via getthebigpicture.net: Mad Hatter Featurette from ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Here’s a really brief featurette about Johnny Depp’s latest Tim Burton-approved creation, The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. I think Depp gets a little too much criticism for wearing odd makeup and funny hair and bizarre clothes in movies, as if it’s disguising a lack of intensity now that he’s filthy rich and can take any role he wants.
He gets into it a little bit here, describing the Hatter as a “mood ring,” and that sort of definition is elemental to what Depp does. He always finds a way into the character that isn’t just sitting there on the page.
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by Geoff Boucher at the LA Times: Neil Gaiman says ‘Graveyard Book’ film is dead — for now
Neil Gaiman knows that the best stories must be both bitter and sweet — he is, after all, the author of “The Graveyard Book,” the tender children’s novel that opens with a nasty knife murder. Still, the 49-year-old Brit sounds dazed when he reflects on the past year of his life.
“I had a really strange year,” the author said in a faraway voice. “I was leading up to the writing of an ‘Anansi Boys’ screenplay [based on my 2005 novel], which begins with an incredibly funny sequence where the protagonist’s father keels over from a surprise heart attack. And as I was doing that my father keeled over and died of a surprise heart attack. It’s not terribly funny though, is it?”
Gaiman is also mourning the loss of a highly anticipated film project: “The Graveyard Book” adaptation that was to be written and directed by Neil Jordan (“The Brave One,” “The Crying Game” and “Interview with the Vampire”) has fallen apart on the financing front. It’s a demoralizing setback for Gaiman, who had announced Jordan’s participation last January on “The Today Show.” It may all still happen, of course, but it added to a year of tumult for the author.
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from ComicBookMovie.com: Iron Man 2 Movie Exposé
In 2008 the world was introduced to Tony Stark, a dedicated war-monger whose genius intellect allowed him to corner the arms market with his futuristic technology. The film followed the unapologetic, billionaire playboy as he faced a great misfortune (no. . not impotence): his own weapons were used to make him a prisoner of war. As if capture by terrorists wasn’t bad enough, he now had to rely on an outside power source to keep shrapnel from piercing his heart. We all know what happens next, Tony overcomes the odds and escapes confinement; becoming Iron Man in the process.
Wizard Magazine has recently released an in depth, behind the scenes look at the movie. Most notably, it ties in most of the information that’s been slowly trickling out for months. First, the film’s director Jon Favreau explains how the sotry is set up: “A lot of people wondered if we were going to follow the ‘Demon in a Bottle’ storyline [but] the tone in the first film isn’t as dark as what’s explored in the books. What we did want to go into was how he struggles with his own identity in the face of being a larger than life character who is. in fact, saving the world.”
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By Shelley Fralic at the Vancouver Sun: Escapist fantasy Avatar is giving us the blues
Forget being this close to anointment as creator of the biggest box office movie ever made. Forget those gleaming Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Motion Picture-Drama, and all that Oscar buzz. Forget, too, that you’re the genius behind that other No. 1 blockbuster, Titanic, pretty much securing top billing in the pop culture hall of fame.
Seems all those visions of the lizard-like blue-bodied peaceful Na’vi, the barely clothed Amazonian tribe living in the year 2154 in lush blissful Pandora with its floating mountains and tiny whirlybird dinosaurs, with its flying pet dragons and ethereal Tree of Life, are just too much goodness for the world’s evil, not to mention sensitive moviegoers, hundreds of whom apparently leave the theatre depressed about their real world, which, of course, is far from paradise, and so they head straight for online forums to share their Avatar angst.
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via Dread Central: Let Me In’s Vampire Chloe Moretz Speaks
Before last weekend I had no idea who 12-year-old actress Chloe Moretz was. Having watched (500) Days of Summer on Saturday, I was impressed with her limited screen time and, while I’m still not sold on Director Matt Reeves’ unnecessary remake of Let the Right One In, there’s no doubt that the film is going to be well cast.
MTV spoke to Moretz about the Americanized version of the story: “It’s about a boy who lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Growing up, not many people like him, he’s not popular. He’s wimpy, kind of an outcast. Then this girl moves in, she’s totally different. She doesn’t wear shoes, wears raggedy clothes — it’s sort of like “Romeo and Juliet” with vampires. She can’t be with him, because she’s a vampire. But they fall in love; it’s a really sweet coming-of-age story between a little boy and a little girl.”
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