Fascinating fact
Lifestyle guru MARTHA STEWART is to make a Christmas appearance in animated TV hit THE SIMPSONS. Stewart's Yuletide episode is slated to air in the U.S. in December (10).
The things they say
"I am lucky because I can ask the top people in my field for advice. Russell Crowe has been really helpful. He has reminded me to slow down, relax and to try to loosen up a bit." Australian actor SAM WORTHINGTON has a famous mentor.
The Things They Say
"If you're walking down the street in L.A. people do sort of look at you like you're a hooker because it's so rare to see someone just walking." British actress CAREY MULLIGAN is staying in the car during future visits to Los Angeles.
‘The World’s Greatest Sinner’ is Remembered
Independent film icon Timothy Carey is being honored at Philadelphia's International House tonight in collaboration with the Timothy Carey Estate and the artist collective Vox Populi. The film house will screen some of Carey's rarely seen works, including the documentary, Making of Sinner, which is directed by Carey's son, Romeo. A Q&A with the director will follow the screening. Also playing and not to be missed is the never before released Carey masterpiece, The World's Greatest Sinner, which is like spotting a yeti in Philadelphia, only better (and yetis are pretty great).
Carey wrote, produced, directed and starred in 1962's Sinner, which boasts a score by a then unknown Frank Zappa. The film established the impulsive artist -- and he was an artist in every sense of the word -- as an underground legend. Sinners was shot for around $100,000 and Carey used his El Monte home and the city -- including people he met off the streets -- as the stage for his story about an insurance salesman who grows tired of his average life. A chance encounter with a rock n' roll show (his musical performance is like a peek into No Wave) moves him so much that he decides to change his life. He appoints himself God -- even changing his name -- and starts a band, preaching his own gospel (looking smashing in black & gold) and drawing a cult of followers who don Nazi-like armbands with a big F on them (F for follower or F*ck You?). While the crew is out wreaking havoc, God spends his time seducing old women for their bank accounts, getting grabby with young girls and basically behaving badly. I don't want to give away the film's final brilliant scene, but it's everything you could ever hope for.
Filed under: Independent, Fandom, Trailers and Clips, Stars in Rewind
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Vera Farmiga to Direct Adaptation of ‘This Dark World’
Hot off an Oscar nomination, actress Vera Farmiga has decided to make the jump to director. Production Weekly's Twitter feed reports that she will direct and star in a new indie called Higher Ground, which will film in Upstate New York this June. This is nothing like a look at the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's actually an adaptation of Carolyn Briggs' memoir, This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost, about one woman's retro forays as a born-again Christian. In her book, Briggs outlines her early days as a bookworm striving to move to the right side of the tracks, and then how she spent the '70s as a self-identified "Jesus Freak." While in her late teens and living with her husband and new family in a Des Moines trailer park, she became enveloped in the Fountain of Joy church -- basically a born-again hippie contingent. Eventually that fountain offered something a whole lot different than joy, however, as she struggled with her church's anti-medicine stance, how they convinced her and her husband to live in poverty rather than leave the state for a good job, how fellow wives were expected her to nurse their young while babysitting. Ultimately, she found herself at odds with her faith and struggled to move on.
Ignoring the issue of age, since Hollywood usually doesn't care much about a true story's age requirements anyway, I'm quite anxious to see Farmiga's dual-gig chops. The story sounds like an excellent choice for her talents and it's definitely a treat to see another woman enter the directorial pool. I have this funny feeling she'll kick ass.
Filed under: Drama, Casting, Deals, Religious
‘Splice’ Director Interested in ‘Swamp Thing’?
We all have things that speak to our own specific corners of personal fandom. For some, it might be the films of the French New Wave or a keen interest in philosophical Russian filmmakers. For me, it's any and all forms of Swamp Thing, a fact that Cinematical editor Scott Weinberg ribs me about to this very day. I have chosen to watch episodes of the live-action Swamp Thing television series, possibly the worst TV show ever made by human hands, over critically-acclaimed four-star movies. I totally deserve the ribbing.Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing is the best batch of comics I have ever read, and I continue to go back and read them all, every couple of years. Wes Craven's 1982 film was a cable mainstay when I was a kid, and I've probably seen it more times than any sane person with good taste in movies ever should. I even saw the wretched Return of Swamp Thing ... in a theater. Twice. When I saw that Vincenzo Natali (director of the upcoming Splice) was considering directing an all-new feature film based on the DC Comics character, my brain exploded, I tore all of my clothes off, and ran around in circles singing this.
Read the rest over at SciFi Squad
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
There Are Better Ways to Spend Your Date Night
The Plot(!) is Revealed in the New ‘Sex and the City 2′ Trailer
Okay, folks. I think you can definitely, 100% forget about a Sex and the City sequel where the girls need to reign in their spendy ways. The second trailer for Sex and the City 2 has hit over at THR's Risky Business, and none of those so-called spoilers are in sight. In fact, even after loosely following the different rumors and spoilers, I didn't guess what unravels in this trailer.If you prefer to stay blissfully unaware, stop reading, although I also suggest you go on lockdown because I imagine we'll be seeing a lot more of this trailer over the next month.
As we already know, it's two years later. Carrie's filled her ginormous closet and is living the life with Big, Samantha is taking more pills than an octogenarian, Miranda seems to have found the balance between mom and professional woman, and Charlotte -- shocker -- is crumbling under the pressure of being mother to two children. Then a little sparkle comes in, shaped in the form of a flirty Penelope Cruz, Stanford wears white to his wedding where Liza Minelli performs, and the girls jump at the chance for an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi, where Carrie seems to relive the events of Season Three. I'll let the trailer fill in the blanks.
Hit the jump to see for yourself, then weigh in below with your thoughts. Do you like where installment #2 is headed?
Filed under: Romance, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
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Cinematical Late Night: Riddick, Heartless, Intruders, Vampire’s Kiss
- The third entry in the Chronicles of Riddick franchise, titled simply Riddick, may not have a ton of details at this point, but it has at least a single piece of concept art. Without context I'm just going to assume this is the part of the movie where Riddick trips at Joshua Tree and that's just his alien coyote spirit guide.
- The Financial Times, by way of Deadline Hollywood, are breaking the news that Ridley and Tony Scott are interested in running the perpetually troubled MGM. This doesn't mean they want to buy the studio outright, but the report indicates that they would like to be a part of the new management team should the studio emerge from bankruptcy intact.
- I'd take this with a grain of Russian salt (which we all know is so salty it makes normal salt cry) considering the man is attached to more projects than I have fingers and toes, but the latest contender for Timur Bekmambetov's directorial attention appears to be the 3D thriller Red Asphalt for Lionsgate. Specifics are sparse, so I'm just going to assume at this point that it's an instructional video for a driver's education class.
- And speaking of sparse details, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will direct Clive Owen in the vaguely-outlined horror-thriller Intruders about, "an 11-year-old girl who is forced to confront childhood demons."
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting
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