Screening Gotham: No New Ideas Edition

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

--Not only has Sex and the City been recycled and rehashed to death in syndication, on DVD and in any number of derivative knock-offs, but the story of the show's big-screen revival has now reached such critical mass that the producers have decided to do it, like, for real. Six months after the last hint that Sarah Jessica Parker and co. were en route to theaters, Variety reports today that yes, a deal is done, and it's just as cynical as you think. Hint: Kim Cattrall has wrangled a share of creative control and a new show from HBO. I can't even believe I'm leading with this story, but happy Fifth of July.

--Writing about another franchise, Lawrence Levi suggests that the Die Hard series symbolizes Hollywood's responses to each of the last four US presidencies. And as Live Free or Die Hard emerges from the Bush 43 era, "we get a brief, slo-mo sense of what true chaos feels like -- it's post-Katrina New Orleans on a national scale." An absorbing hypothesis in an all-too-brief read. I may see this film yet.

--Visiting New York, David Poland writes that The Simpsons/7-11 cross-promotion is a hit. At least with the tourists near Times Square, anyway.

--Botswana's film-industry Jesus Anthony Minghella will follow his current African chick-lit safari with a libretto-writing gig at the Metropolitan Opera. The filmmaker last directed at the Met in 2006; his next job will entail collaborating with the Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. (Via Vulture)

Posted at July 5, 2007 12:53 PM