An early look at "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

I was all set to write a rant about how there's another f-ing strike on the horizon - with the Screen Actors Guild's contract set to eclipse June 30 - but I really just can't bring myself to deal with such nastiness on a Friday morning.

There's also news out there - actual and simply rumored - about NBC's upcoming "The Office" spinoff. First the actual: The showrunners have made their first casting hire, comedian Aziz Ansari, who apparently stars on some MTV sketch comedy show I've never seen called "Human Giant."

Much more exciting is the simply rumored news that Rashida Jones - a k a Karen Filippelli - will soon be joining the new cast too. All we know so far is that she's signed a "talent holding" deal with Universal, which is producing the show. What in the world would they be paying her for except to join this new venture?

I certainly hope that comes to be, but in the meantime I'm even more excited today about this teaser trailer for David Fincher's fall flick "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," based on a F. Scott Fitzgerald tale about a man who ages in reverse through the twentieth century. Everyone probably already knows that Brad Pitt is the titular Mr. Button, but this one also stars Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond and one of my very favorite actresses, the great Taraji P. Henson (a k a Shug from "Hustle & Flow.")

I just love Fincher pretty much unconditionally, and the premise sounds great, so I'd have to list it as the one flick I'm most looking forward to this fall. Enjoy the trailer, and keep your fingers crossed that M. Night's latest offering doesn't just suck as hard as I'm now fairly certain it will. Peace out.

Summer starts early with "Iron Man" tonight!

If you don't care at all about "Iron Man," which opens tonight, than please accept my sincere apology; with my 10:30 tonight ticket in hand, it's all that's on my mind right now, so you'll just have to deal with it.

Besides, blockbuster summer starts today, so what else would there be to talk about? Well, The Coens just a bit later, but in a shameless plug for "Iron Man" (as if it needs it), here's why I'm sure it will just kick all kinds of ass:

Casting Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark was the perfect move for starters, because the best superheroes always come the most flawed kinds of human beings. Call him an "anti-hero" if you have to, but he should just be fun to watch. Add to that Gwyneth Paltrow (remember her?) as his loyal assistant, Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard as fighter pilot Jim Rhodes and finally Jeff Bridges as industrialist-turned-really-evil-dude Obadiah Stane, and you've definitely got my attention (and my $8.)

Plus, as everyone probably sort of knows already, Iron Man isn't just some hero who cries a lot because he was bitten by a radioactive spider (man, did "Spider-Man 3" just suck). He made his suit of iron, with the help of fellow prisoner Yin Sen, after receiving a piece of shrapnel in his heart behind enemy lines. Maybe it's just me, but I'd much rather have a self-made badass than an accidental one any day.

And finally, because it simply has to. Let's face it, and I know I've said it here plenty of times before, but most of the movies so far this year have been pretty darn bad. Kicking off the summer is a big burden, but all reports have it so far that director Jon Favreau and his co-horts have delivered just the right kind of spectacle. Here's hoping I find out so - and that they play the new "Dark Knight" trailer too - tonight.

And now, in closing, here's a first look of sorts at the the Coen brothers' "Burn After Reading," one of the flicks I'm definitely jazzed for for the end of the year. The CIA comedy starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney and an apparently manic John Malkovich is set to kick off the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 27 before playing everywhere a bit later, and here, courtesy of FirstShowing.net, are four stills from the flick. Enjoy, and please feel free to check back tomorrow for my opinion about "Iron Man." Peace out.

"Once" upon a magical Oscar moment

For someone who watches as many movies as I do, I have a rather perilous confession to make: I often zone out in the middle of the Oscars.

I can't be the only person who usually watches the first hour or so, then turns it off for the middle third and then comes back for the big guns. Last night, however, it managed to hook me from start to finish.

I'm sure there's gonna be some carping from people (only the stars, really, I'd assume) that there weren't any bloated-beyond-belief acceptance speeches, but I thought it was a very brisk, mostly very enjoyable affair. And Jon Stewart deserves a lot of credit for that, even though he couldn't wait for more than about 10 minutes to tell the four people in America who might not have known already that Diablo Cody was once a stripper. (Yes, if I can digress for a moment, I did say stripper. Having worked briefly as a blackjack dealer in the back of a strip club [hey, a man's gotta eat] I can tell you there's nothing terribly "exotic" about any dancing that goes on there. So let's just retire that term, OK.)

OK, I'm back. It was a deservedly big night for the Coens (giving the Hollywood Reporter the chance to roll out this groaner of a headline: "No Country: Four Gold Men.") Some other thoughts that ran through my skittish mind were: I guess it's nice that the technicians behind "The Bourne Ultimatum" won at least three awards for giving me a throbbing headache, and wow, I guess they really didn't have to put much makeup at all on Tilda Swinton to make her so pale as the White Witch (beautiful woman, to be sure, but is she some kind of albino or what?)

But anyone who's been here before knows that, even more than seeing Helen Mirren break into a devilish grin when she says the word "cojones," one thing I truly love is the film "Once." Easily the most charming movie of 2007, it also provided the most charming moment of last night's Oscars ceremony.

After watching the three extremely elaborate set pieces for the songs from "Enchanted" (and man, can that Kristen Chenoweth belt out a tune), I was sure that one of them was going to prevail. But then, near the end of the night, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, armed only with their instruments, performed their beautiful nominated song "Falling Slowly," and as everyone probably knows by now, came out as the big winners.

And the biggest victim of the rather brisk pace at first seemed to be the lovely Ms. Irglova, who, just as she opened her mouth, heard the music start to play and was ushered offstage. They probably could have let it at go at that and people would have just dismissed it and moved on, but after the commercial break, Stewart was nice enough to bring her back and give her 30 seconds to say something about the importance of indie artists (amen, sister!)

Perhaps I'm exaggerating the significance of this, but I almost never stay up until 11:45 on a Sunday night, so that's what's stuck in my mind at this early hour.

And yes, in case anyone's wondering, there is news out there today, and some pretty big stuff: Evidently set on giving me another massive migraine, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have both agreed to come back for a fourth "Bourne" flick. Bully to that, I suppose.

But I'll leave you today with just a bit more about "Once": The actual performance of "Falling Slowly" by Mr. Hansard and Ms. Irglova at last night's show. Once you get past the rather awful French voiceover of Colin Farrell's introduction (do they actually watch the whole show like that? what a nightmare!), the audio is great and the song is even better. Peace out.

Jim Jarmusch gets by with a little help from old friends

When I found this news this morning, my first thought was that it's been a really long time since we've heard anything at all from Jim Jarmusch, and indeed it has been almost three years since the release of his last, mostly satisfying flick, "Broken Flowers."

Now comes word that two of the stars of that flick, Bill Murray and one of his paramours, Tilda Swinton, are along for the ride in "Limits of Control," the road movie/thriller Jarmusch is shooting in Spain. As several ladies I work with would want to know, Gael Garcia Bernal factors into this somehow too.

As best as I can gather, the flick centers on a mysterious loner as he attempts to complete a criminal job, and it's set to start shooting this month in Madrid, Seville and Almeria, Spain. Even better for anyone who's a fan of Jarmusch's work is that the great French actor Isaach de Bankole, a regular in many of Jarmusch's films (notably as the ice cream man in "Ghost Dog"), plays the loner.

If that makes it sound more than a little similar to the aforementioned "Ghost Dog," that would be just fine by me, since I own that one on VHS and have probably watched it at least into the double digits in times.

And I know plenty of people whose opinions I certainly respect who had serious issues with the ambiguity of "Broken Flowers," but I thought it suited Murray's character just fine, and the would-be mystery writer Winston played by Jeffrey Wright was just a seriously funny comic creation. Here's hoping this latest project from old friends leads to something at least as fun.

Emile Hirsch finally gets some love

The most constant and amazing snub I've noticed in this awards season is that Emile Hirsch, the star of Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," has gotten almost no recognition at all, at least until now.

In March, Hirsch will take the title of Male Star of Tomorrow at ShoWest, which, despite that rather odd title, I would have to assume is also in recognition of his most recent work too, especially since all he has on the menu for this year that I know of is the Wachowskis' almost-surely-to-be-disastruous "Speed Racer."

And if you somehow missed out on seeing "Into the Wild" in theaters (and since it played in my little corner of the world for exactly one week, I couldn't say I blame you), you'll soon get the chance to see it on DVD starting March 4. The saga of Christopher McCandless is a challenging tale, and one that I took a while to warm to, but once I did it ended up on my list of the top five movies of 2007 (along with "Ratatouille," "No Country for Old Men," "Once" and "The Savages.")

And now I'd like to wrap this up kinda quick today, but I'll leave you with this clip of RZA and GZA of the Wu Tang Clan talk with the great Mr. Murray about that most magical of combos, "Coffee and Cigarettes." It's kinda long at almost eight minutes, but I think it would go just great with just about anyone's lunch. Peace out.