100 Films on a Cover

Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll to find the 500 greatest films ever made, have also roped in 150 (as yet unnamed) "key directors and producers" and "the world's most influential film critics" to have their say.

And Empire, not content with conducting a ludicrously huge reader poll and gathering the opinion of key directors, producers and critics to find the 500 greatest films ever made, have gone and created a "magazine milestone" -- 100 different covers for the issue featuring the list! In fact, it's 101, with the 101st being a subscriber-only cover that's currently secret. I'm currently quite glad that Empire's the only magazine I've bothered to keep up my subscription to.

I'm a bit of a collector and hoarder, but even I'm not made enough to fork out £150 to get all 100 covers. That said, at just £1.50 an issue it's a pretty reasonable deal, all things considered, and certainly better than the one Total Film offered when they did their 21 different Bond covers a short while back. Nonetheless, I'll surely try to get my hands on a few different ones, and here's my current pick of the bunch -- mainly, films I love that have especially cool covers, but also some that just look good.

Click to enlarge.

TV

God, the Devil and Bob
1x03 Date From Hell

The Tudors
2x05 His Majesty's Pleasure
After three opening episodes that continued the first season's model of going nowhere fast, these last two have seen The Tudors finally pick up the pace. Thank God! No, do -- He's what most of the plot's about right now.

Would I Lie To You?
2x08 (29/8/08 edition) [season finale]

Films

Bond from the Beginning #10:
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
[2nd watch]
See here for my thoughts on this film.

Articles

Australia Pushed Back To Thanksgiving by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
More amusing witterings: "Looks like Harry Potter And The Shift Into Next Summer has had a real impact on the November schedules in the States... Australia has just moved back by a whopping 12 days, to November 26. [It] remains to be seen how a film that could only become more Australian if Rolf Harris showed up will play on the weekend when America is celebrating its most patriotic holiday. Australia is still scheduled to open here on Boxing G’day."

Duchovny enters sex rehab clinic
(from BBC News)
Well that's... unusual...

Interview: Quantum of Solace Game Co-Design Director Adam Gascoine by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"Daniel Craig was actually the most reluctant [to lend his voice and likeness to the game]. He’s a big gamer himself and didn’t want to be in a poorly made licensed game, so we sat him down and let him play an early build. He loved it and came back to us to say “Okay, I’ll do it.” Since then he’s been a very important part of making the game what it is."

Young Bond computer game aims to get boys reading by Alison Flood
(from guardian.co.uk)
If you haven't heard about The Shadow War online game, you may also want to check out links such as this and this; but I mention the Guardian article more for this little snippet: "Higson said there had also been "a lot of film interest" in the books. "It's just finding the time to get it right – it's very difficult to find a kid with the charisma to pull off the character of Bond at that age.""

Super Bond interviews

No, it's not a new super-powered direction for the franchise, but rather interviews that are super about Bond -- and, specifically, Quantum of Solace. They're from a German site, but don't worry, they're in English.

So, check out the latest utterances of...

Gemma Arterton ('Agent Fields')
She's in bloody everything nowadays, y'know. "I’m glamorous but I don’t think I’m hot glamorous. There was this thing with my character where we wanted to make her really retro and a bit of a throwback. I can’t reveal her first name yet but it’s typically Fleming and quite cheeky and a little bit tongue in cheek."

Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson (producers)
"Bond is pursuing the people behind Vesper’s betrayal and her death. He is tracking them down and the mystery unfolds. He runs into CIA people later who are very ambivalent about their role in all of this." Americans are bad! Yay!

Marc Forster (director)
"Judi Dench is one of the greatest actresses living today... personally I could watch her read the phone book... I wanted to give her more scenes and have her interact with Bond more because she is the only woman Bond doesn’t see in a sexual context... The relationship between them is fascinating and I think it’s really important so I wanted more scenes between them and to go into that relationship with more depth."

Quantum of Solace hits UK cinemas on October 31st and the US on November 14th (allow my to say, "ha ha!"). For a full list of release dates by country, look here.

A new trailer is due in the next couple of weeks.

TV

Big Cat Week
2x02 (4/1/2005 edition)

God, the Devil and Bob
1x01 In the Beginning
1x02 Andy Runs Away
I loved this when it first aired back in 2000, and I'm pleased to say that, unlike Hot Shots, it's still funny to me today. Hurray!

Mock the Week
6x08 (28/8/08 edition)

The Tudors
2x04 The Act of Succession

Articles

Quite a few today -- maybe I should start breaking these down / posting them throughout the day?

Documentaries Being Screened In Empty Auditoriums In N.Y.
(from Studio Briefing)
"Nine documentary films are being screened in mostly empty theaters at a New York arthouse this week in order to quality for Oscar consideration... The New York Times reported that when its reporter looked into the 7:00 p.m. screenings, it found two theaters with not a single person in the seats and one with just three."

Filming under way for new series of Torchwood
(from BBC Press Office)
Press release announcing the third season of Torchwood, a single five-part story entitled Children of Earth. One of the main guest stars is Peter Capaldi, from Doctor Who's The Fires of Pompeii. Another case of spatial genetic multiplicity in Cardiff?

Ghostbusters Tops Funny Films Poll
(from WENN)
I love Ghostbusters, so this is worth reporting. Follow the links for more of the list.

Movie Reviews: Hamlet 2
(from Studio Briefing)
While the trailer looked surprisingly good, it seems the film itself is as bad as you'd expect.

Pitt and Clooney at Venice debut
(from BBC News)
"Pitt picked up an award that he won in Venice last year -- the best actor's prize for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. "You can run but you can't hide," Pitt joked as he accepted the award. "It was an honour to receive this last year and it remains an honour to accept this this year.""

The Strangers Set For A Sequel by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
Don't even really know what it is (and the article contains spoilers), but it makes this valid point: "Rogue is hoping that the [sequel] might see The Strangers develop into a Saw-like franchise. With the best will in the world, we hope not, for very few horror franchises have suffered from the law of diminishing returns like the Saw series. Isn’t it best to burn out with a couple of really good, strong efforts, than to fade away with increasingly awful sequels?"

Torchwood Season Three Revealed
(from Torchwood Official Site)
Mentioned purely for this quote: "Russell T Davies outlined his vision in a tone meeting with key production staff where he told them, 'I usually give you all one or two tone words when we have a meeting like this, but if I were to give you two words this time, they would be "Euros Lyn". More than ever before, this series of Torchwood will be director-led, and it will look absolutely amazing.'" How unusual, and therefore intriguing...

West Wing writer tackles Facebook
(from BBC News)
"Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has agreed to make a film about the founders of social networking site Facebook... "I have a fairly specific idea of what the first 15 pages of the screenplay will be and no idea what will happen on pages 16 thru 130," he wrote. "I have very strong feelings about the internet and its effect on our national culture, but frankly those feelings are being countered by the sophistication, kindness, curiosity and wit of the posts in this site. You people are screwing me up with your civility and intelligence.""

Also:
Get Ready For Facebook: The Movie by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
Mentioned for these two somewhat amusing comments: "Empire has to ask: who is sad enough to start a fake Facebook page for Aaron Sorkin? ... should Sorkin’s next status update read, ‘Aaron was only kidding about the Facebook thing – it’s a very bad idea’?"

"sing the theme toon..."

James Bond Theme (Casino Royale Trailer Version) by Pfeifer Broz. Music
Nearly two years on, I finally found the damn thing! And it's brilliant. You can download it for yourself here (less than legally, I should add, but there's no way to purchase the music as it's never been officially released).

TV

Gilmore Girls
5x01 Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller

The Tudors
2x03 Checkmate

Who Do You Think You Are?
5x03 Jerry Springer

Films

Texas Across the River (1966)
[#58 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
Now eight films behind with my reviews...

Articles

Alicia Keys And Jack White May Perform On James Bond-Themed X Factor by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
I hate The X Factor as much as the next person with any taste, but this could be fun. Well, a chance to hear the new theme would be good at least.

Hellboy defeats Batman in cinemas
(from BBC News)
"Comic book movie Hellboy II: The Golden Army has knocked The Dark Knight off the number one spot in the UK and Ireland box office chart. [It] took £2.97m on its opening weekend." Hardly a huge haul, but then TDK (which finally dropped from first down to fourth) is in its fifth week.

New Pics From Oliver Stone’s W by Glen Ferris
(from Empire Online)
A preview of Empire's preview of Oliver Stone's forthcoming film W.. Stone says that Bush is "a circular character; even now he harkens back to who he was in 2000. His speeches are the same. There doesn’t seem to be a growth. There’s a fundamental inability in the man, a King Lear kind of hubris, where he can’t admit to any fault, whereas Nixon [the subject of Stone's previous Presidential biopic] seems to have been genuinely haunted by doubt and uncertainty. As a result, this is a very different type of movie. While Nixon was a very rich meal, this is more of a soufflé. And with a soufflé, you never quite know until it bakes." And it will be baked & served on November 7th in the UK.

TV

Mutual Friends
1x01 Episode One
Not bad, though it does fall into the usual comedy-drama trap of not being all that much of either. That said, there were a few good laugh-out-loud moments. But it's too long at an hour -- 30 minutes would've suited it better.

Outnumbered
1x03 Episode 3 [2nd watch]

The Tudors
2x01 Everything is Beautiful
2x02 Tears of Blood

Music

Selections from the Avenue Q Soundtrack by the original Broadway cast
Since seeing this and getting hold of the music, I've been listening to the following tracks fairly regularly:

Everyone's a Little Bit Racist

The Internet is For Porn

My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada

There is Life Outside Your Apartment

Silent Cry (Deluxe Edition) by Feeder
[3rd listen]
Stand out tracks for me (so far) are:

We Are the People

Itsumo

Silent Cry

Who's the Enemy

Into the Blue

Articles

Battlestar Galactica franchise steams ahead by Chris Talbott
(from Mail.com)
Long-ish article on two forthcoming Battlestar Galactica spin-offs (in spite of the series' falling ratings).

A fall TV season with questions in the air by Frazier Moore
(from Mail.com)
"It's hard to make an argument that viewers are breathlessly awaiting ABC's fall season -- or any other network's... only 17 new series have been slotted for fall -- about half the usual number." General article about the state of US TV as it heads into the time of year when, traditionally, all their new shows start. It's quite an interesting analysis (yes, even for normal folks) handily broken down by topic -- including one on the number of international formats they've copied, many of them British.

National Lampoon To Spoof Gladiator/300 by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
"Dear God, someone make them stop!"

New Che Poster Online by Glen Ferris
(from Empire Online)
"Steven Soderbergh's epic Che Guevara biopic, which is going under the alternating titles ofChe, Guerilla and The Argentine -- what the final title will be depends on whether or not Soderbergh decides to run the movie in its full four-hour cut or split it into two seperate flicks." So, that answers that then.

Rushdie anger at policeman's book
and
Bodyguard apologises to Rushdie
(from BBC News)
"A former police officer has apologised to Sir Salman Rushdie for false claims he made in a book about the author." I came across the latter first, which (presumably for legal reasons) doesn't repeat the claims made. Thankfully, the first one helps explain things. (Incidentally, the latter article was called "Apology for Rushdie over claims" when I read it earlier. Why the change? Odd things do go on at the BBC News site...)

Two More Riddick Films Coming? by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire Online)
Seriously? Chronicles of Riddick (which, all things considered, was badly in need of a subtitle) was four years ago already (seems longer) and hardly an unequivocal success.

Warner 'sues over Puttar movie'
(from BBC News)
"Harry Potter maker Warner Bros is suing an Indian film company over the title of upcoming film Hari Puttar: A Comedy Of Terrors, according to reports." A bit like Fox suing over Watchmen, they've left it suspiciously late.

TV

Big Cat Week
2x01 (3/1/2005 edition)
Or Big Cat Diary 7x01, depending on how you want to look at it. Who'd've though a simple BBC wildlife series would have complex season/episode numbering issues? It'll be even worse when the 2008 series starts, cos they've changed the name back to Diary. Does that make it Big Cat Diary 7x01 this year, skipping the three Weeks; or is it 10x01, despite 6, 7 & 8 being Weeks? More importantly, why do I care? (I've gone with 2x01 here, incidentally, because it is technically Week series two, and is labelled as such on the DVD I'm watching from. So there.)

Dragons' Den
6x06 (25/8/08 edition)

Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Or, at least, bits of it.

Marple
3x03 Towards Zero [2nd half]

Outnumbered
1x01 Episode 1 [2nd watch]
1x02 Episode 2 [2nd watch]
BBC Three are repeating this excellent half-improvised sitcom about parenting, ahead of a second series on BBC One sometime in the future. You really should watch it, it's great.

Spooks
5x05 The Message

Articles

Sci Fi sinks SG Atlantis by Tim Surette
and
Stargate reopens new Universe by Tim Surette
(from TV.com)
Could the Stargate franchise finally be dead? As it turns out, no, of course it isn't.

Tropic film holds on to top spot
(from BBC News)
The Dark Knight battles on, sitting in 4th place this weekend behind Tropic Thunder (in only its second week) and two new releases -- and only $5.8m behind #1 too. But this particular article is worth reading because, thanks to poor writing, it implies Titanic took $601m this weekend.

TV

Beijing 2008 Olympics: Closing Ceremony
I'm still not convinced that the Chinese should have the Olympics -- apparently, according to some commentators, the human rights issues seem "long ago" now. Idiots. Anyway, it was lower key than the stunning opening ceremony, but in an of itself you'd never describe it as "low key". Best bit? Boris Johnson, of course. Boris Johnson is always the best bit. The Memory Tower was pretty impressive, though Zhang Yimou's work is somewhat undermined by his recent criticisms of the West actually having human rights. (Watched on the BBC, what with now being back in the UK.)

Marple
3x03 Towards Zero [1st half]
ITV's scheduling of its Marples and Poirots is decidedly odd -- it has at least four of the latter completed but unbroadcast (the last was shown about two years ago), while this Marple premiered in Canada in February 2007, but only just aired here the other week. There's another episode (Nemesis) that also aired in Canada back then, and in Finland (Finland!) in January to boot, as well as Australia, and probably others, which they still haven't scheduled for the UK. They're an odd lot at ITV... (Additionally, these are the last two episodes starring Geraldine McEwan, who has been replaced by Julia McKenzie -- perhaps ITV are just trying to delay the change-over?)

Films

Hot Shots! (1991)
I've seen Hot Shots! before, though I couldn't say how many times. The last was years ago though, and I've grown up, which seems to have dulled its humour considerably. There are still some funny bits at least.

TV

Gilmore Girls
4x22 Raincoats and Recipes [season finale]

Mock the Week
6x05 (7/8/08 edition)

Poirot
10x04 Taken at the Flood [season finale]
A weak tale, with a particularly implausible and unengaging plot. Also, the title is meaningless.

Would I Lie To You?
2x07 (22/8/08 edition)

Films

Flushed Away (2006)
[#57 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
Still really, really far behind with my reviews...