Moriarty's RUMBLINGS: Right And Wrong; BATMAN BEYOND; SIMONE!!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some rumblings from the Lab.

You know what really disappoints me? Putting up a review that no one reads.

In all seriousness, I have gotten more mail about my review of THE CELL (which you can read here) than about any other review I think I've written. I'm talking about the same volume as when I wrote my LORD OF THE RINGS or EPISODE I script reviews. My poor Yahoo! mailbox actually started crying by Monday morning. Thankfully, it's finally relaxed to a sort of dull whimper now as the letters peter off, and now I'm left with the daunting task of sorting through them all.

Overall, I'd say the responses were split down the middle, just like the Talk Backs. That's fine. I didn't expect I'd please everyone with it. But there were many valid points made that I think merit response. First, some people seem to think that I repeatedly called Indian filmmaker Tarsem Singh Dhandwar by the name "Tarzan" as some sort of racist slur. Sorry if that's how you read it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I frequently resort to hyperbole and just plain absurdity when I'm bored and irritated by something I'm describing. I did it last year in my WILD WILD WEST review, and that was the case again here. I find it ironic that most of the people who attacked me are the same people who have been ridiculing my last name "McWeeny" here on the site, but I guess it's a case of do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do.

Which brings us to the second point. I wrote the following sentence in my review: "I think he works under the one name because he's afraid if he gives his last name out, someone who sat through this abortion might look him up in the phone book, drive to his house, and stomp him like a narc at a biker rally." Many of you took great offense at this. You seem to have read it as an actual call to violence. And you know what? I was wrong. Even as a joke, in that context, I was wrong. Especially when I was trying to make an overall point in my piece about self-regulation and responsibility for what we say and do. Recently, THE LATE, LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG KILBORN made a very public blunder when they showed a picture of George W. Bush Jr. featuring the caption "Sniper Wanted" underneath. The FCC is still pursuing penalties against them, despite an on-air apology from the show's host. Yes, it was a joke, and I'm sure they thought it was funny, but the heat it's brought down on them isn't worth it. The idea of self-regulation is not the same as censorship. It precludes the need for censorship. I do not believe that just because you can say something, you should. I believe that the images and the words you put out into the world come back to you. Despite what many of you think about me "hiding" behind the name Moriarty here on the site, I have always made my e-mail address available, and I have had many filmmakers come to me, furious, demanding an apology. I can think of at least one case where I was a total bastard to someone's film here on the site, and I've since been fortunate enough to meet the filmmaker in question and become friends with him, something I'm grateful for. It's possible to dislike someone's work in one case without it becoming a personal war. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a hothead, and that I write from an emotional place when I'm talking about film. I love this art form with every fiber of my being, and I take movies personally. I wouldn't have it any other way. As a result, I may well continue to put my foot in my mouth in the future from time to time. But that's the only way I am capable of writing, and since Harry trusts me enough to give me this forum as my own editor, there is only one person who can be responsible for the content of my reviews and stories... me. If I screw up, then I need to say I went too far, or that I got something wrong. More importantly, I need to be man enough to actually read your responses and learn from them. The idea that you would think I actually sanction the beating of a filmmaker just because I disagree with his work -- even if I think he's absolutely talentless as a narrative storyteller, as I do in the case of Tarsem -- makes me sad. I sanction no such thing. And that internal regulation I was talking about has to start with myself.

The last point I want to make about the review before moving on is just how many of you were shocked and horrified that I would mention Roger Ebert or have the gall to take him to task for something he wrote. As I said before, I grew up watching Roger. He's been kind enough to mention me in his 1999 Film Yearbook as a "spirited" critic and in numerous articles he's written about the Internet and this site. I like Roger. I think he's a hell of a writer. There's a reason he has a Pulitzer. But when I see a wild inconsistency in his work in terms of what he will support as art and what he attacks as fascist, I have every right to comment on that, just as you all have the right to disagree with me. He is a public figure, writing a column and hosting a show, his opinion heard by millions. I still believe that his endorsement of THE CELL created a level of dialogue on this film that was unneeded. For him to call FIGHT CLUB and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE fascist and to link the structure of slasher films to the rhythms of porn while encouraging viewers to see THE CELL based on the way it looked strikes me as spectacularly wrongheaded. But that's just my opinion. I may well have ruined my dialogue with Roger, and if that's the case, then I have to accept that as the consequence of what I wrote here. But I will never understand how a man who once wrote an outraged article for READER'S DIGEST in which he essentially called for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to be pulled from theaters could turn around and embrace something as loathsome as this.

BEYOND MY GREATEST EXPECTATIONS

VARIETY basically spent their morning confirming rumors you read here first last week. First up, there's this story that confirms Boaz Yakin, Alan Burnett, and Paul Dini will all be writing a live-action BATMAN BEYOND feature film. I'd point out to the VARIETY guys that Dini and Burnett weren't just writers for BATMAN, but actually created the animated show and produced it through its full run, just as they have with BATMAN BEYOND. As much as that news was already making me dance around the Labs in anticipation, VARIETY added one little tidbit that made me literally shake in geek frenzy. Neal Stephenson will be joining the team as a creative consultant. Yes, Virginia, there is a God, and he seems to be whispering in Lorenzo DiBonaventura's ear for once.

For those of you who don't already know Stephenson, let me just say that this seems to indicate that we are in for one amazing world against which to set this film. Stephenson is, in my opinion, a genius, a remarkable fantasist on par with Philip K. Dick. His SNOW CRASH is one of the seminal works of cyberfiction, and THE DIAMOND AGE is a thing of great beauty and haunting intelligence. Last year's CRYPTONOMICON was unlike anything I've ever read, a story that mixed fact and fiction into some strange new concoction that I am still digesting at this late date.

Now all Warner Bros. has to do is get Clint Eastwood to play the aging Bruce Wayne in the film, and I will simply burst from spontaneous geek joy.

I DON'T WANT TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO...

But you should definitely take a look at this story. Charles Lyons and his co-reporters did an awesome job of answering many of the questions I posed in my original article about the upcoming Andrew Niccol film SIMONE in their piece today. As I strongly, strongly hinted (since I couldn't quite quote my sources), Niccol will be using a live flesh-and-blood actress to play his CGI central character in this story of a director who creates the "perfect" woman when he can't find her in a casting call. I'm glad New Line is being open about the process, since it seemed ridiculous to throw even more fuel on the fire of discontent as the Screen Actor's Guild counts down to next year's strike. I still think there's a number of other projects around town that are similar to this one that actually sound better (and I hope to bring you the scoop on one of them soon), but I applaud Niccol for playing fair. That's all I ever asked.

"Moriarty"out.