So last week I posted about John Carpenter’s 70th birthday and his films like They Live and The Thing. Carpenter’s Halloween isn’t 70, but the film is celebrating its 40th birthday and the slash-terpiece will get re-booted by David Fincher this October. Despite sequels/prequels and remakes/reimaginings, nobody has been able to rekindle the magic of Carpenter’s original which is the keystone of the slasher genre.

That said, Fincher is one of my favorite contemporary directors, and he might be the other director that’s currently challenging Paul Thomas Anderson for the title of best American director of the 21st century. By my score, Anderson’s films — especially There Will Be Blood &mash; make him the best of his generation. That said, Fincher’s Zodiac is intense cinema, Fight Club is a movie pop classic alongside Pulp Fiction, and I still can’t believe that I love a movie about Facebook.

But, here’s the thing: David Fincher isn’t directing the new film, David Gordon Green is. I just wanted to imagine if Fincher did so I could write a bit about him and PTA. David Gordon Green isn’t in the running for best director of the 20th century, but he’s proved to be a real actor’s director working with Nicolas Cage, Al Pacino, Michael Shannon, Zooey Deschanel and James Franco. Green’s made lots of small, intense dramas, but he’s also done comedies and I could actually see all those experiences and the director’s facility with capturing strong performances serving his Halloween very, scary well.

We’ll have to wait until October to find out. Here’s a deep-dive documentary into Halloween…

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This week Paul Thomas Anderson — the greatest American director of his generation? — announced his latest project since The Master. Here’s the early word from Cinema Blend…

When you think of Paul Thomas Anderson and the compact but rich filmography he possesses, words like “intense,” “poetic,” and even “tragic” all seem to do the trick. Yet there’s one word that has never even come close to describing a piece of his own work, a word that’s usually reserved for much lighter fare than Anderson’s usual examinations into the human condition: “bonkers.” That’s just the word some advanced viewers have used to describe his latest film, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, proving that there truly is a first time for everything.

InContention captured two extremely early reviews from a recent screening. Apparently, Inherent Vice is in good enough shape for Paul Thomas Anderson to be showing it around, and that’s exactly what he’s been doing since this past spring. What does the feedback say about the Joaquin Phoenix starring vehicle? Let’s just put it this way: if you ever wanted to see Anderson take on both The Zucker Bros and The Coen Bros style of filmmaking, then you’re going to have a very fun treat in store for you this December.

Here at Insomnia we can’t wait to see this new flick. As a teaser/primer, here is an interview w P.T. from his Boogie Nights era. This vid might not be safe for work if your boss doesn’t want you to watch a man wolf-down a pizza, talk about how porn should be a legitimate genre or defend the sanctity of Godzilla films. Also, P.T. is a famously profane interview. Also, you should get a new job.

Here is English director Mike Figgis interviewing P.T. Anderson for his Hollywood Conversations series back in 1998…

Stay Awake!

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