'Shutter Island' shuttered until next year

Paramount Pictures is pushing the release of director Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated "Shutter Island," starring Leonardo DiCaprio, from Oct. 3 to Feb. 19 of next year.

The move means that the gothic thriller won't be in Oscar contention for this year. Paramount has spent heavily already marketing its summer movie hits "Star Trek," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and didn't want to shell out another $100 million on advertising and prints this year, especially when it has two other releases -- "The Lovely Bones" and "Up in the Air" -- that it will also be pushing for Oscar consideration. The best picture category for the Oscars has been expanded to 10 starting next year, but apparently Paramount needs one that goes to 11.

Still, the decision didn't sit well with Scorsese. He was told earlier this week that this was being considered but was caught off guard by a final decision being reached so quickly. The move was first reported by Deadline Hollywood Daily. If this decision ends up backfiring on the studio, it could strain the director's relationship and deal with Paramount Pictures and its chairman, Brad Grey.

"Shutter Island" is an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel about two investigators who probe the escape of a female mental patient and get trapped on the island that houses the institution.

-- Joe Flint

The first 'Project Runway' challenge: What Tim Gunn thought, and what did you think?

Below is a short assessment of the first episode of "Project Runway's" first season, as well as a couple of comments from Tim Gunn regarding the first challenge of Season 6. The full transcript of my recent interview with Gunn is here.

When I spoke to Tim Gunn the other day, we got on to the topic of the first challenge of the season. I opined that it wasn't really as creative as other challenges we'd seen at the start of previous seasons. His response (some of the sentences in the next two paragraphs were taken out of the transcript posted here):

TG: "To be honest, we wouldn't have done that challenge had it not been for the timing of the Emmys.  We were purely taking advantage of the fact that the Emmys were there because we either did it then, or the opportunity was gone forever.

"As a matter of fact, we had another challenge set up because the entrée to the Emmys had not been approved. There were a lot of things that happened like that, having to do with the lawsuit.  We were doing challenges that integrated on ABC shows and Disney [properties] that suddenly went away because we didn't know where the show was going to air."

I also noted that several of the designers seemed to have a similar point of view or similar aesthetics, at least in this first challenge. Tim's response:

"I’ve grown to really have a disdain for evening wear, because what do you get?  You get a Grecian column, you get a fishtail hemline, you get off the shoulder, you get strapless, or you get a float in a parade. You know what I mean?  It’s just tremendously difficult to take it to a level that really causes one to gasp for the right reasons.

"And the piece I remember most that falls into that [gasp for the right reasons] category was the Chris March/Christian Siriano collaboration. It took two of them two days, and it was fabulous. But it was truly a collaboration.  It was also a case of one plus one equaling 10 because Christian couldn’t have done that on his own, and Chris couldn’t have done it on his own."

I don't have a ton of time to post my pwm thoughts on last night's "Runway," but my reaction was this: It looks a lot like previous seasons of "Runway," and for that I'm grateful. I think there are some really talented designers in the workroom. And I think the right designer went home -- and that surprised me.

In previous seasons of "Project Runway," they've kept around eccentric designers without a huge range or a lot of talent simply because they were eccentric (Vincent and Stella, irritatingly undertalented contestants from previous seasons, come to mind, just off the top of my head).

I thought the same would happen here, and that Ari Fish would stick around because she has this "otherworldly, wackadoo fashion sprite" vibe and because the producers thought she might be a weird and unsettling (i.e., dramatic) presence in the workroom. 

But she went home, as she should have. She didn't follow the directions for the challenge. I don't see that garish get-up on any red carpet. It would not be worn by even the most chemically altered person at the MTV Video Music Awards. It was just awful and badly made.

As for the winning outfit, I wasn't that in love with it, but it was pretty good. Then again, my husband and Tom and Lorenzo from Project Rungay all just loved the frock, so what do I know? Congrats, Christopher. 

What do you think? Leave your comments below, and hey, aren't you just happy that "Project Runway" is back?

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Project Runway Store

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Orchids: Lovers Or Liars?

Orchids are manipulative, self-centered, wily and sometimes downright sadistic. And yet we love them. Author Michael Pollan writes an article about them in the September's National Geographic, his words accompanied by some pretty stunning photography.

FILM-COLOMBIA: A Priest's Passion for Justice
BOGOTÁ, Aug 21 (IPS)The latest film out of Colombia is based on the true story of a priest in a rural town whose passions include a search for justice in an area that, like so many in this civil war-torn country, is hemmed in by armed groups, whether far-right paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas or state security forces.