Just found out Wong Kar-Wai’s next film is a biopic about Yip Man, Bruce Lee’s mentor/grandmaster who taught him kung-fu; with Tony Leung as the lead. And that dude from the “Six Days” video (and a few other WKW films) Chang Chen, might be playing Bruce himself. The female cast also includes WKW regs Briggite Lin and Zhang Ziyi.

A Wong Kar-Wai kung-fu movie??? This could be either super amazing or the artsiest kung-fu movie ever made. Either way, WKW + Bruce Lee is all sorts of win.

EDIT: This is yet another WKW film without Christopher Doyle as the DP. More like Wong Kar-WHYYYY?!?! :(

Christopher Doyle & Wong Kar-Wai: miss u guys.

skeetonmischa:

A few weeks back, it was announced that Paul Thomas Anderson was hard at work on his next project, The Master, a film about an intellectual (potentially Philip Seymour Hoffman) who creates his own faith based organization in the 1950s. Obviously, great news for us, those who love and appreciate great movies, but then I start to think about one specific aspect. I started to run Anderson’s filmography through my head and I started to notice some interesting things.

Nearly all of Anderson depicts Southern California during a specific decade/era. Go with me for a minute:

• 1997’s Boogie Nights showcases the Valley from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s.
• 1999’s Magnolia and 2002’s Punch Drunk Love is about present day/late 90s life in Southern California
• 2007’s There Will Be Blood broadly covers Southern California from 1902 to 1927
• Let’s roughly estimate The Master will come out in late 2010 or winter 2011 and that will take place potentially in the 50s.

Which leaves out the 30s, 40s,  60s and well, anything beyond 2010. Now, the question I’m asking or at least wondering out loudly, will PT Anderson do a film set in Southern California covering every decade since the 1900s? I’m sure this issue has been wondered about before and most likely the subject of some graduate papers in film school (haha!) with much greater depth and insight (Comparing PT Anderson’s depiction of Long Beach V.S. William Friedkin’s in To Live And Die In L.A.). Yet it seems that Anderson hopefully is on his way to becoming the definitive Los Angeles filmmaker. A filmmaker that will make Thom Andersen proud with his devotion to one particular stretch of land.

I think P.T. Anderson has it in him to be the next Kubrick, or at least, the Kubrick of our generation. That said, I would love for him to tackle a sci-fi epic (post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the year 3000 maybe? DROOL) or just a genre film (war, horror, black/white arthouse) and have it set in LA during any time period and it’ll probably be great.

I think another important question would be, who repped L.A. better, Altman’s Short Cuts or P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia?

Sidenote: I meant American directors. There are probably some other visionary foreign filmmakers who are up on Kubrick’s level at the moment.

Sofia Coppola

via bohemea

Happy 74th, Allen Stewart Konigsberg

A Fake Conversation with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas

Marty: So what are you up to these days, George? Still uh, doin’ that [makes air quotes] Star Wars stuff?

George: Yea, that and I’m always adding to my flannel shirt collection. I can’t let these hipster kids beat me at my own game man.

Steven: You know George you’ve been milking that franchise for over 30 years now…

Francis: Yea for realz, like, you did American Graffiti and THX-1138 almost 40 years ago bro.

Steven: Yea dude, I mean I got like mahfuckin’ FIVE movie franchises. Step your game up son.

Francis: Right? Even I had to stop at Godfather III. I still hate that Tim Burton guy for stealing Winona Ryder. Can’t believe she turned down fuckin Michael Corleone’s daughter to be in a movie with Johnny Depp with scissors for hands. I mean, Christ. [Pulls out a bottle of wine from his blazer pocket and takes a swig] Then Sofia goes and ruins the whole movie. I’ve never made a good film since….

Marty: Well at least SHE has, amirite? eh? [Scorsese laugh]

George: So what about you Marty? You down for a Gangs of New York sequel? We can recreate all of New York City on green screen and use CG versions of De Niro and Pesci. They’ll look like they’re 25 again.

Steven: I’ll produce it.

Francis: I’ll second that.

Marty: …

via nickdrake

Coppola and Lucas
1986

George: Sorry I can’t stick around for the premiere Francis, but I got front-row tickets to see Kajagoogoo and Corey Hart.

“The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.”

— John Cassavetes, 1959

via oldhollywood / corbis

Charlie Chaplin
Payday
1922

via suicideblonde