John Hughes Honored With Artwork, “Captain America” Marketed Correctly and More Discussion Fodder
– “Scooby Hughes” by David Macdowell, which depicts “The Breakfast Club” as “Scooby-Doo” characters will be on display at Gallery88 in Santa Monica, California, as part of the exhibition “The Road to Shermer: A Tribute to John Hughes,” which begins tomorrow.
– Disappointed with the character designs of “Gnomeo and Juliet,” Thomas Rogers at Salon interviews a better designer, Shannon Tindle (“Coraline”), about the best and worst animated characters. Here’s what she has to say on the problem of Zemeckis-style motion capture:
I don’t personally respond to the design in “Beowulf,” “Polar Express,” “Christmas Carol,” “Final Fantasy” or anything that skews toward realism. There’s an eye-contact issue with those characters. It never seems like they’re making eye contact with each other — they kind of have dead eyes. It’s an eye-tracking issue. There’s always this blank stare look.
And if you look at “Polar Express,” for example, they tried to make the main characters that Tom Hanks played look kinda like Tom Hanks and in some instance really trying to look like Tom Hanks. That’s going beyond making your character look real — you’re trying to make him look like one of the most well-known personalities in the world. I would much rather see Tom Hanks in a movie than I would want to see a facsimile of Tom Hanks.
– Somewhat related, MovieWeb has posted a great behind-the-scenes look at the special effects from “The Abyss,” with a commentary from f/x craftsman Steve Johnson talking about the similar mindset behind making physical effects then and making them digitally now. Watch the video after the jump. And go vote for “The Abyss” (or whatever your favorite is) in Live for Films’ James Cameron poll (“Aliens” is currently in the lead).
– In a new Moviefone column, Monika Bartyzel looks at people we don’t know are from Canada. This week: “The Eagle” star Donald Sutherland:
Though Sutherland flew to England to start his acting career, his ties to Canada remain. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in the ’70s; he’s married to French-Canadian actress Francine Racette; he won a Genie Award (Canada’s Golden Globes) in 1983 for ‘Threshold”; he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2000 and he not only narrated television ads for the Vancouver Olympics — he was also a flagbearer […] In reference to ‘Pride and Prejudice’: “I am too old, too busy and too Canadian for this.”
– Also related to “The Eagle,” Devin Faraci at Badass Digest asks director Kevin Macdonald how his documentary background influences his narrative work in terms of historical accuracy. Macdonald’s reply:
The appearance of reality is important, I think. If the audience starts feeling like that couldn’t happen or what that guy is wearing doesn’t feel right, it takes you out of the movie. If you’re doing Prince of Persia it doesn’t matter; it’s a fantastical amalgam of bits of the past and fantasy all thrown in there. My interest in doing the film is to make it feel as if this was what it was like. To put you there, on the ground, to not use CG – or when we used CG to make it invisible. It’s a different take on the sword and sandals genre. Sword and sandals these days seems to be where the classical world is an excuse for massive scale fantasy and massive CG. I wanted to do something that was more of an intimate adventure film, and more real. We’ll see if the people who grew up on the massive adventure films of the past few years will think this feels fresh or if it feels boring. l don’t know!
– Wish you were more excited about “Captain America” after seeing that Super Bowl spot? It’s much better with a certain little song from “Team America” over it:
[via /Film]
– Speaking of superhero movies, don’t you wish they were popular in the olden days of Hollywood? Dustin Rowles of Pajiba recasts today’s comic book adaptations with vintage stars. I love his picks for “Superman” (Peck, Bacall and Welles), but James Dean as Spider-Man? He looks more like Harry Osborn…
– Also thanks to Pajiba (Cindy Davis this time), I now know that Jason Patric is the grandson of Jackie Gleeson. From a list of 5 celebs with surprising family members:
Jason Patric is the son of Academy Award nominated actor and Pulizer Prize winning playwright, Jason Miller (That Championship Season, The Exorcist) and the grandson of television legend, Jackie Gleason (“The Honeymooners,” The Hustler, Smokey and the Bandit II, Nothing in Common). Patric started off his career by appearing in Solarbabies and The Lost Boys and he then famously ran off with Julia Roberts when she dumped Kiefer Sutherland. But apparently Kiefer didn’t hold a grudge (bullet dodged, dude) as he and Patric have remained friends and are getting ready to appear together on Broadway in the 2011 revival of his father’s play. Patric’s pedigree and talent should have spawned a better career than it has; he did receive accolades for his performance in Your Friends & Neighbors and Expired.
– One more Pajiba link: in response to recent casting news for the competing “Snow White” movies and the new “Hansel and Gretel” adaptation, Joanna Robinson goes through the history of evil witches in movies, noting which ones are ugly and which ones are sexy.
The Evil Queen in any “Snow White” adaptation must, by definition, be beautiful. She is, of course, The Former Most Beautiful Champ Of Them All. She is, also, at least implicitly, a witch, given her deft hand with potions and magical talking mirror. She’s a Glamour Witch. The villainess in Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel,” on the other hand, is that other witchy standard, The Crone. While this new Hansel and Gretel is a retelling of the Grimm story (the brother and sister are all grown up and kicking Wiccan ass), the news of the Famke casting on the heels of these other Glamour Witches made me stop and think about the treatment of female sexuality and evil in film. Of course, I don’t long for the day when Beauty was synonymous with Virtue and Age/Ugliness with Evil, but I enjoy a powerful villainess who doesn’t rely on sexuality but, rather, has another well of power to draw on.
– It’s been a while since I posted any re-cut trailers set to the “Inception” score, so here’s a well-cut one for “Showgirls.” Very much not safe for work.
Showgirls Recut Trailer from Randy Shaffer on Vimeo.
– Is it possible to sympathize with the problems of really rich and powerful people? Not for Ned Rice at Big Hollywood, who has an issue with Oscar front-runner “The King’s Speech” and the current “royalty genre”:
when it comes to stuttering Englishmen I was, frankly, more moved by Roger Daltrey’s performance of the song “My Generation.” My main problem with The King’s Speech is that the character we’re supposed to identify with, the down-trodden-schmuck-who-can’t-catch-a-break-but-we-root-for-him–anyway-because-for-all-his-faults-he’s-got-a-heart-of-gold just happens to be…THE KING OF ENGLAND! That’s right: in order to enjoy this film I’m supposed to feel sympathy for a man who, almost by definition, is an unsympathetic character. Like a Frank Capra film about the riches-to-mega-riches life of Donald Trump, this movie simply doesn’t make any sense to me […] Call me a populist, but I’m not interested in movies about how hard life is for wealthy, out-of-touch figureheads who expect to be worshipped by us commoners for simply drawing breath.
Of course, it’s not necessary to identify with a protagonist in order to appreciate a film. And judging by what’s popular on television, the masses seem to prefer watching the problems of the rich (and sometimes powerful).
– Anomalous Material asks “What fictional couple appear unlikely to strike a long-term relationship after the curtain closed?” Their pick is Joel and Clementine from “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” My pick: Amelie and Nino from “Amelie.”
– A long clip montage of people yelling “Noooooooooo!” in movies and TV:
[via Best Week Ever]
– “Twilight” screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg is now working on the reboot of “Highlander” for Summit Entertainment. Someone didn’t get the memo that there can be only one franchise about immortals on your resume.
– “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy may direct Sony’s re-imagining of “Annie,” which will star Willow Smith. Nothing’s set in stone with Murphy yet, so production: keep humming “Maybe” to yourself. Or, if you’re optimistic: “You Won’t Be an Orphan Too Long.”
– We may never actually see a third installment of “Ghost Busters,” but Hustler has a porn parody coming out in May. And it’s apparently in 3D!
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