Reservoir Dogs. sex, lies, and videotape. El Mariachi. Clerks. Slacker. The Blair Witch Project. Blood Simple. Napoleon Dynamite. Memento. Yes, the Sundance Film Festival (which kicks off less than a week from today) is the Holy Grail for aspiring indie filmmakers, who can rattle off those titles (and more) as examples of the wildest-dream scenario: Make a movie on the cheap, take it to the ‘dance, ignite a fierce bidding war, sell it to a scrappy and ingenious distributor with deep pockets, watch as they unleash it on the world, do big box office, become the next Tarantino or Soderbergh.
1. Everyone seems pleased by how not boring last night’s Emmy Awards were. Especially this opening number featuring Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Betty White, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia, and the cast of Glee. Also worth watching: Jimmy’s farewell in song to the shows we lost: 24, Lost, and Law & Order.
2. This week Pitchfork is going to be counting down their list of the top 200 tracks of the 1990s. Here are the first 50 tracks.
3. John Cusack reports that he’ll play the role of Edgar Allan Poe in a film called The Raven. [via Twitter]
4. Publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary have confirmed that the third edition — which a team of 80 lexicographers began working on back in 1989 — may never appear in print. [via The Guardian]
5. Saturday Night Live is adding three new cast members this season: Taran Killam from Scrubs and two comedians from Chicago — Paul Brittain and Vanessa Bayer. [via NYP]
Just like in the fashion industry, we start hearing about new films about two seasons before we get to spend our hard-earned money on them. Here’s a sneak peek at the movies we’ll be talking about next year — will we be mercilessly mocking them or lining up outside the theater for our fourth viewing? Take a look at photos of Mark Wahlberg, Kirsten Dunst, Ryan Gosling, Jerry O’Connell, Vanessa from Gossip Girl, John Cusack, Ben Stiller, and George Clooney from various sets and make your predictions now.
Yesterday marked the release of the 20th anniversary edition of Say Anything, which is definitely in the running for our favorite ’80s movie of all time. In case you don’t know, the film stars John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, who attempts to win back his dreamgirl Diane Court by holding a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” over his head. To celebrate, a mob of Lloyd Dobler impersonators (“the Mobler”) hit New York, carrying their boomboxes high from Union Square to Times Square, where they set up behind DC-based band the Lloyd Dobler Effect, who played a cover of the Gabriel’s famous jam. (What about Say Anything? Couldn’t it have been a whole festival?)
We think that this is pretty much the coolest thing ever, seeing as how we’ve been wishing for a real-life Lloyd Dobler for, well, 20 years now. Check out the videos after the jump!
If you live in California, we’re sorry. Your beloved state gets swallowed up by the Earth first. Your only chance of survival is to rent a plane with John Cusack and fly to momentary safety. In preparation for the November 13th release of 2012, Columbia Pictures pictures staged what SlashFilm calls “the largest American media roadblock ever.” Read More »
Over the weekend I finally saw Donnie Darko — you know, the 2001 cult favorite where Jake Gyllenhaal plays a troubled teen who talks to a giant rabbit named Frank about the impending apocalypse. (If you haven’t seen it, it’s good, but suffice it to say, leaves you in a strange mood. The fact that it was released a few months after 9/11 couldn’t have helped the abysmal box office numbers.) Maggie Gyllenhaal is in the flick too as his sis Elizabeth Darko which got me thinking about the best films featuring actor siblings. After the jump, my top 8, which is admittedly a little heavy on the Cusacks; add your own faves in the comments. Read More »
