Cutting Room for January 4
- My excitement for Thor 2 has declined from “Odin’s beard” to “Loki’s muttonchops,” as Patty Jenkins has been taken from the director’s seat. Thus, instead of getting to see what a talented female filmmaker may do with a big budget sequel, we get to see what Alan Taylor, director of some episodes of “Game of Thrones,” can predictably do. Word has it that Natalie Portman, or Natpo as I call her from a governmentally enforced distance of at least 100 feet, is pretty upset because she hand-picked Jenkins. Nobody makes Natpo mad on my watch! I feel a strongly worded letter coming on…
- One of the most anticipated films on my radar for the last three years has been Ari Folman’s The Congress. While it may feel wrong to look forward to something involving congress of any kind, if you’ve seen Folman’s animated look into the horrors of war, Waltz with Bashir, you know why I’m giddy. The good news is that things are progressing, as the script based on speculative fiction author Stanislaw Lem is supposedly great and the part live-action, part animation is rolling along. The bad news is that it’s taking awhile, as 2012 isn’t likely to see the movie get finished. Oh well, looks like I have my first 2013 prediction queued up!
- Speaking of 2013… It’s rare to get excited about animation that isn’t from Pixar these days. Actually, given Cars 2, it may be hard to get excited about any animated movie ever again. Still, the buzz is that Disney’s 2013 holiday release will be Frozen, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.” Most excitingly, rumors are that it’s going to be hand-drawn. The prospect of an old-school, pen-and-ink animated fairy tale may just be enough to melt this grumpy old heart of mine!
Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays at around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (KVNO.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm).
posted at 04:18 am
on Wednesday, January 04th, 2012
