Oscars Announce More Changes
Just last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences told us that they'd be altering the best picture category for the award ceremony's 82nd year. Now, they're letting us know two more changes will be made to the 2010 Oscars: one to the best song category and another to the presentation of the various testimonial awards.... read more
Documenting the Dylanologist: The Ballad of AJ Weberman Streaming Until Tomorrow
Bob Dylan fans may tend towards the passionate, but none come close to the level of superfan AJ Weberman, self-proclaimed Dylanologist and devoted Dylan stalker/trash-digger. Now, James Bluemel and Oliver Ralfe's 2006 documentary, The Ballad of AJ Weberman, is streaming on DailyMotion.com until tomorrow, offering a fascinating peek into the life of a man who has made the pursuit of Bob Dylan his life's work. ... read more
Just How Many Versions are There of Where The Wild Things Are? Karen O's Seen Many.
For the past couple years, covering Spike Jonze's forthcoming Where The Wild Things Are has simply been the wolf's pajamas, as writers have faithfully chronicled the film's ultra-delayed release date, director-and-production company squabbles and test screenings that apparently scared the bejesus out of small children. It's no surprise, really. There's a ton of grown-up kids out there peeing their pants in anticipation of its eventual release, and we're no exception. Judging by the film's Arcade Fire-y trailer and the creative force behind it all, Wild Things looks like it'll be stunning when it finally does hit theaters.... read more
David Fincher to Direct Aaron Sorkin's Facebook Movie?
Given how much hostility the Facebook movie, The Social Network, has faced before it even heads into production, there sure are some huge names at its helm. Aaron Sorkin was hired to write the screenplay, Scott Rudin is producing, and now Variety reports that David Fincher is in “advanced talks” to direct. ... read more
Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball Delayed Indefinitely
Just 96 hours before filming was supposed to start, the production of Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt as former Oakland A's player and general manager Billy Beane, came to a screeching halt. After Columbia Pictures bigwig Amy Pascal read over the rewrites Steven Soderbergh had made to the original script, she felt uncomfortable backing the film, according to Variety. Pascal put it into "limited turnaround," allowing Soderbergh the freedom to find another studio.... read more
Farrah Fawcett: 1947-2009
Actress Farrah Fawcett, who is best known for her role in the original Charlie's Angels television series, died on this morning after a three-year battle with anal cancer. She was 62.... read more
Oscars to Nominate 10 Movies for Best Picture Rather than Five
In an extraordinary shakeup of Oscar convention, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will now nominate 10 movies for best picture rather than the traditional five, its president announced. ... read more
Whitestone Pictures Helps "Save Paste" Through Filmmaking
Our friends at Atlanta film-production company Whitestone Pictures wanted to participate in the Campaign To Save Paste by doing what they do best. So when they offered to conceive, shoot, edit and deliver an original short film in under four weeks, we said YES. As as a thank-you to everyone who spread the word about our campaign, we invite you to enjoy "Lest We Forget." You can watch the film and check out behind-the-scenes footage here.Please share the link with your friends, and thanks for participating in the Campaign To Save Paste.... read more
Is Mike Judge's The Goode Family Proof that Liberal America Can't Laugh at Itself?
It's no secret: Mike Judge's latest television project The Goode Family may not survive its first season. After lackluster ratings for the debut and second episode, ABC moved the show to Friday, entombing it deep in the summer lineup and making the odds of renewal slim at best.... read more
Flight of the Conchords' Kristen Schaal Gets U.K. Television Pilot
Playing the character of Mel on Flight of the Conchords seems like it would be a full-time job. What with all the T-shirt designs, awkward sexual advances and uninvited home visits, serving as the one-and-only superfan of New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk group sounds like a hefty commitment. Well, looks as though curly-topped comedienne Kristen Schaal has adjusted her schedule to cheat on her beloved Kiwis just a little, lending her absurd deadpan and kid-with-a-cold voice to a new show recently green-lit as a for-broadcast pilot on the U.K.'s Channel 4.... read more
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland Photos, Details Released
Take the childhood-favorite tale Alice in Wonderland. Add the twisted triumvirate of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter to the movie re-imagination. Throw in a plotline that's tinged with a little dose of girl power. Then release some of the set photos online through USA Today way out in front of the release date of March 5, 2010. The result?... read more
Arrested Development Super Fans Plan Documentary
As far as sitcoms go, we like to think it's fairly uncontroversial to say that Arrested Development is the best of the last few decades. And given its cult-classic status, it's unsurprising that demands for a movie version are reaching a fever pitch. So while obsessives are screaming "COME ON!" for the movie to get rolling, some super fans have decided to craft an Arrested Development movie of their own: a cross-country documentary exploring the genius of the Bluth Family and the fan culture that sprung up around it.... read more
Spike Jonze, David Cross and Will Arnett Join Forces, Make Increasingly Poor Decisions
We can't seem to leave Spike Jonze alone. We've been following the never-ending status updates on his upcoming film, Where The Wild Things Are, on a regular basis. And that's not even counting all of its warm-and-fuzzy (and slightly creepy) offshoots. We'd considered giving the director a rest, but after we heard he had teamed up with Arrested Development alums, David Cross and Will Arnett, to shoot a pilot for a U.K. sitcom, we caved.... read more
Ed McMahon: 1923-2009
Ed McMahon, longtime sidekick to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, died early this morning in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He was 86 years old.... read more
Thank God, Troll 2 is Finally on Hulu!
In recent years, almost anyone who's seen the movie Troll 2 has probably done so via battered VHS or DVD copies loaned to them by friends eager to share the festering green trainwreck of a cinematic masterpiece with everyone they know. This has made for a huge, decades-late upswell of enthusiasm for the film, documented by its former-child-star Michael Stephenson in Best Worst Movie, which we've told you about before. That's all well and good, but there's a darker side to the Troll 2 phenomenon that no one seems to want to talk about.... read more
Focus Features Just Nabbed Sam Mendes for a Two-Year Pact. Is Their Confidence Misplaced?
For a guy who won an Oscar for his first feature, Sam Mendes is difficult to pin down. Since that auspicious debut, American Beauty, he’s made a series of more-or-less respected movies that never quite took off: Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road. By the time Away We Go opened earlier this month to the harshest reviews of his career (Hey, our guy liked it!), some observers wondered aloud how much longer he could really be considered an elite name in prestige moviemaking. ... read more
Filmmaker Brothers Discuss Search for The Best Bar in America
When fledgling filmmakers Damon and Eric Ristau put together their first feature, The Best Bar in America, they had their priorities more or less in order. “We set out to make a move about one man’s journey—a very simple story that we think everyone can relate to on a certain level,” one brother offers. ... read more
David Lynch Preps Dave Jarequi Tribute Album
Nothing gets the kids dancing provocatively in diners quite like those eerie '50s-style scene-setters found in David Lynch projects. And while it's approaching 20 years since he put forth the postmodern supernatural-soap-opera-murder-mystery, Twin Peaks, Lynch will be channeling its memorable tunes on an upcoming project. Marking another foray into the music world, Lynch has announced the release of Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jarequi, which he produced.... read more
Where Will Emile Hirsch's Hamlet Fall Within the Canon of Modern-Day Shakespeare Films?
When we heard Emile Hirsch would play Hamlet in a modern-times Shakespeare remake directed by Twilight's Catherine Hardwicke, flashbacks of teen flicks (most of which involved Julia Stiles) adapting 16th-and-17th-century masterpieces flooded our collective memory. It's always been interesting to watch what develops in these modernizations, as directors and writers throw purist interpretation to the wind with the belief that Shakespeare's storylines transcend all time periods. Heartthrobby leads try to give Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Olivier a run for their money, jeans-and-tees replace frilly frocks, and major turns of plot transpire in gas stations, high-school stadiums and Blockbuster video stores. Although some past adaptations have recontexualized... read more
Hey, Did You Know They Spent a Lot of Money on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
There is only one word on the minds of the people tasked with marketing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: huge. ... read more
