Screening Gotham: Friedman Sneaks Hairspray, Unearths Lost Woody Film

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Fox gossip-tard Roger Friedman has had a look at an "unfinished" version of the film adaptation of the stage adaptation of John Waters' Hairspray, and -- surprise! -- he loved it. The cast, including John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer and James Marsden, is great, particularly newcomer Nikki Blonsky, who plays Tracy Turnblad "with such infectious ebullience, a whole new cult may quickly grow up around her." Yes, Roger, we call them "drag queens." Buried deep near the end of the column is the revelation that the Weinsteins, who just picked up Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream for distribution this fall, previously released a Woodman film called Broadway Bound. What film is this? Can I see it? Is it anything like Miramax's Bullets Over Broadway? (Via Hollywood Elsewhere)

--NY Mag's Logan Hill has the scoop on how Lionsgate and Eli Roth went about marketing their latest torture-porn foray Hostel Part 2 in the age of Virginia Tech and Captivity. Among the secrets unveiled: Wild boar meat and Bijou Phillips are essentially interchangeable, at least where the MPAA has no jurisdiction.

--Over at Pullquote, the Cinetrix reminds us why we love Manohla Dargis.

--Sydney Pollack, whose Sketches of Frank Gehry opens in the UK later this month, checks in with a kind of frank, eloquent post on the Guardian's blog about risk-taking: "(Gehry's) degree of anxiety and terror is the same as my anxiety and terror, so I feel a sense of rapport. I wouldn't have the courage to try what he's trying with film-making, though." I don't know, Syd; not just anybody would have put his name on Random Hearts.

Posted at June 4, 2007 7:39 AM