The character of Psylocke is reported to be added to the already overweight band of characters in X-Men 3.

According to reports all over the web, and this one caught from The Hollywood Reporter through Coming Soon (because we always credit our sources), the baddie mutant will be played by…

…Filipina actress Mei Melancon, who previously worked with “X3″ director Brett Ratner in Rush Hour 2.

Psylocke, who has had several incarnations in the Marvel comic book series, is best known for her fighting and telepathic skills as well as an ability to transport herself and others through shadows.

Is this cast just growing too big? Are we going to see loads of mutants and no real depth to any of them, or is it going to focus on a few mutants with many more on the outside to make up the numbers for the big scenes? I hope the latter, and so far the character choices for appearances have been good. What do you think?

So Google are expanding even further and their founders are financing a movie called Broken Arrows.

According to Boing Boing the movie is costing under $1m and the website for the movie gives the tagline of…

…A story of love and a struggle over the virtues of free will versus destiny. It follows the journey of Reese, who becomes a hitman after he loses his wife and unborn child, as he confronts the forces of love, faith, and destiny.

BB coin an interesting phrase, rather than say it’s the official website they coin the phrase mlog for a movie blog. I like that because more and more we see Blogs used as promotional tools rather than as a Blog, and giving movie sites which follow a blog format their own name helps differentiate them. Mainly because the majority of them aren’t what they claim to be at all, neither a Blog or written by anyone outside the marketing department! This one looks like the real deal though and has some interesting posts, unfortunately the feed isn’t working for me.

The 25Mb MOV trailer is also on the site and looks quite interesting. From it you should recognise a few faces, Lori Petty and Peter Quartaroli are a couple I did straight off.

What do you think?

The official website for Underworld: Evolution is online and is packed with goodies with photos, screensaver, wallpapers, icons, multiplayer game, and all sorts of other marketing ploys.

The site is over at Sony Pictures through Coming Soon, and actually has some good photos, including some cool creature shots. There’s the trailer as well so it has more use than a marketing store!

Call me a bit cynical, but I get bored of these sites popping up for every movie. They’re usually highly over developed (as this one is with all the noises and delaying animations) and contain just the same old stuff for every movie. At least they haven’t started a Blog written by the marketing team…I mean one of the crew.

This is totally ridiculous and takes the idea of adapting an idea to a movie to ridiculous proportions. Creating a movie of the videogame PacMan is a good idea as making my left nostril into a thriller. Yet it’s happening.

From Digital Spy comes the story that the Independent studio Crystal Sky are planning the stupendous move. When you see what else they have on their books you might just understand why.

Also in development by Crystal Sky are adaptations of beat-’em-up Tekken and Castlevania, the latter being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the filmmaker responsible for Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil being brought to the big screen.

Explain a lot? It actually makes Tekken and Castlevania look positively plot rich! I guess it does mean cheap CGI.

Katie Leung who appeared briefly in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a nominee for the Outstanding Newcomer Award in the 2006 Asian Excellence Awards.

Now I can understand that this award ceremony is only for Asians so that narrows the field in the Newcomer category, but surely not to the point that it would pick out an actress who has appeared so briefly onscreen. No matter how many people have now seen her on a big screen, her part could hardly be described as expansive enough to show her acting talents surely? I think a lot of this is down to her perceived screen time in the next movie and not so much what she has done.

Of course I could be wrong, perhaps the choices for Asian newcomer were pretty low this year, I’m not sure, but I can’t see that her short performance was enough to impress. Mind you, she is very cute! From Cinematical.

Rember we talked about that Scottish Knight Rider Kung Fu movie called Night Rider? Well you can now catch a trailer and also purchase it online direct from the man himself.

Ara Paiaya is selling copies of his new movie on Sublime through his own site. Very cheap too at only £9.99 or $24.99 postage paid. (There’s a nice little advert).

Want to see what you’re paying for? Well you can see the Night Driver trailer downloadable from Sublime at 6.5Mb in WMV format, as well as a trailer for his previous trilogy Dubbed and Dangerous, which is also in WMV and comes in at 4.1Mb.

Both look pretty cool with some very smart stunts (note Hollywood, no reliance on extreme close-ups, shaking cameras and fast edits here), and some very recognisable Aberdeen locations! Oh, memories! I have to hand it to Paiaya, I am surprised at the trailers, especially for Night Rider. What do you think?

When thinking about all the films this year that actually qualify to be considered for the Best Picture award at the Oscars this year (over 300 films are in the running), I got to wondering about what actual standards a movie has to meet to be considered.

I came across this interesting little article by Reuters that actually outlines the criteria a movie has to meet in order to be considered for grand Oscar glory. It’s actually a little easier than I thought:

According to Academy rules, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes in order to qualify for consideration and have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or a qualifying digital format. A film must open in a commercial theatre for paid admission in Los Angeles County between January 1, 2005, and midnight December 31, 2005, and run for seven days in a row. Films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any other media, such as TV or video, are not eligible for any Academy Awards.

Now, as Richard has pointed out earlier, different categories will have some different criteria (animated, foreign, documentary, ect.), but in general this is the standard. Meet this, and you could be walking down the red carpet.

We already talked about the possible Sound of Music remake, well there’s another remake rumour concerning a Julie Andrews movie, this time it’s Mary Poppins and by Steven Spielberg no less.

The rumour comes from The New Zealand Herald.

But Steven Spielberg’s next production could be considerably more sugary.

The 59-year-old director/producer is apparently eyeing the ever-popular musical Mary Poppins for a Hollywood remake.

Richard Eyre, the former head of the National Theatre in London and director of the blockbuster West End musical based on the 1964 Disney film, has revealed that he has been in talks with Spielberg over a new film version.

He goes on to say that there have been quite a few talks between the two groups, and that the stage version running in London just now has been extremely successful and is scheduled to head to Broadway next. This time though it doesn’t seem that there would be a US cast, thankfully!

Casting begins shortly, and Sir Richard has admitted that he hopes to take the British cast with him. “The studio will use the success of the Broadway show to decide whether to use the British cast for the film. But I would hope to use as much of the West End cast as possible and keep Mary English rather than have a big American star name,” Sir Richard said.

Well there’s something, fake English accents would be bad! I actually think this could be good news, bringing the stage show to the screen and with a hefty backing behind it, I’d quite like this, you?

So the Weinsteins bought the rights to the huge Chinese movie The Promise and then there was scary talk that the Weinsteins had decided to request huge cuts in the movie to make it more acceptable to the US audience (I think that means dumbing down) well now word is that they are scrapping the idea of releasing it at all!

According to The Hollywood Reporter the rights have reverted back and although it will still complete its short US run for the Oscars it won’t get a proper release just yet.

“Promise,” which is China’s submission in the foreign language Academy Award category, still will open as scheduled Friday at the Laemmle Fairfax 3 in Los Angeles for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run so that it also will be eligible in other categories, producer Etchie Stroh said. Beyond that, Stroh said, he plans to meet with other distributors next week in hopes of securing a new North American distributor. Both sides said that the decision to part ways was amicable.

Sure it was, nothing to do with the Weinsteins trying to cut the movie to shreds!

Okay, apologies for being late with this especially to those in LA. Apparently Kingdom of Heaven was recut by the Director and shown in an LA cinema on December 24th, and it was recut with 45 extra minutes!

All is not lost though, the story from Cinematical suggests that we’re going to be looking forward to a DVD release of this Directors Cut.

Scott’s director’s cut…adds a staggering 45 minutes to the 145 minute film,

That’s stunning, a 230 minute version, that’s almost 4 hours! I never saw the original and it didn’t do well on a cinematic release, however it did much better on its DVD release. Surely the studio wouldn’t release a Directers edition so quickly after releasing the standard DVD? Yeah…expect it soon.

There’s a new clip for the horror Tamara online, and like the guys at Cinematical I was thinking this might be some campy horror fun, after seeing the clip I’m still convinced as the level of gore is tame and quite, well, silly, as is the acting of the teacher.

The clip can be found over at JoBlo through Cinematical and is introduced by the female lead Jenna Dewan, nice.

Although the setup is qute interesting and the idea that he’s being controlled is intruiging, the scene has a lot of comic value despite the excessive watered down tomato sauce. Then there’s the reaction from that teacher…actually this might be quite camp after all.

Yes, it’s the less than inspiring first photo for the Lady in the Water movie from M. Night Shyamalan, and it’s the Lady herself.

The picture is over at the site Movies Info through Movies Online. Hardly inspiring and mysterious as the guys suggest, it’s just a woman standing by the pool. Hardly a revelation. See what you think.

Amazingly, despite the efforts of the people behind the Star Trek franchise, this series has come out tops in a poll on viewers most missed TV series.

Conducted by UK interactive TV firm Home Media Networks and reaching out to 1,000 viewers it shows a surprising side to the official line of why Enterprise was axed. The BBC say it was axed for poor ratings, and yet this straw poll suggests otherwise, and quite frankly we all know otherwise. Poor scheduling and advertising was really to blame, the show was pretty damn good.

The rest of the top ten looks like this:

1. Star Trek
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. Friends
4. Fawlty Towers
5. Blake’s 7
6. The X-Files
7. Babylon 5
8. Stargate
9. Seinfeld
10. The A-Team

It’s obvious this is a UK survey from a few of the entries. Who wouldn’t love to see a new Blake’s 7 show, or perhaps movie? Do you fancy movie versions of any of these? A few are rumoured.

Pictures from the set of the new The Wicker Man movie are now online, and boy do they make me think even less of this movie. Totally changed from the original I’m now looking more at something out of a western than anything. The picture to the left is the original The Wicker Man by the way.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in the rumours coming out about this movie, and now we actually see something I’m not lifted out of that unhappiness much.

The original was superb, and the reported plans for this movie are spelling disaster. I keep hoping something will change my mind, but not so far.

Take a look at the pictures at Mike Browne’s Blog through Up Coming Horror Movies and Coming Soon. What do you think?

The news is not that good I’m afraid, but there is going to be a huge shake-up of region coding which means the move from the current seven regions to three or four. This benefits the US most of all, as it would, allowing them access to Asian movies and games straight from the shelf.

From Gamers Reports through Engadget comes the news:

Though Warner was eager to abolish region code and there were no objection until the final decision, film companies not in AACS LA opposed it and it was decided that region code stays in BD-ROM. But it undergoes reorganization. Basically, Japan and other East Asian countries except for China are moved to Region 1. The new region codes are

Region 1: North America, South America, East Asia except for China (India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)
Region 2: Europe and Africa
Region 3: China, Russia and other countries

Okay, this is a step in the right direction and great news for all those in Region 1. Now you can have direct access to Asian imports of Blu-Ray discs, and that will mean PS3 and DVD’s. However the news remains the same for those in Europe and the rest of the World, we’re still unfairly restricted against importing cheaper and more feature rich products.

What do you think of all this? I suspect if you’re in region 1 already you’ll be delighted, region 2 just as hacked off as ever. Or you might not care about regionalisation at all. Frankly I still hope for the removal of all regions on DVD’s and Game systems.
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As we’ve been talking about for some time here on The Movie Blog, it looks like it’s pretty much in stone that there will indeed be a new Conan movie coming our way in 2007. Just don’t expect to see Arnold in the role again.

The good folks over at MovieHole give us the following:

Warners’ Production President Jeff Robinov tells Hollywood North Report that the studio has plans for a “Conan 3” and “is committed to producing the film within the next year.”

Robinov tells the site that the new “Conan” - which many suspect will feature a new star and not original swordswinger Arnold Schwarzenegger - will be a big-budget tentpoler.

“I love the character,” Robinov, who is going back to the original Robert E. Howard stories for inspiration, said. “You have to get to the core of who the Conan character was.”

Personally, I love the idea of a new Conan film, and I’m totally fine with the notion of a new actor taking up the big steel. But I know there are others out there who think Arnold IS Conan, and that any Conan film without him is herasy. I’m not one of those people.

So what do you think? Do you:

1) Not care if a new Conan film is made?
2) Love the idea with or without Arnold?
3) Love the idea but ONLY if Arnold is the man once again?

Give us your thoughts.

Looks like the Academy decided that they’re host this year should be Billy Crystal. Not a bad decision… but as it turns out Billy Crystal said “no thanks”. It’s not because he’s not interested in doing the show again… but this is a really busy time for him.

According to MSNBC, the actor/comedian is right in the middle of getting his 1 man stage show “700 Sundays” ready which opens in Los Angeles next month, as well as preparing to direct another film and is in the midst of writing a book. The dude just doesn’t have the time.

So this raises the question… who should host the Oscars this year? Dear God please don’t let it be Ellen (as some of you may know I really hate the idea of a non-movie industry person hosting the biggest night in the movie industry… call me crazy. Not to mention I think that lady is seriously over-rated).

We all love lists, mostly because we get to rip other people’s opinions, but still we love them. The good folks over at DVD Talk have just released their list of the Top 10 Hollywood mainstream DVD releases of 2005. I don’t totally agree with the order of the list… but it is an interesting one nonetheless and sure to spark some discussion.

So read over the list and leave your thoughts in the comments section about what you thought about it. What shouldn’t have been on there? What should have been there that wasn’t? My short thoughts are in the brackets. So now, here’s the list:

1) Serenity (Nice to see this hit the #1 spot)

2) Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated (meh, I wasn’t as impressed with this as most people… but LOVED the original film)

3) Cinderella Man (Still in my opinion the Best Film of 2005 hands down)

4) Star Wars - Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Love or hate the new films, no one does a DVD like LucasFilm does)

5) Titanic - Collector’s Edition (I have to admit there are some GREAT new features on this otherwise boring film)

6) Batman Begins (One of my favorite films of 2005, but not thrilled with the DVD release)

7) The Incredibles (In my opinon, the best overall film on this whole list)

8) Frighteners - Special Edition (Peter Jackson getting some hidesight love)

9) Overnight, Murderball and Tell Them Who You Are (a threeway tie for docs)

10) Sideways (Once again… great film… but I wasn’t blown away by the DVD)

So there you have it. Your thoughts?

The new Mel Gibson Apocalypto trailer hit the web a few days ago. To be honest I was a little surprised to see it online already. It feels as if they just started filming. But here it is in all it’s glory, and I don’t mind telling you I just LOVED the Apocalypto trailer.

Like most first trailers, the Apocalypto trailer doesn’t really give too much about plot or story away, but what it lacks in information it totally makes up for in pure visual imagery. This a beautiful trailer to look at. It’s colorful, vast, alien and enchanting. It’s just a gorgeous piece of film to look at. The IMDB describes Apocalypto as:

An action/adventure film set 600 years ago, prior to the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America, where a man goes on a perilous journey to save his idyllic world.

Say what you want about Mel Gibson (the guy looks like he’s totally gone off his rocker), the man isn’t afriad to make the films other people are terrified of making. He’s taking risks for the sake of his art, and putting up his own money to do it. Apocalypto looks no different.

To see the Apocalypto trailer you can go here.

The new Steven Soderbergh film “Bubble” trailer has hit the web. I won’t lie to you… this Bubble trailer is a strange little piece of footage. The long and the short of it is that it’s a minute of random shots of various doll heads. No really… that’s it. Doll heads. The Bubble trailer is a minute of dolls heads. Knock yourself out.

Now granted, it’s just meant to be a little teaser trailer. But having said that… this trailer actually subtracted my interest in seeing the film. Marketing is a funny creature sometimes.

The synopsis of Bubble goes like this:

Residents of a small town in Ohio puzzle out the details of a murder which took place at the local toy factory.

Ok, so that explains the endless amounts of doll heads… but it’s still stupid.

The real interesting thing about Bubble is that it’s undertaking an interesting little experiment. You see, as we previously talked about, Bubble is going to be released in theaters AND on DVD on the SAME DAY. Personally I think this is a brilliant move. It may not work… but it’s certainly worth the try. The only problem is that if the film sucks… it won’t really matter either way. And this trailer isn’t doing the film any favours.

To see the Bubble trailer you can just go here.

There’s not much from the Director Uwe Boll, but more than I thought considering the change in German Tax Laws meant he’d have to find lot’s more money that’s non returnable for his movies. Still Postal, Far Cry and Hitman look like they are moving on with him at the helm. God help the videogame adaptations.

Let me pick out the more interesting quotes from the article over at Creature Corner through Dark Horizons. Some of these should make you giggle! Oh, and I use the direct quotes, I haven’t changed anything!

In Bloodrayne, you’ve got your highest-profiled cast to date. How did you get all these great actors interested?: they loved the script

If you could remake any one movie or franchise, what would it be?: Jaws

Any info on the film version of Postal?: i write the script right now

And is it true that Gary Coleman will reprise his role from the game?: yes

What’s going on with the rights to Hitman?: hoefully vin diesel is contacting me soon

Far Cry?: full financed, we go for THE ROCK or Jason Stham

Do you anticipate the change in German tax law next year to effect your ability to continue to get films financed?: the next three are financed

Oh dear god.

So we were right when we said we hardly believed the story of another Back to the Future being on, although don’t be so quick. Word is out that although it was a misquote from the original source, it looks like there might be a push for a fourth movie after all.

From JoBlo, BTTF are putting a nail in the head of the rumour right now…mixing metaphors but who cares! Yet there’s more (not metaphors!…

According to BTTF.com, Universal recently started a division called “Universal DVD Originals” and when Universal Home Entertainment president Craig Kornblau was asked about whether they’d consider doing a sequel under the UDO banner, he said “We are looking at it!!!!” Of course, Kornblau may have just been pandering to our geek hearts or the quote was simply said in jest to get a rise out of whoever was asking but if it is true…

So there is some possibility that there could be a fourth, however I don’t see Fox getting involved. As you all pointed out his health doesn’t really permit him to shoot a full length movie. Although he was fantastic in his Scrubs appearances you could see the change in him and the trouble he was having, I suspect the shooting was heavily scheduled around him, and that wouldn’t work on a major film unless it was a bit part. So a sequel without him? Nah, not for me.

This story on the best movie orgasms seems close to the real thing, but not quite there. It’s surprising to know that what you thought would be number one isn’t.

From Yes But No Yes through Cinematical…

10. Jennifer Anniston in Bruce Almighty
9. Jane Fonda in Barbarella
8. Gina Davis in Thelma & Louise
7. Ben Stiller in There’s Something About Mary
6. Woody Allen in Sleeper
5 Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet
4. Woody Allen in Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex
3. Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein
2. Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally
1. Shirley MacLaine in Being There

Let’s say for the sake of this post that the movies produced by the Adult Movie Industry are excluded, and we’re just looking mainstream movies (as they say in the original list). Do you think these shape up as the top ten? I’m far from convinced, although I’ve not seen them all I would say that an orgasm would mean you actually reach one, (well in the acting sense anyway) so Number 2 is acceptable, but is Number 4 a stretch? What do you think, does this list do it for you?

Pure and simple, Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Even if you take away all of the religious and social significance of the holiday, Christmas, more than any other time of the year, really makes me appreciate all the of people in my life who make it richer.

Take time this holiday season to make sure you tell those who are important to you that they are indeed important to you. Take an extra 5 minutes to nap, the extra minute to hug that aunt, the extra serving of turkey, the time to call your mom and dad, the effort to connect with friends you haven’t seen or spoken to in a while… do it all… and be richer for it.

To all of you, Movie Blog readers, I’d like to say “THANK YOU”. Thank you for giving me a place to talk about my favorite topic (the movies) and for talking back. For giving me the gift of conversation and ideas, of debate and discussion. For all of this, I thank you. You guys are all great, and I appreciate the fact that you take time out of your day to come over here and participate in the conversation with us. You’re the best.

So Merry Christmas… and to quote one of my favorite holiday films… “May God bless us, every one”.

~John

Let me drop my festive greetings and good wishes to you all too. Have a great time with the family and friends, and remember to treasure everything you have and everything you receive. Eat well, drink well, leave ill feelings alone, and let the people that you care about know.

Have a Merry Xmas, and a wonderful New Year. Here’s to seeing you all next year.

~Richard

Two trailers of remakes have just gone live today, the more anticipated The Hills Have Eyes and the not so anticipated When a Stranger Calls.

Neither I can look at, although this is my last day at work before the holidays, but you sure can. So take a look and let us know. I’d be particularly interested in the trailer for Hills, so get viewing and get commenting.

The Hills trailer is from Apple, and the Stranger trailer is from Yahoo through Coming Soon.

The first reviews of the movie Munich are coming out, and they appear to be saying great things. We caught one over at our friends Twitch and it’s a very deep and insightful one.

This is a very violent film with a high body count. The killings are graphic and often brutal, sometimes even demeaning. Perhaps most surprising element in all of this is the blatant commentary Spielberg makes late in the film, linking the primal act of murder with sexual climax while at the same time keeping it personally relevant for the characters in question…Whether you agree with the underlying point of the film or not, you will still be struck nonetheless by some its many other observed truths and observations made along the way.

It’s worth a read if you’re interested in this movie. You know we’ll have a review out as soon as we see it too.

Over at Yahoo movies through Movies Online they also have four clips of the film itself for you to gaze over.

I’m excited about seeing this movie, I think it promises a lot and is sounding like it’s actually going to deliver.

Channel 4 has produced their latest top 100, and although it’s yet to finish onscreen (the final half is shown tonight on UK TV) we can now reveal who the winner is. Who the Channel 4 viewers have voted the top family film…

Thanks to The Scotsman we can reveal that the Channel 4 top family film is…

E.T.

Did you guess? I don’t think there’s any real surprises there, although I believe that the journey has been littered with some surprising results. I’ll let you know when the full list is online and what the top ten is, but what would you have voted in there?

Funny how we just posted on your favourite DVD extra, and news just out from a recent survey of consumers by Universal Studios Home Entertainment shows that their favourite DVD extras are none other than alternate endings.

From Yahoo News:

New Line Home Entertainment executive vp Matt Lasorsa, whose studio pioneered putting alternate endings on DVD with “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” in 1999, likes them because they provide “an inside look at how studios test movies.”

Well I don’t totally agree with that sentiment, I think it does provide for an insight into the choices of the execs and the creatives behind the movie, it’s not really showing how they test them. I’d actually love to know that and why they end up making so many bad decisions.

The ending of Hide and Seek is a perfect example of that, the cinematic ending is good but not half as strong as a couple of the twisted alternate endings provided on the DVD (thanks to Caroline for lending me that one).

Still I do like seeing them, I’m a big fan of extras, but for me it’s definitely the Audio Commentary that wins out. Not only do you often get great insights into the movie, but you can benefit from seeing it a second, or third, time.

For a number of years I was a toy collector. I know this is a geekish thing, they even label the 40 Year Old Virgin a toy collector, but it was a fun hobby while I was activly collecting. For a few years I haven’t bought a toy but I still stay on top of all the new releases and some of the cooler items that hit the shelves.

Kevin Smith and company have a bunch of swag on their site View Askew. The creation of “Inaction” figures a few years back gave us figures from his popular movies. Now the newest line of Inaction figures are going to be from Chasing Amy -my favorite film by Smith-. Banky Edwards, Holden McNeil, Alyssa Jones, Hooper X and the Tracer Guy will all be in this new line of toys due to hit the site in June and the store shelves probably shortly after.

The toys look pretty good, you can see a picture of them after the jump, or click here.
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The next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series could be closer than a lot of people thought. Prince Caspian is now rumoured to be targeting a Christmas 2007 release date. This really shouldn’t be surprising news to anyone since The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has been even more successful than anyone at Disney even projected (as of this writing it’s already made over $200 million world wide with no signs of slowing down heading into Christmas).

For those of you who don’t know much about Prince Caspian, here’s a short synopsis from Amazon:

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensey, the heroes and heroines from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, return in this fourth installment of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. The four children are transported from an English train station to an island in the world of Narnia. Though Narnia has been at peace since the children left, it is now under the control of Wicked King Mirax. The youngsters, along with Aslan the great lion, must help young Prince Caspian restore Narnia’s glorious past.

As I mentioned in a previous Audio Edition, I actually preferred (by a little bit) The Chronicles of Narnia over King Kong. But as much as I liked Narnia, there is room for improvement. I’d be very interested in seeing Prince Caspian, and have little to no doubt that this thin will get made… and made fast. As a matter of fact I’d be totally shocked if we didn’t see Prince Caspian in theaters by Christmas 2007. Any longer than that would be a missed opportunity.

Unfortunately it’s not full movies yet, just screeners for the Industry. Fox is planning not to send out DVD’s anymore to people (like us) who receive pre-release copies of movies for review anymore because they blame us for copying them and placing them on the Internet for others to download.

The story is from Cinematical. Quite frankly I think it’s about time. So here I am reviewing small independent movies and the Directors are cutting copies and sending them to me. Now I think that’s fantastic that I’m getting free movies and the chance to review them for loads of people, but what about the cost and hassle to the smaller movie makers? Surely it would be easier if they could distribute them on the Internet? Well yes it would be, but let’s face it, it’s only going to be the big distribution Studio’s that are going to be able to afford the costs of the distribution system on the Internet. The small independents, who should be using the Net, won’t be able to afford anything other than standard file sharing.

Anyway, overall it’s a good thing, it’ll save them costs anyway and hopefully that will be reflected to us cinema goers…not a chance…still, I think it’s a good step in the direction of Internet distribution full stop.

There’s a downside to this though, think of the reviewer who might be watching your movie to review it at home on a nice Home Cinema system with digital sound and a big screen. Now they’re going to be reduced to a small monitor, showing differing degrees of picture qualities, and possibly nothing better than free stereo speakers provided with the PC…for me that means I’m reviewing a hugely inferior quality product to a DVD screener.

Back to the piracy arguement…this is surely making it easier for people to distribute? Download straight to your PC and straight into your fileshare directory (if you were to do such things)…Yeah, lot easier!

The trailer for Horrors of War is now online at their official site, along with photos from the shoot which completed on December the 1st.

Feeling the pressure from Allied advance, Hitler unleashes his secret weapons. This movie follows a wayward soldier during World War II in the European theatre as the O.S.S. sends him to investigate Hitler’s arsenal of experiments.

…is how the official site describes it, and although I can’t see this trailer just now, I saw one some time ago and it looked pretty freaky. The official site has allsorts of goodies on it from the official trailer to online clips, behind the scenes and the photo gallery. Wads to feast your eyes on.

Thanks to Movies Online for the heads up.

I know we’ve featured this before, but now here is the trailer in all the Quicktime glory.

You can catch it over at the Apple trailer site in the usual sizes including X-Large and iPod formats.