Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

A month or so ago, I read an article on Cinematical stating that J.J. Abrams had bought the rights for Stephen King's epic series, The Dark Tower, and would begin preparing for the adaptation after the series finale of Lost. When I read the article, I was searching for a new series to get involved in, and right now I'm reading the second book, The Drawing of the Three. Completely drawn in to the story thus far, it saddens me to report a new article from Cinematical that quotes an MTV interview with Abrams and Damon Lindelof, stating that the pair have decided to pass on adapting King's epic meta-fiction/fantasy adventure. The comments for the articles tend to think that longtime King collaborator Frank Darabont (most famously The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) should take the reins. Just to the second novel already, I can already tell that whomever does take it on, they have a nearly impossible task in front of them.

Another cancellation today, this one a little more welcome. Coming from Latino Review, the remake of Oldboy, that was set to be directed by Steven Spielberg and star Will Smith is now considered a dead project. Probably for the best.

With Christmas just around the corner, the collector/child in me is on the prowl for toys, so a few awesome movie geek toys...

Firstly, Japanator has a gallery of this incredible LEGO sculpture of Sophie's castle as seen in Hayao Miyazaki's beautiful Howl's Moving Castle.

Secondly, without even being a diehard fan of Akira, I am gravitated towards this amazing replica of Kaneda's motorcycle on Big Bad Toy Store.

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

When did the 3-D fad go too far? Well, I think it came with the release of The Final Destination. However, there is still some good things to be done with 3-D. I'm looking forward to James Cameron's Avatar, the annual Halloween release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D is nice, and whenever I visited the Blogger account MarketSaw, and thought that I read a headline that the original Star Wars trilogy would be re-released in 3-D, I was halfway excited. Yet, the complaints and raves that was swirling around in the ol' noggin was soon abolished by wondering who the hell runs the MarketSaw site, and how reliable are they, seeing that the rumor I'm about to repeat has made its way around the blogsphere, as I first saw it on MovieWeb. Anyhow, after scanning down from the title, I realized the article actually states that George Lucas and company is contemplating a third trilogy in the Star Wars canon, all to be filmed in stereoscopic 3-D. The article goes on to say that Lucas would just have a production credit with the new films, and that Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola are being considered as directors of installments in the trilogy. Excited? Well, the article seems to doubt itself at the end, so don't get too bent out of shape. Oh, the accompanying picture to today's blog is just about as great as you can get, so if its apparently kosher to throw out crazy bits of info, I'll go ahead and drop Martin Scorsese's name in the hat to create the trifecta of new directors.

A story that to me is almost as absurd, but awkwardly true is that, via IWatchStuff, The Weather Channel has decided to start showing weather-related films, beginning with The Perfect Storm, and including Deep Blue Sea(?!). I mean, at least it makes sense for VH-1 to air Purple Rain, but Deep Blue Sea!? How does that work? And even if it came be considered a "weather movie", has it even got an audience? Is this for ratings? Ridiculous.

SlashControl was showing The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas for free today. Seeing that I'm writing this quite close to midnight, the link was broken. Still, it may be worth checking the site out, who knows what the free movie of the day will be tomorrow. And if you're really bored, the top five most watched movies includes the late Patrick Swayze in Black Dog, what looks to be a few softcore porn flicks and an old Sherlock Holmes movie.

An interview with David Duchovny over at The Daily Beast hints at a third X-Files film, but it is basically just Duchovny speaking on how much he would enjoy returning to the character of Special Agent Fox Mulder one more time. This is at least something to make my fiance's day a little happier if she reads this before work.

Finally, a good Cinematical article by Jessica Barnes is up on movies you feel that only you enjoy, her pick being About Last Night. I have two. The first being Howard the Duck, as the movie is pretty much considered one of the worst ever made on several review sites. I don't know if it's the nostalgia behind enjoying this as a kid or what. I do know a few people that like this, but according to Internet reviews, we are a rare breed. Also, we have Spider-Man 3. Sure, Venom was in the movie for only fifteen seconds, and was met with a demise that didn't even tip the iceberg of what the David Michelinie-created villain deserved. On the flip side, the transformation of Eddie Brock to Venom in the bell tower was a decent scene, Flint Marko was a pretty decent villain, and as much as everybody hated the cheesiness of it, all of the corny extras oozed Stan Lee's personality and wasn't so farfetched from any of the other stuff we had seen from the film's predecessors. So, anyways, join in on that discussion.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Yesterday, whilst blogging about the first shot of Sigourney Weaver in James Cameron's upcoming science fiction opus, Avatar, I spoke briefly on how we were yet to get to a complete media onslaught. Perhaps, I was wrong, as two major stories come from the film today. First is the unprecedented news that fifty IMAX theaters have already began pre-sales to the midnight showing of the flick that is rumored to revolutionize the medium of 3-D, on December 18th, a full four months and some odd days away. Even more shocking that 20th Century Fox has already started pre-sales is the fact that, via an article at Variety, MovieTickets and Fandango have already reported "healthy" sales for Avatar. This means another day I have to request off of work tomorrow.

Secondly, and quite possibly the stupidest story I've reported in some time, Fathom Studios, according to Movieline, is threatening to sue Cameron and Fox over the similarities between one of the biggest flops in cinematic history, the animated Delgo, and Cameron's upcoming Avatar. This whole story began last week after the debut of Avatar's trailer, when some of the more underwhelmed fans didn't buy into all the hype that had been generating over Cameron's supposed masterpiece, found a few stills that looked similar to the horrendous Delgo, posted a side-by-side comparison, and let the ridicule flow. I find it hard to believe that anybody at Fathom Studios, who more than likely lost personal money on this, could believe that one of the modern masters of the science fiction genre would steal an idea from an animated flick aimed mainly at children, that holds the record for worst box office intake for a film opening in 2,000 or more theaters. In fact, with the little independent CGI picture having a budget of roughly $40 million, and a gross of just under $695,000, the film took home an approximate loss of $39,305,000. As for what the critics thought, Delgo currently holds a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. To make the entire fiasco even more confusing, Fox currently holds the home video distribution rights to the 2008 disaster. Although, on a side note, the last Cameron film to face a frivolous lawsuit was The Terminator, after Harlan Ellison sued Cameron for a writing credit after the director claimed to have been influenced by two episodes of The Outer Limits that Ellison had wrote. Ellison now holds an "acknowledgment to the works of" credit on the home video/DVD versions of Terminator, let's just hope that while sitting in the IMAX in four months, we don't have to read a credit to Marc F. Adler. Who? Exactly.

In other news, USA Today reported that Steven Spielberg is going to team up again with the late Michael Crichton, in an adaptation of his upcoming posthumous release of Pirate Latitudes. Of course, the team is best known for collaborating on the visually stunning 1993 movie Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World. The article also states that DreamWorks has tapped the talent of David Koepp, the screenwriter that adapted the aforementioned Crichton novels into Spielberg films will be returning. With a lot of Spielberg news going here and there lately, including a remake of Harvey and the big screen version of XBox's Halo, we are yet to learn if he will direct or just produce the film. Either way, possibly something to look forward to.

I've mentioned Werner Herzog in the last few blogs after seeing that he has an upcoming film with My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. One thing I have yet to mention though, is one of the more entertaining aspects of the director's personal life, was his estranged friendship with the ever-so bizarre actor Klaus Kinski, most notably highlighted in the unique documentary My Best Friend. Therefore, it is perfect timing that Cinematical has a good compilation of behind-the-scenes blow-ups from Kinski, including his work in two Herzog greats, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.

Finally, Geekologie led me to an interesting site called ThreeFrames. Simple, entertaining concept. A preview...

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

With the upcoming release of Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson's science fiction film District 9 upon us, there has been a lot of talk of the origins of the film, as the movie came to fruition during the development of a big screen adaptation of the XBox game, Halo (More on what happened from Halo to District 9 tomorrow). Of course, I don't think any fan of the genre is terribly upset that the development hell of the immensely popular video game adaptation spawned what looks to be an incredible work; however, it has sparked a good bit of conversation on if we'll ever actually see Master Chief grace the big screen. I have always been a Nintendo enthusiast, using Sony as a dirty, artistically beautiful mistress, leaving no room for the ring of death gamble, so an adaptation of the game isn't moistening my pants exactly. Yet, when it was announced that Jackson would be behind the film, it caught my attention, and now, the new rumor, via IESB, is that Steven Spielberg will be taking the reigns as producer of the film after falling in love with Stuart Beattie's screenplay treatment. Will this spark the interest of the broad cinephile spectrum again? I am also curious to find out if hardcore fans of the game are stoked about this. I mean, really, how could they not at least be slightly excited. Given, I would take Jackson over Spielberg, but we're not exactly talking about a Uwe Boll here. As a note, I realize the picture is of Spielberg holding the Nintendo Wii game, Boom Blox Bash Party, in which he actually developed. It would have been more relevant to show him holding a copy of Halo, or at the very least BioShock, which the aforementioned article brings up as proof that Spielberg is a bit of a gamer. So, in short, Google Image failed me.

Aside from Halo, there is really no other cinema news worth repeating, so I thought I'd take this time of empty space to share a few articles I was reading about John Hughes before I decided to look up the day's happenings. First, ABC News has an article counting down the top five musical moments of the late director's films. Paste Magazine counts down the top ten films written by the very underrated Hughes, the list being topped by The Breakfast Club. The true testament to how influential and awesome Hughes was, is that as much of a staple as The Breakfast Club is, that spot is almost debatable. Finally, here is the ghetto scene from National Lampoon's Vacation, which was written by Hughes. In fact, it was the short story this film was based upon, Vacation '58, that kick started his career at National Lampoon Magazine. Enjoy, and once again, rest in peace.


P.S., ToyRocket has a decent sale. I find it relevant enough to this blog, as plenty of film merchandise and collectables a splayed across the sale.

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

After all of the critical acclaim to Hayao Miyazaki's earlier films, such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle and several more classics of Japanese anime, you have to wonder why the animation master's latest film, the upcoming Ponyo hasn't gotten more attention. Not only does Miyazaki have an outstanding resume, including an Academy Award and some of the highest grossing anime in America or otherwise, but the film caters to a family audience, and without really knowing anything about Ponyo, I think it would be safe to say that it would be a much more intelligent and entertaining story than the currently playing family fare Aliens in the Attic. And to top it all off, Walt Disney Pictures has the U.S. distribution rights for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's stateside releases. Whatever the case, due to lack of promotion, I've suffered through a Japanese and French trailer thus far, and finally the English speaking trailer is out for what will surely be just another masterpiece in the immaculate career of Miyazaki. Enjoy.

@ Yahoo! Video

Variety announced today that Steven Spielberg will be behind a remake of the 1950 Henry Koster fantasy classic Harvey, which starred James Stewart. I read on a message board, sparked by Spielberg's latest job, complaints that Hollywood has ran out of original ideas. It is fair to say that some of Spielberg's best work has been written straight to the screen with the Indiana Jones series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Yet, it's not like he hasn't made a name for himself by adapting stories before, with classics such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. So, it's not that devastating. I also don't really think anyone can outdo Stewart as an actor, but the film is 59 years old, was produced during the Hays Production Code and doesn't get nearly the recognition it deserves. Therefore, I don't think a remake, especially in the capable hands of Spielberg, is a cry of blasphemy.

Speaking of remakes, sequels, reboots, or whatever the hell is going on with George Miller and his Mad Max franchise, the famous Australian character could be coming back. SciFiSquad reports that Jeremy Renner dropped the bomb that he was meeting with Miller and taking a screen test for the film. More importantly than Renner's casting though, it gets this film out into the blogsphere. Good idea or bad? I'm leaning towards bad, as the last good action/exploitation film remade for current day Hollywood was the wretched Death Race. Who can't see the same thing coming here?

Cinematical debuted the poster to The Open Road, starring the unlikely pairing of Justin Timberlake and Jeff Bridges. It's a baseball movie about a minor league pitcher and his estranged father. I've yet to see a trailer or read anything further, but here's hoping this will be the first good baseball movie since Kevin Costner was a legitimate award contender.

Funny People took the box office as expected, with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince keeping the second spot, edging out G-Force by approximately $400,000. The biggest shock of the week is that the Bollywood film Love Aaj Kal hit the fifteenth spot, grossing higher than new releases Adam, The Cove, Thirst, Lorna's Silence and the documentary that I hyped on Friday Not Quite Hollywood... combined. Quite the impressive feat from a film that as far as I've seen, has completely slid under the radar, and I've yet to hear any critic or blogger speak of it.

Finally, via The Detroit News, Michael Moore claims that his upcoming film Capitalism: A Love Story could be his last documentary. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed Canadian Bacon, but I think Moore is more entertaining being an asshole to our government.