Somehow, I’m not surprised. The other day, I made reference to Uwe Boll and his knack for ruining films while discussing George Lucas’ recent Star Wars edits. In all fairness, Lucas really shouldn’t be compared to Boll, a one-time recipient of the Razzies’ “Worst Career Achievement” award. As much as I take issue with Lucas, I don’t believe anyone has ever started a serious petition to have to him retire. In this amazing clip, we hear from Guinevere Turner, the writer who had the unfortunate experience of having worked with Boll on the first live-action adaptation of Majesco’s BloodRyane franchise. According to Turner, the film went into production with a first draft, of which only twenty percent ended up on screen. Not surprising considering the film, with an estimated budget of twenty-five million, only managed a meager three and a half million at the box office.
Earlier today, LucasFilm released the official trailer for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D. I’d post it here, but 20th Century Fox has spent most of the day removing it from YouTube. Besides, you’re not missing out on much since it only displays in 2D. That said, I’m not sure how many of you are really looking forward to seeing it again in 3D, especially given Lucas’ penchant for altering his films. Arguably, I don’t think The Phantom Menace could get any worse, but if anyone were to find a way, it’d be him — or Uwe Boll. Still, there still seems to be a market for these 3D conversions, so I’m sure there are some of you out there who just can’t wait. I’m skeptical, and just curious enough to give it a chance myself, and if the film ends looking good enough, I’m sure I’ll see the rest when they eventually hit the original saga. Sorry, I just don’t have any love of Anakin. If you still want to see the trailer, click here. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D opens nationwide on February 10th.
Here’s a odd bit of news. Several outlets have reported that Christopher Nolan may be planning to shoot footage of the Occupy Wallstreet protests for his latest film, The Dark Knight Rises. The cast and crew will be spending two weeks filming in the big apple this month, and have apparently been told its a possibility. Personally, I’m not sure how legit it is, but if Nolan were to actually go through with those plans, it would be pretty ironic. After all, many of those protesters are having trouble finding decent jobs, but as one journalist put it, they’ll suddenly find themselves employed as unpaid extras. I’m sure that thought didn’t even cross his mind, so I hope that if he does decide to film the scenes, the message won’t get lost. If anything, I hope it helps to further cause, even if its simply to document it. Sadly, that might be more publicity than anyone has bothered to give the protesters to date.
I’m impressed. Earlier this month, director Alex Albrecht threw together this live-action short entitled VOLTRON: The End, starring Psych‘s Timothy Omundson. I have no idea if this was meant as some sort of series or film pitch, or if it was just something he decided to do for fun, but it’s pretty awesome. The idea of a Voltron live-action film never really crossed my mind, but having seen this, I certainly wouldn’t object. I also want to know how he landed Omundson for the role of Lance. He’s not exactly a huge star, but he is a series regular on a popular show that’s currently airing. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say his involvement was either a favor, or Omundson is just a fan of the animated series. You’d almost have to be to want to film this, wouldn’t you? Either way, it’s pretty cool that he’d take the time to contribute to the short. Let’s hope something good materializes from it.
He’s made plenty of cameos throughout recent films, but we’ve never really seen Agent Coulson get his hands dirty. That’s about to change — the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative finally gets his chance to shine in this special one-shot, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer. Like the one-shot The Consultant — included on the Thor DVD/Blu-ray — tied together the events of The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man films, this clip is used to fill the gap between Iron Man 2 and Thor and is included on the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of Captain America: The First Avenger. We’re only posting a teaser, but if you want to see the clip in its entirety, you can click here, or wait until you pick up your copy of the film when it hits stores next week.
You know, my parents never bought me any of the Boo Berry family of monster-themed cereals when I was a kid, but even just seeing them in the grocery store colored my perception of the classic Hollywood monsters they riffed on. Artist Jason Edmiston took that one step further with this Universal Monsters mashup with their cereal incarnations. It’s pretty weird to see Count Chocula’s big ol’ schnozz on a “real” human being; somehow, though, that goofy pressure valve on Frankenberry just seems to fit. Read more…
Yikes! Now that’s a super man. In case anyone was wondering whether Henry Cavill was packing some muscle padding under that blue-and-red suit, well, I think you can see for yourself that that’s definitely not the case. These photos snapped from the set of The Man of Steel show a particularly grizzled-looking Clark Kent with his clothes all torn up. You know, are we absolutely positive this isn’t just a viral campaign? Because if I was a woman or a gay man who had no interest in seeing a Superman movie, I certainly would now. Read more…
Marvel and Paramount released their latest trailer for The Avengers aheadof their upcoming event at New York Comic Con next week. I’m not sure if they still plan on debuting any new footage at the event, but I hope it’ll still happen, as I’m anxious to see more. It’s not that I’m excited for the film, so much as I found this latest trailer to a bit underwhelming, and I think some additional footage might ease my concerns. Generally speaking, I’ve been a huge fan of everything Joss Whedon’s directed to date, but I simply wasn’t sold on it. Sure, it was nice to see all those characters in one place, but at the same time the dialog seemed a bit stiff, and and the prospect of juggling so many stars already seems daunting enough as it is. Also, am I the only one who cringed when Bruce Banner showed up at the end? It just wasn’t the same without Norton.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 11, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
A SWAT team takes on a horde of zombies? Not quite, but that’d probably be fun to watch. Instead, an actual SWAT team recently raided the set of Brad Pitt’s upcoming horror flick, World War Z — the highly anticipated film adaptation of Max Brooks’ New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. Apparently the team seized and confiscated 85 fully-functional guns capable of firing live ammunition, many of which were fully or semi-automatic in nature. For whatever reason, the production company decided to forgo the use of prop weaponry in favor of real ones without filing the appropriate paperwork. Amazing, right?
Pete Travis may have discovered that justice is blind in the film industry. Travis, director of the upcoming Judge Dredd film (spartanly titled Dredd) is rumored to have been asked to step down as director as the film entered its post-production phase. The LA Times reports that “creative differences” between Travis and the studio were to blame, but who can ever really know what that phrase means? In the meantime, screenwriter Alex Garland has allegedly taken Travis’ place in the editing room. Does this mean dreddful news for the film? We’ll have to see, when and if Dredd meets its September release date.
Somewhere in Hollywood, a dark assembly of producers, directors, studio heads, and other figures cloaked in shadow gather. One, older and more wizened than the rest, relays the grave news he’s been reluctant to surrender. “Gentleman,” he croaks, “we have run out of Ideas.” A younger man, handsome, speaks up over the uproar. “No! That can’t be true. We had enough Ideas to last through at least 2014. We did the math.” Lifting his hood, a gray-haired man solemnly shakes his head. “That whole Pauly Shore revival thing ended up not working out.” The old man lifts a hand, gesturing for silence from the cabal. “We have no choice,” he says, his voice quivering. “Drastic measures must be taken. We must make two Snow White movies in the same year. And one of them will star Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen for some reason.” Read more…
Here’s a bit of a treat for those of you planning on attending New York Comic-Con and Anime Festival next week. For the first time, Marvel Studios will be officially attending the convention, and hosting an special panel where they’ll debut never-before-seen footage from The Avengers. The event will take place on October 15th at the IGN theater — wait, when did IGN get their own theater? Any way, it’s expected to last an hour, starting at 6:30 PM, so cancel those dinner plans if you want to attend. The panelists scheduled to be present include producer Kevin Feige, Captain America himself, Chris Evans, Thor’s Tom Hiddleston, and actors Clark Gregg and and Cobie Smulders, who play Agent Coulson and Hill respectively.
Okay, this is a bit of exciting news and I really could help but write about it, but it looks as though — wait for it — Arrested Development will be returning for a fourth season! Okay, well, maybe not a entire season, but at least nine or ten new episodes that will serve as a lead-in for the upcoming feature film. The announcement came from series creator Mitch Hurwitz during a recent cast reunion. No word on when the episodes will start full production, or where they’ll end up, but there’s some reports that both Netflix and Showtime have shown interest.
China recently unveiled the logo for its version of NASA, the Chinese National Space Administration, and it looks… let’s say it looks a little familiar. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like it looks a lot like what would happen if you mixed the logos for, say, a united federation of planets and a fleet that traveled through the stars. Admittedly, if you have to design a logo for a space program you want to be successful, you could do worse than drawing inspiration from sci-fi’s most beloved space program. Just be sure to give NASA a call when you discover warp technology because, let’s face it, the US space program sure isn’t going to do it. Read more…
Director Kevin Tancharoen put the internet into an uproar when he released a proof-of-concept trailer for a rebooted, more “realistic” Mortal Kombat film he called Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Attention from the trailer got him a gig directing a new web series, Mortal Kombat Legacy, using the actors and themes from the trailer, and fans seemed to dig it. Now, with the success of the web series, Warner Bros. has officially signed off on a new Mortal Kombat movie with Tancharoen as director. None of the actors from the web series, like Michael Jai White and Jeri Ryan, are signed on yet, but given that the project was only just announced, we can probably wait a while before worrying about casting. I’m not big into Mortal Kombat at all, but Tancharoen’s bootstraps approach to getting to work on a property he loved is pretty impressive and I hope he continues to do well for himself. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Sep 25, 2011 in Animation, Cinema
Regardless of how you feel about the whole My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic thing, you have to admit that this scene from a recent episode, a parody of Star Wars’ ending scene, is pretty much pitch-perfect. Perhaps the world doesn’t need yet another Star Wars parody/homage/reference/whatever, but hey, if you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it right, and it looks like that’s what happened here. Side note: I feel like Vader probably would have made being a “brony” against Imperial law. That’s at least one thing he and I would agree on. Read more…
Some day in the future, when you open up a book about the top ten greatest innovators in filmmaking, you’ll see one name at the top of the list: one Mr. Tim Burton, the filmmaker responsible for classics like Edward Scissorhands. Why, you ask? This man has done what previously the world thought impossible, a feat that will undoubtedly be imitated for years — nay, decades — to come. The feat? Casting Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in a Tim Burton movie. You can see from the above promotional still that there is indeed one (1) Johnny Depp (center) and one (1) Helena Bonham Carter (far left) in this film, which is directed by Tim Burton. The movie is Dark Shadows. But you’ll remember. You’ll remember. Read more…
I’ve never been fond of K-ON! Not because it’s insanely popular, because it really is, but rather because I found it incredibly mindless. I hesitate to label it a “slice of life” series since it seems to have an actual plot as opposed to something like Azumanga Daioh. However, I would constantly find myself questioning the point of each episode. I found some of the characters, Ritsu in particular, to be far too annoying for my tastes. That said, I know there are a lot of you who loved series to death, so if you haven’t already, I’m sure you’ll be excited to see the trailer for upcoming animated film. It was announced early last year but this is the first real trailer to be released. The film will hit Japanese theaters later this year.
Besides Sam Raimi’s increasingly bizarre direction, the main thing people watch Evil Dead for is its star, Ash, played by the inimitable Bruce Campbell. But the long-rumored Evil Dead remake (which I guess technically isn’t a rumor anymore), written by Juno‘s Diablo Cody, apparently won’t have Ash in it at all! Slashfilm broke the news with tweets from Campbell that Ash would not be featured in the film but that everyone involved was quite happy with how the film was shaping up. A different direction, no doubt. But what king will we hail now?! Read more…
For those of you who’ve been holding your breath, it’s official. J.J. Abrams will be returning to direct the next Star Trek film. With so many projects on his plate, there had been speculation as to whether or not Abrams would find time to direct the picture. However, it seems the film’s numerous delays may have been a blessing in disguise, allowing him an opportunity to squeeze the sequel into his busy schedule. Unfortunately, the script still isn’t finished but should be ready by the end of the month. Assuming production starts this winter, the film may be finished in time for a December 2012 release, but with the crowded holiday market, Summer of 2013 is looking far more likely. It’s been a long wait, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it — besides, that cast could only get better with age.
If you’ve seen Back to the Future, and I don’t want to speak to you if you haven’t, then you must be acutely aware of Marty’s awesome Nikes from the future. Well, Nike agrees that they’re awesome, and they manufactured a pair of shoes identical to the ones featured in the movie, replete with lights and some sort of device to help your laces tighten. They’re called Nike Air MAGs, and they’re not available in your local Foot Locker — Nike has put them up for auction to raise money for Parkinson’s research through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. A total of 1500 pairs will hit eBay at 88 miles per hour over the next ten days, so if you want them, you’d better be prepared to sell everything but your Calvin Kleins to do it. Read more…
Nobody should be surprised, but it looks as though Warner Brothers is currently considering a reboot Tim Burton’s comedy cult-classic, Beetlejuice — it’s like they’re not even trying anymore. The studio recently signed a two-year deal with the KatzSmith production house and may be floating the film their way. Should that happen, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith would likely end up penning the script. I still can’t imagine why they would want to reboot the franchise instead of writing a sequel, or even a prequel — it’s not as if the original wasn’t any good. Besides, it just wouldn’t be the same without Michael Keaton. The man did an amazing job selling the character and delivering a truly memorable performance. We already took Batman from him, do we really need to take Beetlejuice too?
Wow, I don’t even know where to start with this one. Here are some photos from the set of Zack Synder’s upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel. I know it must be incredibly difficult to make Superman look good on screen, but come on. Did they mean for it to look like a giant blue wetsuit? Will Clarke Kent double as Aquaman throughout the film? I just can’t imagine what possessed them to think that this looks good. I’m still wrapping my mind around the oddly placed belt buckle — you’ll note, it isn’t attached to an actual belt of any kind. Maybe they just decided to ask Joel Schumacher for his input on the costume design. Who knows, maybe it’ll look better on film than it does in these photos, but right now, I’m just not convinced. Anyone else having second thoughts?
If you’re in the Los Angeles area you may be in luck. Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema has announced that they’ll start hosting a monthly midnight screenings of Edgar Wright’s modern cult-classic, Scott Pilgrim vs the World. It feels so weird calling it a classic, but the film’s cult status can’t be denied. At least some of you might actually get to see it in theaters for the first time. and judging by its ticket sales, that’s probably everyone you know. The first screening will take place on Friday, September 23rd and attendees are encouraged to come dressed in costume. For more info regarding future screenings, check out the New Beverly Cinema’s official site for a full calendar of upcoming events. It’s a shame that its only happening in Los Angeles, but I still hope to attend at least one of those screenings at some point.
