Everyone and their (his?) mother loves The Proposition, the Nick Cave-penned Australian western starring Danny Huston as a villain who could give Chigurh a run for his money in sheer badassery. It's hard to blame them, since movies that gritty and tough don't come along very often. (As modern westerns go, I think 3:10 to Yuma is better, but it certainly isn't as awesomely brutal.) Two years after that film became a critical darling and a sleeper hit of sorts, director John Hillcoat -- who is currently in production on Cormac McCarthy's The Road -- has signed with Columbia to direct an adaptation of a not-yet-released novel by Matt Bondurant called The Wettest Country in the World. The book is about a trio of gangsters -- the author's grandfather and grand-uncles -- who ran the moonshine trade at the peak of the Prohibition Era, and the writer who tracked them in search of a scoop.

Who was that masked man? Audiences will soon have the chance to find out. The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Disney plans to revive The Lone Ranger franchise (as previously reported when it was in rumor form).

And this is going to be a big budget reboot. Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the two folks behind the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Mask of Zorro screenplays, are in talks to write the script for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. If they can revive pirates, a long dead and verboten franchise, surely they can do the same for the Lone Ranger.

It will definitely need all the help it can get. The last time the character was revived on the big screen was 1981 in The Legend of the Lone Ranger. It was such a failure that the film's star, Klinton Spilsbury, never worked in Hollywood again. There was a WB television movie in 2003, with the idea of launching a weekly series, but it too failed.

Man, on days like today, I wish I could make this post have a soundtrack. Just the thought of horror in the Old West makes me think of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It would be so easy to darken that tune up and make it creepy. Anyhow, Variety reports that Rogue Pictures, who will release Neil Marshall's Doomsday this Friday, has made a deal for the writer/director's next flick, an Old West horror film called Sacrilege.

Marshall says: "It is set during the Gold Rush, a time remembered for incidents like the Donner Party. It is meant to be a pitch-black, gritty, period horror movie." Well, we certainly don't get blood fests in period garb everyday. The filmmaker goes on to say that the film is influenced by The Thing, will tap into isolation and paranoia, and will be "Unforgiven by way of H.P. Lovecraft." The project is just in the idea phase right now, although Marshall plans to start writing the script immediately.

In the meantime, you can watch Rhona Mitra fight the deadly Reaper virus from within suffering, and quarantined country this Friday.

I never had the pleasure of visiting The Deuce as New York's 42nd Street was called during its heyday as a venue for exploitation cinema. On the one hand it sounds like it was one scary ass neighborhood, but if some rundown theater was running all of the Ilsa Films back to back or maybe a Sonny Chiba marathon, or perhaps an Andy Milligan retrospective, I might have been tempted to take the risk. For a fascinating history of films on 42nd Street I highly recommend Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford's book Sleazoid Express, and I have to say 42nd Street Forever, Vol. 3 - Exploitation Explosion recently released by AV Maniacs and Synapse Films also makes for a great introduction to the exploitation films of this period.

I've collected tons of trailer compilations over the years, and this is easily one of the best. There's a whopping 47 trailers here, some of which will have B-movie buffs scouring Ebay and Amazon for the film itself while others will leave you shocked and appalled that anyone would waste film stock on such an atrocity. The deal is sweetened by the addition of a handful of TV spots, some of which cover the same films as the trailers. But the highlight of the disk is the audio commentary, a feature I've never seen on a trailer comp. Edwin Samuelson of AV Maniacs, Fangoria Managing Editor Mike Gingold and Film Historian Chris Poggiali provide some fascinating background. What kind of movies are we talking about here? The trailers are grouped by sub-genres covering every category from martial arts to horror to dopey Porkies-inspired comedies.

If you still haven't seen all the Oscar-nominated films, you're not alone. I still haven't seen a number of them, and I have less excuse than most people. After all, I live in a city in which pretty much every nominee has played. Some major contenders I haven't gotten around to -- with little reason for not -- include Atonement, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Into the Wild, all of which are still in theaters and are probably best to see on the big screen.

Apparently, at least according to Variety, a lot of people are seeing the Oscar nominees on the big screen compared to in previous (recent) years, as cumulatively the five Best Picture contenders have seen a significant bump at the box office since the nominations were announced. I would be extremely excited if I didn't believe the truth is that Juno's tremendous success has elevated the Best Picture box office average. The comedy is showing on far more screens, is much more accessible to a wide audience and has so far earned twice as much money domestically as the next highest-grossing Best Picture nominee. Variety also this week had published a story about how Juno is the one movie that may save the Oscar telecast's ratings, since it's the one movie people have actually been able to or bothered to see. One thing I will note, though, is that Best Picture nominee Michael Clayton came out on DVD this past Tuesday and yet there was still a significant number of people seeing it in theaters through the week. Additionally, I would be interested to know how many people took advantage of yesterday's AMC Theatres-hosted Best Picture marathon.

Last year we brought you the word when the Saturn Award nominations were announced, so it only makes sense that I'd do it again this year. I'm consistent that way. For those who are unfamiliar, The 34th Annual Saturn Awards are handed out by the "Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, a non-profit organization devoted to honoring, recognizing and promoting genre entertainment." Sounds good to me! Not that I agree with all of their "best of" picks, but I do love it when an organization takes genre flicks seriously. So let's see what the Genre Academy liked the best...

Best Science Fiction Film

Cloverfield
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
I Am Legend
The Last Mimzy
Sunshine
Transformers

(OK, so they nominated Transformers for best science fiction film of the year; count how many additional nominations it received.)

Best Fantasy Film

Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Spider-Man 3
Stardust

(Pretty loose interpretation of the word "fantasy," if you ask me.)

Most people have a favorite place to sit when going to the movies. Some people like the back row; some people like the centermost spot (middle seat, middle row); some people like to sit near the front so that they can stare up at the screen and let the picture fill the limits of their peripheral vision.

I figure that last preference made more sense fifty years ago, when Cinerama and CinemaScope presented vast, expansively shot epics and westerns that were made to surround our senses and engulf our whole eye-span. Nowadays, most movies are too fast-cut and often the camerawork is too shaky to really work for close viewing. Have you ever been forced to sit in the first few rows when a movie is sold out? Wasn't it hard to tell what was going on most of the time?

Personally, I like watching movies close up, when it's appropriate. Unfortunately, it rarely is. But movie theaters can't just start removing those front rows because they aren't good for the moviegoer's eyes. No, that would mean a lot fewer tickets sold, a lot fewer popcorns sold, and a lot less money going to both the theater owners and the movie distributors. So, moviemakers should go back to making movies that are more accommodating to the theatrical audience, right? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

If you thought the Coen Brothers were done with westerns following the terrific No Country for Old Men (which was more of a modern western then a classic western), think again: The boys are apparently gearing up to give us the mother of all Spaghetti Westerns. According to CinemaBlend, Joel Coen was recently quoted as saying, "We've written a western with a lot of violence in it. There's scalping and hanging ... it's good. Indians torturing people with ants, cutting their eyelids off. It's a proper western, a real western, set in the 1870s. It's got a scene that no one will ever forget because of one particular chicken." I don't know about you, but all I needed to hear was "Indians torturing people with ants" and I was immediately sold.

Now don't go licking your lips in anticipation just yet; the brothers still have a few other films to sort through. Next up for them will be Burn After Reading, which appears to be a lighter caper comedy starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. From there, it's a little sketchy: IMDB has them in pre-production on Hail Caesar (with a description that goes "A 1920's theater troupe stages a production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"), while both guys are also attached to write (but not yet direct) a film called Gambit that has Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley attached, with Lisa Bonet (of all people) in negotiations. So hopefully they'll toss one of these aside in order to give us some much-needed 1870s ant torture ... because I've been craving it for some time.

The San Francisco Film Critics Awards have been announced, and they're especially exciting for us here at Cinematical. Why? Because three of our writers are in the SFFC! Our very own James Rocchi, Jeffrey M. Anderson, and Richard Von Busack are all part of the San Francisco critic "scene." San Fran made some interesting picks, several outside of the expected Oscar nominees. So what were their choices? For Best Foreign Film, they selected Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (which I am watching when I finish this post). For Best Documentary, they selected No End in Sight (which didn't blow me away, but was certainly well done). Best Adapted Screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Away From Her (great script, one of the most kick-in-the-stomach depressing movies I've seen lately). And Best Original Screenplay went to Tamara Jenkins for The Savages.

Amy Ryan was named Best Supporting Actress for her brilliant portrayal of a highly difficult character in Gone Baby Gone. Ryan's co-star in that film, Casey Affleck, was named Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Best Actress was Julie Christie for Away From Her and Best Actor was George Clooney in Michael Clayton -- two choices I approve of though I disagree with them. Joel and Ethan Coen took Best Director(s) honors for their latest masterpiece, No Country for Old Men. And -- drumroll please -- the Best Picture Award went to Jesse James. A surprising pick perhaps, but it was an absolutely fantastic film, and hopefully the award encourages more people to see it. The SFFC gave a special citation to an indie called Colma: The Musical, "a homegrown song-and-dance extravaganza about the paradoxical drudgery and surreality of life in a city where the dead outnumber the living one thousand to one." That old story again? See the list for yourself here -- it's a San Francisco treat!

Today we salute the military veterans who have either served in wartime or in peace. I think technically Veteran's Day specifically honors war veterans, but I don't see why the non-combat military personnel needs to be excluded. Still, in the movies, it's the war vets that are most memorable, and on this holiday, I'd like to present my list of seven favorites.

Obviously this list isn't comprehensive -- in fact, I don't feature any examples of the now-stereotypical Vietnam vet character, which would include Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July or Gary Senise in Forrest Gump. This is just a list of characters, positive and negative, that I prefer and which I think somewhat represents the wide and diverse scope of war vets.


"Homer Parrish" from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)

About fifty years before Robert Zemeckis was digitally removing Gary Senise's legs to make him the disabled vet Lt. Dan of Forrest Gump, William Wyler directed a real amputee veteran named Harold Russell as the handicapped character Homer Parrish in this movie about the difficulty of coming home following World War II. Russell actually won an Oscar for his performance as Parrish, a former high school quarterback who returns to his childhood sweetheart, with whom he's engaged and for whom he no longer feels good enough. The actor/character has hooks for hands and appears in some sappy, obligatory scenes where he has trouble with them, but he ends up a guy that is beloved more than pitied, and it's almost easy to forget he has the handicap, especially after hearing him play piano with the false limbs.

Watch out, zombies! The cowboys are coming! As soon as that buzz hits the air, hinting that a new theme is going to traverse the cinematic seas, the news starts pouring in. Recently, Jerry Bruckheimer began to look into remaking The Lone Ranger. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that American Film Market has bought the remake rights to the 1952 classic that is most-requested by American presidents -- High Noon. However, the film, which starred classic names like Gary Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Grace Kelly, and Lon Chaney Jr., is not only prime presidential entertainment.

High Noon has a pretty memorable award record -- it won four Oscars, is considered to have suffered one of the biggest Oscar upsets (losing Best Picture to The Greatest Show on Earth), helped Katy Jurado to be the first Mexican Golden Globe winner, and is considered the 27th best film of all time by the American Film Institute. If all of this success never inspired you to see the classic western, it focuses on a marshal about to retire and marry when a man he put behind bars returns with a gang, thirsty for revenge.

Having secured the rights from late producer Stanley Kramer's wife, the new High Noon Productions is currently looking for a director and star, so they can begin production next year with a nice $20 million budget. Can they pull it off? Is there anyone who can fill Gary Cooper's shoes? Stay tuned!

I don't have a subscription to ScreenDaily.com, so I can only read the headlines, but those headlines sure are handy. Here are three that caught my eye, all deals taking place in and around the American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California.

• Carlos Reygadas' challenging drama Silent Light sharply divided critics when it debuted at Cannes earlier this year, though everyone seemed to agree that certain scenes were indelibly beautiful. Tartan Films has picked up distribution rights in the US; they previously released the director's Battle in Heaven. Expect a limited theatrical engagement. It plays at AFI Fest in Hollywood next week (November 7 and 9).
  

• Blood Brothers (pictured), on the other hand, has united critics: no one seems to like it. Alexei Tan's reimagining of John Woo's A Bullet in the Head has been criticized for being too glossy and lacking substance -- none of which discourages me from wanting to see it. First Look Studios has acquired US distribution rights. First Look has handled genre titles before, often sending them straight to DVD, so a theatrical release is not assured, especially in view of its lukewarm reception so far.
  

• Sukiyaki Western Django, Takashi Miike's English-language Spaghetti Western, apparently confused everybody. Some were disappointed that it not as outrageous as from the versatile and prolific director. First Look has picked up US rights for this one as well, but it's a new, edited version that is 25 minutes shorter than what was previously screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. Given Miike's name recognition, this has a shot at a limited theatrical release before heading to DVD.
  

AFM runs through November 7. AFI Fest, which opened last night with a gala screening of Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, runs through November 11.

[ Via ScreenDaily ]

Did the Western make a comeback in 2007, with 3:10 to Yuma (371 screens), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (294 screens), and last spring's Seraphim Falls? That's a tough question, but the better question would be: did it ever go away? Those three movies earned a lot of attention this year, and it showed that, if nothing else, filmmakers and actors are eager to make Westerns once again, as they did back in the 1950s. How much more of a indication do you need when Pierce Brosnan, Russell Crowe and Brad Pitt don cowboy hats and mount horses? Other actors, such as Matt Damon and Colin Farrell have suggested how much fun they had while making recent Westerns. Unfortunately, audiences don't seem so interested, and conversely, producers don't want to put up the money for actors to play if audiences don't want to share in the fun.

Director James Mangold told me that no studio would touch 3:10 to Yuma, and that he had to secure financing from a bank. It opened, happily, in the #1 box office slot, but after eight weeks, it has started to slide, and is still just shy of recapturing its $55 million budget. And this is a terrific, crowd-pleasing movie with a great performance by Crowe. It's directed with energy and clarity, with an innovative use of an authentic Western soundtrack. It has exciting gunfights and chases and escapes. And if aesthetes and elitists wish, they can see bonus allusions to Iraq in the film, even if they're not actually mentioned or hammered home. It's unpretentious in every way. (Paul Haggis could take a few notes from this movie.) So why has the box office slowed down so drastically?

This is one of those bits of news that I believe to be premature: a sequel to Dances with Wolves is being produced, titled The Holy Road. Based on the novel by Dances author/screenwriter Michael Blake (who is again adapting his own work here), the movie will focus on Lt. John Dunbar, aka Dances with Wolves, and family 11 years after the original story takes place. Interesting announcement, but the reason it's too soon to report is that we can't appropriately care about the project without mention of Kevin Costner. Variety somehow avoids even naming the actor-director, who won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for the first movie. Never mind that The Holy Road replaces Costner as director -- that should have been a point to address at least -- but there's not even a comment about how the production would love to cast the guy in the role. This could simply be a sore subject, or simply an attempt to distance this project from the original, especially considering Variety mentions Comanche, the Native American tribe portrayed in Blake's novels, rather than Sioux-Lakota, which are represented in the 1990 movie. Aside from Blake, it doesn't appear that anyone involved the first time around is back for the sequel.

Costner's replacement at the helm is Simon Wincer, director of the McMurty miniseries Lonesome Dove and its prequel, Comanche Moon, which hits your television at the end of the year. He also did other TV westerns, including the recent Spielberg-produced Into the West and the L'Amour adaptation Crossfire Trail, as well as the Australian western Quigley Down Under. So, he certainly knows the genre. But none of that really matters to The Holy Road if Costner isn't Dunbar/Dances. And of course, Mary McDonnell needs to reprise her role as Stands With a Fist, who is still married to Dances and has three children with him. The main plot of The Holy Road follows her being kidnapped, along with her youngest, by white rangers. Hopefully we get to watch Costner as the husband who runs to her rescue, and not some poor substitute. By the look of things, though, I'd say we'll have to settle for a double replacement.

Hi-Ho Silver, bring me lots of money! According to the Hollywood Insider, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, the pens behind Pirates of the Caribbean, are trying to cook up a draft of The Lone Ranger for Jerry Bruckheimer to turn into the latest cash cow. Yes, the old masked ranger who rides a white horse, righting wrongs with the help of Tonto. Sure, remakes of old stories, even radio classics, are all the rage, but is a cowboy on a horse going to rake in the cash for Bruckheimer and Disney? Could this really be true?

According to the report, the studio won't confirm the assignment, so they can only go by their sources, and as HI describes it, the writing duo is "trying to create a new juggernaut for Bruckheimer to exploit." Sure, they made pirates all the rage, but can they do the same with cowboys? It doesn't seem to be one of those areas that gets tons of mileage, at least, not in the wide world of kids and marketing. I guess if anyone could do it, it's this team, but still. Cowboys and Indians? Can they really pull it off?

As HI says, the concept hasn't been as popular as it used to be. After the '50s television show, there was a 1981 film flop, and more recently, the WB tried to get a television version off the ground with Chad Michael Murray. It's really too bad that that project didn't even make it to the boob tube -- CMM as the Ranger would've amused me. So there you have it, the Lone Ranger might hit the big screen once again, under the powerful arm of Bruckheimer. Does that scare you? Excite you? Or maybe make you feel a little queasy?