As expected (SHOOT, 10/13, p. 1), President Clinton has signed a bill into law which raises the annual allotment of H-1B visas to 195,000 for each of the next three years. The measure was supported by U.S. high-tech firms—including many visual effects and computer animation studios—that are dependent on recruiting foreign talent to help offset what they contend is a shortage of qualified American workers….Now formally on the legislative docket is HR 5497, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.). The bill calls for providing postproduction facilities with an investment tax credit. The credit would help make the FCC-mandated transition to DTV, including HDTV, more economically feasible for the post community (SHOOT, 10/13, p. 1). Due largely to the lobbying efforts of the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound (ITS), the bill currently has 16 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, the latest being Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)….Word is that a Los Angeles appellate court has denied an appeal requested by Santa Monica-based F.M. Rocks in its case against bicoastal HSI Productions. The denial thus upholds last year’s Los Angeles Superior Court jury verdict which found that HSI did not intentionally interfere with an alleged contract between F.M. Rocks and director Paul Hunter (SHOOT, 5/21/99, p. 1). Hunter continues to direct via HSI…. Director Derek Wolski is coming aboard Ritts/Hayden, Los Angeles….Bicoastal/international The Artists Company has signed tabletop director/cameraman Robert Bryant….Bicoastal/ international Chelsea Pictures has entered into an agreement with Web-based animators JibJab Media, New York. JibJab’s Gregg Spiridellis and Evan Spiridellis will work with Chelsea on a new Internet marketing venture…. Director Todd Korgan, formerly of Portland, Ore.-based Generator Industries, has joined Limbo Films, Portland….
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More