February 10, 2006
Terry Gilliam Does Anything For Billy
After a couple moderate disappointments with The Brothers Grimm and Tideland, Terry Gilliam has announced that his next project will be a film based on "Anything For Billy," a novel that partly chronicles the exploits of Billy the Kid:
The film will follow the exploits of Ben Sippy, a writer from Philadelphia who heads west in search of adventure and ends up running into the legendary gunslinger.
The concept sounds pretty interesting, and with Gilliam at the helm, it should be bizarre if nothing else. The western is written by Larry McMurty, co-writer of Brokeback Mountain, though the novel doesn't capitalize on the now-famous homosexual themes of that film. However, I did find it strange how often it described Billy the Kid "spontaneously breaking into a showtune."
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Corddry is Becoming Glen
Rob Corddry, best known as a correspondent on The Daily Show, has scored the lead in a new pilot being developed at Fox:
"Becoming Glen," from 20th Century Fox TV, Ricky Blitt and Seth MacFarlane, centers on a successful fortysomething man who looks back at 1994, when he was a 32-year-old slacker (Corddry) living with his parents and spending all his time lying on the couch watching TV.
Corddry is often one of the best parts of The Daily Show, and his appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm was some of the funniest stuff of the season. Giving him a show is one of the few television decisions I approve of. Then again, I probably wouldn't have given a small group of puppies* a show--an event dubbed "Puppy Bowl"-- though Animal Planet seemed to fair pretty well with it. So what do I know about television programming?
*During half-time it was kittens. Seriously.
More X-Men: The Last Stand Shots
A load of new X-Men: The Last Stand have turned-up online, including some decent shots of Colossus, Dark Phoenix, and Juggernaut, as well as this new image of a blue Ted Kennedy. If you print them all out as a flipbook, you'll see a dancing girl.
Science of Sleep Shows Disproportion
New pictures from Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep show that fans of comically large hands and bands in cat suits have something to look forward to with this one. I've heard it's a bit disappointing, but I'm still excited for this film. It looks like Gondry has really captured the skewed reality and complete absurdity of dreams. Or at least what I've heard dreams are like. My dreams always follow the strict narrative of Bazooka Joe comics, and it's making me want to kill myself.
More after the jump.
Will There Be A Beetlejuice 2?
A man at a Disneyland restaurant saw Michael Keaton this past weekend. Seeing that Keaton was "laughing and stuff" with his family, he thought this the perfect time to interrupt him to ask him some things and send it to IESB. Keaton revealed he has a role in Robert Rodriguez's upcoming Project Terror, then both dispelled and created some rumors:
I think I read here once that he was rumored to be playing The Joker in the next Batman movie so I asked him about it. He said that's a 'wonderful idea' but there's 'no way'. The 'new Batman films are separated from the old Batman films', he said. So I asked no chance of you playing Batman again? He said 'No, but there's a big chance you'll see me in another Beetlejuice again'. I asked when....he said 'When Tim Burton finishes the script and when everyone is available at the same time'.
Even if this guy did see Michael Keaton at Disneyland, I'm not so sure I buy into this Beetlejuice sequel. It doesn't seem to me like something Burton would do. I imagine Keaton was saying anything just to get rid of this guy, which would also explain his mention of a role in, "Get the Hell Away From Me and My Family, You Freak." Doesn't that star Harrison Ford?
Nativity Gets a Director
Since the Bible proved itself a bit of a "cash cow" with The Passion of the Christ, New Line quickly bought the rights to Mike Rich's script, Nativity, which focuses on the B.C. life of the Virgin Mary:
Rich's script covers the two-year period in Mary and Joseph's life culminating in their departure from Nazareth and 100-mile journey to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.
Now, in a recent development, Catherine Hardwicke, director of Lords of Dogtown and Thirteen has been picked to helm the project. I don't think I'm alone when I say she needs to take this in a completely different direction than The Passion of the Christ. Gibson wanted everything so authentic-- it's boring. I think the language thing alone scared off a lot of people. I'm not saying change the story, just add some dinosaurs. Not as main characters or anything, just kind of wandering around so you can say, "Hey, is that a dinosaur back there? I think that's a T-Rex behind the Blessed Virgin." Maybe have a few get their jaws torn open, like in King Kong. And at the end, when she gives birth, maybe Jesus comes out smoking a cigar.
