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, December 8th, 2009

Ever since I began this blog, one of the mainstays has become casting news for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man 4. The latest batch, via Movieline, of news concerning Peter Parker's newest silver screen adversary contains the one and only John Malkovich being rumored to play the role of The Vulture. I don't really know anything about The Vulture, and personally am behind both the rumors for Dylan Baker to finally take his role of Dr. Curt Connors to the villainous The Lizard and Bruce Campbell to take over a larger role in some capacity against the web-slinging hero. Still, I can't say that I can be truly against anything that has Malkovich in it. What I can be against though, is with the plethora of baddies that Spider-Man has faced over the years, that Raimi is thinking of creating a new one, The Vulturess, played by Anne Hathaway, earlier rumored to take on the role of Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat. Does this ludicrous part two of Movieline's article tend to take this over the edge of believability? Probably.

On another casting note that seems to dominate my blog, The Hollywood Reporter has an article today stating that The Hobbit will begin casting this week for every role except Gandalf, which is being reserved for Sir Ian McKellen. In an interview with Peter Jackson, he vows to not bow under star pressure for the film, stating that the star of the series and his Lord of the Rings adaptation was J.R.R. Tolkien, not any of the actors. Jackson wouldn't comment on if Andy Serkis and Hugo Weaving was a lock to return to their respective roles of Gollum and Elrond. The producer also denies rumors that James McAvoy had been approached for a rather large role (a rumor I had actually not heard before reading THR's story) and that the production of the films had been put on a delay.

After the seemingly endless list of lawsuits that streamed from the aftermath of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, it has been kind of shocking to me that the same level of legal troubles hasn't plagued Sacha Baron Cohen's latest raunchy comedy Bruno. Yet, finally, according to The Daily Mail, a lawsuit seeking over $100 million has recently popped up. The lawsuit stems from the scene where Bruno supposedly interviews at real life terrorist in a refugee camp, claimed to be the Lebanese leader of a group called Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Turns out, the actual man interviewed, Ayman Abu Aita, is a grocer, a self-proclaimed peace activist, Palestinian and interviewed at a hotel outside of Bethlehem. Not only does this kill any comedy the scene had, but after Cohen's stories of how he actually got the clip with the terrorist, most famously during his appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, but it certainly makes us wonder that with the low key legal department, that most of this flick was completely scripted. I mean, some of the scenes, such as the parent interviews, or Paula Abdul's cameo, seems so outrageously unbelievable, that now we have to assume that we've been had. Is it still funny to see Cohen's flopping penis in the midst of a focus group or a black baby hanging from a cross? Yes, but if we wanted scripted raunch, we would pull out some old John Waters DVDs.

According to BoxOfficeMojo, the latest in the spoof craze of films, Transylmania, set the record for all time low box office gross for a film debuting in over 1,000 theaters. Thank God, now maybe this will discourage Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer from continuing their careers.

On a final note, Cinematical's Jenni Miller had an article today complaining on the continued use of the term "The Wachowski Brothers" since Larry Wachowski has recently came out to live his life as a woman, now being referred to as Lana Wachowski. First time I heard this, and I though rather interesting news to pass along.

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

It seems that every time I notice The Hobbit in the news, it is always something disappointing. This time, in a German interview transcribed by TheOneRing with Peter Jackson, to promote his upcoming, critically appraised film The Lovely Bones, announced that filming would be pushed back to July-ish 2010. The producer of J.R.R. Tolkien's predecessor to the epic The Lord of the Rings did not elaborate on if it would affect the projected release dates of December 2011 and 2012, but we have to assume it will. This just adds to the turmoil that is MGM's financial troubles swirling just over the head of the films' pre-production. For something to perk you up after reading that, here is a link that I've been stuck on since reading the article on TheOneRing... New Zealand's Red Carpet Tours, taking us to the filming locations around the beautiful country. The 12 night tour is actually only $180 U.S. dollars, while the one night tour from Auckland to Hobbiton is $140. After blogging, I will probably spend the rest of the night, wishingly searching Orbitz for cheap flights.

I was going to make a joke about the economy to segue into this Variety article on how the box office this year will probably break the record for raking in some $10 billion, topping last year by 8%, but I find most of the economy talk rather insipid. Anyhow, those estimates come before the releases of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, which despite the horrendousness that will surely be contained within the hour and a half run time, will bring in the bucks from the kiddies out there, as well as potential blockbusters Sherlock Holmes and James Cameron's Avatar, not to mention a box office sleeper, the Oscar hopeful Invictus.

Invictus' Oscar dreams is another decent segue as the National Board of Review named their film of the year today, via Cinematical. The winner of the honor is Jason Reitman's latest, Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, whom also took home the NBR honor of Best Actor, tied with Morgan Freeman's Invictus performance. Taking home honors in the NBR's Ten Best Films were also good movie nerd fare such as (500) Days of Summer, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Up, Star Trek and Where the Wild Things Are.

Pajiba reported today that a rumored remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Birds is back up and running with a new director attached, Dennis Iliades, the man behind the remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left. I think somewhere in there I saw Michael Bay's name as producer, which almost assures that this already bad idea of trying to recreate the genius of Hitchcock by "modernizing" it, will be a total disaster.

Check out the new site MovieClips.com. The site boasts some 12,000 movie clips, with some good categorizations (I appreciate that at least) and even a bit of trivia. Anyhow, I'm not really sure why I chose the "Snap Out of It!" scene of Moonstruck as a demonstration, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

I have yet to jump aboard the Blu-ray fad. I know that it is supposedly better quality, but really, I'm doing the majority of my at home movie watching on a 90's Magnavox television set that probably couldn't differentiate the difference between the platform and its predecessor of DVDs anyhow. Also, I like to be consistent, and seeing that there are still movies out there that I want to see that have yet to make the jump from the VHS platform (John Waters' Multiple Maniacs for example), I just feel that the time to jump ship on the DVD train has yet to come. Still, the District 9 release may be the first Blu-ray that I purchase. Not only is Neill Blomkamp's feature length directorial debut a fantastic film that comes with the regular run-of-the-mill featurettes and extras that usually comes with a home release, but the Peter Jackson produced science fiction flick, according to SciFi Squad, will be making history by including a playable demo of a video game, this one happening to be to the highly anticipated Play Station 3 game God of War III. Also, enticing gamers to play the demo before the game is released, once the demo is completed, a featurette for the game is unlocked. And one final reason that this is becoming a must buy, in honor of the rapidly approaching Christmas shopping season, Amazon is already pre-sailing it for just $19.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave out the Governors Awards a few days back, and it would of went completely under my radar if I hadn't of noticed a Cinematical article on the topic. Among those receiving the honorary Oscar was actress Lauren Bacall, acclaimed cinematographer Gordon Willis and one of the original true cult directors Roger Corman.

Spider-Man 4 casting rumors has become one of the more common topics on here, and today Entertainment Weekly shot down one of the bigger rumors, that Rachel McAdams was set to play Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat during an interview to promote Sherlock Holmes. So does this put Dylan Baker as The Lizard back at the top of the runnings for the film's villainous lead? Also, when will we find out Bruce Campbell's role?

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.

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.

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Geekologie has a very impressive photo gallery of a home decked out in Star Wars memorabilia that would certainly make almost any collector, big or small, extremely jealous.

It's been a rather slow news day, topped by an article on HitFix that claims Bryan Singer will produce, as well as possibly direct, a new big screen adaption of Battlestar Galactica. I've never really gotten into Battlestar, but hey, we can't all be into everything, we just merely don't have the time. So, this news doesn't rise up anger or happiness, so I'm curious to know what a fanboy of the franchise would say. The linked article is accompanied by a picture of concept art that looks very different from anything I've seen.

Also, Rachel McAdams accidentally, or the way Cinematical put it, purposefully, yet blissfully unaware, gave the plot of The Time Traveler's Wife away during her guest spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I've yet to watch the clip as there is a chance I may accompany the lady to it yet, but I'm sure this doesn't help McAdams future, at least in anything that the plot should be closely guarded.

Well, it is Friday, and a big one at that. District 9 is the big talk of the week. The reviews are nothing short of amazing. Also, not only does this look to be a smart science fiction film, but it is a smart science fiction film, that at least to some point, has some influence from producer Peter Jackson. However, I have to admit, even if Jackson's name wasn't on this thing, I think I would still be stoked after watching Neill Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg, and watching the trailers for the flick over the past few weeks. I'm also quite excited about Hayao Miyazaki's latest effort, Ponyo. When watching the trailer, it looks like it could possibly be one of Miyazaki's worst films. The truly great thing about Miyazaki though, it looks like it could be a contender for one of the best of the year. The limited release is a bit disappointing, seeing that I am driving to Lexington (about a two or so hour drive) next week just to watch it. But never seeing a Miyazaki film on the big screen, that will be a worthwhile event. So, we have a smart, intriguing science fiction potential blockbuster, and another beautifully animated masterpiece from the king of Japanese anime. Therefore, everything else looks terrible in comparison. The unfortunate contenders include The Time Traveler's Wife. It will be a contender for the box office, but the romantic tale will more than likely fail in comparison to the rest of the weekend's fare. Not saying that as a completely bad thing, as it is a "chick flick" that quite easily put me aboard. Another movie that may have had a chance to make an impact on another weekend is the raunchy Jeremy Piven comedy about car salesmen, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. With Ed Helms co-starring in it, I think most will be disappointed to find it not as hilarious as The Hangover, but if it can be funny enough to overcome the hurdle of making us forget any comparison, it will exceed my expectations.

Finally, I probably won't blog tomorrow. I'm going to Dollywood. I searched for some kind of clip connecting the park and films. I found several references from TV, including American Dad!, The Simpsons, Sealab 2021 and The Drew Carey Show. I eventually read that it is mentioned on the 1992 film Captain Ron, but to post a clip of that would be insulting to any would-be readers. So, I'll just say adieu, and I will be back with a short film or something special to make up for the absence on Sunday.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Alive in Joburg)

Yesterday, whilst blogging about the speculation of Steven Spielberg producing a big screen version of the hugely popular XBox game Halo, I mentioned that I would fill in a bit of time between the production of the failed Peter Jackson/Neill Blomkamp Halo to their new project, next Friday's District 9. The story actually begins with the 2005 South African short film by Blomkamp, Alive in Joburg. The nearly six minute science fiction film deals with a documentary style of interviewing characters in Johannesburg, South Africa about a group of extraterrestrials being contained by the government. The film takes place in 1990, when South Africa was still under apartheid, and puts the alien refugees among the already oppressed black population.

Taking a passenger seat to the unique use of the cinema verite technique in a genre picture, and the heavy topic of race relations in a very short film was the special effects. One thing Blomkamp lacked in his short was a budget, but a good head for a science fiction picture was there. And to say that the former television commercial director still created some decent effects with a low budget would be a vast understatement. The first of the film, in which the aliens are inside the technologically advanced bio-suits, looked like it could be right at home in a well developed video game. This could have been a reason that Blomkamp was picked up as the director for the film adaptation of Halo, a highly anticipated flick with an already built-in hardcore fan base in his debut feature. It wasn't meant to be though, as development hell would grab producer Peter Jackson's project by the throat.

As bad as this would seem on paper, it was a great beginning for Blomkamp, as Jackson became so impressed, that he decided to just place the young director's talent elsewhere, and commissioned Alive in Joburg to be expanded into a feature length film, to be produced and distributed by Jackson's WingNut Films. This project, of course, is what would eventually become this week's big conversation point, District 9. One casting note in this now highly anticipated sci-fi motion picture is that of Sharlto Copley, a producer for the short in which it is based. Copley can also be seen around the 3:22 mark of the short featured below.

So, if you are like me and think that District 9 has the possibility to be the next big thing, watch this short and be entertained. Enjoy, and just think of what could be done with roughly 106 more minutes and some $30 million extra.

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.

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

'Tis Saturday, which on a normal week would mean I would scrape through twenty some odd blogs and news sites trying to find some kind of movie news I had yet to say something about earlier in the week, maybe find something awesome on ToyRocket.com that was new to me, or possibly even giving up, laying down, and watching Saturday Night Live, hoping for some better blog fuel on Monday morning. Yet, today, I am home alone, no stress of work, and have been reading coverage from the big day at the San Diego Comic Con for a few hours. There is so much that I will try to go as brief as possible, but this may be a long one. Oh, and the picture is of some random fangirl in Return of the Jedi's infamous slave girl Leia costume. Of course, one might find some sexual appeal, but if you notice, the girl is mostly plain, and her legs definitely shouldn't be considered kosher in lieu of such scandalous attire. But I thought the pic, from Cinematical's gallery of hottest cosplay this year, embodies why I want to go to the convention. Sure, the news is huge, but it would be quite hard to get into the panels and discussions, but the fans, no matter how terrible or awesome the costume, is why it would be an amazing experience. I can remember I used to be quite intimidated over extreme fandom, but now I feel like I could never delve deep enough, and San Diego's annual event is the abyss I would like to find myself in on an annual basis. So yeah, until I get a decent job, in short, damn you people for being accessible to San Diego... damn you to hell!

First up, James Cameron and Peter Jackson took part in a visionaries panel today, discussing 3-D transfers of their films, with Titanic being in the process of conversion with a tentative release date in 2011, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy being suggested by Jackson, but turned down by Warner Brothers, due to the lack of accessibility of the 3-D market. Here's the video for more.


Also coming from Jackson, he discussed that casting for Bilbo Baggins is very far off, and that the rough draft of The Hobbit hasn't even officially been turned in yet. And technically speaking, the film has even yet to get a green light, though there is no doubt that it will. Nevertheless, this means that we will be at least a few more months before we find out who will be taking on the roles of the beloved characters, at least.

Whilst promoting Sherlock Holmes, star Robert Downey, Jr. described the relationship between the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law's Dr. John Watson as "circumstantial homosexuality".

Disney's panel featured a sneak preview of the 3-D renderings of the original two Toy Story films, as well as the announcement that Michael Keaton will voice Ken, of Barbie fame in the upcoming Toy Story 3.

I will break away from Comic Con for just a few seconds before I end today. First it is the 25th anniversary of the PG-13 rating. After a bit of controversy following Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the John Milius directed, Patrick Swayze starring war film Red Dawn became the first film to hold the rating 25 years ago today.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the Irish government is cutting funding for the Irish Film Board. I do quite like a bit of Irish cinema, such as The Commitments, but looking through some of the films pumped out by the IFB, I can't say that I am familiar with a lot of them; however, John Carney's beautiful low-budget Once was funded by the organization, so it does sadden me that some gems like that film may miss us stateside due to this.

Ok, I'll end today with one more piece from the SDCC, a new teaser trailer for Tron Legacy. What do you think? A good enough mesh up of kitsch and bad ass to compare to the original? Also, how can Jeff Bridges mess this up? I am officially stoked.

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

After Righteous Kill, is it still okay to get excited when Robert De Niro gets casted into something? Well, the film in which he starred opposite Al Pacino was a rare miss for the actor, but when the film is a violent exploitation throwback from the hands of Robert Rodriguez, stemming from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's brilliant Grindhouse, it is more than okay to get excited. Bloody-Disgusting is reporting a rumor that the Taxi Driver star will take a role in the film Machete, alongside the already announced Danny Trejo, reprising the role from the faux trailer the film comes from, as well as rumoring the casting of Michelle Rodriguez (whom despite starring in Fast and Furious, she is set to be in James Cameron's Avatar, which if the film lives up to my expectations, will redeem the aforementioned atrocity, and make this a good thing.), and an as shocking addition as De Niro, Judd Apatow regular Jonah Hill. What a motley crew. Will it work? I have hope on this one.

Empire interviews Peter Jackson in the new issue and verifies that there will be no casting news for The Hobbit at the San Diego Comic Con. The article goes on to mention that Jackson may keep the possibility open to direct the adaptation of Temeraire, a 2006 fantasy novel by Naomi Novik as his next project following The Lovely Bones. So, the article gives us a bit of news, although not the piece we were wanting.

Check this out, via Geekologie, I found this replica of Batman's leather motorcycle get-up from The Dark Knight. Quite impressive.

MovieWeb posted the Italian dubbed trailer to Walt Disney's upcoming motion capture, Robert Zemeckis directed, A Christmas Carol. I, myself, can wait for the English trailer, but it is Saturday, and not really much to blog about, so have it.

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

I was looking about the John Waters Fan Page on MySpace a minute ago after they added new pictures, and ran across this gem, and decided that there is no possible way I could actually get on here and talk about movies without sharing it with whomever happens upon this page.

Now, on to some of the tidbits I've uncovered today. First off, the most mind boggling thing, MovieWeb posted that Chris Casamassa, better known to the public as Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, has stated that he will return to the role of the hell-spawned ninja revenant in a third film for the franchise. I have to admit, that as horrible of a film as the first one was, I hold it as a guilty pleasure. But, even after admitting that, I've yet to see the 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and will be happy one day when I die without doing so. I seriously wonder if anybody will read this and be excited.

TheSuperficial reports that Michael Bay had Megan Fox wash his car to gain her breakthrough role in Transformers, and actually filmed it. This isn't quite news yet, but I've been calling Transformers the most exploitative film since Boss Nigger (a blaxploitation film, I've dubbed Transformers a cashploitation film for the constant effects with no substance), and if it comes to fruition that Bay actually played out the whole casting couch porn scenario, how much easier would it be for me to assert my classification up there.

Cinematical has an interesting article, taken from the New York Times, reporting that the pornographic film industry is losing plot and dialogue, and focusing on adding more sex scenes. So, porn used to have a plot?

Finally, District 9 released the full international trailer today. Up until now, the spots for the Peter Jackson produced film haven't gave us much insight to the story or the feel of the film. This trailer doesn't really make us understand anything more clearly, but does make it a slightly higher priority on the must-see list. Enjoy.



P.S.... Work sucks, and because some jack ass injured himself, I have to fill in for the late shift, and I may be going on a little spontaneous trip tomorrow night, so the next few days I may not be able to post. If not, I'll try to find something special to post for the weekend.