Two recent items that caught my eye. 1. Mark Steyn has just posted his review of Spamalot, the Broadway musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and he doesn’t care for it, exactly. Interesting reading. 2. One thing I didn’t mention in my previous post on the film version of The Da Vinci Code is that Lincoln Cathedral is apparently being used as a stand-in for Westminster Abbey. Now Reuters reports that the Abbey explicitly refused to allow... Read more

Words cannot begin to describe how happy I am for my friend and colleague Jeffrey Overstreet, who just announced at his blog that Random House has offered him a two-book deal. I’m not sure where or when I first made contact with Jeff, but I believe it was primarily through a couple of now-defunct e-mail discussion lists devoted to Sam Phillips and Steve Taylor in the mid-1990s. The first time I met him in person was when I drove down... Read more

Last month, I mentioned that my film reviews for BC Christian News had placed fourth in the Evangelical Press Association award for ‘Standing Column’. Along the way, I mentioned a handful of other third-place and honourable-mention awards that I’ve received over the past several years, and I quipped that it felt a little like being “always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” Today, I became a bride, albeit at a double-wedding. I went to an editorial meeting at BCCN this morning... Read more

Caught two films today, and liked ’em both, for different reasons. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, of course, has nothing to do with the 1940s screwball comedy of that name directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which I saw in film school years ago and now barely remember. Instead, it is the much ballyhooed homewrecker of a film that allegedly brought Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together and thus tore Pitt away from his wife and partner of six years; and, oh irony... 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. Kingdom of Heaven — CDN $5,375,632 — N.AM $44,474,000 — 12.1%The Interpreter — CDN $7,239,474 — N.AM $68,753,000 — 10.5%Unleashed — CDN $2,171,320 — N.AM $21,499,000 — 10.1%House of Wax — CDN $2,619,387 — N.AM $29,523,000 — 8.9%Kicking & Screaming — CDN $3,701,879 — N.AM $42,463,000 — 8.7%Crash — CDN... Read more

Two things. 1. Jeffrey Overstreet has some valid concerns about the reports coming in that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have finally approved a screenplay for a new Indiana Jones movie. The writer in question is Jeff Nathanson, whose prestigious credits include … um … Speed 2: Cruise Control … Rush Hour 2 … and The Terminal, which was almost as cartoony as the Indy sequels and was also one of Spielberg’s bigger recent flops. (And unlike other underperformers like... Read more

I am going to be interviewed on Winnipeg’s ‘Godtalk‘ radio show tomorrow night — this will be my second appearance, following one on April 24 — and the topic will be Revenge of the Sith, so of course I had to watch it a second time this afternoon. Voici my observations, questions, and other second impressions. 1. First, before I went, I checked yesterday’s box-office figures and discovered that, if the estimates are correct, the Adam Sandler remake of The... Read more

It’s been online for a few months now, I think, but I just found this hilarious commentary on the extended edition of The Return of the King that was supposedly recorded by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. (Not really, of course — it’s a parody.) This follows an earlier commentary by Zinn and Chomsky on The Fellowship of the Ring, which I remember reading some time ago; there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent for The Two Towers. Read more

Just a few recent items on some of the more dubious collusions between Christians and Hollywood. 1. Lincoln Cathedral will get a fair chunk of money for allowing the movie version of The Da Vinci Code to be filmed on its premises, report the Church Times and the Church of England Newspaper. But one church authority says they were motivated not by money but by the opportunity to proclaim the gospel, albeit through association with a basically anti-Christian story that... Read more

The other day I happened to rediscover this interview from three years ago with Gary Kurtz, who produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Among the interesting tidbits: IGNFF: From your personal experience, how would you compare the George you worked with on American Graffiti to the George you worked with towards the end of The Empire Strikes Back? KURTZ: It was quite different, actually. He was very different. I think the most unfortunate thing that happened was the... Read more