Friday, January 29th, 2010

I have to be honest, when reading James Bobin's name earlier today, I hadn't a clue who he was. But after a further look, the man who was a writer/producer for Da Ali G Show and Flight of the Conchords is rumored to be taking the directorial role for the latest Muppet movie that is being penned by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Vulture also reports that Bobin is also being courted by Judd Apatow for the Kristen Wiig-written Bridesmaids, which may put the Muppet project in jeopardy. Overall though, we can't really oppose Bobin's involvement with a reboot of Jim Henson's Muppets, so let's hope it goes through.

I can't get over how every few months, something pops up on the blogsphere to make The Green Hornet look even better. Today, I Watch Stuff noticed that Film Score Monthly was crediting Danny Elfman as the composer for Hornet on his profile page, despite that an official press release for Elfman's hiring has yet to make the rounds. Michel Gondry's style of directing seems like a dream match for Elfman's music, coupled with Seth Rogen's inaugural superhero screenplay, it would almost be the biggest shock of the year if it failed.

If you've ever watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Indie Sex or just plain had some issue with the MPAA along the line, you've probably figured that the U.S. was the harshest of all ratings systems, and that other countries allowed the art of cinema to go unabashed. Well, apparently, we MPAA haters have never really looked at Australia's ratings classification, because after their most recent announcement, courtesy of Geekologie, I'm sure they have always been slightly cracked. The ratings board has put a ban on the depiction of women with small breasts, because of the mental association it could have with pedophilia. Also out, female ejaculation, because it is similar to urination. Male ejaculation on the other hand is still in. So, to put this all in perspective, Natalie Portman's side shot in Hotel Chevalier, Wes Anderson's brilliant short prologue to The Darjeeling Limited would be banned under the new sanction because after seeing Portman, we would most definitely want to rape a child. Yet, we could go to a theater and watch Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, which contains an ejaculation scene, and is for all purposes a hardcore porn with a hipster soundtrack that the Hustler parodies can't really afford.

On a final note today, another tidbit from the Sundance Film Festival. Here is the trailer for a short film I'm highly anticipating, Spike Jonze's I'm Here, a robot love story. Enjoy.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

The company behind such great films as Clerks., Pulp Fiction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, The Piano, Reservoir Dogs, Exotica, Shakespeare in Love, Velvet Goldmine, Dogma, Jackie Brown, the English dub of Princess Mononoke, Amelie, Apocalypse Now Redux, Gangs of New York, Cold Mountain, the Kill Bill films, Finding Neverland, The Aviator, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood among many other things is calling it quits. Founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the company was pretty much the face of the independent film surge in the 90's and ventured on to be attached, sometimes with other companies as in There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men with Paramount Vantage, to some of the better reviewed films of the 2000s. Along with the end of a legend in modern cinema goes a few unproduced films, via Cinematical. The best of which being Julie Taymor's adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, which was set to star Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand and Jeremy Irons among others. Ironically enough, Deadline Hollywood had ran a story early this morning before The Walt Disney Company (the current owners of Miramax, which was bought from the Weinsteins) announced the closing of the studio that Harvey Weinstein was interested in buying the company back. I'm sure Kevin Smith's Twitter feed is all aflutter, so expect some of his, as well as Quentin Tarantino's, comments about this over the weekend.

It wasn't just Miramax, today was a sad day for the entertainment industry as a whole. Zelda Rubinstein, most famous for playing the role of Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist horror franchise, which also won the actress a Saturn Award, died of kidney and lung failure at the age of 77 today. Although she will forever be known for her role in Poltergeist, Rubinstein kept acting and appeared as late as Richard Kelly's 2006 film Southland Tales. Joining her was author J.D. Salinger. Of course, Salinger didn't have a lot to do with film, as his most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, has been rumored to be in the process of an adaptation since the 50's, with everybody from Elia Kazan to Terrence Malick vying for the director's chair. Now that Salinger has finally passed, at the age of 91, one can't imagine that one of the most controversial books in American history, that I for some reason have never picked up, will make its way to the big screen in the coming years for better or worse.

Somehow, in the last 20 or so posts, I have yet to escape without mentioning Avatar. Nonetheless, I have to pass along a great story that I originally read on BBC News today. Officials in Zhangjiajie, China have renamed the Southern Sky Column the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, claiming that the location was James Cameron's inspiration for the floating mountain in his blockbuster. It actually doesn't stop there, Zhangjiajie will also be conducting "Avatar Tours" to tourists to show all the places that inspired the land of Pandora. I have yet to hear Cameron acknowledge this place, but if I ever visit China, the place does look truly beautiful.

On a final note for the day, I have yet to really speak of the Sundance Film Festival, because as a spectator, what can one say about mostly independent films that we know nothing about. We just salivate a few of the reviews and wait for their limited theatrical release to jump aboard the bandwagon. Anyhow, Screen Daily grabbed an interview with Sundance regular Gaspar Noe, director of the controversial rape/revenge flick Irreversible, about future projects. One, Noe plans to make his first 3-D film, a joyous, hardcore, erotica piece. Noe's exploitative filmmaking does make a decent match for the medium, bringing it back into the subgenre it belongs.

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

'Tis a rare moment on this blog to be speaking of George Lucas and the central focus not be on the Star Wars franchise. But today is a rare day in such tradition, as The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision Blog has announced that the man behind the greatest science fiction franchise in the history of cinema is going to be taking a seat as producer on a new CGI children's film about fairies. The movie is set to be directed by Kevin Munroe, the guy whom I only know from the CGI TMNT and written by David Berenbaum of Elf fame. So, without any information on this thing whatsoever other than the aforementioned limited specs, what does everybody think of this?

I haven't read much on Edward Norton's dispute with Marvel Studios on the final edit of The Incredible Hulk, but, according to SciFiSquad, it does apparently exist. That's why it is even more a piece of news than it would be otherwise that Kevin Feige confirmed today that the character of Dr. Bruce Banner and his alter ego will officially be a member of the titular superhero team in 2012's The Avengers, and is hoped to be played by Norton. It also mentions that after The Avengers, a sequel to the Hulk film could be in the works.

Of all the bloggers on Cinematical, it is usually Monika Bartyzel that catches my attention the most. So, without even trying to summarize her entertaining article today, here is the link to a story that somehow involves the former Malaysian prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Avatar, Zoolander and the assumption that 9/11 was staged by America via the wit of James Cameron.

Remember the trailer for Repo Chick the other night and how terrible it was? Well, get ready to polish Alex Cox's Oscar, because in comparison to the Insane Clown Posse's latest film (this is actually a sequel, please do not let your brain explode), Big Money Rustlas, it appears to be excellent. So, if you feel like ending your day on a depressing note, watch this trailer. Who wishes that the ICP was Haitian based?

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

James Cameron has now officially caused the RMS Titanic to sink twice. That's one more time than God. Today, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Cameron's latest film Avatar succeeded what many analysts and critics had expected, it surpassed his 1997 critically acclaimed classic Titanic. This may seem like a huge day for the world of science fiction; however, I feel distraught. I still stand by my original review of Avatar as a good movie. Good. That's all. Today, I watched a great film within the science fiction genre, Duncan Jones' mostly overlooked Moon. The Sam Rockwell-starring picture is more than just a Kubrickian homage, it actually ascends the pool of normal sci-fi, and hovers around with that of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Is that a bit of an overstatement? Pure blasphemy to some? Quite possibly, but agree or disagree, I would find it hard to look somebody favorably in the eye if they chose Avatar as a better film than Moon. Building on that same thought, I can't help but imagine if Cameron, instead of Jones, had his name attached to the low budget Moon, that it would be at the top contention for most of the cinematic awards currently going on.

The aforementioned argument still doesn't really touch on Avatar's popularity to the general public. But that does bring up yet another argument as the film may lead in ticket sales, but has barely crested the U.S. domestic top fifty in attendance, in part due to the inflated 3-D ticket price attached to the film. So not only does this mean a superficial win over not only Cameron's Titanic, but actual perennial genre favorites The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and many more of the big money makers in the past decade. It also pretty much solidifies that this entire 3-D thing is not going to go away. No longer is this a fun exploitation gimmick, but a distraction for possible good films to make an extra buck. THR's Heat Vision Blog has already reported that Warner Brothers is looking in to transferring the two films based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into 3-D. So in summation, Avatar was worth its ticket, it was an good movie, but somehow has contributed to the eventual ruin of the medium as a whole.

From one box office sensation to another. Paramount Pictures' shocking underdog horror hit Paranormal Activity's sequel has been rumored to have Kevin Greutert, formerly of the Saw franchise. Deadline Hollywood is instead reporting that Lionsgate has exercised an option in Greutert's contract, forcing him to make Saw 3D (see the above argument on Avatar's adverse effect on the movie business), and taking him away from Paranormal Activity 2. Kind of an interesting story, that will at least give Lionsgate a scapegoat when Saw 3D gets the horrid reviews that has come to be expected of the five films between it and the original Saw film.

Oh, and as a note, the picture up there is of Felicia Day, of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog fame, for her video "Do You Want to Date My Avatar". After all the headlines Avatar has been producing, it was really the only unused picture on Google Image's "Avatar" search.

Monday, January 25th, 2010

A trip to Florida is weighing pretty hardily on my travel-lusting spirit as these new images of Hogwarts from Universal Studios Islands of Adventure's new The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the park were released today. I'm sure more will come from this closer to the opening of the attractions.

The big news today comes once again from the wallet of James Cameron. Legion and The Tooth Fairy failed to take down Avatar in the box office charts again, with the critically lauded science fiction flick taking the top spot for a sixth weekend in a role, dropping only 18% from last week. And, as we're becoming accustomed to, the movie broke more records, overtaking The Dark Knight's spot as the second highest grossing movie of all time earlier in the week, and breaking Titanic's record for the highest grossing sixth weekend of all time. And at roughly $558 million, analysts expect Cameron's latest to replace his Titanic on the all time list sometime in the coming week. Next week, we're posed for the possibility of a seventh week of Avatar's reign as the biggest competition will be Martin Campbell's Edge of Darkness, the adaptation of the BBC series starring Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone, which hasn't had the media build up that one would expect from Gibson, and could pass easily under the radar.

Variety ran a story a few days back on New Line Cinema gearing up for The Hobbit films, and in the midst announcing that the release date has been pushed back to late 2012. I have read several blogs on this, and despite Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson not yet admitting to the delay in the release, many are taking the pessimistic view and are beginning to question if the classic J.R.R. Tolkien novel will even ever make it to the big screen. I'm going to leave this one alone until del Toro or Jackson make a public statement on it however.

I have yet to read a story on MarketSaw that has later been proven as a truthful statement, yet the blogging world seems to be up in arms about a recent story the site published a story stating that a third installment of the Gremlins franchise is being developed for a 3-D film. I say rubbish. Even in the event the article turns out to be based on fact, unless the right director gets behind the chair, I'm looking at this as just another bastardization of the 80's.

Speaking of bastardizations of the 80's, Alex Cox released the new trailer for Repo Chick, a "spiritual sequel" to his 1984 cult classic Repo Man. The Emilio Estevez-starring flick contained its share of camp and kitsch fare, but the unashamed use of bad green screen in the sequel takes it over the edge of entertainment. I mean, I've read a decent amount of buzz from this thing from Cox fans on message boards, and maybe I'm judging it wrong, but regardless of how good it is, I think from viewing this trailer we can all assume that it will, even at its very best, not live up to Repo Man.

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

It won't be long before we get Tim Burton's unique look at Lewis Carroll's classic tale of Alice in Wonderland. Of course, Burton follows in the footsteps of Jan Svankmajer, and even Walt Disney's own animation department with trippy versions of the most famous of all the "literary nonsense" genre. Still, the Disney train is looking at Burton to helm a new live action version of one of their classic animated princess stories, Sleeping Beauty. The film, entitled Malificent, will retell the story focusing on the titular evil antagonist. The /Film article this is reported on does not confirm Burton's participation with the project, but with a 2011 release of the Philip K. Dick adaptation The King of the Elves for Disney animation, whatever Pixar is doing, Tron Legacy and this, it looks like Disney may actually be something more than being the conglomerate ass of Hollywood in the coming years.

The daily dip of news from the world of Pandora comes way of ABC News today. It has been reported that while watching Avatar, a 42-year-old Taiwanese man suffering from hypertension got over-excited, took a stroke and passed away. This almost makes me want to stick a toe back on the James Cameron bandwagon for a bit.

Cinematical posted the story today that Paramount Pictures has announced the release date for the Coen Brothers' remake of the western classic True Grit to Christmas. How much does the recent buzz for Jeff Bridges' part in Crazy Heart psych everybody up for his ability to outdo John Wayne tenfold in this flick?

CineMusic has reported after not being able to complete the score due to scheduling differences, the portion of the score already recorded by Danny Elfman will be seeing the light of day when The Wolfman is released, replacing his replacement Paul Haslinger. Conrad Pope has been signed on to round out the unfinished score.

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

This isn't a promotional poster for Inglourious Basterds, featuring Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine character. It is Hot Toys newest figure due out sometime within the coming year. I found this on Topless Robot, where the article said a quote that sums up the work Hot Toys does perfectly in my head, "there are actual people who look less real than Hot Toys' action figures".


Yesterday I mentioned the rumors of Tobey Maguire being casted as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, after the story ran in The Sun. Luckily, Harry Knowles of AICN e-mailed both Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to dispel the casting. Not that I'm terribly anti-Maguire, or even think that he couldn't actually pull it off, but that still doesn't make him right for the role, so I am happy for the moment.

A day cannot go by without James Cameron's Avatar making some sort of ripples within the cinema blogsphere. Today, an Access Hollywood story has been making the rounds, focusing on an interview with George Lucas in which the iconic director cites Cameron's latest success as inspiration to go further with the transfer of the Star Wars films to the 3-D medium. Is this a good thing? Sure, we all salivate at the original trilogy returning to the big screen and making waves at the box office again, but I still just really detest this entire 3-D explosion.

Vulture announced today that Marc Webb, the director behind the hugely successful indie comedy (500) Days of Summer, has been officially signed on by Sony to direct the reboot of the Spider-Man films. Although still being unhappy about the franchise being taken away from Sam Raimi (by his choice or the studios has not been clarified at the moment), but this is a decent step in the right direction to making this film watchable.

In the most bizarre origin story of a rumor for the day, the folks at /Film has decided that either Iron Man 2 will be taking up reshoots in the future, or that Robert Downey, Jr. will reprise his role of Tony Stark in a cameo for the upcoming Thor film, due to the fact that Downey sported the Stark-ish beard-mustache combo at the Golden Globes. Does this actually mean anything? Probably not at all, but if a crazy rumor has to be started up, might as well be from some movie geeks with at least semi-logical basis.