Thursday, August 20th, 2009

A huge movie news day to be so late in the week. First, the cinema blogsphere has been in utter turmoil since the trailer for James Cameron's upcoming sci-fi opus Avatar debuted this morning. The high quality Apple trailer has had problems all day, and now, the version I seen before work courtesy of TrailerAddict is no longer working. So, in the coming days, as soon as I find a trailer that I can embed, I'll put it on my blog. Anyhow, the big question of the day is, did the trailer hold the impact that the buzz had made all of us anticipate? Cinematical's Erik Davis has a nice article about that topic. I feel that it keeps the buzz. It looked incredible and kept most of the story elements from us. We're still left in the dark, with just a smidgeon of visuals. I hope it stays that way, leaving us completely shocked with whatever Cameron gives us on the big screen in December.

Aside from not being able to access the Avatar trailer, the day was by no means short on movie previews, with CNN Video posting this premiere of the trailer for Michael Moore's latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story.


The Hollywood Reporter named the future scribes for the feature film Shazam! adaptation. Most blogs I went to today talked more of actor-turned-writer Billy Birch being part of the project, but I am more satisfied with the fact that his co-writer on the script will be Geoff Johns, a famed comic book writer that has worked with both DC and Marvel Comics. He is most famous for the work done with characters such as The Green Lantern, The Flash, Booster Gold, Hawkman, the Teen Titans, Batman and The Avengers. Oddly missing from that list is Captain Marvel, the hero of the Shazam! series. I'm not sure if Johns ever covered Billy Batson's alter ego in his work on the JLA comics or in his Infinite Crisis work, but it is always comforting to have an actual comics guy working on the screenplay.

ScriptShadow, a Blogspot account that reviews Hollywood scripts has come across Darren Aronofsky's upcoming effort Black Swan. I didn't read the entire review, as anybody that is even a casual fan of Aronofsky knows, you want to be left in the dark on the first viewing. With that said, you can't really go anywhere online today without finding out something on the script, and that is an included sex scene between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis' characters. Not just any sex scene at that, but an "angry aggressive" sex scene. I just hope not to be hit by any masturbation juices from the surrounding seats whilst watching the movie in theaters.

Yesterday, I touched on a bit of anger stemming from a potential Dirty Dancing remake. Today, via Variety, there is talk of a reimagining of the trippy animated Beatles cartoon Yellow Submarine. The film is to be put in the capable hands of Robert Zemeckis, through Walt Disney Studios, using his motion capture technology employed in the upcoming A Christmas Carol. The fact that Zemeckis is behind this still doesn't make me hate the idea any less. The movie works because it is trippy. If the Blue Meanies look like actual blue monsters, I refuse to watch it. I'm all for a reason to get The Beatles music back into the mainstream, a la the new Rock Band game, but is ruining a classic, that as far as I'm concerned isn't dated, the answer?

I won't be able to blog tomorrow as I have to work the graveyard shift. I'll be back on Saturday, but since I will not get to talk about it tomorrow, do not forget to go see Inglourious Basterds if you have the chance. I will more than likely have to wait until Saturday. Quentin Tarantino's film is really the only good thing coming to theaters this week. Robert Rodriguez has a film, in the same week as Tarantino. That would usually be reason to celebrate, but Rodriguez' flick is for kids, a film called Shorts that seem sub-par and as insufferably bad as his Spy Kids stuff. There is also about six other films that look watchable at first glance, but will all probably go unseen by me that I will not get into.

A rather long post, so I will end with the new trailer for Joe Johnston's The Wolfman. Quite good, enjoy.

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Well, thus begins the week of movie blogging after the San Diego Comic Con. With the endless news flowing out with feverish fluidity that made every blogger out there, be it the big timers at Cinematical or AICN, or the nobodies like myself whom, with giggly ecstasy write about our passion of cinema to a handful of readers if that, it makes the week after seem completely dead and void of any real news. But before we put the conventions of all conventions behind us, MaximumPC has a huge 600+ picture gallery of the excellent cosplay that went down. The one pictured, admittedly has more to do with the fact that somebody actually cosplayed as PedoBear than anything in the movie blogsphere, although to make it relevant, I found him sexually badgering some of the Disney movie princesses, in which the cosplayers could be of questionable age.

On to some news... the biggest of the day is the shock that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince didn't take the box office for the second straight weekend. I don't think anyone expected the live action/CGI combination of hamster secret agents in G-Force could outdo the absolutely massive and fanatic fanbase of the highly anticipated sixth Potter film. Completely mind-boggling. On a lighter shock for myself, The Ugly Truth beat out Orphan for the third spot. I just didn't see a lackluster romantic comedy that has been panned making more money than a horror film that good or bad, had a bit of a draw. So, what do you think for next week? Will Funny People take the top spot? Will Half-Blood Prince not take a huge drop from this week, and capture it again? Or will G-Force get two weeks as number one over these other blockbuster events? Let's hope against that last one at least.

MTV's movie blog has a bit of a surprising casting rumor. MTV had an interview with Robert Rodriguez about his upcoming film Machete, in which the director wouldn't confirm or debunk the rumors earlier this month about the possible casting of Robert De Niro and Jonah Hill, but added another name to the already motley crew of possibilities with Lindsay Lohan. The controversial tabloid grabbing actress was said to have a role waiting if she wanted to partake. How could Lohan not take it? She would be perfect for an exploitation film, as her acting wouldn't be on a spotlight, and is one of the few ways she could rejuvenate the minuscule film career she has left. But then again, do we want this? Couldn't Rodriguez, even if he thought he needed a publicity stunt, go elsewhere for someone that has already been in films that are more suited to the exploitation fan's tastes? Who knows.

Finally, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Mila Kunis has been cast in Darren Aronofsky's upcoming supernatural story of dueling ballerinas, Black Swan, with Kunis taking the villainous role, that has been hinted might actually just be part of the main character's sub conscience. That main character has already been confirmed to be Natalie Portman. Excited about Aronofsky's latest head trip yet? I'll have to admit that I wasn't as hot about The Fountain as everyone else, although I absolutely love Requiem for a Dream, Pi and The Wrestler. I don't think there is any denying however, that even if I don't deem the movie a classic, it will certainly be worth a view.

P.S. I may or may not post tomorrow. I am going to King's Island just outside of Cincinnati. Since the park isn't owned by Paramount any longer, I don't think I'll find anything pertaining to my blog, but I will look diligently for nougat of something to post on here.