Cinemascope

The guys over at TwitchFilm have been following for weeks the strange tale of Thai action star Tony Jaa’s disappearance from the set of “Ong Bak 2″, which was to have been his directorial debut, his subsequent return and on-air clash with the film’s producers. The story reeks with innuendos of black magic and mob dealings that would in itself made for a chilling Thai horror film. But the thing is, “Ong Bak” was an eye-poppingly wonderful action movie, and Jaa’s follow-up, “Tom yum goong” had some of the best cinematic fight sequences ever filmed (see below).

Now it seems the strange story of Jaa disappearing and reappearing may be over at last with production resumed earlier this week, and the directorial reins handed over to Jaa’s martial arts mentor, Panna Rittikrai. The film’s producer’s still aim for an early December release. Talk about tight.

This Cannes festival promo reel, with footage shot before Jaa’s meltdown, and posted on TwitchFilm, shows that no matter how odd this production has been, “Ong Bak 2″ is still a movie worth waiting for.

After the jump, two videos to prove that Jaa is currently the world’s biggest action hero (”Rush Hour 5″ here I come, yeah?):

First, the 4 minute-jaw dropping-spiral staircase-single take-fight sequence from “Tom yum goong”, for those who are still not savvy with Tony Jaa’s current status of a martial-arts idol…

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We’re having a rocking summer in Tel Aviv this year. After a couple of years that no significant rock shows came over here, the dry spell ended and first Morrissey came over and gave us a jolly good time (with The New York Dolls supporting), the The Breeders yesterday, and today it was announced that Paul McCartney will be ending his current world tour here in September.

Two cell-phone photos I took from Morrissey’s Tel Aviv show, July 2008

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I love “Loudquietloud - A Film About the Pixies“, a great rock-doc about the sad state the four members of the Pixies were in, 10 years after they broke up. Kim Deal - aka Mrs. John Murphy - was for a while the most stable of the bunch: she made The Breeders a fine follow-up act, and formed The Amps, while her twin sister, and co-Breeders member, cleaned up from a messy drug dependency. But “quietLoudquiet” caught up with Kim Deal at her lowest point. Now she was rehabilitating from drug addiction and living with her parents in Dayton, Ohio. When she agreed to get on the Pixies reunion tour her parents seemed skeptical but were happy she finally found something to get her out of the house and away from her obsessive origami work. Kim brought on Kelly as the responsible adult to accompany her on tour and keep her safe and clean. Kelly brought her camcorder along (and had many a Pixies fan confuse her for her twin sister). Kim Deal, and the rest of the Pixies, seemed shattered after the group disbanded. Drugs and financial woes plagued all of them. When she picked up the bass guitar again and her fingers bled and blistered, it was like she didn’t even recognize the songs that her fans know by heart. It was a fine portrait about the miracle of music - of four strangers getting together to make classic rock songs and albums they can never recreate when separate, although they are sure they don’t need each other to thrive (and that each one is in fact a burden) - but also the tragedy of success (even cult status success, and not Millionaire Club success, as was the case with The Pixies). It also shows how artists are sometimes the last to know their true worth.

Yesterday in Tel Aviv, Kim and Kelly Deal - aka The Breeders - took the stage in the tiny Zappa Club, and banged out a giggly punk-rock act that was messy and deranged but oozed of fun and energy. You could tell that the two come alive on stage, and get their kicks there. Now Kim was again in her “responsible adult” role, taking charge of the show. They also have quite the collection of the perfect 2 minute post-pop-punk songs, for some they can’t still get their guitar chords quite right. But nonetheless it was a great and loud and fun and exciting two hours, with a band I used to love, and recently - with Mountain Battles, their fine something-of-a-comeback-from-a-comeback album - rediscovered with great joy.

Here’s a murky cell-phone shot I took yesterday:

Kim and Kelly Deal: The Breeders, yesterday in Tel Aviv

And here is the set list they played (except for “Regalame Este Noche” which they skipped on the second encore):

Twilight this, twilight that. Everybody’s buzzing ’bout Twilight and I’m completely lost. OK, I get it: the Stephanie Meyer’s books are huge best sellers among teen girls. And there’s a movie coming out, that has now settled in the November 21st slot previously occupied by “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” (ooooh… I smell a turf war between occult obsessed teen boys and teen girls brewing on the horizon).

I’ve first stumbled upon the “Twilight” craze back in April when the movie was still in principal photography and Slashfilm noted that anything “Twilight” related on the internet is sky-rocketing. I then stumbled upon Stephanie Meyer’s own blog and was amused to see an author keeping what looks like a fan-site for her own work. She’s more psyched about the movie then anyone. And then came Comic-con. And now the released dated moving forward. Is it all only empty buzz or is thee something substantial here?

Teen girls in Hollywood are a coveted demographic that turned “Titanic” into a mega-hit and turned “Across the Universe” from a bomb to a minor cult hit. So what will “Twilight” be? The next “Titanic” or the next “Across the Universe”? My guess is the latter: we’re in for a stinker, ravaged by critics, ignored by the masses, but beloved and embraced by 13 year old girls who go in for repeat viewings. (I actually liked “Across the Universe”, as flawed as it was it had true vision).

There’s another thing: according to IMDb the score is composed by Carter Burwell. Seemingly, good news for me: I think Burwell, who worked on all of the Coen Brothers movies, is one of the last great film composers out there, his tunes and tones are dark, menacing and always unique. But there is “The Carter Curse”. No film Burwell has composed has ever been a hit. Some where adequately successful, but others have tanked miserably. Case in point: “The Alamo”, or lately “In Brugge” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, both respected and critically admired, but too dark for audiences. In fact, The Coen Brothers biggest hits to date are the only ones where they didn’t use Burwell’s music: “No Country For Old Men” and “O Brother Where Art Thou”. Check out his filmography: he wrote some really great scores, but every time he was associated with a big Hollywood production that was supposed to be a blockbuster, the movie underperformed. Remember “Mystery Alaska”? “A Knight’s Tale”? “Simone”? “What Planet Are You From”? Is “Twilight” the next in line on that list? (I’m not saying it’s his fault, just constant bad luck and movies that were too dark to appeal to a mass audience). I think none of his films ever broke the 100 million dollars mark. Not even when you had Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts together in “Conspiracy Theory” (one of my all-time favorite soundtracks).

But… I maybe wrong.

Apart from Kristen Stewart, who was wonderful in “Into the Wild” (check out that one, tween girls) the only other name I know on the “Twilight” credit roll is director Catherine Hardwicke, and girls - she’s a terrible director. You have three movies she previously made to prove my point - “13″, “Lords of Dogtown” and “The Nativity Story”. See those films and faint: this is the person who is going to turn your precious books into a movie. She’s the un-cool. Let me remind you that “Harry Potter”’s success as a movie wasn’t only due the success of the first book but it also had a director with bona-fide hits on his hands, and a studio that has experience making a film into a global media event. “Twilight” has a sub-par director and a brand new studio (”Summit”) whose marketing abilities are unknown. I promise: If my preliminary notions will turn out false after seeing the movie, I’ll be the first to retract them.

Photo via The LA Times

I’ll admit, being something of a “Buffy” and “Angel” fan, and a vampire aficionado, the premise for “Twilight” seems intriguing: it sounds like “Mean Girls” with vampires. But Hardwicke’s previous films let out the impression that she’s way too serious, arty and realism-oriented to handle something that should delicately balance dark themes with a fresh tongue-in-cheek attitude. She’s no Joss Whedon.

But I’ll have to wait and see if this is the “Snakes on a Plane” for girls: maximum buzz, minimum business. Until then, if you are “Twilight” fans, help me out here: what are you looking forward to seeing in the movie that will thrill you, and what do you fear the movie will do that may ruin the experience for you?

“$9.99″ in Toronto

There are no animated features produced in Israel. So how could it be that two of the first animated theatrical features made in Israel in over four decades are now getting their premieres at the Toronto Film Festival?

For those not in the know, it may seem that Israel is an animation empire, but the ironic fact is that the two animated movies to be shown next month in Toronto are actually almost the only animated features ever produced over here and their simultaneous premiere is nothing short of a cosmic fluke.

(There was one rather obscure claymation animated feature produced in Israel in the Sixties but none since).

The first, “Waltz With Bashir”, is already one of the most talked about international movies right now, after having its world premiere in Cannes and doing outstanding business in France. It’s also the front runner for winning the Ophir Award, Israel’s Academy Award, in September and representing Israel in the Foreign Language category at the Oscars. (Even without it, by the way, I see “Bashir” being this year’s “Persepolis” and getting a Best Animated Feature nomination).

And now comes a brand new stop-motion animated feature called “$9.99” that will have its world premiere in Toronto. It’s the feature film debut for Israeli born director/animator Tatiana Rosenthal, who turned Etgar Keret’s macabre short stories into an animated movie. The film is an Israeli-Australian co-production (a first!), that was co-financed by the Israeli Film fund. Australians Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia are the voice actors.

Keret, a hugely popular writer in Israel, has become an international movie powerhouse in the last couple of years. “Wristcutters: A Love Story”, based on his novella “Knellers Happy Campers”, premiered in Sundance in 2006; “Meduzot” (”Jellyfish”), his directorial debut (along with his wife Shira Gefen) won the Camera D’or in Cannes last year and was shown in Telluride and Toronto; and now “$9.99″ starting out in Toronto.

“$9.99″ is an expansion of a short Rosenthal directed a couple of years ago called “A Buck’s Worth”, also based on a Keret short. Those who have seen the completed “$9.99″ note that the opening scenes are the same.

Here, off Rosenthal’s You-Tube page is the 7 minute long “A Buck’s Worth”:

A Buck’s Worth

A shocker: Bernie Mac, who co-starred for Terry Zwigoff and Steven Soderbergh, died today at the age of 50 (details here).
His 27 minutes of stand up from Spike Lee’s concert film “the Original Kings of comedy” were the funniest:

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And legendary agent/manager/producer Bernie Brillstein died Thursday, aged 77. Nikki Finke respectfully obits, and the reader comments piling under her posting has become an ad-hoc and touching remembrance page.

Yesterday I told you that Rob Schneider is in Israel, shooting a video for a song to be featured in the “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” DVD bonus features. The song, “Poontachat”, was written and performed by Israeli actor Ido Mosseri, who plays Zohan’s friend Oori in the Adam Sandler hit.

Here - exclusively for cinemascopian.com - is Mosseri’s song: “Poontachat”:

The shoot took place today on a Tel Aviv beach, and loyal “Cinemascope” spies sent in photos as soon as shooting wrapped:

Rob Schneider and Ido Mosseri, today in Tel Aviv (exclusive for cinemascopian.com)

Schneider and Mosseri with co-director Tom Shoval (right)

Mosseri and Schneider

Rob Schneider and Ido Mosseri, yesterday evening in Tel Aviv (photo via Ynet)

Rob Schneider is in Israel today, getting ready to shoot a video tomorrow for a song to be featured in the “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” DVD bonus features. The song, “Poontachat”, was written and performed by Ido Mosseri, who plays Zohan’s friend Oori in the Adam Sandler hit. It was recorded in LA about a year ago, when Mosseri was busy shooting the movie. Now Mosseri is back in Israel, co-starring in the local stage revival of “Fiddler on the Roof”, and working as the voice talent on the latest “SpongeBob SquarePants” season (he is the voice of SpongeBob in Hebrew).
The music video for “Poontachat”, starring Mosseri and Schneider, is directed by Israeli rock video mavens Tom Shoval and Oren Shai. If you’re confused as to what a Poontachat is, check out my Zohanisms glossary.

“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” has become a huge hit in Israel, selling nearly 200,000 tickets so far, and outperforming “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones”. Ironically, none of the scenes in “Zohan” was actually filmed in Israel.

Read my previous reporting on “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan”:
See the Tom Hanks SNL sketch that started Zohan
The “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” glossary
Meet the Groove-combo featured on Adam Sandler’s “Zohan” trailer
Exclusive: Pages from Apatow and Sandler’s “Zohan” screenplay