Counsel Me This

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JA from MNPP here. Have you been following the rumor-mill over Ridley Scott's next movie? Until recently just the name "Ridley Scott" had become too encumbered by bad movies for me to get excited about what he was up to.  The last movie of his that I like without reservations is Thelma and Louise, 21 years old now. So I have worried that "the Ridley Scott of today" is on a fool's errand, returning to the world of the Alien franchise... does he have anything of that caliber in him now? But that trailer for Prometheus is so good, you guys. So good! I've seen it about a dozen times and it still sends chills down my spine. Granted it's only a trailer - the movie could still be a mess. But it's been enough to draw me back into Ridley-Scott-sville.

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Aiding in me caring about what Ridley's doing next is the fact that what he's doing next is the first movie script written by The Road and No Country For Old Men author Cormac McCarthy, and that the actor circling the lead has been Michael Fassbender. That's a double-pow of awesomeness that trumps any misgivings I might have regarding Ridley. The film's to be called The Counselor, and they're selling it as "No Country For Old Men on steroids." So basically this thing will ejaculate in your eye and then slap you across the face. It's that manly! From its brief synopsis it sounds like Breaking Bad or Weeds to me, only with a fancy-pants lawyer getting in over his head with the drug-business instead of a high school teacher or sassy widow. 

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Deadline reported last night that Fassbender has signed on for sure, and the actors they're looking at for the villain - and they can't help but foolishly conjure Javier Bardem's iconic turn as Anton Chigurh (don't set the bar so high right out of the gate, you guys) - are Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt. I'm Team Pitt all the way. He needs another good bad guy role right about now, and I'd love to see him go toe to toe with his Basterds co-star. What says you?

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A "Yes, No, Maybe So" Quadruple Feature!

Hollywood is insisting that we move on to the current calendar year (What is this thing called "2012"?) before we're wrapped with the 2011 Oscar Contenders. Boo! Don't they know we prefer things all regimented like? So we've fallen behind. We've no choice but to abbreviate our Yes, No, Maybe So feature to get caught back up. So let's talk about four new trailers that have...

What's that?!? They're not new anymore? Stop rushing me.

None of the movies have opened yet so they're fair game. Care for a nerve-wracking conversation with Sigourney Weaver? Some senior mugging with Diane & Kevin? Think Jeremy Renner can fill Matt Damon's big shoes?

"Help. I'm lost in the thick woods of movie trailers."

Which of these movies are you eager to see, which will you avoid, and which of these first tastes leave you undecided? Four new(ish) trailers after the jump. Discuss! You've been too quiet and are freaking me out.

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Very Veronika

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JA from MNPP here. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's second-to-last film, the glorious Veronika Voss. The film is the final piece in his "BRD Trilogy" (BRD stands for "Bundesrepublik Deutschland," the official name of West Germany and of the united contemporary Germany"), which includes The Marriage of Maria Braun and Lola. It was released at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear. Anyone a fan? It's basically his methadone-drenched take on Sunset Boulevard, and one of the most beautiful of Fassbinder's films (which is saying a lot) - the blackest-black-and-whitest-white cinematography by frequent collaborator Xaver Schwarzenberger is a dazzling thing.

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The film's star Rosel Zech, seen up top dialing a phone and smoking like nobody's business - she spends a lot of the movie doing both, and she does them magnificently - just passed away last September, we briefly memorialized her at MNPP. Fassbinder himself died four months after this movie was released in 1982, and his final film, the swarthy homosexual-sailors Genet adaptation Querelle, was released that same September, a fittingly frenetic conclusion to a career that burned very brightly at both ends. I keep desperately waiting for the Fassbinder bio-pic of my dreams - I mean, we have Jeremy Renner to play him now! What else do we need?

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Burning Questions: Are Franchises Hogging All The Talent?

Michael C. here. 

I'm feeling left out because I couldn't share in the excitement over the Avengers teaser which played during the Super Bowl Sunday night. In fact, if I’m being honest, it bummed me out. I never want to be that guy yelling, “Sell out!” when the performer I love hits the big time, but seeing the likes of Downey, Ruffalo, and Renner headlining the comics franchise to top all comics franchises, it’s hard to get pumped about how kick-ass it’s all going to be when all I can think about are the more interesting films these guys passed over to shoot this one.

Now I have no intention of dismissing a movie before it’s released, or to turn up my nose at big budget blockbusters. A franchise with Joss Whedon at the helm is a great bet to have the intelligence and wit the genre so often lacks. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to ask:

Are franchise films monopolizing the talent?

Take the case of Mr. Renner. It feels like no sooner had we been given a taste of just what he was capable of then he was carted off to shoulder no less than three major franchises – Mission Impossible, Avengers and Bourne. On top of which, he dropped out of his most promising project, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. I don’t deny that all those films have the potential to be good or even great entertainments, but let’s be honest here. It is a rare role in such a mass appeal product that is not broadly simplified with any rough edges sanded off. We are going to be waiting a long time before we get to see Renner tackle another role as riveting as Sgt. William James. 

When will Renner ever do a non-franchise drama again?

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

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Linker by the Dozen

Philadelphia Weekly offers up 6 family films that would draw the ire of the far right in the wake of Fox's ridiculous Muppets bashing.
Coming Soon Another pic of Daniel Day-Lewis from the set of Lincoln, this time with Steven Spielberg
TOH on Matt Damon vs. Tony Gilroy in GQ, hurt feelings around the Bourne franchise.
Guardian David Thomson's ode to Jeremy Renner 

The Cut chooses 11 surprisingly stylish celebrities of 2011
Monkey See 20 Unhappiest People in the Comments Section of Year End Lists. Teehee
Pajiba thinks the teaser poster to Prometheus looks familiar.
Slant Oscar Prospects: Midnight in Paris
Bernardin Could Netflix revive Firefly? It's wishful thinking but thinking wishfully is fun.
Critical Condition "Hush up and watch the Artist" 
Tom Shone why the Globes are better than the Oscars. 

So the HFPA love their stars! What sinful wretches! To survey the history of the Golden Globes is to enter a fragrant Arcadia where all the great Oscar howlers of the last 30 years simply didn't happen. Where E.T. smushes Gandhi, Brokeback Mountain kicks Crash to the curb, and The Social Network roundly thrashes The King's Speech."

@MarkWassmer posted this fine mashup of the latest superhero posters. I haven't posted either previously because their über seriouness drained all joy from my inner child.

I miss superhero pictures that loved color and fun like the original Spider-Man or the original Superman or even X2. Damn you Chris Nolan! ;) I reallydon't want my superheroes looking like they could just meander over to the set of a Clint Eastwood picture and fit right into the I'm A Serious Movie near black and white aesthetics.

Top Ten o' the Day - Dennis Dermody at Paper Mag
Begins by calling The Tree of Life a "psychedelic turd" and moves on to one of the year's most immature and sloppy pictures (Kaboom) so I don't know how seriously to take it but I like the second sentence on Melancholia a lot.

 I feel slightly guilty enjoying the spoils of Von Trier's ongoing depression."