Archive for March, 2009
Posted by dominie in Movies on March 31st, 2009
/Film reports that along with the just announced re-release of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast upconverted to 3D and their October 2, 2009 Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Double Feature in theaters, Disney has formally announced that Tim Burton’s forthcoming Alice in Wonderland will be released in IMAX 3D.
If you haven’t already had your taste of the first look at Wonderland, you can head over to TimBurtonCollective to view Disney’s quarterly magazine, issue D23.
The picture is slated for hit theaters March 5, 2010! Full press release below.
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Posted by dominie in Events on March 31st, 2009
Actor and musician Andy Hallett, best known as Lorne (The Host) for his role as the friendly anagogic demon in Joss Whedon’s television series, Angel, passed away on Sunday from heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. He appeared in 76 episodes of Angel after Whedon saw him perform in a Universal City Blues venue.
We’re very sad to confirm that after a five year battle with congestive heart disease, Hallett was forced to take his last breaths at such a young age. He was 33, and is survived by his father who stayed Hallett’s bedside.
A funeral service will be held near Hallett’s home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Posted by Jocelyn in Comics on March 31st, 2009
Horror, thriller/mystery, now the end of the world? Simon Pegg is good at twisting classic genre films into delightful comedic displays, as we saw with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and now it looks as if he’s at it again. Bloody Disgusting tips us off. Regrouping with Edgar Wright, the hilarious team that brought us both Shaun and Fuzz will be working on a project under the working title of The World’s End. We can only guess what it will be about.
As with the previous two films, The World’s End will have a message about life and growing. Pegg tells Entertainment Weekly, “If Shaun of the Dead was about leaving your 30s and taking responsibility, and Hot Fuzz was about being a man, then the next one will be about being an old man,” Pegg bursts out laughing, “being f—ing 40, which I am approaching. Edgar isn’t, the little bastard.”
American comic book writer and artist Rick Remender is no stranger to the world of film. Not only did he work on the animation teams for movies such as Titan A.E. and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, but his well known comic book Fear Agent is also being turned into a big-screen adaptation. And it looks like it could very well happen again with Remender’s XXXombies. MTV’s Splash Page informs us.
The comic centers around a porn director, Wong Hung Lau, who is in serious debt with the mob and decides to throw together a porn film in order to make some quick cash. After emerging from the weekend shoot with cast and crew, he realizes that L.A. has been quarantined and zombies have emerged and are taking control. The adult film crew has to fight for their lives to survive the undead menace.
Remender and series co-creator Kieron Dwyer are in the process of writing up a perfected script, and we should hopefully be seeing some updates on the project by the end of the month.
Posted by dominie in Movies on March 31st, 2009
With the werewolves getting hairy-ed up, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is looking to the other side, the Volturi that is. In recent news, sources reveal that Summit Entertainment has cast British actor Jamie Campbell-Bower (Sweeney Todd) and Canadian supermodel Noot Seear for roles in the sequel.
Jamie Campbell-Bower will star alongside Dakota Fanning as Caius, the most powerful of vampires, the Volturi’s leader. Caius will play a key role in the plot of New Moon by exercising their power to decide in Bella’s fate—a fact that will never be looked lightly upon in the book hereafter. Noot Seear will play the Volturi’s housewifey, or “fisher,” the bait to draw humans to the Volturi to eat.
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In other news, Sony Screen Gem’s western horror Priest adaptation has been in negotiations to reel in Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code, Gangster No. 1) for their warrior priest. According to BD, Scott Stewart (Legion) will direct the Michael De Luca and Stars Road Entertainment production.
Priest is set in a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire and follows a warrior priest (Bettany) who turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.
The project will be the second collaboration between Stewart and Bettany after Legion. The screenplay was written by Cory Goodman (The Brood), and Sony Screen Gems has slated the picture for release on August 13, 2010. Stay tuned for updates!
Posted by Jocelyn in Movies on March 31st, 2009
A slasher film produced by Judd Apatow? Written by Bill Hader and Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich? Sign me up! CHUD updates us on this intriguing project currently titled, House of Joel, which is about a man who immerses himself in the trashy violent media of today and then finds himself face to face with it in reality with him as a target. Hader will play Joel, a potential slash-ee. The actor/writer explained the premise at Sundance:
‘It is definitely about guys nowadays, that idea that you watch fucked up shit on TV, how violence in our culture – this sounds really hoity toity – you watch fucked up reality shows, I love true crime shows. The idea of that thing coming to your house, and what do you do? I would shit my pants. That’s basically what the movie is about. What if that guy decided to come to your house? What would you and your dipshit friends do about it?’
The project has yet to be greenlit and has no definite schedule, but Apatow Productions is excited and is working with Universal on it. As a huge fan of Judd Apatow films and of Bill Hader, it will be very interesting to see how these greats in comedy handle a slasher. I’m sure the result with be vastly entertaining, and I’m definitely following the progress of House of Joel closely and will update you all to the news!
Posted by Jocelyn in Movies on March 31st, 2009
The sequal for 2001’s Donnie Darko is on the way! S. Darko, which focuses on Donnie’s younger sister Samantha, is due to come out on DVD and Blue-Ray April 28th from Fox Home Entertainment. In the meantime, Bloody Disgusting provides us with this still from the film, showing us the new and improved Frank.
Posted by dominie in Movies on March 31st, 2009
Shock Till You Drop has just debuted an exclusive first look at Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell official poster. The buzz has been great thus far, marking Raimi’s return to horror (at the helm!), and though the trailer’s scare factor didn’t rise to the occasion, this poster sure does. Either way, I’d like to snatch up Raimi from Spider-Man once and for all. Give him back to us!
In Raimi’s return to horror, Drag Me to Hell tells the story of Christine Brown, a loan officer (Alison Lohman) who is ordered to evict an old woman from her home. Life is good until she finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. She desperately turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.
Drag Me to Hell hits theaters on May 29, 2009. Visit the official website at DragMetoHell.net.
Posted by Jocelyn in Movies, Reviews on March 31st, 2009
I went into The Last House on the Left with very little knowledge of the plot or premise of the film. I knew it was a remake of a horror classic directed by Wes Craven, so I was excited to see the film. I did know, however, that there was a rather controversial rape scene, and that made me nervous. A friend of mine interning at Midnight Pictures told me that this was a film about female empowerment, and that justice is served. Let me just say right away that this film is incredible, but there are problems that make it hard to deal with its severity.
The film, produced by Craven and directed by Denis Iliadis, is about strange coincidences, the evil inside every human, and the ability to prevail and rise up in the face of complete tragedy. SPOILER ALERT!! (more…)
Posted by dominie in Movies on March 31st, 2009
In addition to their latest sequel news, various sites such as /Film and MTV have reported that Paramount Pictures has released a pack of Star Trek trading cards, which reveals new, never-before-seen images from the highly anticipated reboot film.
Among the batch of images is one of an Orion slave girl (Diora Baird), young Spock meets older Spock, Scotty’s alien friend, the Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, and several more if you click over to MTV.com
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember seeing trading cards in the recent past for these big Hollywood movies anymore. Thumbs up to Star Trek’s marketing department. I think it would be a great way to assimilate the new younger generation!
Directed by J.J. Abrams, Star Trek 11 is set for release on May 8, 2009.
Posted by Dominic in Movies on March 31st, 2009
As if no one saw this coming various websites such as Variety and Darkhorizons are reporting that Paramount has hired Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write a possible sequel to the upcoming franchise re-boot of Star Trek. The trio is expected to have a completed script in by Christmas for a possible 2011 release date.
Though Star Trek doesn’t open until May 8th, and despite the fact that Star Trek films have usually preformed mediocre at best at the box office, Paramount is banking that JJ Abrams and his team can deliver a blockbuster.
Lindelof, who produced the new Trek and was a co-creator of Lost, had this to say. “There’s obviously a lot of hubris in signing on to write a sequel of a movie that hasn’t even come out yet, but we’re so excited about the first one that we wanted to proceed.”
As for any possible storylines, the writing team is planning to wait for audience reaction to the new film before deciding which direction to take the Enterprise and its new crew.
“Obviously we discussed ideas,” said Kurtzman, “but we are waiting to see how audiences respond next month. With a franchise rebirth, the first movie has to be about origin. But with a second, you have the opportunity to explore incredibly exciting things. We’ll be ambitious about what we’ll do.”
It is not decided if Abrams will direct the sequel, however he is set to produce the film alongside Bryan Burk under their Bad Robot Productions. Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof are also set to produce.
The film has been kept tightly under wraps, and has screened for only cast and crew and some studio personnel. Star Trek will have its first major screening next Tuesday at the Sydney Opera House, but official press reviews will not be printed until late April.
As far as I’m concerned, I hope this Trek is everything we’ve been waiting for in the Star Trek universe, a strong story, lots of action and top notch special effects. From the looks of the trailer that is exactly what we have in store for us come May 8th. The gods know it’s been a long, long time since Wrath of Khan.
Posted by dominie in Movies on March 30th, 2009
While press and industry folks gather in Las Vegas for the annual ShoWest convention, among the attendees were Shock Till You Drop, who revealed first official synopsis for The Crazies remake on the net today.
In a terrifying tale of the “American Dream” gone wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown in The Crazies, a reinvention of the George Romero classic directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay by Ray Wright (Pulse, Case 39) and Scott Kosar (The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his house after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh…with insanity. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutton; his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell); Becca, an assistant at the medical center; and Russell, Dutton’s deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a struggle for survival as they try to get out of town alive.
Directed by Breck Eisner and starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Reegan, Danielle Panabaker, and Joe Anderson, The Crazies is currently filmming in Georgia and scheduled to hit theaters September 25, 2009.
Posted by dominie in Arts on March 30th, 2009
Early this month, we passed along photos of Medicom’s new Mickey Mouse as Tron Collectible figure. Today we have more news. Medicom has done it again with two more collectibles to add! We have a five and a half inch Mickey as Teenage Frankenstein and a whopping 12 inch Runaway Brain Mickey Mouse. The images are below and boy are they beautiful!
Runaway Brain Mickey Mouse: Medicom Toy takes their previous release to a new level. Almost double the size of their previous figure making it approx. 12″ in length, the Runaway Brain Mickey Mouse is based on the 7-minute animation short
by Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris, and reflects Mickey’s rabid state after an unfortunate event with Dr. Frankenollie.
Mickey as Teenage Frankenstein (bottom row pics): Mickey is reborn as THE MONSTER!! I don’t recall this ever being in a cartoon, but then again, Mickey never dressed in a Tron outfit either, and Medicom is doing that as well. If my maths are correct, this stands at about 5 and a half inches tall.
