I Am Link

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--- NY Odyssey - David Cronenberg has chosen his next project - it'll be an adaptation of Don Delillo's 2003 novel Cosmopolis. Via Wiki comes the plot (spoilerish I suppose):

"Cosmopolis is the story of Eric Packer, a 28 year old multi-billionaire asset manager who makes an odyssey across midtown Manhattan in order to get a haircut. The stretch limo which adorns the cover of the book is richly described as highly technical and very luxurious, filled with television screens and computer monitors, bullet-proofed and floored in Carrara marble. It is also cork lined to protect against street noise, though unsuccessfully, Packer notes.

Like James Joyce's Ulysses, Cosmopolis covers roughly one day of time and includes highly sexed women and the theme of father-son separation. Packer's voyage is obstructed by various traffic jams caused by a presidential visit to the city, a funeral procession for a Sufi rap star and a full-fledged riot. Along the way, the hero has several chance meetings with his wife, seeing her in a taxi, a bookstore, and lying naked in the street, taking part in a movie as an extra. Meanwhile, Packer is stalked by two men, a comical "pastry assassin" and an unstable "credible threat." Through the course of the day, the protagonist loses incredible amounts of money for his clients by betting against the rise of the yen, a loss that parallels his own fall. Packer seems to relish being unburdened by the loss of so much money, even stopping to make sure he loses his wife's fortune as well, to ensure his ruin is inevitable."

I haven't read the book but it sounds like there could be the germ of a decent absurdist city tale like Scorsese's After Hours maybe in this...? I'll always and forever give Cronenberg the benefit of the doubt even if I do miss the old-school body-horror version of him something fierce.

--- Word of the Day: Avatard - Cue the backlash: five months before the film even comes out the claims are coming that Avatar can never ever live up to Jim Cameron's salesman's pitch of ridiculously high levels of hype. And this is surprising? io9 rounds up some of the semi-middling reactions the footage at ComiCon got, and Joe gets to the meat of it over at Low Resolution: basically that it's gonna be this year's Geek Crucible upon which fanboys aren't going to allow any criticism without going all DEFCON-5. Should be a fun few months! The cinema will burn down around us all!

--- Rag Doll Dada - Now that Coraline's on DVD I've got to watch it again; I don't think I ever properly wrote up my feelings about the film. They were positive but not as positive as I hoped going in and I will admit that some of the problem was with the 3D. It bugged my eyes. So I want to watch it a second time in 2D and I think I'll have an easier go of it. Anyway, here's a great look at the film worth reading that's got my hyped up for a second viewing. Kiddie castration anxieties, ho!!!

--- And finally, yes, I read that Thom Yorke is going to have a song on the second Twilight movie's soundtrack. And no, it doesn't much bother me because you know what? I'm gonna get a new Thom Yorke song. He could give away an mp3 download of a new song in Happy Meals for that gerbil-spy movie (#1 Movie In America! Sigh.) and I would buy every one I could get my paws on. I suppose we can consider this his olive-branch to the Miley Cyrus set after he enraged them by criticizing their dullard-queen. Or he just wants to make boat-loads of money. I wonder which one it is? Hmm. Anyway I win, because I get a new song by him. ME ME ME.
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