Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

This isn't a promotional poster for Inglourious Basterds, featuring Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine character. It is Hot Toys newest figure due out sometime within the coming year. I found this on Topless Robot, where the article said a quote that sums up the work Hot Toys does perfectly in my head, "there are actual people who look less real than Hot Toys' action figures".


Yesterday I mentioned the rumors of Tobey Maguire being casted as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, after the story ran in The Sun. Luckily, Harry Knowles of AICN e-mailed both Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to dispel the casting. Not that I'm terribly anti-Maguire, or even think that he couldn't actually pull it off, but that still doesn't make him right for the role, so I am happy for the moment.

A day cannot go by without James Cameron's Avatar making some sort of ripples within the cinema blogsphere. Today, an Access Hollywood story has been making the rounds, focusing on an interview with George Lucas in which the iconic director cites Cameron's latest success as inspiration to go further with the transfer of the Star Wars films to the 3-D medium. Is this a good thing? Sure, we all salivate at the original trilogy returning to the big screen and making waves at the box office again, but I still just really detest this entire 3-D explosion.

Vulture announced today that Marc Webb, the director behind the hugely successful indie comedy (500) Days of Summer, has been officially signed on by Sony to direct the reboot of the Spider-Man films. Although still being unhappy about the franchise being taken away from Sam Raimi (by his choice or the studios has not been clarified at the moment), but this is a decent step in the right direction to making this film watchable.

In the most bizarre origin story of a rumor for the day, the folks at /Film has decided that either Iron Man 2 will be taking up reshoots in the future, or that Robert Downey, Jr. will reprise his role of Tony Stark in a cameo for the upcoming Thor film, due to the fact that Downey sported the Stark-ish beard-mustache combo at the Golden Globes. Does this actually mean anything? Probably not at all, but if a crazy rumor has to be started up, might as well be from some movie geeks with at least semi-logical basis.

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

It seems like the news front of Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's upcoming The Hobbit film adaptation keeps getting slower and slower, and slightly worrisome with the news of MGM's possible bankruptcy in the horizon. Still, Empire has given us a tiny morsel to quench our thirst for the time being with an interview popping up with Gandalf himself, one of the great actors of our time, Sir Ian McKellen. Among the things McKellen indulges us is his expected timeline of what is to come, that filming is expected to go 383 days, that he has serious doubts about the rumors of Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom making cameos and almost a confirmation that Andy Serkis will be back to play Gollum. He also talks about the similarities between del Toro and Jackson, and defines both of their styles as "artistic autism". The article continues along to inquire about the long rumored X-Men Origins: Magneto, in which McKellen says he has yet to read a script.

In other news, the drama between Michael Bay and Megan Fox continues ever on, as PopCrunch covers a story that has been circulating around more on the celebrity gossip circuit than the blogs of cinephiles like myself, as many reports are saying that Bay wants to kill off Fox's character in the third Transformers in the first few minutes, via a gory death scene to get back at the actress for comparing him to Hitler. Why is this bogus? Fox will be paid millions, so regardless how much killing her character off in a floundering movie franchise, in what would surely be the best scene of the flick, would hurt emotionally, Fox would probably reap more benefits than the director, known largely to everyone as a douchebag, could.

A bizarre article on Cinematical that jumps in on the argument of children's films of the past few years carrying too left-wing of a message was posted today. One of the films covered is WALL-E (I suppose for the environmentalist mentality?). The article's author, Jette Kernion, sums up pretty much all of my thoughts, albeit a little cleaner, of how ridiculous it is to insinuate that WALL-E is pumping out the wrong message. Is it just me, or is Republicans getting crazier than ever lately? Then again, free health care, and family friendly cartoon-endorsed anti-littering and anti-laziness is how the Third Reich began also.

Every three days, I make it a point to read Cracked's top Internet picks, I would suggest everyone else that would find themselves bored enough to read my ramblings on cinematic happenings to do the same. Anyhow, pertaining to my blog, a great countdown from AskMen on the top 10 legendary movie guns is up, including Cherry Darling's prosthetic in Planet Terror, Ash's Boomstick from Army of Darkness and the .44 magnums toted by Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Some disturbing news today coming from an MGM conference call to shareholders, via DeadlineHollywood, in which the company claims they are very close to bankruptcy. The call basically says the company needs $170 million dollars now through the end of the year to continue on funding projects, one of which is Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. The article also mentions the possible loss of the James Bond franchise from MGM. Of course, these properties are so huge that I don't think they face extinction with the fall of MGM; however, for fans that are already feeling that 2011 is far too long to wait for another glimpse into Middle-earth, this news is rather disappointing, as the shop for a new studio to take over production will take a little time. Also, on a lesser note, it would be a sad day if MGM ceased to exist. Just a few hours ago I was watching some scenes from That's Entertainment! III, a great documentary showing some cut scenes from classic MGM musicals. I mean, that is a lot of rich history in cinema to be flickering out. Maybe not time to panic yet, but after the Marvel merger, I can see The Walt Disney Company coming in here and pretty much declaring the entire entertainment business as their own. I'm sure this will be a topic on here in the future, so stay tuned kiddos.

Variety reported that Harvey Weinstein has announced that a new Scream trilogy will be in the works, with Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox-Arquette returning to their respective roles in Scream 4, and that Wes Craven was being sought out to direct. The article also mentions that Dimension Films will also be looking to put an emphasis on 3-D, including Robert Rodriguez currently writing Spy Kids 4 and 3-D versions of Halloween 3 and a remake of Children of the Corn (because apparently a terrible Syfy original isn't enough, but the world beckons for a terrible 3-D version as well).

RottenTomatoes has a great countdown of the absolutely worst films of the new millennium. A decent read, until you come to the realization that all the people involved probably triple your salaries.

And finally, today is Friday, therefore it is time to gear up for some new releases. A few movies that look decent, but probably nothing really special. Jonathan Mostow's Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, reads like a wonderful concept, but there seems something missing when watching the trailer. I still have hope for it, but I don't fancy the reviews being staggering for this one. Pandorum and Paranormal Activity both look like decent enough horror fare, although I seriously doubt either one leaving a lasting impression. There's also Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, based on the popular Canadian comedy series that would completely bypass me as I've never seen the show. Finally, the remake of Fame is released today, and will more than likely go on to take the box office for the weekend. The original being a defining piece of pop culture for the early 80's (not to mention being directed by Alan Parker) is what made it a good film. Taking the lack of storyline anyways, and turning it into nothing more Step Up 3 targeted to a whiter audience, without all the cultural relevance of being 80's and being awesome, will surely result in disaster.

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.

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

I find it difficult to blog today, because no matter what news I can dig up on the entertainment sites, it will ultimately pale in comparison to yesterday's earth-shattering announcement that The Walt Disney Company had purchased Marvel Comics. Still, the biggest news story of the day does come courtesy of the comic distributor, as 20th Century Fox announced, via Variety, that they will be starting production on a re-boot of the Fantastic Four franchise, with Akiva Goldsman being named as producer. The story apparently confirms that Disney is going to honor the deals that Marvel had made previous to yesterday's merger. Still, you almost have to wonder, as much as any of us like the comic book versions of the superhero team, if a great cinematic incarnation is even possible. Of course Tim Story's recent Fantastic Four films seems great in comparison to the Roger Corman-produced 1994 version, but it still didn't make the waves that such Marvel fare as Spider-Man, X-Men or Iron Man generated. It still gives us a reason to be excited, no matter how terrible it will be, and a reason to hope that it will turn around for the heroes. Oh, the reason for that particular picture accompanying the article today, coming from Marvel Zombies, I included because it went with the big story, but also because it brings up another question of Disney's acquisition, can the family friendly company really produce something as senselessly gory as Marvel Zombies? One of the many questions.

On to some more links of the huge Disney/Marvel story, my favorite Cinematical author, Elisabeth Rappe has attempted to calm some of our fears through her Geek Beat column, including some reassurance in the form of quotes from Joe Quesada's Twitter account comparing it to the relationship betwixt Disney and Pixar. Also, MSNBC has a story up giving us Stan Lee's first public thoughts on the deal, which he believes is great. The article also gives a decent link to Lee's other business with Disney, a motion comic he wrote entitled Time Jumper to be available on the iPod and debuted at this past San Diego Comic Con. So after a collective deep breath, maybe the scare is settling. Or maybe at 86 years of age, Lee was brainwashed by the enchanting anti-Semite conglomerate with promises of a trip to Space Mountain.

In further comic-to-film news, according to Variety a DC property I'm not very knowledgeable of, Deadman, will be brought to the screen courtesy of producer Guillermo del Toro and to be directed by Danish director Nikolaj Arcel, whom after looking over his IMDb isn't that known to me either. The character has always seemed fascinating to me, despite my lack of knowledge, added with the fact that anything del Toro touches turns to gold, will keep me looking out for this one.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter announces that Robert Downey, Jr. will star and Jon Favreau will direct a big screen adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens. Also, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, screenwriters on the other little Downey/Favreau collaboration Iron Man, wrote the initial screenplay, which was later given a script-tune up by producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman of Star Trek fame. Haven't heard of the comic? Well, no problem because Cinematical gave us the great link to DrunkDuck.com, a site for reading webcomics where you can read the entire thing online for free. I know what I'm doing for the rest of the night.

Finally, ComingSoon has the first look at Raja Gosnell's CGI The Smurfs with the teaser poster debut. Kind of bland, but 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.

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

One of my friends is currently in the hospital with his wife awaiting for the arrival of their first child. I was out there for a spell, and I work at six in the morning, so I wasn't going to blog tonight, but then I got online and two wonderful trailers was up, so in brief... The first will not embed, but here is the trailer for Peter Jackson's very beautiful upcoming film The Lovely Bones.

Before we get to the other trailer, a few brief things... Cinematical announced that Guy Maddin's latest short, Night Mayor, will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Variety reports that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way is going to begin development on a modern gothic big screen version of Little Red Riding Hood. It will be written by David Leslie Johnson, the writer of the currently playing Orphan.

IWatchStuff broke the story that 2007's The Orphanage is already going to be remade. The Spanish horror film directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro will be adapted for an English speaking audience. Probably not a great idea, as the movie is still relatively new, and probably underseen. The director, handpicked by del Toro, will be Larry Fessenden, which I don't really know much about, but at least it is reassuring that del Toro has faith in the guy. I still just can't shake the idea though, is this remake necessary? Is it that difficult to read subtitles? Will we eventually have to suffer an English Pan's Labyrinth for an American audience that doesn't want to read a few subtitles?

Finally, the redband (NSFW) trailer for Zombieland. You may remember one of my first posts here on the Blogspot site when I posted the trailer for Jennifer's Body and talked about how it has been a while since I've been quite that stoked for a horror film. Maybe it was because of the horror comedy mix, but Zombieland is right up there with that film, making it quite a good year for the very overlooked subgenre of horror-comedy. Enjoy.


P.S. My hurried blog is more than likely a grammatical mess, so please overlook it this one time. Also, I may not blog tomorrow night, according to how the happenings mentioned before plays out. If not, I will be back on Friday.