Off The Wire: Shutter Island: A Thriller Out Of Time?
Posted on Saturday February 13, 2010, 20:55 by Damon Wise in Off The Wire
 It's been interesting watching the reactions to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, from the trailer alone. People seem to forget that artists have a fractious relationship with their times, that sometimes their work arrives out of synch with public taste, and that sometimes their art takes chances that even their most loyal followers won't accept. The irony, of course, is that nobody knows this better than Scorsese, who has conducted a personal journey through the film cultures of three very cine-literate countries (Italy and the US, with Britain on its way) and directed a milestone documentary (No Direction Home) about the musician, poet and electric folklorist Bob Dylan, himself no stranger to controversy and public questioning. Along the way, the song remains the same; sometimes a contemporary audience isn't always sitting in the right seats to judge.
So what has Scorsese done to blot his copybook, in the wake of his most successful commercial run since the 70s and early 80s? Well... Continue reading... Comment Now (4 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: What Chris Nolan Could Bring To Superman
Posted on Tuesday February 9, 2010, 17:22 by James White in Off The Wire
 It’s been a tough few years for Clark Kent and his superhero alter ego (or is it the other way round, as Quentin Tarantino had David Carradine argue?) but with the recent speculation that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan will be helping to oversee Superman’s return to the screen, things might finally be looking up.
Like any decision regarding the Man of Steel, it’s bound to be a controversial one: the character has been around for so long and so many people (including Richard Donner and, more recently, Bryan Singer) have tried their hand at making a movie based on him, to varying levels of success, that no one can seemingly please everyone.
But Nolan has a solid, proven track record with DC/Warners’ other heavy hitter, Batman and while he has no plans to ditch Gotham City for Metropolis (he has his brother and David Goyer are currently working on the scr... Continue reading... Comment Now (21 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: David Brown 1916-2010: A Tribute
Posted on Thursday February 4, 2010, 10:41 by Ian Freer in Off The Wire
As a huge Spielberg-phile in general and Jaws-freak in particular, I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of producer David Brown aged 93 this week. It seems to me that Brown was a dying breed of gentleman producer. As Ron Howard, who worked with Brown on Cocoon, put it Brown was "less the wheeler-dealer than the great judge of content. He knows that story drives everything. He loves writing, and he know what ideas will translate and what won't." Which didn’t mean that Brown wasn’t above the odd gimmick or two. Spielberg had made up some Jaws T-shirts at the start of production. When the director turned up for a meeting with Brown and producing partner Richard Zanuck with every intention to quit, the pair were sporting the Spielberg-sponsored Jaws T-shirts, guilt-tripping the director into returning to work. Having the nous and foresight to give Spielberg his feature film directing break The Sugarland Express, Brown supported Spielberg... Continue reading... Comment Now (1 comment)
Back To TopOff The Wire: The Oscar Back-And-Forth
Posted on Tuesday February 2, 2010, 19:31 by Helen O'Hara in Off The Wire
Helen: Well, here we are – and it feels like it’s a pretty predictable mix. Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way, both with nine, with Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up In The Air snapping at their heels. This year’s awards feel suspiciously like a two horse race between Bigelow and Cameron’s movies (will Oscar reward the money, the scale and technical innovation or the sheer ability?) but perhaps I am unwisely discounting Tarantino and Reitman too early. Precious, I feel, is a lock only for Best Supporting Actress, which will go to Mo’Nique or there is no justice.
But let’s focus on Best Picture to begin with. We can discount any film that didn’t also get a Best Director nod from winning, I think. So goodbye (but well done for joining the party) District 9, The Blind Side (definitely the WTF nomination there), An Education, A Serious Man and (the mig... Continue reading... Comment Now (18 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: The Oscar Race: What Upsets Would You Like To See?
Posted on Friday January 29, 2010, 02:11 by Damon Wise in Off The Wire
 Taking a break from the Sundance marathon, I found myself watching the SAG awards telecast on Sunday night, which is actually a much bigger event that I'd ever realised. Quite a few things went through my mind as I watched, one of them being that I really think the Oscar race is taking shape now, and, if you haven't already put your money on Jeff Bridges for Best Actor, I think you should do so now, ditto for Mo'Nique (Precious) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), since they too seem to have a lock on their respective supporting-actor categories. But the thing that surprised me most was the award for Best Ensemble cast; like many others, I'd have bet the farm on Nine, for pedigree alone, so I was actually quite shocked – in a good way – to see the guys from Inglourious Basterds win the day. It proved to me that there are still some upsets possible along the way.
So this got me to thinking about the upsets I'd like to see. For Best Acto... Continue reading... Comment Now (11 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: He’s Back, He’s Bad, He’s Black, He’s Mad
Posted on Thursday January 28, 2010, 12:13 by Chris Hewitt in Off The Wire
 For my money, Shane Black may just be the best commercial screenwriter in Hollywood. From the first two Lethal Weapons through to The Monster Squad to The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout and his wonderful directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, nobody else in Hollywood – not even Tarantino – boasts Black's knack for tweaking genre tropes with an ear for tough-guy dialogue worthy of Chandler, Ellroy, Leonard.
So, naturally, I’m delighted by the news that he’s set to reteam with Mel Gibson on the spy thriller, Cold Warrior. And so should you. In case you need some persuasion, here are ten lines of dialogue that will make you glad that Black is back…
1. “Touch me again, and I’ll kill ya.”
Bruce Willis warns Kim Coates’ slap-happy henchman of the consequences of violating his personal bubble in The Last Boy Scout. It’s a laconic threat worthy of Bob Mitc... Continue reading... Comment Now (18 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Should Spider-Man Have Gone 3D?
Posted on Wednesday January 20, 2010, 07:30 by Helen O'Hara in Off The Wire
So this morning we've learned that the next Spider-Man film will have a budget of about $80 million. That puts it on a lower budget than Sherlock Holmes, lower than X-Men Origins: Wolverine (by nearly half). Heck, it's less than Fast & Furious, which cost about $85m, and only just more (not adjusting for inflation) than the first X-Men movie. So what does this mean for the film, and might Spidey have been better going for balls-out 3D instead? Let's look at what the budget means first. That sort of money certainly implies that we're going to see less action - or at least less newly-developed, complicated, CG action. Wall-crawling and web-shooting is probably in; multiple trips around the city by web, massive fire effects, large things collapsing and CG character work* is probably out. The first X-Men movie is the one to think about here: the action there was pretty small and scattered until the final show-down (which would barely make the opening reel of... Continue reading... Comment Now (25 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Doh! Raimi: Why Sam Was Just Right For Spider-Man
Posted on Tuesday January 12, 2010, 10:00 by Chris Hewitt in Off The Wire
 So, farewell then, Sam Raimi. Gone from the Spider-Man franchise before he could make things right and atone, if that’s the word, for Spider-Man 3. That was a movie that got away from Raimi, by his own admission, and it would have been nice to see his take on Spider-Man, unfettered by studio interference and the too-many-cooks approach.
Alas, that now will never be the case. And while there are considerable benefits to a Raimi-free rebooting of the franchise – we probably won’t have to endure Aunt May prattling on endlessly, causing audiences to wonder why the guy who shot Uncle Ben couldn’t have pegged her too; while Kirsten Dunst was always a bit mopey and wan as Mary-Jane – the man stamped his personality and style all over the franchise with considerable brio.
Bugger it, it sounds like he’s dead. He’s not, of course, and in the year when he made his most purely enjoyable film in years (that would be Drag Me To Hell, i... Continue reading... Comment Now (8 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Spider-Man 4: The Villain Conundrum
Posted on Wednesday January 6, 2010, 11:46 by Chris Hewitt in Off The Wire
 So, the word on the street is that Spider-Man 4 has been delayed because of script issues: namely, Sam Raimi wants the script to feature The Vulture (a role for which John Malkovich has already reportedly been costume-tested), and Sony doesn’t. Instead, they want Black Cat and A. N. Other-Bad-Guy.
In Raimi’s defence, he’s been on the Vulture campaign trail for some time now, apparently lobbying hard for the winged cueball to show up in Spider-Man 3. He was overruled then, with Sony and producer Avi Arad insisting that he go with Venom… and we all know how that turned out.
Also, Raimi’s had success with old-style Spider-villains. The cock-up with the Green Goblin’s costume aside, the character had the right blend of nastiness and insanity. Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, from Spider-Man 2, is one of the finest comic-book movie villains of all time, and though Thomas Haden Church’s The Sandman was given to moments... Continue reading... Comment Now (34 comments)
Back To TopOff The Wire: Warning: Avatar Can Be Extremely Bad For Your Health
Posted on Thursday November 26, 2009, 14:30 by Chris Hewitt in Off The Wire
 In news that has rocked Empire to its very core, James Cameron’s Avatar has just been rated PG-13 in the States for “intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.”
Whoa, there. Careful now. Down with this sort of thing. Has Cameron gone too far with this wicked permissiveness? Audiences, of course, will have no problem with the epic battle sequences – warfare is part and parcel of modern life. They might even be able to put up with an F-bomb (just the one, mind; any more than that gets you the dreaded R), and cross their arms (and legs), harrumphing sternly at the ‘sensuality’ as, presumably, Sam Worthington’s Avatarred Jake Sully gets it on with Zoe Saldana’s Pandoran native, Neytiri.
But smoking? Tsk tsk, Jimbo, you have been a naughty boy. Now we know that Avatar, rather than being an attempt to drag cinema kicking and screaming into the 21st century with incredible 3D technology and ... Continue reading... Comment Now (18 comments)
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