Daily Loaf

Boy howdy, it’s the second Reel Projections podcast, which has part two of my talk with Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. And never you mind what the player text says, Joe didn’t ask Dave Gibbons a damn thing — it was all me. Me! Me! Me! (Not to put too fine a point on it.) However, Joe acquits himself nicely the rest of the show, leading our conversation on upcoming holiday releases, both on the big-screen and on DVD, whilst I try to get a word in edgewise. It’s not easy, folks. This man could swim the English Channel twice over, he’s got that much lung power. Hey-O! You’ll also notice Joe tossing in little in-jokes (like the one about the fake New York Times cover) that I laugh politely at and might have understood if, like Joe, I obsessively monitored Google News feed (I’ve got film sites to obsess over). That gripe aside, I think we established our rapport in this episode, so be sure to save it for posterity.

Out this week: Milk, which our very own Editor David Warner reviews here. Also new in theaters is The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves as the alien sent on an excellent adventure to inform humans that their time is up. How nice for the holidays. Now go read the review, Earthlings.

While reading this post about Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, I noticed one bit of casting that sent my heart all aflutter. No, not Burton regulars Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter or Christopher Lee (Count Dooku, to you, sir). It was the casting of Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts. How perfect is this? Just looking at Crispin Glover is like going down the rabbit hole, so kudos to your casting director, Mr. Burton, on a job exceedingly well done.

Oh, and while I’m on the subject of Alice in Wonderland, how great must it be to be Michael Sheen, who is cast in this film as the Cheshire Cat and can currently be seen as David Frost in the heavily nominated Frost/Nixon? Sheen, you see, was once the boyfriend of Kate Beckinsale, with whom he had a daughter. While they were both filming trash vampire flick Underworld, Beckinsale left Sheen for the director Len Wiseman. Classy move, that. But Sheen, a BAFTA- and Laurence Olivier Award-nominated actor, is now riding high in top-tier films like Frost/Nixon, while showing what a good guy he is by appearing in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (which was produced by Wiseman). Success, as they say, is truly the best revenge.

New York Film Critics honor Milk for Best Pic, Sean Penn for Best Actor. Read the rest of the winners here. You may be surprised.

Speaking of surprises: Will there be an Oscars host surprise? (Same link has info on protests over proposed honor to Jerry Lewis.)

Oliver Stone is filming a documentary about President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Is that what it takes to be the subject of an Oliver Stone movie — you’ve got to be a fucking president? JFK, Nixon, Bush II, now Chavez. How about a film about the scrappy underdog copy editor who logs tireless days and nights culling valuable movie information from all over the Web until his eyes are bloodshot? Think of the artistic possibilities, all the different kinds of film stock and weird camera angles you could use during my gonzo hallucination scene. Come to think of it, I’m the president of Reel Projections.

Check back in a few hours for round 2 and more movie news.

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