The Studio

Just read that Warner Bros. is adapting one of the most well-known and revered manga titles and anime films, Akira, into a live-action film possible starring Leonardo himself! On the one hand, I think a live-action version could be incredibly cool (not that I know what cool is), but I also have to agree in part with angry asian man that there are some aspects of Akira that should not be messed with!

Read more here.

What’s your favorite anime film? Would it make a good live-action film?

If you are knocked out by Marion Cotillard’s award-winning performance in La Vie en Rose, check out earlier movies starring this talented actress. We wrote some annotations way back when…

Love Me If You Dare 

A Good Year

La Vie en Rose

OK, let’s have some follow-up about The Oscars!  Did the right movies get the right awards?

I was happy that there were a few unexpected winners.  Cheers to Tilda Swinton winning for her role in Michael Clayton. I think that Marion Cotillard totally deserved the award for playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose – but thought that it would go to Julie Christie. Well done.

Also, it was so cool that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová won for the song Falling Slowly from Once – great movie and music. And great acceptance speech from Ms. Irglová.

It was really an international kind of night, i.e. Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard, and Daniel Day-Lewis – all non-Americans won the major acting awards. Is that a first? I was sorry that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly did not get any awards. But it did win The Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Strange that The Academy did not consider it for Best Foreign Language Oscar. But I guess that’s a whole other can of worms.

It’s always fun to speculate on the life of a favorite author. Here is my take on the movie Becoming Jane.

And a few view-a-likes for good measure (I hope).

Has anyone seen the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie? It seems to be creating a lot of interest. When I saw it in the theater this weekend, people applauded. COOL.

Remember the library has the orginal trilogy – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade - PLUS seasons one and two of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones! Get ready.

Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress (for Michael Clayton) at the British Academy of Film and Television Artists last night. Her performance in the film was nothing short of phenomenal, but it seemed like she might have been overshadowed by showier nominations such as Cate Blanchett’s in I’m Not There.

So good for her. I found her acceptance speech was as entertaining as her outfit was baffling.

Jump to 3:00 on the clip to skip past the reading of the nominees.

This win may realign the balance in the Oscar race. Though there’s a possibility that it may not; the British Academy awarded Best Picture to Atonement, and it certainly wasn’t because it was the only British film of the bunch.

For those of you watching the recent BBC Jane Austen productions, what do you think?

I have heard mixed reviews/comments. Speaking for myself, I have enjoyed them very much. So far I have watched the new versions of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park. I am looking forward to Emma and Sense & Sensibility. Wisely, BBC decided not to re-make the 1995 Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth. (Btw if you have missed these on PBS, the library has ordered them as they become available.)

I love Jane Austen’s novels as well as several of the older TV mini-series and feature movie adaptations. But I figure that each generation needs a new Austen DVD.  I might not be as particular as many - in regards to getting everything right. For me, it’s all good.

Despite all the hand-wringing about how the Oscar nominations and awards should be judged on quality alone, there is a certain political element to the way prizes are doled out. One example of this is the “Whoops, Sorry” award, where someone receives an Oscar for their work this year, but everyone knows it was really for something they had done (and been snubbed for) in the past. Martin Scorcese’s trophy last year for The Departed is arguably one of these.

Who’s this year’s candidate for the “Whoops” award? Tony Gilroy, the man behind Michael Clayton.

While this is Gilroy’s directorial debut, he’s been hard at work as a screenwriter for many years, penning all three Bourne films, the Al Pacino ham-fest Devil’s Advocate, and Dolores Claiborne, among others.

But he was overlooked for his first effort as a screenwriter, and I’m glad to see that the Academy is finally making amends.

The film? The Cutting Edge.

Forget about Joe Wright and Ian McEwan. The real atonement is going on right here.