This was a point advanced in Cinema Blend that I just about dropped my jaw when reading. See, I had forgotten that, way back in the long long ago, the brothers Weinstein owned Miramax, but they sold it to Disney back when it was doing a lot better. Now that Miramax is bleeding cash like a stuck piggy bank, are the Weinsteins plotting to buy the name off Disney’s hands?
There’s no doubt they’d get a bargain for it–with Miramax putting out just a handful of titles a year and generating precious little revenue for Disney, a cash infusion would probably be welcome there. And if the Weinsteins want it–and it’s been suggested that they definitely DO want it–now would be the prime time to get it back for a song.
Does that mean they’d make it better? Well, considering that it’s currently been hobbled and is only putting out slim numbers to begin with, chances are the Weinsteins would crank it to full production again, and considering some of the awesome pieces it’s come out with since they sold it to Disney, they might be able to get something good out of it again.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Okay, remember when I talked about how Miramax was pretty much getting castrated by Disney, seriously downsized, with only one release every other month? Well, it’s getting worse out there. A lot worse.
Miramax’s current president, Daniel Battsek, recently announced that he would step down as the head of Miramax following the recent defanging of same. Disney had said that Battsek would remain in charge of day to day operations, but Battsek wasn’t having it, and left after a month.
Excuse me if I don’t smell a rat bugging out of a sinking ship. After all, Battsek’s career looks pretty prime right now; he DID release No Country For Old Men, after all, not to mention Gone Baby Gone, so if this isn’t a move to go find greener pastures at another studio, I’ll be plenty surprised.
Stranger things have happened, of course, so it’s a move worth keeping an eye on.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Here’s some more good news for those of us with hopes for the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s bleak novel The Road. In an interview with the LA Times, Nick Cave has spoken about his current project of scoring the movie.
Nick Cave (and his Bad Seeds) have been around for 25 years, writing music that pitches between paranoiac, frenzied delusions, and tragic, desperate ballads, with an occasional break (e.g. his new Grinderman group) to rock out. His lyrics are polished and literary. But he has also delved into soundtracks, including the beautiful laments of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Cave has also worked with The Road director, John Hillcoat, before, providing music for and scripting the nasty Oz Western The Proposition (which is currently being remade for Hollywood) and Ghosts… of the Civil Dead.
With Cave’s reliable tunes, and Hillcoat’s direction, which so far has displayed a habit of never relenting from the disturbing, not to mention the book having been penned by the man behind this year’s Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, The Road is gearing up to be one of the highlights of the year.
Popularity: 1% [?]
It’s a wonder that classic novelist Ernest Hemmingway’s novels are not getting remade these days. His novels are robust with manly stoicism and strong visuals. Perhaps his ultra-manliness, full of gritted teeth, rampant alcoholism, and all sorts of wrestling with nature and fellow men, is too much for the modern metrosexual man. So, it comes as a breath of fresh air to see Hollywood take on Hemmingway again, with tough-guy Tommy Lee Jones directing, writing, and starring in ‘Islands in the Stream’.
Now, one reason Hemmingway novels are not being remade is that because previous attempts to adapt his books have not been very good. In fact, Islands in the Stream was adapted already, in 1977, with Franklin J Schaffner directing George C Scott through a messy film that tries to stretch its plot into action, and fails miserably. The problem is that Islands in the Stream is possibly Hemingway’s most contemplative (and in my humble opinion, his best) story, full of melancholy and impotence. It’s a story of a man’s man and his inability to be a father. It also has one of the best closing lines of any book. To try and inject action and adventure into it, is to miss the point.
And fortunately, Tommy Lee Jones seems to recognise that. In an interview with the Sunday Times UK last month, Jones admits that the 1977 version was a “bad movie”, and that his version will be “a family film”. I think it’s safe to say that he means that the story will focus on the theme of family, rather than a PG-rated flick about learning lessons.
Considering the last film Jones directed, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and his acting roles in the similarly toned No Country for Old Men and In the Valley of Elah, his version of Islands in the Stream could very well be a classic, and the first true adaptation of a Hemmingway novel.
Popularity: 1% [?]