Jeremy Lin: Is he Neo from ‘The Matrix’?

Numerous film characters come to mind when one thinks about Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks point guard who has overcome doubters and skeptics to lead his team on a seven-game winning streak. Lin and his "Linsanity" conjures “Invincible” protagonist Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), coaching at a Philadelphia high school before living his dream as an Eagles wide receiver. “Hoosiers,” the story of a small-town Indiana high school that goes on an improbable run to the state championship, floats to the top of the list too.

And of course there’s “Rudy,” the movie about an undersized college student who one day gets to take the field for his beloved Fighting Irish.

But watching Lin over the past couple of weeks, it’s become clear there’s only one cinematic figure to whom he should be compared: Neo from “The Matrix.”

PHOTOS: Absolute Lin-sanity!

Lin has felt it his entire life, this sense that there’s something wrong with the world. He didn’t know what it is, but it was there, like a splinter in his mind.  He just couldn’t do anything about it, relegated, as he was, to the drudgery of a banal and unrewarding existence (a place with the Golden State Warriors).

Then a man, a Morpheus, came along. Mike D’Antoni didn’t care what those robots around the league wanted him to believe.  He only saw Lin’s talent, his goodness. So he anointed him a savior. The oracle, Clyde Frazier, did too.

Lin swallowed what D’Antoni fed him. He began to believe, and he began to evolve. He fought off opponents, opponents who were bigger, stronger, swifter.  Lin battled to overcome an unfeeling system that seemed to exist only to keep him and his kind down, fighting the skeptical coaches who kept popping back up again every time he thought he’d vanquished them. Most of the people in this matrix weren't ready to be unplugged; inured and dependent on the system, they only fought to protect it. So Lin fought harder.

Lin found allies. Landry Fields was a crucial Link, lending his unconditional support (or at least a couch). David Lee was rock solid, a Tank. And Amar’e Stoudemire, at first cautious, soon came to complete the Trinity. These men were Lin's saviors, his own personal Jesus Christs.

A Sports Illustrated writer once said that Lin has shown “seeds of self-doubt.” Don’t worry, Jeremy, Neo had them too; he was reluctant to believe that he was the One.  You have to let it all go, Jeremy. Fear, doubt and disbelief. Free your mind.  Because fate is a powerful animal. It picks the special ones no matter their confidence level. And once it does, you can’t kill them with bullets, just like you can’t double-team destiny.

RELATED:

Jeremy Lin scores for TV, Twitter and the Knicks

Jeremy Lin's legend continues to grow

Linsanity: Jeremy Lin by the numbers

--Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: (left) Jeremy Lin of the Knicks. Credit: Chris Chambers/Getty Images. (right) Keanu Reeves as Neo in "The Matrix." Credit: Warner Bros.

'Planet of the Apes' marathon: Kenneth Turan's film pick

That's right, as part of its only-in-Los Angeles “Mayan Calendar Countdown” tribute to the potential end of the world, the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is having a “Planet of the Apes” marathon Saturday, showing five films that preceded last year's franchise reboot, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

The series starts at 5 p.m. with 1968's original “Planet of the Apes,” with Charlton Heston expressing anguish at a civilization run by sophisticated simians, and ends at who knows what ungodly hour with 1973's “Battle for the Planet of the Apes,” which even finds room for a John Huston cameo.

In between, we get “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” “Escape From the Planet of the Apes” and “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.” That's a heck of a lot of apes for the $11-$15 ticket range.

Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

ALSO:

Buster Keaton's classic films return

Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead on DVD

'We Need to Talk About Kevin': Kenneth Turan's film pick

-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

Photo: "Planet of the Apes." Credit: 20th Century Fox

Alexander Payne is eager to head back to 'Nebraska'

I went to see Alexander Payne the other day, curious to hear how he was holding up after spending the last few months on the awards circuit, touting "The Descendants," which is up for five Oscars, including best picture and best director. Payne is from Omaha and being a Midwesterner, he's a straight talker -- polite but firm.

Knowing he'd probably rather be back in Omaha than out on the hustings in Hollywood, I asked him how he was handling all the attention. "I don't campaign," he answered, sitting in his airy office on the third floor of an old brick building in Santa Monica. "The studio campaigns. I get trotted out to different events and try to appreciate all of the appreciation for the film. I'm very polite to those who say they've enjoyed the film. The only thing that genuinely tires me is the repetition of the same exact question that I've heard all around the world."

Of course, being a snoopy journalist myself, I had to ask -- what question might that be? "George Clooney and I did a Times Talk session with David Carr the other day, and he asked me, 'Why has it been seven years [since you last directed a film]?' And I replied, 'May I direct your attention to a Frank Bruni article from last November that addresses that very issue?'"

As I said: polite, but firm. I figured Payne would be more interested in talking about his upcoming film, "Nebraska," a story about a father-son road trip across the state that he hopes to shoot later this year. I admit to harboring a special fondness for Nebraska, having family roots there myself. My grandfather grew up in Omaha, where his uncle, Julius Meyer, was pals with Sitting Bull and served as an Indian interpreter and trader, running a store called Julius Meyer's Indian Wigwam.

I showed Payne a photo of Uncle Julius from the 1870s, standing with several Sioux outside the Wigwam. "Where was the store?" Payne said, after studying the photo. I told him it was at Farnam and 14th Street. Payne stared at me. "14th and Farnam?" he said incredulously. "That's where I live."

Small world, huh? Payne still spends most of his time in Omaha, where he has a loft apartment on the top floor of an art deco building downtown. It's right across the street from where the Indian Wigwam used to be. To hear Payne tell it, he's eager to shoot another film in Nebraska, where he made many of his earlier movies, including "About Schmidt" and "Election."

He first read the "Nebraska" script, originally written by Bob Nelson, nearly a decade ago. "Election" producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa had shown it to him, asking if he could find a young Nebraskan director who might be right for it. "After I read it, I said, 'What about me?'" Payne recalled. "It's a road-trip film, so I didn't want to do it right away after 'Sideways.' But Albert and Ron were kind enough to wait."

Casting will be tricky, because Payne says the lead roles are very specific. "It's a lot like casting a Mike Leigh film," he said. "The lead is a cranky Midwestern guy. He goes in and out of dementia and cajoles his son to drive with him from his home in Billings to Lincoln, Nebraska, because he thinks he's won a sweepstakes there. I need Henry Fonda when he was a crotchety old [son of a gun]. But he's not available, so I'm looking elsewhere. I always liked the austerity of Fonda's acting, so that's what I'm going for."

When I asked why he wanted to shoot the film in black and white, Payne had a simple answer. "Because it would look so cool. It seems that our politicians see the world in black and white, so why not our artists? Did Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' have to be in black and white? No. But is it fantastic that it was? To see New York like that? Yes!"

He laughs. "I watch 'Paper Moon' about once a year. Black and white is a good thing."

It would be a good thing if Payne ends up winning some awards on Oscar night. His work on "The Descendants" is the most assured directing of his career. But he isn't holding his breath. He's eager to get back behind the camera, especially if it means he can be back spending time in Nebraska. As he put it: "I'm there whenever I don't have to be here."

He hangs on to the old Omaha photos I gave him. Payne is clearly a man who has a strong sense of place. He tells me that his house here in L.A., up in Topanga Canyon, is reputed to have once been the residence of the notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. "I have no evidence to prove it," he quickly adds. "But I will say that when I've been gardening in my backyard, I've often dug up old whisky and beer bottles."

Payne laughs. "I suppose that doesn't prove anything, but it certainly doesn't disprove it either."

RELATED: 

Oscars 2012: Was "Wings" Hollywood's first bromance?

Oscars 2012: Are the nominations ready for prime-time TV?

Alexander Payne on directing: Casting is "first among equals"

-- Patrick Goldstein

Photo: Alexander Payne discusses "The Descendants" on a panel at the Pacific Design Center. Credit: Toby Canham / Getty Images

Andy Hardy, Warner Bros. pre-Code films: Kenneth Turan's DVD pick

Hollywood was not a one-size-fits-all entity in its glory days; movies catered to the widest variety of tastes, as two new groups of DVD releases from Warner Bros. emphasizes.

On the wholesome end of the spectrum, "The Andy Hardy Collection" showcases six films made in the durable Andy Hardy series, wherein youthful Andy, played with unstoppable energy by Mickey Rooney, got into all kinds of juvenile scrapes that demanded the sage advice of his ever-wise father Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone). Those were the days.

On the dark end of the street, five new double-bill releases from the Warner Archive Collection revel in the racy glories of pre-Code Hollywood.

The twin bills include "Loose Ankles" and "The Naughty Flirt," "Road to Paradise" and "Week-End Marriage," "I've Got Your Number" and "Havana Widows," "The Right of Way" and "The Truth About Youth" and "The Office Wife" and "Party Husband."

These are all on-demand discs and have to be specifically ordered at www.WarnerArchive.com.

RELATED:

Buster Keaton's classic films return

Laurel & Hardy and Ernie Kovacs on DVD

'The Artist,' despite slams, deserves Oscar front-runner status

-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

 

Around Town: Oscar short films and a 'Magnificent Obsession'

British actress Barbara Steele, who is best known for her work in such Italian horror films as 1960's "Black Sunday," is scheduled to appear Thursday evening at the New Beverly Cinema for a screening of a new 35mm print of Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning 1963 drama, "8 1/2," in which she appears. The film also screens Friday and Saturday. http://www.newbevcinema.com

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents symposiums of nominees in various categories leading up to the Oscar ceremony. All of these programs are sold out but there will be stand-by lines.

Brad Bird hosts "The 2011 Animated and Live Action Short Film Nominees" event Tuesday evening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, which features screenings of all nominated films in the animated and live action short film category, plus discussion with nominees. And on Wednesday, Michael Moore hosts "The 2011 Documentary Short Subject and Documentary Feature Nominees" evening, which features clips from all the documentaries in both feature and short categories, as well as a discussion with nominees. http://www.oscars.org

Berlin Film Festival: With 'Iron Sky,' Nazis land on moon

 

Nazis on the moon.  It’s hardly the topic you’d expect from a Finnish film at the artsy and often earnest Berlin International Film Festival, which takes place in a city that sometimes feels weighed down by its history.

But one of the most talked-about films in this year’s festival has turned out to be “Iron Sky,” a quirky sci-fi parody with aspirations to political satire that has grabbed the attention of international press and audiences as much for its creation mythos as its plot. The movie also will be screening next month at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.  (You can watch a trailer below.)

“Science-fiction has been going around this idea for a long time -- circling around Nazis in space. Why circle? Why don’t we just do Nazis in space?” asked Timo Vuorensola, the film’s director, pointing out that the Galactic Empire in "Star Wars" and several worlds in "Star Trek" are clearly modeled on Nazi Germany.  “Every science-fiction TV series has its Nazis -- and every science-fiction film has more or less its Nazis -- well, not every one, but many epic ones.  So this is taking that one step forward: Let's just make it about Nazis!”  

Vuorensola, who is also lead singer for a Finnish industrial metal band, has just one previous film under his belt: the 2005 space spoof “Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning.” The low-low-budget film was released for free online, and has been downloaded millions of times.

Whitney Houston's 'Sparkle': Should it go the Jackson route?

Barely six weeks after Michael Jackson died in the summer of 2009, Sony Pictures made a surprising announcement: It would release a documentary showing the star preparing for what, with the singer’s death, had become a canceled series of London concerts.

Culled from dozens of hours of rehearsal footage shot in the weeks before he died, “Michael Jackson’s This Is It,” as the film was to be called, would come out that October. The film, which would be directed by Kenny Ortega (who was also helming the concerts),  would offer a peek at the plans for the aborted shows while also documenting a musical icon’s last creative efforts.

Inevitably, there was a backlash from some fans and pundits. Did the studio have a fully realized film? Or was it hastily throwing together outtakes to cash in on a star's death? And even if it did have the goods, was it moving too soon in bringing out a Jackson movie just four months after he died?

PHOTOS: Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

But the studio pressed on, saying that the film “will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer, his career and the stage spectacular that would have been.” And when “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” came out at the end of October, Sony was vindicated: The movie received largely positive reviews for its insight into Jackson’s creative process and made more than $260 million worldwide.

Sony finds itself in an eerily similar situation this week with the death of Whitney Houston.

As it did with Jackson, the Culver City studio is sitting on filmed material from an iconic musician that also happens to be some her last creative work -- a period musical drama called “Sparkle” in which Houston stars as the mother of aspiring pop-soul singers.  Directed by Salim Brock Akil and also starring Jordin Sparks, “Sparkle” is a remake of a 1976 film that features Irene Cara. Houston's role, as the complicated mother to sisters who risk becoming corrupted by success (including one who becomes a victim of addiction), is significant. It's also Houston’s first film part in 15 years.

“Sparkle” had long been scheduled for an Aug. 17 release by Sony, and for the moment it remains there; a studio spokesman said there are no plans to change the date because of Houston’s death. But at least one person familiar with the studio’s release plans who was not authorized to talk about them publicly said there have been internal discussions about bringing out the movie sooner.

It’s certainly a legitimate conversation. Rather than wait six months to release the movie, Sony could bring out “Sparkle” in, say, June, which would be four months after Houston's death, the same window as “This Is It.” In fact, the studio could move up “Sparkle” even earlier since, unlike “This Is It” at the time of its star’s death, Houston’s movie is already complete.

That would require some creative juggling with theater owners and publicity venues. But studios have changed schedules at more of the last-minute, and for subjects less newsworthy, many times before. It’s hard to imagine a theater owner or morning-show booker that wouldn’t want it out as soon as possible.

The studio could also face charges that it is acting insensitively -- unlike Jackson, there is an addiction subplot to “Sparkle” that could land awkwardly. And Sony couldn’t make the case that it is bringing out the movie to show what could have been: “This Is It” offered a glimpse into performances of which we’d otherwise have been oblivious. “Sparkle” will offer the same look at Houston’s acting abilities no matter when it comes out.

But Sony could also persuasively make the argument that Houston’s death has awakened an interest in her work. Moving up the film to spring would simply meet that need (and wouldn’t be much different from the  numerous cable specials and other retrospectives  that have been announced in the past few days, anyway).

Maybe most important, the studio would have a precedent to fall back on: “This Is It” proved that moving quickly doesn’t mean you’re running roughshod over taste or quality.

RELATED:

Could Whitney Houston's 'Sparkle' come before August?

Whitney Houston's posthumous turn: As star of 'Sparkle'

Medics performed CPR for about 20 minutes

Whitney Houston was spotted displaying erratic behavior

-- Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Jordin Sparks and Whitney Houston in "Sparkle." Credit: Sony Pictures

Would you help 'The Vow's' Channing Tatum pick his next film?

Channing Tatum knows firsthand the power of social media — he has more than 800,000 followers on Twitter and made Facebook videos to promote his recent hit "The Vow."

But in an interview about how those platforms helped make his latest film a hit (for more on that topic, see this story in Wednesday's Times), Tatum said he has bigger ambitions in the world of likes and retweets: He wants fans to help him pick his movies.

"I really, really hope I can be like, 'Guys, what do you want me to do? Option A or Option B?'" he said. "And people can vote and then I can go do that. Then I can get notes on what we did right and wrong."

PHOTOS: 'The Vow' premiere

The actor, whose next starring role comes in March with "21 Jump Street," sees the approach as part of a larger evolution for the digital world beyond a platform for marketing and audience research.

"Studios — rightfully so because that's the system — try to manipulate [people] into wanting something they might not want," he said. "I don't think that's the right way to go about it. I want to straight up ask them: Should I make a comedy? An action movie? A love story?"

But as much as he values how social media fosters a  conversation with fans, Tatum acknowledged that more operational details elude him. The actor said he "is not a computer person" and, like many other stars, pays someone to manage his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

RELATED:

Review: 'The Vow' leaves you wanting more

'The Vow' a hit after marketers say 'I do' to Twitter, Facebook

'The Vow' sets Valentine's Day record with $11.6 million box office

— Ben Fritz

Berlin Film Festival: Meryl Streep honored with Golden Bear

Meryl Streep was honored Tuesday with the Berlinale's Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.  At the gala event at the Berlin Film Festival, jury member Jake Gyllenhaal presented Streep with the award, introducing her with a humorous personal reflection, describing her not just as an acting treasure, but as the terrifying "Hank's mom," who disapproved of him as a 13-year-old bad influence on her son, Henry Gummer.

In her acceptance, Streep gave thanks to colleagues past and present, including "The Iron Lady"'s  Phyllida Lloyd and Jim Broadbent, and giving special notice to and a call for applause for makeup artist and hairstylist J. Roy Helland, who has worked with her since 1982's "Sophie's Choice."  Helland, she said, has "designed every woman --  and one man I played in "Angels in America" --  that I've played since then."  Helland received his first award for film work, together with Mark Coulier and Marese Langan, for "The Iron Lady" at the British Academy Film Awards two days ago. 

She also praised "some of the great writers and directors on whose shoulders I've been placed tonight,"  including the late Joseph Papp, Harold Pinter, Alan Pakula and Robert Altman. 

 Love was also in the air at the news conference for "The Iron Lady" earlier in the day.  As well as accolades, the actress received Valentine's Day flowers and a kiss from an Austrian radio journalist, and a personalized Russian nesting doll painted to represent many of her famous roles, including the evil fashionista of "The Devil Wears Prada." Streep joked,    "I like very much that they reduced my nose a little!" 

 Streep, who has so far won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA this year,  said of awards season, "Suddenly you feel like you're in a sporting event and you haven't signed up for it. You did some work in a film that you're proud of and you are hoping that people will go and see it, and suddenly you're doing calisthenics to get ready for [the] Superbowl."   She also praised the current level of acting talent, and pointed to Anna Paquin in "Margaret" and "Tyrannosaur" lead Olivia Colman (who also appears in "Iron Lady") as two actors who have gone unrecognized among this year's many strong female performances.

 In addition to tonight's screening of "The Iron Lady," six more of Streep's films, including "Kramer vs. Kramer," "Silkwood" and "A Prairie Home Companion"  are being shown as part of the festival's homage. 

--Susan Stone in Berlin

Photo: Meryl Streep accepts Golden Bear award at the Berlin FIlm Festival. Credit: Andreas Rentz / Getty Images

'Act of Valor': Navy SEALs get their close-up (and Obama moment)

Even before the Navy parachute team dropped out of the sky high above Sunset Boulevard, you had a sense the “Act of Valor” premiere was a different sort of Hollywood event. After all, Tim Tebow had asked to attend.

As the screening for the movie was set to begin at the ArcLight on Monday night, there stood the Broncos quarterback, dressed spiffily in tie and vest,  glad-handing members of the industry in the lobby and taking photos with adoring fans, who seemed to be doing more than their share of kneeling themselves. This was just after the Leap Frogs, as the Navy jump team is known, had made their aerial entrance, whooshing by in a plane overhead and then floating down to the red carpet -- but right before Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the lobby in a more conventional Hollywood manner (walking, with an entourage).

Movie studios are rarely averse to a good publicity stunt, but the high-flying spectacle, thrown by studio Relativity Media, was unusual given the people at the center of “Act of Valor": Navy SEALs, the elite amphibious unit that usually conducts its business well outside of the public eye.

Opening Feb. 24 (you can watch the trailer below), “Act of Valor” was built from the raw material of real-life training videos of active-duty SEALs, with footage folded into a series of scripted vignettes about a number of harrowing missions.  (You can read the film’s fascinating back-story in my colleague Rebecca Keegan’s Sunday Calendar piece.)  The group believes that it’s ready for its public moment, or at least a slight pulling back of the veil that has enshrouded it for so long.

Before the screening, directors Mouse McCoy and Scott Waugh asked the SEALs who appear in the film, about a dozen of them scattered throughout the audience, to stand for a moment of recognition. The audience then gave them a standing ovation, the first of several that would follow during key points in the film. “And we wanted to thank the … wives, mothers and spouses of those who go down range and serve our country,” said the directors, who are known collectively as the Bandito Bros., using the group’s lingo for the heart of their operations.

Many of the SEALs present Monday night also appeared in the film, real-life commandos who, while not likely to turn in their uniforms for Screen Actors Guild cards anytime soon, have also for a brief moment become screen stars on top of their day jobs hunting down bad guys in distant swamps and deserts.

After the screening, the SEALs mingled in the lobby, getting high-fives from members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Then they retired to a Hollywood club across the street, where their gold-flecked, deep blue uniforms served as an unusual sight among a premiere’s more typical mix of industry players and hangers-on.

(Many of the SEALs were reticent when approached and asked for their reaction to the film, saying little more than “great movie,” although a few, declining to give their names, did say that they found it motivating. “It made me want to go out and do even more for this country. And maybe like a thousand push-ups,” one SEAL told 24 Frames.)

"Act of Valor" opens on several thousand screens next week, its campaign financed by Relativity Media, the independently run studio that paid about $12 million for the right to release the movie. Though the movie never makes mention of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden last spring -- it focuses far more generally on the SEALs' skill and sacrifice -- it’s impossible to sit through it and not think of that strike.

Which means the movie, not unlike Chrysler’s Clint Eastwood Super Bowl commercial this year, could be seen as providing tacit support for President Obama, who ordered the Bin Laden mission.

Indeed, a few weeks ago, the filmmakers took their movie to the White House, where senior brass from the Navy joined to view it with the president. The commander in chief watched the film through and told the filmmakers he liked it, according to a person who was present at the screening but declined to be identified because he was asked not to reveal details of the event.

(The philosophy that  underlies the SEALs also plays to the administration’s belief that smaller, highly specialized units often represent a more favorable military option than traditional shock-and-awe tactics. And the SEALs' mission in Pakistan last year -- itself the subject of an upcoming movie from the filmmakers behind "The Hurt Locker" -- is a key piece of the president's re-election campaign.)

Relativity will hope to capitalize on the same patriotic, pro-SEALs feeling, and is positioning “Act of Valor” as far more than a typical action movie. The company's ambitions were evident in a Super Bowl spot, rare for a movie not based on an existing brand and containing no name actors, as well as a social-media campaign that exhorts filmgoers to "join the conversation."

The film's tagline plays on a similar sense of duty: “The only easy day was yesterday,” it states -- a sentiment that, as one watched the SEALs walk around the premiere after-party Monday night, was hard to disagree with even amid the abundant appetizers and open bars.

 

RELATED:

Act of Valor must balance secrecy, publicity with Navy SEALS

The Navy SEALs are ready for their close-up

Super Bowl: Why are the best ads not for movies?

-- Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

Photo: Navy SEALs deploy on a C-130. Credit: Relativity Media