It had to happen, and it’s about bloody time. Sony seems to be leading the way in taking the movie industry where the music industry was smart enough to go 2 years ago. Here’s what the BBC had to report:

Sony is to make its top 500 films available digitally in the next year. Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, said at a US Digital Hollywood conference that it wanted to create an “iTunes” for films.

This is a fantastic idea, and one that could spell the end of your local video store eventually. It will all depend on how the licencing will work. But, if Sony allows you to download a movie for like… $6, and then to burn that movie onto a DVD disk, then it’s going to make TONS of cash and I’ll be one of it’s first subscribers. What are your thoughts?

Oh baby! As a kid I LOVED the old school ninja films! For me, the best of them all was the first one I ever saw: Revenge of the Ninja starring Sho Kosugi.

Kosugi starred in no less than 6 North American Ninja films in the 80’s. He was THE MAN. So imagine my total glee when I cam across this little bit of news on FilmFodder:

Variety says Sho Kosugi, star of “Enter the Ninja,” “Revenge of the Ninja,” “Ninja III: The Domination,” and a slew of other sorta-classics, will reprise his ninja role in “The Return of the Ninja.” Kosugi will play a ninja master who travels to the U.S. to find an “American heir.”

Oh sweet heavens I’m a happy man. Time for me to start making ninja throwing stars out of ripped up pop cans again.

Oh yes boys and girls! Sin City is now just a day away! Wonder how close the movie is going to be to the comic? Well, the good folks over at Filmrot have put up a great post showing visual comparisons between the two… and the results are pretty impressive. Go on over and take a look at what I’m talking about.

This has been a long time coming. There was a short period of time that I was starting to thing that Miramax And Disney were going to avoid going their separate ways… until that whole mess when Disney hypocritically forced Miramax to back out of distributing Fahrenheit 9/11 9-11. At that point, you knew things were going to come to blows. They did, and now Harvey and Bob Weinstein are free of the nazi camp known as Disney.

The terms of the “divorce” seem amicable enough. The good folks over at Empire give us these details:

According to the terms of the agreement, Disney wins custody of the Miramax back catalogue and name, even during weekends and school holidays. But don’t cry for the Weinsteins, who keep their Dimension Films label (although not the back catalogue, which Disney keeps) and take about $140 million and a raft of new projects to their new company

The Weinsteins, when asked why things had gone wrong, cited missed opportunities (including Disney turning down The Lord of the Rings. Doh!) and the desire to get involved in a wider range of ventures. They said that giving up the Miramax name - which comes from their parents Miriam and Max - had been the hardest part of the deal, but both sides declared themselves very happy with the final settlement.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge Harvey and Bob Weinstein fan by any stretch of the imagination… but getting out from under the iron fist of Disney can’t be anything but positive for these guys. I wish them well.

On a related note… I hope Disney burns to the ground (unless they ditch their blasphemous Toy Story 3 project without Pixar). Otherwise, burn baby burn. Cheers!

Do you want to be in a movie? Well, just fit yourself into the following basic requirements and you could be:

Live in the UK
Can use a lasso
Say “whoa Cowboy” like a Cowboy

Do you fit that? The BBC have printed the news about this very need on a Tartan Shorts film currently underway in Glasgow:

They have been trying to find someone in the UK who can use a lasso in a fight scene in the Tartan Short film ‘At the End of the Sentence’.

The bid to snare a budding western star has turned into a race against time as shooting on the set starts in less than two weeks’ time…

…Producer Susan Nickalls, of company Brazen Hussies, said: “We’re on a shoestring - these things usually are. But we can promise lots of fun and fame - but not a fortune. “The final climax of the film is a scene in a pub where a rather pathetic fight breaks out and just as someone’s about to clock somebody else on the head with a chair a cowboy whips his lasso round a chair and says whoa cowboy!”

Damn…I gave up the lasso years ago, but there’s hope for me yet:

Susan said she had found a “few people who can use a bull whip” but she has been holding out for that special person who can use a lasso with style.

…Oh, I was thinking of something else.

If you fit the bill and are game, then give the Production team a call. The number is on the BBC site. If you do, let us know how you get on.

Something of a tradition has begun over the last 2 Star Wars films. The tradition of lining up. And no, I’m not talking about lining up for the movie… I’m talking about lining up for the toys.

I remember the huge 2 day long line up in front of the stores in Saskatoon when the new Attack of the Clones toys were coming out. According to the good folks over at Monsters and Critics we can expect a lot of the same:

Wal-Mart stores across the US will be opening at 12:01 a.m. on April 1st to celebrate the launch of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith toys and games.

In addition, on April 2 & 3, approximately 400 Wal-Mart Supercenters across the country will be hosting the ultimate “48 Hours of the Force” Star Wars fan celebration event. This celebration includes interactive toy & game demonstrations from Hasbro, product sampling, Star Wars character appearances, and, while supplies last, free Star Wars force detection collectable cards. There is a different collectable card for each day.

Oh man, I still remember my first Star Wars toys. My favorite had to be the Hoth Snow Speeder or the first Millenium Falcon. Oh yes! Wonder geek powers activate!

Okay, calm down people. There seems to be some major concerns right now regarding The Watchmen. Some say disaster in progress, some say it’s going to be fabulous…I would hope right now that there’s a lot of middle ground, and it’s swaying towards being the Watchmen we want.

On the bad hand there’s Ain’t it Cool News giving us such quotes as:

A couple of days ago the LA Times ran a piece about some internal struggles at Paramount…DeLine’s possible departure could endanger some high-profile projects at Paramount. Last week, he was in London to urge the director and producers of the studio’s superhero action thriller “The Watchmen” to cut back the film’s $100-million-plus budget so it could get the greenlight for production, sources said.

So the article starts to raise concerns and urges fans to go to the message boards immediately. Then there’s the good hand of Empire who arrive with a production visit, and they give us some titbits such as:

…if they’ve seen what Empire saw on our recent visit to the movie’s production offices at Pinewood (and they have), they wouldn’t have a moment’s hesitation in backing the project immediately - for Watchmen is going to rock. Hard…

…we saw an animatic version of the first three minutes of the film, a sort of pre-shooting test that is increasingly used as a sort of animated storyboard to give the director, producers and anyone else who needs to know a clue about what this is going to look like. And if this is any clue, Watchmen is going to look spectacular.

Visit that link as you like, there’s nothing to give away, but I warn you now. Visit the full report at your peril, although there are no direct “this is going to happen” moments, there are a lot of references to source material which might just give you too much to think on. Suffice to say the leading page says it all.

Two conflicting views and each has their truths. It could well be true that there is trouble in the Studio and that they are pushing to keep costs down, but it’s also true to say that the team behind the movie don’t want it compromised. Let’s hope work like Sin City helps to make the Studio see the wise choice of letting them have their freedom.

The remake of Asian movies continues with Kaïro, a visually enticing movie with some really strong ideas and scenes which makes your mind do a lot of overtime. Sure the ending is a bit loose, but it’s a similar thread for many Asian movies, the focus is on the story and the journey, not just the ending. Check out that freaky picture, yes, there are scenes that will creep you out that much.

Coming Soon carries the news of the remake from Hollywood Reporter, and it is called…Pulse.

“Pulse” is a remake of the Japanese movie “Kairo.” The story revolves around a Web site that turns out to be run by a sinister force. As more people go to the site, the supernatural force begins to dominate the lives of those that log on. Bell and Talley’s characters team up to unravel the mystery.

The script was written by Wes Craven and rewritten by Vince Gilligan. Craven was once attached to direct.

So who’s directing now? well they have a brand new Director straight from commercials, Jim Sorenzo. Already onboard for roles are Kirsten Bell and Steve Talley. Interestingly it’s coming out of the new Weinstein company. So they’ll be pushing for a commercial success anyway, and that might just spell doom.

Who’s seen the original? What did you think of it, and what potential has it for a decent remake…and let us put aside our biased feelings and see if we can think of Ring as an example. Could it be done? Written by Craven and directed by a newbie?

There’s a new full length feature film done in 3D animation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it’s way. I don’t know weather to cheer or moan.

You see, on the one hand, I remember a long time ago reading some of the original TMNT comics. They were quite slick, more serious and even a little dark sometimes. Very cool stuff. However, the modern manifestation of the Ninja Turtles has been a silly cartoony abomination strictly targeted for kids viewing. And the 90’s films were horrendously bad.

So what’s it going to be? The good folks over at Gamerz-Edge [via] give us this bit of info:

Imagi Services President and CEO Tom Gray announces the signing of Kevin Munroe to write and direct a new CGI-animated feature-length Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will ramp-up their booming revival with an animated film that will take advantage of new technology developed since the last Turtles film was released in 1993. Now in pre-production, the film is targeted for U.S. release in spring 2007.

The new TMNT film will be produced by Tom Gray (who guided the first Turtles trilogy through production) and Galen Walker of Imagi. Executive Producers are Francis Kao, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, and Peter Laird, who co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Kevin Eastman.

So basically the ship is being run by the same merry men who gave us all the other crap. Our only hope is that they decide to go in a different direction than all their previous crappy efforts. If they do… the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could actually be an interesting property again. Don’t hold your breath though.

Who’s got the bad idea board? Could you chalk one up on it for me?

Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of Will Smith, is voicing her desire to take the Bad Boys movies and convert them into an all female lead. Surprisingly she’s talking about herself and Queen Latifah, which is quite fair since Latifah is becoming a bit of a joke nowadays. Ananova tell us:

The two leading ladies are working on a remake of Smith’s comedy with Martin Lawrence - and they plan to call it Bas Girls.

According to IOL.com quoting Jam! magazine Queen Latifah said: “Jada really wants to do the movie because we both know it’s a great concept.”

Oh dear lord. Latifah has been getting some bad press of late, and her recent roles haven’t exactly been inspiring, and with Pinkett Smith being shadowed by Matrix (although Collateral was a saviour for her), there’s not much pulling power except for the Smith and Lawrence names. Perhaps why Lawrence is getting involved.

No, not another green rubber faced freak of a movie, but the latest Hannibal film!

Actress Gong Li has not only joined the Miami Vice movie as Crockett’s (Colin Farrell) love interest, but is also to join the cast of Behind the Mask. Movieweb have the story:

She will then play Lady Murasaki, the Japanese woman who teaches cultural sophistication to a young Hannibal Lecter…

Behind the Mask…

…shows how Hannibal the Cannibal developed his sense of culture as well as a taste for human flesh.

After the young Hannibal escapes from an orphanage and runs away to Paris, he takes refuge at the home of his uncle. His wife, Lady Murasaki, becomes the sociopath’s teacher.

Dino De Laurentiis said they are now casting three actors to play Lecter at ages 8, 14 and 20.

I don’t know what my taste is for a sequel, or rather a prequel, but if the source material is treated well it could actually be quite enjoyable. For all it’s press I enjoyed even the last outing with Julianne Moore, and I think the route they are taking with the young Lecter could make for some really interesting story and scenes. What’s the appetite out there for another bite at the Lecter lifestyle?

You ever have a crush on a girl and you’re not sure why? She’s not all that attractive really… she’s not that smart… she has totally different tastes than you… but for some reasons you really dig her. Well, that sort of sums up my fandom of Rowan Atkinson.

Despite the fact that I really didn’t like Johnny English, and wasn’t all that thrilled with the first Mr. Bean flick, I find myself getting kinda excited about this news flash from the good folks over at Empire:

You wouldn’t’ think it warranted an encore though, but that’s exactly what star Rowan Atkinson has in mind for the slapstick comedy character. Yes, against the odds Atkinson has set out to develop Bean 2 and he’s enlisted the aid of Simon McBurney.

Ah yes, I have found childhood memories of watching Mr. Bean on TV. Maybe he can recapture some of that magic. Or maybe not. Either way it’s still a better idea than making a 50 Cent movie.

We voiced concern over this remake (as we did for 99% of all others) when it was first announced, and it looks like we might have had due concern.

News in from Empire on an interview with Mark Wahlberg tells us that things have indeed departed from the original script.

“I’m a cop. I’m actually Leo’s commanding officer and Matt Damon’s commanding officer. I can’t tell you what happens but I start killing people, left, right and centre. I play a crazy fucking psycho. They’re rewriting the script and my part right now, so…”

Have you noticed the subtle differences already? Empire point it out quite well when they say…

…Inspector Wong, who was in the same position in the Hong Kong film, completely failed to go crazy and kill everyone. In fact, he verged on the cuddly as he shepherded Tony Leung’s undercover cop-among-the-gangsters and unwittingly mentioned Andy Lau’s undercover-gangster-in-the-cops.

Different is hardly the word. So what can we expect now? Not a lot of the original I would think judging from the above. Now I know this is going to get some fans of the original upset, so feel free to comment. Does this bode well? Does Hollywood need to stop rewriting when they remake, or is it necessary to ensure success? Where can the Departed go now?

Okay so this could swing either way, and it does class as straight gossip and conjecture, but hey, we never said we were beneath it!

Coming Soon are carrying news from IESB that Clive Owen may be confirmed as the new Bond. Yeah sure I hear you say, and clicking onto the next post, but this time there’s some footage and an insider suggestion that it’s happening.

we asked him about the rumors regarding James Bond. “Yes or no to Bond,” we asked. He said this while nodding his head ‘yes’, “I will be busy for a while” and then our colleauge next to us asked again, “any truth to the James Bond rumors?” “I’ll be busy for a while,” he repeated with a grin and smile.

Tenuous indeed, you can go and view the interview and decide for yourself. To me this looks very much like a man laughing at the rumours and just answering something to keep the press going, but I could be wrong. You could look at it that he is genuinely excited but can’t say.

A few minutes after that quick interview I was approached by a person/colleague that works with Clive and he/she stated that Bond was a done deal and that an official announcement by the trades is being brokered.

Well whatever is true, it won’t be long for us to find out, the article suggests it’s only a few weeks away from an announcement. Oh get on with it already.

Sin City opens on Friday, but the critic reviews are already rolling in… and man do they ever look good! Here’s what some of them are saying:

“There’s something to appreciate around every corner — the gritty characters, the uncompromising story, and, most of all, visuals to astound and amaze.”
James Berardinelli, REELVIEWS

“‘Classic’ isn’t word enough to describe this unflinching look into the dark side of the comic book world.”
Alex Sandell, JUICY CEREBELLUM

“An exhilarating tapestry of valor, selfishness, deceitfulness, and martyrdom.”
Nicholas Schager, SLANT MAGAZINE

Every review I’ve read for Sin City is pretty much really positive right across the board. Man… Friday just can’t get here fast enough for me! I can’t wait to see this thing!

After you’ve seen the film yourself, come back to this post and tell us what you thought of it.

The new Ashton Kutcher film, Guess Who, came in at #1 at the box office this weekend. But don’t get too excited about that. Saying your movie was #1 this past weekend is like saying you’re the #1 Jewish gansta rapper currently living in Iran. This was a really weak weekend for films.

However, the fact that Guess Who took in over $20 million begs me to once again ask a question I’ve been asking for years. “Why on earth is Ashton Kutcher such a big celebrity?!?!?!” He has ZERO hit movies (all of them have been dreadful), he’s not even the best performer on his own TV show and he is a mediocre actor at best.

Ashton Kutcher is the male version of Jennifer Lopez. An actor with limited talent, no significant hit films, no critical acclaim at all…. and yet seems to be the center of everyones attention. It boggles my mind.

“It’s the audience that gets punk’d in this crass and sloppy comic recycling of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner…”
Lou Lumenick - New York Post

“Kutcher is no Jackie Mason. Nor is he leading-man material.”
Allison Benedikt - Chicago Tribune

“…just a succession of tired race jokes made worse by the bad comedic timing of the bland, under-talented Ashton Kutcher.”
Claudia Puig - USA Today

Kutcher seems like a really nice guy, his new film coming out with Amanda Peet called A Lot Like Love looks promising and I tip my cap to any man sleeping with Demi Moore… but this guy is the classic example of Famous for being Famous.

I am now looking forward to Revenge of the Sith now that the latest trailers are out and all the news says it’s going to be dark and violent. Fantastic.

However the news that there are going to be different versions before it even reaches DVD is concerning me. From a report in Movieweb from TheForce.net, it appears that work will continue on the movie after the film release and this will result in a different digital version.

“The digital version of the movie will be different from the version that goes out on film. That has to be locked down so much earlier, whereas the digital can go right up to a week-and-a-half before the film comes out”…

…Supposedly, the digital version of Revenge of the Sith will be longer than the film version. There is some speculation that this is a “reward” to those theaters that have upgraded to digital projecters.

So if you have a digital cinema near you then punish those smaller cinemas who haven’t had the decency to put themselves into financial hardship and fork out the money to upgrade their equipment, and go to your nearest digital instead. No, scrap that, that’s not fair is it?
(more…)

This has the promise of gold draped all over it. Kevin Smith’s script for Green Hornet is allegedly being considered by John Woo. Oh boy, that sounds mighty nice to me.

From comments made at Wizard World snipped through Moviehole from Comic Book Resources:

When asked about possibly working with Ben Affleck on “Daredevil 2,” Smith was flattered by Affleck’s comments but doesn’t want to work on “Daredevil.” For the same reason he had a hard time working on “Green Hornet.” He’s finished that script, has pulled himself out of the running for directing it, and said the script was being looked at by John Woo right now.

Wow, two great pieces of news in one. Woo for Hornet, and no way on an Affleck Daredevil 2 movie. I can sleep easy now. Here’s to the Hornet though, I think with Woo in charge it could be for an exciting movie with action abounding, and perhaps just the odd homage to Lee.

I’m very disappointed. I’ve been holding out hope that Venom was going to be the villain in the next Spider-Man film. Oh well, if I always got what I wanted… wait a minute… nope… can’t think of a single drawback to getting everything I want. Anyway.

The good folks over at AICN have posted news that the new Spider-Man bady is Sandman. Personally… I’m not thrilled. Here’s what they have to say:

Multiple spies at Sony have confirmed that Thomas Hayden Church will indeed be playing SANDMAN. There’s a ton of Sandman conceptual art all over the Spidey-offices!

Well there you have it. Granted, Sandman does present some interesting Visual Effects opportunities, but I still would rather see Venom ripping it up.

Oh nuts. My expectations for the Fantastic Four are starting to inch they’re way higher. I just watched the new trailer… and honestly it doesn’t look half bad. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty darn cool.

Now, take that with the grain of salt that trailer are supposed to look cool. Still, perhaps this film isn’t going to be the total disaster many of us expect it’s going to be. You can see the new trailer here.

The 24th Hong Kong Film Awards were held yesterday, and two films really swept the board. 2046 and Kung Fu Hustle, as they wire jumped away with twelve awards between them.

Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi won the lead acting awards for 2046.

Critics have praised the duo for their nuanced performances. Leung and Zhang also won top acting honors at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards announced earlier.

Jackie Chan also received an award for professional spirit. The Guardian continues with:

Chan said he appreciated the prize because it honored his professionalism and conduct, not just his artistic achievements.

“Outside of movies, this involves charity work … an actor’s professional conduct, being punctual, respecting elders. These are very important things,” he told reporters. “This is harder to win than a Hong Kong Film Award.”

Bruce Lee was also named as Chinese Film’s Bright Star of the Century.

Yuen Wah was best supporting actor in Kung Fu Hustle, and Bai Ling was best supporting actress for Dumplings part of the Three…Extremes movie.

For all of the results, check out another Guardian article with the full listing.

What news on the Oldboy Hollywood bloodbath remake? We haven’t been hearing much sneaking out about this, but Moviehole have come in with a few really early word of mouth possibilities. Not in stone mind you, just some gossip, but good thoughts and worth talking about none the less.

I’ve heard the following whisper myself around the traps - so there might be something to it. It is early though - so predicting the weather in August might be easier.

According to Bloody Disgusting, Thomas Jane - “The Punisher” mightn’t have been much chop and mightn’t have set the box office on fire but it’s seemingly done wonders for his career - is up for the lead in the recently announced U.S remake of Korean hit “Oldboy”.

According to the site, they’ve heard a few whispers of a Jane link to the remake, but it took an interesting turn this weekend when Jane was spotted at the Nuart theater in California checking out Tartan’s Korean vengeance flick.

Very light and tenuous, so yes, predicting the weather tomorrow in the UK might be even easier! Still, what does everyone think? Are there better suggestions out there from the Hollywood pool of talent? Boll anyone?

So far it’s attracted the Director and writing team of Better Luck Tomorrow, which seems to have received some fair reviews. Has anyone seen this in comparison?

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six has made it from a successful novel, to a string of successful videogames across consoles, now to the movie screen.

The story seems set to follow roughly that of the original novel, and not that of the videogame franchise - thank the lord, no Boll or Anderson in sight - and will focus on the creation of the elite multinational team based in England (which means filming will be anywhere but there, thanks to the Chancellor). Coming soon bring the news from Variety:

Paramount has tapped Zack Snyder to write and direct its adaptation of Tom Clancy’s “Rainbow Six,” centered on Clancy’s shadowy John Clark CIA agent character.

Zack Snyder brought us the remake Dawn of the Dead and is currently at work Directing that which he wrote the screenplay for, 300, adapted from Frank Millers’ novel of, as per IMDB,…

…the fabled Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians.

Certainly sounds like an interesting Director\Screenwriter for the job, and if they do stick around the novel we’ll be in for an action packed movie tied firmly to reality. Let’s hope so anyway.

Very short update on the remake of Man from U.N.C.L.E. from Variety through Coming Soon.

All is go. There, that’s short! With X-Men 3 next, this hasn’t affected the remake plans, but which way is the story going? Was it going to be a total rewrite to avoid getting hit by law suits?

Vaughn is still working with writer John Hodge on a spy project for Warner, but he has persuaded the studio to develop it as an original screenplay, and not as an “U.N.C.L.E.” redo.

Vaughn always said his and Hodge’s concept for “U.N.C.L.E” would radically reinvent the 1960s TV series, keeping nothing but the title. That prompted howls of outrage from the show’s fans, which helped Vaughn convince Warner there was no upside in associating his project with the old show.

So just a spy thriller then, and nothing really to do with the original series. So why is the title connected here? What’s the point going to be if all the things that made the original show so great are dumped? Thoughts people!

Did you read the title to this post? Yeah… well theres not much more I have to offer here. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous was the worst film I’ve seen in 2005 so far.

The real disappointing thing is that I actually really liked the first Miss Congeniality… and yes I’m straight.

Where the first film was cute, witty and sort of charming, the second is just a mishmash of cheap site gags, lousy slapstick, and punchlines you could see coming from a mile away. This film is a painful experience.

If they gave William Shatner about 50 more lines the movie may have been salvageable… but they didn’t. Good grief, between this and Guess Who, you’re all better to stay home this week until Sin City comes out on Friday.

There were rumours floating around about a year ago that Orlando Bloom was poised to become the next 007. Thank goodness those rumours were false. Or did we just not hear the rumour right?

Sky is now reporting that Bloom is in line to play the young James Bond. Here is what they have to say:

Orlando Bloom as James Bond? Well, almost. This news will leave the girls shaken and stirred… as the Hollywood hunk is in serious talks about a series of films based on an idea by a new author about the early life of the worlds most famous action hero James Bond.

The books will be out later in the year and so far we cannot tell you who the famous author is - as that too will leave you shaken and stirred.

Ok, now while I HATED the idea of Bloom as James Bond… I must admit that I don’t mind the idea of him as a young James Bond. Bloom isn’t a half bad actor (although certainly not great), and I think he carries the charm of a Bond. Actually, I’m more curious to see who this Author is.

Some time ago we posted about Ben Affleck flying out to British Columbia to film a scene in the Elektra film. However, when the horrible piece of trash hit the theaters, Daredevil was nowhere to be found.

I still say that Daredevil was a good film (not great). I feel like I’m the only guy on the planet who actually thinks that. Oh well.

Anyway, the good folks over at Moviehole have pointed us to the deleted Affleck scene from Elektra that will be available on the DVD (who on earth is going to buy it?!?!). You can see the scene here.

Ok, so you know that Sin City is opening on Friday and it’s got more big names in it than a Will and Grace episode. You know the trailer looks kick ass and you know that a lot of it looks like it’s in black and white. But after that you know NOTHING about it other than it was a comic book (or “graphic novel”).

Well, the good folks over at CulturePulp have posted up a brief overview and history of Sin City to get you up to speed. Here’s a little taste:

A thug named Marv kills his way up a ladder of corruption as he tries to find out who murdered a hooker named Goldie. But the style? That was a jaw-dropper.

Historically, comic books and pulp fiction are crazy traveling companions: Sci-fi pulp deity Alfred Bester cut his teeth writing “Green Lantern,” for example. But “Sin City” mashed crime and comics together in ways no one had quite seen before. Miller was tapping into some long-repressed id, and he wasn’t censoring a single word or image that spilled from his brain to the page. “Sin City” was pure bloodlust, albeit smartly rendered bloodlust — mixing the larger-than-life iconography of his superhero work with film-noir dialogue and a brutality straight out of a men’s-adventure magazine from the ’50s.

Marv ran afoul of cannibal priests and a well-armed band of gorgeous prostitutes, all while narrating his story with a ferocity that verged on parody: “When I find out who did it, it won’t be quick or quiet like it was with you,” he promises the dead Goldie. “No, it’ll be loud and nasty, my kind of kill. I’ll stare the bastard in the face and laugh as he screams to God and I’ll laugh harder when he whimpers like a baby. And when his eyes go dead, the hell I send him to will seem like Heaven after what I’ve done to him. I love you, Goldie.”

Oh man this is gonna be so cool. Go take a look at the whole article… it’s worth the read.

There’s more casting rumours leaking out about Inglorious Bastards, one of Quentin Tarantinos’ long talked about projects.

From Moviehole reporting on a scoop from The Arnold Fans, it seems as though Tarantino would like to get together three great action heroes for the picture:

Tarantino wants - in addition to Bo Svenson, Michael Madsen and Adam Sandler - three of the 80’s biggest action guns to fire up for his two-part Dirty Dozen.

“I’ve said it once and I am going to say it again. I want Bruce, Sly and Arnold for my World War II epic. I have always dream[t] of having these 3 superstars together in a movie”, says the Saturday Night Fever boardgame playing director.

Oh, this would be sweet. Tarantino directing the three of them, and having them all on for a big war movie? Oh come on, this has to be real and they have to say yes. It would be a movie event just to see them in the same picture, even if it was awful.

I do truly love these actors, I think Arnie is amazing for what he’s done before acting, and he’s done amazingly well to realise his dreams so far, career high - Terminator 1 and 2. Stallone has scaled as many mountains to get the Rocky series going, career high - Cop Land. Then there’s Willis, who in comparison has had a much better career but still carries that action persona, career high - Unbreakable.

What does everyone else think? Is it a fantastic idea? How could they manage to get the budget together for these guys onscreen, never mind the space for their ego’s and their trailers?!

I still find it hard to understand why this movie is being made and how it got any backing, financially or credibility wise. Still, it is being made, and you could put the first down to money, and the second down to…well…money. Dallas the screenplay is well on its way to completion. Personally I couldn’t care less about it, the series was awful and the movie can’t be much better, especially with the tenuous connections made between the two. Cinema Confidential gives us some interesting news from Reuters interview with Robert Harling the screenwriter.

“It’s reinventing the Ewing family as if they existed now in 2006 when the movie comes out,” Harling said, explaining that he did not follow the plots developed over more than a decade in the series, though fans will recognize some things.

“In this story Bobby and Pam meet, fall in love and get married, J.R. and Sue Ellen are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and we have the patriarch Jock and the matriarch Miss Ellie.”

Oh dear. So really the only connection is a family at the head of a business empire? That it? Oh, and the character names. Well I guess that does give it scope to go down the new road of actually being any good.

“They really want the big, all-star, flashy, go-for-it version of the TV series,” Harling said.

Want all you like, but you’ll have to fork out and try and persuade a big all star cast. I’d be interested to see just how all-star they really are. Anybody got any thoughts, or even wishes, on the casting?

I had to do a double take at the blurb for this story as I thought I had stumbled across the wrong type of movie for a second…apparently not. Listen to this:

PLOT: The D.E.B.S. — an elite teenaged espionage group — have to rethink their values when their lead girl falls in love with their lesbian nemesis, crime bossette Lucy Diamond.

That’s the short summary from an article in Jam movies. Totally bizarre. I’ve never seen this film, but I am intrigued, and not just for the usual obvious boy reason. Okay, well that’s 10% of it. Okay 20%. Damn you! 50% then. Yeah I give up.

This spoof of espionage bimbos has cute schoolgirls sporting kilts and kneesocks and automatic weapons. They talk about clothes and boys and shoot at bad guys…

…D.E.B.S. is breezy and silly and laugh-out-loud funny, full of throw-away lines and absurd humour.

Can I just shake my head and smile for a moment…Oh dear, innuendo central. Looking at the IMDB listing it actually seems to have been getting some fair press and might be worth giving it a shot. Has anyone seen this absurd sounding movie? Is it worth seeing, or just a cheap line pitched at gullable men? (I’m there!)

Thanks to JoBlo for directing me to the MTV special on the on set work for Underworld: Evolution where there are video clips and photos galore of the lovely Kate Beckinsale and the other actors involved…whoever they might be!

I liked Underworld. Very stylish with a great story, and filmed well, with some new and very interesting quirks on the traditional take on both species. So I am kinda looking forward to this movie, and after reading some of the inside info, I’m looking forward to it even more. What about you lot? Here are a couple of snippets that will give you some taste for the movie.

…he is a cleaner, one of a group of mysterious characters who show up after each battle and assure that civilians never discover evidence of the war between the Lycans (werewolves) and the Death Dealers (vampires).

Interesting concept, another new little tweak, and something which explains why humans have never really gotten involved in the fight. However Len Wiseman does point out that this changes in the new movie, the humans do begin to catch on to what is happening.

The new movie picks up from where the old one left off, with the master Vampire about to awaken. There’s been lot’s of rumours about what it will be, and there’s nothing new going to come out of this interview. There is talk of the introductory flashback which goes and gives us the backstory.

“Marcus is the big … yeah,” Wiseman says, acknowledging the villain of the sequel while trying not to give too much away. “You get to see what the relationship between [first-film villain] Viktor (Bill Nighy) and Marcus (Tony Curran) is, and what had gone on between them before we kick into the modern times of seeing Marcus again.”

It all sounds good, and pulling my eyes away from that leather outfit, I do think that in this case more of the same isn’t a bad thing. If they can keep the new quirks on an old tale style, which they do seem to be managing, and Beckinsale doesn’t adversely affect her husband the Director too much, I think we’re looking at another slow-smash movie.

I’m not a Vin Diesel fan. Personally, I can’t think of a single film that he’s been in were his performance was any more than “adequate”. I’m not saying he hasn’t been in any good movies (Saving Private Ryan, Iron Giant), it’s just that I honestly don’t find him to be an exceptional actor.

Now, having said that, Vin Diesel is actually one of the more intelligent guys you’ll find around Hollywood. Despite his skid like exterior, he’s actually very well spoken, carries himself well, and in all reality has made some very good career decisions. He seems to pick the right kind of projects to be involved in at the right time, takes some risks (some of which just don’t work out) and most importantly he knows when to hop of a sinking ship. For example…

Both xXx and Fast and the Furious were modest hits that would have certainly netted Vin big paydays for sequels. However, he was sharp enough to recognize that sequels to the horrible Point Break rip off Fast and the Furious and dumb to the core xXx were stupid ideas. Yes, he could have taken some big paychecks for those sequels… but he knew they were bad ideas and decided not to take the fast money at the expense of his thriving career. Good for him.

Want more proof that a sequel to xXx was a bad idea? Well… they got Ice Cube to be the new lead (nuff said).

So no, I don’t think Vin Diesel is much of an actor… but you’ve got to tip your hat to a guy who seems to knows when to takes risks and how to be smart with his career. Good on ya Vin.

You have to take some things with a pinch of salt, especially when an actor says they are wanted for a particular project, and do so in the open press. It does have that faint whiff of self promotion. They know about the project, they want to be on it, so they talk about how they worked with the key person before and how much they all want to work together, etc etc.

Well Jessica Alba is out saying just that about James Cameron. They worked together in the Dark Angel days, a much underated TV series, and could have easily gone on to the movie screen, but it didn’t. In Movehole from IGN FilmForce:

“Jim Cameron has been kind of talking about maybe doing a comic book that involves scuba diving, it’s sort of like this girl underwater, and I have been talking about doing something like that”, says the spunky actress, next seen in “The Fantastic Four”.

So will “Fathom” happen? “It was just something that he sort of liked. We talk about a lot of things. I just thought that, I didn’t scuba dive for seven years and I should brush up on it…”, says Alba, adding that she hasn’t been asked to be part of “Battle Angel Alita” yet.

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It’s quite common knowledge throughout most movie fans, sites and the posts on the MovieBlog that Hollywood are fantastic at taking ideas and movies from other people in other countries and ruining them. Even slight changes can destroy the movie and we see that the original was much better.

The current Hollywood trend is to suck the talent from Asia and bring it to the US polluting it and ripping it apart on the way. Hideo Nakata being the very latest to fall to this bad practice.

Good thing is that the always outspoken Ewan McGregor agrees with the whole corrupting influence of Hollywood. The Irish Examiner have him saying:

“Hollywood’s good at picking up people who are hot, you know what I mean? Someone’s hot in Europe, they try and put them to good use.

“Very often they’re brought over here and not allowed to do what made them great in the first place and they disappear - I’m thinking about the guy that directed Nightwatch, Ole Bornedal, who I made the remake with.

“Miramax started messing around with the end and they took all the interesting things out of the movie. Nightwatch ended up a spooky but bland movie, whereas the original is really weird and terrifying.”

Well there’s a good advert for that movie then! He’s spot on though, and at some point these outside talents need to see that and not be allured in just for the money. They really need to fight to retain their individuality, or remain outside, produce the material and distribute worldwide without a remake, that model definitely does work. What are your thoughts?

I’m a huge Mr Big fan, he was a great character, perfect casting, and I connected with the part on quite a few levels, even one of my ex-girlfriends called me that. Anyway…

It looks like the much touted movie of the excellent series Sex and the City is back on. HBO were working on it last year but it all fell through, and according to Moviehole that was down to Kim Cattrall.

Cattrall decided she’d rather frost sponge cake than get her gear off for a big-screen Samantha outing again, so it didn’t come together.

To Cattrall’s credit, she apparently didn’t want to committ to a film until she was shown a script. “She would have loved to have done the movie and made a deal to do the movie, but waited as long as possible with no script or start date and felt she had to take other offers that were presented to her after the hold period had passed,” Cattrall’s spokeswoman Marvet Britto said last year. “Kim would of course love to do the film and would be happy to revisit the project in the future.”

Well to be fair to her she was appearing in the West End of London on stage for sometime, so maybe they just couldn’t get a script together, she saw other work and she wanted to go back to the stage for a while. Sounds like a good decision to me, I’d rather work than wait for something to happen which had so far failed to.
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We’ve talked about the sales technique of Avi Arad already, and it’s not great. Perhaps on a shopping channel somewhere, but not in the movie industry pitching big projects to their potential audience. However in this case he is good for something, clearing up a lot of unknowns, and I expect we’ll hear more and more from him as those projects he “talked about” begin to come forward.

Empire caught some words with him lately, and he had some interesting comments on X-Men 3 and it’s new director.

“We are incredibly excited about Matthew,” said Avi. “We love his sensibilities. I thought Layer Cake was incredibly stylish, with a lot of characters. In some ways he had stylistically the look of X-Men, it was very crisp.”…”It√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s no less a leap than it was for Bryan [Singer, previous X-director, now shooting Superman Returns]. With movies of this size, it√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s hard to wing it. He’s very confident, that’s what I like about him. ‘Yeah, I can do that!’

“Just when he had started,” continued Avi, by way of example, “we had some conversation about one of the characters and he says ‘I know how to introduce him’ and I said ‘let’s hear it’ and it was a really smart thing that’s going to be in the movie. It’s a love-fest.”

Well good words for Vaughn there, and I like what he said about the comparisons of Layer Cake, you can see some of the things that would have attracted them to him. Intrigued by the comments on the new character? Well there’s more:
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Hellboy rocked and I say that without any apology. Great fun movie, big actors, big story, big explosions, big chilli. Fab. So what happened to the sequel that has been talked about for a very, very long time? We’ve heard next to nothing…and that’s pretty much nothing.

Rope of Silicon have something from E Online grabbing a quick word with Hellboy actor Ron Perlman.

There will be a sequel, it starts shooting “in the fall” (whatever that is!) and although nothing came out that was anything near exciting news, at least he can say he really enjoys the character. On answering the highly intelligent - and not reflecting the Hollywood trend of the moment at all - question “Will there be a trilogy?”:

You know, you make them one at a time, but I would say that if there are more Hellboys in the future, then I’m very blessed, because he’s a guy I could play every day for the rest of my life and never grow tired of.

Cool…well let’s hope Hellboy 2 is bigger, better and more of the same. Anyone else looking out for this one?