The UBS Evening Television & Movie News 12.17.09
Posted by George H. Sirois on 12.17.2009
A moment of silence for Roy Disney, a look at this weekend’s new releases, the latest branch on VH1’s tree of guilty pleasure reality television, an announcement regarding a very popular detective trilogy of novels making their way to American cinema, Andy Critchell’s photo news brief and a very special Christmas edition of “Scene Anatomy 101.” All this and the latest update on the novel in The “Mr. Capra Has a Dirty Mind” Edition…
Welcome everyone to the latest edition of the UBS Evening Movie News. I'm George H. Sirois, and if you're on Twitter, you can find me HERE! And don't forget, for all of you who are new to 411Mania.com, make sure you check out all of our zones. We have some of the best writers on the Internet right here, and we love to hear from all of you! So keep coming back to read what we have for you, make us your homepage and if you have Facebook, make sure to join our group HERE!
CHOSEN ONES, STEP FORWARD!
"Eons ago, on the planet known as Denab IV, its creator Excelsior appeared as a vision to several people he deemed "Chosen Ones." Those lucky few were selected by him to lead their fellow Denarians in keeping the planet as the paradise he always envisioned. As each passing generation of the Chosen Ones reached a certain age, Excelsior visited them in their dreams to give them the wisdom necessary to pick up where the previous generation left off. This continued on until Excelsior's spiritual form was cast down to the planet he had taken such care in crafting.
As I have stated before, I have thankfully passed the 30-deposit mark and the goal is still to see 50 people ordering this book before it goes to press. All you have to do is click on this button to send in your $14.95 (plus $3 S&H) and you will not only guarantee a personally autographed copy, but your name will be in the acknowledgements section in the back of the book. Yes, YOUR NAME will be printed in a novel!
Oh, and I'm working on getting another surprise ready by the time the book is completed. Again, this will be for those who send in their deposits early, so let's see if you can help me reach the 50-deposit goal! And who knows? We could pass that number and start working our way to 100! It could happen!
And feel free to check out the new blog for the novel HERE!
And with that, on with the news!
SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER
UPCOMING MOVIES
AVATAR: James Cameron writes and directs this sci-fi epic about a band of humans (Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Moore) who are pitted in a battle against a distant planet's indigenous population.
So what if this looks like Dances with Smurfs? Everyone should know by now that the story doesn‘t matter as much as how the story is told, and I‘m looking forward to seeing what Cameron has in store for us after 12 years.
NINE: Rob Marshall directs this musical about a famous film director (Daniel Day-Lewis) who struggles to find harmony in his professional and personal lives, as he engages in dramatic relationships with his wife, his mistress, his muse, his agent, and his mother.
I‘m very excited to see Rob Marshall delivering another musical adaptation that looks absolutely stellar. The only thing I don‘t want to see is a repeat of the dreadful musical number from last year‘s Oscars. (It seems a lot of things in the news lately has been reminding me of that performance.)
Credit: TheMovieBox.net
JIM WEBBING AND HIS IT'S THE HONEST TRUTH DEPARTMENT
A moment of silence for a true champion of animation: Roy E. Disney will likely be remembered principally for the role he played behind the scenes in the Disney boardroom, engineering two coups and helping revitalize the animated film division. The nephew of Walt Disney died Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif., after a bout with stomach cancer. He was 79.
His father, Roy O. Disney, and uncle, Walt, co-founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio before renaming it The Walt Disney Co. in the 1920s. Walt was the company's creative genius but Roy Disney's father played a vital role heading up the financial side of the studio.
Despite his heritage, Roy Disney never got the chance to lead the company as his father and uncle had. But as an investor who grew his Disney stock into a billion-dollar fortune, and formed Shamrock Holdings with his friend and fellow Disney board member Stanley Gold in 1978, he ultimately had a huge impact on the company's destiny.
Although he generally stayed out of the spotlight, Disney didn't hesitate to lead a successful campaign in 1984 to oust Ron Miller, Walt Disney's son-in-law, after concluding he was leading the company in the wrong direction. At the time, Disney resigned from the company's board of directors and sought investors to back a bid to install new management. (Miller was the husband of Diane Disney Miller, Roy's cousin).
His efforts resulted in the hiring of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, who led the company as a team until Wells died in 1994.
Disney wound up rejoining the board and rose to become the company's vice chairman and chairman of its animation division, whose comeback he helped oversee, starting with "The Little Mermaid" "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "The Lion King." His goal to update "Fantasia" with the ambitious "Fantasia 2000" sequel was no more successful than the original, a box office disappointment.
On behalf of everyone at Disney, we are saddened by the loss of our friend and colleague," said Robert Iger, president and CEO of the Walt Disney Co., in a statement. "He was much more than a valued 56-year company veteran -- Roy's true passion and focus were preserving and building upon the amazing legacy of Disney animation that was started by his father and uncle. Roy's commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of his greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future."
Gold said, "Roy and I enjoyed a 35-year friendship and partnership that was simply special. We faced many business challenges together, had fun in the process and enjoyed a wide variety of professional successes."
He is survived by his second wife, Leslie DeMeuse Disney, a TV producer; daughters Abigail E. Disney and Susan Disney Lord; sons Roy P. and Timothy J. Disney; and 16 grandchildren.
I never knew of Roy's efforts to kickstart the wonderful era of Disney animation until I saw the "Fantasia Revisited" featurette on the Fantasia 2000 DVD. Ever since, I had nothing but a true admiration for everything he did for the company and for all feature-length animation.
While I am sad to hear of his passing, I do have to point out that he left us at the same time The Princess & The Frog hit theaters nationwide and has been getting some very favorable reviews. This shows a very strong potential for Disney going back to the style of animation that brought about their renaissance in 1989. If Walt Disney Pictures winds up going through with giving us more of these features, then that would be the ultimate tribute to Roy's memory.
Credit: Variety
The latest branch on the worst family tree ever…: VH1 is extending its "Tough Love" boot-camp franchise to couples.
In a spin-off, "Tough Love: Couples," professional matchmaker Steve Ward and his mother JoAnn take five couples on the verge of becoming engaged and puts their relationships to the test. At the conclusion of the boot camp, Ward will deliver his verdict on whether the couples are right for each other, though it's up to the couples to decide whether to take his advice.
"Couples" has been picked up for eight hour-long episodes set to premiere in second-quarter 2010.
" 'Tough Love' has become a signature series for VH1 and one that has resonated with millions of our viewers, resulting in thousands of couples applying to be on the show in just the first few weeks of casting," said Jeff Olde, execvp programming at VH1. "We are excited to take the next step with this series by taking the Wards' unfiltered honesty and matchmaking skills and apply those lessons to couples about to take the big leap, despite some lingering questions."
The singles edition of "Love" premiered in March; VH1 ordered a second season that debuted this fall.
There‘s one thing I can say about the VH1 reality shows that continue to come out one after the other: you can tell where each one came from. All these elimination shows starting with Flavor Flav & Bret Michaels would then have spin-off shows featuring eliminated contestants with them either as the object of other guys‘ affections or in a Charm School show. And after that, the same contestants from the spin-offs could do "I Love Money," or some new contestants would go on "Tool Academy" or "Tough Love" or any couples elimination show. So you could put Flav and Bret at the base and then watch the spin-offs grow and grow.
It‘s pretty fascinating to see some kind of connection between so many of these shows (Flav is this generation's Archie Bunker), but it‘s also a relief to me that we got rid of our cable boxes so we don't get sucked in to watching any of these shows or their spin-offs.
Credit: Hollywood Reporter
A win-win battle against originality: Sony Pictures are finalizing talks to grab their mitts on the English-language film rights to Swedish writer Stieg Larrson's crime novels, the Millennium trilogy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, producer Scott Rudin is behind the acquisition. Swedish film company Yellow Bird Films will act as executive producers. Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad announced:
"Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series is nothing short of amazing. The novels are very cinematically told, with fantastic characters and page-turning plots. Once you start reading, they are impossible to put down. Lisbeth Salander is one of the most compelling characters in contemporary fiction and we couldn't be more excited about bringing this project to the screen."
The U.S. films will not be remakes of the already-produced Danish-Swedish co-productions but return to the source material of Larrson's novels. The film trilogy has been a sensation in Scandinavian countries and will be distributed worldwide.
Of course Rudin can say that this isn't a remake of the films that were already done, but he has an advantage that plays into the utter lack of guts that so many people in Hollywood have. Despite their claims, the filmmakers already know that this is a success and so they don't have any problems going with a proven product. So what if the majority of the American public haven't seen those films? They can just push the novels and talk about those, which they have in this article.
So this is essentially a win-win against originality since Rudin can hide behind the books while already knowing that film adaptations of them can be a success since they've already been made.
ANDY CRITCHELL'S INTERACTIVE BABE PHOTO NEWS BRIEF WITH ANDY CRITCHELL
For my money, I find Latin women to have a greater proportion of hotties than any other ethnic group. Don't know why but I love ‘em. And this week I have a super special hottie for you all the way from Argentina, Pamela David. Not really what you'd expect in a Latina name but what's in a name? Would you like to see pictures? Of course you would:
Argentina has been really smart in naming Pamela National Queen of Tourism. What that means I have no idea but she's absolutely sold me on going there. And I'll probably never want to come back. So…
See you next week??
One of the things I have always enjoyed seeing in low budget movies was how the director uses the reduced amount of money to their advantage and gets to be creative. If money was no object, then the only limits would be your imagination, but in most cases, money IS an object. Therefore, the trick is to stretch the dollars enough to get the best possible version of the director's vision across.
In the case of the classic films, the limit wasn't money; instead, it was what could and couldn't be shown on screen. So many movies we have seen from back then featured a close-up of a man and woman kissing, then the camera panning over to the window and the picture fading to something else. That way, the man and woman are left alone to do whatever they please and nothing possibly offensive to the viewing public has been shown.
In 1946, a movie that was later regarded as one of the 100 greatest films of all time (and rightfully so) was released, and a very simple throw-away scene shows just how the writers and director were able to get around the limitations of censorship. And it shows audiences discovering it today that there were plenty of men that had just as dirty a mind back then that they do now. I'm talking about the Frank Capra classic…
By the time we have met the older version of George Bailey (James Stewart), we have already seen how special he is by seeing him rescuing his kid brother from the frozen lake in Bedford Falls and not delivering the mistaken poison capsules from Old Man Gower's pharmacy. Now, we see him years later and he's ready to leave Bedford Falls and "see the world" with his brand new "Flying Carpet" suitcase (a gift from Old Man Gower for saving him from the mistake with the capsules).
George walks up to his friends in the town, Ernie the cab driver (Frank Faylen) and Bert the police officer (Ward Bond). Both Bert and Ernie are as thrilled to see George as the rest of the people in town. They're all very proud of him and know his potential to be something truly special.
GEORGE: Hey Ernie. Hi Bert.
BERT: Hey George.
GEORGE: Hey, I'm a rich tourist today. How about driving me home in style?
Bert opens the cab back door for George, who puts his suitcase on the back seat.
BERT: Hop in, Your Highness. Hop in.
Ernie puts on his cap for the occasion. Again, we see how proud everyone is of George and what he is set out to do.
ERNIE: And for the carriage trade, I put on my hat.
Suddenly, we see the beautiful blonde Violet (Gloria Grahame) walking up to the cab. She is wearing a tight-fitting dress that shows off her figure, revealing to everyone in town that she's grown up from being the little blonde girl in Gower's Pharmacy in the earlier scenes featuring the young George Bailey.
VIOLET: Good afternoon, Mr. Bailey.
George looks up at Violet and his eyes widen. Immediately, Bert and Ernie take notice of her as well.
GEORGE: Hello, Violet. Hey, you look good. That's some dress you got on there.
Violet flirtatiously smiles at George and quickly runs a hand through her hair.
VIOLET: This old thing? Why, I only wear it when I don't care how I look.
And then she walks off, with all three men watching her as she goes. We even see a man crossing the street almost getting run over by a car because he was distracted by Violet walking past him.
After a moment of silence, Ernie looks up at George and the two have the following exchange:
ERNIE: How would you like to take…
GEORGE: Yes.
Now, this little moment is left completely open to your own interpretation, but it's pretty obvious from everyone looking at Violet that their intentions are not very family-friendly.
George gets into the cab and Bert is giving quite a dazed look as he keeps his eyes on Violet as she walks further and further into the distance.
ERNIE: Want to come along, Bert? We'll show you the town.
Bert shakes his head and snaps back to reality.
BERT: No, thanks. I think I'll go home and see what the wife's doing.
Bert walks away, leaving Ernie to smile at George and say…
ERNIE: Family man.
No, not a family man, Ernie. Obviously, they never saw the episode of "Married… With Children" when Bud brought home the homeless girl Tiffany. See, in that episode, all the men in the neighborhood were so hung up on Tiffany - since she was incredibly hot – that their memory of her spawned some lust back in their loins that they hadn't felt in a very long time. And that lust was acted out on their wives.
So yeah, that's what Bert had in mind when we left to go home and "see what the wife's doing." I wouldn't have been shocked if he fumbled the sentence and said, "I think I'll go home and do my wife."
Obviously, Capra couldn't be that crude with a scene like this in a movie like this, but he had to at least hint that these men are, in fact, men and they see someone that stirs up some longing feelings. So he found a way around it, and by only hinting at it, was he able to give us such a charming little moment in a film that's filled with them.
Now, here's your little homework assignment for this week. I want to see what you guys would have written if there were no boundaries like there were back then. Finish Ernie's question for me. Remember, all he gets out is: "How would you like to take…?" Have some fun with this; I'm anxious to see who comes up with the best one.
And that's a wrap for Chapter 143 of The UBS Evening Movie News! For Andy Critchell, I'm George H. Sirois and we'll see you next week!
