I was busy with work, alas, but this year’s edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival kicked off today, so it’s about time I posted the first draft of my movie-going schedule. As with the schedules I posted in 2005, 2006 and 2007, this list is highly flexible and will be revised continually often over the next two weeks, as I juggle family and work obligations and so on. Any films that I do not end up seeing will be... Read more

Nearly two years ago, back in January 2007, I mentioned that MGM had bought a spec script called Myriam, Mother of the Christ, which was written by Benedict Fitzgerald, who had earlier co-written The Passion of the Christ (2004) with Mel Gibson. (He is now suing Gibson for a share of the profits from that film.) I have since wondered what became of that project, especially since it was originally slated for an Easter 2008 release which never materialized, and... Read more

My interview with Kirk Cameron, who stars in the Left Behind films and the upcoming Fireproof, is now up at CT Movies. One thing that did not come up in our conversation was the bit in his autobiography where he talks about how he refuses to kiss any actress except for his wife, Chelsea Noble, and how he always keeps his wedding ring on, even if the character he is playing is single and he has to hide the ring... Read more

Several online writers went to London recently to take part in a roundtable interview with some of the key people involved in Quantum of Solace. Three bits from their collective reportage leapt out at me. First, Ain’t It Cool News quotes producer Barbara Broccoli to the effect that the storyline begun in Casino Royale (2006) will come to an end with this new film: This is a continuation, but I think the story kind of completes here. I think you... Read more

A handful of films are coming out in the next few weeks that are aimed at what you might call the “red state” crowd — conservative, Christian, or both — and, as such, none of them are coming to Canada. So I haven’t got a clue what sort of access to these movies critics will have on the American side of the border. But it does seem that at least one of these films will avoid the press altogether. Lou... Read more

My article on Alex and Stephen Kendrick — the director and producer of Flywheel (2003), Facing the Giants (2006) and the upcoming Fireproof — is now up at CT Movies. UPDATE: I just realized my other article on the Kendrick brothers — and the church which produces their films — is up at Today’s Christian. This article has been in print for a few weeks, so it may have been up at the website for a while, now, too. Read more

Religulous star Bill Maher likes to say that religion is nothing more than fairy tales for gullible grown-ups. But according to Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, the evidence suggests that, the more religious a person is, the less likely he or she is to be superstitious: The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won’t create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that’s not... Read more

Variety says a remake of the late Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) — set in modern America, rather than medieval Japan — is in the works, timed to coincide with what would have been Kurosawa’s 100th birthday in 2010. Such a film is, of course, unnecessary, but it is not without precedent. The film was previously remade — with Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson and William Shatner — as a Western called The Outrage (1964). Of course,... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Tropic Thunder — CDN $11,420,000 — N.AM $106,805,722 — 10.7%The House Bunny — CDN $4,760,000 — N.AM $45,587,131 — 10.4%Burn after Reading — CDN $3,750,000 — N.AM $36,135,221 — 10.4%The Dark Knight — CDN $49,430,000 — N.AM $521,890,027 — 9.5%Ghost Town — CDN $470,024 — N.AM $5,012,315 — 9.4%My Best... Read more