Wrestle Jam

GREAT article on Kotaku about the making of Wrestle Jam, the fictional video game that Randy the Ram plays with his young neighbor during a scene in Darren Aronofsky's brilliant and moving film The Wrestler. I'm not going to say that Mickey Rourke was robbed if the Best Actor Oscar (Sean Penn was excellent in Milk) but it really could have gone either way. The article talks about how the video game and the scene in which it is played is a great bit of symbolism about Randy's struggle with his own reality in the film. Kudos to Michael McWhertor for some great writing. Very cool stuff.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

I know I certainly will.

I can't even begin to describe just how excited I am about this movie coming out. If you haven't read the book, shame on you. It is a masterpiece. Probably the finest superhero story ever...just gripping, compelling writing.

This is an article from Collider about a recent invite-only press conference where the director, Zack Snyder, showed about 25 minutes worth of footage including the opening scene (with The Comedian) and credits, the origin of Dr. Manhattan, and the Rorschach prison escape (Insert heavenly choir with epic underscore here).

Can't. Hardly. Wait. (Ethan Embry not included.)

In Rainbows, In Hollywood

Radiohead in the movies.

The boys from Oxford can do no wrong by me. They are the best band in the world right now. Their In Rainbows tour pretty much proves that I think, as does the accompanying album, which finds them in rare form (When are they not?). I may be a bit biased though (I've seen them three times on this tour).

Jonny Greenwood wrote the score for P.T. Anderson's much ballyhooed There Will Be Blood and was unfortunately denied an Oscar bid due to the Academy's ban on "scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music" (Wikipedia). Looks like the whole gang wants a crack at the whole movie score thing as well (though Talk Show Host, their contribution to the soundtrack to Baz Luhrman's controversial 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, is a standout track in their entire canon).

I'm really excited to see (hear?) this new venture of theirs, as reported above by the BBC. And Mr. Palahniuk is a pretty damn good writer too (so I've heard). At least I know Fight Club kicked ass.

Thanks again to Ben for the heads up.