* Guillermo del Toro is no longer directing the two Hobbit movies due to its ongoing MGM-related delays playing havoc with his schedule. I’m pretty glad about this, since I thought both Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth were bad in just the sort of unimaginatively dingy way that would be really problematic for The Hobbit. (Click the links for my reviews if you want.) But del Toro’s still co-writing the movie with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, which I guess I’m okay with since Tolkien’s original should mitigate against del Toro’s tendency toward lackadaisical plotting. What I really wonder is how much of his art direction will survive into the final product–as you might have guessed, I think his creature work is overrated. Jackson says he’ll step in to direct the movies himself if push comes to shove (via The One Ring), but only then, and he sounds less than thrilled by the idea. Neill Blomkamp, call your agent.
* The Acme Novelty Library #20: Lint: October 12, 2010.
* Here’s the new trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
I know Michael Cera comes in for a lot of criticism just for being Michael Cera, but it’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s flat-affect Ramona Flowers that’s throwing me for a bit of a loop here. Oh well, it’s just a trailer, I’m sure it’ll be at least pretty good. (Via Shaggy Erwin.)
* Recently on Robot 6: an H.P. Lovecraft art show featuring Johnny Ryan and Aeron Alfrey.
* Deadspin’s “Dead Wrestler of the Week” series by its anonymous wrestling reporter is just plain magnificent. A couple of the earliest installments are a bit rough, but the pieces on Andre the Giant, the Junkyard Dog, and Miss Elizabeth are bleakly insightful elegies, exploring the strange and shady world of pro wrestling and their iconic roles in it. Even a piece on a borderline jobber like Dino Bravo is memorable for what it reveals about how wrestling changed in our lifetimes. And dig this passage from the article on the Ultimate Warrior Is Dead rumor:
As an insurgent, the Ultimate Warrior was irrepressible, but as a champion he was dull. The eccentricity that once made him stand out made him seem dark and bizarre in comparison to the shining light of Hulkamania. When Hogan rallied his little Hulkamaniacs to his cause, it seemed a joyous army; when the Warrior spoke to his “little warriors,” he seemed to be preaching to a cult. If Hogan was the wrestling Billy Graham (the evangelist, that is, not the actual wrestler), the Warrior was Jim Jones.
Man oh man. (Via Eric Harvey.)
* Just curious, and I’m sure some of you actually have the answer: How many times has Jeph Loeb introduced a big new mystery villain, killed off the character everyone suspected as being that mystery villain, then revealed that that character wasn’t really dead and a doppelganger of some sort was involved and the real character was indeed the mystery villain all along? I know he did it in Hush–didn’t he do that in one or two of those Tim Sale Batman books, too?
* Rest in peace, Dennis Hopper. As far as tributes are concerned, I couldn’t find that bit from Land of the Dead where he shoots his assistant in the face, but Matt Zoller Seitz’s 25-minute salute to the man and his career as an actor and director will more than suffice.
I’ve always had Ramona’s default mode down as pretty flat. Kinda inscrutable.
What throws me for a loop isn’t so much the fact of Cera, I like Cera’s screen presence when used appropriately, it’s the fact that Cera isn’t as beautiful as I think Scott should be. In my head it just makes sense that Scott should look angelic (in a childlike way) as it helps to explain how he’s thus far coasted through life, and how he gets away with behaving like such a selfish git. It just… fits… That said, I don’t mind them going another route, I can see what they’re gunning for and it could absolutely work, it’s just not what I was expecting.
Zom– I think you’re spot-on about Ramona’s cipher-like quality, and I like the idea of Scott just being too beautiful, but I’m not sure if that’s the only reason that I remain unsold on Cera as Pilgrim. What Scott essentially lacks is any kind of self-awareness. He is totally blind to social cues. Cera’s general screen persona is nothing but self-awareness, and a paralyzing attention to social cues. This trailer seems to suggest a little of that quality, but can you imagine him innocently and cluelessly dating a high-schooler in the way that comic-Scott does?
I know what you mean, but I live in hope that the guy can act.
Also, Cera’s self-awareness could perhaps be translated into other anxieties. Scott is plagued by terrors, after all, it’s just that most of them aren’t the ones that Cera’s known for inhabiting.
I don’t think Ramona is cipher-like, I think she’s a slowly unraveling mystery. That’s not to say that she lacks personality altogether, just that what we know about her is deliberately limited.
I care about this film being good rather more than I care about most comic to film adaptions. There’s something so right about Scott Pilgrim as a multimedia experience.
I’m pretty sure The Long Halloween used a similar structure with one of the killers (?) being someone who was presumed dead earlier.