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.

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Not since the Muppets has a soundtrack for a family film been so anticipated, as is Karen O and the Kids' upcoming release for Where the Wild Things Are. Everything about Spike Jonze's big screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's timeless storybook seems perfect, and the music from the wonderful lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs makes a perfect fit for the movie. Take a listen for yourself, via a post from IWatchStuff.

I failed to see any posts on any of the normal blog sites I hit yesterday on the weekend's box office performances. Maybe it was because a second week of domination at the hands of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is just slightly disheartening. Still, I am happy to report that my prediction of Fame taking the number one spot was way off, as the film ended up being third overall in a somewhat disappointing showing. Second place went to another debut on the charts, Jonathan Mostow's Surrogates.

Finally, to end a rather slow news day, Asian Movie Pulse announces some upcoming plans of Studio Ghibli. The most important in my mind is that Hayao Miyazaki is now contracted to churn out two more feature films in the next three years. Also, Miyazaki's Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata will be directing his first film in ten years, Taketori Monogatari, an adaptation of an old Japanese folk tale.

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Whenever I heard about a remake of Friday the 13th, I cringed. I hung my head both times it was announced that Rob Zombie would be taking on John Carpenter's classic Halloween franchise. Yet for some unknown reason, I've attached myself to Samuel Bayer's new take on Wes Craven's 1984 slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street. Is there any reasoning behind it? Well, I do love Bayer's music video work, but this is also his feature film directorial debut, and it is alongside a production credit with Michael Bay, one of the silver screen's leading douchebags. Also, Jackie Earle Haley is taking over the iconic role of Freddy Krueger. Sure, Haley definitely did the character of Rorschach justice in the adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, but the actor is still relatively new to me, and despite his acting chops, will take nostalgia points away by simply not being Robert Englund. And finally, I haven't even heard of the lead actress, Rooney Mara, before. So, after this trailer, am I still wrongly and uncharacteristically stoked for this film? Probably, but here's hoping the odd intuition is right. Enjoy the trailer.
A Nightmare on Elm Street in HD


So, what does everybody think about Roman Polanski, a director constantly mentioned among the greats, getting arrested in Switzerland for a crime he committed in 1977? Of course, the crime was statutory rape. Still, on Polanski's side, the victim, the now 45-year-old Samantha Geiner doesn't want prosecution to be brought down upon the director. Another interesting thing to think about is that if Polanski would have been arrested back in 1978, when the United States issued warrants for his arrest for fleeing the country, we would have never had gotten his masterful 2002 film The Pianist. One last note on the Polanski scandal, I saw on Wikipedia, without a source, that his latest directorial effort, The Ghost was still in production and thus, has been put on hold. This definitely sounds like something that probably should be true, but I've yet to find an actual news site/blog to verify it.

Cinematical posted an article today announcing that, via Rian Johnson's Twitter account, The Brothers Bloom will get an earlier DVD release than planned, and will be on shelves tomorrow for rental only, not for purchase. I was actually shocked the film didn't get superb ratings, only scoring a 48% on RottenTomatoes from the top critics (vs. an 85% from the RT community), but I still have faith in the film and now have something planned for tomorrow.

Finally, another story that has been kicking around that I've yet to really grab onto is that CineVegas, the annual Los Vegas, Nevada film festival will be cancelled for 2010, presumably due to the "economic climate" according to the official site. I'm not all that broken up, because unfortunately living in southeastern Kentucky, film festivals are as imaginary and fantastical to me as the plot line to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Still, CineVegas was the original venue for Visioneers last year, and any time an outlet for quality stuff that could fly completely under the radar leaves, it is a bit saddening.

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: Cashback)

Despite never working in an office, every time I watch Mike Judge's Office Space, I get a rebellious, uprising feeling against whatever menial workplace I am currently working at throughout my all too long college career. I think the reason of this, is that every job is similar in regard to ridiculous bosses, repetitive work, and failure to ever reach the expectations of the employee. Still, after spending most of my time as a stockperson at a grocery store staring off into space, hoping to awaken at the hour of departure back into freedom, I can relate to this artsy Sean Ellis short Cashback.

The short film itself is about an art student (as portrayed by Sean Biggerstaff), whom is trying to combat time while on the clock. Each character in the story combats time in different manners, most of which I'm sure any of us can relate. Somewhere near the middle, the story turns slightly away from comedy and ventures into a piece about the beauty of the naked female form. For this, the short is sometimes difficult to find online, and also gave birth to a rather raunchy feature film version in 2006, that took on more of a softcore pornography feeling than the witty artistic quality of its predecessor. The feature also features the talents (by that I mean nude body) of busty English model Keeley Hazell, which almost makes it impossible to watch this without getting linked to her leaked sex video with some soccer star (forgive me for not looking more into it). If you can look past the surrounding trashiness, the very overlooked, beautiful short is well worth the time.

As for Ellis, 2004's Cashback was just his second short, and the 2006 adaptation was his feature directorial debut. Despite being lauded for the short, critics were more mixed on the feature, and his career has since went to directing a lukewarmly reviewed British horror flick (The Broken) and returned to comedic short films with The Business Trip, although still not as successful as the film below. Here's hoping that one day Ellis can recreate the magic in this short, and that it may eventually be known more for than a way to see boobies in the vast collection of readily viewable breasts online. So, without further adieu, here is Cashback.

Cashback - court-metrage - keeley hazell et haley mary
by hot-videos

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

I tired and have a fear that I'm getting sick. Still, insomnia has kicked in, so I drug myself out of bed and despite the utter lack of cinema-related news today, I figured be best nausea-induced sleep deprivation antidote would be blogging. So, you made had noticed that there is three things I go to if there is nothing bitch-worthy making the blog rounds; awesome Star Wars merchandise, Werner Herzog's wacky antics, and the complete depravity of John Waters. Today, in honor of a coffee table book of exploitation film posters that I bought (edited by Tony Nourmand and Graham Marsh, which have several film poster/art books, the two I have are really great) has this incredible picture of Waters' comically corrupt sophomore trash masterpiece Desperate Living, which was released in Italy heavily edited and re-titled Punk Story.

Well, I looked for the actual poster on Amazon to no avail, so to boost the spirits, I actually found a trailer that will probably be kicked off YouTube soon due to the cavalcade of perversion (Multiple Maniacs reference) contained within, including a snippet of Jean Hill and Mink Stole's sex scene. Enjoy kiddos.

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Some disturbing news today coming from an MGM conference call to shareholders, via DeadlineHollywood, in which the company claims they are very close to bankruptcy. The call basically says the company needs $170 million dollars now through the end of the year to continue on funding projects, one of which is Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. The article also mentions the possible loss of the James Bond franchise from MGM. Of course, these properties are so huge that I don't think they face extinction with the fall of MGM; however, for fans that are already feeling that 2011 is far too long to wait for another glimpse into Middle-earth, this news is rather disappointing, as the shop for a new studio to take over production will take a little time. Also, on a lesser note, it would be a sad day if MGM ceased to exist. Just a few hours ago I was watching some scenes from That's Entertainment! III, a great documentary showing some cut scenes from classic MGM musicals. I mean, that is a lot of rich history in cinema to be flickering out. Maybe not time to panic yet, but after the Marvel merger, I can see The Walt Disney Company coming in here and pretty much declaring the entire entertainment business as their own. I'm sure this will be a topic on here in the future, so stay tuned kiddos.

Variety reported that Harvey Weinstein has announced that a new Scream trilogy will be in the works, with Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox-Arquette returning to their respective roles in Scream 4, and that Wes Craven was being sought out to direct. The article also mentions that Dimension Films will also be looking to put an emphasis on 3-D, including Robert Rodriguez currently writing Spy Kids 4 and 3-D versions of Halloween 3 and a remake of Children of the Corn (because apparently a terrible Syfy original isn't enough, but the world beckons for a terrible 3-D version as well).

RottenTomatoes has a great countdown of the absolutely worst films of the new millennium. A decent read, until you come to the realization that all the people involved probably triple your salaries.

And finally, today is Friday, therefore it is time to gear up for some new releases. A few movies that look decent, but probably nothing really special. Jonathan Mostow's Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, reads like a wonderful concept, but there seems something missing when watching the trailer. I still have hope for it, but I don't fancy the reviews being staggering for this one. Pandorum and Paranormal Activity both look like decent enough horror fare, although I seriously doubt either one leaving a lasting impression. There's also Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, based on the popular Canadian comedy series that would completely bypass me as I've never seen the show. Finally, the remake of Fame is released today, and will more than likely go on to take the box office for the weekend. The original being a defining piece of pop culture for the early 80's (not to mention being directed by Alan Parker) is what made it a good film. Taking the lack of storyline anyways, and turning it into nothing more Step Up 3 targeted to a whiter audience, without all the cultural relevance of being 80's and being awesome, will surely result in disaster.

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

If I do have any readers, you will surely know by now that I adore Werner Herzog's filmmaking style. There is truly no other filmmaker quite like the helmer of Fitzcarraldo. All of the stories from the makings of Herzog's films are almost certainly and consistently more entertaining than the films themselves. Maybe Herzog realizes what a treasure trove he is, and what a lost art his guerilla style filmmaking has become, because Cinematical points out a new site to recruit aspiring directors to join Herzog's Rogue Film School to teach you all the things that actual film school will not. In the about section of the website, points eight and ten tell exactly why one would want to join a class taught by one of cinema's greatest visionaries.

"8. Related, but more practical subjects, will be the art of lockpicking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The neutralization of bureaucracy. Guerrilla tactics. Self reliance.

9. Censorship will be enforced. There will be no talk of shamans, of yoga classes, nutritional values, herbal teas, discovering your Boundaries, and Inner Growth."

The site also notes that there will be another class in 2010 on the east coast. So, if anybody's looking for a birthday/Christmas or whatever the hell else you buy gifts for idea, the $1,500 enrollment to the Rogue Film School would be accepted.

In other news, The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business Blog has announced that David Cronenberg is in talks with Fox to write and direct a remake of Cronenberg's own critically acclaimed 1986 remake of the 1958 Vincent Price vehicle The Fly. I never really thought that The Fly warranted another remake, but if Cronenberg is aboard, my curiosity will get me in the seats. Also, who else is hoping that Jeff Goldblum will also return?

Bukowskis has the viewing for Ingmar Bergman's personal possessions that are to be auctioned off online at the moment until the auction actually begins on the 28th. Really, aside from a swivel chair, everything on the site looks amazing. The item that I'm interested at how much it will go for is the wooden chess set used in The Seventh Seal.

Finally, The Wrap has reported that Disney has trashed David Mamet's script treatment of The Diary of Anne Frank, which wasn't even set in the Holocaust, nor was the main character Anne Frank. Whenever the original story was announced, I have to admit, I wasn't as shocked as some, seeing that I'm not all that familiar with Mamet's work, and saw no real problem with him pairing with Disney for an adaptation of Frank's writings. I think I was personally more worried about the years and years of Walt Disney's alleged anti-Semitism being projected in a big budget movie about the suffering of the Jewish people. Regardless, I guess for the time being, both the national media's fears of Mamet and mine of Disney's history of racism have both been quelled.