Take this with the usual grains of salt, but CHUD.com says it has heard from an insider on Indiana Jones IV: ‘Belloq’ also tells us that the opening action scene of the film will pit Dr. Jones against Russians agents in Area 51 – which is interesting, as this is a major similarity to the Frank Darabont draft that confirms my belief that much of what was in that script has made its way into what will be filmed this... Read more

I have always had a soft spot for 50 First Dates (2004; my comments), the romantic comedy in which Drew Barrymore plays a woman who has no memory of her relationship with Adam Sandler because she forgets each and every day’s events before she wakes up the next morning. So I was really intrigued to see this post by Carmen Andres at In the Open Space on the possible allegorical significance of one of the film’s key plot devices: Eventually,... Read more

Bill Maher and Borat director Larry Charles are currently making a movie about “the role of institutional religion around the world.” The foreign distribution rights are currently being sold at the Cannes film festival. But the presumably controversial film does not yet have an American distributor. Variety reports: Based on a 10-minute promo reel seen by about 200 buyers Friday, the pic promises a blend of comedy and reportage that could attract significant controversy. A one-page “statement of intent” by... Read more

Variety reports: When you have the Dalai Lama’s explicit blessing for your movie, the sky’s the limit. That is the unique trump card being played by telecom mogul B.K. Modi, who is readying “Buddha,” a $120 million English-language biopic of the Buddha through his M Pictures. Even more ambitious is “The Mahabharata,” another retelling of the epic tale that is a major tenet of Hinduism, which producer Bobby Bedi is pitching as a historical actioner akin to an Indian “Lord... Read more

Remember all those box-office records Spider-Man 3 set during its opening weekend? It won’t be setting any more, any time soon. As of today — the 17th day of its release, and the end of its third weekend in release — it has made less money than either of the previous movies had made at this point in their releases. That’s if we focus on the domestic charts, at any rate. Spider-Man 3 has, admittedly, already made more money overseas... Read more

Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews.com has posted the following montage of footage from John Rambo — previously known as Rambo IV — and you’ll have to watch it quick if you want to see it at all, since Harry says he’s taking it down after a couple days. Warning: This is bloody, brutal stuff; unlike a certain other 1980s action-movie franchise that is being revived right now, this one seems to be going out of its way to hold on to... Read more

I was watching John Huston’s The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966) tonight — mainly to brush up on the Noah’s Ark section — when I suddenly noticed something. Adam is played by Michael Parks. That’s him above, getting his first glimpse of Eve. And this is him again below, partaking of the good fruit in the Garden of Eden: Now, the last time I saw this film, the name “Michael Parks” didn’t mean anything to me. But now I recognize... Read more

I know some people who dismiss or outright loathe Ron Fricke’s Baraka (1992) because they think it is a mere “knock-off” of Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1983), which Fricke shot. (I will never forget the local critic who told me after a screening of Reggio’s Naqoyqatsi that he found Baraka “vomitous”.) But I also know people who like Baraka better because its soundtrack uses tribal chants and the likes of Dead Can Dance rather than the music of Philip Glass, which... Read more

Three more interesting reviews or commentaries on The Lives of Others came through my Google Reader account today. First, Timothy Garton Ash of The New York Review of Books: Watching the film for the first time, I was powerfully affected. Yet I was also moved to object, from my own experience: “No! It was not really like that. This is all too highly colored, romantic, even melodramatic; in reality, it was all much grayer, more tawdry and banal.” The playwright,... Read more

Fun stuff. And for some reason it reminds me of the time Trent, Darin and I sang every last verse of ‘99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall‘ during a drive through the Rockies some 15 years ago. Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. (Hat tip to Joe Leydon at MovingPictureBlog.) Read more