Monday, January 18th, 2010

The Avatar mania will not subside. Last night, despite facing a few more deserving films, James Cameron's blue cat people love story toppled the award show, pulling away with Best Picture - Drama, as well as Best Director for Cameron's part. Of course, this leads to the buzz that nobody really wants to hear, that Avatar now pretty much pulls out in front in the race for the top honor at the Oscars. The silver lining in the show, other than the Martin Scorsese tribute which I just watched online, was that Todd Phillips' raunchy comedy The Hangover pulled out the win in the Best Picture - Musical or Comedy category. Could this mean that the comedy could be a shocking entry into the contention for the Academy's ten nominees for Best Picture?

Building off the topic of Avatar, the film took the box office again this weekend, for the fifth straight time. Of course, as normal, it would also break a few records within the process, setting the record for the best fifth week showing of all time, beating out The Dark Knight and Titanic, as well as taking in the best long weekend for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, beating out Cloverfield's opening. Maybe even more impressive, the feat was accomplished with actual competition, toppling the opening weekend of The Book of Eli and the expansion of The Lovely Bones (which had a 53,000% increase). Next week, Legion and The Tooth Fairy will take on the blockbuster, but it is quite possible that we are looking at a sixth weekend at the top.

After it was announced that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire was out of Sony's plans for a new Spider-Man flick, I didn't read any stories about it, but I thought back on the rumor that Maguire would be taking on the role of Bilbo Baggins. Well, the most concrete of all news sources, The Sun, has put Maguire's role in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic The Hobbit as confirmed.

Variety announced today that Clark Gregg will reprise his role as Agent Coulson not only in Iron Man 2, but in Thor as well, presumably also leading to a role in The Avengers sometime in the future.

On a final thought, I spent the day not celebrating Dr. King's infamous speech, or sadly even the fate of our favorite late night host Conan O'Brien, but by celebrating the anniversary of my trip through the womb some 25 years back. It is a bit depressing, added with the workload of school bearing down on my procrastinating conscience awful heavily, but I also got motivated to start road-tripping as much as possible before the ability to do so enjoyably exits. One of the contemplated areas to go soon before the bigger trips begin is Philadelphia, so to give me a bit of hope, here is a low quality video of Sylvester Stallone running up the Philadelphia Museum of Art's steps in Rocky. Now, I bid you adieu to watch Scorsese on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Another day that I should be sleeping due to my work schedule, yet like yesterday, a plethora of geeky wonderdom has come out of the San Diego Comic Con for all of us cinephiles to gawk at, complain about and rejoice over. First, the picture there is the first poster for 2010's Jimmy Hayward directed Jonah Hex.

Maybe the biggest story to come out of the convention today comes via the panel promoting The Book of Eli, the Hughes Brothers' upcoming film set in a post apocalyptic dystopian society, starring Denzel Washington as the protagonist and Gary Oldman taking on the villainous role. Mila Kunis, Michael Gambon and a few others star in a film that we are yet to find much out about the plot. However, via I Watch Stuff, we get to see the initial trailer, and during the interview itself, Oldman dropped a bomb that took a little of the focus away from The Book of Eli for a moment. Cinematical reports that Oldman, who plays Commissioner James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's reboot of the Batman franchise, claims that a sequel to The Dark Knight will begin filming next year with a potential theatrical release as early as 2011. This announcement brings up a lot more questions than it answers. Of course, the most worrisome of those questions, that the Cinematical staff promptly points out, is with Nolan busying himself finishing his anticipated film Inception, as well as touring for press junkets and whatnot up until at least the middle of 2010, then how quick could a blockbuster of Dark Knight stature be shot and ready to be in theaters by 2011? Does this mean Nolan is out?

Cinematical's affiliate SciFiSquad also has a very interesting review of the Peter Jackson-produced science fiction film District 9, that seems to be continually overlooked. I was hoping for more information of the plot, as well as maybe some questions directed towards Jackson about his film The Lovely Bones, or of course, a little something about The Hobbit; however, after already being a little stoked for Niell Blomkamp's tale of alien life in Johannesburg, South Africa, the ecstatic review from Kevin Kelly is one of the first detailed pieces I've read on this movie and increases my level of excitement quite a bit.

Stepping away from the Comic Con bubble for a moment, Variety has announced that there will be a Saw VII, with David Hackl returning to direct. Does this inevitable story make the entire advertising campaign for Saw VI being the "final chapter" even more annoying to anyone else?

It's also Friday, so for those of us unfortunate enough to be outside of San Diego, we can go see a few flicks this weekend. Orphan is probably the highest profile release this week. The film seems like one that is either hit or miss, no in between feelings. It holds a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, was slammed by Variety and The New York Times, and given a three and a half star rating from Roger Ebert. It advertises a twist that could make or break the film, and has the star power of the incredibly talented Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. The other two movies that will be wide release this week might not be so good. First, G-Force, despite having Zach Galifianakis and the voices of Tracy Morgan, Penelope Cruz, Sam Rockwell and Nicolas Cage, I just don't think anything could save this Disney film. Also, The Ugly Truth, a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl. Despite her likability, I can't see it being worth seeing. Some overlooked films for the week that will almost certainly go under the radar is the raunchy indy bromance comedy Humpday, Kevin Spacey as a quirky psychiatrist in Shrink, with appearances by Gore Vidal, Robin Williams and many others, and finally The Answer Man, which I want to find more out about, stars Jeff Daniels, nabbing supporting roles from two up and coming actresses Kat Dennings and Olivia Thirlby.

And finally, from TrailerAddict, Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak speaks about Spike Jonze and his upcoming, highly anticipated adaptation. Enjoy.