Random: So Really? Common, Shia LeBouf, Stephen King, Peter Jackson and Evel Knievel

So Shia LeBouf's pet project is about white rapper no one has heard about? Some dude name Cage (we thought it was going to be Nicolas Cage biopic at first). Good luck getting that one off the ground. [SPIN]

So Common was unofficially, officially cast as Green Lantern in the Justice League movie? Apparently a bunch of cheap no-names have been cast ast Batman, Wonder Woman, Underdog and Bullwinkle. [IESB]

Stephen King is apparently disaapointed with music this year. Regardless, he decided to write up a Top 7 albums of 2007 list. [MSNBC]

Is Peter Jackson going to ruin "The Hobbit" by filming it in 3D and then retroactively ruin all the "Lord of The Rings" series by somehow changing them to be 3D? [MarketSaw]

American Hero Evel Knievel who courageously risked every bone in his body to secure American freedom by unsuccessfully crash landing 70% of the jumps he made in his daredevil lifetime died today only days after kissing and making up with Kanye West for biting his steez. [Associated Press]

Evel Knievel Wipes Out At Caesar's Palace

Criterion Brings Back 3 Classics For Early '08 - 'Pierrot Le Fou,' 'Last Emperor' and 'Walker'

Pointing out the fact that the Criterion Collection is releasing new DVD classics is kinda akin to noting that the sun has risen.

The achingly tasteful DVD revival company is constantly releasing fantastic masterworks for budding and longtime cinephiles, but their recent batch of announcements for February 2008 have really caught our eye.


First off is Jean-Luc Godard's vibrantly colorful tenth feature, "Pierrot le Fou" (Peter The Madman), released between "Alphaville" and "Masculin, féminin," in his 1965 peak, that's a lovers on the run road story not unlike his classic, "Breathless" (albeit contemporized with technicolor splashes). Criterion calls it "a stylish mash-up of consumerist satire, politics, and comic-book aesthetics, as well as a violent, zigzag tale of, as Godard called them, 'the last romantic couple.'

All we know is that it's incredible and one of his last great New Wave period films before he began loosing his footing with the over-didactic late-60s politicized films, "La Chinoise" (a curious, but laborious affair) and "Weekend" (which is arguably still classic, but starts to show taxing wear and tear on the audience's patience; no we're not arguing the amazing tracking shots).

Next up is Bernardo Bertolucci's classic and Oscar-dominating 1987 apex, "The Last Emperor" which won every academy award it was nominated for that year (all nine of them). The epic about the soon-to-fall Qing dynasty in China was masterfully shot by legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (who we've gone on about at length so much you'd figure we'd want to marry him already). The CC folks call it, "an intimate character study of one man reconciling personal responsibility and political legacy" (it's also a whopping 4 disc set; talk about comprehensive).

Lastly, and Joe Strummer fans will want to take note is the release of idiosyncratic British director, Alex Cox's (of "Repo Man" and "Sid & Nancy" fame) 1987 hallucinatory acid-western, "Walker" that's never been readily avaiable on DVD. As noted, the ex-Clash frontman composed the Spanish mariachi/spaghetti western flavored score to the entire film (you can preview all of it at Amazon) and had a blink and you'll miss it cameo in the film. This one we've never seen and we're psyched it's finally going to be on DVD (the soundtrack was re-released by Astralwerks in 2005).

"Walker" was the first full score Strummer ever composed having only written two songs for "Sid & Nancy" in 1986 during his "wilderness period" where all he did was occasionally act and score in films (while the world kept waiting for him to put out some post-Clash masterpiece that would never come). Cox's 1987 film "Straight To Hell" (which also featured Courtney Love and director Jim Jarmusch) was named after the Clash song, and Strummer starred in the film and composed another two original songs for it.

Strummer's other notable acting roles during this period was as an Elvis composite in Jarmusch's 1989 flick "Mystery Train" and a quick cameo as a street thug in Martin Scorsese's underrated 1983 comedy "The King Of Comedy" (Scorsese was a vocal Clash fan and dedicated "Taxi Driver" to their energy according to his recent testimonial in the "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" documentary by Julien Temple).

Madonna Uses Bowflex Muscles To Power Through Guy Ritchie's Belated 'Revolver' Release

Remember our prescient post back in May about Guy Ritchie's stalled career?

We asked where the filmmaker had disappeared to, we bemoaned the fact that his 2005 "Revolver," was never properly released in the U.S. (we have a copy and haven't even bothered yet), recapped how it was allegedly so terrible it couldn't even find a proper North American release and then just mere days later it was announced that Ritchie was coming out of hiding to direct "Rock N Rolla" - yet another caper heist film which stars Gerard Butler, Jeremy Piven and Ludacris. [ed. Let's not forget his bomb "Swept Away" too]

Anywho, as we briefly, briefly mentioned earlier this month, "Revolver" is finally getting a belated release, very quietly it seems, on December 7. To briefly recap, the film - which stars Jason Statham, Ray Liotta and Outkast's André Benjamin 3000 received scathing reviews and as we mentioned, couldn't find distribution, so it never came and went and that seemed to be the end of the story.

But apparently Ritchie's wife, the rather famous Madonna, used all those yoga muscles and flexed whatever power she could to get the thing finally released in the U.S., including throwing a star-studded U.S. party this weekend to drum up some attention. Apparently Ritchie has recut the film (which was originally criticised as being "too difficult to follow" -the film's big underlying theme is "Fight Club" like duel between the Ego and Id and sounds pretty confusing) and presumably changed the soundtrack (which instead of a rock n' roll-fueled soundtrack like he usually does, used an experimental fusion original score that fans didn't care for)? Who knows, but that might be a safe bet (a soundtrack disc was released in the U.K. only).

So yeah, 2 years after the fact, "Revolver" is finally being released. Call this a salvage project. If you're interested it comes out in limited release on December 7. Whether it expands further than that into not the New York and L.A.'s of the world likely depends on how well it does.

Update: We saw the original version on DVD this weekend. Honestly wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, but yes it was slightly confusing (although ambiguity is generally a good thing in our book). Now do we go pay to see it in theaters to see what the differences will be? Undecided, but we're curious. Also, we're sure they're not going to change the soundtrack, that was just speculation on our part. Or at least, we'd be really suprised if they did, it seemed to work in our minds.

"Revolver" trailer

Alvin And The Chipmunks - Christmas Don't Be Late

No matter how often we berate you for your shitty music taste, whenever we post some piece of crap soundtrack (this one, this one), you people (or you google users anyhow) seem to flock to them which makes us just want to throw up our hands in the air and quit (kidding, we love all 14 of you).

Anyhow, there's this "Alvin & The Chipmunks" animated movie nightmare and (was part of our These Holiday Season Films Make Us Want To Wretch preview) and it's got those Christmas time songs in it that you'll remember from when you were a kid. Just be thankful we didn't post the updated modern rock version. That's cringeworthy like you don't even wanna know.

Whatever, this is a shameless google bid, let's face it.

Download: Alvin & The Chipmunks - "The Chipmunks Song - Christmas Don't Be Late" (original version)

Full Sundance Line-Up Thankfully Proves The 2008 Utah Festival Isn't Complete Gash

Thank god for second part of the Sundance Film Festival line-up announcement (films that are out of competition). We couldn't even get out of bed for the first announcement (films in competition) which was pretty mediocre and underwhelming. There are some notable films though. Someone buy us a hotel and a flight and we'll go cover this thing. You know our coverage would be the bestest.

Here's the Playlist breakdown of the films worth watching and or keeping an eye on.

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life: Everyone gets their day in the sun for an intimate portrait documentary, right? Well, so does Patti Smith. Expect lots of poetry reading and mentions/appearances by Allen Ginsberg.

Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: This documentary focuses on the good doctor's amphetamine soaked, wild turkey hey day of 1965-1975 with lots of never before seen footage, home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts.

Be Kind Rewind: You've heard of this one. Michel Gondry's ode to VHS is about a video store that gets magnetized and the bumbling store clerks (Mos Def and Jack Black) have to fix it by re-creating and re-filming their own versions of the erased tapes so their senile boss (Mia Farrow) doesn't notice.

The Great Buck Howard: Colin Hanks hits rock bottom answering an ad to become a washed up illusionist’s (John Malkovich) personal assistant. Emily Blunt and Tom Hanks also star. The film is probably more well known at this point for the participation of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, the adnoidal indie-rock band who wrote the score and also appear in the film.

Slingshot Hip-Hop: Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. At least they're not in Iran.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: Known as the film shot on location in Pittsburgh and provoking the ire of the city when star Sienna Miller infamously called the city "Shitsburg."

U2 3D: Sorta like Michael Jackson's "Captain Eo" only in 3D, which still wasn't multi-dimensional enough to contain Bono's ego.

Funny Games: Brutalizing Austrian mindfuck director Michael Haneke (go run and see "Caché," and "The Piano Teacher," but be forewarned they are brutal), already made this excruciating film about two psychotic boys who take a family hostage back in 1997. Somehow, Hollywood (dollars likely) convinced him to remake and cannibalize his own work only with American namebrand recognizable actors (Naomi Watts, Tim Roth). Let's face it though, Haneke's original wasn't one of his best.

CSNY Déjà vu: Aged David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young's "Freedom Of Speech" concert tour. 70% extra anti-war sentiment included. It's directed by Bernard Shakey, Young's filmmaking pseudonym of choice.

Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired: A documentary that examines the early 1970s scandal and private tragedy of venerable filmmaker Polanski who's wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family in 1969 and later fled the U.S. in 1978 after pleading guilty for having sex with an underage girl. He's remained in European exile ever since.

The Guitar: Former model Saffron Barrows has two months to live so she decides to follow her dreams. Presumably they include learning the guitar.

Sugar: Remember the stupendous sleeper indie hit of last year "Half Nelson"? This is the follow-up by filmmakers Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck. This time they chronicle the journey of a Dominican baseball star recruited from his native country to play in the U.S. minor leagues.

The Wackness: A teenage drug dealer trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled psychiatrist that stars Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary Kate Olsen and Method Man. Could be fun.

Henry Pooole Is Here: Notable cause it's from prominent video director Mark Pellington (videos For U2, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, NIN). Stars Luke Wilson and Radha Mitchell.

Choke: Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston star in an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's ("Fight Club") novel about a sex-addict who fakes choking to death in restaurants to feel loved. Music on the soundtrack includes cuts by Radiohead, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Fiery Furnaces and a score by ex-Shudder To Think frontman Nathan Larson.

Anvil! The True Story of Anvil: If you don't know Canadian deities of metal Anvil, oh man, you will soon. Expect this to be fucking awesome. The documentary features presumably glowing interviews by Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax. The band re-team here to record their 13th album. Probably like "Some Kind of Monster," only 100x more pathetic/awesome.

Other films include, mustachioed do-gooder Morgan Spurlock’s follow-up to 2004’s "Super Size Me," ingeniously called "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?," talk show asshole Bill Maher’s directorial debut "Sleepwalking" with Charlize Theron, Alan Ball's - of "Six Feet Under," "American Beauty" fame - directorial debut "Towel Head: F.K.A Nothing Is Private," Barry Levinson’s "What Just Happened?" with the rather large cast of Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, and Catherine Keener, Nick Cannon in "American Son," Winona Ryder and Wes "save my career" Bentley in "The Last Word," Paul Schneider's "Pretty Bird" with Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti and Kristen Wiig. Also, David Bowie appears in the Josh Harnett movie, "August," P. Diddy will star in the theatrical version of "A Raisin in the Sun" and LL Cool J will co-star with William H. Macy in "Deal."

We probably won't see you in Sundance, but whatever, have a good time with the Mormons.

'Control' Film Cleans Up At British Indie Awards Ceremony; Ian Curtis Still Not Mad For It

Remember the "Control" movie about Joy Division that basically came and went and had solid performances in a boring narrative, left you emotionally removed and overall was just meh?

Well, director Anton Corbijn’s well-intentioned, but snoozy paean to Ian Curtis swept the British Independent Film Awards last night. The film nabbed five trophies, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Newcomer (Sam Riley who played Curtis) and Best Supporting Actor (Toby Kebbell; the only award here we can fully support, he was outstanding - see our Breakout Performances piece).

Julien Temple’s warts and all celebration of his buddy "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten" took the documentary award.

The Wire Soundtrack - Five Years of Music - 2 Discs Due January 8

Ok, normally we don't follow TV soundtracks. If we did, it would have to be another blog in its entirety to remain faithful to all the material out there (we smell a Playlist franchise, anyone wanna contribute?), but we'll make an exception for David Simon's "The Wire," a cinematic HBO novella that's been some of the greatest shows on television for the last five years.

Sadly bowing out on top (only sad for us viewers), HBO and Nonesuch are putting out a collection of the featured music on "The Wire" over the last half decade. Titled The Wire: And All the Pieces Matter - Five Years of Music from the Wire, the soundtrack disc is due January 8, 2008 on Nonesuch and features tracks by Tom Waits, Paul Weller, Michael Franti and Solomon Burke.

Several version of Waits' "Way Down in the Hole" (from Frank's Wild Years) served as the show's opening theme over the years and all of them - by The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Neville Brothers, and DoMaJe, a group of Baltimore teenagers and Waits' original in the 2nd season - are represented on the disc (preview DoMaJe's take on the song, click here).

The disc also features "Oh My God” by Michael Franti, “I Walk on Gilded Splinters” by Paul Weller, “The Body of an American” by The Pogues, “I Feel Alright” by Steve Earle (who also has an acting role on the series), Solomon Burke’s “Fast Train,” and the show’s closing theme, “The Fall,” composed by The Wire music supervisor Blake Leyh.

Nonesuch will actually release two CDs— the aforementioned music from throughout the series, and the other with music exclusively from the show's hometown of Baltimore including independent tracks from the Baltimore hip-hop scene that have never appeared on a major label release, including Rod Lee’s “Dance My Pain Away,” Tyree Colion’s “Projects,” Diablo’s “Jail Flick,” Mullyman’s “The Life, the Hood, the Streetz,” and “What You Know About Baltimore?” by Ogun featuring Phathead.

Memorable dialogue from the series' five years will also be included on the disc (hopefully not over the music; soundtrack CD supervisors take note, this is godawful) The CD booklet will feature essays by David Simon, series writer George Pelecanos and estimable hip-hop journo Jeff Chang.

The fourth season will finally be available on December 4, 2007 (thank god, not a moment too soon) — a month before final fifth season premieres on HBO (Mark your calendars: Sunday, January 6th). No tracklist for the CD yet, but it should be out shortly. Heads take note: "The Wire" Season 5 teaser clips are now on YouTube. All of them are collected over at Big Reel. Here's a sampling below.

If you haven't started the crack addiction that is watching "The Wire" (which includes holing up for days, not bathing, turning your cell off and remaining unreachable from all friends until season is over), we suggest you stop being a ninny and hop the fuck to it already (oh yeah, someone please hook us up with Season 4, stat!).

“Play or Get Played” by Omar Little

“Let McNulty Be McNulty” by James McNulty

Persepolis Soundtrack Due January 15; Features 'Eye Of The Tiger' Cover

We can say enough good thing about "Persepolis,"the animated feature film adapted from the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi (her four graphic novels, altogether have sold over one million copies throughout the world; together with Vincent Paronnaud, she also co-wrote and co-directed the film).

Don't listen to us though, the film won the 2007 Cannes Festival Jury Prize and is the official French entry for “Best Foreign Film” at the 2008 Academy Awards (jumping right over the animated category; this is a big deal).

As we've said in our review, the film - about a child (Satrapi) that lived through the 1979 Islamic Revolution and its aftermath - isn't exactly an easy sell on the outside, but it's a charming, heartfelt, funny and wonderful story and one of the best films we've seen all year.

The score was composed by Olivier Berne (of the band Shunatao which co-director Paronnaud plays in) vary from Iranian disco music and discreet piano ballads to orchestrations that are slightly far-Eastern or in the style of Serge Gainsbourg. The 24 track soundtrack disc is due January 15, 2008 on Caroline/EMI, Some of which can be heard on the "Persepolis" myspace page. The offbeat version of Survivor’s "Eye of the Tiger," sung by one of the film’s voice talents Chiara Mastroianni (the daughter of Catherine Deneueve - who also lends her voice to the film - and Marcello Mastroianni, is one of the album’s highlights and conveys the films charms.

The American version of this film (i.e. no subtitles and dubbing instead) will feature Iggy Pop and Sean Penn as the voices of the two male leads. But it remains unclear which version will be shown when it opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 25th (we're pretty sure the proper subtitled version, with the DVD and or heartland markets getting the dubbed version).

What's Shunatao sound like? "It's a bit hard [to describe], because we released seven albums, and from one album to the next, the music changed drastically. Let's say it's rock, with some blues, jazz, and electro," Berne said. When asked to do compose the score his bandmate gave him simple principles to go by. "Vincent's instructions were clear: no world music, nothing too overtly oriental. He told me: "Don't pretend you're Peter Gabriel, just do what you do best."

Do your brain and soul a favor and see "Persepolis" this holiday season. And fyi, the New York Times had a good introductory interview with Satrapi a few weeks ago that's worth reading.

Watch: "Persepolis" trailer

The Savages - Depressing, Dark, Funny Film Not The Comedy It Purports To Be?

Ok first off. Go see Tamara Jenkins' new film "The Savages" starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. It's excellent. However, be forewarned that it is a bit of false advertising.

We hesitate to even write this, as it is a worthwhile film we definitely feel like championing, but Fox Searchlight (who might win the myspace-y, viral youth marketing film award for 2007) have done a great job marketing this film to a slightly younger demographic and making it feel like it's much more fun and light than it actually is.

Let's face it, it's called making a smart, enticing trailer, but there is a bit of disconnect here. We're probably slightly responsible/been suckered exactly in the way we were meant to.

As we noted in a excited preview piece, the soundtrack supervisor is Randall Poster (which piqued our interest, he's done music supervision for countless movies, most recently "I'm Not There" and "The Darjeeling Limited"), the trailer - which is funny, facetious and sardonic on its own - features good tracks by Spoon and Rob Crow, and the poster for the film is straight out of an Optic Nerve or Daniel Clowes alternative comic.

For all intents and purposes this film is aimed at us and presumably those we believe are our readers (hello to all 12 of you).

However, this is not the film that's up on screen. Jenkins, as we've mentioned many times, directed the very excellent, "The Slums of Beverly Hills" in 1998 and hasn't made a feature film since for various reasons ( "It's the Terrence Malick schedule without the masterpieces," Jenkins joked to the Onion A/V Club, adding she worked on a few projects in the interim that didn't pan out), but this one has a much darker tone than her previous work too.

And with good reason, it's an original script based on her autobiographical personal experiences taking care of her dying father, but it did admittedly throw us at first (like the film, she similarly had two family members in nursing homes both suffering from dementia, but she insists that the rest of the tale is fictionalized; it's a jumping off point)

So to back up a bit: The Savages is about two sibling John and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) whose father is suffering from dementia and they're forced to put their selfish, narcissistic existence on hold and take care of their dying father. If it sounds dark and depressing and a little bit more reality than some of us want to deal with that's cause it is, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny and enjoyable (there's some great dark and inappropriate comedy moments). But it's certainly not whimsical.

Now, we're not complaining. Frankly, we're ideologically opposed to what we call the "hipster film" ("Eternal Sunshine," I Heart Huckabees"), not because these films usually aren't good (our examples: the former yes, the latter, no), but specifically because people tend to generally like them for all the wrong, mostly superficial reasons (cool music, cool this, cool that; it's all another post unto itself). But caveat emptor (but this is where we're afraid people are going to get turned off that this isn't "cool" pain).

Ok, enough preamble now for the actual review. That aside and once we eased into what was being offered. But it's not an easy movie. Like "Margot At The Wedding," it deals with a lot of difficult and prickly emotions (watching your parents get old, suffer and then die isn't easy) and it's dealt with in a frank, raw and of course a humorous manner, but it's not a light comedy to be sure.

If anything, there's more emotion than say 'Margot' as there is no cold intellectualizing characters that sometimes make you feel one step removed.

"The Savages" isn't savaging emotionally nor comedically, but it is affecting, indelicately funny, melancholy, and sometimes painful. Trying to mirror real life, it doesn't leave you with one redemptive (or feel-good) emotion to let you off the hook in the end; there's no tiny bow. If anything it leaves you with a mix of confused and mixed emotions. Nothing is ever cut and dry and Jenkins does her best to keep the story and characters honest. And you can't help but admire the film for doing so. [B+] The Savages comes out in limited release tomorrow (November 30).

PS. there's not to much in terms of music, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the inclusion of The Kinks' "Sitting by The Riverside" (from The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society) and the Velvet Underground's "I'm Sticking With You" (from the VU boxset Peel Slowly And See) featured in the closing credits. There were a few other tracks, but they went by quick.

Obtuse Melodies Of 'Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street' Due December 18

Are you ready for some Stephen Sondheim dense melodies about a murderous barber that looks like the older, decrepit uncle of Edward Scissorhands?

Of course you are. As you surely know by know (and as we've reported) Johnny Depp is playing the singing, bloody barber in Tim Burton's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s 1979 Tony Award–winning musical "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street."

The soundtrack is due December 18 and the macabre musical and typically goth film hit theaters December 21. As for those inelegant melodies, even Depp thinks they're hard to take, not to mention hard to sing. "It's really obtuse stuff. When you start to take those pieces apart, melody line by melody line, it's a lot of half-steps, which is not real easy to do," Depp told EW recently. "Kind of go G to A-flat to A to B-flat. It's super, ultra complicated, these notes that shouldn't work together at times. But he made them so."

Nothing like shoe-horning in melodies. Oh yeah, Depp skipped any formal training for this one too.

The cast, who sing all their parts, include aside from Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Sacha Baron Cohen among others. Eager nerdlinger fans of this soundtrack have already been taking parts of the audio and making their own videos on youtube (other examples below).

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street tracklist
01. Opening Title
02. No Place Like London
03. The Worst Pies in London
04. Poor Thing
05. My Friends
06. Green Finch & Linnett Bird
07. Alms Alms
08. Johanna
09. Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir
10. The Contest
11. Wait
12. Ladies and Their Sensitivities
13. Pretty Women
14. Epiphany
15. A Little Priest
16. Johanna
17. God, That’s Good!
18. By the Sea
19. Not While I’m Around
20.Final Scene

Watch/Listen: Epiphany by Johnny Depp

Behind The Scenes Of Michel Gondry's New Björk Video "Declare Independence"

Michel Gondry made his name and creative vision by directing videos for Icelandic pixie matron Björk, but he hasn't made a video for her in over a decade (the last one was "Bachelorette" in 1997). But they recently teamed up again as Gondry directed the video for her distortion-heavy fly-your-freak-flag track "Declare Independence" from the abstruse album Volta (their 7th video together). Spinner got their hands on the making of the video, so we thought we'd share.

What's next for Gondry? A bunch of projects apparently. He's making a documentary about his aunt that will include animation ("She's amazing... She’s 80 years old. Most of the schools she taught in don’t exist anymore but we went on location to them”), he's making an animated film with his son, and he's currently in Tokyo shooting, "Interior Design," - his segement for the cinematic tryptych vignettes film "Tôkyô!" Oh, and of course his next feature film, "Be Kind Rewind," comes out in January 2008.

Other Gondry Björk videos:
Watch: Björk - "Isobel"
Watch: Björk - "Hyperballad"
Watch: Björk - "Human Behavior"

'There Will Be Blood': Preview Jonny Greenwood's Score; Tracklist Changes

Even more soundtrack previews today.

We've managed to get our hands on two tracks from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood's score to Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," which at this point of the year is pretty much at the top of everyone's most anticipated list.

Both tracks are on the haunting, disturbing side of this score with "Proven Lands" utilizing pounding timpani and spidery taut violins building to a tense crescendo (you can hear some of it in the most recent trailer). The titular track is more nervous swooshes of strings that cut in and cut out abruptly and move into agitated discordance. Every moment of the score we've heard here and in the trailer bodes for a feverishly unsettling experience (but in a good way).

Having been influenced by atonal composer Penderecki and having had PTA think of the score as a near-horror film, this one is sure to be nerve-wracking. "Sometimes Paul would describe it close to the horror genre," Greenwood told EW recently. "We talked about how 'The Shining' had lots of Penderecki in it.

Daniel Day-Lewis obviously looks quietly terrifying in this thing and PTA has high praise for him although he had some personal trepidation at first. "Daniel’s attack on the role was quite intimidating at first," Anderson told the London Times recently. But it became clear to me that it wasn’t anything outlandish or strange. He’s still in there, to the point where we can communicate. The misconception would be that it makes it harder to work with him, as a director, but it’s actually much, much easier. You always think, ‘My God, it would be great if that person could leap off the page and be right there and I could talk to him’ – and then you have it.”

New Soundtrack Songs Added/Tracklist Changed
PS, two more tracks, "Future Markets" and "Open Spaces" can be previewed over at Nonesuch radio. Also, it seems like the tracklist has changed slightly. The track "Smear" has either been dropped from the soundtrack. In it's place is "Stranded the Line," plus an 11th track, "Prospectors Quartet" has been added. Sucks for fans that wanted to hear more of the "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" score (from which "Smear" came from), and Greenwood fans in general as the track was almost 10:0o minutes long and the new one is only 2:20 (maybe this means 'Popcorn' might come out as an album on its own?).

Those dying for all details take note: Tracks 3 and 4 performed by Martin Burgess, violin; Caroline Dale, cello; and Michael Dussek, piano. Tracks 7 and 9-11 performed by the Emperor Quartet: Martin Burgess, violin; Clare Hayes, violin; Fiona Bonds, viola; William Schofield, cello. All other tracks performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler.

We updated the tracklist where we originally published it if you'd like to look (originally there were only 10 tracks, see the out of date Amazon listing).

Walk Hard: Sneak Peek Song Preview; Plus New For Your Consideration Poster

Another day, another "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" For Your Consideration Oscar poster.

Like the previous "hey Oscars!" posters they released, this one is equally self-deprecating and self-aware about the film's chances at Oscar glory. "Our movie is the dumbest movie to ever beg for an Oscar." 'Walk Hard' writer/producer Judd Apatow told USA Today knowingly in September

Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) is shown in his skives battling the cops in his later 'Lost Weekend' period, which includes drugs, booze, threesomes, monkeys and forgetting the names of his children.

Can't wait to see this. Our screening this week got cancelled, but next week will be our glory day.

In the meantime, we've gotten our hands on the 'Walk Hard' Original Music Soundtrack. Below we've posted two tracks from the film that are both sung by and produced by Michael Andrews (who produced the whole album). The first track is "Take My Hand," a fluffy, wholesome '50s Buddy Holly-esque number featured in the trailer and the second is Cox's schmaltzy disco-lite take on David Bowie's "Starman."

The disc comes out December 4, but don't forget an expanded version with with 15 additional tracks will be available on ITunes, but the release date of those tracks is still unknown at the moment. The video for "Walk Hard" surfaced online about two weeks ago.

Watch: Dewey Cox - "Let's Duet"

'Into The Wild' Nabs Top Prize At Last Night's Gotham Awards

Those of you who thought Sean Penn's "Into The Wild" has been overlooked will be happy to hear that the film won Best Feature award at last night's IFP 17th annual Gotham Awards.

The film, whose budget was too big too be considered for the recent Independent Spirit Award nominations beat out "I'm Not There," "Margot At The Wedding" and "The Namesake."

The grossly overlooked music-industry satirical indie, "Great World of Sound" by Craig Zobel is having a great late-fall awards season. Not only did it win Breakthrough Director for filmmaker Zobel (it was also nominated for Best Feature) it also was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards (including Best First Feature). As you'll remember the score to this one was composed by Ola Podrida founder/David Gordon Green collaborator David Wingo (you can hear some of it's twinkling ambient goodness here).

Michael Moore's almost long-forgotten (what a shame) health-care screed "Sicko" won Best Director and "Juno"'s Ellen Page beat out Emile Hirsch ("Into The Wild"s lead) for the coveted Best Breakthrough Actor award.

Tribute's were made to Javier Bardem ("No Country For Old Men") and film critic Rogert Ebert who is battaling cancer and apparently provided the night's most moving moment. "When we didn't know if Roger was going to be here the next day, we got a bunch of movies, independent movies but also studio movies, I'm not going to lie," Ebert's wife Chaz said speaking for the ailing moviegoer. "I know how much this man loves movies, he's still like a kid when he goes into a movie theater."

17th Annual Gotham Award Winners

Best Feature
"Into The Wild" - Directed by Sean Penn

Best Documentary
"Sicko" - Directed by Michael Moore

Best Ensemble Cast (tie):
"Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead" and "Talk To Me"

Breakthrough Director
Craig Zobel for "Great World of Sound"

Breakthrough Actor
Ellen Page in "Juno"

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
"Frownland" — Director: Ronald Bronstein

Seth Rogen Apparently Wants Some Huey Lewis Magic For 'Pineapple Express'

So Seth Rogen is apparently courting Huey Lewis (of the News) to coax him into writing a new "Power of Love"-like power anthem for his upcoming 2008 summer film "Pineapple Express."

To recap: "Pineapple Express" is a stoner comedy from the Judd Apatow family players that's been directed by normally more lyrical and atmospheric filmmaker David Gordon Green. "Express' also features Rogen's "Freak & Geeks" co-star James Franco, plus Rosie Perez and Danny R. McBride ("Bust Ass" from Green's "All The Real Girls").

Huey Lewis of course wrote "The Power of Love" monster jam for "Back To The Future" and Rogen evidently wants some of that '80s sax-fueled sex panther hotness. According to the EW blog, Rogen wants Lewis to pen the theme song for the film. Apparently the two were spotted having lunch last week in Los Angeles and people either got wind of what the meeting was about or folks are just doing 2+2 must equal 5 math. We'll see.

Probably not a bad idea either way. Lewis is due for a comeback we're sure.

Friends who have worked around the film have told us that 'Pineapple' has tested extremely well and is expected to be a big hit next summer. A teaser of the film is expected in the Decemeber release of the "Superbad" DVD. Apparently the guy who scored "Tomb Raider" is doing the music for this one.

Watch: Huey Lewis & The News - "The Power Of Love"

Sarah Michelle Gellar's "Teen Horniness Is Not A Crime" Hits The Interweb

Teen horniness is not a crime! It's a parody of Britney Spears and other half-dressed pop tarts, get it?! Get it? It's so ironic.

Here's the thing about Richard Kelly director of "Donnie Darko" and the newly released misfire "Southland Tales." He think's he is funny (he is not). He thinks his movie is a comedy and hilarious (you laugh occasionally at the absurdity, but mostly you laugh at it).

Subtley is apparently not his forte. Anyhow, in the film Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn-star/pop singer (get it? get it?) and she writes the meant to be serious song, "Teen Horniness Is Not A Crime" and we're supposed to find it deliciously funny! The track is available on the recently release "Southland Tales" soundtrack which also features existing songs by the Pixies, Jane's Addicition, Moby and others (apparently Kelly is trapped in a '90s bubble).

Ugh, whatever. Here's the track. Some of you will squeal with delight at the so-bad-it's-good irony. Braid your hair to it or something.
Download: Sarah Michelle Gellar - "Teen Horniness Is Not A Crime"

'PS I Love You' Soundtrack Features James Blunt, Nellie Mckay, Paolo Nutini and... The Stills?

What are we doing posting about this cornball film and soundtrack? Didn't we say "PS I Love You" looks like it "insults the intelligence of women even dying to revel in a shameless romantic comedy" in our 10 9 Films of the Fall/Xmas 2007 Season We Could Give A Rat's Ass About holiday season film preview?

Yes, in fact we did, but the last time we posted about a wretched-looking feel-good movie and soundtrack, every soccer mom that apparently reads our blog and is totally homo for a not-very-straight actor visited our site and traffic went through the roof (that's six extra hits, woo!).

Due December 4, the soundtrack to this sappy, widow-gets-love-letters from the dead masterpiece features songs by The Pogues, James Blunt, Nellie Mckay (she has a small role in the film), The Academy Is... and Montreal indie-rockers the Stills who are the "one of these things doesn't belong" dark horse of this thing...sorta. Their "In The Beginning" track is from their push-reset/recalibrated 2006 record Without Feathers whose granola-y sound isn't entirely out of place on this collection of tear-jerkers.

"PS I Love You" storms into the hearts of women around the nation on December 21. You can't pay us to ever see it. Ever. Oh yeah, Irish singersongwriter Laura Izibor and L.A. band Hope wrote their songs exclusively for the film. Congratulations. We have an extra copy. Email us if you want it, It's long gone, please stop emailing us.

"PS I Love You" tracklist
01. Love You 'Till The End - The Pogues
02. Same Mistake - James Blunt
03. More Time - Needtobreathe
04. Carousel - Laura Izibor
05. Fortress - Hope
06. Last Train Home - Ryan Star
07. Rewind - Paolo Nutini
08. My Sweet Song - Toby Lightman
09. No Other Love - Chuck Prophet
10. Everything We Had - The Academy Is...
11. In The Beginning - The Stills
12. If I Ever Leave This World Alive - Flogging Molly
13. P.S. I Love You - Nellie McKay
14. Kisses And Cake - John Powell

Download: The Stills - "In The Beginning"
"PS I Love You" trailer

'I'm Not There' Leads Independent Spirit Awards Nominees; 'Juno,' 'Diving Bell,' The Savages' Not Far Behind

As you might have expected (we sure did) Todd Haynes' Dylan paean, "I'm Not There" is leading the pack of this year's Independent Spirit Awards with five nominations (Haynes' Douglas Sirk homage "Far From Heaven" cleaned up at the ISA awards in 2002 with five wins including best picture and director).

The film nabbed five nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Supporting Actor (Marcus Carl Franklin) and the inaugural Robert Altman Award, which honors the ensemble cast.

Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly" and Jason Reitman's "Juno" were not far behind scoring four nominations each including nods for Best Director and Best Picture.

The upcoming Tamara Jenkins film "The Savages" also earned four nominations including a Best Director for "Slums Of Beverly Hills" filmmaker that hasn't made a feature in almost nine years. Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" also fared well with two nominations in the Best Director and Best Picture category. Rounding out the Best Picture category was Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" with Angelina Jolie.

You can compare and contrast with our how we felt award season was/is shaping up to be with our initial Oscar Temperature piece (which also applies much more here, since we're so indie-film minded) and our Breakout Performances of the Year piece. Apparently over 250 films were submitted for ISA consideration. We're personally really, really happy that Zoe Cassavetes earned nominations for her "Broken English"* script and the film's very-excellent lead Parker Posey. That film came out pre-Playlist existence (we started in May) and we loved it and highly recommend [*ed. wrong, it came out in June, you were asleep at the wheel then].

Take the Spirit awards seriously. They're a decent indication of what indie cream crop rises to the Oscar and secondly they're just better quality films. The award committee don't feel obligated to nominate shit like "Charlie Wilson's War" or mainstream garbage that's surely going to get nominated (or not, we'll see, but we're skeptical). The ISA's are basically our Oscars and almost all of these films are ones you can get behind.

The ISAs air Saturday February 24 at 5p.m. ET on IFC.

The 2008 Spirit nominees...

FEATURE
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" - Director: Todd Haynes
"I’m Not There" - Director: Todd Haynes
"Juno" - Director: Jason Reitman
"A Mighty Heart" - Director: Michael Winterbottom
"Paranoid Park" - Director: Gus Van Sant

FIRST FEATURE
"2 Days in Paris" - Director: Julie Delpy;
"Great World of Sound" - Director: Craig Zobel
"The Lookout" - Director: Scott Frank
"Rocket Science" - Director: Jeffrey Blitz
"Vanaja" - Director: Rajnesh Domalpalli

DIRECTOR
Todd Haynes - "I’m Not There"
Tamara Jenkins - "The Savages"
Jason Reitman - "Juno"
Julian Schnabel - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Gus Van Sant - "Paranoid Park"

MALE LEAD
Pedro Castaneda - "August Evening"
Don Cheadle - "Talk To Me"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Savages"
Frank Langella - "Starting Out in the Evening"
Tony Leung - "Lust, Caution"

FEMALE LEAD
Angelina Jolie - "A Mighty Heart"
Sienna Miller - "Interview"
Ellen Page - "Juno"
Parker Posey - "Broken English"
Tang Wei - "Lust, Caution"

SUPPORTING MALE
Chiwetel Ejiofor - "Talk To Me"
Marcus Carl Franklin - "I’m Not There"
Kene Holliday - "Great World of Sound"
Irrfan Khan - "The Namesake"
Steve Zahn - "Rescue Dawn"
More than one option

SUPPORTING FEMALE
Cate Blanchett - "I’m Not There"
Anna Kendrick - "Rocket Science"
Jennifer Jason Leigh - "Margot at the Wedding"
Tamara Podemski - "Four Sheets to the Wind"
Marisa Tomei - "Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead"

SCREENPLAY
Ronald Harwood - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Tamara Jenkins - "The Savages"
Fred Parnes & Andrew Wagner - "Starting Out in the Evening"
Adrienne Shelly - "Waitress"
Mike White - "Year of the Dog"

FIRST SCREENPLAY
Jeffrey Blitz - "Rocket Science"
Zoe Cassavetes - "Broken English"
Diablo Cody - "Juno"
Kelly Masterson - "Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead"
John Orloff - "A Mighty Heart"

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mott Hupfel - "The Savages"
Janusz Kaminski - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Milton Kam - "Vanaja"
Mihai Malaimare, Jr. - "Youth Without Youth"
Rodrigo Prieto - "Lust, Caution"

DOCUMENTARY
"Crazy Love" - Director: Dan Klores
"Lake of Fire" - Director: Tony Kaye
"Manufactured Landscapes" - Director: Jennifer Baichwal
"The Monastery" - Director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær
"The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair" - Directors: Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
"I’m Not There - Director: Todd Haynes

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
Laura Dunn for "The Unforeseen"
Gary Hustwit for "Helvetica"
John Maringouin for "Running Stumbled"