Exodus: To Links and Blogs
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 at 12:45PM Let my readers go... to other places. Here are a bunch of articles I enjoyed elsewhere or which are worthwhile for their informational newsiness. But come back soon, okay? Okay.
Screen
Dissolve a new Pee Wee Herman movie is "imminent"
The Dissolve rights to John Carter of Mars have reverted to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Do you think we'll get another film... and will it be better?
The Guardian on Renée Zellweger and 'the Actor's face as His/Her brand'. I made a point of not talking about Zeéeeee's looks yesterday in my own post about the photo but this is an interesting non-aggressive non-misogynist piece about movie stars and how shifts to their brand work (or don't).
I was going to link to another Guardian piece about Julianne Moore and Ellen Page's lesbian drama Freeheld experiencing bigotry already banned from filming at a Catholic school but the page started playing really loud Arby's ads (WTH?) so, no. If you appreciate that I don't allow audio ads on this site (unless it's your choice to play the audio as in the sidebar Oscar ads later in the year) than you should maybe donate to the site to help keep us afloat. (see right hand sidebar. Kisses)
Screen, Superheroics Corner
Pajiba Ming Na-Wen fought herself on last week's Agents of SHIELD for a series highlight. Which other characters should do the same? And yes, the show is actually really good in season 2. Surprise! Last night's episode was really exciting and next week, they'll premiere the trailer to Avengers: Age of Ultron
Comics Alliance talks to Jason Momoa who is excited to embrace his Polynesian heritage as Aquaman. I like Aquaman, and I have no trouble with switching races of known characters - especially when it makes sense (as it would here and similarly I pray to God they don't try to cast a white guy as Iron Fist when they get around to that character since he'd make so much more sense as an Asian). All that said I am not a fan of Jason Momoa - don't respond well to his enormously bulky look and wasn't impressed with him as an actor in Game of Thrones.
We Minored in Film Painkiller Jane to get her own movie, possibly beat high profile superheroines to the screen
Off Screen
Vanity Fair Sarah Jessica Parker's unauthorized shoe-stoop photography
Boy Culture meets Annie Lennox
The Cut The Met's new cleverly titled exhibit on mourning fashions is called "Death Becomes Her". Sadly there is no sidebar exhibit on Madeline Ashton & Helen Sharp. A pity because "I would like... to... talk... about... Madeline Ashton"
EXODUS: OF COSTUMES AND KINGS
I recently attended a sneak preview of footage from Exodus: Of Gods and Kings. We were shown about 40 minutes of the Biblical epic which seems to be Cecil B DeMille's The Ten Commandments minus Anne Baxter's campiness (pity) remade through the lens of Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Moses is no longer a "splendid adorable fool" but a guylined killing machine (at least in the early action sequence we saw). Ridley Scott's movies are always great looking however they come across otherwise and this one looked suitably gigantic. Especially the plagues and the finale Red Sea chase. I admit I was somewhat distracted worrying about the horses who are dying right and left in these sequences. I will never be able to watch old school war scenes without worrying about the horses, all the pretty horses. Yes I am one of those animal lovers that stays through the end credits to make sure no animals were harmed in the making of anything.
Here's a featurette on the golden costumes by Oscar winner Janty Yates (Gladiator)! She mentions the film's powerful women but they weren't showcased at all in our preview. Sigweavie only got a couple of side-eyes in. I must admit, too, that at our preview I was baffled as to why Sir Ridley kept appearing between the scenes to explain the plot. UM. MOSES. THE BIBLE. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. It's a bit like describing what happens in Noah. Let me guess: Rageful god warning, two animals of every kind, floods!? Actually come to think of it, Moses's story beats are not unlike the Noah template only two animals of every kind is more thousands of only two kinds (frogs/locusts) and the flood is region specific.
Are you planning to see Exodus? Do you like actors in guyliner and gold plated costumes? The latter is a rhetorical question since your answer should be use.
Reader Comments (12)
Oscar 'nominee' Janty Yates? Try Oscar winner!
I still don't understand why Jason Momoa isn't playing Namor the Sub-Mariner (Marvel's undersea monarch). Would have been perfect casting, given his looks and how he played the Khal Drogo.
Okay, let's ask WHY Painkiller Jane is beating high profile superheroines to the screen, by analyzing who the top four solo (so yes, no team members, even if the team is primarily women like the Birds of Prey) female heroes (yes I know most of the best female heroes are X-Men and Birds of Prey members, but that doesn't exactly fix the real problem) from the big 2 ARE:
1. Wonder Woman. (DC) (Everyone knows her, mostly due to that TV show, and she's never going to get pulled, no matter how badly she sells, because of that fact. But there's the lack of an innately interesting villain to pit her against, there's the lack of a solid equivalent to Steve Rogers' iceberg due to being someone who's never stopped publishing but is still innately tied to WWII and there's the bondage overtones in the idea of her iconic weaponry with the lasso.)
2. Catwoman. (DC) (Warner Bros isn't going to want to remove her from the Batman franchise for at least five more years and one more good performer sinks their teeth into after that last film AND that she wasn't a hero from her first appearance. There's also bondage notes here, but I'd argue Indiana Jones also uses a whip, so lets say its undertones here.)
3. Batgirl. (DC) (Multiple characters to consider for this, but let's say for the sake of argument that we'll mostly consider Barbara Gordon. 1. There's the distaff issue to deal with for all of them. 2. Latter day takes of published comic material actually make all of them minors at the beginning of their time with this title. 3. Any Batman director would have to agree with the idea of any of them being a presence, and Warner Bros has learned their lesson from Batman and Robin about not forcing anything on their Batman director. 4. Would Warner Bros. even want to open the Killing Joke can of worms to go for it on a movie version of Birds of Prey?)
4. She-Hulk. (Marvel) (1. Visual Distaff issue. 2. Would an approximation of the John Byrne run work in live-action? They could always aim for the Slott run, which would probably work better, but still.)
When that's what you're dealing with? I say bring on the Painkiller.
I wasn't looking forward to Exodus at all but the last trailer, released last month, kind of sold me. The Ten Commandments redone Gladiator-style sounds great to me.
Meanwhile, the school that embarrassed itself is just down the street from my apartment. Maybe I should go down there and yell "boo" at the front entrance.
I hope Siggy did this as a favour,i mean where is she in those trailers,no one puts Siggy in the corner.
Two weeks ago I went to a place in England called Waltham Abbey, where King Harold who died at the Battle of Hastings was buried. It was a special day in his honour. They had a guy dressed as a Knight on a big black horse. There was a sign next to them telling us the horse was a stunt horse called Beau, and he had recently come back from Spain where he had been filming Exodus with Christian Bale! Just thought I'd share.
It's a minor form of protest, but I try not to see movies these days where white men are cast as people who have either been proven not to be white or have compelling evidence that they were not white. I'm basically at #ByeFelicia with Exodus then.
F -- yeah. it's a drawback for that film. It's especially weird because in the scenes i've seen there is a true smorgasbord of ethnicity in the background (like every race playing every type of person) except for the leads who are all white.
Whenever people talk about Wonder Woman not having interesting villains I wonder if they have ever read any of her comics. WW has so much potential in a lot of different directions. I am excited to see women leading comic book films but I think the conversation around WW is...interesting. As if people want to say she doesn't really deserve a film because she supposedly isn't interesting.
Usually I betray my principles and watch these films anyway--e.g. I brought the Cloud Atlas blackface/yellowface stuff because it was trying to make a deliberate point, etc etc. But idk, this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Maybe it's the fact that they didn't even try. The images are just so, so cringe-worthy. I have the same negative visceral reaction that white people (probably) have when they see all-POC versions of sanctified classics. Just, no.
I'm glad someone mentioned the race issue in Exodus. It's absolutely fucking ridiculous to pretend that Egyptians were not black (EGYPT IS IN AFRICAN).
It's just unacceptable in 2014 to pretend that Christian Bale or Sigourney Weaver should be playing Egyptians in a film while all the servants/slaves/peasants are played by minorities.
I can't even talk about the film unless it's about that because it seriously annoys me.
Okay, I agree that whitewashing is a major problem in Hollywood. However, I feel I have an obligation to mention this: Egyptians are not typically "black". Ancient Egyptians, like the Egyptians of today, have a more middle eastern look. I mean seriously, it seems like the people who take offense to this stuff are actually the least educated. Look it up! This is a problem, but people are getting upset about the wrong thing.