Ponyo on the Cliff - New trailer

An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human

Ponyo on the Cliff is the new film by Hayao Miyazaki (Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle). Due out on 14th August.

@ Yahoo! Video

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Tron 2 gets a proper name

The sequel to the excellent Tron has had a few different names - Tron 2, Tron 2.0 and the dreadful TR2N.

Now the official title has been unleashed at the San Diego Comic Con (I wish I was there)

TRON: LEGACY is the official title of the sequel.

AICN posted the news along with this quote from the excellent Jeff Bridges.

"It's basically a story about a son's search for his father. The first TRON... when we made that in '81 there was no internet. Cell phones were these big things you carried around in a suitcase! So what you saw was so new and fresh... I can guarantee you'll get the same kind of pop with this one!"

Is the new title good or bad?

By the way the image is nothing officially to do with the film. Just a cool image I liked.

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Willem Dafoe to be green in John Carter of Mars - No dodgy Goblin suit please

Willem Dafoe will star alongside Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins in John Carter of Mars, the Walt Disney Pictures fantasy epic to be directed by "Wall-E" helmer Andrew Stanton.

Dafoe will play the role of Tars Tarkas, a fierce green Martian warrior, who's unusual among his savage race for his ability to love. Tars develops an alliance with John Carter in the first film, which is based on "A Princess of Mars."

He fights battles alongside Carter through the entire series of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, so he will be hanging around for sequels.

Kitsch, who's coming off "The Bang Bang Club" and the TV series "Friday Night Lights," was set in June to play the title character, a damaged Civil War vet who finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars. Collins, who acted alongside Kitsch in "Wolverine," will play the Princess of Mars.

Will he be all green or a CGI motion capture type of character mixed in with the live action people?

Source: Variety

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The Black Hole, 1979 - Movie Review

Director: Gary Nelson
Starring: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall, Slim Pickens
Running Time: 98 minutes

Another great review by the mighty Paul S

Well, it was a quiet Sunday for me for once. All house tasks done, breakfast at 2 (full English of course) and I was reviewing the glossy TV guide. That's where i saw it, jumping out of the page in bold News-Of-The-World-glossymag font - The Black Hole, Channel 5 (who'd of thought it eh? five channels!), 15:35. OK then I thought, washing nearly finished I can make this.

But those that have seen the film will understand when I say my first thought was Maximilian. What a scary robot that was! I went to the pictures to see this. I understand it's a Disney production so we went as a family to watch it. I definitely fell asleep. My older brother on the other hand stayed awake, 'cos he had Maximilian as a trading card, whereas I had Oscar.

Anyway, the plot. Well, bit intense for a kids film. It's about a doctor that robbed a spaceship, gave out a distress signal, watched all the crew die, replaced them with robots, and hung around the edge of a black hole with a hard red robot for company. Oh, and also went a bit mad.

If I remember correctly (it was 3 wks ago man) a crew had to stop there for refueling/repairs and found the doctor. (on an aside, Im sure it's the same fella that played Hans Zarkov in Flash Gordon, can LFF work their wonder here? - Nope it's not that dude. In this one the mad scientist was played by Maximilian Schell and Hans Zarkov was played by Topol - LFF) with his robot staff. Oh that's it! He converted them into cyborg people to sustain their life.

Now Disney thought they could jump on the Star Wars newly-opened genre with this, but forgot that kids like explosions and fighters, laser beams and hyperspace! all this gave us was a trippy 10 min sequence when they entered the black hole. it was like 2001 for kids!

That aside, watching it as an adult on a Sunday with a beer and nice cigarettes (ahem) it was a different matter. I understood what the doctor was on about! The tension between them, the 'accidental' death (still a bit graphic for a kids movie), the token hot scientist. Visually it fine, but its more of a dialogue film, really well written to be honest. Kinda like Reservoir Dogs in space!

I haven't given it the justice it deserves here, I know. So re-watch it and post your response. I promise you won't be disappointed!

As a kid - 4/10
Re-watch as adult - 8/10

A hidden gem
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Fallen Princesses - What happened ever after?

These are great photos by Dina Goldstein. It shows what may have happened to those fairy tale princesses that Disney made famous.

The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues.

As a young girl, growing up abroad, I was not exposed to Fairy tales. These new discoveries lead to my fascination with the origins of Fairy tales. I explored the original brothers Grimm's stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney's perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.

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The Princess and the Frog - Featurette - Return to Hand Drawn Animation

A special featurette where Lasseter, Deja, Clements and Musker discuss Disney's return to hand drawn animation in The Princess and the Frog. The film is due out on Christmas Day.

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Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo - Trailer

An animated adventure centered on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human.

Ponyo on the Cliff is both written and directed by animator Hayao Miyazaki (Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle). The film was animated at the legendary Studio Ghibli. Disney is bringing Ponyo on the Cliff, now known as just Ponyo, to theaters on 14th August.

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Photos of Nic Cage and Monica Belluci in The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Not sure what is happening in the photo above, but it could be a huge spoiler as it looks like typical shot of the hero holding a loved one who is in the process of dying while whispering their love or alternatively he's holding a villain who saw the error of their ways and is saying how sorry they are. Either way Monica Belluci is gorgeous.


Source: io9

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The Black Hole's V.I.N.CENT is 30 and heading our way

It is the 30th Anniversary of Disney's The Black Hole.

The Black Hole is Disney’s 1979 science fiction film about a group of space travelers who come across a long missing spaceship teetering on the edge of a black hole, and their discoveries within the ship and beyond… the vast, empty nothingness where space and time end. Anything that crosses its border enters a universe of the complete unknown or gets smooshed to nothing in the intense gravitational field.

V.I.N.CENT (Vital Information Necessary CENTralized and voiced by Roddy McDowall) was one of the cool robots from the film - the other being the sinister Maximilian, who is one of the all time evil robots.

“The Black Hole” was the Walt Disney Company’s first PG-rated production. Directed by Gary Nelson and starred Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, and last but not least, Ernest Borgnine the motion picture has found a loyal fan base.

To honour the anniversary of the film MINDstyle are working on this new action figure and it looks lovely. Still early days as you can see from the concept work, but it looks like they've started putting them together. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Source: ToysREvil

The ending of The Black Hole always freaked me out when I was a kid.

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John Carter of Mars is go

It looks as if Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars is finally moving forward. Director Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo) will be making his live action feature debut.

KLS have the news that Disney will bring 400 cast and crew to Utah and the shoot will last for about seven months.

"Utah approved up to $5.5 million in tax credits for the $28 million of work done here. Production is expected to begin in November, and Disney believes the film could become its next big movie series, akin to Pirates of the Caribbean."

Stanton has said that he would be specifically adapting the first novel in series, The Princess of Mars, originally published in 1917. The story follows an American civil war hero who gets transported to Mars and becomes a hero on the planet.

Has has also said that he wants to avoud the look and feel of Star Wars or any of its derivatives, and was seeking a “more naturalistic aesthetic.”

Tom Cruise was apparantly interesting in starring in it at one point but he has since passed on the matter.

Who do you want to see play John Carter? Will Stanton be able to pull this off?

Source: /Film

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Footage of Cage filming The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I recently posted some footage of Afred Molina and Monica Belluci filming in New York. Now the excellent chaps over at Hey U Guys sent me this footage of Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel filming the live action version of Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice coming in 2010. It was just off of Times Square on 7th Avenue.

There also seems to be a thing developing for the Sorcerer's in the film (Cage and Molina) to be sat in cars with their apprentice (Baruchel and Toby Kebbell) as these photos show.

Not sure why but I'm getting a good feeling about this film. It could be the one that breaks Cage's current run of not very good films.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice - video of Alfred Molina and Monica Bellucci

On the set of The Sorcerer's Apprentice on 6th June 2009 at Bowling Green in New York City.

The scene has Monica Bellucci and Alfred Molina standing at the center of the fountain in Bowling Green, which has been converted into some sort of pedestal.

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First look at Alfred Molina and Toby Kebbell in The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Stitch Kingdom had a visit to the set of Nicolas Cage's new film The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

The film is based on the poem/Fantasia segment of the same name — Cage is the Sorcerer and Alfred Molina portrays Horvath, Cage’s nemesis and fellow sorcerer. In the film, Horvath picks up a sidekick in the form of professional illusionist Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell).


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Sigourney Weaver in You Again and Paul

In a story from Variety, Sigourney Weaver will be starring in Disney's You Again. In addition to this, the actress is currently circling Greg Mottola's comedy Paul for Universal and Working Title Pictures.

Paul stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two sci-fi fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they encounter an escaped alien near Area 51. As they try to reunite him with his mother ship, they find Paul has many more opinions than your typical ET.

Weaver plans to shoot her highly secretive role in this film first.

After this, she will join the shoot of You Again which stars Kristen Bell and is directed by Andy Fickman. Bell plays a girl who is horrified to find that her brother is marrying the very girl who made her life a living hell in high school. Weaver will be the bride's very wealthy aunt.

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Navigator takes flight again.

After redoing Witch Mountain it looks as if Disney are enjoying the remake trail with the news that they are going to redo Flight of the Navigator according to The Hollywood Report.

Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs) is writing the remake, but no director is currently attached.

The 1986 original told the story of a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by an alien spacecraft in 1978 and reappears eight years later, still the same age and with no memory of what happened. NASA scientists discover a connection between the boy and a downed spacecraft and try to exploit the boy, who ultimately escapes with the ship and attempts to reunite with his family.

It starred a young Sarah Jessica Parker and Paul Reubens as the voice of Max, the robotic pilot of the alien ship.

As I kid I loved this film. The spacecraft had a great design. I also bought it for my son a couple of years ago and he enjoyed it, especially the aliens on board the ship.

The movie grossed only $17 million when it was released but was later rediscovered on VHS, becoming a cult hit.

Yet another remake and another one that makes me wonder why bother. Why not go for an original story?

Do you remember the original? Should it be remade? Who should voice the ship? How could the original story be improved?

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A Christmas Carol - Jim Carrey

A promo clip for Walt Disney's A Christmas Carol where Scrooge (Jim Carrey) finds out he will be haunted by 3 spirits - all played by Carrey. Directed by Robert Zemeckis

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UPDATED: Extras (Patrick Stewart) and Bambi Mash-Up

Update: Below is the original bit from Extras starring Patrick Stewart and Ricky Gervais.

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The Princess and The Frog - Poster

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The Princess and the Frog - First full trailer for Disney's new traditional animated film

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The Princess and The Frog - Footage from Disney's new hand drawn animated film

Disney are going back to their roots with this hand drawn animated feature. It is a nice break from the world of CG films and it is shaping up very nicely.

Have a look at the footage below and share your thoughts on it in the comments.

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