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Matt wrote:

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Neil Gaiman gives a mini-update on the status of the project and his lack of involvement in it.

I may hold a minority opinion, but I think this can only be a good thing for the film.

Why's that? Because of Beowulf? Generally, he's a lot better at creating good characters. I do have my doubts about him anyway, but what do you think is wrong?

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Why's that? Because of Beowulf? Generally, he's a lot better at creating good characters. I do have my doubts about him anyway, but what do you think is wrong?

I knew I should have qualified my opinion. Damn you for making me do it!

I just think that, at least in terms of comics, Neil Gaiman and Charles Burns live in very different worlds. In Gaiman's world, oddness makes people special; in Burns', oddness makes people... just people. In Gaiman's world, the freaks are the heroes (or, more accurately, anti-heroes); in Burns', everyone is a freak. I think Gaiman would want to wring too much emotion and "meaning" out of the physical transformations of Black Hole, would be too heavy-handed with the metaphor.

Granted, I haven't read his novels, nor seen Stardust, nor seen Beowulf, so I'm really basing my opinion on the Neil Gaiman of comics I read 14-15 years ago.

No offense, but you'd have to read one of his novels (maybe not Stardust tho) to see where he is now. I thought you might say he's not dark enough or even too fantastical. Based on his comics, I can understand some misgivings, but his short stories show that he can write horror. Gaiman looks at the fantastical that lives beneath the mundane (Sandman, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere) so I don't think it too much a stretch that he with Avary could do justice to Black Hole. Burns' book is much bleaker and more starkly lyrical than much in Gaiman (especially Sandman), but I think that Gaiman could take his niche and see what it has in common with Burns' book. Gaiman may come off as a lightweight - even I roll my eyes a bit at what I've read - but he knows his way with a pen and I'd trust him with Black Hole anyday. Granted, adapted Black Hole for film is just as useless as Watchmen the movie (or repainting Munch's The Scream) but there's a logic to getting Gaiman on that particular project.

Neil Gaiman seems to have been chosen solely because he's a "comics guy" with Hollywood scriptwriting experience, which makes ass-all sense otherwise since his works (comics, films and novels) are in no way similar enough to Charles Burns to justify Gaiman's presence as a screenwriter on the film.

Of course, I don't see the point in adapting something like Black Hole - something so inherently comics - to film anyway, but you know, gripe complain etc.

Hell, they should find someone who can understand and convey the weird 1970s Pacific Northwest quality... Van Sant? Robinson Devor? No idea.

Oh well.

They're getting new writers so that's all out the window. I would've preferred this to be animated, But since Fincher practically does that already, oh well. I'm just curious if it's going to be in black and white.

That movie is never going to happen. If I had a dime for every time I saw an actress' name (or, more usually, a pop singer's name) attached to a Janis Joplin biopic, I'd...have a lot of dimes.

From the Daniels interview in today's New York Times Magazine

Your next project might be a movie about Janis Joplin. What drew you to her?
The fact that she didn't know that she was at the forefront of the women's-lib movement. Sometimes we don't know what we're doing when we're in it. And I'm fascinated that she was just doing her thing and making history doing her thing.

Sounds like that would be a "great, important" movie. Janis was nowhere close to the forefront of the women's lib movement, but I'm sure that won't stop anyone from making the film anyway.
His "black people on Mars" movie idea sounds much more interesting to me, though he's just throwing that out as an example of what he could do because he's "not here to just tell black stories" (and it seem like an example that contradicts his point, but oh well). Elsewhere he mentions that he had wanted to cast Oprah in the Kathy Bates role in a black Misery film. =;

Gregory wrote:His "black people on Mars" movie idea sounds much more interesting to me, though he's just throwing that out as an example of what he could do because he's "not here to just tell black stories" (and it seem like an example that contradicts his point, but oh well).

Isn't there a Ray Bradbury story about black people on Mars?

domino harvey wrote:

Gregory wrote:His "black people on Mars" movie idea sounds much more interesting to me, though he's just throwing that out as an example of what he could do because he's "not here to just tell black stories" (and it seem like an example that contradicts his point, but oh well).

Isn't there a Ray Bradbury story about black people on Mars?

"The Other Foot," one of the stories in The Illustrated Man.

Stanley Donen is directing his first feature in 30 years. The untitled film is written by Elaine May and will be produced by Mike Nichols. Apparently they were making presentations to potential financiers in the last week or so.

What kind of asshole wouldn't fund this

A modern producer. I'll buy ten tickets when it comes out though.

I didn't realize that Donen and May were an item. The insurance on a 90-year-old director must be astronomical, and they'd likely have to have an understudy on set (spry young Mike Nichols, perhaps!). I hope they're able to make this happen.

Some more info on what the Donen film could entail.

Well that certainly tempered my enthusiasm.

If you're bad mouthing Grodin, I might have to stand lazily against a wall and halfheartedly chastise you (in honor of Grodin)

I was more distressed by this statement regarding Donen's current appraisal of talent...

Donen said that while no contemporary performers have made him say “I really want to make a picture with her,” he’s most excited by Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance? “I think they’re terrific, those dancers,” he said. “I record those shows to watch them. They really are wonderful. [...] I’ve thought about using the stars of them in a film.”

If that's what's jazzing him, though, why make some behind-the-scenes moviemaking comedy of errors about a failure he had decades ago, and in Paris, of all places. Why not make a new musical?

domino harvey wrote:If you're bad mouthing Grodin, I might have to stand lazily against a wall and halfheartedly chastise you (in honor of Grodin)

No, I have nothing at all against Grodin (except maybe as a talk show host), but imagining the involvement Jeannie Berlin and a bunch of NYU acting students instantly made me not want to see the results. Also, what warren oates said.

Roger Ryan wrote:I was more distressed by this statement regarding Donen's current appraisal of talent...

Donen said that while no contemporary performers have made him say “I really want to make a picture with her,” he’s most excited by Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance? “I think they’re terrific, those dancers,” he said. “I record those shows to watch them. They really are wonderful. [...] I’ve thought about using the stars of them in a film.”

So You Think You Can Dance? is basically just a long-drawn-out version of Give a Girl a Break.

Matt wrote:

domino harvey wrote:If you're bad mouthing Grodin, I might have to stand lazily against a wall and halfheartedly chastise you (in honor of Grodin)

No, I have nothing at all against Grodin (except maybe as a talk show host), but imagining the involvement Jeannie Berlin and a bunch of NYU acting students instantly made me not want to see the results. Also, what warren oates said.

Now I'm curious with what Berlin's done wrong. Certainly not her recent appearances as few as they have been.

Absolutely her recent appearances. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I hated Margaret, and she was one of the main reasons for that.

Now I must eat crow I suppose.

She was easily the worst thing about Margaret, acting-wise.