There are certain people you just can't imagine talking to one another in real life. For example, try to imagine controversial auteur Michael Haneke and The Office's prankmeister John Krasinski sitting in a room and having a casual conversation about, say, movies. And yet things like this do happen sometimes, as is the case in this hour-long roundtable (courtesy of the Hollywood reporter) that also includes Judd Apatow, Mark Boal, David Magee and Chris Terrio.
When the guys over at Pixar got all pissed off at Brenda Chapman and shipped her away to LucasFilm, they probably thought she'd be making coffee for George Lucas and answering forgotten Phantom Menace complaint letters from roughly ten years ago. But now a few pieces from the whole "Brenda Chapman leaves Pixar due to creative differences" debacle have somehow slotted themselves together. In doing so, they've generate a new theory for us all to discuss for the next few days (until the next one comes along).
Join us in our decade-based film retrospective, as we delve backwards all the way from 2009 to 1910. Most decade-based best movie lists grant you a whooping 50-100 entries, which makes perfect sense given all the years you have to take into consideration. But what if you were defining a decade in just ten films? Showcasing the very best of its cinematic offerings? Which movies would you recommend to somebody who might only watch ten movies from a given decade? First off, it's the Noughties.
Though somebody unfamiliar with British pop fivesome One Direction could be forgiven for thinking that they deserve their own movie at this point, given that, hey, they've been compared to The Beatles and stuff, the difference is that The Beatles made 250 songs of genuine artistry, and One Direction... have this one song. So forgive my unhip, bitter words when I say that I don't think the Simon Cowell-assembled pop sensation are quite ready for their own movie. Especially one that puts Super Size Me documentarian Morgan Spurlock at the helm, who I definitely thought would not be up for this sort of thing.
Given that they are both actors who happen to be separated through the immortal boundaries of age in a way that means they can't have been born in the same decade, it's actually possible that Jack Nicholson might convincingly play the father of a Robert Downey Jr. in a motion picture. And that's apparently something that could possibly happen if this little story doesn't turn out to be a horrible rumor: Nicholson is reportedly in talks to star in The Judge alongside his son Robert Downey Jr., who will play a character who must only be described as a "hotshot" (but you knew that anyway, because Downey Jr. has never played a character who is not a hotshot in some way, shape or form).
No, Joel Silver hasn't fallen through a time rift and into a scenario that sees him hiding out from a group of hooded bandits in the safety of a cathedral, but the producer is looking to the past for inspiration with his next movie, which he describes as "a cross between Blade and Wanted" - two movies Silver happens to have a little history with (and if you care, you can look that up on your own, thank you very much). Anyway, Sanctuary is said to be based around a secret Vatican organization who take in possessed men and women and train them to fight against the forces of evil whilst also harnessing their demons, presumably with crossbows and wooden stakes but more than likely with technology-enhanced versions of those weapons.
Either somebody hit their head on the way to work yesterday, or Disney are trying to replicate the ride-to-film franchise success they experienced with Pirates of the Caribbean in new, weird ways. Not with a particularly cinematic ride, mind you: they've unveiled plans to start working on a Big Thunder Mountain television series, which is (if you've ever rode Big Thunder Mountain) extremely perplexing to a human of normal brain capacity. For those who don't know what in tarnation we're talking about, Big Thunder Mountain is a rollercoaster "steam train" built into a fake mountain at DisneyWorld theme parks: loose plot points such as gold mining and yellow-bellied varmints attract the attention of your eyes as you race around, dodging canyons and other desert-themed obstacles.
Although it seemed like MTV were doing the world a serious favor when they announced that they were taking Jersey Shore off of life support and cancelling the hell out of it, it still won't be safe to flick past the channel in hope of avoiding the show's fame-hungry reprobates because almost every member of the gang has been granted their own spin-off.
This week in bizarre movie team-ups you never expected: Eccentrically-charged actor Chris Tucker, regularly seen shooting the shit from an ethnic perspective with Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour movies, is in talks to join Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth for the US remake of French film The Intouchables. Before you even think it in that mind of yours, no, this movie doesn't have anything to do with the Kevin Costner film The Untouchables, although a Chris Tucker/Colin Firth version of that motion picture would no doubt result in the finest movie of this thing we call 21st century cinema.
In a move that was so not like Terrence Malick, Terrence Malick started working on a new feature film almost straight after he'd finished with another, opting to break the traditional decade-long period of exile that keeps him so enigmatic and mysterious among serious film fans. Now he's just like a normal director, and is sure to lose points with those who treat their quiet auteurs like spiritual entities. Anyway, To The Wonder, Malick's sixth film in almost forty years, is reportedly set for an April 2013 release date in the US. It'll be released firstly in the UK, though, because Studio Canal have agreed to distribute it there first in a way that is just so typical of them.
