A few more quick news items. 1. Roger Friedman of Fox News reports that Disney may be trying to sell off the distribution rights to Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto: Mel Gibson’s movie “Apocalypto,” which Disney was supposed to release on Dec. 8, is “being shopped” to other potential distributors, sources tell me. One potential distributor for “Apocalypto” is Lions Gate, an independent company with a history of rescuing distressed projects. In the past they’ve picked up Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” and Michael... Read more

My review of World Trade Center is now up at CT Movies. Read more

I was telling someone the other day that there was a scene in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) in which a map of my hometown of Vancouver was used as a map of Gotham City — and I hated to make this assertion without a visual aid to back me up. So today I rented the film on DVD and captured the image you see above. That’s Vicki Vale’s hand — and thus probably Kim Basinger’s hand, though you never can... Read more

Remember Abel Ferrara’s Mary (2005), which stars Juliette Binoche as an actress who plays Mary Magdalene in a movie and then kind of loses herself in the part? The film has played in Europe, but not yet in North America; however, The Reeler says that might change soon, now that IFC Films has picked it up. Jeffrey Wells says the eventual DVD release should include Rafi Pitts’s Not Guilty (2003), a documentary about Ferrara, as a bonus feature. Personally, I... Read more

Time for a few more stray items. 1. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Winona Ryder, Liev Schreiber and several others have joined the cast of David Wain’s The Ten. The film is typically described as a spoof of The Ten Commandments (1956), but a recent entry at Cinematical — which says there will be one story for each commandment — leads me to wonder if this might be more like a spoof of Dekalog (1988-1989). 2. So many films have... Read more

Many filmmakers — and many people who aren’t normally known for making films, such as Johnny Cash — have been fortunate enough to produce their own cinematic interpretations of the life of Christ. But there is a long list of filmmakers who have wanted to film the story of Jesus, but never got the chance to do so. John McCabe, in his biography of Charlie Chaplin, writes: Although unhappy with the First National management, Chaplin was intrigued by the company’s... 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. Miami Vice — CDN $4,924,489 — N.AM $45,740,000 — 10.8%The Night Listener — CDN $370,163 — N.AM $3,600,000 — 10.3%Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — CDN $36,592,070 — N.AM $379,709,000 — 9.6%You, Me and Dupree — CDN $6,307,103 — N.AM $66,782,000 — 9.4%The Devil Wears Prada — CDN... Read more

It has been eight days since Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving, and four days since he issued his second apology — the one in which he apologized specifically for making anti-Semitic remarks during his arrest. There has been a lot of media coverage this past week of the implications of all this for Mel Gibson himself … but what about the implications for the film that first raised the allegations of anti-Semitism on Gibson’s part, or for the... Read more

Two weeks ago, the Toronto Star visited the set of Shake Hands with the Devil, the new film set during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and starring Roy Dupuis as Canadian general Roméo Dallaire. Today, the Globe and Mail also takes a look at the film: Shake Hands With the Devil distills Dallaire’s memoir of the same name into a journey that sees a career soldier from Montreal be entrusted with Rwanda’s future. By the movie’s climax, Dallaire is laying... Read more

Last week, I mentioned that Magnolia Pictures had acquired the distribution rights for the documentary Jesus Camp, and had yanked the film from Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival because they want to promote the film to conservative churches and don’t want the film to be tainted by association with Moore. Now, the Hollywood Reporter, via Reuters, reports that the festival seems to be ignoring Magnolia’s request, and still plans to show the film today (a screening that is already... Read more