1. The first photos of Brad Pitt on the set of the Marc Forster-directed film adaptation of the zombie thriller World War Zhave surfaced. What do you think?
2. The Beastie Boys have reteamed with director Spike Jonze for the music video for “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” their recent collaboration with Santigold. “It is an explicit action adventure spectacular,” they explain on their website. “It features action figures of us and yes, they are ACTION figures, NOT dolls!” Unfortunately, there’s no release date yet. [via NME]
3. “I became reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff … There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me.” – Apparently Daniel Radcliffe used to have a problem with whiskey
4. Jay-Z and Kanye West may not have released Watch the Throne over the weekend (as had previously been rumored), but they did reveal official album art from designer Riccardo Tisci. [via Vulture]
5. Competitive eating renegade Takeru Kobayashi (who refuses to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating), set a world record yesterday by consuming 69 hot dogs in ten minutes at an unsanctioned event on a Manhattan rooftop. His arch nemesis Joey “Jaws” Chestnut — the winner of the Nathan’s Famous official contest — only managed to wolf down 62 dogs. [via NYDN]
“Arcade Fire presents” is not a credit we’re accustomed to seeing before a movie, but that’s how Scenes from the Suburbs comes billed; the 28-minute film, “based on the album The Suburbs by Arcade Fire,” was penned by band members Will and Win Butler with acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze, who directed. The short screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and SXSW; it is included on the bonus DVD of the new “deluxe edition” of The Suburbs, which hits stores in August, but MUBI is streaming it, for free, for the next two days only. We’ll take a look at the movie after the jump.
UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, after this post — and many others — went live, MUBI suddenly decided to pull the film for North American viewers. “Rest assured,” the new error message reads,”we are working hard to acquire the rights to show all our favorite films all around the world.” Uh huh. A commenter on the MUBI blog was more succinct: “Not available to watch in the USA?? Fuck you.” At any rate, our review remains after the jump, and we’ll keep an eye on the site in hopes of a re-post.
Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma and LA street dancer Lil’ Buck recently put on a miraculous performance together at an event supporting arts education. Yo-Yo Ma played an excerpt of “The Dying Swan” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals and Lil’ Buck shared his own interpretation of the piece by dancing along. Apparently, this performance came about when a friend of Yo-Yo Ma saw Lil’ Buck’s YouTube videos and got the two of them together. Luckily, Spike Jonze was there to film the whole thing. Click through for an amazing collaboration between old style and new style that creates something wholly original and beautiful.
1. Walter Breuning, who is officially recognized as the oldest man in the word, died yesterday in Montana of natural causes. At 114 years old, he lived through both the stock market crash of 1929 and the birth of the computer — and was around to see Halley’s Comet pass through twice! [via Gawker]
2. Interpol are planning to do a visual collaboration with director David Lynch during their performance tonight at Coachella. Their set will also feature the premiere of his short animation “I Touch A Red Button Man,” which will accompany their song “Lights.” [via NME]
3. This is your final weekend to check out Julie Taymor’s version of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; after taking a brief hiatus, a slightly different take on the musical — think less Arachne, more Green Goblin, no Geek Chorus — is set to debut on May 12th. [via NYT]
4. Last night at one of his live stage shows in Toronto, Charlie Sheen decided to spice things up by revealing the identity of his first celebrity hookup: Jennifer Grey. Interesting, if not that all that surprising given their on-screen chemistry in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. [via Vulture]
5. In case you missed Ricky Gervais last night on The Daily Show, here’s the general gist of his interview with Jon Stewart: “This is what I think I should apologize for about the Golden Globes: fuck all!” Watch the full clip here.
1. ArtsBeat is reporting that the opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Lights will now be pushed from January 11 until sometime in February. This will allow time for the creators to make several changes, including changing the final number, rewriting the dialogue, adding new music from the composers, U2’s Bono and the Edge.
2. Watch David Letterman’s hilarious tribute to Larry King, who hosted Larry King Live for the last time last night, complete with a Larry blooper reel. [via Gawker.tv]
3. Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are pitching a new movie! According to the LA Times, “While the plot is being kept under tight wraps — it’s a pitch, so a script has yet to be written, and Kaufman movies are famously hard to describe in a few sentences anyway — two people familiar with the project said it has been making the rounds to independent financiers in recent weeks.”
4. Yesterday Anne Hathaway surprised the kids from the PS22 Chorus with the news that they’ll be performing at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony on February 27th. Watch a video of their reaction.
5. An anonymous LA street artist has put a new work in response to MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch’s decision to paint over another artist’s mural that he had commissioned: “The wheat-pasted mural depicts the face of Deitch on the body of an Iranian ayatollah holding an extension pole with a paint roller at the end — and it’s set against Italian street artist Blu’s now-controversial anti-war imagery.” [via Culture Monster]
1. Arcade Fire has a new video directed by Spike Jonze. Says Win Butler: “We shot it in Austin and a lot of kids are in the film and it was great just hanging out with these 15-year-olds for a week and writing down all the funny things they said. It was cool to revert to being a 15-year-old for a little while.” [via P4K]
2. The Academy has announced the 15 movies on its short list for best documentary. Among the flicks that made the cut: Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop and Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman. [via LAT]
3. The 1.52-acre Malibu estate where Evan Rachel Wood’s True Blood character Sophie-Anne lives has hit the market for $35 million. [via THR]
4. This year Lollapalooza will expand to Santiago, Chile. Perry Farrell says the lineup will include Chilean bands, and that they plan to “bring some of those artists out to Chicago for a musical foreign exchange.” [via NYT]
5. Thanks to Freedom, Jonathan Franzen is among those in the running for this year’s Bad Sex in Literature Award. [via Telegraph]
Spike Jonze’s first film since Where the Wild Things Are is presented in multimedia format with There Are Many of Us, a deluxe hardcover book packaged with a DVD and a CD soundtrack.
The film itself, I’m Here, is an emotional 30-minute short that follows the romance between two endearing robots in an alternate version of modern-day LA. The book features photos, interviews, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at its genesis, while the soundtrack includes songs from Sleigh Bells, Animal Collective, and the Lost Trees — a group featuring Nick Zinner, Flea, and singer Aska Matsumiya.
Focusing on new technology, the Creators Project is an online and real-world hub for groundbreaking work from some of the best visual, multimedia, and musical artists of the digital age.
Founded by Vice and Intel, the Project pairs an increasingly intriguing web archive of work by the likes of Spike Jonze, Diplo, Romain Gavras, Danny Perez, Mark Ronson, Phoenix, and James Powderly with a series of immersive music and art events taking place in major metropolises throughout 2010. Next up is Seoul on August 28, followed by Beijing on September 17.
