Monday, November 9th, 2009

I've been following the rampant rumor mill that is speculating on whom will be Peter Parker's next villainous foe in Sam Raimi's looming Spider-Man 4. First, after it was announced that Bruce Campbell would return to the film franchise with a bigger role, fans instantly expected/wanted him to portray Mysterio. Next, Dylan Baker announced that the role of Dr. Curt Connors would return, giving many fans reason to believe that he would finally get to take on the transformation into The Lizard. However, Mania has thrown another villain into the pot today, saying that Rachel McAdams is up for the role of the Black Cat. The article also goes on to say that Raimi and company are currently looking to cast another male villain, possibly debunking the aforementioned two rumored, or at least adding a bit of confusion as the general consensus has been that a scaling down on the amount of villains occupying screen time would be cut back after the clusterfuckedness of Spider-Man 3's ending. Also, it was rather hard to get an image for the Black Cat, as Google Image returned back more pornography tributes for Felicia Hardy's alter ego than any other comic femme on the net. So, yeah, if you're into that, knock yourselves out. Anyhow, the picture I eventually found is courtesy of Kevin Smith's product site, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, as an avatar used for a signed copy of Spider-Man/Black Cat.

Three films debuted in the top five at the box office this week, with Robert Zemeckis' 3-D holiday film A Christmas Carol taking the top spot, and The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Fourth Kind garnering third and fourth respectively. This week also serves as the first time that Oren Peli's smash sleeper Paranormal Activity dropped in sales, landing at the five spot.

Fellow Blogger account Entertainment Web posted a massive gallery of a LEGO diorama of the ice planet Hoth as seen in The Empire Strikes Back.

Finally, with the ridiculous hysteria of The Twilight Saga: New Moon surely to take over the blogsphere in the coming weeks, it was refreshing to see a decent parody (replacing vampires with Frankenstein's monster[s]) of Twilight on Saturday Night Live the other night, that has been posted all across the Interwebs, our link coming the way of I Watch Stuff. Also, a decent job by Taylor Swift spoofing Kristen Stewart's constant lip biting.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

I wish I could say I've missed a few blogs this past week due to some kind of fantastical road trip or an adventure. Instead, I turned to the solace of Play Station to pass time whilst my Internet was out, because one of the prices for living in the serenity of the marriage grounds of meth labs and incest, is bad Internet connection, along with dreadful service with any piece of technology you can think of. Anyhow, I am back today, starting off with an interesting poster for Grant Heslov's upcoming film The Men Who Stare at Goats. I just loved the fact that the goat got a higher billing than Robert Patrick (the T-1000 for Christ's sake!).

The Independent has a story up that continues the trend of The Walt Disney Company stepping into the role of conglomerate bastardry that we have all come to expect from them. One of the biggest time honored yuletide traditions in England, the lighting of Christmas lights on London's Oxford and Regent streets, has been compromised to accommodate the British premiere of A Christmas Carol, moving the schedule of the event up by nine days. London mayor, Boris Johnson, has already received a shit storm of complaints. Kind of makes you forget about Marvel for a second, right?

Well, it would if I didn't directly blame the Disney/Marvel merger for Time Warner turning DC Comics into the competing DC Entertainment. And the new head of DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson, recently gave an unsettling interview to MTV. The linked article mainly focuses on the fact that Nelson pretty much confirms that any follow up to Superman Returns is completely dead. Of course, after a somewhat (undeserved) mixed response, I can kind of see why DC would pursue some of the more interesting, silver screen virgin characters on their roster. Still, with Nelson's first big interview in the big role garnering some negative fan reactions, I am just curious what is to come.

Jumping back to the Marvel boat, Variety has announced the official opening day of Spider-Man 4 as May 6th, 2011. The article also confirms that Gary Ross, most famous for Big and Pleasantville, will helm the script treatment of the film.

I keep reading these great reviews on The Informant!, but I've yet to really jump aboard based solely on the trailers. I'm sure it is a good movie, with the talents of Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh, but I think I'm going in a bit more cautiously than the rest of the viewing audience. Nonetheless, I'm still intrigued at the news, courtesy of People, that Soderbergh and Damon teaming back up again for Liberace, a biopic on the titular eccentrically flamboyant pianist. Damon will play the lover of Liberace (played by Michael Douglas).

Geekologie has a troubling post of a visual aid picture of Yaddle, a female member of Yoda's species whom appeared briefly in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, along with a green fleshlight. It may be rather repulsive, but it is still leaps and bounds easier to take than another Twilight sex toy.

Finally, speaking of missing a few days due to my crappy Internet, I missed posting a short film on Sunday for the second week in a row a few days back. After the abysmal box office intake for an animated feature, as well as a somewhat luke warm response on RottenTomatoes, I figure that a drawn out introduction to Shane Acker's 9, the short film inspiration to his feature of the same name, isn't required. I have yet to see the extended version, but hopefully you'll be entertained by the little short so we can move on to something else this coming weekend.

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

After Righteous Kill, is it still okay to get excited when Robert De Niro gets casted into something? Well, the film in which he starred opposite Al Pacino was a rare miss for the actor, but when the film is a violent exploitation throwback from the hands of Robert Rodriguez, stemming from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's brilliant Grindhouse, it is more than okay to get excited. Bloody-Disgusting is reporting a rumor that the Taxi Driver star will take a role in the film Machete, alongside the already announced Danny Trejo, reprising the role from the faux trailer the film comes from, as well as rumoring the casting of Michelle Rodriguez (whom despite starring in Fast and Furious, she is set to be in James Cameron's Avatar, which if the film lives up to my expectations, will redeem the aforementioned atrocity, and make this a good thing.), and an as shocking addition as De Niro, Judd Apatow regular Jonah Hill. What a motley crew. Will it work? I have hope on this one.

Empire interviews Peter Jackson in the new issue and verifies that there will be no casting news for The Hobbit at the San Diego Comic Con. The article goes on to mention that Jackson may keep the possibility open to direct the adaptation of Temeraire, a 2006 fantasy novel by Naomi Novik as his next project following The Lovely Bones. So, the article gives us a bit of news, although not the piece we were wanting.

Check this out, via Geekologie, I found this replica of Batman's leather motorcycle get-up from The Dark Knight. Quite impressive.

MovieWeb posted the Italian dubbed trailer to Walt Disney's upcoming motion capture, Robert Zemeckis directed, A Christmas Carol. I, myself, can wait for the English trailer, but it is Saturday, and not really much to blog about, so have it.