Randomness: Xavier, Fassy, Pedro, Hathaway and "Best" Directors

My New Plaid Pants reminds us that Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen are reuniting (YES) post Hunger for a movie called Shame, which is not a remake of the Ingmar Bergman flick but a contemporary drama about sex addiction. Carey Mulligan, who looks nothing like Fassy, is playing his sister. Filming now!

It just occurred to me that I've been calling The King's Speech "Royalty Porn" for months now. It has a whole new meaning now.

In Contention does some investigative journalism about that gay porn / King's Speech controversy we were just discussing last night. As for Guy's note that the porn was shot before production on The King's Speech began I have no idea what to think. I can only assume that the wall treatments discussed in the film experience interview were done to emphasize preexisting conditions -- Stewart didn't claim she made up the look, only that she was recreating it and layering it (perhaps to make it read better on film?). Not to get all serious about a very funny news story, but I do hope this doesn't overshadow Stewart's accomplishments. I mean, Christ, Topsy-Turvy. You know?

Less smutty links!
The Movies Were Wrong About Everything TRILOGY METER.
In Contention Kris Tapley's annual good (cinematography) read: top ten shots of the year. Love the inclusion of a sweet moment from Cairo Time as it's quite unexpected.
The House Next Door on writer/director/actor/wunderkind Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats, I Killed My Mother)
i09 interesting interview with Andrew Chambliss, a sci-fi television writer on what that particular grind is like.
The Wrap Costume Design Guild winners: The King's Speech (period), Black Swan (contemporary) and Alice in Wonderland (fantasy)
The AV Club ponders the age-old question: Can Natalie Portman act? I wish Nick's piece on Portman were done to be in conversation with this one.
OMGBLOG Natalie Portman cries a lot, a supercut.

Here's the latest Oscar Host in Training Videos. These are SO fun. This one features Anne Hathaway vs. the teleprompter.

Finally, EW releases a "25 Greatest Working Directors" list. To save you all the trouble of viewing 25 pages. The list goes like so:

1. David Fincher
2. Christopher Nolan
3. Steven Spielberg
4. Martin Scorsese
5. Darren Aronofsky
6. Joel & Ethan Coen
7. Quentin Tarantino
8. Terrence Malick
9. Clint Eastwood
10. Pedro Almodóvar
11. Paul Thomas Anderson
12. Guillermo Del Toro
13. Roman Polanski
14. Danny Boyle
15. Kathryn Bigelow
16. David O. Russell
17. David Lynch
18. James Cameron
19. Peter Jackson
20. Edgar Wright
21. Spike Lee
22. J.J. Abrams
23. Brad Bird
24. Mike Leigh
25. Wes Anderson

It's a curious lineup for sure. And it's absolutely bizarre to see Almodóvar below 9 other people but whatevs. He makes films that require US list-makers to read (GASP). Most of the obvious casualties (Weerathesakul, Haneke, Assayas, Audiard, Desplechin, Denis, etcetera) are wildly acclaimed filmmakers working outside the English language so it's kind of a miracle to see Pedro up so high even though he should be higher. Despite its curious choices, it's also just as expected since you can always tell when a list was made based on what's on it. And you can tell that this list was made within the past 5 or so months since 4 of the 5 current Best Director nominees and heat from the Oscars last year is also accounted for. I'm still chuckling about everyone suddenly claiming they've been a fan all along of Kathryn Bigelow last year. (I have been which is why I know people are lying through their teeth about their devotion! It was a lonely fandom.)

P.S. [UPDATED] Speaking of Almodovar though... People are getting excited for this new reportedly horrific film The Skin That I Inhabit which released this curiousity-inducing original teaser poster to the left and now this fan art has popped up which I'm sure it well intentioned (as fan art always is) but it makes the movie look a bit like a Saw knockoff.

And if there's one thing one could never say about Almodóvar, it's that he's not imitative. People steal from him. Not the other way around ;) [Thanks to Iggy for sharing the link]

P.P.S. Pajiba offers a compare and contrast list to EW's list 25 Most Profitable Directors and Awards Daily responds with a 50 They Forgot list.

Anne & James Lifting Oscars... And Spirits?

Should baby kittens, cupcakes and dimples be getting nervous, phoning their publicists? James Franco & Anne Hathaway continue to make bold claims to a future shake up of the Cute Hierarchy! In their latest Oscar promo they go right on suggesting that on Oscar night they'll be dazzling us with fizzy bff chemistry and (if we're lucky) contemporary screwball energy.

James: We took some photos.
Anne: ...with statues!
James: We held some Oscars.
Anne: We held Oscars. It's heavy.
James: It's really heavy. It's really heavy.
Anne: It's really heavy. It feels important though.

Hathaway plans to break a toenail. Here's the latest promo.

James and Anne Vs. The World

 ♪ A little ditty 'bout James and Aaaa-aanne... two American kids growing up in the heartland... ♫

THE OSCAR BALLOTS HAVE GONE OUT.

Since the Oscar race is all over but the gowns and speeches and the checking of ballot boxes --once the Weinstein Co have finished reediting their film shouldn't they just retitle it The King's Sweep ? --  what should we focus on in regards to Oscar? How about the hosts? I polled The Film Experience team to see what they most want to see from James Franco and Anne Hathaway on Oscar night and here's what they said.

Alexa

I'd love to see Anne and James reenact a scene from Bride Wars.  We all know he can do drag.

Kurtis

What I'd really like to see them do is reenact scenes from their own films, namely "The Devil Wears Prada," with Franco as Meryl Streep: "Everyone wants to be us!"

Two votes for James Franco in drag, heh? Whaddya think readers?

poll by twiigs.com

JA

They reenact scenes from each other's 2010 movies: Anne saws off her own arm on the stage in spectacular Grand Guignol fashion, spraying blood down onto Jack Nicholson and other folks in the front row; a large bed is wheeled into the middle of the stage where James Franco and Jake Gyllenhaal will reenact the most memorable moments from Love and Other Drugs.

Robert

Duke it out as Catwoman vs Goblin

I will co-sign all of these things. Except for maybe Anne sawing her own arm off. I'd prefer she keep all her pretty parts attached. And YES to Catwoman.

Craig

A series of pre-prepped comic sketches - live on stage with a lot of costume changes. Bring back the horrible/marvelous days of Rob Lowe and Snow White!

Finally, Jose and Michael step off of preexisting James & Anne movies. They do a little sidestep.

Jose

I'd love for Anne Hathaway to use the entire ceremony as a big audition for her future Oscar

winning role as Judy Garland and have her do a whole "Born in a Trunk" kinda number. "Mrs. Norman Maine" siiiigh.

Michael

I'd like to see James and Anne fight Oscar's seven evil ex-hosts for the privilege of hosting together

Yes. Musical numbers for Anne.

All praise the unexpected Scott Pilgrim vs. The World reference. Pilgrim for the win. It's too bad that skit/joke would fly over the heads of AMPAS because how undefeatable would that extended show narrative be.

It would mean cameo battles with the following people, the last Seven Evil Ex-Hosts:

• Alec Baldwin & Steve Martin
• Hugh Jackman
• Jon Stewart
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Chris Rock
• Billy Crystal
• Whoopi Goldberg

Our new favorite fantasy (thanks Michael) doesn't count Steve Martin both solo and paired, mostly so we can squeeze in Whoopi Goldberg. If any of those seven evil exes can't show you have to reach back to David Letterman who is next in line. Billy Crystal hogged the duties for so many years that you have to go back nearly a quarter century to get to Chevy Chase.

Your turn!
Oscar night is just three weeks away. What are you hoping to see?

Purrfect Anne Hathaway Has Big Stilettos To Fill.

A horror movie serial is opening (at least) every month all over the internet for the next 18 months. It's called News and Rumors and Collective Freakouts Concerning Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. With each new chapter the internet will shiver and tremble, cry out or shake with alarm, fury, disbelief, fear and finally cathartic release. The latest chapter involves two official casting reveals from Nolan himself. The first is that Inception's Tom Hardy will be playing the grotesquely muscular "Bane" (who we last saw onscreen in the fiasco Batman & Robin, 1997) and the second is that Anne Hathaway, she of the backless gowns and "look at me, I'm fabulous!" nakedity in Love and Other Drugs, will be playing Selina Kyle. Selina is, rather famously, Catwoman's alter ego but given Nolan's two previous Batman films we have no indication that we'll actually get Selina as Catwoman, just that we're getting Selina. 

Julie Newmar (the first Catwoman) | Anne Hathaway (the latest)

Remember when Sam Raimi kept setting up Dylan Baker to play The Lizard in his Spider-Man trilogy and never delivered?

I'd say the most we can hope for is that Anne gets to let her bitchy freak side fly a bit. Rachel Getting Married minus the babbling and the "L'Haim!"s divided by Get Smart physicality? She'll probably use a weapon at some point but sadly, it'll probably be a plain ol' gun and not sewing machine claws. What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't exactly expect her to have nine mystical lives or suit up and throwdown with Christian Bale with pithy one liners and claws out. Maybe she'll get a whip if we're lucky. Nolan likes his female characters as dangerous window dressing or as damsels in distress and on either front Hathaway will be terrific. Or at least more terrific than previous Nolan women.

Believe it or not I don't consider the role too sacred to be recreated. (Someone will reinterpret The Joker before too long, too, even though everyone currently thinks that that'll never happen. It always happens. Trust.) Superheroes and Villians are just from that school of roles that are meant to be constantly reinterpreted, like uh.. .Shakespearean protagonists! Not that the birth of any new feline fatale will ever measure up to Michelle Pfeiffer and that snowy alley with pussies galore.

We'll always hear her roar.