Two More Reasons Why Hollywood Is Shooting Itself In The Foot

or: Kevin Costner must have the best agent in the world
The Hollywood Reporter on the recently announced "New Daughter":

Kevin Costner will star as a dad whose daughter begins displaying scary behavior in the Gold Circle thriller "New Daughter." Spanish helmer Luiso Berdejo is attached to direct in his feature debut. Costner will play John James, a single father who moves to a farm with his two kids after a painful divorce. Soon, his daughter (Ivana Baquero of "Pan's Labyrinth") starts behaving ominously, and Dad begins to suspect that the burial mound in a nearby field might have something to do with it.

Let's first of all look past the fact that this is yet another "scary kid" movie. With a bit of an original spin they actually sell, it's not the worst thing to rehash from a business perspective.

This movie is called New Daughter because the daughter becomes different, thus making her new. And it stars Kevin Costner (who is, presumably, on board for the sadistic pleasure of personally ensuring the downfall of Ivana Baquero faster than his own career sunk). How does this guy still get jobs like this? Or any? Given he hasn't been a draw since around the time Kurt Cobain was still happy, I don't see why he'd have a better shot at headlining something than some unknown guy with actual talent who'd at least do a good job of it. But none of that's even why this movie will fail. Let's read this carefully, all together now: "Soon, his daughter begins behaving ominously." How might this behaviour be ominous? Because it copies what millions of other films have previously done to therefore suggest 'ensuing child-oriented scariness'? So the best synopsis they can think of is to point out it's what the audience has seen a million times before? I take back what I said about the rehash thing. At least The Grudge made its kid meow, that was a rehash with something new. Not necessarily needed, but new. The only thing new here is the daughter apparently.

The other foot-shooting thing was this, which speaks for itself:


Ah, I See You Can Draft Blog Entries
Well actually I used to know that but then I forgot. Helps when posting incoherent midnight ramblings that require four edits over the course of eight hours to begin to half resemble what you think you recall meaning at the time. And to remove the overuse of the word "wonderful," a word which is, incidentally, not wonderful. Listening to overly-happy music can do that to you.

A Couple Of Memorable Quotes From Lynch On Lynch
"I'd like to bite my paintings, but I can't because there's lead in the paint."
"One time I used some hair remover to remove all the fur from a mouse to see what it looked like - and it looked beautiful."