OLD FACT: A Raimi/Tapert/Campbell produced “Evil Dead” remake is happening.

NEW FACT: Crazy-talented newcomer Fede Alvarez is directing it.

NEW(ER) FACT: Diablo Cody is writing the screenplay.

Pop Quiz! Which of those facts do you suppose the geek-o-sphere will be pissing and moaning like gigantic, entitled babies about between now and the first trailer?

Bonus Question! Of the FIVE names listed above, which one will be overwhelmingly “blamed” for every casting decision, character-change or story revision said “sphere” decides it doesn’t like in that same time period?

Yeah… look, gang – I’m a confirmed hater of Cody’s “Jennifer’s Body.” I appreciated what it was trying to do, but it failed at it pretty spectacularly. That said, I don’t “get” the Diablo Cody backlash in film-geek circles. Well… that’s not true. I GET it, I’m just sort of annoyed and dismayed by it.

I really hate situations where this ends up having to be pointed out; but it’s kind of unnavoidable that to a large (not “overwhelming,” but certainly large) degree American “geekdom” still exists as a predominantly white/hetero/male culture. And while that’s not a “bad” thing in and of itself, it does seem to manifest in sometimes ugly ways when female, black, etc. filmmakers try to play in “our” sandbox. You see it in the outcries against race-flipped casting, you’ll see it in the innevitable “White Guilt!!!” replies to this post, and I think you see it in the way people “turned around” on Cody once she became a “brand.”

Frankly, the MAIN thing she has working against her – the criticism that her character’s all talk like the same person, namely Diablo Cody – is something that A.) people seem willing to overlook for Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and David Mamet, and B.) not really a pressing concern in a franchise whose best-remembered dialogue is very much in her wheelhouse. I’m not saying this WON’T turn out to be a bad choice, but I don’t think it’ll be worth the forgone-conclusion freakout it’s going to cause in some circles.

Besides, hating on Diablo Cody will only serve to distract The Internet from it’s TRUE mission on this project: Determining which largely-unknown onetime castmember of which failed Joss Whedon project is the ONLY!!!! concievably-appropriate choice for the new Ash, and circulating a petition to make it happen. Priorities, people 😉

Via Gawker

A Florida chapter of scientifically-illiterate, hyperreligious paranoid xenophobes The Citrus County Tea Party Patriots have uncovered yet another threat to The United States of Christopia: MANATEES. American Conservatives’ endless quest to make the bad guys from “Captain Planet” look nuanced by comparison marches on…

Edna Mattos, the “leader” of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots has launched a campaign to oppose increased protections on edangered Manatees in King’s Bay:

“We cannot elevate nature above people,” explained Edna Mattos, 63, leader of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots, in an interview. “That’s against the Bible and the Bill of Rights.”

It’s also, of course, all part of the conspiracy by the United Nations – that scaaaaary organization of untrustworthy Europeans and Brown People who want to take your guns and Bibles – to take over the world through environmental regulations. Mattos explains:

“We believe that (federal regulators’) aim is to control the fish and wildlife, in addition to the use of the land that surrounds this area, and the people that live here and visit. … As most of us know, this all ties in to the United Nations’ Agenda 21 and Sustainability.”

“Agenda 21” is a largely symbolic, essentially-unenforcable U.N. resolution (so, in other words, a U.N. resolution) from 1992 to encourage environmentally-responsible development. Nobody cared about it (again, U.N. resolution) until Glenn Beck convinced his acolytes that it was evidence of “the plan.”

I’m generally reluctant to post stuff from MSNBC (or anyone else’s) opinion programs because it always degenerates into mutual bile-spewing about “bias;” but this clip from last night’s Rachel Maddow Show is too much of a treasure-trove of religious-psycopathy for me NOT to call attention to…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

These are REAL guys – not satirists – many of them speaking to cheering, agreeing crowds of THOUSANDS in an allegedly modern country. I don’t care what, if anything, your spiritual or political affiliation (or lack thereof) is – that FACT should scare the shit out of you.

Whenever I’m on about “Thinkers vs. Believers,” this is the stuff I’m talking about.

Somewhere between the post-production of “Spider-Man 2” and the clusterfuck of shenanigans surrounding “Spider-Man 4;” something seemed to have gone vaugely “awry” with Sam Raimi. Longtime collaborator Danny Elfman claimed they’d had a major falling-out, and on the business side his innability to make a project come-together was approaching that of Guillermo del Toro.

Recently, though, things appear to have turned a corner. The rift with Elfman has apparently been healed, his “Oz: The Great and Powerful” feature is looking like it could beat the inexplicable glut of upcoming “Wizard of Oz” alterna-takes to the screen, and now Bloody Disgusting reports that the long-promise “official” reboot of “Evil Dead” is on the way…

Supposedly, the Raimi-produced remake of the original “Evil Dead” has re-entered development, and BD claims that a highly sought-after young talent has been tapped to direct: Federico Alvarez, an Uruguayan indie wunderkind whose short film “Ataque de Panico!” (“Panic Attack!”) – in which Montevideo is leveled by giant alien robots – became an international sensation a year or so back:

So that’s what giant robots look like when they don’t suck…

Another two-parter.

People who are bigger fans of Tintin (the franchise really doesn’t “exist” here in the States for the most part, though a cartoon ran on Nickelodeon back in the day) are going to have to tell me if the movie seems to be “getting it” or not; but thus far I’m pretty enthused.

I’m still not convinced that motion-capture animation is “there” yet, but it’s not going to get “there” if people don’t keep refining it. Also, good filmmaking can overcome limiting techniques, so we’ll see.

It’ll be interesting to see how, if this is good, it effects the debate in the animation world over the technique. Last year, The Academy Awards made headlines by deciding that films primarily using mo-cap DON’T qualify for animated-film Oscars; which to be honest sounds somewhat illogical to me. I understand that there’s a pervading fear/resentment in the animation business that motion-capture devalues (literally and figuratively) the work of full-blown animators; but people have been rotoscoping for decades and I don’t see how this is appreciably different – particularly in the case of something like “Happy Feet,” which used humans to mo-cap non-human animal character with major animation-additions later.

It’s the weekend! Here’s some of the stuff you may have missed on the MovieBob Blogs this week!

THE BIG PICTURE: “TURTLE MAKI”
The infamous TMNT Anime is the subject.

AMERICAN BOB: “JOBBED”
Politics, jobs and the U.S. economy.

GAME OVERTHINKER – EPISODE 53: “THINGS LEARNED IN THE DARK”
The Playstation Network hack/blackout is discussed. Also, a bunny.

I was INTERVIEWED by EXAMINER.COM

ESCAPE TO THE MOVIES: “HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN”
Nuff said.

INTERMISSION: “THE MORE YOU KNOW”
How to speak Hollywood movie-press speak.
Naomi Harris is (maybe?) the new Miss Moneypenny.

VOTE on the topic of the NEXT “Game OverThinker” episode!

Here’s a FAQ post about the new(er) shape of “The Game OverThinker” series!

REMINDER: MovieBob will be out and about at the IGDA Sumitt in Seattle!

As ever, feel free to follow MovieBob on Twitter @the_moviebob

UK’s Daily Mail – currently basking in the glow of being a British tabloid NOT shuttered by a horrific phone-hacking scandal – reports that the next installment of the rebooted James Bond series has found it’s Miss Moneypenny: Naomi Harris, late of “28 Days Later” and “Pirates of the Carribbean.”

If this is legit, it will make Harris the sixth actress (three in the “main” series plus two in the “side” films); and the first black actress to play the role. That second part will, of course, pass by largely un-remarked-upon and will not at all generate bleats of outrage from “racially-conscious” white people about “losing” this or that artifact of pop-culture; as everybody got that out of their system on “Thor”…

…right? 😉

It’s as good as it sounds.

“Intermission” is about movie news, once more…