Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segal in a New Film About David Foster Wallace
Posted on February 4, 2014 at 3:55 pm
David Foster Wallace was the brilliant writer who struggled with depression and committed suicide in 2008 at age 46. Jason Segal will play Wallace in an upcoming film called “The End of the Tour,” with Jesse Eisenberg as a Rolling Stone reporter accompanying Wallace on a 1996 book tour. The script is based on Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky and the film will be directed by “The Spectacular Now’s” James Ponsoldt.
When you look at the list of movies opening this month, you may feel you’re in a time warp. We have three different remakes of films from the 1980’s. The 1987 film Robocop starred Peter Weller as a law enforcement cyborg. Joel Kinnaman takes over the lead role, co-starring with Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, and Gary Oldman.
First there was a play called Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. It was the story of two male office workers in the “Mr. Goodbar” era of the late 1970’s. Mamet’s raw language and bleak perspective on relationships was lightened up for the 1986 movie, retitled About Last Night. It starred Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins.
The remake stars Kevin Hart, Regina Hall, Michael Ealy, Joy Bryant, and Paula Patten.
The teen romance Endless Love was huge in 1981, with it-girl Brooke Shields and a hit song from Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie. The remake stars Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde. It is based on the novel by Scott Spencer about a teenage love that literally burns down the house.
Also opening this month: George Clooney and Matt Damon in the fact-based “Monuments Men,” the adorable “Lego Movie,” and the 3D historical disaster movie “Pompeii.”
Surprise guest appearances? Check! Funny? Check! Self-deprecating? Check! Making a key point about the brand? Check!! (And that’s the one most of these ads overlook.) Well played, Radio Shack. And looking good, 80’s icons!
Cosmos Reboot on Fox and National Geographic Channel
Posted on February 3, 2014 at 8:00 am
Carl Sagan’s stunning “Cosmos” series is being updated for a return to television, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. It will premiere on Fox March 9 and be rebroadcast on the National Geographic Channel. Bill Moyers writes:
deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist with a gift of explaining complicated ideas simply, says the newCosmos will continue Sagan’s “epic exploration of our place in the universe,” and examine new discoveries of the past four decades.
“We have other stories to tell beyond the ones that went on back then … At the time of the original series, there were no known planets outside of those orbiting the sun. Right now, we’re rising through 1,000 planets happily orbiting stars that are not the sun. So that’s not simply new science. It’s new vistas of thought and imagination,” deGrasse Tyson told Bill Moyers in an interview.