'Snow Angels' Score Is Plaintive, Twinkly Electro-Acoustic Goodness To Start The Weekend

We've gone on many times about David Gordon Green, his newest film, "Snow Angels," his go-to music composer David Wingo of the folky, indie group Ola Podrida, and Wingo's new music partner Jeff McIlwain (aka electronic artist Lusine)

Wingo and McIlwain composed the electro-acoustic score to 'Angels' and it's the perfect mix of plaintive, pensive guitars and twinkingly electronics that we're a sucker for (and certain people call us wusses for liking, oh well).

Green has a great knack for selecting good music for his films and 'Angels' continues this trend featuring atmospheric tracks by A Silver Mt. Zion, Mono and an original song written specificallly for the film by Explosions in the Sky (all of the songs featured in "Snow Angels" are listed here). A track by the National, is also featured in the film's trailer.

But it's the original composers (Wingo and McIlwain) and their pastoral, ambient score that is getting its due on 'disc' (available digitally only).

So we culled together some tracks Snow Angels: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for your weekend ears. Enjoy.

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David Fincher Takes A Stab At Some Animated 'Heavy Metal'

David Fincher - he of the dark and twisted cinematic mien - is on a tear. The notoriously fussy and serial killer-prone director ("Zodiac," Fight Club, "Seven") usually takes years between projects quietly developing something he hopes will be up to snuff, but the filmmaker has recently become to a spate of projects - or at least for him.

First off there's that "Fight Club" musical that will likely never happen (but the fact he's even deigned to talk about it is something), than there's the adaptation of three graphic novels; the perverse Charles Burns book "Black Hole," and the "assassin suddenly plagued by his conscience," tale "The Killer;" and the true crime chronicle, "Torso."

Now comes word that he's attached to yet another project; directing part of an animated version of sci-fi nerd fantasy porn magazine "Heavy Metal" according to Variety.

Fincher will direct one segment of the nine-part anthology, with other directors including Kevin Eastman (owner of Heavy Metal) and Tim Miller. All three will produce the film.

Of course there already was an animated "Heavy Metal" movie made in 1981 that became quite the cult-film brandishing a lot of the near-soft-core porn, erotica and violence that made the magazine so popular with adolescent boys of the '70s and '80s fond of science-fiction and masturbation (the hesher-heavy rock soundtrack that featured Dio-era Sabbath, Sammy Hagar, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult, Grand Funk Railroad and many other 'stache-friendly dude-rockers was also pretty popular at the time).

But before all these prospective Fincher projects, we'll see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" starring Brad Pitt as an old man who physically ages backwards which is due in the fall of 2008. Pitt's character fall in love with a 30-year-old woman (Cate Blanchett) and then must come to terms with the relationship as they literally grow in opposite directions. The film has been wrapped for some time now and the special effects for Pitt to convincingly age backwards have been worked on furiously for months.

Trailer: "Heavy Metal" ('80s version)

Watch: "Heavy Metal" Scene set to Rush's "Necromancer"
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'Paranoid Park' Soundtrack Finally Available In The U.S.

A lot of y'all have been asking about "Paranoid Park" and whether the lyrical and dreamy skate drama by director Gus Van Sant was going to have an accompanying soundtrack release or not.

As we mentioned way back in the day, an album was released in France in October 2007. This same album is now available as an import on Amazon and more accesibly to most, the soundtrack has also now been made available on Itunes which features most of the key songs used in the film (the entire list of songs here).

As previously mentioned the film and soundtrack are heavy on tracks by Italian composer Nino Rota and Van Sant fave Elliott Smith, plus tracks by score texturalist Ethan Rose, indie-rockers Menomena, rap group Cool Nutz and musique concrète artists Frances White and Robert Normandeau.

"Paranoid Park" soundtrack tracklist
1. Gradisca E il Principe - Nino Rota
2. Angeles - Elliott Smith
3. White Lady Loves You More - Elliott Smith
4. Giardino Delle Fate - Nino Rota
5. I Can Help - Billy Swan
6. Tunnelmouth Blues - Henry Davies
7. Outlaw
8. Strongest Man in the World - Menomena
9. I Heard That - Cool Nutz
10. Porticina Segreta - Nino Rota
11. We Will Revolt
12. Arcobaleno Per Giuletta - Nino Rota
13. Symphony N°9 "Choral", 4. [Presto]
14. Song One - Ethan Rose
15. Chambre Blanche - Robert Normandeau
16. Walk Through [Resonant Landscape] N°2 - Frances White
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Soft Eyes: One Last Post-Mortem Look On 'The Wire'

There will be no re-up. No new connect. "The Wire," is down for good and yes, we're still giving the show an extended eulogy (to paraphrase Sgt. Landsman on McNulty, "when they were good, they were the best we had"). Most people's reminiscing is over, but there's a few pieces we just had to include. MTV has done a great job of charting where the extended Bmore players will land and Entertainment Weekly put together a nice photo essay on the show's top 15 moments. Some selects from both in a minute.

The finale was apparently watched by 1.1 million people and according to HBO, another 700,000 viewers watched an 11 p.m. replay, making for a 1.8 million total viewers on Sunday night. By comparison, HBO's "The Sopranos" conclusion brought in 11.9 million viewers, but let's face it, "The Wire," never really got its due or had the same cultural sweep as Tony and his pals did (but the Baltimore drama was seriously a much, much deeper investment).

The 6th Season That Got Away: Simon Wanted To Get All Latino On Your Ass
There even could have been a sixth season had series creator David Simon and his writers had more time to invest into the show.

"I would've love to include a season that was thematically about immigration. I've said before, none of the writers are familiar with Latino culture--we don't have any Spanish speakers among the veteran writers of the show--but more than that, we would have been willing to learn and to embrace it. The problem was by the time we thought of it, we were working on Season 4, and--as you can see from the last season - Season 5 had to be the concluding season. So we would have been inserting the immigration theme as the penultimate season and we'd been off the air long enough at the time we thought of this that to do the research properly we would have remained off the air for a year and a half, two years. And at that point, it becomes problematic--to hold the actors, we needed to speak to what we had at hand. But having said that, that is a theme that I think would have been really fruitful."

Two of our favorite scenes from EW's 15 picks is the brilliant and completely hilarious, "Fuck bullets scene" from Season 1 Episode 4. As they wrote:

Watching Bunk, chomping on his cigar, and McNulty methodically work a crime scene was one of 'The Wire's richest pleasures. In the victim's kitchen, their whole dialogue is one variation or another on a most satisfying swear word [fuuuuuck]. Actors Wendell Pierce and Dominic West, brilliant both of them, make it sound like Shakespeare. Suck on this, network crime procedurals.

Another classic sequence was the Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell come to jesus meet at the end of Season 3. The two best friends basically talk around everything they actually mean. Both of them can smell it in the air too; they know that the other knows. The subtext is goodbye before the big betrayal.

EW: Just a couple of old friends, brothers really, reminiscing over a good view and booze. ''I told your ass not to steal a badminton net!'' Avon remembers telling Stringer when they were kids. The love flowing back and forth is really a goodbye, as Avon knows he's setting his friend up. ''Us, motherf---er,'' he says, hitting Stringer's fist. ''Us, man.'

Another heart breaker was the Bodie/McNulty scene practically taken straight out of Loony Toons cartoon where Wile E. Coyote and The Sheep Dog take a time out from trying to kill one another to sit down, share lunch and chat like civilized people. "This game is rigged," Bodie says foreshadowing his own demise and realizing the game has outgrown him via a newer generation with an lesser street code than the one he valued. As painful a scene as you'll see on television.

And of course pretty much every scene with the former-asshole cop turned redeemed teacher Prezbo and his fated, too-smart-for-the-streets pupil Dookie were always hard to watch.

It's interesting to see where you'll see these amazing and thoughtful actors next and MTV has done a great job of charting their next projects.

Jamie Hector aka Marlo Stanfield might have finished the show at the crossroads of the street and his new business life ("the great irony is that Marlo ends up being granted what Stringer wanted -- and he has no use for it.," David Simon explained) apparently will have a part in the Biggie Smalls biopic "Notorious" as Notorious B.I.G.'s best friend, Damien "D-Rock" Butler and also has secured a role in Mos Def's upcoming film "Bury Me Standing."

Melvin "Cheese" Wagstaff otherwise known as Method Man obviously has a hip-hop career, but he also shines as a Jamaican weed connect in the hip-hop heavy 1994-set drama "The Wackness" which is due in the summer.

Namond and Poot both have burgeoning hip-hop careers, (Namond will actually use the characters name for his MC tag; Poot has already cut his first album and single), and Michael (nee Tristan Wilds) will take time away from being a face of Jay-Z's Rocawear clothing line to appear next to Queen Latifah in the adaptation of "The Secret Lives Of Bees."

And then there's Omar (Michael Kenneth Williams). He'll appear in Spike Lee's upcoming World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna" with James "Tony Soprano" Gandolfini and an appearance in this summer "The Incredible Hulk" relaunch. "Let's just say old Omar goes toe to toe with the Hulk," he joked.

Godspeed to them all.
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'2'1 Film Delivers Dance-Heavy Soundtrack So You Can Marginally Stomach This Cliched Gambling Flick

Let's face it, this "21" gambling movie looks about as sharp as a bag of plastic butter knives. Remember that silly "The Perfect Score," flick where a disparate gang of six high school losers decide to break into the Princeton so they can steal the answers to their upcoming SAT tests? (and of course one's black, one's gay, one's punk, one's a nerd, one cliche after another...)

It's like that only THIS time it's six MIT students trained to become card counting experts and take Vegas for millions! (Wow, original, right?). Somehow they roped Kevin Spacey into this one and we expect despite claiming he doesn't really want to act in films anymore, someone drove up to his house and dumped a truckload of dough on his front porch and he acquiesced.

So sure, it's a waste of your time, but the soundtrack for the film does cobble together a respectable list of electronic dance tracks that are fast and friendly for all those fast-moving tracking shots where the characters put on sunglasses and think they're fly, with tracks by UNKLE, Amon Tobin, LCD Soundsystem, Mark Ronson, MGMT and more (full tracklist is here). The music selection is seemingly bitten from the "Ocean's 11" school of funky tracks but more on the dance tip than the lounge, funky breaks tip that David Holmes deftly brought to those Steven Soderbergh films.

Anywhoo, here's three tracks from the film, Soulwax's remix cutup of the Rolling Stone's "You Can't Always Get What You Want," Montreal-based electronic DJ Amon Tobin's "Always," and an original track written specifically for the film by LCD Soundsystem.


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Movie Wrap: Tropic Thunder, Jason Segel & The Muppets, Michel Gondry, Superman Singer, More

Ben Stiller's new Vietnam comedy, "Tropic Thunder," – which stars Robert Downey Jr. as an overzealous Academy Award winning method actor who’s gone to great lengths to play an African American – was apparently inspired by his small role in "Empire Of The Sun," not getting a part in "Platoon," and a bunch of other Vietnam-era war films. “My actor friends, myself included, were going on auditions for war movies like 'Platoon' and 'Hamburger Hill.' I met with Oliver Stone myself – I never read, just had a meeting. He said ‘You’re cute” and I knew it was over. Every actor that got a role was coming back saying ‘Man, it was like boot camp; it changed my life.’ I don’t know if it was bitterness because I didn’t get cast, but there seemed a certain amount of irony in them feeling they were having this experience of war when they really weren’t. I thought that could be funny to have the actors caught up in a real situation.” [Empire]

Forget Seth Rogen, apparently Jason Segel is the new red-hot member of the Judd Apatow family players. The "Freaks & Geeks" star has never carried an Apatow film on his shoulders yet (just supporting roles), but this spring he has "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and already greenlit, the similar-sounding comedy, "Five Year Engagement" (with his "Undeclared" buddy Nick Stoller). So what's next? Apparently Disney has tapped these two to revise "The Muppets" franchise with Kermit the Frog and company. No seriously. Apparently 'Sarah Marshall,' contains a funny musical performed by puppets and the Mickey Mouse execs were impressed. We can't hate on those that take big paychecks so they won't have to take on stupid projects later in life. And hey, a little scratch can't hurt. [Variety]

- Americans can't understand Michel Gondry's heavy French accent (and with good fucking reason, he's near indecipherable). The imaginative director's project about kids who invent water that creates is music is actually called, "The Return of the Ice Kids," and not the return of the 'Ice Kings.' “Because of my accent it’s all over the Net with the wrong title!” he laughed. “But if you say ‘Ice Kings,’ that’s cool too, I guess.”[MTV]

- Much to the happiness of every dork on the planet. The trailer for Marvel's "Incredible Hulk" reboot is now online. Much to the chagrin of anyone with a modicum of decent taste, the CGI monster-hero of the film looks as mediocre and unrealistic as he did in the fairly-maligned Ang Lee version. [MTV]
- Perhaps more importantly, the micro-managing lead actor Ed Norton appears to be feuding with the studio over the how the film should be cut. Norton has major involvement in the film having fucked with rewritten the script by Zack Penn and superceded the authority of suggested gently to director Louis Leterrier to make on-set changes. Everyone will remember the nightmare that Norton's recalcitrant attitude caused director Tony Kaye on "American History X." [Deadline Hollywood]

- After some speculation whether he would return for the sequel, director Bryan Singer is officially onboard for the follow-up of "Superman Returns" with Brandon Routh again playing the man of steel (there were thoughts he might get replace too). Many fans griped and complained (as they do with every comic film) that there wasn't enough, kapow!, blammo! and kerrang! action, but to those whiners we say don't forget Singer's "X-Men" and "X-Men 2" films. With the backstory dispensed in the initial film, "X-2" became the perfect balance of super heroics and drama (and perhaps the finest comic book film made so far aside from arguably Chris Nolan's 'Batman', so stfu. [Empire]

[ed. revealing your nerd tendencies today a little, are we?]

Watch: "The Incredible Hulk" trailer

Watch: "Tropic Thunder" teaser

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Sadistic & Perverse 'Funny Games' Is A Twisted (And Meta-Rigged) 'Fuck You' To American Audiences

Given half a chance to remake their own movie, most filmmakers would likely fix the cinematic elements they weren't completely pleased with on the first go-round. After all, all art is abandoned rather than finished, no?

But it's a rather perverse testament to the sick nature of Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke ("Caché," The Piano Teacher") that he changes nothing; in fact he remakes the film exactly shot-for-shot only with "American" actors in English (the original was an Austrian/German production made in 1997).

This is the cute conceit of the "Funny Games" remake, but it's not without complete reason. Made a decade ago as a (rather contemptuous) response and rebuke to American violence as entertainment, the film was barely seen by U.S. audiences because of its foreign descent and language.

So what's the premise of this painstakingly re-made xerox for the West?

Well, for no reason - outside of sadistic satisfaction - two polite, fey and mannered boys (Micheal Pitt and Brady Corbet) take a bourgeois family hostage in a home invasion (Tim Roth, Naomi Watts) and begin to systematically torture them ... for kicks and because they can.

Haneke not only eliminates any reason behind their motivations, he deliberately mocks the notion of examining "reason."

The senselessness of it all is the point. The problem is, his righteousness, mostly humorless and pedantic tone gets the better of him and the film is nothing but a deliberately cruel, tortuous and brutal exercises is complicity.

Its akin to being gently invited into a room, only to have the door slam violently shut behind you and all you can hear is maniacal laughter.

But rather than simply trap audiences as voyeurs for two hours in this horrible experience, the director mischievously (and arrogantly) breaks the 4th wall, talking to the audience through his terrorizing characters, teasing them, taunting them and trading sly fuck you grins at the camera. There are those that squeal with active delight over these scenes, get a meta boner and get in a huge lather thinking about the psychological implications, but we're not with it, sorry.

Hence the infamous "rewind shot," that many believe is the entire crux of the film, but it's just really more malicious insult to injury.

When the audience feels a brief glimmer of hope (Watts gets a hold of a gun), the ensuing events are snatched away - defying all reason, logic and natural order - when said events are rewound by a remote control.

It's outrageous absurdity and just hammers home the point of relentless doom that was rigged from the beginning with no possible alternative (even more meta-ironic considering it's a remake and we know how it ends). The questionable move is a media studies grads wet dream about the nature of participation through viewership, but with a not-so-subtle air of vengeance and scorn for those watching. Some will argue the films satirical merits, but the joke is mostly on the audience.

There is brilliance within. The performances are excruciatingly real; Haneke creates a terrifying psychic violence by never actually showing any of the brutality onscreen; all you see is the terrorized reactions and ferocious mental impact.

And while there are cerebral and academic joys to be found (and at times all you can help but laugh at the twisted absurdity of it all), there also a huge self-fellating onanism happening by remaking your own film with this clinically misanthropic precision.

What's worse: you can't criticize the film for being manipulative because its very specific aim is to manipulate is to make you feel uncomfortable, brutalized, whipped and emotionally tortured.

Those that claim the filmmaker is the distant elder statesman of torture porn might be half-right, but he's operating at a psychological level that reduces these T-porn followers aims to feel about as sophisticated as kids melting their action figures with a lighter.

On some sick level you have to admire the perverse audacity and the sadistic tenaciousness and commitment that Haenke has to one horrible singular vision.

Having seen the original, one can slightly appreciate the film's grotesque goals, but in many ways its akin to "Se7en"s insane serial killer played by Kevin Spacey and his disturbed head-in-the box plan - it invites study and and aghast puzzlement rather than any kind of enjoyment.

If the grand and grotesque intention is to shock, scold, astound, provoke and inflict psychic misery with deliberate aggression than the film succeeds in spades.

But at what cost? With no answers to be found in pointless questions raised, the viewer is left to sit, stew and marinate without any satisfaction or conclusion. And that's the intention! OK, you've won. You proved life is miserable and pointless. Are you happy? A twisted funny game indeed.

Haneke has said that 'Games' is/was the only film he made with the specific intent of provocation, but it's the aggressively didactic nature of his ridiculing reproach that tipped the scales when it was first made. And it just wasn't that good to begin with.

Original: [C] Remake: [C+]

Postscript: Here it is: your average Joe job - if they even see this film - is going to loathe it, but if you have even the slightest sense of media consciousness, you're going to feel your intellectual synapses fire up and come to life, even if you find it repugnant and that's saying something.
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Terrence Howard Hustles His Way Into Recording Contract

It's not so hard out there for a pimp. The star of the Memphis hip-hop rags to riches semi-fame story, "Hustle & Flow," the smoove b, Terrence Howard has apparently has used skillz to snatch himself a recording contract with Columbia records according to the Entertainment Weekly blog, Hollywood Insider.

What kind of music Howard planning on slinging, the report doesn't say, but he did prove his flow skills in the aforementioned movie that scored an Academy Award for Best Original Song (thank you Three 6 Mafia).

However, Underground Online has the goods. The group is called Terrence Howard Presents Me and the Band of Kings and the album is called A Little Bit More Like Me.

"I wanted to produce and write. The only thing I didn't do was play all the instruments because I only play guitar, piano and some cello. But I brought in the most incredible musicians and left them in the room to do what they do, gave them complete autonomy, and they gave me gold. People always give you their best if you give them the room to give their best."

Smoove jazz? Doesn't sound like hip-hop. According the the Insider, the album is slated for a fall release.

"The purpose of [releasing an album] is to always extend beyond your reach. I'm looking for the fall, I'm looking for the flop, the criticism, because I do well with that. My little brother told me when I was scared to go start my music, he said, 'A diamond is just a piece of coal that did well under pressure. Decide which one you're going to be.' "

The 39-year-old actor is currently onstage for the Broadway revival of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," and will be seen later this spring in "Iron Man," alongside Robert Downey Jr.
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Funny Games: Peverse, Twisted Meta-Torture Film Is Laughing At You All The Way To The... Indie Art House

"Funny Games" is an aggressively tortuous film ostensibly about torture, but more accurately a calculating, metatextual comment on violence. It's not necessarily fun to watch, but it's fun to write about and you can expect lots of movie outlets to give this film a lot of ink (including us).

It's also perversely a shot-by-shot remake of a tortuous film ostensibly about torture, but more accurately a calculating, metatextual comment on violence. No really, a punishing shot-for-fucking-shot and excruciating exercise, tweaked with name brand recognizable actors (Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt).

What is it actually about? Simple: two psychotic boys who take a family hostage and terrorize them...for kicks.

Directed by psychological trickster, deviant and very Austrian (read: Germanic, not to mention Owl-like) Michael Haneke, 'Games' is well, is just that. A twisted play about violence, entertainment, voyeurism and your complicity delivered in a winky-winky, manipulative fuck you. Doubly twisted cause he already made the exact same film in 1997 with Austrian/German actors.

Without giving away the way some of it is presented, it's purposely manipulative. "I couldn't believe how [Haneke] played with us as an audience and tricked us, and commented on his trickery the whole time," Naomi Watts told the A/V Club about the original film. Yes, active commentary.

Somehow it wasn't as quite as tortuous to work on as we would have thought according (though Watts might just being diplomatic; but to be fair, she does seem to genuinely love and admire her director)

"It was a very tense subject, and it made for a tense feeling on the set. We were all affected by what we were doing. At times, we were having to get off the set for a while just to break away from it. And other times, we would just stay right there, crack some ridiculous jokes, and work our way through it. Fortunately, Tim Roth as a fantastic sense of humor."

Haneke has that Germanic way of coldly intellectualizing brutality that makes you think he clubs baby seals for purely scientific purposes.

“Violence in my films is shown as it really is. The suffering of a victim. The viewer comes to see what it means to act violently — that’s why the films are often experienced as painful," Haneke told the NY Times in the summer of last year in a piece in which they accurately dubbed him the "Minister of Fear"; "painful," generally be an massive understatement when it comes to his films.

I think it was always Michael's intention to get under the skin of the audience," Watts said. "He says, very matter-of-factly, 'This is hard work. I dare you to go there.'

He'll surely be daring audiences to go there too. While this is not our review (oh no, we have waaay more to say), it's surely a difficult film to watch on multiple levels and moreso if you've seen the original. It's kind of like a headgame x10.

So why a shot for shot remake? The same exact film only with different actors? "Because the German-language version did not find the English-language audience for which the film was originally meant," the director tersely told Entertainment Weekly.

Oh and note. Pretty much every second of violence in the film is not actually shown on screen. Why? (other than the fact it's somehow 1,000 times more impactful and disturbing) "I don't really want to be part of this violence pornography of the mass media," Haneke said. Duuuuuh, oh right.

There are surely eggheaded media studies students that are going to argue that this film is actually a comedy and while there are surely elements of twisted humor in it, no, they would incorrect (let's not have this argument, seriously).

As EW astutely points out, it's a heavy irony 'Games' films act as polemics against violence, yet both films are/will be known for being wildly violent. Ah, therein lies the rub Haneke says, "It's s a violent film because it doesn't allow you to consummate the violence. In an action film, violence is depicted in such a way that it doesn't hurt the audience... [they] feel good about it... it's a rollercoaster — a thrill. In my films what I'm trying to do is depict violence in such a way that it becomes reality again for the audience."

This we really wouldn't argue.

There's not a lot of music in the film really, but the naturally, the exact same pieces of music are used in the exact same spots; including two mocking uses of jazz noisenik John Zorn/Naked City spastic noise freakouts “Bonehead” and “Hellraiser.”

Listen: Naked City - "Bonehead"
Watch: "Funny Games" trailer

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The Meaty Singer With 'Fight Club' Bitch Tits Gets His Own Movie

The New York Times has a brief piece on the upcoming documentary, "Meat Loaf :In Search of Paradise," which we briefly mentioned in our spring preview piece.

The film has backstory — Loaf’s childhood as a "shy, fat kid in Dallas named Marvin Lee Aday"; the huge success of '77's Bat Out Of Hell ; his self-destructive '80s; and his comebacks with two “Bat” sequels — but mainly focuses as a warts and all chronicle of rehearsals and tour in support of the third disc in the "Bat Out of Hell" franchise.

The Times calls the depiction, "amusing and frank," and apparently he chastises his back-up singers wardrobe, “Less hooker, more Studio 54.” Aww, c'mon, that's mean coming from you Mr. Loaf.

Apparently there's a good section of the film where Loaf fumes over reviews that call his 'Dashboard Lights;' duet with 28-year-old singer Aspen Miller, "awkward and unsavory."

The film portrayal is one that shows Loaf as a "obsessive, self-punishing performer," but otherwise sounds tame and not the total trainwreck we had hoped for. "I've many mistakes in my life, I've been an asshole and now I'm trying to improve," is about as much sensationalist stuff as the trailer can muster (though the stuff about his backup dancers looking like, "12-year-old, skinny skanks" is rather amusing). Maybe we'll just stay home that night. 'In Search of Paradise,' opens next Wednesday in limited release in New York and L.A.

Watch: "Meat Loaf :In Search of Paradise"
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Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson: Wailing Stretch-Pants Singer, Pilot And Now Horror Film Writer

All Bruce Dickinson needs now is his own cooking show. The Iron Maiden singer/renaissance man is not only a famous metal frontman and a licensed pilot, but now we can add screenwriter to his list of estimable credits.

Dickinson has co-written a supernatural horror/thriller, "Chemical Wedding," which is set to be unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in May and then to be released in British cinemas in the summer.

The film stars noted British thespian Simon Callow as a reincarnation of noted English occultist Aleister Crowley, once described as Britain's most evil man according to the BBC (and the inspiration behind many a dark and arguably cheesy song by British metal and hard rock bands including Maiden, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Ozzy Osbourne). Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was once a rather large Crowley devotee, buying his former mansion, dabbling in the occult and almost scoring the "Lucifer Rising," film by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, but his strung out nonsense was ultimately rejected.

Dickinson plans on flying guests out to the screening at Cannes, so if they happen to arrive late or not at all, you can pretty much guess what happened.

[d'oh: we wrote Rob Dickinson instead of Bruce initially. We're retarded. This is what happens when you work, blog and run on no sleep. Our apologies for the glaring error.]
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Despite The Missing 40-Odd Lbs, Beyoncé Is Finally Starting To Resemble Etta James

The first photos of Beyoncé as Etta James in the film, "Cadillac Records," have leaked courtesy of the celeb-obsessed photo site JustJared. And despite not really looking anything like her and being rather underweight for the part, B is finally starting to look the part.

The film centers around R&B magnate Leonard Chess (played by Adrien Brody) and the titular estimable Chicago R&B record label "Cadillac Records."

Chess Records launched the careers of such R&B greats as Muddy Waters, Etta James and Chuck Berry and the film will also chronicle the lives of American musical legends like Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and Elvis Presley.

The film will also star Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters), Cedric the Entertainer (Willie Dixon, Emmanuelle Chriqui (the Montreal born hottie from "Entourage"), Columbus Short (Little Walter) and Tammy Blanchard.

We're not the only ones that think the former Destiny's Child star looks nothing like the soul singer.

Etta James herself spoke to PageSix about Beyoncé and sounded rather skeptical, “Etta James ain’t been no angel!” she said at the time. “I don’t think she looks like me, but that’s all right. They can fix that up.” And they seem like they're doing a decent job so far.

The 70-year-old singer, who battled a fierce heroin addiction for many years, also candidly hopes the "Dream Girls" star can get her hands a little dirty in the role and dial down the class to properly capture her essence. "I wasn't as bougie as she is, she's bourgeois. She knows how to be a lady, she's like a model. I wasn't like that... I smoked in the bathroom in school, I was kinda arrogant, so those are some of the things I would want to tell her." Read more...

Harmony Korine Lost Only Copy Of His "Best" Screenplay 'What Makes Pistachio Nuts' In House Fire

Ok, we mentioned this briefly before, but now we've finally gotten our hands on the text.

Harmony Korine's had a rough few years. There were rumors of crystal meth and heroin addiction and there weren't any feature films released between the period of 1999' "Julian Donkey Boy" and his upcoming film, "Mister Lonely" which is finally see a stateside release in May (that's nine years if you can do basic arithmetic).

Though there were tons of smaller projects like the abandoned "Fight Harm," with buddy David Blaine; a film project that involved the scrawny little director engaging random people in actual street fights. Korine said he had hoped to make "a cross between a Buster Keaton vehicle and a snuff film," but he was soon hospitalized by various beatdowns and the project was wisely abandoned.

At some point, Korine fought his way out of the wilderness, presumably cleaned up and got married. But not before there was some collateral damage in the form of two house fires, the latter of which Korine told Paper magazine (not online), he lost what he thought was the best screenplay he has ever written.

Entitled "What Makes Pistachio Nuts," Korine described the premise as a Trotskyite who lives in a Florida suburb and owns the world's biggest pig - the titular Pistachio. In the script the young special adhesive to his pet swine and people from the community watched as he rode the animal up walls while making pro-Trotksy speeches. Uhh...

Korine apparently had trouble articulating the idea to the fashion-centric magazine. "[I realize] it sounds maybe a little less commercially viable than it [actually] was," he apologized. Umm, yeah.

Either way, it burned to a crisp in his house fire ("That's just a terrible story I don't want to get into," he said possibly eluding to his alleged drug problems. "Let's just say I passed out and when I woke up the house was gone.") and Korine spent $11,o00 trying to recover 'Pistachio' from his toasted laptop.

He failed miserably and saved only one sentence: "The speech is pointless; the finger is speechless." Perhaps not the best way to spend his cash admittedly. "Could you imagine spending eleven G's on one sentence like that? Granted it's a good sentence, but for eleven G's?"

Korine devotees and the filmmaker himself can gain comfort in the knowledge that his long-awaited "Mister Lonely" is finally hitting theaters (it stars Diego Luna and Samantha Morton as Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe impersonators respectively). We've seen it, and while we haven't written our review quite yet, he thought it was pretty terrific and wonderfully absurd.

Korine's next project according to the same article is a feature-length how-to-video about a "voodoo tap dancer" (no, seriously). Apparently the project is already in post-production, but he fears the picture - which features the dancer curing smokers and sending people into convulsions in "seven to ten dance steps" might not ever see the light of day because he fears it will hypnotize people.

"That's one of the things [me and my wife] are worried about," he say of the trance-like quality those that have seen the film fall into. "The only way you can undo this if you watch these moves in reverse, and that's very difficult. There's some deep shit going on here."

[Stunned Playlist face]. Welcome back Harmony Korine.
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Keira Knightley Sings For Dylan Thomas Film 'The Edge of Love;' Soundtrack Features Partrick Wolf, Siouxsie Sioux & More

Waifer thin 22-year-old Keira Knightley is getting into the music business.

In her latest film, "The Edge of Love" - a love triangle based on the life of famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas - the almost emaciated British actress plays one of the women vying for his affections (and has a bathtub scene with her rival Sienna Miller for all the boyz out there).

At the top of the film she is seen singing "Blue Tahitian Moon" to shelterers in an Underground station during the Blitzkrieg. She is also featured in the film singing renditions of Irving Berlin's "Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much" and "Drifting And Dreaming."

"I can't really sing," Knightley admitted. "I had to have a few lessons, but once I started doing it, a sound emerged that wasn't too disagreeable."

The "Edge of Love" soundtrack will also apparently feature Suggs from Madness ("Hang Out The Stars In Indiana") and song written by Maybury and Angelo Badalamenti sung by Siouxsie Sioux, Beth Rowley and Patrick Wolf.

The film also stars Matthew Rhys (as Thomas) and Cillian Murphy and both picture and album are expected later in the summer.
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Spiritualized's Jason Pierce Helped Samantha Morton Recover From Stroke

Ok, we knew that Samantha Morton was a big Spiritualized fan, but we didn't realize she was such bff's with main man Jason Pierce.

Morton revealed to the press just recently that she had a severe stroke in 2006 that left her near death, days after being struck on the head when part of her ceiling collapsed.

And apparently one of her saving graces was Pierce who had a similar near-death experience with pneumonia in 2005. She credits him with helping her cope.

"Jason and I have been mirroring each other. He was really sick and then I had a stroke at the beginning of that year. He was the only person I knew who understood what that was like, being near to death. He's just an incredible person. He's very courageous, and he helped me get through it all."

Only 30 years old, Morton's stroke was so brutal, she just to relearn to walk, but made a full recovery. She had her second child Edie in January of this