Episode 103:
We’ve got Bond galore and also a nice Tangent on Kubrick and Kieslowski. And for fans of lists and Oscar season, a new top 5 list is here as well. Oh, and Zombie Diaries!
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Episode 99:
Catching Up with some gems of the past few weeks including Appaloosa, Tell No One, Funky Forest and a special SPOILER review of Blindness
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“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
- Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)
Brave New World, the brilliant and eerily relevant 1932 dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, has been adapted a few times in the past, most recently in a 1998 87-minute made-for-TV movie starring none other than the legendary Peter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy. Obviously, it has never received a respectable adaptation (sorry, Pete, Lenny). Word has been rumbling around Hollywood for a while that Ridley Scott wants to take on an adaptation and io9 got the chance to talk to him the other day about how far along they are.
Ridley said that Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company approached him to do it and he was intrigued with the story, as Huxley’s vision was a somewhat prophetic of where we are today. But are they even close to finishing a script yet?
“No, no no we’re still struggling with that one,” Scott said. “I have 40 things on the go at once. But that’s a very important one. And sometimes, some surface faster than the others. It’s partly luck of the draw. Even with a good writer, he’ll do it and screw up. So then you go back to the table and start all over again, it’s hard. The hardest single thing is getting it on paper.”
Brutally honest, but especially with something of this scope, that is usually the way it is. This could be a project that goes through three or four or five writers before it is all said and done, especially if Ridley is not in a hurry to get to it with all of his other projects on his plate. He goes on the say that DiCaprio is “perfect for it,” although he doesn’t say whether he is referring to producing or starring – but I think he would be great to star as either Bernard Marx or John the Savage.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s a synopsis off Amazon: “Community, Identity, Stability” is the motto of Aldous Huxley’s utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a “Feelie,” a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today – let’s hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren’t yet to come.”
Does anyone want to see this made or have we had our fill of these types of films, like the recent The Island?
It’s been 11 years since Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio steamed up screens together in Titanic. Since then, both actors have stacked up an impressive filmography but it’s taken this long for the two to re-unite.
Directed by Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road is a drama set in the 1950′s starring Winslet and DiCaprio as a young couple who have fallen into the trap of domestication. They’re youthful dreams have been cast aside and the two find themselves raising two children in a Connecticut suburb, living through the daily grind and monotony of married life.
This isn’t new territory for Mendes whose American Beauty dealt with similar themes and Winslet has a little experience in the area as well with her turn in Little Children. From the trailer, it’s not clear whether this film will have some similar troubles/consequences to work through and to be frank, I’m not sure I’d care to see another dysfunctional couple drama but with this cast and director, I can’t help but get excited.
Revolutionary Road is scheduled to open in limited release on December 26th, likely in the hopes of stirring up some awards buzz. It remains to be seen if the awards folks will pay attention but the trailer has stirred me up.
Trailer it tucked under the seat!
Hey hey folks. Fresh back from my week-long trip to Los Angeles. Hope you didn’t miss me too much (“Wait, he was gone?”). What a great, great city L.A. is.
And catching back up on all of the movie news I’ve been missing out on, I was pleased to come across a full-length theatrical trailer for Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies that didn’t put me to sleep. In fact, after the snore-fest that was the last trailer, I’m going to say that this looks damn good and both DiCaprio and Crowe are looking at the top of the game (are you looking for a fourth Oscar nomination, Russ?).
Check it out and leave your thoughts!
I had completely forgotten this film was even in production never mind getting ready for release but with the trailer premiering with The Dark Night, the web has been abuzz with talk of Ridley Scott’s new film.
An action drama titled Body of Lies, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a former journalist injured in the Iraq war who is hired by the CIA, represented in all its might by Russell Crowe, to track down an Al Qaeda leader in Jordan. The film is based on a novel by acclaimed journalist and novelist David Ignatius.
The trailer isn’t bad but it’s not particularly attention grabbing either. Watching it, I couldn’t help but think I’d seen a lot of it before in a load of other recent films. There seem to be bits of everything from Rendition to Syriana with a dash of The Bourne Ultimatum in for good measure. Frankly, this story does nothing for me and if someone else was directing and starring in this, I might completely overlook it but how does one say no to the triple threat of Scott, DiCaprio and Crowe? Can one even resist?
We’ll be finding out soon enough. Body of Lies is scheduled to open on October 10th.
Trailer is tucked under the seat!
