A suspected terrorist accused of conspiring to assassinate President Bush said he proposed the plot but it wasn't pursued, and he was frustrated that other members of his al-Qaida cell lacked initiative, according to prosecutors.

Also, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Laufman writes in the motion that Abu Ali was frustrated and bored during a stay at an al-Qaida safe house "because his fellow al-Qaida cell members did not appear sufficiently motivated to suit the defendant's terrorist zeal."

Its certainly good to hear that moral is low in al-Qaida terrorist cells.

This reminds me of when a friend and I were trying to come up with propaganda movie ideas. Best one was a dark comedy about an al-Qaida cell in Las Vegas. They came over to carry out coordinated suicide bombing attacks in public places all over the strip. In the process of collecting materials, building bombs, scooping out target areas, and trying to blend in, they all become corrupted by good old American culture. One of them starts dating a stripper, another becomes a pothead, another can't peel himself away from daytime TV leading to talk shows for women teaching him how to be at peace with himself, etc.. I think we made the TV addict the hero that attempts to blow the whistle on the group just as they get their signal to attack.. If I recall, the stripper dies thwarting the only serious bomber, whom she doesn't want to see die, but winds up dead herself. The pothead gets caught and becomes the face of terror in the eyes of the American public.

I think its still a viable idea, if I didn't just blow it..

BREITBART.COM - al-Qaida lacks initiative

This movie is due to air on TNT in September. See if this sounds familiar: A hurricane hits New Orleans, destroying off shore oil rigs and damaging major pipelines. The ensuing disaster is handled in standard disaster movie fashion. There will be heros, self sacrifice, everyone will go on a journey, there will be at least three plot arcs, and of course a happy ending that will leave you feeling safe and secure about the risk of it actually happening.

... or, you could just watch CNN and get a dose of reality.

Makes you wonder.. Will they air it now? IMDB says that they used a fair amount of real footage, and with clever patchwork, fit in the footage filmed in the Hollywood's good old 10ft tank. Currently New Orleans is a much bigger tank.. Think they will grab some more footage and re-edit? Maybe tag on a new ending where everyone dies and American gas prices start looking like Europe gas prices? Don't count on it.. This is made for TV after all..

Oil Storm

Mel Gibson is planning another historical epic. And like "The Passion of the Christ," it will be shot in an archaic tongue. The writer-director plans an October starting date to shoot "Apocalypto," set 500 years ago in Central America, his spokesman, Alan Nierob, said Monday.

FOR THE SAKE OF GOOD CIMEMA, SOMEONE PLEASE STOP MEL GIBSON!

Gibson Plans Another Historical Epic - Yahoo! News

Vendetta synopsis:

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked vigilante known only as “V.” Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he detonates two London landmarks and takes over the government-controlled airwaves, urging his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V’s mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself – and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plot to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption.

Its based on a set of 10 comic books from DC in the early 80's, written by Alan Moore (who also wrote the comic books for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

You can check out the blog following the film, trailer, or the official site for more information.

For those who are interested in this English Fascism theme, the obvious work to read is Orwell's 1984. There is an excellent movie remake of Shakespeare's Richard III staring Ian McKellen set in a Nazi-like Britian in the 1940s.

Remember Remember the 5th of November...

This page lists films that use the word fuck more than 100 times. The first lists films ordered by total number of uses of the term (or its variants). The second list is a chronological ordering of the "record holding" film.

Wikipedia: List of films ordered by uses of the word

The as-yet untitled film, which will be made for Paramount Pictures, will tell the true stories of the last two men to be rescued alive from the ruins of the collapsed World Trade Center in New York.

"It's a work of collective passion, a serious meditation on what happened, and carries within a compassion that heals," Stone said in a statement issued by producers.

Oscar-winning star Cage will take the lead role of New York Port Authority policeman Sergeant John McLoughlin, who was trapped along with one of his fellow officers in the mangled wreckage of one of the twin towers that crumbled after being hit by hijacked passenger jets.

Oliver Stone to make first major US film about September 11 - Yahoo! News

The living dead have taken over the world, and the last humans live in a walled city to protect themselves as they come to grips with the situation.

I finally saw this last night. In every way, this is made for fans of zombie movies. To add to the experience, there was a guy in the movie theater purposely being creepy and making zombie noises throughout the film.

Afterward, I thought of one thing I would love to see in a future zombie movie. Nanochick, our resident bio-science superstar might have to bump up my understanding of the way this could work, but it might be possible to spin a pretty reasonable bullshit on zombies being the product of a prion based protein infection. We need good psudo-science in movies. Its important. It inspires the mad scientists and hackers of tomorrow.

"Its those government prions man. One of those things bite you, you get them bad prions. All your proteins folded. Takes an hour."

If I happen to be on to something here, and this falls into the hands of someone who becomes inspired to create a zombification prion and set it loose... I've always felt that the zombification of the world should start in Texas. I'm not sure why, it just feels right.

Land of the Dead (2005)

In an alternate universe, with better cinema, Todd Solondz gets all the credit and attention given here to Kevin Smith. Solondz continues to reign as New Jersey's best indie director.

This movie taps the same vein as Happiness and Storytelling. Not quite the sadistic beat-down of Happiness, and the sex scenes are not as "good" as Storytelling, but it will still have you feeling horrible laughing at it. Every character is unlikable in some way, and every one of them will drop at least one line that will make you groan. In the end, the messages are all positive, but you must survive through the presentation to see it.

A followup to Welcome to the Dollhouse, the movie begins with Dawn Wiener's funeral. And, you guessed it, she killed herself. This one follows Aviva (played by several different actresses) through her adventures with low self-esteme, abortion gone wrong, hardcore Kansas Christians, abortion doctor killing re-born ex-cons, and a Solondz size dose of characters that reek of New Jersey in all the wrongest of ways.

imdb: Palindromes (2004)

Do you see any parallels here?

Were these works of art, or were they commodities? The distinction had become blurry.

The industry does care; the people who make movies need to be able to take themselves more seriously than the people who make popcorn do.

Some of the explanation for what happened to the movies has to do with the movies and the people who make them, but some of it has to do with the audience. "It’s not so much that movies are dead, as that history has already passed them by."

In 1946, weekly movie attendance was a hundred million. That was out of a population of a hundred and forty-one million, who had nineteen thousand movie screens available to them. Today, there are thirty-six thousand screens in the United States and two hundred and ninety-five million people, and weekly attendance is twenty-five million.

In 1975, the average cost of marketing for a movie distributed by a major studio was two million dollars. In 2003, it was thirty-nine million dollars.

The primary target for the blockbuster is people with an underdeveloped capacity for deferred gratification; that is, kids.

Is the blockbuster the end of cinema?

] Eleven people were charged after they tried to recreate
] the film's climactic battle sequence, in which a band of
] violent outlaws chases down a tanker truck.
]
] The re-enactors were on their way to a weekend movie
] marathon featuring the Mad Max trilogy, which takes place
] in a post-apocalyptic future in which Australia's
] remaining survivors fight for the last drops of fuel.
]
] The arrests came after worried motorists called police to
] report what appeared to be a "militia" laying siege to
] the tanker.

... outside of San Antonio. The idea of a militia that resembles the Mad Max cast tweaks my funny-bone. Texas seems like a great place for it as well.

CBC Arts: Police arrest 'Mad Max' re-enactors