The Good News
Joss Whedon Secretly Films Version of “Much Ado About Nothing”
After wrapping up “The Avengers,” Joss Whedon ’86 was slated to take a well-deserved vacation with his wife. Instead, he secretly filmed a new version of “Much Ado About Nothing.” Completed in just 12 days in Santa Monica, this much hyped adaptation features many who are already well known for working on Whedon’s other projects. Personally, I’m most thrilled about the involvement of Nathan Fillion (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” “Firefly”), who will portray bumbling constable Dogberry in the film. There’s a lot of people who are really excited about this project, but we, as the Wesleyan student body, are in a unique position to monopolize on this situation. After all, Whedon went here. He probably wants to premiere it here and give a lecture about it, right? Right?
Hunger Games Character Posters Released
Had I read “The Hunger Games” when I was 14, I would have been completely in turmoil about the love triangle that accompanies this “Battle Royale”-esque narrative. As it is, I still was pretty into this book when I picked it up last spring, at least enough to be anxiously anticipating the film adaptation, which is set to be released on March 23 of next year. Yesterday, the publicity team in charge of promoting the film made a pretty savvy move. They released eight promotional portraits of the film’s main characters,but spread them out over eight different media outlets. Entertainment Weekly, Yahoo!, MTV, Moviefone, Teen.com, IGN, MSN, and Fandango each received the exclusive rights to one of the posters. Arbitrary? Perhaps. Intriguing? Definitely.
Nineties Titans Announce Triumphant Return, Singles
Ah, the nineties. The fuzz. The flannel. The Power Rangers marathons. While I was busy karate chopping ninjas and dinosaurs in my backyard, some ambitious folks happened to be making some pretty important music. I, clearly, was too busy listening to Raffi and Creed to give a shit. Yet, two of the decade’s most definitive bands, beer-swilling, lo-fi legends Guided by Voices and dream-poppers Mazzy Star, are back in the studio, and both have dropped new tunes in the past week. Guided by Voices has reunited its classic lineup, the same bros who played on masterworks Alien Lanes and Guided by Voices, for a new characteristically-surreal album Lets Go Eat The Factory, announced last month. They’ve released the first single off the album, “The Unsinkable Fats Domino”—it’s a shit-kicking, esoteric mini-anthem. Let the air-guitaring commence. Mazzy Star has been on hiatus for most of the 2000s, but they too announced a triumphant return this week, dropping single “Common Burn” and b-side “Lay Myself Down.” With those dreamy vocals, delicate strumming, and those wonderfully wiggly guitar lines, it’s like the 90s never ended.
The Bad News
Harry Potter Movies to be Removed from Stores
Warner Brothers announced last week that they are going to stop shipping “Harry Potter” DVDs and Blu-ray discs on Dec. 29, just a little over a month after Deathly Hallows part 2’s Nov. 11 release. Some fans are in an uproar about this, and I’ll admit it kind of sucks. But really, if you don’t own “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” on DVD by now, what the hell are you doing with your life? The announcement is almost certainly a shameless marketing ploy by the company to goad consumers into purchasing the HP films as holiday gifts, and honestly, with their extremely wide distribution, I can’t see the movies becoming too hard to get hold of in the coming years. Anyway, the WB online store is currently selling the DVDs and Blu-rays at 60 percent off, so get them while you can!
Amy Winehouse’s Cause of Death Determined
Through everyone’s jokes about how Winehouse should have gone to rehab, I kept hoping against hope that when the cause of her death was uncovered it would prove to be from withdrawal or some other natural cause, but news released this Wednesday squashed that hope once and for all. A British coroner ruled the case “death by misadventure,” noting that at the time of her death Winehouse had more than five times the legal limit of alcohol present in her bloodstream. Damn.