Time to play a little catch-up; some of these items are getting old.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/a> Cameras have started rolling on The Vintner\u2019s Luck<\/a><\/i>, the film that re-teams Whale Rider<\/i> (2002) director Niki Caro with her leading lady, Keisha Castle-Hughes<\/a>. As I mentioned here nine months ago, the new film is based on a book about a decades-long relationship between a winemaking peasant in 19th-century France and an unconventional angel named Xas. Jeremie Renier is playing the winemaker, and Castle-Hughes his wife; as she puts it, \u201cIt is my first adult role and I was initially quite nervous.\u201d No word yet on who is playing the angel. \u2014 Dominion Post<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 2.<\/a> Speaking of angels, Paul \u201calbino monk<\/a>\u201d Bettany is set to play the archangel Michael in a film called Legion<\/a><\/i>, which \u201cfollows what happens when God loses faith in humanity and sends his legion of angels to wipe out the human race for the second time. Mankind\u2019s only hope lies in a group of misfits holed up in a diner in the desert who are aided by the archangel Michael (Bettany).\u201d One curious detail about this film is the way the \u201clegion\u201d of angels is associated with God, whereas the best-known use of that word in the Bible refers to a man who was possessed by a \u201clegion of demons<\/a>\u201c. Then again, there is yet another passage, in which Jesus says his Father has \u201cmore than twelve legions of angels<\/a>\u201d at his disposal. So who knows, if God is sending only one<\/i> legion to wipe out humanity in this film, it may be that his heart isn\u2019t really in it. \u2014 Variety<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 3.<\/a> Peter Greenaway<\/a>, a painter turned filmmaker who specializes in nudity, cannibalistic themes and the like, \u201cis planning to use dramatic lighting, projections and recordings of actors\u2019 voices to transform [Leonardo Da Vinci\u2019s The Last Supper<\/i>] into something close to a film. Instead of capturing just one moment, as Da Vinci did, Greenaway will turn the Last Supper into a narrative that stretches from Christ\u2019s birth to his crucifixion with voice given to the thoughts of each disciple as they work out which of them will betray him. . . . He plans to project on to the refectory walls \u2018raw and heavy\u2019 images of Christ\u2019s genitalia and naked crucifixion, taken from Da Vinci\u2019s other works. . . . Because of the painting\u2019s fragility, only 25 people will be able to watch at a time, but it will be relayed to thousands more.\u201d Greenaway is nothing if not a provocateur, and I don\u2019t necessarily trust him to make the wisest use of this material, but I have to say I welcome any opportunity to look into the ways in which Renaissance artists tackled the humanity and thus the sexuality of Christ; for an excellent primer on the subject, see Leo Steinberg\u2019s The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion<\/a><\/i>, a few bits of which I excerpted here<\/a>. \u2014 Guardian<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 4.<\/a> Australian actor Sam Worthington has signed on to play Marcus, who may or may not be the main character in the next round of Terminator<\/a><\/i> movies. And apparently he was recommended to the filmmakers by none other than James Cameron himself, who recently directed Worthington in his much-anticipated 3-D sci-fi movie Avatar<\/a><\/i>. \u2014 Variety<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 5.<\/a> Svend White is Muslim, and he has just seen the Left Behind<\/a><\/i> (2000-2005) movies for the first time ever. Needless to say, he doesn\u2019t like what he sees. \u2014 Religion Dispatches<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 6.<\/a> Persepolis<\/i>, the Oscar-nominated cartoon that is critical of the 1979 Iranian revolution, and which was condemned by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as \u201cIslamophobic\u201d and \u201canti-Iranian\u201d, has now been shown in Tehran \u2014 with the permission of the cultural authorities. \u2014 Variety<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 7.<\/a> Omar Sharif<\/a>, who was threatened by some of his fellow Muslims not too long ago for playing the Christian apostle Peter<\/a>, is now co-starring with his fellow Egyptian Adel Imam in a movie called Hassan and Morcoss<\/i>, which \u201cpokes fun at religious bigotry. . . . The story revolves around a Christian priest (Imam) and Muslim preacher (Sharif) who survive separate assassination attempts. Now on the run, the two men \u2014 who don\u2019t know each other \u2014 take refuge in a safe house in a downtown Cairo neighborhood and assume different identities, with Imam\u2019s character pretending to be a Muslim and Sharif a Christian.\u201d \u2014 Variety<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 8.<\/a> A recent feature on the Pixar studio includes this fascinating anecdote: \u201cOne downside is a problem most computer users suffer \u2013 hardware and software that\u2019s out of date all too soon. \u2018To resurrect the Toy Story characters for the third Toy Story<\/a> [due in 2010] we had to find an old machine somebody still had,\u2019 Walsh says. \u2018It was being used as a coffee table. If they hadn\u2019t saved it, we\u2019d have lost the original Buzz and Woody animations.'\u201d \u2014 Independent<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 9.<\/a> Now that each of the Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/i> (2001-2003) films has its own four-disc<\/a> soundtrack<\/a> album<\/a>, every fan\u2019s music collection oughtta be complete, right? Not so fast, says Howard Shore: \u201cThe \u2018complete recordings<\/a>\u2019 are just that. The complete score to the extended cut of the film. Of course, that is everything that was in the film. There are still earlier pieces that were recorded before the final version. These rarities will be part of Doug Adams\u2019 forthcoming book about the RINGS scores.\u201d \u2014 iF Magazine<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 10.<\/a> The fallout from the box-office failure of Evan Almighty<\/a><\/i> continues, as Universal Studios and longtime collaborator Tom Shadyac<\/a> part ways. For the past several years, Shadyac had been operating out of \u201ca big building on the lot\u201d, but his most recent directorial effort went way over-budget and reportedly led to some pretty heated clashes between Shadyac and the studio bigwigs. \u2014 Variety<\/a>, Deadline Hollywood Daily<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n 11.<\/a> Mark Waters is still talking about re-making The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/a><\/i> (1947) with Mike Myers<\/a>. Past actors attached to the project have included Jim Carrey and Owen Wilson. \u2014 MTV Movies Blog<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time to play a little catch-up; some of these items are getting old. 1. Cameras have started rolling on The Vintner\u2019s Luck, the film that re-teams Whale Rider (2002) director Niki Caro with her leading lady, Keisha Castle-Hughes. As I mentioned here nine months ago, the new film is based on a book about a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n