Frank Miller

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

The Reader
If you didn't catch this provocative movie about the Holocaust (and so much more), now is your chance to do so. This is the performance that won Kate Winslet the Golden Globe and the Oscar and if you bring this movie home it won't be hard to see why.

She's mesmerizing as Hanna Schmitz, a German woman who strikes up an affair with a teenager named Michael Berg. In college, Berg learns that Hanna harbors many secrets when she goes on trial for Nazi war crimes. Ralph Fiennes plays an older Michael who struggles to reconcile his feelings for the woman he had an affair with, while comprehending the crimes she's committed.

Special features include deleted scenes, "Adapting a Timeless Masterpiece: Making The Reader," Kate Winslet talking about how to play an aging Hanna Schmitz, and the trailer.

One more up next so read more

From dime-store digests to lush graphic novels, the comic-book genre has fully established itself as part of high culture. Along with the literary upgrade have come equally artful films, including The Dark Knight and Sin City. But for all its highbrow hopes, The Spirit plays like a B movie.

Written and directed by Frank Miller of Sin City and 300 fame, The Spirit is no Sin City or even the less cerebral 300. As both artful sketch and pure entertainment, The Spirit is lacking. For all the highs and lows, read more

Entertainment Weekly held a few "Visionaries" panels at Comic-Con that brought together some of the greats in the TV, movies and comic book worlds. At the filmmakers panel, it was mostly a kick to see Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller all at one table. It turned into the Smith-Apatow comedy hour, but that seemed to suit the audience members (myself included) just fine. Check out some of the highlights below.

• The whole panel was super bawdy and raunchy, mostly due to Smith and Apatow making dirty jokes about each other. And then there was the smiling, friendly-faced Zack Snyder, who awkwardly bumbled out an answer to a question, after which there were about three beats of silence before Smith said, "Thank God your visuals are so strong, man." Smith later marveled at how awesome Snyder's Watchmen looks, saying he could die once he sees that movie.
• Apatow talked about his raunchy comedies: "You have to find out: how much penis can you show in a movie without clearing an entire room?" Meanwhile, Smith nodded, deadpan, like he totally understood.
• Smith: "I go with my gut, but my gut has lied to me in the past, like, when my gut said, 'Yeah, Jersey Girl's a great idea!'"
• Frank Miller: "Very early on I learned I was incompetent at anything else. So I started to make comic books."

More on comics, geek culture, and how comedians differ from rappers (according to Apatow), if you read more

Yeah, another dispatch from Comic-Con today but I just had to share because I attended the panels for Watchmen (see: photo below) and The Spirit today and both were so exciting. The one for Watchmen in particular was not only coolest in terms of the footage we got to see, but also because of the funny, laid-back vibe of the panel. I think Zack Snyder with his friendly, boy-next-door ways pretty much set the tone for that.

More on that later. First, some thoughts on Frank Miller's film version of Will Eisner's The Spirit:

• There are two things that I really loved about The Spirit footage we saw and the panel itself. For one, the movie truly looks like a comic book, and it's a lot of fun to watch. Jaime King described it as visually "intoxicating," which I could see. Secondly, Samuel L. Jackson was at the panel and he was a great interviewee. He chuckled when the topic of his Spirit character's Nazi costume came up. "That was awesome. I was a Nazi! Nick Fury became a black skinhead."
• That said, there was something about both the movie and the panel that was a little empty and detached. Miller completely admits that if a woman is in his movies, she's gonna be hot and wearing tight clothing. And that's fine. His choice, etc. But there's a line between making an artistic choice and objectifying women, and Miller skates that line.
• Finally, there's the issue of the Spirit himself, played by Gabriel Macht. I think Macht is an incredibly cute guy. And the character of the hero of the film is an important one to cast. On this topic, Miller mentioned that Hollywood has many fine male actors, but "not many men." Which is why, he says, we hold onto the Bruce Willises and Harrison Fords and Clive Owens (his examples, all). And then. . . he chose Gabriel Macht to be his manly hero? I thought the footage they showed us from the movie would explain this a little more, but not so. Onscreen as the Spirit, Macht is likable and funny and cute, but he's not the heroic "man" that Miller referenced earlier, which struck me as odd.

For some of my thoughts on Watchmen sneak peek, read more

The new trailer for the upcoming film The Spirit brings fans of Sin City back to the world of Frank Miller and his surreal,
noir-ish style. The description of the plot (based on a popular comic by Will Eisner) on IMDB is this: "Rookie cop Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City."

In the trailer we find a man in a Zorro-like mask (Because I Said So's Gabriel Macht) being tormented by the hot women in his world who all seem to want to have sex with him. . . or something. But apparently, this is a bad thing. And then Samuel L. Jackson storms across the screen in several crazy get-ups that include something of a Nazi uniform.

In other words: It's probably just the thing you'd expect from this director and I think his fans will be pleased.

The movie also stars Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, and Jaime King and will be released in theaters on December 25. To see the new trailer for yourself, read more

• According to The Guardian, Naomi Watts will play one of King Lear's daughters in the next film adaptation of Shakespeare's play. Gwyneth Paltrow and Keira Knightley will take on the roles of the other two daughters to Anthony Hopkins's King Lear.
• Matthew Fox is in talks to star in yet another one of Hollywood's comic book-turned-movies, Billy Smoke, about "an elite hit man who's nearly killed during a botched job and realizes that his only way to find redemption is to rid the world of all assassins."
• Hollywood Reporter writes that Helena Bonham Carter will have a "small but pivotal role" in the fourth Terminator movie.
• A follow-up to 300 is officially in the works, with Frank Miller currently writing the graphic novel on which it will be based. Though he's not committed yet, 300 director Zack Snyder is "definitely interested" to see what Miller comes up with. It's unclear whether the new installment will be a prequel or a spinoff, Variety reports.
• Robert Rodriguez is casting his lady Rose McGowan yet again, this time for a new film version of Red Sonja, a story based on the fearsome woman warrior created by Robert E. Howard and later adapted for Marvel Comics, Variety writes.
• According to Hollywood Reporter, four more ladies (Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis and Zoe Bell) have joined Drew Barrymore's directorial feature Whip It, starring Ellen Page. The movie is based on the novel Derby Girl.

Source, source, source and source

These guys!
Yup, Adam Brody, a.k.a. little indie Seth Cohen of The O.C. is trying out for a role in the Justice League movie. He's up against a slew of other young actors, as well as rapper Common who, in my humble opinion, would make a gorgeous addition to the cast.

What are the roles that need to be filled?
Director George Miller is looking for people to play Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter.

Who else is auditioning?
A good chunk of the Friday Night Lights cast (Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter) is in the running, along with Joseph Cross (Running With Scissors), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse), Michael Angarano (Sky High), Teresa Palmer (December Boys) and Max Thieriot (Jumper). The hopefuls are all on the young side because Miller is reportedly "looking for actors to grow into their roles over the course of several movies." So, which young actors do you think should play these superhero parts?

Source and source