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.

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

After an unwelcome dose of Brett Ratner, and then the cinematic abortion that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Marvel Comics' franchise would gladly welcome any director with somewhat capable hands, seeing that the only way it could spiral further downwards would be if they let Uwe Boll take the reins. Cinematical reports that the director of X-Men and X2: X-Men United, Bryan Singer, will return to helm X-Men: First Class. I would still like to see Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's version of Wolverine make it to the big screen, but with the damage that Gavin Hood did with Origins, moving to an adaptation of First Class seems like the best possible scenario.

Keeping on topic with Marvel, we get some more Spider-Man 4 news flooding in, courtesy of IESB. This time, it isn't involving rumors on whom director Sam Raimi will be casting in the top villain role, but that there is rumors swirling that Sony Pictures has put production on the project on an indefinite delay due to disagreements between Raimi and the studio heads. Although, the article also reveals that the working title for the film is SPIDER-M4N. So yeah, maybe it's a good thing it has been temporarily cancelled. Although, if this story is on par with 80% of the casting tidbits that has come our way, it will be entering pre-production in a week.

And finally, to keep in a complete Marvel theme today, Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 had its trailer debut today. In it, we get the first really good look at Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, and the War Machine suit in action. Enjoy.

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Mickey Rourke was great in The Wrestler. That was probably because Rourke is Randy "The Ram" Robinson. So, despite one of the better lead performances this side of Philip Seymour Hoffman this decade, it is always somewhat worrisome when the news of Rourke's hiring comes, especially if it is a flick as anticipated as Iron Man 2. Faith may be restored a bit more now, as this new poster for Jon Favreau's second installment of the Marvel franchise features Rourke as a very convincing Whiplash. Not to say that my faith ever completely faltered though, with Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. being very capable hands for the comic-to-screen adaptation. Another addition to this poster, from the Cinematical article that I first saw it, claims that the rumor mill has been speculating that we will see a trailer for this by the end of the year before either Sherlock Holmes (which would be fitting) or Avatar.

Speaking of James Cameron's Avatar, via another Cinematical article, the huge-budget science fiction film screened for critics today, and the linked article lists several ecstatic Twitter mini-reviews. Does this get you stoked, or further the unattainable pedestal that we all will inevitably have this on after all the hype that is soon to go into onslaught mode for the December 18th release?

Spoiler TV is reporting that Jonah Hex currently has out a casting call for reshoots, as rumors are also circulating that Francis Lawrence has come aboard to help the troubled direction from Jimmy Hayward (it might be noted that Jonah Hex is Hayward's first live action feature, as his directorial debut was last year's Horton Hears a Who). Let's hope that, especially the source being Spoiler TV, that everything is still ok within the production of this film, probably the last chance for salvation within the sub-genre of the R-rated comic book movie.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

So, in the movie world, Captain Lou Albano may have been known for a few B-movies and the occasional wrestling VHS from the 80's you'll pass by in the video store, but he did have somewhat of a starring role in Brian De Palma's Wise Guys, so I feel it is relevant to my blog to mourn the loss of the man that is more famously known as the guy with the bitchin' beard in most Cyndi Lauper's videos, the iconic wrestler and wrestling manager (he's in the WWE Hall of Fame) from when the World Wrestling Federation was worth watching, and for playing Mario in TV's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. So in honor of Albano, and since the Internet is evil, the video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" will not embed, so here is a link. Also, check out Geekologie's article on the captain to see a few clips and a link to another article with full episodes of the Super Show on Kotaku.

MTV has an article up in which Jon Favreau confirms that he will not be sitting in the director's chair for The Avengers. Kind of a bummer, as clearly Iron Man was the best cinematic adaptation to come out of Marvel Comics yet. The title of the article would lead the reader to believe that some information on possible tie-ins Iron Man 2 with the rest of the Marvel universe would be confirmed, but Favreau really just tells us what will not happen. Still, a decent a read.

I think I may have been the only person to think that I Love You, Man wasn't the funniest movie of all time, at least if I am to believe some of the message boards I frequent. Anyhow, the cause for my disappointment in the movie may be that I just expect more from Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Not to say that the movie wasn't funny, just in comparison to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models, films that came out in the same year as I Love You, Man, it just didn't have the same level of laughs. The high points of the movie though? Lou Ferrigno and Rashida Jones. I don't know much of Jones, other than her stint on The Office; however, after reading an article on Variety today, her nerd points just went up. Not only does Jones have a comic book created by her, starring her likeness, Frenemy of the State, but she is also currently writing a screenplay treatment for an Universal Pictures adaptation. Time to look up Frenemy of the State.

Finally, IWatchStuff has an interesting video up, supposedly done by Jordon Mechner, a writer for the Prince of Persia video game series, as a pitch trailer to movie studios. Actually makes me anxious to see Mike Newell's upcoming cinematic version. Enjoy.

Prince of Persia movie pitch trailer (2003) from jordan mechner on Vimeo.

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009: The 50th Post

Wow, fifty posts. I would be proud if anybody read this, but now it stands as one of the many monuments of my lowly stature in society, an insomnia-ridden cinephile blogger. I still quite enjoy the blog, so let's just dive right in. Mike Judge's latest film Extract premieres on Friday, and in honor of the occasion, Judge has released a new clip from the upcoming flick to the Interwebs, with an introduction courtesy of the characters that made Judge a household name for slacker, perverted children that enjoyed Metallica and AC/DC, Beavis and Butt-head. The clip makes the movie actually look funny, but watch it mainly to have an excuse to pull out your Beavis and Butt-head DVDs.

'Extract' Film Forum with Beavis and Butthead @ Yahoo! Video

So, who's ready for today's dose of 3-D overkill? First, AICN reports that Iron Man 2 could possibly be 3-D next summer. Harry Knowles tells us that there is currently a one minute snippet of film that Marvel and Fox are looking over to decide if they want to turn the entire thing into 3-D. (Note: if you choose to click the link, Knowles uses the frightening analogy of Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger's 9 1/2 Weeks sex scene to describe this entire ordeal). The article also ends with the factoid that the original Iron Man film could possibly be up for a 3-D transfer to be re-released before the sequel. Don't get me wrong, Iron Man in flight, Scarlett Johansson and the cockatoo that was casted to keep Rourke company all have wonderful possibilities when put into the 3-D medium, but if we keep this up, (I'm talking to you Jon Favreau) there will eventually be weird films in the third dimension, like a new modernization of The Three Musketeers by somebody a few steps below Uwe Boll... like say Paul W.S. Anderson.

Damnit... via The Hollywood Reporter, that is exactly what will happen. I'm not saying it can't succeed, as The Three Musketeers is a tried and true formula, and if the adaptation is mindless, at least it could be swashbuckling fun. But does everything have to be in 3-D for Christ's sake? I just hope that Avatar is ground-breaking, and we don't look back years from now and take the academic stance that My Bloody Valentine was the big game changer in this new age of 3-D.

DreadCentral has some stills up from a new horror flick called Human Centipede: First Sequence, which looks terrible. However, the pics are to a level of disturbing that requires checking out.

Courtesy of TheSuperficial, Megan Fox is the cover girl for the latest edition of Wonderland magazine, and among other topics discussed, compared her two-time collaborator, Transformers director Michael Bay to Adolph Hitler. Not trying to shine a forgiving light on Hitler or anything, but I'm pretty sure the Fuhrer could have made a better film... just saying. Oh, and he wouldn't even consider making a Bad Boys 3, even he would have known that is just too much.

Cinematical linked to the best guessing game on the web, based on entertainment characters in movies, television, comics and videogames (at least that I've attempted so far). The site, Akinator, has guessed almost everything I've thought of correctly, except things I've pulled out of my hat so far into my childhood subconscious that I couldn't remember enough about it to properly answer the questions.

Finally, a pretty awesome featurette from The Fantastic Mr. Fox, narrated by Jason Schwartzman. Unfortunately it won't embed, but here is the link, via Apple. Enjoy.

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Have you ever been really excited by the upcoming release of a film, yet think you will hate it? That is kind of how I feel about next year's remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was the same way with Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween, as I was sure it wouldn't be anything like the original John Carpenter version that I loved so much, yet I couldn't wait to see it. This newest picture that I found on MySpace Trailer Park, giving us the first, albeit unrecognizable, shot of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, furthers my excitement, yet doesn't show enough to distill the dread of probable disapointment.

The teaser trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland went online today, but before I could get home from work, was pulled until tomorrow. Still, if you can't wait, I'm sure there is still somewhere that has yet to pull it out there.

Yahoo! Movies has another look at Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2. We've still yet to see a quality picture of Johansson in full Black Canary get up. I'm sure that will be saved for the trailer.

AICN dropped the bomb today that Sam Raimi is on board as the director of a film adaptation of World of Warcraft, which will begin to shoot after Spider-Man 4. I have still yet to delve into the fandom of WoW, so I can't be too excited, but can you imagine the following this movie will obtain?

All movie blogs of the Interwebs will be buzzing this week due to the San Diego Comic Con getting under way. Although I am excited to receive all the nerdy spectacular news that will flow forth, envy for the cats in attendance is really the weightiest emotion I'll have this weekend.

SciFiSquad has a story saying that the F.W. Murnau Foundation of Germany has gotten their hands on some footage of Fritz Lang's epic 1927 science fiction masterpiece Metropolis, which up until now has been presumed to be lost. The footage, found in the archives of an Argentinean musuem, will be cleaned up by the Foundation, and will be released sometime in the future. The linked article tends to think the release will be in 2010 at the earliest, but it will definitely be an event, as it will be the most complete version shown, since probably the late 20's.

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

When speaking of upcoming films, one of the most overlooked is the upcoming stop motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox, to be directed by Wes Anderson and getting a screenplay treatment from Anderson and Noah Baumbach. What you're looking at in the picture there is one of two images that have just been released from the film, which looks rather incredible. Aside from the nice screen grab, the voice power behind it will include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and many more. So put this up there with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are as potentially two of the better family films since Jim Henson was alive.

Cashing in on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as all tabloids currently are, The Sun has ran a story that Emma Watson is rumored to be pairing up with Marilyn Manson for a gothic musical re-envisioning of Cinderella. The easy part of this to believe is that Manson would be making the film, as we are still waiting for his directorial debut with Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. However, Watson, despite the success she has had in the Potter series, is yet to appear in a big screen role outside of Hogwarts. I am guessing she will be a little pickier, but who knows. Oh, an after thought about this story, it hurt me on the inside that people get paid to write for The Sun. What a dreadfully written article. Does their key demographic of adolescents looking for flashes of snatch not care about quality when a nip slip isn't involved? Jesus.

I Watch Stuff posted the new cover of Entertainment Weekly, which gives us a peek at Robert Downey, Jr., Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson in their Iron Man 2 get up.

In the world or real news, Sean Stanley, a 19-year-old man was arrested in Nevada walking on the highway naked, and when asked by officers what he was doing, replied that he was a terminator sent from the future. The guy was on LSD. Wouldn't that be an awesome Dallas-esque ending to the series, the franchise was all just a huge Schwarzenegger LSD trip.

The New York Times reports that a boy, Kyle Shaw, that set a bomb off at a Manhattan Starbucks in May, has cited Fight Club as his motivation. The Times tried to contact director David Fincher, as well as the book's author Chuck Palahniuk for comment to no avail. So, what would have happened if this little nut job would have watched Nitrate Kisses? Would he had changed sexual preference? What if he had watched The Original Kings of Comedy at a young age? Would he go around in a sad but failed attempt at being funny? Ridiculous.

Finally, here is the new trailer for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It. I will admit that eventually Ellen Page has to jump off the quirky comedy train while the getting is good, but this still looks like a decent film, so at the moment, all is fine. In the trailer, I also noticed Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell of Grindhouse fame, and in a true OMG moment for me, due to thinking his career was definitely over, Daniel Stern plays Page's father. In addition to what looks like a stellar cast, I have to admit that if there was a local roller derby about, I would frequent it, so the film, even if bad, will probably be slipping in the guilty pleasure column. Enjoy.