed after that for the next decade by all the studio giants.
Sperling’s father — who wrote the documentary and is the film’s producer — advised his daughter to never use her own money to make a movie, so she’s turning to the Internet for help. We expect she’ll reach her funding goal in no time at all. Is a new doc about the recently passed rogue icon on your Hollywood wish list?
If you were at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, then perhaps you caught this excellent documentary short about John Baldessari by the New York-based filmmaking duo of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (aka Supermarché, the team behind Catfish), which was commissioned last year by LACMA. If not, now’s your chance to watch it online and learn such things as Baldessari’s exact height and his WiFi password, while seeing examples of some of his best known artworks. Oh, and in case you’re wondering why Tom Waits is the one narrating this fast-paced gem, it was at the conceptual artist’s personal request because, “He’s got a great voice.” Agreed. In fact, we think he should be required to narrate everything in life. Read More »
Well, this is an interesting choice: Superbad director Greg Mottola, who also wrote and directed Adventureland, is in talks to adapt Jeffrey Eugenides’ most recent, marriage plot-dissecting novel, The Marriage Plot. While Mottola wouldn’t be our first choice for this novel about academia, philosophy, love, and mental illness, we can’t deny that there’s something exciting about seeing producer Scott Rudin court Mottola. He certainly has a way with coming-of-age stories, and his films are subtler and sweeter than your standard Judd Apatow fare. We’d especially welcome an adaptation of The Marriage Plot that doesn’t get so bogged down in its big, serious themes that it shortchanges the many comedic elements.
Of course, none of this changes the fact that, in our humble opinion, there is only one perfect writer-director for this screenplay: Whit Stillman, whose facility with talky, wealthy, over-educated young characters remains unparalleled. The adaptation might take him a decade or so, but it would totally be worth the wait. [via Collider]
Welcome to Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we’ve got films from Ryan Gosling, Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Robin Williams, plus new documentaries and an ‘80s classic. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now.
We’ve admired this year’s glamorous Cannes Film Festival poster — featuring an intimate, mythical moment with screen legend Marilyn Monroe — and we’ve been readying ourselves for the latest news streaming from the French Riviera city, but the prestigious film fest is already seeing its share of controversy before the gala kicks off on May 16.
A letter recently published in Le Monde signed by a group of women — including Baise Moi director Virginie Despentes, filmmaker Coline Serreau, and actress Fanny Cottençon — have condemned this year’s Palme d’Or nominations. The shortlist of 22 directors for 2012 are all men, prompting the group to point out that, “Men love their women to have depth, but only when it comes to their cleavages.”
The weather is warming up, college graduation season is here, and The Avengers has just kicked off the summer blockbuster season with record-breaking numbers at the box office. Inevitably, at this time of year, working folk like us begin to fantasize about vacations — a month abroad, perhaps, or at least a long weekend at the beach. But since Memorial Day is still a few weeks away, most of us are just going to have to wait. To help you count down the weeks (or perhaps convince yourself that trips aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be), we’ve rounded up cinema’s most famous summer vacations. Pay a virtual visit to Barcelona, the South of France, and New England’s most beautiful beach towns after the jump, and add to our list in the comments.
The pop cultural impact of 30 Rock can be felt in many ways, but the most improbable of them all is that Alec Baldwin is somehow cool all of a sudden. As we reported earlier this week, Baldwin is going to appear in James Toback’s new film — a mockumentary about the Cannes Film Festival — and he’ll be playing himself. Of course, there’s an argument to be made that he plays himself in 30 Rock anyway — but in any case, the news got us thinking about the whole idea of actors playing themselves, which seems to have been undergoing something of a renaissance in recent years. Here are a few of the most notable examples, good and bad.
Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. This week we’ve got Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis facing off on the campaign trail; Matthew McConaughey bullying Emile Hirsch and Juno Temple; Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Emma Stone in a gangster pastiche; Todd Solondz directing Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow; and a few promising films set to premiere at Cannes. Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments.
You remember Bobcat Goldthwait. He became a comedy star in the 1980s thanks to what amounted to a gimmick: the persona of a sweaty, wired, Tab-swilling punk dude who screeched like a banshee. That character got him plenty of TV and movie work (he still seems, unfortunately enough, best known for his supporting roles in three Police Academy movies), but as with his contemporary Sam Kinison — with whom he was often compared — there was more to his comedy than volume. Behind the bellowing mad man was a wry and perceptive social commentator, which is why his new film, the bold and brilliant pitch-black comedy God Bless America, is, as he notes, “closest to the style of how I did stand-up.” It’s a scathing satire and plea for harmony, dressed up as a hyper-violent revenge thriller.
