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Trisha’s Quote of the Day: Why some women shouldn’t fly spaceships

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Wheaton: This is the first time I’ve ever been on the stage with a fellow Starship driver. I have never shared the stage with someone who has also driven a Starship.
Burton: And how does it feel?
Wheaton: It feels pretty good. It feels like we could talk in a shorthand that no one would understand or care about.
Frakes: You wouldn’t consider being on stage with Marina [Sirtis, Deanna Troi from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”] being on stage with someone who could drive the spaceship.
Wheaton: I don’t think so.
Burton: She crashed the ship the one time we let her drive, didn’t she?
Frakes: That was a huge mistake.
Wheaton: That was a bad idea.
Burton: Right into a planet, as I recall!

—LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, and Wil Wheaton, together again on the bridge at a panel at the 2010 Phoenix ComicCon.

[Editor’s Note: Thanks, so much, Versus the World Productions for getting such great audio. You guys wouldn’t be going to Dragon*Con this year, by any chance, would you? – TL]

Trisha’s Link of the Day: Why Riker is the man

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In full disclosure, I haven’t seen all of Star Trek: The Next Generation yet, but if/when I am able to cherry-pick which episodes I watch, “The Outcast” is high on my list, and artist Jess Fink explains why in this comic.

I was really blown away by the frankness of the dialog in this episode too. Apparently Jonathan Frakes pushed for them to hire a male actor to play Soren but the producers didn’t think TV was ready for dude-on-dude action.

I would pay good money to see that episode re-shot the “right” way, wouldn’t you?

R.I.P.: Actor Gary Coleman, 42, dies from brain hemorage

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On Wednesday evening, “Diff’rent Strokes” star Gary Coleman fell at his Utah home and was rushed to the hospital. According to the CNN report from two hours ago, he is suffering from a brain hemmorage and is on life support.

Already, Wikipedia is saying that he’s dead, but I believe I’m going to wait a few hours before we report any further.

Our best thoughts are going out to his family and friends right now.

Update: It is with a heavy heart that we type these words to inform you that according to the NY Times blog, USA Today, and The Washington Post, among the other Internet articles posted about this, that Gary Coleman has passed away today, at the age of 42.

An entire generation of geeks grew up with Coleman when he starred in the sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” as a Harlem youth being raised along with his brother by an rich widower from 1978 to 1986. Other than his signature catchphrase (“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”) one other thing that Coleman was known for was his short stature, caused by a congenital kidney defect.

After the show’s ended, Coleman found it difficult to get further work in Hollywood and in 1999, he sued his parents over the mismanagement of his trust fun and won. He never really regained the kind of public adoration he had as a child actor, though guest appearances in several TV shows and an unsuccessful run for the governorship of California kept him in the public eye.

Even further exposure was gained when book-writer Jeff Whitty and composers, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx made Coleman a character in their hit Broadway play Avenue Q, depicting him as a “former child actor” who’s now the superintendent of a run-down building somewhere in Manhattan. (Incidentally, the show’s reaction to his death can be read here.)

Coleman is survived by his wife.

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: When flavor text goes wrong

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Meanwhile, Wilhelmina the gnome wound up at the bar with a hoary ancient mariner, who had a very strange story involving albatrosses, and kept buying him drinks, with the end result that poor Kevin had to read most of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in character, which he did with great style, except that the gnome wouldn’t let him stop.

GNOME: This is fascinating! Tell me more!
GM: Now you’re just fuckin’ with me…
GNOME: I need to know more! I eat more chips and buy him another drink!
GM (wearily): One by one, by the star-dogged moon…

This continued on until after 11 pm, whereupon we called it a night. And then Kevin pinned my arm and insisted on reading another half dozen stanzas at me, because he claimed to be suffering from poetus interruptus.

—Ursula Vernon has a weird paladin, but an even weirder GM.

Aidan Quinn leads actors into Exodus

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If there’s anything I really like about covering indie films, it is that indie films are where you need to look if you want to keep pace with trends in original storytelling.

Picking up on where “Damages” left off in dealing with Ponzi scheme artists is screenwriter/producer R. Ellis Frazier who has assembled quite a cast for his feature directorial debut, The Exodus of Charlie Wright. Aidan Quinn will star, with Andy Garcia, Luke Goss, and Mario Van Peebles in supporting roles.

According to Jay A. Fernandez at The Hollywood Reporter, here’s the plot:

The story centers on Charlie (Quinn), a Los Angeles billionaire financial whiz who goes into self-imposed exile in Tijuana after his empire is revealed to have been a Ponzi scheme. While looking for the woman he abandoned there 25 years before, Charlie is pursued by a Mexican gangster (Garcia), a federal agent (Van Peebles) and thugs sent by a former client (Goss) looking to retrieve his money.

Whereas “Damages”—which I am still slogging through on DVR, so if you spoil it for me, I will gladly kill you—is very firmly empathetic towards Ponzi scheme victims, by having his protagonist be the schemer I’m wondering exactly just how Frazier will be able to make his story palatable enough for studio heads who may have lost money in Bernie Madoff’s scheme which was revealed in March 2009 and which victims included such Hollywood luminaries as Stephen Spielberg and his Wunderkinder Foundation, Dreamworks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg and Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick.

Perhaps the words “self-imposed exile” is key?

Last-minute indie buys end this year’s Cannes

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Before the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d’Or, was won by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and his film called Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives on Saturday night, a flurry of activity sealed the deal for more indie films to get distribution here in the U.S., according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Risky Business blog:

  • Altitude: Canadian comics artist Kaare Andrews (Astonishing X-Men) is the director of this supernatural thriller which pits a group of teens in a private plane against an unseen horror which threatens to ground them for good. Featuring Jessica Lowndes from the new “90210” series, Anchor Bay Entertainment picked up the U.S. distribution rights.
  • Des hommes et des dieux (aka Of Gods & Men): Sony Picture Classics nabbed the U.S., Australia and New Zealand distribution rights to this “based on a true story” film about Catholic monks lead by Lambert Wilson (the Merovingian in the two Matrix sequels) whose decision to stay within the increasingly dangerous Algerian countryside eventually cost seven of them their lives in 1996. Written/directed by Xavier Beauvois, the film also took home the Grand Prix.
  • Kaboom: The first-ever Queer Palm-winning (yes, I know, but that’s what the award is called) feature from indie darling Gregg Araki stars Thomas Dekker (“The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) as a freshman who trying to enjoy his first year in college (and his hot roommate named Thor) who stumbles into a freaky mystery after witnessing the murder of a mysterious redhead…or does he? It’s been picked up by IFC Films to be released sometime this year.
  • The Princess of Montpensier: A French film by Bertrand Tavernier, it revolves around an heiress (Mélanie Thierry) and the various men who fall in and out of love with her against the backdrop of a war-torn 16th century France. It’s based on the eponymous public domain novel, and will be distributed by IFC Films in the U.S. after its release this November in France.
  • Somos lo que hay (aka We Are What We Are): Just in case you ever wanted to feel empathy towards cannibals, screenwriter/producer Jorge Michel Grau’s directorial debut might be right up your alley as it revolves around a destitute family who only eats humans to survive, not because it gives them any particular pleasure. The horror/dark comedy has also been picked up by IFC Films for distribution.

Paul W.S. Anderson’s Three Musketeers to take the world by storm (updated!)

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Just a week after the 2010 Festival de Cannes started, a clear heavy-weight has emerged between the two new versions of The Three Musketeers in pre-production. The winner is Summit Entertainment and director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Death Race), whose version with the following stars attached will also be filmed in 3D:

  • Logan Lerman (D’artagnan, the young newbie): The star of Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Lerman was also one of the leads in ill-fated WB series “Jack & Bobby.”
  • Matthew Macfadyen (Athos, the moody leader): The Robin Hood star had to correct the initial reports that he was going to be playing Aramis.
  • Luke Evans (Aramis, the man of God): After playing the role of the god Apollo in The Clash of the Titans, he’ll be returning to Greek mythology land for Immortals.
  • Ray Stevenson (Porthos, the jovial gourmand): Having appeared in The Book of Eli, his next summer movie appearance will be in the comedy The Other Guys.

On the antagonist’s side, we’ll have Christoph Waltz (Cardinal Richelieu, the main schemer), Mads Mikkelsen (Rochefort, D’Artagnan’s main rival at arms), Milla Jovovich (Milady de Winter, the Cardinal’s spy), and a rumored Orlando Bloom (the Duke of Buckingham, who actually comes off as much more sympathetic in the original French novel than an Englishman should be). Also in negotiations to join the cast is Juno Temple, (Greenberg, Dirty Girl who will play the queen of France.

Having been hailed as “the jewel in the Cannes crown this year” with “all the elements we needed” by Summit International’s president David Garrett, The Hollywood Reporter noted that Garrett and his team were able to broker deals to have the $80 million picture shown in the U.K., Canada, Spain, and Latin America. Summit will distribute in the U.S., and co-producer Constantin will distribute for Germany.

The loser is Warner Bros. who by confirming Fair Game director Doug Liman’s involvement in their own version in the beginning of the month started this arms race, but no cast has yet to be announced. Perhaps the only things that the WB version has going for it right now is that it aims to be a Sherlock Holmes-esque re-imagining of the tale and that it’s got Doug Freaking Liman as its director.

And yes, I’ll admit that one of the first versions of this story that I saw on screen was the 1993 Disney version which featured a smirking Charlie Sheen as Aramis, but I think I’ll veer away from the rest of the movie blogosphere community by also stating that my personal favorite version of the Musketeers is actually the 1998 ones played by Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, and Gerard Depardieu because of their gravitas.

Filming on both of these productions will begin in the fall.

Updated on 5/23: Orlando Bloom’s involvement has been officially confirmed, according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Heat Vision blog. Most interesting quote from the article about the Duke of Buckingham: “[He is] so cool that you can chop him into cubes and serve with vodka.” Also confirmed is the involvement is British actor James Cordon (The History Boys), who will play D’Artangnan’s faithful servant Planchet.

Trisha’s Take: Open on Sunday review

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Open on Sunday

Performed by Paula Carino (vocals, rhythm guitar), Ross Bonadonna (lead guitar, backing vocals), Andy Mattina (bass), Tom Pope (drums)

I’ve spoken at length about how I don’t have the most expansive of musical educations. Sure, I can natter on at length about early female classical composers, but that’s mostly a product of a 300-level Music course I took over decade ago because it satisfied a prerequisite and a university honors slot at the same time.

However, ever since I learned that I inherited my ability to carry a note from my mom and my ability to feel a rhythm from my dad, I’ve loved listening to music and finding those songs which I could sing and dance along with.

And I have the Internet to thank for my most recent find.

It all started when I was browsing Kickstarter.com, a website which gives creative people a little nudge towards helping them fulfill their dreams by making it easy for them to find backers (or angels, as they call them in the theater business).

It was how my former editor Gordon McAlpin was able to raise the funds necessary to leave a full-time job for a few months to finish the art and pages necessary for the completion of the first Multiplex print book.

After I pledged to McAlpin’s project back in October 2009, I started clicking around the site to see what other endeavors there were to be funded and found a project for a former co-worker and singer-songwriter named Paula Carino who wanted to create a physical CD to go along with the digital release of her newest album Open on Sunday.

When I worked with her for over three years at a now-defunct media database company, I knew she was a musician and I knew that she gave concerts every now and then, but I never went to see any of her performances. We’re connected on Facebook now, but it’s just not the same as seeing a person every day to remind someone of their hobbies and talents.

However, I liked her and I thought, “What the hell? It’s $10 bucks, I’m helping someone I like, and I get new music. Why not support her?”

When I finally received my CD, it lay unopened in a desk drawer at work for a very long time and then migrated to my apartment where it lay unopened in my backpack for another long period of time. Finally one weekend, I decided to open it up, pop it into my computer so that I could import it into my iTunes library, and give it a good long listen.

Upon the first notes of “(Mother I Must Go to) Maxwell’s,” I was immediately struck by how bouncy and catchy it was and how strong the narrative was within the song. Carino’s tale of a young impressionable person (I’m assuming it’s a girl because of the repeated pleas to “mother,” but I could be wrong) who wants to break free of his/her suburban life to be free is something that everyone can relate to, even if they never do such a thing in their real life.

As I continued playing the album in order—and then after tranferring it to my iPod, several times on “shuffle”—I decided that I really liked Carino’s work. I’m not going to go through the entire album song by song, but suffice to say that this is one of the few albums where I can say I like every song on it; here are my favorites in addition to “Maxwell’s”:

  • “Sensitive Skin”: The rhythm behind the opening notes remind me so much of a Latin salsa, even if the narrative in front of it is not. It’s rare to have “indie girl rock” music that you can salsa to, and I really appreciate it.
  • “With the Bathwater”: I didn’t like this song at first because the speaker sounded so wishy-washy in dealing with her breakup:

    Cuz I can’t take the bad with the good
    And I can’t love you like I oughta
    So I’m throwing my baby out
    With the bathwater

    (It also makes me wonder if Carino wrote the song as a musical foil to No Doubt’s “Bathwater,” but I’m sure that’s something she can answer if she chooses to read this review.)

    But I immediately twigged onto how clever that chorus was in switching up the expectation of rhyming “good” with a word like “should” and the longer I listened to it, the more I realized that even if I didn’t like the narrative, the lyrics were extremely clever and unexpected. It’s one of those good “sing-along” songs where you find yourself humming it when you wake up in the morning.

  • “Foxhound”: Whenever I hear this song, I think of underground car races for some reason. I have no idea why. I’m also curious as to exactly who this “foxhound” is supposed to be, and if it (or he) is related to Elvis’ and Willie Mae Thornton’s “hounddog.”
  • “Sir You Have No Bucket”: The reason I liked this song at first is a little juvenile because the title reminded me of the “I haz a bukkit” meme.Yes, I can be such a child sometimes.And yet, when I really took a look at the lyrics, what really stood out to me is that (I think) the song is about the New Testament parable of the Samaritan woman by the well:

    Sir, you have no bucket and this well is deep
    And still you ask me for water.
    Questioning the company that I keep
    And leading the witness to slaughter.

    and

    But I know a spring that never runs out
    And flows through everything.
    You are a spring that never runs out
    And flows through everything.

    All of a sudden, my mind is blown because something I’ve been chair-dancing and/or head-bopping along to on the subway is a condensation of a story of forgiveness.

    Isn’t reading and listening comprehension great? It also doesn’t hurt my theory that the song right after “Bucket” is called “Road to Hell.”

If I have complaints about Carino’s album it’s that sometimes it’s hard to understand her lyrics because she elides and slurs some words, but I wonder if that’s just a personal problem because I have difficulty understanding most sung (or rapped) lyrics if I’ve never heard or read the song before.

Other than that, I completely and enthusiastically recommend Paula Carino’s work to anyone who likes Dar Williams, Beth Sorrentino, or Deborah Conway.

Paula Carino’s Open on Sunday can be found at the iTunes store or at CDBaby and yes, she has a bucket.

Ghostbusters 3 filming in NYC?

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Well, not exactly:

This bit of midday surreality has been brought to you by the fine folks at Improv Everywhere, who gave me 1 or 2 of my allotted 15 minutes of TV fame when their re-enactment of a U2 concert made a VH-1 “Top 40 greatest pranks” show and clips of my screaming like a crazed fan made the show.

Running down the Cannes news

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We here at GeekingOutAbout.com are not at the 2010 Festival de Cannes but that’s not going to stop us from bringing you the news about which films are being picked up for international distribution and which films to keep your eye on:

  • Hanna: Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) stars as a teenage assassin in a film that is currently in its last month of filming and will also star Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. Producers Focus Features are retaining the distribution rights in North America, the U.K., and others while Sony Pictures Worldwide will be able to release it in other countries in continental Europe and Asia. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
  • Passengers: Keanu Reeves will star in this Morgan Creek and Universal picture as the mechanic on a colony ship who awakens 100 years too soon and has to endure the slower-than-light speed trip all alone… except for some robots with personalities and a woman he eventually awakens because he starts to go stir-crazy who have yet to be cast. Being flogged around the festival as “Adam in Eve in space,” the film picked up deals to be shown in Italy—where director Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds) is from— and Germany via Medusa and TeleMunchen, respectively. (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
  • Hanyo: South Korean Jeon Do-Youn stars in this remake of a classic 1960 film—which you can stream online here—about a maid who has a relationship with her employer, an Alan Sugar/Donald Trump/Mr. Big-type. In contention for the Palme d’Or, the remake turns the relationship on its end from the original by having the maid be less of a harpy and more of a sympathetic justice-seeker.

The festival ends on May 23.

More “news” about BlackStar Warrior?

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At first, I was dubious at the thought or idea that floating out in the ether somewhere is a blaxploitation version of Star Wars, but I quickly forgot about the whole concept—until my YouTube subscription alert mentioned that the second part of the documentary was online:

Going back to the LandoIstheMan.com blog, I found this blog entry which explained that Alan, the blog’s author, has a friend who created a movie poster featuring Lando Calrissian as the star of a spinoff Star Wars movie called Lando, and it was this action that started the whole thing:

[Alan’s artist friend] Matt decided it would be fun to dig around and explore the rumblings about this supposed 1980’s Blaxploitation film that takes place in the Star Wars universe. After uncovering some tantalizing evidence he thought Marcus might be telling the truth.

I’m totally calling shenanigans on this, because it all smacks of “friend of a friend” business; and yet, subsequent posts on the blog suggest that this Alan guy totally believes it’s real. Also? He’s got consistent pictures of his family on the blog, including candid vacation shots, and I don’t think anyone would do that to their kids on a hoax website… would they?

I’m going to try and get to the bottom of this, because I have to admit, if is fake, it’s really well done.

Trisha’s Take: Micmacs à tire-larigot review

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Micmacs à tire-larigot (aka Non-stop madness)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Julie Ferrier, and more
Rated R for some sexuality and brief violence

When I was in the eighth grade, I was given the chance to either take a first year of Spanish at my school or to take a first year in French at the high school across the street from where I lived and where I’d eventually attend.

Impractical youngster that I was in Southern California, I chose French and for five years I was one of the more fluent speakers in my class, going as far as to win the silver medal my senior year of high school at French camp. Those classes were where I first saw or heard of classic French films like Jean de Florette, Le retour de Martin Guerre, and Au revoir les enfants (which apparently was an inspiration for Reservoir Dogs), and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes, even Les compères.

Alas, my ear for the language has diminished, but that still doesn’t mean that I’m not about to turn down the chance to see a movie by perhaps one of France’s great directors of the modern era.

Even before it made its debut at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, Micmacs à tire-larigot was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for a U.S. release, and it’s no small wonder why.

Just as in director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s first major hit Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, whimsy abounds in Micmacs in the form of a motley crew of homeless misfits who are tasked by the main character Bazil (played by Dany Boon) to help him seek his justice upon the arms dealers who were responsible for the death of his father and who supplied the bullet which lodged in his brain during a drive-by gone wrong where he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

That there’s a lot of grim scenes depicting the actual shooting or the fact that the first five minutes of the movie start with watching Bazil’s father accidentally trigger a landmine he was tasked to clear could be perhaps a continuation of the themes in A Very Long Engagement.

And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about “Leverage” while watching this movie because what unfolds after we meet the happy band of misfits (including such heavy-weight French and French-speaking actors as Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, and long-time Jeunet-collaborator Dominique Pinon) is a series of heists featuring cobbled-together tools and a female contortionist.

Of course, each misfit has a quirky note about them that gives them their “speciality” and makes them integral to the smooth workings of the plans. Of course something goes wrong, and the crew has to work together to get Boon back once he’s been captured by the bad guys (who are played with such scene-eating relish by André Dussollier and Nicolas Marié that I feared there wouldn’t be a set left by the end of the movie).

If you’re looking for deep insights into why war exists, you’re not going to find them here. In fact, the movie could almost be a rejection of war, war-mongering, and the industries that help perpetuate the cycles of violence–but that’s just me trying to reach for a deeper meaning in a movie that really doesn’t need one.

I enjoyed every performance greatly, especially lead actor Boon’s. He portrayed well Bazil’s pride upon learning that he’s lost his job and apartment after being in the hospital for so long after the shooting, and I loved watching the bits where he had to do any bit of pantomime. I’ll admit that just like Bazil, I was flummoxed when Julie Ferrier’s tirade came out of the blue, but I don’t think that’s a function of her being a poor actor but perhaps a function of there not being enough room in the script to show her character’s changing feelings towards him.

In short, if you’re looking for a good, satisfying, and fun heist/revenge movie, you should definitely find Micmacs at your local theater.

Micmacs is going into limited release in the U.S. on May 28, but if you’re really that anxious, you could import the R2 DVD and contribute to the French GDP at the same time!

Ghost to get remake… in Japan?

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Though I am quick to enjoy a good “nerd rage” on the idea of yet another remake or readaptation being announced, I do have to say that the news that there will be a remake of the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore 1990s hit Ghost is making me just a little bit giddy–because it’s going to be in Japanese.

From Cinema Today.jp and Nippon Cinema.com—and our friends at Japanator.com—comes the news that Paramount Pictures Japan and Shochiku have handed over the reins of the Japanese remake to live-action drama director Taro Otani (“Gokusen”), and it sounds like they’re fast-tracking it, too with shooting to begin this June with a release in the fall. Taking on the Swayze role will be Korean actor Song Seung Hun while Japanese actress Nanako Matsushima will be stepping into Moore’s shoes.

No word on whether or not producer Takashige Ichise (The Grudge) will be getting an Okinawan-style comedian to play the Whoopi Goldberg role.

Anna Faris gives new leading man her Number

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Once off-track due to a problem in lead actor scheduling, the Anna Faris comedic vehicle What’s Your Number? may be back in the pipeline, thanks to Dave Annable. In a Hollywood Reporter exclusive, Borys Kit noted that the “Brothers and Sisters” star was in negotiations to start opposite Faris as her dream guy.

The synopsis of the film goes like this: “Number centers on a woman (Faris) who treks through her sexual past to find Mr. Right, exploring the idea of sexual quotas and whether such numbers matter.”

Number is adapted from Karyn Bosnak’s 20 Times a Lady by screenwriters Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden; Mark Mylod is the director. Also in the cast and previously announced are Joel McHale (“The Soup,” “Community”) who will be playing Faris’ boss, whom she sleeps with and which encounter kicks off the entire search.

As a woman, I find it very difficult to “bring teh funny” as it were, and any time someone laughs at anything I say or write, it always gives me a little thrill. That’s why I really appreciate female comic actresses like Anna Faris because she’s able to be funny and pretty at the same time in movies that while aren’t my typical cup of tea, I’m not going to outright dismiss because one should always be open to the possibility of enjoying something outside one’s comfort zone.

Also, in doing research for this article, I think I’ve fallen in love a little with novelist Karyn Bosnak, whose blog entry about Joel McHale’s addition to the cast you can find here and contains this enthusiastic endorsement of the leading lady:

As for Anna Faris… Now, I’m not just saying this to kiss ass, and if she was only so-so during the reading I would gush about how cute she is (which she is—she’s petite and gorgeous), but my God… she is so freaking talented. With all due respect to the amazing supporting cast, Anna Faris could be in this movie alone talking to plants and it would still be freaking awesome. I mean, she owns this character and drives this script. Like, anyone could read it aloud and it would be funny. But when Anna reads it, she brings an element to it that you just can’t write. It’s like magic. She’s like magic.

For Bosnak’s sake, I really hope that this movie does well, and not just because she’s a fellow New Yorker transplant.

Sir Anthony Hopkins to play a baddie in Arabian Nights

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In an exclusive from Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter‘s Heat Vision blog, Anthony Hopkins is in final negotiations to play the villain in The Arabian Nights.

Hopkins’ role will be that of “Pharotu, an evil sorcerer who killed Sinbad’s love, a mermaid, and is looking to amass more magic for himself.” And since previously announced star Liam Hemsworth will not be playing Sinbad, this makes me wonder if the plot of this movie will feature numerous villains, one for each member of the Hitchhiker Heroes.

At our monthly midnight screening series at the Landmark Sunshine in New York City, two of the other GeekingOutAbout.com writers and I were talking about what happens when novels are adapted into movies and the old chestnut about how short stories make the best movie adaptations (Minority Report, Stand By Me).

I firmly believe that it’s just as tough to adapt mythology into a movie, and its $432 million worldwide gross aside, Clash of the Titans—and its original—is only enjoyable as a movie if you completely turn off your brain when it comes to everything you know about the original source material.

Which makes it hard for us geeks to enjoy a movie sometimes, but hey… there are some prices that are okay to pay.

Related Posts: Liam Hemsworth to join Arabian Nights