Jett Loe Harvests the Webinets So You Don't Have To – Tuesday Edition

posted by Jett Loe

Ok – I still don’t have a name for my weekly film-related harvesting of the Webinets – I’ll come up with some sort of snappy, happy-happy catchphrase at some point.  Anyhew, I won’t let the lack of a branded identity for this post stop the magic – here’s a wrap-up of some film related stories from the past week – enjoy.

1. Noted director of motion pictures, Eric Rohmer, passed away. To quote Jarrod Whaley, “Let’s mourn the passing of Eric Rohmer by sitting in a room, talking endlessly. I jest. One of my favorite filmmakers. Goodbye.”
   
2. The Avatar screenplay has been discovered online – you can download the PDF here.  I looked over it to find the bits of dialogue that I thought were actually added some character to the flick, (“Do you think I felt like a shave-tail louie?, etc.), only to find they are not there.  Perhaps added by the actors while filming?, (notice how the “what are you smoking?” line reads in the script versus Ribisi’s interpretation in the flick).
3. More Avatar stuff :  I Don’t See You - Steven Santos over at The Fine Cut eviscerates everybody’s favorite blockbuster Avatar.  His secret is to treat Avatar as a motion picture – I think he has a point – the film stinks, if you view it as a motion picture. Another  way of looking at Avatar is as pure spectacle – the film it most reminds me of is not a film at all but the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Pure massive spectacle – you know how they said at the time that “only China” could put on that kind of show?  Same thing with Avatar – “only Cameron” could make that pic.
   
4. Continuing with the Avatar theme, (let’s ride that Cameron horse as much as possible folks), Noah Harlan at the 401st Blow notices that Jake Sully’s ‘rallying the troops speech’ not only can’t hold a candle to Henry V – it can’t even go toe to toe with Braveheart. Yikes.
   
5. Roger Ebert continues his vast volume of blogging with ‘Nil by Mouth’ – thoughts on having to say goodbye to eating and drinking.
   
6. Nashville’s very own Jason Shawan interviews ‘My Son My Son What Have Ye Done’ protagonist Michael Shannon – excerpt: “Ostriches are just heathens. They’re really rotten; I didn’t want to interact with them at all. The flamingos, well, they would peck at me sometimes, but it didn’t really hurt. I liked the flamingos.”
   
   
7. The most important US film of the 80′s, They Live, gets the ‘re-cut trailer’ treatment – and becomes a touching a love story, (but really, wasn’t it always?)
   
8. The always necessary Indie Wire is hiring – they need a Media/Traffic Coordinator.
   
9. Apparently Sam Mendes is in talks to direct the next James Bond picture.  Make of this what you will Dear Reader.
   
10. And finally Nic Cage as Everyone rectifies that hole in our heart we always knew was there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 12:05 am. It is filed under Blog, Jett Harvests the Webinets, Jett Loe, Who Knows?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.