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Left pane: Cormac McCarthy; Bottom right: Guy Pearce and John Hillcoat.

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/Hollywood_McCarthy_Mania]Gooood morning finger lickers! As I write this with bed head of astronomical proportions there is glorious sunshine streaming through my windows. Aaaaaaaaaah spring is here film fans. And with it comes news of the latest Cormac McCarthy silver screen adaptation. While slurping a moca-frapa-capa-latte in Starbucks with good friend and fellow Finger Lickin’ contributor Mark this weekend; we discussed my recent article about Literary Arrogance and McCarthy’s work in general. After our chat, I got intrigued and did some high profile investigative journalism (googled it) and found that the very book I am currently reading, McCathy’s The Road, is now in production.

The book and therefore undoubtedly the film, though you can never trust Hollywood, is a tale of a father’s struggle to save the life of his son in a cannibalistic post-apocalyptic America. While I am only half way through the book, I am totally gripped. The prose is beautiful and exquisitely descriptive and I hope that Joe Penhall, who penned the screenplay, will be able to deliver the same flavour. Cast in the role of the father is the brilliant Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence) and the casting of his son has caused a X-Men style who-ha in recent days. As many of you, I’m sure, are aware X-Men Origins: Wolverine was forced to change shooting schedule and this has caused a clash in young Kodi Smit-McPhee’s (brilliant name btw.) diary. Kodi was originally destined to play young Logan in Wolverine but sensibly, in my opinion, has decided to drop the Wolverine flick in order to work with The Road’s Australian director John Hillcoat.

So what else do we know about The Road, well not very much other than the following folks are attached to the project Viggo Mortensen, as I said, Charlize Theron, playing his wife, Robert Duvall is rumoured to be involved and Guy Pearce has an IMDB credit with no character name. Likewise, due for release in 2009 but currently still in development by Ridley Scott is McCarthy’s 1985 Western, Blood Meridian. In an interview with nymag.com Scott has the following insight about the literary adaptation:

It’s about the end and the turning point for the American Indian, but it’s a pocket in that time — and it’s a hard one because it’s a wonderful read, and I think it should be kept that way. When one makes a film, you’ve got to make it like the read.

It would seem that with big names like Scott, Mortensen, Peace and Theron involved in adapting McCarthy’s work that this spree of adaptations might continue, should it prove to pay well at the box office. Which, after the success of No Country for Old Men, I can’t see being a problem for The Road. All I can say is that I hope they are as faithful to his original text as No Country because it seems to have been the Coen’s courage in not contorting the story into a Hollywood mould that has been so successful.

That’s it from me… I’m off to the shops in some glorious sunshine.

K

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/It_isn_t_easy_being_green_3]Afternoon finger lickers! The following is, without a shadow of a doubt, gross conjecture offered without any solid research or factual foundation, but when did that ever stop me…

I always felt kinda smug about the whole environmental issue. Growing up I always figured that Britain was a far greener nation than the United States. What with the media who-ha over Kyoto and everything. So in my dealings with Americans, my wife being a notable example, I was always suitably pompous in the “it isn’t easy being green” debate. Yes, that’s right, our local town council collects glass, paper, plastic, garden and food waste separately and no, we’re not all driving huge petrol guzzling vehicles that could be used to invade Iraq. But, as I’ve grown older and more socially aware the realisation that I don’t really do anything personally to reduce my environmental impact hit home and I began to think more about green issues in relation to filmmaking. From the miles of celluloid consumed every year to the electricity used in powering countless square feet of studio and post production space, the impact must be colossal.

Recently, after a couple of weeks of reading Hank Green’s ecogeek.org blog, I began to think about the environmental impact of not just Hollywood, who were evil to start with in my book, but also indie filmmakers. Are indie filmmakers intrinsically greener than Hollywood? Is it not just a matter of economic circumstance that forces us to consume less? I believe that we should be continually mindful of environmental issues in our filmmaking rather than resting on our laurels because we’re not as bad as the very bad man on the west coast of north America! Being virtuous only in comparison to the worse offender is nothing to be proud of in my opinion. I instantly thought of the efforts of Robert Redford and the Sundance Institute to encourage us all to be greener. However, I do not believe that having Lexus sponsor the “Lexus Hybrid Living Lounge” at this years festival is the way forward in the fight to reduce global warming… Lexus for god sake! It is however the way forward in advertising really huge unnecessary vehicles.

It seems to me, that if we want to encourage true green credentials for Indies then what is really important here is the epistemological and ideological imperatives behind the two groups. These are of course hugely diverse in the indie world. While Hollywood is contained both physically and demographically Indie filmmakers are undoubtably heterogeneous in nature. This is not just middle-class white america we’re dealing with. This is a gigantic spectrum of artists working all over the globe. However, in comparison to “the industry” the ideology marking the foundations of indie film is still in its relative infancy. So, I believe that while epistemologically Indie filmmakers are naturally disparate it is at the heart of their shared ideology that we need to inject environmental sound underpinnings.

This realisation in turn got me to thinking about the indie dream. Digital self-production and digital self-distribution. We have an extremely viable and successful model for self-production using digital platforms, however, what the environmental impact of this model is, I have no idea. I would hazard an uneducated guess that given the economically frugal nature of our productions means our footprint must be massively smaller than the beached whale that is Hollywood. However, as I said earlier this ‘only in comparison to’ thinking is flawed. What we need to do is inject green values into the progress of the indie take-over. With the likes of From Here to Awesome making the dream of self-distribution an ever growing reality the indies will undoubtably garner far more control over the market. Should this model grow as I know Lance, Arin and M dot Strange are keen for it to do I believe that the market can be truly flattened creating an almost seamless connection between filmmaker and viewer. It is with this “indie take-over” that could come the collapse of Hollywood and the democratization of the art form. With indie filling the Hollywood void it should therefore have progressively green values and it this I want to encourage.

I believe it is more important to encourage the indies, who I am certain will ultimately replace or grow to be a serious threat to Hollywood to undertake green practices than to attempt to retroactively impose these values on an industry that evidently doesn’t care. If we can introduce these imperatives at this relatively early stage we have a fighting chance of educating the world through one the most powerful entertainment mediums on the planet and reducing the impact of an industry that is no doubt a huge contributor to global warming. What are these imperatives and practices I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. Anyone with more knowledge of these issues please get in contact and maybe I can get Hank Green to write a guest Finger Lickin’ blog to highlight some of the most important issues.

I need to go away and get facts and figures to back up my assertions so for now… watch this space….

K

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/Be_Kind_Rewind_The_Hollywood_Indie_conflict]Evening fresh-faced finger lickers! Here’s a quick review of an indiewood flick doing the rounds for you. As I’m sure any film fan worth tuppence is aware Be Kind Rewind is the new film from Science of Sleep and Eternal Sunshine director Michel Gondry. The flick premiered at this years Sundance film festival and is being distributed by Focus Features.

Gondry’s comedy follows two slackers Jack Black and Mos Def who spend their days hanging out in the local video store in a dead-end town in New Jersey. After Black’s foolish character manages to wipe all the store’s videotapes the two are forced to recreate the Hollywood hit list using only their ingenuity and a VHS camcorder. Hilarity, as you would expect, ensues. However, evil city planning officials are moving to demolish the filmmaker’s slacker haven and build luxury apartments. In order to avoid the destruction of the video store the pair, with the help of the local community, set about making one final and totally original film to top them all.

While Be Kind Rewind entertained and made me laugh out loud on several occasions something was out of whack. Black and Def were well paired; the dialogue good; the cinematography was great and transition between the VHS-look and standard definition was well balanced. I also particularly like Gondry’s inclusion of the 2D elements in the comedy duo’s Hollywood remakes, a technique he took a good deal further in the sometimes-surreal Science of Sleep, which I loved by the way. However, I felt there was a comedy/feel-good balance problem. Rather than interspersing the comedy Gondry seems to have made a film where the laugh out loud comedy ends somewhere in the middle of the second act. He replaces the comedy with an often over pungent feel-good factor. The film turns from a slapstick fast paced comedy ride into an altogether different warm, fuzzy and dare I say it sometimes-saccharine picture. And as a result the film has somewhat lost its indie sensibility by the culmination of the third act.

Overall, this film begins with an indie feel but slowly develops a Hollywood scum on the surface. I don’t know whether this is because of the inclusion of a mainly Hollywood cast or the strange narrative shift. Either way the film leaves you with a confused taste in your mouth. While it delivers an American Independent cinema open-ended conclusion it does so while swimming in Hollywood sentiment. Perhaps that’s what Gondry was after… but I’m not sure he sold it to the audience.

K