According to Deadline, Emma Stone (re: “that hot chick from ‘Easy A’“) is about to win the dubious honor of being Sony Picture’s pick to be the new Mary-Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” reboot – also known as “Spider-Man Begin-Again” or “Spiderlight” elsewhere on the web.

This is too bad on multiple levels – most-notably because this means the damn thing is still happening, but because Stone is a genuine talent, a real rising star who deserves a major role like this AND she’s a dead-ringer for the character, much moreso than Kirsten Dunst ever was; in a different scenario this would be really good news. Sadly, here on Earth-1, the headline is basically “Promising Starlet to Damage Career With Appearance in Innevitable Trainwreck.”

“Spider-Man: We Needed to Hold Onto The Rights” is still looking for other cast members, most-notably another actress for Gwen Stacy. Directed by Marc Webb, the film is set to be released in 2012, will be shot in 3D, and suck.

…and since his show airs on CNN, this is probably the first time most people are hearing the name Rick Sanchez. MSNBC viewers, imagine a passive-aggressive, even-more-uncharismatic Ed Schultz.

Initially, Sanchez – in an interview with the Sirius Radio show “Standup! With Pete Dominick” – was evidently upset about the mockery his hyperbolic on-air “persona” frequently came in for on “The Daily Show.” His explanation? Jon Stewart is “bigoted,” presumably against Latinos and minorities in general…

And then it got better: Finding Sanchez unable to cite evidence of bigotry on Stewart’s behalf, Dominick – whom you can just hear panting in excitement realizing how much attention his show is about to get for capturing a semi-noteworthy figure melting down live – opted to point out that Jon Stewart is, in fact, a minority himself. Sanchez response? To laugh heartily at the very idea of Jews as an oppressed minority… because, apparently, they “control the media.” And CNN.

The only video I could find with that specific part on it was itself being hosted on an anti-Jewish YouTube channel, so I’m not linking to it. Instead, here’s the Young Turks on the whole situation:

Yet another entry for the “Warner Bros. Has No F*cking Idea What To Do With Any DC Character Who Isn’t Batman” file: They’ve handed “Wonder Woman” over to David E. Kelley for new TV show. Because the best possible thing you can do when you own full rights to three out of the four most-bankable franchises in the most moneymaking genre in present-day Hollywood is clearly to dillute their brand-worth with expensive, rapidly-canceled TV genre programming.

Kelley, incidentally, is best known for writing and producing TV series that are incredibly popular while they air but that EVERYONE stops caring about IMMEDIATELY after they end (Ally McBeal, Pickett Fences, L.A. Law, The Practice, Boston Legal, Chicago Hope, etc.) Seriously, be honest: Until you just now read that list, you completely forgot at least half of those shows existed.

Y’know, I’m not gonna say “called it!” since I don’t recall ever blogging this and I know I wouldn’t have been the only one to say it anyway, but remember earlier this year when DC pulled this decades change-her-outfit-so-people-will-pay-attention-for-a-few-issues bit? (If you haven’t seen it or didn’t care at the time, she wears pants and what looks like a denim jacket over the one-piece now; so now instead of looking like the world’s most ostentatiously-patriotic domme she looks like a recent-divorcee borrowing her daughter’s clothes.) Well, I distinctly recall my first reaction being on the lines of “Ah, this means they’re about to announce a movie or TV show, since that’s exactly what you’d do to the costume to woo ‘theres-no-way-in-hell-I’m-showing-that-much-leg-and-cleavage-the-whole-damn-time’ actresses to the part.”

Awww, I wuv you TOO, Relativity Media, Rouge Pictures and Barrie Osborne. BIG HUGS! 😉

Director is a first-timer named Sngmoo Lee, a teacher from the New York Film School working from a script he sold to Osborne (LOTR) under the title “Laundry Warrior.” Evidently, they’ll be saving money by using up all the FUN that “Ninja Assassin” forgot to bring to work with it 😉

I dunno what I like more, “Ninjas… DAMN.” or Danny Huston as what appears to Cowboy Ninja Doctor Doom. If there was a Dinosaur somewhere in there, it’d be the trailer for the Best Thing Ever.

Yes, it’s that good. No, it’s not “the Facebook movie.” No, “it’s got Facebook in it” is not a good enough reason to skip it 😉

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.5.swf
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/2095-The-Social-Network

“Intermission” features some more details on the film and quotes from the writer and stars.

“The Social Network,” near-universally hailed as one of the best – if not the best – movies of the year, will have it’s Midnight shows about 4 hours from now and then be in wide-release a few hours after that. It’s a big movie based on a ripped-from-the-headlines story from a superstar directorwith stellar reviews and a cast of rising stars (the kid from “Zombieland,” another kid from “Gossip Girl,” the biggest male pop-star in music and the next Spider-Man,) so you’d think it’d be a garaunteed hit, right?

Honestly, I dunno…

As I may have mentioned once or twice before, the “downer story” of Summer 2010 – and maybe 2010 in general – has been the visible backlash of mainstream audience against the pop-culture omnipresence of “nerd culture.”

Not necessarily a backlash against “smart” movies, I stress – “Inception” certainly proved that you can draw a comfortable contingent of even the sad excuses for functioning humanity currently overflowing the American moviegoing audience to a brain-twister… providing you’ve got a trailer’s worth of gunfights, Leonardo DiCaprio and “The Director of The Dark Knight” to lure them in. I’m talking about the genuine sense of mainstream-culture rejection of material and/or characters percieved to be from the outer-edges of “nerdity;” i.e. the lukewarm reception of “Kick-Ass” and the outright hostility that greeted “Scott Pilgrim” (in that regard, you can toss the bizzare level of hatred that’s built up against Michael Cera on the list, too.) “Network,” or course, is 100% a creature of “nerd-culture” – a story of nerds engaged in the ultra-nerd world of computer programming and website building.

You don’t need to be a Gallup pollster to look out at the American cultural landscape right now and see that we’re in the midst of a HUGE flare-up of anti-intellectualism at the moment – look at the frighteningly-pervasive influence of the so-called “Tea Party,” with it’s delusional romanticism of “ordinary joe” Americana and it’s open hatred of the non-traditional and/or the knowledge-oriented (aka “LIBERAL ELITISTS!!!”) And hatred of “nerds” is the evolutionary starting-point for anti-intellectualism in general – the hatred of the non-traditional, resentment of the above-average, and the rage upon realizing that they’re often one and the same. It’s a zeitgeist thing, in other words… when asked, “what kind of world is it where Sarah Palin or this new cretin from Delaware can be seriously considered for high office?,” my answer is “the kind of world where ‘The Expendables’ sells $250 Million worth of tickets, and ‘Transformers’ does even better than that.”

Maybe that’s a reach, or seeing connections where none exist, but I’m not inclined to think so. But even going back to main point, just think about it: Audiences didn’t turn out to see a socially-awkward uber-nerd engage in video-game martial-arts duels – who really expects them to turn out to see another socially-awkward uber-nerd make a website, get rich and get sued?

Here’s hoping I’m wrong, all the same.