stuff
2006 Golden Globe nominees. I'm not going to say anything specific about my disappointment at not seeing Children of Men nominated. I'll just direct you to Hollywood Elsewhere. I am delighted though to see Alexandre Desplat nominated for The Painted Veil, Michael C. Hall for Dexter, Gillian Anderson for Bleak House and Jeremy Piven for Entourage.
Ennio Morricone, the legendary film composer, will be receiving the Honorary Oscar.
How is that the Writers Guild was clear-sighted enough to see that Deadwood was nominated for best dramatic series, but completely forgot about The Wire? The Battlestar Galactica season 3 pilot "Occupation/Precipice" was nominated in the best episodic drama category.
Zoe Williams at The Guardian susses out the political messages behind Hollywood animated features: "If anything, [Ice Age] is the only cartoon that could be used in the brainwashing of conservative children against the Al Gore message: see, Ice Ages happen anyway, folks. That's life. It might have been our excessive consumption of every natural everything we could lay our filthy hands on, but on the other hand, it might just have happened anyway. Then we'd be kicking ourselves, for not getting a Hummer, wouldn't we?"
Two high-res stills from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End here and here. (Dark Horizons)
A modern-day adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" is being produced. Entitled The Prince, the script by former GQ editor Dave Kalstein (who has also written a pretty neat-sounding novel called "Prodigy") is set in New York's jet-set society. My earlier thoughts about it here. ETA: An anonymous commenter who says he's the screenwriter vouches for my thinking that title was a reference to Niccolo Machiavelli's famous Renaissance treatise on statecraft and leadership, "The Prince." (Coming Soon)
The trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is now at the Apple website in HD Quicktime.
JoBlo interviews Cate Blanchett about her upcoming films, Notes on a Scandal and The Good German. Her Good German co-star, George Clooney, spoke with Devin Faraci at CHUD.
Guys, did you have any idea that Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes, Rocky Balboa) starred recently in the political thriller Intelligence, based on historical events, which won Best Audience Award this year at Sundance? He plays Colin Mathers, a present-day Miami reporter who follows a hot lead to tie up his feature story and reveal new graphic details behind closed doors in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His "lead" is a man with the story of a lifetime but also has much more "intelligence" than Colin had ever imagined. From the trailer it looks really interesting and different. [official site] [imdb]
Yahoo! (Au) has the teaser trailer for Live Free or Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Justin Long, Jeffrey Wright, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. [imdb]
Michael Crowley (The New Republic) responds to Michael Crichton's latest book, "Next": "In lieu of a letter to the editor, Crichton had fictionalized me as a child rapist. And, perhaps worse, falsely branded me a pharmaceutical-industry profiteer." (Free registration required; if you can't read the article, there's a summary from Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker)
HBO is producing an 8-hour epic mini-series about the Third Crusade, told through the eyes of the two sides' respective leaders, Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. The project will be a co-production with Britain's Channel 4. (Yahoo)
Speaking of which, if you're in New York, you might be interested to know that they're opening a HBO store near you.
I know it's meant to be depressing as hell, but I really want to go see François Ozon's Le Temps qui reste. From the trailer and stills, it looks beautiful. Maybe I'll take a train into the City to see it today...worth a thought. Then again, it's raining, so maybe not. [imdb]
The Golden Compass stills gallery.
