1) People loved John Dillinger (and the other depression era bandits) because he robbed the very banks that were seen as driving people to poverty. From Slate:
Americans understood Dillinger, applauded him, and cheered for him because they saw him less as a gangster than as an outlaw—a social bandit of the Great Depression who turned his guns against the banks. Newspapermen in 1934 compared him to Jesse James, not Al Capone, and certainly not to mobster Frank Nitti, who makes strange, gratuitous appearances in Public Enemies. At one especially telling point in the movie, Purvis tells Dillinger that he is about to extradite him to Indiana. Dillinger thinks about it and says coolly, “Why? I have absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana.” It’s a great scene, but the spirit of it is dead wrong. Not only is it wholly made up—the two never met—but Dillinger, a scrappy heartland renegade, would never have dismissed his home state.
2) John Dillinger could not have existed without the Great Depression. From the Variety review:
The specific sociopolitical conditions of the time are crucial to the story, but one big thing almost entirely missing from “Public Enemies” is the Depression itself.
3) Melvin Purvis’ most interesting battle was with J. Edgar Hoover himself. Hoover, the paranoid narcissist that he was, saw in Purvis a threat that needed to be knocked down. To that end he threw up roadblock after roadblock in attempts to cut the man down, eventually forcing Purvis out of the FBI. It’s a wonderfully vicious tragic story that I don’t see being captured by the uber-dedicated Christian Bale.
This clip from the GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra looks horrible. Actually, wait, let me back up. Storm Shadow and the Baroness are great, but the Joe’s in their “Delta Six Accelerator Suits” look like generic action heroes in bad robot armor. In fact the suits have already killed any and all enthusiasm for the movie. Part of the fun of GI Joe was the ridiculous characters and their cheesy costumes Shipwreck, Wild Bill, Road Block, etc. Transformers was not a good a movies on a lot of levels, but at least the filmmakers were smart enough not to mess with the nostalgia factor. If you’re betting a movie on childhood memories of characters, then not making the characters look like the ones we remember seems like a pretty good way to shoot yourself in the foot.
1) Variety reports Gilliam is making a second run at Don Quixote with Johnny Depp as “a filmmaker who is charmed into joining Don Quixote’s eternal quest for his ladylove, becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza.” If I were Gilliam, I’d want Johnny Depp to play me too.
2) IndieWIRE explores if Cannes matters in a new piece simply called “Does Cannes Matter?” I think the real question is, “Does it matter if Cannes matters?”
3) Screen International reports on potential Cannes sales… I’d say something snide but it’s just too sad.
WMA and Endeavor approve their merger today. Attention is focused on layoffs and resignations at the new WME, and the upcoming battle for agency world domination with CAA. I wonder though what this means for ICM, UTA & Paradigm. Where do they fit in this new two big dog world? Are more mergers likely in the future? Or perhaps CAA and WME will be considered two big by certain key talent, which will cause an unexpected boon? With a shift such as this merger, the angles that could be played are countless, and I’m intrigued to see how things fall out. I’m hoping for good things though because as we saw with the banks, two much power in two few hands is a dangerous thing.
My making fun of Twitter has apparently come back to bite me in the ass as Gawker has asked me to participate in their new feature Gawker Stalks the Tribeca Film Festival. This means that along with Michelle Byrd, Matt Dentler, Jeff Deutchman, Howard Gertler, Armando Lannucci, Ian Mohr, Ryan Werner, and Rob Williams, I will be sharing all my thoughts, ideas, snide remarks, observations and non-sequiturs about the festival over Twitter. It also means that I will plant my foot firmly in my mouth in front of who knows how many readers within the next 10 hours. Follow the group here. Or you can follow my feed here.
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