Link Farm Boogaloo

While I’m working on a Chabrol . . . thang . . . for Flickhead, here are a few turns around the cine-blog-o-sphere that caught my eye:

In a reversal of the usual way of the world, a property is actually moving from West to East, rather than the other way around.  After American remake after American remake of Asian films — Ringu becomes The Ring, Ju-on becomes  The Grudge, Infernal Affairs becomes Marty’s Oscar — finally one is moving the other way.  And wouldn’t you know that it’d be from the Coens?  Zhang Yimou, director of Raise the Red Lantern, To Live and Hero, is remaking Blood Simple, the film that put the brothers on the map.  According to the Hollywood Reporter,

Filming on the Chinese film “San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi” — which roughly translates as “The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots” — kicked off June 9, Ping Xue, a publicist at Zhang’s Beijing New Picture Film Co. said in a phone interview from Beijing.

Zhang, who hasn’t directed a film since 2006’s The Curse of the Golden Flower, is perhaps best known to the general public for mounting the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Olympics.  Apparently, he’s made a break from wuxia, and it’s about time.  But the Coens?  We’ll see . . .

You know a movie’s bad when Roger Ebert gives it one star.  He’s done it for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, one of this Summer’’s big tent poles.  I can’t remember the last time he did that.  Well, actually,  he did it last week in his review of Year One. It must be some kind of Summer low point with two one-star Ebert reviews in a row.  Here’s an excerpt of the Transformers review:

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.

And that’s only the first paragraph.  David Hudson has more fallout over at his blog.

And Now for some Incredibly Bad Ideas

• Variety reports that “Adam Sandler, Cher, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone and Judd Apatow will provide voices for the animals in MGM’s live-action comedy ‘The Zookeeper,’ starring Kevin James and Rosario Dawson.”
• The 2010 Oscars will have ten nominees for Best Picture.  Steven Zeitchik claims there’s a downside.  Who’d have guessed?
• Despite two flops in a row, and not having made a funny movie since 48 Hours, studios keep hiring Eddie Murphy.  Brooks Barnes explains why in The Times.