Anne Hathaway Catwoman

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--- Adorable hipster director Cary Fukunaga will make that sci-fi movie Spaceless next, which was a rumor a few weeks back. Two movies down - Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre - ad I'll follow the dude anywhere.

--- Thrones Keepers - Some casting news for A Game of Thrones: they've cast Theon Greyjoy's sister Asha (although she can't be named Asha in the TV series because of that whore character Osha they invented for the show, so now she's called Yara, because none of us need any more complications when it comes to this show) and Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a kingly dude that Dany deals with. I'm not familiar with either actors at first glance, but the show's shown itself pretty dang good at picking the right actors so far.

--- Recent Piranha remaker Alexandre Aja might remake Pet Semetary. I find myself with very little to say about that. Huh.

--- After Zach Snyder makes his Superman movie with Henry "swoon" Cavill, he's lining up a movie called The Last Photograph which sounds more serious than what we're used to from him - it's set in "war-torn Afghanistan" and:

--- Ben Foster will be playing John Gotti Jr. in that Gotti movie with John Travolta; we worried last week when Dominic Cooper was rumored up for the role, and now we're worried for Ben. Mitts off, Travolta!

--- Diablo Cody, who seems to be inexplicably-to-me hated these days more than she's liked, appears to be drawn to birds of a feather since she's apparently offered the co-lead in her directorial debut (previous post) to Russell Brand. These are both people I am always being forced to argue in favor of! This movie will drive me to knife-wielding!

--- Have you seen the poster for Drive yet? It's Goslinglicious! (via)

--- We just rambled a little bit about Miranda July earlier, and here's more - she talked to io9 about the science-fictional way time works in her new movie The Future.

--- And finally, here's the first clip from Todd Solondz's new movie Dark Horse. I haven't watched it yet and I might not watch it in order to keep myself pure - please please please let this movie play at the New York Film Festival this Fall! - but have at it if you will.

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I trust everyone had a nice night's sleep?

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I've obviously got to write something about the final Harry Potter movie here, but it's a hard time to focus these days. Every spare second I have I'm plowing through George R. R. Martin's A Dance of Dragons (I'm on page 738! Only thirteen thousand more pages to go!) and that's where my head is when I'm not completely unable to think due to A/C problems like I spent the second half of yesterday dealing with. NI haven't even written a review of Miranda July's The Future yet, for god's sake! So behind, so behind. Summer just kills my ability to function. Point being, I have no idea what I'm about to write but let's just wing it. This will be very exciting for all parties! Here are five thoughts as they come to me on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Spoilers ahoy.

1. Okay I did do a smidge of preparation for this - EW's got a full-length recap of the movie up and I read though that. And it reminded me of one thing I'd forgotten - Harry Potter's supposed to be completely starkers in that post-Avada Kedavra "afterworld" meeting with Dumbledore at the white-light train station. Cheated! I'd totally forgotten that. I mean sure it was always a little weird, naked Harry hanging out with his elderly homosexual friend. But it was IMPORTANT. That's an even bigger slight then the lack of centaurs and house elves at the Battle of Hogwarts, or the absence of Luna and Neville in the post-script, I says.

2. Even though I started crying about a quarter of the way into the movie and was a blubbering mess by the final reel, I think they missed the mark a little bit with this movie as a whole. There were huge pieces I loved and little pieces I loved but somehow it never really clicked together as a full movie, I guess? It was more a series of periods and exclamation points, with a couple of questions marks tossed in for good/bad measure. Everybody was good, the film looked and sounded gorgeous, but the script could've maybe used some work. It felt a little bit rushed like they turned their eyes to the side of the soundstage and could see the guy swinging the keys ready to close up and they were ready for supper anyway so let's get this thing done already! One of the biggest problems for me is probably how insulated everything felt at this point - I don't think they got across the danger that the entire world was facing here. Everybody was holed up at Hogwarts and we hardly saw a single Muggle - they did give us a sense of this in Half-Blood Prince with the Millenium Bridge collapse, but a reminder was needed, I think. (Maybe I just wish there'd been more Fiona Shaw.)

3. That said, the Snape flashback sequence got me right in the gut. Rickman's youth-ening CG botox job was a little bit distracting - Trent Reznor got stung by a bunch of bees! - but they really managed to slam a lot of emotional bang-for-their-buck into that succinctly-edited sequence; Rickman has always been a stand-out of course but I found myself surprised by just how much I appreciated every second we got with him this time. The way he could draw out a syllable will never be equaled.

4. Also welcome was finally getting to hang out with Ralph Fiennes for awhile. Voldemort makes some abysmally dumb decisions (granted they're written off as a by-product of his soul being murdered piece by piece, and until you've had your soul murdered piece by piece you shouldn't judge, but still - you're really not gonna check Harry's pulse yourself there, V-man?) but Ralph squeezes every ounce of sibilant villainy there is to be had from the slit-nosed cretin. Bonus points go to Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix, who kept bouncing around behind him reminding me of those straight-jacketed monsters that hung out with the Gentleman in the "Hush" episode of Buffy. Her impersonation of Emma Watson's Hermione in the Gringotts bank-robbery scene was kinda mind-blowing.

5. Alright, I made it to five! I guess all that's left is to slather on some of the hearty gratitude we fans feels towards JK Rowling for imagining this world up and to David Yates and the other directors and all the immensely talented craftspeople who created the world over the course of eight films. At a certain point in the film that Twilight-belittling quote of Stephen King's popped into my head:

Snipe if you will, the studios and the publishers and the toy companies have made more money than they'll ever know what to do with, sure, but I do think that the fictional tale of Harry Potter has in its own little way made the world a better place. Personally, when I reflect on it as I did watching it unfold its final grace notes, it made me want to be a better person, to be a better friend. I know I'm not the only one.

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--- Post Cappy - Supposedly there an an Avengers preview of sorts at the very end, post-credits, of Captain America. That link has a couple spoilers for the movie so click with caution. I usually don't bothering sticking through the credits of these movies for Samuel L. Jackson's annual appearance but I might have to for Joss.

--- Carnage Quartet - The Playlist has a couple of new pictures from Roman Polanski's Carnage with Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet and Hans Landa and that pudgy guy who could never marry any of them not even Hans Landa.
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--- Sam Noir - Sam Rockwell is replacing Jeremy Renner in Better Living Through Chemistry. It's about a pill-popping pharmacist who has an affair with Jennifer Garner and plots to kill her husband. Sounds very Body Heat On Vicodin.

--- Getting Gangsta - Slash has got word on what director David Yates is looking at doing now that he's finished with Harry Potter (he directed the last four films) - perhaps an Al Capone bio-pic with Tom Hardy, for one! I like it. The thought of Tom is loose suit pants over boxers and wife-beaters and suspenders fill my head and I like it. Also a possibility is a trilogy based off of Stephen King's The Stand.

--- Slave People - The director of Smart People - that movie that should've just starred Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page and forsaken all the rest which was bullshit - is who they've picked to direct the 300 sequel? Okay. Slightly random. I guess he almost directed The Ring Two but bailed, which shows wisdom.

--- The Trance Dance - Seems like Danny Boyle is turning to Michael Fassbender's co-star in A Dangerous Method now that Fassy can't be in his new film - no, not Viggo, but Vincent. Cassel that is. Fassy was going to star in Trance opposite James McAvoy and reignite their hot sexual chemistry again, but it wasn't meant to be. Not that I don't want to see McAvoy and Cassel make out. Not that they will. Not that that's stop me from imagining it.

--- Balls Deep Herself, Ari Graynor, has got another role lined up - she's co-starring in For A Good Time, Call... opposite Lauren Miller, actress and more importantly Seth Rogen fiance. It's a "raunchy comedy" co-written by Miller about two broads, said broads being Miller and Graynor, who start a phone sex telephone line. Do those things even exist anymore?

--- Two Weeks - Meant to link this up last week but there's the first official shot of Colin Farrell in the Total Recall remake. (via)

--- White King - The King dies in Snow White, doesn't he? That's how the Evil Queen takes power over the kingdom? Or is he just too weak to upstage her? I can't remember. Anyway Sean Bean has just landed the part of the King in Tarsem's movie version (with Julia Roberts as his Evil Queen) so we can assume he'll die, him being Sean Bean and all.

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Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), Misery

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