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HOLLYWOOD SPIN by Richard Horgan
:: Richard's Latest Blog Entries  
Away from Him
After a couple of shorts, French writer-director Laurent Vinas-Raymond will present this year a full-length drama that seems destined to draw comparisons to the 2007 award winner Away from Her. Much like that Sarah Polley feature length directorial debut, J’ai Oublié de te Dire (I Forgot to Tell You) centers around an elderly person suffering from Alzheimer’s and has recruited for this delicate part a legendary actor who kicked off their career in the 1960’s.

As luck would have it, Omar Sharif’s birthday (April 10th) is just four days ahead of that of Julie Christie (April 14th), although he is today 77 to her 67. And there’s no doubt that if Sharif nails the role the way Christie did, he will have a leg up on most other 2009 awards season contenders.
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Pondering 2001 and 2012
In his lengthy April 1999 essay “Alchemical Kubrick 2001: The Great Work on Film”, author-filmmaker Jay Weidner takes late film critic Pauline Kael to task for failing to grasp that Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey was in fact a monumental distillation of the tenets of Hermetecism, an ancient religious and philosophical movement that connects to today’s controversial Kabbalahsect. Needless to say, Weidner has since heard from thousands of readers; some angrily dismiss his Kubrick theories while others say it has allowed them to see the movie in a whole new light.

These days, the forward-looking cinematic year that is most on the minds of Weidner and his wife-creative partner Sharron Rose is not 2001 but rather 2012. The duo’s talking heads documentaries 2012: The Odyssey and Timewave 2013, available on DVD and screening January 7th and 15th respectively at Loveland, Colorado’s Rialto Theater, are all about the ominous date of 12/21/12, when the end of the Mayan Calendar may well usher in a whole new level of human experience.
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A Topsy-Turvy Ticket
When the cast of the currently shooting drama Ticket Out came together, chances are that both producer Chris Noonan and director Doug Lodato looked to co-star Ray Liotta as the biggest marquee name draw. But that was before the megahit adaptation Twilight turned Billy Burke (pictured below) into a separate household name, via his portrayal of the father of lead character Bella (Kristen Stewart).

Set in Kentucky but shooting, because of state tax incentives, in nearby Iowa, Ticket Out casts Burke as an abusive, bad guy husband who comes chasing after his ex-wife (Alexandra Breckenridge) after she flees with the kids he has been awarded custody of. Along the way, as she tries to get from the U.S. to Canada, she relies on the assistance of a helpful friend (Liotta) who also happens to be an undercover FBI agent.
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Playing the Over-Under
This Christmas break, Loyola Marymount University film student Joe Wilka is back in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to share yet another low-budget opus with the hometown crowd. Scheduled to screen tomorrow night (Tuesday, December 30th) at 7:00 p.m. at the West Mall 7, Under the Influence is the latest in a long line of efforts made by the aspiring writer-director and his pal Jason Reisch.

Though the pair has graduated from short films to feature-length efforts, the budgets remain pretty much the same. Their latest - a 90-minute high school comedy about four teenage buddies sharing a hectic Friday night - was made for the princely sum of $2,000. Admission tomorrow night is $5, so a full house could go a long way towards helping Wilka and Reisch break even.
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Presenting the Parsnip
Not only is Dawn of the Parsnip by all indications the first short or feature-length film to include the word “parsnip” in its title. It’s also the first cinematic endeavor named after the carrot-like vegetable to gain a theatrical showing.

Tomorrow, Saturday December 27th, at 2 p.m. local UK time, the 12-minute horror spoof will be screned for an invitation-only crowd at a Cineworld Multiplex in the northwestern port city of Runcorn. The movie theatre chain offered up the slot after reading about the filmmaking efforts of local teenagers Ryan Davies, Jakub Boote, Ellis Gayle and Danny Sim.
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:: Hollywood Spin Archives  
A Real-Life Natural
The Smallest Girl in the World
An Inconvenient Holiday
Rolling Out the Columbia Red Carpet
A Mother’s Catch-22
Sailing into Palm Springs
A Reporter Casts His Lot
Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine
Straight Out of Newburgh
Morrison, Michaels and Manson
On the Wings of an Oscar Nominee
It’s a Wonderful Take
The Faint Strains of Local Hero
What's in a Scummy Name?
Kentucky's Actor of the Year
He Was Nothing but a Hound Dog
Building Up Her Own Entourage
A Politically Incorrect Norwegian
From Warren Beatty to Phone Sex
David Lynch, Under the Dome
Sex and the Tarmac?
Sharpening the Blade
Miracle on 51st Street
A Belligerent Sideways
Pining for a Quantum Leap
A Meeting of the Coffee Minds
From Broadway to Bookstores
A Collection of Critics
The Stovepipe Hat Fraternity
A Grievous Story
Seeking Nigerian Restitution
A Health-Conscious Frankenstein
Gearing Up for More Genghis?
Some Very Offensive Chronicles
Finding Joy at Jungle Jim's
Reconnecting with Hollywood East
A Quixotic Quest
A Deranged Dexter Fan
Crushing on the Secretary of State
These Vampires Really Sucked
Rating the Junior Critics
A Hankering for Hef
He Still Sees Dead People
Swapping Out St. Louis for Sarsgaard
Following in Fireproof’s Footsteps
Two Flew Over The Cuckold’s Nest
A Preternatural Actress-Model
Hoy Say Can You See...
The Other Ghost Town
Riffing on Hitchcock, Serling
Chasing a Different Career
From Arizona to Tennessee
Rounding Up the Dummies
Capitalizing on Another Palin Power Play
The Daffy Dad from Down Under
Concocting a Killer Title
The Original Hollywood Bad Boy
Movie Publicity Patrol: 10/10/08
For Whom the Blogs Toll
The Edge of Insanity
Why Jay Leno Should Host the Oscars
Newman Was Nobody’s Fool
A Long View of Life
Lionsgate Should Not Feel Lucky
King of Candelabra
Max and His Marvelous Madame
Channeling Christine Lahti
It’s All About the Line Reading
A Wild and Crazily Talented Guy
You Don't Mess with the Zetas
A New Tomato Patch
America’s Got Anaconda
These Protest Groups Don't Know Jack
All in the Retrograde Family
A Knight in Shining IMDB Armor
Mission: Impersonation
American Contrarians
Consigned to the 'Trash Ben'
Dennis the Melrose Menace
In Step with Depp
A Touch of Pure Evil
Can You Hear Me Now?
Shades of Midnight
A New Pinnacle of iPlacement
Cue the Crusaders
When Cars Are the Stars
The SNL Summer Scorecard
The Heidi Fleiss Chronicles
Banner, by Way of Bourne
It Was a Dark and Stormy M. Night
The Half-Year in Review
Redefining Indie Distribution
Hot Her Career Is Not
Sex and the Critics
The Way He Was