Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

It was quite upsetting to read an un-blogged about story on how The Farrelly Brothers had finally passed on doing a Three Stooges biopic to go onto an Owen Wilson starring comedy called Hall Pass. Now we can rejoice that Sean Penn has come out of his short-lived retirement, as The Boston Herald has posted that the actor has expressed interest in playing Larry Fine again. I still think that the original rumor of Penn's replacement, Paul Giamatti, would be a better choice, but if anything, this will give the film more exposure. I'm also still not exactly sold on Benecio del Toro playing the part of Moe Howard, but my final decision of if this will be great or terrible weighs on the eventual casting news of Curly.

I am still deciding on what level of douchebaggery it would register if I purchased some old favorites on Blu-ray. Courtesy of a CHUD post, my decision may be made slightly easier, as the Back to the Future trilogy is being released on a new special five disc collection, which among other things will include a brand new short film, Jaws 19 in 3-D, the film seen in the background of Back to the Future Part II. Awesome, the way 3-D was intended to be used, a gimmicky accessory to the films we find great, not a medium to itself.

I am happy to pass along an article from The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog, announcing that Sam Mendes will take the director's chair on the 23rd James Bond film, third in the reboot franchise with Daniel Craig portraying the suave spy. I think it will be interesting to see what the director of American Beauty can do with something as action packed as the Bond series, especially following in the footsteps of the transformation after Casino Royale. Still, most of my excitement isn't even really directed towards the Bond series at all, but because it dispels rumors that the series would be put on hiatus due to MGM's financial woes, which was also rumored to have put a wrench on the cogs on the preproduction of The Hobbit. Maybe this positive sign will continue along and get the J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation underway.

And finally, where we would be anymore without mention of James Cameron's Avatar in a post. Geekologie passed along a link to a forum to help those of us suffering from the realization that we will never see Pandora. This is obviously fake, but I find it disturbing that this is somehow getting the weirdness of Twilight fandom popping up here and there.

Monday, August 10th, 2009

I can remember reading something earlier this year announcing that the Marvel/Icon comic Kick-Ass was going to be adapted into a film. Always willing to jump aboard a comic book movie, despite never reading or knowing anything about this, I saw that Christopher Mintz-Plasse was casted as one of the heroes in the movie, put it on a shelf of intriguing must-sees in my sub-conscience, and never really looked much more up about it. Well, today I go to IWatchStuff to see some good old fashioned pirated previews from the San Diego Comic Con on behalf of this film, and wow, did it blow me away. Upon further inspection, I found out that the comic looks certifiably bad ass, hence the caption on the image up there "Sickening violence: just the way you like it". The ongoing series is written by Mark Millar, of Wanted and Civil War fame, and illustrated by the legendary artist John Romita, Jr. The film itself also has a few credentials that would get me into the seat. The superhero fare will be helmed by Matthew Vaughn, the director of what I feel was the most underrated film of 2007, Stardust. Also, the lead character Kick-Ass, secret identity Dave Lizewski, will be portrayed by Aaron Johnson. Personally, I really know nothing about the up and coming British actor, but in a gruesomely, excuse the expression, kick-ass film, it will be much easier to get my girlfriend in the seats on opening night since he is best known, according to Wikipedia at any rate, from starring in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, an adaptation of one of her favorite author's, Louise Rennison's, novels. However, take away all of the credits, if I had no clue who any of the involved parties were, take a look at this leaked trailer, as it will most likely be deleted in the upcoming days, and try not to be excited for this.


The Los Angeles Times has an interesting interview with Louise Leterrier, the director of The Incredible Hulk. Among other things, Leterrier gives his bid to direct the upcoming Marvel film The Avengers, as well as giving a very thought provoking vision of what the film could be. I highly doubt that anything Leterrier says will come to fruition, but it will definitely become the basis of what fanboys use to judge the actual direction Marvel will take.

Nothing too shocking at the box office this weekend, with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra taking the top spot, followed by another debut in Julie and Julia. The most saddening news looking at the results is that Charlyne Yi's semi-documentary Paper Heart only grabbed the 25th spot, barely edging out the terrible The Taking of Pelham 123 in its ninth week. Next week, I'm curious if G.I. Joe can gain a second go at the top against District 9.

The Boston Globe had a few announcements courtesy of hometown Boston directors, The Farrelly Brothers', upcoming biopic on The Three Stooges. First, after Sean Penn announced he would drop out of the role of portraying Larry Fine some time back, it was announced the Jim Carrey, whom was once rumored to be playing Curly Howard was out as well. Some good news though came as well, that Paul Giamatti, a good actor that visually looks similar, will replace Penn as Larry.

Finally, a new trailer for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. After a few looks at Jonze's rendition of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book, it still looks absolutely flawless. Enjoy.