Monday, August 31st, 2009

I have always said that sometimes The Walt Disney Company gets more bad press than they deserve. Sure, they are the most shrewd of all Hollywood businesspeople, as well as being known on the blogsphere for being wildly hypocritical in most of their judgments, not to mention being branded as racists from Dumbo to The Princess and the Frog. Yet, they continue to pump out great films such as WALL-E and this year's Up alongside Pixar, and no matter how overpriced, continues to generate the one place on earth that lives up to the affectionate term of "magical", the Walt Disney World Resort. However, when I turned on the ol' computer today, I read that the big conglomerate mouse had finally gone too far, they had bought Marvel Comics. We have a plethora of questions that arise from this $4 billion deal that occurred this morning, including what will happen to the movie properties and plans that Marvel Entertainment had lined up for the upcoming years, culminating in a collaborative Avengers adaptation? Does this spell the end for the chance to see a quality Wolverine film, based on the works of Frank Miller and Chris Claremont? When will we face an inevitable Disney/Marvel crossover? A better question, will Pixar dabble in the newly acquired 5,000 Marvel characters? Even away from the relevancy of this movie blog, what about the comics? Disney television deals? Universal Studios Islands of Adventure's fate has my inner traveler nervous. Will Disney destroy Marvel? Will characters like Frank Castle/The Punisher be re-worked to become family-friendly to fit the Disney brand? Will Stan Lee still be a huge influence in the Marvel offices? What will the folks affiliated with Marvel say about the merger?

I suppose most of these questions will be answered in the next few days that follow, but right now the media shit storm is in full swing, and MTV has posted an article about what we supposedly know about the deal thus far. You can also check out the official press release at Marvel's official site, and I have yet to find, but I've read that somewhere on there, you can actually listen to CEO Isaac Perlmutter's conference call. Also, a link to the first place I read the story, BBC News. And don't forget to check out what the non-movie crowd is saying, via the comment section on Geekologie. Also, not missing a beat, don't miss Cinematical's weekly article Girls on Film, where Monika Bartyzel compares the classic Disney princesses and Marvel's top heroines. There is also an article on the site by Jeffrey M. Anderson, featuring lots of rather cheesy jokes that in all actuality touches on the fears of all geeks the world over at the moment. And for one final link to the story, the picture comes courtesy of coverage at Kotaku.

So, with the future of comic books-to -silver screen in jeopardy for a cinephile, what could possibly make the news day worse? How about a franchise that doesn't know when to quit? How about three?

First, Variety reports that even after Halloween II was just able to climb to the number three spot at the box office this weekend, the franchise may be continuing, sans current director Rob Zombie. The Weinsteins have apparently got a yet-to-be-named filmmaker on tap to take the franchise in a different direction, and a different dimension... or what's becoming a very cliché gimmick in 3-D.

Also from Variety, it was announced today that Nu Image and Millennium Films greenlit a fifth film in the Rambo franchise. Sweet Jesus, that is just a terrible idea.

Finally, just when you thought you couldn't take anymore, The Hollywood Reporter declares that Peter Craig is writing a new screenplay for a third Bad Boys for Columbia Pictures. We are yet to find out if Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith or Martin Lawrence will return. Also, would it even really matter?

Finally, if you haven't lost all your hope in the wonderful world of cinema, The Final Destination took the top spot at the box office this weekend, topping the second week of Inglourious Basterds by a little over $8 million, not even to mention $27 million over Big Fan. Try not to kill yourselves before tomorrow.

Sunday, August 30th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Rejected)

Next week Mike Judge's latest live action film Extract makes its theatrical debut. I began my post for Short Film Sunday by looking up Judge in hopes to find a good animated short, possibly from his Milton series that ran as segments on Saturday Night Live, and would eventually go on to inspire 1999's cult comedy Office Space, or possibly something he done for The Animation Show, a traveling animation festival that tours the country, co-created with Don Hertzfeldt. Of course, after reading Hertzfeldt's name, I knew where this blog had to go, and that is his wonderful short from 2000, Rejected.

The hand-drawn, stick-figure-esque animated flick came slightly before the YouTube boom or Cartoon Network's alternative programming night-time block Adult Swim, but became a huge influence on both popular mediums. The film was released, debuting at the 2000 San Diego Comic Con before showing at the Sundance Film Festival and going on tour with Spike and Mike's Twisted Festival of Animation and Bill Plympton's travelling The Don and Bill Show and currently on Hertzfeldt and Judge's The Animation Show. The short would air uncut and commercial free on Adult Swim two years after its initial release. After a successful release, which gained a cult audience due to the lack of similar humor at the time, with Something Awful even being quoted as saying that the short was causing a miniature Rocky Horror Picture Show effect with fan quotes and celebrations during screenings, came the ultimate honor for an offbeat sensation that would come to embody the web cartoon, a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, losing out to the eight minute Dutch drama toon, Father and Daughter, directed by Michael Dudok De Wit. The little film is still quoted a bit, and featured on a few comedy blogs here and there, see the above snowman recreation of a Rejected scene I found on Google Image, but it seems that most people don't have a clue on how much impact the little animated gem had on YouTube and Adult Swim.

Other than Rejected, Hertzfeldt has had a number of other popular shorts, including Billy's Balloon, created before Rejected during his time as a film student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After the success of Rejected, Hertzfeldt would follow it up with the short The Meaning of Life, which debuted at Sundance and was lovingly compared to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey by Bob Longino of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Following that, Hertzfeldt's current project is a three part series on a character named Bill, with 2006's Everything Will Be OK, 2008's I Am So Proud of You and a yet-untitled upcoming short.

According to Hertzfeldt's Wikipedia page, the director has approximately 130 awards at film and animation festivals. He is also continuously mentioned on blogs by the current adult animation elite. Also, if you want to check out any of the other shorts I mentioned in the above introduction, you can check out Bitter Films' official page. Now, without further adieu, here is Rejected... Enjoy.

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

I've yet to see Halloween II yet, and even though I still plan to do so, most of my class and work conversations today somehow drifted off to how awful Rob Zombie's latest in the franchise reboot actually is. The good thing however, is that the release has given us reasons to talk about classic horror cinema, like John Carpenter's original flick. In fact, the picture in the corner there of Jamie Lee Curtis is part of a gallery on Rotten Tomatoes of their favorite pictures of movie scream queens, which covers everyone from Faye Wray of the original 1933 version of King Kong to Scout Taylor-Compton, the actress that took over the role of Laurie Strode in Zombie's version of the Halloween franchise, originally portrayed by Curtis, as evidenced above. Worth a look on a slow news day.

Continuing on the topic of Rob Zombie, when he announced yesterday that a possible re-make of the 1958 horror flick The Blob could be in the works, he must have loosened the ground for Joel Silver not to care to upset a few horror fanatics by announcing today, via Collider, that he plans on remaking the 1982 comic-to-film adaptation of Swamp Thing, originally directed by Wes Craven. This is a case that to me, is exactly like yesterday's statement concerning The Blob. Sure, special effects could update the film, but really, the only reason people even remember the mostly bad Swamp Thing is the kitsch factor and that should be left alone. Also, if you read the article, it sounds more like Silver is concerned with capitalizing on the medium of 3-D instead of searching for a film that would actually work well with the gimmick. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon with the first property he can find, maybe he should focus on a finding a project that works on its own. I would jump aboard this though if it got a decent enough writer that would follow Alan Moore's work with the comics, but if anybody's ever read what Silver said his version of Watchmen would have been like, I seriously doubt we could see the representation of the un-commercial work of Moore make the big-screen horror/3-D market.

Cinematical has an interview up with Patton Oswalt. If there is anybody that actually reads my blog, you may recall that I've been saying from what I've seen, I am very much hoping for an Oscar caliber performance from Oswalt in Big Fan, which debuted yesterday. Do I think it will happen, not a shot in hell, but I'm still very much a supporter of this film even though it came nowhere near me and once again, I will probably have to wait for the DVD release before I can enjoy it. The directorial debut of Robert D. Siegel looks great though, and if you are like me and awaiting your chance to see this, the interview should tide you over for a bit.

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Before Frank Darabont directed the seminal classic The Shawshank Redemption, he was known to some cinema-lovers as one of the scribes on the failed remake of the bizarre horror flick, The Blob. After reading a Variety article that Rob Zombie, director of Halloween II, opening today actually, was working on a script treatment for another remake of the Steve McQueen starring 1958 original version to start production after his music tour this winter, the Darabont connection was the most positive comment I could think of, for a director that I generally enjoy. I loved watching the Zombie hosted TCM Underground, so I know the director himself has decent taste. His original films, The Devil's Rejects for example, work as exploitative throwback homages to the films he enjoyed in a different era. Yet, when he took on John Carpenter's excellent Halloween, a film I still consider to be one of the scariest ever made despite the passage of time, I couldn't see how he expected to top it, and if that wasn't his goal, why even soil the name of the fantastic slasher? But the most unsettling part about the read beyond the link is not that Zombie may potentially destroy the kitschy 50's horror movie, but that they quote the White Zombie front man as saying that his "intention is not to have a big red blobby thing". Maybe next, he can ruin Tod Browning's Freaks, you know, without the freaks... Ridiculous.

A film that I've not heard very much about is Agora, set to be released this December, starring Rachel Wiesz and directed by Alejandro Amenabar. The film is the supposed true story retelling of the life of Hypatia of Alexandria. My personal opinion thus far coincides with a good user review I saw on the film's IMDb page, pretty much insinuating that Weisz looks incredible in a film that she is too good for. Still, I will probably give this thing a chance, provided my mind hasn't completed imploded, seeing that this film will follow Avatar.


I was a bit turned off when I heard rumors a while back about a Heathers remake. Variety this morning pretty much confirms that it will no longer happen, although it is in the worst way possible, via the announcement that Fox is pursuing the property to be re-worked as a series... being penned by Sex and the City's Jenny Bicks. I mean sure, maybe it is unfair to judge by the screenwriter's other work, seeing that Daniel Waters, the original scribe of the 1989 Michael Lehmann film, went on the next year to write one of the worst movies of all time, the Andrew Dice Clay disaster, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Still, it gives an insomniac movie blogger something to bitch about.

I mentioned up there that Halloween II comes out today. Of course, this is the most commercial release of the week, and something I actually intend on seeing. Zombie's version of Halloween I actually thought would have been great if it was a film of itself, but operating within the shadow of Carpenter's great movie, just didn't have enough strength to live up to the original. I still think Zombie's second part in the series has a tall order in matching up to Carpenter's sequel effort, which was panned by about half of the critics. I have watched every Halloween film though, and can't wait to see if Zombie can prove my preconceptions wrong. This is still not my most anticipated film of the week though. That prestige belongs to Robert D. Seigel's directorial debut in the Patton Oswalt starring dramedy Big Fan. The trailer to the film looked absolutely excellent, and I have already blogged on how I hope Oswalt's performance matches what the trailer teases, as he could be considered for an everyman choice at the Academy Awards. Also this week, we have another sports movie, The Open Road, starring the interesting combination of Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges that if, for nothing else, would be worth watching just for that pairing. And finally, The Final Destination gets a wide release this week, ruining any credibility to the 3-D medium that all the Avatar hype has installed this past week.

Notice I mentioned Avatar twice? Well, it's getting to the point where I can foresee being required to mention James Cameron's upcoming effort daily on this blog. Today's piece of choice, via Cinematical, a video of Hitler's disliking the hype, in the much used clip of Bruno Ganz' brilliant Downfall performance. It may be sad that Ganz' pitch-perfect acting skills will be more remembered as an Internet meme than the masterful performance that it was, but you can't help but be entertained.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Yesterday, whilst blogging about the first shot of Sigourney Weaver in James Cameron's upcoming science fiction opus, Avatar, I spoke briefly on how we were yet to get to a complete media onslaught. Perhaps, I was wrong, as two major stories come from the film today. First is the unprecedented news that fifty IMAX theaters have already began pre-sales to the midnight showing of the flick that is rumored to revolutionize the medium of 3-D, on December 18th, a full four months and some odd days away. Even more shocking that 20th Century Fox has already started pre-sales is the fact that, via an article at Variety, MovieTickets and Fandango have already reported "healthy" sales for Avatar. This means another day I have to request off of work tomorrow.

Secondly, and quite possibly the stupidest story I've reported in some time, Fathom Studios, according to Movieline, is threatening to sue Cameron and Fox over the similarities between one of the biggest flops in cinematic history, the animated Delgo, and Cameron's upcoming Avatar. This whole story began last week after the debut of Avatar's trailer, when some of the more underwhelmed fans didn't buy into all the hype that had been generating over Cameron's supposed masterpiece, found a few stills that looked similar to the horrendous Delgo, posted a side-by-side comparison, and let the ridicule flow. I find it hard to believe that anybody at Fathom Studios, who more than likely lost personal money on this, could believe that one of the modern masters of the science fiction genre would steal an idea from an animated flick aimed mainly at children, that holds the record for worst box office intake for a film opening in 2,000 or more theaters. In fact, with the little independent CGI picture having a budget of roughly $40 million, and a gross of just under $695,000, the film took home an approximate loss of $39,305,000. As for what the critics thought, Delgo currently holds a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. To make the entire fiasco even more confusing, Fox currently holds the home video distribution rights to the 2008 disaster. Although, on a side note, the last Cameron film to face a frivolous lawsuit was The Terminator, after Harlan Ellison sued Cameron for a writing credit after the director claimed to have been influenced by two episodes of The Outer Limits that Ellison had wrote. Ellison now holds an "acknowledgment to the works of" credit on the home video/DVD versions of Terminator, let's just hope that while sitting in the IMAX in four months, we don't have to read a credit to Marc F. Adler. Who? Exactly.

In other news, USA Today reported that Steven Spielberg is going to team up again with the late Michael Crichton, in an adaptation of his upcoming posthumous release of Pirate Latitudes. Of course, the team is best known for collaborating on the visually stunning 1993 movie Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World. The article also states that DreamWorks has tapped the talent of David Koepp, the screenwriter that adapted the aforementioned Crichton novels into Spielberg films will be returning. With a lot of Spielberg news going here and there lately, including a remake of Harvey and the big screen version of XBox's Halo, we are yet to learn if he will direct or just produce the film. Either way, possibly something to look forward to.

I've mentioned Werner Herzog in the last few blogs after seeing that he has an upcoming film with My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. One thing I have yet to mention though, is one of the more entertaining aspects of the director's personal life, was his estranged friendship with the ever-so bizarre actor Klaus Kinski, most notably highlighted in the unique documentary My Best Friend. Therefore, it is perfect timing that Cinematical has a good compilation of behind-the-scenes blow-ups from Kinski, including his work in two Herzog greats, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.

Finally, Geekologie led me to an interesting site called ThreeFrames. Simple, entertaining concept. A preview...

Wendesday, August 26th, 2009

Ever since the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar dropped last week, the Internet has been abuzz with claims of disappointment, or if possible, even more unbridled giddy anticipation. For me, it is a bit of the latter, and now MarketSaw continues to build this eagerness by posting magazine scans from Empire's feature on the science fiction flick due out in December. In it, we finally see Sigourney Weaver's avatar. We also get the high definition picture of Zoe Saldana's Neytiri character. Since the San Diego Comic Con, we've been seeing the one still of Neytiri over and over, but the scan on MarketSaw is fantastically realistic. Let's hope that we don't get a huge media onslaught on this in the coming months, as I would prefer to go into the theaters knowing as little as I do now.

The Sun has a story up today claiming that Megan Fox has been signed on to play Catwoman in the inevitable sequel to The Dark Knight. One reason we know that this is bogus, is that it casually mentions that she will be working with the returning Christopher Nolan, whom we all know is nowhere close to making a decision about his involvement in continuing the latest Batman film franchise. Oh, and it is also The Sun. Cinematical has an entertaining poll up on what our favorite Batman 3 rumor has been thus far, which after reading over it, you realize they were probably all at one time a story in The Sun. What I think was the most entertaining of the rumors... Eddie Murphy as the Riddler. However, after Joel Schumacher's appalling cinematic abortions from the mid-90's I fear that there is a few ounces to truth to each of these claims.

Scoping out all the regular movie blogs this evening and I ran across a story from The Hollywood Reporter, that stated "Invincible director helm next XXX", or something to the effect. Of course, the story is speaking of the film XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, the third in the painfully terrible action trilogy, being directed by Ericson Core, the man behind the 2006 film Invincible, a true story about the Philadelphia Eagles' Vince Papale, as portrayed by Mark Wahlberg. I was shocked and hurt a little inside though when I originally read the catch of the article, as when I hear the title Invincible, I instantly picture the very underrated 2001 flick, a fable of a Jewish strongman that co-starred Tim Roth, directed by the brilliant Werner Herzog. Luckily, I was way off, and I will not have to care about the new XXX.

Taking Woodstock comes out today for the unusual Wednesday release. The film is directed by Ang Lee based on Elliot Tiber's autobiography on his involvement in 1969's Woodstock Festival. The film looks intriguing, yet I've only read bad reviews. Seeing that it is getting a limited release, I'll probably wait until DVD time to make my consensus.

I watched Pearl Jam's new video "The Fixer" tonight. Quite good, especially considering it was only their second music video in seventeen years, the other being the astounding Todd McFarlane animated "Do the Evolution". I wasn't going to put it on this blog however, until I ran across the video on Cinematical, as they informed me that filmmaker Cameron Crowe was the director of the video. Enjoy.

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Yesterday I began the ol' blog with a picture of Todd McFarlane's rather "twisted" vision of Dorothy Gale and the munchkins. Today, seeing that the news world was quite slow, I got this deviantART picture off of Cinematical, of a darker version of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The picture brings up the inevitable question with the dark fairy tale trend (see: The Girl in the Red Riding Hood and yesterday's main topic of a supposed sequel to The Wizard of Oz), when will we get a fitting darker version of Snow White, that is not the 1997 TV movie Snow White: A Tale of Terror, starring Sigourney Weaver. Don't get me wrong, I love Ripley, but that movie just wasn't my cup of tea if you get me. Also, does anybody ever think we will see a cinematic version of Alan Moore's very adult comic Lost Girls, a story telling the sexual exploits of three fairy tale icons, Wendy of Peter Pan, Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the only other version of Dorothy that could be more sexualized than McFarlane's unsettling toys?

SciFiMoviePage has an audio interview with District 9 director Neill Blomkamp up, in which the director notes that the studio is interested in pursuing the sequel, although he doesn't confirm his own thoughts, or any possibilities that we could see this. Also, would a sequel, in which we no longer have the good open ending, ruin the mystery of the first film? I suppose it is inevitable, and no amount of complaining or logic could stop it. I just hope the screenplay matches its predecessor in the intelligence department and doesn't fall into the Transformers-esque cash cow sci-fi flick.

Speaking of sequels, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a sequel to Hancock is being penned. Personally, I could live without it.

MTV has a pretty good article giving us five facts from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds that we probably don't know.

/Film has a decent interview with Terry Gilliam posted on his upcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Gilliam is always an interesting enough read; however, Cinematical's Monika Bartyzel has an interesting article up pointing out the fact that Gilliam stated he would love to work with Pixar, even going as far to compare it to Walt Disney and Salvador Dali's pairing in the short Destino that I featured a few weeks back. A good, thought-provoking read. Personally, I think if classic Disney animation can pair up with a Philip K. Dick story for King of the Elves in a few years, Pixar Animation could definitely pick the obscurely entertaining brain of Gilliam.

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I've spotted the 1939 fantasy family classic The Wizard of Oz on several movie blogs today. Some have put in their two cents on the incredible achievement of still being very relevant today, despite the film turning seventy this year. Others have noted a possible sequel being mentioned by way of the Daily Express. More in particular, some blogs have focused on the rumor of Dakota Fanning taking on the role of Dorothy, while others have been focusing on a quote by co-producer Todd McFarlane stating that in this possible sequel from Warner Brothers the character of Dorothy would be more comparable to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley from Alien more so than Judy Garland's turn as the most celebrated cinematic version of L. Frank Baum's leading lady. This "dark" turn may sound shocking, but I'm quite surprised that none of the movie blogs have screeched to a halt while reading this and collectively said, "Holy shit! Todd McFarlane!?". Yeah, the accompanied picture is from McFarlane's "Twisted Land of Oz" toy series. The blindfolded, lingerie-clad, KISS boots-wearing, busty epitome of sexually charged S&M being dominated by some kind of perverted mutants is McFarlane's idea of Dorothy and the sweet little munchkins. I'm not saying this idea would be wholly unwelcome, as I would prefer to have a horror/sexploitation reimagining of the film rather than a failed Hollywood cash cow sequel. I am saying however, that of all the movie blogs I check daily, none of them connected McFarlane and Baum's sacred land of Oz to these very adult toys? Shotty journalism.

Another very interesting story, coming from DeadCentral is that John Landis, made famous by Schlock, An American Werewolf in London, Innocent Blood and the Michael Jackson video/short film Thriller, will be returning to the horror/comedy genre. The film, Burke and Hare, will be based upon a real life crime duo, William Burke and William Hare (check out their Wikipedia page, very interesting) that would kill people and sell their bodies for money during early 1800's Scotland. Oh, and get this, not only should we be excited that Landis is aboard, but Simon Pegg (known for his work with Edgar Wright in the subgenre) is also rumored to be starring in the film.

Spike Jonze's upcoming Where the Wild Things Are just keeps getting better and better. I've seen a few trailers, but I have yet to come across the fact that Karen O, of Yeah Yeah Yeahs fame, is doing several original recordings for the soundtrack that can be listened to for free on the movie's MySpace page right now. I almost can't see how this film can possibly live up to my expectations.

Inglourious Basterds easily took this weekend's box office, also setting a record for a Quentin Tarantino directed film and easily beating last week's top entry, District 9. The only other debut in the top ten would be from frequent Tarantino collaborator Robert Rodriguez in his children's flick Shorts in the six spot. So for next week, does Tarantino's Nazi themed epic stand a chance to stay atop in the wake of Halloween II's release?

Finally, Daily Star has an article stating that Robin Williams has been asked to play breakout Internet star and famed Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle. I personally imagine that Williams wasn't talking about a biopic, and possibly a future Saturday Night Live sketch, but whatever.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe)

On Wednesday, I featured the new trailer for the film My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done on the blog. Upon watching it though, I was slightly disappointed. Was it bad? Did it look like a terrible movie? Not at all, but coming from director Werner Herzog and producer David Lynch, I feel a little let down if I'm not completely mindfucked in a groundbreaking event of cinema. Also, regardless of how good the film turns out, it has given all of us movie bloggers a reason to talk about the two ingenious, truly original directors, in particularly Herzog's antics as director since he is helming the upcoming feature.

I'll start by saying, if the chance ever presents itself to watch a Werner Herzog interview, you'll be doing yourself a favor by doing so. Not only is most of his classic films engaging, the stories behind the camera is usually as fascinatingly entertaining as anything the visionary puts on screen. One great story he often tells when interviewed is about his somewhat bizarre 1970 film Even Dwarfs Started Small. In the film, to make the dwarfs feel more comfortable with his stunts and not feel exploited, Herzog jumped into a cactus for the sole entertainment of his mostly unknown cast of smaller actors. Yet, maybe his best behind-the-scenes story comes courtesy of two films in which he didn't take the director's chair.

The story begins in 1978 with documentarian Errol Morris and his very critically acclaimed movie, Gates of Heaven. The low budget documentary from newcomer Morris chronicled the daily lives of those involved in the pet cemetery business. The seemingly unmarketable film was eventual released and was even at one time on Roger Ebert's top ten films of all time in any genre. Morris' vision will be remembered for many things, but quite possibly more than all, it will be remembered for a wager that Herzog made with him, claiming he would eat his shoe if Gates of Heaven could be completed and secure a release in a public theater.

Being a man of his word, Herzog would fly in from Germany to the premiere of Morris' film at the UC Theater in Berkeley, California, and would prepare and cook the shoes he was wearing when he originally laid down the challenge. Herzog chose to eat the shoe in front of an audience in order to bring some much needed publicity to Morris' film, and would also invite another documentary filmmaker, Les Blank, along to keep the lenses on Herzog's entire adventure, ultimately making a short film that would be as fondly remembered as anything in any of the three men's careers, the twenty minute featured short tonight, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

The short highlights Herzog's entertaining personality, as well as being the first time Blank and Herzog would work together. Blank would go on to direct his most successful and popular feature-length film, Burden of Dreams, documenting the difficulties in the making of Herzog's highly praised Fitzcarraldo. I've never heard exactly why Blank was chosen as the director of this particular short, but I would personally expect it to be because at the same time he was working on a documentary Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers, focusing on cooking with garlic, one of the major preparations by Herzog and famed chef Alice Waters used on the shoe in the film. Maybe that in itself will be another great story to hear the director tell in an interview I've yet to see.

So without further adieu, enjoy the wonderful 1980 short, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

One of the few things I do involving social networking on the daily basis is check on the John Waters MySpace Fan Page to make sure the iconic cult filmmaker isn't doing something I'm missing. Since I've been blogging, I've yet to record any actual news regarding Waters working on a new project, but occasionally, I do get a self-portrait or some artwork that he is doing, the featured picture being from the Albert Merola Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. If you're bored, check out the site, see some of Waters' non-cinematic artwork, and also check out a new CD of live recordings from one of his most infamous leading ladies, the late Edith Massey.

Into actual news, I was shocked to hear today, via Deadline Hollywood Daily, that Martin Scorsese's upcoming, highly anticipated thriller Shutter Island, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, has been pushed back to a February 19th release date. Really, just the pairing of Scorsese and DiCaprio (other pairings being Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed) has gained attention as being an early contender for Oscar gold. Paramount Pictures gave the reasoning that they just didn't have the money to spend to push and promote the movie as an award contender in the late part of the year, giving it just a general release with hope for award contention in 2010. One promising note the article leaves us with, is that the release date the film now has set, is the exact date another popular thriller, the Academy Award winning The Silence of the Lambs was released in 1991. I personally hate the politics involved in securing the Oscar nomination anyhow, and award season or no, I'm still pretty stoked for this movie, and it gives me a reason to look forward to what would probably be a rather bland February in a cinephile's life.

On the topic of Leonardo DiCaprio, his production company Appian Way has announced, via Variety, who will helm the new feature film adaptation of the Little Red Riding Hood folktale, Catherine Hardwicke of Twilight fame. The brief article also gives us an official title of the movie, The Girl with the Red Riding Hood.

Variety also reports that Bryan Singer and Warner Brothers are set to remake John Boorman's 1981 version of the Excalibur story. Some of the special effects may be dated, but this is actually a fantasy film that I feel stands the test of time. I don't really see a need to reboot this thing, but with this past week's news of possible remakes of Dirty Dancing and Yellow Submarine, this would be a mild argument to take up.

Finally, all the web troubles with the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar seems to be resolved, so here it is. Enjoy.

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

A huge movie news day to be so late in the week. First, the cinema blogsphere has been in utter turmoil since the trailer for James Cameron's upcoming sci-fi opus Avatar debuted this morning. The high quality Apple trailer has had problems all day, and now, the version I seen before work courtesy of TrailerAddict is no longer working. So, in the coming days, as soon as I find a trailer that I can embed, I'll put it on my blog. Anyhow, the big question of the day is, did the trailer hold the impact that the buzz had made all of us anticipate? Cinematical's Erik Davis has a nice article about that topic. I feel that it keeps the buzz. It looked incredible and kept most of the story elements from us. We're still left in the dark, with just a smidgeon of visuals. I hope it stays that way, leaving us completely shocked with whatever Cameron gives us on the big screen in December.

Aside from not being able to access the Avatar trailer, the day was by no means short on movie previews, with CNN Video posting this premiere of the trailer for Michael Moore's latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story.


The Hollywood Reporter named the future scribes for the feature film Shazam! adaptation. Most blogs I went to today talked more of actor-turned-writer Billy Birch being part of the project, but I am more satisfied with the fact that his co-writer on the script will be Geoff Johns, a famed comic book writer that has worked with both DC and Marvel Comics. He is most famous for the work done with characters such as The Green Lantern, The Flash, Booster Gold, Hawkman, the Teen Titans, Batman and The Avengers. Oddly missing from that list is Captain Marvel, the hero of the Shazam! series. I'm not sure if Johns ever covered Billy Batson's alter ego in his work on the JLA comics or in his Infinite Crisis work, but it is always comforting to have an actual comics guy working on the screenplay.

ScriptShadow, a Blogspot account that reviews Hollywood scripts has come across Darren Aronofsky's upcoming effort Black Swan. I didn't read the entire review, as anybody that is even a casual fan of Aronofsky knows, you want to be left in the dark on the first viewing. With that said, you can't really go anywhere online today without finding out something on the script, and that is an included sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis' characters. Not just any sex scene at that, but an "angry aggressive" sex scene. I just hope not to be hit by any masturbation juices from the surrounding seats whilst watching the movie in theaters.

Yesterday, I touched on a bit of anger stemming from a potential Dirty Dancing remake. Today, via Variety, there is talk of a reimagining of the trippy animated Beatles cartoon Yellow Submarine. The film is to be put in the capable hands of Robert Zemeckis, through Walt Disney Studios, using his motion capture technology employed in the upcoming A Christmas Carol. The fact that Zemeckis is behind this still doesn't make me hate the idea any less. The movie works because it is trippy. If the Blue Meanies look like actual blue monsters, I refuse to watch it. I'm all for a reason to get The Beatles music back into the mainstream, a la the new Rock Band game, but is ruining a classic, that as far as I'm concerned isn't dated, the answer?

I won't be able to blog tomorrow as I have to work the graveyard shift. I'll be back on Saturday, but since I will not get to talk about it tomorrow, do not forget to go see Inglourious Basterds if you have the chance. I will more than likely have to wait until Saturday. Quentin Tarantino's film is really the only good thing coming to theaters this week. Robert Rodriguez has a film, in the same week as Tarantino. That would usually be reason to celebrate, but Rodriguez' flick is for kids, a film called Shorts that seem sub-par and as insufferably bad as his Spy Kids stuff. There is also about six other films that look watchable at first glance, but will all probably go unseen by me that I will not get into.

A rather long post, so I will end with the new trailer for Joe Johnston's The Wolfman. Quite good, enjoy.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Well, I said in the last blog that I would be back on Sunday, yet somehow in the past few days I've actually found something to do to keep me out long enough so that sleep is more important than blogging. Luckily, there hasn't been much movie news. Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson's District 9 took the box office, and a few other trivial things that I'll get to later.

Firstly, we'll bring Jackson back into the picture, as MarketSaw, a fellow Blogger member, has a post circulating three rather huge rumors on the upcoming film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tale The Hobbit, which got reported on several other major blog sites as well. To begin with, the most believable of the rumor mill, is that the films will be shot in 3-D. This really comes as no surprise seeing that Jackson was vocal during the San Diego Comic Con on converting The Lord of the Rings over to the format a few weeks ago. Another believable piece of the story is that Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro will be making the fantasy book's characters a little darker. This really comes as no surprise, especially an emphasis on Smaug, which I feel was rather dark in the first place. At the same time, I love the difference of tone from The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, so I hope that in connecting the films in the franchise, the unique tone of the book isn't lost. Lastly, the article mentions that there will be a third film, bridging the two works, and that Jackson will return as director for the bridge movie. This gets to a point that is debatable, no matter how capable Jackson's hands are. What do you think? Also, should we trust a Blogspot? Without looking further into the MarketSaw subsite, I could easily assume it is a fledging college student/grocery store bag boy/cinephile like myself that created a massive rumor to stir up site traffic.

A story that I missed over the past few days of absence was that Robert Downey, Jr. was being rumored to play the vampire Lestat in a new film based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. Today, BSC has a few quotes from Rice herself on the topic of Downey becoming the third actor to take on the role of the lead vampire. The article still doesn't confirm or dismiss the original speculation.

Speaking of vampires, I found a rather odd item circulating the cinema blogsphere... a Twilight themed dildo. From the tiny bit of the description I could bring myself to read, I understand that it sparkles like Edward's skin, as well as having the "pale flesh tone reminiscent of a new moon's glow". Feeling left out of the apparently new "hip" thing of masturbating to Twilight, I looked up the more appropriate topic on Google search of a Star Wars sex toy. What I ended up finding was this terribly unsettling article from Landover Baptist Church's web site, about a boy having carnal relations with a seven foot replica of Jar Jar Binks.

ComingSoon has a story up that Lionsgate is developing a remake of the 1987 classic Dirty Dancing. Now, I bitch and moan a lot, but there's very few news items I report on here that would cause me to go out and protest, and I'll be damned if Lionsgate didn't pull one of those scenarios out of the hat when I just imagined someone other than Patrick Swayze saying "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".

Finally, the other day, a new trailer for the David Lynch produced, Werner Herzog directed flick My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done debuted. I have to admit, it looks watchable, but coming from the minds of Lynch and Herzog, as a team, I am quite disappointed that I'm not blown away watching this. Still, I think it is worth your time.


P.S. As an added bonus for my absence, here is the more than likely illegal way I spent an afternoon the other day, watching Martin Scorsese's 1976 masterpiece Taxi Driver on YouTube.

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Geekologie has a very impressive photo gallery of a home decked out in Star Wars memorabilia that would certainly make almost any collector, big or small, extremely jealous.

It's been a rather slow news day, topped by an article on HitFix that claims Bryan Singer will produce, as well as possibly direct, a new big screen adaption of Battlestar Galactica. I've never really gotten into Battlestar, but hey, we can't all be into everything, we just merely don't have the time. So, this news doesn't rise up anger or happiness, so I'm curious to know what a fanboy of the franchise would say. The linked article is accompanied by a picture of concept art that looks very different from anything I've seen.

Also, Rachel McAdams accidentally, or the way Cinematical put it, purposefully, yet blissfully unaware, gave the plot of The Time Traveler's Wife away during her guest spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I've yet to watch the clip as there is a chance I may accompany the lady to it yet, but I'm sure this doesn't help McAdams future, at least in anything that the plot should be closely guarded.

Well, it is Friday, and a big one at that. District 9 is the big talk of the week. The reviews are nothing short of amazing. Also, not only does this look to be a smart science fiction film, but it is a smart science fiction film, that at least to some point, has some influence from producer Peter Jackson. However, I have to admit, even if Jackson's name wasn't on this thing, I think I would still be stoked after watching Neill Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg, and watching the trailers for the flick over the past few weeks. I'm also quite excited about Hayao Miyazaki's latest effort, Ponyo. When watching the trailer, it looks like it could possibly be one of Miyazaki's worst films. The truly great thing about Miyazaki though, it looks like it could be a contender for one of the best of the year. The limited release is a bit disappointing, seeing that I am driving to Lexington (about a two or so hour drive) next week just to watch it. But never seeing a Miyazaki film on the big screen, that will be a worthwhile event. So, we have a smart, intriguing science fiction potential blockbuster, and another beautifully animated masterpiece from the king of Japanese anime. Therefore, everything else looks terrible in comparison. The unfortunate contenders include The Time Traveler's Wife. It will be a contender for the box office, but the romantic tale will more than likely fail in comparison to the rest of the weekend's fare. Not saying that as a completely bad thing, as it is a "chick flick" that quite easily put me aboard. Another movie that may have had a chance to make an impact on another weekend is the raunchy Jeremy Piven comedy about car salesmen, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. With Ed Helms co-starring in it, I think most will be disappointed to find it not as hilarious as The Hangover, but if it can be funny enough to overcome the hurdle of making us forget any comparison, it will exceed my expectations.

Finally, I probably won't blog tomorrow. I'm going to Dollywood. I searched for some kind of clip connecting the park and films. I found several references from TV, including American Dad!, The Simpsons, Sealab 2021 and The Drew Carey Show. I eventually read that it is mentioned on the 1992 film Captain Ron, but to post a clip of that would be insulting to any would-be readers. So, I'll just say adieu, and I will be back with a short film or something special to make up for the absence on Sunday.

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

To say that Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a disappointment, even compared to the lackluster X-Men: The Last Stand, would be a vast understatement. It was nonetheless, met with a decent box office return, and right after the release, star Hugh Jackman talked openly on how he wanted a sequel that would cover Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's classic Wolverine story arc. With Jackman claiming that the plot was being actively pursued, it comes as a great surprise for all us comic-to-movie fans that Christopher McQuarrie has been signed on to direct the yet untitled sequel, via The Hollywood Reporter. McQuarrie is best known as the Academy Award winning writer of Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects. I mean, how could the man who created the brilliance of Keyser Soze go on to make something on the level of the last two films in the X-Men franchise? Also, it is to be noted that McQuarrie done some work on the original X-Men, directed by Singer in 2000, until David Hayter took over. With Hayter doing a decent amount of re-writes, he gained sole credit from the Writers Guild of America, with Singer and Tom DeSanto gaining credit for "story". So, he was associated with the franchise when it was still very much enjoyable.

One upcoming film that has yet to grab me, Legion, debuted a red band trailer today. The Paul Bettany-starring "Christian-themed fantasy-thriller" as Wikipedia puts it seems rather creepy. I love the old woman saying that the unborn child will "fucking burn" in a sweet voice. Anyhow, the loading for this thing was miserable, so I'm just going to link to IWatchStuff's page with the trailer. See what you think.

Neatorama has posted a video of a man who created the Batmobile tumbler from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight out of a go-kart.

Avatar's official site has updated to give information on what it is calling "Avatar Day", when the preview that supposedly wowed all the critics and spectators at the San Diego Comic Con will be available for the general public via a few select 3-D IMAX Theaters. Of course, this means for people like myself that live in a town that is getting Funny People as a new attraction tomorrow, seeing this is a little out of question unless I want to drive the distance of a short vacation.

Finally, I will end with promoting the John Hughes documentary Don't You Forget About Me... again. I recently found the trailer for the flick, and for the first time realized that Kevin Smith is in this thing. So, take a look and see if you are as impressed as I am with the story of a few fans going on a road trip to satisfy a cinephiliac urge. Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

So, for the past week, I've been keeping the passing of John Hughes as a major topic on the blog, and for more fuel for this ongoing topic, I find that it has been swept under the table on most news outlets, and I'm a bit perturbed that The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles hasn't been in heavy rotation on cable. I'm also shocked at how little coverage the documentary Don't You Forget About Me, which I spoke of yesterday, is getting. The film, which chronicles the journey of four young filmmakers attempting to find out what has become of the reclusive director, and possibly get an interview with him seemed like a great idea already, catching my interest when I read about it in Geek Monthly before the tragedy of Hughes' death. There's just something about a road trip to satisfy a passion of cinema that plucks at the ole cinephile's heartstrings. I've been reading further about the film today, and I've still not been able to spoil the ending and find out if they ever did actually get the interview with Hughes or not, but that will be a selling point of the film, however it is distributed. One of the interesting tidbits in the movie that I can't wait to see is the interview with Roger Ebert, as he retracts many of the disparaging comments he made during the initial reviews of some of Hughes' teenage fare of the 80's. I will be keeping an eye on the film as it progresses through trying to find a distributor, as well as the talents behind it, who will most certainly be taking to the media circuits to discuss the untimely death of Hughes. In fact, I found that they also share a blog on Blogspot, which I now follow, so any news, trailers, release dates or anything further I'll pass along.

For a bit more on Hughes, the picture accompanying my blog today is from an article out of the New York Times, written by Molly Ringwald, recounting her days as the iconic director's muse, very appropriately titled The Neverland Club. A good read.

Also, speaking of the Brat Pack, Cinematical uncovered a story that loosely deals with Emilio Estevez. One of the true cult classics of the 80's that starred the Breakfast Club alum, Repo Man may be getting a sequel. Actually, the director of the film, Alex Cox, claims it will be a "freestanding film", called Repo Chick, that shares the same mind as the original. Interesting, but is this really a good idea? At the very least, it gets Repo Man into the public spectrum again.

Variety reports that Universal Studios has partnered with 20th Century Fox for their annual Halloween Horror Nights event at the Hollywood theme park, meaning that they now have the rights to stage a short tribute version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. To me, there is no better way to spend Halloween than seeing The Rocky Horror Show live; however, when Universal does this festival, I hear they go all out, so I am a bit envious of those who will get to see their live version. Let's hope it will be among the adult only attractions during the festival, as the raunchiness is what the live show is all about.

Variety also has a story announcing that David Mamet will take on the directorial job of a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank from Walt Disney Pictures. I'm not huge on Mamet like the rest of the blogsphere out there, so we'll wait to see what comes of this. With Disney behind it, I'm sadly picturing the Robot Chicken spoof of Hilary Duff in a modern day teen dramedy re-telling of this, actually happening.

Finally, I will end with more pirated footage of Kick-Ass from the San Diego Comic Con. IWatchStuff has four videos up, but the following excerpt, featuring Nicolas Cage shooting a little girl in the chest, may be the most entertained I've been in ages.

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

A while back, I read an article, that I can no longer find to link to, that stated that Paul Reubens' infamous man-child comic character Pee-Wee Herman would be returning to the big screen once again. I have always felt Reubens got a really raw deal when it came to his public image after the porn theater scandal. I mean, sure, he was the star of a children's show, but did the mothers' that kicked against his career ever care to look up the source material of his act, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, or the much viewed HBO special of it that was released to home video during his heyday. The generally subtle raunchy nuances was if anything, just a cliche in the very popular CBS morning show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. But since those days, we haven't seen much of the television personality with the red bow tie. Reubens, of course, went on to star in a few things like Mystery Men, Blow and a pretty funny guest spot on Reno 911! just off my memory, but the days of being the star of a feature film like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure passed long ago. So, with this thought of injustice over the misunderstood comic, I was devastated to read today, via Variety, that The Pee-Wee Herman Show was going to return for a special engagement in Hollywood, leaving many to speculate that plans for a new feature is a dead project. The article doesn't confirm it, but with no mention of a future for Reubens' creation, we cinephiles cannot expect much.

Just when it seemed that Michael Jackson would finally be out of, at the very least, the movie blogsphere, it was announced that a documentary of his final tour preparation would be released on October 30th, entitled This is It. The close to Halloween release date is fitting, as the article at Reuters states that some of the test footage was shot in 3-D, therefore we can only hope that this means a performance of "Thriller" in full, glorious use of the marketing gimmick. A Cinematical article also points out that the director of the documentary will be 80's choreographer Kenny Ortega, known from such great decade fare as Dirty Dancing and the late John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Speaking of which, with all the talk about one 80's icon being memorialized on screen with the King of Pop, when is all the blogs going to pick up and start talking about Don't You Forget About Me, a film chronicling a road trip to find the director before his death, by unknown filmmaker Matt Austin-Sadowski. I first read about the film in Geek Monthly, and just Google searched it for to find the directors' name for a reference point, and found an article on The Guardian stating that it had found a distribution deal. If some stranger happens up on this blog, and you do nothing else I implore you to do, look up this film, read a bit about, and if it pops up online, comes out to theaters, to DVD, jump aboard. It sounds very intriguing, and outside of a few blogs from Internet nobodies, it does seem that even in death, Hughes has been vastly overlooked.

Vulture has an interview with Bill Hader up, in which one of the topics discussed is the upcoming Saturday Night Live-inspired film MacGruber, including an apparent hard-R rating. For some reason, I've been gaining a bit of faith with the new cast of SNL after harboring some negative feelings by thinking they should do the impossible and live up to the likes of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, etc. Yet, I've still never really gotten aboard the enthusiasm train for the MacGruber skit, but Hader and Will Forte are both decent enough comedians and a hard-R rating at their capable hands probably gives me enough reason to get in the seats for this.

Cinematical's Kevin Kelly has a story up on how J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof has bought the rights to Stephen King's epic series of novels The Dark Tower. The article declares that the pre-production wouldn't even begin until after the 2010 conclusion of Lost, so we're still some time away; however, Kelly does sell me on reading The Dark Tower.

Finally, a star-studded (Zach Galifianakis, Henry Rollins, Ben Stiller, Olivia Wilde, Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, Alexis Bledel, Sargent Slaughter of WWF fame, Chuck Liddell and many more) video from FunnyOrDie has been released, in a bit of a mock-up of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Enjoy.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Monday, August 10th, 2009

I can remember reading something earlier this year announcing that the Marvel/Icon comic Kick-Ass was going to be adapted into a film. Always willing to jump aboard a comic book movie, despite never reading or knowing anything about this, I saw that Christopher Mintz-Plasse was casted as one of the heroes in the movie, put it on a shelf of intriguing must-sees in my sub-conscience, and never really looked much more up about it. Well, today I go to IWatchStuff to see some good old fashioned pirated previews from the San Diego Comic Con on behalf of this film, and wow, did it blow me away. Upon further inspection, I found out that the comic looks certifiably bad ass, hence the caption on the image up there "Sickening violence: just the way you like it". The ongoing series is written by Mark Millar, of Wanted and Civil War fame, and illustrated by the legendary artist John Romita, Jr. The film itself also has a few credentials that would get me into the seat. The superhero fare will be helmed by Matthew Vaughn, the director of what I feel was the most underrated film of 2007, Stardust. Also, the lead character Kick-Ass, secret identity Dave Lizewski, will be portrayed by Aaron Johnson. Personally, I really know nothing about the up and coming British actor, but in a gruesomely, excuse the expression, kick-ass film, it will be much easier to get my girlfriend in the seats on opening night since he is best known, according to Wikipedia at any rate, from starring in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, an adaptation of one of her favorite author's, Louise Rennison's, novels. However, take away all of the credits, if I had no clue who any of the involved parties were, take a look at this leaked trailer, as it will most likely be deleted in the upcoming days, and try not to be excited for this.


The Los Angeles Times has an interesting interview with Louise Leterrier, the director of The Incredible Hulk. Among other things, Leterrier gives his bid to direct the upcoming Marvel film The Avengers, as well as giving a very thought provoking vision of what the film could be. I highly doubt that anything Leterrier says will come to fruition, but it will definitely become the basis of what fanboys use to judge the actual direction Marvel will take.

Nothing too shocking at the box office this weekend, with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra taking the top spot, followed by another debut in Julie and Julia. The most saddening news looking at the results is that Charlyne Yi's semi-documentary Paper Heart only grabbed the 25th spot, barely edging out the terrible The Taking of Pelham 123 in its ninth week. Next week, I'm curious if G.I. Joe can gain a second go at the top against District 9.

The Boston Globe had a few announcements courtesy of hometown Boston directors, The Farrelly Brothers', upcoming biopic on The Three Stooges. First, after Sean Penn announced he would drop out of the role of portraying Larry Fine some time back, it was announced the Jim Carrey, whom was once rumored to be playing Curly Howard was out as well. Some good news though came as well, that Paul Giamatti, a good actor that visually looks similar, will replace Penn as Larry.

Finally, a new trailer for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. After a few looks at Jonze's rendition of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book, it still looks absolutely flawless. Enjoy.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Alive in Joburg)

Yesterday, whilst blogging about the speculation of Steven Spielberg producing a big screen version of the hugely popular XBox game Halo, I mentioned that I would fill in a bit of time between the production of the failed Peter Jackson/Neill Blomkamp Halo to their new project, next Friday's District 9. The story actually begins with the 2005 South African short film by Blomkamp, Alive in Joburg. The nearly six minute science fiction film deals with a documentary style of interviewing characters in Johannesburg, South Africa about a group of extraterrestrials being contained by the government. The film takes place in 1990, when South Africa was still under apartheid, and puts the alien refugees among the already oppressed black population.

Taking a passenger seat to the unique use of the cinema verite technique in a genre picture, and the heavy topic of race relations in a very short film was the special effects. One thing Blomkamp lacked in his short was a budget, but a good head for a science fiction picture was there. And to say that the former television commercial director still created some decent effects with a low budget would be a vast understatement. The first of the film, in which the aliens are inside the technologically advanced bio-suits, looked like it could be right at home in a well developed video game. This could have been a reason that Blomkamp was picked up as the director for the film adaptation of Halo, a highly anticipated flick with an already built-in hardcore fan base in his debut feature. It wasn't meant to be though, as development hell would grab producer Peter Jackson's project by the throat.

As bad as this would seem on paper, it was a great beginning for Blomkamp, as Jackson became so impressed, that he decided to just place the young director's talent elsewhere, and commissioned Alive in Joburg to be expanded into a feature length film, to be produced and distributed by Jackson's WingNut Films. This project, of course, is what would eventually become this week's big conversation point, District 9. One casting note in this now highly anticipated sci-fi motion picture is that of Sharlto Copley, a producer for the short in which it is based. Copley can also be seen around the 3:22 mark of the short featured below.

So, if you are like me and think that District 9 has the possibility to be the next big thing, watch this short and be entertained. Enjoy, and just think of what could be done with roughly 106 more minutes and some $30 million extra.

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

With the upcoming release of Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson's science fiction film District 9 upon us, there has been a lot of talk of the origins of the film, as the movie came to fruition during the development of a big screen adaptation of the XBox game, Halo (More on what happened from Halo to District 9 tomorrow). Of course, I don't think any fan of the genre is terribly upset that the development hell of the immensely popular video game adaptation spawned what looks to be an incredible work; however, it has sparked a good bit of conversation on if we'll ever actually see Master Chief grace the big screen. I have always been a Nintendo enthusiast, using Sony as a dirty, artistically beautiful mistress, leaving no room for the ring of death gamble, so an adaptation of the game isn't moistening my pants exactly. Yet, when it was announced that Jackson would be behind the film, it caught my attention, and now, the new rumor, via IESB, is that Steven Spielberg will be taking the reigns as producer of the film after falling in love with Stuart Beattie's screenplay treatment. Will this spark the interest of the broad cinephile spectrum again? I am also curious to find out if hardcore fans of the game are stoked about this. I mean, really, how could they not at least be slightly excited. Given, I would take Jackson over Spielberg, but we're not exactly talking about a Uwe Boll here. As a note, I realize the picture is of Spielberg holding the Nintendo Wii game, Boom Blox Bash Party, in which he actually developed. It would have been more relevant to show him holding a copy of Halo, or at the very least BioShock, which the aforementioned article brings up as proof that Spielberg is a bit of a gamer. So, in short, Google Image failed me.

Aside from Halo, there is really no other cinema news worth repeating, so I thought I'd take this time of empty space to share a few articles I was reading about John Hughes before I decided to look up the day's happenings. First, ABC News has an article counting down the top five musical moments of the late director's films. Paste Magazine counts down the top ten films written by the very underrated Hughes, the list being topped by The Breakfast Club. The true testament to how influential and awesome Hughes was, is that as much of a staple as The Breakfast Club is, that spot is almost debatable. Finally, here is the ghetto scene from National Lampoon's Vacation, which was written by Hughes. In fact, it was the short story this film was based upon, Vacation '58, that kick started his career at National Lampoon Magazine. Enjoy, and once again, rest in peace.


P.S., ToyRocket has a decent sale. I find it relevant enough to this blog, as plenty of film merchandise and collectables a splayed across the sale.

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Yesterday, in the midst of mourning over the loss of the 80's icon John Hughes, I mentioned the casting news for Robert Rodriguez' upcoming exploitation film Machete. Today, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story that the remake of the 60's science fiction sexploitation Barbarella is starting development back. At first read, this may seem that Rodriguez is single-handedly bringing back the beloved kitschy era of cinema, yet upon closer inspection of the THR article, Rodriguez is out as director (as rumored some time back), and now taking over is Robert Luketic, made famous by an IMDb resume of moderately watchable fare. Even more disheartening is the fact that the writer Joe Gazzam plans on keeping the sexuality and science fiction elements of the original, but trying to produce a film without the campy nature that the original was known and loved for. Almost every blog I've visited tonight is in agreement that this is a bad idea, and is alienating the built in fan base. I will link to Monika Bartyzel's article on Cinematical, which pretty much sums up the collective view from the blogsphere. I tend to think it will end up watching like a direct-to-DVD Species sequel myself. The only good news is that the original film's producer Dino De Laurentiis, along with his wife Martha, will be returning as producers in the reboot as well.

I reported that LatinoReview had announced Stephen Chow's replacement as Kato in The Green Hornet as Kwon Sang-woo. Today, MovieWeb released a conflicting article stating that Taiwanese actor Jay Chou will be the man stepping into the role. Chou may be a little more recognizable to American audiences, having starred in Curse of the Golden Flower, which saw a stateside release. Whatever the case, I'm still not really concerned. As long as the actor is somewhat talented, my unrelenting faith in the director-writer combination of Michel Gondry, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, makes me think that it will turn out spectacular.

It's Friday, which means a batch of new films are being released, three of which will be in wide circulation. The big one, and sure box office winner will be Stephen Sommer's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The mixed response (Rotten Tomatoes updated score for the film is at 38%) has me more curious than anything. I also have had the mental debate of how terrible the super suits make this thing seem, and how awesome Ray Park's Snake Eyes and Sienna Miller's Baroness make it appear to be a feasibly good popcorn summer flick. There is also Julie and Julia. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to classify this as a chick flick, but the fact that Meryl Streep is almost always amazing, and even gives Dan Aykroyd a run for his money in her Julia Childs will definitely make it watchable. Finally, A Perfect Getaway, another horror film promising a plot twist, just two weeks after Orphan. I'm speculating that this will be terrible.

Buried beneath the wide releases this week are a few noteworthy films. First, Paper Heart, a self-proclaimed "hybrid documentary" starring the underrated Charlyne Yi along with Michael Cera. The film looks interesting, original, and most intriguing of all, being Yi's screenwriting debut, the film took home the coveted Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Also, another horror/comedy film for the year, this time with a good bit of historical adventure thrown in, via the film I Sell the Dead. The film stars the appealing trio of Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman and Larry Fessenden (whom was mentioned in a recent blog as the director for the English speaking remake of The Orphanage). And finally, Cold Souls, which stars Paul Giamatti playing an actor of the same name, driving himself further and further to psychologically prepare for a role. The film looks to be a quirky comedy completely driven on the talent of Giamatti, which probably is a decent idea. So all in all, about five watchable films this week.

Finally, the trailer for Terry Gilliam's highly anticipated The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was released today. It looks like vintage Gilliam, ala Time Bandits or Jabberwocky with an Oscar-worthy cast and a bit more budget. I don't really see how this can fail. Enjoy.