Newsbites: Departed! Babel! Burning! Casino!

Last updated on: November 9, 2006 at 12:18 am by Peter T. Chattaway

Newsbites: Departed! Babel! Burning! Casino! 2006-11-09T00:18:00-08:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve been stockpiling some of these items while working on other stuff, and it’s time to set them free!

1. As of Tuesday, The Departed has passed The Aviator (2004) to become the top-grossing film of Martin Scorsese‘s entire career, with $103.3 million to date — and it’s still in the weekly top five!

The Departed currently ranks third in Leonardo DiCaprio‘s filmography, behind Catch Me If You Can (2002; $164.6 million) and Titanic (1997; $600.8 million); and it will soon rank third on Mark Wahlberg‘s filmography, behind Planet of the Apes (2001; $180 million) and The Perfect Storm (2000; $182.6 million).

Matt Damon currently has six films on his list that have had higher grosses — though he was just one among many co-stars in Saving Private Ryan (1998; $216.5 million) and the first two Ocean’s movies (2001-2004; $183.4-$125.5 million). Also ahead of The Departed are Good Will Hunting (1997; $138.4 million) and the first two Bourne movies (2002-2004; $121.7-$176.2 million).

It looks like the only Alec Baldwin films that will stay ahead of this one are Pearl Harbor (1998; $198.5 million) and perhaps The Hunt for Red October (1990; $122 million).

And as for Jack Nicholson … heck, the guy’s been around for ages, and if One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Terms of Endearment (1983) both made just over $108 million in their day — thus, I assume, putting each film easily among the top two or three earners of their respective years (the only 1983 film that did better than Terms of Endearment was Return of the Jedi) — does it really compare to a film making $100 million in this day and age? His personal best remains Batman (1989; $251.2 million).

2. My friend and colleague Jeffrey Overstreet interviews Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu at CT Movies:

The title of the film is a reference to a story in the Book of Genesis, when God punished human pride by confusing our languages. Did you mean for the film to suggest anything about our relationship with God?

Iñárritu: For me, Babel is about human beings left alone with each other. There’s an absence of God. In a way, we have been dealing with the consequences of our own greed, our own selfishness. We punish ourselves with the way we act [toward each other.]

That’s interesting, but is that really the implicit message of the story of the Tower of Babel itself — that we did this to ourselves? Consider this bit from Katherine Monk’s review:

Inarritu gets marks for making a film laced with a sense of urgency, and pointing out our cultural communication gaps, but the biggest point of all is ignored altogether, and that’s God’s will.

Genesis tells us God scattered his children, and broke our speech, so that we could not achieve great things together. Inarritu owed it to his film to implicate God somewhere in the mix, but he steers clear completely, making for an interesting intellectual exercise, but one that feels too shallow and manipulated to make a deep impact.

3. ComingSoon.net and Cinematical report that Ashley Judd has bought the rights to — and plans to write the screenplay adaptation of — The Burning Time, a Robin Morgan novel about a 14th-century Irish priestess named Alyce Kyteler, who was one of the first people to be accused of witchcraft by the Inquisition.

4. Hollywood North Report says real dead bodies — in the form of one of the Body Worlds exhibits curated by Gunther von Hagens — will form part of the backdrop to Casino Royale:

BODY WORLDS is the setting for an archetypal battle of good and evil, between Agent 007 and one of the villains of the film. For Dr. von Hagens, who was imprisoned in 1969 for two years after a failed attempt to escape, James Bond films are more than innocuous spy thrillers. . . .

5. Variety looks back at the decent box-office returns for this year’s cartoons and asks why everyone was so worried about the glut. Cars director John Lasseter — and hey, why, for the first time in Pixar’s history, does the new DVD for that film have virtually no bonus features, let alone a bonus disc? — tells the paper: “Look, there’s 52 weekends a year, and 14 to 16 animated films came out this year, so there’s still plenty of room. I’d much rather be part of a healthy industry than be the only player in a dead industry.”

6. In related news, Variety explores how Aardman preserved its claymation style while making the CGI Flushed Away.

7. Rod Dreher passes on the news that Sacha Baron Cohen — now on screens as the title character in Borat — is going to star in a remake of Le dîner de cons (1998), AKA The Dinner Game. I don’t remember the details of the original film very well, but I remember liking it quite a bit. Here is the capsule review that I wrote for ChristianWeek in the summer of 1999:

The Dinner Game, starring Jacques Villeret, Thierry Lhermitte and Francis Huster, is directed by Francis Veber. Rated PG-13 for language.

Every now and then, several well-to-do men play a mean-spirited game: each one invites an “idiot” to a dinner party and, at the end of the evening, the dumbest guest wins a prize. But one man gets his comeuppance when a back pain strands him at home with his unwitting guest, an honest-to-a-fault bloke with an uncanny knack for unintentionally bringing to light the skeletons in his host’s closet. One of the funnier riffs on the tangled web of deception.

8. Production Weekly spills a few more plot points about War Games 2 – The Dead Code:

Matt Lanter . . . plays computer hacker Will Farmer begins to play an online terrorist-attack simulation game against government super-computer Ripley, he’s in way over his head – because Ripley is actually a complex piece of spyware, designed to ferret out potential terrorists and scoop them up. Only Ripley is a paranoid nutjob who’s hell-bent on placing pretty much everyone on Earth in a 3×3 cell, lest they turn unpredictably hostile. Production starts November 20 in Montreal.

9. Hollywood North Report says the next Babylon 5 movie will be shot here in Vancouver sometime this month.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 8, 2006

Christian Slater in a Christian Christmas flick?

Next Post

November 9, 2006 Newsbites: Nativity! Poledouris! Others!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which New Testament book is written entirely as a letter to an individual?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Philemon Jude 1 Timothy James