Out of Focus

Sir Peter Ustinov dead at 82!

I’m sure at some point within the next couple weeks TCM will air a tribute day, or at least an evening. I’m not sure what’s in their library, but if you want to have your own little Ustinov film festival, start with the films that gave him his two Best Supporting Actor Oscar wins: the flawed but fascinating Spartacus and the Jules Dassin heist-comedy Topkaki. Also of note is his portrayal of Nero in Quo Vadis? And don’t forget his multiple turns as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in films like Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. The movies themselves aren’t always the best, but he brings Poirot to life.

During my days lliving in Los Angeles, I worked for a couple years at a small, but very well-respected, talent agency. The agency represented a variety of talent, mostly character actors and a few big-names everyone knows, although not necessarily “A-list” stars. My old boss had been around the business a while, and back in the 70s and 80s, she was responsible for discovering lots of great talent. But in the mid-90s, during a period when it was virtually impossible to break new talent into big-time stardom if you weren’t one of (at the time) the big four agencies (CAA, ICM or William Morris, and the then still small but growing UTA). Because of the natures of packaging for TV and casting major motion picture leads before casting directors would even necessarily be involved in the full process, it just became that much harder for a small agency to find major lead roles for unknowns clients no matter how talented they were.

As I mentioned, my old boss had a great eye for finding talent, and during my time there, we had several clients who I knew were starts just waiting to happen. One example is Naomi Watts. She was a client who had it all: she was young, beautiful, incredibly talented and every time she would audition, we would hear great feedback. And from a personal perspective, she was one of the nicest, most genuine clients we had. But we just couldn’t get her in to producers and directors early enough in the process. Our big hope at one time aws when she got cast as the second lead in Tank Girl, an adaptation of a really popular underground comic book that starred Lori Petty, who at the time was still hot off her performances in A League of Their Own and Free Willy. Unfortunately, the movie sucked, and it definitely didn’t help Naomi’s career at all.

Naomi eventually changed her management team, including her agency representation, and we all know what has happened to her since, culminating in her very deserved Oscar nomination this year for 21 Grams. In all the years since I started working in in and around the film industry, I haven’t been as happy for anyone as I was (and continue to be) when Naomi finally started finding success and being the star that I always knew she was going to be.

I mention this now because I think it’s about to happen again. Another client (of the ingenue type) we represented during my time at this agency was Fay Masterson. Fay was another young, beautiful, very talented actress — also British but able to do a flawless American accent — who just wasn’t getting the chance to prove herself in big parts. You might recognize her from Mel Gibson’s directorial debut, The Man Without a Face. She also had a role in The Quick and the Dead (a pre-Spider-Man western from director Sam Raimi most notable to me for being the first time I saw Russell Crowe) and the great Stanley Kubrick cast her in Eyes Wide Shut. But in both cases, a lot of her performance wound up on the cutting room floor. Over the past several years, she’s appeared in several low-budget and indie films, but not really anything of note. She did appear as the villain in the two-hour movie of what was to be The WB’s attempt at creating a series of The Lone Ranger starring current One Tree Hill heartthrob Chad Michael Murray, but if I were her, I wouldn’t be using that on my reel.

She has a couple other small films finishing-up, but the reason I’m smiling for her today is that per The Hollywood Reporter, Fay will be joining the cast of ABC’s planned spin-off of The Practice starring James Spader.

I used to be a huge fan of David E. Kelley, especially of the late, great series Picket Fences. I enjoyed both Ally McBeal and Boston Public before they each became completely absurd, and in it’s first couple seasons, I regularly thought The Practice was one of the best shows on TV. But it lost me last season, and I stopped watching. I tried again at the beginning of this season, but the love was gone. I hear Spader has brought a fresh and interesting touch to the series, but it’s obvious by ABC’s decision to spin-off that character that they too had decided the series had run its course even if they could still run separately with the character.

ABC has a lot counting on this spin-off though, and chances are it will make it to the schedule and be supported. I hope that’s the case. And I’ll definitely give it a chance, if only because it’s long past the point in time when Fay Masterson should be a household name. Hopefully, this spin-off will be a catalyst to making that happen.

Congrats Fay!!!!

OK, so he’s not actually fat, or at least he wasn’t last time I saw his bushy mustache attacking my TV, but I took inspiration from Mr. Franken. And he most definitely is a putz.

If you don’t know who Medved is, you’ve probably seen him on TV once or twice. He’s a film critic who used to host a Siskel & Ebert style movie-review show with Jeffrey Lyons (currently the film critic for WNBC-TV here in New York). In fact, if I remember correctly, they started calling their show which aired on PBS At the Movies after Gene and Roger went into broad syndication, and then there was some big legal brouhaha about the titles which is why the duelling Chicagoans eventually became Siskel and Ebert AND the Movies. But I digress …

Continue reading “MICHAEL MEDVED IS A BIG FAT PUTZ”

I’m just going to say it now: If the next Batman film/prequel/whatever-you-want-to-call-it (and currently the title is Batman Begins) is not one of the best action films of all time, I’m going to be shocked. The old news is that Christopher Nolan of Memento fame will be directing. The script is being written by Nolan and David Goyer, who basically makes a living adapting dark-themed comic books/graphic novels for the screen as he’s done with the Blade films and the vastly underrated Dark City. And then after a long search, it was announced that Christian Bale would be playing Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Bale has been around forever, and you’ve probably seen him without if realizing who he is. He is a very talented, chameleon-like British actor who’s probably been seen more utilizing his flawless American accent. One of his first roles was as the main character — the little boy named Jim — in Stephen Spielberg’s first, and often forgotten, World War II drama, Empire of the Sun. He played the audience’s eyes into the world of 70s glam rock in Todd Haynes’ fantastic Velvet Goldmine, and he played the sociopathic serial killer in Mary Herron’s awful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ awful novel American Psycho. He’s even played Jesus once. Personally, I love this choice as the next man to dawn the cape and cowel. He’s going to hopefully bring a level a depth, brooding and darkness to this role that we have yet to see (although I blame that more on the director who ruined the franchise than anything else).

In recent weeks, the casting news has been coming down like wildfire, and each name (generally) has been a jaw-dropping addition of talent. Currently confirmed as participating in the film are Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine and Ken Watanabe. And then today, both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter report that Tom Wilkinson and Rutger Hauer have joined this stellar cast as well.

The one thing absolutely brilliant about this entire cast list is that it’s filled with actors! This is not a cast that has been assembled for its box office clout. There’s not one name in that list (with the potential exception of Freeman) that is considered a box office draw. Sure, there are several above-the-title names, but these are all people who have talent, have proven so time and again, and, I’m assuming, have been cast because Nolan believes they best fit their individual specific roles.

I’m not one to rush time these days … I’m already getting too damn old as it is, and mid-thirties is far closer than I would prefer. But every new bit of news about this film makes me look forward to summer 2005 more-and-more.

Tonight in New York is the beginning of the 2004 edition of MOMA’s and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual New Directors/New Films Festival. With MOMA’s main location in midtown still under reconstruction, for the second year in a row the screenings are being held at both Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and MOMA’s temporary screening space, the Gramercy Theater on E. 23rd. Frankly, this is a much better set-up anyway. The old Titus Theater on the lower level of the MOMA held far fewer seats and enabled the audience to enjoy the periodic sounds of the subway ker-klunking underneath, especially if you sat in the rear rows.

I consistently find ND/NF to be a bit of an enigma. The program is always filled with a wonderful variety of features and shorts by new (or newish) filmmakers from around the world. However, for a film series that is always limited in number and really much more of a showcase than a festival (much like its grander sibling, the New York Film Festival), I’m often amazed at how bad some of the films are. One would think that with two major cultural centers of cinema focused on programming one film series from such a broad selection, finding 22 (the number this year) exceptional movies wouldn’t be that difficult. Yet each year I’m surprised that I’ll see one or two films that I just hate. Vehemently. (Last year, I was not a particularly big fan of Angela or The Guys, the latter being a sentimental choice, I’m sure, since it deals with 9/11, but it was also a mess of an over-directed film).

Unfortunately, I don’t know that much about most of this year’s titles, nor do I think I will have the opportunity to see more than a few selections due to limitations to my schedule. However, I do look forward to Jim McKay’s latest slice-of-urban-life drama, Everyday People whcih opens the fest tonight. I’m also hoping to get to Sundance documentary Grand Jury prize winner DiG!, as well as international film festival favorite Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring from Korean director Kim Ki-duk.

One of my favorite films of last year was the beautiful Italian film Respiro, and I’m hoping that the Sardinian-set Three Step Dancing from first-time director Salvatore Mereu sounds like a similar atmospherical and textured look at life on an Italian island. I’m also interested in Vodka Lemon, The Story of Weeping Camel, Berlin Blues, Control Room, Le Monde Vivant, and The Middle of the World.

But don’t take my uninformed word for it. Stop by Lincoln Center or the Gramercy Theater and check-out some of the program for yourself.

I’m not sure what I make of this Hollywood Reporter story, but it seems that Frank Darabont has signed on to write the next installment of Mission: Impossible. Apparently, Tommy Boy must not have been too happy with the work being done by veteran scerenwriter Robert Towne, who not only wrote the first two films, but is also responsible for Cruise films The Firm and Days of Thunder. And of course, I’m not even mentioning his masterpiece, Chinatown or any of the other great work he did in the 70s and 80s.

Although he had been around a while as a writerDarabont was annointed the next great thing after he adapated and directed The Shawshank Redemption redemption 10 years ago, and while his next film The Green Mile was not quite as good and simply a bit too long, he continued to prove himself as a very talented filmmaker. But can he only adapt Stephen King? The Majestic was routinely panned. To be fair, though, he didn’t write that script, and he’s not directing M:I 3. That job has been given to Joe Carnahan who blew away Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner with Narc a couple years ago.

Still, I wonder what Darabont will bring to this that Towne wasn’t. I wouldn’t call Towne an action writer per se, and Darabont does have action experience from when he wrote episodes of the old Young Indiana Jones series and made–for–TV movies. Still, his recent work would lead me to believe that he’s more interested in dealing with more emotional and, dare I say, mystical subject matter than a pretty straight-forward action-adventure. On the other hand, the combination of Darabont and the very stylistic Carnahan could definitely give this third installment a much different feel than either of the previous two. I guess we’ll all see in just over a year.

In no particular order:

• While this certainly isn’t good news, aren’t a few too many people dying while seeing The Passion of the Christ? Maybe the film needs to carry a surgeon general’s warning. And you know, I meant to mention this in my dissertation-length post the other day, but why doesn’t this movie carry an NC-17 rating? Certainly it’s violent enough, and now it has caused multpile deaths, not to even mention its influence on the man who tried to crucify himself or the woman who wanted to baptise herself by driving her car into a lake. This movie is obviously detrimental to one’s health. And now, it’s even attacking men of the cloth!

• On a brighter front, I never watch Jeopardy! because it only increases my already deep and pervailing feelings of inadequacy, but this is a series of shows I may need to check -out when it airs in May. I’m putting my money on Franken and Russert to wipe the floor with Anderson Cooper and Ashleigh Banfield. And life will be pleasant indeed if Peggy Noonan just gets embarrassed. And speaking of Franken, don’t forget that his new radio show “The O’Franken Factor” premieres along with the Air America Radio Network a week from today.

• And finally, it looks like there may finally be a resolution to the debate on who should be entitled to the controversial “Film By …” tag often placed before the title of a movie in its opening credits. Since the credit generally goes to a film’s director, screenwriters have long complained about the validity of such a statement. Basically, you won’t see it as much on outdoor billboards and many first-time directors will not be allowed to use it, but as with anything, there are dozens of exceptions. I’ve always wished that there was some sort of shared credit unless the person receiving the “Film By” tag was the writer and director. For example, a director should often be able to call his/her film “A (your name here) film,” and if necessary a tag such as “By (so-and-so screenwriter)” could be added. Of course, this becomes difficult in a situation like Gangs of New York which would then read, “A Martin Scorsese film” and then “By Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan” or however the actual “and”s and “&”s need to work out. There is a degree of shared authorship between writer and dierctor on every film. Obviously, because of the absurd nature of writing credits, this could be a bit absurd, but then leave it up to the WGA to decide which credited writers deserve this additional designation. Maybe 7 writers are credited because of their contributions but only two get the “By”-line. THe problem otherwise is that it will always be too arbitrary. A Scorsese film should be called a Scorsese film. A Spike Jonze film should be called as such too. And these new rules don’t seem to exclude those possibilities, but it also doesn’t seem like it will solve the whole problem.

That’s a loaded headline, and this is actually old news by now since The Week is already several days old. I usually receive it on Saturday, but the lovely USPS didn’t deliver to me this week’s issue until yesterday, which is really upsetting because there are two priceless entries on page 4 under “Good week for:”

Tourism, as crowds flocked to a Dominican Republic hospital to catch a glimpse of a patient afflicted with an erection that lasted six days.

Living up to your reputation, when Jessica Simpson ws introduced to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and reportedly said, “You’ve done a nice job decorating the White House.”

I’m having trouble deciding which one of these qualifies for the Mastercard definition of priceless. Of course, the second one does prove that Jessica Simpson is still not worth much more than potentially giving some guy a six-day erection.

Movie audiences have suffered big screen adapatations of little-screen favorites for some time now. Some good, some bad, but most of the time at least the idea of these reimaginations make some sort of sense. The Brady Bunch, Charlie’s Angels and most recently Starsky & Hutch are examples of adaptations that, great or not, mostly worked. Some films like The Avengers, The Mod Squad and Dragnet, not so much. But word comes down today from Variety of the worst idea for a TV-to-movie treatment I’ve heard yet (subscription needed).

I know it’s been in development for years, but seriously, there is no good reason why they should make a film out of The Love Boat. The appeal of that show was those specific characters in that specific place and then the rotation of C-list (sometimes B-list) guest stars. The show was already a satire of itself, and in fact, I would venture to say UPN already proved that magic can’t strike twice when it launched The Love Boat: The Next Wave. Granted, that was a completely new crew, but even a Brady Bunch like reimagination of The Love Boat is so unappealing. I don’t want to see anyone else play Captain Stubing, Doc, Gopher, Isaac or Julie. The show was cheesy fun in its day, but it’s day is done.

According to Variety:

Producer David Permut has ramped up development of the project, aimed as a broadly comic reinvention of the hit TV series with the Bermuda Triangle as a destination. He’s seeking writers and planning a hip-hop version of the skein’s theme song, originally sung by Jack Jones (“Love, exciting and new…”).

“The Love Boat” is “unique among series in that it has worldwide recognition, having been broadcast in over 70 countries,” Permut said. “We have a unique and irreverent take that will turn this innocent show on its head.”

I’m not sure how you reinvent something in a broadly comic manner when it was that way the first time. And the Bermuda Triangle? Been there. Done that. SOOOO many times. First, I’ll just hope this project remains in development hell. Should it now, I’m putting money right now on a flop of Titanic proportions.

Actually, there’s one way I’ll want to see this movie. If it reunites Bennifer, then it might be a classic!

The battle royale brewing between two a top production company and the unions of a top-five metropolitan area seems to be cooling off, and thank goodness. Had the unions not come around to the wishes of said company, we may have been deprived of a potentially the greatest pop culture moment yet in the history of our young lives. I mean, how long have we waited to see a drunk 21 year old figure out how to have sex with a Cheesesteak? Cheez Whiz is an aphrodisiac, no?

Well have no fear. John Street, the mayor of Philadelphia himself seems to have determined that keeping production of MTV’s The Real World in his fair city is a priority. So much so that he apparently hosted closed-door meetings between Bunim/Murray Productions and the cities various unions on Friday and Monday. According to the AP story (via Yahoo!), “Dozens of 20- and 30-somethings held a protest of their own in front of the ‘Real World’ house last week, carrying signs reading ‘We Want Our MTV’ and ‘Show Philly to the Real World.'”

It’s lovely to see communities accept the show now that it has devolved into an even less-“Real” version of the “World” than it even was during it’s formative years when San Francisco’s Judd voiced the now immortal words, “In the real world, you pay rent!” Back in those early days, the location of the house was always a poorly-kept secret, but at least it was intended to be a secret. Additionally, it wasn’t that long ago when the picketers outside various Real World houses were looking to disrupt the production and get them to leave! Now I have nothing against Philadelphia, I’ve only been there a few times, and maybe they’re suffering some sort of inferiority complex over being the last of the top five US cities to host the show, especially since NYC has already had it twice, but is this really the way they want to “Show Philly to the Real World”? If it’s that important to them to prove that their underage drinking laws are as lenient as everywhere else in the country, more power to them!