In spite of the fact that they don’t always do well at the box-office, movies about Hollywood still get made. One film announced for production is Black Oasis. In a small bit of irony, Rose McGowan, star of the upcoming Grindhouse will portray real-life B-movie star Susan Cabot. Cabot is best remembered for starring in several films by Roger Corman in the mid to late Fifties, virtually closing her acting career with the title role of The Wasp Woman. Cabot’s death was as lurid as some of the movies she was in - she was murdered by her son Timothy, who suffered from dwarfism. Cabot was struck with a weight lifting bar.

Black Oasis is written and directed by Stephan Elliot, still best remembered for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In a Variety article, co-producer Hilary Shor stated, “This is a story in the ’stranger than fiction’ style of ‘Hollywood Babylon,’ and a little-known chapter in the seedy underbelly of that era.”

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Brace yourself, sci-fi fans, and forget about James Cameron and his Avatar. For Steven Spielberg is boldly going where most filmmakers go… into space. The L.A. Times has reported that the Bearded One will direct a sci-fi adventure called Interstellar. And the real exciting news is that Jonah Nolan, the other Nolan who wrote Memento, The Prestige, etc, is set to write the script.

Not too much is known of the story, but Dark Horizons mentions that it involves explores venturing into alternative/other dimensions via a wormhole. The script is to be based on the theories of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne (sounds like he should be ordering the Men in Black). Thorne is known for his continuing research on wormholes and quamtum fields, or so Wikipedia tells me. Though what this means in terms of a film is another Stargate/Sliders tale with a few “so Lorentzian wormholes do exist” and “so quantum fields do possess negative energy” phrases before blowing away the bug-eyed aliens. Read on »

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The Last Mimzy, in a nutshell: A mysterious and powerful visitor from far away enters the lives of young siblings, changing their lives forever – drawing some unwanted (and ill-timed) attention from government agents. Can the children get the visitor home before its time is up?

Raise your hand that sounds familiar. It should: It’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. The makers of The Last Mimzy might prefer that you not notice that, and since their target audience is the 10-and-under set, they may just get their wish. But for the rest of the audience, the similarities are hard to ignore. Fortunately, the filmmakers (including director Bob Shaye, founder and co-CEO of New Line Cinema) tell the story with enough skill to make you forget the… let’s be generous and call it an homage.

The film is impeccably cast, and each actor gives a performance so natural that you almost forget you’re watching a story about a stuffed animal from the future. Read on »

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Well, what can I say? Friday night I witnessed the most horrible, disgusting, unnecessary scene in movie history. Then after turning off the Neo/Trinity love scene in The Matrix Reloaded, I went to see The Hills Have Eyes 2 and witnessed something equally appalling during the first seven minutes. Just. Wow. This sequel to a remake, that was a remake itself, but not really a remake, but with the same idea, just a different plot, was epically horrible. Before I rip it apart, let me give you an idea on the ’story’…

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Matt Hanson is trying to adapt the concept of open source creativity, a la Firefox, to film-making. His A Swarm of Angels idea is to shun big money financiers and have multiple people pay £25 each, which gives them a say in the creative process, as well as little perks like access to exclusive content or even being part of the crew. The goal is to raise a budget of £1 million in this way.

It’s a noble enough idea, though it seems unrealistic to guarantee such a huge number of people a creative say. For me at least, the really interesting part comes afterwards. The finished product will be released under a Creative Commons license, meaning it can be shared freely and tinkered with by anyone who chooses to do so.

Maybe Hollywood could adopt this process and moviegoers can edit films they see. If it were up to me for example, I’d have the credits roll on Artificial Intelligence after Haley Joel Osment settles on the bottom of the ocean, and long before E.T. arrives. I’d also remove all Ewok dancing scenes from Return of the Jedi and Michael Bay’s entire oeuvre.

via ZD.net

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So apparently it’s not just David O Russell and Lily Tomlin that like to yell at each other. Mark Wahlberg has been telling The Daily Telegraph how he and Martin Scorsese argued on the set of The Departed. Stand by for some awesome quotes (warning, huge spoiler in there if you haven’t seen the film yet).

“I was only supposed to do a couple of weeks on the Departed so I was able to grow my hair for Invincible. But then the schedule changed and four months later I’m still working on The Departed so I wouldn’t cut my hair and Marty was pissed off,” he says, remembering their expletive-filled exchanges. “He was like, ‘You’ve got to cut your f***ing hair,’ and I was, ‘I don’t give a f***.’

“He was, ‘I’m Martin Scorsese… da-dee da.’

“I said, ‘Well, I’m not getting paid for this… da-dee-da. What the f***?’ He was pushing me in different ways. There was one scene at the end where I come back and shoot Matt Damon. I asked Marty, ‘Why can’t we do it right now because the set’s there.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not creatively there yet.’ “

Wahlberg throws up his hands in exasperation. “All I got to do is walk in and shoot the guy in the f***ing face.

Fair play to Wahlberg, it takes big balls for a man who used to go by Marky Mark to stand up to a man of Scorsese’s stature (filmmaking, not physical). And maybe Scorsese was up to something, because Wahlberg is a special kind of angry in The Departed, maybe the kind of angry you only get when a director make your life hell.

Next time you see the film, keep an eye on Wahlberg’s hair, to see if it grows between scenes.

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NBC.com are inviting readers to answer Heroes related questions, in video format. Click the banner above to go to the Heroes Video Theory page where you can leave your theories, and possibly have them broadcast on NBC.

The website already features submissions from some slightly obsessive but-not-in-a-dangerous-way Heroes fans, if you want to see the sort of thing they’re looking for.

The questions they want you to answer are:

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Best ultra-low budget movies. Ever.

AppleTV is now shipping.

100 years of Egyptian cinema.

Has your Xbox Live account been hacked. Mine hasn’t.

Some criticism of the criticism of 300.

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If a man frequents a bar and in turn frequently takes a lady home, he’s a ladie’s man or a player. If a woman frequents a bar and in turn frequently leaves with a stranger, she’s a whore or she has self-esteem problems. If you were to Google the phrase ‘double-standard’, you would probably come up with something similar to what I just said. It may not be fair, but movies are made from it.

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