WInter buzz 2009 new.qxp - BuzzNews.net

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Film Buzz Rob Zombie’s H2 & Green Lantern Rob Zombie’s H2 Rob Zombie is writing and directing “H2,” the sequel to Zombie’s 2007 reinvention of the horror classic “Halloween,” as several sources have reported. Malek Akkad of Trancas International Films, who also produced 2007’s Halloween with Dimension, will produce the sequel, along with Andy Gould of Spectacle Entertainment Group, Zombie’s long time manager and producing partner. The announcement was made by Bob Weinstein, Co-Chairman of The Weinstein Company. Dimension’s “Halloween” scored the highest Labor Day weekend opening ever with a record-breaking $30.6 million in its first four days of release and went on to gross nearly $60 million at the domestic box office in 2007, as reported by Hard Rock Hideout. Zombie’s “H2” will pick up at the exact moment the first movie ended and will follow the aftermath of Michael Myers murderous rampage through the eyes of heroine Laurie Strode. “H2” will be Zombie’s fifth written and directed feature. Prior to the success of Halloween, Zombie released the critically-acclaimed film “The Devil’s Rejects” (2005), the follow-up to his cult classic “House of 1000 Corpses” (2004). Zombie just wrapped production on his animated feature film “The Haunted World of El Superbeasto” due to be released in 2009. 24 BUZZ S&E www.buzznews.net Zombie, also an accomplished recording artist, has sold over fifteen million albums worldwide, making him one of Geffen Records’ top selling and longest running artists. Green Lantern Warner Brothers has been ineffectively trying to get a Green Lantern movie kicking off for many years now. It almost seems like any superhero with the color green has sort of been cursed. Green Lantern has wandered around in development hell for years, so has Green Arrow, Green Hornet, and well, if you can think of another green superhero I’m sure he’s fared no better. It looks like Green Lantern may finally have a shot at getting done. Variety says Martin Campbell is in negotiations to handle the DC Comics superhero. Campbell has experience resurrecting dead franchises. He did it with Zorro in 1998 when he made Mask of Zorro and he’s done it for Bond twice, kicking off the Brosnan era with GoldenEye and then later the Daniel Craig era with Casino Royale. According to Cinemablend, Campbell is the kind of guy who not only gets high-profile projects done, but gets them done well.
Film Reviews “Che” & “Notorious” Past Sans Prologue Soderbergh’s “Che” by Jed Serrano After the “Ocean’s” Trilogy, one is surprised that Steven Soderbergh eschewed exile from artistic moviemaking, and upon seeing “Che,” a film in two parts, one can’t help but feel that the work was a sum of redemption for past sins. The director’s subjects are the photogenic moments of Ernesto Guevara’s guerrilla campaigns. “Part One” is set in Cuba, where we witness the evolution of Dr. Che (Benicio del Toro) who swapped his medical kit for the hat of Comandante. We catch the campaign amid the Sierra Maestra wilderness to its triumphant purging of Batista’s regime in Santa Clara. “Part Two” fast forwards to circa late 1960s Bolivia, where our hero is captured and forged out of existence. Side by side, the films look like thesis and antithesis: coming from the high-voltage solidarity of “Part One,” we enter the halfhearted tribulations and ennui of “Part Two.” Neither part is driven by plot or leads to climax. Rather, they do their best, with sharp detail, to recreate the path that our peripatetic rebel paved. Che t-shirt owners who, at last, have decided to drop the pretense of knowing nothing of the man, shouldn’t count on Soderbergh’s film. (For that I refer you to Jon Lee Anderson’s scrupulously detailed bio). We, however, do learn of Che’s unabated bibliophilia and that he appeals to Jean-Paul Satre and Bertrand Russell for moral support. Beautifully photographed by Peter Andrews, both parts of “Che” play back to back (with intermission) at Landmark Theatres. Notorious By Kim Katz I would love to have seen the look on the casting director’s face when newcomer Jamal Woolard came in to read for the part of Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. Woolard looks so much like the real Christopher Wallace that at times during the movie you feel as if you are watching Wallace play himself in this biopic, like Eminem did in 8 Mile. Jamal did an amazing job of playing this very challenging role in Notorious. You can clearly see on his face and in his physical carriage how at each crossroads in Biggie’s life, like his mother’s battle with cancer or his own incarceration for drug dealing, cause him to become more polished and grounded both as a performer and lyricist and as a human being. Kimberly Jones a.k.a. Lil’ Kim was Biggie’s real life lover and musical discovery as he pulled her off the streets out of a retail sales job before producing her music. Lil’ Kim was wonderfully played by Naturi Naughton. There is a scene where Lil’ Kim is at the height of her performing powers after Biggie has married another girl and Naughton spits out the lyrics to Biggie who she sees watching from offstage with such ferocity, venom and rhythmic beauty that again you feel that you are watching the artist herself in action. The only unsatisfying thing about the film is its explanation of the feud, which ended both Biggie’s life at the young age of 24 and also his friend/rival Tupac Shakur’s (played by Anthony Mackie). In the film it is shown to the audience as a mistake, a total misunderstanding played up by the press, which leads to the fatal drive by shootings. But there seems to be some missing history there, some animosity prior to the fatal bloodshed, which remains untold and undefined. Given that this film was produced in part by Biggie’s own mother and longtime friend and producer Puff Daddy with an appearance by Biggies own son Christopher Jordan Wallace playing Big as a child, it is not surprising that Big’s character is given a clean slate by the end of the film complete with his prophetic and apologetic phone calls to each member of his extended family, including both his baby mamas the night he died. Glossed over history or not, this film is worth seeing for Woolard’s hauntingly, spot on performance and for the way it clearly demonstrates the real art form of Rap and R&B music that developed as a direct result of Biggie’s unusually literate and sensual lyrics for the genre at the time.
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