Straight From The Inbox

Next time my favorite director has a new movie coming out, I should take the two pre-release months off and devote them to full time blogging! Watch out, cool news items ahead.

It is more or less certain: David Fincher's next directing job after "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" will be Ehren Kruger's adaptation of the graphic novel "Torso". As a producer (and segment director) Fincher will stay busy with "Heavy Metal" during the same time frame. But now Paramount has renewed its option of the "Torso" property, and has reportedly also greenlit the picture for production -- which, we know from producer Bill Mechanic, could start as early as February or March 2009.

I advise everyone to take the "greenlit" part with a grain of salt. The folks at CHUD claim to know that "budgeting" is going on right now, and as they say, that sure isn't the same as a picture ready for shooting.

Every Fincher project moving forward is good news, though. And to add more fuel to the fire, IMDB has also updated its "Torso" page, and has now officially (meaning: non-ImdbPro-style) listed it as a new David Fincher project with a 2010 release.

Music to my ears. Check these out:
CHUD: Torso isn't dead yet
IMDB: Torso

After the well noticed feud between Paramount and Dreamworks, it seems these two big players made up: At the recent Westwood premiere of "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg took the stage on behalf of the Film Foundation and said ...

"Your coming here will help preserve so many foreign and American classics, including the one you are about to see now, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button."

Nikki Finke of DeadlineHollywoodDaily makes of this that Spielberg "praises Benjamin Button as an american classic". Considering that Spielberg is one of Fincher's idols, who has given him a lifetime of fear of white sharks ... yeah, I am sure Fincher can take that as a compliment.

Great story. Follow up here:
DeadlineHollywoodDaily: Button An American Classic

If you want to read this next story in full, it seems you will have to pick up the latest 'Rolling Stone' issue from newsstands. They have tracked down Mr. Brad Pitt somewhere outside of the infamous Babelsberg film studios and tricked him into a little interview.

It's some BENJAMIN BUTTON, some FIGHT CLUB, some FINCHER ... but mostly it's way too short.

"Did you see the DVD that Fincher put out? He put all the negative reviews in the booklet. Some London critic said, 'Not only is it anti-capitalistic, but it's anti-society and anti-God.' We were like, 'We didn't realize it was that good!'"

Check it out:
RollingStone: Brad Pitt

In the meantime Variety sat down with Greg Cannom, the makeup artist on "Benjamin Button" to chat about his work for the film. And Cannom, also, was full of praise for his cooperation with Fincher:

"I had the time to do it right, which I usually don't on a film."

You have heard Cannom say, he himself couldn't believe how well his makeup looked with the productions high-resolution cameras. And apart from all the digital wizardry, it seems TCCOBB may very well also justifiy a nomination in the old-school makeup arts ... and maybe even a win.

Read Variety's story here:
Variety: Creating The Look

USA Today runs this little red-carpet story about TCCOBBs Los Angeles premiere. Nothing much to say about it, other than Blanchett and Pitt seem somewhat satisfied with this film and with their lives so far.

If you care to read more, catch this:
USAToday: Benjamin Button Stars Wouldn't Change A Thing

And then in the latest news countdown you might care to know that Benjamin Button's love-interest and everyone's favorite aussie Cate Blanchett has finally earned her own star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

The star was revealed in attendence of Steven Spielberg and David Fincher -- who seem to have quite a schedule to get through this season. I'm not so much into the glamour pieces ... but if you are ... here is the story:
SMH: Cate Leaves Stellar Impression
YouTube: Cate Gets Her Star

Of course while you are over at YouTube you definitely must watch this: An interview snippet of cuties Blanchett and Henson talking about their Benjamin Button costar Brad Pitt, AND Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett going overboard with praise for David Fincher's latest masterpiece. The videos come from ET, and obviously from some official promotional activity for the movie. And the funniest remark for me had to be Blanchett saying the movie was about "the serial killer of time".

Looks like Fincher already made a new "serial killer movie".

Watch:
YouTube: Cate Blanchett & Taraji P. Henson
YouTube: Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett

That's it. Almost. If you ever had the feeling, 'wow do I love film critics', but you couldn't just quite figure out why, this may be a good item to get you started: Mick LaSalle raving about this year's Golden Globe nominations!

Let me share my favorite part. His comment on "Benjamin Button":

"The movie is a fraud, a 165-minute ego trip for director David Fincher and a zombified Brad Pitt that takes one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's weakest short stories and makes it even worse."

Haha, definitely not a fanboy.

Many thanks to all the wonderful contributions: Namely to Christophe, Jon and Angus!

And here's one infuriated critic:
SFGate: Golden Globe Nominations ...