Being a huge fan of both Freddie Mecury and Johnny Depp, I'm actually quite excited by this news. From The Independent:

 

"He is a keen guitar player whose admiration for the Rolling Stones stretched to modelling his character, the pirate Jack Sparrow, on the mannerisms of Keith Richards. Now the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star, Johnny Depp, is being lined up to play a rock star for real in a biopic of the late Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury. Robert de Niro's company, Tribeca Productions, is said to be behind the project, which Brian May, the Queen guitarist, confirmed was in development. 'Discussions are at an early stage,' he said on his website. May described Depp as 'fantastic'. 'He would be a worthy counterpart for Freddie on screen. I don't think I can say any more right now,' he added...the proposed biopic would tell the life story of Mercury, who was born in Zanzibar in 1946 and died from complications of Aids in 1991, the day after confirming he had the disease."

 

Look, as far as I'm concerned Johnny Depp can do anything. And Brian May's guitar solo in "We Will Rock You" is one of the greatest in all of rock. So I'm not going to argue with any of this.

 

 

As Kevin wrote, Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" is getting rave reviews fom critics. I think it's one of the best films of 2006. As I said in my top ten:

 

"With his grim and gorgeous fairy tale, director Guillermo del Toro proves himself a true visionary, a filmmaker of such boundless creativity and subversive daring that his visions left me, at times, absolutely awestruck. But there's more than just intensely vivid imagery and fantastically crafted creatures, there's a story (of a lonely little girl living amidst the Fascist regime of 1944 Spain) that blend reality and metaphor into a movie that is sensational on all levels. A work of art."

 

Critics, however, are not digging Tom Tykwer's "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" a movie that also cracked my top ten. Tykwer's always been a troubling director for critics, but I think he's one of the most interesting and innovative filmmakers working. Again, as I wote:

 

"If you were significantly moved by the tracheotomy kiss of Tom Tykwer's 'The Princess and the Warrior,' you'll appreciate the director's mesmerizing take on love, sexuality, fear and horror. So it's perfect then, that Tykwer adapted Patrick Suskind's 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' (about a young man of 1766 France who crafts perfume out of the beautiful women he murders) into an olfactory masterwork -- a movie that's so hauntingly beautiful, so terrifying and yet, so weirdly romantic and sad that like any great (or perverse) scent, it lingers for days."

 

 

 

When I first saw this headline ("Blanchett's Fears for Dench Fight") I thought it had something to do with the Oscars. But when I read the following account, I realized it was just another run of the mill, afraid to smack an elderly person story that every A-list celebrity must go through at one point in their career. But all kidding aside, apparently Cate Blanchett:

 

"...Feared she would be too starstruck to hurl her revered co-star Dame Judi Dench against a wall during an onscreen fight scene. The actress was crippled by nerves ahead of the 'Notes on a Scandal' shoot in case she injured the 72-year-old Oscar winner in the violent gesture. She recalls, '(Judi) had this Ninja Turtle pad on her back to protect her. We finished shooting, and went to have a glass of champagne. "Phew!" we said. And then they asked us to do it again.'"

 

She must have given her a good shove since Blanchett has now been nominated for a Golden Globe. Not that Cate isn't one our most gifted actresses, she is, but smacking around Dames proves you're serious about your craft. That, or you're in a Lifetime made for TV movie oppostie Judith Light. It's a fine line.

 

According to Cinematical, the long awaited Edie Sedgwick biopic "Factory Girl" is opening in Los Angeles tomorrow specifically for Academy Award consideration.

 

Since Harvey Weinstein claims star Sienna Miller's performance as Edie is such a smashing success, the film has pushed itself forward but for Angeleno eyes only.  The decidedly New York story won't open in New York until the end of January. Cinematical also reported: 

 

The Defamer does an exhaustive year in review that helps you remember milestone events like "South Park" killing Chef, the curious antics of Sharon Stone and Kiefer Sutherland tackling a Christmas tree.

I was waiting for Chevy Chase's words on the passing of former President Gerald Ford and here they are.

 

The comedian made famous on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s for portraying Ford as a massive klutz (why do I see Chase as Ford falling over a Christmas tree?) had nice words for Ford, revealing the man had a healthy sense of self humor. According to Chase:

 

“'He had never been elected period, so I never felt that he deserved to be there to begin with,' the actor said about Ford, who died on Tuesday at age 93. 'That was just the way I felt then as a young man and as a writer and a liberal.'

 

“'Later on we became friends and he was a very, very sweet man,'” Chase said in a telephone interview from a Colorado ski resort. 'He took my wife and I on a whole lovely trip through Grand Rapids to show us where he had been as a child and what not. We kept in touch and he was just a terrific guy.'”

 

Why do I sense George W. wouldn't do the same for Will Ferrell?

 

 

--Jessica Simpson is starring in a re-make of Mike Nichols' "Working Girl" to be titled "Blonde Ambition." For some reason Luke Wilson and Willie Nelson also decided to star.  

 

--"Rocky," "Fargo," "Groundhog Day," "Halloween" and "Applause" are among the 25 films to join the National Film Registry this year. Read the full list here.

 

--Rob Zombie revealed the new Michael Meyers. Great. Though I'm more excited for Malcolm McDowell playing Doctor Loomis.

 

Don't expect to get through the rest of 2006 without a slew of "Best Of" lists. They're easy to read, easy to argue with but, for the listmaker, often very hard. I'm still wrestling with mine (I should have put "The Descent" above an honorable mention, I never saw "Letters from Iwo Jima," I knocked "Brick" off for "Half Nelson"...why?).

 

But here's an interesting list of the years's best films by writer Stephen King for Entertainment Weekly. At first, I quickly scanned his ten and thought, WTF? "Snakes on a Plane?" but when I read his introduction, I found King's honesty refreshing:

 

"Thanks to TiVo and iTunes, Constant Viewer is no longer a slave to the schedule. Even if you miss a whole season, no problem — there's the boxed set. Put it on your Christmas list. Viewers with HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax are even freed of the tyranny of network censorship (not that there's much anymore — check out this season's run of 24, where I keep expecting to see a theme park called Torture World).

 

"As a result of the above, my own moviegoing has taken a drastic plunge since last we met for this particular year-end list: just 45 movies from Dec. 7, 2005, to about that same date in '06. Many were great, but not one had the cumulative effect of 13 back-to-back-to-back Prison Break episodes. The PB story may spend a lot of time in Gooney-Bird Land, but the cumulative effect is riveting...like watching a Sam Peckinpah maxiseries.

 

"So watch out, studios. There's trouble in paradise. And if you don't believe it, look at the grosses of the latest Clint Eastwood picture...and consider this: I write for an entertainment publication and never even saw it. I could have; I had the time, I had the money, and I loved Big Clint's last two pictures. Bu-ut...I was busy at home. Watching Jericho on my computer.

 

"That said, here's my list of the best I've seen since last December. Not a critic's list, remember; I'm just another schlub in the popcorn line."

 

With that, read all of Mr. King's list which includes "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," a film King claims has a "Frakkin' horrible title" but is nevertheless a '"great movie."

 

It also came out in Frakkin' 2005 but I won't hold that against him.

 

I've got the holiday spirit. Big Time. You'll recall my excitement for "Black Christmas" my movie of choice come 12/25.

 

But there's so many other movies that make me holly jolly, something I've written about in two separate lists: Clasic Holiday Movies and Alternative Holiday Movies.

 

 

"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)
To all those fashionable contrarians who consider Frank Capra's classic "It's a Wonderful Life" maudlin tripe, we say, humbug! How many times do we have to remind you people that what has been too frequently labeled "Capra Corn" is really a very dark, complex and thought-provoking movie? James Stewart plays George Bailey, a guy who's so down in the dumps that he's about to commit suicide via jumping into the icy waters of the Bedford Falls River. Never mind his cute brood of kids (whom he yells at) and his patient, loving wife (an incredibly comely Donna Reed) at home. But when Guardian Angel Clarence (a terrific Henry Travers) shows up, he gets quite the eye-opener. Just what would life be like without you, George Bailey? As George learns what that means, Clarence says, movingly, "Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" Call us saps, but Stewart's performance, in which desperation turns to heart-swelling, borderline hysterical happiness (you gotta wonder if George is bipolar) is handled with such tender aplomb that, sniff, it gets us every time. If you haven't cried enough this holiday, here's your chance.

 

 

"Bad Santa" (2003)
Though Ron Howard tried in vain to remake "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," it was director Terry Zwigoff who actually got "Seussical" with the ribald, nasty, hilarious "Bad Santa" -- a movie in which every 10 minutes you think, how did they get away with that? How did this get made? This Christmas fable stars Billy Bob Thornton as a lovable and hateable drunk mall Santa/con man. The film isn't based on "The Grinch" per say and (as far as we know) we've not read any book by Seuss where a department store Santa makes very vocal whoopee in a ladies' changing room, but its subversive spirit and Thornton's melting dark heart does the Dr. proud. Thornton's Kringle and his dwarf partner (a hilarious Tony Cox) are set to rob the Phoenix mall that employs them. But the bad Santa undergoes a transformation when the unimaginable happens -- he actually feels something for a kid that won't leave him alone. And what an annoying, bullied, chubby little tyke at that (the perfect Brett Kelly). What's so wickedly wonderful about "Bad Santa" is not just that it dares to be so raunchy (and on Christmas!), but that it really is at heart about a man understanding the importance of a child's inherent sweetness. Without saccharine sentiment, without swelling strings befitting a Tim Allen movie, without uh, sobriety, "Bad Santa" may be one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

 

So, which one is good?

 

The German or the Shepherd?

 

According to most critics, Steven Soderbergh's "The Good German," not so good and Robert DeNiro's "The Good Shepherd" a little better.

 

I'm going to catch both films however. And "The Good German" for cinematography alone. It looks stunningly beautiful.

 

--The Onion AV Club's Year in Film 2006. Gotta love my pal Nathan Rabin's inclusion of Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" among his top ten.

 

--Best trailers of 2006 and the Worst via I Film.

 

--And, of course, the Best and Worst dressed of 2006. I can't forget that.

 

 

The trailer for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's sure to be trash-ter-piece is up!

 

Let us all basque in the wonder that is "Grindhouse."

 

Put quite simply: This. Looks. Effing. Awesome.

 

And I want one of those leg guns...

 

Though I admire director Gore Verbinski's assuredness within a multitude of genres, he dropped the ball with the second "Pirates" movie. It landed on my best of list as one of the worst films of 2006 for being an obnoxious, empty, theme-park-ride bit of unclever action overload tediousness.

 

And worse, it nearly swallowed up Johnny Depp, who even in dreck, is always charismatic.

 

So I'm hoping he comes around with the third "Pirates." It's possible. And thanks to the fine folks at ComingSoon, my hopes might actually be realized.

 

*Yep, that's Keith Richards as Depp's daddy and aside from the dude with the Stones tee-shirt in the middle, the picture of Depp and Richards makes me almost strangely happy. Like all is right in the world. Or wonderfully wrong.