Bond Bardem and Henry Who?!

Virtually unknown on these shores, British actor Henry Cavill (The Tudors, Tristan + Isolde, Stardust, I Capture the Castle) has been revealed by Warner Brothers to be he of the cape and shield in Zak Snyder's new take on Superman.

As if things weren't busy enough for Javier Bardem these days, The Wilsons and MGM are after him to costar with Daniel Craig in as yet untitled Bond 23. Have to presume Bardem would be some kind of antagonist, ideally cut from the same cloth as Robert Shaw in From Russia with Love, still the scariest and most formidable Bond villain of all time. Bardem and Craig would make for terrific opposites. Here's hoping this one comes to pass.

The Girl Who doesn't need Paint-by-Numbers...

You can only avoid some pop culture sensations for so long before you finally have to pop the cap and take a swig. A few weeks ago I finally finished Stieg Larrson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's been omnipresent for the last year, as have the other two books in his Millennium trilogy. I enjoyed the book, but the first half is very rough sledding. You have a lot of downtime with Mikael Blomkvist as he shlubs around the offices of Millennium magazine and steeps himself in endless research of the Vanger family. Then whenever we jump back to the Lisbeth Salander character, the book explodes into action. So it's back and forth between dull and dynamo. Only halfway through the novel when the two characters finally meet does the plot get cracking and the book's second half is clearly what's made such an impression on people and created such a following. Larrson has created a novel for Thomas Harris fans -- Lisbeth is part Clarice Starling, part La Femme Nikita. She's equal parts vulnerability and vendetta. By the time I'd finished, I have to admit I was gung ho to read the second book.

But first, I'd been dying to check out the movie! And the Swedish production of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is just tremendous. Director Niels Arden Oplev has done a superb job of adapting the novel. His style is just as atmospheric and suspenseful as Polanski's recent Ghost Writer, but Dragon Tattoo has a lot more action. He's condensed a lot of the action and whittled away extraneous subplots, editing with a sure hand and keeping the focus on Lisbeth. It's a terrific suspense picture and wildly entertaining at times. I will probably hold off on viewing the other two films until I've read the books.

What I now can't begin to understand is why in the world David Fincher is directing a Hollywood remake (still set in Sweden, with stars speaking "accented" English...?!) of this already excellent film? Because make no mistake, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Oplev's film -- it's polished and dynamic, it's not some "lesser" version of the book. It's easy to picture Fincher in Se7en/Zodiac mode, ramping up the serial killer atmosphere. But what's the point?!? Somebody already got it right the first time!

We're in the same part of the forest as the recent Hollywood adaptation of Let the Right One In becoming Let Me In. Let Me In has a good rep, but why bother? The original was brilliant as-is, and there's a reason the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is so popular. Audiences dig it. It works. So why all this recycling? Is it that we're so culturally adverse to subtitles? Is that it? Are we that illiterate? It's got to be economics, plain and simple. A movie with a Hollywood cast will bank a lot more cash than one with (at the time) unknown foreign actors (though Noomi Rapace is apparently joining Ridley Scott for his weird new Prometheus/Alien prequel thingy).

Fincher is too talented to be doing a Gus Van Sant treatment of Psycho. This kind of filmmaking is Paint-by-Numbers. He ought to be creating something original, something new. His Girl is bound to be a huge hit next December, but if you haven't seen the original yet, do me a favor: run, don't walk -- and embrace the subtitles.

Planet of the Apes...

And so it all begins...

Always wondered, now we know -- watch the video, if you dare, Colonel Taylor...

"Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."

UPDATED: Hobbit She-Elf casting!

Ros Hubbard with The Hobbit casting team confirms that Saoirse Ronan is joining the production (previously in Jackson's The Lovely Bones).

Word has it she'll be portraying an Elf warrior maiden named Itaril (sounds like a pain reliever).

"I gave you the chance of aiding me willingly, but you have elected the way of pain."

According to his official website it now appears certain that Sir Christopher Lee will return as the wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's Hobbit films, "providing he is in good health." Sir Christopher is almost 89. Fantastic news!

Now we just need to know who will be voicing Smaug...

Okay, okay -- things change...

Okay, okay, it's not like I'm at the Library Bar at Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel over here. Deals change fast, alright? So as I've been oh so deliciously made aware of by my spouse, word is that Ron Howard and company have now offered Roland to new papa Javier Bardem. So we'll see how that plays out.

To be honest, I'm so totally distracted reading A Game of Thrones I'm lucky I remember to wear pants when I leave the house. This is the best damn fantasy book I've read since, oh, hell...? The Amber series? Damn! And only three months to wait for the movie (HBO series) -- God only knows how long we'll be waiting for The Dark Tower! Like I said yesterday, "To be continued..."

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed,”

Of all the movie franchises yet to be out there right now, none have quite as much delirious promise as Stephen King's Dark Tower series, one of the weightiest, wildest epics of modern times. Ron Howard is gearing up to adapt this one of a kind opus as a media-spanning part-feature-part-TV opus and seems very close to announcing his Roland Deschain. There is suddenly a huge amount of Christian Bale talk, hot on the heels of his Golden Globe win for The Fighter. While Bale would no doubt be fantastic, I'm still holding out hope for Viggo on this. His nuance and reserve is just too, too perfect for Childe Roland.

To be continued...

Blogiversary and some early envelopes!

Happy Anniversary to ME! Rockets and Robots is one year old today, which I'm celebrating by being home sick with a nice lung-busting cold. The whole family has it, Anthony worse than any of us. But it's fun to realize that apart from a few preoccupied lapses, I've been up and running here for a full year now!

How kind of Hollywood to announce the Oscar nominations this morning, in my honor, no doubt. I'm not sure if I've ever been more behind or seen fewer of the nominees than this year, with four of the top five contenders (True Grit, Black Swan, The King's Speech and The Fighter) still in the unseen category. Calling all babysitters!?!


Still, giddy as ever to pore over the list of nominees.


It's wonderful to see John Hawkes nominated for Winter's Bone, as he's been such a favorite since his Deadwood days. Hell, quite a bit of love for Winter's Bone, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress. It's a remarkable movie on a very small scale and this should increase its viewership a thousandfold. Big congratulations, you guys.



I'm very much in the minority in my opinion of The Social Network, which seems to be the front-runner after the Golden Globes. Enough said on that front already.

Natlie Portman and Colin Firth also seem to be locks in the acting categories this year.

Christian Bale has tremendous Juju for The Fighter, but it's incredibly exciting to see Jeremy Renner up for his chillingly realistic, off the rails work in The Town, so you never know.

It looks like Supporting Actress is the race this year, though there has been so much positive reaction to young Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit that it sounds like she's got this in the bag, though she should probably watch her back around Amy Adams.


I suspect that were I to see True Grit it would instantly be my front-runner. The Coens have had a great success here -- the original novel is back on The New York Times bestseller list -- and have done more to restore affection for the western as a genre than anybody since Clint Eastwood and Unforgiven. I'm pretty programmed to love this movie (as yet) sight unseen.

The Fighter has also done really well, garnering nominations for everyone except star Mark Wahlberg, though he's probably not complaining, as he's become such a tremendous success as a producer with shows such as Boardwalk Empire and the phenomenal In Treatment to his credit.

It still drives me crazy, this business of 10 nominees for Best Picture. So I go straight to Best Director to see what's what. It really pains me to see Danny Boyle missing from the Best Director ranks, as 127 Hours was just so spectacular. But he's won this rodeo before with Slumdog Millionaire and of the five pictures up for Best Editing, they all match Best Director with the exception of True Grit, that slot went to 127 Hours. Likewise, of the five Best Director nominees, they all match Best Cinematography, with the exception of David O. Russell's The Figher, with Wally Pfister's work on Inception taking the fifth cinematography position.

It's also surprising not to see Christopher Nolan nominated for directing, but he scored for Best Original Screenplay as well as the Cinematography nod -- plus they'll probably win hands down for Visual Effects. I suspect Nolan's okay with it, as he's absolutely white hot right now in terms of box office success and anticipation. His pictures are as pre-sold as they come these days and his reputation is near untouchable.

I'll be rooting for James Franco this year, as I still think he did truly amazing work in 127 Hours. It would really be nice to see at least a couple more of these in the theater over the next 33 days (February 27th), but seen or unseen, the cards have been dealt.

If you've been an occasional visitor to Rockets and Robots this year, many thanks for your support and faithful curiosity. Year two promises to be even more interesting, with my renewed commitment to give equal time to the toy portion of the masthead this year. Hey, Toy Fair is only a few weeks away, after all!

Thinking outside the box: Buried

In episodic TV, the term "Bottle Show" refers to episodes where everything takes place within an entire room or set. Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes does the idea one better, setting the entire 95 minutes of Buried inside the confines of a wooden coffin.

Taking his cues from Hitchcock's Rope and Lifeboat, Cortes makes the most of this limitation, elevating it from mere exercise to a completely immersive, claustrophobic experience.

Ryan Reynolds is a civilian contractor in Iraq who wakes up after a convoy attack to find he's buried in a coffin somewhere in the middle of the desert. Cortes has put himself into a seeming nightmare of lighting design, with a cigarette lighter and BlackBerry the only sources of illumination.

As air, time and cell battery life all run out, Buried becomes much more of an Iraq film than revealed in the marketing, as Reynolds frantically tries to reach somebody who will listen and take action to free him from his fate. The confinement of being trapped with no way out becomes both commentary on the American lack of exit strategy in Iraq but also the complete modern dependence on cell phones and electronic devices. At times, Reynolds' BlackBerry seems even more of a ghastly tormentor than his captors on the phone.

At times the film gets a bit too caught up in trying to convince the audience that it's still an action movie -- the soundtrack becomes a little too intrusive in places, trying sustain a sense of action! Buried isn't always perfect, but it's a fantastic lesson in economy and inventiveness. Reynolds is in a one-man show proposition similar to 127 Hours and manages to hold his own.

Buried is definitely worth checking out and Rodrigo Cortes is someone to watch for.

We've been skewered -- "Is that a sustainably harvested skewer?"

No organic co-op, no tattoo parlor, no feminist bookstore will ever be the same again. Can messenger bags and neighborhood cobs next?!? Yes, IFC's cult microseries Portlandia debuted last night, with a cameo by Steve Buscemi, no less!

A series of vignettes, Portlandia has lovingly mocking fun at our expense much the same as Flight of the Conchords tweaked New Zealand. We've been OUTED!!! The folks behind this show clearly know us very, very well.

Next week, David Lynch luminary Kyle MacLachlan shows up as our mayor, with real mayor Sam Adams as his addled assistant. Must DVR.

I may never be quite the same, having glimpsed "Portland's adult hide-and-seek league" in action. But if you can't laugh at yourself, it may be time for a coffee enema, gang. With fair-trade coffee, don't worry...

Jurrassic Park?!?

Just in case the SyFy channel isn't blowing your mind enough with Sharktoctopus or their latest Saturday night outing, it might freak you out to learn that a team of Japanese scientists are getting underway to use cloning technology to resurrect the long-extinct woolly mammoth.

Cell nuclei from a specimen found buried under the Russian permafrost will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, creating an embryo with mammoth genes, which will then be inserted into the uterus of an elephant.

I swear you have no accidentally click on The Onion's website, this is coming our way in the next few years.

Clearly a Westworld amusement park with android gunfighters and "soiled doves" is just around the corner.

Observe this...

Arguably the best show on TV right now returns tonight after its mid-season break, the fabulous Fringe. Midway through its 3rd season, Fringe has gone from being a misperceived X-Files clone to cult hit to wildly inventive, literate science fiction of the first order. You watch this show because the writing and acting are just superb. It's becoming a science fiction version of The Wire.

Having lived its entire life on Thursday's, Fringe now finds itself moved to Fridays. While this has long been perceived as "the death slot" for a series, Fox supports Fringe and believes in it. These days, 90% of an audience is either catching it on DVR or online, or waiting for the DVD set. You can't accuse this show of a lack of imagination -- or heart. So Please tune in or DVR or astral-project or watch this show in whatever incarnation you choose as it winds its way through this fascinating season. It's a Tale of Two Cities...if you know what I mean.

Christopher Nolan lets the fur fly...

It's all official and the speculation can end. Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman opus, Dark Knight Rising, will not Riddle you this. Rather it will reinvent Selina Kyla as Catwoman and Batman back-breaker Bane.

Anne Hathaway will be she of the claws and Inception's Tom Hardy will be Bane.

Unclear is whether Nolan is still following the storyline from the 5 issue Prey comic series, in which case the role of Dr. Hugo Strange would remain to be cast.

Hathaway is a little too nice to fit the image most folks have of Selina Kyle. If Nolan has an Achilles Heel it might be his casting of female roles -- Katie Holmes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scarlett Johansson, Ellen Page. All seem cut from the same cloth, type-wise and all have delivered underwhelming performances in otherwise stupefyingly good Nolan pictures. What Selina Kyle will be like with Hathaway is anybody's guess.

Just make sure we get plenty of Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon in this last outing, okay, Chris? Fascinating news, to be sure!

Yeah, I'm a bum -- but I've still got an opinion...

43 days without a post?!? Mea Culpa and pass the ketchup. I've been a bum. Blame my descent into the holidays, but there it is. You blink, and it's award season and the parental movie fan, dependent on home viewing finds himself desperately behind. Whither True Grit? Black Swan? Their siren song is calling.

But I did see The Social Network. I must preface that I'm a big David Fincher fan, though I was on the not-so-much side of the bus with Benjamin Button. And dammit if I'm not still on that same side of the bus here. It started off great, but it just didn't connect for me. This is the great Aaron Sorkin script everyone's been lauding? For me, the staying power of this movie was akin to Up in the Air from last year. Very contemporary and I'm afraid history won't be to kind to it. I don't think it's a significant as it wants to be. I loved the "Winklevi" (Armie Hammer is terrific), but ya know, it's distracting that it's an effect. Likewise, when characters are ostensibly outside talking on a cold Cambridge night, I'm too aware of Fincher's CGI "breath," and that took me out of the damn scene.

Painfully, Andrew Garfield's betrayed Eduardo is the weak link in the film. The guy just doesn't have the acting chops and earnestness will only get you so far. He just wasn't doing it for me and sadly, this is the guy that will be the new Peter Parker/Spider-man in the tweeny reboot in 2012. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this..."

You can't fault Fincher's overall direction, he does a great job evoking a sense of place and making the laptop world seem fraught with peril and high stakes. But let me be honest -- it's really hard for me to get too broken up or invested in the trials and tribulations of a bunch of affluent, entitled Harvard students. Boo-freakin'-hoo! Not when it's this talky. Also, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg -- the main character -- is a complete cipher. We never learn anything about his background, who he is, his fears, his dreams, his family -- nothing.

So I'm not ready to UnFriend David Fincher, but after this and Button I think I have to say I think Christopher Nolan has pulled ahead of him in terms of compelling storytelling. Here's hoping he redeems himself next Christmas with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.