* I don’t really care that Sony hired Marc Webb, the talented director behind (500) Days of Summer, to direct the reboot of Spider Man. And the fact that they are going to do a darker version doesn’t really interest me either, because Spider Man isn’t a dark character. Just let it go for now.
* I mean, I know Spider Man 3 was bad. As a matter of fact, just off the top of my head: dancing Peter Parker with eyeliner, James Franco getting amnesia, therein forgetting how to act, the skewed physics of Sandman, who can magically grow to ten times his size, the manic editing, Eddie Brock/Venom being played by Topher Grace, Venom appearing for about ten minutes in the film, most of which has Topher Grace’s face poking out of the symbiote instead of actually seeing Venom, Bruce Dallas howard just… being in the movie. All of these signs point towards a much-needed dormant period for the webslinger, not an immediate restart.
* The first inductees into the has-been hall of fame: John Travolta, Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson. Up next on the ballot: Robert DeNiro and Michael Douglas.
* Ben Stiller has agreed to star in a film from Mark Romanek (Arlington Road) called The Voices, about a man who kills a woman he works with, then listens to the advice of his dog and cat on how to cover his tracks. Yes, you read that right.
* Clive Owen has signed on to do a film called Protection about the daughter of a Mexican judge who witnesses a murder and has to flee from the bad guys. Owen will play the guy who… sorry I lost interest. You’re better than doing these generic action pictures, Clive.
* Sean Penn and Robert Pattinson are rumored to be in Water for Elephants, an adaptation of a novel which tells the tale of a depression-era romantic triangle revolving around a traveling circus. The female lead is Reese Witherspoon. This creates quite the conundrum. I mean, sure I want to see a Sean Penn flick, but do I want to see a Robert Pattinson movie?
* This same article claims that Sean Penn would have to return from his “acting sabbatical” to accept the role. So, he took a break from film? When did this happen? Because, if I remember correctly, Sean Penn won the Academy Award for Best Actor way back in March of 2009. He is such a strange guy.
* In a conversation with Focus Features’ CEO James Schamus from The Hollywood Reporter, he claimed that he is working on a new project with Ang Lee that will take us back to “good old, tragic, suicidally depressing Ang.” So does this mean they are back in the studio working on a Hulk sequel?
* Am I the only one who sees the irony in Paul Bettany’s career right now? In Legion, he plays an angel armed to the teeth with firearms, and at the same time in Creation, he plays Charles Darwin. And, amazingly enough (not), they appear to both suck.
* So, the Macgruber trailer… I don’t really know what to do with it.
* Could it be that The Wolfman will not be the biggest disaster for Universal since Waterworld? I mean, the effects look great, the cast is top notch, and the more I see about it the more I want to see of it. But there isn’t any way it will be any good, right? Never before has a movie been pushed back repeatedly and gone through so much turmoil and wound up being even remotely good. But maybe… just maybe…
* 4 weeks until Shutter Island (finally) opens.
