Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Nicolas Cage is a good actor... sometimes. In the underrated The Weather Man he was decent, not to mention Spike Jonze's Adaptation. and his memorable turn as a drunk in Leaving Las Vegas are both milestones. Yet, he has become almost an Internet meme is his choice of bad movies in the past few years, including the worst possible written adaptation of Marvel's Ghost Rider or the remake of The Wicker Man. So building upon the more recognized comical version of Cage, is a great fellow Blogger account, NicCageIsEveryone. Enjoy.

Many actors end up doing side projects in music. Some fail terribly, others end up doing it quite successfully. Case in point, I can't help but fancy Scarlett Johansson as a musical artist in her team-up with Pete Yorn. Praise aside, regardless of how natural Johansson sounds behind the mic, her crossover doesn't hold a candle to Christopher Lee. Yes, the 87-year-old accomplished actor that has portrayed Count Dracula, Count Dooku and Saruman. And it just isn't any light pop fare, the noted genre in the Topless Robot article is "symphonic metal", a rock opera-ish account of the life of the King of the Franks, Charlemagne. You must click the link and listen to the samples for your own benefit.

Is there a worse award show than the People's Choice Awards? The Twilight Saga: New Moon took home Best Movie by the way, just in case you weren't sold on the aforementioned statement just yet.

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.

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Have you ever been really excited by the upcoming release of a film, yet think you will hate it? That is kind of how I feel about next year's remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was the same way with Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween, as I was sure it wouldn't be anything like the original John Carpenter version that I loved so much, yet I couldn't wait to see it. This newest picture that I found on MySpace Trailer Park, giving us the first, albeit unrecognizable, shot of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, furthers my excitement, yet doesn't show enough to distill the dread of probable disapointment.

The teaser trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland went online today, but before I could get home from work, was pulled until tomorrow. Still, if you can't wait, I'm sure there is still somewhere that has yet to pull it out there.

Yahoo! Movies has another look at Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2. We've still yet to see a quality picture of Johansson in full Black Canary get up. I'm sure that will be saved for the trailer.

AICN dropped the bomb today that Sam Raimi is on board as the director of a film adaptation of World of Warcraft, which will begin to shoot after Spider-Man 4. I have still yet to delve into the fandom of WoW, so I can't be too excited, but can you imagine the following this movie will obtain?

All movie blogs of the Interwebs will be buzzing this week due to the San Diego Comic Con getting under way. Although I am excited to receive all the nerdy spectacular news that will flow forth, envy for the cats in attendance is really the weightiest emotion I'll have this weekend.

SciFiSquad has a story saying that the F.W. Murnau Foundation of Germany has gotten their hands on some footage of Fritz Lang's epic 1927 science fiction masterpiece Metropolis, which up until now has been presumed to be lost. The footage, found in the archives of an Argentinean musuem, will be cleaned up by the Foundation, and will be released sometime in the future. The linked article tends to think the release will be in 2010 at the earliest, but it will definitely be an event, as it will be the most complete version shown, since probably the late 20's.

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

When speaking of upcoming films, one of the most overlooked is the upcoming stop motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox, to be directed by Wes Anderson and getting a screenplay treatment from Anderson and Noah Baumbach. What you're looking at in the picture there is one of two images that have just been released from the film, which looks rather incredible. Aside from the nice screen grab, the voice power behind it will include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and many more. So put this up there with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are as potentially two of the better family films since Jim Henson was alive.

Cashing in on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as all tabloids currently are, The Sun has ran a story that Emma Watson is rumored to be pairing up with Marilyn Manson for a gothic musical re-envisioning of Cinderella. The easy part of this to believe is that Manson would be making the film, as we are still waiting for his directorial debut with Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. However, Watson, despite the success she has had in the Potter series, is yet to appear in a big screen role outside of Hogwarts. I am guessing she will be a little pickier, but who knows. Oh, an after thought about this story, it hurt me on the inside that people get paid to write for The Sun. What a dreadfully written article. Does their key demographic of adolescents looking for flashes of snatch not care about quality when a nip slip isn't involved? Jesus.

I Watch Stuff posted the new cover of Entertainment Weekly, which gives us a peek at Robert Downey, Jr., Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson in their Iron Man 2 get up.

In the world or real news, Sean Stanley, a 19-year-old man was arrested in Nevada walking on the highway naked, and when asked by officers what he was doing, replied that he was a terminator sent from the future. The guy was on LSD. Wouldn't that be an awesome Dallas-esque ending to the series, the franchise was all just a huge Schwarzenegger LSD trip.

The New York Times reports that a boy, Kyle Shaw, that set a bomb off at a Manhattan Starbucks in May, has cited Fight Club as his motivation. The Times tried to contact director David Fincher, as well as the book's author Chuck Palahniuk for comment to no avail. So, what would have happened if this little nut job would have watched Nitrate Kisses? Would he had changed sexual preference? What if he had watched The Original Kings of Comedy at a young age? Would he go around in a sad but failed attempt at being funny? Ridiculous.

Finally, here is the new trailer for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It. I will admit that eventually Ellen Page has to jump off the quirky comedy train while the getting is good, but this still looks like a decent film, so at the moment, all is fine. In the trailer, I also noticed Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell of Grindhouse fame, and in a true OMG moment for me, due to thinking his career was definitely over, Daniel Stern plays Page's father. In addition to what looks like a stellar cast, I have to admit that if there was a local roller derby about, I would frequent it, so the film, even if bad, will probably be slipping in the guilty pleasure column. Enjoy.