The Screengrab : ghost town

DVD Digest for December 30, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! This week, the big studios drop a ton of new DVDs and Blu-Rays into the market to compete for your newly-acquired Christmas cash.

In recent releases, DVD shopping begins early this week, with three new Paramount titles: Shia Labeouf and Michelle Monaghan in Eagle Eye (also Blu-Ray); Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town (also Blu-Ray); and Keira Knightley in The Duchess (also Blu-Ray). Today brings us Nick Broomfield’s Battle For Haditha (Image Entertainment), as well as a “head to head” match up (sorry) between Alan Ball’s Towelhead (Warner) and the Duplass Brothers’ Baghead (Sony).

In TV on DVD, today’s new releases include The Tudors Season 2 (Paramount) and Nip/Tuck Season 5 Part 1 (Warner).

Finally, this week’s bumper crop of new Blu-Ray-only releases includes: Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder (Paramount); the Shining-in-space thriller Event Horizon (Paramount); Demi Moore and the Swayz in Ghost (Paramount); Queen Latifah in Last Holiday (Paramount); Jim Carrey in Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (Paramount); Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers (Warner); and finally, the Browncoats’ favorite, Joss Whedon’s Serenity (Universal).

When British Comics Attack: Simon Pegg vs. Ricky Gervais

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

One item I didn’t mention in our box office roundup earlier today: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Simon Pegg was a resounding flop, barely finishing in the Top 20. A couple of weeks ago it was Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town opening to disappointing results here in the colonies. America, why do you hate British funnymen? And more to the point, why do they hate each other?

OK, hate is overstating the case dramatically, but Pegg and Gervais did recently participate in…not so much a war of words as a skirmish. Via Defamer comes a piece from the U.K. Telegraph with the eye-catching headline “Simon Pegg brands Ricky Gervais a 'fat idiot'.” That’s not an exact quote – Pegg actually said of Gervais, “He said there'd been no good British films since 1950. What an idiot. If you go to LA, you can get sucked into that. I've seen people go there and suddenly become rake-thin because there is a slight pressure on you to be thin. I've seen a lot of fat people there.” When pressed, Pegg conceded that, yes, Gervais counts as one of the fat people.

Gervais responded briefly on his blog. “This, from the Daily Mail Online, is not so flattering... ‘Simon Pegg calls Gervais a fat idiot.’ Loads of journalists called for a response. This is what I gave them. ‘Simon is not only one of my favourite British comic actors but he is also quite astute, as according to my last medical, I am approximately 22lb over my ideal weight.’”

What choice did Pegg have at this point except to respond to the response via his Myspace page? “So apparently I have ‘slammed’ Ricky Gervais in the press as being a ‘fat idiot’. Oh dear. Ricky's comments about the British film industry were definitely a little unfair but whatever I said on Heart FM was intended in the spirit of mutual teasing that myself Ricky have always indulged in. I am not in a position to genuinely accuse anybody of being fat, or for that matter of being an idiot. Whatever public feud is subsequently encouraged/fueled/blown out of proportion as a result of this, it is entirely the doing of those gleefully stood around clapping their hands and shouting ‘fight’. It is true however that we used to be lovers.”

That’s not really an image I needed in my head, but at least the matter appears to be settled. This is no time for funny Brits to be feuding. In fact, I think the foundation has been laid for a hilarious buddy movie.

Related:
Trailer Review: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"
Truth or Dare with Ricky Gervais

Morning Deal Report: Nicolas Cage's Dark Knight

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Your weekend box office champ was Lakeview Terrace, with Samuel L. Jackson scaring up $15.6 million. Yes, Neil LaBute fans, this is the director’s biggest haul ever – beating out even The Wicker Man! Other than that, business was slow at the ticket counters, with Burn After Reading dropping to second place with $11.3 million, and My Best Friend’s Girl at third with a meager $8.3 million – good news for all of us hoping for Dane Cook to be banished from show business. Sadly, the romantic comedy that’s actually kind of funny, Ghost Town, took in even less: only $5.2 million. I guess this means American prefers Dane Cook to Ricky Gervais, which is…ominous, to say the least.

Nicolas Cage will reteam with Gone in 60 Seconds director Dominic Sena for Season of the Witch. “Cage plays a 14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague,” says The Hollywood Reporter. “His compatriots help him bring the girl to an abbey of monks trained in exorcising demons.” It’s a supernatural thriller – like The Wicker Man! (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

Title of the week honors go to Muchas Gracias, Bob Oppenheimer, a period drama picked up by Miramax. Per THR, “The film centers on an American serviceman in the 1960s who is sent on an appeasement mission to a fishing town in Spain after a U.S. military plane crash results in the accidental detonation of four hydrogen bombs; in addition to his role with the locals, the serviceman also embarks on a relationship.” Hey, sorry about all the radiation! Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?

Related:
When Good Directors Go Bad: The Wicker Man (Neil LaBute)
Abel Ferrara Would Like Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage to Please Die in a Fire

Morning Deal Report: Kirsten Dunst is a Jealous Ghost

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Its title makes A Jealous Ghost sound a lot like too many recent rom-coms about the recently deceased haunting their exes, like Over Her Dead Body or Ghost Town, due out Friday. That’s apparently not the case, however, as The Hollywood Reporter describes the upcoming Kirsten Dunst vehicle as a “literary horror movie.” Dunst will play “a young American woman who travels to London to write a dissertation on Henry James' classic ghost tale, The Turn of the Screw, only to find that her own circumstances begin to reflect the strange happenings of the story.”

Michael Douglas is keeping busy. In addition to his upcoming turn as Liberace for Steven Soderbergh, he’ll play “a car magnate with a runaway libido” in Solitary Man. That sounds more his speed. Per Variety, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito and Jenna Fischer are in talks to co-star.

Nicole Kidman is attached to The Eighth Wonder, which “centers on an archeological discovery that sets off a globe-spanning race.” Quoth The Hollywood Reporter: “The goal is to create a movie that will be to Raiders of the Lost Ark what the Bourne movies are to James Bond movies: a character-driven, treasure-hunting thriller.” Isn’t that what the Tomb Raider movies were supposed to be? Well, apart from the “character-driven” part, I guess. Those were more boobies-and-shorts-driven.

Related:
Soderbergh Does Liberace
Chick Hits: The Girl Power Top Ten

Trailer Review: Ghost Town

Paul Clark — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Since I first saw the original version of The Office, I've been of the opinion that Ricky Gervais is one of the funniest guys on the planet right now. So why does this trailer leave me strangely cold? Is it that Gervais, who excels at playing off-putting, needy sorts, is ill-suited to a high-concept Hollywood comedy? Is it the presence of Tea Leoni, who hasn’t really seemed comfortable in a role since Flirting With Disaster a dozen years ago? Or is it simply the fact the this is the umpteeneth comedy about a man whose life is thrown out of whack when he learns he can see the dead? Whatever it is, I’m guessing much of the blame can be placed at the feet of veteran screenwriter-turned-director David Koepp, who doesn’t appear to have the same handle on Gervais’ brand of comedy as Gervais and frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant did on The Office and Extras. I still plan on seeing this in support of Gervais, but if the movie sucks, at least now I won’t be too disappointed.