Time for a bunch of miscellaneous notes’n’things.
1. The Daily Mail says Will Poulter, who played the “bad boy” Lee Carter in Son of Rambow (2007), has been cast as Eustace Scrubb in the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Whatever else might or might not go right with this film, that’s kind of inspired casting, really.
2. Variety has an interesting story on CBS Paramount’s peculiar decision to dump the background music from the second season of The Fugitive (1963-1967) and replace it with an all-new score, apparently hoping no one would notice. It’s one thing to release a “remastered” version of Star Trek (1966-1969) with souped-up special effects — and to openly promote it as such — but this…?
3. The Associated Press reports that Israelis are, on the whole, “flattered” by Adam Sandler’s send-up of Israeli culture and politics in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
However, the Globe and Mail says Hindus in Canada and the United States are calling for a boycott of Mike Myers’ The Love Guru. Don’t worry, guys, it’s not like anybody’s going to see it anyway; not counting a couple of films in which he was part of a broader acting ensemble, The Love Guru had one of the worst opening weekends of any film in Mike Myers’ career.
4. CT Movies editor Mark Moring interviewed WALL*E writer-director Andrew Stanton recently and got him to talk about his Christian faith and how it may have influenced the film, among other things. Jeffrey Wells isn’t taking to this very well:
You’d barely know from Moring’s side-stepping intro and Stanton’s many quotes that there’s a strong anti-corporate, beware-of-unbridled-consumerism, save-the-earth-before- it’s-too-late theology that runs all through WALL*E.
Pixar’s John Lasseter and his nervous-nelly lieutenants have clearly put the word out to downplay this aspect of the film out of fear that American Jabbas and other impulse consumers will avoid WALL*E if they get the idea that it’s some kind of lefty message flick that Al Gore would be proud to call his own.
I’m starting to feel vaguely offended, I must say, by a p.r. policy that’s totally fine with sucking up to Christian moviegoers (a conservative bunch that harbors a faction of global-warming deniers) but shilly-shallies away from acknowledging that a significant side of WALL*E is dealing with the most pressing and life-threatening issue of our time. Sorry, but there’s something a wee bit sickening about this.
Of course, there is nothing unique at all about the way Stanton has promoted the film to CT Movies; he’s making the exact same claims he has made to the secular media, about not intending the film to have an overt political message, etc., etc. And if CT Movies were really all that conservative, they might have gone after the film for that “stay the course” quip — but they didn’t, so.
5. MTV Movies Blog passes on the following bit of info regarding Toy Story 3, which is currently in production:
And one of those adventures may lead one favorite character to take center stage, revealed actor John Ratzenberger, who plays Hamm the Piggy Bank. “Hammy is a villain in the beginning of the movie,” he said. “[But then], Hammy becomes a superhero. You’ll see.”
Hammy was a villain at the beginning of “Toy Story” too — in one of Andy’s childhood play fantasies. . . .
But whatever madcap adventures are in store, we can apparently expect one thing…a lot more Mrs. Potato Head.
“[It’s] wonderful!” gushed Estelle Harris, who voiced the wedlocked vegetable. “I have a much bigger part. ‘Toy Story 2’ was my entrance, and I was a newlywed. But now, I’m still very much in love with Mr. Potato Head.”
6. CT Movies rounds up some of the stories out there that have reported on the Vatican’s decision to deny the makers of Angels & Demons access to their churches; apparently the Church’s objections to the earlier Dan Brown film The Da Vinci Code (2006) are only part of the reason for that decision. The New York Times says the more secular authorities in Rome are hoping the film will “relaunch American tourism” in the city just the same.
7. Yahoo! Movies has a clip of Steve Coogan performing the musical number ‘Rock Me, Sexy Jesus’ in a scene from the upcoming Hamlet 2. To paraphrase the Dane, there really are no words, words, words to describe this clip.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In