Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Mmmm! There's nothing quite like a helping of George W. Bush to get the blood pumping and fill your head with visions of lust and romance...right? No? Okay, maybe only if you're Laura Bush. Nevertheless, a documentary made about his 2000 presidential campaign, Journeys with George, is going to be made into a fictional movie. Reuters reports that filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House), is going to adapt her doc into a romance, at the urging of Steven Zaillian -- the Oscar-winning writer of Schindler's List. I guess if there's anyone to convince someone of writing something, it'd be him!
Zaillian says that he saw a Devil Wears Prada tone to the documentary, and convinced the filmmaker to make her screenwriting debut with the material. "Alexandra is a talented documentary filmmaker and a great raconteur. She's been places and seen and done things few of the rest of us have, and I'm excited she's decided to share her insider perspective and gift for storytelling with us in a screenplay." The movie will focus on "a young, impressionable news producer who finds herself dealing with the challenges of life and love in the midst of covering a presidential campaign." It's even scored itself a first-look deal with Sony Pictures, so this could become a big deal if the script works out. Good luck, Pelosi!
Earlier this month, I was writing a post about fairy tales and I wondered why we don't get many classic fairy tale horror movies. I'm not referring to reimagining familial tales into something more adult (like Dorothy and bdsm), but rather going back to the source of the fairy tale. There have been a few attempts, such as Sigourney Weaver's Snow White: A Tale of Terror, but not nearly as many as there could be in the seas of zombie movies and Saw sequels.
What is creepier than kids, parents, evilness, sorceresses, wolves, and cannibalism? Before the stories were ripped from their horror roots, they were just right for scary, gory films. The early days of fairy tales weren't all rosy cheeks and puckered, pouting lips; they had blood, flesh, and genuine frights. If kids of yesteryear saw the tykes of the last 50 years, I think we'd all be getting a feline-sounding name that isn't too complimentary.
So here are seven tales perfect for scary movies. Some wouldn't need any embellishment, while others could easily be morphed into a chilling tale that not only taps into our younger days, but also thrills our current adult lives. Take this as a dare, scary filmmakers! Look through this creepy list and whip up something to scare the pants off us. And for you non-filmmakers out there -- which tale would you want to see on the big screen?
A family is starving, so the evil mom says: "Hey, let's send the kids out into the forest so that we have enough food for ourselves." But the buggers come back, because they leave a trail of pebbles that lead them back home -- a reason we should never teach our children, the insidious food-stealers! So dear old mom tries again, and the kids only have breadcrumbs, so they're stuck in the forest. They come upon a house made of bread, with sugar windows. Their little mouths begin to salivate, and they start eating the house. The old woman who owns the house takes the kids in, which seems awfully nice for a woman who just found kids eating her lovely home. That is, until she makes Gretel her servant, and fattens up Hansel so she can eat him. But then Gretel kicks her old butt into the oven, and the kids are free. They find their way home, and conveniently, their mom has since died of "evilness," so they live happily ever after with their previously mom-whipped dad.
There's not too much actual horror in this, beyond the burning of the old woman, but imagine her cannibalistic dreams, or the children's evil mom's fears about starving while they frolic. Or, maybe the old woman has done this before, and they find half-eaten children piled up in back. Who knows!?
Hi-Ho Silver, bring me lots of money! According to the Hollywood Insider, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, the pens behind Pirates of the Caribbean, are trying to cook up a draft of The Lone Ranger for Jerry Bruckheimer to turn into the latest cash cow. Yes, the old masked ranger who rides a white horse, righting wrongs with the help of Tonto. Sure, remakes of old stories, even radio classics, are all the rage, but is a cowboy on a horse going to rake in the cash for Bruckheimer and Disney? Could this really be true?
According to the report, the studio won't confirm the assignment, so they can only go by their sources, and as HI describes it, the writing duo is "trying to create a new juggernaut for Bruckheimer to exploit." Sure, they made pirates all the rage, but can they do the same with cowboys? It doesn't seem to be one of those areas that gets tons of mileage, at least, not in the wide world of kids and marketing. I guess if anyone could do it, it's this team, but still. Cowboys and Indians? Can they really pull it off?
As HI says, the concept hasn't been as popular as it used to be. After the '50s television show, there was a 1981 film flop, and more recently, the WB tried to get a television version off the ground with Chad Michael Murray. It's really too bad that that project didn't even make it to the boob tube -- CMM as the Ranger would've amused me. So there you have it, the Lone Ranger might hit the big screen once again, under the powerful arm of Bruckheimer. Does that scare you? Excite you? Or maybe make you feel a little queasy?
Taking on this story, I must be a masochist. Why? Seeing the name Billy Ray Cyrus, and that face of his, sends me back to a dark time, one that I should never revisit. Achy Breaky Heart had just come out; it was everywhere -- Billy Ray was in that cowboy hat and singing his way out of country obscurity and into super stardom, and my friend loved it -- but 'love' doesn't even come close to describing it. She sung it to me over, and over, and over again, with verve and crazy fanaticism, just like she had years before with Step by Step. Now, years later, Billy Ray is going to hit the stage on the big screen, with a High School Musical star to boot.
The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Cyrus and Olesya Rulin will star together in Jim Amatulli's indie drama -- Flying By. Billy Ray will play "a businessman who risks his marriage, family, and fortune to pursue his dream of being in a rock band." (At least there won't be any Achy Breaky then.) Rulin will co-star as his daughter, who supports his dreams, Robert Gossett (The Closer) and arse-less chaps man Eric Allan Kramer (American Wedding) have already signed on to play his bandmates, Ted Hutton will play a club booker, and Patricia Neal (Hud) is in final negotiations to play his mother. There's no word about who he'll be married to. The film will jump into production on November 26 in San Diego, and in the meantime, Cyrus has his kid's television show, Hannah Montana, and a new album, while Rulin has some time with Jessica Simpson in Major Movie Star.
Ah, the wonderful, tasty gobble of a turkey -- brined birds and sausage stuffing have helped to make Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays, due to its delicious, gluttonous ways. I wish I could tell you that this indie flick is going to be a rousing film to watch after the bustle of Thanksgiving football, but it looks like this is just a political turkey. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Plum Pictures has signed on for Craig Zobel'sTurkey in the Straw, which he co-wrote with Barlow Jacobs and will direct. Turkey is a black comedy set in the South, but instead of focusing on Paula's home cooking and strange marshmallow, yams, and coconut balls, it's about "a race for county commissioner in a small town that takes an unexpected turn when one candidate shoots the other." I'll be completely on-board with this if they take the Zell Miller route and demand a duel, because sometimes there's nothing funnier than a little taste of reality to instigate the fiction. Whatever the case, production is set to begin in early 2008 in South Carolina.
This film was picked up by Plum the same day that Zobel's last film, a music satire called Great World of Sound, nabbed three Gotham nominations. Considering the fact that it already won the three other awards that it has been nominated for, methinks we'll be hearing a lot more about Zobel, Sound, and this Southern Turkey in the future. But you might have already seen his work -- he's one of the Homestar Runner guys, and invented Strong Sad and Pom Pom.
After exploring Pan's Labyrinth, Ivana Baquero decided to sign on for her first English-speaking role back in April, another thriller called The New Daughter. The project comes from a short story by John Connolly, and it was adapted by John Travis. Now, months later, they've got a director, Luiso Berdejo, and they've finally found her pops. It's... Kevin Costner? He's going to play a dude named John James -- "a single father who moves to a farm with his two kids after a painful divorce. Soon, his daughter (Baquero) starts behaving ominously, and Dad begins to suspect that the burial mound in a nearby field might have something to do with it." Pet Sematary and The Exorcist... For little children!
Anyhow, I know that Baquero is talented; does this talent also already include pitch-perfect accents? Or did they live overseas until the divorce? Or maybe she was adopted right before the parental split and got the short end of the stick -- what with new families, divorce, and then some sort of demon possession. Costner is just about the last person I ever imagined for the role of Ivana's dad. Unless he is the one who needs a new accent. I don't know. Whatever the case, it should be interesting. The Upside of Anger is probably my favorite Costner role, at least, it's the first one I really liked him in, so I can only imagine what Baquero can bring out in him. Production is slated to begin next year.
So Jessica Biel won't be taking on the world of Wonder Woman -- wearing a swimsuit-like outfit, some powerful accessories, and swinging that golden lasso around. Instead, she's going to star in a crime thriller that she's also producing. Variety reports that she'll lead Die a Little, an adaptation of Megan Abbott's noir novel. Marcia and Geoffrey Blake are currently writing the script, but no director has been picked. Now this could've been a pretty cool alternative if it was a faithful adaptation -- the book is set in 1954, and the cover has that old-school noir look. However, while the film will still be set in LA, it will be modernized and set in the present day.
The book is about an orphaned brother and sister, Bill and Lora King, who live together into adulthood -- until DA investigator Bill falls for Alice Steele, a damsel in distress with a mysterious past. They get married, but schoolteacher Lora is suspicious and decides to investigate. Wryly referring to herself as a Nancy Drew, she finds a frightening story involving the usual suspects -- sex, drugs, corruption, and murder. As for who Jessica Biel will play -- I guess that depends on whether she's going to be the good or bad girl -- Variety didn't say who.
But really, it's pretty disappointing that they won't keep this as a noir thriller. If it's a money concern, with all the hassles of creating a period piece, then maybe they should be looking for a different project, not ripping this story out of its context. The only way I could see this potentially living up to its material, and still be modernized, is if they give it that Twin Peaks sort of feel, where there are modern elements, but within a retro-timeless context. But that's just me. What would you prefer: retro noir, or present-day investigating?
I don't know what I miss more -- good comedy by actors like Mike Myers and Jim Carrey, or that time in the late '90s when their names were synonymous with morphing into almost-unrecognizable characters. Or, maybe I just miss comedies that refer to the Alan Parsons Project. Whatever the case, we're finally getting another Mike Myers-created comedy with The Love Guru, and USA Today has the first look at the guru Pitka and Jessica Alba. Myers looks pretty unrecognizable, sporting a curling 'stache, beard, and long hair, and Alba, well, she looks like herself -- the cute smiling girl in a tank top. The comedian and filmmaker normally stays away from transforming the lead women in his films, but it would've been nice to change that this time around. Still, I wish this was a video, so we could see Myers in action.
The story focuses on Pitka (Myers) an American left at the gates of an Indian ashram, who is raised by gurus, and then comes back to the US to focus on issues of intimacy between couples. Adding in a little of Myers' Canadian verve, he meets his match when he has to fix the relationship between a star hockey player (Romany Malco), and his estranged wife, who is bonking the star of his rival team (Justin Timberlake as a French hockey player named Jacques). He's got to fix things and get the player back on track so that his team, owned by Jane Bullard (Alba) and coached by Verne Troyer, can break their 40-year-old "Bullard Curse" and win the Stanley Cup. For hockey fans, you'll probably notice the similarities to the Maple Leafs.
Go-Go Yubari -- while the name might not be remembered by all, the character still is. She was the tough-as-nails schoolgirl in Kill Bill. Remember her now? You know the one -- long hair, school uniform, white knee socks, and that chained morning star. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've seen her around -- every Halloween lots of schoolgirl outfits hit the streets in an easy, sinister twist on the classic costume. Now Chiaki Kuriyama, the girl who played Go-Go, is getting ready for a new film, which has her hanging up her weapon for a role with much less violence.
Variety reports that the actress will star in a movie called GS Wonderland, a film about the '60s pop scene in Japan. But she won't be playing a cute, girly pop star. Her character "poses as a man to get a gig as keyboardist with a Group Sounds band -- a made-in-Japan pop movement inspired by the Beatles and other mid-1960s Brit bands." Ryuichi Honda will direct the film, and it also stars Ittoku Kishibe (Zatoichi), who used to be part of the Tigers, a Group Sounds band. Also, if you are into that music scene, the soundtrack will feature new, original songs by Jun Hashimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi, a duo behind many Group Sounds hits. Lots of GS goodness, just like the name suggests. I've got no clue about the music or the scene, but I'd bite to see Kuriyama pose as a man and go pop, how about you?
I bet that when Reese Witherspoon took on the role of June Carter Cash, she never imagined that Heather Mills would be looking to approach her for another biopic (just as I imagine Scarlett never dreamed she'd be the object of Jenna's biopic dreams). Believe it or not, the Daily Mail says that Mills is heading to Hollywood to get a biopic in the works, and she wants Witherspoon to star. I can kind of see it, in that they're both blonde and thin, and I guess aging Reese would be easier than trying to wipe years off Heather Locklear, Mills' original choice.
But why a biopic? The Daily Mail is framing it as some sort of revenge scenario, noting that her divorce settlement deadline has passed, and that she's now going to fight ugly not only in court, but in the media. Sources say she's heading for Larry King for an interview where she "will not hold back," and she's also going to meet with writer/producer Robert von Dassanowsky about a biopic. Another source says she's been working on it for a while, and was going to forget about it when a settlement looked likely, but "the script was dusted off pretty rapidly over the weekend."
This could all be nonsense, as Mills has been the target of a myriad of fabricated stories, but if it isn't, I really hope this doesn't get made. Be scorned, be ticked, but don't go the tell-all route on film. That's just tacky. Besides, if this project is real and isn't being made out of revenge, there could be a decent story in there -- her younger struggles, the world of modeling, the car accident, marrying an ex-Beatle -- it's not like she goes to a 9-to-5 job, has a TV dinner, watches television, and goes to sleep every day.
You might have caught the news last week that the Barbarella remake was in trouble because Universal reportedly wasn't going to spend $100 million on a sci-fi, sexy-time romp with Rose McGowan. Sources claimed that Robert Rodriguez wasn't listening to everyone who warned him that Rose couldn't pull it off. IESB then went to Rodriguez about this whole mess, and he says the problem has always been the budget, and not the casting. He even says that the project might go back to Universal, and that they'll know in the next week. It should, because there's absolutely no reason that RR can't make this picture super cheap -- he's the king of making little money work.
Of course, I'm not witnessing this all first-hand, but it seems to me like McGowan has become the scapegoat for money issues. Why say Universal thinks the price is too steep when you can blame it all on the sinister woman tugging at the strings behind the scenes? Yawn. We're talking about a goofy cult classic here! This isn't some big production where McGowan's casting is completely surprising. If Rodriguez had cast her in a serious period piece about Eleanor Roosevelt, then I'd get it. Heck, I'd be on the whipped bandwagon myself, scheming up ways to bring Rodriguez to his senses (and I'm a McGowan fan), but this is super space babe Barbarella, and there's nothing irrational about thinking Rose should play her. McGowan is at her best when she's campy, sexy, and tough, so until Robert tries to cast her in something else, why blame the relationship?
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger when your car alarm goes off in the middle of the night! Okay, so this isn't exactly what was said in Pulp Fiction, but I thought that particular Sam Jackson rant was appropriate for this story. Way back in March of 2006, Cinematical posted that director Henry Bean was setting out to make a dark comedy called Noise, with Tim Robbins in the lead. Now the film is finished, and it is starting to get acclaim on the fest circuit, so now comes all the interviews and news that fills in the blanks.
Reuters recently talked with Bean about the film, and while it is fictional, the director says it's based on his own life. Bean used to get so ticked off about car alarms screeching in the middle of the night that he would break into the cars and disable the alarms -- which landed him in jail. Instead of staying in his cycle of stress-influenced crime, he decided to make Noise.
Robbins plays David, "an upper-class family man driven insane by New York's loud sounds -- grinding garbage trucks, horns honking, back-up beepers and worst of all, car alarms squealing at all hours." He is so infuriated by the racket that he becomes a vigilante called "The Rectifier" and declares war on the alarms. Not surprisingly, he ends up in jail, almost loses his marriage, and then continues the fight legally, although he's stopped by "the city's slimy mayor, played by William Hurt, forcing David to resort to an extreme strategy to make his point."
Hopefully the flick will get picked up and the rest of us can see it soon. But in the meantime, which loud noises would you like to become a vigilante over? Personally, there was this garbage truck where I used to live that would come in the middle of the night to pick up garbage and recycling from the neighboring bar -- oh, how I would've loved to silence that back-up noise. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep....
In June, Gold Circle Films bought the rights to The Arcanum, which had previously been picked up by Miramax in 1999. Maybe they were afraid of another high-profile flop like The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, since this project treads on similar territory. Whatever the case, it was a project looking for a more loving home, and Gold Circle is certainly providing that. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the company has already found the project's helmer -- writer/director Randall Wallace (The Man in the Iron Mask). He's going to be polishing the script and then sending it out to the world of casting.
I'm really, really hoping they do something cool with this, because the idea is great. Adapted from a novel by Thomas Wheeler, Arcanum is set in 1919 and "follows Arthur Conan Doyle as he leads a secret society known as the Arcanum -- whose members include magician Harry Houdini, voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft -- against a powerful supernatural force that threatens the world." Sure, it could very easily stink like League, which disappointed me greatly, but there's always a chance for this one to rise from the ashes of apprehension. And it can start with great casting. Personally, I'd like to see Robert Downey Jr. take on Houdini, and would be easy-going to the casting of the rest. But how about you? These are some pretty distinct people, so who do you think should play them?
If you've grown kind of tired of Billy Bob Thornton's recent predilection for comedy (and a little astronaut farming thrown in for good measure), all of the actor's upcoming projects should fix that -- The Informers, Tulia, and Peace Like a River. It's like he just sat and realized that he hasn't given audiences anything meaty to chew on lately and is doing everything he can to rectify that. Now a Moviehole source says he's added another -- Eagle Eye.
Originally set up by Steven Spielberg, who left the project to work on a little picture about Indiana Jones, the film is being directed by Disturbia helmer D.J. Caruso and is re-teaming him with his last star, Shia LaBeouf. It's a thriller about a young slacker and a single mother who are framed as terrorists and then get involved in a terrorist cell that's planning a political assassination while trying to clear themselves. Shia is the slacker, of course, and will be joined by Michelle Monaghan as the single mother, and Rosario Dawson as a government agent. Billy Bob could be her fellow agent, or maybe the head of the terrorist organization.
So basically, this is kind of like Disturbia without the house arrest, and it seems without his mom -- all reports are careful to say "a" single mom, not "his" single mom, but I wonder then, where his is. Moviehole says that rehearsals for the film will start tonight, so I'm sure we'll find out more about the feature soon enough.
The trick to creating a successful adaptation is not so much in being a stickler about the plot, but in recreating the verve behind the words. It goes beyond simple interest in the characters. Adaptation is just like translation -- translated word for word, it will seem flat and lack the life it does in its original setting. The translator must understand the context of the words within the language, and then find the best fit to recreate that same sentiment. Yet it must also stay true to the original words. If it diverges too much, the life will be lost, even if the meaning is the same. The right adaptation will flow so well that it will not only feed a fan's penchant for details, but also recreate the element of surprise within them.
It, of course, helps when the original screenwriter is the woman who wrote the novel -- Anne Rice. But even director Neil Jordan's inclusions, which took some liberties, Interview with the Vampire maintained most of the spice that made it a book worthy of a cinematic adaptation. He brought the world to the screen, impressing audiences as well as Rice herself -- who was, at first, quite vocal in her distaste over casting. But even she was stunned with what Jordan and his cast accomplished, and ultimately gave the film much praise.
Mmmm! There's nothing quite like a helping of George W. Bush to get the blood pumping and fill your head with visions of lust and romance...right? No? Okay, maybe only if you're Laura Bush. Nevertheless, a documentary made about his 2000 presidential campaign, Journeys with George, is going to be made into a fictional movie. Reuters reports that filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House), is going to adapt her doc into a romance, at the urging of Steven Zaillian -- the Oscar-winning writer of Schindler's List. I guess if there's anyone to convince someone of writing something, it'd be him!
Hi-Ho Silver, bring me lots of money! According to the 
Taking on this story, I must be a masochist. Why? Seeing the name 
Ah, the wonderful, tasty gobble of a turkey -- brined birds and sausage stuffing have helped to make Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays, due to its delicious, gluttonous ways. I wish I could tell you that this indie flick is going to be a rousing film to watch after the bustle of Thanksgiving football, but it looks like this is just a political turkey. 
After exploring Pan's Labyrinth, 
So 
I don't know what I miss more -- good comedy by actors like 
I bet that when 
You might have caught the news 
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger when your car alarm goes off in the middle of the night! Okay, so this isn't exactly what was said in Pulp Fiction, but I thought that particular Sam Jackson rant was appropriate for this story. Way back in 
In June, Gold Circle Films 
If you've grown kind of tired of 
