Time for a few more quirky little blurbs. 1. Ready to see Jesus in a romantic comedy? Variety reports: Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have made a deal for “Prodigal Son,” a romantic comedy that Gigi Levangie Grazer will write with Mimi James. Brian Grazer will produce. Story revolves around a workaholic single woman who is set up on a date by her mother. Her date, a handsome, kind and caring carpenter who works at Ikea, turns out to be... Read more

Thanks to the folks at ShiaChat.com for linking to my earlier post on Saint Mary, the Iranian TV-movie about the Virgin Mary — and for providing links to various sites where the film can be seen. I have no idea how “legitimate” any of those links are, but if your curiosity outweighs your concerns about copyright, click here to download a 114-minute, English-dubbed version of the film, and click here and here to watch a 110-minute version of the film... Read more

I got a review copy of World Trade Center today, and I’ve only had time to check out a few of the extras, but — given my interest in Bible movies and the like — I thought it was worth noting that the featurette ‘Closing the Wounds’ pays special attention to the brief scene in which Will Jimeno (Michael Peña) sees Jesus. The featurette begins with this statement from Oliver Stone, which I can’t quite figure out because I’m not... Read more

Six movies are opening in Vancouver tomorrow, and I’ve already seen all but one of them. That feels kind of nice. But there were two press screenings today, and I missed both of them — partly because I slept in, after the latest in a series of Very Late Nights, and partly because I just had too many errands. So I’ll have to “catch up” all over again in a week or two — or more, if today’s films were... Read more

The Hollywood Reporter says 19-year-old Thomas Dekker will play 15-year-old John Connor in the TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I guess that makes about as much sense as 13-year-old Edward Furlong playing 10-year-old John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). FWIW, Dekker would be the first actor to play John Connor who was born after the original Terminator came out in 1984 — which makes sense, since his character was conceived in that movie. Still no word on... Read more

Fox has FoxFaith and birds have nests — er, I mean, Sony has Provident — and now Variety says The Weinstein Company is hopping aboard the ‘contemporary Christian cinema‘ bandwagon: The Weinstein Co. is getting into the Christian-film biz, forming a faith-based distribution label and inking a first-look production deal with Christian shingle Impact Entertainment. TWC will finance, co-produce and distribute the theatrical pics under the multiyear Impact deal. It also will look to pact with other production companies to... Read more

Okay, this is weird. Yesterday, I linked to a spoiler-filled article on Apocalypto by Traci Arden, an expert on Mayan culture, on the Archaeology magazine website. Among other things, she writes: I am not a compulsively politically correct type who sees the Maya as the epitome of goodness and light. I know the Maya practiced brutal violence upon one another, and I have studied child sacrifice during the Classic period. But in “Apocalypto,” no mention is made of the achievements... Read more

Here’s another fresh batch of news blurbs. 1. The Globe and Mail reports that it is no longer possible to see many Canadian documentaries, thanks to rising copyright clearance costs, according to a recent paper released by the Documentary Organization of Canada: The Copyright Clearance Culture and Canadian Documentaries, written by Ottawa copyright lawyer Howard Knopf, cites many eyebrow-raising cases. An example: Quebec filmmaker Sylvie Van Brabant’s film Remous/Earthwalk has been withdrawn from public circulation because its main character sings... Read more

Time for a few more quick updates. 1. The Associated Press reports that modern Mayans aren’t sure what to expect from Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto: Outsiders’ views of the Maya have long been subject to changing intellectual fashions. Until the 1950s, academics often depicted the ancient Mayas as an idyllic, peaceful culture devoted to astronomy and mathematics. Evidence has since emerged that, even at their height, the Mayas fought bloody and sometimes apocalyptic wars among themselves, lending somewhat more credence to... Read more

Click here for the latest bit of insanity from the folks who gave us Brokeback to the Future. It’s not as inspired, but then, what is? FWIW, my parents taped Singin’ in the Rain (1952) off of TV only two or three years after Star Wars (1977) came out in theatres, and as a wee child, I fell permanently in love with the music and the comedy and just about everything else to do with the film. I was also... Read more