Jaime King to play Brigitte Bardot

Cinema Blend have come across an interview in the Australian magazine InPress with Fanboys director Kyle Newman. In it he reveals that he’s working on a Brigitte Bardot biopic.

Newman says that though the project is currently in development, he’s already found his star: his wife Jaime King, who met Newman on Fanboys and married him soon after.

King was last seen in My Bloody Valentine and The Spirit.

I'm not sure whether it will be dealing with just Bardot's early life or whether it will include the later years when she became a recluse fighting for animal rights.

Still early days on this one but how do you feel about Jaime King playing Bardot? Does she have the acting chops for it?

Discuss in the forum or leave a comment below.

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Sin City 2 News - The script is finished and filming to begin this year...maybe

MTV have more news on the fate of Sin City 2

Jamie King appears to have confirmed last year’s reports that Frank Miller has turned in his script for “Sin City 2” and the film may even begin shooting in 2009. The “Fanboys” and “The Spirit” actress hopes for a start date soon and said that she doesn’t have any nude scenes in Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s sequel, according to George “El Guapo” Rousch at Latino Review..

The report stokes a prolonged trickle of “Sin City 2” rumors from the past year, as good a sign as any that Miller’s classic Dark Horse Comics series is inching closer to becoming a reality behind the scenes.

King played the role of Marv’s murdered gal pal Goldie, as well as her twin sister Wendy, in the first “Sin City” film and is slated to return for the new follow-up. The Golden Globe winning star of the “The Wrestler,” Mickey Rourke, may or may not return as Marv when filming begins. Miller says Marv has a big role to play in the film and wants Rourke back if he’s willing.

There are many possible reasons for the film’s delay, not the least of which is Rourke’s reluctance. The star has experienced rejuvenated stardom since the first “Sin City” hit it big. Now, with a Golden Globe under his belt and a potential Oscar on the horizon, it’s entirely possible he wants more for his labor.

Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez’s controversial break from the Directors Guild to give Miller directing credit in their first outing together proved to be a hurdle before. If they’re looking to return to “Sin City 2” in that unsanctioned dual-directing capacity, there is likely to be red tape to cut once again.

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For your consideration....The Spirit!

Frank Miller’s The Spirit for The Razzie’s Worst Movie of the Year Award.

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The Spirit, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Frank Miller
Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johannson, Sarah Paulson
Running Time: 103 minutes
Score: 1 /10

This review is by Skon and may contain spoilers.

The Spirit is a film with few virtues. There's a fingerful but that's it.

Gabriel Macht delivers a certain charisma in the titular role as Will Eisner's classic middle-class superhero. This is his first time carrying a movie and had the focus been shifted more on him, his antics and his conflicts it would have been a better film. We witness some lovely moments when The Spirit talks about the love he has for his city, echoing something at the very heart of the superhero mythos. One scene has him even using the city as a shield, a weapon and a guide in his role as its guardian. These are poignant moments that evoke that somewhere underneath all the terribleness there might have been a spark of a good film here.

That's where all the virtues end.

People will probably gravitate to the cinematography of Bill Pope which does its best to marry Frank Miller's Sin City with the pulp comics of The Spirit's origins. But as pretty as the cinematography does look here and there, most of it is too busy, too dark and too careless. As a film that tries to show the protagonist's relationship with his city the cinematography should have created a sense of being in a vast metropolis. Instead the visuals feel completely green-screened and the effect is that the film ends up looking like it was shot on a stage instead of in a wide open city. There is also something that feels unfinished about the green-screening process as though some more work needed to be done and as such the film has the look of the cut scenes out of late 90's full motion video games with the characters standing out from rendered CGI effects like sore thumbs.

This is Frank Miller's first time out as a solo director. He is credited with co-directing Sin City and after seeing this film one realizes that Miller had very little to do with the physical directing on that film. It's sad to see one of the greatest comic book creators of all time helpless in trying to do justice to Will Eisner's creations. Miller even casts himself as a police officer whose head gets ripped off and used as a blunt weapon in the film's opening. One wonders if that was CGI or if the lack of any thinking going into this film can be blamed on Miller's headlessness. Either way it's an apt metaphor for a project that steams forward without any direction.

The film is a mess of tones and genres. Scenes tend to go on forever without anywhere to go in the first place. There's an overuse of flashbacks. And most of the dialogue is delivered in soliloquy (including a scene where The Spirit talks to a cat for 5 minutes). There are no subtleties in delivery, pacing or acting. Everything is blunt, harsh and cold. The audience knows everything in the first 15 minutes and it takes the rest of the characters an hour to catch up. It's frustrating, busy and excruciating to watch. Even attempts at humor fall flat. A running joke with 24's Louis Lombardi is amateur in its rendition.

The acting is where Miller's lack of film-making chops shows most prominently. Sam Jackson plays the Octopus, a villain whose face was never shown in Eisner's comics and rightfully so. Jackson is fresh off of a plane full of snakes and still acting like it. He plays the same tough character he always plays - shooting off big guns while shooting off his even bigger mouth. It's beginning to get boring and he needs to seek out more parts that explore his range. In order to make up for having no character depth or any credibility as a villain, Jackson and his henchwoman, played by the vastly overrated Scarlett Johansson, go through more costume changes than a Vegas strip show. Jackson goes from dressing like a pimp to a mutton-chopped samurai and even (I can't make this up) a monocled goose-stepping heil-hitlering Nazi in an offensive scene that seems like a bad pun on the classic Patton.

Further to the acting, there is a bevy of female characters that clutter this film in an attempt to create some element of pulp sex drama. Johansson's Silken Floss is just money thrown down the drain as she brings nothing to the movie. I've never understood her appeal and this film is perhaps best proof of her need to hire an acting coach. The Morgenstern character is a time-waster and eats up screen time lecturing the audience on the Electra principle (Miller you created a character named Elektra, you have a fascination with it, we get it, but it has no place in this film). To believe her character we'd have to believe that a rookie cop would be the only one to notice a gigantic clue two days after a crime scene has been cleared. Sarah Paulson and Eva Mendes, both in terribly written roles, try the hardest and as an audience member I appreciated that.

The free screening I attended last night had a number of rows oddly empty from the get go. And within 10 minutes about twenty people had already gotten up and left. The rest of us stayed because it was cold outside and perhaps hoping that things would only get better. They didn't. After the film we had a unique experience where audience members cultivated together, like strangers at a traffic accident, to criticize the film. People were upset over a film that failed in every possible way a film can fail and yet the advertising campaign paints it as a brilliant, exciting holiday adventure. I assure you it's not.

Lionsgate this is a train wreck. If this is your idea of giving your audience a holiday present honestly shame on you.

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Dave Gibbons interview by Mr. Media - The Watchmen lawsuit, Watching the Watchmen and more

Bob Andelman (Mr. Media) has done many cool interviews and written a few books including one called Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (follow that link for his interview with Eva Mendes and news on The Spirit film).

He recently got in touch with me to let me know about his interview with Watchmen artist, Dave Gibbons. It's an hour long interview and he discusses the Warner Bros./Fox dispute, being on the set during production, and what he thinks of the trailer and the rough cut he saw of Watchmen. He also talks about the possibility of working with Frank Miller and the message he took to Alan Moore from Will Eisner.

Have a listen to the interview and check out some of the other interviews by Mr Media.

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The Spirit spoof

Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira (Attack of the Show) do their own version of The Spirit.

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"My city screams" - Early reviews of The Spirit suggest many filmgoers are screaming twice as loud

Some early reviews for Frank Miller's film based on Will Eisner's The Spirit have started to permeate the web and they are not too good. Comparing it to Battlefield Earth is pretty bad.

Variety: “Frank Miller’s solo writing-directing debut plunges into a watery grave early on and spends roughly the next 100 minutes gasping for air. Pushing well past the point of self-parody” … “There’s a lot going on here, but none of it sticks — not the shopworn plotting nor the arch, stilted dialogue. The actors often seem to be delivering their lines in ironic quote marks, suggesting a straight-faced sendup of noir and comicbook conventions that, whatever the intended effect, falls mostly flat."

CBR: "The major problem with "The Spirit" isn't necessarily Miller's departure from the source material, but his reliance on his previously demonstrated techniques. The dialogue, visual effects and character types have all been seen in Miller work before. It's nothing groundbreaking. An excellent creator should always strive towards something new. Instead, Miller took a baby step forward, offering slight variations to the work he accomplished with "Sin City." The best thing he can do next is to create an all-new original film property that's unique from his previous outings. Clearly, Frank Miller would never intentionally create a movie that desecrates Will Eisner's prior work. Miller reportedly took the director job because he couldn't imagine anyone else touching Eisner's revered franchise. Still, if Miller's mission was to emulate Eisner, he failed miserably. If his mission was to provide an exciting new take on the Spirit, then he fared marginally better. Viewers unfamiliar with the comics might enjoy "The Spirit" as an entertaining popcorn flick. Fans of Eisner's work, however, are in for a major disappointment and should brace themselves for a cheese-fest more along the lines of "Sin City" or even "Starship Troopers" than the original comic book series."

AICN: “I’ve seen something that has taken the top prize from “Battlefield Earth.” … “Okay, Mr. Miller. Let’s get it on.” … “Seriously, it’s not. You clearly don’t have any idea what you’re doing. Someone, ANYONE, over at Lionsgate should have known this. Fuck, it’s their JOB to know this. But they didn’t.” … “Folks, this movie is that bad. I heartily recommend it if you have a strong stomach and an even stronger sense of Bad-Movie-Love. Otherwise, steer clear.”

Unique Geek: “The Spirit starts off crazy when we expect serious, then tries to pull it back in, then goes for weird juvenile sight gags then tries to be tough, and we’re disoriented. Theres also a pathlogical fascination with a prop photocopy of Mendes’ rump. If you took a shot every time the camera cuts to it, you would be wasted by the third act, and maybe “wasted” is the right word to end with here. There’s a lot of work and opportunity that went by the wayside here, a lot of talented people and some great source material that never quite gels. The parts that look good, look good, but maybe next time, they’ll hire a fox to put it all together.”

Newsarama: “The Spirit does a precarious balancing act juxtaposing great moments and terrible ones, leaving audiences likely be split over which makes the greater impression.” … “The mosh of comedic banter and noir-ish drama worked well for the most part, but ultimately, those aforementioned moments of potential that flash and peek out now and again are too far and few between to save The Spirit from being a disappointment..”

Doesn't sound good at all. Have you come across any other reviews for it?

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Frank Miller to do Buck Rogers

The early word on The Spirit movie by Frank Miller is that it is pretty bad (review coming soon) and that Frank should stick to doing the comic books or sitting next to Robert Rodriguez when he directs.

However, Odd Lot Entertainment, the creator and production company behind The Spirit, are close to teaming again on the classic sci-fi property Buck Rogers. Seems like an odd thing to commit to when The Spirit hasn't even been released yet.

Hollywood Reporter have the news and they say, "Miller will write and direct his own big-screen take on the comic serial; while the creator has only begun to sketch ideas, it's expected to be a darker take, with many of Miller's signature visual elements and themes, such as corruption and redemption."

I personally hope that, if Miller does make the film, that he tries to edge away from the green screen style set up in Sin City and The Spirit.

Buck Rogers is a fictional character who first appeared in 1928 as Anthony Rogers, the hero of two novellas by Philip Francis Nowlan published in the magazine Amazing Stories. Rogers is best known from the long-running syndicated newspaper comic strip. He also appeared in a radio show, a movie serial starring Buster Crabbe (above). Most recently there was the television series starring Gil Gerard as Buck and the lovely Erin Gray as Wilma Deering (right).

What would you want to see in a Buch Rogers films? Dark and menacing or primary colours and annoying short robots?

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Aronofsky want's to recut The Fountain and Rourke says Sin City 2 is good to go

MTV were speaking to Darren Aronofsky, whose new movie, “The Wrestler,” won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival two months ago, and has just been nominated for Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Cinematography and Best Male Lead ( Mickey Rourke).

Interestingly Aronofsky said he would like to do a sort of recut on his film, “The Fountain,” (check out the review for The Fountain here).

“It wouldn’t be a ‘director’s cut, more like an alternate story told with the addition of unused footage from the first go-round. This would be a complicated project on a couple of levels, though, and it’s at least a few years away."

They then spoke to Mickey Rourke about the status of “Sin City 2,” in which he will again place the excellent Marv. The project appears to have been held up by Robert Rodriguez’s dispute with the Directors Guild of America. Rodriguez quit the group when it refused to allow him to credit Frank Miller as the co-director of the 2005 “Sin City.” Once that mess has all been sorted out the sequel should be put on the fast track.

“Frank’s ready,” said Rourke. “And I’m ready, too."

How do you feel about The Fountain being recut to be a different story? Would you see it? What did you think of it? Sin City 2 should hopefully be cool...think it will all depend on how The Spirit does at the box office.

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The Spirit - Poster from Taiwan

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The Spirit v Punisher: War Zone v Transporter 3 Mashup

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The Spirit - New Christmas TV Spot for Frank Miller's feature.

Here is a new TV spot for Lionsgate's adaptation of Will Eisner's comic book series, The Spirit, which is set to open on Christmas Day. Check out the new TV Spot below all ready for Christmas.

Whatd do you think now? Will you be going to see it? I'm still undecided.
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Another poster for The Spirit - This one has lots of posters on it

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The Spirit - New Christmas TV Trailer Spot

This one is only 30 seconds long and it just looks like Sin City to me but not quite as bleak. Also has a Sky Captain vibe going through it. I'd love it to be a great film but it just seems off kilter.

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Frank Miller talks about The Spirit

Geoff Boucher of the LA Times has been chatting to Frank Miller about his forthcoming movie based on Will Wisner's The Spirit. He chats about the unique look that the trailers show, the cartoon like violence and the large number of glamourous actresses in the mix.

"I adored Will Eisner and took a real 'Don't tread on me' approach when I came to this movie. At the same time I was willing to tread all over it. I knew Will always wanted to do something fresh and new, not some stodgy old thing that aspires to be revered. I don't want anybody to bow to this movie. I want a ripping good yarn. It is not an antique."

The film is certainly of-the-moment with its "digital back lot" approach -- it was filmed against a green screen at a production complex in New Mexico and the backgrounds and settings were added well after the acting was done. With its dramatic use of color, stylized grit and dream-time physics, it will remind some viewers of "Sin City," the 2005 film co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Miller that served as the comic-book artist's crash course in filmmaking. Unlike that film, however, "The Spirit" is laced with a fedora romance and screwball comedy sensibility that makes it a digitalized kindred soul to "Dick Tracy," Warren Beatty's 1990 film.

"It's very different than the look and feel of 'Sin City' and '300' because the source material is so different," Miller said earlier this year while taking a break from his labors at the Orphanage, a postproduction facility in San Francisco's Presidio. " 'The Spirit' is its own, full-color world."

"The Spirit" stars Gabriel Macht as the title character who starts the film as an ambitious rookie cop named Denny Colt before he dons his domino mask. The young cop is murdered but then apparently comes back from the dead -- even he's not sure how or why, but he learns that the sinister crime lord called the Octopus ( Samuel L. Jackson) has the answers he needs. The villain, meanwhile, wants to get his hands on the mystery man to exploit his back-from-the-grave ability. Some of the contours of the film are different than the old comics -- the Octopus was never even shown in the old days (he was just a pair of gloves in Eisner's panels) and Colt comes "back from the dead" with something close to invulnerability as well as with a sort of pheromone boost that makes women swoon. "The old Eisner comics were loaded with romance, beautiful and dangerous women, and that was a way to explain the sparks flying between the Spirit and every woman he meets," Miller explained.

Miller has a cast stacked with high-glamour actresses: Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King and Paz Vega all play beautiful women with bad intentions, while Sarah Paulson is the Spirit's frazzled girlfriend, Ellen Dolan, the proto-feminist daughter of the city police commissioner who has to contend with all the people who want to get their hands on the Spirit -- whether it's to punch him or kiss him. Another update: Spirit's girlfriend is now a surgeon, a career Miller says is a meld of nurturing heart and brainy realism.

The biggest differences between "The Spirit" and "Sin City" or "300" are the romances and the cartoon combat; the Spirit and Octopus both have a sort of Wile E. Coyote invincibility by the time they duke it out and they whack each other with cinder blocks, spanner wrenches and even a toilet with a jolly unreality that makes the film seem something like "The Mask" meets "Green Hornet." Jackson said it was a giddy time on the set filming the escalating mayhem.

"There are some great scenes where we just go at it," Jackson said, although he added that Miller found a way to keep the loopy universe true to itself. "Frank knew what he wanted to do. You look at this movie and you can tell it's his. Nobody else would make this movie this way, which is why he's doing movies now."

That may be a bit of a sore spot, though. Eisner's humanistic and often gentle, Capra-like approach to his character has many comics fans wondering why Miller -- famous for spilling vats of blood-red ink in his comics -- is taking the old man's winking Spirit into a Sin City. Miller welcomes all that.

"I'm sure when this movie comes out it will stir up a fiery debate . . .," the artist-turned-auteur said. "People have been loving the way comic books have been reaching the screen, but I don't like when everybody drinks the Kool-Aid. I like to shake things up and tell the story the best way possible. And I can tell you firsthand, that's what Will Eisner liked too."

Source: LA Times

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Will Eisner's The Spirit - A featurette on the comic and the film

Adapted from the legendary comic strip, Will Eisner's The Spirit is a classic action-adventure-romance told by genre-twister Frank Miller (creator of 300 and Sin City). It is the story of a former rookie cop who returns mysteriously from the dead as the SPIRIT (Gabriel Macht) to fight crime from the shadows of Central City. His arch-enemy, the OCTOPUS (Samuel L. Jackson) has a different mission: he's going to wipe out Spirit's beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality. The Spirit tracks this cold-hearted killer from Central City's rundown warehouses, to the damp catacombs, to the windswept waterfront ... all the while facing a bevy of beautiful women who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Surrounding him at every turn are ELLEN DOLAN (Sarah Paulson), the whip-smart girl-next-door; SILKEN FLOSS (Scarlett Johansson), a punk secretary and frigid vixen; PLASTER OF PARIS (Paz Vega), a murderous French nightclub dancer; LORELEI (Jaime King), a phantom siren; and MORGENSTERN (Stana Katic), a sexy young cop. Then of course, there's SAND SAREF (Eva Mendes), the jewel thief with dangerous curves. She's the love of his life turned bad. Will he save her or will she kill him?

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The Spirit - New Poster

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What's going on with X-Men Origins: Magneto?

MTV spoke to character designer Aaron Sims about the other X-Men origin movie that isn't Wolverine.

“Unfortunately, because of the writers strike, it got pushed off,” Sims said. “But they’re now back to the rewrites.”

Since “X Men Origins: Magneto” is still in conceptual form, it’s too soon to say much about it, except that obviously, like Wolverine, it will be an origin story — “where he started, where he got his powers, the very beginning.”

“Remember the scene [from 'X-Men'] in the concentration camp where you see Magneto as a young boy? It just continues from there,” Sims said. “Some people thought that might be too dark, but I really like that. It’s a lot of death and mayhem.”

Magneto won’t be the only mutant — just like in “Wolverine”, there will be new mutants aplenty to keep Sims busy coming up with something to please and yet surprise the fans. “The fan base has a vision of what they should look like, and that’s always the challenge,” Sims said. “It was the same with ‘The Hulk.’”

But since director David Goyer is still finishing “The Unborn” and also has several other movies on his plate (from “The Invisible Man” to “Super Max” to “”), Sims doesn’t have to realize his character designs too quickly, which is a good thing, since he’s also in the middle of designs for “The Invisible Man,” “The Clash of the Titans,” “Paradise Lost,” and “Green Lantern” — for which he did the suit and Kilowog. (This, after finishing matte paintings for “The Spirit” and designs for the robot and the spaceship in “The Day The Earth Stood Still”).

“David’s like me,” Sims laughed. “He works nonstop. He’s not one of those kinds of writers or directors who ever stops. I’m surprised he has any time at all. But I’m fortunate to work with directors like him who I admire. I can’t say no to him.”

I think if they stick to their guns and try and keep it serious then the Magneto movie could be quite the epic. What do you think? Better than the forthcoming Wolverine movie?

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The Random

Nights in Rodanthe screenwriter Ann Peacock has signed on to adapt John Grisham’s 1997 novel The Partner. [THR]

Robert Duvall is developing The Pony Express, a new AMC western television series, which he also plans to star in. Band of Brothers screenwriter Erik Jendresen is writing the pilot, and Richard Donner is expected to direct. [Variety]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles star Thomas Dekker has signed on to star in the big screen remake of the 1980 musical Fame, which is scheduled to begin production in February, for a late 2009 release. [FirstShowing]

Batman-on-film is reporting that “very early pre-production” has begun on a sequel to The Dark Knight.

Customers will be able to purchase new Dell computers with a $20 option to have Iron Man pre-loaded on the machine. The $20 investment will also include “exclusive bonus footage” not included in the DVD release.

When MTV asked Kirsten Dunst if she would be returning for Spider-Man 4, the actress responded “I’m in.” Which sounds like a done deal if you ask me. But when pressed if she officially signed on to return, the actress changed her tone, “I’m not saying anything, I know there’s rumors…”

Shaun of the Dead and Little Britain actor Matt Lucas is playing both Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Tim Burton’s 3D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Lucas revealed the news on BBC’s Friday Night with Johnathan Ross.

MTV has a first look at Harry Potter star Rupert Grint in the dramatic indie thriller Cherrybomb.

FirstShowing caught up with producer Donald De Line, who revealed that a new draft of The Green Lantern has been turned in, and while nothing is “confirmed” they’re “gearing up to start shooting early spring.”

A better quality photo of the crushed cab from the opening sequence from the film adaptation of the comic "Kick Ass"

The first photo from the "Inglorious Bastards" set - a small French farmhouse built in the Czech hills.

"Fox Atomic is developing a new 'Alien Infection Project' hypothesizing a worldwide viral outbreak caused by a spacecraft returning from Mars with rock and soil samples..." (full details)

"Peter Cullen confirms that he's only voiced the opening narration of the 'Transformers' sequel so far, his main work as Optimus Prime will be recorded sometime in November..." (full details)

"'Watchmen' and '300 director Zack Snyder has signed a deal to develop three original games for Electronic Arts. EA will own the intellectual properties, but under the deal the publisher may turn some or all of them into films that will be produced by Snyder's Cruel & Unusual Films banner..." (full details)"

In a recent interview, James Cameron admits "There was no blessing involved" in the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" and that he never saw the script..." (full details)

"Sylvester Stallone has arrived to Bulgaria reportedly looking for locations for the next "Rambo" movie. Stallone will visit the Nu Boyana film studios and the Worldwide FX company that made the special effects for the recent fourth film..." (full details)"

An image of Dr. Manhattan's transformation in "Watchmen" has been hidden in the new trailer for "Frank Miller's The Spirit"..." (full details)"

Joel Silver is waiting on Mel Gibson's approval of Shane Black's script treatment for a fifth "Lethal Weapon" before moving forward. The story introduces a new pair of young NYPD police officers..." (full details)

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The Spirit - Final trailer

The last piece of Spirit footage was dreadful, but this trailer is pretty good and actually makes the movie look watchable. Think it's going to have to be seen and will either be excellent or absolutely dreadful.

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