Today's Reading - 10/25/07

● Bruckheimer and 'Pirates' Writers Eye 'The Lone Ranger'

To quote Mars Blackmon, "Please, baby, baby, baby.  Please."  A Lone Ranger movie is so damn overdue.  My friends are tired of hearing me say it (along with saying "I should write a Lone Ranger screenplay").  Westerns are trendy again.  Superheroes are hot.  Bring on the Western superhero, Kemo Sabe!  

(via The Movie Blog)

● Indie films could use a little 'Sunshine'

Are independent films suffering because too many of them are being released in theaters?  Even movies with big names like George Clooney (Michael Clayton) and Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James) are drawing squadoosh (totally an industry term) at the box office.  In Ian's world, no one's going to see independent films because far fewer of them make it out this way these days.  But maybe that's because the market is over-saturated.

● Mario Unclogged: How to Sauce Pasta

According to Mario Batali, we put too much sauce on our pasta.  "It should be noodles, with a little stuff."  Guilty as charged.  (That is, if I were eating pasta nowadays, which I'm not.  I am currently hating life.)

● Farewell to Arms

This article is more than a week old now, and probably has the faint whiff of "Pervy Old Man" to it, but Stephen Hunter's lament for all the (female) flesh that will now be covered due to the chillier fall weather is a beautifully written ode to... flesh.

● Scranton Embraces the ‘Office’ Infamy

Next week is the first annual The Office Convention in Scranton, PA.  And my former podcast partner, Matt Sommer, will be in attendance with press pass in hand (as he should be).  The whole thing seemed to come together pretty late, but sounds like it'll be fun for all involved.