We mentioned the news before that the well cast movie Alpha Dog was on delay, and then suddenly people were reporting filming taking place in their local town with the film name everywhere. However this time the story of the delay looks set to last a bit longer than it did before, according to Rope of Silicon:

According to MRIB via Yahoo!, the lawyer acting for Jesse James Hollywood says the film may prejudice his client’s trial. Since it depicts Hollywood as the murderous leader of a gang that kidnapped and tortured Californian youths, the lawyer may well have a point.

The film stars a boat load of names such as Emile Hirsch, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake and is being directed by Nick Cassavetes for New Line Cinema, and as you may have suspected a release date is still up in the air.

The Judge on the case is set to rule on this next week, so we should know then if the production is going to be halted…again. Come on, I’m dying to see Willis some more after his return to form on Hostage and Sin City.

As if we don’t have enough evidence that the Batman franchise is once again in safe and strong hands, Christian Bale has been talking about his thoughts on the idea of Joker, from Comic Book Movie:

“I want to see the Joker, because I think it will be a very different kind of Joker than people have seen before,” he said. “I think even the card that you see at the end of the movie shows that it is a darker, more sinister-looking Joker than anything I have seen depicted before. I think it would be a good adversary.”

It’s always good to hear that they are reading and care about the source material, it’s even better to hear the stars involved talk about the vision of the movie as it should be - darker and more sinister. Perfect.

“Thank God, there was no Robin,” Bale says. “You really don’t need him because Robin makes it campy and not dark.

Another winner in my book. Quite frankly I think the current team involved in the Batman movies have it nailed down to a tee. If only all comic, and videogame for that matter, adaptations could follow the Batman and X-Men models, I think the movie world would be a better place. Discuss.

Wasn’t The Untouchables an excellent movie? Does it need Brian DePalma to make some prequels to bolt on the beginning? Perhaps he’s heard the Hollywood penchant for prequels, who knows. The news from Cinematical is that he’s going to be doing just that:

…director Brian DePalma is reportedly working on a movie that will focus on Al Capone’s rise to power in Chicago. A parallel story will follow the earlier life of Johnny Malone, the one honest cop in a corrupt city played in the original by Sean Connery.

Now I can see that the early life of Capone could make for a good movie. He’s a strong unique character with a huge life filled with mythology, so there’s plenty of scope there to make a movie that would truly stand on its own. However, the character of Malone is one that for most of us exists in the original movie and is truly dominated by Connery, is there any way that he could stand for himself in a complete story without directly linking to the Untouchables? Could these work, and can DePalma pull it off to the original level?

I’m almost frightened to believe that this is true, but apparently it is. According to Twitch there is a big movement for Showgirls 2…the sequel that is, not some strange attempt at an innuendo, much like the majority of the original movie!

No cast or director yet but Showgirls 2 has a financial backer in Germany’s Lighthouse Films and producers in Brad Krevoy and Donald Kushner.

Oh lord. Todd reckons it’s pretty much guaranteed to make money. I would agree, if they don’t just go cheap or softcore all the way, I mean there were the satirical touches of the movie that were actually quite entertaining. Not a classic movie by any means, but not dire.

Do you think this is an affront to all things cinema, or was the original not as bad as everyone made out at the time and the sequel could actually have some potential…especially with the bank?

You know, I’ve gotta admit I have my doubts about King Kong being any good… even with Peter Jackson directing it. Can a concept so hookey actually play out well in today’s culture?

Well, I’ve just watched the trailer for King Kong… and I’ve gotta tell ya folks… my expectations just went up a couple of notches. From the short trailer it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful re-imagining of the classic story. The visuals and “sets” look breathtaking. And it almost appears that Jack Black can actually act too! Who knew!?!

If you want to take a look at the trailer for yourself just go here.

I mildly enjoyed The Bourne Identity, and also enjoyed The Bourne Ultimatum (although I didn’t really thing either were great films). Matt Damon has both a fantastic charm and intensity when he needs them both on screen and he was enough to carry both films.

It won’t surprise any of us that the wheels have now been officially put into motion for the third installment of the franchise, The Bourne Ultimatum. The good folks over at Ananova give us this:

Tony Gilroy has been signed up by Universal Pictures to write the screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum. Gilroy previously adapted Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. Matt Damon already has expressed his interest at reprising his role as Jason Bourne reports Digitalspy.

Although not a HUGE fan of the first two films, I think this series has enough legs to it that it can continue to improve with a lot of upside potential. I’m looking forward to it.

So we’re looking at the Magneto and Wolverine spin off movies, but according to IGNand Variety through Comic Book Movie, there’s much more planned.

The screenwriter of X-Men 2 and 3, Zak Penn has just signed a two year contract with the X-Men studio 20th Century Fox to do more than we’ve heard to date:

Variety also says, Penn is “expected to develop a film at the studio to direct, possibly a spinoff of the X-Men franchise. The movie would not be the either of the currently in-development Wolverine or Magneto project.”

IGN adds: “According to reliable sources, Penn’s project centers around a group of mutant youngsters at Charles Xavier’s school for gifted children. Expect some of those young protagonists to probably include characters already established in the X-Men movies.”

You know I often voice lyrical about the lack of creativity and originality coming out of Hollywood, but there’s so much material to be had from the X universe, and if handled the way the films have been to date, then there could be much more, and many more successful movies.

From the last X-Men I actually found a real interest in the kids that were at the school. The section where the kids start running from the guards entering the building is superb, and it really did whet my appetite for more story of these to be X-Men. Is it something you would like to see, and could there be a good movie to be had out of it?

Back in the middle of June I put up a post wondering about what went wrong on the marketing end of Cinderella Man. The fact of the matter is that Cinderella Man is a terrific film with an Oscar winning Lead Actor, an Oscar winning Lead Actress and an Oscar winning Director.

The movie was solid and even though I’ve been getting sick of Russell Crowe’s antics recently, I enjoyed it immensely. Almost everyone who saw it agrees.

So, in what can only be described as an attempt to make some more money out of this film (and that’s not a bad thing), giant US thater chain AMC has taken out the follow ad online and in newspapers across North America:

‘AMC believes ‘Cinderella Man’ is one of the finest motion pictures of the year!’ their adverts chime. ‘We believe so strongly that you’ll enjoy ‘Cinderella Man’ that we’re offering a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE.’

I think it’s a brilliant move. Not because it will make people think “Oh well, what do i have to lose?”, but rather it puts into the heads of people “Wow, it must actually be really good if they believe in it that much”.

How much of an effect will this have well over a month after it’s release? I don’t know… they should have done this in the film’s 2nd week. But at this point…. what do they have to lose?

Hi everyone. Huge apologies for the downtime over the last few days, our last host suspended us for too much traffic - a terrible problem to have! - and we decided to move. Coupled with John’s desire to go to WordPress we struggled with a far from complete site so we decided to go back to MT and the old ways just so you it could be business as usual while we worked on a new system in the background.

However, things haven’t gone well and we’ve been struggling for days. Not only with getting the MT setup and usable again, but getting it to a state where we can rebuild without getting a 500 Internal Server Error, which seems to be due to timeouts. Never mind the fact that the Domain Name propogation seems to be taking an age too.

Update: We’re back to close as we can be. We’ve had to drop a little bit of functionality in order to keep going, but we’re about there. If there are any MovableType experts out there who are really strong on sorting out long build times, etc then drop me ([email protected]) a note.

Plan is to run as we are, and in our spare (?!) time John and I will get WordPress operational in the background. Once it’s ready we’re going to try a seamless swap. Ahem. Welcome back to you!

ARGGHHH! More remakes of perfectly good films, in fact way more than perfectly good, I mean excellent. MovieWeb is talking about the remake of the superb Don’t Look Now:

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mark Gordon is planning to produce a remake of Don’t Look Now for Paramount Pictures…

…Andrea Berloff will write the screenplay for the adaptation…

…Gordon said that Berloff’s script will contemporize the 1973 version, which was penned by Allen Scott and Chris Bryant. “The original was very atmospheric, so we’ll provide a little more of the narrative that audiences expect,” he added.

McLaughlin said he was attracted to the project by its basic focus on a couple dealing with their grief. “I don’t think there’s been a film that deals more intelligently with the loss of a child,” he said.

The 1973 original starred Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie and was a superbly visual story centering on the loss of a child and the affect on the parents. It’s very strong throughout, featuring a pretty amazing sex scene, strong death scenes and very tough emotional scenes. The performances from Christie and Sutherland are superb, and I really can’t see them being outdone.

Oh, and what’s this about contemporising the original?! More narrative I think will damage the film, the original thrived on the mystery and some confusion, letting the viewer work some things out for themselves.

Are remakes just getting too much? Touching ground where they really shouldn’t? What about this movie, isn’t it perfect already?

Well, it’s really more of a teaser poster… but it still gets me excited! My enthusiasm level for Superman has gone through the roof ever since Bryan Singer took over the project (even though I’m quite disappointed that it meant he wouldn’t be helming the X-Men franchise anymore).

This poster is obviously at some comic trade show of some sorts and was sent to me by Movie Blog Alumnist Rodney. I like the looks of it. Simple and straight forward. The only thing about it that I wonder if purist Superman fans will like is the silver “S” as opposed to the classic red one. Personally I don’t care. I think it looks just fine. Your thoughts?

Say whatever you want about Sean Penn… the man can act. No… I mean REALLY act. The guy has 1 Oscar on his shelf already (and probably should have got another one for his role in I Am Sam) and has been damn rock solid in every film they guy has been in over the last 7 years. I’m not saying I dig his politics, or his attitude sometimes… but give the man his due, he’s a fantastic actor.

Now the rumour mill is working overtime that Batman director Christopher Nolan is courting Penn to be The Joker in the next Batman film. The good folks over at MovieHole offer us this:

Sean Penn might be Director Chris Nolan’s number 1. choice for the role of The Joker in “Batman Begins 2″ or “Batman Continues” or “Batman Strikes Back” or “Batman Reloaded” - whatever the heck the marketing geniuses tag it. According to star Christian Bale, Nolan’s pursuing the usually-serious Oscar Winner to wear the smiley paint.

Wow… this wouldn’t be a bad move if it’s true. What Batman Begins did perfectly was cast great actors for the role… not just big celebrities like the other Batman films. Penn is both and I think would wear the face paint well.

Now, having said that, I still think Crispin Glover is the man to play The Joker. I think he’d make people forget Jack Nicholson ever even played the part.

The videogame Max Payne is a superbly visual and immersive game, as you play you just feel you’re in a modern day film noir movie, and therefore it’s just perfect for a movie adaptation. That’s exactly what 20th Century Fox have thought too, from The Hollywood Reporter through Coming Soon:

Producer Scott Faye of Collision Entertainment has teamed up with Firm Films head Julie Yorn to turn Max Payne, the action video game franchise, into a feature film for 20th Century Fox, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold urban night. A fugitive undercover cop framed for murder, and now hunted by cops and the mob. Max is a man with his back against the wall, fighting a battle he cannot hope to win. The movie will focus on the origin of the vigilante character.

It’s a brilliant game and a fantastically crafted storyline. It really does pull the old fifties cop feel together with some modern effects, like bullet time, and violence, perfect. Yet they haven’t just relied on the violence factor, they made it real rather than completely over the top gore-fest. It’s a great fun game, and I think it has huge potential for a movie version.

What do you think? I know there are loads of fans out there of the Payne series, and I’m sure that they’ll turn to the screen version too. Will you?

If I were Tom Crusie’s agent, right about now I’d be pulling him aside and give him this little bit of advice. SHUT UP and just be pretty.

Let me get this out of the way first. As an ACTOR, I am a fan of Tom Cruise. I’ve yet to see him in a film where he’s been weak, and that’s really saying something when you consider how many films the dude has been in. However, the man is starting to come down with a little celebrity disease I call “Russell Croweism”. It’s a condition that some very talented and gifted actors get when they seem to develop an overwhelming desire to self destruct their careers.

The saga continues with Cruise as he was being interviewed on The Today Show by Matt Lauer. Lauler asked Crusie about his criticism of Brooke Shields for using anti-depressants. Cruise then accused Lauer of not knowing what he was talking about. It got worse:

“You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do,” Cruise said. The interview became more heated when Lauer, who said he knew people who had been helped by the attention-deficit disorder drug Ritalin, asked Cruise about the effects of the drug.

“Matt, Matt, you don’t even - you’re glib,” Cruise responded. “You don’t even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That’s what I’ve done.”

Oh… well excuse me DR. CRUISE. How dare anyone question your vast medical knowledge! You are obviously all knowing and the rest of us should just shut up. We shall just remain silent and bask in your glory.

Will someone give this man a knock on the head please?!? I bet Steven Spielberg is on his way over with a baseball bat as we speak to shut Cruise up until after the release of War of the Worlds. Since when did the golden boy of Hollywood become such a jackass?!?! I guess I should write to Nicole Kidman Mimi Rogers and ask them.

Sorry to shock you, but remakes haven’t stopped just yet. Disney are the latest to remake a foreign movie, and probably a perfectly good one at that. IMDB have it at 6.5 out of 10 on 485 votes. From Coming Soon:

Variety says the movie is based on Swedish supernatural film Den Osynlige, written by Mick Davis. A teenager is attacked and left for dead, then finds himself in limbo, invisible to the living and racing against time to find his body before he truly perishes. The only person who might be able to save him is his attacker, a troubled girl on the run from the law.

The story reminds me of the James Herbert novel Being Nobody, a very similar idea which could have been really intruiging but failed to hit the mark. I wonder how similar they are.

There’s an interesting quirk here. The original novel was written in Swedish, Davis wrote the script in English which was translated back to Swedish for the movie, all very confusing. I wonder if the new version was taken from the English script or the Swedish translation?! Let’s hope it doesn’t lose much. Anyone seen this movie and can comment on it?

I remember seeing the movieSleuth quite some time ago on television and I was amazed at the complex story, the sparse cast but superbly crafted and rich characters and multi-layered plot. It was superb, and showed the superb talents of Michael Caine playing alongside the undeniable legend of Sir Laurence Olivier. If you have never seen it, you have to now, it’s an exceptionally clever movie.

With the recent remake of Alfie with Jude Law, Caine has decided to head the Hollywood remake cowboys off at the pass and remake Sleuth first, along with the talent of Law. From Film Rot:

Contactmusic.com is reporting that Michael Caine is going to star in a remake of his 1972 movie Sleuth, and he is hoping to team up with Jude Law in it.

Caine says, “Jude Law and I want to remake Sleuth. We have a very good rewrite by Harold Pinter and we might do that. I figured everybody else is remaking my movies. I’ll remake one. And Jude’s already remade one of mine.”

Now I know Film Rot feel the same as we do here at the Movie Blog, in that Hollywood should sort themselves out, stop remaking all the successful movies they can find abroad and in their back catalogues, and get engaged in fostering new talent and bringing them to the big screen, including their new scripts. However, if they’re going to keep pillaging the back catalogues then at least do it with the original talents.

It’s interesting to think that Caine will now be playing the Olivier role, and Law will take over Caine’s. Apart from the remake topic, what do you think about this one and the casting choices? Does this story deserve another movie with a newer casting?

You know the worst thing about this story is it didn’t manage to make it through to the Courts and the movie pulled, but it seems to have been saved at the last minute by a nice big American style behind closed doors lawsuit payoff.

From Movie Web:

According to The Hollywood Reporter, For a little while, at least, a federal judge told Warner Bros. to cancel the release of The Dukes of Hazzard and impound any copies of the film.

Preliminary injunction was issued last Friday in a suit brought by producer Robert B. Clark. Warners bought TV rights to his obscure 1975 film “Moonrunners” when the studio originally made the Hazzard TV skein.

Clark alleged nothing in the original 1978 contract gave Warners the right to also make a movie. In issuing such a far-reaching order, Judge Gary Allen Feess agreed.

“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood that they will be able to prove at trial that they have an ownership interest in ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ film,” Feess wrote.

Suit has since been settled, but legal sources not involved in the case said Warners likely paid a pretty penny to settle.

Marc Toberoff, who represented the plaintiffs, said, “The parties have reached a settlement of all claims in the litigation. The terms of that settle-ment are confidential.”

Well let’s face it, I doubt he would have ever managed to get the lawsuit to a good decision for him, even if the Judge was talking as though he was siding with him. So getting hard cash compensation is probably the next best thing.

Still…it was almost pulled. The Judge did make an interesting point though, WB claimed that the authors left it too late to file a suit, but the Judge returned saying that it was ironic that with all their lawyers and volumes of documents, that they were surprised by the claim. Shouldn’t they have done their homework first instead of letting it get to this stage?

Okay, I apologise straight up, I did promise no more Bond rumours after the last post, but look it’s been so long and there is a story here other than someone else self promoting.

From Cinematical comes word that Goran Visnjic is the latest in the fray for the role of Bond.

A few weeks back it was rumored that ER’s Goran Visnjic was being considered as the next James Bond. According to MI6, the actor has confirmed that he is indeed in the running to be Pierce Brosnan’s replacement in Casino Royale. Visnjic hopes to hear more after another screen test booked for next Wednesday.

That is a surprise because it would be a break from the British template of the character and a move to an eastern European type. I would think this makes sense in the current climate and really does go a long way towards modernisation of the story.

The more interesting rumour is the possible return of actors that have previously been touted as off the list. Does this pave the way for the return of Pierce Brosnan after all?

Yahoo reports that John Cleese and Judi Dench might be returning to the franchise they assumed they had been booted from.

What do you think? Could, as we’ve reported before, Brosnan have been using heavy tactics to negotiate and everything is just coming full circle again - as it often did with Connery - or is it just more rumour and we’re still stuck waiting?

Although we’ve got one post talking about Batman sequels and characters I thought it of particular interest that there is talk out there of who is going to play the Joker.

Actually, having not seen it and deliberately avoiding the reviews I didn’t realise the return of the J-meister was pitched so strongly, so here we are with some of the latest rumour.

From IMDB:

Crispin Glover was an early favorite, along with Star Wars’ Mark Hamill, who provides the voice of The Joker in the Batman animated series and Aussie actor Lachy Hulme, and now Bettany has got the fans’ vote. An insider tells website Batman-on-film.Com that the A Beautiful Mind star is officially in the running to play the evil character.

So let’s concentrate on who is to play the Joker character, and who you specifically think is right. Having seen Bettany in Ganster No. 1 I think he has some of the insanely manic qualities that might just make it work. What do you think?

Now there’s a couple of problems I have with this trailer, one is I can’t speak German, and two the short scene at the end with the sexy lady is just too short! From the The Ring Thing official site through Movie List Forums:

In der Tradition von Scary Movie…

At least I get that. Translated through Google, it comes out with…

Shit happens. Actually Fredi for its wedding request wanted to practice [proposing]. Instead he falls directly with ring from an airplane toilet into the alps and is in a moved fairy tale realm. Central earth ist& in the middle in Switzerland! Stupid way is regarded Fredi as to the main header bits here Friedo and pulled by a few totally diagonal maerchenfiguren into a wild odyssey, in order to save the world from the fiesen Zauberer lord Sauraus. It wants nevertheless only its ring back and finally home!

I don’t know though, it’s really difficult to tell if this could be good, or full of old gags. There seem to be some funny moments and good take offs, but with the language barrier I can’t judge it in it’s entirety. Once you’ve seen the trailer, teaser and the music video, you’ve most likely seen all the visual gags.

So, over to you lot. Someone with German skills please have a look and let everyone else know what you think. Everyone else, give the trailer a go even without understanding the voiceover and actors, and tell us what you think.

One of the better marketing trends over the last couple of years has been for filmmakers to keep an online video journal to sort of follow the making of the film. I think Star Wars: The Phantom Menace may have been the first film to sort of do this.

Anyway, Rodney pointed me to Bryan Singer’s online video journal from the set of Superman Returns… and I’ve got to say they’re really interesting. I started watching 1 and I ended up sitting through 8 of them (there are currently 17 installments online that you can watch). It gives you some behind the scenes stuff… a few small story details and some nice visuals too.

Unlike X-Men 3, my expectation level for Superman Returns just keeps getting higher (which worries me a little).

If you’d like to check out Bryan’s video Journal you can just head over here.

I’m not really a Tim Burton fan at all. However, even I have to admit that he’s done one or two things that I’ve enjoyed… and one of those things was the original Beetlejuice with Michael Keaton.

For some time now there has been rumblings about the possibility of a sequel to the film. I usually get turned off by talks of sequels to movies that weren’t meant to be franchises… but for some reason I get pretty interested in any Beetlejuice 2 talk. Now, the folks over at MovieHole give us some of Michael Keaton’s thoughts on the potential for a B2:

“It would have to have Tim at least in a supervisory capacity. Heck, I’d settle for just having Tim to hang out”, Keaton tells The Houston Chronicle. “He’s 100 percent original, and who else can you say that about?”. The former Caped Crusader has been semi-attached to a “Beetlejuice” sequel for years, with the title “Beetlejuice goes Hawaiian” being branded about at one point between 1990 and 2005. Yup, a long-gestating idea.

As much as I’d hate to say this (because I actually really like Keaton) I have to take his “interest” in doing a Beetlejuice 2 project with a grain of salt. Why? Well… because Keaton’s career hasn’t exactly been soaring of late… and I’d be interested in any project too that would have me as the leading guy. Am I just being cynical?

The unholy hell child, Toy Story 3, is still being spawned. For those of you who may not know, the idiots over at Disney have decided to go ahead and make a Toy Story 3 without Pixar. Bad bad bad move.

This is an abomination against all that is good and nice. Everyone knows that Toy Story is Pixar… Pixar is Toy Story. Yes, Disney has the RIGHT to make this “movie”, but I also have the right to pour orange juice in my eyes… that doesn’t mean I should do it. The good folks over at Anaova give us this little bit about the release date for the Bastard Child of the original Toy Story movies:

Disney says it plans to release Toy Story 3 in the summer of 2008. The third installment of the animated franchise will be the first produced by Disney without Pixar, the company which originated the tale of the boys’ toys that have lives and adventures of their own, reports Variety.

Make no mistake about it. I WILL NOT see Toy Story 3 under any circumstances. I know that some people often say things like that and see the movie anyway… but I’ve never said it. I will NOT step foot in a theater that shows this cursed sin… at all. If Jesus himself appears to me and says “Yo John… this is a really good movie”… well… then MAYBE. But anything short of that forget it.

Note to Disney: STOP!

End of angry rant for the day.

Ok, I’ve mentioned a couple of times over the last few months that I’m really looking forward to Chicken Little. Which I think is the first time I’ve been excited about a non Pixar animated film since Shrek 2. The little guy is just so darn cute!!!

Now having said that, it appears that the horribly misguided people over at Disney (Toy Story 3 abomination) have given some big updates to the Chicken Little website. If you wander over there now you’ll be able to grab some nice initial screen shots, intros to the characters, screensavers, wallpaper… all the usual things you expect from a movie’s official site. However…

You also get a neat little bonus (ok, here come the 5 year old in me). You can have Chicken Little dance for you in 4 different styles! “John… who cares?!?!” Yeah I know… but like I said… I just find the little guy so damn cute. You can see the newly renovated site here.

The real news from Dark Horizons here is that the Alan Partridge movie is going ahead. There had been some talk of it being off and on, and even on a couple of TV interviews I saw with Steve Coogan said that he wasn’t sure it was happening, then he was. So it is then!

For those of you who don’t know, Alan Partridge is a local radio DJ who really isn’t that good and has moved on to a failed TV career. He embarrasses his guests, is awkward and quite a loser really. All the great qualities that make people laugh at him! The comedian behind the character, Steve Coogan, is a genuinely sharp witted and funny man, and his characters are quite unique.

As for the appearance of Victoria Beckham - still known by some as Posh Spice - it seems that she is the vehicle to relaunch this failed career.

A source said: “The scripts for Partridge are obviously under wraps and writing is still in progress, but Victoria’s part is pretty much done and dusted. She’ll be the interviewee that finally allows Alan back on the airwaves with an incendiary chat and her part calls for some serious comic timing. She’ll add glamour to the project and prove she’s able to take the p**s with the rest of them, it’s a brilliant move for her.”

I’ve seen her and David more than willing to have the mickey taken out of themselves, realising that it’s all about the celebrity, and I don’t doubt her ability for the role of a diva celebrity!

Anyone else looking forward to the return of Aha! Alan Partidge?

Unfortunately I can’t watch the video from where I am at work just now, but I can pass it on.

Over at Twitch they have a post with a short promo from KongisKing.net. Check it out, they have medium and large format for Quicktime and a Windows Media Player version too.

They do say beware of spoilers, hence I haven’t directly linked as I can’t check it out first for you. Have a look and come back and tell us what you think. Shameless promo, or something more, and has it whetted your appetite more?

Over at Comic Book Movie they have a little snippet from Christopher Nolan about the possibilities for the sequels, in particular villians and even a return of Robin.

“Like Begins, one clear cut villain isn’t the plan [though]” and the likelihood of Robin appearing “The studio wasn’t interested in Robin. We weren’t either. This is a young Batman, so Robin’s a few films….not for a few pictures anyway. Dick Grayson’s still in a crib somewhere. I seriously doubt I will even be involved when Robin’s in the franchise” says Nolan.

Nothing that concrete really, but it does raise the question of should Robin actually return in a modern, darker and more realistic Batman movie. Is there any place for this character, and could he be portrayed effectively and keep the movie in the same darkened tone? I think it would be difficult, but not impossible. Just looking at the Grayson post we did a while ago you can see how it can be - do check that out - and still keep the dark and serious tone.

What do you think, could it be made to work? The other thing you could start thinking about is what villians you would like to see in the movie, should the next leap to the Joker, or should it concentrate on lesser villians? As Nolan says there are going to be a few villians at once, which means that the appearance of such a major character might just overshadow the others. With the Joker would there be any need for any other villian?

What villians would you like to see in the sequels? Who would play them? Get the discussion going.

Ahh yes, the might power of court action. With all the “super-hero” type movies coming out these days I’m surprised something like this didn’t happed sooner.

Apparently, the good folks over at Fox Studios (The folks responsible for bringing us the X-Men films) are sueing the folks over at Sony for allegedly making a film that is too similar to the X-Men and setting it’s release date at the same time as X-Men 3. To happy go lucky folks over at the IMDB give us this:

(Fox) filed a lawsuit on Monday against Sony Pictures and Revolution Studios to delay the release of Zoom - a movie they believe is too similar to their X-Men films. Both projects center on children who possess special powers and are shunned by normal society before they enroll in a special to school to learn how to harness their abilities. Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Enterprises allege Sony Pictures and Revolution Studios deliberately brought forward the release date of their movie in an attempt to attract cinema-goers before X-Men 3 is released on May 26, 2006. Legal papers filed in a California federal court state: “Just days after Fox announced X3 would be released on May 26, 2006, Sony and Revolution deliberately moved up Zoom’s release so that it would come two weeks before, instead of 11 weeks after the release of X3.”

You know… when you read that over… it looks like Fox may actually have a point. The themes are quite similar and the way they worded it above basically makes it sound like a carbon copy of X-Men. I’m curious to see how this plays out. What do you think?

The first official poster for The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe has just come out. Personally I like it a lot!

If you want to see a much much larger version of this baby you can head over here to take a look.

The AFI have run down their Top 100 Movie Quotes of all time on American TV last night, and the guys over at JoBlo are carrying the full list.

I love lists like this, firstly I’m a guy, and guy’s love lists. Secondly I love movies. Double win. I also like sitting in front of the telly with beer\wine\whisky and watching a programme that promotes debate around the room. Even if it’s just me. It sounds like this did just that too.

Here’s the top ten:

1. “Frankly, my dear, I don√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t give a damn,” Gone With the Wind, 1939.
2. “I√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m going to make him an offer he can√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t refuse,” The Godfather, 1972.
3. “You don√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am,” On the Waterfront, 1954.
4. “Toto, I√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve got a feeling we√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not in Kansas anymore,” The Wizard of Oz, 1939.
5. “Here√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s looking at you, kid,” Casablanca, 1942.
6. “Go ahead, make my day,” Sudden Impact, 1983.
7. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m ready for my close-up,” Sunset Blvd., 1950.
8. “May the Force be with you,” Star Wars, 1977.
9. “Fasten your seatbelts. It√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s going to be a bumpy night,” All About Eve, 1950.
10. “You talking to me?” Taxi Driver, 1976.

I have to say, although the order might change a little, these are all deserving of the top ten. Can you think of any others that should be up there? It’s also interesting that there weren’t many quotes from Tarantino movies, as usual perhaps looking back from the last ten years. “I’ll be back” is number 37!

Agree? Disagree? Have a quote that should have made it? Check out the full list at JoBlo and come back and debate away!

A story today from IMDB on Infernal Affairs remake The Departed by Martin Scorsese makes me more nervous than ever about the remake.

Jack Nicholson helped re-write the script for his new movie with legendary director Martin Scorsese, because he felt the sex scenes needed spicing up….According to reports, the actor wanted to make his character - an Irish-American gangster - a little more like himself, and more of an animal in the bedroom. A source tells the New York Daily News, “Jack didn’t feel there was enough Jack in his character. Jack actually did some of the writing himself.” The insider adds of the sex scenes, “Jack suggested using a (prosthetic appendage). He also wanted to dust the a** of one of the actresses with cocaine. Marty said, ‘Go for it!’” A Warner Bros spokesman adds, “It’s not at all uncommon for dialogue to be fine-tuned during production. Everyone is extremely pleased with the way this shoot is proceeding.”

I have to say I’m getting more and more nervous about this remake. The original is handled so well and really is a true mix between Hollywood and the superb talents of Asian cinema. It’s a fantastic and quite delicately balanced movie, and I fear the big egos and talents involved are going to Hollywood-ise it too much and tip it over the edge.

If you haven’t seen the original, check out my upcoming review, when I finish watching the multiple audio commentaries, at my review site. It’s a superb movie, and one of my favourites to date, full marks across the board.

Is anyone else out there concerned about this, especially if they’ve seen the original? I’m convinced this movie is going to go way too far towards Hollywood and tip the scales losing the excellent balance of the storyline.

Brilliant news for all those Hellboy fans with news coming from Selma Blair on the production of Hellboy 2. From Comic Book News:

Selma Blair…told SCI FI Wire that production on the film has been tentatively scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2007…

…Blair said in an interview. “Apparently [director] Guillermo [del Toro]’s supposed to hand in a script any minute. I know there will probably be a long preproduction, so we’ll probably start maybe January 2007.”

Well a lot of probably’s and maybe’s, but still it’s a good indication that things are kicking off. It’ll be interesting to hear more about the script as it comes in.

Personally, I am dead excited about this movie, Hellboy was superb fun and the character is great for the big screen, never mind the fact that Ron Perlman is a superb actor and perfect for the part. I think this is one of the strongest Superhero franchises around…for now anyway.

Hey there Folks, John here.

As some of you may know, I have a small background in video production. I actually love working with video and haven’t had much time the last year or 2 to be involved with it.

With the popularity of “The Audio Edition” growning every month, an idea hit me. So Doug and I have been discussing the possibilities of doing “The Video Edition”. It would be much like The Audio Edition, except, you guessed it, it would be video.

So here’s my question. Would something like this interest you guys at all? Is it a good idea? A bad idea? Would you bother taking the time to download it to watch it? Let me know you’re thoughts.

Film Stew is carrying the news that Hugh Jackman has signed up for Woody Allen’s new untitled movie.

Hugh Jackman has just signed on to join Scarlett Johansson and Deadwood star Ian McShane in the untitled comedy Woody Allen wrote, will direct and will also topline…

…Jackman will shoot the film in England just before he goes to work this summer reprising his role as Wolverine in X3…

I think this is great news for Jackman, he’s got bags of talent and I wouldn’t say they are wasted in his comic roles, but these roles aren’t showing his full range of talents, after all he came from musicals!

Is everyone locked into seeing him as a comic book character, or are you keen to see him develop?

Avi Arad is talking superhero movies again, and more new ones too. Through Comic Book Movie he gives us the details of…

Magneto, Captain America, Ant-Man, Dr Strange, Black Panther, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Punisher 2, Shang Chi, Luke Cage, Namor, Thor, Luke Cage, Nick Fury, Deathlok, Hulk 2, Daredevil 2 and Elektra 2!.

It’s worth checking this one out.
(more…)

This has got to be good news for fans of Batman, and an especially good sign that the Studio has seen the light.

According to Comic Book Movie:

New reports reveal actors Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have all signed to star in a second Batman movie, but love interest Katie Holmes has been dropped.

Warner Bros. are thrilled with the response to Batman Begins as it took $46.9 million in its first weekend in the US box office and have recruited the film’s stars for an upcoming sequel.

There are also a few telling quotes from the inside source that has been talking:

A source also tells PageSix.com, “Everyone is in agreement that the movie’s strength is with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.”

Then adding of Katie Holmes, “She won’t be in the sequel… the next romantic interest will be a much stronger actress.”

“Warner is happy that people are now focusing on who’ll be playing the JOKER rather than Katie and Tom.”

That is really telling, it strongly suggests they don’t rate her acting too highly and that the calibre is definitely with the male leads.

You have to agree that this is the right decision. Even in the trailers she looked out of place and you were just sucked into the whole Dawson world in an instant. One has to ask, how can she break away from that? Do you agree she should be dropped for the sequel?