Why didn’t I think of that? After reading the page in Matthew Barney’s film-financing handbook where he describes selling sculptures and limited editions to raise money for the Cremaster movies, Tom Ford has released his own veritable work of art.
Actually, it’s probably more of a catalogue raisonnee, but there is a white leather-bound limited edition for $350. Don’t worry, Amazon knows you never pay retail; they’ve got it for $238. [There’s also a pleather-priced edition, $85, down from $125.]
Yes, this IS the book on Ford’s coffee table when The Times dropped by last weekend. Tacky? Not in LA, my friend. Not when a man’s got a book to sell. And a movie to finance. [via Towleroad]
Author: greg
I [Heart] Huckstering
My boy David O. Russell may be shooting negative karma beams at the back of Sharon Waxman’s head, but that’s not stopping him from spelling “P&A” with a capital “N-Y-T.”
It feels like those multimedia interstitials for I [Heart] Huckabee’s have been running for weeks now (Seriously, what’s the buy on those things? If it’s entirely clickthrough-based, they’ll have to start pushing the DVD before too much longer.) And if People Who Don’t Skip This Ad wasn’t niche enough, Fox Searchlight is pitching the film at the even smaller People Who Actually Opt In For Ad Mail market.
Here’s the kicker: This morning’s I[H]H spam was a plaintive 1,000-word Story of My Life And My Movie by the director himself. And I mean himself. No copy editors were harmed or even inconvenienced in the making of this email, which Gawker helpfully published this afternoon.
And which I’ve happily pasted in its spamalicious entirety after the jump. Now if you copy it and forward it to all your friends, not only will you help save the life of a little girl with cancer–who’s been kidnapped–but Bill Gates will take you on a trip to Disneyland. Which has to be good for your karma.
The Last Starfighter: The Musical
An ecstatic review by Jason Scott of possibly the geekiest musical possible (without disrupting the space-time continuum, I’m sure), The Last Starfighter.
As every teenage videogame addict living in a trailer park in the eighties knows, the movie, The Last Starfighter tells the story of a… teenage videogame addict living in a trailer park who is tapped by aliens to save a distant planet the universe from destruction or something.
In any case, it’s now a musical, exuberantly and complexly well-done (apparently), and playing off^3-Broadway at the Storm Theatre. Don’t procrastinate and blow it like you did Rent; go see it before it moves to the big stage.
“Geekdom, extreme geekdom, does not just have depths, my friends; it has heights…Sometimes, we think we have achieved the pinnacle, and then, slowly, we glance upward and see we have even farther to climb.” [ASCII by Jason Scott, via waxy]
The Last Starfighter: The Musical, now playing at the Storm Theatre
RE:MVRDV
Archinect has an interview with Nathalie de Vries (the DV in MVRDV), where she talks about the firm’s origins and work approach, and about their upcoming building/mountain for London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Very cool.
MVRDV.nl
previous MVRDV posts
Nick Denton Sports Wood
from the NYMDb work-in-process folder:
Fleshbot Films [?!] gives Ed Wood’s last film the, um, full release it deserves. It’s the long-lost hardcore version of Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love!; the simulated sex version turned up at a tag sale in 1992, much to the glee of the late filmmaker’s hardcore [sic] fan(s). For the rest of you, no, Johnny Depp is not attached.
IN THE VAULT/ Weird Love [New Yorker]
greg.org, heck yeah!
Wingnuts on both ends of the political spectrum, it’s not about you. So take a chill pill, throw another fat Costco steak on the grill, and read Matt Stone & Trey Parker’s interview with Heather Havrilesky in Salon. I so called it.
Embittered filmmakers, meanwhile, should read it to find out how the script went from South Park 2 comedy to Dr. Strangelove play-it-straight satire, before becoming the scintillating assfest you see before you.
“it’s not just us, and the fact that we live in this L.A. bubble” [salon]
Parallel Lines, No Kidding
The Cinetrix has an engrossing review of an equally engrossing documentary, Nina Davenport’s Parallel Lines. The New York director was away on a freelance gig in San Diego on September 11th and decided to film her way home.
Through the fall and early winter of 2001, Davenport asked the dozens of people she met along the way about the terrorist attacks, a question which, more often than not, opened the floodgates to each person’s most nakedly painful experience.
Parallel Lines [pullquote]
Parallel Lines site
Souvenir (November 2001), my first short, set in this same moment in time, about kind of the same thing.
Am I Boogin’ Ya? I Don’t Mean To Boog Ya
Brilliant remix of George W Bush singing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday [via fimoculous]
Start With A Large Fortune
NYT fashion reporter Cathy Horyn goes to Hollywood to see what Tom Ford’s up to. True to reports when he left Gucci, he’s looking to make a small fortune in the movie business.
“If I’m going to get one shot to make an impression,” he said, “I want to have around me at least the padding of professional organization. I would not be able to make a little film that will go unnoticed the way it might for other beginning directors. Everyone will be looking. `Is he any good?'”
Tom Ford’s Intermission [NYT]
Nick Nolte’s Diary: A Million Irishmen Can’t Be Wrong
Father forgive me for ever doubting the authenticity of NickNolteDiary.com. After all, Ireland Online has reported about Nolte’s traffic accident with Rosanna Arquette.
Nolte crashes into Arquette [Worldwide Entertainment Network News, via IOL]
Listen to these directors’ interviews
Ousmane Sembene on WNYC, of course, which I already posted
John Waters on WPS1 [although for my money, no Waters interview is better than this Oct 1998 dicussion of Pecker on Fresh Air, which makes me cry laughing to this day.]
Melvin Van Peebles from 1971, speaking at MoMA about his just-released Sweet, Sweetback’s Badassss Song.
WPS1‘s been getting its groove on lately, in case you haven’t noticed. The talk shows are tightening up a bit, and the music is rocking. Now if they can only figure out podcasting…
I Scoopa de World, Chico, ‘n everthin’s’innit
These are the first color photographs released of Les Arenes de Chaillot. They’ll be running this weekend in Le Monde.
Supposedly, the staff of La Mexicaine de Perforation are dressed like this for the screening of Mister Freedom and Sgt Kabukiman.
That, or this whole underground cinema thing is really a publicity stunt for Fox’s upcoming The Tick: The Musical.
Muchas gracias por todo, Mexicaines!
Previously on greg.org:
Les Arenes de Chaillot: complete programme guide
Exclusive: La Mexicaine Le Interview
Search results for “Mexicaine”
Happy (Belated) 2nd Birthday to Gawker
Which was registered two years ago last week, it turns out.
Registrant:
Pending Renewal or Deletion
P.O. Box 430
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
US
Phone: 570-708-8786
Domain Name: GAWKER.COM
Record expires on 05-Oct-2004
Record created on 05-Oct-2002
Update: Trying to think of a gift for Gawker? They already got a sharp stick in the eye from Network Solutions… (Nick says the whole thing’s an NSI screwup, although I’d suspect BMW.)
Les Arenes de Chaillot: The Complete Programme Guide
If greg.org were a magazine, this would be the big sidebar. But you can call it what it is: whoring for traffic. Here, for the first time in the indexable media, are the programmes–complete with my poor translations of their film descriptions–of La Sesion Comoda and Urbex Movie, the 2003 and 2004 series, respectively, organized by La Mexicaine de Perforation.
Screenings began at midnight in Les Arenes de Chaillot, the group’s underground cinema adjacent to la Cinematheque Francaise.
Continue reading “Les Arenes de Chaillot: The Complete Programme Guide”
I wanna de world, Chico, n’everthin’s’innit
On the long-anticipated convergence of films and video games: on City of Sound, Dan Hill points out GTA3: Vice City‘s remarkable multitude of similarities to Scarface, from the landscape, to the music, to the interior decorating details of Tony Montana’s mansion.
Scarface is Vice City is Scarface [City of Sound]