Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

I recently whined and moaned about the ongoing trend in Hollywood to remake everything thing that comes to mind while complaining about the proposed remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.

Well, I am saddened that three (almost in a row) stories from SciFi Wire are about new plans for remakes. I hate this….

• Goyer Updating Scanners

  Yes, the David Cronenberg classic with exploding heads and Michael Ironside method acting is about to be ruined.

• Get Smart’s First Look

  Yes, the beloved 60’s cult TV show is about to be ruined.

• Barbarella To Be Revived

  As much as I like the band Duran Duran, I never really liked this one. But many folks did. It was a cult classic just like the other two one this list. For all those people that liked it, it’s about to be ruined.

Please Hollywood! Get a new sense of creativity!

Bonus cool points go to anyone who can cite the reference I made in the post title. It’s one of the few good remakes out there.

Technorati Tags: 60’s, 80’s, movies, scifi, tv

According to SCI FI Wire, Maggie Gyllenhaal might be taking up the role of Rachel Dawes in the next Batman movie.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is in final talks to star opposite Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the next installment in the revitalized Batman franchise, Variety reported. The news confirms rumors that Gyllenhaal (Stranger Than Fiction) was in line to replace Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes; Holmes dropped out of the project earlier in the year, the trade paper reported.

I guess maybe Katie decided doing another Batman movie would be against Hubbard or something. So they’ve found probably closest match looks wise, but they’ve also found a grat actress. Much better than Katie, who’s not a bad actress herself. We’ll see how it works out. But either way, Rachel Dawes isn’t going to make or break the movie anyway.

Technorati Tags: batman, comics, movies

The Day the Earth Stood Still Being Remade!

Fox confirmed with us that this is true and the date is correct, meaning a The Day the Earth Stood Still remake is definitely underway for summer 2008!

What are these people thinking? It looks like yet another SciFi masterpiece is going to get turned inside, chewed up and swallowed and puked out on movies screens across the country. I just don’t get it. Leave the classics alone and think up something new. How hard is that.

In my job, I have to write documentation for the projects I work on. If I just took the same documentation from past projects, changed the name and somehow decreased the value of them, I would get fired. How is it that these Hollywood producers that do the same thing with these great old movies and TV shows keep their jobs????

Technorati Tags: geek, movies, rant, scifi

I’ve been pretty negative here at Wild Tangents lately. I trashed the Miami Vice movie. I’m afraid it doesn’t get any better with the puzzle of a movie The Good Shepherd. I know it’s going to be an obvious thing to say, but one piece of this puzzle that didn’t fit was the length. It really dragged out in a way that made it seem like De Niro was trying to stretch it out to “epic” length. A large part of the dialogue was really bad too. I mean bad enough to be on par with George Lucas. I have to give props to the actors though. The acting and camera work are the only pieces of this puzzle that make it viewable. Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon really pulled out good performances even with such poor material to work with. The appearances by Di Nero, Joe Pesci and Alec Baldwin were well done and clever. Even the overall story the script tells is decent. I wish it had been better. I wish the good pieces had fit better without the bad pieces. But in the end, I most wish I could have that 156 minutes of my life back.

Technorati Tags: pop, movies

It was like watching paint dry. It was poorly filmed, poorly written and poorly acted. It just sucked. I kept watching it, in case it got better. It just never did. Very disappointing…..

Technorati Tags: movies, pop

I just read about this at the Star Trek Movie Blog.

Zachary Quinto, who plays the villain Sylar on the hit show ‘Heroes’ wants to be the new Spock.

I think he’d be perfect for the role. He’s a great actor and looks the part too. For anyone who doesn’t watch “Heroes” (you should), he also played the computer geek character Adam from season three of 24. I suppose it’s possible too since Mr. Qinto’s co-star on Heroes (Greg Grunberg) has known JJ Abrams since around kindergarden. Mr Abrams is of course best known as one of the producers of both Lost and Alias and director of Mission Impossible III. He is also slated to produce the next Star Trek movie. Rumor has it that the movie with be a prequel to the Original Series from the sixties. It supposedly will depict a young Kirk and Spock. Like I said, I can see Mr. Quinto playing the role of Spock and he does have the connections. It should be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.

TV Preview: Pittsburgh native Quinto is face of ‘Heroes’ villain
Grunberg Co-Star Quinto Wants To Be New Spock

Technorati Tags: geek, heroes, lost, pop, scifi, startrek

Bad rumors about the proposed new Star Trek film…

Amidst the latest Star Trek rumour — that Ben Affleck might play Captain Kirk — producer J.J. Abrams discussed his other projects, including the soon-to-open third Mission: Impossible film and his smash TV hits Lost and Alias.

Let’s be very clear about this. If Ben Affleck is involved in any way, especially if he plays Kirk, I will not watch this movie…..

[TrekToday - J.J. Abrams Talks Trek, M:I3, 'Lost' and 'Alias']

Well this is interesting. The headline somehow reminds me of that infamous SNL skit. Mr. Stewart really makes it sound like Paramount wants more of him in much the same way Mr. Walken wanted more of that elusive cowbell.

Paramount Pictures really wants Patrick Stewart - Trek’s Captain Picard - to take his position on the bridge again for Star Trek XI, the actor told Yahoo News.

To be honest I am sick and tired of the TNG. Let’s just stop it now OK. What do I want to see in a Star Trek movie? I want something completely new. By new, I mean new sets, new cast, new ship, etc.

They took a generally good concept in Enterprise and ruined it with poor writing and no vision, until Manny Coto took over. He really started to lead that series in the right direction, but alas the damage had been done and Enterprise died a useless death.

Well, I see three possibilities for something new that might be worth seeing come to fruition. The first obviously is to give Manny a budget for a movie. He has shown a love for the mythos of the show and would do it justice. Another alternative is to give it to JMS, of Babylon 5 fame. There were rumors he had a treatment for a new Star Trek series going around a while. I would be willing to bet this treatment could work as a movie with few changes, plus he has the midas touch when it comes to science fiction. Everything he’s done has been golden. The third option, and I’m going out on a limb here, is to give Joss Wheadon a shot. Joss is mostly infamous for his Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly franchises. I would love to see something that happened in the Star Trek Universe, but had a “Firefly” feel to it. I could the characters in this not being Starfleet, which would be kind of cool. The Star Trek universe is not all military after all. It might be nice to follow the lives of some civies for a change.

I know all three of these are probably pipe dreams. Last I checked JMS said none of the rumors were true. Joss is pretty busy with Wonder Woman and his own stuff. But it’s nice to dream.

What do you think they should do with the franchise? I’d like to hear what both of you have to say.

How odd is it that “fear the Reaper” started playing on iTunes just as I opened the edit page to post this? HM, maybe I’m being prophetic. Then again maybe it’s just the “shuffle” function is broken.

[IGN: Paramount Wants More Picard]

Technorati Tags:
movie,
scifi,
startrek,
itunes,
pop culture

While it’s still pretty short on quantity, the Internet Movie Script Database is doing pretty good on quality.

Welcome to the Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)

If you enjoy movies you’ve come to the right place, we have the biggest collection of movie scripts available anywhere on the web. Our site lets you read or download movie scripts for free.

Reading the scripts

All of our scripts are in HTML format so you can read them right in your web browser. You won’t need any additional software to enjoy our great selection of free movie scripts.

It can get a little tedious trying to read them online after a while, but you can always cut and paste. They do seem to have a growing collection of scripts, so either subscribe tot eh feed or check back often.

[The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)]

Technorati Tags:
movie,
geek,
web,
pop culture

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2006. What’s the worst part? I’ve only got two more years to loose weight before my 20 year high school reunion. But another 20 year high school reunion will come up in a minute. In the mean time, I’d like to start to introduce you to my top five lists for 2005. None of these are in any order.
First, my top five favorite movies:

• Serenity - I saw my first episode of Firefly this year and loved it, so I was really hyped to see the movie too. While I didn’t think it was nearly as good as it could have been, I still really enjoyed it. Suzette liked it too, even though it’s Sci-Fi.
• A History of Violence - While there are some serious moral issues in this film, it puts them into perspective. Viggo Mortensen gave the performance of his career, which means a lot coming from me. It was entertaining and kept me wondering what was going to happen next.
• Batman Begins - An excellent return to what had become a loss of a franchise. I would have never expected such a great performance from Christian Bale, but he delivered. This film also returned the “dark” part tot he dark knight. Wonderful.
• The Chronicles of Narnia - This was one of the few movies Suzette and I both loved. That girl was awesome.
• Walk the Line - I just can’t praise Joaquin Phoenix for this film. He was awesome. The music, which was sung by the actors was great too. If I were doing an album list the soundtrack would be on it.

TV has taken a stronger hold on me this year there were some great shows that I loved to watch. Some of them have been around, but most of them are new.

• Doctor Who - I am so happy The Doctor is running around the universe in his TARDIS again. To be honest, I really didn’t think Christopher Eccelston was really all that suited for the role. I think in trying to make it his own, he took a lot away from it. I am glad to see David Tennant take over. I just saw the Christmas Invasion and he really brought a lot to the role that made it seem like the Doctor again. I look forward to seeing more.
• Lost - I didn’t watch this show until this year. I just didn’t know what I was missing. For the record though I don’t think it’s a big group therapy session.
• Battlestar Galactica - This show just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait until this Friday for the new episode.
• Reunion - This little known show really captured my attention. The premise was simple. Six friends graduated from high school in 1986. The night of their 20 year reunion, one of them is murdered. the show goes a year an episode show bits from the past and present unraveling the mystery of who first was murdered, then who killed him/her. Unfortunately, those network exec bastards have canceled it before there was a resolution.
• My Name is Earl - funny funny funny

Some moments really touched my heart. These are not necessarily things I enjoys seeing happen. They are just events that affected me in a way that will make them always a part of me.

• The death of Pope John Paul the Great - I miss him.
• The election of Papa Ben - They said he would be a tough mean conservative. His pastoral approach to papacy has really proved this wrong. The Holy Spirit made the right choice (as if he couldn’t).
• Suzette and I moved to Nashville - We came here so I could take a job oat a TV station up here. But everything else was better up here too.
• I quit the prescription drugs - I was on medication for ADD. I quit taking all of them and haven’t felt this good in years.
• I switched to Apple - I think it was back in March that I bought my Mac Mini. I don’t miss Windows at all, except maybe when I want to play Brothers in Arms.

Well, enough with the lists already. That’s all I got for now. Maybe I’ll have more on Monday. Besides, Suzette’ll kill me if I spend too much time sitting in front of this computer on this night.
For now, everyone have a happy and safe New Years Day. Don’t forget you black eyed peas.