paul haggis
Flotsam & Jetsam
Tom Cruise’s Cook Exposes Scientology’s Scary Retention Practices
9:15AM Foster Kamer | Ruh-roh. The St. Petersburg Times—Scientology HQ’s hometown paper and perpetual investigative thorn in their side — has unleashed another scathing report on the religion. This time, it’s on the lengths they’ll go bringing deserters back, including Tom Cruise’s wedding chef. More »
Big Screen
Hollywood’s Sleepy Eyed Men Ruin Everything!
3:38AM Natasha VC | Paul Giamatti ruined Twilight. Director Paul Haggis continues to fun. The Watchmen ruins Nic Cage’s DVD’s dominance. Howard Zinn ruins Matt Damon or vice-versa. More »
How 007 Barely Avoided a Paul Haggis-Sired ‘Bond Baby’
8:50AM Kyle Buchanan | Though Casino Royale provided the James Bond franchise with a rebooted reservoir of goodwill, director Marc Forster says that the follow-up, Quantum of Solace, almost took things in a perilous, Mutt Williams-ish direction. Speaking to New York, Forster detailed how Bond producers clashed with screenwriter Paul Haggis when the Crash scripter wanted to add one considerably more kindergarten-friendly element to the film: More »
Oscar-Winner Paul Haggis Wrestles With His Reputation As A Debbie Downer
3:24AM Seth | With a backlog of magazines accumulating on our nightstand (we don’t know who ordered us the gift subscription to The Plushisist, but that’s not our furry bag, baby), we apologize for not having gotten to Los Angeles magazine’s Movie Issue sooner. Had we done so, we might have already noted their epic profile of Paul Haggis–the two-time Academy Award-winning writer/director who rocked the Hollywood firmament with Progressive Auto Insurance commercial-cum-racism allegory Crash, a film in which Sandra Bullock did some of her best Latino-locksmith-discriminating work to date. Haggis followed that with the even grimmer Iraq war drama In The Valley of Elah (a John Kerry DVD Club Selection of the Month™!), a film that only further cemented his reputation as suffering from an acute case of auteur’s anhedonia: More »
TV Audiences 23 Percent Less Interested In Fox Lie Detector Show Than Last Week
6:50AM Mark | · 2008’s January box office is up 18% over last year, thanks to both newly released, pump-and-dump triumphs like Cloverfield and steadier earners holding over from December, like National Treasure and the Chipmunks movie. [Variety] · Fox’s still-disappointing Moment of Truth (current number of lives ruined by the televised revelation of their past sins: 0) falls off sharply from last week’s huge premiere numbers, but still finished behind only American Idol on the night. [THR] · Where in the world is Oscar-nominated U.N. messenger of peace George Clooney? At U.N. headquarters, trying to convince headshot-wielding staffers to let him put down his Sharpie long enough to fill them in on the atrocities he just witnessed in Darfur. [Variety] More »
Lionsgate, Starz Delivering The ‘Crash’ TV Series Your Secret Inner Racist’s Been Craving
6:55AM Mark | When we briefly worked through the ramifications of the interim deal that Lionsgate struck with the WGA late last week, our thoughts immediately turned to the eventual resumption of production of the company’s critically acclaimed, hit TV properties like Mad Men, daring to dream that our favourite hard-drinking, secretary-despoiling ad execs might find their way back to AMC in the not-too-distant future. But we never thought to consider the potential dark side of LG’s television business lurching back into action, and so were shocked to learn this afternoon that the studio is partnering with Starz, our go-to premium-cable movie outlet when HBO seems to be showing nothing but Just My Luck and The Devil Wears Prada, to adapt subtle, multiple-Oscar-winning L.A. race-parable Crash for the small screen. The good news: according to Var, “high production values” and the participation of the original, uniquely heavy-handed creative team will ensure a viewing experience every bit as fulfilling as your original trip to the multiplex. The bad news: More »
Ill-Gotten ‘Crash’ Oscar Returned To Rightful Winner
6:50AM Defamer Hollywood | We’d like to offer our gratitude to an attentive reader, who pointed us to today’s AFP story on a lawsuit Crash director Paul Haggis recently filed against producer Bob Yari, which for one fleeting, poorly fact-checked moment righted one of Hollywood’s most egregious wrongs. Even though the wounds inflicted by those heavy hands had long ago healed, briefly revisiting what could have been was still a nice way to begin this Tuesday morning. ‘Crash’ director sues producer over film profits [AFP] More »
The John Kerry Movie Club Picks ‘In The Valley Of Elah’ As October’s Best Iraq War Drama
5:00AM Defamer Hollywood | We had no idea that former presidential candidate John Kerry offers a movie recommendation service, but a subscriber who’s already ponying up the $US9.95 monthly fee to receive the Senator’s film picks has let us know that he’s somewhat predictably followed previous selections of blockbuster eco-thrillers An Inconvenient Truth and the Eleventh Hour with another politically minded feature, the Paul Haggis Iraq war drama In The Valley of Elah. (Would it have killed him to go with Michael Clayton? Clooney could really use the help.) After the jump, the e-mail describing how the writer/director grabbed Kerry’s heartstrings with his Oscar-winning heavy hands from the opening scene and wouldn’t let go until the final credits stopped rolling: More »
Jon Stewart To Host Oscars, Attempt To Make Everyone Forget About ‘Crash’-Tainted Tragedy of 2006 Awards
8:30AM Defamer Hollywood | It seems that the Academy Awards’ Ellen DeGeneres Era, one marked by frequent tuxedo changes and playful trips into the Kodak Theatre audience for some daytime-talkshow-quality banter with nominees struggling to stay awake during the punishingly long telecast, is over, as it’s been announced that 2006 host Jon Stewart has been reinstalled at the Oscar podium, allowing the comedian to forfeit his membership in Hollywood’s shameful Chris Rock/David Letterman Memorial One-and-Done Club. Though Stewart’s previous turn as emcee of Hollywood Biggest Night was met by both low ratings and mixed critical reaction (there’s really no pleasing Tim Allen) we’re willing to give him another chance: he was profoundly unlucky in drawing the coveted assignment in a year irretrievably tainted by a Crash Best Picture win, and can’t be blamed for the mass rioting that immediately followed the hand-over of Paul Haggis’ second statuette of the cursed ceremony, an uprising that resulted in the tragic burning to the ground of the Kodak amidst chants of “Worst! Oscars! Ever!” With Oscar’s home completely rebuilt and the unlikelihood that we’ll experience another apocalypse-harkening upset, Stewart’s return should be a triumphant one that helps to erase the painful memories of the unfortuante events of that March 2006 evening. Academy to Invite Jon Stewart Back as Oscar Host [NY Times] Jon Stewart to return as Oscar host [AP] More »
