Month: January 2005

Kinsey on Lincoln.

Schindler, Rob Roy, Darkman, Qui-Gon, Kinsey…why not Honest Abe? Liam Neeson is apparently in talks to play Lincoln in a Spielberg-directed biopic, to be based on Doris Kearns Goodwin‘s forthcoming book, The Uniter. Ok, that’s not bad…but hopefully this project turns out better than Amistad.

Also in loosely related Lincoln-by-way-of-Kinsey news, Salon‘s Andrew O’Hehir casts a troubled eye at C.A. Tripp’s Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. As he ably points out (as does George Chauncey in the excellent Gay New York), “the difficulty with assessing Lincoln’s private life (or that of anyone else who lived before the 20th century) is that the nature of private life has changed dramatically from his time to ours, and the distance between us distorts the view…Whether [Lincoln and Joshua Speed’s, with whom Lincoln shared a bed] relationship had a sexual component or not, it belongs to a vanished world of intimate male friendships of a kind almost unrecognizable to us.” In other words, sexual orientation is an historically dynamic idea. Homosociality does not necessarily imply homosexuality, and one cannot simply read 19th century sources and infer a 20th century mindset. You have to delve a little deeper. Update: Columbia’s David Greenberg also weighs in for Slate.

War without Mercy.

As reported by The Digital Bits, the upcoming hi-def format war began in earnest at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas: As the HD-DVD camp announced a slew of titles for 4Q 2005, Blu-Ray signed on more powerful allies, including EA and Vivendi Universal. It’s gonna get ugly soon, folks, ’cause one of these formats is going the way of Betamax and DivX. Right now, it seems Blu-Ray is probably the better product (66% higher capacity), but HD-DVD is closer to cornering the market. Either way, I doubt I’ll be buying all that many DVDs until the new format is chosen, Highlander-style.

Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes.

In anticipation of Hitchhiker’s, Disney and AICN have banded together to offer a spiffy and brutal Vogon office desk set — mug, stapler, and pen — to whomever composes a lousy poem worthy of the Vogons (or, for that matter, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Beehive Court, Redbridge.) The contest notwithstanding, the idea that all Vogon construction is based on the square is exactly the type of clever design flourish that gives me hope for this film. Update: Even more Hitchhiker’s news: ComingSoon talks with Hammer & Tongs (a.k.a. the producer and director) about the movie’s progress.

Angel in America.

“A few years ago I started down this path of creating this 3D camera system and once I started working in that, I couldn’t imagine myself going back and shooting with the camera that I used before. It just seemed like going back from a car to a bicycle, and I don’t want to ride a bicycle again, so the question is, at what point can I use the kind of imaging that we’re able to do now for a feature film?” From the Rebel Billionaire to the King of the World, James Cameron (fresh off Aliens of the Deep), talks up 3D cinema and his next project, a live-action Battle Angel Alita.

A Doctor in the House.

After weeks of speculation, Howard Dean officially throws his hat in for DNC Chair. Given how he energized the party in late 2003, I think he’d be a first-rate choice for the post. And, if nothing else, his candidacy should augur the type of intra-party soulsearching we failed to do after Gore‘s loss in 2000, and provoke fear in the hearts of the GOP-lite DLC types who push us down the road to protective camouflage every election year. But, a word of warning, Dr. Dean…this is one sick patient you’re taking on.

X3, III, & 3 Pulls.

Lots of fanboy trilogy news at ComingSoon today…Famke Janssen talks about the likelihood of Dark Phoenix in X3, word of a likely Episode III cameo breaks, and New Line announces it’ll shoot Books 2 and 3 of His Dark Materials back-to-back should the first one prove a hit. “New Line says the ‘Materials’ trilogy would soar far beyond the $350 million the studio spent on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.” It’s good to see New Line continuing to make big gambles on fantasy adaptations, but still…it sounds a bit like the guy who doubles his money on black in Vegas, then goes ahead and throws it all back on the table. Ah well, our gain, I suppose.

Forming the Lines.

Well, for what it’s worth, at least the Washington Post thinks we Dems are ready for a fight come Dubya’s second term. Along those lines, former senior Clinton advisor Rahm Emanuel is named to head the DCCC (a.k.a. the Dem 2006 campaign.) From personal experience, I can say Emanuel is the type of fellow who takes no guff…and he’s likely an excellent choice for this post.

MI:3? That’s Management-Rot.

Take that, Tim. You may well be Arthur Dent, but Ricky Gervais, The Office‘s co-creator and smarmy boss David, has been promoted to the cast of MI:3. No word on whether Finchy will come along for the ride. (As this post suggests, I’ve spent a goodly portion of the past two weeks catching up on both The Office and Freaks & Geeks…good stuff, that.)