Stephen King Fantasy Series The Dark Tower Lands at HBO

Apparently one fantasy series wasn't enough for HBO, as it has just been revealed that Stephen King's 8-book series The Dark Tower will land on HBO. The book series is being adapted in an interesting way: the first book will be made into a movie, which will be followed by an HBO series covering the rest of the books. HBO did an excellent job with Game of Thrones, and The Dark Tower is one of my favorite series, so I'm beyond excited to see how this project turns out, especially since Javier Bardem wants to play the lead. Unfortunately, the movie portion hasn't found a studio, yet, and Bardem's involvement could depend on scheduling. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this one, ok, everyone?

A synopsis of the first book, courtesy of StephenKing.com:

The opening chapter in the epic Dark Tower series. Roland, the last gunslinger, in a world where time has moved on, pursues his nemesis, The Man in Black, across a desert. Roland’s ultimate goal is the Dark Tower, the nexus of all universes. This mysterious icon’s power is failing, threatening everything in existence.

Weekend

Weekend crept up on me. I went into the movie not expecting much—although I am a fan of romance, I had never found a gay romance I could truly connect with, probably because I was unable to easily see myself paralleled in the films, which, admittedly, is important for me when considering romance. And the beginning Weekend didn’t do much for me—I didn’t really like Russell, the protagonist, and I felt the cinematography was trying too hard with it’s shallow depth-of-field and reliance on mirrors to depict the divisive life of the modern gay man. However, as the movie progressed, I found myself forgetting my dislikes. In Russell and Glen’s short-lived, weekend-long love story I found more depth in the character of Russell; realized that the quiet, watchful shot-composition brought us–the viewers–into a closer relationship with the characters, as if we were leaning in and they were whispering to us; and realized that Weekend was not a gay love story, it was a love story. Well written, beautifully shot, truthfully acted, and—most importantly—emotionally pure, Weekend depicts love as what is should be: blind and un-ruled by the backwardness of society.

This poignant, truthful and soft-spoken approach to this sojournant love story bears resemblance to Lost in Translation, which is high praise indeed, especially as Weekend defies being merely imitative and branches out into new ground in it’s refreshing and truthful approach to love. Weekend is a movie that deserves to be seen.

Why Sony's New 3D Viewer Is Bad for Movies

Movies are an escapist fare. For the relatively cheap cost of a ticket they allow a viewer to have a few minutes of reprieve from their life, transporting them into a world full of spectacle and without complications. This fact is well exploited by high-performing blockbusters, which revolve around simple characters, cheap thrills and happy endings. People want escape from the mundane, and Hollywood delivers.

Escapism is at the heart of Sony’s new 3D Viewer. These glasses literally remove any distance between viewer and movie, essentially removing one of the barriers of complete immersion.  That seems to be the goal at least: To give users the feeling of living the movie, surrendering their eyes and ears to it and nothing else. And, on that point, Sony seems to have succeeded. The 3D viewer looks to be an excellent immersion device.

Early Buzz: Green Lantern Sucks (Anyone Surprised?)

Well, early word is in, and it looks like the new Green Lantern, starring the buffly talentless Ryan Reynolds (Definitely, Maybe; Waiting), is set to disappoint comic book fans everywhere. The movie is being trounced by reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes and even warranted only 2/5 stars from IGN, a website with a penchant for giving high reviews to just about everything. However, let's all admit it: the trailer for the movie sucked, the CG suit looked horribly silly, and Reynolds–while still a buff god–has a history of bad acting and already another shitty comic book movie on his resumé (Wolverine). But, at some level, I was still holding out for this movie to surprise me. Looks like that isn't going to happen, now. 

Oh well, at least I still have X-Men: First Class to see. And hey, isn't there a new Batman on the horizon?

See This: 13 Assassins

Miike's (of Audition and Ichi the Killer fame) new film, 13 Assassins, it a great reshaping of the classic samurai film. As the Coen Brothers revitalized the Western in their beautiful, bloody True Grit, Miike does for the Samurai film. This movie, which is currently enjoying a limited release in NYC and LA, is shot with all of the grace of a haiku and all the bloody violence for which Miike is known. The story revolves around 13 samurai who are hired to kill a feudal lord before he can plunge the country into violence. The honor-bound lives of the samurai are starkly contrasted with the sadistic violence of the lord in a build-up that is slow, but full of tension. However, where the movie really shines is in its 45-minute, final battle. Usually, battles of this length quickly fall into chaos, but Miike's control is staggering, mixing truly unique choreography with stunning and clear camera-work... and throwing in some laughs to boot.

If you have the chance, you should catch this movie while it's still in theaters, as to best appreciate the violent poetry. However, if you don't happen to be in NYC or LA, you will have to wait for a wider release or the DVD.

The Governator To Be Written by Steven Banks of Spongebob Fame

You heard that right: Arnold Schwarzenegger's new animated show, The Governator, will be written by Steven Banks, whose writing creds include Spongebob Squarepants and Jimmy Neutron. Putting together the lunacy of Banks with the. . .well. . .lunacy of Schwarzenegger is the formula that will either be transcendentally amazing or soul-crushingly bad. I'm going to pray for the former while banking on the latter. (But, really, what has Schwarzenegger ever done that wasn't amazing?)

Bond is Back!

MGM has come to a deal with Sony to bring Bond back to theaters. As you all know, after the MGM bankruptcy back in 2010, the future of many film rights in their library (including The Hobbit and Bond) were in great jeopardy, but after this deal it looks like Mr. Craig, Daniel Craig will be back in action on Nov 9, 2012. The film is unofficially titled Bond 23 and will be directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead). This deal also conveniently coincides with Netflix's offering of the Bond back-catalogue on instant stream. Color me excited.

Powerful Three-Minute Short

Tune for Two (2011) from alfa primo on Vimeo.

Great cinematography and emotion from this short entitled Tune for Two. It's impressive to see what directors can come up with in such constrained amounts of time. One of film's largely employed traits is the ability to compress time, but it is also able to elongate time, leaving the viewer on the edge of his seat.

Trailer: Lars von Trier's Melancholia

Melancholia from Zentropa on Vimeo.

This trailer for Melancholia, the next film by Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, looks fascinating. The movie has an apocalyptic backdrop, over which it appears to address familial stress and the finiteness of love. Von Trier tends to address hidden corruptions in the human soul and Melancholia is not a departure from that theme. Von Trier's movies are also gorgeous, due in large part to his collaboration with cinematographer Anthony Dod Manalt (of Slumdog Millionaire Fame). If any of you haven't seen his works, I'd suggest you start with either Dogville or Antichrist, though the latter will probably disturb you and keep you up at night (but hey, who doesn't want to be disturbed into sleeplessness every once in a while?).

Melancholia is set to premiere at Cannes. Magnolia is handling the U.S. distribution, but no release date has been announced.

James Cameron on the Future of Cinema

James Cameron is once again touting that he is a seer for the future of cinema, and this time it is increased recording and projection speeds. He proposes that we will replace the standard 24 frames per second with a new standard of 48 or 60fps. The move is designed to decrease the strobing effect in film and increase the fluidity of movement, which would be especially beneficial if this whole 3D craze ever catches in. (Don’t count on it, says Ebert)

While I am not a huge proponent of 3D movies, it will be interesting to see how an increased FPS will affect the cinema. Most digital cameras are already capable of shooting at these speeds, but to process and project the movie the FPS is usually lowered in order to cut costs (when you have to render effects on twice the number of frames, it essentially doubles the cost, and higher-speed projectors are more expensive). However, Peter Jackson is currently shooting The Hobbit at 48fps and it would prove to be a wonderful test of the new technology if Warner Bros. and New Line decide to cough up the extra money to render and project the movie at 48.

'The Hobbit' Begins Shooting

 
Despite pre-production problems, union difficulties, and Guillermo Del Toro leaving, The Hobbit has finally begun to film, according to a report by Variety. While I would be more optimistic about this movie if it were still in the hands of Guillermo Del Toro (who doesn't want to see his take on Middle Earth?), I'm still confident that this will turn out to be a great movie and I'm excited to see the final results. Now we only have a couple years left to wait!

Aronofsky Exits 'The Wolverine'

Aronofsky has exited 20th Century Foxes The Wolverine, according to a report from Deadline Hollywood. A possible cause of this departure is his recent divorce and the fact that he does not want to spend a year in Hollywood, as the film is planned to shoot in Japan.

While I was excited to see Aronofsky's take on The Wolverine, I also had trepidations about whether the movie could be any good, considering the first. Hopefully this means that Aronofsky can move forward with other projects, and it seems as though he is still in good standing with Fox, especially considering the award-winning success that was Black Swan.