“I voted for Bush, father and son, but this time I’ll vote for Obama,” [Dennis Hopper] told journalists at the opening of a show on his life and work at the Paris cinematheque.
Hopper is to be handed France’s order of Commander of Arts and Letters by the culture minister later Monday.
“I was the first person in my family to have been Republican,” he added. “For most of my life I wasn’t on the left.”
“I pray God, Barack Obama is elected,” he said, criticising the current administration’s many “lies.”
As if the makers of An American Carol didn’t need more bad news, now one of their stars is praying for the terrorist to win. Too funny.
Anyone want to take bets on which prominent conservative will fold next? Have at it in the comments.
RELATED: When I was researching this story, I came across this hilariously spintastic post about An American Carol by the winner of our Sexiest Newsbuster contest, Warner Todd Huston. My favorite part is when he complains about Wonkette’s “typical unprofessional style.”
We reported Monday how David Zucker’s rightwing “comedy” An American Carol was a total flop and yesterday Wonkette noted how the filmmakers, in a move that was funnier than anything in the film, were screaming “fraud!” (and then, apparently, withdrawing the claim by pulling down the accusatory web page). Well, events surrounding the film just got even funnier. Look what turned up on Sacramento’s Craigslist last night:
Do you enjoy talking on the phone? Do you enjoy watching movies? Well this is the job for you! Our film marketing firm has been hired to promote the recently released film, An American Carol, and we need energetic, motivated callers to promote the movie in the 23 western United States. And we’re hiring immediately! This slapstick comedy is already in theaters and the buzz about it is already underway. Interviews will begin tomorrow. I’ll likely be giving you a call tonight. If you were born with the gift of gab and are interested, email me at caroler2008@live.com and leave both your name and phone number. If you want to check out the movie first, you can find the website at americancarolers.com.
That right there is some desperate shit. Can anyone who works in the film industry or public relations let me know if this common practice, especially several days after a film’s opening? I worked with a lot of indie film companies when I first moved to New York and they never employed telemarketing for promotion and I’m 100% certain I’ve never been prodded to see a movie via the phone. Weird. [hat tip to Jim B.]
Two ideologically driven movies squeezed into the bottom of the top 10. Vivendi Entertainment’s “An American Carol,” David Zucker’s flag-waving, proudly right-wing comedy, secured the ninth-place berth with $3.8 million, while Lionsgate’s “Religulous,” Bill Maher’s skeptical lambasting of the world’s religions, was right behind in 10th place with $3.5 million. However, because “Religulous” was playing in less than one-third the number of theaters that offered “Carol,” it scored a much higher per-theater average, earning $6,972 to “Carol’s” $2,234.
The PUMAs have been pushing around a video “teaser” all weekend for the sure-to-be-a-dud documentary The Audacity Of Democracy (executive producer Darragh Murphy) and it starts with a fairly shocking confession by Murphy that not one PUMA that I’ve seen has so much as blinked at. Right at the start of the teaser Darrargh lets us know the following (in a weird “ya huh, that happened!” delivery):
So I got this call this morning on my way down on the train from blocked caller, I couldn’t see who it was from, and he asked me—he was hard to understand at first—but finally this was clear, he said would I be interested and how could he convince me and my group to help him kill Barack Obama?
So here’s my simple question for PUMA PAC founder Darragh Murphy: Did she contact the authorities (or, more specifically, the Secret Service) after receiving that phone call? How she answers that question speaks volumes about her character and the PUMA movement at large.
OH MY: Via the comments at Yes to Democracy, I see that the woman in the teaser driving away with the complaint book is, ummmm, well, just go read one of her emails here (and follow some of the links). Yeah, she seems credible.
Jason Bateman never really got the credit he deserved for his work in the exceptionally funny Arrested Development (he was overshadowed by “zanier” co-stars like David Cross and Will Arnett), but the show never would have jelled without him. This video of Bateman (sorry, no embed) being interviewed by Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers for the upcoming movie Hancock is worth a watch if you were a fan of his work in AD or the movie Juno. He’s an underrated master of dry humor and it really comes out during this chat.
I guess I should be pushing for an Obama/Galifianakis ticket with all of the Zach stuff I’ve been pushing here, but wanted to pass on this info on to you. I just found out that Galifianakis has a new low-budget movie coming out this summer called Visioneers and it looks like it could be a winner. You can check out the trailer below or click here for a hi-res Quicktime version. They’re also running a contest at the Visioneers‘ official site for a trip for two to the Las Vegas premiere if you want to check that out.
Unfortunately, no NYC screenings have been scheduled as of this posting.
I haven’t seen the documentary King Korn yet, but I’ve heard and read good things. It starts airing today (Friday 10PM in NYC on 13) as part of PBS’s Independent Lens series. You can find out more about the film, watch a preview and check your local listings here. This King Korn contest is pretty cool, too.
Talks are ongoing. Talks, it should be noted, are informal, out-of-the-blue phone calls between the cast and Mitch [Hurwitz]. Like, a month ago, I had dinner with David [Cross] and Jason [Bateman] in L.A. and we were kinda talking about it. Then Jason and I each called Mitch the next day. I think it’s something that all of us would really like to do because it would be so fun to get back together and play those characters. But there are a lot of little details that have to be resolved, like who would make it, where, how, and why.
LATTE-SIPPING CROWD: I’ve got your latte right here. God, I hate these people.
WORLD OF POOH—LAND OF THIRST: One of the last great indie albums of the 80s featured Barbara Manning and will probably never, ever be released on CD. You need this. Trust me. Grab it before it’s gone.
IT’S 3AM: Good selection of parodies of Hillary’s loathsome 3AM red phone ad over at YesButNoButYes. And while you’re there ... jeebus, this is fucking disturbing.
Clinton congratulated Obama and said she looks forward to continuing to campaign with him in Pennsylvania and the other 16 states or territories that still need to hold contests. But she also used the stage to critique her opponent. “When the phone rings at 3 a.m. at the White House, there’s no time for speeches,” she said.
Charming. Months and months more of this shit. Does anyone know if John Hodgman picked up any extra forms? He lives in my neighborhood.
(Hat tip to Will from sublimeguile for the Hodgman link. While you’re there, check out the King of Kong chaos that’s broken out on his blog.)
“Falling Slowly” from Once—My Oscar pick to (deservedly) win best original song
Sorry, no other selections today (unless you want to see how much Frank Rich hates Hillary’s va-jay-jay). Have some weekend work to get through and still recovering from that head cold that clobbered me yesterday morning. The Sunday Selector will return in its normal form next weekend.
Awhile ago I challenged my pal Pale Dave at Missing the Moon to an Oscar picks throw down, but I’ve been so busy at work I didn’t have time to throw together my predictions until now. The entries marked in red are my picks to win and the browns ones were on my short-list (read: don’t count them out). If nothing’s marked brown in a category it means I think the winner is a sure bet (there aren’t a lot of them this year). I’m battling a rather brutal head cold at the moment, but I’ll try to add some commentary in tomorrow if I have time.
If you want to make some predictions (or mock mine), feel free to do so in the comments below.
Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises”
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War”
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild”
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton”
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
Julie Christie in “Away from Her”
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose”
Laura Linney in “The Savages”
Ellen Page in “Juno”
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There”
Ruby Dee in “American Gangster”
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement”
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone”
Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”
Best animated feature film of the year
“Persepolis”
“Ratatouille”
“Surf’s Up”
Achievement in art direction
“American Gangster”: Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
“Atonement”: Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Golden Compass”: Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”: Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“There Will Be Blood”: Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
Achievement in cinematography
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”: Roger Deakins
“Atonement”: Seamus McGarvey
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”: Janusz Kaminski
“No Country for Old Men”: Roger Deakins
“There Will Be Blood”: Robert Elswit
Achievement in costume design
“Across the Universe” Albert Wolsky
“Atonement" Jacqueline Durran
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” Alexandra Byrne
“La Vie en Rose” Marit Allen
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Colleen Atwood
Achievement in directing
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, Julian Schnabel
“Juno”, Jason Reitman
“Michael Clayton”, Tony Gilroy
“No Country for Old Men”, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood”, Paul Thomas Anderson
Best documentary feature
“No End in Sight”
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”
“Sicko”
“Taxi to the Dark Side”
“War/Dance”
Best documentary short subject
“Freeheld”
“La Corona (The Crown)”
“Salim Baba”
“Sari’s Mother”
Achievement in film editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum”: Christopher Rouse
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”: Juliette Welfling
“Into the Wild”: Jay Cassidy
“No Country for Old Men” Roderick Jaynes
“There Will Be Blood”: Dylan Tichenor
Best foreign language film of the year
“Beaufort" Israel
“The Counterfeiters” Austria
“Katyn” Poland
“Mongol” Kazakhstan
“12” Russia
Achievement in makeup
“La Vie en Rose” Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
“Norbit": Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”: Ve Neill and Martin Samuel
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Atonement": Dario Marianelli
“The Kite Runner”: Alberto Iglesias
“Michael Clayton”: James Newton Howard
“Ratatouille”: Michael Giacchino
“3:10 to Yuma”: Marco Beltrami
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Falling Slowly” from “Once” Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted”: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from “August Rush”: Music and Lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas
“So Close” from “Enchanted”: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted”: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
Best motion picture of the year
“Atonement”
“Juno”
“Michael Clayton”
“No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”
Best animated short film
“I Met the Walrus”
“Madame Tutli-Putli”
“Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)”
“Peter & the Wolf”
Best live action short film
“At Night”
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)”
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”
“Tanghi Argentini”
“The Tonto Woman”
Achievement in sound editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum”: Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
“No Country for Old Men”: Skip Lievsay
“Ratatouille”: Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
“There Will Be Blood”: Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood
“Transformers”: Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins
Achievement in sound mixing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
“No Country for Old Men”: Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
“Ratatouille”: Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
“3:10 to Yuma”: Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
“Transformers": Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin
Achievement in visual effects
“The Golden Compass”: Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”: John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
“Transformers": Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier
Adapted screenplay
“Atonement", Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
“Away from Her”, Written by Sarah Polley
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
“No Country for Old Men”, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood”, Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson
Original screenplay
“Juno", Written by Diablo Cody
“Lars and the Real Girl” (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
“Michael Clayton”, Written by Tony Gilroy
“Ratatouille”, Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
“The Savages”, Written by Tamara Jenkins
