Doppleganger alert

Linguo has tried to implicate me in his own conspiracy. Although I still write from time-to-time, I haven't gotten around to finishing my first book. As such, I have NOT been published under the alias "Max Barry" for the book Jennifer Government, no matter how much the author's picture has been doctored.On a cheerier side note, I will be appearing at the Georgetown Barnes and Noble next Saturday from 1 to 1:15 for an 'impromptu' signing of Max's books. Reserve your place now.

Captain... Kirk...

Via Cinescape, it's being reported that Matt Damon is very interested in playing Captain Kirk:

Yahoo!'s The Insider reports that J.J. Abrams is very interested in casting Matt Damon as Captain Kirk in his upcoming STAR TREK Movie.

Marc S. Malkin of The Insider writes, "Will MATT DAMON get beamed up? Could happen. I'm told J.J. ABRAMS is very interested in casting the Oscar-winning Damon as a young Captain Kirk in the upcoming 'Star Trek' movie that he's directing and producing. He's so interested that he's apparently already sought support from the original Kirk, WILLIAM SHATNER. "Shatner gave his blessing," my source says. "J.J. got his approval." Damon first popped up in Trekkie circles as soon as the Abrams-'Star Trek' deal was announced. Rumor had it that the new movie would center on Kirk and Spock's early days at a space academy. "J.J. wants Damon as Capt. Kirk," my source reports. "He really loves the idea."

My first reaction was along the lines of "KHANNNNN!", but I instead went for the more ubiquitous and always reliable, "NOOOOOO!". I loved Damon in The Bourne Identity, but I think that they should probably go along the lines of Superman Returns and try and cast unknowns in the lead roles. There will be too many comparisons and it'll be distracting otherwise.

My second reaction was to recall the infamous Team America bit where Matt Damon appears, but can only dumbly say his own name. To... boldly... go... where...

Incidentally, while looking for a pic of Kirk, I stumbled upon The Captain Kirk page, where you can see a 5 minute video cataloguing the 'Last Battle' between the Enterprise of Kirk and the one of Picard. It's assembled from clips from the shows, and is hilariously on the side of Kirk. My favorite part is when Riker and Data are in the middle of spouting suggestions of a shuttle or a tractor beam to Picard, we cut to Kirk who basically says "Fire!"

The Movie I Love to Hate

Cinescape made an announcement today that I've been dreading:

The sequel to the cult hit, THE BOONDOCK SAINTS, is set to begin production. The cast is all set to return, excluding Willem Dafoe.

A box office flop and critical bomb, THE BOONDOCK SAINTS was written and directed by Troy Duffy. The film found a cult following once it hit DVD, making millions for Fox.

This forced me to become of registered user on Cinescape so I could make the following observation as 'cthomasflood':

I have a few friends who swore by this movie, so I rented it. It lives up to the hype of being a pastiche of every single indie action film that came before it. It has a couple of entertaining scenes, all involving Willem Dafoe (who won't be involved in the sequel). The symbolism is heavy-handed, the plot is idiotic, and the 'message' of the film is ridiculous. It is a film written by a fool for an audience of simpletons. Enjoy.

On the other hand, I loved 'Attack of the Clones', so what do I know?

I really relate to a comment by 'marshalwdr':

That movie was so bad, it didn't make me laugh, it made me angry. They way he ripped off everything from Tarantino to Silence of the Lambs and then claimed he was such a revolutionary film maker...it was just ridiculous. Not to mention the over all sillyness of the plot and over the top acting and directing. This is one of my top 5 worst films of all time. I can't wait for the sequel.

That pretty much nails how I feel about it. Not so much disappointed as filled with rage. How people love this tripe kills me.

Your musical God is dead. Long live... Oasis?

In what is undoubtedly a shock to most music-going folks, Oasis' debut album came out on top of "Sgt. Pepper's" in a list of Greatest Albums of All-Time from the UK

:LONDON - "Definitely Maybe," the debut album by Oasis, has beaten the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in a British vote for the greatest album of all time, organizers said Thursday.

The Beatles also took third place with "Revolver" and had three other albums in the Top 100 in the vote staged by British Hit Singles & Albums, an annual publication, and NME.com.

The vote was announced in last year's edition of British Hit Singles & Albums, said editor David Roberts. Anyone could vote for as many as 10 albums, in rank order, and probably 95 percent of the 40,000 votes came from Britain, he said.

Here are the top ten from the list:

1. "Definitely Maybe," Oasis.
2. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Beatles.
3. "Revolver," The Beatles.
4. "OK Computer," Radiohead.
5. "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" Oasis.
6. "Nevermind," Nirvana.
7. "The Stone Roses," The Stone Roses.
8. "Dark Side of the Moon," Pink Floyd.
9. "The Queen Is Dead," The Smiths.
10. "The Bends," Radiohead.

What is most shocking to me is that I own every single album on this list and love every one. "Definitely Maybe" deserves a rank above the much-ballyhooed "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", but not sure that it's anything other than blasphemous to put something ahead of "Sgt. Pepper's". Of course, as I am one to blasphemise with regularity, I salute the voters. Anyway, it's likely that a large portion of them weren't even born when "Sgt. Pepper's" came out (like myself).

I might have shuffled a few of the albums on the list, but otherwise I'm fairly content with their representation of my New Order. Don't know how my influence has reached across the Atlantic, but to my new underlings, I say, "I will be your benevolent overlord."

Gambit Sawyer

One of my avid readers (avid, heh), upon reading my X3 rant from Tuesday, sent me an email asking if I'd seen the following trivia factoid from IMDB about the rumored casting of Gambit:

Josh Holloway was offered the role of Gambit, but turned it down because the character was too similar to his character on "Lost" (2004). As a result, the character was never added to the film since this would have been a special cameo put in later had Josh decided to sign on.

Interesting. At face value, I'm glad Josh didn't agree. I actually think it would be pretty good casting, but the last thing that movie needed was another cameo, and not from a character that deserves a lot more.

However, I find it a little suspicious, because the rumor has been reported in many places with almost the exact same verbiage. If you were to Google it, you can get quite a few instances of the same story using almost the exact same words (for instance, here).In 7th grade, this would be known as plagiarism, but I'm not familiar with internet gossip columns. Of course, this also could mean that it was just copied and pasted from one single source, which makes the likelihood of this being just a rumor all the more likely. On the other hand, it could be standard operation procedure for reporting gossip to use the same words. Either way, I'm glad it never came to fruition.