Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has had plenty of time on his hands to think about the violent unrest that his crude 14-minute YouTube video, Innocence of Muslims, caused, and he has no regrets. Nakoula, who’s stewing in a Los Angeles jail because he violated the conditions of his probation stemming from a fraud conviction unrelated to the movie, told the New York Times in an interview “that he would go to great lengthys to convey what he called ‘the actual truth’ about Muhammad.’
In Nakoula’s first public comments since landing back in the clink, he explained that before he wrote the script to what became Innocence of Muslims — an early draft was called The First Terrorist — he thought, “I should burn myself in a public square to let the American people and the people of the world know this message that I believe in.” He also cited the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Tex. in which U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 29 others on the military base.
Nakoula’s interview is part of a larger investigative piece about the making of Innocence of Muslims that the paper calls “a bizarre tale of fake personas and wholesale deception,” adding: “as with almost everything touched over the years by Mr. Nakoula — a former gas station manager, bong salesman, methamphetamine ingredient supplier and convicted con man — it is almost impossible to separate fact from fabrication.”
The Times story indicates, by the way, that there’s more to Innocence of Muslims than just a 14-minute YouTube clip. The finished film is apparently one hour and 30 minutes long.
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Good news for anyone who couldn’t get enough of Kenneth Lonergan’s flawed, fearless, possibly cursed epic Margaret: The forthcoming DVD will feature a 186-minute cut — 36 minutes longer than the version all but buried last year by Fox Searchlight before a cadre of critical supporters rallied on its behalf. The not-so-good news, if high-definition transfers of talky moral dramas are of particular importance to you: The 150-minute version will reportedly be the only one available on Blu-ray when it goes on sale July 10. But hey. We take what we can get in this world. [Amazon]
When you get a chance, go read Dennis Hensley’s interviews with Elizabeth Berkley and Paul Verhoeven from the days before Showgirls was a cult cause célèbre. It’s worth every minute: “Oh my God, I just saw it like a week ago. You have to understand, I’ve been working at this since I was like 5 years old so it was pretty overwhelming. I sat in the screening room by myself. The lights went down and I started to cry because it was just overwhelming at first. I’m such a perfectionist, but a certain point, was able to get lost in the story, which was a good sign to me. I really thought that I was watching another girl.” Oh, you wish, honey. [Dennis Hensley via The Hairpin]
What’s the Film: The Sitter (2011), new on DVD and Blu-ray via 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Why it’s an Inessential Essential: Director David Gordon Green’s transition from being an American indie darling to a reviled slacker-comedy pumper-outter is kind of astonishing. One minute, he’s being praised for being the Terrence Malick-inspired director of such films as George Washington and All The Real Girls; the next he’s being put down for making lazy pot comedies like Your Highness and The Sitter. But the thing of it is: Green’s comedies don’t deserve to be compared to good movies.
The Sitter in particular is a goofy, strange and very sloppy comedy that also happens to feature frequently inspired comedic performances from Jonah Hill and Sam Rockwell. It’s also a rare slacker comedy where a slovenly ditz who only succeeds in spite of himself never lets us forget that he’s an “asshole” (“Come on, Ricky Martin, let’s get out of here”), a “pussy” (“No, I’m a whole different pussy now”), and a total spaz (“Let that debris fall across your face, girl.”). Consistency is no longer (and I’d argue never was) Green’s strong suit. But in the realm of the slacker comedy, The Sitter is actually all right.
Hill stars as Noah Griffith, a nerd too self-absorbed to see that his girlfriend Marisa (Ari Graynor) is stringing him along. To help his divorcee of a mother go out on a date, Noah reluctantly elects to baby-sit three of the most grating problem children ever committed to screen: Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), a cherry bomb-dropping psychopath; Slater (Max Records), a histrionically repressed blueblood; and Blithe (Landry Bender), a “celebutante”-obsessed prima donna. But on top of that, Noah also has to buy cocaine from Karl (Rockwell), a…
Full Story »A new minute-or-so-long trailer for Prometheus has landed, and while it’s unclear how much of this footage will be included in Saturday’s planned 2:33 minute trailer debut (which will follow 20th Century Fox’s WonderCon presentation), Ridley Scott’s June 8 sci-fi pic just keeps the hits coming. Sparse on dialogue, big on images, the trailer teases Prometheus’s IMAX release and impresses on the startling strength of its visuals alone.
It’s as tantalizing as that first, even more mysterious trailer in that it offers snatches of scenes, character shots, and action without telling us much of anything in the way of plot. What is nice is that heroine Noomi Rapace is front and center this time, with less of a focus on Charlize Theron, and we also get a bit more of Logan Marshall-Green, a/k/a the American Tom Hardy. But it’s still relatively spoiler free, and hopefully Fox’s campaign will follow suit and leave enough of the film to be discovered in the theater.
Check back tomorrow for more on Prometheus as Movieline reports from WonderCon, and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates.
[Prometheus-Movie via The Film Stage]
Full Story »Forget John Carter’s controversial budget woes and terrible tracking for a minute; Wrath of the Titans has been threatening to be the first big biff of 2012 since it was announced, thanks largely to its poorly received predecessor, Clash of the Titans. The sequel’s initial Marilyn Manson-themed trailer didn’t help, either, but Warner Bros. have thankfully tightened things (and stopped lingering on Sam Worthington’s Kenny Powers ‘do) for a new trailer that actually promises some fantastic CG creature work. Bring on the lava monster thingy!
Wrath of the Titans picks up ten years after the events of Clash, with Perseus (Worthington) tapped once again by Zeus to save the world, this time from the nefarious Titans and Olympian plotters we glimpsed in Immortals. (Thanks for that primer, Tarsem!) This time around Rosamund Pike is along for the ride as the warrior queen Andromeda, as well as folks like Toby Kebbell and Bill Nighy.
This trailer tightens things up a bit, explaining the set up (Liam Neeson’s Zeus is under attack!) and packing a ton of CG creature looks into the span of a minute and a half. Honestly, that’s shaping up to be the draw of this Jonathan Liebesman-helmed sequel. All I want to see is some believable lava smoke monster giant action. The movies never get those guys quite right.
Wrath of the Titans will debut March 30.
[via ComingSoon]
Full Story »Here is a new-ish 60-second bit of viral video that I wouldn’t mind installed in my living room: The first minute of every James Bond film, played on one screen divided into 22 parts. You won’t be able to take your eyes off it. As a bonus, find an older, longer complement that may finish the mind-blowing job commenced by the more recent video.
Also: You’ll need full-screen and — if you’re at work — headphones for maximum effect. Turn it up!
[Via Grantland]
Full Story »
In a world where Spike Lee has his own variety of Absolut and Will Ferrell devotedly shills for Old Milwaukee, it’s important to point out when the intersection of celebrities and booze actually results in something encouraging. Take Charlize Theron, who was photographed Sunday carrying some of America’s finest craft beer to a Super Bowl party. A whole case of it.
The Delaware brewery Dogfish Head is renowned far and wide for its IPAs, particularly the 60-minute variety of which Theron rocked over the weekend. At 6 percent ABV, it is the brewery’s smoothest, least potent IPA; the 90-minute and 120-minute versions top out around 9 percent and 20 percent, each named after the length of the brew’s sustained boil and continuous hopping. Which may not mean anything to non-beer enthusiasts, but trust me: After having to sit through five minutes of Super Bowl ads for something called “Bud Light Platinum,” little is as refreshing to a connoisseur as seeing an A-list, Oscar-winning actress treat our biggest sporting event as the stepping-up opportunity that it is.
Anyway, Theron should be commended, and may all of Hollywood take note. Also: I will totally lend my likeness out to any brewer needing a little push on upcoming game days. Inquire within. I’m looking at you, Ommegang. Ahem.
[via Daily Mail]
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