Storied showrunner David Milch debuted his long-awaited follow-up to Deadwood last night. (Yes, that’s right, we’re doing him the courtesy of pretending John from Cincinnati never happened.) Although Luck won’t officially premiere until January 29th, HBO ran a sneak preview of the show’s first episode after Boardwalk Empire‘s season finale. And we wanted to like it. We could not, in fact, wait to get a peek at it. But, while we realize great shows can have shaky pilots, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t worried.
Luck takes place in the world of horse racing — a somewhat alien realm for those of us who ignore the Kentucky Derby and have never set foot in an OTB. This means that the distinguished trio behind the series — executive producers Milch and Michael Mann, plus producer/star Dustin Hoffman — needs to quickly find a way to make those of us with no interest in the sport care about the jockeys, managers, and gamblers who populate its world. So it’s confusing that they seem to have so purposely chosen to hold viewers at arm’s length. Read More »
1. A surprising new twist in the ever-continuing Netflix saga: Dreamworks has decided to ditch its current deal with HBO and offer the streaming service the exclusive rights to its output, at about $30 million per movie — a $10 million increase in revenue. [via NYT]
2. Goodnight, sweet prince: Arch West, the Frito-Lay executive who invented Doritos back in the early ’60s, died last week in Dallas at the ripe old age of 97; according to his daughter, the family plans on “tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn.” [via The Daily Beast]
3. Here is your first look at Luck, the Michael Mann horse-racing drama that stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte and is set to air on HBO some time in January. Thoughts?
4. Lou Reed and Metallica have debuted the first full track off of their forthcoming collaboration album, Lulu, which is due out on November 1. Listen to “The View” here.
5. The world we live in: Can you believe that Dolphin Tale nearly beat Moneyball at the weekend box office — and that neither film could match the $22.1 million haul by The Lion King 3D? [via Vulture]
Bonus Buzz: A Visual History of Literary References on ‘The Simpsons’
Today at Flavorpill, we were thrilled that A Visit From the Goon Squad author Jennifer Egan was among this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners. We watched cowboy monkeys riding dogs herding goats. We were excited to hear that Mariah Carey has signed on to be one of the judges on The X Factor — we’re assuming she’ll be the Paula. We absolutely adored Rakesh Satyal’s hilarious essay about the biggest Barbie moment of his life. We liked the looks of these Super Mario propaganda posters and these creative ads for a bookstore in Lithuania. We were impressed by Wayne Dorrington’s visual retelling of The Empire Strikes Back in just 63 lines of icons. We enjoyed Nick Nolte’s beard in this teaser clip for HBO’s upcoming horse racing series Luck. We wanted to make our own map of the London Underground out of string. We witnessed the transformation of a store front in Harlem over nearly three decades. And finally, we bookmarked this list of 15 of the most famous cafes in the literary world for the next time we’re headed to Europe. How many of these iconic spots have you visited?
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Or it may never have been at all. The “it,” of course, refers to Lars von Trier’s rumored remake of Taxi Driver, which had the media abuzz for nearly a spin around the sun. Often, the very mention of the word “remake” with a beloved title leads to a feisty chorus of “ohs” and “whys,” from The Seven Samurai to the more recent Let the Right One In. But with von Trier’s brilliant but checkered past (hit-miss-hit) and Martin Scorsese’s notorious “hero,” there was definitely promise for a must-see redo.
In that what-if spirit, here’s a list of other American classics and the directors we think could make them their own. Leave your own scenarios in the comments.
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Production designer David Wasco and set decorator Sandy Reynolds-Wasco have worked on more than 30 films in the past 25 years. The husband-and-wife team has collaborated with some of the most talented filmmakers working today, including Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, David Mamet, and Michael Mann, to create seamless, life-like sets for their pictures. The duo’s design work on Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums was featured in the Smithsonian’s National Design Triennial in 2003 and Wasco has been nominated for Art Directors Guild’s award for excellence in production design three times, including a nod for his work on Mann’s Collateral. With Inglourious Basterds opening in theaters today, the couple shared some of the behind the scenes action of working with QT. Read More »
The movie critics are calling it the “worst film of the decade, yet simultaneously, the greatest allegory for the automobile industry.” Transformers 2, has tied Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for the #1 spot making $42.5M over the holiday weekend. (This secures The Hangover as the only movie this year to hold the numero uno spot for two consecutive weekends.) Transformer 2‘s inability to come out on top comes as no surprise, since both sequels easily divide the ”me like big 3-D creatures break stuff” audience. Read More »
