Movies in the Making?

First, with a series of decent "period" films in production or already circulating, I hope that even more will be made over the next few years. I'd love to see a first rate movie about Anne Sexton. Such a lovely and compelling (and dark and disturbing) poet should translate well on the big screen. Or hell, even on the little screen -- maybe HBO will run with the idea. They could do her justice, certainly. There's surprisingly little footage of her available right now, despite the existence of two versions of a documentary about her made in the early 1970s. It's an aesthetic crime waiting to be redressed. Is that too much to ask? She deserves at least as much consideration as Sylvia Plath, for God's sake.

The good news is the Diane Arbus movie Fur that's now in post-production, starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr.
Check out NK's website for more details, and for some of Arbus' eerie photography: http://nicolekidmanunited.com/NicoleKidmanFilmography/Fur/

More mysterious is the Janis Joplin project. At one time there were three of them! The only version that seems to have a real chance of completion is the one taken up by Penelope Spheeris with the working title "The Gospel According to Janis."

Eventually, I hope there's an "on demand" service that lets people order from a massive global movie library -- forget the mail order services and let us click a button and see whatever we want for $1.00! The database should have digitized copies of every movie ever made. Why the hell not?

Meanwhile, I'm glad that Gold Diggers of 1933 is finally being released on DVD (as I mentioned yesterday). Now, can someome please release more of the massive backlog? How about starting with Wise Blood and the Guyana Tragedy: the Story of Jim Jones? Both were filmed in 1979 and released in 1980 and all that's been available of them are occasional VHS versions. Brad Douriff (now in HBO's Deadwood as the Doc) and Ned Beatty are in both of them and they have the same creepy wacky feel. Given that Powers Boothe is also in Deadwood (as Tolliver), bring him back on DVD as Jim Jones before I get "a touch of the jungle fever" . . . . .