This won't end well...

Scene from this weekend's (tonight's?) MTV Video Music Awards, which I was actually unaware they were still holding (do they still do the Movie Awards, too?):

(I should preface this by mentioning that, while I'm aware of Kanye West by reputation, I don't think I could name you a song either of these people sing with a GUN to my head and I have no idea what a Taylor Swift is. Wait... Kanye did that one awful song that sampled "Diamonds Are Forever," yes?)


SO... I was going to ask what the over-under is on how long it'll take for this to be made into a "racial" thing, but, that's kind of a foregone conclusion, yes? Teeny lil' blonde white country(?) singer accepts award, hyper-aggressive black musician jumps onstage, grabs mic, declares that award should have instead gone to black female competition... this is pretty much all-but-written, right?

So, instead, two automatic followups: Which "outraged" media "commentator" will be the first to step waaaaay over the line (don't everybody guess Glenn Beck all at once...)? And secondly, which sage-voice-of-reason black-community/music-industry leader will be enlisted to yank Kanye's ass out of the fire? Russell Simmons? Puffy? Jay-Z (who's already involved since Beyonce is his wife)? Or will it be serious enough to go all the way up to Sharpton and/or Jackson? Ooh! Just thought of a third one: Y'think one of the "youth outlet" reporters will try and make a name for himself by asking President Obama what he thinks?

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Escape to the Movies: "9"

Ah, well...


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/924-9

Incidentally, one of the "non-Anime-mature-animated-films" briefly referenced in there was Rene Laloux's "Fantastic Planet." Today regarded as a classic of both the scifi and animation genres, it shares in common with other appreciated-in-the-US-later foriegn masterworks like some of the early Bergman pieces having been first brought before American eyes by prolific director/producer Roger Corman. Though most of his catalogue (especially the films he ALSO directed) are justly regarded as below-average B-movie schlock, the guy is probably the ultimate legend of American independent filmmaking; with an eye for young talent that launched the careers of Francis Ford Coppola, Brian DePalma, Johnathan Demme, James Cameron, Jack Nicholson and literally HUNDREDS of others. For these and other contributions, he will be recieving an honorary Academy Award this year. The director of "It Conquered The World" and "Teenage Caveman" holding an Oscar, THAT is a photo I want to see. Awesome.

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True Grit countdown begins

According to "Variety," the Coen Bros. are looking to make a second film based on Charles Portis' western novel "True Grit" - it was filmmed once before in 1969 with John Wayne in the lead as one-eyed marshall Rooster Cogburn; the role for which he finally won an Academy Award. The Coen's supposedly want their "Big Lebowski" star Jeff Bridges to play Cogburn.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118008446.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Well, that's... interesting.

Today, the original "Grit" is mainly remembered for Wayne's Oscar win to the exclusion of anything else - it's a competent "transitional" Western mostly overshadowed by it's similarity to other, better films in the genre (most of them also starring Wayne.) But, of course, the concept of a remake will lead to a major rush to defend or at least reappraise it. For my part, allow me to add my "me too!" to the nigh-unanimous web response of "odd, but I trust the Coens."

Thing is, this stuff is wholly predictable, so I thought I'd start a little informal "countdown" of how long it takes the following things to happen:

1.) Statement from someone on the production on the lines that this "isn't a remake of the earlier film, but rather a closer approximation of the original book."

2.) Snarky "where are we now?" article about the 'decline' of movie heroes from "The Duke" to "The Dude."

3.) Conservative weblog having a pre-emptive COW over the notion of anyone remaking a John Wayne movie and wondering how "Hollywood Liberals" will "use it to trash Wayne's legacy."

tick tick tick tick...

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New "OverThinker" at ScrewAttack

FYI, my other little venture "Game OverThinker" has it's newest episode up on ScrewAttack. Check it out here, if you like:

http://www.screwattack.com/TGO/WhoWillBeRemembered

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Escape to the Movies: "Gamer"

SPOILER: It's not good.

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Disney owns Marvel

Oh, go google it if you want a hard link, it's been reported fucking everywhere already. This is what happens when news breaks while I'm at work...

Anyway, title says it all. The Disney Corporation owns Marvel; as in Marvel Comics, Marvel Films, etc. Which overall means that instead of Marvel producing it's own films starring 3rd and 4th tier properties while it waits for Spider-Man, The X-Men and The Fantastic Four's prior contracts with other studios to expire; Disney will be doing that instead.

No need to worry - yet - about editorial issues in the books; comic book publishers make so little money in and of themselves as to not even EXIST for the companies that own them. DC Comics just KILLED Bruce Wayne, made Dick Grayson the new Batman, yanked Damian Wayne (Batman's son, Ra's Al Ghul's grandson, loooong story) out of continuity-limbo to be the new Robin, and has Bruce set up to "return" as one of the "zombie" Black Lanterns. Think Warners cares how that might reflect on their all-important "Batman" movie franchise? Hell no! They know that at this point only dedicated longtime fans are reading DC Comics right now, and they're all gonna see the movies anyway. As far as the media companies who own comic publishers are concerned, all that "wing" of the company does is hold onto licensed properties until they need to make movies out of them.

Don't expect to see Marvel rides/characters at Disney World just yet - those rights are probably still under contract to Universal Studios. But you can bet there's a legal team who's job it is to wriggle out of that ASAP. I look forward to the day I can have my picture taken with Moon Knight in front of The Jungle Cruise.

The big, super-awesome-mega-happy-good film geek angle on this is, of course, that about 98% of the Marvel Universe is now either under the direct control or at least in grasping-distance of John Lassetter and the boys from Pixar (who along with Steve Jobs are effectively running Disney right now.) Show of hands of anyone who thinks there's ANY Marvel property that would not be done either best or better-than-before by Team Pixar? Didn't think so.

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Escape to the Movies: "Halloween II"

It's ALMOST worth it just for the goofiest celebrity-cameo of the year and a well-deserved swipe taken at some tragically-memorable dialogue from "Halloween: Ressurection."

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