{"id":2677,"date":"2005-07-29T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-29T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/07\/newsbites-rwanda-penguins-batman-etc\/"},"modified":"2005-07-29T12:37:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-29T12:37:00","slug":"newsbites-rwanda-penguins-batman-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/07\/newsbites-rwanda-penguins-batman-etc.html","title":{"rendered":"Newsbites: Rwanda! Penguins! Batman! etc."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Time for another news round-up.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Yesterday\u2019s National Post<\/a><\/i> has an item on Un dimanche \u00e0 Kigali<\/a><\/i>, a Canadian film currently in production that is based on a book by Gil Courtemanche about the Rwanda massacre. Could make an interesting double-bill with Hotel Rwanda<\/a><\/i> (my review<\/a>).<\/p>\n

2. Reuters<\/a> reports that March of the Penguins<\/a><\/i>, with over $12 million in the till already, is well on its way to becoming the 2nd-highest-grossing documentary<\/a> of all time in North America. The highest is Michael Moore\u2019s Fahrenheit 9\/11<\/a><\/i> (my review<\/a>), which grossed a phenomenal $119.2 million last year.<\/p>\n

3. Batman Begins<\/a><\/i> was supposed to help us forget the films of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, but nooooo, the Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> says the studio is seizing the opportunity to release brand-new 2-disc versions of all four films on DVD.<\/p>\n

4. Remember how McDonald\u2019s wanted to play the field<\/a> once its exclusive 10-year contract with Disney expired next year? The Associated Press<\/a> reports that they have signed a deal with DreamWorks to promote Shrek 3<\/a><\/i> in 2007.<\/p>\n

The agreement will include promoting DreamWorks films with toys in Happy Meals. But it will go beyond typical marketing efforts to include pairing pitchman Ronald McDonald with Shrek and other DreamWorks characters in ads.<\/p>\n

It will be the first time McDonald\u2019s iconic \u201cchief happiness officer\u201d has shared the spotlight with non-McDonald\u2019s characters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds hideous. Expect to hear Mike Myers say or do something that will stress the Scottishness of Ronald McDonald\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

5. Reuters<\/a> has an interesting piece on Jim Jarmusch and his new film, Broken Flowers<\/a><\/i>, which opens next week:<\/p>\n

Jarmusch dislikes his main character, which he created expressly for Murray. He abhors retrospection yet has his protagonist confront his past four times over and sheds his \u2018guy film\u2019 image by using an array of actresses including Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton and Frances Conroy.<\/p>\n

In \u201cBroken Flowers,\u201d devout bachelor Don Johnston has been dumped by his latest lover and resigns himself to being alone. But an ex-lover\u2019s anonymous letter telling him he fathered a son 19 years earlier moves Johnston to confront his past.<\/p>\n

Goaded into action by his Ethiopian neighbor, played by Jeffrey Wright, Johnston seeks out his former lovers, getting a glimpse of his past and a taste of what might have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t identify at all with Don Johnston at the beginning. I don\u2019t even like him. That\u2019s very unusual for me. In all my films, no matter how damaged or socially inept characters may be, I really feel for them. I love them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t love Don Johnston. I don\u2019t care about some rich guy that made money off computers, had pretty girlfriends and doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So topsy-turvy was the experience that Jarmusch did the editing process in reverse \u2014 starting from the last scene and working backwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel for him in the beginning, but I want to feel for him in the end,\u201d Jarmusch said about his protagonist. \u201cIt was six weeks of editing before we started looking at the film\u2019s beginning.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

6. This week\u2019s Georgia Straight<\/a><\/i> pursues the religion angle in its coverage of the upcoming Dukes of Hazzard<\/a><\/i> movie:<\/p>\n

The looniest arm of the U.S. Christian right appeared to be aligning itself with the Taliban recently when John Conner, a spokesperson for a conspiracy group calling itself the Resistance, said singer Jessica Simpson was a \u201cwhore\u201d. Conner made the comment after seeing a video for \u201cThese Boots Were Made for Walking\u201d, which Simpson sings during the end credits of her film debut, The Dukes of Hazzard<\/i>. . . .<\/p>\n

This is the same Jessica Simpson whose father is a pastor and who announced, prior to her 2002 marriage to pop singer Nick Lachey, that she was a virgin despite having dated Lachey for almost five years. In an interview room of a New York hotel, she says the Christian right has been criticizing her since she was a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t even sign a gospel deal at 14 because some people thought I was too sexy,\u201d she says, \u201cso this is not new. What I have realized is that [name-calling] is not a very Christian thing to do, or to go to the press and say that about someone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This would be the same father who publicly said<\/a> Simpson owes her success partly to the fact that she\u2019s got big boobs? (His exact words: \u201cJessica never tries to be sexy. \u2026 She just is sexy. If you put her in a T-shirt or you put her in a bustier, she\u2019s sexy in both. She\u2019s got double D\u2019s! You can\u2019t cover those suckers up!\u201d The sermons at his church must have been something else.)<\/p>\n

FWIW, she goes on to say that she can ignore the tabloids because, as a preacher\u2019s kid, \u201cI had to deal with gossip and rumours and mean girls at a very young age. That prepared me for now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time for another news round-up. 1. Yesterday\u2019s National Post has an item on Un dimanche \u00e0 Kigali, a Canadian film currently in production that is based on a book by Gil Courtemanche about the Rwanda massacre. Could make an interesting double-bill with Hotel Rwanda (my review). 2. Reuters reports that March of the Penguins, with […]<\/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-2677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsbites: Rwanda! Penguins! Batman! etc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Time for another news round-up.1. 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