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.

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.

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.

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.