Time to unload a few more items; most of the ones in this batch concern upcoming releases or screenings.
1. Hot Docs is going to host the Toronto premiere of Jesus Camp on January 10. The press release calls this the film’s “Canadian premiere”, but that’s just typical Torontocentrism; the film played the Calgary International Film Festival back in September.
2. The VanCity Theatre in Vancouver is going to show Béla Tarr’s 7.5-hour opus Sátántangó (1994), a “monumental tale of a false messiah encroaching on a shambolic Hungarian village”, on December 23 — and if I were younger and/or did not have a family to think about, I would probably go catch the marathon Just Because. But now? I dunno. Coincidentally, Darren Hughes just posted some thoughts on the film at Long Pauses.
3. In other news, the VanCity Theatre will also be showing Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa, a Peruvian tale of religious fervour and small- town debauchery during Holy Week, December 26 – January 3.
4. There is a blog for the upcoming film Amazing Grace, and today it announced that the film has an official website — with clips!
5. Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily asks how dare Harvey and Bob Weinstein release the horror-movie remake Black Christmas on Christmas Day. To which I can only reply — without having seen the film myself, and without any intention of seeing it myself — by paraphrasing a character from The Family Way (1966) and asking, “What other day would you do it, you mug?”
6. The Movie Blog has posted a 24-minute excerpt from Justice League of America (1997), an old TV pilot, and while it’s definitely lame, I don’t think it deserves comparison to The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). Not quite, at any rate. (It’s weird seeing David Ogden Stiers as the Martian Manhunter, though.)
7. IGN.com reports that Warner Home Video will replace the defective discs from the new Superman sets.
8. Speaking of superheroes, what if the Marvel Comics gang was played by the Peanuts gang? Click here for some fun answers.
9. Some Orthodox friends of mine have alerted me to this website for an upcoming independent film called Nicholas of Myra, about the saint whose name evolved into the modern “Santa Claus”. It’s hard to say what this film will be like, based on nothing but early press materials, but the words “fake make-up” come to mind.
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