Heh. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy Pevensie what will happen to him if he does not turn her over to the White Witch: “And if I don’t,” said he, beginning to cry again, “she’s sure to find out. And she’ll have my tail cut off, and my horns sawn off, and my beard plucked out, and she’ll wave her wand over my beautiful cloven hoofs and turn them into horrid solid hoofs... Read more

Some soundtrack buffs say if you read between the lines in this New York Times story, you can see why Howard Shore was dropped from Peter Jackson’s upcoming remake of King Kong: In hiring Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, to remake the monster classic “King Kong,” Universal Pictures took a daring leap, paying him $20 million to direct, produce and be the co-writer of the film. With seven weeks to go before the... Read more

I hate to count my chicks before they hatch, but it looks like I’ll be going on a monster junket next week — three films, and three sets of roundtable interviews, in four days, wheeeeee! — and now that I’ve looked at the schedule, it seems that there will be nothing for me to do between Thursday, November 3, 12 noon (when one set of roundtable interviews ends) and Friday, November 4, 5pm (when the screenings for the other two... Read more

Picked up Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Volume Three today. Am currently going through the extras on the first disc. Loved this Chuck Jones quote from the ‘Chuck Amuck‘ documentary, which is just one of the many bonus features here, though I remember watching it on VHS with my Hoy House roommates back in 1991: I think you must learn — If you’re in any filmmaking, you must respect the single frame, and there are 24 of those per second. And... Read more

A couple months ago, I posted a link to an article of mine in which someone compared the “blaxploitation” films of some years back to what he called the “Godsploitation” movies coming out these days. Now, based on this report from the Gannett News Service, it looks like the two “sploitations” may be coming together: When Tyler Perry’s film adaptation of his play “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” opened earlier this year and pulled in $22.7 million in its... Read more

Methinks we’re overdue for another batch. 1. GetReligion.org notes the peculiar lack of religious content in the Los Angeles Times‘ recent feature on Joaquin Phoenix, who grew up with missionary hippie parents and plays the deeply spiritual Johnny Cash in the upcoming film Walk the Line. 2. Reuters notes that the CGI cartoon Chicken Little, the first major animated Disney feature since they shut down their traditional hand-drawn animation division, is “critical for Disney reputation”. The story notes that Disney... 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. A History of Violence — CDN $3,826,218 — N.AM $26,300,000 — 14.6%Two for the Money — CDN $2,730,052 — N.AM $20,689,000 — 13.2%North Country — CDN $665,725 — N.AM $6,470,000 — 10.3%Flightplan — CDN $7,381,287 — N.AM $77,282,000 — 9.6%Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit — CDN $4,130,054... Read more

One of my favorite films at the Vancouver festival this year was The Devil’s Miner. Today I learned it will be returning November 5 as part of the local Amnesty International Film Festival; indeed, the photo that graces the online movie schedule is taken from this film. So, in case you missed it, here’s another opportunity. Read more

Click here for a better look at Aslan, the White Witch, the mythological creatures, the battle scenes, and so on. It’s kind of weird hearing Liam Neeson’s voice come out of the lion, and Tilda Swinton’s interpretation of the witch isn’t quite what I imagined, and the children approach the wardrobe with a bit too much deliberation, but I imagine I could get used to all that. I also can’t shake this weird feeling that the snow-covered forest looks a... Read more

A friend referred me to this post at Todd Rhoades’ ‘Monday Morning Insight’ blog, concerning a story headlined ‘Film Producer Defends Gay Actor Choice’ in the October 17 issue of Christian Retailing. The film in question is End of the Spear, and it is about five American missionaries who were martyred in Ecuador — a story made famous by the popular book Through Gates of Splendor, written by Elizabeth Elliot, widow of Jim. (FWIW, I have never read the book... Read more