"Put down that wrench!"

A little over a year ago, I commented that I hadn't heard that the Wachowski brothers were working on an adaptation of V for Vendetta.

Yesterday, Warner Bros put out a press release stating that they're going ahead with the project. There's a poster image for people to drool over:

For what it's worth, they appear to have cast Natalie Portman as Evey, which might work.

( IMDB Top 100 film meme )

Following nannyo's post, I thought I'd try and list my top ten. There are quite a few films from my personal top ten that don't appear in the IMDB meme, so in no particular order:

Funny Bones

A delight - much underrated British screwball comedy, with several seemingly unrelated plots that only gel after the first half hour. Jerry Lewis, Lee Evans and a cross-dressing Oliver Reed.

What's Up, Doc?

Continuing the screwball comedy theme - snappy script, beat-perfect slapstick and some lovely turns from Streisand, O'Neil and Kahn (The Palm Beach Story is a runner-up for my favourite screwball comedy, but doesn't make the top ten).

If....

Lindsay Anderson's finest film, with revolution in an English public school and Malcolm McDowell. Unavailable on DVD, which is a crime.

All the President's Men

Watergate docudrama starring Redford and Hoffman - gripping, even though the ending is known.

Exotica

A haunting Atom Egoyan film that I've seen exactly once.

Sleeper

Woody Allen stars as an unlikely Buck Rogers (plus the orgasmatron and the president's nose).

Appearing in the IMDB meme were: Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Third Man, and Cidade de Deus/City of God.

Of course, this is this month's list; I tend to waver quite a lot on some of these films, so my top ten at any other time may vary by as much as 30% from this list. In addition, I've not listed any of my favourite short films, but that's fodder for a future post.

I hadn't heard that Alan Moore was retiring from the (mainstream) comic industry.

I hadn't heard that the Wachowski brothers are to make a film of V for Vendetta.

I am deeply worried by both of the above.

Following in ias's delightful footsteps:

As ias points out, some films appear on both lists...

Went to see Minority Report last night with various TotL folk, and was pleasantly surprised. Without giving any plot details away, the art direction is excellent (although the future product placements are a little heavy-handed in places), and Spielberg manages to restrain his sentimental urges for the most part (compared to the horror that was AI, that is).

On the other hand, the PKD short story didn't have any sentimental sequences, so they aren't really a necessary part of the narrative. As a PKD adaptation, I'd rank it on a par with Blade Runner (possibly slightly higher, given that Blade Runner ended up being stuck with the title of a completely unrelated Alan Nourse story), and considerably higher than Total Recall (mistitled, bolt-on action plot and a lead actor with the acting ability of a pound of lukewarm mince). Haven't seen Screamers, so can't comment on that.

However, in my mind, Spielberg's success with Minority Report still doesn't make up for his hatchet job on AI (change the title, change the plot and add an extraneous hour and a half of outtakes from Mad Max 3, Pinocchio and Close Encounters).

At least it wasn't Verhoeven again.