From a Variety report on MGM’s new business plans, comes this tidbit on the previously announced Hobbit movies: As for “The Hobbit,” Sloan confirmed that MGM was in advanced talks with Peter Jackson to make two movies based on JRR Tolkein’s “prequel” to “The Lord of the Rings.” The first would be a direct adaptation of “The Hobbit,” and the second would be drawn from “footnotes and source material connecting ‘The Hobbit’ with ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ” he explained.... Read more

I was doing some fact-checking tonight when I stumbled upon an odd bit of info that had never occurred to me before. Box Office Mojo says King David (1985) — the last major live-action movie, prior to The Nativity Story at any rate, to be based directly on the Bible and produced by a major movie studio — grossed a piddling $5.1 million and ranked 114th among the films that were released that year. Neither Box Office Mojo nor the... Read more

Last summer, you may recall there was some confusion as to what the MPAA meant when it said that certain PG-rated films had earned that rating for their “thematic elements“. Now I’m starting to wonder what the MPAA means by “disturbing images”. For example, last week, while finishing my review of Stranger Than Fiction, I noticed that the MPAA had rated the film PG-13 for “some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.” Then, while looking up some info on... Read more

Just a few quickies. 1. Christianity Today has another update on the closure of Becky Fischer’s children’s camp, which has come under attack since appearing in the documentary Jesus Camp. 2. TMZ.com reports that the Wachowski brothers (or “siblings”, as the website cheekily calls them), who wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy, have been brought in do an “emergency rewrite” on the ending of The Invasion, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s upcoming remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, etc.). TMZ.com makes... 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. The Queen — CDN $2,682,532 — N.AM $13,784,000 — 19.5%Babel — CDN $976,380 — N.AM $7,488,000 — 13.0%The Prestige — CDN $5,280,334 — N.AM $46,037,000 — 11.5%Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan — CDN $7,752,912 — N.AM $67,840,000 — 11.4%The Departed — CDN $10,947,184... Read more

I just got home from the Los Angeles press junket for The Nativity Story, where I saw the film (for the third time in nine days!) and took part in interviews with the writer, director, producers, and a couple of the actors. Expect to see snippets of these interviews here over the next three weeks, followed by my review of the film itself, which will go up December 1, the day of the film’s release. Arguably more important than the... Read more

You know how some movies stick with you over the years? And how the music, in particular, can bring back a lifetime of memories and associations? I’m going through that right now as I type this, because I am listening to the soundtrack for The Family Way (1966, composed by Paul McCartney with George Martin), which my sister discovered while working at the public library. I’ve written about this film a bit here before — back when Sir John Mills,... Read more

My review of Stranger Than Fiction is now up at CT Movies. You can’t see it on the review page, but the “deck” or subheadline on the main page sums up the movie like so: Comedian Will Ferrell turns serious and dramatic—with surprisingly poignant results—in this metafictional movie about an author who meets her fiction. Before I wrote the review, I had thought about trying to work in a pun like that, but I forgot all about it until after... Read more

Is Sarah Michelle Gellar turning into the actors’ equivalent of Renny Harlin? The Return, which opens tomorrow and also counts playwright Sam Shepard among its thespians, will be the second Gellar horror movie in a row to open without being previewed for critics; and whereas The Grudge 2 at least had a promo screening late in the evening the night before it opened, The Return apparently won’t get even that much warming up. Read more

Just a few more bites before I dash out the door. 1. Variety reports that The Nativity Story will premiere at the Vatican November 26, “and the Pope has been invited.” 2. Reuters reports that composer Basil Poledouris died of cancer yesterday at the age of 61. I used to listen to his soundtracks for Robocop (1987) and The Hunt for Red October (1990) all the time; maybe I should dig them out again. And maybe I should finally get... Read more