Authors — Scott Macaulay

HEY LUKE!

Screenwriting inspiration can come from anywhere, even, if Donald Fagen and Walter Becker can be believed, from their Steely Dan song “Cousin Dupree.” In a letter on their website they ask Luke Wilson to do them a solid by speaking to his brother Owen about a matter that’s on their minds — the storyline of You, Me and Dupree, which they, with tongue partially in cheek (or at least I hope so, otherwise the bit at the end about the Russian bodyguard becomes not so funny), say seems inspired by their song. The lyrics in question: Well I’ve kicked around […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2006
VIDEO MISCELLANIA

Some video links for your weekend viewing pleasure. Here’s a link to a rejected (for being too weird) series of jeans commercials by Jean-Luc Godard commissioned by Marithé + François Girbaud’s Closed Jeans. From the amazing Ubu Web comes a a new page devoted to the “Cinema of Transgression,” an underground film movement that flourished in New York during the ’80s. Along with Nick Zedd’s Cinema of Transgression Manifesto you’ll find free downloads and streams of films by Richard Kern, Beth B, Kembra Pfahler, Jon Moritsugu, Tessa Hughes-Freeland and others. (The above two links courtesy of Dennis Cooper’s blog.) A […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 22, 2006
CUNNINGHAM/MORTON HORROR SHOW

It’s great when one of your favorite directors releases something starring one of your favorite actresses… and you had no idea that it was even in the works! James Ponsoldt just emailed me to tell me about this new Chris Cunningham music video, his first in seven years, which features Samantha Morton. The band is The Horrors, the song is “Sheena is a Parasite,” and, according to Director File (linked above): …the 1.5-minute clip, narrated by lead singer Faris Badwan, stars Samantha Morton as the song’s manic, transmogrifying subject who whips around like a banshee and spews her intestines at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 21, 2006
BLOGGING LEBANON

For those wanting to cut through the MSM filters to read first-hand experience about life in Lebanon at the moment, The Huffington Post has linked to this blogger map on Truth Laid Bear that identifies all the blogs being posted from Lebanon right now by location.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 21, 2006
HOLLYWOOD AND 2257

Brooks Boliek in The Hollywood Reporter reports on a bill being voted on by the Senate that extends the reach of the Justice Department’s 2257 regulations, which we’ve blogged about often, to Hollywood films. Bizarrely dubbed “the Adam Walsh Act” — after the murdered son of America’s Most Wanted‘s John Walsh (what does his death have to do with simulated sex scenes in mainstream films?) — the bill seems to have been severely scaled back from its original drafting. From the piece: The bill potentially reaching the Senate today has been significantly altered to address the concerns of the motion […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 20, 2006
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

Reuters has an article up announcing the official and long-expected shutdown of Section 8, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s production company, and Clooney’s formation of a new company, Smoke House, which will be based at Warner’s. As always, Clooney is great with a quote: The shutting down of Section Eight came about partly because the business aspect of the company was starting to weigh down the filmmakers. “We decided that three years ago, the minute it becomes a business we’re going to get out,” Clooney said in January. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to make films, it doesn’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 20, 2006
THE ATROCITY RETURNS

Several years ago I selected for our annual “25 New Faces” feature filmmaker Jonathan Weiss, who had just finished a many-years-in-the-making adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s great novel The Atrocity Exhibition. The film is full of amazing sequences, has a truly unique and disquieting tone, and embodies a keen understanding of the ideas that course through Ballard’s most radical novel. (Yes, more radical than Crash.) I spoke to Weiss a few weeks ago and it seems like he’s looking for a U.S. video deal for the film. I hope he’s secured one by now, but in the meantime, here’s Tim Lucas […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 19, 2006
THE JEDDAH VISUAL SHOW FESTIVAL

Via Netribution, “The first Saudi Arabian film festival opened in the Red Sea city of Jeddah this week, in an ultra-conservative country where the silver screen is so controversial that the word ‘cinema’ does not even get a mention in the title. ‘The Jeddah Visual Show Festival’ started on Wednesday night screening two hours of home-grown short films.” The article goes on to talk about the slow birth of cinema in Saudi Arabia — namely, cartoons and the short films shown at this festival. From the piece: Public screenings of movies are taboo in Saudi Arabia, where religious scholars believe […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2006
24 (MINUTES)

Rick Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly is the best screen capturing of the vibe and ideas of one of my all-time favorite writers, Philip K. Dick. If any of you are on the fence about seeing the movie, the folks over at Film Force have posted the first 24 minutes of the movie. Click over to the site and check it out. Elsewhere on Film Force, A Scanner Darkly producer Tommy Palotta talks about the team’s desire to do Dick right: When we initially approached the estate, we told them that we wanted to do a really faithful adaptation. You know, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2006
BACKSTAGE

The guys over at Other Music have noted the DVD re-release of Ron Dorfman and Peter Nevard’s 1970 documentary, Groupies. A rarely seen cult film on the ’60s rock scene, Groupies is now out from Cherry Red Records and is described by their catalog like this: A classic sixties documentary, “Groupies”, finally gets its release on DVD. “Groupies” is the ultimate expose of back-stage shenanigans. At times hilarious, at times almost tragic, the documentary follows the fortunes and dilemmas of various real life groupies, a supremely hedonistic bunch of rock fans, on their relentless search for a new kind of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2006

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.