May 27, 2003

Shorts, 5/27.

kong-vs-cremaster.jpg The most fun read in a long while: Wayne Bremser's "Matthew Barney versus Donkey Kong":

Richard Serra plays Donkey Kong, waiting at the top of both New York buildings... Both Barney and Serra are Yale alumni and, by placing him at the top of the order in both sequences, Barney makes it clear that he considers Serra the most important artist of the previous generation. With this casting, Barney praises Serra as Master Mason, but also winks at the art world's Warholian order of celebrity.

ADV Films plans a live-action version Neon Genesis Evangelion, alerts syntax. GreenCiners are skeptical.

Plasticians sort through the recent shift in Bollywood "from its tradition of colourful musical dance extravaganzas towards more adult fare."

In the Guardian and Observer:

  • Tim Burton evidently hopes to direct a fresh version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl never liked Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but Gene Wilder hit the perfect note somewhere between delightful and terrifying).
  • Not only are there two easily mixed up Alexander the Great movies in the running, there are also now two rival Hemingway biopics in the works, one with Mickey Rourke, the other with Anthony Hopkins. Decisions, decisions.
  • "Was she well-known in her time?" That's the question a Hollywood exec asked Stephen Fry about the author of the book he's adapted for his directorial debut. Which is to be called Bright Young Things. Based on the novel Vile Bodies. By Evelyn Waugh.
  • "The actor Rachel Kempson - widow of Sir Michael Redgrave and mother of Vanessa, Corin and Lynn - has died aged 92."

    Newsweek's Finding Nemo package wouldn't really be worth mentioning if, besides the short review, there weren't also a pair of pieces on Disney's troubles and Pixar's "golden age." Over at Movie City News, Gary Dretzka finds the film not only "fun, fanciful and heart-warming" but also "an undisguised nudge for [distributors] to get with the program" and go digital. A telling quote from Nemo writer-director Andrew Stanton: "Like it or not, the digital format is where your movies live for most of their lives. They're on the screen for a very short time, so we take great care to make sure what you see in your home is the best possible version of the movie."

    Also at MCN: Leonard Klady on the astoundingly good opening weekend for Bruce Almighty (see also the Los Angeles Times interview with director Tom Shadyac) and Dretzka's interview with Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavik).

    And another interview. With the Star Wars Kid.

    Online viewing tip. The top of the world. QTVR.

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    Posted by dwhudson at May 27, 2003 8:18 AM