From the Diary of Woody Allen

In celebration of the release of his new film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, the New York Times posted this nice collection of diary entries Woody Allen did for the film.

Synecdoche

So the beloved Charlie Kaufman, he the writer of collaborations with Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), went off and directed his own movie after Spike Jonze decided to take on an adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. It played at Cannes and confounded audiences, and it has yet to be picked up for distribution, but three clips from the film just popped up for our enjoyment.

The Heat is On

Man, it's been two months since the last post. We've all been caught up in the throes of summer, trying to keep up with our lives, and hunting in the wilderness of Africa. One of those things is not true. But enough with that. Let's talk movies.

What did you see the last couple of months? I caught a few things, still have to catch on some others. The Dark Knight was both riveting beyond expectations and also disappointing. Do the American masses need to be pandered to so much? Can you please prove to me that Bruce Wayne is a human being? Pineapple Express was a lot of fun, kind of a strange beast. Still haven't seen Iron Man, Wall-E, missed Baghead last week, dug the Wackness...what else? I'll remember later. There's a also a bunch of news I can share...

Zach Snyder's (Dawn of the Dead, 300) adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, perhaps the great graphic novel of all time, was the big talk of this year's Comic-Con. The trailer definitely looks pretty, but will he pull it off? We'll find out next summer.

Did you know there's a new Terminator coming out? Directed by McG?

Woody Allen's new film comes out next weekend. Everyone was talking about the steamy three-way when it played Cannes a few months ago...

Fernando Meirelles, director of City of God and the Constant Gardener, has an adaptation of Blindless coming out soon.

Brad Anderson's Transsiberian is out soon...

I caught Tropic Thunder a few weeks ago at a screening and thought it was a lot of, and leading up to the film the studio's been releasing scenes from a fake documentary about the making of the movie within Tropic Thunder.

Rian Johnson, director of indie hit Brick, has a new film in the can, The Brothers Bloom. Also just revealed are details of his next month, a dark sci-fi flick...

Quentin Tarantino is officially rolling on his film, Inglorious Basterds, this fall, with some interesting casting taking place.

John Hillcoat, director of Australian western the Proposition, has an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's excellent The Road due in November.

David O'Russell's (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) Nailed finally finished shooting.


I'm gonna stop here, this post is long enough, but I'll leave you with this great GI Joe (corrected!) tribute to John Carpenter's The Thing (one of my favorite films).

--co