The Female Gaze

Eliza Dushku has been in a lot of headlines lately thanks to Joss Whedon's new Fox show Dollhouse.  But here's one headline that you may have missed last week: Dushku is producing a new big screen biopic about Robert Mapplethorpe.

After the jump: Why Eliza Dushku, producer, kicks more ass than Eliza Dushku, actress...

So Variety has reported that Diablo Cody (Juno, The United States of Tara) is joining forces with Fox Searchlight to develop a film adapation of the upcoming zombie romance novel Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, about a recently undead man who finds love at a zombie support group. Cody won't be writing or directing the film, but she will be producing.

This is the second horror project that Diablo Cody has recently taken on and it makes me wonder: will she make more room for women in the genre?

More after the jump...

Well, I watched the whole darn Oscar ceremony.  And I've blogged it...

After the jump, some of my thoughts on the winners, the oddities, and the guys and dolls of the Academy Awards.

The past two weeks have been chock full of news about upcoming genre-bending film adaptations of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice.  Elizabeth Bennet slaying zombies!  Mr. Darcy doing combat with Predator!  Highbrow time travel!  Yes!

More details after the jump...

 

Big news from the NAACP Image Awards at the end of last week: women took top honors in the film directing and writing categories.  Gina Prince-Bythewood won the prize for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture for The Secret Life of Bees, while Jenny Lumet took home honors for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture for Rachel Getting Married.  Best Picture honors also went to The Secret Life Bees.  What's more, women were represented almost equally in the writing and directing categories, with Prince-Bythewood earning a nomination for writing, and Darnell Martin earning writing and directing nods for Cadillac Records.  

This is great news during the awards season homestretch.  While the media is busy contemplating Kate Winslet's potential acceptance speech meltdown, it's a welcome sight to see more recognition of women who are MAKING films.

[Full list of winners here: NAACP Image Awards]

Many of you have heard of Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who was gang raped in 2002 as revenge for an honor crime, an act that was authorized by her village elders.  Mukhtar spoke out about the crime and prosecuted her attackers - and won.  That is, until an appeals court overturned the convictions.  Mukhtar has been waging a legal battle in Pakistan in the years since, and, as a result, her safety has been constantly in jeopardy.  Despite that, she started the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization to help support and education Pakistani women and girls, and has been an outspoken advocate for women's rights. 

Her story was included in the 2006 documentary Land, Gold and Women.  Now her story will be the subject of a feature film, too.  However, she still hasn't gotten justice in her legal battle.

More info on the film and a call to action after the jump...

 

At the end of last week, New Line Cinema made it official: a sequel to Sex and the City is on the way.  Although no script has been developed yet, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis have all signed on for the film, and Michael Patrick King is back to write and direct.

The sequel is further confirmation that studios are really starting to bank on the box office power of women audiences, yet I know many people have mixed feelings about the success of the first film. Ready yourself now for a fairly endless amount of speculation and would-be spoilers as the film moves closer to shooting, but in the meantime, I'd like to hear your take on it... 

 

One of the most exciting events of New York Comic Con this year was the world premiere of the new Wonder Woman animated film that will be available on DVD March 3, 2009.  No, it's not the big screen action film that Wonder Woman deserves. A whole mess of people - including Joss Whedon - have tried to make that film over the past several years, and all have failed.  But this Wonder Woman adaptation is an important milestone for the title, as it joins the ranks of Superman: Doomsday and Batman: Gotham Knight as the fourth installment of the highly successful line of direct-to-DVD movies created by DC and Warner Bros.

And guess what?  It's actually pretty wonderful.

More after the jump!

Quick update: Sundance winner Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire has landed a distributor! News broke yesterday that Lionsgate has acquired North American rights to the film. What's more, both Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are also backing Push, which means that director Lee Daniels may actually be able to get this film in front of commercial audiences after all. Whew!

Previous: Push Gets a Big Win at Sundance, Still Trying to Find a Distributor

A week prior to the film's release, the marketing team for He's Just Not That Into You has released a video of three of film's male stars - Justin Long, Bradley Cooper, and Kevin Connolly - trying to persuade men to see the film. The reason they think men might actually like the film? Because, they claim, He's Just Not That Into You avoids the top 10 cliches of chick flicks.

Video and more after the jump!