Oooo, shiny.

Yeah, I'm psyched about that. Newbury Comics actually has it at a price about as good as I've seen on-line, so I may pick it up today. I've seen it in a couple of different forms (probably the first two mentioned in the description), and I'm not sure any amount of editing can make it a definitively great (or even good) movie, but there are a lot of interesting pieces in it.

I know Welles had hoped during the making of it that it would be a nice commercial hit (of course, he though that about THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and TOUCH OF EVIL too, so there you go), but why he ever thought that people would embrace a movie with such a loathsome protagonist (Robert Arden and Ralph Meeker probably went to the same charm school) is beyond me.

The version I saw was incoherent as hell, but yes, there were some nice moments to it. In retrospect, it reminds me of the first version of Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, which could be described exactly the same way.

The version I saw was incoherent as hell, but yes, there were some nice moments to it. In retrospect, it reminds me of the first version of Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, which could be described exactly the same way.

The premise is brilliant (spoiler fonted) - mysterious, wealthy man claiming amnesia for a large chunk of his past hires detective to find the details of his life, which he uses to find and dispose of former criminal associates so he can kill them and maintain his respectability - so I understand why Welles thought it had commercial potential, but then he tried to throw this into a tricky time structure, and also made sure the detective character was so repulsive that you couldn't possibly root for him. And, of course, it was the time sequence that got frelled and then ostensibly restored by the various re-editings over the years.

Wonderfully eccentric cast, though, as is the Welles-ian tradition.

Saw The Proposition last night, and UGH. So so bad. I wanted to like it -- Nick Cave screenplay, Guy Pearce starring, but it was just an unholy mess of a film. The characters are all the same indistinguishable macho-gritty-western-man cliche (except for Emily Watson, who is a girl), the titular proposition is the stupidest deal ever struck by anyone in any film ever, and then nothing happens for 90 minutes, until the last scene, in which it is shown that, wait, that proposition from the first scene was a really bad idea.

The only thing to really recommend this film is the violence, which is quite realistic. It's a very bloody film, and so getting the gore effects right was obviously important to them. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the script or plot.

Even more perplexing is it seems to be getting fairly good reviews. I don't get it.

I saw a film called The Blockhouse this morning. Peter Sellers was among a group of Frenchmen buried in a bunker after WW2. I was watching it as I fought insomnia so I'm not sure whose dreaminess I was feeling. Anyone seen it?

From IMDb:

The hopes of millions of aging Trekkies that their revered movie/TV franchise would be revived got a boost today (Friday) when Daily Variety reported that Paramount has signed J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III) to produce and direct an 11th Star Trek feature. The trade paper said that the screenplay, to be written by MI3's Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, will concern the first meeting of James Kirk and Mr. Spock at the Starfleet Academy and their first mission. In effect, it revives a project called Star Trek: Beginnings that produced a script by Erik Jendresen. It was unclear what, if any, role longtime Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman would play in the new project.

Interesting.

Abrams Reviving Trek

Paramount has hired Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams to write, direct and produce the 11th Star Trek feature film, aiming for a 2008 release, Variety reported. Damon Lindelof, who co-created Lost with Abrams, and Bryan Burk, who produces Lost, have also been tapped to produce the yet-to-be-titled feature.

The project will be co-written by Mission: Impossible III scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. It will center on the early days of original Trek characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first space mission, the trade paper reported.

Can Kirk and Spock be Academy roomates? There might also be bizarre hazing rituals....

Probably everyone knows this, but the term "slash" comes from K/S.

eta: Argh. X-posty....

Who would they get to play young Kirk and young Spock?

I hear that William Shattner will still play Kirk and they are going to use camera tricks to make him look younger. Also, he will be doing the soundtrack.

I hear that William Shattner will still play Kirk and they are going to use camera tricks to make him look younger. Also, he will be doing the soundtrack.

With James Spader as Spock.