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.

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.

Sunday, October 18th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Halloween Extravaganza)

This is the last Short Film Sunday I'll be posting before Halloween, seeing that next Sunday I will be hoarding nerdy memorabilia from The Grand AdventureCon in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. So, with the aforementioned information, I figure I should do a bit of a Halloween extravaganza, and put together three decent shorts that embody the spirit of the Halloween season.

First up, is the original short that inspired the feature length version that we are all a little more familiar with, Saw. The short, which was directed by James Wan and was written by and starred Leigh Whannell, the team behind the big screen version that would come out a year later, was actually made as nothing more than a pitch from Wan and Whannell in an attempt to be picked up from a movie studio and acquire actors. Of course, this short and the original film are actually good entries into American horror, so don't let the overkill of Saw VI, due out this coming weekend, or the announcement of an upcoming 3-D Saw VII, or even the VH-1 reality series Scream Queens ruin this for you. The short can now be viewed by the uncut edition of the Saw DVD.

Second, we get a little more child friendly with a 1929 short directed by the one and only Walt Disney and animated by the brilliant Ub Iwerks, The Skeleton Dance. The short was actually made just a year after Mickey Mouse's debut screen appearance, via the short Plane Crazy. The little film, part of the Disney Silly Symphonies series of shorts, has became a Halloween staple over the years, being named among the 50 greatest cartoons of all time in a survey of a thousand animation professionals, compiled by historian Jerry Buck, and Carl W. Stalling's score pops up on Disney Halloween CD's all over the place. A nice little fact, just nineteen days ago was the eightieth anniversary for this short.

Finally, if there is one short that embodies Halloween more than any other, it has to be Michael Jackson's Thriller. Some people may consider it a music video more so than a short film, but Wikipedia and IMDb are among the sites that count this as a film, albeit a TV film according to the latter. The video was definitely the first time filmmaking and music video would merge, and possibly the only time it would on such a magnificent level. The short is directed by John Landis, just fresh off of doing An American Werewolf in London, and co-stars Ola Ray (who, incidently will be one of the guests at the aforementioned AdventureCon) and the voice of horror icon Vincent Price. The short, which tells the story to the tune of Jackson's eponymous track off of one of the greatest albums of all time, Thriller, of a couple that leaves the showing of a horror flick due to the young girl being frightened, only to end up in a nightmare of walking, dancing undead. Of course, the short/music video will be bigger this year than ever after the passing of Jackson a few months ago. Adding to the hysteria of Wacko Jacko's October legacy is the fact that Thrill the World is expecting its biggest turn-out ever, which will attempt to break the Guinness World Record of most people dancing in sync to Thriller simultaneously the world over. Also, This is It, the documentary on the finals days of Jackson's life is set to come out just a few days before Halloween. Enjoy.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Wednesday, Septermber 9th, 2009

Yesterday, I blogged about the first piece of good news to come from The Walt Disney Company and Marvel Comics huge merger in the form of Pixar giving some desirable eyes to Edgar Wright's script treatment of Ant Man. Well, today there comes the news of the vast implications that concerned us in the broad scheme of things, even outside of the world of Marvel. Via Variety, Warner Brothers is creating DC Entertainment in opposition to the Disney ran Marvel Entertainment. Will much change? The first major blow is to the comic world as former president and publisher of DC Comics Jeff Levitz has stepped down to become a contributing editor, writer and consultant to the new rebooted version of the company, under the tutelage of Warner's Diane Nelson. Obviously this news will strike readers a little hard, but what about the implications on DC's cinematic adaptations? Well, the first and most obvious is that the long secretive next step in the Batman film franchise is hinted at in the article of having a tentatively 2012 release. Is this good news, or is this just going to become a conglomerate race to see whom can ruin their respected comic company first? Only time will tell.

Speaking of Disney, a new trailer for their upcoming return to cel animation, The Princess and the Frog, has been released to much criticism online. Of course, as predicted in Disney's long history of alleged racism, the company's take on a black princess is being scrutinized. Also, IWatchStuff throws in the claim that there is a bit of bestiality for good measure. Watch for yourself and see what you think.

'Princess and the Frog' Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Fox News has a story on another bump in the road for Robert Rodriguez' Red Sonja adaptation as Rose McGowan had to endure serious wrist and elbow surgery after suffering an injury that will put production on hold until the actress heals. I just hope this doesn't kill the project completely as McGowan looks so much better than Brigitte Nielson's big screen turn as the character. Also, you have to love the fact that McGowan is doing her own stunts. So there, I said it, despite all the bad buzz, I am actually looking forward to this.

Yahoo! Movies has released the official poster for Columbia Pictures documentary on the last performances of Michael Jackson in This Is It. Nothing too special, probably to match the film, which will more than likely not be anything more than a money pump from AEG to capitalize on the death of Jackson.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicolas Cage has dropped out of the villainous role in The Green Hornet. It seems that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's version of the flick just can't keep anything going for long. But, if it is like other news, such as Stephen Chow's leaving the director's chair for Michel Gondry, it can only bode well for the little film. A piece of casting news we'll be keeping an eye open for.

9 is out today, snagging the interesting release date of 09-09-09. Looks pretty decent. We'll look more at this Sunday when I'll show Shane Acker's original short film that serves as the basis of the Tim Burton/Timur Bekmambetov-produced feature.

I was alerted that today is officially A Day Without Cats online. Of course, The Cheezburger Network and 4Chan are protesting the event pretty hard, and I was going to do my part by looking up some cute cat clips from cinema. Unfortunately, when you type that into Google, you get something like this... McBeardo's Top 100 Cult Movie Nude Scenes, which to be honest wasn't all that bad of a list, and gave me a reason to watch a few clips of Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead. When searching a similar query on YouTube, I came up with probably the only thing raunchier than the countdown up there, a red band trailer for Ralph Bakshi's X-rated cartoon Fritz the Cat. I was personally hoping to get a video of two adorable kittens re-enacting the entire "we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses" scene from The Blues Brothers in a cardboard box car. Watching animated cats have explicit group sex in a bath tub comes in at a close second I guess. (In case it wasn't implied, the aforementioned link and the video down below are NSFW.)

P.S. Here is a real fix of kitten fun if you need it.

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

A while back, I read an article, that I can no longer find to link to, that stated that Paul Reubens' infamous man-child comic character Pee-Wee Herman would be returning to the big screen once again. I have always felt Reubens got a really raw deal when it came to his public image after the porn theater scandal. I mean, sure, he was the star of a children's show, but did the mothers' that kicked against his career ever care to look up the source material of his act, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, or the much viewed HBO special of it that was released to home video during his heyday. The generally subtle raunchy nuances was if anything, just a cliche in the very popular CBS morning show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. But since those days, we haven't seen much of the television personality with the red bow tie. Reubens, of course, went on to star in a few things like Mystery Men, Blow and a pretty funny guest spot on Reno 911! just off my memory, but the days of being the star of a feature film like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure passed long ago. So, with this thought of injustice over the misunderstood comic, I was devastated to read today, via Variety, that The Pee-Wee Herman Show was going to return for a special engagement in Hollywood, leaving many to speculate that plans for a new feature is a dead project. The article doesn't confirm it, but with no mention of a future for Reubens' creation, we cinephiles cannot expect much.

Just when it seemed that Michael Jackson would finally be out of, at the very least, the movie blogsphere, it was announced that a documentary of his final tour preparation would be released on October 30th, entitled This is It. The close to Halloween release date is fitting, as the article at Reuters states that some of the test footage was shot in 3-D, therefore we can only hope that this means a performance of "Thriller" in full, glorious use of the marketing gimmick. A Cinematical article also points out that the director of the documentary will be 80's choreographer Kenny Ortega, known from such great decade fare as Dirty Dancing and the late John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Speaking of which, with all the talk about one 80's icon being memorialized on screen with the King of Pop, when is all the blogs going to pick up and start talking about Don't You Forget About Me, a film chronicling a road trip to find the director before his death, by unknown filmmaker Matt Austin-Sadowski. I first read about the film in Geek Monthly, and just Google searched it for to find the directors' name for a reference point, and found an article on The Guardian stating that it had found a distribution deal. If some stranger happens up on this blog, and you do nothing else I implore you to do, look up this film, read a bit about, and if it pops up online, comes out to theaters, to DVD, jump aboard. It sounds very intriguing, and outside of a few blogs from Internet nobodies, it does seem that even in death, Hughes has been vastly overlooked.

Vulture has an interview with Bill Hader up, in which one of the topics discussed is the upcoming Saturday Night Live-inspired film MacGruber, including an apparent hard-R rating. For some reason, I've been gaining a bit of faith with the new cast of SNL after harboring some negative feelings by thinking they should do the impossible and live up to the likes of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, etc. Yet, I've still never really gotten aboard the enthusiasm train for the MacGruber skit, but Hader and Will Forte are both decent enough comedians and a hard-R rating at their capable hands probably gives me enough reason to get in the seats for this.

Cinematical's Kevin Kelly has a story up on how J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof has bought the rights to Stephen King's epic series of novels The Dark Tower. The article declares that the pre-production wouldn't even begin until after the 2010 conclusion of Lost, so we're still some time away; however, Kelly does sell me on reading The Dark Tower.

Finally, a star-studded (Zach Galifianakis, Henry Rollins, Ben Stiller, Olivia Wilde, Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, Alexis Bledel, Sargent Slaughter of WWF fame, Chuck Liddell and many more) video from FunnyOrDie has been released, in a bit of a mock-up of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Enjoy.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde