In a move sure to enrage the Lucas/Spielberg empire, a chatty extra spills the goods on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, including who the Big Bads are and how Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen) will fit into the story. Oops.
Category: Directors
The power of their source? The crystal.
Indy IV gets a title: If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Well, better than Attack of the Clones, I suppose.
Old Man, Look at Your Life.
Sorry, Harvey: Javier Bardem’s sinister Anton Chigurh has stolen your signature move… Two new trailers for the Coens’ much-anticipated No Country for Old Men, based on the (solid) Cormac McCarthy novel and starring Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald, Garret Dillahunt, and Stephen Root, are now online at the official site.
Jokerman.
As you can see, Heath Ledger’s been busy. First off, new pics surface of Ledger and others as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, including more images of Cate Blanchett eerily channeling the Blonde on Blonde-era Bob. (See below and here for more.) And, apparently much to the consternation of the Time Warner powers-that-be, eighteen early and spoilerish stills from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight have leaked onto the Internets, including a few of Ledger’s Joker seeming to enjoy a police interrogation more than he probably should. Check ’em out before they disappear.
Bob, Woody, Dewey.
Speaking of I’m Not There, the Todd Hayne’s new Dylan biopic has a teaser out, where you can catch brief glimpses of all the varied permutations of Bob. (Blanchett, Bale, Ledger, Gere, Whishaw, et al.) And, also in the trailer bin, Woody Allen ventures back into Match Point territory with Ewan MacGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, and newcomer Hayley Atwell in the new (French-subtitled) preview for Cassandra’s Dream. And John C. Reilly brings to life one of Dylan’s formative influences in the parody-heavy trailer for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, brought to you by the Freaks & Geeks team of Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow and also starring Jenna Fischer, Kristen Wiig, and Tim Meadows (as well as Jack White as Elvis and Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Mac Guy, and Jason Schwartzman as John, Paul, George, and Ringo.)
The Chair recognizes the Senator from Gotham.
Waugh, waugh. Move over, Phillip Seymour Hoffman…Has Oswald Cobblepot been cast? (Nah, Cheney would work better.) Vermont Senator, Senate Judiciary Chairman, and Batman fan Patrick Leahy joins the cast of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. “Leahy is apparently a big comic book enthusiast, and actually served as an extra in the 1997 Batman installment: Batman and Robin.” (He also played himself on Batman: The Animated Series.) “The senator told the station he can’t reveal the exact details of his role in the upcoming movie, but he did say he has landed a scene with its two stars, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger.”
Three is Company.
“Notwithstanding our personal quarrels, I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way with The Hobbit.” Oh really? Bob Shaye of New Line tries to kiss and make up with Peter Jackson, most likely to secure his ok (and a producer cred) for a forthcoming Sam Raimi-directed Hobbit.”Raimi has previously said he would not take on the project without Jackson’s blessing and is apparently leaning towards it as his next project rather than the ‘Clash of the Titans’ remake.“
Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be.
“Jesus, Harvey, I thought you were dead!” News breaks of some actual honest-to-goodness Dark Knight footage previewed at Wizard World in Chicago over the weekend, and it sounds very fun (although, alas, it has yet to leak its way onto the Internets.) So it seems Aaron Eckhart’s Two-Face is very much a part of the next installment, although I’m hoping he doesn’t crowd out Heath Ledger’s Clown Prince of Crime, a la Sam Raimi’s overstuffed Spiderman 3. I’m guessing Dent will serve as a physical manifestation of the good (bat)-evil (clown) duality at the heart of the next film, but it’s the Joker, Batman’s one true arch-nemesis, I’m really paying to see.
Bourne Slippy.
If you see him, say hello, he might be in Tangier. Or Paris, Madrid, London, New York, Moscow…uh, sir, we have Jason Bourne popping up all over the grid here. Shall I put it on One? As you have likely heard, Paul Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum — which I caught last Friday — is a top-notch surveillance thriller that’s easily in keeping with the high standard of excellence put down by Doug Liman in Identity and particularly Greengrass himself in Supremacy. In fact, if there’s a downside to this smart, visceral action flick, which is as excellent as any one can hope for, it’s that it serves to remind us how amazing a Greengrass Watchmen might’ve been. After Bloody Sunday, United 93, and the Bournes, all films characterized by their in-your-face immediacy and gripping visual realism, the man seems incapable of making a bad movie. In any case, he brought the goods here — The Bourne Ultimatum doesn’t have much of a plot, but frankly it doesn’t need one. Like Yen in the suitcase, Jason Bourne is “the Modern Man, disconnected, frightened, paranoid for good reason.“…or at least the Modern Man as he’d aspire to be, if he could speak eight languages fluently, kick all kinds of ass with a library book, and always stay two steps ahead of the great Eye in the Sky.
As Ultimatum begins, we’re back in Moscow at the end of the last film: Bourne (Matt Damon) is on the run from Russian police (as a result of his bravura car chase with Karl Urban), he’s still walking with that limp (suffered from jumping off a bridge in…Amsterdam, was it?), and he’s still confused, amnesic, and obsessive about his origins as a lethal global assassin. So, when he begins experiencing flashbacks involving paunchy government bureaucrats — one of whom speaks with a well-known, recognizable croak — and an abusive interrogation involving hoods and waterboarding, Bourne, like a Frankenstein’s monster of the surveillance age, sets out anew on his mission to discover and confront his creators. (Uh, why doesn’t he just eliminate the middleman and head for Dick Cheney’s office?) In this quest for self-knowledge, Bourne is inadvertently aided by a crusading Guardian reporter (Paddy Considine, of In America and Hot Fuzz), who’s discovered that the super-secret government agency known as Treadstone may have been superseded by a new “sharp end of the stick,” Blackbriar. As you might imagine, this leak does not sit well with VIPs at Langley, so the CIA director (Scott Glenn, more craggy than ever) dispatches suits old (Joan Allen, returning as Pamela Landy) and new (David Strathairn, exuding intelligence in the Chris Cooper/Brian Cox role) to track down and eliminate the source, the reporter, Bourne, and anyone else who gets in their way. And thus the game is on…but who’s the cat and who’s the mouse here? This particular superspy wasn’t Bourne yesterday.
The rest of the film involves Bourne on the run, engaging and evading his would-be captors as much as possible in various scenic vistas around the globe. Yes, you could argue that we’ve seen this all before in the first two films — the CIA suits chattering away in vaguely menacing organizational jargon, the occasional hand-to-hand fisticuffs, the crunchy car carnage — Ultimatum definitely follows a template: Edgar Ramirez shows up in the Clive Owen/Karl Urban role, and Julia Stiles is back as Julia Stiles (and, I’m happy to say, does her best work of the series.) Or one might quibble that Bourne is a bit overpowered — even notwithstanding his superior reflexes, astounding peripheral vision, and brilliant gamesmanship, Bourne’s most powerful weapon might be his ability to induce convenient pangs of conscience among his adversaries at just the right time. But, the play’s the thing, and Greengrass succeeds in making Ultimatum an almost completely immersive experience regardless. Shadowy conversations are filmed from behind the shoulder, drawing attention to furtive eyes and pained grimaces. Observation cameras trace dangerous lines of sight across chaotic crowds, relentlessly seeking out their suspect. And, when the action breaks out…hoo boy. (I think I might’ve preferred the car chase in Supremacy to the very good one here, but there’s a fight in Morocco at one point that is a flat-out doozy.) By the final shot, which not brings the story full circle but recalls a haunting image of Franka Potente’s Marie from II and III, it’s clear that Greengrass is firing on all cylinders right now. I was already impressed with him, but Bourne further suggests that Greengrass is among the very best directors working today — Let’s hope he shares with us more surveillance intel in very short order.
You Must Be Joking.
“Bring your sense of humor, but don’t worry — we’ll supply the smile.” From the demented criminal mastermind who brought you IBelieveinHarveyDent.com…a Comic-con teaser for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight looks increasingly likely after another viral marketing site “by” the Joker — whysoserious.com — appears online. (The clock is ticking down to tomorrow’s Comic-Con presentation time, and the coordinates are in San Diego.) Update: A Kramervision version of the teaser has been Youtubed (also here), and it’s…a teaser, although you do at least get to hear Ledger’s suitably bizarre voice. (And, no, I’m not Rick-Rolling you.)
Update 2: Ok, the madness has begun. If you’re playing along at home, the number that appeared in the sky over San Diego was 800-395-9646. Call it, and you get a rather creepy message — apparently the Joker holding somebody at gunpoint — with the first password, “INSIDE JOKE.” Stage 2 — “Catherine, Annie, Elizabeth, and Mary Jane had someone I admire in common. Who was it?” Henry VIII was my first guess, but apparently the correct answer is “JACK THE RIPPER.” Stage 3 involves more legwork in San Diego…Update 3: Or does it? The Joker has left us a Morse-encoded laugh to ponder in the meantime. K, let’s see here…It’s “MOUNTEBANK.” (Some aspiring Bruce Wayne locked that one down well before I did…I was on “MOU.”) Stage 4 is an anagram of sorts — CPRAISMSEIOOFN — My summer a few years back spent trying to get actually decent on Scrabble, and the occasional cheating that ensued, would’ve helped me here, but somebody else figured it out first: “CRIME OF PASSION.” (Hint: As with the morse code, note the two large words.) Stage 5…well, the site’s locked up…
Update 4: While the Warner Brother server was flailing, balloons were passed out in San Diego with the next clue, “head games.” From there, it’s on to the Joker’s case file and another clue, apparently found in bathrooms at the next San Diego point, “74 BARS.” The Clown Prince of Crime then goes the US History route: “Who was the lawyer who got his client acquitted of murder by fatally shooting himself by accident in a courtroom in 1871?” (I’ll give you my own hint: Copperhead.) Answer: VALLANDIGHAM. The next checkpoint involved finding a particular brick in San Diego to ascertain the real name of “Dr. Death,” “GASLAMP DAN HASLAM.” Now, time for a game of cards… Note the actual still of Ledger and Gyllenhaal from the film (click on the word “knife,” or see below) — It looks like the Joker wears make-up in the Nolanverse, and didn’t fall into a vat of anything bothersome this time.) Also, note there are 26 cards at bottom, which should help you to discover the next keyword, “UNFORGIVABLE.”
(Phew, Holy detective work, Batman! This is hard!) Ok, next the San Diegans were to find a child on the street learning to defend himself (note also another police report) The accompanying surveillance site — and this picture — help in discovering the next (punny) clue, “BASEBALL BAT.” After that, we’re in anagram territory again…consider the missing letters and you might just end up with “LARCENY.” Alright, two more clues to go…the next one involves a “Gotham Girl Guide” and her cookies, so we’ll need the troops on the ground again for this one… Update 5: Ok, word has come back that the cookies password is “STARVE.” Then we’re sent to a half-lit LED on a bomb to ascertain the next clue, “REAPER.” (I was stumped by this one for awhile – all I’ll say is that green and red mean something, and the HA’s are there for a reason.) Finally, the San Diego fanfolk had to find a certain license plate reading “291759,” (on a limo near their start point) and, voila, the Joker covers his trail, and offers up a high-quality version of the teaser Youtubed above, before this all started. (Click on the dot.) Ok, a bit of a letdown at the end there, sure (As, one fanboy wit at AICN put it, “Be sure…to drink your…Ovaltine?”) Still, the journey was the reward (even if it ate up much of my Friday afternoon.) Clever, clever, Warner Bros. marketing gurus.
