Shorts, 9/18.

"Here is a potentially remarkable career taking shape. A sprightly 42 (and looking considerably younger than that), Michael Winterbottom has already directed some two dozen films and telefilms." So begins Scott Foundas's quick assessment, laced with quotes, of the versatile, prolific yet accomplished director.

Ella Taylor's isn't bad, either: "Michael Winterbottom belongs to a shrinking fraternity of filmmakers driven more by the desire for an interesting life than for a linear career path." More importantly, her review of In This World, the Golden Bear winner at Berlin this year, a decision I'd have made as well, will get people out to see it.

Also in the LA Weekly: Foundas's report from "not so much the Toronto Film Festival as a Toronto Film Festival."

Fresh from the Yes-No-Maybe-I-Don't-Know-Can-You-Repeat-The-Question Dept: The original Star Wars trilogy might come out on DVD after all. "You know, it seems like we go through this about once a year," sighs Bill Hunt, editor of The Digital Bits. This year, "Word is that Lucasfilm is pleased with the format of The Adventures of Indiana Jones: The Complete DVD Movie Collection they're releasing on 10/21 in conjunction with Paramount - so pleased, in fact, that they're planning to use the same format to release the classic Star Wars films."

Well, I hope so. But probably not for the reasons you might guess. If these films are finally released on DVD and, far less likely, considering George Lucas's well-known contempt for his fans, in their original theatrical versions, we'll be able to see all the more clearly that, of the successive late 70s hits that created the blockbuster mentality in Hollywood - to a certain extent, The Godfather and The Exorcist, but most definitely, Jaws and Star Wars - it's only on the latter that time has visited its full, merciless cruelty.

Via Fimoculous, "The Fast-Forward, On-Demand, Network-Smashing Future of Television," by Frank Rose in Wired. The piece had Rex "all bubbly at first, but it didn't really say anything we don't already know." Indeed. On the rad scale, it comes nowhere near Michael Lewis's piece in the New York Times Magazine on what TiVo was going to do to TV as we know it three years ago. Then again, that may be a good thing. There is still such a thing, after all, as commercial television and Lewis at least implied back then it'd be a goner by now. No, Rose's article is less about revolution and more about the nitty gritty of a long-term evolution.

In an accompanying piece, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's K Street is held up as an example of how technology is "opening up possibilities," but to Noy Thrupkaew at Alternet, the series "seems a little drab," upstaged as it is by the ongoing circus in California. For Michael Kinsley, though, the series is a sign of a-changin' times:

With the premiere last Sunday of K Street, an HBO comedy/drama series about Washington lobbyists, the industry has plunged to new depths of respectability.... There was a time - until, say, 25 years ago - when lobbyists used to deny being lobbyists... And now, hand-held-camera populist nobility has been conferred upon a group of people who charge a lot of money to give disproportionate influence in our democracy to people with even more money. And somewhere in America, there is a child who watched K Street and is thinking this week, "I want to be a lobbyist when I grow up."

Also in Slate: A piece by Steven Waldman, editor of Beliefnet (where they've got an "Exclusive Webcast" of the Dalai Lama's appearance in Boston last Sunday), is a sign that the argument over Mel Gibson's The Passion is entering a new phase. The shouting is dying down, giving way, at least in some quarters, to a more considered give-n-take. Waldman makes three proposals: 1) "Jews should admit that some of their forefathers probably helped get Jesus killed." At the same time, 2) The Gospels do tend to willfully distort their role, and 3) Christians who cling to the "Christ-killer" epithets for Jews "are being transparently un-Christian" - and not just because it isn't nice. More importantly, because Christ's very mission was to die.

Well, Waldman doesn't put it quite that way, of course, but still. Via Movie City News, another interesting piece on all this from Donald Harman Akenson, an author of a couple of books on the subject, in the Globe and Mail. His argument is that Gibson hasn't done himself any favors by basing his movie on the Gospel of John, "the closest [of the four] to being hate literature." Which is an eye-opener to me, since I was always taught that John was both the headiest - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"? As Keanu would say, "whoa" - and the one to turn to for reassurances that what it all boils down to is God's love; come hell or high water, the ending's going to be a happy one. But then again, it's been a very, very long time. I suspect that, for all the controversy, Gibson may well be pleased that many of us who haven't given any of this a second thought in years are stroking are chins once again.

Also via MCN, Suvendrini Kakuchi in the Asia Times: "It is no secret that Japan's independent film industry is at a crossroads.... Japanese releases peaked at close to 500 on the average in the 1960s, but has fallen to 293 releases a year these days."

Paul Fischer talks to Cate Blanchett for Moviehole. They're supposed to be talking about Veronica Guerin, but they do get a few words in about Ron Howard's The Missing ("It's one of the scariest films I've seen") and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, in which she'll play Katharine Hepburn at a not-so-great point in her life and career.

Sofia Watch: Tonight, Charlie Rose. Thanks, Matt.

USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna rounds up a slew of fairy tale movies in production, including Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm. Via the SXSW News Reel

Jason Silverman in Wired News on Mania Fest, opening today and running through Sunday: "[P]resenters and panelists include directors Clive Barker (Hellraiser), George Romero (Night of the Living Dead), Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street) and Guillermo del Toro (Blade II). The 10-time Oscar nominee Stan Winston, who created the special effects for films including Jurassic Park, Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, Aliens and Artificial Intelligence, will be given the inaugural Maniac Award for lifetime achievement."

And finally, news that can only give us hope for a better Friday. "jc" at Coudal Partners puts it this way: "No. No. No. If you've never read Confederacy of Dunces get on it, because if this report is true about the movie, it's really going to screw up your perception of the book." But of course, we've already found out that not everyone shares "jc"'s horror.

Posted by dwhudson at September 18, 2003 8:46 AM