Notes and Speculation: Spike Jonze and ‘Wild Things’, John C. Reilly, Scarlett Johansson, More

In some places you can get a smack for linking to a 2 week old newspaper article, but there’s been such a tight lid kept on the production of Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are that I’ll risk it, in the interest of the people. First: behind the scenes in Australia. Second: wrap party, last week (last item). Previously: Catherine O’Hara rapped about workshopping and such with the likes of Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, and Michelle Williams in preparation for voice-over work in the film.

Production Weekly reports that John C. Reilly will team with 40 Year Old Virgin writer/director Judd Apatow to star in Walk Hard, a parody of the current crop of musical biographies that are so hot with the Oscar crowd right now.

Related: Reilly says of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood: “I haven’t seen the whole thing. I’ve seen like an hour and 20 minutes, and it is just incredible. If you’re a fan of his movies, it’s really going to blow your mind. It’s such a departure from everything he’s done before, but it’s so good and there’s no one in it that he’s worked with before.” - via Swede Degrell

Scarlett Johansson, nude on screen - basically a “when”, not an “if” proposition. - SlashFilm

Via Filmstalker - Director Joe Carnahan blogs his upcoming film Smokin’ Aces, featuring Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, and Ray Liotta. Trailers.

Blockbuster stores looking to steal Netflix customers through a holiday promotion, giving one free rental to subscribers that bring in an address label from the tell-tale red envelopes - Variety

“Michael’s finding a way of doing that differently than [Leonard] Nimoy did with Spock, but what I enjoy about [Hall’s] performance in [“Dexter”] is you see these moments where there is this little emotional undercurrent where he’s not totally devoid of emotion, and that’s a really fascinating acting choice on Michael’s part that I’m really enjoying about the show.” - Peter Krause, while promoting The Lost Room (premieres Monday, Dec. 11th), on his Six Feet Under brother, Michael C. Hall. - New York Post via TV Tattle

Meet Andre Royo, aka Bubbles, from The Wire. And meet co-writer/creator David Simon while you’re at it, who at the tail end of this lengthly interview with Slate, crosses his fingers so that Spike Lee might direct the Season 5 opener.

In celebration of the DVD release for the 1983 video arcade sex-farce comedy Joysticks, a commercial for what’s widely known as “the worst video game of all time” - E.T., for the Atari 2600. Video - Youtube

Finally, speaking of delayed DVD’s - Eddie Murphy’s Delirious, a long time coming. - Cinematical

tedzee | Permalink | December 6 2006 | Comments (View)