“Best Director is a nomination I can see for Beasts ; it looks and plays like no other movie you’ll see this year. But Best Actress? Remember, it’s not like throwing a 13-year-old or even a talented 9-year-old up against four adults. The kid you’re seeing onscreen is 6. And yeah, comparing actresses is always apples and oranges, but with the other four, whoever they end up being, we’ll be able to talk about their performances and not the fact that they were bribed with candy on long days, or had their lines rewritten because long words were too hard to say, or were filmed without being aware of it in the hope that natural moments would be captured. Well, maybe the candy thing happens with adults. But to quote the star herself , ‘I didn’t even know about acting. That was just me.’ Also: Telling a kid that young that now her job is to go be interviewed by a lot of grown-ups and have her picture taken so that she can win a prize? Ugh. Yecch. Gross.” [ Grantland ]
After creating a public persona with at least as much swagger as the character with whom he’s most strongly identified — Star Trek ’s Captain Kirk — it came as little surprise that the first thing William Shatner said at the beginning of Movieline’s interview for his new documentary was an explicit statement of purpose. “My film Get a Life is debuting July 28th on EPIX,” he said without being asked. “We’re going to show it at Comic-Con on Saturday – and we’re all excited about it.” Shatner is, deservedly, an icon: 45-plus years after first playing Kirk, he’s more beloved than ever, in great part because he has wholeheartedly embraced the adulation of hundreds of thousands of Trek fans. But in naming his documentary after the 1986 Saturday Night Live skit in which he jokingly challenged Trekkies to find something else to do with their time, he demonstrates that he’s not above a little self-satire, especially when it’s those fans who have continued to keep his career alive. That said, neither is he beyond some passing exasperation over hearing the same questions over and over again – evidenced most strongly when he’s finally asked something new. Shatner spoke to Movieline Wednesday morning from Kentucky, where he’s tending to his own obsession – horse breeding. While trying to get at what has made Star Trek such an enduring property, the actor revealed how he came to terms with being James T. Kirk, reflected on how the questions brought up in his first directorial effort, Star Trek V , were oddly answered 23 years later in Get a Life , and explained why fans probably shouldn’t ask him too many questions about Trek mythology. When you first started to examine why people continue to celebrate Star Trek , how in-depth did you intend to get? Was this meant to be sort of a reward for fans’ devotion or a video essay for you to try and understand it? Well, that’s exactly right. You know, the process of making a documentary is one of discovery, and like writing a story, you follow a lead and that leads you to something else and then by the time you finish, the story is nothing like you expected. And that’s the discovery I made – what you see happening to me on film is happening to me on film. I had no idea what to expect, and what I saw, my face reflected the astonishment of these various truths that came out that made it a far deeper experience than I ever thought of. How quickly did the examination become so existential? Was that something you saw in fans’ responses, or did that largely come from your conversation with the Joseph Campbell expert? That’s exactly right – from the fans’ responses, which led me to other fans that had a deeper understanding of what we were looking at, and then it just became exploration. And then bewilderment, and then wonderment! And it was something that was totally unexpected, and I expect that will be the audience’s experience as well – a totally unexpected observation of why people go to conventions, and about what the enduring fascination has been. So that’s the fascination, and that’s the secret behind the endurance of Star Trek – it has become part of the mythology of this culture. And nobody that I knew had a valid answer when I asked, “What do you think is the reason for the endurance of Star Trek , and why do you think people devote their lives to it, so much money and time, and bring their children to it?” The various answers I gave – science-fiction, the story, the appeal of the fact that we exist 300 years from now, all of those are part of it, but the real answer is more mystical than that. At what point did you decide to have that conversation with the Joseph Campbell expert? When I met him, the more I talked to him, the more fascinated I became, and so I decided to get a real setting and sit down and do a real interview. I’ve had some fun doing interviews in the past on television, and brought that experience to bear on him – and there was this whole philosophy laid out in front of me that put the whole documentary to a cohesive whole that I never expected. And had I not had it, it would be that much less. At what point did you really embrace or accept the fandom that your role as Kirk inspired? Quite a while ago. Over the years and talking to 10,000 people on an ad-lib basis, it kind of hones your skills for entertaining an audience in an [improvisational] way. And I began to use those experiences as a way of being an actor in front of an audience, and evolve stories and anecdotes that appeal to them. I wrote some books about it and ended up doing a one-man show about it last year – and we’ll be going out again this year – that exists because I’ve stood in front of large audiences not knowing what the next word coming out of my mouth was going to be. So I embraced the audiences a long time ago and sought to entertain them in various ways – this being one of them, the observation of what they are actually doing. How much are you able to apply the values and characteristics that fans see in Kirk into other creative ventures – to capitalize on the qualities that they seem to respond to? Well, the series appeals on a high moral level, that [Gene] Roddenberry engendered, and they’re universals – people are good, eventually people will be good, the evolvement of man is towards the positive, life will exist and we’ll work our way out of these problems. All of the positive aspects of life are there, and for me that certainly is a personal philosophy. How much at this point do you really know about Star Trek ? Can you go toe to toe with these fans and trade minutiae? No, no, no – I know nothing. My wife has to remind me of my name every so often. You know, it’s 40 years ago – why would I remember? It was a three-year job and then it was over, and then that was it. And then people began to remind me of what I had done. Which episode or part of the Trek world do you get asked about the most, and which do you find they ask about least, or seldom mention? There are many, many general questions, the likes of which you’re asking, and so, yeah, they’re just about what you think they are – your favorite episode, the philosophy, and why it has remained. Those questions still exist. But we sought in the documentary to bring this to another level to show these people – some in need, some in joy – but everybody being attracted to the Star Trek ideals, and yearning – that’s a word I haven’t used before – yearning for them to be true. And hoping, and living for that moment when the beauty that man can exude will be real and paramount. That’s what I think all of these people are looking for. What thing in your life gives you the same kind of passion – the fandom – that people show to Trek ? Well, right now I’m talking to you from Kentucky, where I’m competing for horses, in the horse world that I exist in for a large part of my life other than as an actor. My wife and I are totally involved in horses, and that is one of our great passions. And it’s interesting that I’m talking to you about Star Trek from another area of my life that makes me feel equally good. So in the way your fans know the mythology of the series, you would know the geneology of horses, maybe. Yes, exactly – you’re exactly right. The details of the horses are comparable to the details people ask me about Star Trek , only I think I’m far more knowledgeable about the horses than I am about Star Trek . Star Trek V , which you directed, confronted questions of faith and identity, and in retrospect it almost feels like you’re addressing the subtext of that film in this documentary. What an interesting observation. My God, man – that’s pure intelligence. My respect for you has increased enormously. That’s a wild conclusion, and yes, I agree with you. Had I known what I know now – because I had so many troubles and problems with getting the story for the search for God that Paramount wouldn’t let me make and Roddenberry wouldn’t let me make – I would have had more ammunition to convince them that the story I wanted to tell, and the story they forced me to tell made one or two compromises too many. That’s the lesson I learned on Star Trek V : When do you stand your ground and when do you compromise? We’re looking at that in our government right now, and that’s the problem with our government – everybody is standing on principle. Looking at that film and Get a Life as bookends, do you feel like you were asking questions then that you’re maybe finding answers for now? That’s right, man – you are absolutely right. I wanted to ask the question, if you were able to take a spaceship and find God, what would you find? And if you found the opposite, a fallen angel, what would you find? That’s the question I wanted to ask. That was going through my mind. Eric Van Lustbader used to write novels about an American in Japan and didn’t fit in in Japan, I wanted him to write that movie because he would have been the perfect guy to understand the philosophical questions being asked and put them into action. And the studio and Van Lustbader fought over the book right, and Van Lustbader never got to write the movie – which I think was a blow to what I would have liked to have done. So I never did accomplish in Star Trek V what I wanted to, but in this documentary, exploring those questions – where do we go, what do we do, what is mythology, what were the Greeks thinking when they made up those mythological beings, and what were they looking for. All of those questions that belonged to the universalities of man, those were some of the questions I wanted to ask in Star Trek V . And science-fiction allows us to do that because science-fiction is, in effect, the search for God. Absolutely. And that’s really all I have time to talk to you for. It’s a shame because your questions are now approaching unique – uniqueness. But I don’t have time for you. Todd Gilchrist is a Los Angeles-based film critic and entertainment journalist for a variety of online and print publications. You can follow his work via Twitter at @mtgilchrist . Read more from Comic-Con 2012 here. Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Comic-Con isn’t even underway yet, but it’s already making news, and in the worst possible way: Tuesday, a woman was struck by a car and killed in San Diego while waiting in line to see some of her favorite actors from Breaking Dawn Part 2 . Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate released a joint statement today: “Lionsgate, Summit and the entire Twilight community are saddened by the death of a Comic-Con fan today due to a traffic accident leading up to this year’s convention in San Diego. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the victim’s family and friends.” “She will be respectfully remembered this Thursday in Hall H.” The Twilight fan community responded just as quickly. Hours after the news of the tragedy broke, “RIPTwiFanG” was trending worldwide on Twitter. It is unclear how the victim, a 53-year-old woman, will be recognized during the panel, but hopefully fans observe caution from here on out. It’s not uncommon for fans to stand in line for days just to get into to the San Diego Convention Center and capture a glimpse of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene & Co., and who can blame them. But be careful people. Let this Comic-Con death be the last. [Photo: WENN.com]
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 .
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 .
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 ]
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 ]
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:
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:
An amusing-looking (and harmless) independent film called Iron Sky is hoping to make some noise at Comic-Con. The noise they’ve picked is that of goose-stepping — a publicity march of hot women dressed as pseudo-Nazis marching around the convention this Saturday. And you can hashtag your pics, too! Iron Sky is a Grindhouse -y tale about Nazi descendents (led by Udo Keir!) living on the far side of the Moon , poised to invade Sarah Palin’s America. A little campy, but it’s in good enough fun, plus the special effects look remarkable for a low budget affair. So far my grandparents aren’t spinning in their grave. Oh, wait, my grandparents don’t have graves. They were incinerated. Anyway, Saturday at the Con, the producers of Iron Sky invite you to “Catch the hot Iron Sky army girls marching in full formation for photo ops in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and outside the Convention Center Concourse.” Catch the hot IRON SKY army girls marching in full formation for photo ops in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and outside the Convention Center Concourse on Saturday, July 14th from 8:30am to 7:00pm! Tweet your photo with the IRON SKY babe army #IronSky #ComicCon #SDCC and come visit the film’s official booth on the convention floor to claim your prize! Prove you found our army by showing us your photo on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and win some sweet IRON SKY swag! The Iron Sky trailer: A publicist confirms that Iron Sky ‘s “Army Girls” will, in fact, be dressed like the female character on the film’s poster – a Nazi invader played by actress Julia Dietze – and are meant to evoke the lost band of Aryans who, in the film, used rocket technology to wait out the post-war years. (Wernher von Braun you have some splainin’ to do!) Now, I’ve no doubt that the film’s producers aren’t dumb enough to have a gaggle of Eva Brauns jackbooting outside the Hilton Bayfront Hotel – surely the swastikas and Death’s Heads will be kept to a minimum. (A representative of distributor Entertainment One tells Movieline the Iron Sky marchers will be wearing military costumes, with armbands similar to the one in the poster bearing the film’s title treatment in lieu of a swastika/logo.) But if these babes lining up for TwitPics are actually secret “in-Universe” Space Nazis, isn’t that just a little bit creepy? And maybe the obfuscation makes it even worse? Maybe the CSU-Bakersfield dropouts who answered a Craigslist ad for “women with hairstyles that can be pinned to look 1940s/also likes crowds” will have no idea that the costumes they’ll be handed actually represents, you know, genocide? I mean, I get it. It’s the sort of marketing idea you spitball in a meeting, then, hopefully, someone quickly comes to their senses and says “Naaaaah.” I suppose we’ll just have to take a wait and see. I’ll be on the scene in San Diego, wondering where my sense of humor and sense of decency intersects. Follow Jordan Hoffman on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
