* a brilliant masterpiece. Compliance should be fêted with awards but it's highly unlikely to become a reality. Why I bother anymore with the Oscars crap? Oscars died for me when that piece of pompous crap Shakespeare in Love won the Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. That's what happens when we allowed women to vote......just kidding.
https://rapidshare.com/files/2640033009/DW-C.rar
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* started posting about Upcoming New Releases after recent legal issues for owner of upcomingnudescenes.net. The good news is that he plans to keep on posting latest and comprehensive celebs nudity news. Obviously I ripped-off the Upcoming Nude Scene Info from him. The speculation about certain nude scenes is all mine.
Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning
Rated R For brutal bloody violence throughout, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.
Hmm. Surprised with the rating. John Hyams back in the director's chair after impressing in previous edition. The cinematography was superb. Like father like son.
Others in the cast : Blaire Noonan (credited as hot blonde. Always a good sign of possible nudity), Lori Eden, Sigal Diamant.
Wish You Were Here (2012)
Rated R For language, some drug content, brief sexuality and violence.
Release Date: TBA
There is no nudity according to Mr.Skin.
Money Shot @ Agua Caliente
Rated R For crude and sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.
Release Date : December 11, 2012
Most of the female cast members including elegant Jessica Sonneborn and sexy Augie Duke have gone topless in past flicks. Sonneborn is also the co-writer. The comedy is made by the same team behind Lure: Teen Fight Club (2010).
Yet to do any kind of nudity : Kristina Page.
A group of four colorful characters embark on a journey, which was supposed to include the filming of a dramatic feature film: Breaking the Wind. Instead they spend the entire films' budget on a crazy, drug and booze infested night on the town.
Fearing repercussions from the mobster that lent the funds, they come up with a hysterical plan: to film a horror movie, using unsuspecting guests of a Halloween birthday party.
Looper
Rated R For strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity and drug content.Release Date: September 28, 2012
The sci-fi actioner looks awesome. Rooting for Rian Johnson to achieve commercial success. The Brothers Bloom personally resonated with me particularly the beautiful climax.
I will be happy as long as the nudity doesn't involve that smirking asshole Willis. The nude scene seems to be courtesy of club girls credited at Imdb site.
Knuckle Draggers
Rated R For language and sexual content.
Recognizable cast with attractive female ensemble. Filmed way back in 2009.
30 Nights Of Paranormal Activity With The Devil Inside The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Rated R For strong crude and sexual content throughout, nudity, language and some drug material
Couldn't find anything on the movie. Nada. Just praying it's not another stinker from Friedberg and Seltzer assholic collaboration.
Raaz 3: The Third Dimension (2012)
Rated R For some violent content.
Release Date : September 7, 2012
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Banshee Season 1: Tease (Cinemax)
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* someone asked me about Katie McGrath performing her first sex/nude scenes in upcoming Channel 4 mini-series Labyrinth few weeks ago. I gathered few info (including contacting the author Kate Mosse herself for tidbit) about Katie and her role as seductive Oriane but sat on it because of couple of reasons. Not much into Brit babes and the fact it points to bare-back and butt kind of nudity. Recently recapped posted the latest news on the mini-series and he sounded pessimistic as well about Kate showing her lady parts after reading the script.
Super fuckable 29-years old Irish lass Katie McGrath best known for her role as Morgana in Merlin (TV series) has so far resisted the temptation of pursuing the Hollywood dream like so many of her fellow thespians in Britain. She also resisted disrobing on-screen being an exception to the rule (alongside Michelle Ryan) when it comes to young British stars.
There is hope Miss McGrath have softened her stance on nudity as she reaches the third decade of her life - always a tipping point for most women. She accepted the role of evil and devious Oriane in mini-series based on Kate Mosse's medieval fantasy Labyrinth.
Her character is described as:
"The elder of Bertrand Pelletier’s two daughters, Oriane is clever, devious, ambitious and eager for power. She is unscrupulous and extremely charming – when she wants to be. Oriane is – in spirit – her mother’s daughter.From the book :
Oriane’s mother Marguerite Pelletier dies in childbirth in 1200. Her father, Bertrand Pelletier, is intendant – steward – in the household of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers and Albi. Therefore Marguerite’s daughters, Oriane and Alaïs, are brought up by a succession of women servants within the Trencavel household.
Oriane hates her sister Alaïs. Alaïs only half understands that this out of jealousy.
Oriane is wary of her father, Bertrand Pelletier, knowing that he has no respect for her. She is also aware that there is more to him than meets the eye.
At the start of Labyrinth in 1209, Oriane is nearly 19, married to a dull, older man, Jehan Congost, a court scribe and écrivain public. She has many lovers, including her younger sister’s husband, Guilhem du Mas.
Oriane is attractive and flirtatious. She makes alliances through the promise of sexual favours and is prepared to sacrifice much to get what she wants."
[1] Oriane's proper introduction involves full nudity when she teases her husband Jehan sprawled naked in the bed. Then later in making love to lover [SPOILER ALERT]...........
Guilhem.
It's an extensive segment which fleshes out Oriane character and I don't see how they can edit out the scene or shoot it without the nudity required to show Oriane seductive powers.
[2] In secret hook-up with Guilhem. She disrobes and the duo makes love. Short and brief description.
The key operative word is "Channel 4" (the British broadcaster of the series) and "mini-series". Remember The Devil's Whore with Andrea Riseborough nudity? The mini-series was also filmed in South Africa and shown on Chanel 4.
Here is a portion of Katie's translated interview when she was at the Comic Con Paris in July :
Katie McGrath is a regular at the Comic Con Paris: She was present in the two previous editions for the promotion of the British series Merlin, in which she plays the character of Morgana. This year, we met again, but this time it was for the mini-series Labyrinth in which she plays Oriane - a major character.
Hello Katie! Can you tell us a little Oriane, your character in Labyrinth?
I play Oriane the older sister of Alaïs Pelletier du Mas. She is one of the main engine of malevolent forces at work in the medieval part of the story. She is ... I'll try to find a way delicate and nice to say but ... She is bad. She is very nasty.
Like Morgana - Oriane has a lot of problems with her father ...
Yes. The difference is that before the beginning of the novel or the TV series : Oriane is already broken. Oriane has no good side. She can have a nice side but ....
Did you know the book before or had you read it?
I bought it when it came out. Always wanted to portray Oriane. No other character really interested me. So when the producers called me to play another role ....seriously I thought they got it wrong! I was not interested in the other character. But I connected almost instantly with Oriane .
You're not interested in nicer roles?
I think when I read the role of Oriane - as I was still filming Merlin - I thought, 'I can play a mean bitch". In the end Oriane and Morgana are not all the same and I hope nobody expects them to be but I was so connected to Morgana in my head who I had to play for eight months. Then suddenly to play the role of Alice Tanner it would been hard. And then when you see Vanessa (Vanessa Kirby who eventually got the role of Alice)...she was so bright and beautiful. You can not see anyone else in this role.
Christopher Smith (director of Labyrinth) said that you play Oriane quite differently to Morgana.. Can you tell us a little more?
With Morgana was a character we know very well. It's still 5 years ... I play with all the years behind and you can see all the little bits of who she was and who she'll become.
With Oriane, we have a complete character from the start. I know who it is from beginning to end, because it is a complete story. I know how it will end. I know who and where I am story-wise in these 180 minutes.
There are many sex scenes in the book. It's the same thing in the movie?
Yes ... My god. Wait until my mother see it!
That's what's great about Chris. I did the final test casting in the morning and few hours later the casting director told me that Chris wanted to see me. I met him in a bar with the casting director. The first thing he said concerned the sex scenes. He told me: "You know they are there. They're a part of history. I can't tell the story without Oriane doing any of that. "
I really respect him for bringing this topic to ask me how I felt vis-à-vis as that.
That's what's great about Chris. I did the final test casting in the morning and few hours later the casting director told me that Chris wanted to see me. I met him in a bar with the casting director. The first thing he said concerned the sex scenes. He told me: "You know they are there. They're a part of history. I can't tell the story without Oriane doing any of that. "
I really respect him for bringing this topic to ask me how I felt vis-à-vis as that.
And I replied: "I do not like it. I'm not comfortable BUT I understand why it is needed and I agreed with him you can't tell the story of Oriane without those scenes".
So we agreed on the fact that these scenes were necessary. I went home and I cried ... No, just kidding!
It went well. I was nervous until I met Emun (Emun Elliott, who plays Guilhem du Mas). You can't ask for a better partner for the love scenes: He was adorable, kind, generous, and a brilliant actor. The scenes suddenly much easier than it could have been.
It was the first time that you filmed these kind of scenes?
Yes, practically. People who tell you that it will get easier with time was lying. They are horrific scenes. You do not enjoy it. At least for me personally. They do not make you feel down or dirty or anything like that. It's was just ...weird. There are about 30 people on the set. BUT you can't tell the story without doing the sex scenes. It is important for Oriane to show that she sees sex as a power. When I read the book I realized that it was a condition sine qua non before even applying for the role. You can not play certain characters without using some scenes otherwise it is not worth trying to play these characters.
The rest of the interview is here.
She confirms the airing date for US will be mid-2013 at the latest. Some scenes are being re-edited for upcoming premiere on Channel 4. Of course she blocked me when I asked about Katie and why the producers hired someone who come across as a prude. Doesn't that role requires nudity?
Will the series be a faithful adaptation of the novel and we get to see Katie in full frontal glory. Chances are pretty fucking slim. Maybe a butt-shot and breasts without nip-view in my opinion.
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* another supposed first-time nudity I been sitting on for a while comes courtesy of deathly pale Charlotte Sullivan in short-film Artist: Unknown (2012). Not really a fan of ghost white Nicole Kidman, January Jones and this Canadian chick. You can pack them off to Artic so they can help delay the global warming with all the chilliness they have in abundance. Anyway an old buddy of mine e-mailed me about Charlotte and I was just not interested. It was obvious she was not only frigid on the outside looking at her film-credits……
A little bit of history about my Canadian friend:We met in L.A back in early 90's. He was far more successful in the movie biz working the productions side before moving back to Canada in mid-2005. I can't provide his imdb listing because he is still very much active in the Canadian biz. The dude has done quite well in all aspect of technical side. We reconnected early last year. Facebooking each other. If I was creepy then this guy takes the cake for being a sleazy-fuck. You won't believe it when you look at his profile and face. Such fatherly and approachable demeanor. He have refrain from providing me with any latest news or the movies but it didn’t stopped the Canuck from reminiscing about golden years of soft core and how he missed the natural tits and hated the inclusion of porn stars into the genre.Anyway he sent me the news about Charlotte’s nudity. For a seven-minute shortie, the love scene was pretty lengthy. He did say the guy (her real-life BF?) pulls down sheet covering Charlotte and you get a brief view of her tits. But it all depends on the final editing. He saw a rough cut during the initial editing process.
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Skyler From Breaking Bad Topless In A Movie With Babies Being Thrown Off Boats
Watch the first few seconds to see Skyler, then fast forward to the 4:00 minute mark for the insanity.
Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn Topless And In A Bikini brought to you by PornHub
So I start searching the internet for the Breaking Bad Brazzers porn parody and what do I stumble upon? Anna Gunn bringing the heat from like 10 years ago! That dyke haircut kinda makes her look like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV but that body is TIGHT. Rockin the high waisted 90′s bikini sun bathing on the boat. For a split second I forgot about the fat man face chain smoking C U Next Tuesday Skyler is and I actually wanted to bang her. I would Ted Beneke the shit out of this version of her.
Secondly this movie has gotta be the most preposterous movie of all time. Its Skyler, Gary Oldman, Dokey from The Black Donnellys, the boyfriend murderer from Scream, the mom from Step Brothers, and a fucking Native American throwing babies off a boat. Its the second most absurd scene in cinematic history next to “Beware Children At Play.” It’s called Nobody’s Baby and apparently its a comedy.
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Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn Topless And In A Bikini brought to you by PornHub
So I start searching the internet for the Breaking Bad Brazzers porn parody and what do I stumble upon? Anna Gunn bringing the heat from like 10 years ago! That dyke haircut kinda makes her look like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV but that body is TIGHT. Rockin the high waisted 90′s bikini sun bathing on the boat. For a split second I forgot about the fat man face chain smoking C U Next Tuesday Skyler is and I actually wanted to bang her. I would Ted Beneke the shit out of this version of her.
Secondly this movie has gotta be the most preposterous movie of all time. Its Skyler, Gary Oldman, Dokey from The Black Donnellys, the boyfriend murderer from Scream, the mom from Step Brothers, and a fucking Native American throwing babies off a boat. Its the second most absurd scene in cinematic history next to “Beware Children At Play.” It’s called Nobody’s Baby and apparently its a comedy.
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LOST | Audition Tapes : Maggie Grace
* Maggie trying very hard to emote.....LOL.
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* wasn't really expecting American Mary to be such a critical success.....
American Mary
I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who thinks that the Soska sisters made quite an impression at this year’s FrightFest festival, and that’s not even taking into account their wonderful new film American Mary.
Looking for money, young medical student Mary (Katherine Isabelle) grudgingly accepts, at the request of a local club owner, to do a surgical procedure in his basement. Returning to her normal life believing it was a one off thing; Mary’s surprised when the bubbly Beatress (Tristan Risk) ends up on her doorstep. Beatress, a woman who’s modified her face and body to look like Betty Boop, asks for her help to use her skills for a friend. As Mary discovers the world of body modification, as well as the seduction of quick, fast cash, she becomes delves deeper and deeper into the world of underground surgery.
Original is a word that’s not often used within horror nowadays, which of Couse, is a shame, however, with this lack of originality in the genre, it only makes seeing a film such as American Mary that much more satisfying. Unflinching, shocking but somehow very touching and personal at the same time, American Mary is something new and well, I believe it’s something to shout from the rooftops about.
Carefully handled, it’s an inside look at the body mod scene gazing out at the world. It takes the global stereotype of body modification and shows us the sometimes tragic truths behind the individuals. It might be a surprise to some that the act of changing your body, for most individuals, is not for sexual or fetish reasons but something that they need to do so that they can – finally – feel comfortable in their own skin and be the perfect version of themselves. And this realisation and transformation from judging a person by what they look rather than who they are is beautifully handled through Mary’s character.
The juxtaposition between the male orientated world of surgery where Mary is nothing but the lecturers and other surgeons’ plaything, to the world of Underground surgery where she has the power as well as the ability to have full control of her life is one that is not evident to her until a horrific incident. The catalyst for her career path leads to a shift in character, with the tone of the piece becomes more brooding and darker also, and rightly so.
The film just clicked for me, not perfect by any means; however, it still manages to pack one hell of a wallop. Not for anyone who suffers from a queasy stomach, it’s brilliantly able to blend disturbing scenes with laughs and with Katherine Isabelle on top form; American Mary is a film not to be missed. A true original modern horror.
American Mary review ★★★★★
Review by Stuart BarrStars Katherine Isabelle, Julia Maxwell, Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk, Paul Anthony, Sierra Pitkin, Paula Lindberg, Twan Holliday, Nelson Wong, John Emmet Tracy
Written by Jen and Sylvia Soska
Certification UK 18
Runtime 100 minutes
Directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska
Mary Mason (Isabelle) is in her final years of med school training to be a surgeon. Despite talent and intelligence, her future hangs in the balance as she struggles under mounting debt, forced to work menial jobs that interfere with her studies and condescended to by an arrogant surgical tutor. Unable to even cover her phone bill, Mary is desperate to bring in some cash and attends a sleazy audition to waitress at a strip joint. Charmingly, she brings her full resume along, as if the nightclub manager cares that she is a trainee surgeon.
As chance would have it, club owner Billy (a credibly sleazy performance by Cupo) has sudden need of a surgeon due to some very grim business in his basement. Mason is desperate enough to do anything for five grand, but emergency trauma surgery was probably not what she was dreading. She flees the scene a little richer, but extremely shaken and returns to her relatively normal life. However, her actions have attracted the notice of one of the club’s dancers Beatrice (an incredible performance by burlesque performer Risk). Beatrice is part of an underground body modification community and has connections to others willing to pay a lot of money for, let’s say, unusual procedures.
Through Beatrice, Mary meets a new client and makes so much money for a single operation that her financial woes are over for the near future. Her new-found wealth does not pass unnoticed by the senior surgeons observing her residency. Their misogyny and arrogance lead them to make certain assumptions about her, assumptions that lead to events that obliterate Mary’s "normal" life and lead her to seek refuge in the surgical fetish subculture.
Written and directed by the "Twisted Twins" Jen and Sylvia Soska, American Mary is a major advance on their debut feature Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Always visually striking, the film has the lush and saturated neo-noir look of prime David Lynch (great credit is due to DP Brian Pearson). Body modification as art is not a fanciful idea – it very much exists in the art world. French artist Orlan is known for transforming herself through plastic surgery. Founder member of industrial group Throbbing Gristle, Genesis P-Orridge, was engaged in an art project with his late wife Lady Jaye in which they were using body modification to gradually become a pandroginous entity (a project detailed in the documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye). Add in to this heady stew the explorations of gender, abjection and the noir sensibility of Cindy Sherman’s art, and you are approaching the tone and style of American Mary.
Extreme fetish imagery first broke into the mainstream of horror in a big way in Clive Barker’s seminal Hellraiser, but since then it has become more and more diluted, to the point that it is now quite normal to see it boringly employed by multi-platinum-selling metal and pop bands wishing to look “edgy”. The Soska sisters make it fresh again, partly by the surgical fetishism theme which is unlikely to be replicated in Milan fashion shows anytime soon, but also in the film’s striking post-feminist themes.
While American Mary has its fair share of gnarly slicing and reconfiguring of flesh, it is not really as concerned with being gory and disgusting as it is with being sexy and alluring. The initial strangeness and repulsion that Mason feels upon encountering the members of the subculture quickly fades away. Initially as it supplies much needed cash, but later when horrific events in "normal" society damage her, it becomes empowering. The audience is presented with two options, to either leave the theatre or to go with this. The Soska sisters do not at any point present the subculture of extreme body modification and its participants as negative or evil. The movie is not only non-judgemental, but actively positive. This feels like genuinely transgressive stuff.
Outside of two key scenes, Mason is completely in control. Isabelle (best known for Ginger Snaps) is fantastic in the part; Mary is extremely sexy, but in charge and channelling her sexuality to her own ends. Before entering the subculture of body modification, she is seen as barely engaged with society. We see no friends, we see no family. Her relationships in the mainstream world at the start of the film are with men who abuse their positions of authority. The only exception is the distant grandmother she loves, and who is her sole anchor in an indifferent normal world.
This is a horror film, so it is right to ask: where does the horror lie? Mary’s initial experience in the strip club that opens up her very left-handed path is certainly horrific. The initial approaches of Beatrice with her very particular enhancements is a slow reveal and quite creepy. But it is surprising how quickly one becomes accustomed to these characters and the way they have appropriated and mutated sexualised images of womanhood to their own ends.
The real horror of American Mary is firmly rooted in the normal world, and the patriarchal and hierarchal structures of the medical community which sees Mary as a thing to be abused and, if they can get away with it, used. The movie functions on a metaphorical level as a indictment of the America dream. Mary is forced to extreme lengths in the pursuit of a goal unaware that gender and social bias are stacked against her. The authority figures in her life are surgeons who feel their ability to save life has granted them permission to treat others with contempt. Mary is forced to compromise herself in the pursuit of … what exactly? Money? Status? Power? When we are shown the corrupt heart of the surgeon’s masculine club, it becomes clear that no matter how skilled she becomes, Mary is never going to be granted entrance to it except as a plaything. Instead she finds acceptance, success, and a level of notoriety and fame in a reviled, illegal, subculture. This is an interesting film to screen at FrightFest with a new assembly of Clive Barker’s NightBreed as both are films that find beauty in what society deems monstrous, and fear in society’s aspirations.
The film’s subject matter is going to be repellent to some, so this is not a film for everybody. Viewers expecting a straightforward narrative may find issues. The film has nothing that resembles a three-act structure. The initial third has a strong forward drive, but it becomes almost a series of connected vignettes (one of which features Jen and Sylvia Soska in quite possibly the best director’s cameo I have ever seen). That is the kind of thing that those with rigid requirements for plot structure will latch onto and decry as poor writing. Frankly, I’d be happy to see every screenwriting manual in the world stacked high, doused in petrol and set alight.
I may have made this sound like a dry academic exercise best suited to a gender studies class, but far from it. This is a great-looking film, with excellent performances and a wicked sense of humour. American Mary is a rarity, an original horror film – hold it close and cherish it.
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stage actress Jenny Hulse is very much nude in Matthew Lenton's Wonderland.
Wonderland
by Thom Dibdin
Using pornography as the subject of an artistic endeavour always runs the risk of creating something as voyeuristic as the subject matter. Matthew Lenton, who conceived and directed this dark and claustrophobic production, steps neatly round the problem by objectifying the voyeur, rather than the subject of their fantasies.
Here are rooms beyond rooms - a world which borrows only slenderly from Lewis Caroll as Jenny Hulse’s confident, defiant Alice goes through an audition video for Damir Todorovic’s cruelly distant pornographer. As Alice becomes Heidi, strips, is slapped across her breasts and dressed in a child’s outfit she never faces the audience. The enduring image is the sorrow in her face, blown-up and distorted on the folds of the white curtains of a homely sitting room.
Behind the curtains, separated from the audience by plate glass windows, Alice’s parents John (Paul Thomas Hickey) and an unnamed Pauline Goldsmith watch TV. While Goldsmith sleeps, John goes off to cruise the internet.
It is John who watched. He is not always seen, as when he chats with Flavia Gusmao’s inventively revealed and gloriously defiant Brazilian model, but he is constantly in focus as he follows his alter ego in the search of the pain in the eyes of his victims which will give him pleasure.
This is hardcore. Not in terms of what is seen but in what Lenton forces his audience to imagine. A superb set by Kai Fischer and throbbing, ominous music and sound from Mark Melville only enhance the experience. A darkly disturbing production, expertly realised.
Theatre review: Wonderland; Lyceum Theatre
THERE’S no denying Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Alice in Wonderland works on a number of adult levels, but it’s unlikely he foresaw Matthew Lenton’s own “adult” take, inspired by the book’s themes of curiosity, adventure and danger.
In this darkly challenging but ultimately flawed production by the usually reliable Vanishing Point, we witness Alice’s sordid and progressively harrowing foray into hard-core pornography, set alongside John’s addiction to chatting with webcam models, an obsession that takes a sickening turn as fantasy crosses over into a disturbing reality.
Given the extreme material so readily available to anyone with an internet connection, it’s undoubtedly a concept worth exploring, as are the complexities of why people use it and fall into making it, but the overriding inference here – porn makes people do bad things – feels overly simplistic.
Technically, it’s first-class, with an impressively unsettling soundscape and clever use of live video footage. The staging is undeniably smart too, much of the action taking place behind a huge window which doubles up as a projection screen, and the symbolism of watching other people’s lives through that window, creating voyeurs out of each audience member, is apt.
But as the line between what’s real and what’s imagined becomes increasingly blurred, the narrative becomes unsatisfying and ambiguous, the pacing at times far too ponderous. Certain scenes are agonisingly drawn out, clearly in order to make for uncomfortable viewing, but although this serves to heighten the tension initially, it just becomes frustrating.
It’s also gratuitously graphic; the first instance of nudity is powerfully visceral, shocking but necessary, yet each subsequent occurrence renders the original less and less effective. It’s a real shame because in small bursts these moments carry emotional weight, but the impact diminishes with repetition.
Thankfully, the actors do much to deliver some form of redemption. Jenny Hulse gives a captivating, compelling performance as the vulnerable Alice, while Damir Todorovic is excellent as the manipulative pornographer Johnny, but even these sterling efforts fail to save a play that’s not nearly as clever as it thinks.
* Best review is by thetimes.co.uk (needs a sign-up to read the rest of review)
Jenny Hulse as Alice is stripped naked, in every sense, by a dodgy..........
Again this was sent to me by e-mail. Don't know anything about Miss Hulse but pretty sure she looks mighty hot in her birthday suit.
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* going to miss Patrick.
Wanted : A few good mavericks
Sequels, remakes, reboots. What Hollywood needs is an original thought.
by Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times [August 22, 2012]
When I began writing this column in 2000, I was wringing my hands about what looked like a new low in the movie business. Sony Pictures was about to release "Charlie's Angels," a less-than-stellar remake of a less-than-venerable TV show. It sounded like a terrible idea, especially when I discovered that the studio had paid a whopping 17 writers to work on the film — including A-listers such as Akiva Goldsman and Susannah Grant, and a batch of"Seinfeld" vets who did a round-table joke writing session right before production started.
The whole concept — using a squadron of writers to turn a flyweight sitcom into a splashy action film — felt so, well, lame that I boasted in the column about betting a Sony executive that the movie wouldn't make $30 million its opening weekend.
Needless to say, I lost: The movie opened to $40 million and went on to make $260 million around the globe. So what did I learn? In the world of studio films, just when you think you've reached a new low, look again. Hollywood is a business where, when it comes to the lack of originality, it's impossible to say you've hit bottom because the floor just keeps dropping.
The entire business model for today's movie business is rooted in an aversion to originality. When it comes to marketing an expensive movie, brand familiarity is the name of the game. The majority of this year's top 25 grossing films are sequels, remakes, reboots or rereleases, and films based on familiar characters from books and comics.
There are some exceptions — Pixar built its brand on new ideas, and we just had a blast of irreverent comic fresh air from Seth MacFarlane's"Ted." And soon it will be Oscar season, when audiences will hopefully have a fair number of distinctive new films to choose from.
But many of today's most gifted filmmakers — notably Sam Raimi, J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon — have spent too much time working on studio plantations, putting their talents to use on sequels and reboots of familiar material. The opportunities to break new ground are few and far between.
Spike Lee was asked recently if he could get "Malcolm X"— which Warner Bros.released in 1992 — made today, and he replied: "I don't think Oliver Stone gets 'JFK' made today. Unless they can make JFK fly. If they can't make Malcolm X fly, with tights and a cape, it's not happening."
Lee was on my mind, having just seen his new film, "Red Hook Summer."Though it's hardly his best movie, it features a wonderful acting turn by Clarke Peters as a storefront preacher and offers a compelling portrait of a place — Lee's adopted borough of Brooklyn — in transition. Coming at the end of a cinematic summer full of lumbering, hot-air extravaganzas, "Red Hook" felt like a cool breeze, perhaps because such a personal film is rarely seen today. So personal, in fact, that Lee made it with his own money and there was precious little interest from any major studios for its distribution.
When I first started writing about film in the mid-1980s, Lee was making a big splash with his debut, "She's Gotta Have It," which like his new movie, was shot in Brooklyn on a shoestring budget with no-name actors and a crew largely recruited from NYU, where Lee went to film school and now teaches. Lee wasn't alone: At that time, the industry saw a dramatic flowering of indie directors, including Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, Susan Seidelman and the Coen brothers.
Sadly, with the exception of Lee and the Coens, the other filmmakers have largely lost their mojo or been marginalized, unable to secure a niche in a business geared more toward safe commercial bets than risky propositions. Lee has survived on his own terms, maintaining his distinctive voice while working not only in film but also TV, Broadway and beyond.
In 1988, not long after his first success, I heard Lee give a speech to a group of black college students in which he preached the value of capitalism. If you didn't own your own business or brand, he said, you'd always be working for the man. As a filmmaker, Lee has practiced what he preached. He runs a Brooklyn-based production company that has made enough money, largely through Lee-directed ads, to allow him to fund internships and college prep programs as well as make such message-oriented documentaries as "When the Levees Broke," the Emmy Award-winning TV miniseries about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.
It's what makes Lee different from indie peers Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson. They are gifted filmmakers, but they seem to disappear down a rabbit hole between films, while Lee is always on call, weighing in on issues that matter.
I've tried to do the same thing as a columnist, which is perhaps why I've always had a soft spot for Lee, even when his harsh rhetoric has gotten him in trouble. I see my job as connecting the dots, digging past the superficial headlines of the day to get at deeper issues. It's easy, for example, to slam the academy for having zero people of color up for any of the major Oscars, as happened in 2011, but the real problem is that Hollywood is one of the most minority-free industries in America.
If you've read me, you know I admire outsiders, not just because they're great copy, but because mavericks — be it Lee, Mark Cuban or Billy Beane of"Moneyball" fame — inspire innovation. They take more risks than any corporate behemoth, which is why New Line (before it merged withWarner Bros.) ended up with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and Lionsgate hit the jackpot with"The Hunger Games."
Since that first "Charlie's Angels" column, I've written hundreds of columns. This is my last. I've blown plenty of calls. I've gotten too caught up in the emotion or hurly-burly of the moment, like when I wrote after9/11that Hollywood would forever embrace a new seriousness of purpose. (Hah!) But I hope I've gotten a few things right and even occasionally made a difference.
Years ago, I wrote a column that inspired a flood of hostile letters. One day my phone rang: It was Larry Gelbart, the great playwright and screenwriter of "Tootsie," "Oh, God" and other movies. He offered encouragement, saying I shouldn't back down. "Remember," he told me. "If what you're writing isn't likely to offend or annoy anyone, go back and start again." It was great advice, whether you're creating a comedy, making a film like "Red Hook Summer" or writing a newspaper column. Never be afraid to raise a ruckus.
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