The House bunnies

Kat Dennings in "The house bunny"

Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Katharine McPhee and Rumer Willis attend the screening of "The House Bunny" at the Joseph Urban Theatre inside of the Hearst Tower on Monday in New York City.
Source: JustJared.buzznet.com

Aviva Farber

"Superbad" group photo, Michael Cera (pointing at Apatow) between Jonah Hill and Aviva, Seth Rogen, etc.

"I think Cera can totally pull off Scott [Pilgrim] - it's just the part he needs to avoid being typecast".
"The redheaded chicky from Superbad needs to be Kim. She's awesome. And she's got the voice for it too. So hot".
Source: scottpilgrim.ning.com/forum

Aviva between Martha MacIsaac and Seth Rogen.

"Caroline Franklin (Aviva from "Superbad") calls on some divine guidance to help her with her cheerleading. From FORGIVING THE FRANKLINS, a popular film at the Sundance Film Festival".

Intractable heroes

"As Conrad E. Oswalt Jr. said, “The box office constitutes a mass medium for the apocalyptic drama, which suggests the existence of a popular, apocalyptic imagination in contemporary society – apocalyptic consciousness the movie industry has discovered and perhaps fostered.”

Charles P. Mitchell said, “Many of the elements from the book of Revelation have filtered into our world culture.” A few examples of these elements are: the destruction of the known world (termed “apocalypse”), dualism, the supernatural hero, free will and the predetermined plan of God, and dualism. Mitchell also said that apocalyptic cinema is made up of “motion pictures that depict a credible threat to the continuing existence of humankind as a species or the existence of Earth as a planet capable of supporting human life…the event threatening the extinction of humanity has to be presented within the story.”Conrad Oswalt has said, regarding apocalypse in American film, that “the apocalyptic drama occurs in a familiar or an immediate setting that has been transformed into a terrifying Armageddon” By going into a tangent, yet identical, universe, Donnie’s once familiar world has begun to speed rapidly toward destruction.

In order to avoid this worldwide destruction, however, there must be a hero figure to bring about renewal. Again comparing modern and traditional apocalypse, Oswalt says, “The modern apocalyptic imagination removes the end of time from the sacred realm of the gods and places the apocalypse firmly in the grasp and control of humanity.” This human control is found in the person of Donnie Darko. Donnie is chosen by Frank to get everyone out of the tangent universe before it collapses. The character of Donnie is similar to both John as the chosen recipient of a divine message, as well as Christ as messianic savior. Once difference, however, between the role of Donnie and Christ in Revelation is that Donnie does not realize until the end of the movie that he has been chosen to save everyone.

In the context of Donnie Darko, this hero figure is referred to as the Living Receiver. According to the book accompanying the movie, “The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the Artifact into position for its journey back to the Primary Universe…The Living Receiver is often blessed with…powers.” Donnie’s supernatural role is foreshadowed during his first conversation with his girlfriend, Gretchen. She asks, “Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? Sounds like some kind of superhero or something.” Donnie is, whether he knows it or not, the hero character in the story. Oswalt says, “the strong character is usually a hero figure who rises to the occasion by preventing the end from coming or by defeating the forces of evil.” However, this dualism, which Donnie fights, he ultimately sees as truth. What he once feared, dying alone, he later willingly chooses because of his love for Gretchen.

In addition to dualism, the supernatural hero, and apocalypse, Donnie Darko also incorporates the question of control found in Revelation, in other words, free will v. pre-determinism.

The movie asks the question of free will and predestination and purposefully doesn’t answer it. Director, Richard Kelly, says this is because “Ultimately for me I think it’s more powerful to leave the mystery intact and not spoil it by trying to over-explain everything.”

[...] In traditional apocalypse, according to John J. Collins, “The main means of revelation are visions and otherworldly journeys, supplemented by discourse or dialogue and occasionally by a heavenly book. The constant element is the presence of an angel who interprets the vision or serves as a guide on the otherworldly journey.”
Source: naomirachel.blogspot.com

"Brendan in this one is the too-cool-for-school dude who lunches alone and finally, at the height of his send-Mary-Astor-to-the-gallows moment - "Now you are dangerous," he says earlier, in a direct reference to THE MALTESE FALCON - learns that his controlling nature cost him not just the girl but his own happiness, indeed (in the literal, biological, gene-perpetuating way) his own masculine triumph; his self-reliant existentialism ends up hurting even himself. The film's magic seemed mysterious on first viewing, home-made and sketchy, set in a forgotten America of empty spaces and almost oppressive tranquillity - like on a stage, keeping real life at bay, and amateur dramatics duly make an appearance in the narrative - but second viewing reveals it to be slicker (and more skilful), leaning heavily on a memorable score (starting with Em's theme, a lilting lament seemingly played on shards of glass) and making creative use of its low budget by framing tightly on specific objects; since both noir and high-school are used almost abstractly, familiar sets of rituals to be shuffled through like a deck of cards in a card-trick; nor is it really script-centric - as some people claim - Johnson's control being far more important than the dialogue or narrative (which resolve into dense witty patois and tortuous McGuffin, respectively); best seen as a mood-piece, as lost in its world as its own intractable hero, finally puncturing his cerebral shell - he does get into violence but self-consciously, taking off his glasses first - as a warning against living too obsessively in your own head".
Source: leonardo.spidernet.net

"A while back, my boyfriend shoved Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life into my precious little hands, and I absolutely adored the part real, part video-game-ish love story (with ninjas!). Ever since we heard there was going to be a movie made of the series, we've been wondering who could play Scott, the books' 20-something, goofy, mediocre-music-playing slacker antihero who must defeat his crush's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart. One name came to mind: Michael Cera.I think this could be a great role for Cera — a bit of a stretch, but certainly something he can pull off. Scott's awkward, like many of Cera's best characters, but it's a different kind of awkward: the awkwardness of someone who thinks he's actually pretty cool".
Source: buzzsugar.com

Alia Shawkat in "Whip it!"

"I am going to go out on a ledge here, from which I may fall and hurt myself in bad ways, but with Alia Shawkat joining the cast of Drew Barrymore's directorial debut WHIP IT!, I am going to declare this the best female ensemble in cinematic history. Shawkat of course, played Maeby Funke on Fox's dead-too-soon "Arrested Development" and if you didn't have a crush on her you probably like boys. She joins indie-it girl du jour Ellen Page, Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Zoe Bell and my favorite Kristen Wiig. Wow. Put all those women together and you get an edgy, sarcastic, motherly rocker chick who probably loves to cuddle. The movie follows Page as an indie-rock misfit (bold casting!) who discovers a roller derby league in her small Texas Town. Who cares if Barrymore is directing? With a cast like that I'm just so, so sold".
Source: www.joblo.com

Nolan interviewed by El Periódico de Aragón

Christopher Nolan: "El verdadero superhéroe pasa totalmente desapercibido" ("The true superhero gets totally inadverted")
( El Periódico de Aragón - 18/08/2008 )

James Franco as Jack Ryan?

"Sam Raimi is working to get the Jack Ryan franchise off the ground and relaunched but replacing Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin and Ben Affleck is proving difficult (OK, replacing Affleck shouldn't be too hard). CHUD has some interesting scoop on who Raimi wants, who Sony doesn't want and what it might mean for the franchise.

They report that Raimi wants to cast his SPIDER-MAN star James Franco as Jack Ryan but the Sony execs aren't ready yet to hand over a big franchise like this to Franco. This is reportedly causing a major rift between Raimi and Sony and may wind up causing the director to walk off the project. Personally I think Franco's a great choice for an action star if someone would give him the chance. He'd need to bulk up a bit I suppose but if Matt Damon (Matt Damon!) can become one of the biggest action stars courtesy the BOURNE franchise, why not Franco? Of course what does this mean to the ongoing negotiations between Sony and Raimi for SPIDER-MAN 4? All interesting things to keep an eye on...

Extra Tidbit: Franco wears a prosthetic schlong in the upcoming drama MILK"
Source: www.joblo.com

The Batman Franchise

"The Dark Knight" slipped to No. 2 with $16.8 million in ticket sales in its fifth weekend of release but broke yet another commercial barrier along the way by becoming the second-highest-grossing film ever.Details are a little sketchy on what the DARK KNIGHT DVDs are going to include but seeing as how it's poised to become a) the second biggest movie of all-time and b) the biggest movie released in the DVD era, we knew you'd expect a lot of different versions to be available. While we still don't have a lot of the specs on what these DVDs will contain, we are starting to get some word on what kinds of versions will be available. A scooper named "Dave" sent in some images that we've been able to confirm as legit. They would confirm a 2-disc DVD, a Blu-ray, a steelbook 2-disc DVD special edition, a Batpod collector's DVD and a Batman mask collector's DVD (basically the 2-disc DVD shrink-wrapped with a Batman mask).In trying to track down more info on these DVDs, I've heard two conflicting release dates - December 2nd and December 9th. Either way THE DARK KNIGHT is poised for some huge sales this holiday season. I've already got my eyes on that steelbook...
Source: www.joblo.com
"But given that it unites Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, the studio is trying to figure out how such the pic (cast with younger actors) would affect its existing Batman and Superman franchises -- and whether the script respects how the characters play off each other in the DC universe.

To put it simply: the studio doesn't want to piss off the Comic-Con contingent.When it comes to Batman, the future of the franchise is in Christopher Nolan's hands. That's what a successful reboot with "Batman Begins" and breaking records with "The Dark Knight" will do.

There's a deal for the director to helm a third pic, but he has yet to decide on whether to tackle it yet.

"We have no idea where Chris is going with this," Horn says. "We haven't had any conversations with him about it."

Either way, there's no question Warner Bros. will produce more superhero pics. The question is when.

"These are big, iconic characters," Noveck says. "So when you make them into a movie, you'd better be shooting for a pretty high standard. You're not always going to reach it, but you have to be shooting for it. We're going to make a Justice League movie, whether it's now or 10 years from now. But we're not going to do it and Warners is not going to do it until we know it's right."
Source: www.variety.com