A cool Wednesday cache of clips

Before we get in to that, however, there are some bits of good news out there this morning, and it all starts with "Chuck."

With the still fairly great spy comedy premiering in the fall this year, I just assumed that a full fourth season had already been booked, but silly me. It apparently had to earn that right, and NBC has just announced that that will indeed happen (along with, unfortunately, a full season of "Outsourced" - who the hell watches this crap? And if this means something bad for the return of "Parks and Recreation," well, I of course won't be able to do anything about that, but I will be rather friggin pissed about it.)

As for "Chuck," this season had gotten off to a bit of a rough start in my book, with the show really unsure how to deal with Chuck and Sarah as a couple, but Monday's episode with Casey's "funeral" was a real winner, so here's hoping the show is back on track for its full 22-season run.

In movie news, if you didn't see Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," I highly recommend a rental. It was a whipsmart political thriller until the ending is wrapped up way too neatly, and any movie that has that much Ms. Cross - a.k.a. Olivia Williams - definitely can't be all bad.

And now comes word that he's assembled a first-rate cast for his next directing project, "God of Carnage." John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet will play the leads in the movie based on the Tony award-winning play by Yasmina Reza, about two sets of parents who meet after their kids brawl in the schoolyard, and they get along worse than the kids did.

Reilly will play Michael, the role originated onstage by James Gandolfini, and Foster plays his wife, so by force I would have to assume Waltz and Winslet (what a pair) play the other couple. Filming for this begins in January in Paris, so definitely keep your eyes on it.

And finally, before we dive into the clips today, it seems that Ben Affleck may be closing in on his directorial followup to "The Town."

Speaking of that flick, I know I'm in the minority, but the more time and space I get removed from it, the more it just leaves me cold. Sure, an expertly directed crime thriller with a great cast in top gear, but the story was just so familiar to the point of being tired.

But I digress a bit. Despite my unheard reservations about "The Town," Affleck found himself more than a bit of a hot property after its release, being courted for and turning down the next "Superman" flick (which went to Zack Snyder) and a movie called "Tales from the Gangster Squad," about the police force who cracked down on Jewish mobsters in 1940s Hollywood.

Now, however, he seems to be circling something that he's actually interested in, and thankfully it would pull him out of his Boston crime rut. Warner Bros. wants him to direct a movie based on the Ken Grimwood novel "Replay," about a 45-year-old man who has a fatal heart attack while trying to prevent the murder of a jogger in New York's Central Park. Instead of dying, however, he is stuck in a "replay" of his life beginning at age 18 in Brooklyn. With his knowledge of the future, he changes his life and builds a financial empire, only to die again at age 45. The "replay" continues, however, as he and the murdered jogger fall in love and struggle to break the cycle of their repeating lives.

Despite the rather "Groundhog Day" nature of its premise, that actually sounds pretty intriguing, and despite my reservations about "The Town," Affleck is a genuinely great director in the making, so stay tuned for more on this as soon as I find it.

OK, getting into the clips today, where in the world else would you start than with the teaser trailer for what could quite possibly be the funniest movie of 2011, Greg Mottola's "Paul." As you'll see from the trailer, it stars dynamic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two geeks on their way to Comic-Con in a Winnebago when they - naturally - encounter the titular extraterrestrial, voiced by Seth Rogen. With "The Daytrippers," "Superbad" and "Adventureland" under his belt, Mottola has yet to direct a movie I didn't like quite a bit, so enjoy the trailer, and definitely keep an eye out for this to come out March 18.



It seems like forever since Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu last directed a movie, and it has indeed been four years since "Babel," which I loved almost unconditionally, though I know many people who didn't. Soon to come out will be his new flick, "Biutiful," starring one Javier Bardem. Here's the synopsis, courtesy of The Playlist:

Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life's corridors, whether bright, bad - or biutiful.

Rather heady stuff that. Enjoy this, the first full trailer I know of, and keep an eye out for this in surely limited release starting Dec. 29.


Biutiful Trailer
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The first trailer for David O. Russell's "The Fighter" really didn't seem to promise much more than an average sports underdog flick starring Mark Wahlberg, but Sunday's fuller look that came with the finale of "Mad Men" (I miss it already!), had a lot more of Amy Adams and Christian Bale in it, and just made it look like a much more intriguing flick. Here's a look, and keep an eye out for the movie itself Dec. 10.



So, what can fill the Sunday void left by "Mad Men"? Well, nothing really, but "Sherlock," coming to PBS' Masterpiece Theatre (or whatever the heck its called now) for three installments beginning this Sunday, should at least be small solace, and I'll definitely be tuning in. As you'll see from the promo below, someone named Benedict Cumberbatch (yes, really) plays Sherlock himself, and the great Martin Freeman (of the UK "Office" fame and apparently the new Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit") plays Watson. Enjoy the clip, definitely tune in for this, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Muppets, Wild Things and other news that just makes me smile

Anyone who's been here before (and there are, amazingly, a few of you) knows that I have a serious thing for children's stories meant to equally entertain young-at-heart "adults," and on that front there's two bits of good news to share.

Starting with Spike Jonze and "Where the Wild Things Are," there wasn't a bigger Oscar snub in my mind than the fact his take on the classic children's story by Maurice Sendak didn't get a Best Picture nomination, even with the field this year expanded to 10 flicks.

Heck, I loved the movie so much that I would have also certainly given nominations to James Gandolfini for his voice work as Wild Thing Carol and also to Dave Eggers for his wildly original adapted screenplay (Eggers' novelization of the script, "Wild Things," is also just a great read.)

Now comes word about both the DVD release of "Where the Wild Things Are" and something else fun that's coming with it (and, frankly, hopefully packaged together so I can afford them both.)

First up, if you buy the "Where the Wild Things Are" DVD on March 2, there will be a rather sweet bonus in the form of an animated short based on another Sendak story, "Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life," featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Wild Thing (the Bull, if I recall correctly) Forest Whitaker. Bully to that, although I didn't really need any more motivation to buy this one.

In even better news, on the same day, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch's Oscilloscope Laboratories will release the doco "Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak," directed by Lance Bangs and Jonze, on DVD as well. Jonze and Sendak bonded quite a bit on the set of "Where the Wild Things Are," and as you see from the clip below, it became a genuine mutual admiration society. Enjoy.



And in a final bit about Mr. Jonze, a Web site has been just unveiled for his short film "I'm Here," which recently made its debut at Sundance. Best as I can tell, it's a 30-minute movie that's a love story involving two robots (why not?). You can watch the trailer at the site here, and according to the site itself, the movie will be released on it in March. Stay tuned for more on this very soon.

OK, except for that today, everything else will be about another subject that just fascinates me, the new Muppet movie being cooked up by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller for Disney. Being both a Marylander and a child of the '70s, I of course grew up on the Muppets, and certainly have never outgrown their appeal.

Well, now details about the movie itself are coming out quickly. "Flight of the Conchords" co-creator James Bobin has been officially attached to direct the project (a perfect choice in my book), and now early word about the script has emerged on The Playlist (a daily must-read here.)

According to their source, the movie's name has also changed from "The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made" to now "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made." Even with tongue firmly in cheek, you'd better deliver something solid with a title like that, and here's what the source had to say about the movie's synopsis:

" (The script) is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man's life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang — now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from — together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman (nice name, on par with Doc Hopper), bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers (see also "Heartbroken: The Conan O'Brien Story").

I'm not sure what that last CoCo bit was all about, but although that synopsis perhaps lacks an original spin on the Muppets story, it at least fits firmly in the tradition of what they're all about, so I'm very confident this is in the right hands. Here's some more of what he or she had to say:

It's a fresh, younger approach. Stoller and Segel have fun with the characters, are aware of what made the Muppet early years so great (winks to the audience, friendly musical numbers, single gag repetition, friendship and togetherness being the answer to everything), and hit the mark 65% of the time.

Again, that all sounds great to me, but the key to any great Muppet movie is the music, none of which The Playlist's mole could get his or her hands on. The only proof we have so far of Segel's and Stoller's skills in that department is that blissfully silly Dracula puppet show at the end of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (easily the best thing about that very easily forgettable movie.) Here's a clip of Segel performing "Dracula's Lament" on Craig Ferguson's show (I think) to brighten your day.



Finally today, the world is certainly a better place now that the Muppets have their own YouTube channel (trust me, it's a seriously good time-waster), and here's the newest clip. Beaker sets out to meem his way through Kansas' "Dust in the Wind," but as you can probably imagine, the results are somewhat short of perfect. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

A maddeningly beautiful trip to "Where the Wild Things Are"

Of all the wild and raw emotions flying around in Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are," the one I hadn't counted on feeling during the flick was sympathy for all the studio suits who had to market it.

When they finally sat down to watch it, however, rather than fighting with Jonze for years and years, I'm confident that like me, most of them found that - despite the movie's often-lumbering pace - he got all you possibly could and more out of Maurice Sendak's magical book by turning it into a glimpse into a 9-year-old's troubled mind.

And it certainly helps that the 9-year-old in question was played by Max Records, though the studio fought him on that choice too. As the movie Max, young Mr. Records captures his state of mind perfectly, wanting to be - and often acting like - a savage while at the same time unable to mask the fear and doubt that cloud up his life. As he rampages through the woods with his wild creations, Jonze isn't afraid to let young Max get as sweaty and snotty (enough to match his attitude) as a kid would left to his own devices. My favorite Max moment, however, came early on as you see the perfectly reasonable horror on his face after a teacher tells him the sun is going to die. It's all around certainly the best movie performance by a youngster this year.

In fact, what I was most surprised to find about Jonze's movie is that, as magical as the realm of Max's wild things often is, the best segment is the first 20 minutes or so that take place in Max's often-cruel (at least in his eyes) real world. Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers deftly flesh out the details that will shape Max's fantasy world once he runs away from it all, from his sister's friends who destroy his igloo (but only after he started a snowball fight) to his sister and mother who don't pay enough attention to him. Best of all is that, though it's a small role, the writers and Catherine Keener quickly turn the mother into a harried, lonely but mostly sympathetic character (and I loved that scene where she distracted herself from the tedium of work by typing into a report the much-more-fun story she cajoles Max into telling her about the consequences of vampires biting buildings.)

But, of course, it's supposed to be all about the wild things here, and that's where the movie will lose some audience members - young and old - because of just how morose they often turn out to be. Here too, however, it's still written with a lively spirit as it is all filmed by Jonze and cinematographer Lance Acord with an inquisitive touch, always making us uninvited guests at this savage summit of creatures infused with all of Max's simmering frustrations.

What made it all work so well for me was that though there are often some complicated psychological issues being hashed out, Jonze and Eggers have enough confidence in the audience that they never tell us directly what's going on but instead just let it all unfold in front of us, often in the most beautiful ways. It's the alluring landscape (in Australia, if I'm not mistaken) juxtaposed with the consequences of the wild things acting out all of Max's most savage wishes (the snowball fight turns into a dirt clomp fight, and the igloo becomes the greatest fort of all time) that give the movie most of its power.

And though the actors who voice the wild things all do a a great job (James Gandolfini as Max's alter ego Carol and Lauren Ambrose as K.W., who embodies Max's sister, in particular), it's the CGI folks who create the facial expressions for the wild things who are some of the real stars. The thing that bugs me most about computer-enhanced animation is that, particularly with human beings, they just get more and more bizarre as animators try to make them look more "real." With the wild things, however, using giant puppet suits from the Henson shop that are inhabited with actors other than the voice stars, the emotions portrayed through computer animation are more moving and ultimately satisfying than anything ever created by the power of 3-D.

I've probably gone on long enough about all this splendid mess, but I wanted to take issue with one particularly annoying criticism that I read of the ending (but the critic will remain nameless - no name-calling here.) If you somehow don't know how the story ends and don't want to, please just skip to the next paragraph. When Max finally returns home after learning that "All Is Love" (as expressed in the often-enchanting soundtrack by Karen O and the Kids, which you can listen to here by clicking on the widget at right) and that, no matter how big a fort you build, you really can't "keep all the sadness out," he's welcomed home by a relieved Keener with a smile and a warm meal. One rather snotty and condescending review I read of this flick took big issue with this because Max is never punished for first berating his mother (and threatening to eat her!) and then, of course, running away. Well, I'm not a parent myself, but if my kid had run away like that, though I'd certainly be a little angry, I certainly hope I'd first be happy to have him back and give him the meal he so impetuously skipped out on. Punishment may surely have come, but in that instant, I thought Keener, a definite favorite around these parts, just captured the moment perfectly.

And in the end, I suppose all those Warner Bros folks who fought this before ultimately giving in and putting together a rather brilliant marketing campaign certainly have to be smiling now that the flick took in $12 million on Friday alone and clobbered all its competitors. Huzzah to that, and if you haven't seen it yet, I encourage all movie fans young in body and heart to take it all in. Peace out.

True wit: With the Coens and the Dude, a remake I can support

I'm really not sure there's ever been other remake news that just made me smile like this does.

The Coen brothers are now (I assume) in Toronto promoting their new flick, "A Serious Man," which will hopefully play at least wide enough to reach my little corner of the world when it opens Oct. 2, and as they're doing so the thoroughly crazy word about their next project has leaked out.

It seems that - and brace yourself for just how cool this could be - the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, is about to sign on to play Roster Cogburn in a Coen brothers' remake of "True Grit" for Paramount.

Though a large part of me wishes the Coens would stick to their most often wildly inventive original material, this would seem to be just about a perfect fit to me. I have seen the original movie, of course, and can already see the Dude in it in my mind. And I read another novel by Charles Portis, "The Dog of the South," and can report its filled with the kind of very dark and sly wit that matches well with the Coens' view of the world.

And in other movie news out there today, if there's any director who deserves another shot at directing a fairly big budget feature flick, it's James Gunn.

Did anyone besides me see "Slither"? If you did, you know it was a delightfully twisted mix of humor and horror starring Nathan Fillion that, according to BoxOfficeMojo, made a rather astoundingly paltry $7,802,450 in the U.S. and only another $5 million or so in the rest of the world.

It also did, however, get a grade of B from the 330 or so people - including me - who bothered to rate it at BoxOfficeMojo, and if you're among the many who haven't seen it, I think it's well worth a rental.

I tell you all that to tell you this: James Gunn is finally back with something called "Super," with Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and hopefully a pretty funny tale in tow.

Wilson plays an average guy who takes on the pseudo-superhero alter ego of the Crimson Bolt, after watching his wife (Liv Tyler) fall under the spell of a charming drug dealer. Lacking super powers, he compensates by swinging a trusty wrench. I'm laughing at that already. I have no idea what role young Ellen Page will play in all this, but I'll definitely turn out to see the final result.

I'll leave you today with couple of clips, plus, since I haven't mentioned "Where the Wild Things Are" for at least two days (a real void for me), some thoroughly cool character posters for the upcoming Spike Jonze flick. Before all that, however, enjoy this clip of Rob Lowe and Ricky Gervais in "The Invention of Lying," which Gervais wrote and directed with Matthew Robinson. Here's hoping the flick is that rare breed of flick, both a truly witty romantic comedy and a money-maker when it comes out Oct. 2. Enjoy.



And sort of finally, Warner Bros., who has clearly now decided since it found it couldn't stop Jonze from finishing "Where the Wild Things Are" they would just really get behind it instead, has released these four fantastic character posters for the Oct. 16 flick. The first one, of course, is young Max Records as our hero Max, but if you want to put a name with a face, in the others, KW will be voiced by Lauren Ambrose, Carol will be voiced by James Gandolfini and Judith will be voiced by Catherine O'Hara.

In this great profile of Jonze in the New York Times, Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers revealed they fleshed out the Wild Things as projections of Max's feelings. Man, I can't wait to finally see this. Enjoy.





And really finally, courtesy of and worth a plug for the great "Where the Wild Things Are" production blog of sorts We Love You So, well worth a visit if you haven't seen it, I'll leave you with this delightfully insane clip of Shel Silverstein performing on "The Johnny Cash Show." Along with being a celebrated children's author, Silverstein was also a rather prolific writer of country songs, including the two you'll hear below (the second, "Daddy What If," is just one of my favorite little sappy songs, especially as it was performed by Bobby Bare and Bobby Bare Jr.) Enjoy, and have a great weekend (and if you've never seen a Tyler Perry movie, take a chance on "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself." I certainly will Saturday afternoon.) Peace out.

Screw the Emmys ... Critics right a lot of TV wrongs from past decade

Although I watch the Oscars every year without fail, I very rarely tune in for even a minute of the Emmys. Why? Well, I understand that HBO makes great shows (I just reupped for "True Blood" season two - bring it on!) and I find "30 Rock" to be extremely funny, but there are so many others shows that just get ignored year after year.

Well, Variety did an interesting survey this week with members of the Television Critics Association, asking them to pick the best TV shows and stars from the past decade. The winners will be announced later this summer, and though I seriously doubt it will happen, it sure would be nice to see Lauren Graham win something. Here are the nominees, runners up and some brief comments from me:

DRAMA SERIES
NOMINEES:
"Friday Night Lights"
"Lost"
"Mad Men"
"The Sopranos"
"The West Wing"
"The Wire"

JUST MISSED:
"24," "Battlestar Galactica," "Big Love," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Deadwood," "Grey's Anatomy," "House," "Rescue Me" and "The Shield"

Now there's a category. Three of these shows, "The Wire," "The West Wing" and "Friday Night Lights," are among my all-time favorites, and I certainly love "Mad Men" too (and can't wait for August to get here already.) Oddly enough, did anyone know that Elizabeth Moss, a k a Peggy Olson, also played Zoey Bartlet on "The West Wing"? I didn't realize it until a few days ago. Anyways, I'd go with "The Wire," the best cop show of all time, here, with "Friday Night Lights" a close second, but I have a feeling "The West Wing" will prevail.

DRAMA ACTRESS
NOMINEES:
Connie Britton "Friday Night Lights"
Glenn Close "Damages"
Edie Falco "The Sopranos"
Allison Janney "The West Wing"
Mary McDonnell "Battlestar Galactica"
Kyra Sedgwick "The Closer"

JUST MISSED: Frances Conroy "Six Feet Under," Jennifer Garner "Alias, Sarah Michelle Gellar "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Rachel Griffiths "Six Feet Under" /"Brothers and Sisters," Sally Field "Brothers and Sisters" Holly Hunter "Saving Grace"

As much as I like Allison Janney and love her C.J., Connie Britton should be a big winner in this category. If you've never seen "Friday Night Lights" and think it's just a show about high school football, give it a chance, because Britton, Kyle Chandler and all the kids make it the best drama on TV now.

DRAMA ACTOR
NOMINEES:
Michael Chiklis "The Shield"
Bryan Cranston "Breaking Bad"
James Gandolfini "The Sopranos"
Michael C. Hall "Dexter"
Jon Hamm "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie "House"

JUST MISSED: Gabriel Byrne "In Treatment," Kyle Chandler "Friday Night Lights," Ian McShane "Deadwood," Denis Leary "Rescue Me," Martin Sheen "The West Wing," Kiefer Sutherland "24"

Most of the action is in the runners up here. I appreciate that NBC tried to give McShane something to work with on "Kings," but he'll never get a role as good as Al Swearengen. Out of all these, my five would be McShane, Chandler, Jon Hamm, James Gandolfini and - rather than Martin Sheen, who is indeed great - Richard Schiff (Toby Zeigler) from "The West Wing."

COMEDY SERIES
NOMINEES:
"30 Rock"
"Arrested Development"
"Curb Your Enthusiasm"
"The Daily Show"
"Everybody Loves Raymond"
"The Office"

JUST MISSED: "The Big Bang Theory," "Flight of the Conchords," "Frasier," "Freaks and Geeks," "Friends," "Sex and the City," "The Simpsons," "Two and a Half Men"

I love that they just threw "The Daily Show" in the comedy category where it squarely belongs rather than into some goofy "late night" list. And huzzah to "Freaks and Geeks"! It's not terribly surprising that it would get love from critics, but it still just makes me very happy. Among the finalists, I'd go with "Arrested Development" here, by just a nose over "The Daily Show" and "30 Rock."

COMEDY ACTRESS
NOMINEES:
Tina Fey "30 Rock"
Lauren Graham "Gilmore Girls"
Patricia Heaton "Everybody Loves Raymond"
Jane Kaczmarek "Malcolm in the Middle"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "The New Adventures of Old Christine"
Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds"

JUST MISSED: Jennifer Aniston "Friends," America Ferrera "Ugly Betty," Jenna Fischer "The Office," Felicity Huffman Desperate Housewives," Lisa Kudrow "Friends"/"The Comeback," Debra Messing "Will and Grace"

No contest here. Whether you want to call "Gilmore Girls" a comedy, drama or - bleh! - a dramedy, Lauren Graham should take this one running away. I love Mary-Louise Parker too, and it's nice to see some love for the blissfully silly "Malcolm in the Middle," but Graham is easily the most underappreciated TV actress of the past decade. 'Nuff said.

COMEDY ACTOR
NOMINEES:
Alec Baldwin "30 Rock"
Jason Bateman "Arrested Development"
Steve Carell "The Office"
Larry David "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
Ricky Gervais "The Office"
Kelsey Grammer "Frasier"

JUST MISSED: Zach Braff "Scrubs," Neil Patrick Harris "How I Met Your Mother," Jim Parsons "The Big Bang Theory," Ray Romano "Everybody Loves Raymond," Tony Shalhoub "Monk," Charlie Sheen "Two and a Half Men"

Carell vs. Gervais? I'd take Gervais every time, but in this category I'd give the nod to Bateman as the leader of the Bluth clan. I've given up any real hope that there will ever be an "Arrested Development" movie, but man wouldn't that be fun? And, as silly as "Scrubs" is, Braff is indeed very funny too, so kudos.

And with that, I'm off to Chicago for the weekend to hang out with mi hermano and watch two soccer matches (MLS Friday and U.S.-Honduras Saturday.) I'm also gonna hit the Art Institute of Chicago and - me being me - maybe a movie Saturday afternoon, "The Limits of Control" if I can find it. So I won't be seeing either of the two big comedies opening this weekend, but please feel free to let me know if they're any good or not. Peace out.

Where the Wild Things Aren't, or how to kill a movie before it's born

I really hope none of this is true, but since it comes from the almost always reliable C.H.U.D. and certainly doesn't seem to be beyond the pale of what happens in the world of movies today, I fear it is.

You may remember seeing a very rough clip of our hero, Max, playing with one of the Wild Things that spring from his mind in Spike Jonze's take on Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." Jonze later clarified that the clip, which you can see in one of my previous posts here, was just very early test footage.

Well, as it turns out, we might just have to savor that clip as the living record of the movie that might have been, because Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures may be on the verge of killing the entire project and starting over from the beginning.

As crazy as that sounds, it's exactly what the suits are apparently contemplating doing with Jonze's flick, which is essentially completed now but not slated for release until 2009 (never a good sign, of course.) So what's the trouble?

Well, C.H.U.D. reports that the plan to animate the Wild Things' mouths and facial features after shooting the actors in those crazy suits was proving a little more difficult than anticipated. That, however, would be surmountable.

Much more ominously, concerns have been voiced about the boy chosen to play young Max (named, conveniently enough, Max Records.) Mind you, this concern is being voiced AFTER the movie has been shot. Even worse, and more perilous for the film's future, C.H.U.D. reports "they don't like the film's tone and want to go back to the script drawing board, possibly losing the Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers script when they do it. Apparently the film is too weird and 'too scary,' and the character of Max is being seen as not likable."

The questions this brings to my rather angry mind are almost too many to list, but I'll do my best. First of all, did anyone who finds this story "too weird" or "too scary" ever even read the book? I mean, I realize it's a Caldecott winner and one of the true classics in children's literature, but most of its appeal comes in the fact that it's more than a little off-kilter. And Max isn't likable? In the book, as best as I can recall, he's a petulant child who is punished for, among other things, donning his wolf costume and chasing the dog around the house with a fork (I don't know about you, but I'm laughing about that already.) This clearly isn't the cookie-cutter hero we find in most kids' movies today.

Secondly, and much more importantly, what in the world did they expect when they hired Spike Jonze for this? If they had seen either "Being John Malkovich" or "Adaptation," you'd think someone would have balked at the beginning and asked, "Do we really want to hand the reins of a purportedly $75 million children's movie over to this oddball?" Until hearing this latest distressing news I, at least, thought it was a great idea. Why not an "arthouse" kiddie flick, one that parents will be able to take their children to and sit through without wanting to claw their own eyes out?

Now, I haven't seen the almost-finished product (which a lucky few folks got to do in Pasadena late last year, apparently.) It's entirely possible that what Spike Jonze and scribe Dave Eggers have created, with the talents of Paul Dano, Catherine Keener, Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini and others, is a true disaster. In case you can't tell by now, I'm gonna have to side with the auteurs until we find out more about this, if we ever will. Just a sad story all around.

To cheer myself up I've been listening to Carole King's "Really Rosie." Yes, an odd CD selection for an "adult" with no rugrats running around, but I really love that record. If you don't smile when you hear "The Ballad of Chicken Soup" or how Pierre learns to care, I just don't know if there's anything I can do to help you.

I was hoping to find a video clip from that "Really Rosie" TV special, but instead, here's an animated tribute to "Where the Wild Things Are" I found at YouTube. Enjoy that at least, and if you have the chance, do yourself a favor this weekend and go see Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" instead of the anatomy of a presidential assassination (why in the world would you put that out now?) or Larry the Cable Guy getting "Witless." Sheesh. Peace out.

Two images from the best movie of 2008?

I was about to just take the day off and simply catch up on "The Wire" and "Friday Night Lights" on my DVR (which still seems like a magical device to me), when I came across theses images from Spike Lee's new war epic at the great Froggy film site Cinempire.com.

And maybe "Miracle at St. Anna" won't be the best movie of 2008, but with the way it's shaping shape it should indeed be the flick that brings Spike the awards season acclaim he's deserved since at least "Do the Right Thing."

In the photo above (which I think gets a little bigger if you click on it), I believe the four main stars are, from left, Omar Benson Miller, Michael Ealy, Derek Luke (hearty huzzah!) and Laz Alonso (please correct me if I'm somehow wrong about this.) Also in the ensemble cast of this flick, set for release in October, are Spike regular John Turturro, James Gandolfini and D.B. Sweeney, and possibly (according to the great Blackfilm.com, John Leguizamo and Joseph Gordon Levitt (huzzah again!).

The story, based on the novel "Buffalo Soldiers" by James McBride, is about four black American soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII. The only other thing I know for sure about this is that Mr. Luke only got the lead role after Wesley Sniples was forced to drop out, which I can only call a case of trading up. Peace out.