Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Oh, that darned economy. It has claimed a new victim, this time the rights of ownership to the Terminator film franchise. Sky News reports that Halcyon, the company behind the production of the latest in the series, Terminator Salvation, is going to auction off the rights to the popular franchise for future films or television series, but will not cover ownership of the royalties from the previous Terminator entries. I personally was one of the few that actually enjoyed Salvation, but I'm sure with the fans that was disappointed, this piece of news comes as a double-edged sword. On one hand, the fate of future films is out of Halcyon's hands, although on the other side, anybody, including Uwe Boll could win the auction. On a comical note, Joss Whedon has written an open letter to DeadlineHollywood about his possible plans for Terminator.

Well, you didn't think I mentioned Uwe Boll without reason, did you? I just read an article on Cinematical about Boll's latest film, Darfur, a serious film about the genocide situation in Sudan. To see what Boll does with a serious film, the article must be read, especially on his technique of filming a realistic rape scene. The flick stars Edward Furlong (the undisputed good Terminator films), Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, some of us found it entertaining), Matt Frewer (Moloch and Max motherfucking Headroom) and Billy Zane (Titanic), which makes me sad for all four of those actors. Cinematical also provides the trailer if you dare to set through it, I have not yet made the call.

As to have been expected, due to the shocking success of Paranormal Activity, and the seemingly endless line of comparisons towards the other indy handheld camera horror flick from a decade ago, The Blair Witch Project, somebody, TheStar.com in this case, has tracked down Eduardo Sanchez, one half of the directorial team for Blair Witch, for an interview. Also expected, Sanchez reveals plans for a possible third installment of his film series.

Finally, the Michael Jackson documentary This is It, debuted at the top of the box office charts this week by a hefty margin. Coming in at second was another solid week for Paranormal Activity, racking in on some Halloween moviegoers. Luckily, Saw VI continued to disappoint in sales as, despite it being Halloween weekend, placed below the fifth week of the negatively reviewed comedy Couples Retreat.

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.