‘Flash’ Foe Ford Clears Up About Wipers
October 6, 2008
In this weekend’s well-meaning docudrama, Flash of Genius, Greg Kinnear portrays an inventor who struggled for years to sue car manufacturing behemoth Ford and get them to admit that they helped themselves to his patent on the intermittent windshield wiper. (Eugene reviewed it back at Telluride, and I basically concur with his assessment.)
Despite the real-life case being settled a couple of decades ago, Ford has taken this current opportunity to point out the factual inaccuracies in the motion picture that they’ve taken issue with, doing so in the form of this handy timeline, without causing any sort of formal stir, as covered in this accompanying text. Especially considering that the film’s subject, Robert Kearns, passed away over three years ago, I doubt it would (and hope it won’t) come to any sort of renewed head.
Maybe in thirty years or so, we’ll get a movie about a blogger battling impossible odds to get all the facts straight on either side of a movie in which an inventor battled impossible odds to get just some facts straight. Now, to just work the word ‘Genius’ back into the title…
Insert Caption: The Express
October 5, 2008
Welcome back to another installment in our groundbreaking, game-changing (to borrow a phrase from the news anchors of the world) Insert Caption series — where you provide the content and we provide the prizes. Last week we asked you to dish out some captions for a photo from How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which opens in theaters this day. Congrats to our three winners — none of whom include you, dude.
1. “But the ad said the auditions were for Hair” — Debra F.
2. “All Simon’s attempts to compliment Jeff’s “very masculine” hair piece ended in futility after mistakenly introducing himself to whom he thought was “Mrs. Bridges.” — Nathan H.
‘Flash’ Foe Ford Clears Up About Wipers
October 5, 2008
In this weekend’s well-meaning docudrama, Flash of Genius, Greg Kinnear portrays an inventor who struggled for years to sue vehicle manufacturing behemoth Ford and get them to admit that they helped themselves to his patent on the intermittent windshield wiper. (Eugene reviewed it back at Telluride, and I basically concur with his assessment.)
Despite the real-life case being settled a couple of decades ago, Ford has taken this current opportunity to point out the factual inaccuracies in the motion picture that they’ve taken issue with, doing so in the form of this handy timeline, without causing any sort of formal stir, as covered in this accompanying text. Especially considering that the film’s subject, Robert Kearns, passed away over three years ago, I doubt it would (and hope it won’t) come to any sort of renewed head.
Maybe in thirty years or so, we’ll get a movie about a blogger battling impossible odds to get all the facts straight on either side of a movie in which an inventor battled impossible odds to get just some facts straight. Now, to just work the word ‘Genius’ back into the title…
Tom Rothman Talks ‘Daredevil’ Reboot
October 5, 2008
Early last month, Variety published a rather scathing look at 20th Century Fox’s summer receipts and mentioned the studio was digging through its collection of superheroes with an eye on getting some of that blockbuster mojo back. It wasn’t surprising to see more X-Men spin-offs and sequels being talked about — but what did raise a few eyebrows was the inclusion of Daredevil. The Man with No Fear had a pretty disastrous debut in 2003, and his girlfriend/nemesis Elektra fared even worse.
IESB caught up with Fox’s co-chairman, Tom Rothman, and pressed him on the subject of revisiting Daredevil. It’s more than a passing fancy in the trades — Fox is thinking “very seriously” of a reboot. States Rothman: “I think that the thing the Hulk showed, although it did what it did, is that it is possible that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan movie, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn’t that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot.”
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Tom Rothman Talks ‘Daredevil’ Reboot
October 4, 2008
Early last month, Variety published a rather scathing look at 20th Century Fox’s summer receipts and mentioned the studio was digging through its collection of superheroes with an eye on getting some of that blockbuster mojo back. It wasn’t surprising to see more X-Men spin-offs and sequels being talked about — but what did raise a few eyebrows was the inclusion of Daredevil. The Man with No Fear had a pretty disastrous debut in 2003, and his girlfriend/nemesis Elektra fared even worse.
IESB caught up with Fox’s co-chairman, Tom Rothman, and pressed him on the subject of revisiting Daredevil. It’s more than a passing fancy in the trades — Fox is thinking “very seriously” of a reboot. Says Rothman: “I think that the thing the Hulk showed, although it did what it did, is that it is possible that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance. That it is possible. And I think that you see that when they did Batman Begins, the first Nolan motion picture, that you can have made some mistakes along the way or movies that the audience wasn’t that crazy about and then given the proper amount of time and the right creative vision behind it, you can, to use your word, reboot.”
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, 20th Century Fox, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
Still Half Naked, Megan Fox Becomes a Mermaid?
October 4, 2008
Filed under: Action, Casting, Deals, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek
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Love her, hate her, envy her or worship her, fact is Megan Fox sells sex with the best of them. She may not be in line for an Oscar nod anytime soon, but she knows what her greatest assets are and is more than willing to flaunt the hell out of them if it means another starring role in a huge Hollywood film. And that’s what we’re here to talk about (I think), as Now Magazine claims Fox has nabbed a lead role in the big-screen comic adaptation of Fathom – and, luckily, this is one role where clothes are definitely optional.
Hitman Thriller ‘Killshot’ Gets Bumped (Again)
October 3, 2008
The first time I encountered a trailer for the Diane Lane/Thomas Jane/Mickey Rourke hitman thriller Killshot (only remaining on an AICN archive page and the errant DVD release), it was back in September of 2006. Since then, the Elmore Leonard adaptation has endured reshoots in January of 2007 and countless changes in release dates after that. Of course, there’s also at least three test screening reviews that bring to light the entire removal of a character played by Johnny Knoxville from the film.
Now, not long after the Weinstein Company issued its latest round of supposed scheduling, Killshot’s most recent date — November 7, 2008 — has been dashed away by this Los Angeles Times piece, and as pointed out, how does one struggle to release anything that John Madden, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Quentin Tarantino all had hands in at some point? How does one struggle to even sell off domestic distribution rights to a film with this cast and that crew? The obvious answer is, of course, that the film is a downright dud, though the general pedigree and harshest reviews seem to advocate that it’s not a total turkey.
The best-case scenario at this point is that the film rides the awards buzz of Rourke’s performance in December’s The Wrestler as suggested and gets a theatrical release in the early winter dumping grounds (through the Weinsteins’ Third Rail arm, I’d bet), while the worst-case scenario is the film being directly downgraded to the level of a Blockbuster-exclusive curio. We shall see…
Cinematical Seven: Horror Remakes That DON’T Suck!
October 3, 2008
(As a way of welcoming my very favorite month of the year, I thought it would be fun to reprint one of the very few good articles I’ve ever written. So here it is!)
By: Scott Weinberg
Home of Wax, starring Paris Hilton. The Fog, starring Wooden Superman. The Amityville Horror, starring Van Wilder.
Hitman Thriller ‘Killshot’ Gets Bumped (Again)
October 2, 2008
The first time I encountered a trailer for the Diane Lane/Thomas Jane/Mickey Rourke hitman thriller Killshot (only remaining on an AICN archive page and the errant DVD release), it was back in September of 2006. Since then, the Elmore Leonard adaptation has endured reshoots in January of 2007 and countless changes in release dates after that. Of course, there’s also at least three test screening reviews that bring to light the entire removal of a character played by Johnny Knoxville from the film.
Now, not long after the Weinstein Company issued its latest round of supposed scheduling, Killshot’s most current date — November 7, 2008 — has been dashed away by this Los Angeles Times piece, and as pointed out, how does one struggle to release anything that John Madden, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Quentin Tarantino all had hands in at some point? How does one struggle to even sell off domestic distribution rights to a film with this cast and that crew? The obvious answer is, of course, that the film is a downright dud, though the general pedigree and harshest reviews seem to advocate that it’s not a total turkey.
The best-case scenario at this point is that the film rides the awards buzz of Rourke’s performance in December’s The Wrestler as recommended and gets a theatrical release in the early winter dumping grounds (through the Weinsteins’ Third Rail arm, I’d bet), while the worst-case scenario is the film being directly downgraded to the level of a Blockbuster-exclusive curio. We shall see…
Exclusive: ‘Bolt’ Poster Premiere!
October 2, 2008
Click image above to enlarge
Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Disney’s Bolt, which boasts a voice cast that includes John Travolta and some girl named Miley Cyrus (maybe you’ve heard of her; looks a tiny like that other girl Hannah Montana …). The flick, which will be presented in fully awesome Disney Digital 3D, tells of a heroic dog (Travolta) on a hit Television show who really believes he has superpowers. A nice reality check comes when he’s accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York City (aka the real world) and has to somehow make his way back home with help from an old cat and an overweight hamster.
Written by Dan Fogelman (Automobiles, Fred Claus), Bolt looks to continue Disney’s successful run in the Digital 3D business, joining other films like Meet the Robinsons and the Hannah Montana Concert Tour. It’s fun, charming … and who doesn’t love a few solid one-liners from an overweight hamster?
