Ok gadget hounds, so this Siri thing is pretty neat. AND she/it has a built-in sense for movie geekery, so if you happen to ask her, say, what the meaning of life is. (Answer: 42, duh.) Or slyly refer to the shenanigans of that uber-intelligent, all-knowing other futuristic supercomputer, HAL 9000. Watch video of Siri in action (at the 5:15 mark) after the jump and stick around for more Buzz Break.
• “I spent most of my life just trying to humor people.” Sipping lemonade and puffing on a cigar circa 1998, the late, great Hunter S. Thompson explains how his first manuscript, The Rum Diary (written in his youth, published decades later, and made into this week’s Johnny Depp starrer) was eclipsed by his Hell’s Angels gonzo reportage and languished in his basement for years. [Movie City News]
• National Amusements is actually not amused by Universal’s Tower Heist VOD plan and has joined the fast-growing exhibitor boycott of the film. This thing’s picking up more steam than Occupy America. [Reuters]
• Samuel L. Jackson has joined Twitter, muthaf***ers. [@SamuelLJackson]
• The celeb hacker suspected of breaking into Scarlett Johansson’s email account and exposing her naughty self-portraits to the world has been arrested by the FBI in an operation apparently called, I kid you not, Operation Hackerazzi. [THR]
• Terry Gilliam, 70, is still trying to put Don Quixote together. “I’ve actually reached the point of not believing I’ll ever make a film again.” Sadface. [Independent]
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John Goodman is reportedly negotiating to join Ben Affleck’s Argo, the period political drama about a real-life covert operation to rescue six U.S. diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. The kicker, and where Goodman comes in, is in the unusual circumstances of said rescue, in which the Canadian government enlisted Hollywood make-up and effects experts John Chambers and Bob Sidell to help the Americans escape in disguise as crew members of a fake science fiction film.
Goodman would play Chambers, the Oscar-winning effects veteran who worked on the Planet of the Apes films and created Spock’s pointed ears for Star Trek, reports Variety’s Showblitz. According to the 2007 Wired article that formed the basis of the film, Chambers and Sidell collaborated with the CIA’s Tony Mendez and worked up an elaborate faux production company, dusted off a defunct sci-fi film script and named it Argo, announced the start of filming in the trades, and created fake papers to smuggle the six Americans out of Tehran.
Alan Arkin has already been cast as spy-turned-producer Lester Siegel, while George Clooney and Grant Heslov will produce.
⢠Goodman good to go to ‘Argo’ [Showblitz]
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And you thought President Obama had a tough job last night announcing Osama bin Laden’s death to the world. Just imagine being Corey Feldman, whose new film Operation Belvis Bash completed a three-day tour of Texas whose end coincided with news of the infamous terrorist’s demise. Which is strange, since apparently that’s what the movie is about. This calls for a press release!
Operation Belvis Bash, which, according to a memo received this morning at Movieline HQ, is anticipating a limited release this summer, screened in Houston on Sunday night. The release goes on to describe the film as… Well, just read for yourself:
Operation Belvis Bash is the story of a struggling rock and roll musician (Alexander Loy) who is recruited to go to Afghanistan and win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people. He is joined by the outrageous “Jewtastic” comedian, Samuel Stilman (Corey Feldman) as he embarks upon his futile quest. As danger surrounds Bash and his rag-tag team of entertainers at the hands of infamous terrorist, Abdul (The Iron Sheik), Bash finds himself upstaged by a musical theater heavyweight, Alfons Logoluso (Frank Stallone). As another night falls on Kabul, will rock and roll shine the beacon of freedom in a land ravaged by darkness?
I know: Corey Feldman, The Iron Sheik, and Frank Stallone in one movie? Form an orderly queue, please. And while it’s not exactly clear where and how the bin Laden-snuffing subplot enters in, that isn’t keeping Feldman and Co. from latching on to this historic development with a little historical (and/or vaguely exploitative) perspective of their own.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” Feldman said in the same press release. “I was in New York on September 11, 2001, with Michael Jackson, and…
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