Apparently this clip is pretty famous, but I hadn’t seen it before yesterday, when everyone sent it to me in response to Rip Torn’s awesome drunken rampage.  It comes from Norman Mailer’s 1970 film Maidstone, and involves a pretty intense brawl that ensues after Torn hits Mailer in the head with a hammer, and Mailer responds by trying to chew off Torn’s ear.  Or as Nick Nolte calls it, Wednesday.  From the description:

Mailer’s concept was a half-scripted movie where a tyrannical director who plans to run for president is assassinated by an actor on his current film who wants to stop the tyranny from going global. Mailer spent much of the shoot insulting his actors to get one of them to improvise his assassination. Mailer drifted in and out of character, then wrapped without an assassination. [...]
Rip Torn (playing his brother-in-law and assassin) allegedly decided to take it upon himself to “improvise” an attack by hitting Mailer on the head with a small hammer, drawing blood. Mailer retaliated by tackling and then nearly chewing Torn’s ear off as they grappled viciously, and it rapidly escalated into an unhinged on-camera brawl as Mailer’s horrified kids screamed in terror. [...]
I have to wonder how “unplanned” this sequence was, as the camera is obviously following Rip closely in the moments before the attack, and if principal photography had finished the day before, why was the camera crew still hanging around filming Rip and the Mailer family? Its more like Mailer knew Rip would pull something for the camera, but didnt know what, and overreacted because he wasnt expecting him to use a real hammer and actually start hitting him with it. [via this guy]

First he hits Norman Mailer with a tiny hammer and tries to convince him it was part of the movie, 40 years later he gets caught carrying a tiny pistol.  Who wants to bet his plan in case he shot someone was to just slap him on the back and go, “Aw, relax, ya pussy, Ol’ Rip was just f*ckin’ with ya.  C’mere kid, pull my finger.”

(The whole thing feels pretty staged, if you ask me).

(Sam Raimi hates having to raise his hand in order to speak at board meetings.)

A while back, IESB reported that Spider-Man 4 was being put on hold indefinitely because Sony and Sam Raimi couldn’t agree on a story.  Sony denied it, but long story short, it’s true.  Sam Raimi wants to use Vulture as the bad guy like he originally wanted in Spider-Man 3. Sony wants to f it up like they did Spider-Man 3.

Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film while the studio is pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.

A succession of writers has tried to marry the two parties’ differing visions to no effect. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”) was hired in October 2008 to pen a key version of the screenplay, on top of the earlier version penned by James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”). Last year, Sony brought in Gary Ross — Oscar-nominated for his adapted script on 2003’s “Seabiscuit” — which he also helmed.  Alvin Sargent is penning the latest iteration.

[For Spider-man 3] Raimi wanted to use classic villain Vulture in addition to Sandman, another classic creation. The studio pushed him to use Venom, a character that was introduced in the late 1980s, because it thought that character, with its slick alien-symbiote origin, would lend itself to more effective marketing material and a way to attract “the kids.” [THR]

If you hire someone to do a job, let him do the damn job.  You don’t see me telling the hookers how to poop on my glass coffee table do you?  …Okay, bad example.  What do you think, Emo Spider-Man?

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Phew, I had to post this quick before 20 more people emailed it to me.  Anyway, apparently 50 Cent caught the video of Sexman (FilmDrunk’s official movie reviewer) calling him a media whore from a few months back, and instead of shooting him a bunch of times like he normally would, he flew him out to New York to make this internet video.  It’s… about as awkward as you might imagine.  I’m happy for Sexman getting to meet the famous people he talks about on the Internet.  That never happens to me.  The closest brush with fame I’ve had since I started this site was the time they shot an episode of Law and Order in my aparment.  That’s right, my apartment played PEDOPHILE’S APARTMENT on Law and Order, and I swear to God that’s true and not just me trying to make a cute joke, though now I sort of wish it was.

A few days ago, Michael Bay made news (and by “made news”, I mean some fat guys in their underpants wrote about it on the internet) when he dissed those “other” giant robot movies out there, saying Transformers was the only real giant robot movie, y’all.  Many people interpreted that as a slam on Mayor McCheese and his Terminator movie.  Today, McCheese fires back:

“It bothers me to tell you the truth. Ultimately, our large robots have nothing to do with the “Transformers” robots. I say with respect, giant robots have been the theme of film for a real long time. So we want to do everything we can to create separation. Our film’s about T-800s and the Marcus character and the Connor character, and this, that, and the other. So, to have people have a problem with that wouldn’t be working for us so we want to make sure there’s separation.” [Comcast Movie Blog]

God you suck at dissing.  You “say with respect”?  You have to say it without respect, dumbass, that’s what diss means: disrespect.  And when your publicist gives you a card that says “Our movie is different than Transformers because of this, that, and the other“, it’s not meant to be read word for word, you’re supposed to fill in  actual attributes.  When asked for specific comment on McG, Michael Bay said, “McG?  I’ll tell you what I think of McG,” then set off a smoke bomb and commando rolled out of the Starbuck’s.

The Dutch love hookers and pot, and Muslim fundamentalists hate fun, so the two are natural enemies.  Yesterday Al-Qaeda issued a fatwa calling for the execution of Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilder, who is producing "an anti-Koran short."

Wilders expects to finish the 15-minute "Fitna" by the beginning of March, and will talk to broadcasters about airing it. None are yet on board.
But he insists "Fitna" (Arabic for discord) will be available on the website of his political party in the Netherlands and a dedicated site.
Already, the Cairo Intl. Film Festival for Children [which I imagine is a fucking blast - Ed.] announced it was dropping Dutch entry "Where Is Winky’s Horse?" in protest at Wilders’ film.
According to Dutch press agency ANP, fest director Fawzi Fahmi said the decision was a protest against everyone who intentionally and persistently insults and degrades monotheistic religion. [Variety]

I’m sorry, I know this is a serious issue and all, but everything and everyone in this story has a silly name.  No matter how hard I try, all I can do is imagine growing a mustache like the guy in the banner pic, yelling ‘FAWZI FAHMI!" in surprise with my bow tie spinning around like a propeller, and then running in circles on the floor like Curly from Three Stooges.