May 21st, 2009
Be honest: It’s still kind of hard to believe this guy is the governor of California, isn’t it?
Over at Cinematical.com, Todd Gilchrist tries to sort out the confusing timeline of the TERMINATOR movies. Here’s the conclusion he reaches:
The bottom line is we’ve been thinking about TERMINATOR for a long time now, and we’re thoroughly confused. What’s new? What’s old? What happened when? Who should exist and who shouldn’t? Presumably there is someone who can verify some of these ambiguous details or explain how this unwieldy mess of dates, timelines and thrilling action scenes comes together cohesively. But we suspect the explanation would require a time machine, a professor of quantum physics, and a suspension of disbelief. And really, as long as stuff blows up real good, the rest doesn’t matter. Or does it?
Check out the whole tangled timeline here.
May 21st, 2009
Can you picture kids playing with this John Travolta monstrosity? How about a Kevin Costner WATERWORLD toy? Or an Alec Baldwin action figure from THE SHADOW? Maybe an Adam Sandler figure from LITTLE NICKY?
You can’t? Well, neither could the kids themselves, which is why those toy lines bombed big time. Merchandising execs, however, thought every child in America would be eager to tear open the packaging on a Warren Beatty DICK TRACY action figure, which is why they OK’d such a bad idea in the first place.
Read about these and other fiascos in “The Top 10 Toylines Based on Blockbusters Movies Nobody Wanted.”
May 21st, 2009
Over at the Guardian’s TV Blog, writer Ben Child considers the possibility of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman — the genius behind ADAPTATION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and SYNECDOCHE, NY — creating a TV show, based on a quote Kaufman gave recently:
“I would want my own show. I like the idea of telling something over time. It might be a fun challenge. The movie business has changed, and with the stuff I do, it would be an interesting place to go.”
Trouble is, Kaufman’s movies, as great as they are, don’t aim for the same audience that devours episode after episode of AMERICAN IDOL, DANCING WITH THE STARS and other drek. Even critics who liked his latest movie, SYNECDOCHE (like me) admitted it’s pretty tough going and requires careful thought and attention to detail. And, as Child points out, even David Lynch, who had some success with TWIN PEAKS back in the early 1990s, wasn’t able to get ABC to turn his MULHOLLAND DR. pilot into a series. (Instead, Lynch turned it into one of the best movies of the last 10 years.)
I don’t know if it would succeed or not, but I do know that I’d watch every episode of a Charlie Kaufman TV series, no matter how strange it was. And besides, Kaufman does have some TV experience — he wrote episodes of NED AND STACEY, THE DANA CARVEY SHOW and Chris Elliot’s wonderfully weird Fox sitcom, GET A LIFE.Â
Read Child’s article here.
