Keep Yourselves Occupied...

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... whilst I am away: I'm out of town for the next week, so MNPP will probably be radio silence til next Tuesday. Have a mighty fine Labor Day. Hooray almost-Autumn!

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Who Wore It Best?

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poll by twiigs.com

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I know most people will automatically subscribe to the notion of the original being better, but I'm Team Rooney all the way. A happy 50th birthday to David Fincher. He admitted earlier this week that he's trying to figure out the sequel. As long as Daniel Craig's skimpy underthings make a reappearance I'm good.

Pic of the Day

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Today's the first day of shooting on the pilot for NBC's Hannibal, Bryan Fuller's televised take on the prequelized bromance between the FBI profiler Will Graham and the psychologist cum cannibal Hannibal Lecter, and that right there is hot off the presses look at the shoot happening in Toronto right this very instant! From the left that's Hugh Dancy, who's playing Graham, then director David "Hard Candy" Slade, and then that's Laurence Fishburne who's playing Special Agent Jack Crawford. Sweet!

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

For Your Consideration (2006)

Marketing Person: The first of course is a sort of
Norman Rockwell... it's America... it's the family... eating.
You have the title in the uh... Hebraic letters.
Whitney Taylor Brown: Alright well my first instinct says
 it reminds me of my family. And I hate my family.
And I think a lot of people might feel that way.
Marketing Person: [pause] I think that's such a fascinating take
on what we've done... because we've gotten away
from the family, and we make it this:

Whitney's Assistant: Man that one is scary.
You got disembodied heads.
Whitney Taylor Brown: You know what I like?
I like when it's misleading, in a good way.
This looks like a horror film!
Marketing Person: It's horrifying, but it's "horrifying"
like in a horror movie.
Whitney Taylor Brown: Someone's killed their children and made them into cookies, and I wanna go see that!

Happy 51, Jennifer Coolidge!

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Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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Mads Mikkelsen One Time

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He can serve me with fava beans any time. (via)

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I Am Link

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--- Hardy's Herd - Looks like Leo and Tobey have folded Tom Hardy into the "Pussy Posse" - the three of them are teaming up to produce a multi-plotted movie about animal poaching a la Traffic, based on an idea from Hardy himself. Supposedly it will follow the process from animal to handbag, or whatever. But will Tom take his pants off?

--- Grand Master - I've stopped watching new footage because there's no point hyping myself into a coma at this point, but if you want to see the latest and last trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master you can do so right here. I finally figured out where it's playing in 70mm here in NYC - for a brief moment I was terrified it was only playing on the matchbox-sized screens at the Angelika theater, which would have been enough to make me pick up all of my belongings and move right then and there. If you wondering when and where it's playing near you, click here.

--- Re Chained - Speaking of trailers I won't watch but hey maybe you wanna, here's a new international trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

--- Running Man - I stumbled across some pictures from the set of Woody Allen's new movie yesterday and wrote 'em up over at The Film Experience. As I mention there I stumbled upon them because I stumbled upon that there picture of Peter Sarsgaard doing his tiny-shorted running routine again (previous time here) and was looking for more pics of that. Cuz that's what I do.

--- Fest Fatigued - I'm actively figuring out which movies I'll be seeing at The New York Film Festival right now... and there are too damned many! I only have so much money and so much time - I'm going to end up missing half the ones I want to see. Case in point - Glenn just wrote up how much he really dug the giallo-riffing Berberian Sound Studio, which is showing at NYFF as one of the Midnight shows that I doubt I'll make it to. Sigh.

--- Autumnal Scares - I haven't gone through this yet but STYD did us horror-geeks a favor and wrote up a guide to what's spooky movie-wise for the next few months, get it here. I hope there's some good stuff - I want some good stuff!
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Fassy Got a Gun

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Michael Fassbender is in talks to star opposite Natalie Portman in a western called Jane Got a Gun from the director Lynne Ramsey. Lynne "Splash Everything With Obvious Red" Ramsey!

Okay I wasn't all that crazy about what Ramsey did with the really, really wonderful book We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, but her previous film Movern Callar was interesting enough, and Shriver's book was maybe impossible to adapt, so I'll give her a pass. At least Tilda was terrific.

Jane Got a Gun is about a woman whose husband shows up shot, being chased down by bad guys - Fassy would play her former amour that she seeks help from. The script was on "the black list" last year.

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Good Morning, World

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A happy 26 to Armie Hammer. Somehow it seems to me like he's older than that, doesn't it? I suppose for a lucky few who were raised right a healthy maturity comes with being fabulously wealthy and handsome and charming... and tall, oh so tall... goddamn him. I mean happy birthday, of course! You can see more caps from his shirtlessness in Mirror Mirror over here. Bonus shots of that sexy dwarf, too!

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Dom Should Be Diving Into Tom Daley's Speedo

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I just realized that British diver Tom Daley and British actor Dominic Cooper both share similar Boston Terrier-ish eyeball traits, and then I realized that we need to figure out how to fold space and time so that the admittedly older Dom could play Tom Daley in his bio-pic... aka Two Hours of Dominic Cooper Wearing A Speedo: The Movie. Right? Right.

Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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Elijah Wood Eight Times

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What is Vera Farmiga's Deal...

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... with continually wanting to play the mother of evil murderous children? It already seemed like a thing what with Joshua and Orphan coming out only two years apart, but now she's taken on the role of one of the world's most notorious psycho mamas - that of Norman Bates' mother in A&E's upcoming prequel series called Bates Motel from Lost's Carlton Cuse. It must be weird being her kids, what with all the "Killed anybody lately?" taunts on the playground. Your mother does not trust you, little ones!

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Pee Wee's Playhouse (1986)

Pee-wee: Hey Mr. Window, what's the opposite of big?
Mr. Window: Small?
Pee-wee: No.
Mr. Window: Tiny?
Pee-wee: No.
Mr. Window: Teeny?
Pee-wee: No.
Mr. Window: Itsy-bitsy?
Pee-wee: No!
Mr. Window: Petite.
Pee-wee: No.
Mr. Window: Miniscule.
Pee-wee: No!
Mr. Window: Dinky?
Pee-wee: No!
Mr. Window: Then what is it, Pee-wee?
Pee-wee: Little!
Everyone: AAAAHHHHHH!!!!

 Happy 60, Paul Reubens!

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MNPP: The Tumblr

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I haven't done much with it yet (and who knows if I will) but I started up an MNPP Tumblr yesterday, so if you're a Tumblrer head on over and follow! Has anyone ever made an "I'll Tumblr For Ya" joke in its history of Tumblr's existence? Something tells me that signs point to "Hell yes," and yet here we are.

National President

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One of my fave bands will be performing for one of my fave presidents - The National will perform in Iowa before President Obama gives a speech next week. Lucky Iowan bastards.

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I Am Link

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--- Way Way Back - The dean from Community (aka Jim Rash) won an Oscar with his writing partner Nat Faxon for The Descendants (blecch) and then directed a movie called The Way Way Back starring Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, and Steve Carell, and the NYT has an article on the making of the movie, including that lovely picture. Make out, you two! Toni and I'd watch that.

--- Gore Hounds - The hotly anticipated horror anthology flick V/H/S screened at FrightFest in the UK over the weekend and AICN has a couple of reviews (here and here) to chew on. They're both mixed, which is how it should be since the flick's a mixed bag - here's my review of it from back in July. I have to say it's the final segment (called "10/31/98") I find myself coming back to the most often. AICN has also got a couple reviews of the Maniac remake (here and here) but I didn't read those since I haven't seen that yet.

--- Cross Town Local - Beau wrote up some very fine thoughts about David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis at The Film Experience this morning. I also shared some thoughts over at TFE in the comments about my updated feeling on the film; here's my old review for contrast.

--- Baby Pratt - Poor Anna Faris, having to share the weekend she and Chris Pratt had their baby - a boy - with that Jersey Shore monster who is gobbling up all the baby news. Anyway congrats Anna and Chris!

--- Guest Star - As promised Bachelorette director slash screenwriter Leslye Headland took over The Film Experience on Saturday and you can read all she had to say over here. Great stuff.

--- Wonder Twins - Ben Affleck is not making a Justice League movie, but the Wachowskis might, so our gain is our gain. Now we just all hold our breath over the Wonder Woman casting.

--- Bird Lady - Finally some moving footage from The Girl, that HBO movie with Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren filming The Birds. Although I have to say seeing them in motion actually made me more anxious, not less.

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Good Morning, World

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This right here is not half bad news to wake up to:

"British actor Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) ... [has] joined the cast of Lars von Trier's pornographic drama Nymphomaniac.

The hard-core pornographic drama starring Shia LaBeouf, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgard begins shooting in Germany Tuesday." 

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Do Dump or Marry - Un Gallic Triptych

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Of the several movies coming out this weekend which I just wrote up over at Celebrity Beehive, it's the late-to-our-shores 2010 French film Little White Lies that's got me the most hot and bothered and that's because of its director and its cast. Its director is Guillaume Canet, who we gave good gratutity to back in April; he is Marion Cotillard's lover (it's perfectly acceptable to use that word without giggling because they are French) and did plenty of acting on his own... I mean obviously he did, with that face.

Meanwhile in front of the camera Guillaume wrangled two of our favorite French fellows, recent Best Actor winner slash big-time object du crush Jean Dujardin...

 ... and Benoît Magimel, who we've been angling for ever since Isabelle Huppert told him to sit on her face in The Piano Teacher.

Bonus points - I do believe that Benoît's character is of the homo persuasion in LWL.

By most accounts the movie is not that great but really with a cast this pretty, do you entirely care? Sometimes just staring at pretty people is plenty. Often times. Anyway now you should tell me in the comments who you'd do who you'd dump and who you'd marry.
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Jake Two Times

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Ooh he's got his Serious Actor Face on, everybody be quiet and listen. In a new interview with The New York Times, Mr. Gyllenhaal uses the word "craft" and compares acting to "building little delicate cricket cages." Sigh. Jake also says he found his love for the stage because of Patti Lupone and Angels In America, so you know... penis breath.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from: 

Rear Window (1954)

Stella: You know, I should have been a gypsy fortune-teller instead of an insurance company nurse. I got a nose for trouble. Can smell it ten miles away. You heard of that market crash in "29? I predicted that. 

LB: Just how did you do that, Stella? 

 Stella: Oh, simple. I was nursing a director of General Motors. "Kidney ailment," they said. "Nerves," I said. Then I asked myself, 'What's General Motors got to be nervous about?" "Overproduction," I says. "Collapse." When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country's ready to let go. 

LB: You know, Stella, in economics, a kidney ailment has no relationship to the stock market. None whatsoever. 

 Stella: Crashed, didn't it? 

One day I'll have transcribed every single line of dialogue that Thelma Ritter says in Rear Window for this series - that's just how integral to living I find her character's homespun wisdom, as she calls it. I rewatched Rear Window last night for the dozenth upon dozenth squared time, and I really need to shut my yap about it being replaced as my favorite movie ever until after I rewatch it because I'm immediately swayed back to its favor once I do. 

Did you know that Rear Window is apparently one hundred and twelve minutes long? That is just shy of two hours, and you could've fooled me because once again it was the scene where Raymond Burr's throwing Jimmy Stewart out the window before I realized any time had passed at all. 

Something new always strikes me every time I watch the movie - last night it was Lisa (Grace Kelly) admitting her dress cost 1100 dollars. 1100 dollars! That translates to that dress costing just under ten thousand dollars now. And she just lounges around in it in his dingy apartment like it's no big whoop. Hitch and screenwriter John Michael Hayes did a smart thing though - they have her repeatedly talk about how she's given the clothes and didn't spend that much money on them herself. It'd be harder to like Lisa otherwise, even though nobody wants their Grace Kelly wearing anything less.

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I Am Link

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--- Lady Hardy - Tom Hardy's longtime girlfriend Charlotte Riley has landed the lead lady role in Tom Cruise's sci-fi action movie All You Need Is Kill for the very talented but as of late kind of lost director Doug Liman. Go forever gives me hope he'll re-find his footing. Tom Cruise on the other hand... anyway, she's presumably had Tom Hardy's penis inside of her so she deserves our respect.
 
--- Golden Goddess - David Fincher is not going to make a Cleopatra movie starring Angelina Jolie. My guess is the studio probably wasn't keen on his idea to dial down the scope, saying that the giant epic thing has been played out. Ang Lee is now rumored to be up for the gig. I think Angie ought to just mush this together with that 3D Cleopatra rock musical that Soderbergh had talked about doing, that's what I think. Jolie's already camp, just by being Jolie.

--- Scalped - Elijah Wood's remake of the sleazo-slasher Maniac has been picked up by IFC and will probably get a release here in the US before the end of the year. I'm going to go as Frank Zito for Halloween! All I need is a greasy t-shirt and a bloody-wigged mannequin, right?

--- Girl Power - Super awesome news over at The Film Experience - Nat's taking a vacation for the next week or so and besides the regular stand-in's he's got two totally awesome guest bloggers - Bachelorette's writer/director Leslye Headland and eternal awesome actress Melanie Lynskey will each take over TFE for a day! How cool is that?

--- Clay Maker - I've never watched one of these video chats between AICN Harry Knowles and somebody of note that he's been doing for awhile, but a conversation with Jurassic Park's dino-creator Phil Tippet about Ray Harryhausen might just get me over that hump.

--- Pond Jumper - Sean Durkin, who burst outta the gate with the exceptional Martha Marcy May Marlene, is teaming up with the writer of the mostly exception trilogy Red Riding to make a four-part miniseries for British TV called Southcliffe about a bunch of shootings taking place on one day in a small town. Still no idea if Durkin still plans on making an Exorcist miniseries as had been announced back in May. Let's hope the light of day and the wrath of millions made him think wise.

--- Tight Time - There were two co-directors behind the first two [REC] movies - Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró. Plaza made the third [REC] movie all by himself, and as you can tell from my review, I loved it. (It's available on demand right now, go watch it). This freed up Balagueró to go and make something called Sleep Tight, which is a thriller about an apartment building's doorman setting his psychotic sights on one of his building's residents. It apparently got terrific reviews in their homeland of Spain, and it's now been picked up for a release here in the US in late October. Awesome! I do believe that next up for the duo they trade off and Balagueró makes the fourth [REC] film while Plaza gets to make his own thing. Teamwork!
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