In this morning’s roundup of Hollywood news ‘n’ notes from around the web, the “Saturday Night Live” curse strikes again, and Bob Dylan’s movie moments are celebrated.
Why did “MacGruber" do so poorly at the boxoffice this past weekend? Eric D. Snider says it’s the "Saturday Night Live" curse, which hit hard even though the movie had good word-of-mouth after its South by Southwest screening and wasn’t savaged by the critics quite as badly as most SNL movies. But audiences now expect movies based on SNL skits to be bad, he says. The lesson: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over again, consistently, for two decades, including a Stuart Smalley movie for crying out loud, shame on you again.” He also provides a list of the 11 SNL-derived movies … and apart from “Wayne’s World” and parts of “The Blues Brothers,” I’d say it’s one serious slate of awfulness. (Cinematical)
Louis Virtel celebrates Bob Dylan’s 69th birthday (which took place on Monday) with a salute to Dylan’s half-dozen greatest contributions to film. The “Subterranean Homesick Blues” card-flipping opening of “Don’t Look Back” (right) is unassailable, the “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” soundtrack and the Oscar-winning song “Things Have Changed” are no-brainers, and I love Virtel’s choice of the harmonica solo that closes the weird but magnificent “I’m Not There” and especially his ghostly take on the pop song “You Belong to Me” in Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.” Call me perverse, but for number six I’d take many moments from Dylan’s wacky and infuriating but in my (distinctly minority) opinion mesmerizing “Renaldo and Clara” over his sequence from “The Last Waltz.” (And I say that as somebody who was at the original “Last Waltz” concert way back when.) Then again, it’s hard to leave out the scene where the actor Dylan reads canned food labels in “Pat Garrett,” or much of D.A. Pennebaker’s rarely-seen “Don’t Look Back” follow-up “Eat the Document,” or the scary outtake from that film with John Lennon and an apparently stoned Dylan in the back of a cab … (Movieline)
If it’s true, extremely good news: According to AFP, the public prosecutor in Iran has said that imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi, whose detention was a subject of much conversation at Cannes, will be freed on bail. Panahi was arrested for making an “anti-regime” film, a charge he has denied; he reportedly began a hunger strike more than a week ago. (AFP via France 24)
Ryan Adams shows off eight teaser posters for “Inception.” They also sum up the characters in ways that I suppose you could say border on being mini-spoilers: Leonardo di Caprio is “The Extractor,” Marion Cotillard is “The Shade,” Ellen Page is “The Architect,” Cillian Murphy is “The Mark,” Tom Hardy is “The Forger,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt is “The Point Man,” Ken Watanabe is “The Tourist” … Missing is the poster that explains why everybody wants to see this movie: Christopher Nolan is “The Director.” (Awards Daily)
The job of a producer isn’t what it used to be, says Brooks Barnes. The evidence: studio production deals are in decline (Warner Bros., for example, has reduced theirs by 20 percent), the number of releases has been sharply cut, and the emphasis on sequels and remakes is growing. “It’s frankly a little depressing for everyone,” says Mark Gordon (“Saving Private Ryan”). As the Producers Guild of America’s second “Produced By” conference approaches, Barnes lets a handful of vets air their gripes. (The New York Times)
Guy Lodge takes a day to reflect, and then looks back at Cannes, which he decides was “quite a Tim Burton-flavored festival after all.” By which he means that the Palme d’Or winner “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” has Burton-esque fantasy elements – and even if he’s not a big fan of the movie, Lodge thinks it’s “the best choice Team Burton could have made: a wholly unique, challenging piece from a distinctive major auteur, and a film that can truly benefit from the award …. ” And he sure does love Best Actress winner Juliette Binoche. (In Contention)
