Hollywood Hotline - Week of July 18, 2024
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Howdy Hotliners!
Happy 25th Anniversary to the late Stanley Kubrick’s final film, (with that legendary final line ;) EYES WIDE SHUT, released on July 15, 1999, here in the United States.
From my December 2020 screening/Letterboxd review:
“Worked concessions at the United Artists Regency Valley Plaza 6 in North Hollywood the summer this came out. The Friday before it opened, one of my assistant managers, Brandon Casanova (his real name I shit you not), strung it through the projector after the last theater patrons exited the premises, at like, 1:30am Friday morning. (Imagine putting this film on past 1:00am!) He and I, and a slew of other rouges gallery movie theater attendants, all got high on the roof then brought in cases of bottled Budweiser that we set in the middle of the theater for everyone to grab from. Then we sat back and lit cigarettes, smoking inside Auditorium 1, as the film started to play. Of course I passed out not long after the orgy sequence and was awoken by one of my co-workers during the end credit music. Needless to say I re-watched it that weekend and didn't love it at first. It's an acquired taste that's taken me a lifetime to understand. I now love the film, although I do wish it was shorter. (I would've omitted the dance scene between 'Alice' and smarmy 'Sandor Szavost' plus any and all shoe-leather/fantasy flashbacks). Kubrick's score here also does a lot of the heavy lifting (as all his scores have).”
Nicole Kidman Rats Out Ex-husband Tom Cruise about him playing MINESWEEPER in his trailer when they were on set shooting the movie for 15 months!
Also, one week from tomorrow, Friday July 26, The Kubrick Estate is dropping an official authorized documentary on THE SHINING (1980), which will make for great Shelly Duvall (1949-2024) memorial marathon viewing.
Without further ado, let’s check the hotline:
The Safdie Brothers Now Just A Safdie Brother Film
Our baby boy Timo Chal’s gonna get crazy with the ping pong paddle for a ping pong biopic that sounds like a scene in a montage from FORREST GUMP (1994).
Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Haynes Making a Detective Movie
“Details have been thin on the ground so far, but the movie is said to follow two men, one played by Phoenix, who are intense lovers and leave California for Mexico.”
Sounds hot, sexy, exotic, and. . . dangerous? Sign me up for a cruise down south!
Charlize Theron Gets Hunted on Half-Dome
“Jeremy Robbins penned the script, which is described as FREE SOLO (2018) meets THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) and follows a rock climber who finds herself being hunted in the wild.”
I’m a huge fan of man-hunting-man or animal-hunting-man movies. Sign me up for this climb! God-willing this will play in IMAX.
Scarlett Johansson is the Ghost Hand that Rocks the Twins Cradle
“Micah Schraft is writing the script based on the short story by Suzanne Rindell. They are keeping specifics under wraps, but the buzz in the market is, think of psychological thrillers like THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE (1992) meets WHAT LIES BENEATH (2000).”
Imagine referencing two movies in your pitch meeting from 32-yrs ago, and 24-years ago, respectively. Still though, that ScarJo is super hot right now. Hansel. Sign me up for this sitter and color me cautiously curious.
Former DC Films Studio Boss Is Back With Single-Mom Horror Spec
“The plot line is being kept under wraps, but it surrounds a single mother who inadvertently invites an evil entity into her home.”
So basically your average run-of-the-mill redheaded stepfather? Like Terry O'Quinn in those STEPFATHER movies? God, THE STEPFATHER (1987) had one of the greatest taglines of All Time: “WHO AM I HERE?”
Don’t sign me up for this one just yet.
Pretty Boy Actor Dan Stevens Starring in Horror Anthology Show
“Written by Chris Cantwell (HALT AND CATCH FIRE 2014-2017) and author Victor LaValle, on whose novel the season is based, THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER tells the story of Pepper (Stevens), a working-class moving man who, through a combination of bad luck and a bad temper, finds himself wrongfully committed to New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital – an institution filled with the people society would rather forget. There, he must contend with patients who work against him, doctors who harbor grim secrets, and perhaps even the very Devil himself. As Pepper navigates a hellscape where nothing is as it seems, he finds that the only path to freedom is to face down the entity which thrives on the suffering within New Hyde’s walls – but doing so may prove that the worst demons of all live inside him.”
So SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963) meets ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975) but with a splash of EXTREME MEASURES (1996) or ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968) thrown in?
I can watch Dan Stevens do anything in anything because I wish I was Dan Stevens. Sign me up for this tale of terror!
FLATLINERS gets De-fibbed Back to Life AGAIN!
Oof, did no one learn their lesson from the 2017 remake of the 1990 film!? Look, if they bring back THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL 1990 CAST then, yes, OK, you can sign me up. But if you make them young Gen-Z TikTok’er’s going to med school in Bulgaria? Don’t bring me back from the flatline!
Who Needs Film School When You Got the Michael Mann Archives!
I can see why Mr. Mann, a notoriously private and prickly person would want to do this. After all, his vintage wine collection ain’t gonna pay for itself!
Tarsem’s THE FALL (2006) Finally Coming to 4k Blu-Ray!
The original Blu-ray disc has been Out-of-Print for as long as I’ve been alive and currently sells for $144.99 on Amazon. Thank god for Mubi!
New Book Coming Out about Disney Take Over of ABC
This little tidbit about Disney CEO, Michael Eisner in 1995:
“At the end of my ABC career, Michael called us all up to Aspen where his ski house was, the one which had Mickey Mouse’s face carved out in the back of his chairs. We had to go over all the shows with him, and he just said, “No, that’s not going to work. That’s not going to work.” He goes, “Here’s what you do, Ted. Just go get the old MOD SQUAD (1968-1973) scripts and just reshoot them.” I said, “Well, Michael, I liked MOD SQUAD a lot. I could go get those scripts and get them rewritten to make them more modern.” He said, “No, no, no, no. You don’t understand: exactly the way they’re written. I don’t want to spend anymore money on new writers for these. Just go get them exactly the way they’re written.” I said, “You mean with Linc and Julie and the way they talked back in the ’60s?” He said, “Yes, it’ll be fine.” So I was spending a fair amount of personal capital and time and energy trying to talk the chairman out of ideas.”
WOW. Talk about a penny-pinching Scrooge McDuck! I definitely gotta read this this Christmas.
COMING SOON:
MOTHER, COUCH - Feels like this is an allegory for something. Like Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) meets IKEA
A DIFFERENT MAN - Can’t tell if this is THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) or JOHNNY HANDSOME (1989) but seems like something I’d Lodgecast
CONCLAVE - From the Oscar-winning (!) director of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022) remake comes a movie with a stacked cast that looks pretty flat and trite with a real heavy-handed score doing a lot of heavy lifting for what appears to be a TV MOW
THE KILLER - John Woo’s remake of his THE KILLER (1989). Not David Fincher’s THE KILLER (2023). This looks very Plus-y
TERMINATOR ZERO - I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis, I mean, I don’t always watch cartoons. But when I do, I prefer Dos Marijuana
Until next week, Hotliners! Thanks for calling in.
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