In Search Of Steve Ditko

Outside of the UK, Jonathan Ross is probably best known to film ick readers for kissing Neil Gaiman, or being married to the co-screenwriter of the Stardust film. Here, however, he's probably the fourth biggest TV presenter - after Davina, Ant and Dec - and almost certainly the best. He's been running a variant on The Tonight Show for a couple of decades now, on and off, from The Last Resort in the 80s to the current Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. This later show is part of his phenomenally lucrative deal with the BBC, for whom he also presents a weekly radio show and occasional offshoots, such as Japanorama, his joyous, if indulgent, exploration of Japanese culture.

As part of the current BBC 4 comic-centric season, Ross has made a documentary with a fully self-explanatory title: In Search of Steve Ditko. It begins with a to-camera address by Ross in which he reveals just how much comic book illustrator and author Ditko means to him. Apparently, no other individual in any of the entertainment industries has ever brought Ross so much pleasure (and he gets a lot of pleasure from the entertainment industries, that much is clear).

Personally, I'm not too experienced in first hand Ditko. I know Spider-Man, of course, but I've already spent more time with the Sam Raimi incarnation than any paper version; I'd held some Dr. Strange in my hands, some Shade too, and I knew The Creeper and Mr. A by reputation. One hour with Ross and company later, and I'm not only much better informed about all of the above, I'm actively seeking some Ditko to get a better look. Any suggestions where to begin?

Before searching for Steve Ditko himself, Ross chases around Steve Ditko 'the legend', speaking to a number of his collaborators and colleagues. There's a couple of very suspenseful moments - when Ross has Stan Lee in his sights he gets him up against the ropes, on the verge of admitting for the first time ever that Ditko was in fact the co-creator of Spider-Man. I won't tell you if Ross delivers the knockout blow or not, but I promise, what happens is quite remarkable and will be quoted for years to come. I'm quite curious about Ross' attitude to Stan Lee overall - it's no doubt tempered by a nostalgia that I don't share, so maybe I'll never quite get my head around it.

One of the many interview subjects is Neil Gaiman who later joins Ross on the physical hunt for Ditko in person. It's a brief gallivant about the streets of New York culminating in another eminently quotable conclusion. I can't really spoil this either, but Ross' goal is to get Ditko to give a history-making first interview on camera and he at least sort-of succeeds.

It's great TV, and the sections on Ditko's politics are particularly engaging. Alan Moore appears throughout, which is probably enough to bolster ratings by 10% alone, and in one instance explains Ditko's influence on Watchmen - and not in terms of the artwork, but the moral dimensions (both of them) of one particular character.

As an interested, partly initiated layman this was great TV. Ross' shows about Asian cinema, for example, are much more my usual remit and play much more to my knowledge and specific focus, but this was perhaps even more interesting and every bit as entertaining.

If you're here in the UK, the show screens on Sunday 16th September at 9pm, repeated later at 12.50am, then on Thursday 20th at 12.30am (strictly Friday 21st, then, I suppose). After that, or in other locations, the LocateTV embed below will keep you informed of any time the show is going to screen again, with a fourteen day advance window.

Movie Minesweeper - The Classic Bangladeshi Edition

- Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf will screen in 3D at IMAX venues as well as over 1000 digital screens across the US so, really, you have no excuse. Also, some posters for the film have been revealed, and they're quite striking in their way.

- Joel Siegel has passed away. A former roommate of Terry Gilliam and long time film critic, he recently became infamous for his walk-out protest during a screening of Clerks 2.

- Slate have a nice slideshow on 'the secrets of Brad Bird'.

- Penny Marsall is going back to the diamond (Is that apt slang? I don't know anything about sport at all) with a film about Effra Manley, the first woman inducted into the Baseball hall of fame. Apparently, Hilary Swank and Demi Moore are front runners for the lead.

- Liam Neeson is set to star in Richard Eyre's The Other Man opposite Juliette Binoche. Charles Wood has co-written the script with Eyre. I'm keen to see who will shoot this - Eyre has a great taste in cinematographers.

- Roland Emmerich's 10000 BC had pretty much fallen off of the radar, but MTV just picked up a blip.

- The Weinsteins have got their oar in the waters of Korean animation too, now.

- The Sun have spuriously misinterpreted Daniel Craig to suggest he's quitting Bond after the next film.

- Latino Review have Sam Raimi weighing up two options: The Grays or No Man's Land. They each feature alien invaders in some fashion or another.

- A paparazzi snap of Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf together on the Indiana Jones set has been unveiled.

- Jason O'Mara has taken the lead role in Life On Mars US.

- Kristen Bell has been snapped on the set of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which she stars with Russell Brand. Yes, that Russell Brand.

- The MPAA have filed law suits against two sites that help pirates do their dirty bidding.

- Jim Carrey's Sober Buddies seems to be in slightly bad taste.

- This is hilarious, and disturbing, and (almost definitely) not true : a Paris Hilton biopic is in development, to star Lindsay Lohan and with a Britney Spears soundtrack.

And I'm going to publish this now and then make moves on a second Minesweeper in a couple of minutes. I've got a pile of things to get through, but I don't want to keep this post hanging any longer.

Sam Raimi Selects His Spider-Man 4 Villains

Sam Raimi has revealed the two villains he'd want for Spider-Man 4... not that he's agreed to direct the film.

Indeed, most signs point to him departing the series: a number of projects in quiet development, that tempting Hobbit offer, his casual chat about Spider-Man 4 as if there's no point in him keeping secrets... or maybe this chat is his way of exerting some control.

Raimi pledges to return only if Sony find 'a great story' for the next Spider-Man installment. This essentially means that he's waiting to see what the studio wants before inking - not like last time, where Venom was essentially forced on him. If they want Sam, they're going to have to have a premise he can invest in.

His two choices, by the way, are The Vulture and Electro, or 'maybe even The Sinister Six as a team'.

So, what of all this Lizard set-up in the prior chapters?

"The Lizard is probably one of my favorite characters but [Spider-Man 4] will probably have to start with the central journey of the main character to arrive at the proper villain."

Expect Sony to try and get their ducks in a row by early next year.

Hobbit Hit List

Aint it Cool are reporting that, behind Sam Raimi and Peter Weir in the queue are four more potential Hobbit directors: Stephen Sommers, Michael Bay, Brad Silberling and Bill Condon.

Er... what on earth? Only Silberling seems anything like a sensible choice. At all.

Sam Raimi On Cinema

Time Out have published a nice interview with Sam Raimi that serves a nice refresher on how his filmmaking developed over the years, eventually reaching the incredibly high standards on display in the Spider-sequels.

Some excerpts:

I've always been interested in the camera and the effects of it – that's what drew me to film in the first place. My father would take home movies of the family and play them back and I was always amazed that you could capture reality and replay it. Backwards motion was incredibly cool. So the camera as a recording device was the thing that first thrilled me. Then I got interested in the moving camera. How does it affect an audience when a camera moves? What does the audience think when two shots are put together? And the pace of those shots, one after another, changing – how does that affect an audience? These are the questions I was interested in.

Then I realised I could still grow and learn new things if I began to focus on the actors in front of the camera – things that I had just moved around like pawns before because I was ignorant of the things they could bring to the picture. Now I became very interested in stories and emotion and actors and performance, to the point where, when I made A Simple Plan, I tried not to move the camera at all. I tried to allow the actors in the frame to tell the story, and I was very satisfied with that. That reinvigorated my appetite, and it still does to this day.

Now I'm reaching a point with the Spider-Man movies where I'm becoming re-interested in the camera again, especially with the possibilities of computer-generated imagery.

Put Spider-Man's Starz In Your Eyes

Last night, the Starz channel aired a Spider-Man 3 preview. Somebody caught it and pinned it up on YouTube in three parts - un, dos, tres.

Enjoy.

Dunst Confuses Everybody

Kirsten Dunst at last night's London Premiere of Spider-Man 3:

I think it might happen if me, Tobey and Raimi are all on board. I think it'll happen. It'll probably be out in four years at the latest.

That is bound to be taken as some kind of indication that the team are going to sign up for another one. Dunst is such a brilliant interview becasue she always, always, always says something she's not supposed to. And if it happens to be something small and inconclusive like this, it always, always, always ends up getting inflated into a really big deal.

Even More Spider-Man Stills

A rogue film ick agent (of sorts) returned to the fold with the Spider-snaps below. Good work.

Spider-Futures

Of course Sony want more Spider-Man. 4, 5 and 6, apparently. But it goes without saying that 6 depends on the success of 5, 5 on the success of 4... and I think we can rest assured that 3 will deliver more than enough the get gears moving on 4.

But not with Sam Raimi. He's not going to sign, I'm sure.

Spider-Man In Cleveland

Last summer, I spent a few days on the set of Spider-Man 3 in Cleveland while second unit work for the Armoured Car chase was filmed. Now, courtesy of the official behind-the-scenes videographers, you can see a little featurette on Spidey's time in the city.

Future Raimi Film From Freddy Vs Jason Penmen

Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, two of the many writers to have taken a crack at Freddy vs Jason - one of my more indulgent semi-guilty pleasures - have sold a new project to Columbia for big dollars. The new film hasn't been named, but it has been described: a tentpole hopeful about a cynical New Yorker battling fairy tale creatures to save a princess. Not that much to go on, so far.

The 'big news' is that Sam Raimi will be producing and, of course, the internet's gestalt geekmind is already fantasising that he'll direct. Maybe this would be a safer choice, in many ways, than The Hobbit, though probably less tempting too. Reports are also swirling around that Raimi is planning a return to horror, so who knows what he'll actually sign on for? Probably not even Raimi, at this point.

I'm prepared to bet Spider-Man 4 isn't his next film, however. Or even the film after that.

Sam Raimi Happy To Helm Hobbit, Spider-Man 4 Obviously Going Ahead

Yes, that was an ugly headline. Sort of on purpose. Honest. I don't use helm as a verb, I swear.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Sam Raimi said the following:

Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now. But, um, I don't know what's going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye's films. If Peter didn't want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it — and they were both okay with me picking up the reins — that would be great. I love the book. It's maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others.

Yeah, he might be, Sam. And you might be too. I'd certainly count you both in the 99th percentile.

Matt Telmach, Sony's President of Production is quoted as saying:

Listen, we're making Spider-Man 4. Our hope, dream, and intention is to do it with Sam. But I don't have a crystal ball.

Our Man In Japan's Man Takes On Spider-Man

Just a brief note from a friend-of-a-friend of film ick in Tokyo: Spider-Man 3 is, reportedly, even better than Spider-Man 2 - !!! That's incredible. Our friend, the middle link, seems almost as annoyed as me to have not seen the film yet. Can't...wait...any...longer...

We're trying to coax a full review out of the middle link.

And, yes, 98% of the spoilers given here on film ick over the last twelve months or so have been absolutely correct. Or, to put it another way, 100% of the spoilers have been 98% correct. Well, we already knew that because we knew who our sources were.

So, if you can't wait any longer, and you need to find out every major plot beat in Spider-Man 3, and many of the minor ones, I suggest you start looking thorugh the archives or using the search box above and the labels below. But you can wait, can't you? Just for a couple more weeks...?

Song And Dunst Number

Be warned! A spoiler follows!

Kirsten Dunst has reminded Sci-Fi wire that in Spider-Man 3, MJ takes to the Broadway stage.

Didn't we know this already? When the pictures of her on stage on Braodway surfaced about a year and a half ago? There's a small reminder below. After the spoiler.

What you might not know is that, quite superbly, her big song is a duet with Jason Schwartzman. Yep. The Man who was Max Fischer gives it a bit of jazz hands for Spider-Man 3.

Only one month to go.

Ghost House

[EDIT: Some of the links below are hard to see. If you want to watch any of the films discussed, click on the first occurence of their title in their own paragraphs. Or swing your mouse about and keep a look out for the cursor changes. Apologies for any inconvenience]

I have a confession to make. I am a movie wimp. Horror movies leave me sniveling and whimpering like a baby.

It’s not the gore. My parents let me watch Temple of Doom before I was even in school, so blood stopped having an effect on me very early on. It took Braveheart to really make me physically ill. After that, all bets were off and everyone looks a bit frightened when I applaud a good beheading in 300. But ghosts, aliens, monsters under the bed, the occasional knife-wielding maniac--you’ll find me curled up in a ball on my theatre seat. It might be due to early trauma—my parents also let me watch Poltergeist when I was roughly the same age as Carol Anne and it’s a wonder I sleep at night. Occasionally, I don’t. Signs kept me awake for two weeks straight and my friends and family knew the way to freak me out was to come up behind me and do a clicky alien sound. Let’s not even talk about what they did to me in a corn maze one Halloween....

But when my dear editor sent me these horror films to mini-review, I blew it off. Whatever! They won’t be scary. 3 minutes, what could possibly happen in 3 minutes? They’ll all be zombie flicks and zombie flicks are just silly.

I watched the first one, Caller Unknown. I rolled my eyes because it featured that horror movie cliché, the blonde bombshell in a bikini. Her phone rings with an incoming picture. Uh oh. Telephones scare me as a rule (I’ve worked too many receptionist jobs) and how freaky would it be to receive a picture from an unknown caller? I’m not going to spoil it for you, but this director made a tense use of their 3 minutes. Yes, there’s more than one cliché here, but it’s self-knowing without verging into Scream territory. When combined with a new device like the cell phone camera, the blueprint works well. Of all four, Caller Unknown could probably be adapted into a feature length and be a lot of fun.

I stopped whimpering and thought “Bah!” This one just got to me because I’m scared of telephones. Let’s try the next one. I got roughly 30 seconds into watching Night Waking when I decided watching these little things at 2am while alone in the house wasn’t such a good idea.

I returned to them in the daylight. It didn’t help. Night Waking also features a common horror movie device—the babysitter. Sharp filming angles prevent you from seeing anything and as every good horror director knows, that’s where the true horror lies. The sound effects are particularly good in this one. Don’t bother to yell at the screen—the babysitter does it anyway....

Oddly, the next two try harder to look professional with title cards and actor billing, and yet come off a bit more amateur. Mouse Trap is a bit reminiscent of Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye and works pretty well into the last frame. But the initial “Oh, sick!” jump is quickly replaced with a bit of eye-rolling because of the cheap gore.

Saving Face falls into the same pitfall. If you watch all four of these in a row, you’ll start picking out horror movie patterns. Horror films of all subjects, lengths, and budgets rely largely on people creeping along a wall. You know it, and yet it doesn’t stop you from sitting on the edge of your seat. Saving Face knows it, and relies mainly on a girl tip-toeing down a hallway and into a bathroom. You know she’s going to find something awful there, but it doesn’t stop you from getting a good jump. (Shame on Ghost House’s website for the major spoiler on the site—these guys have 3 minutes to scare you, don’t take away their money shots!) Unfortunately, like Mouse Trap, the director didn’t subscribe to the same “less is more” philosophy that the first two so effectively did. The glimpse of the villain is scary enough. Showing everything veered it into low-budget slasher. There should be a golden rule to low-budget horror--if you can’t afford the make-up, stick to the psychological, or at least do some quick edits of your gore to hide your peeling latex.

Overall, these little films are worth a watch the next time you need to jumpstart your heart. As I mentioned earlier, my tolerance for horror is low (send someone creeping down a hallway and I’m peeking through my fingers) but I think they are all remarkably effective. Whether they are about ghosts, serial killers or aliens, horror movies rely on a lot of build-up for their scares. These films have only a few minutes to accomplish that. All four films do and deserve praise for their tight shots and creaking floors. Sure, they all have plot holes, but horror movies are built on improbability (“Hey kids, we burned the school janitor alive and now he haunts your dreams, crazy, huh?”). I would genuinely like to see what any one of them could do with two hours and a budget.

Cheap Thrills From Ghost House

Four short horror films have appeared on the official site of Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert's Ghost House Productions. You can link directly to, or download, any of the four from here:

Caller Unknown.

Night Waking.

Mouse Trap.

Saving Face.

Which one is your favourite? Mini-reviews will follow...

Yet Another Spider-Man Trailer

The final Japanese trailer for Spider-Man 3 confirms their 'early' release date of May 1st. It's also a different edit than we've been enjoying until now.

Direct Download Link For Venom-Swinging Spider-Man 3 International Trailer

Download or watch the latest international (in this case, from good ol' Blighty) Spider-Man 3 trailer now, in HD and gorgeous.

If you're on less powerful broadband, dial-up, or in a hurry, try a lower-res version. If you;re truly lazy, there's a flick-book of the shot that got most people excited below.

Personally, I was much more wowed by some of the other stuff in the trailer.

Script Review: Nottingham

Courtesy of Simon - who may well end up being quite a regular contributor to film ick - here is a script review for Nottingham, the Robin Hood project with Russell Crowe attached. Enjoy.

The character of Robin Hood has been around for hundreds of years, and because of that pretty much every story that can be told about him has been. He’s appeared as a vibrant, technicoloured Errol Flynn, as a talking Disney fox, and as Kevin Costner, in a film that was used as a vehicle to sell a Bryan Adams song.

Sooner or later, Hollywood was bound to take another crack at England’s favourite outlaw, and Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, the writers behind TV drama Sleeper Cell have done just that. Their spec script, titled Nottingham, is Robin Hood reversed - setting up the Sheriff as the hero and Robin Hood as the antagonist. Russell Crowe will pocket $20 million to play the Sheriff and Ridley Scott, Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer and Jon Turteltaub have all been linked with the directors’ chair. Rumours are that the project will lens in New Zealand later this year.

The general thinking behind this new interpretation of Robin Hood is that perhaps the Sheriff of Nottingham wasn’t such a bad guy after all, instead he has been distorted into a villain as the Robin Hood yarn has been passed down from generation to generation. The script for Nottingham bears the tagline “There are two sides to every legend…”, and, in Nottingham, Reiff and Voris decide to give the Sheriff’s testimony.

The writers obviously have a keen eye for history with events and characters thrown into a loose historical timeline, something that’s quite refreshing to see in what is essentially a period popcorn film. King Richard’s capturing of Cyprus is used to set up the Sheriff’s background, we get a small but substantial role for Eleanor of Aquitaine, and a huge battle at Nottingham Castle, which is based on a real event, plays a part in the third act.

The story begins in late 12th century Cyprus with Sir Robert Tornham battling in the Crusades. He’s a good soldier, a leader, and his reward from King Richard is to be appointed the Sheriff of Cyprus. Tornham’s stay is short-lived, however, when a letter from Richard notifies him he’s to be the new Sheriff of Nottingham. Tornham and his Squire, Thomas (a role seemingly written for Michael Caine) pack up and head to England.

In Richard’s absence, England is ruled by Prince John and the city of Nottingham, second only to London in size, is in crisis. There’s a Norman/Saxon divide, a mysterious hooded outlaw causing trouble and a recent gruesome murder involving a pair of young Nobles. Sir Guy of Gisbourne suspects Robin Hood (formerly Sir Robin of Locksley, a Nobleman who was outlawed for defending a man accused of killing one of the King’s deer) is behind the murders and the new Sheriff begins the manhunt.

Tornham meets Marian, Robin’s fiancé, and is immediately smitten. The pair become close, Marian is a fine archer and attempts to coach the slow-to-learn Sheriff, but both know that their relationship has no future. Marian is devoted to Robin and they will wed once his title is restored by King Richard, and the Sheriff ultimately wants to track down Robin and bring him to justice.

Nottingham is certainly an in interesting script but it doesn’t quite live up to the hype. The first act is all set-up and lengthy exposition – what we get is a lot of scenes introducing us to familiar characters… and a medieval police procedural TV show with Tornham trying to figure out entry/exit arrow wounds and such other things that are more David Caruso’s field.

That said, things pick up once Robin Hood appears at around the 40 page mark. As Tornham rides in Sherwood Forest he becomes lost and is ambushed by Robin and his Merry Men - there is no Will Scarlet, by the way, or Friar Tuck (though his name is mentioned), and Little John gets a fleeting cameo. Despite being less than white Robin’s character is far from a traditional villain – he is charismatic and confident, a Robin in the Errol Flynn mould.

One of the problems with this story is that by making Tornham the “anti-Rickman” you take away much of what makes the character great. He is far more watchable when he’s cancelling Christmas and being an evil bastard… this Sheriff is somewhat dull. Robin Hood is a great myth because you have the romantic notion of the outsider fighting the corrupt system. In Nottingham that is true of both Robin and the Sheriff. However Robin lives in exile in Sherwood Forest and the Sheriff is in Nottingham Castle trying to make things better by being a part of the system. Who really wants to side with a guy who is part of the status quo?

Nottingham isn’t a bad script but it feels like a missed opportunity. Reiff and Voris wanted to re-invent something familiar and I applaud them for doing so, but they seem to be holding back, not quite going the whole nine yards for fear it they might go too far. If they made Robin Hood the real bad guy and the Sheriff the hero then maybe it would’ve worked better – at least for me, anyway. It’s clichéd, of course, but the real world isn’t black and white but shades of grey. That’s the colour used to paint this Robin Hood tale and unfortunately it just isn’t as exciting as a good old-fashioned battle of good vs. evil.

More Venom In Australia

The Australian edit of the final Spider-Man 3 trailer features different shots, such as the one I've excerpted above.

Just a little more Venom for you.