Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Obits & Memorials

Sad news kicking off the weekend, that ABC film critic Joel Siegel has passed away from colon cancer at the age of 63. Siegel, known for his quips and puns, especially about movies he didn't like, also published a book a few years ago called Lessons for Dylan: From Father to Son, after he found out that he was going to be a first-time father at the age of 57 -- and that he might not live long enough to see his son be born.

Siegel's colleague at ABC, Bill Blakemore, writes in a piece paying homage to Siegel that the critic battled his cancer with "astonishing courage and humor," making Blakemore and other colleagues laugh in an elevator just two weeks ago by quipping that the number of penguin movies being made would soon "outnumber the penguins themselves."

Siegel made waves almost a year ago when he walked out of Kevin Smith's film Clerks 2, loudly complaining about the film -- and sparking a raving feud between himself and Smith that started when Smith posted about the walkout on his blog. The two famously ended up debating each other about Siegel's walkout live on CBS radio's "Opie and Anthony Show," when Siegel told Smith, "If you'd like an apology, I'm glad to apologize. This was indeed the first movie I've walked out on in 30 years. If there's a second movie I walk out on, I'll be much quieter."

Courtesy of The Reeler (with a hat tip to Movie City News for the pointer there), here's Siegel reviewing a stage version of Stephen King's horror novel Carrie -- Carrie: The Musical (has there ever been a worse idea for an adaptation?) -- which features Siegel deadpanning a dreadful song from the play ("It's a simple little gig, you help me kill a pig, and I've got some uses for the blood -- Pig, pig! Blood, blood!"). Hard to believe he sat through that play from start to finish (the costumes and choreography are as bad as the lyrics), but found Clerks 2 too much to stomach -- but it's an entertaining review nonetheless, and typical of Siegel's style.

We at Cinematical send our condolences to Siegel's wife and young son, and all the friends and colleagues who knew him well and loved him for his humor and grace.

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Filed under: Drama, Deals, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts & Screenwriting

Here's one project you can probably put to bed for good -- the supposed biopic of poker legend Amarillo Slim, starring Nic Cage and directed by Milos Forman. I brought it up during a conversation with Forman at this week's Goya's Ghosts junket in New York, and he looked at me like I'd insulted his mother when I did. Forman said he never had any serious attachment to the project in the first place. "That's typical Hollywood," he said. "About three years ago somebody from Los Angeles called me if I'd be interested to make film about Amarillo Slim with Nicolas Cage. Amarillo Slim is interesting character, love Nicolas Cage as an actor ... I said 'Sure, I would be interested, but I'll tell you after you send me the script. It depends on the script.' So they put it in the press that I'm doing it. Till today, I haven't seen the script."

The chances of a big-budget Hollywood biopic happening are further reduced when you consider that in 2003, the notorious proposition gambler was, as Wikipedia puts it, "indicted on three charges of indecency with his 12-year-old granddaughter," and ended up copping a plea. Oscar voters tend to frown on that kind of thing, don't they? Another interesting tidbit from my conversation with Forman: he claims to have had absolutely no idea who Natalie Portman was before she came to his attention during the casting process of Goya's Ghosts. I'll be posting a full report from the junket as soon as I have time to type it up.

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Filed under: Horror, New Releases, Lionsgate Films, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand, Interviews

Earlier this week, I got a call from Elisha Cuthbert to discuss what has to be the most talked-about movie of the year so far, Captivity. If I actually tried to give you a rundown all the digital ink we've spilled on this little horror film since the beginning of 2007, I'd never get around to actually typing out this interview, so I'll just choose a few highlights, like the original outbreak of controversy over the film's graphic billboard advertising back in March, the harsh response by the MPAA, the arrival of the first trailer, the release-date musical chairs, and our exclusive interview with After Dark Films about the whole project and the fuss it had caused. As you can probably imagine, the first question I asked Elisha when I spoke with her was, inevitably, 'Do you get asked your opinion about Captivity every single day?'

Elisha is, of course, known for her starring roles in such films as The Girl Next Door, where she played a mercurial porn star called Danielle, House of Wax, the 2005 horror remake in which she starred alongside a pre-incarceration Paris Hilton and famously allowed the stunt people to glue her lips together for a crucial scene, and the Will Ferrell comedy Old School. She's also widely recognized for her work on the small screen, appearing for several seasons as Jack Bauer's daughter on the hit show 24. Those two worlds are expected to collide sometime in late 2008 or 2009 as a movie adaptation of 24 ramps up production, but until that happens, if it happens at all, Cuthbert has a number of projects on the runway to keep her busy. Here is the interview, and fair warning -- it does contain some spoilers about Captivity.

RS: What's it like being at the center of this film's controversy-fueled marketing campaign for the past few months? Do you get asked your opinion about Captivity every single day?

EC: Not every day, but I definitely get a lot of questions about it. To be perfectly honest with you, a lot of it baffles me, and a lot of it is intriguing at the same time, because I had no idea that, in the world of the Saws and the Hostels ... somehow our film has sort of stuck out. I'm grateful for that, but at the same time, I'm a little confused. I know that we had some controversy with the womens' groups, and I just feel like I wanted them to see the film before making any judgments on it. I set out to make a film about a woman who fights for her life and comes out in the end sort of strong and learns something from her experience. But 30 million people chatting about it online? I couldn't ask for anything more!

RS: Did you find the billboards personally offensive?

EC: I personally didn't, but then again that doesn't mean it's not going to affect someone in a negative way, and we're here to sort of appease the people who go see the films. The only thing I can say about it is that I thought that they were interesting enough to be up. I hope people see the film and give it a chance. We're not here to sort of ... this isn't a documentary about, you know, women getting kidnapped. This is a horror film.

RS: Where do you come down on the whole recent issue of R-rated horror films like Hostel II seeming to give ground to films like 1408, which are PG-13 and clearly less gruesome?

EC: I don't know, you know, it's hard to judge. I think that, back in the day, there used to be a lot of horror films that kind of had a checklist of what went into making the 'perfect horror film', and I think now people are raising the bar in the industry, as far as the types of horror films that are being made. There's a sort of psychological undertone to films. 1408 -- I think we're also in the same realm as that, just as the Hostels and the Saws, because there is that sort of psychological fear and we're basing something on reality. I don't know -- it's tough to say, I just think the industry in general and the genre in general has changed and modified -- people want to see more.

Continue reading Interview: Elisha Cuthbert Talks to Cinematical About the 'Captivity' Controversy, the '24' Movie, and Why She's Not 'Looking for Lois Lane'

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