Rumor had it that the new movie would center on Kirk and Spock's early days at a space academy.

I thought J.J. Abrams denied this rumor. Or maybe he just said that the plot hadn't been decided on?

If I were directing, I would have Kirk and Spock meeting when they both were working at Wal-Mart to pay their way through space-college. Oh, or maybe they would work at a fast-food restaurant!

"Since any intelligent life form could easily determine its makup, calling it 'Secret Sauce' is illogical."

I'm told J.J. ABRAMS is very interested in casting the Oscar-winning Damon as a young Captain Kirk in the upcoming 'Star Trek' movie that he's directing and producing.

Aiiieeeeee.

Does that mean Ben Affleck will be Spock?

BWAH!!!

JZ pulled down my Val Lewton box set the other night, determined to watch The Seventh Victim (bleakest movie EVER. Okay, maybe in a tie with the Dutch version of The Vanishing.)

It's still gorgeous and gothy and haunting. Then I watched it with the excellent commentary track and was digging it even more. There are so many fascinating minor characters in the movie which are ripe for slash goggles and that sort of textual interpretation.

I always find those kinds of characters and their scenes so memorable (The farmer's wife in The 39 Steps being my go-to example.) It's a counter to the constant insistence towards narrative streamlining, the function of echoing sub-plots and minor characters.

::really wants Scrappy to comment on this with her script-doctor hat on::

Also, it's impossible to think that Hitchcock never saw The Seventh Victim because the shower scene is so similar to the one in Psycho. Not a direct rip-off, but very similar in menace and tone, and even some visuals.

One thing I'd never quite understood, was Lewton's role as producer over his B-movie unit at RKO. The short answer, as it turns out, is that Lewton was Joss. Lewton had originally been the story editor under David O. Selznick (including work on Rebecca and Gone With The Wind - that pull back shot of the wounded in Atlanta was Lewton's). At RKO he worked with a variety of directors and writers, but Lewton himself always did the final shooting draft of the script, tweaking it up with detailed description and dialogue. Lewton's mark was on everything, even when working with talented directors like Jacques Tourneur or Robert Wise.

on Kirk and Spock's early days at a space academy. "J.J. wants Damon as Capt. Kirk," my source reports. "He really loves the idea."

Ummmm, (1) isn't Matt Damon already older than William Shatner was when the series started? (2) isn't Matt Damon a little bit old to be at any West Point like academy? I mean, he's 35+, right?

Captain Kirk never struck me as the sort for post-doc work, if you know what I mean.

I am a HUGE fan of strong supporting characters--it adds depth and life and makes it feel as if the film takes place in an actual world. I love the Farmer's Wife Hec mentioned, and many, many tiny-but-vibrant characters in Altman films. The screenwriter has to know juist how much time to give these characters so they don't derail the forward momentum of the story, but well done they become indelible.

I am a HUGE fan of strong supporting characters--it adds depth and life and makes it feel as if the film takes place in an actual world. I love the Farmer's Wife Hec mentioned, and many, many tiny-but-vibrant characters in Altman films. The screenwriter has to know juist how much time to give these characters so they don't derail the forward momentum of the story, but well done they become indelible.

Even just one key scene can really ground a movie and add layers to it.

Mickey Rourke in Body Heat.

Forest Whitaker in The Color of Money.

Michelle Meyrink's little bits in Real Genius.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (who I didn't even recognize when I saw it) in The Big Picture. (Side note: Don't you think it's funny that the movie that Kevin Bacon's character finally gets to make after beating the studio looks like such a tedious little domestic drama? I think it's intentional. That the subtext of the movie is that the fucked up genius of the studio system actually makes more interesting movies than directors who want "true stories" about "real people." I kept thinking that during the first Project: Greenlight too.)

Does that mean Ben Affleck will be Spock?

No. Checkov. So he can say really redundant and inconsequential things.

I'm not going to be a happy camper when Jay and Silent Pike show up, am I?

I'm not going to be a happy camper when Jay and Silent Pike show up, am I?

Beep beep.

(bleakest movie EVER. Okay, maybe in a tie with the Dutch version of The Vanishing.)

Wow, I've got that boxed set, and always heard that The 7th Victim is bleak, but that's a BOLD statement. The Vanishing has the must shudder-inducing final shot I've ever seen, and, if you happened to just click on that one scene, you'd never understand why. I also love how the only violence in the movie is when the protagonist punches the villain.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (who I didn't even recognize when I saw it) in The Big Picture.

God, I LOVED her in that, and so much the antithesis of the perenial victim/misery goat she seems to love specialzing in (eXistenZ was another one, but she wasn't nearly as fun). And I LOVE her zany short at the beginning.

Of course, she looked and acted almost EXACTLY like a good friend of mine in college who was a perky-goth film major (down to the nervous energy and the hair). I was in a couple of her films even (in one playing a sadistic game show host, and in another dressed in a monsigner's outfit, even though religion wasn't any part of the story - one scene in that I'm drinking a beer in a snow-filled Harvard Collesium).

I agree with you on your side note about the film Bacon's shooting at the end, by the way, but I'm not sure if that's what Guest intended.