Since the unfortunate death of Heath Ledger, rumors have abounded about whether or not his performance will be re-edited. The latest is that a now controversial scene of Ledger’s Joker pretending to be dead and is shown in a body bag has been excised from the final print. Cinema Blend reported it was taken out, Moviehole reported it is intact. Guess we’ll all have to wait till July to find out.
Archive for April, 2008
People who read my Serial blog are going to be a bit surprised about my review over here for Jake Rosen’s new book Superman vs. Hollywood, that chronicles all of the behind the scenes conflicts involved in getting the character adapted to other mediums. At my serial site I made some pretty snarky remarks about the book, but that was because as a serial fan the book gives scant new insight to the serials and most of what is put down I could find in any of several serial reference books I already own. But on the flip side, if you are a movie or Superman fan this book is a must have. It is a fascinating read detailing triumphs and tragedies surrounding the Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh films. These two productions make up almost half of the 300 page narrative, with individual chapters also dedicated to the different TV shows done over the years, which is nice considering that in the documentary Look Up in the Sky, that chronicle the character’s history, gave short thrift to the syndicated Superboy series and Dean Cain’s still popular series Lois and Clark. Heck the guy even does justice to the Superman musical, a difficult feat indeed.
Today is a sad day for movie fans, the great Charleton Heston passed away last night. I’m not going to talk about his conservative political stance or his run in with Michael Moore when he was head of the NRA, quite frankly an actor’s politics are his business and don’t really influence my own views on the issues, I generally prefer to concentrate on their actual work. Heston had quite a run from his Hollywood debut in the Noir classic Dark City (1949) to his cameo in the remake of his own sci-fi blockbuster Planet of the Apes (2001). Some of his high lights have included two films for Cecil B. Demille, The Greatest Show On Earth (1952) and The Ten Commandments (1956), one for Orson Wells, another Noir classic Touch of Evil (1959); and then there are his historical epics like the Lord of the Rings of it’s day Ben-Hur (1959), El Cid (1961), and The Agony and the Ecstacy (1965). But for me he was at his best in the pre-Star Wars sci-fi adventures like the original Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973). His passing so close to Richard Widmark’s is like a one-two combination sucker punch to our cinematic history.
