Make Way For Miss Malone

Just now linking up to yesterday's "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" post here a day late since it went up last night after I'd already skedaddled my ass home for the evening -- but that is right, that thought that you had seeing that picture of Jena Malone above, this week's subject is indeed Miss Jena Malone! We love her -- from the glory of Donnie Darko on through her recent collabs with Nicolas Winding Refn...

... she's proven herself a former child actor with genuine adult-sized talent. And the first time I really took notice of that was in Carter Smith's 2008 horror flick The Ruins, which is this week's subject over at The Film Experience, click on over for that. In related news Malone is the villainous Plantation Belle in next week's horror flick Antebellum, which... I will review next week. But I shared the poster and trailer over here, way back in March when the film was meant to come out, pre-COVID.

A Midnight Kiss From Carter

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The first time I noticed that the cute neighbor boy from The Virgin Suicides had turned into MNPP Fave Jonathan Tucker, Grown Ass Man, was in Carter Smith's 2008 horror flick The Ruins, a film that remains here eleven years later tremendously underrated. And not just for the gift that is Jonathan Tucker, Grown Ass Man. Smith's film is trauma in celluloid form -- it underlines in thick red marker all of your absolute worst fears about the fragility of your own body, and then tendon thin line separating us from just a pile of meat on the floor. 

It's the body horror of Cronenberg mixed up with a slasher flick about Ugly Americans -- the most important subject of Aughts Horror -- with a whiff of Climate Change to boot. It's like a well-acted well-written and beautifully-shot version of M. Night's The Happening. It's surreal and terrifying, and also Jena Malone gives one of the great horror performances of its decade in it. Am I still talking about how good The Ruins is? Well The Ruins is fantastic.

But a good question at this point would probably be, why the hell am I rambling about The Ruins? Because I just found out that Carter Smith has a new project coming out next month! Mind you this isn't Smith's first work since The Ruins -- if you've never seen his ultra-creepy and gay horror flick Jamie Marks is Dead from 2014 I recommend seeking that out as well; I didn't love it as much as The Ruins but here five years later the film has lingered, and it seems a little ahead of its time with its explicitly queer horror content. (For more queer horror content I recommend you check out Smith's Instagram, which is off the hook.)

Anyway Carter Smith has directed the latest episode of Hulu's monthly Into the Dark anthology series, which offers up a new holiday-themed chapter each time around -- Smith's is called "Midnight Kiss" and is New Years themed, dropping onto Hulu on December 27th. (Last year's New-Years-themed episode was directed by Always Shine director Sophia Takal, and I reviewed it right here.) It's also about gay folks! It stars Scott Evans and Augustus Prew (both of whom I just saw playing boyfriends in NewFest's opening night flick Sell By; see some photos I took of them at the premiere right here) and here's how BD describes it:

"In the episode, “A group of longtime gay best friends and their resident fruit fly head to a beautiful desert home to celebrate New Year’s Eve. One of their annual traditions is to play “Midnight Kiss”, a sexy but ultimately dangerous challenge to find that special someone to help you ring in the New Year. As friendships have grown strained with secrets, jealousy and resentment, the group faces another challenge when a sadistic killer wants in. Relationships are put to the test and truths are revealed as the night turns into a fight for survival.”"

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Out of the Ruins, a Reckoning

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Carter Smith's 2008 horror flick The Ruins has been on my brain a lot lately, and I've been meaning to carve out the time for a re-watch -- the film is super cheap on blu-ray not to mention streaming on Amazon so I really don't have an excuse not to! Every time I see Jonathan Tucker or Jena Malone or the real (eventual) subject of today's post the actor Joe Anderson, seen above, I think of this film and how it got, pardon the pun given the film's nature, under my skin. 

Anyway The Ruins aside I did indeed read Joe Anderson's name this morning and it's for something we want to will into being, hence being here yammering about it -- director Neil Marshall, fresh off the steaming pile of his flop Hellboy remake... and listen, Hellboy flopped for a reason....

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There are theoretically worse movies that have been made and that I have sat through, but the problem with Hellboy is I love too many people involved with making it, it's too embarrassing, it makes you cringe, you have to avert your eyes like your bff just puked on his date

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 10, 2019

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Not that crap doesn't often succeed (look at this past weekend's big winner for proof of that sad hard fact) but I think it's best that everybody just forget that movie happened. Anyway Neil is working on a new movie, and given the strength of his not-Hellboy track record -- The Descent, Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, some smashingly good episodes of Game of Thrones -- I want him to make another damned movie! So let's talk about it.

It's called The Reckoning and it's set during "the witch hunts and the great plague in England in 1665" and it's about a woman accused of witchcraft by a spurned man who actually begins to dally with the devil. Joe Anderson's role sounds small (I don't want to spoil it but that link above does if you need to know) but he got me thinking about The Ruins and yadda yadda here we are. Let Neil Marshall make another movie, please!
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5 Off My Head: Tucker Unbound

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Save a quick tweet I didn't get the chance to properly wish one of our favorite actors, Mr. Jonathan Tucker, a happy birthday yesterday - he turned 35 and the third and final season of his show Kingdom premiered all at once! I got to thinking about all the wonderful, electric work he's gifted us with so far and I realized this'd be a fine time for a list! So here's a list of why I love watching him, and I'm not even talking about his abs for once! Dude's got talent to spare.

My 5 Favorite Jonathan Tucker Performances

Tim in The Virgin Suicides

"What we have here is a dreamer.
Someone completely out of touch with reality."

Beau in The Deep End
"How do you know what I think?"

Jeff in The Ruins
"The police, our parents, the Greeks, somebody.
Somebody is going to find us.
We just have to be alive when they do."

Jay on Kingdom
 "Well, hurts like hell but the pay is terrible."

Matthew on Hannibal

"I wonder what they're gonna call me... You know, the Iroquois used to eat their enemies to take their strength. Maybe your murders will become my murders... I'll be the Chesapeake Ripper now. "

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So what's your favorite Jonathan Tucker performance?

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Ruins (2008)

Jeff: They don't want us to spread it. That's why they won't let us leave. They're salting the soil to keep it contained. It's old. It has to be really old because the birds, the insects... and now, they've learned not to land here. 

I have been really meaning to re-watch The Ruins - Carter Smith's fantastic horror gem that should definitely not be spoken of as little as it seems to be spoken of these days - so maybe I should take advantage of it being Jonathan Tucker's birthday today and do so tonight. It's great! So maybe I just will...

And a happy birthday to Mr. Tucker -

I hope you've washed the stink of me off by now, good sir.
And nobody forget Kingdom's back tomorrow!

Morning, Joe

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We missed actor Joe Anderson's birthday over the weekend (he turned 34 on Saturday) so this morning we must rectify! If we were choosing a "Moment We Fell For" Joe it would be his small (but impossibly gorgeous) role in Carter Smith's marvelously disturbing and strangely underrated film The Ruins, which we were all about back in 2008 but which doesn't get talked about too much now. But if we'd bothered to see the Beatles musical Across the Universe the year before we probably would've fallen for Joe in that because he's basically the only part of that movie that really works. Speaking of...

... as we looked Joe up this morning we stumbled upon a behind-the-scenes video of him on the set of that film working on his big number, and it's stuffed with, as you see above, Joe goodness. Watch and see!

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Joe's on a show called Outsiders right now which airs on the WGN network and which just got renewed for a third season, which surprises me since I have literally not heard of it until right this minute. Any of you seen it? It co-stars Veronica Mars' Kyle Gallner, I see. The last thing we saw Joe in was when he replaced ? as Mason Verger on Hannibal, and we liked his brief loony spin on an already loony spin. Give Joe another job, Bryan Fuller!

I Am Link

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--- Stormy Weather - I love the first poster for Sam Riami's Oz, The Great and Powerful, but I find myself annoyed that "producer of Alice in Wonderland" gets billed before "director of Spider-Man." Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a cancer that refuses to die. Anyway the image on the poster already has me jazzed for the camera-work that Raimi might employ to bring big ol' giant cg twisters to life. Twisters!

--- Chick Flicks - With all the Nora Ephron talk (RIP) this past week I finally watched about half of Heartburn on Netflix the other day, somehow I'd never seen it, and I still need to finish it but it's pretty good. I mention this because there are several Ephron links worth sharing this morning - Glenn wrote up ten thoughts on Sleepless in Seattle, which I haven't seen in a very long time but always enjoyed for what it is (you can't go to the top of the Empire State Building without thinking of it), and he directed me to Tom Hanks' eulogy for Time, which is a lovely read; similarly I loved this piece from Lena Dunham, who made friends with Nora over the past, last year of her life.

--- Hot Package - There's something strangely sexual about the poster for Joseph Gordon Levitt's bike messenger action movie Premium Rush, isn't there? (via) Maybe it's just me being me, maybe it's just Joe being Joe, but he really does seem to be presenting. I'd ride [him] like hell, anyway.

--- Catching Jena - Yes Jena Malone has been cast as Johanna Mason in the second Hunger Games film Catching Fire. If you haven't read the books know this is a big important part. Also go read the damn books, it will take you less than a week. Anyway as I said when this was rumored, I have come to dislike Malone recently, so I'm forcing myself to close my eyes and remember how amazingly good she was in The Ruins, a part that was pretty atypical for her, so maybe she can still surprise me.

--- Mama's Boy - I missed mentioning this earlier in the week - Carlton Cuse of Lost fame (and some lady who worked on Friday Night Lights) are making a TV series for A&E called Bates Motel about you guessed it Norman Bates and the backstory for Psycho. I'll try not to let me undying bitterness towards the last season of Lost color my oh who am I kidding. They'd best cast Norman well. Who would you cast?

--- Second Breakfast - EW has a gallery of new pics from The Hobbit, which are filled to the brim with... hobbits. Well actually, more dwarves than hobbits, I guess. Little people. Not real ones though, we've outsourced real little people's jobs to big people and CG wizards. No not wizards like Gandalf, though. What?

--- Plug It Up - Hey look it's a paparazzi shot of the actress playing Sue Snell in the Carrie remake and sure enough, she's hot beyond belief. Sigh. The casting of the teens in this thing has really got me down.

--- Re Powered - Didja hear about the surprise renewal of Eastbound and Down? That's a big WTF. After reading this interview with Danny McBride I get why they're doing it, although I loved where the third season, supposed to be the finale, ended. It was perfect. But yay more Kenny Powers, I won't complain.

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Quote of the Day

Although I think he overestimates what he calls The Ruins' "expert pacing" (pacing is my biggest issue with the film, and kept me from truly loving it), Rich at FourFour's (spoiler-filled) defense of the film does contain a ton of terrific points, most importantly the following:

"One of the biggest points of criticism The Ruins has faced is that its characters are one-dimensional and frivolous, this impossible to care about. This brings up one of my biggest pet peeves of movie reviews: the assumption that one most emotionally wrap himself around a film to appreciate it. So not true! But more than that, of course what happens to these characters is so much bigger than they are. They're consumed by a tangle of vines on ancient Mayan ruins. I'm not sure that any character would be a match for that, and it seems foolish to go looking for Anna Karenina in plant food, anyway, you know?"

So very much word to that. I think that one of the film's greatest strengths (and the book's, although we do get to know them better there) is the way it offsets the enormity of the situation with the banality of the character's early-on concerns. These are regular folks. Kids having fun. Kind of annoying kids at that.

No more so than in the performance I have raved hither and thither over, Jena Malone's performance as Amy, which I just think is straight-up genius. Malone's an actress I always see so much going on in - an intelligence and weariness beyond her age - and all of that is just gone with Amy. She makes Amy an infantile mess from the out-set, petty and childish and erratic, and having my preconception of Malone going in only makes the performance even more astonishing. She's so different, and so heartbreaking, here.
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Ryan Phillippe Would Like To Invite You...

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... to view his film, Stop-Loss, which is out on DVD tomorrow. Nobody saw it in the theater - even though I told y'all it had Channing Tatum rolling around in the dirt in his underwear - so now is your chance. The moment above is from a deleted scene (via), which begs the question: huh? You deleted the scene of Ryan clearing brush without a shirt on, but left in the twenty-fifth scene of him whining at Abbie Cornish? Really?

Also out on DVD tomorrow is The Ruins, which has its highlights as well...


Mmm Joe Anderson... nevermind that he spends half the movie mutilated and screaming in agony... besides that, it's got a pair of terrific, underrated performances from its leading ladies, Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey! Ya can't go wrong!

As For The Ruins...

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If you have any recollection of how long it took me to offer up an opinion of No Country For Old Men then what I'm about to say ought to elicit a groan - I need to see The Ruins again before I really have a firm grasp on what I thought of it. This time, however, it's not because the film cast off my expectations so violently like NCFOM did, but rather for exterior reasons - the audience I saw it with was filled with total douche-bags who wouldn't shut the fuck up the entire movie, including one lovely woman seated directly behind me who seemed to wait until every quiet moment to let out another violent belch. Nice.

So I'm worried my environment might've negatively colored my reaction to the film... although, judging by the opinions I've heard from people I do trust, the blame may belong more to the film than I might be willing to admit at this juncture. In fact, I highly recommend you check out what my friend Sean had to say about the film - he'd read the book much more recently before going in to the film than I had (I read it quickly over a couple of days early last year) and was able to pin-point a lot of changes made from book to screen that did not (and, to be fair, did) work.

Anyhoo, some mention of spoilers ahead.

Sean makes mention of what I think was my main problem with the film - it felt really rushed. Especially the ending, but throughout the entire film there was scant attention paid to a lot of the factors from the book that helped to ratchet up the tension so vividly. In the film, it felt as if the entire ordeal lasted only a couple of days, while the book stretches their entrapment into what feels like a slightly longer frame of time - a week, maybe? Their exhaustion, starvation, dehydration... all of these factors felt much more expertly drawn out in the novel, and while it's certainly fair to say that the constraints of a ninety-minute movie versus a several hundred page book make this sort of condensation necessary, I still feel as if the film short-changed a lot of what made the story feel so real and so horrifying in its original incarnation.

I didn't have much of a problem with the switching up of character arcs from novel to film - although Sean does highlight how some some of these changes strand characters (especially the men) - and I would've been fine with Amy's escape at the end if any sort of attention were paid to the fact that she's now gone and doomed the rest of the world with her clothes saturated with killer spores and all... but no, the movie just ends?

One thing I will give the film is all of the actors were incredibly good. The two women especially - Laura Ramsey was heart-breaking, and Jena Malone crafted a character I had no idea she had in her. Flirty and self-destructive and sort of spacey, reduced to an incredibly sad girlishness by the end, Malone's performance really hit me hard - the way she uses her voice is amazing, all broken chirps. Even outside of a horror film it'd be a solid, strange and eye-catching performance, but here it stands as something, someone, I don't think I've ever seen portrayed in quite this same way in a horror film before. The guys are good as well, but moreso Jonathan Tucker since Shawn Ashmore is given almost nothing to work with. And Tucker's character sort of fizzles at the end with a sacrifice that should feel much sharper than it ends up coming off.

Also, I thought the vines and the "talking" flowers were nicely designed and used. Yes, they looked silly, but I thought they straddled the line between silly and uncanny pretty well - better than I feared they would - where your first instinct was to giggle but then the longer you looked the more wrong they seemed.

Well okay, I did have more to say than I thought I would. The thing that's missing here, the thing that I worry my belch-riddled first screening took away from me, was the building sense of dread that the book built so richly. I can't yet make up my mind as to whether the film simply lost that in translation or if I might find it easier to maintain the mood without a crowd full of distractions surrounding me. I'm hoping to figure out a time when I can count on no crowd (and judging by the box office receipts, that shouldn't be too hard) to watch it again, and really be able to tell if the tension is there or not. So stay tuned!
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Ruins Reviews Round-Up

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I'm out of my fucking head with anticipation for The Ruins right about now. I'm considering pretending to throw myself down a flight of stairs so I can fake having to leave work and fleeing to the theater to just watch it this afternoon. Hell, I'd actually fling myself down a flight of stairs right about now if it got me to the movie sooner than tomorrow night. Sigh.

For now, all I have are a bunch rave reviews bouncing around the internet to keep me warm. The film hasn't really screened for critics yet, so there's not much to see at Rotten Tomatoes. But here are some reviews from geek sites that've laid their eyes on it!

--- AICN's Harry Knowles says "you have no idea how fucked it could get. And the surprises just keep on coming. Think of this as DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS meets CABIN FEVER, but played straight. The results are pretty spectacular."

--- AICN's Massawyrm says "But much like many a cool ass horror flick before it, The Ruins takes trite well trodden material and freshens it up with some clever ideas, new angles and a story that I dare say contains shades of Carpenter."

--- And AICN's Capone says "Despite being set almost entire out in the open, The Ruins feels remarkably claustrophobic, so much so that it feels hard to breathe at times."

One annoying sidenote to all the AICN reviews - they all act shocked and bewildered that the film was any good at all. So if any of y'all out there have no expectations for this movie, A) I don't get you, and B) you might end up liking it anyways! Thankfully, for someone like myself who's a big fan of the book and has actual high expectations for the movie, there are less-bewildered souls reviewing the film.

--- STYD says ""The Ruins," a painstakingly faithful adaptation, adds a few wicked surprises and is every bit packed with the concentrated dread that made your skin crawl in the novel."

--- BD says "THE RUINS has turned over a new leaf in horror and will get inside even the thickest of horror fans' skin." (Yes, you should groan at those puns.)

--- Dread Central says "The terror that waits within The Ruins is out to do one thing: destroy us. It wants to eat us, and eat us it shall. I watched as the screen was splattered with ghastly, grisly images of human meat; blood, bone, and sinew snap on the screen. At times you almost expect it to splatter across the lens of the camera. The violence is brief, but when it hits, it's as jarring and brutal as I have ever seen. That is when I see these young actors ripen in their performances. With each slash, cut, or gouge we feel their pain..."

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A Geek's Sophie's Choice

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Doesn't it suck that we've got to choose between the fourth season premiere of Battlestar Galactica and the opening night of The Ruins?

I want them both, dammit!

But no, alas, The Ruins must play second fiddle to my favorite TV show, and wait a day. Sorry, Ruins. Them's the breaks.

Speaking of The Ruins, there are a bunch of pictures from the film I haven't seen before right here, including this creepy pair:


And speaking of BSG, Salon has got a big-ass (like, Fat Apollo big-ass) review of the show so far.

Come to me, Friday....

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I Am Link

--- Just Four Days! My Battlestar countdown doesn't speak for that show alone - this Friday, besides BSG's premiere, marks the release of The Ruins, something I'm also wicked excited over. I've got my fingers crossed so tightly they might snap off that the movie's as terrifying as I want it to be. If you head over to STYD, you can read interviews with two of the film's stars, Jena Malone and Shawn Ashmore. More to come on this movie over the next few days, obviously.

--- Speaking of What's Coming Soon, at Low Resolution Joe has got the next round of his Winter Movie Preview up, telling all of us what's coming out over the next few weeks.

--- I missed another round of The Horror Blog's Horror Roundtable, but head over there and check out what all the other fine folks have got to say on their guilty pleasures.

--- The Cannibal Barbecue Continues - Another person has fallen under the spell of Neil Marshall's rock-out-with-your-cock-out flick Doomsday (via Sean).

--- And finally, it appears Frank Darabont is still trying to get a new adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 off the ground, but his presumed star, Tom Hanks, has backed out due to scheduling conflicts. Hanks is honestly a little old now for the role in my opinion, and I was just saying this weekend I'm over him pretty much altogether, so I meet this news with happiness. Who would y'all cast as Guy Montag, book-burner-turned-literary-savior?
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I Am Link

--- Daddy Dearest - STYD talks to the director of the remake of The Stepfather, and I'm sorry to say that it appears that my suggestion went unheeded and the titular villain played by Dylan Walsh will spend his time ogling the girlfriend of his step-son (girlfriend played by Amber Heard, step-son played by the smokin' Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley) and not his step-son as I'd hoped. What a waste!

Beyond just fulfilling pervy Walsh-Badgley daddy-son fantasies of my own, I really thought they could've dove into interesting territory making the evil stepfather a closet-case... alas.

They also apparently couldn't afford the original step-pa Terry O'Quinn for a cameo now that he's all high and mighty Locke-britches.

--- The Bushes Senior - Oliver Stone has cast James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn as George Sr. and Barbara Bush in his Bush flick called W, following up that news of Elizabeth Banks landing the role of First Lady Laura. Can I... no, I cannot resist...

We have a winner! Ding ding!

--- A Storm Is Coming - Piper at Lazy Eye Theater, inspired by this week's DVD release of The Mist, puts on his Evil Meteorologist Pants and warns us what weather systems mean what to our immortal souls!!!
--- "Never underestimate the power of 3D boobs" - I never shall, Miss Stacie! I never shall. Stacie Ponder o' Final Girl has a delightful piece up at AMC Monsterfest Blog on the resurgence of the 3D horror film.

--- Wicked Gross - I almost threw up looking at the new still they have from The Ruins over at BD, so click on this link only if you're feeling strong. It's not the first picture you'll see, which is bad enough, but if you click on that picture an even more repulsive shot comes up and... I guess any doubts I might've had about this flick going the distance with respect to what was on the page of Scott Smith's horrific book are now gone. Gone with my lunch!
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5 Off The Top Of My Head - Spring Flicks

So Summer Movie Season officially begins with Iron Man on May 2nd, right? That gives us 6 weeks until The Big Movies Of 2008 come rumbling forth and crush our hopes under the massive weight of their overpriced, underdeveloped spectacle. A load of the movies I'm most looking forward to - yes, even beneath that previous explicated bit of cynicism - will be coming out over those warm months (The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, so on, so forth; for the record I'll probably see Iron Man but I'm not feeling all psycho over it), and I'll surely continue posting on them a'plenty, but until then there are a few movies hitting screens that deserve some attention as well. Spring movies! Bunnies and flowers and movies, oh my!

A couple of these I have posted bunches and bunches on already, a couple I haven't, but let's give a look see at 5 movies coming out B.I.M. (before Iron Man) that I'm most moist over. I'm not counting this upcoming weekend (including Stop-Loss and Run Fatboy Run) because it's two days away and really.

The Ruins - opens April 4th

I haven't shut my yap over this one since it was first announced. Click here to see everything I've gone on and on and on about regarding the film already. I would sell my boyfriend into slavery, buy him for pennies on the dollar, and then resell him again, all for the chance to see this movie now (sorry my love, but you must understand!)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - opens April 18th

Again, I've been following this one for awhile, since Kristen Bell first popped up in pap pics in a pink bikini (say that five times fast). The trailers are making me laugh every time, and I'm digging the viral ad campaign... almost as much as the hippie hug-a-tree anti-ad campaign that's popped up in San Francisco.

Baby Mama - opens April 25th

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Yes please. At least, until I can feast my eyes on Spring Breakdown (for god's sake, release this movie!), BM gotta do. I was more excited about the movie before I saw the trailer; I really wish Poehler's character seemed trashier a la her Amber character ("Yeah, I farted. Jealous?") on SNL.

Deception - opens April 25th

Shitty title. Really shitty poster. Meh trailer. Why do I want to see this? Uh... duh.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
- opens April 25th

They had me at Neil Patrick Harris riding a unicorn. Seriously - whoever designed that poster deserves a massive raise. That poster is worth my twelve bucks. I'm only a mild fan of the first film, but that poster sold me.

What movies are y'all most looking forward to
over the next six weeks?

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Bugcrush (In Four Parts)

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(photo credit: Vince Valitutti)

Director Carter Smith (top-right, with actor Joe Anderson) is behind the forthcoming film adaptation of Scott Smith's terrific book The Ruins. If you've been here at MNPP within the past several months, you're probably aware how very much I'm looking forward to this film.

Anyway, I saw Carter Smith's first film, a short entitled Bugcrush, waaaaaay back in April of 2006 and wrote a little bit about it right here. I said at that time that I hoped Carter got to make more films because he showed "a really deft hand at creating an atmosphere of weirdness, and of unsettling sound"... and who'd have thought that a project as perfectly suited to those gifts as The Ruins would come his way immediately after? I got the gift, see.

Anyway times two, it appears that all of Bugcrush has made it's way onto YouTube. It's split into four parts - it runs just over 34 minutes - and really, really worth watching, so I'm going to post the entire thing right here for y'all to check out.

It is deeply unsettling, and NSFW, so be forewarned.
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Part One:
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Part Two:
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Part Three:
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Part Four:
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And remember, The Ruins opens on April 4th!
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I Am Friday Link

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--- Your Name Sounds Like A Snake - I kept meaning to post on director David Gordon Green's chat with STYD in which he discusses the very real possibility that he might be the one remaking Dario Argento's Suspiria, but every time I thought it through my mind went catatonic. Not with excitement, and not with rage. With both at the same time, maybe? I love the idea of DGG doing a horror film, and especially one so stylized and weird. But... Suspiria is perfect. There's been a lot of talk on the ethics of remakes this week, since that Rosemary's Baby bomb dropped, and I agree with points from either side of the argument: Yes, John Carpenter's The Thing is a fucking awesome remake. But the last time an "inspired" choice for director was made to remake a classic horror film (no, I do not count Rob Zombie as an interesting choice), we got Neil Labute's Wicker Man. Who knows what will happen? Not I, that's fo' sho.

--- Feed Me - There's a big ol' honking new batch of stills from The Ruins online over at IMDb (via Sean). Have I mentioend that my hopes for this flick are raising exponentially by the day? Word from people who've seen it seems to be pretty positive, and everything keeps looking just perfect. Less than a month to go! Speaking of, it comes out April 4th... the same day that Battlestar Galactica returns. I might have to take that day off from work.

--- Penis Creature Designs By The Jim Henson Workshop - There's a really fun interview/conversation with the entire cast of Forgetting Sarah Marshall up over at AICN; it includes my love Kristen Bell waxing rhapsodic on Jason Segal's soft tongue, as well a description of some unnamed yet very famous actor's audition for a part in the film in which he busted out a bizarre character named Guillermo and then proceeded to physically attack the girl reading with him. Who is it? I must know!

--- "I'm very discreet... but I will haunt your dreams." - The awesome comedic presence (and I think I'm contractually obliged to say openly gay) Jane Lynch has joined the cast of Julia & Julia - this is Nora Ephron's movie about cooking-giantess Julia Child, to be played by Meryl Streep of course, and a present day cook, played by Amy Adams of course, trying to cook all of Child's recipes in her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Lynch is playing Child's sister.

--- And finally, gratuitous James McAvoy (from the new trailer for Wanted, via Towleroad):