Archive for November, 2005

Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD update

BluRayDVD.jpgOkay, there’s a number of news updates here. Blu-Ray release dates announced and launch plans follow, Blu-Ray argues MPEG-2 or 4, HD-DVD 90% cheaper than Blu-Ray (initially), and are they both obselete to Holographic Storage?

All these issues are coming up in the main story, and are all worthy of discussion - if you’re interested in the new formats and their development that is. Definitely for Home Cinema fans such as myself!
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X-Men 3 storyboard spoilers

X-Men3-TeaserPoster.jpgThe Fantastic Four DVD contains some interesting additional features for X-Men 3 in the form of Storyboard teasers, however you should be very aware that there are spoilers here.

Over at Comic Book Movie they carry the link to the images of the storyboards captured from the DVD.

So I’ll hold them off for the full story, in the meantime if you prefer some non-spoilers, take a look at some photos of Cameron Bright getting ready for his role as Leech.

Spoilers and storyboard link follow…
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C.S. Lewis said no to live action adaption

So there’s big controversy across the Internet that C.S. Lewis wrote publicly and to the BBC that he did not want a live action movie of his books, but that a cartoon might be acceptable. This was because every production he had seen had silly costumes and the creatures looked pathetic.

Yeah, I get that, and if those were his wishes then fine. Yet something has happened in the movie industry, it’s called CGI. I think now if Lewis had looked on this new technology he would be of a strong mind that they could be done, and indeed they are.

The note was written in 1963 for god’s sake, and the comments from IMDB are spot on for the time…

“anthropomorphic [humanized] animals” on film, saying that previous attempts to do so resulted in “buffoonery or nightmare.” Casting a human in the role of the lion Aslan, he said, “would be, to me, blasphemy.” Lewis did warily consider the possibility of Disney version, however, writing “Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) would be another matter.)” Lewis wrote the note to Lance Sieveking, who produced, with his approval, the radio version of his books for the BBC.

I’m convinced that his reservations would have been blown out of the water nowadays. So why the fuss?

No Green Hornet and Dogma 2?

KevinSmith3.jpgKevin Smith has been talking across the Internet with his fans and typical Internet flamers, and there’s some interesting information coming out on the subject of Clerks 2, a sequel to Dogma and the Green Hornet movie.

Cinematical have the news.

…Clerks 2 will not be called Passion of the Clerks. Instead, they will stick with the title Clerks 2. On writing and/or directing a comic book-type flick, he says “I ain’t touching one of those superhero movies, man. Too much pressure, too much carping from the fan base. Plus, if I make one myself, I forfeit the right to make fun of other comic book movies.” Hmm, does that mean no Green Hornet?

One fan asked if he was going to make a sequel to Dogma and, surprisingly, he may. “Back when I made Dogma, I always maintained that another movie about religion wouldn’t be forthcoming, as Dogma was the product of 28 years of religious and spiritual meditation, and I’d kinda shot my wad on the subject. Now? I think I might have more to say.” I’m sure you (the reader) has more to say, so have at it.

Well none of that really interests me apart from the no Green Hornet. That’s a real disappointment for me I was looking forward to a movie adaptation of that, I don’t mind it won’t be Smith, but he would have had an interesting take on the topic.

What about the possibility of a Dogma 2?

Adrian returns to Rocky

So we didn’t think that Talia Shire was returning to the new Rocky movie as Rocky’s wife, but apparently she will.

Sure, sure, she’s dead I know, as do Cinematical where I caught the story. Yet she’ll be returning in those much loved flashbacks.

They put the whole idea of this new Rocky down, but call me mad for clinging on to some hope in Hollywood, but this isn’t as bad as most sequels out there, at least this is a strong franchise. Is it just me, or could this actually be a good movie? I’m not saying great or Oscar contender, but still?

Cameron Diaz in the Sound of Music?

Preposterous idea, and you know that remakes always start with these off the wall rumours, well this one is wild. Julie Andrews is tipping Cameron Diaz as her replacement for a future remake of the Sound of Music!

She does say “if the movie is ever remade”, but it’s actually such a crazy idea you could actually see it happening! From Yahoo News.

Okay, so let’s imagine that they are crazy enough to remake this movie, probably set in Bosnia and updated to modern day, some new Hip-Hop songs added and a couple of Rap numbers - oh, better get a Rapper signed up for Christopher Plummer’s part - then we could cast Diaz in Andrews place…

…Oh sweet lord. What a load of rubbish.

Disney to sell DVD with movie?

Disney.jpgHere’s another dissenting voice among the ranks of Hollywood, talking about dropping the model of waiting to sell the DVD after the movie has completed its run in the cinema. Previously we talked of Steven Soderbergh releasing DVDs with the movie and in an identical move the new CEO of Disney, Robert Igor has suggested the same tactic to theater owners.

From Cinematical comes the shock that they turned round and said that they were out of their minds. Interesting, especially as the plans meant that the theaters would be selling the DVDs and presumably making a profit on each.

“We are spending too much time chasing box office [dollars] and we are waiting too long to enter the next window,” Iger said. He added that consumers are impatient for content to become available on home video whilst it’s still “relevant”

Yeah I think there’s two extremes being pursued here. We have the current model, which is bleed the public dry for every last drop until the theaters and cinemas are empty at which point shut the film down, wait for them to recover, and then throw the first of several versions of DVDs at them. Then there’s the one pitched above. Sell the DVD from the first showing of the movie.

Well obviously the new suggestion is going to affect ticket sales, without a doubt. If I know I can nip in and buy the DVD on the opening night and it’s not a huge release I’d be very tempted just to head in. Or if my friend is going to see it, “get a DVD for me will you?”.

See I think there’s a third option. Let the movie have it’s cinema run, and as soon as the audience starts to tail, then kick in with the DVD sales in the foyer. Perhaps even cutting the performances and just selling the DVDs, perhaps even delaying the general DVD release by a month to allow it’s sale by the theater owners.

Is that so crazy? I do think there’s a halfway house here that could actually work.

Jim Carrey In “Believe It or Not!”

Believe It Or NotWhat?!?! A Tim Burton directed film that’s DOESN’T have Johnny Depp as the lead?!?! What is the world coming to? The word going around right now is that the new Burton project “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” (which is actually about Robert Ripley) has snagged Jim Carrey to play the lead role.

It’s an interesting choice (and pretty unexpected). But it wasn’t the studio heads who picked Carrey. The following tid bit is from the good folks over at MovieHole:

According to Variety, it was Burton who suggested Carrey play the lead role in the movie, which will tell of Ripley’s attained celebrity status through the ‘Believe it or Not’ column, and the man’s ongoing hunts for the odd and wild.

You know… after thinking about it for a minute, this COULD actually be interesting. I’m not a big Tim Burton fan, but something like this sounds like his sort of thing… and it’ll be interesting to see how he and Carrey work together.

Disturbing Memoirs of a Geisha Rumblings

Sometimes you hear news that almost makes you lose faith in humanity. This bit of news about the forthcoming Memoirs of a Geisha was sent to me yesterday and it almost made my head spin. This comes from the IMDB movie news wire:

“Although it features an almost entirely Asian cast, Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha has evoked anger and calls for a boycott among some of those who have seen advance screenings of the film in Japan and China, Reuters reported today (Monday). According to the wire service, some Japanese are outraged that the leading roles in the film are played by Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li and Chinese-Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh. On the other hand, some Chinese are upset that Chinese film stars would favorably portray Japanese, who are still remembered for their brutal occupation of China in World War II. Reuters quoted one blogger as saying of Zhang, who plays the title role: “She’s sold her soul and betrayed her country. Hacking her to death would not be good enough.”

Wow… is there really anything that needs to be said about this?

Batman Begins villains revealed?

BatmanInternationalPoster.jpgWe’ve had rumours galore on Batman Begins already, but now it seems we’re hearing more on the villains in the movie, covering the previous rumours of Scarecrow, Joker and even Penguin!

You can read the summary in the full story, but beware there may be spoilers, if the rumours are true. Comic Book Movie carry the alleged exclusive revelations.
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Nine minutes of Chronicles of Narnia

NarniaPoster.jpgDo you want to see the first nine minutes of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Well a Swedish TV site has the streaming teaser trailer for you to look at.

The nine minute streaming trailer was also hosted at Twitch for a short time, but it seems bandwidth issues caused them to drop it! Thanks to the heads up at Cinematical, as I completely missed this yesterday.

Take a look and let everyone know what you think. I already feel that this movie needs no more hype whatsoever, but then it’s not going to hurt to see anymore is it?

Is Shrek played out?

Shrek7.jpgThe previous Director of the series, Andrew Adamson, is talking about the new Shrek movie due out 2007, about how he’s involved and trying to keep the life in the series, and what the key to the story this time around is

There’s a little plot spoiler so you may not want to read anymore!

For me though, I’m not so sure if there is a need for another Shrek movie. The first was great, the second was close, but reading what they have in store from Cinema Blend, I’m not so sure that this doesn’t have a slight odour of typical Hollywood franchise stretching.

It centers around Shrek taking over royal duties for his ailing father-in-law, the King of Far Far Away. Undesirous to take the role, Shrek sets out to find someone else to sub in: King Arthur. “So it kind of plays with Arthurian legend, and at the same time that Shrek is learning about responsibility,” adds Adamson, “He’s also dealing with another responsibility that will be coming his way now that he’s married and has started to settle down. It’s pretty easy to see where we’re going with that.”

Mmmm…does that last bit hit you as much as it does me? Is it feeling slightly shoehorned in? There’s part of me that’s just looking at that line with a bit of nervousness. Can they pull off the success again?

Eve of Understanding goes live

I’ve been (as you should have been) following the blog for the production of the independent movie Eve of Understanding and enjoying the openess and explanations of the movie making process. Now they’ve announced that their site is live and we await the trailer…

Be sure to check out that blog, and also the new website. The blog has, and is, a very interesting read. I’ll let you know when the trailer is live.

Go visit it, find out a bit about it, and show some support for the independent movies. It’s a bit more positive than us always complaining about the poor Hollywood excuses for movies!

Audio Edition - November 28th 2005

On this installment of the Audio Edition Doug and I discuss the latest Bubba Ho-Tep sequel news, Angelina Jolie showing interest in playing Laura Croft once more, the new Pixar film “Cars”, some Oscar buzz for Eric Bana in the new film Munich, the big box office numbers, some disturbing Memoirs of a Gesha rumblings and a few things more.

You can download this installment of The Audio Edition here

To subscribe to the podcast of The Audio Edition on iTunes copy this link and then paste it into iTunes-Advanced-Subscribe to Podcast.

SHOW NOTES: ** This is important. The Audio Edition is meant to be conversational… and it’s your turn to be involved in that conversation. Use the comments section of The Audio Editions to post YOUR show notes. Thoughts you had about the topics… interesting links to things related to the topics. Share your thoughts and links with the rest of us to keep the conversation going. The “show notes” are now yours to write!**

Eric Bana Oscar Favorite for Munich

I am a huge Eric Bana fan… and it looks like right now the Vegas bookmakers are picking him as their current favorite to win the Oscar for Best Lead Actor for his upcoming role in the Steven “I’m too important to do commentaries” Spielberg film Munich.

Even though peoples reactions to Hulk were mixed (I actually kinda liked it), most people agreed that Bana’s portrayal of Bruce Banner was amazing. It was really the first time I noticed him. Then came that awful film Troy. You know… it’s not hard for an actor to look great in a fantastic film… but it takes someone with ass loads of talent to play a role so well that it stands out in a crap film. That’s exactly what Bana did in Troy. A movie billed as staring “Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom”. Nonsense… Bana took that film and made it his by force. Sadly one man can’t make a worthless film watchable. But DAMN he was good in it!

At this point I can’t say if Bana “deserves” to win the Oscar this year or not… after all I haven’t seen Munich yet. Nor have I seen Capote yet. But man… it’s nice to even hear that real talent is being recognized.

Cars Trailer

carsThe newest trailer, or “teaser” if you will, for the new Pixar film Cars has hit the apple website, and man, from just a VISUAL point of view it’s astonishing. The environments look so REAL I thought I could stick my hand in the lake they’re driving by.

For my money, Pixar is not just the best animation company out there right now… but also the best overall film company in general. Think about it. What other production company can say that every single one of their films has been met with huge Critical, Audience and Box Office success? None.

Now, having said that… the idea behind Cars is still a little “ify” to me. As a starting premise it’s the weakest of any Pixar film to date… but then again… it’s JUST the starting premise. What really counts is what they DO with the premise. Here’s the little synopsis:

Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. McQueen gets to know the town’s offbeat characters- who help him realize that there are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorship.

I’ll give Pixar the benefit of the doubt… they haven’t made a single mistake yet. If you want to see the new Cars trailer you can just go here.

Dungeon Siege trailer online

Yes. Uwe Boll’s epic Dungeon Siege based movie (almost wrote game there!) is almost here. In the In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale is due for release next year but you can catch the trailer already.

Courtesy of Fantastic Films International through Movies Online, here’s the trailer for Dungeon Siege, which by the very title suggests there may be a few in the series…oh lord.

Actually, the trailer is kinda fun. It’s just the out of place actors and some dead deliveries of lines that get me. What do you make of it? (A hat, a broach, a pterydac…oh dear.) It’s 27.2Mb and a slow loader, so go make yourself a couple of cups of tea!

Starsky and Hutch remake

StarskyHutch.jpgI can’t believe that there’s a remake hungry industry out there that could top Hollywood with one of its announcements, but there is, and it’s France. A French TV channel have announced that they are going to remake the Starksy and Hutch TV series as their own! Twenty Two episodes for three series, and they’re already signed up!

Just to add insult to injury the site Dark Horizons carry the story and use a picture of the recent movie remake, not the original series!

First it was “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”, then “CSI”, now the French plan to remake “Starsky and Hutch” into a contemporary series. TV channel M6 will make this new version under the title “Duval et Madani” reports Allocine.

Huggy will be renamed Cesar, Captain Dobbey will become a woman (Monica Cruz is tipped for the role). Laurent Hennequin will play Duval (the new Hutch) whilst Alexandre Brasseur will be Madani (the new Starsky).

What a farce…I’m going to bite my tongue on this one, and all my friends will know why…but remaking the original series is just not on, mind you how recognisable would it be with all these conversions? Surely it just becomes another cop buddy drama? I can’t see them capturing the original feel.

Tomb Raider 3?

AngelinaJolie.jpgWhile the videogame itself is undergoing a huge transformation and a new and improved version is in the works to revitalise the slightly sagging character, the movie franchise seems alive and well. Talk is that Angelina Jolie is set to reprise her role in a third outing for a very successful videogame conversion.

From Coming Soon:

SCI, the video game company that owns Lara Croft, along with her “Tomb Raider” franchise, is in talks with Paramount Pictures over licensing the property for a third movie, reports The Business Online. It claims that Angelina Jolie has once again expressed an interest in starring as Lara Croft.

Quite frankly with the first two installments having grossed more than $400million worldwide I can’t blame any of the parties involved. Also, I wouldn’t mind seeing another one, I mean they aren’t deep thinking thrillers, but they have proven to be good and exciting entertainment. Wouldn’t you like to see another outing?

Clooney to direct Coen Brothers script

GeorgeClooney.jpgThis is a sign of the times when George Clooney picks up the Directors chair for a Coen brothers script.

Clooney has really been showing what he’s made of for sometime now, ever since he directed his first movie he’s been pushing more and more for non-mainstream work as well as his own Directing career, and quite frankly he’s bloody good at it. Which is why the Coens may have given him the step up. Orginally he was offered a part in their film Suburbicon, but since then the project has been left on the back burner with no one picking it up to actually make it, now Clooney has proven his ability he’s offered to helm it, and the word is they’ve said yes.

According to Cinematical he described the plot as a dark comedy, and they point out that’s about every Coen film, so that’s no clue. Damn right. Well, I think there is plenty to get excited about on this one. Clooney directing the Coens work? Yeah, I’d like to see this.

Richard reviews The Book of Cool - Part One

Having trouble finding a really great gift for someone? Do you know someone who has everything and you can’t find something unique to get them? Well I’ve found the answer in the form of a DVD boxset called The Book of Cool, Part One.

It’s a whopping nine hours, three DVD’s and one, three hundred and seventeen page refresher book, all designed to give that person who has everything the skill and knowledge to put those things to some use, and to start to look damn cool. You only have to watch the trailer to see some of the things you could be doing within minutes of watching the DVD. I do urge you to watch the trailer, it’s a very nice piece of filming and editing, and not at all different from how the segments on the DVD are filmed.
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Richard reviews Ong Bak (Uncut, Original Ending VCD)

I was spoiled for choice of which version of Ong Bak to get from Moviesville, but eventually set on the VCD version featuring the original soundtrack, the original uncut film and complete with the original not so sweetened ending. This was a version I’d never seen before and it looked extremely interesting.

I knew I was taking a hit on the VCD side though, they just don’t have the quality or content of DVDs. Moviesville were also good enough to offer the suggestion to look for the DVD version if you couldn’t listen to the dual audio tracks mixed with Chinese subtitles. I could live with that, in order to see the uncut original version.
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Bubba Ho-Tep sequel alive?

bubbahotepdvd.jpgThis is a huge rumour, and contrary to the previous news about the sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep, Bubba Nosferatu. It appears though that the Director has stated that it’s on his schedule! That’s a change from it actually having no budget.

From Twitch:

…in a recent Fangoria article…Coscarelli stated that he would be happy to join “the second season of MASTERS OF HORROR as long as the planned sequel BUBBA NOSFERATU doesnt get in the way. The goal is to have more of the young Elvis because Bruce Campbell loves playing that age with his Memphis Mafia and NOSFERATU will provide lots of opportunities for them getting into mischief. And theres nothing better than seeing a legendary actor play with a prosthetic!”

Wooo. Now as Todd rightly points out he’s talking here about turning down a guaranteed paying job, the second series of the Masters of Horror, the series that all the big names are attracted to, for the planned Bubba Nosferatu movie. Previously we were being told no chance as the budget was gone, but now he’s saying that it is in his schedule.

This is damn close to an admission of production if ever I’ve heard one. So here’s to next year, I’m excited already!

Audio Edition - November 25th 2005

Happy happy fun time. On this installment of The Audio Edition we talk about the Borat riots (bonus marks if you know what that means), the sad passing of Pat Morita, the new War of the Worlds DVD release and some special features we DON’T want to see. I also go off on an angry rant about Steven Spielberg’s failure to put a simple Director’s Commentary on his DVDs (including War of the Worlds). We also touch a little on the new online clip of Narnia. All this and a few things more.

You can download this installment of The Audio Edition here

To subscribe to the podcast of The Audio Edition on iTunes copy this link and then paste it into iTunes-Advanced-Subscribe to Podcast.

SHOW NOTES: ** This is important. The Audio Edition is meant to be conversational… and it’s your turn to be involved in that conversation. Use the comments section of The Audio Editions to post YOUR show notes. Thoughts you had about the topics… interesting links to things related to the topics. Share your thoughts and links with the rest of us to keep the conversation going. The “show notes” are now yours to write!**

War Of The Worlds DVD Special Features We Don’t Want

Well the War Of The Worlds 2 disk DVD is upon us. The disk is full of good looking special features… except will someone please tell Steve Spielberg to take his head out of his ass and give us a freaking Director’s Commentary please!!!!!

However… there are a couple of DVD Special Features that we’re glad aren’t on there. Here are a couple from the good folks over at FilmFodder:

- Cruise Control -The grim visage of Tom Cruise stares intensely out of your screen, while the benefits of Scientology are chanted in the background. This plays continuously until you cede your free will and become one of his mindless minions.

- Thwart Xenu -a DVD game where you must run a maze evading evil psychiatrists, who hurl Xanax and Prozac at you, and reach the welcoming arms of L. Ron Hubbard.

I’d like to add a couple of others:

- EXPLAINING THE IMPOSSIBLE - In this riveting feature Steven Spielberg explains his complete abandon of logic on how an unarmed teenage kid can run into battle against a horde of giant alien death machines with a bunch of US military troops… and yet be the only one to survive…. AND beat his father back to Boston at the same time.

- THE ULTIMATE WEAPON - An alternate ending to War of the Worlds where the alien invaders decide to leave earth just to get the hell away from Dakota Fanning’s constant and annoying as hell yelling.

- THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE - A series of deleted scenes where Tom Cruise falls in love with one of the Aliens and goes on to appear on daytime talk shows where he acts like a complete moron jumping up and down professing his new found love of “hot alien action”. (taken out of film for time restraints).

Which ones would you add to the list?

No Oscar push for Munich

Munich.jpgAcross the Interweb it’s being reported that Steven Spielberg’s Munich won’t be pushed for the Oscars. That’s no junkets, no interviews, basically no press just loads of screenings to real people. It’s even gone so far that the Studio haven’t even seen the movie yet.

There will be no press junket, no premiere and, most importantly, no Oscar marketing campaign beyond trailers and posters for Steven Spielberg’s movie “Munich” before and after it opens December 23rd reports LA Weekly.

This dicey decision to have no traditional publicity is the directors alone and he will not even be giving press or broadcast interviews (though there’s talk he might do a Time cover story). The official strategy is for the movie to speak for itself with plenty of screenings planned starting December 1st.

…from Dark Horizons, they go on to say that Spielberg held his first screening to John Williams and Kathleen Kennedy just a few days ago.

It seems that he’s keeping this one close to his chest, but really, does he need to race after Oscar? The two names are almost as big as each other, and whether he’s planned it this way or not, he doesn’t have to sell himself these days.

New Twin Peaks movie?

TwinPeaks.jpgThere’s a very slim chance that there could be, but the early rumblings are being made from Mark Frost the co-creator that there has been talk about continuing the storyline.

From Cinematical:

“We’ve talked a little about [a new project], and it’s a possibility down the road,” Frost said in an interview with MTV. “I think it would be hard to re-create the world of Twin Peaks at this point, but Kyle is still there and still a terrific actor, and that’s a character we could possibly take other places.”

As they report, after Twin Peaks there was a desire from David Lynch and Frost to continue with the story and see what happened to the characters. Unfortunately Fire Walk with me was destroyed and therefore brought many bad reviews. So what chance is there? Well the creators are talking about it and Kyle MacLachlan still has a high profile in successful shows, so why now?

What’s the desire to see a true Twin Peaks movie? Frankly it’s one of the sequels that does make my wanna list.

Richard reviews The Chumscrubber

TheChumscrubber.jpgI was lucky enough to receive a copy of The Chumscrubber prior to it’s UK release…well actually there isn’t a UK release as yet, and the US release is limited enough so that just makes me even luckier! Mainly because there won’t be many UK viewings of it as yet, but also because it includes such an impressive cast as Jamie Bell, Glen Close, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ralph Fiennes, John Heard, and on, and on…

There’s been a few mixed reviews pop up so far, some quite scathing, yet while I’ve spent days writing up posts on the Movie Blog about remakes, sequels, prequels and revisualisations, and then I see a string of new and innovative plotted movies, Chumscrubber included. Quite frankly I don’t think I was watching the same movie as these reviewers.
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New Narnia Clip

A new clip from The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe has just popped up online and it looks soooo good! It’s very very short, but it gives you a great little glimpse into the visual effects and costuming for the film.

The clip is introduced by the films director, and just shows the beginning of one of the epic battles. The two armies rushing towards each other. It blew me away! Go see it! Go see it now! Holy crap… the Minotaurs look FANTASTIC!!! The guys from Cinemeye put it really well when they said this about the clip:

Imagine the final battle from RETURN OF THE KING, but with tigers, cheetahs and minotaurs.

You can see the new Narnia clip by going here.

A Scanner Darkly Release Date

Looks like Keanu Reeves new flick A Scanner Darkly finally has a release date set for March 31st 2006 in limited release. No word yet on wide release dates… but it probably won’t be long after that.

The good folks over at Freeze Dried Movies gives us this:

This story takes place in the future, where undercover agents change their faces along with their identities. Reeves plays one such officer, and his liberal ingestion of the drug Substance D causes him to develop a split personality.

I’ve watched the trailers… but at this point I’m still not really sold on the whole idea yet. Still… the style of the film looks really interesting, I’ll give it that. It’s also got a solid ensemble cast (aside from Reeves who I’ve never liked that much) Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, , Heather Kafka, Dameon Clarke, Rory Cochrane, Jack Cruz.

It’s interesting… even though I’m not sure it’s going to be all that good… I’m still looking forward to seeing it.

By the way, if you want to see the A Scanner Darkly trailer you can go here.

Homo Erectus: A Caveman Comedy

CarradineEvery once in a while an idea for a movie comes along that is so dumb you’re just stuck for words. Here comes “Homo Erectus: A Caveman Comedy“. The film has an interesting cast with David Carradine, Ali Larter, Tom Arnold, Talia Shire and Hayes MacArthur. All good enough. But the premise of the movie….

The good folks over at Cinescape give us this little synopsis of the project:

The film centers on Ishbo (Rifkin), a philosophical caveman who loves Fardart (Larter), but she only has eyes for Ishbo’s studly, dimwitted brother, Thudnik (MacArthur). Carradine and Shire will play Ishbo’s parents, while Arnold will play Rog, a gay caveman.

Ummm… yeahhhhhhh. Is it just me? Do some of you think this actually sounds any good? If so… why?

I like Carradine… but only in certain roles, so his presence doesn’t really do anything for me in a concept like this one. Oh well… I guess it’s like anything else…. we’ll just have to wait and see.

Audio Edition - November 23rd 2005

Today on the Audio Edition Doug and I discuss the new “Hottest Moms In Hollywood” list that just came out, the BitTorrent agreement with the MPAA (that’s actually kind of interesting), the new Tristan and Isolde trailer, and me begging you… the listeners of the Audio Edition for your suggestions for the show and the site.

You can download this installment of The Audio Edition here

To subscribe to the podcast of The Audio Edition on iTunes copy this link and then paste it into iTunes-Advanced-Subscribe to Podcast.

SHOW NOTES: ** This is important. The Audio Edition is meant to be conversational… and it’s your turn to be involved in that conversation. Use the comments section of The Audio Editions to post YOUR show notes. Thoughts you had about the topics… interesting links to things related to the topics. Share your thoughts and links with the rest of us to keep the conversation going. The “show notes” are now yours to write!**

DVD Review: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be

BretHart.jpgThere are a few things that have come out of Canada that I as a proud American have grown to love living so close to the boarder. Pooteenes (french fries with gravy and cheese), all nude strip clubs, SCTV, B.C’s, The Tragically Hip, of course The Movie Blog and wrestler Bret Hart.

Growing up I must admit that I was a wrestling fan and I do continue to show a moderate amount of interest in what is going on in the world of professional wrestling. Recently the WWE has been releasing large scale box sets filled with documentaries, matches and features surrounding the top wrestling personalities of then and now. Just the other week the WWE released Bret “Hitman” Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be, a full featured retrospective of the Hitman’s career. So in celebration of Thanksgiving and a belated Remembrance Day for all the Canadians, here’s my review of the DVD covering one of the greatest -if not the greatest- Canadian wrestler; Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

As wrestling DVD’s go -and I can’t believe I’m reviewing wrestling DVD’s- this one will not disappoint. For all the Canadian Movie Blog readers who are into wrestling this story should strike your nerves even more than others. The multi disk box set contains a 3 hour documentary on the life and career of the excellence of execution hailing from Calgary, Bret Hart. Not being that learned on the average up bringing of a wrestler, it’s interesting to see how Bret grew up in a wrestling family, his trials in the independent circuits, as tag team champ with the Heart Foundation, the multiple world championship victories and finally his embarrassing termination in Montreal Canada during a Wrestlemania. The documentary is filled with interviews with colleagues, family and Vince McMahon discussing the screw job which ended Hart’s stay in the then WWF.

There are a number of touching moments in the documentary, during Bret’s career he has had to deal with the deaths of close friends and family. Good friend “Mr Perfect” Curt Henning died while working alongside Bret in the WCW and even more tragic, Bret’s brother Owen Hart died repelling from the roof top in a WWE show. The interviews during these times in his life are very touching and you’ll get chills watching the tribute matches that followed -hey their wrestlers what do you want-.

Following the documentary, the box set contains 3 or 4 additional DVD’s archiving each match fought by the Hitman in both the WWF and WCW -McMahan owns everything-. This is very special for wrestling fans. It was truly great to see some classic matches from my youth, characters that I grew up watching not only in the WWF but also as cartoons and movie stars -Roddy Piper was always my favorite, remember They Live?-.

All in all a must grab for any Canadian or wrestling fan. Just $25.99 USD or $150.00 CAD. Check it out and let me know what you think aye.

Extra: If you are a wrestling fan, who was (or is) your favorite wrestler of all time?

Hollywoods sexiest Mums!

DeniseRichards.jpgOh this one is important, this has to be one of the Top Lists we’ve had to date. The sexiest Mums in Hollywood!

Funnily it’s produced by BANG Media…ahem…and it’s through eircom.net, yes, that’s what I said.

So who’s on the list? More importantly who’s number one? (Please don’t sing).

10. Sarah Jessica Parker
9. Gwyneth Paltrow
8. Courteney Cox
7. Heidi Klum
6. Kelly Ripa
5. Britney Spears
4. Kate Hudson
3. Angelina Jolie
2. Reese Witherspoon

Woah, just a minute, Witherspoon at 2? Spears sexy at 5?…I doubt she’s sexy at any hour of the day right now! So who is at the top spot?

1. Denise Richards

Oh yeah baby…flubber, blubber, wibble…Sorry, I have lost the use of my hands.

Pirates of the Carribean 2 Trailer

POTCDeadMansChest.jpgIt’s very small, but it’s still viewable, it’s the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest trailer, and it’s online.

Thanks to Redcon11 who posted the comment on the story about Disney removing the spoilers from the Internet, we’ve just seen it over at The Black Pearl Racing site.

If you want you can engage in learning about Disney’s crazy stunt to waste more movie money on racing a real Pirate ship and then blame it on Movie Pirates - oh, isn’t that a bit ironic? - then you can, otherwise select The Movie from the top right of the very cool green navigation bar, and it’ll start straight away.

I reckon it looks exciting and as tongue in cheek as the first. Thoughts? If you can see that small!

Update: 05/12/2005
For those of you still searching, the trailer is over at Yahoo.

Rocky 6 Has A New Son

Milo VentimigliaFor all you folks looking forward to Rocky 6 (I still don’t know) this little bit of news has come down the pipe. As you know (or maybe you don’t) in Rocky 5, Rocky’s son was played by Sylvester Stallone’s real-life child Sage Stallone.

But not in Rocky 6. In the newest installment of the Rocky Balboa series, Milo Ventimiglia will play the new Balboa Jr. Probably a good move to get an actual actor to play the role… but I wonder if Stallone just got himself taken off his son’s Christmas Card list?

Tristan And Isolde Trailer

Tristan And IsoldeThe new Tristan And Isolde trailer has hit the web… and I’m sorrily disappointed in it.

Tristan And Isolde has a few things going for it right off the bat. First is a terrific young leading cast with Sophia Myles (who was hot as lava in Underworld) and who I say will be the next Brad Pitt in a few years James Franco (Harry in Spider-Man). Not to mention a killer source story:

This longtime dream project of executive producers Tony Scott and Ridley Scott explores the medieval legend of a princess and warrior’s love affair, which threatens to tear apart an uneasy peace between England and Ireland. A tale of epic battles, royal intrigue and a timeless, star-crossed passion

The problem is that the Tristan And Isolde trailer fails to impress. Not to mention it employs one of the MOST ANNOYING habits… using modern rock anthem music for a age (or period) piece film. I like Eveanesence and everything… but not in a trailer for a film like this. Yuk.

This obviously has no bearing on if the film will be any good or not… but the trailer is a wash as far as I’m concerned. You can see the Tristan And Isolde trailer here.

BitTorent Movies To Be Removed

bittorrentLooks like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America has reached an agreement with Bram Cohen (the developer of the BitTorrent P2P program).

The good folks over at CBS give us the following:

The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to remove links to pirated versions of movies from his Web site, bittorrent.com, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films. The agreement calls for BitTorrent to remove Web links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The agreement means bittorrent.com will comply with procedures outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Cohen’s site will not prevent links to illegal files from being posted. But after a studio complains about the file, BitTorrent will notify the offending computer owner and remove the link from its search engine.

The agreement represents the latest effort by the entertainment industry to discourage illegal Internet downloads. It also demonstrates Cohen’s sensitivity toward Hollywood’s piracy problems, making him potentially more attractive to studios for future deals related to movie downloads.

The last part is the rub. This deal probably sets up the framework for the MPAA to use BitTorrent (or a modified version of it) as a future platform for distributing online content. Maybe not a bad move.

I generally think the MPAA is run by a bunch of idiots… but give credit where credit is due. Any idea that has the MPAA try to fight piracy by WORKING WITH people (like in this instance) instead of blindly prosecuting their market base fans is a good idea. Will this solve the problem? No way… but it’s one step… and a good one I think.

Pirates of the Carribean 3 spoilers banned

potc23.jpgDisney has been hard at work it seems. When we posted about the magically vanishing script review of the Pirates of the Carribean movies the script had just been taken offline by Latino Review after some Disney pressure. Despite that the story had leaked and Disney was hot on its heels.

Even over at Cinematical they have felt its heat. They posted a few short paragraphs on the topic of script review after catching a glimpse before it was removed, and in it were a few spoilers. So today Disney comes knocking and asks for their removal. Fair enough really, and it seems a nice enough request.

My name is [deleted] and I work with Disney on the film releases. As you know, Latino Review posted a review of the POTC 3 script earlier this week. They have since removed the review and we have been working to get it removed from other sites, as well. I saw that you are hosting the review…Is it possible for you to remove it? We are very sensitive to surprises from the 2nd and 3rd films to be ruined for fans.

It’s a nice enough email, but the followup conversation may have been a little harsher.

A brief follow up correspondence with Disney indicated to us that not only is it “possible” for us to remove it, it is in fact imperative.

Oh well, if you’re lucky enough to find the spoilers, and you want to read them, then go ahead and leap in. Yet is this any different from the hundred and one rumours around the net day to day?

Jeremy Irons in Formula 1 movie

F1-Coulthard.jpgTake this with a pinch of salt as I’ve seen some wild rumours through this source, but some have turned out to be true. Apparently there’s a new Formula 1 movie coming called Monaco 2 - I hope that’s provisional - and looks set to star Jeremy Irons and Monica Bellucci.

There’s been talk of a movie of Jacques Villeneuve the famous Canadian F1 racer, but not much else, and that’s a shame, because if you look at the sport it has everything you could want for a movie.

The fastest cars, the most dangerous sport, the most controversial and political, team and driver fighting (including physical) on and off the track, corruption, gorgeous women (and men), and fast cars - did I say that already? Oh, not to mention the billions in the sport and the huge advertising from it. Isn’t that a dream for movie makers?

I remember Le Mans with Steve McQueen andGrand Prix with James Garner, classics both of them. Then there’s the flip side…Driven by the Harlin-meister.

I do think this is a largely untapped area for movies, but you really do have to capture the feel of Le Mans and Grand Prix more than anything else. The story from Ananova:

Irons and the former Matrix actress will share the screen in the £2.3 million Monza 2 - set to be filmed in Italy, Serbia and in London. Director Luigi Perelli said the movie would have steamy sex scenes but refused to say whether they would involve Irons, 57 and Belucci, 41. The film will also feature sexy Italian TV stars Sabrina Ferilli and Ines Sastre.

Woo…So babes and sex. Ermm, what did I just say about capturing the feel? Oh dear. Isn’t Irons too tall to play Ecclestone?

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