All the News That’s Fit to Rank: Week of October 24
These are the top movie stories that got the Flickchart staff talking this week. We rank ’em, you read ’em.
1. Sweden’s money now has Ingmar Bergman on it
We get celebrities on postage stamps with some frequency in the US (IngRID Bergman was just recently featured), but all our money is boring old presidents and founding fathers and such like. Sweden’s new currency features artists along with governmental-type figures, and favorite son filmmaker Ingmar Bergman is on the 200 krona note. He’s even sort of smiling! The AV Club does have a somewhat sobering story about Bergman’s run-in with the Swedish tax authorities, but that aside it’s still pretty cool to see a prominent filmmaker featured on legal tender. (via The AV Club)

If you’ve always wanted to put existential despair in your pocket…and you’re Swedish…you’re in luck!
2. Disney developing Tower of Terror into a feature, starting from a John August treatment
Disney’s taking a short break from announcing remakes, reboots, and sequels to their existing properties in order to announce an adaptation of one of their literal properties – the ride Tower of Terror, featured at all the Disney theme parks. Whatever are they going to do when they run out of former films and amusement park rides to make franchises out of? Ah well, if John August is in the writer’s chair, it could turn out okay. On the other hand, sounds like he was just in the writer’s chair for the treatment, so it could also not turn out okay. Unknown. (via /Film)

Keep your arms and legs inside your own theatre seat, please.
3. The hotel that inspired The Shining on its way to becoming a horror museum
Note this is actually the hotel that inspired Stephen King in writing the book, not the now-iconic hotel where Stanley Kubrick shot the film, but that’s a minor technicality. It’s a pretty awesome idea to add a horror museum into this place – just, like, don’t visit there when you’re likely to get stranded by a snowstorm, and watch out if your kid starts writing stuff backwards on the walls. (via The AV Club)

I’d rather visit a Shining museum than stay in a Shining hotel!
4. Jon Hamm joins Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver
Any new Edgar Wright film is a big yes from me, even (especially?) one with a premise that sounds as daffy as this: “A young, talented getaway driver relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best. After being coerced into working for a crime boss, he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.” Normally, I’d assume that “face the music” was an idiom, but in an Edgar Wright film it could easily be 100% literal, and I would be totally on board with that. Jon Hamm‘s role is being kept hush hush. He’s probably the crime boss. (via Variety)

Hopefully the beat of his own soundtrack doesn’t lead him to fall off a Madison Ave skyscraper…like the…opening of Mad Men. I’ll just show myself out now.
5. Joe Dante to direct supernatural thriller Labirintus
Joe Dante‘s next foray into the world of horror/thrillers will concern a paranormal investigator and a psychiatric researcher who team up to explore the Soviet-formed labyrinths under Budapest. Supernatural interference and madness are pretty much givens. Filming is expected to begin next spring; no cast members have been announced yet. (via Variety)

No news on cast yet, but really, the catacombs of Buda Castle are character enough for me.
6. David Lynch is writing a memoir…in his own inimitable style
Having already established himself in film, television, music, cooking, and weather reporting, David Lynch is poised to take over the book world with an upcoming memoir, which will be structured around interviews with over 90 people giving their impressions of Lynch…and him giving his impressions of them. If he can get the book to have an atmosphere half as effective as his films, this will be a winner. (via The AV Club)

Maybe the whole book will turn out to be a collection of his LA weather reports.
7. Edgar Wright’s debut film finally gets US screening
Edgar Wright is so cool, he gets two stories in this week’s roundup. He’s working on his next film now, but his very first film hits its twentieth anniversary this year, prompting a rerelease in London, and believe it or not, its very first screening in the US, courtesy of LA’s Cinefamily rep cinema. A Fistful of Fingers is, as you might expect, a loving spoof of spaghetti westerns, with humor likened to Monty Python and the Zuckers. Hopefully this anniversary will also lead to a great DVD/Blu release, because I’m sure there are people outside of London and LA that would be interested in seeing it. (via /Film)

The Greatest Western Ever Made…In Somerset! (That’s not me, folks, that’s an actual tag line for the film.)
8. Ennio Morricone to score Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time
My ears perk up at mention of either Morricone OR Malick, so the thought of them together is pretty awesome. Malick’s upcoming film is apparently a documentary celebrating “the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse.” This definitely fits with the direction Malick has been taking lately, and it sounds perfect for Morricone as well. The two worked together before on Days of Heaven (1978), and didn’t always see eye to eye. Maybe Malick will have mellowed a bit? (via The AV Club)

So this film is basically The Tree of Life with even LESS narrative? Sign me up!
9. Daniel Craig ditches Bond for Iago in Othello
In case you missed it, Daniel Craig is really, really done with James Bond, and though playing the iconic character has certainly made him a household name, I can’t totally blame him for being ready to move on. Looks like what he’s moving on TO is Shakespeare’s villainous Iago in an off-Broadway production of Othello (opposite Selma‘s David Oyelowo). A break back on the stage might be just the thing for him. (via Variety)

In related news, Daniel Craig really really hates James Bond.
10. Chris Rock will host the Oscars this year
After experimenting with hosts new (Neil Patrick Harris, Seth MacFarlane) and veteran (Billy Crystal), the Oscar producers are calling on comedian Chris Rock to return to the gig after ten years (he hosted in 2005). The ratings have been dipping as late – do you think Rock can bring them back?

If this goes badly, dibs on the “Everybody Hates Chris” headline the day after the Oscars.
Top Trailers of the Week
Oh, come one. You’ve already watched the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer a dozen times. Well, here you go, you can watch it once more. Or a dozen more! I won’t judge.
Unfortunately for me, Jane Got a Gun will always be the film that was supposed to be directed by Lynne Ramsay until she suddenly quit, and that would’ve been so much cooler, but I’m such a big fan of westerns, especially with women front and center, that I’ll see this anyway.
David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper seem to have themselves a good thing going here, can Joy continue the trend?
This year marks the 50th Anniversary for David Lean‘s Dr. Zhivago, and it gets a suitably epic trailer for an upcoming big screen rerelease.
When the logo for Drafthouse Films pops up at the beginning of a trailer, you know you’re in for something wacky and probably violent, and this teaser for The World of Kanako doesn’t disappoint. I have no clue what the story is about, but it is definitely violent, and definitely wacky.
You know what? I think I might just have to take myself out to see Doctor Zhivago on the big screen again…and it is really cool to get to say that! Also, I’m totally going to hit up a certain fellow Flickcharter to arrange getting my grubby little paws on one of those Bergman krona bills. (Unless that’s a violation of international monetary policy, in which case I am totally not going to do such a thing.)
DAMMIT! Zhivago is only getting a theatrical re-release in the U.K. :'(
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whats-on/bfi-film-releases/doctor-zhivago
Time to move house!
@Esh_Kebab Remind me to send you some money and have you mail me one of these bills.