The Movie Blog

Under discussion:

Batman Begins  (2005)

Brokeback Mountain  (2005)

The Dark Knight  (2008)

Sen. Patrick Leahy's film career has taken a macabre turn this week with the mysterious death of 28-year-old "Brokeback Mountain" star Heath Ledger.

The Vermont Democrat, who had silver-screen cameos in two previous Batman movies, has a bit role in "The Dark Knight," the sequel to "Batman Begins," which is set to be released next summer -- though Ledger's death appears to have thrown post production of the film in turmoil. Leahy appears alongside Christian Bale, who plays Batman, and Ledger, who starred as the Joker.

Leahy worked with Ledger during a two-day shoot in Chicago, according to Leahy spokesman David Carle. (The senator took an overnight flight to Davos, Switzerland, for the world economic forum so he was unavailable for comment on Ledger's passing.)

Leahy is no stranger to showbiz. A lifelong Batman fan, Leahy made cameo appearances in the last two Batman movies, has done voice-overs for Batman cartoons and written the preface to a Batman book... and soon, will play a "distinguished gentleman" alongside Ledger, who died Tuesday of as-yet unknown causes. (Leahy, by the way, has said he'll donate his earnings from the movie to the Kellogg-Hubbard children's library in Montpelier, Vt., where he got his first library card.)

Source: The Washington Post Slueth Blog [LINK]

Under discussion:

Duplicity  (2009)

Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Wilkinson are set to star with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in Duplicity, the Universal Pictures drama written and to be directed by Tony Gilroy. Laura Bickford is producing.

Wilkinson reteams with Gilroy right after he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination for the Gilroy-directed Michael Clayton.

Thornton and Wilkinson will play the CEOs of rival pharmaceutical companies racing to corner the market on an innovation that will bring wild profits. Roberts and Owen play corporate spies who try to manipulate which corporation will win.

Source: Variety January 24, 2008

Under discussion:

Cloverfield  (2008)

Mr. Los Angeles over at LAist makes a pretty compelling argument that Cloverfield would have been much better had the film been set in Los Angeles.

As Cloverfield set a box office record for a January opening this holiday weekend, we Angelenos should be glad at the local economic boost, but we should also question if it could have been even more successful had the film been set in Los Angeles. Yes, the New York setting drew memories of 9/11 and classic monster movies, but Los Angeles is the city in which this monster would have done so much better – both as a character and as a film. (Note: spoiler alert in generalities.)

 

Though the two apartments we are shown before the monster's arrival are the thrust of the movement for the main characters, their Midtown and Lower Manhattan locales could have easily been a Los Feliz home (or unit in the Los Feliz Towers) and loft above Pete's at 4th and Main, respectively. This would have set apart the same issues of affluence and distance that separated the film's characters. Those trying to cross the city could still try to use the subways (as was done in the film) to get up to Vermont and Sunset and then walk from there. Imagine emerging where all the two major hospitals once were – and they are completely wiped out?

Also, this monster would more likely come from the Pacific than that Atlantic- making landfall at San Pedro or Westchester and then moving across the City. Either way, there would be major destruction in the lower socio-economic areas of South LA before reaching Downtown or Hollywood. This would illuminate a people that have long struggled to raise their situation in areas like Watts, Morningside Circle, Vermont Knolls, and other South LA neighborhoods. People in these neighborhoods have been fighting each other, to get ahead, and to survive their daily life, and now, they'd have to fight to survive.

Their fight for survival is essential and makes LA a better setting. Unlike Manhattan where a few bridges, tunnels, and ferries can by used as an escape route, there is no way out of LA. This monster in LA has to be fought and brought down - there is no way to evacuate large portions of the City. Freeways will be packed, and people on foot, horseback, and bicycle will have the best (only?) way out. And honestly, nothing stops this beast from traversing the City and the passes into the Valley or along the Arroyo to the San Gabriel Valley. (What a show-down it would be when the military fights it at the Rosebowl!)

Packed freeways, high rises, and urban sprawl make LA a better setting for this film. Maybe in the sequel we'll find L.A. under attack? Who needs plate-tectonics to explain earthquakes; this massive monster has been shaking the earth for years, and now, it's back to take Hollywood by storm (pun intended!).