Sunday shorts.

"After 23 years of off-again/off-again production turmoil, script rewrites and ownership lawsuits, the making of A Confederacy of Dunces, so close to fruition this past year is... off again." Chris Rose breaks the news to his fellow New Orleanians in the Times-Picayune.

For Audience, Robert Fontenot recaps the lore surrounding the film lingering in development hell, drawing up a shortlist of possible directors and writers and contemplating a dream cast.

Also in Audience, Richard Armstrong reviews J Hoberman's The Dream Life: Movies, Media and the Myth of the Sixties.

Meanwhile, in other casting-the-adaptation news, drew's wife, Jen nominates six names for The Da Vinci Code.

IndieWIRE's Brian Brooks previews "The Next Generation of Film" (September 10 - 12): "The topic in the annual screening-and-discussion program is politics and will feature director Michael Moore as its guest as well as other issue-oriented features and conversations."

Quentin Tarantino is still hoping to make that Bond film with Pierce Brosnan, reports Hugh Davies in the Telegraph.

A philosophical journey along the Danube may not sound like a pitch that would pack them in, but The Ister is doing just that at several festivals. In the Australian, Lawrie Zion talks to the filmmakers.

Doug Cummings briefly recounts Todd Browning's life and then focuses on Freaks, "a film that has lost little of its impact and relevance in the 75 years since it was made." Also: Jerzy Stuhr's The Big Animal, based on the screenplay by Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Two tips via Tagline: Lumino magazine interviews eleven members of the cast of Office Space; and John Martz has launched Cinema Toast, "part blog, part movie journal."

Robert Mackey introduces an impressive slide show of stills from Zhang Yimou's Hero, narrated, in a sense, by cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

Also in the New York Times:

• Randy Kennedy talks with Vincent Gallo for four hours: "Despite flashes of anger from Mr. Gallo during the rambling, frenetic and often very entertaining interview, it became clear that he was almost happy that things had turned out this way - casting him once again in his familiar role as the outsider, the misunderstood auteur pursuing an intensely personal vision, spurning not only Hollywood but also the independent movie community he is supposedly a part of."
• Caryn James catches Peter Krause in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's After the Fall and then it clicks - she realizes why We Don't Live Here Anymore doesn't work for her.
• Fritz Lang's Liliom is "a crucial addition to any cinephile's library," while Douglas Sirk's La Habañera "intriguingly anticipates his high Hollywood period with its balance of dramatic excess and aesthetic distance, expressed through a dense weave of shadows and mirrored surfaces," writes Dave Kehr.

Under the banner "White Guys Need Not Apply," the Chicago Reader's Michael Miner looks into the Chicago Tribune's search for a new movie critic. Via Movie City News. Also, Cliff Doerksen: "The Talking Heads' take on Al Green's 'Take Me to the River' is not, and wasn't meant to be, better than the original, but that still leaves plenty of room for it to be interesting and even excellent on its own terms. Jonathan Demme's remake of John Frankenheimer's 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate strikes me as a very artful cover -- about the cleverest imaginable transliteration of the story from its historical moment to ours."

The rumbling rumors came true on Friday: Miramax laid off 65 people, i.e., 13 percent of its 485-member staff. Here's a Reuters story.

So Paul Westerberg is contributing songs to, and might even score, an animated feature about a grizzly bear and a mule deer? Actually, he's been getting a lot of film work recently, as Barry A Jeckell reports for Billboard. Via hyperkinetic.

Gordon Thomas, author of The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Super Spy, is writing the screenplay for Citizen Maxwell, reports Jonathan Brown in the Independent.

Politics, Los Angeles, loss, Europe, Utah, Sundance, and of course, the movies. Suzie Mackenzie covers a lot of ground in her talk with Robert Redford.

Also in the Guardian and Observer:

• "'I must go,' she says, as Lou Reed waits in the wings." Jason Solomons profiles Jane Birkin who, among many other things, such as capturing Serge Gainsbourg's heart and inspiring a Hermes handbag, has acted in over 70 films over the past 30 years.
• Solomons has another piece, too, a rant of sorts: "I know it's the blockbuster season, a traditional wasteland, but has there ever been a less creative, less inspiring, less varied set of films available than those currently on display at British cinemas?"
• John Harris meets the authors of The Guerrilla Film Makers Hollywood Handbook.
• Mark Kermode talks to Shane Meadows about his new film: "'I'm not violent and I've never enjoyed violence,' he explains. 'But at the end of the day, the characters who get killed in Dead Man's Shoes are based on people I want to kill. It's true and I'm not going to lie about it.'"
• Sean O'Hagan reviews Wil Haygood's In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.
• Last month, Guardian religious affairs correspondent Stephen Bates reviewed Mark Pinsky's The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust. This weekend, Pinsky introduces his argument.
• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: István Szabó's Mephisto.
• John Patterson's career assessment of the week: Joaquin Phoenix.

James Israel spots a fun ad for Napoleon Dynamite.

Online viewing tip. Florida Congressman Porter Goss, George W Bush's nominee for the top job at the CIA, basically saying he couldn't land any job at the CIA.

Posted by dwhudson at August 15, 2004 8:04 AM