A seven-part miniseries about John Adams based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian David McCullough seems like something you used to find on PBS done in cooperation with the BBC, but you’ll find it on HBO, with parts 1 & 2 airing Sunday at 8:00 p.m.
Prestige filmmakers take note: If you want the Times critics to really love you, what you need to do is put the fear in them. At least it worked for Tim Burton; his adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd gave reviewer A.O. Scott nightmares. And for that, Scott deems the film “close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme – I am tempted to say evil – genius.” (Current Rotten Tomato rating: 88% fresh.) One big question was whether the non-singing actors cast in the film would be able to pull it off; according to Burton the film is almost 90 sung. Well, it worked for Scott:
Johnny Depp’s voice is harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful. He brings the unpolished urgency of rock ’n’ roll to an idiom accustomed to more refinement., and in doing so awakens the violence of Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics and melodies.
The conspiracies are swirling, the evangelical Christians are frothing at the mouth, it can only mean one thing: Ron Howard's opens this weekend. Will you get sucked in to the Hollywood thriller madness? It's not even Memorial Day yet but Gothamist already has summer blockbuster fever.
We spied somone (from the TatsCru, we think) spraying an image of the Mona Lisa on Mulberry Street earlier, and we thought, oh, cool, maybe there will be a series of old paintings. But we were too naive, because when we approached the ladder, the graffiti artist was examining the picture he was supposed to copy...and there's a mention of The Da Vinci Code movie! Augh! Gothamist read The Da Vinci Code, and you know what, it's just like Dan Brown's earlier book, Angels and Demons, except it involves the Louvre and Jesus, so we never quite understood the Da Vinci Code fever. But today has been a day of Da Vinci Code media onslaught, from Tom Hanks' ode to his make-up guy in the Times (he doesn't discuss his hair, though) and how the judge in the Da Vinci Code (book) case encoded some message in his ruling. This confluence of synergy must mean we will have to see the movie, or else we'll have secretly bad hair when we're in NoHo.
JC: ALL RIGHT! I just took extra Vitamin C - I'm waiting for some food delivery.
After years of teasing, the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is finally moving forward. The NYTimes reports that Being John Malkovich's Spike Jonze (called “the strangest little bird” by author Maurice Sendak), is set to direct the “odd” screenplay he wrote with Dave Eggers for Tom Hanks’ production company. So far, the film will extend beyond the children’s classic simple plot to delve into Max’s journey home (semi-minor change: Max escapes with the "wild things" in hot pursuit instead of the island king's beastly subjects begging him to stay). While Gothamist usually cringes about childhood-favorites desecrated on the big screen, we remain quite hopeful with this film -- especially considering Sendak’s tight grip on the script/production, his love for Jonze, and his loathing of movies based on children's books as well as most children's books, which he describes as “all vulgar. It's all Madonna." Asked about the film versions of Cat in the Hat or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Sendak replied: "What is the purpose of this debauchery? Money! Only a seriously sick or brainless person could like them." Indeed.
Rebecca Lobo, WNBA Commentator
Newsday looks at the life of 79th Street marina houseboats owners. Many of the boat owners live there because it's cheaper than living in a Manhattan apartment, even after city docking fees and electricity and whatever the cost of the boat is. Originally, the boat basin was planned by Robert Moses to be a place for recreational boat owners to dock their boats during the season. Interestingly, it was never meant to be a permanent housing solution: Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe tells Newsday, "Over the years, people just started living on their boats. Now there's no room for recreational craft. It was an accident. Before we realized it, we had lost the ability to offer a recreational resource." But there are some downsides, like living far away from the subway and groceries stores. Also, during storms, some boats will dock near the Intrepid, which can shield them from winds.
Look out, Max, you may have met your match: Variety's Michael Fleming reports that Spike Jonze will adapt a live-action version of the beloved Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. "Published in 1963, 'Wild Things' is the Caldecott Medal-winning story of Max, a mischievous boy who is sent to bed without supper. In his room, Max uses his imagination to conjure up a forest populated by the wild things, exotic monsters who embrace Max as their ruler." That sounds just like Spike and Hollywood.
With last week's release of Seabiscuit, the Palm Beach Post's sports writers come up a list of the best sports movies ever made. Not surprisingly, the list skews towards more recent films, but Gothamist was surprised to see how much we agreed with the selections. We were especially glad that Hoop Dreams, one of the best films ever made, period, made the list, thereby not getting the short shrift for being a documentary. The top ten:
to feel she's a kindred spirit of sorts. But the jury is still out because of Ephron's increasingly treacly efforts (When Harry Met Sally to You've Got Mail - you do the math)...if there's another Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks pairing in the future, all bets are off.
Let the games begin. The Directors' Guild has announced their nominees, and they are Stephen Daldry for "The Hours," Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Rob Marshall for "Chicago," Martin Scorsese for "Gangs of New York," and Roman Polanski for "The Pianist." The most likely nominees for the Academy Awards' Best Picture of the bunch are "The Hours," "Chicago," and "Lord of the Rings." Photos above and an article(registration required) from Variety. "Gangs" and "The Pianist" are possibilities, but Scorsese and Polanski are polarizing figures. However, as these projects are labors of love for them, especially with Polanski's personal experience with the Holocaust and Hollywood's love of reliving the Holocaust in film (see "Schindler's List" and "Life is Beautiful"), they may be nominated for Best Picture. Good will for Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks may make "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" a Best Picture contender, but I personally am done with the big fat Greek hype. Back to the directors, the DGA awards are usually good indicators of who will win Best Director at the Oscars, but more recently, there's been discrepancy: Ang Lee winning the DGA award for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," while Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for "Traffic"; Ron Howard winning the DGA for "Apollo 13", Mel Gibson the Oscar for "Braveheart".
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