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.

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.

Monday, August 31st, 2009

I have always said that sometimes The Walt Disney Company gets more bad press than they deserve. Sure, they are the most shrewd of all Hollywood businesspeople, as well as being known on the blogsphere for being wildly hypocritical in most of their judgments, not to mention being branded as racists from Dumbo to The Princess and the Frog. Yet, they continue to pump out great films such as WALL-E and this year's Up alongside Pixar, and no matter how overpriced, continues to generate the one place on earth that lives up to the affectionate term of "magical", the Walt Disney World Resort. However, when I turned on the ol' computer today, I read that the big conglomerate mouse had finally gone too far, they had bought Marvel Comics. We have a plethora of questions that arise from this $4 billion deal that occurred this morning, including what will happen to the movie properties and plans that Marvel Entertainment had lined up for the upcoming years, culminating in a collaborative Avengers adaptation? Does this spell the end for the chance to see a quality Wolverine film, based on the works of Frank Miller and Chris Claremont? When will we face an inevitable Disney/Marvel crossover? A better question, will Pixar dabble in the newly acquired 5,000 Marvel characters? Even away from the relevancy of this movie blog, what about the comics? Disney television deals? Universal Studios Islands of Adventure's fate has my inner traveler nervous. Will Disney destroy Marvel? Will characters like Frank Castle/The Punisher be re-worked to become family-friendly to fit the Disney brand? Will Stan Lee still be a huge influence in the Marvel offices? What will the folks affiliated with Marvel say about the merger?

I suppose most of these questions will be answered in the next few days that follow, but right now the media shit storm is in full swing, and MTV has posted an article about what we supposedly know about the deal thus far. You can also check out the official press release at Marvel's official site, and I have yet to find, but I've read that somewhere on there, you can actually listen to CEO Isaac Perlmutter's conference call. Also, a link to the first place I read the story, BBC News. And don't forget to check out what the non-movie crowd is saying, via the comment section on Geekologie. Also, not missing a beat, don't miss Cinematical's weekly article Girls on Film, where Monika Bartyzel compares the classic Disney princesses and Marvel's top heroines. There is also an article on the site by Jeffrey M. Anderson, featuring lots of rather cheesy jokes that in all actuality touches on the fears of all geeks the world over at the moment. And for one final link to the story, the picture comes courtesy of coverage at Kotaku.

So, with the future of comic books-to -silver screen in jeopardy for a cinephile, what could possibly make the news day worse? How about a franchise that doesn't know when to quit? How about three?

First, Variety reports that even after Halloween II was just able to climb to the number three spot at the box office this weekend, the franchise may be continuing, sans current director Rob Zombie. The Weinsteins have apparently got a yet-to-be-named filmmaker on tap to take the franchise in a different direction, and a different dimension... or what's becoming a very cliché gimmick in 3-D.

Also from Variety, it was announced today that Nu Image and Millennium Films greenlit a fifth film in the Rambo franchise. Sweet Jesus, that is just a terrible idea.

Finally, just when you thought you couldn't take anymore, The Hollywood Reporter declares that Peter Craig is writing a new screenplay for a third Bad Boys for Columbia Pictures. We are yet to find out if Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith or Martin Lawrence will return. Also, would it even really matter?

Finally, if you haven't lost all your hope in the wonderful world of cinema, The Final Destination took the top spot at the box office this weekend, topping the second week of Inglourious Basterds by a little over $8 million, not even to mention $27 million over Big Fan. Try not to kill yourselves before tomorrow.