Jon Stewart's Directorial Debut & Daily Show Hiatus

Rosewater is based on a journalist's account of leaving London to cover a period of strife in Iran:

Jon Stewart will take a 12-week summer hiatus from hosting Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show to make his feature directing debut. In his absence, Daily Show regular John Oliver will be guest host for eight weeks of fresh shows. Stewart has written the script for and will direct Rosewater, an adaptation of the book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival. Published in 2011 by Random House, the book is Maziar Bahari’s harrowing ordeal of leaving London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s presidential elections. With a pregnant fiance left behind, the BBC journalist expected to be away for a week. Instead, he spent the next 118 days in Iran’s most notorious prison being brutally interrogated by a man he knew only by one thing: he smelled of Rosewater. Bahari wrote the book with Aimee Molloy. Scott Rudin will produce with Stewart and Gigi Pritzker. Pritzker’s OddLot Entertainment is financing the film.

Roku 3

I bought a Roku 2XS around a month ago. It's just been replaced by a new $100 Roku 3 that is:

over 5 times faster (so maybe they'll finally be able to support a YouTube channel in the Channel Store)
dual-band WiFi support (5GHz presumably)
features a new UI that my old one can get in a month or so
has a headphone jack on the remote

More info buried throughout this page.

Only the first and second items bother me. As much as I've been preferring the Roku experience to my now-neglected AppleTV, unlike Apple, I doubt Roku is going to replace my 2XS if I complain. Fry's definitely doesn't care.

The centerpiece of this update is the revised UI, which is much cleaner and indexes search universally, across all of your channel subscriptions. Search for a title or an actor or a director, and it spits out all of your viewing options.

Bye, "where/how can I watch it?" services. Unified search is a feature, not a platform.

Daily Grab 87: Duck Rogers

From the staggeringly great Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 1 set, this is one of about 30 favorite frames from "Duck Amuck".

Whether you just love these cartoons from when you were a kid, or have kids yourself, this and the second set are must-haves.

Daily Grab 86: Fantastical Realism

I had not seen Studio Ghibli's Whisper of the Heart until I popped in last year's Blu-ray. I had seen its pseudo-sequel The Cat Returns, but not the much more grounded-in-reality original. Unlike what many people think of as the trademark, fantastical Ghibli style, Whisper is entirely grounded in the real world with its few fantasy sequences happening within dreams.

It's lovely, subdued, and one of the best animated transfers of last year.

Daily Grab 85: Painting on the Wind

Growing up, I didn't see this one as often as other Disney Animated Masterpieces (I think that's what they're still called). I was more into Pinocchio, Oliver and Company, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Daily Grab 84: Apprehension

One of the many beautiful frames from Janusz Kaminski's photography in Catch Me If You Can.

Daily Grab 83: Deluxe Edition

"Sense and Sensibility...oh, ah...Random House...Deluxe Edition."

Another stunning black and white transfer, this time from Universal. This Best of Blu-ray 2012 thing has been an enormous undertaking. It has its pleasures but...boy howdy, what a lot of work.

Daily Grab 82: The Marshal

One of the best-looking discs of 2012: Olive Films' High Noon Blu-ray.

Daily Grab 81: Red Carpet

They knew red carpet events were a joke 60 years ago.

Daily Grab 80: Crime Alleys

A disc I'm sorry to just now be catching up with is last year's Blu-ray of Dick Tracy. It came out when I was a kid. I had one of the toy communicator watches. I was hooked by the marketing, and didn't quite understand everything going on in the rather-violent movie.

I'm sure I wasn't the only kid disappointed that it didn't spawn four sequels and an animated series.

Even absent extras, much like the sadly barebones Rocketeer disc, it looks and sounds great. It's leagues better than the old DVD. It's included in my 2012 Best of Blu-ray lists, coming soon.

Criterion 50% Sale Until Noon EST Tomorrow

Use the code FLASHY at checkout.

Recent Blu-grade Recommendations: this week's Sansho the Bailiff, Kurosawa's Rashomon, Gilliam's Brazil, Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Ozu's Late Spring, Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love...all of which are on the pending Best of 2012 Blu-ray list.

Act very, very quickly, because they sell out fast on these.

Warner Announces Mad Max Trilogy Blu-ray

I cross-posted this news at AICN.

On June 4th, 2013, all three Mad Max movies are being released in a 3-movie, "limited premium tin" edition package.

The press release leaves out whether any or all of the films are being remastered.

The old MGM master of the first one was not perfect, but far from awful. The Road Warrior, however, is long overdue for a fresh transfer. The 2007 disc lacked lossless audio and the color is undoubtedly off. Nor have they said anything regarding extras: new ones, old ones, anything.

Single-movie editions of all three will be available. Beyond Thunderdome is making its Blu-ray debut.

I hope at the very least that, unlike the MGM disc, the new menu loop video for Mad Max no longer spoils the climax of the movie. When I showed my wife the movie on her first viewing, she said "oh, so [a specific person] dies, huh?"

Daily Grab 79: Covert Action

With a title like that and Argo's Best Picture win, you'd assume this installment would be from that movie. Instead, a brief look at one of the best among the movies Soderbergh has produced (and which Clooney directed).

Daily Grab 78: The Perkis System

I'm in the process of re-dedicating myself to a workout and general health regimen in the mold of Tony Perkis's comprehensive Perkis System. It includes regular self-degradation and dehumanization, which I think is reasonable because--HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THOSE GUNS!

Daily Grab 77: Magic Hour

A pair of these were intended for this past weekend. I swear to God I'm going to figure out this stupid scheduling feature someday.

Who would think there's a shot this gorgeous in a movie like Heavyweights?

Would you believe it if I told you that the little kid on the right turned into some hardbody hunk on Gossip Girl?

The Blu-ray of this thing is more packed with extras than some Criterion releases, including a recently recorded commentary (led by writer Judd Apatow) that is immensely satisfying and entertaining.

Daily Grab 76: Hope

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, as an actor in Heavyweights. I think this is the sense of abandon and investment and inhabitation that one should attain using the Meisner technique.

Daily Grab 75: Contender

I still have more to sift through, but On the Waterfront opens 2013 as a leading contender for one of the best collector's sets of the year, just like Criterion's Godzilla did in 2012.

Daily Grab 74: Headroom

This frame from the 1.66:1 version of On the Waterfront shows off the definitive one out of the three aspect ratios included in Criterion's outstanding new Blu-ray release.

Don't trust any "reviews" that lack evidence that the reviewer watched all three versions. Likewise, trust no one who declares 1.85:1, aka "fill my whole HDTV screen ratio" the definitive way to watch. All who do are charlatans, fools, and rank poseurs.

Daily Grab 73: Know When to Run

We all agree that it's gonna win at this point, right?

This was to have gone up yesterday, but I somehow mishandled the scheduling feature, or it didn't work, or something.