There’s adventure up ahead for the Wachowski brothers
Several big-name filmmakers are newly attached to some curious projects:
– The Wachowski brothers have chosen their first movie to write and direct since the “Matrix” trilogy, and it is … “Speed Racer.” Yes, Larry and Andy Wachowski plan to shoot a live-action version of the 1960s Japanese cult-fave cartoon next summer for a 2008 release.
Who will play Chim Chim and Sprytle?
– Another brotherly directing team, Allen and Albert Hughes (“From Hell”), has signed on to direct the big-screen version of TV’s “Kung Fu.” Variety reports that Warner Bros. wants to release the movie in 2008 to coincide with the Beijing Olympics and the studio’s efforts to tap the Chinese market.
There’s always a tie-in.
– Martin Scorsese (the Band’s “The Last Waltz,” Bob Dylan’s “No Direction Home”) has begun shooting a Rolling Stones documentary, focusing on the current “Bigger Bang” concert tour. Paramount will release the film, at which point we’ll learn how many people want to see an impeccably mounted documentary of a band well past its prime.
Note to Scorsese: If Keith or Ron starts climbing any trees, keep the cameras rolling.
– Steven Soderbergh is set to direct Benicio Del Toro, his Oscar-winning “Traffic” actor, in not one but two Che Guevara movies: “The Argentine,” which will cover his involvement in Fidel Castro’s overthrow of the U.S.-backed Cuban government, and “Guerrilla,” which will focus on Guevara’s efforts to foment revolution elsewhere before his 1967 execution in Bolivia.
Sounds like a franchise …
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And `Born in the U.S.A.’ was a rah-rah anthem
Miami Heat coach Pat Riley professes to be a big Bruce Springsteen fan, so you wonder how he came to think “The Rising” would be the appropriate song to play as his team’s NBA championship banner was raised Tuesday night.
Ah, yes, let’s commemorate a basketball team’s triumph with an inspirational ode to firefighters storming into the crumbling, terrorist-attacked Twin Towers.
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The Pop (Machine) Quiz
1. Which one of the following acts is not on the ballot to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year?
a. Chic
b. R.E.M.
c. Rush
d. Van Halen
2. Which one of the following statements is not true about the soundtrack to the Disney TV show “Hannah Montana,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?
a. It had the biggest first-week sales of any soundtrack since 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” last November.
b. It was the first TV soundtrack to debut at No. 1 since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.
c. It was Disney’s fourth soundtrack to debut in the top 10 this year.
d. It sold more copies than the new My Chemical Romance and John Legend albums combined.
3. What is the year’s top-selling CD so far?
a. Disney’s “High School Musical”
b. Justin Timberlake’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds”
c. Rascal Flatts’ “Me and My Gang”
d. “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 22”
ANSWERS1. c; 2. d; 3. a.
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Life imitating pop-culture columns
Pop Machine, Oct. 22: “[I]f for some reason Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe hit the skids, there’s no question that most folks would want to think better of the sunny, super-famous actress than the brooding, semi-famous actor.”
Oct. 30: Witherspoon’s publicist reveals that the couple have separated after seven years of marriage.
Oct. 31: The National Enquirer and Us magazine romantically link Phillippe to Abbie Cornish, co-star of his upcoming movie “Stop Loss.”Nov. 1: TMZ.com reports that Witherspoon and Phillippe had no pre-nup, a la Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.
Reese, Ryan, I was only being hypothetical.
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Is the joke funnier if the body’s warm?
“Comedy is tragedy plus time!” crows Alan Alda’s character in Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
So is Steve Irwin, who died Sept. 4 from a stingray barb to the chest, already fair game?
Bill Maher, late of “Politically Incorrect,” thought so, dressing as the skewered “Crocodile Hunter” for Halloween. “South Park” imagined a similarly wounded Irwin visiting hell the previous week.
The online Pop Machine asked, “Is it wrong to be making Steve Irwin jokes now?”
Of more than 1,200 respondents, 62 percent said yes, 38 percent said no.
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Read Pop Machine, Mark Caro’s blog about popular culture, at bancodeprofissionais.com/popmachine.
mcaro@tribune.com
