Posted Nov 24th 2009 9:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sports, Deals, Paramount, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg
If you held out faint hope that
Hugh Jackman wouldn't be helping
Shawn Levy box robots, and would abandon it for a feature film adaptation of
A Steady Rain, kiss it goodbye now.
Variety reports that DreamWorks'
Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider have green-lit
Real Steel, making it the studio's first big financial project since it split with Paramount, and had to find its own money.
Spielberg was attached to the project as executive producer when it was first announced, and it seems that it's been a real passion project for him. DreamWorks bought the project back in 2005, and it was one of the films they held onto after splitting from Paramount. "When we took it with us, we really highlighted it as something we would put the pedal to metal on," said DreamWorks co-president of production Mark Sourian. "It's a project that Steven always wanted to do. It just came together rapidly after we left Paramount." The film will be made for the relatively low budget of $80 million, and will begin production next June.
With a low budget to avoid
Transformers excess, perhaps the magic of Spielberg and Richard Matheson can overcome the kiddie tendencies of Shawn Levy, and turn it into something special. A lot of commenters mentioned that Matheson's story was adapted into an episode of the
Twilight Zone called
Steel. Happily, it's online and I've embedded it below the jump. It really
is a good episode, and while Levy keeps stressing that his
Real Steel is grounded in its "father-son relationship," I hope it can retain a bit of Matheson's grit. I could be happy with a robot version of
Million Dollar Baby.
Continue reading DreamWorks Puts 'Real Steel' In Their Ring
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 10:33AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Religious, Fan Rant
Now rolling in
New Moon millions,
Chris Weitz is being more open about his troubles with New Line and
The Golden Compass, a film that sank one studio and sent him into a tailspin. Rumors abounded as to what went wrong on that film, and as recently as last week, New York's
Page Six was claiming that residual stress was causing him to leave the industry.
Weitz denied any such thing to
Variety, and announced he was leaving the world of the supernatural behind with his next film,
The Gardener. The film centers around a hard working Mexican gardener and his efforts to protect his son, and Weitz will be making it alongside his new best friends forever, Summit Entertainment. His new friendship enabled him to take a parting shot at New Line. Weitz praises Summit and Stephenie Meyer for trusting him with
New Moon, an experience that was the polar opposite of the debacle that was
The Golden Compass.
Weitz claims that New Line didn't trust him to handle the content of the book, that the film was taken from him in editing. Heavy-handed hacking resulted in losing nearly 30 minutes of footage from the film, and neatly exercised the edgy thrust of Phillip Pullman's book. "It was an utter violation of my status as a director and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally ... I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the right." Out of loyalty to the cast and crew, Weitz said he "bit through my tongue" when
Compass was released.
As a fan of Pullman's
His Dark Materials series, I'd love to see all that missing footage to see if it could salvage Weitz's film, and if New Line really neutered it.
Go below the jump for the rest
Continue reading Chris Weitz Blames New Line For 'The Golden Compass' -- Do You?
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
There seems to be a slow and steady drive towards remaking everything that ever appeared on British television. I suppose that's all right (they do have fantastic shows and made-for-television movies in the United Kingdom) but what happens on that dark day when Hollywood runs out of British productions? Yikes. Let's not think about that, and turn instead to the dark version of 1980 that's being remade for the modern viewer, as
Variety reports that British favorite
UFO is being re-imagined for the big screen.
UFO will be helmed by Matthew Gratzner, and will star Joshua Jackson.
The British premise for
UFO was set in the near future (ten years in their case -- the show aired in 1970 and took place in 1980) where aliens had conquered Earth. Naturally, they didn't do so with altruistic means, but to use us as an organ harvesting ground. Humanity's future lay with SHADO, (Supreme Headquarters Aliens Defense Organization), a covert organization pretending to be a movie studio, who defend against the alien horde. Many have tried to remake UFO and failed, the last evolved into Space: 1999. (I can't find any reference as to
V took any inspiration from it. The timing screams that it wasn't a coincidence.)
Jackson will play Paul Foster, a test pilot who joins SHADO. Foster is one of the original characters, and had an interesting little conflict after he became involved with the enemy. Since Gratzner praises his ability to show Foster's "inner conflict," the movie will undoubtedly take that and run with it. The movie is aiming to begin filming in the spring.
Posted Nov 19th 2009 9:48AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Independent, Casting, Family Films, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
Good actors never really retire, they just find new and easier ways to work.
Sean Connery loudly proclaimed his intention to retire from the silver screen, but he's decided to make a bit of a return. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, Connery will lend his voice to the CGI animated movie
Sir Billi, an independent film created by husband-and-wife team Sascha and Tessa Hartmann. Connery is an executive producer on the project, and has been heavily involved with its production.
The movie will have Connery playing "a retired, skateboarding veterinarian" who rescues an illegal fugitive who just happens to be a beaver. (I now wish this could cross over into
The Beaver.) The Hartmanns have been working on the project for five years, and it's now set for a 2010 release.
The final touch is apparently a
Shirley Bassey tune, and
THR reports that she's signed up to record a song titled
The Guardian of the Highlands for the film. Let me repeat that: Bassey singing a song called
The Guardian of the Highlands. It's now my favorite song of all time, and I haven't even heard it.
So, if you've been lying awake wondering what Connery has been up to, now you know. He's been overseeing a charming Scottish cartoon, and lending his slurry brogue to a skateboarding veterinarian. But I don't this heralds a return to acting -- remember, Connery was able to literally
phone in this performance and head back to the golf course, enjoying the fruits of retirement.
Posted Nov 17th 2009 4:45PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Disney, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Comics never really die. They become cult classics, cherished until they're revived, republished, and optioned by Disney. Such is the tale of
Alien Legion, which is soon to enjoy a revival that'll have many a comic fan claiming they were there from the beginning. (I won't be one of them -- I'll openly confess that it passed me right by.)
Creator Carl Potts described
Alien Legion as "the Foreign Legion in space," and it's probably best described as melting pot of military and sci-fi, as
Star Trek, Star Wars and
The Dirty Dozen all influenced its vision of intergalactic soldiers banding together for honor, fortune, and adventure. It was one of Marvel's longest running series under their Epic Comics' banner, and it's been one that fans have continued to champion. Now it's being republished in a beautiful Dark Horse omnibus (which means out-of-the-loop losers like myself can finally read it), and getting four brand new issues from Dark Horse starting in 2010.
It's also on its way to the big screen.
USA Today sat down all its creators, and Potts revealed that
Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney were currently developing a feature film out of the series.
Derek Haas and
Michael Brandt are currently working on the third draft of the script, and Disney is undoubtedly hoping it could become another blockbuster franchise. I'd love to see the Mouse House actually develop a viable sci-fi franchise of their own, and
Alien Legion is certainly a very promising series. Let's hope its cult of fans are rewarded with a good adaptation after all their years of devotion, and they don't resent the rest of us for coming to the party so late.
Posted Nov 17th 2009 11:15AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Executive shifts, Disney, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
The klaxons are sounding for the Nautilus and Captain Nemo's origin story.
Variety reports that Disney has quietly shelved the project, and
McG has been released from duty in order to seek better fortune ashore.
The project was scheduled to begin production this February, and was on a fast track under Dick Cook. But as you probably remember, Cook was shown the door a few months ago. Many of Disney's big projects seem to be left dangling as stars like Johnny Depp decide whether they're sailing or staying ashore.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo is just the latest, though Disney insists big popcorn flicks will still be a focus for them.
Leagues had already been a revolving door of rumors, with Will Smith said to be in the running to play Nemo.
Justin Marks was originally penning the script, but was
replaced by Randall Wallace this past July.
Variety reports that the project was being penned by Bill Marsilli, so presumably Wallace was off as well. While it's not unusual to have three screenwriters on a project, it doesn't sound like this submarine had a reliable captain. Perhaps the Nautilus will sail again as a proper steampunk picture that explores his romantic Indian past, and not a slapdash summerfest.
Posted Nov 16th 2009 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Deals, Executive shifts, Lionsgate Films, MGM, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Distribution, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, James Bond
MGM Studios' financial troubles will soon be coming to a sad end. Back in September, it was reported that MGM was in such poor shape that they might be forced to
auction off their assets, including James Bond and
The Hobbit. That day has come to pass.
Variety reports that MGM Studios is officially on the auction block.
MGM has been given a month of breathing space from their interest payments, time they plan on using to begin "a process to explore various strategic alternatives including operating as a standalone entity, forming strategic partnerships and evaluating a potential sale of the company."
But all hopes of survival may rest on what they sell off from their glorious history, including a library of 4,000 titles, the logo, the United Artists company, James Bond, and half ownership in
The Hobbit. Time Warner, News Corp, and Lionsgate are said to be interested in all of the above.
As their library scatters to the four winds, it'll be really interesting to see what remakes and reboots it spawns. Remember,
Robocop was on the MGM remake slate, and surely some hungry studio will snap that up. The Cannon Films and ITV Global Entertainment collections are just ripe for harvesting. Perhaps you'll finally see a
Lifeforce movie, or a remake of
Capricorn One, or an aspiring Tarantino type will buy up all those American International Picture rights and revive motorcycle gang movies. Sure, we all want to know who will wind up with James Bond, but it'll be far more fascinating if someone tries to remake
Psych-Out. *
*It's possible this is considered one of AIP's "early" films, though it's unclear where that cut off date is.
Posted Nov 13th 2009 10:32AM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Animation, New Releases, Celebrities and Controversy, New in Theaters, DIY/Filmmaking, Trailers and Clips
In this month's
Fantastic Mr. Fox,
Wes Anderson makes his first foray into animation with an adaptation of Roald Dahl's story about an upwardly mobile fox (George Clooney) whose drive to steal chickens threatens his family and community. While it's Anderson's first non-live action project,
Mr. Fox nonetheless shares qualities with his other films, including a meticulous attention to detail, stylish design, and idiosyncratic characters. So how did the live-action auteur tackle the challenges of stop-motion filmmaking, especially considering that he spent much of the production in an entirely different country than his crew?
HitFix has a fun little glimpse of the director at work that shows us how Anderson collaborated with his animation team to bring the characters of
Fantastic Mr. Fox to life. From his base in Paris, Anderson shot video storyboards of scenes and character movements by acting out scenes and blocking himself. He then emailed the videos to his crew in London, who took their visual cues from Anderson's performances. The end results, when viewed side-by-side with Anderson's versions, are near identical.
Hit the jump and watch Anderson as Mr. Fox, Kristofferson, Ash, and other characters from The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Continue reading Watch This: Wes Anderson Acts Out 'Mr. Fox' Storyboards
Posted Nov 12th 2009 9:48AM by Jen Yamato
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Independent, SXSW, Distribution, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie, Oxford Film Festival
Indie movie lovers of the greater Los Angeles area, take note of a wonderful gem from this year's SXSW festival that's coming your way.
Make-Out with Violence is an angsty teenage zombie horror comedy that I caught last year at the Oxford Film Festival, and tonight – November 12 – it screens in Los Angeles. For free!
Ok, technically it's screening in Alhambra. But this one-night only engagement will likely be your only chance to see the underappreciated indie film that our own Scott Weinberg called "pretty damn good" – and if I may add my own endorsement,
Make-Out with Violence is original and gorgeously shot, a great alternative to mainstream (i.e. made with way more money) films about either teenage life or zombies. The best part?
Make-Out with Violence is about both of those things. (It's also got the most attractive zombie hottie of the year, with apologies to
Zombieland's Amber Heard.)
Continue reading 'Make-Out with Violence' For Free in L.A.!
Posted Nov 11th 2009 2:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: DIY/Filmmaking
... 150 hours long.
You may have thought that
Titanic was long with its 3 hour and 14 minute running time, but that's nothing. Ingmar Bergman's
Fanny and Alexander is an impressive 312 minutes.
Cleopatra lounges in a director's cut of 320 minutes. The 1968 Soviet film
War and Peace boasts an impressive 484 minutes, and Fassbinder's
Berlin Alexanderplatz had to be shown in segments on television since it's a whopping 15+ hours long.
But now all of those have been trumped, made to look like short films with this new sucker. As foreign sister site
Moviefone Canada reports, there's a new film called
Cinematon, which is the world's longest film. What length does it take to get such an honor?
One hundred and fifty hours. In this short-attention-span world, that's pretty much unfathomable. But luckily, it's not one continuous story -- that would take almost a week without sleep to see all at once. The film is a bag of 3.5 minute segments shot over 30 years that feature celebs, journalists, artists, and philosophers. Turns out that filmmaker Gerard Courant was planning a collection of 100 shorts, but "it proved so popular that, what would have been a five-hour film, turned into 150 hours."
I don't know about you, but that sounds more like bad editing than popularity -- especially since sites like
The Mirror say: "It is also arguably the DULLEST film ever made." They say the entire film is
silent, going through, as Courant describes, "the whole spectrum of human emotions," like Samuel Fuller smoking, or a baby acting like a baby. Hit the jump to see one of the shorts and weigh in below: Would you sit through a silent, 150 hour anthology?
Posted Nov 10th 2009 9:45AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, War
Once upon a time,
Sgt. Rock was
in the hands of Guy Ritchie, and many an Easy Company fan was upset. But you'll undoubtedly wish that Ritchie and Joel Silver had made it to the finish line, because
Sgt. Rock will not make it to the big screen in a form you'll recognize. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, he has a new director in
Francis Lawrence and a whole new space-time continuum.
Joel Silver is still on board as producer, and he's bringing
Akiva Goldsman on board to help. They've hired newcomer
Chad St. John to pen the script.
As you may or may not know, Sgt. Rock is a WWII soldier. He's always fought in WWII. The poor guy has never even gotten to leave the European theater. (It was rumored in
Swamp Thing that he was transferred to the Pacific, but never confirmed.) Any attempt at a movie adaptation has always gone forward with this central idea of keeping him in his element. But budget, politics, and popularity has always been an issue, and no one believes you can make
The Dirty Dozen in this day and age unless you're Quentin Tarantino. So Warner Bros has decided to bypass the drama, and put Sgt. Rock in the future. CG is cheaper than Nazis, and a nondescript soldier of the future is less problematic than an American fighting a good fight. (While no war is a good war, I do think we can all agree that fighting Nazis
was a good thing.)
Nothing else is known about this storyline, so I hate to jump to a knee-jerk conclusion as to who or what Sgt. Rock will face there, or whether he will be transported to the future from WWII. But I think this is an unfortunate thing to do to a character who resides in WWII for a very specific and honorable reason. The last thing he should become is a
Universal Soldier or
Terminator ripoff.
Posted Nov 7th 2009 12:50AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Independent, Romance, New Releases, RumorMonger, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels, Western
Good news,
Twilight fans. You have the first official news for the fourth
Twilight installment, courtesy of our own Jen Yamato,
FearNet and the
New Moon junket.* The magically-coiffed
Robert Pattinson has confirmed that
Breaking Dawn will begin filming in Fall 2010, and that it's penciled into his schedule for next year.
Of course,
Dawn remains unconfirmed by Summit. The most controversial installment of the
Twilight series, rumors swirl that the studio is hesitant to take it to the big screen. If it is made, it seems likely that it could be split into two films a'la
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I don't see Summit risking the money they'd make on #4, and they'll find a way to steer around the gorier aspects of the book. But now you know when to look for it, though you still have the madness of
Eclipse pre-production to get through.
Pattinson also dished on the movie I want to mark on
my calender (Sorry, I dig boots and spurs more than vampires), a Western called
Unbound Captives. The directorial debut of
Madeleine Stowe, it stars
Hugh Jackman,
Rachel Weisz, and Pattinson. The young heartthrob revealed that it's tenatively scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010, and he sounds enthusiastic for a role that'll be miles away from Edward Cullen. "I'm playing a kid who is kidnapped by Comanches when he was four years old, and he is brought up by them. His mother spends her entire life trying to find me and my sister. When she finds us, we can't remember who she is and can't remember anything about the Western culture she grew up in. I speak Comanche the whole movie. You can't really speak more differently from Edward."
[Special thanks also goes to
Collider who apparently pried the
Breaking Dawn date out of Mr. Pattinson]
Posted Nov 5th 2009 11:15AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Fandom, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking, Home Entertainment
.jpg)
While tooling around online I came across a post over at
Brobible on the 15 Best Man Caves on the Internet. A Man Cave, for those who do not know, is usually an area somewhere in the house (normally the garage or a spare room) designated for the guys to hang out in and do "guy things" like watch tons of sports or, in the case of one Australian homeowner, tons of
The Dark Knight. I'm not exactly sure how much this cost, though
Gizmag tells us the screening room won the highly commended prize in the 'above $100,000' category at CEDIA Asia Pacific annual awards, so more than likely this sucker cost a pretty penny to produce.
The room took about 20 days to piece together, while the installation of equipment and acoustic took another 8 days. Apart from very cool-looking and comfortable seats, as well as a big screen, the room also features a full wet bar and a bathroom that can be accessed via a remote-controlled sliding door.
From Gizmag: "Entry to the 'secret location' is via a remote-controlled pneumatic sliding door (unfortunately, not bat poles). A touch of the panel outside and the door opens, the lights turn on to a predetermined level, the projector and scaler come to life, and the processor goes into action. So, by the time you've chosen your movie and had your first mouthful of popcorn, everything is humming along, just like a well-oiled Batmobile."
Check out some images below and more stats on the equipment over at
Gizmag. If you had the dough, would you put something like this in your home?
Posted Nov 5th 2009 10:33AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Independent, Sports, Deals, Scripts, Fox Searchlight, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
After a year of speculation (Will it be James Bond? Will it be
Maximum City?
Trainspotting 2?),
Danny Boyle has finally settled on his next project.
Variety reports that it will be
127 Hours, the tale of mountain climber Aron Ralston. Boyle has been loosely attached to the project since June when the
LA Times reported that Boyle and Fox Searchlight had signed a long term, best friends forever deal. Boyle has already penned a treatment, and
Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script.
In this age of flashmob media stories, you might have forgotten the tale of Ralston. Like your humble authoress and Balloon Boy, Ralston hails from Colorado. He became famous for a Utah climbing accident in 2003, when an 800 lb boulder shifted and crushed his hand. Ralston was forced to choose between life and limb, and in a stomach-turning story heard around the world, he amputated his own hand with a pocketknife. In the media frenzy that followed, Ralston was hailed as a hero and as an idiot, because he had chosen to go climbing alone and without notifying anyone. It was particularly intense locally, and I still remember the heroism debate Ralston sparked in my American Culture class. (It even inspired one student's final project!) Since those heady days of early fame, Ralston has enjoyed success with his autobiography, continues to climb, and is a motivational speaker.
The director is already on the casting hunt for the part of Ralston, which
Variety declares will be "a plum job" because it will force an actor to work solo for most of the shoot. Below the jump, I've embedded a video of Ralston describing his amputation. Watch it to prepare for two hours of unflinching detail, and sound off on who you think should be lucky enough to act out a very painful
127 Hours.
Continue reading Danny Boyle Knows Where He'll Spend '127 Hours'
Posted Nov 4th 2009 9:32PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Casting, Sony, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp
Sony's thriller
The Tourist just keeps sending its talent packing. Originally set to be
a vehicle for Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, it shifted gears last month and was re-cast with
Angelina Jolie and
Sam Worthington. But once again,
The Tourist finds itself without travel arrangements for a male lead as
Variety reports that Worthington is out due to "creative disagreements" and
Johnny Depp is in.
Depp is still in talks to play the hapless American tourist, and with the way this film is going, one can't assume it's finalized. But if it is, it might just be the casting coup of 2010. A Depp-Jolie pair-up has been something dreamed about by a lot of producers and studios over the years. Once upon a time,
rumor even had them attached to play Cathy and Heathcliff in
Wuthering Heights. People want to see them having onscreen sex. It'd be the hottest thing since ... well, Brad Pitt and Jolie having sex onscreen. (And off. Hey, I'm just being honest. There was a reason everyone wanted to see their offspring.)
The Tourist is also on the hunt for a director.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was circling the project, but departed alongside Worthington over those whispery creative differences. Reportedly, a lot of directors are interested, including
Alfonso Cuaron. While shake-ups can be be a sign of a bad film, I'd like to think that a thriller that winds up with Jolie, Depp, and Cuaron came together exactly as it was meant to.
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