Friday, September 11th, 2009

It seems like The Walt Disney Company has been dominating the news lately ever since their acquisition of Marvel Comics. However, at the Disney D23 Expo, the company has been making huge movie geek news here and there, satisfactorily enough to make us forget about the entire Marvel ordeal for a day. First, and the most mainstream, Johnny Depp showed up at the event dressed in full costume as Captain Jack Sparrow and announced the title to the fourth installment of his swashbuckling franchise would be Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, to be released during summer 2011. The same article on ComingSoon also pins down the release date to Pixar's first live action endeavor, John Carter of Mars, as Summer 2012.

The other big news coming from the Disney exposition comes from Guillermo del Toro. The director spoke to the audience via satellite from New Zealand on location for some production work on The Hobbit (enough to get the story on my blog), where along with Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook announced that the incredible fantasy/horror director will be taking on a new horror label for Disney entitled Disney's Double Dare You. Via Cinematical, the label will come out with "a line of animated films, books and merchandise". The first project is a movie based on an original idea of del Toro's called Trollhunters, which we know nothing about.

Outside of the world of Disney, Variety reports a potentially good piece of casting news in the form of Jeff Bridges re-teaming with the Coen Brothers, taking on the one role that would win John Wayne an Academy Award, Rooster Cogburn, in the upcoming adaptation of the 1968 western, True Grit. This is exciting for a few reasons. First, Bridges will be teaming up with the Coens for the first time since churning out one of the greatest of all time, The Big Lebowski. Secondly, though not exactly a western per say, the Coens' No Country for Old Men was the first time I've really jumped aboard the fan wagon of something close to a western since I watched the incredible Clint Eastwood-starring the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when I was just a young lad, and look forward to what they could do by submerging themselves entirely into the genre. And third, for the first time since he was an alcoholic Foghat fan in the 70's, my father will enjoy something culturally relevant.

With 9 garnering the Wednesday release this week, today seems to pump out a bland line-up. Sorority Row would probably be of the highest profile due to Carrie Fisher gracing it with her presence, despite the fact it looks to be a ridiculously predictable horror effort. There is also Peter Hyams' remake of Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, which may be worth watching with what looks like a decent cast and directed by the only guy with the audacity to direct a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, but will more than likely be forgettable. Whiteout also debuts, which without the draw of Kate Beckinsale wouldn't even be mentioned among the other films. And finally, Tyler Perry continues to milk the Madea character in Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself.

Finally, I came home in a wretched mood tonight. My day in a nutshell, I woke up after two hours of sleep, went to work to unload a truck with the main bosses present, got called into a ridiculous meeting in which among other topics was the fact that free pens to employees will be cut out to save the company thousands of dollars by the end of the year, therefore we will have to start supplying our own writing utensils, I escaped the meeting just in time to get to school a take a test that I had been stressing about all day, went home with a new ulcer, talked to my lovely fiancé for the three minutes I'm allowed before she crashes out and then somberly watched a documentary of 9/11 on The History Channel that was more heartbreaking than I initially recall the news coverage being. So I was left to cheer myself up by one of my favorite scenes in cinematic history. I don't think I divulge to most people that this cheers me up so. So without further adieu, maybe it will set your spirits a little higher on a rather somber day, the ending to Charlie Chaplin's beautiful City Lights.