The Lovely Bones picture.

I must admit that I loathed the book by Alice Sebold. It started off promisingly but just drove to a halt and turned into a self loathing therapy lesson for Sebold. However it's always had the potential to be a visually stunning piece and Empire's exclusive picture is proof of that. Peter Jackson knows how to handle effects and as seen in Heavenly Creatures, he can tackle the more difficult aspects of life on film. Saoirse Ronan is an excellent choice, hopefully she'll get another Oscar nomination for her work. I don't know if I'll see the film yet, I think I'll wait for a trailer first.

Song of the day...

I've pretty much had this song on repeat all day.

TV Baftas 2009.

:: Actor: Stephen Dillane - The Shooting Of Thomas Hurndall
:: Actress: Anna Maxwell Martin - Poppy Shakespeare
:: Entertainment performance: Harry Hill - Harry Hill's TV Burp
:: Comedy performance: David Mitchell - Peep Show
:: Single drama: White Girl
:: Drama series: Wallander
:: Drama serial: Criminal Justice
:: Continuing drama: The Bill
:: International: Mad Men
:: Factual series: Amazon with Bruce Parry
:: Specialist factual: Life In Cold Blood
:: Single documentary: Chosen (True Stories)
:: Features: The Choir: Boys Don't Sing
:: Current affairs:Saving Africa's Witch Children (Dispatches)
:: News coverage: News At Ten - Chinese Earthquake
:: Sport: ITV1 - F1: Brazilian Grand Prix 2008
:: Interactivity: Embarrassing Bodies Online
:: Entertainment programme: X Factor
:: Comedy programme: Harry And Paul
:: Situation comedy: The IT Crowd
:: Philips Audience Award: Skins
:: Special Award: Jane Tranter
:: Academy Fellowship: Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders

Overall I'm semi satisfied. Stephen Fry didn't win anything sadly and was beaten by shagging tortoises (Life in Cold Blood) and the X Factor, ugh! That wasn't even the vote open to the public. They kept showing clips of that Alexandra Burke winning and she blubbed like some sort of madwoman. I'll always consider her evil for butchering Hallelujah anyway.

Go Mad Men! And The IT Crowd! And David Mitchell! They played Sex on Fire when he won. The producer likes him as much as I do. I wish Mitchell and Webb had beaten Harry and Paul so they could have been on stage together. The Outnumbered kids gave Harry and Paul the stink eye! There were some excellent nominees this year including The Inbetweeners which is receiving much more attention in it's second series.

The drama categories I really can't fault. Wallander was excellent (and it also meant you got to see Branagh a lot who brought John Sessions as his plus one which made me literally dqueal with delight.) I've also decided to marry Dawn French. She received the Fellowship award along with Saunders and Richard Curtis and Helen Mirren introducing them. Curtis said something about how they were loved by women young and old everywhere and I couldn't agree more. I love them both more than I should love a female comedy double act. Graeme Norton was a good, funny host but typically for an awards ceremony crowd, he didn't get the laughs he deserved. Neither did Michael McIntyre who was hysterical as usual. I'll try and dig up some pics when they go online.

"This time I cannot hope to destroy it alone."

New trailer here.

There are so many things right with this trailer I cannot name them all. The beautiful cinematography, the tone of the trailer, the badass Dumbledore, the extra screentime for Tom Felton, the fact that it's almost July and I'll get to see the full thing soon! It's time for Potter to kick those sparkly vampires' arses!

Cannes 2009.

Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the Nazi-hunter saga with Brad Pitt
Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, about 1969 music fest, with Emile Hirsch
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, an Argentine family drama with Vincent Gallo
Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant remake with Nicolas Cage
Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, horror-thriller with Alison Lohman
Pete Docter’s Up, the 3D Pixar adventure with Ed Asner
Jane Campion’s Bright Star, a John Keats bio with Ben Wishaw
Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, horror in the woods with Willem Dafoe & Charlotte Gainsbourg
Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric, about a troubled teen soccer fan
Johnny To’s Vengeance, a hitman-turned-chef in Hong Kong to avenge his daughter’s murder, with Johnny Hallyday
Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, teen troubles with Michael Fassbender
Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, about incipient fascism at a rural school in 1913
Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, a noirish melodrama with Penelope Cruz
Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere, about Mussolini’s secret lover
Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, a thriller about a ghastly murder
Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, about a small-town priest who turns into a vampire
Lou Ye’s Spring Fever, about a young threesome overcome with erotic longings
Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death, epic about the 1937 massacre of Nanking by the Japanese army
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll, about the love affair between a videostore clerk and an inflatable sex doll
Tsai Ming-liang’s Face, about a Taiwanese director in Paris to make a film about Salome, with Mathieu Amalric, Jeanne Moreau, Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye, Laetitia Casta and Jean-Pierre Leaud

Thoughts? At first glance my main thought was "Yay! Pixar!" I am excited to see how the studio will follow the sheer perfection that was Wall-E. Antichrist is also an anticipated one, as seen in the above picture. I'm guessing Von Trier will be pissing off as many people as usual. What a stunning image, I hope the film lives up to it. A deeper look led to a few more interesting finds, such as Andrea Arnold's new film (if you haven't seen Red Road, watch it now!), a lot of love for Asian cinema, Almodovar's newest film with recent Oscar winner Penelope Cruz, Tarantino's return to Cannes (my dad is completely fan boy style excited for Basterds) and Herzog's baffling decision to remake Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage, a man who gets more wooden with each film. I challenge you to watch the remake of The Wicker Man with a straight face. And of course Coppolla. Youth Without Youth was not well received so I wonder if he can pull a proper comeback with Tetro.

Disney and the fancy magic glasses.

Since John Lasseter is now in charge of Disney animation and he's a huge believer in 3D movies, Disney will be releasing pretty much all of their movies in the format over the next few years. I'm optimistic for this - I've only ever seen one film at the cinema in 3D and it was very gimmicky and dull. However, I have been informed that the technology is being used to enhance the movie instead of showing off what they can do. Some of their future releases will undoubtedly look amazing in 3D. I'm thinking primarily of Pixar's upcoming work (Up, the Toy Story films, Cars 2, The Bear and the Bow, Newt), Disney's animation (I'm most excited about Rapunzel with it's oil painting style animation and the amazing Kristen Chenoweth in the lead), the re-release of Beauty and the Beast (that ballroom scene will be worth the price of admission alone) and Alice in Wonderland (with a cast like that how can I not get excited? Stephen Fry's in it, for god's sake!) If only they could bring the cost of the showings down.

Obligatory girly post.

I figured that my blog needed a bit of good old glamour so here are the shots from Emily Blunt's Vanity Fair shoot.

Let the wild rumpus start!

I am DYING to see this. The trailer, complete with Arcade Fire music, is beautiful and has put to rest any worries that Spike Jonze wouldn't be up to the job. The wild things themselves look fantastic. I recently bought the book for my soon-to-be born second cousin because it's a classic but I never read it until I was much older than the recommended age group. Anyway, roll on Jonze!

Song of the day...

I saw this band live when they supported Muse and were a lot more punk influence. I must say I like the new sound. Incredibly catchy and just as mad as before.