The Screengrab

Adaptations of Marvel Comics have been doing great business at the box office for almost ten years now, from X-Men to Spider-Man to Iron Man.  And, just like in the comics, when one creative team doesn't find an audience, the big bosses at Marvel Films have been more than willing to try again with new writers, directors, and stars; Fantastic Four wasn't a critical success, but it made enough money to spawn a sequel; Ang Lee's Hulk was an ambitious letdown, but Marvel handed the property over to Edward Norton for a second chance; and The Punisher is being given another go-round despite two dismal adaptations so far.  The one Marvel superhero franchise that hasn't been talked up for a reboot so far has been Daredevil (and its even worse spin-off, Elektra).  That's probably because the original -- helmed by a hapless Mark Steven Johnson and starring an out-of-it Ben Affleck -- was such a piece of junk that no one wanted a second try at it.

That may be about to change.  20th Century Fox's co-chair, Tim Rothman, insists that the studio will be pairing with Marvel Films to produce another installment of the adventures of everyone's favorite blind lawyer/costumed vigilante; he's just not saying when.  Or who.  Or where, how, or perhaps most importantly, why.  In a cagey interview with IESB, Rothman says the deed will get done, but fails to name names, and cites a curious precedent:  "I think that the thing The Hulk showed...is that it is possible, that if you really do it right the audience will give you a second chance."  Exactly what was done right about Norton's Hulk reboot and exactly who gave it a second chance is unclear:  the movie was tepidly reviewed, and made almost exactly as much money as Ang Lee's famouse 'failure'.  But hey, the spirit is willing even if the facts are weak.

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If you're among the select group of people who've seen Babylon A.D. --the sci-fi action whatsit that opened last Friday without the benefit of press screenings--its director, Mathieu Kassovitz has a message for both of you: it's not his fault. Kassovitz, who made a splash as a director in 1995 with his international hit La Haine (and who is perhaps best known here for his acting roles, such as the male romantic lead in Amelie and the boyish explosives expert in Munich) feels that 20th Century Fox, the movie's American distributor--it was co-financed by them and the French-based StudioCanal--gutted and mangled his baby, and he's gone public with his complaints via an interview with the website Scifi Scanner. If you only noticed the faint signals of Babylon A.D.'s publicity campaign and were unfamiliar with Kassoviitz's reputation as a filmmaker, you might be startled to learn that the movie, which stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, and Gerard Depardieu ("wearing," according to New York Times reviewer A. O. Scott, "the most superfluous prosthetic nose extension in film history"), and which was originally set to be released back in February, was something that a studio might be able to mishandle. But it turns out that this, once upon a time, was a labor of love.

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How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer gets its limited-release debut this Friday, after two years of lingering on the festival circuit without a distributor.  Although some critics have praised its good-natured look at sexuality and overall sunny demeanor, it's likely that the real reason Georgina Riedel's feature-length debut is finally seeing the light of day is the newfound TV stardom of its lead actress, America Ferrara.  Still, the reason I want to see it is simple:  it's set in Arizona.  I was born and raised in Phoenix, at a time when everyone from there was from somewhere else, and while I don't really miss the place, I still have that hokey boosterism that makes me raise an eyebrow whenever I hear a movie or television show is set there or filming there.  During the early days of Hollywood, the movie business was obsessed with the 48th state -- largely because it had only recently become a state.  It was the last of the frontier, the final remnant of the proud plains and deserts of the New West, and while the vast majority of the western shoot-'em-ups set in Arizona were really made on a back lot five blocks from La Cienega Boulevard, there's still plenty of movies out there claiming Arizonan provenance.  As the state has morphed into Southern California's bedroom annex, with all the strip malls and chain stores that implies, there's continued to be a few standout films that use the Grand Canyon State as their setting; here's five of them.

IN OLD ARIZONA (1929)

The filming of this early classic western didn't get within 300 miles of Arizona, but like a lot of early cowboy pictures, it's set there.  In Old Arizona has a lot of the corny qualities that modern audiences associate with this era of filmmaking, but it's worth seeing -- and historically significant -- for a number of reasons.  The first full-length talkie ever released by 20th Century Fox, it was also the first talking picture to be filmed outdoors.  Director Raoul Walsh was set to play the lead himself, but a car accident robbed him of the chance, and cost him an eye, leading to the eyepatch that became his tradmark in later years; his replacement was Warner Baxter, who won only the second Best Actor Oscar in history for his performance as the Cisco Kid.  Finally, the movie has a memorable twist ending that sets it apart -- courtesy of the original story, by O. Henry.

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