IP law is increasingly important for Hollywood studios as they sift through their back catalogs for potential new franchises. Beats taking a chance on original material.

Fun fact: they worked on a script for a western called Black Irish after Rushmore. http://www.texasmonthly.com…

And her success was nowhere near what his was. Culkin's was the type of instant monster success rarely seen by anyone but particularly not children.

Right. I'm not sure he's yet broken out of that "I'm the kid from Sixth Sense! Remember me?" stage yet, but he was always a very good actor with good mentors and apparently did quite a bit of experimental theater at Tisch.

It seems to have served her well. She seems very well adjusted, particularly for a former child star.

And Spielberg wanted him to be Harry Potter!

Same. I remember talking about '70s movies with my parents (their era) and they were listing off so many great movies but lamented they just couldn't watch most of them now because they're too sad. I didn't really get that in my 20s when I could watch almost anything and feel an emotional distance from the material.…

I still remember the My Girl TV ads announcing "MAC IS BACK!" Like the marketing was just "here's more Macauley Culkin for ya!" Is that the last time a child actor was that popular? I guess Haley Joel Osment had a moment but he became a punch line pretty quickly.

Even more amazingly, she worked very rarely for most of the late '90s and into the 2000s. But once In The Loop and Veep hit it was like she'd never left.

Slow and steady wins the race (at least this time).

So great. It's like what I hope every movie book I read is going to be like and they rarely are. Mark Harris is the best in the biz.

Zwigoff did an interview discussing it a few years ago. A couple of things he said: 1. Coens didn't like the casting of Cox as they didn't picture the dwarf being black and Zwigoff did it anyway. 2. Weinsteins reshot some of the movie (I think Todd Phillips is rumored to have directed the reshoots) to make it more…

I don't like potted meat. Daddy used to say they was made out of lips, peckers and intestines.

Not sure. He definitely lost weight between Tombstone and Sling Blade but he looks about the same in Sling Blade as he was in Hearts Afire give or take 10 lbs. But then I read he gained 50 lbs for U Turn and he only looks like 10-15 lbs bigger in that, so I have no idea.

I think that was also a consequence of Fox having the rights but were only willing to distribute it and not fund it. I think Fox actually encouraged them to crowdfund it because of the success of Veronica Mars.

My dad will sometimes make me put on JUST that scene because he loves Ritter so much. He about has a heart attack from laughing so hard. Then he gets sad for a few minutes that Ritter is gone.

Has it really been a decade since Zwigoff last made a movie? I hope he gives us something else soon.

Agreed. His style is so low-key and locked down, it really grounds all the crazy shit happening.

Agreed. I use this one all the time.

You realize there are multiple explanations for why they hire him in the movie though, right? Arguably the best scene in the movie is Thornton and Cox blackmailing Ritter into keeping them on.