Monday, 3 November 2008
Fanboys Trailer
It's 1998 and Star Wars fanboys across the globe eagerly await the release of Episode I. But for Eric, Linus, Hutch and Windows the term "fanboy" is more than just a title, it's a badge of honor. Spurred by impatience and an undying loyalty to their cause, these former high school friends reunite to undertake the road trip of their fan-tasies. Traveling West across the country to visit their Mecca - George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch - the plan is to break in, steal the film and stake their claim as the first fanboys in history to watch it. But to secure their place in the fanboy hall of fame, they'll have to contend with bizarre bikers, a crazy pimp, a deranged group of trekkies and the quiet intensity of William Shatner.
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Lance Hammer talks about Ballast
I posted the trailer for this a while back.
In Ballast, a single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway storeowner, thus awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict. Movieweb recently caught up with writer/director Lance Hammer to talk extensively with him about this hard-hitting drama. The interview is below.
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In Ballast, a single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway storeowner, thus awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict. Movieweb recently caught up with writer/director Lance Hammer to talk extensively with him about this hard-hitting drama. The interview is below.
The New President will soon be with us - Some
The US Presidential election is due tomorrow. I've posted a few of the stories and cool ideas to come out of the election race. Here are a few more. If you know of any more add the link in the comments. Let me know which is your favourite.
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
Dante's Inferno video game rights won by Universal
Universal Pictures came out the winner in a bidding war for an unreleased Electronic Arts videogame that will be called Dante's Inferno by the time it hits the marketplace next year, according to Variety.
The deal -- an option fee against seven-figure purchase price -- ended an auction that pitted four studios against one another.
Both the Dante's Inferno game and movie involve a journey through the depths of hell.
The gamemaker intends to become more closely involved with movie and TV transfers of its games. Making a movie deal well before the game's release will give EA a shot at seeing a movie released closer to the beginning of the game's life cycle.
Sequel to Rob Zombie's Halloween will be on the big screen.
Despite Dimension Films announcing two weeks ago that Halloween 2 would be a Direct-to-DVD sequel, producer Malek Akkad said at this weekend's Halloween: 30 Years of Terror convention in Pasadena that any and all sequels would first have a theatrical release. According to Bloody Disgusting, the next installment will be a direct follow-up to Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween remake. Though it is not known if this next film will follow Michael Myers adventures in a hospital, as 1981's original Halloween II did, it was reported that Tyler Mane, the man behind the mask in Zombie's installment, would be returning as the omnipresent killer.
Dogs of Chinatown - Martial Arts trailer
When a war breaks out between the Italian Mafia and Chinese Triad, Boss Wu needs someone to infiltrate Little Italy. Enter Jack (Eric Jacobus, Contour), a lonely desperate soul at the end of his rope who is groomed into the Triad's top assassin. But as the hard-boiled killer rises to the top, he falls for Boss Wu's favorite mistress, Jin (Huyen Thi, Fall Down Dead), putting both their lives at risk. Now Jack must battle his way through the Mafia and the Triad to be with the woman he loves. Amazing martial arts action by cult superstars The Stunt People blends with emotional storytelling by visionary director Micah Moore. Featuring breakthrough performances by Bill Oberst Jr (The Secret Life Of Bees) and Patrick Keenan (Dark Remains). Dogs Of Chinatown combines the visual style of 300 with the martial arts action of Hong Kong cinema.
The zombies in Romero's Island of the Dead
Source: First Showing.
USA Today and Bloody Disgusting have the first photos and more information about Romero's next zombie movie - it is still untitle but set on an island with the dead. Like his last disaster, Diary of the Dead, this one will have a political undertone - tribalism. But Romero insists that this one will be a lot more like his own Dawn of the Dead from 1978, but "with a lot of action."
"It's this whole idea of tribalism, that we can't pull it together," Romero tells USA Today. "News reports about the presidential race still bring up religious topics or racism. That's pretty much the central theme." The story unfolds on a small island a couple of weeks after the original outbreak in 1968's Night of the Living Dead. "There are two factions. It's the idea that even when faced with a crisis, tribal concerns about power control people's motives," Romero explains.
So what happens next? When the deceased relatives of those living on the island start to come alive, one side wants to kill them off, while the other side would rather wait to see if there is a cure. I'd say that's a lost cause, wouldn't you? This concept sounds like another extension of Romero's tried-and-true zombie equation, but nothing new. They look like the same old zombies we've seen since 1968.
What do you think of the sound of this? Which is your favourite Romero zombie movie? Will this one be better than Diary of the Dead?
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Green Arrow: Supermax - Justin Marks talks about that and Hack/Slash
The self-proclaimed screenwriter of “all things geeky,” Justin Marks stopped by the CBR Boat Show at Comic-Con International in San Diego to talk about his numerous film projects. In this exclusive on-camera interview, Marks discusses with CBR Executive Producer Jonah Weiland the status of “Hack/Slash,” the forthcoming live-action adaptation of Tim Seeley’s hit Devil’s Due horror-comedy series about Cassie Hack, a hero Marks describes as a “motherfucking ass-kicking bitch” with “the heart and soul of a teenage girl.”
Marks, who’s also involved with big-screen versions of Voltron, He-Man and Street Fighter (“my film resume looks like a yard sale in 1991”) also updates fans on “Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max,” which he’s working on with “Batman Begins” co-writer David S. Goyer.
Source: CBR
Visions of Terror - Spoof horror
Underground film director Rodney Ascher just completed a new horror spoof called Visions of Terror. A collaboration with Josh Fadem and also starring Zoe Jarman, Visions of Terror is a real laff-riot that takes the piss out of B-movie horror buffs, which Ascher is himself.
Seth Rogen really has slimmed down for the Green Hornet
The photo below shows jusy how much Seth Rogen has slimmed down for filming on Stephen Chow's The Green Hornet, which Rogen and Evan Goldberg are co-writing. The photo on the left is from the 17th November 2007. The one on the left is from the 20th October 2008.
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New Town Killers - Sounds a bit like Hard Target
I saw this on Quiet Earth. Sounds good. Trailer is below.Two private bankers, Alistair and Jamie, who have the world at their feet get their kicks from playing a 12 hour game of hunt, hide and seek with people from the margins of society. Their next target is Sean Macdonald a parentless teenager who lives with his sister on a housing estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh. She's in debt, he's going nowhere fast. Sean agrees to play for cash. He soon realizes he's walked into twelve hours of hell where survival is the name of the game.
See what I mean about the Hard Target similarity? Directed by Richard Jobson, New Town Killers is currently in post-production due out next year. It stars Dougray Scott (Hitman), Alastair Mackenzie, and James Anthony Pearson (Control, Kidnapped). What do you think of that?
More Sherlock Holmes Pictures
The Bad and Ugly have more photos from the set of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movie. Looks like Robert Downey Jr is sufficiently happy and action packed. Jude Law just looks moody.
The Random
altarsofscience.com is a viral site for the Angels & Demons movie. All to do with a missing canister of antimatter.
Sam Raimi's new fantasy series "The Legend of the Seeker" begins airing in syndication this weekend. Check local listings for details..." (full details)
David X. Cohen, co-creator and executive producer of "Futurama" says work is nearly done on the fourth and final (for now) made-for-DVD movie 'Into the Wild Green Yonder' and that further ones may follow as the first two titles "greatly exceeded 20th Century Fox's expectations"..." (full details)
Director Marc Foster shot but cut out a one-minute coda for "Quantum of Solace" that would setup a sequel to that film. Details about that alternate ending and a photo from the cut scene will appear in the latest issue of MI6 Declassified..." (full details)
Four new episodes of the cult sci-fi comedy "Red Dwarf" will be screened on the digital channel Dave next year. The series last aired a new episode back in 1999..." (full details)
The Reader trailer hits the web.
Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) is in final negotiations to write and direct Dimension’s re-imagining of Hellraiser. [THR]
Stan Lee reads The Raven. [QuickStop]
The direct-to-DVD sequel to Smokin’ Aces has been given an official greenlight. [Joe]
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has wrapped. [bay]
Whiteout has been moved to September 11th 2009. [bloody]
Dylan McDermott, Zoe Saldana, Lake Bell, Nick Stahl, Paz Vega and Shannen Doherty have been cast in Burning Palms. [thr]
Fox has canceled King of the Hill. [AICN]
Advance ticket sales of the John Woo epic Red Cliff Part I have set a record for an Asian film in Japan. [Variety]
The reason why Terrence Howard lost Iron Man 2
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