True Romance: 15 years later. Maxim article (hence slightly NSFW ads) with interviews with Christian Slater, Tony Scott, Quinten Tarantino, etc. If you're a fan of behind-the-scenes gossip, or the film -- or both -- it's an interesting read.
posted by zardoz on May 27, 2008 - 46 comments

Sleazoid Express (this post rated NSFW) was a New York film fanzine that championed the grindhouse cinema that played in sketchy Times Square movie theaters during the pre-Giuliani era. Featuring in-depth reviews of film fare such as Pets, Nanami: Inferno of First Love, and Let Me Die A Woman, the Sleazoid Express zine later inspired a book, which can probably take some credit for stoking Quentin Tarantino's interest in grindhouse filmmaking. (An excerpt from the book, Sleazoid Express, can be found here, and here's some original grindhouse trailers thrown in for good measure.)
posted by jonp72 on Apr 5, 2007 - 12 comments

What the f* were the parents of these kids thinking when they let them film these ads? (via Kotaku)
posted by phyrewerx on Aug 4, 2006 - 45 comments

Using fine-art images to promote movies: "But it was Mr. Kessell's "Florilegium" (or "collection of floral images") daguerrotypes that caught Mr. Palen's eye: each image is close-up of a surgical instrument, so poetically rendered that it seems almost organic. Some of the macabre implements resemble exotic flowers. One, from a distance, could be mistaken for the horns of a gazelle. "We were sort of blocked, and all the pieces fell into place once I saw that image," Mr. Palen explained. A deal was made to use that daguerreotype [to promote the upcoming Tarantino-produced film "Hostel"], which actually shows a surgical clamp. [The poster] now appears in theaters and on widespread promotions. [Side: direct WMV link of Tarantino spazing out while introducing "Hostel's" director Eli Roth at a festival.]
posted by JPowers on Jan 4, 2006 - 12 comments

"It has always been as if I carry chaos with me the way others carry typhoid. My purpose in writing is to transcend my existence by illuminating it."
Crime novelist Edward Bunker, who died last Tuesday at age 71 (LATimes obit), became at 17 the youngest inmate at San Quentin after he stabbed a prison guard at a youth detention facility. It was during his 18 years of incarceration for robbery, check forgery and other crimes that Bunker learned to write. In 1973, while still in prison, he made his literary debut with "No Beast So Fierce", a novel about a paroled thief James Ellroy called "quite simply one of the great crime novels of the past 30 years" and that was made into the movie "Straight Time" starring Dustin Hoffman. Also a screenwriter ("Runaway Train"), Bunker appeared as an actor in nearly two dozen roles, most notably as Mr. Blue in "Reservoir Dogs." (more inside)
posted by matteo on Jul 25, 2005 - 9 comments

Wait A Minute! Where's That Great Movie I Saw In The Trailer? I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine, said Bruce Lee. Still, expectations and anticipation are an integral part of cinephilia and the fun of watching movies in general. For a lot of us, Tarantino's Kill Bill is by far the most expected movie of 2003. [The trailer and the screenplay reviews, whether enthusiastic or not, lead one to expect a sword-swallowing, fire-breathing mix of "Enter The Dragon", "Slouching Tiger, Creeping Dragon" and "Charlie's Dragon Angels". So - will it be up to Tarantino's best? I venture to say oh yes.]
And if you're not a rabid Tarrantino fan, which upcoming film(s) are you most eager to see, from now until 2006?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 10, 2003 - 57 comments