Larry David: more macho than action film director Roland Emmerich?
By David Savage
In Roland Emmerich's upcoming multi-billion-dollar
boondoggle 2012 (a date from which Mayan scholars have already distanced
themselves, unfortunately, since the whole plot hinges on a "Mayan
prophecy" that the world will end in that year), the director decided to
film a scene in which the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio is
destroyed, citing his belief against “organized religion.â€
Interestingly, though, he lost his nerve when it came time to follow through
with filming the destruction of another sacred site of organized religion: the
Kaaba -- that cube-shaped shrine that sits at the heart of Mecca. Explains
Emmerich: “Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit. But my co-writer Harald
said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right.
We have to all in the Western world think about this [sic]. You can actually
let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab
symbol, you would have a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the
state of this world is. So it's just something which I kind of didn't [think]
was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out.â€
Orson Welles: from the likes of The Third Man to endorsing frozen peas.
The web site Slashfood has compiled ten of the worst celebrity product endorsements ever created. Included is the legendary recording session with Orson Welles, now frustrated at having to pay the bills by plugging a line of frozen peas. Welles argues the text of the ad with the producer as though he is recording dialogue for a sequel to Citizen Kane. The possibly inebriated Welles ends up calling his script "shit". You can also relish other infamous celebrity endorsements by clicking here
With creativity in Hollywood at rock bottom, studios are now bottom-feeding on the toy shelves in order to find the next great franchise. Believe it or not, the board game Battleship is being made into a major movie. Now, Sony has picked up the rights to the classic war game Risk and will be bringing it to the big screen. These franchises are obviously aimed at audiences who felt that Transformers was too intellectually challenging. Can it be long before Nicholas Cage is announced as the star of Chutes and Ladders - The Movie? For more click here Â