Friday, September 26, 2008

Bill Murray Talks Ghostbusters 3!


The man behind one of my favorite characters in film history (Dr. Peter Venkman) just dropped an extremely juicy tidbit out at Fantastic Fest.  Check the video to hear the man promote his new film, City of Ember, which premiered at Fantastic Fest, as well as answer a few questions.  One of which was about his thoughts on Ghostbusters 3.  It sounds like he not only likes the idea of the guys from The Office writing it, but also states that enough time has passed since the second movie (which he apparently is not too fond of) to make a third one really work.  It sounds like doing the voice work for the video game got him really excited about the characters again.  

This has me all giddy and excited, like I'm ten years old again.  My one concern was that they wouldn't be able to get Murray to come back for another one.  With that concern remedied, I hope they get the ball rolling and fast track this mofo.  I want to see it on a 2010 release slate (which as it turns out, is exactly how IMDB lists it, although we all know how trustworthy that thing is).

Who else is pumped?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Polish Movie Posters! More awesome than ours!


A good friend to filmadelphia, Eric Smith over at geekadelphia just posted some awesome posters from Poland. These things are freakin gorgeous. As I was explaining to Eric earlier, I find the Empire Strikes Back poster to be masturbatory, meaning worthy of my masturbation. That's my favorite movie and that poster is just awesome.

My only concern with these is that, while they may be far more interesting and beautiful than their American counterparts, they are only awesome in retrospect. If we didn't know who or what Indiana Jones was, I don't think that poster would garner much interest from an American audience. But then again, as Eric pointed out, the culture is different there, and perhaps these posters tell them all they need to know.

Who wants one!

I officially HATE Brett Ratner


First, Ratner (the Rush Hour franchinse, X-Men: The Last Stand) wants to make a Guitar Hero movie (idiot) and now he wants to make... wait for it...

wait for it...

just a little longer so that the impact of this will be brutal...

A Joker spin-off! (and check out the link for equally stupid quotes from Ratner)

What the hell man! This is the worst idea I've heard in a long time. First of all, as much as I don't think the Joker should just never be considered for a villain again, I don't think he should be considered anytime soon. We need to let Ledger have that performance for a while. And second of all, I don't want to see more of this character! He's scary because he's batshit crazy and has no motives. If you give him his own movie, you have to explain motives, and thus the veil is lifted and the Wizard is revealed to be a crusty old man, and that would suck for The Joker. And god help Ratner if he tries to make him sympathetic. Argh! I hate that man!

By the way, he also mentioned doing a Halle Berry led Storm spin-off, which I'm neither here nor there about.

Anyone actually like this dude? Or think this is a good idea?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Spielberg Pegg(s) Frost for Tin Tin


Apparantly Spielberg requested a meeting with Simon Pegg about whether he and frequent costar Nick Frost would be interested in playing characters called the Thompson Twins in Tin Tin. Here's how they're described on the Tin Tin wiki: "Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond) are two bumbling detectives who, although unrelated, look like twins with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerism, and are shown to be mostly incompetent in their tasks." Now, while these sound like the perfect characters for Pegg and Frost to play, won't their extreme difference in appearance be a problem? It seems as though part of the humor is that they're exactly the same save for the stache. This news makes me scratch my beard a bit. I suppose since its a motion capture film, the can edit what the two look like, but I thought the point of motion capture was that the characters will actually look like their real life counterparts? Maybe not for this project though.

Stephen Chow(s) down Green Hornet


This is just a quickie to keep this thing on the sort of kind of regularly updated side of things. Stephen Chow, writer/director of Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, and CJ7 (none of which I've seen... I know... all my geek credit is gone... I need to get on that... anyone wanna loan me some copies?) has signed on to co-star as Kato alongside Seth Rogen in the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg written Greent Hornet adaptation. Rogen mentioned long ago he'd love to have Chow play the part, and apparantly his wish has been granted.

But the news doesn't end there folks, he's also signed on to direct! This would seem to confirm that this will be a comedic version of The Green Hornet, although I don't know what anyone else would have expected from Rogen and Goldberg. Rogen was quoted a while back as saying they were toying with the idea of it being about Kato being more famous and recognizable than Green Hornet (Kato was originally played by Bruce Lee and is much better remembered by audiences); a story where the sidekick is more famous than the actual hero, which definitely seems like a premise ripe for comedy.

I'm gonna say I'm cautiously optomistic about this one, as I'm not familiar with the source material, or the director. But my yearning to see Seth Rogen don tights* ala Charlie in It's Always Sunny supercedes all of that. What do other people think about this choice?

*Our faithful (and possibly only) reader Dustin has informed me that Green Hornet doesn't wear tights, something I should have known based on all the pictures I've seen of the original show scattered about the net. As Dustin puts it, his costume is similar to The Spirits, just a suit and a mask over his eyes. Thus, my reason for being excited about this has been destroyed. However, Dustin assures me the source material is the kind of campy, fun stuff that Chow has made a career out of, so it sounds like a perfect fit. Consider me re-excited.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I Love Science Fiction movies! New Trailer!


Sleep Dealer, directed by Alex Rivera, just got a trailer, you can find it over at /film (I couldn't embed it, sorry). It looks pretty freakin sweet. I'm excited we're going to be getting a handful of new, decent sci fi movies over the next couple years. Here's the synopsis, via /film: "Set in a future where people can plug into a global computer network using installed body modified holes that tap in their nervous system. The U.S. has installed a wall along the Mexican boarder, but the country still allows outsourcing through node workers who plug in and control remote control robots. A private company has hijacked control of a small Mexican village’s water supply, selling it back to them at a higher price. Memo Cruz is a young man living in this isolated non-tech village, with dreams of working in high-tech factories up north. One day he builds a transmitter that allows him to tap into signals from around the world. But when this transmission is intercepted, it changes his life forever."




What do you think?

A Slim and Trim Looper Detail


Rian Johnson, director behind a personal favorite Brick, and the upcoming Brothers Bloom, has a sci-fi pic coming up. And this just tickles my fancy. In fact, maybe even tickles a fancy I hadn't fancied before. It's called Looper, and check out this logline: “Looper is set in a present-day world in which a group of hitmen are sent their victims from the future.” And /film updated this story with this quote: "there’s much much MUCH much more to Looper than that logline suggests. In fact, that quick description doesn’t even get to the really interesting hook of the plot, and the plot’s hook isn’t what the movie is really about anyway." So, the logline is first of all awesome. That sounds like such an amazing premise that could go so many different directions, especially with a director like this. And if that's not even the half of it? Count me in. This little snippet has really piqued my interest. Anyone else think this sounds like its got a lot of promise?

We're Back! A Blogger's Story


Sorry for the break in updates folks. Things here in Philadelphia are getting crazy. I now write for two publications other than this one, go to school fulltime, and work parttime. Fear not though! This is not the main reason for my lack of updates. The main reason, is that film news has been rather boring lately. I'm trying to make it a point to only post articles about news I'm interested in. I also don't want to spread lousy rumors. That kind of shit has just been getting ridiculous on the net.

So with that, I found some interesting stuff today finally! Beginning with this link to a two and half hour interview with Charlie Kaufman! I haven't had the time to listen to it yet, but I'm rather excited to do. This guy is a fantastic writer, and I'm very excited for his upcoming directorial debut. If you listen to it, let me know what you think!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

TMNT Upadte!


Apparantly, talk of a new live action Ninja Turtles movie has gone sour. Sort of. The other half of the creative team behind TMNT, Peter Laird, told MTV that they're at work on a "hybrid" TMNT movie. In other words, it will combine real actors and sets with CGI Turtles and most likely CGI villains. This should hopefully please fans of the original live action series, who hated the CGI film because it was too cartoony. There's also talk of bringing Steve Barron, director of the original, back for this installment. Everyone at slashfilm seems to hate this idea, but I don't know why. I frequently go back and watch this movie as it was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and I like to see how my opinion of it changes as time goes on. I am always pleasently surprised and impressed with this movie, as it takes the premise seriously and sets it in a noir esque New York. This is the perfect world for the Turtles, and Barron really nailed a great color scheme with some awesome shadowy, grainy shots. I don't see why everyone thinks its a bad idea to get him back, when he was the one that made the Turtles into relatable, real characters.

What do you think? I'm all for more Ninja Turtles, and I really think Barron could succeed here.
(check out the slogan on the poster, hilarious!)

Monday, September 8, 2008

UPDATE: Ramis confirms Ghostbusters 3!


I won't bore you with the details, check out cinematical for the full quote from Ramis, but it sounds like everything I posted about a couple days ago is in fact true. Ramis' Year One writers are working on a script. The idea is for all four original members to come back as "mentors," Ramis specifically stating that according to Aykroyd, Dr. Venkman may even return (for those not in the know, there is some bad blood between Murray and Ramis, so Venkman's return was iffy). And Ramis confirms that the hope is the Apatow crew will produce and hopefully be involved in the acting side of things. Apparantly readers at cinematical found the Apatow crew as the new Ghostbusters problematic, where as I see it as the perfect fit, as the Apatow crew are to our generation what I'll call the Animal House crew was to theirs.

Thoughts anyone?

The Mighty Boosh! It's like the revolutionary war all over again!


The Brits are after us Americans again! Except this time its not over the taxation of tea! Actually, my favorite British television program, The Mighty Boosh, is apparently on its way to Adult Swim. And thank goodness, because my non-bootlegging American friends need to see the genius of Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding the way it was presented to me - I saw it by accident. A friend of mine had found what he called a "creepy" video called Old Gregg (which you can view above; listen for the brilliant timing and delivery of "I'm gonna hurt you"). And i'll admit, the first time I watched it, all the humor was lost on me. I thought it was creepy as all hell (again, listen for the brilliant timing and delivery of "I'm gonna hurt you"). Noel's voice, the tutu, the song at the end. I thought it was a David Lynch-styled clip in which I was presented a series of random, unfrightening images, spliced together in just such a way that makes them seem creepy. But of course, this is not the case, as Old Gregg is one of their best, funniest sketches. And if you get it, you should absolutely tune into Adult Swim and check out this show, because it is hilarious. It's also trippy in the fashion you've most likely come to expect from the Adult Swim comedy line-up, so it should fit very well in their schedule. But don't be fooled, although trippy, this is funnier and smarter than most of the comedy you'll find on American television.

Is anyone else already a fan of the show? And thus excited it's coming to America finally?

BONUS CLIP: Check out this hilarious short film starring Fielding with a hilarious guest spot for Barratt called Sweet. Brilliant.

Friday, September 5, 2008

More Ghostbusters confirmation


It seems my speculation that perhaps Rogen and Goldberg are writing the Ghostbusters sequal was wrong.  Apparantly Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, the guys who wrote the upcoming Harold Ramis directed Year One (and also some of the better episodes of The Office this past season), are working on a script for a Ghostbusters sequal.  This is all that's confirmed, but the connection to Ramis is promising.  Also promising is that Year One is being produced by Apatow, thus another connection to previous rumors.  Here's hoping this thing all falls into place, cause I, for one, am very excited.

I believe in Harvey Dent's death


It's true folks, Harvey Dent is dead.  Not like comic book dead, where he could hit the lazarus pit and come back.  Nope.  He's dead, dead.  Straight from Two-Face(Arron Eckhart)s mouth "He is dead as a door nail.  He ain't coming back baby!"  So now Dent's death has been confirmed by the script, the director, the actor who played him, and the novelization of the story.  He's dead people!  He will not return for Batman 3!

By the way, here's an interesting tidbit, something I think most of us suspected but I had yet to see confirmed by anyone.  "No I'm not coming back.  I think unfortunately, Heath was supposed to go on and that didn't work out."  This was my, and I think most people's, assumption all along, but it's nice to have some closure on it.

So who's next?  Eckhart says he actually likes the idea of Angelina Jolie as Catwoman.  Dumb.  Nolan must have something  better than that up his sleeve.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Live action Heavy Metal adaptation Directors!


That's right, the live action, David Fincher lead adaptation of Heavy Metal just had some director's names dropped. And let me tell you, these are some impressive names. But before we get to that (don't you hate when bloggers do that to you?) lets talk about the Ben Button drama. According to Heavy Metal publisher (and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator) Kevin Eastman, the project has moved from Paramount to Sony because "they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to green light any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, fuck you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else." If anyone has been following this (and this should be a sufficient answer to the post I made a few weeks ago requesting more information from Peter Sciretta about the behind the scenes goings ons), Paramount really wants Fincher to reduce his 3 hour cut of Ben Button significantly. I heard he actually trimmed 15 minutes off for them and they still wanted more, so he said screw em. Thus, no Heavy Metal at Paramount. Jessica Barnes over at cinematical makes a good point in that Paramount probably didn't expect Fincher to call their bluff. Too bad for them!

But now the important news that you read that whole paragraph for (and if you didn't shame on you, I work hard on this stuff), the directors. Eastman has confirmed that Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labrynth, the upcoming Hobbit adaptation), Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead remake, and the upcoming Watchmen), and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Carribean, The Weather Man, The Ring) are all attatched to direct a segment, and Fincher is expected to direct one as well. Apparantly, in contrast to the original animated version, there will be 8-9 segments. Here's hoping for more awesome directors.

Who else is excited as all get out about this!?

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Watchmen Update!


The courts have set a date for January to begin the trial between Fox and WB. Hopefully this means we'll still get 03.06.09 as an opening date, as this seems to be the perfect opening day for Watchmen. No one else seems to be discussing this, but part of the genius of Watchmen is the way it views time. Keeping with the theme that time is not linear, but rather like a "diamond" (there used to be a video on youtube of Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, describing his theory of time this way, and it is obvious the book is written in coherence with this idea, but I couldn't find the video), which he really gets into exploring in issue 5, Fearful Symmetry, 03.06.09 seems to indicate underlying mathematics that may give meaning to existence, or at least influence it. Thus, I'm even more excited about the movie, since it seems Snyder is trying to keep completely in sync with Moore's vision, even in the advertising. So here's hoping we get to keep that date! (As I've said before, it's also the day before my birthday :-D)

Banned Zack and Miri poster!


Apparantly this will only be appearing in Canada, as it was banned by the MPAA (jerks, I can't believe they control the advertising too. But I guess in todays world someone was bound to be controlling it). I think this is just hilarious. Look at Rogen's face.


And really, only astute viewer's would catch the ludeness. I also don't think children would figure out what was going on here. I see no reason why this was banned. If anything should cause this poster to be banned, it should be the word Porno, because I can see kids asking their parents what that word means. However, I'm so glad the MPAA has allowed them to pass with that as the title, because it is perfect and hilarious.


Is it me, or does Rogen only do movies with obvious, self-referential titles (or are all titles technically self-referential?)? 40 year-old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri make a Porno, even Superbad (sorta). Indie film-makers, this is your chance. Write a movie called "Asshole" and make the main character a complete dick. Seth will be sure to do it, and we'll get to see him take a turn as a bit of a different character for once.

Lullaby getting a big-screen adaptation?


This sounds extremely vague, but it's popped up quite a few times over the past week or so, and since he's one of my favorite authors I figured I'd throw up a little somethin-somethin about it. Apparantly, Palahniuk, who is known for fucking with his audience, has been tossing the name of a director he calls "the Swedish David Fincher," Ulfer Jansen. He has no imdb, and all I can find about him on google are other blogs with the exact same Palahniuk quote about him. So who knows if he actually exists or whether he's attatched to the project or not. However, if Chuck P is to be believed, they're already at the casting stage, but the production is keeping said casting from Palahniuk for now.

Now miss Jessica Barnes over at cinematical ponders "don't you think if this was the real deal, Palahniuk would have been told that information?" While I'd normally be inclined to agree, I've read numerous interviews with him where he talks very candidly about Hollywood, and what it's like selling your work to them. In most cases with his properties, he has to sell the whole thing away to someone else to get it made, so it's entirely possible that he really has no idea who they're casting or when the start of production is.

Count me in on this if it's actually happening though. It seems like there are few people who agree with me, but having read all of Chuck's books except his most recent three, Lullaby is my favorite. It's some of his best writing, and I love how fantastical this story gets as it goes. He grounds it in a believable real world in the beginning, so that by the end you're totally with him when crazy, otherworldly shit starts going down. Hopefully whoever ends up directing this thing can acheive the same.

Anyone else excited? Does anyone else even like this book?

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

New Red Band Zack and Miri Trailer!

I'm wicked excited for this folks, and I'd like to thank Peter over at /film for tweeting this.

I think the first scene in the trailer made me laugh the hardest.  "Is that like a sequel?" could only be delivered so humorously by Seth Rogen.  Oh wait nevermind, Craig Robinson talking about not being happy with his wife might be funnier.  That dude is a fuckin scene stealer.  I was already wicked pumped for this one (huge Kev nerd) and this has only fueled the fire.  Here's hoping we don't get too much spoilerish stuff before the movie comes out, as Smith tends to do (or at least he did on Clerks 2). 

I'd also like to point out that when Peter tweeted this, he called it the "Red Bank" trailer.  Very clever Mr. Sciretta.  Very clever, indeed.

Did this make anyone else laugh out loud?

Disaster Movie is a Complete Disaster!


If you're anything like me, this weekends box office numbers were of extreme interest. Is it because Babylon, A.D. is going to be Vin Diesel's underrated masterpiece!? No, not even by a long shot. It's because Disaster Movie, the latest in the ____ Movie series, bombed! Finally! If you're not aware, this was written and directed by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, the pair of geniuses who brought us Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans. Now the reason I'm joyously celebrating their latest movies epic disaster (get it? Oh, and 6.9 mil in its four day opening... ouch) is because the first three movies I mentioned opened at the top of the box office in each of their respective opening weekends. Thus Aaron and Jason were able to become rich and litter the box office with more pop culture trash.

So I'd like to thank you, movie-going public. For with your lack of interest (finally), we may see the beginning of the end for Mr. Seltzer and Mr. Friedberg (are they even real people? These sound like made up name's designed to keep some old hollywood execs safe from angry message boarders).