Tag Archives: woody-guthrie

Fifty Shades of Grey Nabs Network Producers; Nora Ephron’s Finale: Biz Break

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In Tuesday morning’s round up of news briefs, Nora Ephron planned her memorial, which took place Monday in New York. Also, the latest schedule is out with a packed schedule of Comic-Con events. An Agatha Christie adaptation will get U.S. distribution; and new castings for Sir Anthony Hopkins, Alicia Silverstone and Billy Burke. Social Network Team to Produce Fifty Shades of Grey The duo behind the Oscar-nominated The Social Network , Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, will collaborate to produce the racy nobel by E.L. James, which Universal and Focus picked up in a bidding war in March. The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy centers on a torrid love affair between a college student and a mysterious billionaire, THR reports . Nora Ephron’s Final Production Ephron, who died June 26th of complications from leukemia, ple-planned her memorial service, which took place Monday at Lincoln Center in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Tributes came from Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Martin Short and the guest list included Sen. Al Franken, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Martin Scorcese, Steve Kroft, Alan Alda, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, Rob Reiner, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Westfeldt and frequent collaborator Scott Rudin, THR reports . The Latest Comic-Con Event/Party List Parties, cook outs, concerts, happy hours and a good number of curious events such as a Zombie Walk, Superhero Pub Crawl, Nerd HQ and more are charted and ready for all you fanboys and allies, The Tracking Board reports . Sony Label Takes Rights to Agatha Christie’s Crooked House Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions have picked up rights to director Neil LaBute’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery novel for the U.S., Canada and select international territories. The script is by Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellows, Tim Rose Price and LaBute, Deadline reports . Sir Anthony Hopkins Boards Noah The actor will play Methusaleh in Darren Aronofsky’s film about the Biblical figure. Hopkins joins Russell Crowe, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Jennifer Connelly and Douglas Booth, Deadline reports . Alicia Silverstone and Billy Burke Don Boots Silverstone and Burke wil star opposite Amanda (A.J.) Michalka in the coming-of-age drama Jesus in Cowboy Boots . The film revolves around a small-town girl (Michalka) who struggles with her self-centered mother (Silverstone), but come to realize her worth through her imaginary cowboy friend (Burke), Variety reports .

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Fifty Shades of Grey Nabs Network Producers; Nora Ephron’s Finale: Biz Break

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Tagged alicia silverstone, celeb news, comic-con, films, Hollywood, House, likely-intended, martin-scorcese, memorial, mma, nora ephron, woody-guthrie, zombie

Expendables 2 Comic-Con Poster: Testosterone Tsunami

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

I’m hugely fond of the headline accompanying this Expendables 2 “Comic-Con poster” (just what the movie needed, seriously, because surely none of the thousands of culture obsessives in San Diego will know anything about it ) on Ain’t it Cool News: “This EXPENDABLES 2 Comic-Con Poster Has Enough Booms, Badasses, Barrels To Humble Even The Most Uppity Of Geeks!!” Yes, it certainly does. You know what else it has? Hilarity. Somehow this all makes me envision Sylvester Stallone wolfing down a testosterone taco a few years past its sell-by date and then racing to the nearest Kinko’s and evacuating every last granule of his meal inside a color copier whose lid comes crashing down and short circuits and sputters and churns out a boomtastic accident likely intended for an imminent Chinatown bootleg DVD sleeve yet is just tasteless enough to qualify for Comic-Con signage. The man is good! Or at least he will be once his stomach settles. Better, anyway. [ Ain’t it Cool News ]

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Expendables 2 Comic-Con Poster: Testosterone Tsunami

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Tagged architect, birdemic, comes-crashing, comic-con, dvd, Hollywood, invalid, likely-intended, movie, poster, posters, woody-guthrie

Star Trek Gets Dueling Docs at Comic-Con

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

This iconic image from Star Trek ‘s “Amok Time” (Season 2, Episode 1) represents a moment of great internal conflict. When two of our heroes are battling to the death, for whom do we cheer? Luckily, in this case, Bones was on hand with a neuroparalyzer, allowing Kirk to feign death until the mind-altering effect of pon farr drained away from Spock, thus ending the koon-ut-kal-if-fee ritual. But who will be on hand with the hydrospray this week in San Diego? Whoooooo? The 2012 edition of nerd prom brings not one but two feature length documentaries that ought to be of interest to convention-going, costume-wearin’, social anxiety-havin’ fans – specifically, two documentaries about Star Trek enthusiasts. From Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod Roddenberry, comes the long-in-development Trek Nation . The film is a mixture of talking head interviews from Trek notables (and others like George Lucas), behind-the-scenes footage and gawking at fans who create their own Andorian antennae. Its hook is the “son in search of his father” schtick, making it something of an interplanetary My Architect . Trek Nation will have a fan screening Thursday night, and “Roddenberry Presents” has a panel on Saturday. There is also an official Roddenberry booth on the showroom floor. Trek Nation trailer: In the other corner is Captain Kirk himself. William Shatner, whose directorial skill is very much of a piece with his Elton John covers, is presenting his latest work, Get A Life . Whereas poor Rod Roddenberry has been schlepping bits of footage of Trek Nation to Cons for years, Shatner’s first person film about “encountering the fans” is another of his dashed-off productions made with the EPIX cable network. (Note: EPIX isn’t really a network, it’s more like Hulu except you watch it on your TV and not your laptop. I don’t really know how to describe EPIX and it isn’t available in New York, which is why no one I know watches EPIX.) Get a Life trailer: Last year Shatner delivered an EPIX production called The Captains . While ostensibly a string of interviews with all who sat in Star Trek ‘s center seat, it ended up being a remarkable piece of outsider art. The sequence of Shatner and Avery Brooks scat-singing about death and “listening to the Universe” just a few months before the Deep Space Nine star got hit with a DUI is like something from Cassavetes’ Love Streams . But, you know, awful. Avery Brooks/William Shatner mash-up: Get A Life will show footage at a panel on Saturday. Mr. Shatner will share the stage with Roger Corman and Kevin Smith. Of the two films, I’m sure Trek Nation is the more polished and the more positive. Get A Life (whose title is a riff of Shatner’s old Saturday Night Live sketch admonishing obsessed fans) is no doubt the more entertaining. The joke is, of course, that both of these films are far too late. Obsessed fandom is hardly news anymore. (I mean, there was a documentary ABOUT Comic-Con that came out this year.) While one could argue that Star Trek fans dwarf all other fans, we shouldn’t forget that there was a theatrically released film in 1997 called Trekkies . It was successful enough that in 2003 there was a Trekkies 2 . What this means, of course, is that it is only a matter of time until a documentary is made about people obsessed with Star Trek documentaries. I’ll be furiously refreshing Kickstarter and will inform you as soon as I hear anything. Saturday Night Live “Get a Life” sketch:

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Tagged architect, avery-brooks, birdemic, comic-con, Hollywood, Nation, newswire, Saturday Night, space, star trek, Universe, william-shatner, woody-guthrie

Johnny Depp Teams with Douglas Brinkley on Woody Guthrie Novel

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

It may seem like an unlikely pairing, the academic and author Douglas Brinkley teaming up with one of the world’s biggest movie stars to edit a little-known unpublished novel by the late folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie titled House of Earth . But that is in fact in the works. Johnny Depp is partnering with Brinkley whose writings eventually informed documentaries including Spike Lee’s Hurricane Katrina work When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts as well as the 2004 doc Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry . Brinkley stumbled upon the work, which Guthrie finished in 1947, while researching an article about Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone. Brinkley happened upon the manuscript and told the New York Times he did not know of its existence. He cited two biographies about the late folk singer, who would have turned 100 this coming Saturday (July 14th), but neither mention Guthrie’s manuscript, which he completed in 1947. The story revolves around a West Texas couple are confronted by banks and lumber companies as they work to build adobe homes as protection against harsh weather. Brinkley and Depp wrote an essay for the New York Times Book Review about Guthrie’s work, describing it as a “portrait” of life in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Pitched somewhere between rural realism and proletarian protest, somewhat static in terms of narrative drive, “House of Earth” nonetheless offers a searing portrait of the Panhandle and its marginalized Great Depression residents. Guthrie successfully mixes Steinbeck’s narrative verve with D. H. Lawrence’s openness to erotic exploration… Guthrie was born in Oklahoma and eventually traveled with migrant workers to California during during the era and was frequently linked to left-wing groups at the time. His guitar often had the slogan “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Exactly how the Douglas Brinkley/Johnny Depp tie-in has been left vague, though one can’t help but think there is a possible movie in the works longterm. The two have known each other since the mid ’90s through Hunter S. Thompson. The two partnered in writing the liner notes on a soundtrack for Alex Gibney’s recent doc Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson . Brinkley said House of Earth will be released in the Spring of 2013 by a “major New York publisher.” Check out the Gonzo trailer with a brief intro by Depp: [Source: NYT ]

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Johnny Depp Teams with Douglas Brinkley on Woody Guthrie Novel

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Johnny Depp Teams with Douglas Brinkley on Woody Guthrie Novel

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

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A Very New York Times Thanksgiving: An Interfaith Service ‘Transcending’ Christianity for Woody Guthrie

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off

Thanksgiving may have begun in America as a Christian event, but The New York Times is much fonder of an event that “transcends” that persnickety Jesus-is-the-way-and-the-truth Christianity and celebrates the vaguely Unitarian left. Longtime Times reporter Peter Applebome championed an event in Pleasantville, New York in his “Our Towns” column on Monday : Maybe it took a country-and-western rabbi to put together the interfaith Thanksgiving service that ended Sunday with Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists singing “This Land Is Your Land” along with Woody Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. Rabbi Mark Sameth of the local synagogue (who told Applebome that “George Jones is God”) and Rev. Stephen Phillips, the local Methodist minister, put together the interfaith hootenanny, but don’t call it liberal. Just call it… “off-center.” read more

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Tagged celeb news, Christian, christianity, george-jones, Hollywood, interfaith, longtime-times, News, peter-applebome, pleasantville, politics, the-interfaith, TMZ, towns, woody-guthrie

‘If I Had a Hammer’: WaPo Hippie Columnist Would Like to Pummel GOP Folk Singer

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Washington Post Magazine humorist Gene Weingarten reacted badly in his Sunday column to the discovery that folk singer Arlo Guthrie is now a registered Republican: “By becoming a Republican, Arlo Guthrie has shredded the last remnants of my faith that our hippie principles had any lasting meaning. How can he do this to us? I’m a peaceable man, but if I had a hammer…” Guthrie didn’t become one of those warmongering neocons. He endorsed Ron Paul for president in early 2008. But Weingarten began with his marijuana-baked enthusiasm for hippiedom, which he clearly still loves dearly: Like many middle-age people, I wear more than one hat. I’m a husband, a father, a journalist, a role model to a generation of idealistic young Americans, etc. But one of my favorite hats, the floppy felt one that still smells faintly of the sweet smoke of a controlled substance, is “former hippie.” We children of the ’60s tenaciously hold on to this self-image, even though our mirrors tell us that in terms of sheer hipness, we look more like Arlen Specter than Arlo Guthrie. Weingarten — who is not simply a yuk-yuk man, but a man who used to edit the Post’s influential Style section — discovered that Arlo Guthrie’s “iconic, self-deprecating, darkly comic, anti-war counterculture masterpiece” of a song “Alice’s Restaurant” didn’t make complete sense as nonfiction. The song no longer seemed to “speak truth to power.” So he called Guthrie up: Me: So, you were arrested for illegally dumping a half-ton of garbage that you scooped up from the floor of Alice’s home, and took away to dispose of as a favor, right? Arlo: Right. Me: And you were nailed by the fuzz because Officer Obie found your name on an envelope in that half-ton pile of garbage and phoned you. And in the funniest line of the song, you solemnly admitted to Officer Obie that you had put that envelope under that half-ton of garbage, right? Arlo: Right. Me: Why was your name in the garbage from Alice’s restaurant? Wasn’t that all Alice’s garbage? Arlo: In 40 years, no one ever asked me that. Me: Well, someone is asking now. Arlo: Bravo. I will hate you forever for this. Me: [Pause] Arlo: Okay, we have to attribute that line to creative license. Obie actually found a paper with Ray’s name — Ray was Alice’s husband — and Ray directed them to me. But it worked better in the song the other way. Me: So, no biggie? A misstatement is okay because it “worked better”? Guthrie didn’t answer, but Weingarten compared his worship of Guthrie’s “counterculture masterpiece” to the miracles of Jesus: Me: I don’t want to overstate my disillusionment here. But this is like hearing Jesus say, “Okay, I didn’t turn the water into wine, exactly. Actually, I just added some Kool-Aid powder and turned it into a nice, refreshing beverage.” Weingarten learned Guthrie’s party affiliation by further complaining: “Did you learn your ethics from your dad [socialist folk singer Woody Guthrie]? Might it be that this land was really made for him and just a few of his cronies?” Arlo responded: “You know, it’s possible. I’ve heard that song sung at Republican conventions.” This means that Arlo Guthrie is actually more light-hearted about his politics than the humor writer is.