For a limited time only (and for educational purposes only) this year’s best screenplays are available for free download. This is a chance to read the work of greats like Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”), Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”), Alejandro Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo (“Birdman”), Steve Knight (“Locke”), and Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”). It is a lot of fun to read screenplays because you get to see inside the writer’s imagination as he or she describes the characters and settings. Be sure to grab these while you can.
I’ve written more than once about the Bechdel test for movies: Are there at least two named female characters who have lines and do they talk to each other about anything other than men?
What a treat to see an oral history for one of my favorite films of all time, “The Right Stuff.” The story of the first astronauts in the early days of the space program, based on Tom Wolfe’s book, is fascinating, with wonderful characters and gorgeous cinematography by Caleb Deschanel (Zooey’s and Emily’s father). Special visual effects supervisor Gary Gutierrez explained that they wanted effects that were more old-school than those in “Star Wars.”
Make it like they did in the old days” became our marching orders. So I opened the window and had my director of photography go stand downstairs with his back to the wall and a handheld camera looking up toward the sky. On the street, crew people were holding a large parachute to catch the plane that I was going to throw out the window. Our model of the X-1 was 4 and a half feet long and cost $6,000. The model makers were holding their breath. The next day we showed Phil the footage and he loved it….We did various kinds of shaky-cam movement to give it a sense of urgency. We attached a vibrator to the lens or a power drill to the camera mount to make it all move like crazy.
Deshanel added, “At one point I shook the camera so hard, I gave my operator a black eye.”
I was also very intrigued to hear that it was writer/director Philip Kauffman who came up with the idea for Indiana Jones to be seeking the Lost Ark of the Covenant. It’s a great read.
Long ago I got hooked on pressbooks, those oversized, slick-paper campaign booklets that include movie ads and promotional gimmicks. I’m starting to weed out my collection, so if you’re interested in John Wayne titles like The Flying Leathernecks or The Sea Chase, an ad supplement for Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep (with a few ads cut out), Robert Youngson’s The Golden Age of Comedy and The Further Perils of Laurel and Hardy, or a reissue of Laurel and Hardy’s Great Guns, take a look. I even have a 1949 reissue pressbook for King Kong which RKO paired with Val Lewton’s I Walked With a Zombie. There are plenty more to come.
We have an overabundance of Disney collectibles, from a charming 1940 Syroco figure of Pinocchio to a handful of limited-edition pieces from an old Disneyana convention. (My favorite is a figurine of Donald Duck striking the gong from the opening sequence of The Mickey Mouse Club.) There’s also a lovely ceramic lamp of Bambi from the 1940s manufactured by Goebel.
If there’s a movie fan on your gift list this year, you may find just the treasure you’re looking for here.
December 2014: A Lot of Oscar Hopefuls and Holiday Blockbusters
Posted on December 1, 2014 at 7:00 am
Happy December! Everyone is busy in December, but make time now on your schedule for some of the year’s biggest films, including Oscar hopefuls, blockbusters, and even a couple of possible surprises. (NOTE: As typical at this time of year, release dates may vary in different cities.)
December 5
Copyright 2014 Fox Searchlight
“Wild,” with producer Reese Witherspoon, based on Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, a book so gripping and inspirational that Oprah brought back her book club to make sure the five women in the world who had not already bought it would go out and get it. When everything in her life fell apart, Strayed went for a walk, more than a thousand miles. Witherspoon might find herself up for an Oscar competing with the other film she produced this year, “Gone Girl.”
December 12
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” Christian Bale plays Moses in this Biblical epic, directed by Ridley Scott with the grandeur and power he brought to “Gladiator.” He’s got stars who can make that kind of scale work, including Joel Edgerton as Rhamses, along with Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, and Israeli star Hiam Abbass.
“Inherent Vice” The very cerebral Paul Thomas Anderson directs, based on a book by the sometimes impenetrably cerebral Thomas Pynchon, and the trailer makes it look like a darkly comic crime farce along the lines of Elmore Leonard. The sensational cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon (again), Jena Malone, Josh Brolin, Maya Rudolph, and Owen Wilson.
Copyright Paramount 2014
“Top Five” Chris Rock wrote, directed, and stars in this fictionalized story of a comic actor with a career crisis. This one has a ton of great buzz coming off the festival circuit and could be one of the brightest spots this month.
December 19
Copyright Disney 2014
“Annie” Disney’s remake is based on the original film, based on the Broadway musical, based on the Depression-era Harold Gray comic strip. The cast singing their hearts about about the hard-knock life and the sun coming out tomorrow includes Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, and, in the title role Quvenzhané Wallis of “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” We’ll all feel a special pang to see Robin Williams in one of his last roles as Teddy Roosevelt and Mickey Rooney as a museum guard in this third of the series about museum exhibits that come alive at night. Joining the cast is “Downton Abbey’s” Dan Stevens as Sir Galahad, and Ben Kingsley as King Tut. Returning favorites include bickering buddies Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan, Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah, and Ben Stiller both as the harried former guard who learned the secret in the first film and as…I’ll just let that be a surprise.
“Mr. Turner” Another festival favorite is this Mike Leigh film about the brilliant, influential, and occasionally controversial British artist J.M.W. Turner. Anything from Mike Leigh is worth seeing, especially with Leigh regulars Timothy Spall (long overdue for the kind of showy lead role he gets here) and Lesley Manville.
December 25
“Unbroken” The closest to a lock for Oscar nominations is Angelina Jolie’s film based on Laura Hillenbrand’s blockbuster best-seller, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It is the stunning real-life story of a man who was an Olympic athlete and then served in WWII, where he was shot down by the Japanese, survived weeks lost at sea with no food or water, only to be captured and imprisoned by the Japanese and subjected to the most brutal conditions. This may be the first time you hear the name of star Jack O’Connell. It will not be the last.
“Into the Woods” Stephen Sondheim’s complex meditation on fairy tales and other stories we tell children is pretty meta on stage. I’m betting this version from Disney will have a little more fairy dust. I know it has an all-star cast, including Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, and Johnny Depp.
“Big Eyes” It’s hard to believe that strange paintings of children with enormous eyes were briefly insanely popular in the 1970’s. It’s even stranger to find out that they were not the work of the artist whose name was so attached to them that he was a joke in Woody Allen’s “Sleeper.” He in fact put his name on the paintings created by his wife. Who better to tell this strange tale than Tim Burton, and who better to star than Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams?
“Selma” One of the most important moments in American history is brought to screen by the brilliant director Ava DuVernay, with David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King in the story of the march for civil rights that made it impossible to continue to ignore the virulent racism of the Jim Crow era and led to sweeping federal legislation. Oh, and Oprah’s in it, too. Look for some Oscar nominations for this one.
, a book so gripping and inspirational that Oprah brought back her book club to make sure the five women in the world who had not already bought it would go out and get it. When everything in her life fell apart, Strayed went for a walk, more than a thousand miles. Witherspoon might find herself up for an Oscar competing with the other film she produced this year, “Gone Girl.”
. It is the stunning real-life story of a man who was an Olympic athlete and then served in WWII, where he was shot down by the Japanese, survived weeks lost at sea with no food or water, only to be captured and imprisoned by the Japanese and subjected to the most brutal conditions. This may be the first time you hear the name of star Jack O’Connell. It will not be the last.