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November 10, 2005
The teaser trailer has just appeared online for
Darren Aronofsky's first
movie since
2000, and only his third overall. It's the result of an incredibly tumultous
Gilliam-style gestation period that included a large budget being greenlighted with Brad Pitt in the starring role, Brad Pitt dropping out of the project to film
Troy with Wolfgang Petersen, sets being destroyed, the project being cancelled, the crew members writing a
public tirade deriding his desertion that concludes with the
"Send the word.... Brad is a dick.", and, finally, a movie (still being edited) that was re-written to be filmed for half the budget with Hugh Jackman as the star in Mr. Pitt's place.
Script reviews and
early looks indicate it may be one of the most ambitious studio releases in recent memory. Even if it doesn't entirely succeed, isn't this a good thing for films in general?
posted by setanor at 10:29 PM PST - 64 comments
Clearman's Steak n' Stein Inn is a throw-back to a creepier, more velvety time. Anyone living in the Valley is no doubt familiar with the commercial for this Pico Rivera staple, with its Joe Jackson-worthy kinda kute waitresses and stately, Wagnerian score. There're
lots (and
lots and
lots) of people obsessed with old diners, but I have to ask myself: who represents online for the creepy old steak house contingent?
posted by ford and the prefects at 9:34 PM PST - 28 comments
The White Diamond was one of three documentaries released in theaters this year (in the U.S.) by legendary filmmaker
Werner Herzog (the others being the more widely seen
Grizzly Man, about a man who studied bears in Alaska, and
Wheel of Time, about the practices and rituals of devout Buddhists). In
The White Diamond, Herzog introduces us to
Dr. Graham Dorrington, a professor of aeronautics who is obsessed with weightless, floating flight, and who is testing the design of a new airship in a large hangar outside of London. Herzog and Dorrington travel to the rainforest of Guyana, where Dorrington hopes to fly the small dirigible over the jungle’s canopy and study the innumerable plants and animals living there with the hopes of finding new species and potentially discovering plants with pharmaceutical and healing benefits – a practice he calls “canopy prospecting”. [more inside]
posted by billysumday at 3:43 PM PST - 14 comments
Fallen Art (16mb avi) is the second movie directed by Tomek Baginski, following his Oscar nominated "The Cathedral..." This short animated movie has been made by a group of people for whom the army has always been an unfulfilled dream. (more info)
posted by crunchland at 1:24 PM PST - 8 comments
Welcome to Idiot America: "The America of Franklin and Edison, of Fulton and Ford, of the Manhattan project and the Apollo program, the America of which Einstein wanted to be a part, seems to be enveloping itself in a curious fog behind which it's tying itself in knots over evolution, for pity's sake, and over the relative humanity of blastocysts versus the victims of Parkinson's disease."
posted by bitmage at 10:41 AM PST - 62 comments
The latest in something of a trend, left-leaning LA Weekly has
warmed to nuclear power. Earlier this year,
Greenpeace founder
Patrick Moore endorsed it as well (along with such practices as salmon farming). The idea that Nuclear is green has appeared in the pages of the New York Times, with (both subscriber only, sorry)
Thomas Friedman and
Nicholas Kristof making the case back in March and April. They've encountered
some resistance, but it seems to be a growing position. (Of course, there are
some people who aren't being asked to join the club.) Is this a "
Greenwashing" or a legitimate change in the environmental movement?
posted by graymouser at 7:38 AM PST - 77 comments
Explosions in three hotels in Amman, Jordan kill at least 57 people. Authorities suspect suicide bombers. The Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn were involved in the bombings; most of the deaths were focused at a
wedding reception where a man allegedly entered into the crowd with eplosives strapped to his body.
Arrests have been made, and the government is asking anyone who filmed the bombings to give the government a copy. An al-qaeda website has taken responsibility, stating "A group of our best lions launched a new attack on some dens ..."
posted by Dean Keaton at 7:35 AM PST - 25 comments
