Culture

Soderbergh’s thinking about a movie (original) based on Moneyball. That is even goofier than making a movie based on Candy Land. I’m all in. Seriously, Soderbergh’s intellectual approach makes him a perfect fit.

If we lived in the future, AMC would put every episode of The Prisoner up for free viewing. There, isn’t that nice? I strongly recommend this if you’ve never seen it; it’s a perfect marriage of surrealism, British spy drama, and anti-authoritarianism.

2009 is not exactly getting off to a good start with the news of Donald Westlake’s death. He was a consummate professional. The guy knew how to write mysteries; his range went from the comic caper Dortmunder books to the hardboiled Parker novels. He was primarily a novelist, but he did a few screenplays too. The Grifters was probably too quiet a flick to get noticed a ton, but it’s one of my probably top twenty movies and the last scene still disturbs me like very few other cinematic moments. ...

Some guy named Shane Acker apparently made a student animation film called 9, which you can see online (original). It’s only like 10 minutes, it got nominated for an Oscar, go ahead. But because sometimes the right thing happens, it got picked up and now he’s directing the full-length movie version, with Elijah Wood and Crispin Glover and other people doing voices. There’s a trailer just out. I think maybe the right order is the trailer first, so your appetite is whetted, and then you can say “whoa, I can see a full version!” and watch the short, and then sit around contemplating whether or not adding voices and making it stretch longer is a mistake. It’s probably not, though.

Peter O’Toole? What has become of you? (original) Thomas Kincade is the paints with light guy. And love. He paints with love. Most important concept of all – THE CONCEPT OF LOVE. Perhaps we could make large posters that simply say “Love this movie” and post them about. I pour a lot of love into each painting, and sense that our crew has a genuine affection for this project. This starts with Michael Campus as a Director who feels great love towards this project, and should filter down through the ranks. Remember: “Every scene is the best scene.” He wrote a memo explaining how his movie should look. Which is to say: gauzy, full of light, and dark at the corners so it’s more cozy. Like this. ...

Things that I find disturbing in this post: The idea of an Anita Blake TV show Glen Morgan producing it IFC broadcasting it “It’s a sexier Buffy The Vampire Slayer.”

Nothin’ ain’t somethin’ till there’s mashup DLC.

SSC: I’ve been waiting for Chinese Democracy to come out, because I wanted to hear it. First single (also titled “Chinese Democracy”) is here (original).

I mentioned last night that Oz was in the public domain, and that there was a thriving subculture of fans writing and publishing Oz books. I would not be me if I were unable to provide a link or two. Or three. I find this whole thing inexpressibly charming.

(Not Fringeworthy, that’s different.) Use Nemesis, which is fairly simple and free. A couple of nomenclature changes – Madness Meters are Stability Meters, and most difficulties are fairly low. Things are weird but not alien weird. The Unnatural track is the Fringe track. Trump dice are likewise Fringe dice. There is no supernatural, but there is fringe science, obviously. Those versed in fringe science might go above 5d in a given stat. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nina turned out to have 6d in Body, and Dr. Bishop has 6d Mind. Perhaps more. ...