Our pal Christopher Campbell has put together a pretty cool top ten list over at Spout Blog. Inspired by the frenzy surrounding Paramore, who has been fortunate enough to land two songs on the Twilight soundtrack, he's put together a list of one hit wonders made by the movies. As memorable (and impossible to eradicate from easy listening stations) as Lookin' For Love, King of Wishful Thinking, and Stay (I Missed You) are, they're really just that one song from that one movie -- you know the one ... yeah, that movie! (By the way, the above three are from Urban Cowboy, Pretty Woman, and Reality Bites, respectively.)
The best thing about these lists is the debate they inspire. I disagree that Chris Isaak's Wicked Game fits the mold, as I think it's associated less with Wild at Heart than with a sandy and sexy Helena Christensen. In coming up with nominations of our own, Scott Weinberg and I immediately disagreed on whether Peter Cetera and Glory of Love from Karate Kid II qualified, or if Cetera being in Chicago was an automatic pass. (I say no, Scott says yes.) But we did manage to nominate Better Than Ezra's Circle of Friends from Empire Records, Gerard McMann's Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys, andChris DeBurgh's Lady in Red from Working Girl. Campbell, with his vast knowledge, could veto all three. What about you, readers? Give us some of your nominations, debate the popularity of Chris Isaak, or at least help us decide whether Glory of Love qualifies.
For those of you who spend a great deal of time roaming the halls of indie hipster-ville, you may have noticed that the brief window of empty space prior to awards nominations has been filled with a whole bunch of Prop 8 speech. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, since it's an important issue in this country and the very influential "indie community" can help provide a large voice of support against Prop 8. If that's your thing. However, now that awards season is beginning to heat up, Prop 8. is being replaced by "So who got which screener today?", and it's slowly becoming "that thing we got really upset about in November."
Hold on! Funny or Die has come to the rescue with this very funny video called Prop 8 - The Musical, featuring all sorts of comedic talent like Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Craig Robinson, Neil Patrick Harris (who's absolutely hilarious), and many more. Watch as this ensemble cast sings and dances their way through the issue at hand, and maybe you'll learn a bit more about what's at stake here. Enjoy.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, we have some very good news for you Kristen Stewart fans out there. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Stewart has signed to play rocker Joan Jett in a new flick called The Runaways. The film will follow Jett and bandmate Cherie Currie from their "meteoric rise as teenagers to their dissolution and disillusionment." The Runaways, of course, was the name of the very successful and influential all-girl band from the '70s, which included Jett, Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox. They lasted about four years together before Jett went off and continued to rock out with the Blackhearts in the '80s (I Love Rock N' Roll, anyone?), and still continues to do her thing till this day (I actually saw her open for another band a couple years ago at Madison Square Garden).
Not only will this flick include a nice refreshing story about female rockers (for once), as well as some great music, but it will also give us a chance to see Stewart really let her hair down. My one criticism of Stewart over the past couple years is that she's, well, a little boring to watch on screen -- always playing the confused, distant and awkward teen. I've been dying to see her break rock out of her shell and get down with her bad self. Really looking forward to this one. The Runaways is looking to begin production early next year and will work around Stewart's commitment to star in the Twilight sequel, New Moon, (phew!) which will also begin shooting in early 2009.
In October, Eric D. Snider shared the wildly strange and awesome news that Steven Soderbergh was following uber-long biopics with a rock-singing Cleopatra in three dimensions. Soderbergh had set his sights on two unsurprising leads -- Catherine Zeta Jones and Hugh Jackman (Marc Antony). But that left one major hole to fill -- the sandals of Caesar himself.
According to MTV, that honor will be given to Ray motherfrakking Winstone. The thought of him playing the iconic figure in a rock opera -- it just sounds too good to be true. Anyhow, the filmmaker went on to say that this will be a period piece shot on backlots, and explained his motivations. It seems he was itching to do a rock 'n' roll musical like Tommy, but didn't like the options coming his way so he started researching. Musicals led him to female-driven plots, which led him to female protagonists and figures, and then Cleopatra. Jackpot!
It all sounds wonderful to me, although part of me sort of wishes that he'd hook up with Julie Taymor for this (can you imagine the visuals if he did?!). Best of all -- we shouldn't have to wait an eternity since Soderbergh plans to begin shooting Cleo this April. Are you ready to see Catherine, Hugh, and Ray don retro-wear and sing in 3D?
Back in October, we heard about the large cast of unknowns that were assembling for the remake of Fame. Now we've got word of the instructors, and I'm happy to say -- Debbie Allen leads the pack!
Variety reports that Allen, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, and Bebe Neuwirth have signed on for "the roles of instructors and supervisors" in the upcoming remake. Don't worry -- Frasier won't be in tights, but sadly, Allen isn't either. Instead of teaching the kids to dance, Allen will be the school's principal (which makes sense), while Dutton plays an acting teacher, Grammer plays an orchestra maestro, Mullally plays a voice instructor, and Neuwirth plays a dance instructor.
Damn, these kids are lucky -- you can't much better than that for your intructors. But perhaps more importantly -- this means a reunion for Lilith and Frasier! Bebe played Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane in Cheers, and popped up as the ex in a handful of Frasier episodes. Will the dance instructor canoodle the maestro once again?
Remember that Hairspray sequel that William Goss mentioned back in July? Adam Shankman had signed on to direct the sequel, and the master of the perverse (and creator of the original), John Waters, was going to whip up a story to send out to writers. Looks like things are on schedule -- according to EW, Waters has finished scheming up the sequel, and they're now hunting for a writer.
Basically, Waters has handed over "an outline and some ideas" for the film that will ultimately become the next instalment of Tracy Turnblad as she heads for the "next era of music," the '60s. "That period was superpolitical, it was a time of serious change. We're trying to track, in a comedic way, the historical elements" says Shankman. This will include the British Invasion, which consumes Link (played by Zac Efron in the remake).
On the plus side: Waters schemed up the outline. On the negative side: Waters isn't writing the meat of the script. Will a Waters outline be enough? I'm not so sure.
A few years ago, I wrote a Cinematical Seven on my favorite dysfunctional families in films. Everyone has a crazy messed-up movie family they love, whether it's the Hoovers in Little Miss Sunshine or the Bullocks in My Man Godfrey or the Corleones in the Godfather saga. I thought that this year, it would be fun to make a list of families that got along, worked together, and supported one another. You know, happy families ... but not dull, one-dimensional bundles of endless cheer.
It's a lot more difficult to find seven movies with happy-but-not-sappy families than it is to find the screwed-up kind, especially if you are looking for something more interesting than the Cleavers. Since I'm visiting my relatives for the Thanksgiving holidays, I asked them for suggestions. They were all very helpful, and I'm sorry I couldn't include all the suggestions, which ranged from The Thin Man to The Sound of Music to The Hills Have Eyes. Let me know what else we missed in the comments.
It really was about time that Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace received his own biopic. Unfortunately, judging by what I've seen so far, Notorious has been flirting with being one step up from a movie of the week -- and for someone so influential in music history, that's a shame. The latest poster for the biopic has just been released, and like most of the marketing for this film, it leaves you feeling a tad underwhelmed.
Before being crowned "the savior of East Coast hip-hop", Christopher Wallace could have been just another statistic. But, during his short career, he created some of the most influential sounds in hip-hop -- along with launching his producer, Sean 'Diddy' Combs into the spotlight. Notorious was directed by George Tillman Jr. (Barber Shop) and stars Jamal Woolard as Wallace, Angela Basset as his mother, Violetta, and Antonique Smith (RENT) as his ex-wife, Faith Evans.
A few posters have already been released, but in most cases they looked like rejected covers from Source magazine (if you don't believe me, take a gander at some of the previous one-sheets). By the looks of it, this latest poster is going for a decidedly more 'dignified' look -- and in this case, dignified seems to mean ripping off of the Rayposter. Luckily, no matter what the posters or the trailers may look like, at least this movie is going to have one hell of a soundtrack. Check out the full version of this poster after the jump.
Notorious arrives in theaters on January 16, 2009.
Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to Darren Lynn Bousman as he talked about the challenges he was facing in getting Lionsgate to properly release his Repo! The Genetic Opera. The studio had taken down rave after rave after a select screening several months before, and now the next night's Fantastic Fest screenings were as good a chance as any to prove the film's worth.
Well, I saw the film the following night amidst an impressive turn-out of die-hard fans, so while I may have already made my own thoughts clear, I cannot deny its growing (and all but inevitable) cult following, and it seems that neither can Lionsgate. Following a limited release and successful road tour, Bloody Disgusting reports that each will be expanded in the weeks to come to include the likes of Phoenix, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston.
As for everyone else, you can either keep your fingers crossed for a third tour (though Bousman and co-creator Terrance Zdunich may want to see their families for the holidays, who knows) or just wait for the DVD, which will apparently still hits stores in January.
Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston are going to prison, according to Just Jared -- admittedly not the most accurate source for film news. But considering that tabloids have obsessively documented the meetings, it's probably close to being a done deal.
Goree Girls is a 1940s musical to be produced by Aniston. MSN describes the plot as a semi-true story inspired by Skip Hollandsworth's article "O Sister Where Art Thou." It's actually a pretty cool story of the first female country-and-western musicians who just happened to be prison inmates. Hollandsworth's article is definitely worth reading for the whole story, which is a pretty heartbreaking one, despite the relatively happy ending.
And that's kind of my problem with the concept .I love the story, but ... Jennifer Aniston as an inmate? As a singing inmate? Already, it looks like this is getting the slick and shiny Hollywood treatment rather than something truthful. I want to see Walk the Line, not Chicago. The article convinces me there's a brilliant movie here, the MSN description initially just made wince and wonder where Gerard Butler's promise went.
By now, you're probably wondering what part Butler does play in a women's prison movie. From the article, I'm guessing he plays the "strapping Paul Mitchell," an inmate who narrowly escaped death row (literally -- he was strapped to the electric car when his pardon came in) and drove the Goree Girls to their shows. He eventually married one of them, so for once, the Hollywood love angle is actually part of the true story.
Now, Butler I can believe as a prison inmate (it's the hard knock school of Glasgow), but Aniston as his prison paramour stretches the realm of belivability. However, a lot of grit could be added by whoever lands the directing job and the rest of the cast. So, keep this one on your radar, and watch for it all to be made official.
As any hardcore Little Shop of Horrors fan can tell you -- and there are tons of us -- the 1986 cinematic version once had a much darker ending ... one that was much more in line with the dual source material of this musical and this Corman flick. But since this was 1986 and Frank Oz's movie had a lot of funny people in it ... a few test audiences deemed the finale too dark, and so we got a so-so ending tacked on to an otherwise excellent musical comedy.
When Warner Bros. first released Little Shop of Horrorson DVD, the original ending was included as part of the special features -- but that release was recalled right quick, which means that most of us actually own this particular DVD. But now, through the magic of YouTube + Cinematical, we can finally sit down and pick through the original ending of Little Shop. Obviously it's not "final print" material in any way, but you can definitely get enough to make you wish, oh I dunno, that someone would toss some money at the flick and let Frank Oz re-create a director's cut.
So if you own the "original" WB DVD, well goody for you. The rest of us can watch the fascinating footage right after the jump...
Fred Durst wasn't the first Du-singer to make it into the world of cinema. Back in the '90s, Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz produced two films, and now, a decade later, he's heading back to the biz. Variety reports that Duritz is going to produce a new film from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe called Freeloaders. Written by director Dan Rosen (with the lead singer of Gigolo Aunts, Dave Gibbs), the film focuses on "five guys and a girl who live in the lap of luxury in a rock star's mansion." That is, until the star decides that he wants to sell his home. Oh, the woes of groupie moochers. Broken Lizard (Super Troopers) is financing the film, and I imagine they're also starring in it -- that leaves us with the girl, and the rock star. Will Duritz take it? And speaking of '90s singers and film -- who's next? Mmm Mmm Mmming Brad Roberts?
Meanwhile: I knew it!! As soon as word hit earlier this year that Cheech and Chong were going back on the road, I wondered how long it would be before a reunion film. Well, we're not getting a fictional feature (not yet), but we are getting a concert documentary. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the Weinstein Co. will produce and distribute a doc based on their current Light up America tour. But don't hold your breath -- whether this makes it to the big screen depends on what the company thinks of the final product. Then they'll decide whether to release it in theaters or television.
Our previous reports on this troubled-but-provocative animated project can be found here and here, but the latest news comes by way of Twitch, who got it from one of the film's producers on this message board right here. The project is a new-fangled adaptation of Heavy Metal, the producer is Kevin Eastman, and the latest dish is this: Three directors have agreed to direct segments for the film: David Fincher, Zack Snyder, and Gore Verbinski. Woo! And Eastman promises more names to come!
Check out the Twitch report for a few more specifics, because I'm about to offer a very brief history lesson: The Heavy Metal franchise began with this widely-acclaimed publication before spawning movie versions like this one and this one. For more on Heavy Metal, I refer you to my pal Wiki-P.
But uh, I couldn't care less if this project goes back to Paramount or not. With directors like those ones already on board, you can consider my interest duly piqued no matter who bankrolls the thing. So if we're talking about dark sci-fi fantasy animation ... which other directors would you include? Del Toro, Jackson, and Nolan, obviously, but how about Danny Boyle, Brad Anderson, or Tim Burton? The possibilities are quite entertaining to consider -- especially when you consider that Heavy Metal will almost definitely be an R-rated affair.
What do Hellboy 2 (on DVD this week) and Milk (in theaters Nov. 26) have in common, aside from flamboyantly controversial main characters? Musical scores by Danny Elfman, that's what.
Like many people, I was first aware of Elfman as the frontman for Oingo Boingo, a band that had a few songs I liked and an abundance of songs that annoyed me -- may I never hear "Dead Man's Party" again as long as I live -- before I was awestruck by his score for Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Even if you haven't seen the film I bet you'd recognize the factory-like main theme, officially titled "Breakfast Machine," which starts at 1:15 in the YouTube clip embedded below. It's still my favorite piece of Elfman music, and it typifies his work: whimsical, rhythmic, slightly dark, and heavy on the mechanical noises.
It was Elfman's first orchestral score for a film (he and Oingo Boingo had made something called Forbidden Zone five years earlier), and the beginning of a partnership with Pee-wee director Tim Burton that lasts to this day. Many of Elfman's scores, for Burton and for other directors, have been for films that readily lent themselves to his Halloweenish sensibilities -- comic book/sci-fi/superhero capers like Dick Tracy, Batman, Men in Black, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks!, Spy Kids, and Spider-Man. And let it not be forgotten what Burton's [correction: Elfman's] most famous composition is: the theme from The Simpsons, surely one of the most recognizable TV songs in the world.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is tailor-made to attract a fan following in coming years. To an extent, this stage-inspired future-set goth-rock horror musical already has, and its limited release – not to mention a concurrent road-show tour – is fitting for a film unique enough to never worry itself (nor its studio) with a screen count in the triple digits. This is a cult classic in waiting for Hot Topic teens who still believe that Tim Burton directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and won't know who Joan Jett is when she makes an appearance; the emphasis here falls heavily on 'cult' and not so much 'classic'.
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In October, 
Back 
Remember that Hairspray sequel that William Goss mentioned back 
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It really was about time that Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace received his own 
Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to 
Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston are going to prison, according to 
Fred Durst wasn't the first Du-singer to make it into the world of cinema. Back in the '90s, Counting Crows singer 
Our previous reports on this troubled-but-provocative animated project can be found 
What do Hellboy 2 (on DVD this week) and Milk (in theaters Nov. 26) have in common, aside from flamboyantly controversial main characters? Musical scores by 
