Movie notes

It was announced right at the beginning of filming that the final installment in the HP series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was going to be a two-part epic with Part 1 coming out this November and Part 2 being released in July 2011. Now I'm hearing the filmmakers are stretching it into three parts with the final installment scheduled for a July 2013 release. Why two years between parts two and three was not explained, except that the entire announcement came out April 1.

Clint Eastwood has fallen in love with a scrpt by Dustin Lance Black, who wrote Milk, about how J. Edgar Hoover started the FBI and wants Leonardo DiCaprio to play the head G-Man.

To me, the biggest upset at the Oscars was Precious winning the adapted screenplay award over Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, which had won all the precursors. Blogger Shasha Stone came up with five reasons this upset occured. 1) Oscar voters prefer tearjerkers over cynical films; 2) Reitman's attempts to keep his co-writer from getting any recognition; 3) resentment over the fact that Reitman is the son of another filmmaker; 4) Precious was preferred more by those in the acting branch (it did receive an ensemble nomination from the Screen Actors Guild but Up in the Air didn't); 5) Air star George Clooney got distracted by the events in Haiti and quit campaigning for his film at a crucial time,

I've just started reading Stieg Larsson's fine thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and now I hear it will be made into a film with Steve Zaillian adapting the screenplay and David Fincher directing. Both are superb choices and they could keep the momentum going by casting the right actress in the lead role of the tough-as-nails hacker.

Steven Soderbergh's next project is Contagion about an international team of doctors and scientists assembled by the Center of Disease Control after the outbreak of a deadly virus. The film possesses what I will safely call "an all-star cast:" Kate Winslett, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Laurence Fishburne. Expect a release sometime next year.