Shorts, 12/16.

"'Clint,' of course, isn't exactly your average interview subject." No. But Scott Foundas seems to find the going pretty easy, thanks, evidently, to Eastwood's relaxed manner and the fact that, at 74, the man's got stories to tell and knows well what he thinks about them. As for Million Dollar Baby, which Foundas notes is "a movie that lives and breathes and hurts and bleeds right along with its characters":

We took it to a couple of other studios, and they turned it down, much like Mystic River was turned down - the exact same pattern. People who kept calling and saying, "Come on, work with us on stuff." I'd give it to them, and they'd go, "Uh, we were thinking more in terms of Dirty Harry coming out of retirement." And who knows? Maybe when it comes out they'll be proven right.

That cover piece kicks off the LA Weekly's bulging holiday package which features another interview - Dave Schulman meets Daniel Handler, more famously known as Lemony Snicket, and things get a little rowdy - and of course, reviews galore:

• Ella Taylor on The Aviator - "How perverse is it to give Howard Hughes an upbeat ending?" - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, "which may be the world's first German Expressionist horror caper for kids," The Sea Inside, "a riveting drama," and The Woodsman, "overblown melodrama, as muddle-headed as it is palpably sincere."

• Besides Eastwood's movie, Foundas reviews The Phantom of the Opera ("If only [it] could be accused of being kitsch or camp or trashy good fun"), Beyond the Sea ("a dazzling and fearless piece of showmanship") and Spanglish, "a desperate, shapeless, overreaching big-screen sitcom of a movie that just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong? In a word, yes."

There's also a rambunctious bunch of stories to be told about that considerable town as well as Nikke Finke's updated review of the Eisner vs Ovitz show so far.

Before considering Million Dollar Baby and House of Flying Daggers, Slate's David Edelstein presents the winners of his latest "biopic challenge" in which contestants were encouraged to submit the silliest lines to be uttered in the genre.

Roy Batty, the replicant played by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, "and his fellow replicants seem to suffer from what EM Cioran once called 'the temptation to exist,'" writes Michael Smith. (At times, bloggers suffer the same temptation, I might add.) On his way towards a moment of clarity at the end of the entry, he first ducks through the darkness:

It is a temptation so profound that it consumes them, almost to the point where they want to hurl themselves at the universe; when Pris (Daryl Hannah) is shot by Deckard, she flails and screams and pounds the floor with her hands and feet, not so much because she is in pain, but because she is hysterical over her finality, over the fact that she has reached her end, that she knows she will be no more.

And via that entry at CultureSpace comes today's first online viewing tip. Megan and Murray McMillan's The Grasp Hand and Walking Method.

The very thought of Brian De Palma in pre-production on an adaptation of James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia is awfully upsetting for Aaron Dobbs, but that's not the half of it.

For indieWIRE, Jason Guerrasio looks in on five indies currently in production. Three of them already have sites: 'do, Runaway and Wedding Photo.

For PopMatters, Rino Breebaart contemplates the long-term implications of the murder of Theo van Gogh. As you've probably heard by now, 06-05 and related material is online.

Margaret Cho: "I don't know where sorrow is anymore, its presence in the world has vanished, leaving behind greed and the false claims of democracy."

"Hollywood is not a hero in this book." The San Francisco Chronicle's Hugh Hart talks to David Robb, author of Operation Hollywood. Via Wandering Out Loud.

Are the studios really going to be so stupid as to repeat the mistakes the music industry made before reaching a tentative truce with its own customers (it's called iTunes)? Yep. Neil McIntosh spells out the obvious: It doesn't have to be this way: "Customers find new control, freed from being told what to consume and when, and discover they enjoy the experience so much they're willing to break the law to continue doing so. They'll only start handing money over again when the owners of that entertainment catch up with their desire to consume it in new ways."

Also in the Guardian:

• As the European Union engages in a crucial debate over whether to even think about taking Turkey into its fold, Oliver Stone has offered a very commendable apology for his Oscar-winning yet admittedly "over-dramatized" screenplay for Midnight Express. Helena Smith reports.

• Sarfraz Manzoor nominates Richard Curtis as "Man of the Year 2005." Why? "The writer and director has revealed that he is devoting all of next year to charity work."

• 30 "movers and shakers" pick their highs and lows of 2004, starting right off with Ken Russell, who loved Master and Commander and loathed Shaun of the Dead.

Julie Salamon's meeting with Martin Scorsese is brief and light. Also in the New York Times, Charles Lyons asks those who direct them why film festivals are sprouting up all over. By the way, thinking of submitting a film to one yourself? Tboot's got a tip for you.

Oscar-winner Sandy Powell, "the Kandinsky of costume design," tells the Telegraph's Sally Williams all about spending $2 million to dress Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale. Via Movie City News.

"[W]hat are some of the lengthiest and/or best long takes?" asks Filmbrain.

Salon's Laura Miller takes a break from the perpetually replenishing stack of books to be reviewed with the extended version of The Return of the King: "If there's a better antidote to holiday tensions than a marathon session with all three DVDs and your parents' new widescreen TV, it's probably illegal."

Yet more DVD gift-giving ideas from the Austin Chronicle.

Online listening tip. Señor Tonto covers "Hooray for Santy Claus!" from the soundtrack of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Via The Crime in Your Coffee, and I'd simply add that during this holiday season, you might want to be tuned into "Xmas in Frisko," SomaFM's "irreverent annual holiday broadcast."

Three online viewing tips via Twitch: Behind-the-scenes footage from the set of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; an odd little montage of scenes from the Japanese horror flick Marronnier; and a clean trailer for the Walter Salles's remake of Hideo Nakata's Dark Water.

Posted by dwhudson at December 16, 2004 8:16 AM