Monday, June 25, 2007

Movie Minesweeper - The Wimbledon Ignorance Edition

- Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci have given an interview to the NYTimes. Disappointingly, they reveal something of an obsession with Godard; interestingly, they suggest that they've come up with 'good reasons' for the many illogical elements of the Transformers mythos - not least the various problems around there not being any cars on the Autobots' home planet. I'm curious to see how they've wangled a way out of that one (if indeed they have).

- Missy Peregrym is taking over a key role in Reaper from the pilot's Nikki Reed. Which presumably means the Kevin Smith-directed pilot will never air.

- Robert DeNiro has joined the team behind Barry Primus' 20% Fiction. He'll serve as an executive producer on the drama about an acting coach - I'm a little surprised he hasn't also taken the lead role, so I assume he simply isn't the right type.

- Movie characters often have quite exotic, specific or quirky jobs. Example: in All About Steve, Sandra Bullock is to play a crossword creator, while Thomas Haden Church has just joined the cast as a CNN cameraman. So, they have a specific outlet for his camerawork, but no newspaper named for her crossword puzzles yet? The marketing synergists must be working on something, surely?

- Guest directors Joss Whedon and Harold Ramis have both contributed to the extra features on the Office season 3 DVDs.

- MTV are turning their book The Bad Girls into a film called The Lost Girls (yep, MTV publish books, make films and screen music vi... oh, they at least publish books and make films). Holly Brix has been hired to pen the script.

- Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose have the lead roles (Precious and Grace respectively) in the film of The No 1. Ladies Detective Agency, with the UK tabloid tip Queen Latifah nowhere to be seen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, no delas are in place yet for the subsequent TV series, which is disappointing.

3 comments:

Rich D said...

I'm not sure I would totally discount the airing of Smith's REAPER pilot simply because of the recasting. Remember that when Annette O'Toole took over the role of Ma Kent in SMALLVILLE's pilot, they only reshot the scenes with her character.

While I don't know how much of the pilot Nikki Reed was in and what the cost would be to just reshoot the character's scenes versus just trashing the pilot, but I don't think that the network wants to throw away the publicity opportunities of having Smith being the director of one of their new season's pilots.

NATHANIEL R said...

whats even weirder than sandra bullock playing a "crossword creator" is that this isn't even the first cinematic depiction of one. Michelle Pfeiffer played one in The Story of Us. They even show her working on them.

weird. but at least the movies give us something other than what TV gives us: doctors, lawyers, cops. period.

Brendon said...

I should have expected Nathaniel to mention Ms. Pfeiffer.

I'm a fan of The Story of Us. There. I've said it. Do your worst, world.