Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

The casting for Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen's 2010 superhero flick, The Green Hornet, has been one of the more fascinating since I've started keeping a movie blog. Today, I learned that, despite principal photography and filming actually taking place now, the casting news thickens. First off, Rogen, in an interview with MovieWeb, has confirmed that Anvil, the Canadian metal band that gained prominence with this year's documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, will play a band for the film. Also, Rogen announced that Edward Furlong has also been added to the lineup, although he would not confirm in what capacity.

A lot of things to cover today, so moving more quickly, an online petition has been started to get Sam Rockwell a nod for this year's Academy Awards, as the sponsor feels that Moon will be overlooked due to the film being director Duncan Jones' directorial debut, and nowhere near the promotional buzz needed to trump the other films that will be campaigning. I absolutely hate how political the Academy Awards are, as it really comes down to the best campaign, and not the best performance. Anyhow, without seeing Moon, I have to say that I hope Rockwell lives up to the praise, but I can't have an extreme opinion as of yet.

MarketSaw announced today that The Lizard will be the only villain in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man 4. This is good news for Dylan Baker fans (assuming that I'm not the only one), but makes us have to question what the expanded role of Bruce Campbell will be. Also, it has to be noted that the source is MarketSaw, which reported last week that Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola will both direct a chapter in a sequel trilogy of George Lucas' Star Wars saga. Trustworthy?

At midnight, or a few short minutes from when I'm writing this, the highly anticipated Michael Jackson documentary This is It debuts at theaters. I still have my doubts about this rushed doc's quality, but who can resist the spectacle?

Paranormal Activity took the top spot at the box office this weekend, beating out Saw VI in its opening weekend. This is a breath of fresh air to anybody like myself who thinks that the Saw series has finally run its course, as well as anybody that is just generally excited about independent films gaining widespread success.

Movie-related Christmas ideas have already began pouring in, as DVDSnapshot, courtesy of a link from Cinematical, has posted the details and contents of The Mel Brooks Collection, a nine disc Blu-ray compendium of comedy, which will include such films as Blazing Saddles, History of the World: Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Silent Movie, Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein among a few others.

Finally, I had a decent weekend whilst not blogging as I partook in several October activities including taking in The Rocky Horror Show live at Berea College, a corn maze and attending The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We actually set in on two panels, one for Mickey Dolenz (of Monkees fame) and one for Kevin Nash, So Cal Val and Traci Brooks of TNA. I'd like to say I brought back some exclusive knowledge for my blog, but I don't think any of their cinematic careers, if they even exist much at all, are flourishing at the moment. Still, when looking up to see if they were going to be in anything, I ran across the fact that Dolenz was in Rob Zombie's re-working of Halloween, which I didn't know, and this picture...

That is So Cal Val in Princess Leia's infamous slave girl get-up. And yes, it is from a site dedicated to cosplay of that one costume (and does border of creepy most of the time). Even though my only readership is my fiance and another straight female, I think even they would appreciate such a site.

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

The ongoing modern battle of wits between Hollywood's biggest douchebag, Michael Bay, and the attractive psychopath, Megan Fox, will apparently continue as, via Bay's personal blog, there will be a Transformers 3, in which Bay, Fox and Shia LaBeouf has been confirmed. Bay's blog also confirms that the screenplay is finished, mentions that he is currently meeting with ILM and Hasbro and also leaves a predictably douchey Bay message towards Fox. Of course, the bickering between the two has been way more entertaining than either of the first two Transformers, so here's hoping for a full on meltdown for the filming of the third.


Yesterday, I linked to a picture of Seth Rogen's stuntman on the set of The Green Hornet. Today, Splash News has a picture of Rogen in costume for the role, as well as the first look of Jay Chou as Kato.

I am quite dreading to see what the American version of Let the Right One In (the title will be changed to Let Me In for the remake) will be like. I have been preaching the graces of Tomas Alfredson's near-perfect flick to everyone since I watched it earlier this year, and I know that despite having Matt Reeves on as director (the guy that helmed Cloverfield), I just imagine of all the things that would be changed. For one, the names of Oskar and Eli has been changed to Owen and Abby. That is enough to make me want to boycott this thing. Still, Cinematical announced that some casting news for the feature, including Richard Jenkins as Hakan and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz taking the roles of the children. I don't know anything about the two younger actors, so I can't bitch too much about it yet. Still, I'll keep my eyes peeled. On a side note, after a quick visit to Wikipedia, I found out that Moretz will also be a co-star in the much anticipated 2010 big screen comic adaptation Kick-Ass.

BadTaste, an Italian movie site has an interview with Quentin Tarantino. I tried to watch it, but save me, with no subtitles I just couldn't do it. Still, reports on ComingSoon, Cinematical and MovieWeb indicate that Tarantino teases us with a brief mention of the possibility of a third Kill Bill film. A much more hopeful story than the bastardization of Let the Right One In.

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Last week I mentioned an interview with one of the Weinsteins that announced a decently impressive upcoming slate for further bastardization of at one time decent horror franchises, including Scream 4, another remake of Children of the Corn and reaffirming the already rumored 3-D installment of the ill-received Halloween reboot. Today, DeadlineHollywood already has a retraction from that interview by announcing that The Weinstein Company has shelved plans for Halloween 3, presumably until the new director onboard for the franchise, Patrick Lussier, becomes available. Still, as Cinematical noticed, the New York Post has a conflicting story, suggesting that the loss of the popular horror series in our near cinematic future is due to TWC's economic troubles, and furthermore, Summit Entertainment is looking into purchasing the company. The story also goes on to state that Summit is also looking into acquiring MGM, and even cites the entire conglomerate-esque activity of the company is due to the major success of Twilight. Who knew that all along, to kill Michael Myers, it just took one intense stare. Is this a good thing? Sure, Halloween without John Carpenter isn't Halloween quality, that's something we've known for years. But is it a good thing that a company responsible, and proud of, the Twilight Saga will now hold the key to some of our greatest musicals, as well as the future, more in particular the future of Middle-earth? My worries eclipse (for Christ's sake, that is not a pun) the slight happiness of the squashing of H3.

Cinematical also has a picture of Seth Rogen's stuntman on the set of The Green Hornet up today, giving us a bit of a teaser on what the costumed hero may look like. The article asks the question of what hardcore Green Hornet fans might think, if they are indeed hardcore fans. I think the fact that the question of is there hardcore fans has to be asked means that this is a comic adaptation that can be played with a little more, and I am ecstatic over what the mind of Michel Gondry can do from a script by Rogen, a generalized fanboy.

Finally, Opening Ceremony has some really awesome looking Where the Wild Things Are apparel, that is way, way overpriced.

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Occasionally, I'll feel the need to stop watching or reading about movies online long enough to bitch at the ol' telly during an episode of Glen Beck's Fox News program. I've often wondered exactly how the entire "death panel" thing he harps about all the time would work. The accompanying picture there, via Geekologie, says it all. On a side note, I'm sure most African Americans have to be disappointed after Barack Obama came out as a fan of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, and now wielding a light saber, he's way whiter than even Jimmy Carter.

I just read an article on Yahoo! News Canada, while covering the Toronto International Film Festival, that Nicolas Cage gave an interview and claimed to had dropped out of The Green Hornet's villainous role due to the character not having enough humanity in the script, even having the audacity to point out that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's treatment had a different take on Chudnofsky. Before I join the ranks of bloggers that are building a tower of bitch around Cage for taking basically any role given to him, be it something genius like Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Spike Jonze's Adaptation., or ill fated attempts at a Ghost Rider movie, a remake of The Wicker Man and so on and on, I do have to admit that I enjoy Cage a little and despite his inability to choose a good role, do not necessarily agree with the majority that casting the former Academy Award winner (for Leaving Las Vegas) to be the cinematic equivalent of drinking poison. Still, how much do you think Cage was kicking himself to find out that Christoph Waltz, fresh off of the huge success of Inglourious Basterds, is rumored to be filling his shoes.

Of course, Cage was at TIFF promoting Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog's remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult classic. I have attempted not to blog much about this flick as I love Herzog and hate to talk about what is sure to be a huge failure (Cage is joined by Eva Mendes and Xzibit, need I say more). Anyhow, I ran across this older article from Vulture, indicating how much Ferrara hates Herzog for the film, and how little Herzog knows about his fellow director or the film that he is remaking. Interesting read, and despite how terrible the film looks, as always, Herzog is more of a story than the film itself.

Before we can even get over the passing of Patrick Swayze as a nation, Henry Gibson has now passed along. Among other things, Gibson starred in The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, not Eddie Murphy), Nashville, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers, Innerspace, Magnolia and Wedding Crashers. IWatchStuff has a decent little article about him, including a clip from Magnolia.

Variety reports that the University of Southern California will now be offering a stereoscopic 3-D course. I hate that 3-D is taking over, and want to believe that it is a fad, but most of all, I still just hope that My Bloody Valentine doesn't go down in history as the movie that changed everything.

Friday, July 31st, 2009

I have read for some time that Fox has been trying to get a new prequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction masterpiece Alien off the ground for some time. I never got too excited about this. Both Scott's original and James Cameron's sequel Aliens were incredible films, and I am one of the few who even quite enjoyed David Fincher's spot in the series in the mostly negative-reviewed Alien 3. However, not even talking about Alien Resurrection (a disappointing effort from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, one of the men behind the fantastic The City of Lost Children), I figured that the two Alien Vs. Predator films had officially killed off the franchise once and for all. Any and almost all fans of Scott's original concept would have feared that any new installment would have been going down the same road as these colossal cinematic failures. Yet, today Variety gave all the fans of the original series hope when it was announced that Scott would return to direct the prequel. The man behind the screenplay will be Jon Spaihts, which I'm not familiar in the least with. Let's hope he holds a candle to Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett or Walter Hill.

Speaking of director news, Variety again, has a blog up saying that Walt Disney Pictures is close to bringing Rob Marshall aboard to helm the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Marshall doesn't seem like a great choice to take on the comic swashbuckling stylings of the series, having previously directed the high profile musicals Chicago and the upcoming Nine. Yet, before Gore Verbinski stepped behind the camera of the first three films, he was mostly known for the American remake of The Ring. Also, after At World's End, which felt so disappointing following quite a smarter sequel in Dead Man's Chest than anybody was prepared for, maybe a new direction needs to be taken. So long as Johnny Depp comes back as Captain Jack Sparrow, we'll at least have a decent performance to look forward to.

Following the theme of Disney, the official Walt Disney Animation website updated some stills of the visual development of the 2010 film Rapunzel. I personally cannot wait until some kind of visual is released from King of the Elves, an animated Disney adaptation of a Philip K. Dick fantasy short story. Either way, the fact that Disney is focusing on hand drawn animation again is enough to make any movie fanatic happy, no matter what genre you generally favor.

I am slightly disappointed with Seth Rogen. A few weeks ago he was all in the tabloids after an exchange of words and jokes with the writers of HBO's Entourage. Now, Us Magazine (I shudder at even having read a story from their site), reports that while promoting Funny People on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show, Rogen and director Judd Apatow spoke about their co-star in Knocked Up and her claims that the film was sexist. We all know that Heigl's only asset is her looks after all of her quite public squabbles with the writers of Grey's Anatomy. So, can't Funny People sell itself without getting free publicity beside of a an attempted shot at catching Miley Cyrus' underage snatch by a paparazzo?

Anyhow, speaking of Funny People, Apatow's latest film, starring Adam Sandler, Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Leslie Mann and a few other legitimately funny people, came out today. Judging from the trailer, it looks like Sandler's first good film since Punch-Drunk Love, and possibly the first film of his that will make us laugh since Happy Gilmore. Great reviews are also pouring in. Of course, as I write this, I am also trying to plan out where I can go see the film, because although I'm almost certain that the film will take this weekend's box office, the fact that it is the best reviewed film coming out today on Rotten Tomatoes, not to mention the draw of both Sandler and Rogen, my local Carmike Cinemas have chosen to not get this film, instead filling our theater with Aliens in the Attic. I had hoped, that for the sake of a bright future, humanity would cause this thing to flop. The trailer looks absolutely abysmal. RT gave the film a 25%, which makes me feel like it is the most overrated film of the year thus far. I mentioned yesterday how ecstatic I was for children's cinema this year with the upcoming releases of Where the Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Yet, what the anticipation these films gives does for children's cinema, this film takes out, rapes it, name calls it's mother, and shits on its face. I sincerely hope that this doesn't take the box office this weekend, destroying any shock value that G-Force gathered when it overtook Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this past weekend. Anyhow, bottom line, if you have any other theater to go to, boycott your local Carmike. The longer I keep this blog, the more any readers that happen upon it will learn of my grave distaste for our local cinema. Oh, another option this weekend is The Collector, a mediocre-looking horror flick, as well as the documentary Not Quite Hollywood, chronicling the days of ozploitation, the name given to exploitation films out of Australia. It will most certainly be a very overlooked, entertaining gem for any fan of the exploitation era, as some of these films never reached us stateside. You can check out the trailer (which is NSFW, and probably best not to embed) at the official site. Enjoy.

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

I worked late tonight, so I come home expecting to sleep rather than blog, but then I check a few things online and get completely submerged into all of the San Diego Comic Con coverage. The first thing I find is via ComingSoon, where the 2010 Joseph Kosinski Tron sequel finally got a title, Tron Legacy.

Elsewhere, we get plenty of coverage on The Green Hornet over at Cinematical. First, director Michel Gondry raps about the upcoming feature, and in a separate story, writers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen (who also will star as the titular character), revealed the hero's car, a black 1966 Chrysler Crown Imperial.

It was also announced that Saw's James Wan will take over the job of director in an adaptation of one of my favorite video games of all time, Kanomi's Castlevania. I'm not crazy familiar with any of Wan's work, other than Saw; however, it may be an improvement over the last director attached to the project, Sylvain White, who previously directed Stomp the Yard, yet on the other hand has already signed on the helm the big screen version of DC Comic's The Losers.

Today, during the Avatar panel, fifteen minutes of the film was shown. Yet, if you are envious like me, and about a three day drive from San Diego, we will all get a chance to watch the preview for free on August 21st at IMAX theaters worldwide. An interesting marketing ploy for something that I felt already had quite a bit of buzz going on to not have a built in fan base already.

Away from Comic Con, well, it could have actually debuted there, but IGN doesn't have much of a write up about it, a new poster to Samuel Bayer's remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street came out today to compliment our first view of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger yesterday. The poster features Haley again, although as before, we cannot make any of his features out.

And finally, the Alice in Wonderland trailer that I had promised yesterday. You'll have to click the link though, as embedding was disabled on Moviefone, as well as YouTube. As expected, the film definitely looks intriguing, and very Tim Burton-y.