Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, and other highlights from our colleagues across the Internet — and, occasionally, our own writers. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
At Rolling Stone, James Gray discusses Apocalypse Now:
August is upon us, which invariably means withering heat and a hell of a lot of bad cinema. Worn out by the time the dog days hit, the studios enter hibernation mode, concerned mostly with counting their early summer blockbuster returns (or licking their wounds). There’s hope around the corner — the Fall festivals loom — but that moment isn’t here yet. The last month of summer is usually barren.
Except when it isn’t.
The Deer Hunter producer Michael Deeley recounts what Robert De Niro did for The Deer Hunter:
At Taste of Cinema, Jack Forey highlights the 25 greatest movies we may never get to see:
For every motion picture that graces our screens, there are untold numbers of projects that have never seen the light of day. Some scripts and concepts die quietly, unable to arouse the interest enough investors to become reality. Others sound like a dream on paper, but for one reason or several, never come to fruition. Others still get midway through production, then evaporate.
These are 25 movies that never got made. Although their concepts may be passed on to other artists, it is unlikely we will ever see these films as they were meant to be seen, and impossible for some. We are left to wonder how these works may have influenced film history; some of them (“What Makes Pistachio Nuts?” “Northwestern”), although interesting, may have only been a drop in the bucket. Others (“Dune,” “The Tourist,” “Napoleon”) may have changed the face of cinema as we know it. We may never know, because the images and sounds of these filmmakers’ dreams can exist only in our minds.
Zhang Yimou will film a promo for 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics bid, THR reports.
Ben Wheatley has begun production on High-Rise with Tom Hiddleston and Luke Evans:
The usual suspects. #HighRise @mr_wheatley @Laurie_Rose @TheRealLukevans pic.twitter.com/rNnVduxJOW
— Tom Hiddleston (@twhiddleston) August 6, 2014
At The Talk House, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery on why it’s not bad when kids love crappy movies:
I have espoused again and again my belief that children not only deserve smart, literate entertainment, but that they want it; that kids are smarter than adults give them credit for being, and that the movies made for them should reflect this; that the best kids’ films are the ones that grow with us as we get older. I still hold this all to be true. However, after seeing the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, I’ll add to it this sad-but-truism: kids have shitty taste.
Watch an unboxing of Taschen’s Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: