Fantastic Mr Fox - Trailer

The stop-motion film, marking Anderson's first foray into animation, is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story, centering on a clever fox who must outwit three mean, dimwitted farmers who try their hardest to hurt Mr. Fox and his family. George Clooney will voice Mr. Fox, while Cate Blanchett voices his wife.

Out on 13th November.

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Fantastic Mr Fox - Photos from Wes Anderson's adaption of the Roald Dahl classic

The film focuses on a crafty fox (voiced by George Clooney) who finds himself and his family targeted for death by the three dumb, plug-ugly farmers who tire of sharing their chickens with the critter. The Fantastic Mr. Fox features the voices of George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Meryl Streep.

How about that for a cast! The film is due out on 13th November.

I'm a little unsure about the look of the film. Not what I was expecting, but typical Wes Anderson quirkyness. What are your thoughts?

Source: filmsactu.com

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UPDATED: Dan Aykroyd talks Ghostbusters 3

The Los Angeles Times recently caught up with Dan Aykroyd who confirmed that Ghostbusters 3 is in development at Columbia Pictures and may start filming in the winter:

Aykroyd said Sigourney Weaver is on board now, as are the original squad ofectoplasmic specialists -- Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. Murray's presence was the pivot point in making a third film happen.

"We could be in production by winter."

The script is by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, the writing team behind the upcoming Jack Black/Michael Cera movie Year One (directed by Ramis), and Aykroyd is enthused about its premise of a new generation of Ghostbusters taking over the duties of the aging team.

Aykroyd said he wishes Ivan Reitman would return to direct the third film in the
series but that he's "too busy as a mega-producer" to take it on; his second
choice is Ramis, who, of course, co-wrote the first two Ghostbusters films with
Aykroyd and has numerous directing credits, most notably Groundhog Day and
Analyze This. "He has a lot of things going on, but it would be wonderful to see
him do it."

The details of story are still in play, but Aykroyd said he's hoping for a five-member "new generation" team with several female members. "I'd like it to be a passing-of-the-torch movie. Let's revisit the old characters briefly and happily and have them there as family but let's pass it on to a new generation."

He then mentions Alyssa Milano (who provided a voice for the upcoming video game) and Eliza Dushku as potential options. Nothing concrete about those two, but I could see Dusku as a Ghostbuster.

UPDATE: The two actresses Dan mentions quickly got onto this and had this mini-conversation on Twitter.

Alyssa Milano: Can't speak for @ElizaPatricia (Hi, pretty lady)but this is the first I'm hearing of Ghostbusters 3. Did the VO in the game tho.

Eliza Dushku: Ghost-rumor-buster in a big way @Alyssa_milano (hey girlene) it's nuthin' I know of.

How do you feel about the news? Who would you want to see as a female Ghostbuster?

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Jim Jarmusch talks about The Limits of Control

The NY Times has a great article about Jim Jarmusch's next film, The Limits of Control. I'm a big, big fan of the Musch and so I am really looking forward to seeing this one. Lots of great actors and the usual dream like quality to it from the sound of it. Have a read of some of the article here to see what goes in, or rather what doesn't, to Jarmusch's filmmaking technique. Check out the rest of the article though as lots more great stuff there. Thanks to Pam for sending me the link.

The Limits of Control harks back to the existential crime films that enjoyed a golden age in the late ’60s with Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Samourai” and John Boorman’s “Point Blank.” Mr. Jarmusch summed up his intentions with typical dry perversity: “I always wanted to make an action film with no action, or a film with suspense but no drama.”

In keeping with his fondness for repetition and episodic structures, “The Limits of Control” takes shape as a series of interactions and transactions. The lone man runs into a series of colorful types (Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Gael García Bernal, Bill Murray and others, making the most of minimal screen time), most of them envoys of a sort, who dispense gnomic instructions and presumably less pertinent ruminations. Matchboxes branded “Le Boxeur” are exchanged. Some contain a piece of paper bearing coded inscriptions, which the De Bankolé character dutifully folds up and swallows, washing down the clue with a gulp of espresso.

Mr. Jarmusch’s previous film, the melancholic “Broken Flowers” (2005), in which Mr. Murray played a graying lothario who goes in search of his former flames, seemed like the product of a mellowed middle age. But “The Limits of Control” affirms that at 56 he remains open as ever to experimentation, perhaps even to new ways of making and seeing movies.

There are obvious affinities between “The Limits of Control” and Mr. Jarmusch’s most adventurous film, “Dead Man,” which received mixed reviews when it was released but found its way onto many critics’ lists of the best movies of the ’90s. Each film undertakes a journey that is as much metaphysical as literal: a trip in more than one sense. By opening with a quotation from the Rimbaud poem “The Drunken Boat,” with its hallucinatory visions of being lost at sea, “The Limits of Control” even picks up where “Dead Man” left off, with Johnny Depp’s character being pushed out to sea and into the spirit world.

The title comes from an essay by William S. Burroughs about mind-control techniques. “I like the double sense,” Mr. Jarmusch said. “Is it the limits to our own self-control? Or is it the limits to which they can control us, ‘they’ being whoever tries to inject some kind of reality over us?”

But the title also registers as an acknowledgment that control, while unavoidable in the messy collective endeavor of moviemaking, runs counter to Mr. Jarmusch’s free-form approach. He starts with specific actors, gathers up seemingly unrelated ideas and settles on situations and moods before filling in what passes for a plot. “I work backwards,” he said. “That can be dangerous, and it can take a while.” For “The Limits of Control” he had even fewer starting points than usual: an actor, a character and a place, the curving Torres Blancas, a Madrid apartment tower that he first visited in the ’80s.

Location scouting was critical, since the movie, as Mr. Jarmusch saw it, was very much a matter of finding evocative spaces and landscapes and responding to them. The film came together as a connect-the-dots exercise. He sketched out the character’s itinerary, beginning in the cosmopolitan capital, Madrid, then heading south to the Moorish city of Seville on a high-speed train that traverses the olive groves and almond orchards of the Andalusian countryside. The eventual destination is the southeast, the lunar desert terrain near the coastal town of Alméria (where many spaghetti westerns were shot).

Mr. Jarmusch started filming without a complete script; instead he had what he called “a minimal map,” a 25-page story. The dialogue was filled in the night before a scene was shot. “With Jim it’s always about what’s between the lines,” said Mr. De Bankolé, who has appeared in three of Mr. Jarmusch’s previous films.

The odd little totems and fetishes embedded throughout the movie may seem arbitrary, but mention any one of them and Mr. Jarmusch will riff at length about its personal significance. He had received the Boxeur matches, which are common throughout Africa, as gifts, first from the musicologist Louis Sarno, then from Mr. De Bankolé, who was born in Ivory Coast. The black pickup truck that transports Mr. De Bankolé’s character to his ultimate destination, down to the slogan emblazoned on it (“La Vida No Vale Nada,” the title of a song by the Cuban singer and revolutionary Pablo Milanés), is modeled on one owned by Joe Strummer of the Clash, who appeared in “Mystery Train” and, before his death in 2002, lived part time in the south of Spain.

Music was the most important key to the rhythms and textures of the film. Mr. Jarmusch’s soundtracks are the height of hipster connoisseurship: Neil Young’s feedback-choked guitar vamps on “Dead Man,” RZA’s sinuous hip-hop on “Ghost Dog,” Mulatu Astatke’s Ethiopian jazz-funk on “Broken Flowers.” For “The Limits of Control,” which called for a soundscape that he described as “layered, big, sort of damaged,” he relies on distortion-heavy epics by ambient-noise bands like Boris and Sunn O))).

Like Forest Whitaker’s urban samurai in “Ghost Dog,” Mr. De Bankolé’s character is an apparent adherent of Eastern philosophy. The lone man practices tai chi and has a deliberate, Zenlike air to him. (At museums he takes in only one painting per visit.) Mr. De Bankolé said he got into character by reading the Japanese martial-arts manual “The Art of Peace.”

“It would slow me down,” he said. “He should be almost floating when he walks.”

Mr. Jarmusch is not a practicing Buddhist, but he said, “it’s a philosophy that speaks to me more clearly than others.” He does tai chi and qigong and has come up with a concentration exercise — “a cross between meditating and taking a hallucinogenic drug” — that requires him to pay close attention to all noises within earshot. (In a lovely sequence Mr. De Bankolé’s character lies on his bed in a Seville apartment as the light changes and the sounds of the neighborhood wash over him.)

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Bill Murray is a zombie in Zombieland

Shocktilyoudrop have it from a reliable source that the always excellent Bill Murray has donned full zombie makeup for a cameo in Ruben Fleischer's Zombieland.

He's joins Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and Amber Heard in this horror comedy where a band of survivors team to fight the living dead in the post-apocalyptic Southwest after a zombie plague ravages America.

This is the film that made Woody Harrelson punch a cameraman in the face because he thought he was a zombie! (see below)

Now the involvement of Bill Murray (although only in a cameo) suggests to me that it has a little bit more about it than other such zombie films.

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Ghostbusters 3 - Fan Made Trailer (Ghostbusters Go to Hell)

whoiseyevan is the one who put in all the hard work to make this. Here is what he has to say about it.

The "trailer" is based on Dan Aykroyd's long-rumored Ghosbusters 3 premise... In fact, that's his voice narrating his idea throughout the 'Hell vignette' part.

It took me forever to piece this thing together. Here's the recipe for the trailer:

Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Predator, Independence Day, Casper, Nightwatch, Gremlins 2, Lost in Translation, End of Days, Haunted Mansion, Hellboy, Earth vs the Spider, Orange County, Blues Brothers 2000, Miss Congeniality 2, Christmas with the Kranks, Miss Congeniality, Sleepy Hollow, X-Men, The Blob, Spider-man 3, High Spirits, Frighteners, Constantine, Mars Attacks, Charlie's Angels, Be Kind Rewind,
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Dan in Real Life

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The Limits of Control - Jim Jarmusch's latest.

"How did you get in here?"

"I used my imagination."

This film looks amazing and has a brilliant cast.

The new movie from filmmaker Jim Jarmusch ("Broken Flowers," "Down by Law") is set in the striking and varied landscapes of contemporary Spain (both urban and otherwise). The location shoot there united the writer/director with acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle ("In the Mood for Love," "Paranoid Park"). Isaach De Bankole stars in the lead role for Mr. Jarmusch; this marks the duo's fourth collaboration over nearly two decades, following "Night on Earth," "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," and "Coffee and Cigarettes." The film also features several other actors with whom Jarmusch has previously worked, including Alex Descas, John Hurt, Youki Kudoh, Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton; and actors new to his films, including Hiam Abbass, Gael García Bernal, Paz De La Huerta, Jean-François Stevenín, and Luis Tosar.

The Limits of Control is the story of a mysterious loner (played by Mr. De Bankole), a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his objectives are not initially divulged. His journey, paradoxically both intently focused and dreamlike, takes him not only across Spain but also through his own consciousness.

I'm a big fan of Jim Jarmusch and I think that looks fantastic. Haven't a clue what is going on but love the imagery and the whole feel of it. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on this one.

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Cool Robert De Niro Poster

Remember the Bill Murray Poster from a while back. Well now the same guy has done one for Robert De Niro (Think I was taking crazy pills when I said it was Al Pacino!!).

You can buy it here if you want one. They also do a glow in the dark version.

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Bill Murray is going to Get Low

Bill Murray is going to star in Get Low. He is joining Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Lucas Black.

The film is based on the true story of Felix "Uncle Bush" Breazeale, a resident of Roane, Tennessee, who planned and attended his own funeral in 1938 while he was still alive so that he could enjoy it. I'd never heard of that but Felix sounds like a cool character.

Bill Murray and Lucas Black will play partners at the funeral home, while Robert Duvall will play Uncle Bush and Sissy Spacek his wife.

Aaron Schneider will direct and it was originally written by Chris Provenzano with revisions by C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond) and Aaron Schneider.

Source: First Showing

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Cool Bill Murray Poster

Excellent piece of artwork to hang on your wall of the brilliant Bill Murray over at Nakatomi

Bill Murray will charm your face off...six times in a row!

Designed by Tim Doyle, this art print is a four color silkscreen, limited
to an edition of 50, with only 40 being available to the public. Measures 6"
tall by 36" wide. Poster is signed and numbered by the artist.

Bring some smirk into your life, and Murray home into your heart.

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Ghostbusters Video Game Trailer

While we wait for the inevitable disappointment that Ghostbusters 3 will bring here is a trailer for the forthcoming Ghostbusters video game. It looks splendid and they do appear to have got the likeness to the actors spot on. Also great to hear Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson back together. It's due out in June 2009. Will you be picking it up?

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Martin Landau talks about City of Ember

There is a great interview here with Martin Landau where he talks about his work on the forthcoming film, City of Ember. Here is a little of what he has to say:

About the set - “It’s amazing. It’s quite an amazing set, extensive and tall and comfortable. I would say it’s quite remarkable. It’s actually the way I envisioned it. I did Cleopatra a few thousand years ago [during] prehistoric times when there were real dinosaurs at the La Brea Tar Pits. We had massive sets, you know, and generally you don’t get to see them.”

What appealed to him about making the film? - “I think it’s a kind of movie that’s not made anymore. And that always interests me. It’s a terrific children’s book, and it’s not really a children’s book, it’s an adult book children’s book. It’s a movie that every kid of any age can see. It’s got all kinds of stuff in it that’s intriguing on a lot of levels. It’s a character-driven movie and yet it has action and adventure and all kinds of stuff. That’s a rarity."

“It’s hard to explain how I work on a role, but I do a lot of that in a certain way. There are actors who create an entire biography and then the character doesn’t have any of that. But I generally do think about, you know, where he comes from, why he’s there, what he does, why he does it, what his parents might be. …A lot of things, yeah, and a sound, too. You know, I’m sort of a stickler for certain things, too. I watch a lot of -- well not a lot, but some, -- there’s a lot of Chicago cops playing New York cops on television. Drives me crazy. Specifics are important, I think, and they’re not paid a lot of attention to.”
Check out the rest of the interview as the guy is a true legend.

What is your favourite Martin Landau role? Are you excited about City of Ember?

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Bill Murray is up for Ghostbusters 3

AICN had this snippet from the recent Fantastic Fest:

"some writers from THE OFFICE" were taking a stab at the script right now (which we already knew) and that he thinks that's a good start. He paused for a few seconds then said that he thinks enough time has passed and that "the wounds from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 are healed" and that he would definitely be into doing another GHOSTBUSTERS movie, stating that the first 40 minutes of the original film is some of the best stuff he's been associated with and the whole shoot was an amazing amount of fun.

He also went on to say that his enthusiasm for Ghostbusters was heightened after recording the voice of Peter Venkman for the video game over the summer. In fact, he said he found himself walking down the street singing the Ghostbusters theme song and then thought people walking around him were going to start yelling at him to "get over yourself, Bill," so he stopped... But the enthusiasm was there.

“We didn’t have a lot of special effects in it. There were just a couple. It was just the funny characters in that world, and I like that movie because of it. The first movie had like 60 plate shots. The second movie had like hundreds. Those guys got their hands on the script early, and it was GONE. It went away. It was hard to wrangle because it was tied all around the effects without the story or the characters coming first. So, they are hard movies to write, and Dan really caught it with that first one.”

It's round about 5:20 on this clip below.

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City of Ember clip - Martin Landau

The first clip from City of Ember hit at scifiwire today In the clip, the Martin Landau teaches Harry Treadaway the importance of keeping your mouth shut when things don't seem to be going right in the doomed City of Ember. This is actually looking pretty good plus Bill Murray is in it. What do you think the final film will be like? Do you want to go and see it?

City of Ember: So Far So Good from City of Ember on Vimeo.

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Original cast will be in Ghostbusters 3 for a little bit

Harold Ramis is the one who confirms that the original cast will be back merely to mentor the new Ghostbusters team, and he does so in an email to The Chicago Tribune through Latino Review. In it he says:

“yes, Columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my Year One writing partners, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. Judd Apatow is co-producing Year One and has made several other films for Sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman and I are consulting at this point, and according to Dan, Bill Murray is willing to be involved on some level. He did record his dialogue for the new Ghostbusters video game, as did Danny and I, and Ernie Hudson. The concept is that the old Ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity.”

Great news that they will be in the movie at least for a little bit of it. Bill Murray back in the slime! Would be great if they could be in it for a big chunk of the movie but I doubt they will be, plus they'd need a super wide angle to capture the ever expanding Ramis and Ackroyd!

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City of Ember Trailer

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Footage of Bill Murray's Sky Dive

I mentioned this a few days ago, but here is some footage of the jump.

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Bill Murray drops in

Actor Bill Murray kicked off the festivities for Illinois' 50th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show 2008 on Friday in spectacular fashion - by performing a skydive in front of the packed crowd.

The Lost In Translation star, 57, executed a tandem jump with The Golden Knights, the U.S. Army's parachute team, on Friday afternoon, much to the delight of the audience.
Before jumping, Murray said: "I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be."

He then hurled himself off the plane and descended in a free fall for almost one minute before pulling off a number of spins with his expert guide.

The pair banked over a sea of water before coming in to make a perfect landing on North Avenue Beach. But the star later admitted the experience was an exhilarating one: "That was really fun. That was really fun. Thank you."

He joked, "It's a quiet return to public life. It was 120 miles (193 kilometres) per hour, and I was laughing as I was falling. But just before, I was tearing up a little bit, thinking, 'Oh, not another stupid mistake.' But it was really fun, and it was quite a kick."

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