Mulcahy is still around and still directing movies — he directed Resident Evil: Extinction, which was a much, much better film than it had any right to be. But his heyday was the 1980s, when he directed Razorback, the tale of a giant mutant pig attacking people in the Australian Outback. And of course, Highlander and the ill-fated Highlander II. (Cue legions of fans insisting that no such movie exists.)

Highlander contains so many beautiful images of the craggy landscape, and the roiling blue sky overhead, that it elevates the material and makes the swordplay and lightning-flashes seem that much more epic. It's Turner-esque. By the time he made his defining film, Mulcahy had already worked on tons of the most famous music videos of all time, and had crafted the art of the four minute image bomb, detonating with visuals and then disappearing.

Mulcahy deserves a place in the hall of fame just for his work on Highlander, but his music videos probably had more influence on cinema in the long term. I honestly was gobsmacked when I found out, from Wikipedia, that the same person had directed so many of the videos that saved MTV from being a wasteland. Those videos pioneered a whole new visual language. His seven-minute-plus version of Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" is one of the greatest dystopian (take a drink!) movies of all time:

Here's the music video he directed for Queen's "Princes Of The Universe," featuring scenes from Highlander. Look how easily some of these action sequences (in the second half of the video) lend themselves to the music-video format. I love it when Christopher Lambert steps out of the movie and onto the stage with Queen:

Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" video (directed by Mulcahy) has so many bizarre images, they had to create a "literal video version":

Berlin: Sex (I'm A...)

Duran Duran: Rio

Elton John: Fascist Faces

I could go on and on. Just check out the list over at Wikipedia. It's really amazing how many of his music videos are indelibly painted on my brain. And Resident Evil: Extinction was actually surprisingly great:

Highlander screencaps from Hundland.org.

Deadline is reporting that Waltz, who has received much acclaim as the fearsome Nazi Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's latest film, has been cast as Chudnofsky, The Green Hornet's main foe. Waltz is like a better match for the role, which Gondry has described as a terrifying foil to Seth Rogen's more comical superhero.

[Deadline via /Film]

More pics at the link. [Superhero Hype]

Hitfix spoke with star Seth Rogen after learning news of the movie's delayed release date. Not surprisingly, the actor is in full spin mode, or else genuinely happy that his odd ball, little known superhero flick will have to stand toe-to-toe with big-name productions and Oscar bait.

We're both relieved and psyched about the change. It gives more time for post [production], which would have been immensely rushed if we were to come out in the summer. It also affords us more time to promote the film, (now we can go to Comic-Con with more than a car!) and ultimately is a great vote of confidence from the studio. We got the same date that movies like 'I Am Legend' and 'Avatar' are getting, so we're thrilled to be there."

More time to make a decent movie is never a bad thing, and perhaps a bit more exposure is exactly what this film needs. But it still feels like the move from July 7, 2010 to December 17, 2010 was an effort to quietly dump it off into a cold pasture.

Like all things Gondry, that was beautiful. Thanks for sharing this, Cinematical.

Asian news outlets are reporting that Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo is currently in talks to play the Green Hornet's hyper-competent sidekick, alongside a bumbling Seth Rogen. Kwon is known largely as a heartthrob in Korea, having starred in many a romantic soap opera, but he's also has a modest bit of on-screen martial arts experience, thanks to roles in the fantastical Volcano High and gangster-themed Once Upon a Time in High School.

Several outlets have noted Kwon's imperfect English might be the major obstacle to his being cast, but even if he manages to break the language barrier, his action resume doesn't begin to approach Chow's, and it's going to be tough for him to live up to the expectations everyone had for Chow's performance in the role.

[Twitch]

Variety reports that Cage is in talks to play a "gangster villain" in Gondry's film adaptation of The Green Hornet, starring funnyman Seth Rogen as a bumbling superhero. Presumably, this is the same villain Gondry described in earlier interviews: a "horrible" fellow with a double-cannon gun that lets him "shoot people in both eyes with one shot."

Cage's previous foray into comic-book films (the ill-conceived Ghost Rider) was anything but a success, and it is possible that, with Stephen Chow's departure from the role of popular sidekick Kato, the studio is looking to bring bigger names to the project (like Cameron Diaz, rumored to be playing the film's love interest). But I suspect that we're actually getting a glimpse of Gondry's Green Hornet master plan.

The central theme of this version of The Green Hornet is that the eponymous hero is severely outclassed by his more competent – and popular – sidekick, and Gondry might well be expanding that idea of mismatched characters across the entire cast. If Cage's particular brand of strange intensity seems at odds with Rogen's earnest persona, that's probably the point. Gondry may well be deliberately casting actors who normally wouldn't share screen time to create his won unique flavor of superhero stew.

It does seem a risky balancing act for Gondry, one made even more complicated by the difficult job of recasting Kato. But I, for one, am looking forward to watching him try to pull it off.

[Variety]

SpoilerTV posted the casting call on Friday afternoon:

[KATO] ALL ASIAN ETHNICITIES, Male, 20's - early 40's. Brit Reid's manservant/chauffeur by day and Green Hornet's martial arts-skilled sidekick by night. Actor doesn't have to have Martial Arts experience.

Chow's co-starring role in the movie was initially in doubt following his quitting as director, but sources involved in the movie had suggested that he would stay on with the arrival of Gondry as director. This new casting call hints at more behind the scenes changes, and not just in the casting: "Actor doesn't have to have Martial Arts experience"? Isn't that, you know, Kato's whole thing?

[Via /Film]

1. Michel Gondry
Imaginative and whimsical, Gondry's style would suit our girl perfectly. Gondry was Drew Barrymore's first choice to direct when she was attached to the project, and screenwriter John August even flew to France to have a development meeting with the director. I would love to see Gondry return to Jean-Claude Forest's comics as source material and completely reimagine Barbarella.

2. Roman Coppola
Coppola practically asked to remake Barbarella, with his debut CQ (2001). The film is a chronicle of a young American in Paris (Jeremy Davies, long before Lost), working on a very Barbarella-esque sci-fi film. Coppola not only has the skills to reintroduce us to the 60's icon, but obviously a true understanding of what the original film was all about. And can't you just see Jason Schwartzman in the David Hemmings role of rebel leader Dildano?

3. Spike Jonze
Jonze's sense of humor falls right in line with the tone of Roger Vadim's original film, and if the preview for Where The Wild Things Are is any indication, he's mastered the ability to create a very real and very stunning fantasy world.

4. Guillermo Del Toro
Guillermo Del Toro would be an ideal choice, with his incredible visual style and his fondness for fantasy. Seeing his interpretation of the City Of Night and the Matmos alone would be worth the price of admission. Too bad he's busy in pre-production on that other fantasy film.

5. Joss Whedon –
Experienced sci-fi director? Check. Tongue firmly in cheek? Check. Ability to direct a strong, sexy female lead? Check. Joss Whedon has the perfect credentials to take us on the all-new adventures of Barbarella. Better yet… to give us Barbarella: The Musical.

Okay, that's my five. Who are yours?

There's a heap of Gondry interviews floating around out there right now but here are a few highlights that are the most exciting.

First, the Green Hornet fight scenes. According to MTV's Splash Page Gondry plans to include slo-motion kicks and punches that could rival The Matrix, from the sounds of it:

Although it's a little tricky to comprehend with the written word, Gondry basically plans to reinvent the fight scene by having Green Hornet moving slowly, Kato moving super-fast, the villains at normal speed - and then mixing it all up repeatedly. "So, one will go fast and the other will go slow, and then they'll meet," he explained. "It's [as if] they're in different dimensions, but when they touch each other they come into the same dim

He also spilled to MTV about the villain who will be "scary as hell"

The villain is going to be horrible," explained Gondry. "He has a gun with two cannons; he can shoot people in both eyes with one shot."

But most importantly Gondry was very upfront on how Green Hornet is not a spoof, and even though Rogen is attached it isn't an all-out comedy. But of course there will be funny moments.

This is really great news. We've barely been getting by on tiny Gondry hits, from Flight Of The Conchords — but it looks like we won't have to wait much longer for more Gondry movies.

The trades are all abuzz about Michel Gondry signing up where Stephen Chow left off, as the director for the Green Hornet movie. Putting Rogen and Gondry together could be quite a beneficial pairing because Seth Rogen's penchant to go a bit over-the-top might be reeled in slightly with Gondry's understated but still fantastical esthetic. Worst case scenario: Gondry's spin will at least make the Green Hornet character a little more interesting.

But what does this mean for Gondry's "ice that makes you hear music" movie?

[Variety]

You might remember Gondry for his mind-bending, surrealist movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; its script won an Academy Award, which Gondry shared with Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth. Gondry, an artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 and 2006, recently visited the school to screen his short film Tokyo! (also a collaboration). While there, he confessed to Boston.com that his two years at MIT had influenced a new project:

The former MIT artist-in-residence said he was happy to be back in Cambridge, despite the excruciating cold. "It's a perfect environment for me, because it's where art meets science," he said, of MIT. "In France, art is much more associated with literature, and more political. I like the spirit here." Gondry also revealed that he's working on a new film, set at MIT, about time travel. "I'm rewriting the screenplay, so we're not shooting yet," he said, laughing.

It may be a long wait for this story to hit the screen, but when it does, I'm sure we'll all feel that it was a relatively short travel through time. Let's just hope it turns out better than MIT's 2005 Time Traveler Party, which, according to Tina Fey, was a bust because "people from the future already know the party sucked."

Of course, you could argue that this Star Wars Swede is advertising Star Wars too, while also advertising Be Kind Rewind. And when a bunch of goofballs at a London new media conference decided to Swede the season finale of Torchwood before it even aired, that could be seen as an ad for the TV show, a reminder to watch it on BBC 2 that evening.

But I gotta admit, my life was not complete until I watched the girls in the Sweded Predator shit-talking about pussy.

So does it matter where a meme like Sweding comes from? Does it matter that it originated in some marketer's mind rather than in the pop internet unconscious that gave us Rickrolling and the Numa Numa Dance? After all, the Be Kind Rewind crew have used all the tools that regular old meme-makers use: they created a You Tube page, and even link to Wikipedia on the official Be Kind Rewind website.

Plus, I ask you, do you think these kids Sweding the Matrix have ever even heard of Be Kind Rewind? I don't think so either. But they do rule at karate. Sort of.

Still, I'm left wondering if a manufactured meme like Sweding can ever really be as cool as a million people doing the Numa Numa dance for the sheer fun of it. When does a marketing campaign become a grassroots thing?

Here's how producer Haruki Kadokawa describes his decision to make the film:

Speaking to reporters at Nikkatsu on Friday, Kadokawa said he first read the 2002 novel while in prison on drug charges and that, though the theme seemed heavy, he saw 'a strong comic element in the material' that he plans to underline with 'a large helping of CG effects'.

It sounds as though Rhona Mitra's mission to a plague-quarantined Scotland, to find a cure for the plague which is starting to hit the outside world, may turn out to be futile. Unless, of course, Malcolm McDowell is wrong... which is almost unthinkable.

• In Michel Gondry's next film, Return Of The Ice Kids (not Kings, as previously reported), teenagers invent water that makes you hear music while you drink it. And in one scene, a teenager relives a moment when he made a farting noise with his mouth during an exam, and everyone noticed, so he kept making noises "to cover his nerves," but it sounded like he was covering up a fart. Apparently this actually happened to the teenage Gondry. The kids in the film are "writing a book of peace," and it features some utopian scenes. [MTV movies]
• The live-action Star Wars TV series, which takes place between episodes three and four of the movies, may be about a Sopranos-esque crime family during the rise of the Empire. [IESB]
• Sam Rockwell's space traveler stranded in a moon base is "lonely but not alone," in Moon, the directorial debut of David Bowie's son Zowie, which just finished shooting. [ShockTillYouDrop]
• Lost's ageless island-dweller Richard, played by Nestor Carbonell, will be back in at least one episode later this Spring, and his return leads to "interesting revelations." Also, in one of the season's final five episodes, we meet two Bedouin horsemen and a luxury doorman of "British extraction" in a flash-back or flash-forward... and they may have something to do with the enigmatic Charles Widmore. [Ask Ausiello]
• With Lana missing for much of Smallville season eight, Clark's next love interest may be Lori Lemaris, the mermaid living among people from the comics. Also, season eight will still feature Chloe as a series regular, and may feature a fair bit of no-longer-regulars Lana and Lex too. [Ask Ausiello again]

In the sequel, Mia Farrow and Danny Glover would pair off, and so would Alma (the cute dry-cleaning girl) and Mos Def. But poor demented Jack Black is left alone... until he finds a cute dog and becomes attached to it. And then everybody decides to mount a socialist revolution and take over the city hall of Passaic, NJ. They open a restaurant that gives away free food, they refuse to support the Iraq war, and they create more jobs for everyone.

Everything's fine for a while, until Danny Glover gets a brain tumor that turns him into a raving racist. He freaks out at Jack Black and drives him away, claiming that Polish people tricked African Americans into taking the lowest paid jobs. "It's terrible, frenzied, racism," says Gondry. Things get worse and worse, until a race war is starting. "Segregation is reinstalled."

Mos Def leads the African American community, and Jack Black leads the Polish community. (This is actually where my suspension of disbelief fails.) And Alma leads the Latino community. Everybody gets into a horrible fight.

But then the cute little dog dies, and somehow this convinces everybody to stop their race war. And then everybody realizes that Danny Glover just had a benign brain tumor, which made him turn racist. So everything goes back to normal.

It would definitely be the most demented Gondry film yet. I would probably pay $10 just to see Jack Black playing a zany manic white supremacist. But I might have a lot of elbow room in the theater. At the very least, it sounds more interesting than Cloverfield 2. [MTV Movies]

Like Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind is slipstream: a melding of genres that uses elements from science fiction but doesn't adhere to all the genre's expectations. The sequence where Jack Black decides to sabotage a power plant and winds up magnetized is very scifi, from the tentacles of current bathing Black's floating body to the weird visual effects that follow him around for a while afterwards. Most of the rest of the movie is "realistic," except that it's totally unrealistic. The movie requires just as much suspension of disbelief as the scifi-iest scifi movie.

So you've probably seen the "Sweded" versions of classic movies, like the clips of Ghostbusters and Robocop above. You'll probably be disappointed if you expect the whole movie to be about the wacky fan films which Jack Black and Mos Def make (with the help of an ever-increasing supporting cast). That segment, between Jack Black erasing all the videotapes and the fan-film operation getting shut down, occupies the middle segment of the film. But there's a lot of stuff before and afterwards.

The rest of Be Kind deals with gentrification and the destruction of old urban neighborhoods. The titular Be Kind, Rewind video store is in a condemned building in a crappy neighborhood in Passaic, NJ, which Jack Black describes as a "dump swamp" at one point. The store's only claim to fame is that jazz legend Fats Waller was born in the building, and you won't be particularly shocked when you find out halfway through that it's not even true. The store's owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) made up the Fats Waller myth to disguise from Mos Def (and himself) that they're trapped in hell with no way out.

The city wants to tear down the video store (where Glover also lives) and put up ugly condos in a bid to "improve" the neighborhood. As the movie goes on, you meet more and more characters who seem to be barely hanging on economically. The act of "Sweding" the Hollywood movies which Black erased becomes the ultimate empowerment for people who are slowly getting erased from their own neighborhood. It would be super depressing, if the movie didn't keep hammering home the idea that creating (or recreating) your own narratives can save you from being crushed. (I'm a sucker for that idea, so I totally bought into it.)

And then, after about 45 minutes of Black and Def's escalating silliness in "covering" 2001: A Space Odyssey and other random movies, the lawyers show up to put a stop to it. (One of those lawyers is played by Sigourney Weaver, who's already spent a lot of time being impersonated by a random African American guy in the Sweded Ghostbusters.) After all that yay-reclaiming-our-stories stuff, Weaver's character points out that the video store doesn't even own its tapes: the movies still belong to the studios, and Be Kind Rewind is just leasing them out, to rent them out in turn to other people.

I sort of expected the movie to turn into the battle over whether Black and Def should be allowed to create their own fan-films for profit. (That's what the trailer left me expecting, anyway.) But the fight is over really quickly, and nobody even utters the phrase "Transformative work." Larry Lessig should not see this movie, it'll just upset him. Within a couple minutes after Weaver and the other stooge show up, a steamroller is destroying all of the awesome tapes Mos Def and Jack Black have made.

I won't spoil what happens after that, but suffice to say the movie has a long coda (probably another half an hour or so) in which it proves, once and for all, that creativity can bring everybody together, and that the stories we create ourselves are better than the ones other people provide for us. And better, for that matter, than the "truth." (It all ties back into that myth about Fats Waller being born in the crappy video store.) It's a super uplifting ending, even as you're left with no doubt that all these people are royally fucked.

That's the other reason I want to claim Be Kind as a type of science fiction: not only does it have a science fictional McGuffin, and "Swede" several scifi movies, but it's also all about the power of invention. Both in the sense of making shit up, and in the sense of cobbling together solutions out of technology. It's not quite as great, or as clever, as Eternal Sunshine. But it's a worthy successor anyway.

• The Starship Exeter: This Star Trek fan-made series comes from the heart of Austin, Texas, and looks like it was filmed alongside the original series. From the sets all the way down to the smallest props, its got the looks. The acting can be slightly hammy at times, but whoever said Shatner wasn't pure pork?
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• Time Distortion: If you can manage to build a replica of the TARDIS, then you've done 95% of the work required to make a Doctor Who fanfilm, mostly because the special effects budget for the BBC back in the day was probably about ten bucks. For the whole season. Kevin Hiley and buddy Jonathan Miles made an audio version of this story when they were both 13 years old, and 13 years later, they made a live-action version that captures the cheese, camp, and charm of the original Doctor Who.
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• Troops: 1977's Hardware Wars was the first-ever fan film that poked fun at the Star Wars universe but this one takes the cake as far as making something new out of something old. It's Cops with Stormtroopers, what more do you need to know? Oh, and it's hilarious. It helped spawn other Star Wars-themed comedy fanfilms like Trooper Clerks and Pink Five.
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• Batman: Dead End: While the Star Wars and Star Trek universes normally receive the most attention from aspiring fanfilmers, Batman has had some pretty decent entries as well. The best of the bunch is this 2003 short film that wowed director Kevin Smith and artist Alex Ross. It inspired other Batman fanfilms like Grayson, about an adult Robin trying to find out who killed Batman (excellent) and World's Finest, where Batman teams up with Superman.
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• Indiana Jones: The Adaptation: This is probably one of the most inspiring stories of labor, love, and fandom. Three twelve-year-old buddies saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, and starting making a shot-for-shot remake with a camcorder. It took them seven years to finish it, and it premiered in Texas on the big screen in 2003. Producer Scott Rudin bought the rights to their story, and art house comic book favorite Dan Clowes is writing it.