The Times of Malta has posted the first picture from the set of Agora, the Alejandro Amenábar film starring Rachel Weisz as 4th-century philosopher Hypatia, Oscar Isaac as Orestes and Sami Samir as St. Cyril of Alexandria. Quoth the Times: “The idea is to bring ancient Alexandria back to life, allowing the audience to see, feel and smell a remote civilisation as if it were as real as today, the director has been quoted as saying.” Does that mean they’ll... Read more
Many thanks to Debbie for posting The Square Root of Three by David Feinberg as a comment on my earlier post. I don’t know if she transcribed it in the theatre or found it somewhere else, but it certainly sounds like the poem I remember Kal Penn reciting in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. And many thanks to Google and whatever other search engines have been sending literally thousands of people to this blog over the past couple... Read more
Now that Guillermo Del Toro has officially been hired to direct The Hobbit and its sequel, the anticipation and speculation have begun. How will the new film fit, stylistically, with The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) — or will it? Why did it take so long to finalize the deal, given that reports of Del Toro’s involvement were first reported three months ago? And will the resulting films be any good? Christopher Campbell runs through some of the reasons why... Read more
Errol Morris has been open about his politics at times, not least when he spoke out against the invasion of Iraq while accepting an Oscar for his documentary The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. But until now, his films have never been all that concerned with current events. Instead, they have tended to explore the nature of evidence and the psychological factors that affect how people interpret that evidence. Where some documentaries can... Read more
Variety reports that Om Puri has been appointed head of the National Film Development Council in India, and this, for no particular reason, gets me thinking back to when I interviewed Puri eight years ago, shortly before the North American release of East Is East (1999). Here is the article, originally published in the Vancouver Courier, that came out of that interview: – – – by Peter T. Chattaway Om Puri has worked on dozens of films in his native... Read more
My review of Standard Operating Procedure is now up at CT Movies. Read more
Seems like only yesterday I posted my last batch of these … 1. By now, you’ve probably heard the news: Guillermo Del Toro has officially signed on to direct The Hobbit and its sequel. You can read about it via the press release or via Variety. For his part, Jeffrey Wells is happy for Del Toro but says “there’s a downside to this deal” because it means Del Toro “won’t be making any adult-market, real-world-grappling, artistic-growth movies in the vein... Read more
If anybody knows where I can find a copy of this poem online — or if anybody is willing to put their reefers aside and transcribe this poem for me when they see Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay this weekend — I would be much obliged. Thank you. APR 27 UPDATE: Many thanks to Debbie for posting the poem in the comments below! Read more
My review of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is now up at BC Christian News. I feel a bit bad about being as critical of the film as I am, since the people involved have been pretty nice and have fed me well both times I saw the film — but the film is what it is, and I have to approach the film the same way I would approach, say, a major Hollywood movie that I had seen on an... Read more
Hoo boy, got some catching up to do. 1. It’s like The Day of the Jackal — but with Martin Luther instead of Charles de Gaulle! Variety reports that Phoenix Pictures has picked up a spec script called The Heretic, which follows “a fallen priest-turned-hitman sent by a rogue archbishop to assassinate Martin Luther, only to discover that not everyone is telling the truth.” The film is described as a “Renaissance-era action-adventure thriller.” Sounds like my kind of cheese! 2.... Read more
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