Bad form, I know, but this week’s Onion is particularly amusing. Take, for example, Hundreds Of Republicans Injured In Rush To Discredit Kerry. “‘It’s bad down here,’ Savannah (GA) General Hospital director Lloyd Sautner said. ‘We were still treating hurricane victims when all these politicians were hurt in the whirlwind of manufactured controversy.’” I also liked Bush Campaign More Thought Out Than Iraq War and Terry Gilliam’s Barbeque Plagued by Production Delays.
Category: Directors
Kong for a Day.
Knowing the importance of keeping the fanboy nation happy, PJ shows off Jack Black and Naomi Watts in costume over at KongisKing.Net. Update: PJ’s back with Black (and Brody) aboard the SS Venture.
Greedo shoots first (but only barely).
Bill Hunt of the Digital Bits reviews the Star Wars Original Trilogy DVD box set, and includes screenshots of the various tweaks made since the 1997 re-releases. Hayden Christiansen replacing Sebastian Shaw is really lame, but thankfully the Madness of King George didn’t extend to including Jimmy Smits and Natalie Portman at various points as earlier rumored. In other fanboy DVD news, The Return of the King: Extended Edition has (finally) been officially announced for Dec. 14. (Pre-orders start tomorrow, which hopefully will prompt New Line to release an official version of the Comicon EE trailer.) Update: New Line revokes the EE date. What’s going on over there?
It Really Tide the Room Together.
Jeff Bridges joins the cast of Terry Gilliam’s next film after The Brothers Grimm, Tideland.
A Nightmare in November.
I also found this grisly pic of Angry Cheney on Looka (and Eschaton), and it reminded me of something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But, while walking Berkeley this evening, it came to me. In fact, I think I might just have figured out the inspiration behind Karl Rove’s whole two-faced strategy:
And, just to round out the meme…
(Pics via HalloweenTown. And a similar take on the Zellout can be found here, also via Eschaton.) Update: The Zellout also brought to mind this, but I ultimately thought it was a disservice to poor Bilbo. He wasn’t that far gone in Rivendell.
Gertie 2.0.
Uh-oh. Dakota Fanning is cast as the daughter of Tom Cruise (soon to reunite with Michael Mann for a Battle of Britain film) in the upcoming War of the Worlds remake. It’s nothing against Fanning — she actually seems like a relatively talented child actress. But the combination of cute kids and Spielberg have been a recipe for real schmaltzy trouble in the past.
Another Gotham Invader.
The cast of PJ’s King Kong convene in New Zealand to begin shooting on the great ape epic. Can we take Kong over Cheney? I’ll say this for the big fella…at least Kong was brought to New York against his will.
Monsoon Wizards.
From Bollywood to Bogwarts? Vanity Fair director Mira Nair is offered Harry Potter V. It’s probably a better choice than Mike “Goblet of Fire” Newell.
Grimm-Visaged War.
Argh. Terry’s Gilliam’s spate of studio trouble continues, with The Brothers Grimm getting pushed back a full year to November 2005. (Star Matt Damon suggests it may be due to FX.) It was already shaping up to be a particularly lousy fall film-wise, and this doesn’t help.
Po-Tay-Toes.
Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew…the bizarre LotR-themed “Taters Song” now has its own Flash-y video. Well, I guess it helps pass the time ’til the Extended Edition trailer (which is currently rumored to drop on Friday.) Update: Ok, well, clearly Friday was wrong. The new buzz is at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend.