The RP’s Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Film

Amazingly enough, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II won the box office weekend.  WHO COULD HAVE THUNK IT? [Movie Web]

Sigourney Weaver wants to do another Alien film.  Good idea or bad idea?  I say good idea. [Toronto Sun]

Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II) is making a new film called Twixt, which is based on a dream he had.  Starring in it will be Elle Fanning, who recently played the little girl in Super 8.  /Film has some pictures from it.  It looks crazy. [/Film]

The new, secret, Sarah Palin documentary came out this weekend.  It grossed about $65,000.  That’s not a lot of money, even for a documentary that opened in selected theaters.  Is that because the film opened against Harry Potter, or because, you know, its about Sarah Palin?  [The Atlantic]

Rupert Murdoch is in a lot of trouble.  In addition to running newspapers, heading up Fox News, and wiretapping phones, he also makes a lot of movies.  Here is a fun post that asks the question “What if we prosecuted Murdoch on the quality of his films alone?”  [The Guardian]

The newest Quintin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, is coming into focus.  We already know that it will star Jaime Foxx as a runaway slave, who is then trained by a German hitman (Christoph Waltz) on how to kill evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his equally evil pit boss (previously unknown).  That final spot is apparently going to go to Kevin Costner–who, as this piece says, could fill the same sort of  role as John Travolta did in Pulp Fiction. [Film Junk]

Now that the Harry Potter series is over, what’s next for Emma Watson?  Apparently she is attached to Guillermo Del Toro’s new adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.  I wonder if Watson will learn a French accent, or if this will be another one of those pictures in which “European” is code for “British.”  [IFC.com]

Ron Howard has been talking a big game about adapting the Steven King series The Dark Tower into a film/TV franchise for the better part of a year.  Now, however, it seems like the deal is dead.  Poor Ron Howard.  He should just get to work on making the Arrested Development movie.  [The Movie Blog]