Shorts, 5/14.

By David Hudson on 05/14/2009

For Esquire, Chris Jones meets Tony Scott to talk about "The Taking of Pelham 123": "[H]e's exactly what you would expect him to be, a tightly bundled knot of anxiety and adrenaline. (Asked what he thinks of his latest work, he says, 'It's, um, good. It's hard when you get close to it. I've had a love affair with every movie I've ever done. Some of them have been a disaster, but in the main, I've had a great time fucking them. But when the fucking's over, when the erection fades, you think, How good was it really?') Even 'Domino,' that nightmare biopic on speed, makes sense after meeting him, and nobody could make a lick of sense out of 'Domino.' 'Yes, I lost my way a little bit on that one,' Scott says, almost touchingly."

Also, Christopher Walken: "What I've Learned."

Last night, Nikki Finke broke the news that Martin Scorsese will direct a biopic based on the life of Frank Sinatra. Phil Alden Robinson is writing it, even now as you read this. Mandalay Pictures President Cathy Shulman, also a co-producer of the film with Peter Gruber, tells the AP: "It's not a cradle-to-the-grave traditional portrait of the consecutive events in a man's life. Instead it's more of a collage and, in many ways, it will feel like an album itself. It's a collection of various moments and impressions in his life and together we hope they'll tell the full story and present full themes."

Abel Ferrara will direct Forest Whitaker and 50 Cent in a "contemporized" version of "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," reports Variety. You may remember that Keanu Reeves will likely appear in another adaptation of the same novella, this one to be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

"Terry Gilliam is getting lost in La Mancha all over again," reports Ali Jaafar for Variety. "The director is reviving his passion project 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote' nearly a decade after his first attempt was derailed."

"Fortissimo Films has struck a deal with Japan's Asmik Ace Entertainment to handle international sales on Tran Anh Hung's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's best-selling novel 'Norwegian Wood,'" reports Liz Shackleton for Screen. The film's due next spring.

"We tend to forget that even exalted figures entered the industry as high-volume producers," writes David Bordwell. "Mizoguchi averaged about ten releases per year in his first three years, Ozu about six. Everyone's pace slowed with the coming of sound, but the sheer volume of movies pouring from studios big and small reminds us that young directors had plenty of opportunities to hone their skills. Probably the most startling instance is Shimizu Hiroshi." This segues into a splendid appreciation of the "Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu" set.

"Since the outset of his career, Godard has been interested in two kinds of criticism - film criticism and social criticism - and these two interests are apparent in practically everything he does and says as an artist." Jonathan Rosenbaum posts a lecture he originally delivered in 1998.

"Even a casual admirer of [Edward] Gorey's work - with its heightened poses and penumbral malevolence, deft text and impeccable texture - can detect that quality of oneiric distillation it shares with silent film," writes Ed Park in Moving Image Source. "This affinity makes the handsome recent publication of 'The Black Doll,' Gorey's 'silent screenplay,' not so much a revelation but the happy, one-time offshoot of a fully formed aesthetic sensibility."

"The British horror film died some time during the night of February 10th/11th 1969, in a flat on Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, London - and, four decades on, there have been precious few signs of what might be called a miraculous resurrection." Neil Young feels for a pulse.

Nitesh Rohit presents your guide to the third issue of Indian Auteur.

"In contemporary American cinema, Clint Eastwood is our perennial Last Man Standing. But what is he standing on, or for, and why is he so eager to hide it?" asks Akiva Gottlieb in the Nation.

"Consistently absorbing and ultimately affecting, 'Invisible Girlfriend' is a textbook example of what can result when savvy documentarians fortuitously connect (or, in this case, reconnect) with an interesting subject at precisely the right moment," writes Joe Leydon for Variety. "Even the occasionally annoying smudginess of the DV lensing can't diminish this latest effort by indie filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, a picaresque account of a quixotic quest by a mostly engaging but sporadically unsettling fellow who sincerely believes he's in communication with Joan of Arc."

"Theatre In The Park's most successful alumna - 21-year-old Evan Rachel Wood, a Hollywood critical darling renowned for her roles in 'The Wrestler,' 'Thirteen' and a dozen other films - has returned to play Juliet alongside her father, Ira David Wood III, and under the direction of her brother, 24-year-old Ira David Wood IV." Grayson Currin writes up a longish profile for the Independent Weekly.

For Vulture, Amos Barshad talks with Kevin Smith, who's currently in New York shooting "A Couple of Dicks" with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan.

"Zombies are the 'It' monster of our global mass panic." Gendy Alimurung gets really, really into for LA Weekly, where Scott Foundas takes on the movie angle.

In "Paul Newman: A Life," Shawn Levy "has respectfully and respectably summed up Newman as a man in full," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post.

Film Threat swarms "Star Trek": Matthew Sorrento (spoilers), Pete Vonder Haar (yay), Scott Mendelson (nay) and Brad Cook on the original series.

Meantime, Chris Stangl, not in Film Threat, but at his own excellent blog: "The script is not his doing, but it is entirely [JJ] Abrams's fault that 'Trek '09' looks like a modern, boring garbagey TV show, rather than the beautiful, lurid, exciting and dreamy garbagey TV show it is based upon."

Here at IFC, Brandon Kim looks back to some "Far out theme music since 1966." And Movieline's ST VanAirsdale has some related online viewing: "'Star Trek's' Debt to 'Star Wars' Now a 30-Second Video."

Dick Cheney, Bill Murray: C Jerry Kutner considers the "synchronicities" at Bright Lights After Dark.

In the Boston Phoenix, Peter Keough talks with Sasha Grey about "The Girlfriend Experience." So does Lauren Wissot at the SpoutBlog.

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: "The Big Lebowski."

Empire has "Cameron Crowe's Top 10 (Or So) Music Moments in Film." Via Ted Zee.

Peter Sobczynski posts a big DVD roundup at Hollywood Bitchslap.

Online viewing tip #1. Guillermo del Toro launches a site for his vampire book, "The Strain." Via Movie City News.

Online viewing tip #2. The BOMBLog posts work by Brandon Downing, followed by Mónica de la Torre's interview.

Online viewing tips. New and notable trailers. FirstShowing's got one for John Hillcoat's "The Road"; Apple's got Rob Marshall's "Nine," featuring, as everyone is noting, hundreds and hundreds of Oscar-winners.

[Photo: "The Taking of Pelham 123," Columbia Pictures, 2009]

Tags: Brandon Downing, Christopher Walken, Clint Eastwood, Edward Gorey, Evan Rachel Wood, Guillermo del Toro, Jean-Luc Godard, Kevin Smith, Paul Newman, Sasha Grey, Shimizu Hiroshi, Star Trek, Tony Scott, Zombies