Leonard DiCaprio Won't Play Col. Hans Landa In Tarantino's 'Inglorious Bastards'

Yes! Anyone's who read The Playlist of late should know we're strangely obsessed with Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards." Mostly because even though it's flawed and kind of disappointing in the end, it is rather a thrilling screenplay. Even though, we have many problems with QT we're also rooting for it because it does have the potential to be the best film he's done in years if handled right and if not cheesed up too much with the director's B-movie proclivities.

Casting is essential (our suggestions) and we've been pretty adamant that Leonard DiCaprio should not play the cunning chief villain, Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, a.k.a. the "Jew Hunter." He's totally wrong for the part - casting him could ruin the movie - so when the news first broke of DiCaprio's involvement, we became disheartened and mostly gave up all hope on the film.

But wait, a new report in Entertainment Weekly (not online) says that DiCaprio won't be playing that part! They write in a very brief blurb about the film "A source says rumors that Tarantino is also courting Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of villainous Col. Hans Landa are false."

[Spoiler below, in the penultimate graph don't go any further if you don't want to know parts of the end of the film]

Thank god! Look, if he's one of the younger Basterds, we could live with that. He would presumably be PFC Utivitch (private first class), the only other Basterd that lives in the end alongside Lt. Aldo Raine (to be played by Brad Pitt - or at least they're still in "negotiations"). We can presume someone of DiCaprio's stature would want to play someone who doesn't die mid-way through the script, but there are juicer Bastards to be chosen from frankly.

Either way, we feel like we've dodged a bullet and 'Bastards' has legs again. Hopefully he doesn't fuck it up! But good lookin' out. DiCaprio would've been a horrible choice for Landa. This makes our day.
Update: Many friends have wisely reminded us that DiCaprio could still play a German: Fredrick Zoller, the young, handsome war hero that tries to woo the film's main female protagonist Shosanna. That's not ideal frankly, as Zoller is supposed to speak immaculate German and French, but we're probably too transfixed on the language point. But either way anything but DiCaprio as Landa and we'll be pretty much happy. You gotta take what you can get these days.

[Images taken from Vulture, we're at home without photoshop, Basterds spelled incorrectly on purpose as per the script]

'The Dark Knight' Makes 'The Mummy' Its Bitch At Box Office This Weekend

This weekend droves of Americans flocked to the most recent installment in Brendan Fraser's Mummy series, "The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" like lambs to the slaughter. Even though we are as sick of the Nolan Brother's "TDK" as the next guy, we were worried that in its third week it wouldn't still have to juice to out perform the failing career of Fraser, whose only remaining fan base are Midwesterners who are convinced his cheesy one-liners are the coolest thing in the flickers.

But the kind of scary obsessive 'Dark Knight' fanboys did not disappoint, even though the numbers were extremely close, with "The Mummy" bringing in $42.5 million and "TDK" hauling in a ridiculous amount for a three week old movie, $43.8 million. We still died a little on the inside and will struggle to go forward in a world where we know that a respectable mass of Americans would willingly subject themselves to the third installment of a series that was only slightly better than "Dunston Checks In" when it came out ten years ago. But we guess such is the taste of the movie going audiences these days, and now we know why all our favorite indie filmmakers have fallen off the edge of the earth.

Score! Mark Mothersbaugh, Clint Mansell, Rock N' Rolla, Carter Burwell, Danny Elfman Does 'Milk'; More

Doing our mandatory homework. One or two people have been bitching that we haven't been doing enough music coverage (you know who you are). Frankly reporting dates and tracklists gets kind of old, but we do have some movie-music related news that we find relatively exciting.

Mark Mothersbaugh
He'd been seemingly M.I.A. for a few years there having not worked on "The Darjeeling Limited," but composer/Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh has kept busy. Not only is he scoring the upcoming indie-rock love-story comedy, "Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist," the multi-instrumentalist has also written the score for the long-overdue Star Wars obsessives flick, "Fanboys" and the upcoming adaptation of the kids novel, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" that will be voiced by Andy Samberg and Anna Farris, but probably won't come out until 2010 (and to be fair to Mothersbaugh he's done a lot of work in in interim between Wes Anderson projects, but not many of them are films that you or I were probably interested in. Hello, "Mama's Boy?")

Clint Mansell
He's been working steadily ever since he broke into the movie scoring business with 1999's "Pi," but it's nice to hear that Mansell will be back for Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," which was unexpectedly announced as part of the Venice Film Festival earlier this week – we weren't expecting it until 2009, and while news is scarce on the film, it does look like the film won't be in U.S. theaters until then. An early script review of the project by Slashfilm wondered aloud if Mansell would be back considering all the specific rock songs written into the script (tunes by Def Leppard, Cinderella, Great White, AC/DC , Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Warrant , Guns ‘N Roses, Black Crowes, Skid Row, Celtic Frost, Lil 'Kim and a reference to Nirvana and how Kurt Cobain ruined music and "kick ass 80’s music"), but our fears have subsided and he's back where he belongs with Aronofsky. Someone should send us this script, we're dying to read it. We assumed the pro-wrestling film was a comedy at first, but it appears we're very wrong (the character is seemingly modelled after Randy "Macho Man" Savage from the WWF in the '80s)

Carter Burwell
Longtime Coen Brothers composer Carter Burwell (he started with their debut "Blood Simple") is not only doing the score to their upcoming screwball CIA comedy "Burn After Reading" and Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are" (in 2010?), he's also found himself a pretty good job by scoring the "Twilight" gig. "Twilight" as we all know is a bonafide tweener phenomenon and will likely spawn about four sequels at least (there's four books, but the author think there should be five films), so this is a smart play for Burwell, who will not only likely get paid handsomely, he'll have steady work for years.

More Scores
We're admittedly unfamiliar with his work, but nonetheless, Steve Isle has composed the score to Guy Ritchie's crime caper, "Rock N’ Rolla." His past credits don't include "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" and the BAFTA-winning documentary, "The Dangerous School For Boys." The inimitable Phillip Glass is composing the score to the Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman drama "Doubt," Paul Cantelon the main behind the minimalist, but super-effective piano score of "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly" is writing the music for Oliver Stone's Bush biopic ‘W’ and Danny Elfman is re-teaming again with Gus Van Sant for his December chronicle of slain, openly-gay 1970s San Franciscan mayor Harvey Milk in the biopic "Milk" starring Sean Penn (the last film they did together was 1997's "Good Will Hunting").

Danny McBride Blows Shit Up In 'Tropic Thunder'; First Listen To Mooney Suzuki's Soundtrack Song

Jesus H, the "Tropic Thunder" viral campaign just refuses to quit. There's already websites for the "Hearts of Darkness"-esque "documentary" of the film, "Rain of Madness," Ben Stiller's dullard action hero, Tugg Speedman, Robert Downey Jr.'s overly-serious Lee Strasberg-ian actor Kirk Lazarus, Jack Black's puerile gastropodic comedian Jeff Portnoy and now there's, yes, there's another... a website for "Cody Effects" the pyrotechnic company run by Cody Keith Underwood (aka Danny R. McBride from "Pineapple Express" and "The Foot Fist Way").

We kind of suggested we'd snap if Paramount made any more of these sites, but with the old-school '96 website design complete with animated fire, oversized bullet points and cheap-ass design, we have to smile and admit this one is pretty clever too. His bio:

"As a young man, Cody worked briefly as an apprentice pyro-technician for the bands Dokken, Dio, Stryper, and Warrant. On the road, it didn't take long for Cody to master the art of blowing things up. After just eight months of apprenticeship, Cody moved north to tour with the band WASP, and agreed to manage and maintain their special effects and pyrotechnic light show. The job was short lived however due to creative differences with the band's lead singer."

The best part? He's apparently done pyrotechnic work previously on films like, "Driving Miss Daisy," "Remains of the Day," "Freaky Friday" and "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood." Ha, ok, that's funny. McBride already stole a big chunk of "Pineapple Express," so it's plausible he could do the same in 'Thunder,' though granted he looks like he has an even smaller role in the Vietnam war comedy. Either way, his break-out success this year come end of the year retrospective time is almost already guaranteed.

Jan Jürgen (Justin Theroux ), the 'Madness' documentarian says of Cody/McBride, "His continued ignorance and arrogance is awesome." Theroux is totally channelling Werner Herzog in his pretentious narration (see clip below of Lazarus) and man, it's kind of amazing well played.

God, for a film that we still think doesn't look that funny, and by the sounds of the reviews out there isn't that funny (and sounds like it's surely not up our alley), we've surely spent a fuck of a lot of time parsing the viral sites of this film. We should be getting paid for this or something. Sigh...

We've also got three more songs from the soundtrack to preview including a sneak peek and a first listen of The Mooney Suzuki's spot-on cover of "I Just Want to Celebrate" (it sounds so exactly like the original Rare Earth track; you kinda wonder why they bothered do do a cover in the first place). The NY rockers actually make a cameo in the movie and the other songs are the classic '60s tune "I'd Love To Change The World" by Ten Years After and the theme to TV's "The Jefferson's" by Janet DuBois (that's presumably played in the movie when RDJ turns black - note there's even a site for this! It's called Make Pretty Skin Clinic and it has a Lazurus testimonial, jesus). Man, no wonder they say Paramount spent $30 million dollars marketing 'Thunder.'

Cody Keith Underwood Blows Shit Up


Jan Jürgen on Kirk Lazurus:

LOL! The Joker Can't Understand The Dark Knight's Unintelligible Mumbling

Normally we steer far away from fan-made clips on the Internet cause a) they're usually unfunny and b) they're usually painfully cheap and amateurish, but this riff on Christian Bale's unintelligible Batman growl with the Joker in the interrogation room is pretty damn amusing. It starts to lose steam around the 2:00 min mark, but in Internet years/A.D.D. attention span times that's a pretty great ratio of funny to tiresome.

Short Cuts: Nic Cage, New 'W' Photos, 'Venom' Spin-Off, 'Watchmen,' 'Righteous Kill,' 'Ballast' And More Blog Flotsam & Jetsam

Nicholas Cage is slated to star in John Carpenters new movie about every Jr. High students biggest fear. Cage will star as an inmate on a mission to save a teen who has been taken hostage during a prison riot while visiting for that annoying Scared Straight program. The film will most likely insure that no parent will ever again sign a consent form for their child to participate in the "Scared Straight" program again. [Slasfilm]

Harvey Danger frontman Sean Nelson co-wrote and stars in "My Effortless Brilliance" directed by Lynn Shelton. Nelson is a super nice dude, so we're very happy about this. Not sure how it fell off our radar though. [SpoutBlog]

A slightly new trailer of Oliver Stone's 'W,' plus images of George Dubya/Josh Brolin looking like a Texas Ranger and a Sheriff-looking Cowboy are out. It's like he reversed roles with Tommy Lee Jones in "No Country For Old Men." [RopeofSilicon]

It is now a proven fact that studios will stop at nothing to turn obscure comic-book characters into feature length film subjects to capitalize on Americas new found geek chic. Marvel Studios have announced they are planning a Venom spin-off. Sam Raimi also announced that he will not be touching this weak-ass project and thank god for that. The Spider-Man movies are harmless enough, but a movie devoted entirely to Venom? This shit is getting out of hand, god save us all. [IESB.net]

The bootleg "Wolfman" trailer from Comic-Con will probably go down in minutes considering the blog is under review and will probably get the axe soon. [Wolfman-Trailer-Blogspot] Speaking of, The "Wolfman" site is actually live now. We're not sure why a fine actor like Benicio del Toro would have anything to do with Comic-Con bait to be honest. [Wolfmanmovie]

New images for "Dragonball Z" suggest this action, kung-fu, sci-fi flick is going to be a hilarious comedy. [DBTheMovie]

David Gordon Green originally wanted Huey Lewis to record a "Ghostbusters"-like theme for "Pineapple Express" and then he remembered the whole brouhaha back in the day: Huey Lewis in the News sued Ray Parker Jr. because his theme was much to similar to "I Wanna New Drug." The super interesting aspect of that story was the lawsuit happened in 1984; the parties settled it quietly and signed a gag order. The news that a lawsuit between them existed at all came out 17 years later in 2001 when Huey Lewis spoke about the incident in a VH1 "Behind The Music," episode compelling Parker Jr. to sue him for breaching the confidentiality agreement. [L.A. Times Soundboard]

The Times has an interesting article about filmmakers going the DIY route for distribution. The piece lists "Bottle Shock," “Wicked Lake,” “The Singing Revolution” and “Last Stop for Paul” among the indies currently or recently taking the maverick route of getting their films into theaters by any means necessary (self-distribution). This group also includes “Ballast,” a Sundance '08 winner opening in October, that we're dying to see. [NYTimes]

No matter how much they try and class up the new DeNiro/Pacino film, "Righteous Kill" with a new poster, the movie still looks pretty stupid. Remember the days when a DeNiro-Pacino team-up was worth salivating over? Those were the days. Also, isn't it disconcerting that Pacino looks like Billy Bob Thornton in the poster? [Empire]

Four new images of the "Watchmen" have been released. Repeat. Four. New. Images. Of. The.Watchmen.have.been.released. Proceed with caution try not to trample anyone underfoot in your mad scramble to the front door. [Empire]

Keira Knightly is fighting attempts to sex up the poster to this fall's period piece "The Duchess." The U.K. waif is standing up for flat-chested women everywhere, trying to stop the studio from airbrushing cleavage unto her surf board torso for the theatrical poster. Are the suits under some impression that by adding cleavage to the poster they will attract loads of horny twenty somethings looking for a three hour soft-core porn? We aren't sure, but producers standing up to small breasted ladies seems to be a recurring as of late. [Cinemablend.com]

"Clueless" and "The Breakfast Club" deemed better high school movies than "Boyz N the Hood" by EW.com. Check out the rest of the list on their website for more amusingly misguided comparisons. [EW.com]

Giveaway: Four Copies Of Hans Zimmer's 'Dark Knight' Score

Say what you will about "The Dark Knight," maybe it's hokey, unbelievable, amazing, better than "The Godfather," etc. One thing's for sure, the score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard is pretty amazing and was actually influenced by the likes of Kraftwerk, the Damned and clanging industrial noises.

We said in an early preview of the discordant music, rather breathlessly, "the cacophonous score is totally submerged in pounding, texturally crunchy percussive ruptures and searing apocalyptic cellos stained with gloom and dread. Not to mention the random whisping eerie sounds emanating from speakers like apparitions...."there's this excellent, buzzing, droning quality to it like an airplane about to crash that's incredibly minimalist, atonal and way out-there for a mainstream film."

In our review of "The Dark Knight" we wrote, "the score, btw, is impeccable and just further fuels the anxiety and the idea that the world here is about to burn."

Since 'TDK' mania is still pretty much in full effect. Contest closed, thanks for playing. we have four two copies of the soundtrack to give away of the soundtrack CD (you can preview three songs below). To win all one needs to do is be the first to email us the answer to this question: What was the name of the Joker's psychiatrist in Frank Miller's graphic novel, "The Dark Knight Returns"? Bonne chance.

'Brideshead Revisited' Contest: Soundtrack And Novel

Give it up for the ladies! Who says we don't cater to our robust female audience? Miramax's "Brideshead Revisited" is now out in limited release and doing fairly decent box-office for an indie that aims at a specialized audience. We have a few gifts to give to give away; two in fact.

The Grand Prize includes:
• 1 Hard Cover Brideshead Revisited book by Evelyn Waugh
• 1 Brideshead Revisited Official Soundtrack

The Secondary Prize includes:
• 1 Soft Cover Brideshead Revisted book by Evelyn Waugh

To win all one needs to do is be the first to email us the answer to this question: What was the name of the Jane Austen-inspired movie 'Brideshead' director Julian Jarrold helmed in 2007? Contest over, thanks for playing.

The soundtrack features the score of Adrian Johnston as performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Terry Davies. "Brideshead Revisited" stars Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw (one of the Dylans in "I'm Not There") , Emma Thompson (natch), Hayley Atwell, and Michael Gambon (of course) and the film expands in theaters this weekend and will expand again on 8/8.

Trailer: "Brideshead Revisited"

Can Brendan Fraser & 'The Mummy' Best 'The Dark Knight'?

God, we're as sick of "The Dark Knight" as the next guy, but can this juggernaut of current pop culture really be taken down by a Brendan Fraser movie? Wouldn't that be a horrible insult, third week or not? Who the hell would watch, let alone pay to see "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," the threequel to Fraser's useless cash-grab CGI-adventure farts. Can we have their name, photos and addresses so we can publicly shame them? Much like how pedophiles have to register their whereabouts on websites, shouldn't 'Mummy' fans have to record their embarrassing love for these movies on file somewhere? (Doesn't one of the AICN guys like these films? And holy shit, what is Maria Bello doing in this monstrosity? Someone needed a paycheck evidently)

Most publications and pundits are suggesting that 'The Mummy 3' has the lead and almost all box-office predictions look the same : Mummy in the $40 million dollar range and Batman 'TDK' in the $30 mill range. Again, we're sick of 'TDK' and the psychotic fans that are still ripping apart anyone who dares to dissent against the film, but "The Mummy"? Really? We'd rather see 'TDK' rule the box-office for one more week than see the loathsome Brendan Fraser atop the movie charts. Hell, we'd rather see 'Dark Knight' beat the "Titanic" b.o. record before Fraser would sit at #1.

Oh, and while, we're here completely specious rumors out of the National Inquirer (for fuck's sake) via the almost-even shoddier Contact Music say Johnny Depp and Phillip Seymour Hoffman will play the Riddler and The Penguin respectively. We're sort of embarrassed to even give this a buried story a mild look and anyone giving this headline coverage should be shamed (that's more the reason we're putting this here). It's the National Inquirer for Christ almighty. Maybe when batboy, chupacabra mania takes hold in pop culture, blogs will start giving reports of UFO's and five headed babies some play too. Fucking sad.

Revenge Of The Nerds, Not So Much?

The whole, "comic-book movies and their fans may have reached the tipping point" thesis keeps rearing its head. Will this premise rise to a chorus and what are the facts they have to base their case on considering Hollywood is still reaping the massive benefits of "The Dark Knight?"

The Hollywood Reporter is at it again with a piece that propounds the question: Are the geeks overrated in Hollywood? It doesn't prove much and fumbles around in the dark a lot - it's more an exploratory piece than a straight up condemnation - but the fact this concept continues to repeat itself is worth noting.

One unnamed director who frequents Comic-Con year after year said anonymously that the online crowd doesn't necessarily matter as much as everyone thinks. "The total number of people in the blog world is probably only a few hundred thousand, and as much as they might hate to hear it, for most movies that's not going to make the difference between a success and a failure." God, if they would have named that person, he would've been ripped to shreds by the fanboys. Should we care to guess who it was? Kevin Smith? Zack Snyder? Frank Miller? Man, if this person was to be outed, sparks would fly and we'd love to see what transpired from it.

NBC marketing chief John Miller, notes that even his network's most ardent fans for shows like "Journeyman" and CBS' "Jericho," can sometimes only be a dedicated but marginal voice that doesn't move mountains or rating. "Sometimes that small group can be loyally fanatical and will never grow to the point of critical mass. There are some shows you're never going to find profitability with no matter how much a fan base loves it." ("Jericho" was cancelled, brought back by fans, and then ratings plummeted).

This is the the article's most compelling nut graph.

"It might be that the fan revolution is being driven not so much by compelling data or a clear strategy but a more intangible psychological factor. In the echo chamber of a fan campaign, it's hard for execs and creators not to get caught up in the hype."

However, the piece does illustrate the concern filmmakers feel about potential backlash, geek talk and anti-hype. Michael Bay's producing partner, Brad Fuller, said he was "terrified" over how the Comic-Con audiences would take to the "Friday the 13th" reboot and the Reporter also states that Paramount was so nervous about its "Star Trek" prequel they didn't show footage from the film because they weren't confident that the unfinished clips would look appealing to discerning eyes.

'What Just Happened' Trailer: Can Barry Levinson & DeNiro Make A Comeback?

It's been more than a decade since Barry Levinson's last decent film ('97's "Wag The Dog"), and about the same for Robert DeNiro give or take a few years and roles, but the satirical looking "What Just Happened," cautiously looks like it could give us the best Hollywood send-up since Robert Atlman's "The Player."* Or at least it's the first trailer for a Barry Levinson film that we've thought, "hey, yeah, that looks interesting, we could see that."

Robert Deniro plays a self-involved Hollywood producer with an estranged wife (Robin Wright Penn); Michael Wincott plays a diva seemingly badass film director who cries at the first sign that the studio is going to take away his final cut. Sean Penn plays an A-list star, John Turturro plays a meek and timid agent and Bruce Willis plays an overweight and bearded Bruce Willis who refuses to shave, lose weight and look the part of a leading man. The rest of this impressive cast - man did they have a crazy budget or is everyone working for scale? - features Catherine Keener, Kristen Stewart and the great Stanley Tucci.

The studio synopsis (with some of the super-heated superlatives taken out they were so overwrought):

"What Just Happened" chronicles two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer (Robert DeNiro) -- as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson reunites with De Niro and screenwriter/producer Art Linson, who wrote the screenplay based on his bestselling memoir. They all join with an all-star cast (Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, John Turturro, Michael Wincott, Kristen Stewart, Stanley Tucci and Bruce Willis as a hirsute Bruce Willis) in this rollicking, shrewd tale of a man besieged by people who want him to be all sorts of things -- a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in – everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he’s surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.

The pic looks fairly amusing, but as detailed above, these guys have been on quite the losing streak of late, so much so that we're actually rooting for them here cause god, it's painful watching DeNiro fumble with his acting choices over and over again. Willis' send-up of himself does look entertaining though and hell it is a stellar cast. "What Just Happened" premiered at the Sundance earlier this year and then was eventually picked up by Magnolia Pictures and comes out October 3rd. *One of our friends recently just saw it she said it was good, but "Altman's 'Player' did it better." Sigh, figures. She does note that Turturro is "amazing" in it (again, not a huge suprise). We're still interested though and definitely want to judge for ourselves.

Casting Quentin Tarantino In Takeshi Miike's 'Sukiyaki Western Django': Not A Good Look

Granted it looks like they (Takeshi Miike and his editors) thrust Tarantino into the foreground to sell this hyper-stylized chop-socky Western to American audiences, when in actuality it seems like he has a small narrator part, but either way... it makes us cringe a little bit. Not a good look. We'll be honest, we don't really know much about this film, but by the looks of it, we assume it has something to do with "Django," a Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1966. The title track of which is one of our favorite Ennio Morricone songs and also a track we fittingly, but unknowingly put out our If I Were Quentin Tarantino playlist by ear only. But Quentin is a ham and can't act for shit. Leave him behind the camera, even for the smallest parts. His appearance here however brief threatens to derail and steal what could be a decent genre homage.

Download: Ennio Morricone - "Django"

Oooh, Bootleg 'Che: Argentine' Trailer Leaks

Yowza, the trailer for the "The Argentine," the first half of Steven Soderbergh's four-hour plus, two-part epic "Che" has leaked online. We're pretty sure the song near the end is from Hans Zimmer's amazing score to "The Thin Red Line," which would be appropriate considering they probably have some similar war themes and thoughtful tones, but our Zimmer is at work at the moment. Questions that come up. Will Wild Bunch issue an English-language trailer soon? (We can understand some of it, but the sound is so bad) And, will there be a "The Guerrilla" trailer soon? Hmmm, this definitely whets our appetite for the film all the more.

At one point in the trailer a somber looking Del Toro says: "Un pueblo que no sabe leer y escribir, es un pueblo facil a enganar," which means "A village that cannot read or write is a village that can be easily deceived."

"Che" was obviously the talk of Cannes 2008 in May and won lead Benicio Del Toro the Best Actor award, but no one has stepped up to the plate to distribute it in the U.S. ... yet. Four indie distribs are reportedly eyeing the film for a December theatrical release. We would probably give our left nut to see this way in advance of that date, admittedly. Spoutblog says "The Argentine" is set to be released in Spain on September 5 and notes that on IMDB, 'Che' has been split up into two parts, "The Argentine" and "The Guerilla." Hmm, what does that mean exactly? It obviously runs in complete contradiction to Soderbergh's insistence that "Che" will remain one long four-hour epic (though note: After a limited December run as one film, the director would then like to release the first part in January and the second in February).

Perhaps in international markets, Wild Bunch and Soderbergh believe audiences will come back for more and pay twice for a protracted story over the course of several months? Might not be a terrible bet. Europeans have patience with their cinema. This movie is certainly for them.

'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' Scored By Mark Mothersbaugh, Features Bishop Allen, Band of Horses, Devendra Banhart, The Raveonettes & More

Ok, so "The Wackness" failed at it. So, will this flick be this year's "Juno" (and how many more years do we have to wait until the press and blogs are done saying, "this year's 'Juno'," already?)

Well, if anything does have a shot at that horrible appellation, it's this film, "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist," given that "The Wackness" proved an R-Rating is a bit too much for a sweet, coming-of-age comedy at the box-office. "Juno" was PG-13, as is 'Infinite Playlist' which is directed by Peter Sollett, who impressed us in 2002 with his auspicious debut, "Raising Victor Vargas" (damn, six years in between films, huh?)

The film stars the world's most adorable dork, Michael Cera, the teen prince of awkwardness and the fetching and comely Kat Dennings as two teenagers, nursing broken hearts, that fall in love during one sleepless night in New York while searching for their favorite band's unannounced show.

Cera's clumsy embarrassing routine should have congealed into pure shtick by now and arguably it has, but we'd defy you to find someone who's gotten sick of it yet, the little fucker is so damn charming. And Dennings' toothy grin is so cute it could get us arrested. This one has all the pedigree, flavor, looks and appeal necessary; their target demo is surely in hook, line and sinker already. The only thing that can fuck up the film is itself at this point.

Another bonus: we know what Mark Mothersbaugh's been up to ever since Wes Anderson didn't utilize him for "The Darjeeling Limited," as the Devo magnate has scored this pic (which the soundtrack supervisors should see as a true feather in their cap). According to the trailer, bands featured in the movie include the previously reported Bishop Allen (who's song "Middle Management" is featured in the trailer), Band of Horses, Devendra Banhart, The Raveonettes, Shout Out Louds, Vampire Weekend, Modest Mouse, The Real Tuesday Weld and We Are Scientists among others. Looks like it's going to be an indie-rock special which is what we would've expected given the premise and setting of the film (the New York indie-rock club scene).

Bishop Allen actually perform in the film and so do Brooklyn electro-indie duo Project Jenny/Project Jan. Cera plays a bassist in his "queer-core" band The Jerk-Offs (but whether they're still named that and still fey in the film is anyone's guess).

The cast is littered with many an up-and-coming teen faces Aaron Yoo, the Asian antagonist of "The Wackness," Ari Graynor ("Veronica Mars"), Alexis Dziena (the young naked daughter in "Broken Flowers") plus contains smaller cameos by John Cho (Harold of "Harold & Kumar"), Jay Baruchel (of the Judd Apatow family players troupe) and Seth Meyers of SNL.

And pre-warning to those that recoil and become extremely uncomfortable when "hip indie" music is referenced in films (music press haters of 'Juno,' Jim Derogatis, presumably Idolator), stay away from this film. It's not meant for you (check the Magnetic Fields and Arcade Fire albums in the set design, doesn't that make you run to the hills or what? God forbid music you like turn up in a movie, huh? Pssst, it's no so secret, hate to break it to you).

Hopefully it's better than "Charlie Barlett," a teen coming-of-age comedy that also stars Dennings which we tried to watch recently and couldn't bear it, it was so awful (and from the outset, we were interested and thought it looked charming. Wrong!).

Based on the novel of the same name written by Rachel Cohn (who answered a bunch of questions about the adaptation on her myspace page) and David Levithan, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" is written by relatively fresh screenwriter Lorene Scafaria and due in theaters via Sony on October 3rd. The film will also have it's North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September (which we're going to this year and eagerly hope to catch it while it's there, if not sooner, hint!).

Download: Bishop Allen - "Middle Management" ('Infinite Playlist' trailer song)

'Inglorious Bastards' Casting Update: No One Knows Anything Yet, Including Michael Madsen

Finally some real news about "Inglorious Bastards," no one knows anything! Vulture talked to Michael Madsen, one of the actors who was once going to play a character called Babe Buchinsky, a part the NYmag bloggers say, "no longer exists in the most recent draft of the script."

But guys, clearly that's the old name for the same character (or slightly re-tweaked) now redubbed Sgt. Donny Donowitz. The alliteration, the fact he's the baseball touting soldier who beats Germans to death, the name the 'Babe'? (guess he thought that was too obvious, you'll recall there is a Babe Ruth reference in the script's directions)

Now that we have that cleared up, Vulture finds out that Madsen has no clue if he's going to be included in the film or not.

“I wish I knew the answer to that, but it's like asking McCain who his V.P. is gonna be. I've been on the IMDb connected to that project for a very long time, but they're taking it to a studio and therefore my participation in the project is unknown, because that's a different world. I have to wait and count on Quentin to pull me in at the last minute and give me a decent role. I hope that he does, but I'm certainly not going to stay awake at night worrying about it. I'm gainfully employed, and expect to be for some time. I love to work for Quentin and hope that I'm in it, but if I'm not, it doesn't fucking mean that I'm going to jump off a cliff.”

Clearly Madsen is a) not cry a river and b) probably aware, as many are, that he's probably too old for the part now. We included Madsen as Donowitz in our "Inglorious Bastards" casting piece, but hadn't completely digested that idea fully. Now with some thought, we realize this is probably off. From what we can gather, Lt. Aldo Raine (probably to be played by Brad Pitt) is the leader of the Basterds, the eldest and the wisest (relatively speaking of course, they are foot soldiers after all). Even if they did cast someone else who was older than Pitt, the script does seem to call for a Donowitz that would be younger than either of them (most of the Basterds seem like they're between 20-35, max). Madsen continues...

“I'm not gonna just hang my hat on Inglorious Bastards and say, 'This is the one for me.' You never know what that's gonna be, and you can't spend your life thinking about it. You'll make a great film when you least expect it, or don't really anticipate it … I don't have a crystal ball or time machine, I can't know what's going to happen. I just want longevity.”

Is someone in the know and trying to manage our expectations? We will see Madsen in a smaller role reserved for a grizzled, older character perhaps? Oh, the official "no Leonardo DiCaprio in this film" campaign starts right here. We'll start a blog called Never Go Full Retard in protest if we have to.

Opening This Weekend Reviews: 'Frozen River,' ' In Search Of A Midnight Kiss'

We reviewed these two indies a few weeks ago, here they are in basically the same form, possibly a few tweaks with perspective, but our thoughts haven't changed on them and neither have the grades. Both these film open in limited New York, Los Angeles on August 1. Presumably (and hopefully) they expand after that.

Frozen River (full review)
What is it about some indie filmmakers, and many of that Sundance mien, that want to torture you with the abject misery that befalls their already down and out hard luck characters? "Frozen River," the big Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance 08, definitely falls into this category of witnessing near-tragedy and accursed fortune befall people that already have it pretty rough. Set in frozen, upstate New York, Melissa Leo (best known as Benicio Del Toro's tortured wife in "21 Grams") plays a rode hard and put away wet single mom who leads a hardscrabble life trying to fend for her two kids. Mounting debt, despondency and a deadbeat husband soon lead her to a scamming Native American girl (a revelatory Misty Upham) involved in a cross-border illegal alien smuggling operation over the frozen St. Lawrence river into Canada. With the law closely watching, the proposition is ludicrously risky, but the temptation to score and balance that makings-ends-meet budget is too alluring. At times, 'River' is too excruciatingly bleak, but the performances are top-notch and overall the film is a powerful depiction of desperation, but next time, here's to hoping Hunt gives her characters even the slightest glimmer of hope along the way to redemption. [B]. The film's score is composed by Winnipeg singer Keri Latimer and features some songs by Pompous Pilate and others.

In Search Of A Midnight Kiss - dir. Alex Holdridge
Have you ever seen a budget indie film that's simultaneously terrible and charming? Similar to Kevin Smith's "Clerks" in its wanton trying-to-be-clever amateurish and mumblecore in its DIY (and sometimes endearing) spirit, 'Midnight Kiss' chronicles the 24-ish some hours leading up to New Year's eve and one despondent frageelay, indie kid's desire to not be alone on New Year's Eve. Bolstered by an executive producer of "Dazed & Confused" who lent their name to the flick, the movie's dialogue is sometimes painfully awkward, the presentation is shoddy and clumsy and the whole thing feels like a crude, rookie film school project, yet somehow it reveals a bittersweet winning quality in the end that makes it not entirely worthless. It's not good, per se, but a cautiously auspicious start. [C] Somehow, this seemingly no-budget film was able to afford an indie-riffic soundtrack by Shearwater, Okkervil River, the Mendoza Line, Sybil and Paleo. [trailer]

Trailer: "Frozen River"

Trailer: "In Search Of A Midnight Kiss"

'Hamlet 2' Soundtrack Will Rape You In The Face!

You may have problems with "Hamlet 2," it's silly, it's heavy on the irony, it's pretty absurdist and we thought we wouldn't like it (we were wrong), but c'mon with irreverant songs like "Rape Me In The Face" and "You're as Gay as the Day is Long," how can you not like this thing? You've probably already heard "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" as it's been making the rounds and it should convince you more.

While we all were sleeping, the "Hamlet 2" Soundtrack came out on June 29 and mostly digital it seems, which is odd (not the digital part) because the movie doesn't come out until August 22. Perhaps the studio folks want the music out early considering the hilarious ghey theater tunes in the film could easily begat their own cult following.

Haven't heard what "Hamlet 2" is about? Sundance 2008's biggest sale (it was bought for $10 million by Focus Features) stars Steve Coogan as a failed-actor turned inept drama teacher trying to motivate his disinterested "gang-banging" Latino students, who then develops a fawning and obsessive crush on the real Elisabeth Shue (as played by Elisabeth Shue in a kind of 'Being John Malkovich' style meta self-parody). But facing cutbacks, the school is forced to cancel drama and Coogan conceives of a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet to rescue the program only to have the play tear the community apart and become a first amendment issue. Got that?

Catherine Keener plays Coogan's aloof wife, Melonie Diaz marvels as a hispanic high school student, David Arquette inhabits the role of a mostly silent idiot and Amy Poehler, another person we didn't care for much, amazes as a potty-mouthed, nutcase first amendment crusader.
The film was full of suprises for us. We thought the musical sequences in the film seemed corny and without context they kind of do, but man, this flick is a delicious treat of wrongness and super amusing idiots. Ralph Sall ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Nancy Drew") composed most of the score and the songs in the film including a cover of Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" which is used to sublime effect in the film. We're not the hugest fans of Steve Coogan to be honest (aside from the amazing "24 Hour Party People"), but damn if he's not delightfully brilliant as the pathetic theater teacher. One things for sure, if you were ever a drama student, sang in high school musicals or even were aware of these floofy types growing up, you're probably going to relish this hilarious send-up of musical theee-ater.

"Hamlet 2" Soundtrack
01. Rock Me Sexy Jesus - The Ralph Sall Experience
02. You're as Gay as the Day is Long - The Ralph Sall Experience
03. Someone Saved My Life Tonight - The Ralph Sall Experience
04. Raped in the Face - Steve Coogan
05. Maniac -The Ralph Sall Experience
06. Curtain Falls - The Ralph Sall Experience
07. I See a World - All Too Much
08. Guitar Sweet! (Opening/Sperm Doctor/Erin B/Creative Process) - Ralph Sall
09. What It's Like - Everlast
10. Sleep - Ralph Sall
11. Gone - All Too Much
12. Move Your Groove - Interstellar Force
13. The Look of Love (Part One) - ABC

Download: Phoebe Strole/Steve Coogan - "Raped In The Face"
Download: Elton John "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"

Breaking! Brett Ratner Won't Pitch Art Films, Woody Allen's New Film & More...

Brett Ratner has moved his production company from the dissolving New Line to Paramount. Ratner emphasized to Variety that he "will not be pitching art films." SHOCKING. Instead, get this! "I want to make mainstream tentpole projects." Holy shit. More as this story develops. [Variety]

A "very personal," father-and-son "Austin Powers 4"? Mike Meyers give it up. Hollywood (and audiences) hate you. This is slightly a step above a "The Love Guru 2" pitch. [DeadlineHollywood]

Seth Rogen says, stop bitching about the Green Hornet already. He's writing, he's starring in it, it's too late now. One thing we are looking forward to? The Rogen-penned episode of the Simpsons (which he's co-writing with buddy Evan Goldberg) will heavily center on the Comic Book Guy. He's still looking at directors for 'Hornet,' btw. [SplashPage]

Is "Frozen River" star Melissa Leo a diva or is the Golden Derby making a mountain out of a molehill? Our 'River' review is here. It comes out this weekend, it's not perfect and some are calling it bland, but diva behavior or no Leo is rather amazing in it. A breakthrough performance to be sure. And note, for fanboys that think Sundance-y indie dramas are not their cup of tea, Tarantino looooved it. [Yay:Golden Derby/Nay: Hollywood Elsewhere]

Woody Allen has named his next movie, the one that stars Larry David as pervy stand-in for himself hitting on a way-too-young Evan Rachel Wood, "Whatever Works." Whatever, indeed. If "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" doesn't pan out, we're done with Woody for good. [Journal Sentinel]

Vulture posits that August is shit-month for summer movies. Considering the mainstream dreck usually dumped there and what's coming next month, we'd have to agree, but don't forget some of the decent indies ("Hamlet 2," maybe "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," the aforementioned "Frozen River") and "Pineapple Express" which is good, but not fantastic. Our summer preview if you need a few more ideas. [Vulture]