darjeeling limited
i am very excited about wes anderson’s new film. thus far there’s been very little information about it, just the basic cast, a few photos and small snippets of information. the following article is the longest piece of information that has been released thus far:
Lights, Camera, India
A-list actors shoot a quirky Hollywood film in Rajasthan, part of a new wave of several big ticket movies that are winding their way here
By Kaveree Bamzai
Owen Wilson makes $10 million a movie and his last three pictures (You, Me and Dupree, Cars, and Wedding Crashers) have made over $870 million at the box office. But as he stands with his photographer mother Laura, his distinctive straw-blonde hair tucked under a cap, he wears his leading man status lightly. As does Adrien Brody. The Oscar winner, in a cap, a fashionably dishevelled linen suit and photographer mother Sylvia Plachy in tow (what is it about Hollywood’s leading men and their photographer mothers?), is lurking in a quiet corner at the palace of Arvind Singh, former Maharana of Mewar.
It’s party time after a gruelling two-month shoot of The Darjeeling Limited, which began in Jodhpur and has now ended in Udaipur, tracing the journey to India of three brothers in search of their mother. All the three boys are here-the third, Jason Schwartzman, the wonderfully loopy actor who inhabits movies such as Shopgirl and I Heart Huckabees, is looking much lighter than his most recent character, Louis Augustus, of cousin Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. He’s all set to start shooting for a new movie, this time with Ben Stiller.
For those who thought friends and relatives stick to each other only in Bollywood, the unit of The Darjeeling Limited (the movie also stars Natalie Portman) is a living proof that six degrees of separation works in la-la land as well. Wilson and director Wes Anderson were roommates at the University of Austin, Texas, and this is their fourth film together. The movie has been written by Anderson, Schwartzman and Sofia’s brother Roman Coppola. Stiller is part of what is fondly known in Hollywood as the frat pack, a bunch of comedians-which includes Wilson and his younger brother Luke-who make broad blockbusters, usually with one another.
(Parts of the Darjeeling limited were shot in Nahar Magra, in a hunting lodge on the property of the former Maharana of Mewar)
But there are not that many laughs in The Darjeeling Limited, which in Anderson’s usual quirky style, features talking animals, lost parents and slightly deranged siblings. The brothers believe their father, played by Bill Murray-who went remarkably undiscovered in the two weeks he was shooting in Jodhpur-has been reborn as an albino leopard, and trace their mother to a convent where she teaches poor children. Recreated in Nahar Magra, in a hunting lodge on the property of the former Maharana of Mewar-which was closed for 40 years and cleaned up in eight days for the crew to use-the convent’s chapel was painstakingly put together in an open courtyard, using tangail saris, wooden benches from an antique warehouse in Jodhpur, and parakeets and pigeons brought all the way from the US. The level of detailing, says Aradhana Seth, who is working with Mark Friedberg on production design, is extraordinary. Anderson wanted to paint the train bogeys (The Darjeeling Limited is the name of the train the boys take to travel through India) in the style of trucks he had seen on Indian highways. Seth auditioned several painters before selecting one-who ended up painting portraits of the stars as well.
(India’s lenient union laws, exotic locales and talented technicians are a big draw for Hollywood producers)
Anderson has an old connection with India. When he and Wilson were in college, they spent hours listening to the stories of the local Cosmic Cup Café owner, 89-year-old Kumar Pallana. Pallana found his way into the duo’s first film, Bottle Rocket, and has made a fairly lucrative career for himself as an eternal oddball. India was always high on their agenda of places to shoot in-and though Pallana is not in the movie, Anderson’s other favourite, jewellery-designer-cum-actor Waris Ahluwahlia (from Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), is.
In Lydia Dean Pilcher, who is in the midst of an animated conversation with Mira Nair’s mother, Praveen, also a guest at the after party, he couldn’t have found a better producer. Pilcher clearly has a karmic connection with India (having produced three movies for Nair), a country Anjelica Huston-who was in Nair’s The Perez Family-is getting used to. At the party, Huston stands statuesque, her hair as straight and dark as it was in Prizzi’s Honour, for which she won an Academy Award for best supporting actress, the third generation in her family to be so honoured. Shimmering in a turquoise brocade tunic, she shows no impact of the bouts of crying she has been through. Jane Buffett, wife of musician Jimmy, who has travelled with her to India, says there are days when she is inconsolable, unable to distance herself from her role in the movie.
Anderson has had an interesting career that mixes an arthouse sensibility with blockbuster stars. His first film Bottle Rocket, written with Wilson and starring him, was followed by Rushmore. After that, The Royal Tenenbaums, with its ensemble of fine actors, was well-received, while Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was less enthusiastically reviewed. Anderson, who has kept his other film, The Fantastic Mr Fox (based on Roald Dahl’s book) in limbo, has a lot riding on this film. For Wilson, now a big mainstream star, it’s an opportunity to show his artistic side-not that he minds being reminded of his more outré performances in movies like You, Me and Dupree, which made him a tabloid fixture with rumours of an affair with the then married Kate Hudson. He is in the midst of offering a role to Arvind Singh-he could be the Indian Jackie Chan, he insists.
India, which became known as a tough place to shoot in after the trouble that surrounded Deepa Mehta’s Varanasi shoot of Water, may finally be on the map of Hollywood as a film destination. For one thing, there are no union laws that prevent crews from shooting for well over 10 hours a day, as was clear from the shoot of A Mighty Heart last year. Then there are talented technicians who can reproduce the best standards in the world at much less the price. And hey, Johnny Depp, currently the biggest star in the world, wants to make Shantaram with Nair here. What could be better?
(source: oh no they didnt)
My idol
An ode to my sweet lady of all ladies - Nicole. So her secret is out, she does drugs! But not heroin anymore - phew! Adderall, Vicodin, Blow, THC, etc, ??? I mean who wouldn’t? I would want to be in a haze too if my ‘bff’ was Paris because of some contract I sign when i was still a heroin junkie. Geez, give the girl a break! I have pulled together these images that i carry around with me everywhere I go in my iPod to celebrate the joy and awesomness that is Nicole:
Gas is for sissies
I’m thinking biodiesel is where it’s at and it is time to make a change. My next car will run on diesel. Buy a diesel vehicle and you can run biodiesel. Biodiesel is pretty damn easy to make. I know someone that tried it using used vegetable oil from a chocolate factory and he said if he ran his car down the road people would want to follow it just for the scent. Hot damn! Scent can be the new trend in homemade fuel. I think I would just get the waste oil from a restaurant since that is easiest. Mmmm french fry exhaust. Nummy. I know people are always saying “Biodiesel or ethanol?” I think biodiesel. Ethanol is not something you can make at home. That is probably why many companies would push for that so they can be the only ones involved in fuel production. The only issue with biodiesel is that you are not totally making it from materials you can get just anywhere. Lye is all over the place and hardware stores and the like would have that no problem. Waste veggie oil is pretty easy too, but it also requires Methanol, or racing fuel. That is the poopy part. Another option is to install a heater and then you can pour just straight veggie oil into your tank and off you go! I have seen it, it really works. I think you need a bit of diesel to start the engine and then once it is going you flick a switch to turn over to the veggie oil tank and you are ready to take that greaser down the road. Pretty damn sweet. I will stick to biodiesel since it is just less complicated. If you don’t make it yourself it will still be cheaper than regular fuel and has low emissions, better efficiency and is even better for your engine. Go green and get the grease. Read about this fun stuff here and here and the idea of SVO (veggie oil as straight fuel) here.
This one runs on plankton (not really)
is this britneys new boyfriend?
eww, he looks dirty. i hate to say this but he’s a downgrade from kfed. actually, kfed is a supermodel in comparison. is his fly open in the first pic?
weirdness
as a vegan i like to frequent the vegan websites (okay, only two really: one is the ppk the other is veganyumyum). my frequenting led me to this site: i can has cheezburger? it’s really weird, kinda scary and i don’t really know what to think of it. you should definitely scroll down and find the emo one, it’s way funny (at least i thought so).
pete wentz and ashleeeee simpson
geez, he looks really embarrassed to be seen with here. i’d be embarrassed too.
(sorce: oh no they didn’t)
nice skivvies
lily allen flashes her panties at photographers. that’s hot. she’s got nice, bright white trainers too. yes, that guy beside her is her boyfriend. his last name is funny.
The paparazzi should know by now not to mess with feisty pop minstrel Lily Allen. The singer was at her mischievous best when she scrapped with photographers on a boozy night out in Soho.
She performed at the Hammersmith Apollo before heading to The Wardour in Wardour Street for her aftershow party. But she was determined to keep the night going, so headed for some late-night refreshments at The Groucho Club in Dean Street. It was on her way there just before 2am that she decided to lunge for a female photographer and try to wrestle her camera from her.
Kicks and punches were thrown, but luckily her boyfriend Seb Chew stepped in to calm things down. But Lily was far from finished. When she left the club after 3am, she went for another snapper.
There were a few more high kicks, but the singer was again dragged away.
(source: oh no they didn’t)
while checking for the proper spelling of “skivvies” i came across this interesting site: hippie skivvies . . . for when ya gotta hide the hippie inside - we should all buy some right now!
V for Vhat the Fuck was that?
Okay peoples, did you see V for Vendetta? The movie to me was just meh. I love Natalie Portman. It had that going for it. Other than that, just meh. It also had disgustingly obvious political commentary that I didn’t expect. How did I never hear of this? Have I been living under a rock? Or locked in a basement somewhere? Oh, hold on, I DO live in a basement. This explains everthing. Anyway, I am a little late seeing this movie and a little late hearing of this movie and its blatant criticism of the Bush administration, but do any of you know what I am talking about? Did you see the movie? What the hell is it suggesting? It is set in Britain for one thing and the storyline and the whole bit is supposed to be from the original comic book or some shit, but they twisted certain things to make it a satire of modern times. Like, BTN their television network that broadcasts government propaganda and lies to ensure the public does not learn the truth about certain things. Did the creators of the movie think that the audience is so stupid that they had to make it so alarmingly obvious that they were referring to CNN? Like oh um gee maybe we should make the name of the station sound like CNN otherwise the audience may not get that we are saying. Duh. Yeah, I got it. What I didn’t get was what was the message of the movie? Are you trying to entertain me by making a movie version of some comic book story or are you trying to be Michael Moore? Are you trying to enlighten me as to how corrupt government is cause I already fucking know that and if your audience doesn’t then why are you trying to draw them in with some comic book nonsense to teach them some higher lesson when they have clearly been living with heads firmly planted in their anus? And what the eff are you trying to tell us to do about all this? What is your suggestion? Should the American people rise up and start strapping bombs to themselves a la Al Qada or are you saying that Al Qada is justified in what they are doing to America? If you are going to get into this then wrap it up in a nice little package, don’t just make a statement that has already been made a million times and then tie it in with this story and not make it clear how it relates to how the story ends. That just makes it seem like they thought it was cool to add some political commentary and that’s it. Let’s take a few jabs and create some controversy even though we won’t actually do anything good with it in the end. By the way, there was some horrible acting in this movie too. Not by Natalie Portman though, oh hellllllll no. She put Britney to shame with the Sinead look. Pretty hot, Britney not. Sorry, sidetracked there. Anyway, what I took away from the movie is that Al Qada is justified in doing what they do since sometimes for your cause innocent people have to die for the greater good. Somehow I don’t think this is what the people involved intended, but that’s what they were saying to me. They were pointing out that the US government is way corrupt and someone needs to do something to stop it and guess who is trying right now using the terrorism that the movie recommends? V launched a Jihad on their ass and even died for the cause. So someone please tell me what else I was supposed to take away from this bundle of crap, cause that’s all I got. Oh yeah, and the creator of the original comic wasn’t even happy that they turned his plot into some political commentary. The comic was anarchy vs. fascism but bringing the modern elements into it screws that all up and makes it look like terrorism is what we need right now. Whaaaa? In other words it has no message cause it is just a jumble of commentary that doesn’t actually end up saying much. Time well wasted by shite movies once again.
Okay, so next she gets a tattoo and then it’s off to rehab… Ooops, wrong storyline.
King of all Queens
Time for a Freddie Mercury post! I don’t know why he’s been on my mind a lot lately. If you haven’t already fallen in love with him it is time damn it! Read about him here and love him here:
I want the yellow jacket soooo bad.
Love the ’stash.
This picture is the best one ever. I heart it.
Freddie loved pussy too. Sorry I had to go there. This is him with his beloved Delilah.
Haha Riding Darth Vader.
Dapper Freddie. Gotta love the bowtie.
Freddie still has the best voice ever. Sigh.
Had to add this later. How dare I post without including the best music video ever:
He makes a fantastic housebitch.