Stephen, Author at The Playlist

6 Children’s Books We’d Like to See On The Big Screen

Stephen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:48:00 +0000

The past decade has been something of a renaissance in the children’s film genre. While the ‘70s and ‘80s brought us classic children’s films both animated and live action (“Watership Down,” “E.T.,” “The Black Stallion”), with a few exceptions (“The Iron Giant”), the ‘90s seemed to be devoted to pandering “Home Alone” rip-offs and movies about pets that wear sunglasses and play sports. This year alone we’ve seen another blockbuster ‘Harry Potter’ film (which, like them or not, helped spur this movement by hiring a visionary like Alfonso Cuaron), and possibly Pixar’s best movie yet (“Up”).

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5 Best Music Scenes in Wes Anderson Movies

Stephen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:55:00 +0000

When shelling out for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” this week (for those of you in New York And L.A. of course, the rest of the country has to wait a week), Wes Anderson fans can be certain their favorite filmmaker will pepper his newest effort with a few of his stylistic quirks: stylishly dressed characters, meticulous set design, an appearance by a Wilson brother, and of course, a few scenes scored to retro pop music. The latter has been a major part of Anderson’s style since 1996’s “Bottle Rocket,” and reached its peak with 2004’s overstuffed “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Taking a cue from his idol Martin Scorsese, Anderson at his best uses the music to take the scene to a magical, transcendent level — at his worst, a good song distracts from the on-screen action.

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Abandoned Tarantino Babies? The Little Quentin Movies That Never Happened

Stephen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:56:00 +0000

Though nearly ever filmmaker has a laundry list of movies-that-never-happened under their belt, it’s Quentin Tarantino who seems to spend as much time (who are we kidding, more time) discussing and building up a list of movies-that-will-never-happen as he does actually making movies.

Last week, while discussing the “Kill Bill” sequels-that-may-never happen, Variety decided to make a list of some of the abandoned Tarantino babies. While the article briefly touches on various aspects of the laundry list of forgotten projects, we’ve made a more complete rundown of some of the Tarantino films that never were (and will probably never be):

“Double V Vega” aka “Vega Brothers” — The long-in-gestation prequel to both “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction,” would have followed the exploits of Vic (Michael Madsen) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) during the latter’s time in Amsterdam.

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