Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Empire Magazine is turning twenty, and in response they have released this incredible gallery of pictures on their web site, featuring stars in photographs reminiscent of some of their more popular roles since the magazine's release. Pictured is one of the more dapper pictures of Mel Gibson post-Passion of the Christ and anti-Semitism, with the iconic Braveheart paint. Also included in the star-studded pictorial are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christian Bale, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Sam Neill, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Michael Sheen, Ben Stiller, Laurence Fishburne, Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Gerard Butler, Kevin Spacey and Tom Cruise. Quite a list, check it out.

A lot of award talk the past few weeks on here, and yet another ceremony has released its nominations. This time, the International Animated Film Society's Annie Awards, via Cinematical, announced that Henry Selick's underrated 3-D stop motion flick Coraline led the pack with ten nominations, with the much more lauded, and equally good film, Pixar's Up coming in second place with nine.

Variety reported today that two 3-D sequels are in the works. First, from Paramount, Zombieland will return to the big screen in a new chapter with the 3-D treatment. Is this a good idea? Zombieland was great, but I'm not sure how a sequel can be made without diluting what the original had. Not to mention that I'm still not really on board with the entire 3-D fad going on in the movie industry at the moment. The second sequel mentioned in the article is even more shocking, and uncalled for within the medium... a third Jackass film. I am willing to place my entire year's wages in a bet that the first thing filmed will be Chris Pontius' penis in 3-D.

Despite not being film news per say, due to Marvel Comics close link to cinema I feel it relevant to post a link to the bitchin' concept art of a Marvel themed amusement park being built in the United Arab Emirates, courtesy of Gamma Squad. It looks absolutely incredible, and furthers the notion that we should probably be packing up and moving to Dubai pretty soon.

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Last year, Universal Pictures hit big with the Abba musical Momma Mia!, setting records over in the United Kingdom, and raking in a decent amount stateside as well, and almost inevitably opened the flood gates for Hollywood to begin a musical craze to try to capitalize on the film's earnings. So no surprise that Universal, via RiskyBusinessBlog, announced that there is a remake of the 1970's funky controversial look at the Biblical life of Jesus and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. I don't really see a remake of this cashing in nearly as much as Momma Mia! did. Can you imagine the religious groups already? In a post-The Passion of the Christ world even? There is so many people now just looking for a reason to be angry or offended at a film such as this. Yet, there is one good thing. It is rumored that Marc Webb, the man behind the wonderfully reviewed film (500) Days of Summer, may be helming the project. I have yet to see his latest effort that stars Zooey Deschanel, but if the trailer and reviews are worth anything to go on, a quirky re-imagining of this may actually be an entertaining idea. Probably not a popular one, but entertaining nonetheless.

In more remake news, Variety reports that a remake of the 1935 swashbuckling classic Captain Blood may be re-worked into the fabric of un-needed films. I do enjoy Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but I would have to agree that a film that is nearing its 75th anniversary may be remade without a terrible argument, no matter how great it was during the original release. However, it isn't the fact that the film is being remade that bothers me, it is the direction of the story in which the new film will take. The directors, Michael and Peter Spierig, of the upcoming Daybreakers film, and writer John Brownlow is switching the tale from the high seas to outer space. Here's hoping that Daybreakers fails, and this goes straight to Syfy.

MovieWeb had an interview with Eric Bana, in which the actor reveals that he will not return as Captain Nero, the Romulan villain of the latest Star Trek film, in the sequel. If there is much to say bad about J.J. Abrams' adaptation, it is that the villainous time-travelling Romulans wasn't strong enough, speaking of course in terms of Ricardo Montalban as Khan. Not that Bana was bad, but I'm not too crushed of the grand possibilities that could come from the next film.

As you can clearly tell, it is a very, very slow news Saturday. So, if you're like me, and none of the aforementioned news bits keeps your interest alive long enough to go and have a fight on message boards across the web, you can entertain yourself by going over the San Diego Comic Con exclusives on ToyRocket. A few from Star Wars, as well as an Indiana Jones fertility idol from Mighty Muggs, some G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra stuff and a figure from Coraline make it all relevant enough to put on this blog.

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Yesterday, I blogged a bit about DC Comics' upcoming film adaptation news, and after reading through that story, I think a collective fear of fans of the superhero subgenre of films is that, especially after the massive success of last year's incredible The Dark Knight, that most of these films will just be attempts to copy and collect the reward, instead of bringing the beloved characters to life. Enter The Green Hornet, a comic film that will most certainly break the mode that has been set. The history of a Green Hornet film has always been interesting, as a 1990 re-edited group of episodes of the television series showed up as a feature film, via GoodTimes Home Video, to cash in on a resurgence of Bruce Lee fandom. Then, we saw the huge comic fanboy Kevin Smith jump aboard the wagon writing a script that was eventually abandoned. A real Hollywood movie eventually began to be realized though, when Seth Rogen, of all people, jumped on board to fill the spot of The Green Hornet role and write a script with screenplay partner Evan Goldberg, and attaching Stephen Chow as director, and star in the role of Kato. Recently, Chow dropped out of both roles, but the director slot was filled by Michel Gondry. A comic book film by Gondry? Starring Rogen? Written by the team behind Superbad? Definitely sounds like a good, original direction to be headed, even in light of the comic, that likes of which has transformed well into different genres and styles since its conception as a radio serial in 1936. The latest news however, is that Variety reports that Nicolas Cage is in negotiations to play the villain in the film. Now, some may recall the tragedy that was Cage in Ghost Rider, but we have saw what Cage can do while under a quirky director in Spike Jonze's Adaptation., which was a performance that actually doesn't deserve the "terrible actor" moniker that has befell him recently. There is also rumors about Cameron Diaz joining the cast as a love interest. Good or bad? As long as it is under Gondry and Rogen's tutelage, I can't really say anything bad about it, Diaz has actually been quite great in a few select films, such as one of my all time favorites Being John Malkovich, as well as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

More pictures are up for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, via The Rushmore Academy. It looks brilliant.

Although it pops up on every other blog on the Internet, I have been trying to avoid covering anything related to The Twilight Saga: New Moon. However, in a recent interview with RottenTomatoes, Chris Weitz takes the conversation towards music and the possibility of Radiohead's Thom Yorke working on the soundtrack. Anything to pull in a normal person, eh Twihards? I think I'll just watch "Paranoid Android" on YouTube to get my fix, and Chris Weitz can go to hell!

One of the better days for DVD releases I can ever remember. The Watchmen director's cut is out today, including Amazon's exclusive Nite Owl ship and digital bundle that I may put in a few extra hours of work and/or prostitution to get enough money to buy. Also, my long wait for a theatrical release of Jared Drake's Visioneers, starring Zach Galifianakis, was never realized, but after a short festival run, it is finally available for purchase today. To add to my list of things I didn't get to see theatrically, despite getting a limited release, The Great Buck Howard came nowhere near a local theater, so today is the first official day I will get to see the quirky looking Sean McGinly film that features the talents of John Malkovich, Tom Hanks, Colin Hanks and Emily Blunt among others. And finally, Coraline, a great piece of animation from the hands of Henry Selick that is already on a short list of the year's greatest rounds out a list that will take most of my paycheck.

I will leave you today with a video from Cinematical, which combines my love for Japanese television that I don't fully understand with a bit of a shot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The video doesn't tell us much about the upcoming film, yet the scene where Daniel Radcliffe peeping around the door framing in the first few seconds is worth watching. After all these years of women having creepy pedophilic magic filled dreams, Harry Potter finally nails the look of the rapist himself.