Daniel Day Lewis and Roger Ebert

Yesterday was April Fool’s, so you can imagine all the lies and half-truths that found their way through the internet to (un)suspecting victims around the world. I found myself closing my RSS feeder in the afternoon for a while due to its rampancy. The ONE April Fool’s joke that actually got me for a moment was /Film’s post about Peter Weir remaking Werner Herzog’s infamous film Fitzcarraldo, starring Daniel Day Lewis in the lead role, with Mick Jagger on board for the score, and Werner Herzog himself in the producer’s chair. Now this is one fine April Fool’s joke; it’s not painfully obvious like the plethora of superhero movie posts. It blends AWESOME with UNBELIEVABLE in a great way. And coincidentally, I was just assigned to watch Fitzcarraldo in my European Cinema class last night.

Truthfully, I’m not absolutely convinced that it IS an April Fool’s joke. The main reason why I would think that it’s fake is the mention of Mick Jagger, which instantly reminds me of Jonny Greenwood working on There Will Be Blood last year, which also starred Daniel Day Lewis. If more news comes along, I’ll post it here. But until that happens, assume this is isn’t happening.

In other news, the great Roger Ebert announced yesterday that he’s back in the game:

Dear Readers:

I am at last returning to the movie beat. After my current stay at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, I’m looking forward to opening night of my annual film festival at the University of Illinois on April 23, and I will resume writing movie reviews shortly thereafter.

Are you as bored with my health as I am? I underwent a third surgery in January, this one in Houston, and once again there were complications. I am sorry to say that my ability to speak was not restored. That would require another surgery. But I still have all my other abilities, including the love of viewing movies and writing about them. And at my side I have my angelic wife, Chaz.