Charles Bramesco
Rumor: Ben Affleck May Want Out of ‘The Batman’ Completely
Like any job, writing about the latest news in the world of entertainment can wear on you after long enough, so you gotta appreciate the little pearls of amusement where you can get them. Personally, watching the latest solo Batman project fall apart in slow motion has been a perverse thrill over the past couple of months: star Ben Affleck was gonna direct (maybe) the film titled The Batman, then he was definitely gonna direct it, then he backpedaled a little bit, then he requested that people stop asking him about it, then he face-planted onto the sidewalk with the costly flop Live By Night, and then look at that, he wasn’t taking the director’s chair after all. The indignities kept coming, as Warner Bros. ordered sweeping rewrites to this floundering project before landing Planet of the Apes remake maestro Matt Reeves to fill the directorial vacuum.
Michael Keaton’s Batsuit and George Reeves’ Superman Suit Going to Auction
Good news: fans are finally getting their shot to lay claim to two highly sought-after pieces of comic book memorabilia, with George Reeves’ original Superman costume and the Batsuit worn by Michael Keaton during his stint as the Batman both up at auction until January 26. The bad news: you’re going to have to part with at least tens of thousands of dollars if you want to get your mitts on that spandex.
‘Wayne’s World’ Returning to Theaters in February (Party Time! Excellent!)
Schwing! Party time! Excellent! We‘re not worthy, we’re not worthy!
Apple Plans to Break Into Hollywood with Original Movies and TV Shows
Chances are, you’re currently reading these words on a phone, computer, or tablet manufactured by Apple. Maybe on your morning commute, you listen to music downloaded from the ITunes Music Store. If you are an on-the-go sort of person who’s not afraid to be made fun of, you may have an Apple Watch wrapped around your wrist right now. The tech giant’s influence has permeated so many facets of modern life, and as we patiently await Apple’s big foray into the burgeoning field of teledildonics, they’ve announced plans to plant their flag on one more heated battlefield.
J.J. Abrams Wants Out of the Reboot/Remake/Re-Whatever Business
J.J. Abrams made his bed, stuffed it with money and gold bricks, but now he‘d rather not lie in it. The director has risen to the top of Hollywood’s most-wanted list in recent years as a serviceable conductor of franchise pictures; he did right by the Mission: Impossible series, then moved on to mount the massive Star Trek resurgence, and brought Star Wars back to the grateful people of Earth with Episode VII. But this whole money-in-the-bank reputation comes with its downsides. Speaking with People, Abrams indicated that he‘s had his fill of franchise pictures and would prefer to explore some original concepts in the years to come.
Superheroes Have Ridley Scott ‘Concerned’ About the Future of Cinema
It’s kind of strange, considering the genre’s popularity; interview anyone in the entertainment industry, and you’ll find that just about everyone not actively working on a superhero film considers them to be a pox on the cinema. Ridley Scott’s the latest talent to confess to super-fatigue, in a new interview with Digital Spy where he expresses a larger concern for the overall state of film art. 2016 was a humbling year for the Hollywood studio system, and one of its biggest names can’t help but take notice.
IMDb’s Top 10 Movies of 2016 List Is… Interesting, Let’s Just Put It That Way
The Internet Movie Database is a fount of helpful information. With a few simple clicks, users can learn who shot the Miley Cyrus vehicle So Undercover (Things to Come cinematographer Denis Lenoir), which sequel in the Hellraiser franchise featured a performance from a young Adam Scott (the fourth one), or how old Taraji P. Henson is (who looks that good at 46?!). As a repository for loose factoids from in and around the world of screen entertainment, it can’t be beat. As a source for critical perspectives on those same films, however... hoo boy. Just take a gander at any comment section for a movie’s page and marvel at the IMDb is the site where rabid anti-Ghostbusters zealots congregated to downvote Paul Feig’s movie into oblivion weeks before its actual release, and the newly-released IMDb Top 10 provides an even clearer view of its user base.
Sacha Baron Cohen to Further Test Limits of Bad Taste with ‘Klown’ Remake
Whether he’s handing a plastic bag full of feces to a dinner party host, trying to coax Ron Paul into a hotel-room gay sex scandal, or getting face-raped by the massive phallus of an elephant while hiding inside the cavernous vagina of a second elephant, Sacha Baron Cohen’s a born button-pusher. His unending search for shock value has now led him to Denmark, the home nation of the excruciating comedy of discomfort Klown. A new item from Deadline notes that the prank-happy provocateur will bring his talents for awkwardness to a remake of the taboo-busting Danish cringe-fest, and more specifically, that foreign distribution rights have been snapped up by Annapurna International.
Bruce Springsteen Wrote a Song for the ‘Harry Potter’ Films, Which They Passed on Somehow
Back around Christmastime, the well-regarded genre-defiers Radiohead revealed that they had recorded their own theme for the latest James Bond picture, Spectre. It was baffling, not just because their composition was swooningly beautiful, but because the Spectre team ultimately ended up going with Sam Smith, instantly agreed upon as one of the lesser Bond theme singers. But that’s all peanuts compared to the latest gross injustice from the world of film soundtracking, with greater effrontery dealt to an even more esteemed statesman of rock.
Smithsonian Mounts $300,000 Campaign to Preserve Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers
A step above the sought-after Maltese Falcon and the fabled Ark of the Covenant, Dorothy Gale’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz have to be the single most vital prop in cinematic history. The red-sequined shoes, so lusted after by the Wicked Witch of the West in the immortal 1939 fantasy film, have spent the last 30 years as one of the Smithsonian's most popular attractions. But not even magical footwear is immune to the ravages of time, and Judy Garland’s old kicks have lost a bit of their luster. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the iconic slippers have faded from their original Technicolor ruby to something closer to “a dull auburn.”