The News: The Raping of Pelham One Two Three

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Hell, maybe it'll be great, but count me among the Monday morning skeptics for whom waking up to news of a Taking of Pelham One Two Three remake -- by Tony Scott, starring Denzel Washington in Walter Matthau's original role -- is like waking up to my car having been vandalized. Sony is bankrolling it, but according to Entertainment Weekly, the studio isn't commenting; it probably has something to do with the screeching, bloody-eyed bats of hell chewing through every phone and Internet cable in the joint. Let's hope they're insured. (H/T: Hollywood Elsewhere)

--The Hollywood Reporter notes that Christopher Zalla's Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner (and gripping New York thriller) Padre Nuestro has been picked up for distribution by IFC First Take. "VOD doesn't have to affect the per-screen average on a smartly executed platform release," producer Benjamin Odell told -- who else? -- Gregg Goldstein. "There are audiences that go to movies and others that stay home. IFC is reviving a market that had begun to lose its grip. It's a smart model." I guess we'll find out.

--John Wray's profile of Michael Haneke in this weekend's Times Magazine is one of the best film pieces I've read all year, if only for the filmmaker's assertion: "What's different about my films is this: I'm trying to rape the viewer into independence.” Ah -- so that's why I hurt so after viewing Funny Games.

Posted at September 24, 2007 6:39 AM