Labor Day is clearly a big day off for the film industry. You could wait all day and not find a single piece of film news that is interesting enough to stop you in your tracks on your way to the Labor Day tree to open your Labor Day presents or eat chocolate covered Marxes or marshmallowed Lenins.
The biggest news of the day as far as movies go appears to be that Eddie Murphy is the official choice to host the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony. Unless he isn’t. Rumor or fact? Nobody really seems to know and even fewer are saying. The biggest news regarding whether Eddie Murphy will host the Oscars is whether anyone outside of Murphy’s entourage really cares. Eddie Murphy hosting the Academy Awards is exactly the kind of news that fits Labor Day.
Another piece of news that managed to filter through while you were playing beloved songs like “The Internationale” while you threw wadded up balls made from the papers of your shredded copy of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” at each other is that John Carpenter wants to make a Gothic Western. Of course, the idea that Carpenter will get to make a Gothic Western is pretty wild considering two things. One is that John Carpenter, despite making the greatest science fiction movie ever made, has not had a hit since a cat named Socks ran around the White House at will. The other is that a certain movie pitting cowboys not against Indians, but against visitors from beyond the stars kind of fell to the earth in such a momentous way that it created a void inside Hollywood larger than Crater Monument. Even that Masked Man and his sidekick Tonto got caught up in the gravitational whirlwind that has sucked in everything having to do with the Old West. John Carpenter’s greatest science fiction movie ever is exactly the type of movie that should be viewed on Labor Day since it is the very apex of the entire point of the day, but that the news should come on this holiday that he wants to make a movie that Hollywood likely won’t let him make is even more to the point.
The day after Labor Day, things will get back to normal. Hollywood will be paying attention to you and you will be paying attention to Hollywood. Don’t be surprised if the big news of the day after Labor Day is that Netflix and Starz have kissed and made up after all.
For more articles by Timothy Sexton, check out:
Movie Comedies to Enjoy on Labor Day
Why Plan to Remake the Greatest Science Fiction Ever Made Isn’t That Bad an Idea
Eddie Murphy May Host Oscars, but Does Anybody Really Care?