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In 100 hours time those clutching a precious Invitation for the hottest ticket in Cannes - the world premiere of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull - will climb the steps to the Grand Theatre Lumiere and sit in eager anticipation of Spielberg's blockbuster spectacular.
What's taken him so long? This week the director revealed that it was Oscar night in 1994 when Indy star Harrison Ford first asked "When are we going to make another Indiana Jones movie? I'm ready." A whole fourteen years ago.
"That was five years after The Last Crusade," remembers Spielberg, talking to the press last week in LA. "I said I didn't know, you have to call George [Lucas]. So Harrison called George and about a week later George called me and said Harrison is serious. He wants to do another picture. So the development of this film started in 1994."
So why the 14 year wait? "It took all that time before David Koepp [the writer of Jurassic Park and SpiderMan] came on board and wrote a script that knocked my Indiana Jones hat off basically," says Spielberg.
"But you know, it had to be right. I was just trying to recapture the magic we were able to achieve in three movies in the 1980s. I wasn't trying to improve on the Indiana Jones character. I was just trying to authentically re-animate the character and that was done through the right combination of the correct writing, the correct tone and Harrison Ford's singular contribution."
On Sunday afternoon Cannes will be the first to see if the 19 year wait since the last Indy movie was worth it.
This production visual of the scarring that turns driven District Attorney Harvey Dent into the schizoid master-villain Two face was posted by Comic Book Resources over the weekend. Grislier and more credible than the scarlet prosthetic that was used for Tommy Lee Jones' attempt at the role in Batman Forever it's a nod toward Jeph Loeb's Long Halloween
comic book, an acknowledged influence for Batman Begins and Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan,.
This marvellous video edit from College Humor takes the current Dark Knight trailer that we know and love and finds matching shots from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie. It's beautifully done, cleverly conceived, and demonstrates that a good idea is always worth repeating.
Juxtaposing the two trailers if not side by side then at least cheek by jowl only serves to heighten the similarities and, surprisingly, gives me a powerful yen to watch Jack Nicholson's spectacularly hammy take on The Joker again.
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If you’re impatient and don’t
have the time to read my whole review, here are the bullet points:
It’s great.
It’s the ultimate geek movie: Extraordinary computer aided design skills trump brute strength, and there's (almost) no romantic sub-plot.
There are two bona-fide ‘Indiana
Jones vs Cocky Swordsman’ moments.
There is NO Nick Fury cameo*.
There isn’t QUITE ENOUGH Black
Sabbath.
It’s notable that the name Iron
Man is only used once in the movie, right at the very end and the name of
his rival, Ironmonger, is only mentioned once in a throwaway comment. There’s
also the subtlest of hints that we might see the ‘other’ Iron Man, War Machine,
in the inevitable sequel.
'That guy that sneaked onto the set' didn't make the
final cut.
Continue reading for the full
Iron Man review, which will inevitably contain some plot spoilers.
Continue reading "Iron Man: First UK review" »
Well, almost.
To perfect the illusion of a complete parallel world which the dysfunctional superhero team inhabit, director Zack Snyder needs to create every detail of his alternate Earth.
Including TV ads. Which is where you come in. He's created a Watchmen YouTube channel and is inviting amateur filmmakers, computer geeks and card-carrying weirdoes to submit their idea of an alternate Earth TV ad that might run in the Watchmen universe.
The wisdom of the YouTube crowd will weed out the weak, and then the production team will pick the best 20 to appear in the movie, earning the makers $1000 in the process. $1000 and the undying respect of every geek on Earth that is.
Ladies, gentlemen, to your video cameras!
Dreamworks studios have today announced that they have commissioned a big screen adaptation of Platinum Studios comic book Atlantis Rising . Never heard of it? try a sample here.
It tells the story of a war between humankind and a race of very damp, very angry aliens who have been living in the ocean depths. Which would annoy anyone.
The movie, to be penned by regular JJ Abrams scriptwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Mission Impossible: III, Alias) currently has no cast, release date, or water-wing budget. More details on all those key facts as they come in.
Not as much as Carl Kelly does. The Times reports this morning that he managed to talk his way onto the set of Iron Man, bluffed his way through a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow, and even appears in the background of one of the posters.
Now that, my friends, beats any action figures, limited edition maquettes or replica props as the best piece of movie memorabilia ever.
No, when I say 'how long is too long?' I'm not talking about the 2 week layoff we've had from your regular diet of exclusive news piffle from the world of noisy movies, we're talking about the next instalment in Dr.Jones' adventures.
Slashfilm has today reported the final running time for the forthcoming Indy movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It reportedly clocks in at a bladder-bursting two hours and twenty minutes.
Movies have been getting longer and longer for years now. What started as a trend among art-house directors for testing the endurance of their audience has infected the world of normal peoples' films too. S James Snyder, writing for the New York Sun last year, quoted Chad Hartigan as saying that the
tendency of studios to rapidly green-light sequels for successful films has precipitated a trend for longer sequels of lower
quality. "Increasingly, if something's successful, sequels are being
green-lit and rushed into production as quickly as possible, If the opening weekend numbers are huge, they want to rush the sequel,
and that leaves almost no time for editing oneself or for filtering
through everyone's ideas. In the end, it means everything is getting
put out there. What they're not asking though is: ‘Okay, it's longer,
but is it better?'"
Ultimately, of course, the issue is not how long the movie is so much as whether it's any good. Early reports are not promising, but here at Blockbuster Buzz we think that, until you're given a good reason not to, it's always best to side with the guy holding the whip.
It's a tenuous enough suggestion at this point, but it's enough to get me excited: Keanu Reeves has not quite said 'no' to a possible third installment of the air-guitar-playing time-travelling, dimension-crossing wonderment that is Bill and Ted. At least, according to MTV movies.
Bill S.Preston Esq. and Ted 'Theodore' Logan last graced the screen in 1991 and since then Alex Winter (the blond one) has carved himself out a lucrative career directing TV commercials, music videos and the odd movie while Keanu Reeves (the one who says 'woah!') has gone on to say 'woah!' in Speed, Point Break, The Matrix and some other films we don't care about.
I refrained from posting this yesterday, mindful of the date, but as no-one has come out yet and said it's a joke..and as no-one has actually said a third Bill and Ted movie is coming, it seems safe enough now to mention it.
The complex online viral campaign for new Batman movie The Dark Knight had an entirely understandable pause after the untimely death of Joker actor Heath Ledger but seems now to be gathering momentum again. This Gotham-themed Drudge clone is my current favourite. The latest development is the mysterious Clown Travel website which is currently displaying a cryptic photo (see above) but may well be doing something altogether different tomorrow.
Most of the existing campaign has involved events in the US, but note the stickers on the suitcase (while trying to ignore the slightly shaky perspective work). Could the Clown Prince of Crime be on his way to London?
We'll find our on April Fools' day. Or maybe we won't. It depends on who exactly the Joker is setting out to fool.
 When I was about 14 I set my VCR to record a little-known American independent movie, Spanking the Monkey. It’s about a boy who sits in his bathroom with said monkey while his dog, a German Shepherd, waits outside barking and generally taking his mind off the important task at hand. He then enters into a disturbing carnal relationship with his mother. Or at least, that’s what I remember.
If only I was a visionary screenwriter, because then I would have made the leap of imagination necessary to say…’hang on, what if he’s having a relationship with the dog? And what if he’s Will Smith instead of a spotty American nobody? And, wait just one second, what if he’s fighting off 28 Days Later-style vampire zombies and he’s the last man on earth? It’s gold I tells ya, GOLD!"
And so, I’m led to presume, the most recent adaptation of Richard Matheson’s book, I Am Legend, was born.
In I Am Legend 2, expected out in 2010, we travel back in time (but still in the future) to when the virus first erupted and follow the story of Robert Neville and Sam, his loving German Shepherd, as their relationship blossoms through a series of montages in which they try on hats and he plays the piano while she bats her eyelids at him over a Manhattan cocktail.
Or at least, that’s what I’m hoping for.
That, or they remove all record of 2007’s I Am Legend and try again, this time actually bothering to read the book. If they do, they’ll create a masterpiece and properly explain the whole point of the story – Neville’s slow realisation that he is not fighting the monsters; he IS the monster. (I know – genius). That the vampire-zombie fellows have evolved beyond him, they are the next step in human evolution. And he is the scourge of their society. He is their Legend.
Now that would be cracking.
So, we can all expect a story in which a solider from that base they ended up in at the end of the last one goes out into the world of the vamzies (vampire-zombies – but a little bit effeminate) to collect a vital piece of technology/vial of blood which will help mankind. He takes with him that girl from the first one, or whoever replaces her, and at least half the can is wasted on meaningful looks between the two.
Oh, and they save a child.
Oh, and she gets bitten but it turns out she’s immune and she looks like the Childlike Empress from the end of the Neverending Story and explodes in a burst of light that wipes the vamizies out and leaves the humans with superpowers.
Or something like that.
Reporting the latest news about upcoming movies can be a risky business: Plots, titles and cast lists seem to change almost at random even when the film is apparently in the can.
The thinking man's (or woman's) Sci-Fi blog i09 has rounded up some of the wilder reports that have been bandied about the Internet in recent years and displayed them here for your amusement.
As well as some Star Wars and Star Trek gems, there's this revelation that, once heard, is impossible to forget: In the new Doctor Who series, the Daleks will have legs, to help them get around better. The legs may look like R2D2s, or they may be nice "Hobbit-like tootsies."
Daleks on little Hobbit feet. You can just see it, can't you?
Everybody's favourite scruffy leading man, John Cusack, looks finally set to release his long-awaited anti-war satire War Inc.
In it he plays a conflicted hit man called Brand Hauser, which is a shame because it would have been so nice if he'd been called Martin Blank, who has been hired by a well-connected US corporation to eliminate a troublesome Middle-Eastern politician.
Of course complications ensue, in the form of a romance with a sassy journalist. Expect sharp dialogue, comical misunderstandings, and a moderate amount of gunplay.
As well as bringing his sister Joan along for the ride, Cusack also plays alongside Marisa Tomei and the miraculously successful pop starlet Hilary Duff.
Cynical satire, war, appealing young ladies and the always watchable Cusack? We're there.
Keanu Reeves, star of the forthcoming Day the Earth stood Still rehash, let slip a few plot points in his interview with MTV last week.
In the original fifties classic, Klaatu was dispatched to Earth by a galactic council to warn humanity that the disparity between the capability of their weaponry and their maturity as a species could lead to their annihilation.
It's a sensible basis for a sci-fi movie, and one which would bear remaking. Instead, however, the eloquent Mr Reeves (who also assures us that Gort, the iconic robot in the 1951 movie was 'iconoclastic') lets slip that we are being warned this time about Global Warming. Because that's what everyone's talking about.
Which of course is patently ridiculous. A superior pan-galactic civilisation wouldn't concern itself with a race that was burning itself out through its own stupidity. The premise of the Michael Rennie / Patricia Neal movie was that mankind represented a danger to other civilisations and that's why we were being warned.
If we just represent a danger to ourselves it's hard to see why anyone else should care.
Still looking forward to seeing the robot though.
Chris Evans, who played flammable airhead Johnny Storm in the two recent Fantastic Four movies, says that if there was going to be another installment in the franchise he would know about it by now.
In an interview with MTV, he says that he was notified of Fox's intention to shoot Rise of the Silver Surfer came within a couple of weeks of the first movie's release. Both movies opened in the US with box office of around $57,000,000.
It's a shame: much as I enjoyed 'darker' comic book adaptations like Batman Begins and Blade, the two Fantastic 4 movies came closest to evoking the colour and exuberance of the Silver Age comics that I (and many of today's Hollywood screenwriters) grew up with.
There's a surprisingly large demographic of people, mainly but not exclusively young men, who have a powerful enthusiasm for sci-fi movies and the action figures that are spun off from them.
Among this community Simon Pegg is revered as something close to a god. He has come from that very community, as evidenced by his breakthrough comedy Spaced which was packed with geek lore and movie references. He has gone on to write and star in two movies that appealed not only to the type of earnest young men who frequent Forbidden Planet but a lucratively wide cross-section of the film-going public.
Pegg's list of credits and cameos is a veritable catalogue of geek favourites: Doctor Who, Grindhouse, Mission Impossible 3, and Land of the Dead to name but a few. He's really hit the pinnacle of geek stardom though by being cast as irascible engineer Montgomery Scott in JJ Abrams' relaunch of the Star Trek franchise. There are already five Simon Pegg action figures for sale in movie geek emporiums across the land, Scotty will be his sixth. There's no greater dream for the geekier sort of fellow, and Pegg's evident fanboy glee just enhances his likeability. There are more to come too, as he reveals in this interview with MTV that he's signed for at least three Trek films: “You have to commit to a
series of films and that puts you in a situation where the studio has
some control over what you do. I called up J.J. [Abrams, of course] and
I said, ‘The idea is amazing but I’m worried.’ And he said, ‘What’s the
worst that can happen? We hang out every three years and make a fun
film?”
In this interview with Collider the Fanboy Superstar good-naturedly rates his favorite Trek series, and lets slip some small details about his next collaboration with Sean of the Dead / Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright. Of course it will be good. But how good?
In other Trek news, i09 think they might have the first video of the Enterprise in flight. I'm not convinced, personally - the ship gets closer to us without appreciable changing size and I think we are looking at some deft fakery rather than a piece of genuine Star Trek XI footage. What do you think? Does this have the ring of sci-fi veracity to you?
There’s a lot more to moviemaking than just running around with an old KFC bucket on your head. Modern blockbusters employ veritable armies of grips, dolly grips, key grips and, for all I know, hair grips. One of the more important jobs is making sure that the sets are convincing, and if it’s a movie with a period setting, historically accurate.
Continue reading "Exclusive: Inside the home of Indiana Jones" »
 June 12, 2009 - schedule a duvet day, tattoo it on your forearm and tell your mummy you won’t be home for tea because Twentieth Century Fox has finally scheduled the A-Team remake, making me and at least three other people I know happier than a deaf X-Factor judge.
So what can we expect? Well, it’s got a great writing double-act in Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma) and if John Singleton can return to Boyz in the Hood form it’s be an unalloyed directing triumph.
Then again, even if he’s just channelling his form from Janet Jackson flop Poetic Justice it would be hard to screw up the golden formula of four ex-special forces soldiers, wanted for a crime they didn’t commit, on the run and finding time while clearing their names to save small businesses from organised crime. Am I right?
Now the casting is yet to be announced but back in 2001 when it was a rumoured Universal pic and Kevin Brodbin was writing the highly unlikely line up was rumoured to look like this:
B.A. Baracus – Ving Rhames
Murdock – Jim Carrey
Face – Christian Bale
Hannibal – Mel Gibson
Seriously, Jim Carrey alone charges over 20million per pic - it ain’t gonna happen.
IMDB is reporting the more likely scenario that Woody Harrelson will step into the role of Murdock and Ice Cube will play B.A.Baracus.
So, that leaves two roles unaccounted for: Face and Hannibal.
Your nominations please.
When you've finished reading my fanboy speculation about a forthcoming Green Lantern movie, read this hilariously note-perfect parody of fanboy speculation about a forthcoming Green Lantern movie: "In particular, I am baffled by your insistence that being "more
powerful" makes Kyle a better Lantern. Are superheroes always superior
when they're invincible? If Superman was better when he was able to
move entire solar systems, why, then, was John Byrne enlisted to
reinvent him as a more vulnerable character who can get injured by his
foes and even killed? Because to hear you tell it, Douglas, Superman
was "ruined" by the '80s revamp, long before the ridiculous electrical
version"
The full article is over at The Onion, and should elicit a chuckle of recognition from any reader who's spent a little too much time in Forbidden Planet.
Picture the kind of person who spends too much time on the internet and chances are he (it's probably a he) is wearing a Star Trek T-shirt. He's the kind of person, indeed, who might be interested in the new loving re-creation of the original Star Trek series coming soon as a feature film from Paramount starring British actor Simon Pegg as Scotty. In a recent interview though Pegg paid tribute to the team behind Star Trek: Phase II, an entire series of pitch-perfect “original series” episodes that never were, often made using revered Trek writers such as D.C. Fontana, and in some cases members of the original crew (with various complex time-travel shenanigans concocted to explain their aged appearance). Watch To Serve Them All My Days here to see what I mean. Chances are the chap in the T-shirt already has.
The world of Fan Films isn't all CGI and replica costumes though. Sometimes it's cardboard boxes and KFC bucket helmets. As part of the fan response to Michel Gondry's madcap video shop comedy Be Kind, Rewind there has been a rash of “sweded” trailers for popular movies aping the ramshackle attempts to recreate video blockbusters of Be Kind, Rewind's protagonists. The Star Wars trailer here couldn't contrast more with the first video. If the first offering was sci-fi's answer to the Sealed Knot Society, the makers of A Cardboard Hope are closer in spirit to a scuffle in a pub car park.
The absolute master of the fan film though is Sandy Collora. His painstakingly accurate low-budget superhero movies are the stuff of legend. Batman: Dead End is probably his masterpiece, pitting the Caped Crusader against some distinctly unearthly foes that movie fans will find surprisingly familiar. If you can't wait for 2008's hottest blockbusters to be released, take a look online, where teams of devoted fans are busy creating the next best thing.
(from The Times' Webwatcher column)
After the collapse of Jack Black's rather unlikely attempt at Green Lantern it looked as if the property might be dead, at least until after George Miller's Justice League movie completed its interminable gestation.
Now, though Comicology suggests that Greg Berlanti, writer of neo-Dallas Dirty Sexy Money is currently working on the script for a live-action Green Lantern movie. Maybe that sneaky poster in I am Legend that hinted at a live action movie about the interplanetary peacekeeper wasn't such a red herring after all..
Nevertheless, IMDB is currently displaying an eerily blank page with just a year of release, 2010, for Green Lantern.
The smart money is on any Green Lantern project featuring the John Stewart incarnation of GL, although Comicology offers this intriguing counter-argument: However, the Justice League movie has John Stewart already set to be
their Green Lantern, so Berlanti’s Green Lantern may still be Hal
Jordan. And, fortunately for Hal Jordan fans, the direct-to-DVD movie
Justice League: New Frontier gave Mr. Jordan a lot of new fans, and has
increased his grip on his standing as the Green Lantern among kids and the general public.
It's a tough one: I loved the Hal Jordan Green Lantern books as a young lad, but I can't help thinking that the effects technology to convincingly depict the power of the ring is likely to remain beyond our grasp for a couple of decades yet. What do you think? Does this sound like a great fun movie or a disaster in the making? Sound off in the comments below:
This tremendous snippet from our Bollywood expert
Anil Sinanan: Is Hollywood copying Bollywood? This week’s release 10,000 BC features a plot
which is pure Bolly-corn: a lost father, a wise old lady, a scantily-clad
heroine captured by the evil villain, a hunky hero who rescues her,
elephants and a laughable digitally enhanced sabre-toothed telepathic tiger.
Bring on the songs!
Personally, I think much of the critical drubbing of 10,000 BC has been unfair. There's no more point expecting geographical or palaeontological accuracy of 10,000 BC than Lord of the Rings. And besides, if you were to believe that Graham Hancock is right (and I don't suggest that you do) there could have been just about every element of the story co-existing on the continent of Antarctica around 12,000 years ago.
If it's a history lesson you want maybe the cinema's the wrong place to find it. I do eel as if the film could have done with a few more explosions though.
Variety's reporting today that Evil Dead and Spiderman director Sam Raimi is being courted by Paramount Studios to revive the moribund Jack Ryan franchise, based on Tom Clancy's bestselling series of books.
Played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and latterly Ben Affleck President John Patrick Ryan, Ph.D.CPA,USMC (Ret.), KCVO is a near-superhuman CIA operative turned action man and eventually President of the USA.
The new movie series would be based around a younger Ryan at the beginning of his career, allowing for a long and lucrative franchise. The only issue there of course is that if Ryan is scripted too young, then it would be impossible for Bruce Campbell to play him, which would surely make the dream director/star partnership.
The projected Jack Ryan movie is scheduled for a Summer 2010 release. That looks like being a busy Summer for Paramount.
Frank Herbert’s messianic tale of worm-related hi-jinks on Arrakis, the Desert
Planet, has already been a sprawling miniseries for the SciFi channel and (most
memorably) a giddy gothic epic starring Kyle McLachan and featuring tantric bassman Sting in an amusing
space Speedo.
Now, perhaps emboldened by the huge success of the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, Paramount are gearing up to attempt the galaxy-spanning spice saga again. Instead of the
weirdo’s weirdo David Lynch at the helm we have actor/director Peter Berg, best
remembered as the all-too-mortal bounty hunty hunter Pistol Pete Deeks in
Smokin’ Aces. Berg has also directed Will Smith’s nice-looking superhero comedy
Hancock which is due for release in July.
This new version doesn’t have a script or even a writer yet,
but Berg is reportedly promising an entirely different direction than the one
Lynch took. The project is slated as a major Summer blockbuster for Paramount with, they say, its theme of finite ecological resources promising to be particularly timely.
This early in production it would be reckless to predict a
release date, so I will: Dune will be in cinemas in Summer 2010.
Arthur C Clarke was, if we’re being honest, a bit too brainy
ever to have written the kind of story that Blockbuster Buzz might have
covered. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he eschewed the temptations of
rip-roaring Space Opera in favour of thoughtful ruminations on the way a future
world might actually work.
His best-known work, 2001, was a stately examination of the
next step in mankind’s evolution as we are ushered by godlike aliens into a
more advanced phase of existence.
Or something.
Honestly I don’t know anyone who pretends to completely
understand it, but that’s hardly the point.
Continue reading "Arthur C Clarke: 1917-2008" »
Samuel L.Jackson's cameos in (definitely) Iron Man and (probably) The Incredible Hulk have been widely reported around the web and a few shots of the cult favourite actor have escaped the set to be distributed around the globe. The short scene, together with the notion that it might set up a future Avengers movie, is something that has excited the vast legion of Internet-savvy fanboys to an almost fever pitch.
Except now it might not happen. Or it might. There's talk over on Comic Book Resources that it 'may' not: “Iron
Man” will hit theatres on May 2nd. Samuel L. Jackson IS playing Nick
Fury but his cameo may not appear in THIS film. They also confirmed
that there is a crossover between this movie and “The Incredible Hulk”. [my italics]
Whether the Fury scene is being held back for some sort of DVD extra, or whether Marvel are just trying (quixotically) to restore the element of surprise is hard to say. It seems improbable that Jackson's performance will end up on the cutting room floor. He's still in IMDB's cast list and one look at the Ultimate Avengers incarnation of Fury (see pic) will convince you that Marvel believe in Sam L. as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
This Side of the Truth is the latest project from tireless comic Ricky Gervais. WIth an all-star cast involving (so far) Jennifer Garner, Christopher Guest, Rob Lowe and Jeffrey Tambor it's a comedy about a parallel world where lying is unheard of. As Variety has it: The comedy takes place in a world where everybody tells the truth.
Gervais plays a storyteller whose job is to ramble on about the 1300s.
Faced with losing his job because his terrain is a boring period in
history once he gets beyond the Black Death, he invents lying as a way
to save himself. Lowe will play his arch nemesis.
Keep up to date with future developments on this frankly peculiar sounding movie by checking in on Ricky's blog - or of course subscribing to the Blockbuster Buzz RSS feed.
The video diary aesthetic has already been tried in both Horror (The Blair Witch Project) and Creature Feature (Cloverfield) genres. Spanish director Jaume Balagueró thought he'd take his own stab at the First Person Horror movie with a film which many are already describing as the most terrifying movie ever made.
[REC] tells the story of a young TV reporter and her cameraman who are taping
a news item, when things take a turn for the profoundly creepy. The situation only worsens as they realise that they are trapped in a building with someone, or something, very dangerous. Their desire to escape conflicts with their compulsion to document the escalating horror of their situation The fact that the movie's in Spanish doesn't matter too much. Screams are the same in any language. [REC] will be
released in cinemas nationwide on April 11, 2008.
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Ain't it Cool News is running the contents of an MGM press release jam packed with familiar names from the past being touted as movies of the future.
We already know that we're getting more Bond, and that one way or another The Hobbit will be made, but you can also expect sequels for The Thomas Crown Affair, The Outer Limits, Death Wish, and Eighties legwarmer jamboree Fame.
The biggest surprise in the list of upcoming projects though is Robocop. As Merrick over at AICN sagely observes: Needless to say, it's an extremely safe bet that a resurrected ROBOCOP franchise would be nowhere near as ballsy, edgy, or socially satirical as its source material (especially Verhoeven's film)- our age of hyper-sensitivity and over-amped political correctness would never allow it.
We should never overestimate the quality of imagination demonstrated by today's Hollywood executives but I do sometimes find myself hankering for a movie without a number in the title. If MGM are so hard up for ideas though perhaps I should send them my Doomsday template.
The story of loveable rubbish-collecting robot Wall-E is so assured of being the biggest kids' movie of 2008 it seems almost unfair. Mixing equal parts Short Circuit and ET, and the adding a sprinkle of that irresistible Pixar magic the lonely mechanoid's creators have built an all -conquering merchandising phenomenon that will undoubtedly be selling toys, lunchboxes and (for all I know) actual robots well into the next Century.
You're going to end up seeing this film. Might as well watch the trailer now to get yourself in the mood:
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Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a 2005 Korean movie from the same team
that produced the crossover hit Oldboy. It tells a roughly similar story to
Oldboy too: In it a woman is convicted of a crime she did not commit and, rather
then forming a team with Hannibal and Mr.T, concocts a long carefully thought out plan of revenge.
The original movie is beyond our remit here, being both in
foreign language and possessed of an elaborate piece of art-house artifice
wherein the movie is slowly drained of all colour as the protagonist’s
personality becomes more cold and ruthless.
However news that Oscar winner Charlize Theron is planning to produce and star in an English-language remake puts Lady
Vengeance firmly on our radar: For every brainy film like Monster that she
performs in there are two pieces of outright popcorn silliness in her CV. She’s
due to appear in Will Smith’s superhero comedy Hancock later this year, she was
in wildly giddy futuristic thriller Æon Flux, and – for goodness’ sake – she was
even in Children of the Corn III.
Charlize Theron’s production of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
will be released in cinemas some time in 2009.
The mighty Drudge Report has the hot Dark Knight news today, with a report from AP about a trade screening of new footage from the forthcoming Batman adventure.
With interesting and revealing quotes from the star, the director and (as in our headline) the Clown Prince of Crime himself the piece focuses on Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in the second Christian Bale-led Batman movie.
Director Christopher Nolan said that of all Batman's rogues' gallery the Joker was the one who almost had to feature in the sequel:
"The psychopathic clown, that's an icon to stand with the guy with the
ears and cape...it's just a wonderful visual relationship,
and it's a terrifying image."
Ledger himself was reportedly astounded by the intensity of his own performance. Add this to the studied crazinesss of Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of doomed DA Harvey Dent and you can't help feeling that, despite the best efforts of Tim Burton, this is going to be the first Batman movie that really explores the magic and the madness of the Batman mythos.
I've been telling you for weeks now how immensely silly and entertaining I thought Neil Marshall's new movie Doomsday was going to be.
Somehow though, the exclusive first review of this Blockbuster Buzz favourite has gone to Movie Moron.
And they don't even seem to like it much: The director has an obvious fondness for
the horror genre, and he shows here that he is a more than capable
director with some very neat visual flourishes, the only trouble being
that when all the clever nods to genre staples are over, there’s
nothing left but poorly delivered lines and the kind of performances
you’d expect from a Uwe Boll film.
Uwe Boll? That's harsh.
Click through for the full review, which contains at least one good-sized spoiler.
Dave Stevens was a comic book artist rather than a film-maker but he will always be remembered for his brilliant faux-retro creation The Rocketeer.
Like his near-contemporary Indiana Jones The Rocketeer was a loving evocation of the inter-war movie serials that still inspire moviemakers today. Steven’s perfectionism meant that his actual output was frustratingly slow, and that was one of the reasons he never managed to achieve the worldwide acclaim that was accorded to other, lesser talents. Sadly, Dave died of leukaemia earlier this week, aged only 53.
Whenever young men gather to discuss shootouts on top of Zeppelins, and that happens more than you might think, Dave will be remembered. Find out more about Dave, and view some samples of his art, here and here.
If horror is your thing, or if like me you abhor holidays, Dreamworks' forthcoming big screen adaptation of Scott Smith’s bestselling novel The Ruins may well be slithering right up your street..
It tells the story of a suspiciously attractive group of friends who awaken an ancient evil while they are backpacking in the jungles of South America. The trailer offers hints of Cronenberg-inspired body horror and a stark reminder to not to forget travel insurance before you go away this summer.
The Dentmobile is not, as you might have imagined, the dilapidated jalopy that transports impecunious journalists to movie screenings. It's part of the imaginary campaign to make Harvey Dent District Attorney of Gotham City which is currently forming the main thrust of Warners' marketing build towards the release of the next Batman movie Dark Knight.
If you log in to Harvey's 'campaign site' you can submit video messages of support for the clean-cut young litigator who will eventually be transformed into Batman villain Two-face.
Aaron Eckhart, who plays Dent in the film, has said that he played all his scenes in Dark Knight twice - once as calm, rational Harvey Dent and once as the manic inner personality that manifests itself after the courtroom acid attack that 'kills' Harvey and gives birth to Two-face.
It's an interesting approach and one which the few commentators who have seen the footage describe as powerfully unsettling to watch. Add in the mixed emotions most viewers will feel at seeing Heath Ledger's Joker on screen and you have the makings of one of the strangest, most memorable, comic book adaptations ever.
Continue reading "Dark Knight: To the Dentmobile!" »
It's been the subject of discussion on movie rumour sites for months, but now Warners have officially announced that the forthcoming movie adaptation of JK Rowling's seventh (and apart from a couple of bijou art projects) final Harry
Potter book, Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be divided into two movies to be released in
November 2010 and May 2011 by which time star Daniel Radcliffe will be 22 and have been playing the boy wizard for fully half his life.
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