Monday, November 16th, 2009 (100th Post!)

My 100th post here on the Blogger account, and a decently busy day for interesting movie tidbits, so off we go. First off, The Mirror was one of the many blogs posting the accompanying screen capture of R2-D2's cameo in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film coming courtesy of the special effects crew from Industrial Light and Magic as a calling card that the article also claims popped up in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The article goes on for a few videos that will make your day in the cameo department, including Orson Welles in The Muppet Movie, Tom Cruise's bizarre appearance in Tropic Thunder and a compilation of Alfred Hitchcock cameos.

Variety has reported today that the rumors of MGM's financial troubles are all too true, as the iconic film company has put its assets up for sale today, which among many other important things includes half the ownership to the upcoming The Hobbit films. This is possibly panic-worthy news for any cinema fan as the entire library of films tallies in above 4,000. The article also names Time Warner, News Corp. and Lionsgate as interested buyers. In short, I'm sure this will pop up in plenty of future blogs.

2012 easily brought in the top spot at the box office this weekend with a little over $65 million. However, the biggest story may have been the success and 213% increase of the indie drama Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire that landed in the third spot this weekend, tailing the heels of Oren Peli's amazing showing of the ultra low budget horror flick Paranormal Activity as two of the more financially successful indie films to come out of Hollywood in some time. In further box office news, Deadline Hollywood has reported that The Twilight Saga: New Moon has already broke the record for advanced ticket sales, beating out The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the previous owner of the record.

Mail Online has an interesting story up about some controversy stirring up in Britain, due to the promotional poster to the comedy Couples Retreat, as the UK poster erases Faizon Love and Kali Hawk, the black couple, from the poster. Yeah, probably not the best idea.

Cinematical has a story posted on a new casting call for Spider-Man 4, referred to only as "Toddler Boy", in which among all the speculations, Cinematical even includes Cletus Kasady, better known in the comic world as Carnage. An odd estimation, but intriguing all the same as the rumored and speculated villain list continues to grow.

Edward Woodward passed away yesterday. I didn't know the British actor from a lot, other than his appearance in Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, so therefore I will direct you to Wright's personal site and his little tribute to the actor to find out more.

Finally, in honor of my 100th post, here is Liquid Generation's 100 Best Movie Quotes in 200 Seconds. I know that the second is Rob Schneider from The Waterboy, but trust me, 95 to 97 of the ones that follow are pretty fucking fantastic.

Monday, October 12th, 2009

What is one of the worst concepts for a big budget movie you've ever heard of? Today, I'm sure Variety broke a story that has to be right near the top. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the men behind the comical, albeit forgettable Accepted, plans on making a new re-imagining of the story of Moses, as told by the Holy Bible's Book of Exodus, in the same green-screen technique as Zack Snyder's 300. The article goes on however, to note that Cooper and Collage is hoping to give the film more of a feel comparable to that of Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's comic, possibly crossed with Braveheart, instead of anything similar to Cecil B. DeMille's classic 1956 The Ten Commandments. Terrible idea.

Speaking of terrible ideas, LatinoReview posted an interview with Roland Emmerich about the possibility of Independence Day 2. Also, the article pretty much confirms that Will Smith will not be part of the movie. Sadly, no mention of Jeff Goldblum. I will admit that I actually like the first Independence Day. Given, the movie may not have been Citizen Kane, but if modern critics will let the two Transformers slide, ID4 was nothing short of a masterpiece in such respect. Anyhow, despite enjoying the original, I don't really see any feasibly entertaining way a sequel could come to fruition.

On to the more hopeful news, we7 has posted the title song from the soundtrack of The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Jarvis Cocker. I'm quite amazed that the two family films I've been extremely stoked about, this film and Where the Wild Things Are, also have two of the better soundtracks of the year. I posted the audio files for Karen O's soundtrack work for the former a few weeks ago. I don't know too much about Cocker, as I've actually read more about him than I have listened. Still, enjoy the link.

Couples Retreat took the top of the box office this weekend. The movie still looks terrible, but ever since I found out Peter Billingsley is the director, I've found it my duty as a lifelong fan of A Christmas Story to watch it. Perhaps the best story on the box office charts though is that of Paranormal Activity, a flick that is still technically in limited release had a 1,384% increase in sales and took the fourth spot.