Here’s the thing… I think this G.I. Joe movie is going to be just ass awful. But holy crap man I’ve got to admit, this is one sweet ass trailer they’ve put together for the Superbowl. Check it out:

Batman is the master of 9 martial arts, a chemist, a biologist and the World’s Greatest Detective. Dedicating yourself to so many fields you could just imagine how many other skills fell to the wayside.

With the release of DC Vs Mortal Kombat, it is no surprise Bats would want to play. Check out the video of Batman playing with himself:

I also hear he cannot knit, and though Alfred explained it a number of times he still doesn’t get Backgammon.

If there was a hall of fame for all time great “guy” movies, then somewhere on the top floor there would have to be a spot reserved for Bloodsport. No, not any of the bastard Jean-Claude Van Damme-less sequels that crawled around… but the original masterpiece (yes… I said masterpiece) filled with splits, spinning back kicks, bandanna wielding bad asses and the biggest pecks I’ve ever seen on an Asian dude in my life (Bolo Yeung).

The mighty Jean-Claude Van Damme seems to be enjoying something of a resurgence with the success of JCVD… and with the success of films like Rocky and Rambo for Stallone it makes sense that Van Damme would want to go back to that which made him a star in the first place. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Jean-Claude Van Damme has announced that he is making a TRUE Bloodsport 2.

The folks over at TotalFilm give us this:

“You know, like, we’re gonna do Bloodsport 2,” he told us in a recent interview. “Which was my first movie. And I want to do it now in a very mature way, where the guy from Bloodsport is a complete bum, maybe abusing his son.”

“They told me, ‘No, no, no! You cannot make a movie in America where a father is abusing his son physically! It’s wrong.” “And you cannot be a guy on drugs doing karate and shit like that.’ I said, ’Why? Why? Tell me why.’ “It’s against the rules of success. But I believe the other rules of success. To show something real.”

I don’t know how I feel about Frank suddenly being a child abuser… but maybe it has something to do with the story he has in mind… I’ll give the mighty JCVD the benefit of the doubt for now.

International friend I cry tears of joy at the thought of a true Bloodsport 2. Ahhhh… so many memories. What is your reaction? Great? Who Cares? (Thanks to Henrik for the heads up)

International Friend Darek-T tipped me off to a new Fanboys Trailer online. Fanboys has been on my radar so long I was starting to wonder if it was just a mark on the screen, but in all its glory Fanboys is here.

I am surprised that Kristen Bell wasn’t featured more in the trailer, but also that the Cancer storyline wasn’t even hinted at (which we are promised will be their motivation). They are really pitching this as the edited version and saving the heart of the story for those who actually see it.

This looked far funnier than I could have hoped. I couldn’t have imagined being more excited about a movie but this has me so hyped.

Emily Blunt was set to star as the sexy Russian spy Black Widow (an eventual member of the Avengers) in Iron Man 2, but since Fox found it so much fun to remind other studios of their legal holdings, so they are calling in a marker on Blunt’s option to star in a movie with Jason Segel and Jack Black - Gulliver’s Travels.

According to the trades, Twentieth Century Fox is negotiating with Emily Blunt and Jason Segel to join Jack Black in “Gulliver’s Travels,” the Rob Letterman-directed reimagining of the classic Jonathan Swift tale.

Blunt had already been offered the role of Black Widow in “Iron Man 2,” but that may not be an option because of “Gulliver’s Travels.” Fox holds an option on the actress that was part of her deal when she co-starred in “The Devil Wears Prada,” and the studio may invoke it to see that she takes part in the giant tale.

Frankly I would sooner see Blunt take on the Black Widow role so I do hope she manages to find it in her schedule to handle both commitments.

And Fox already had a tough time proving they were not the badguys in the whole Watchmen debacle, and now they might rob Blunt of her opportunity at a key role in Marvel’s interwoven attempts at a crossover tying their products together.

If Blunt was giving up this opportunity for a bigger role, I might forgive the situation, but in a Jack Black comedy? I don’t want to sound insensitive but I think the Marvel films role has more potential. Black Widow role will likely lead to a role in Avengers and Avengers 2 or a spinoff Black Widow movie?

What does Gulliver’s Travels have to offer her?

A while back I talked about a short film simply called 9 that was being developed into a feature length film.

The look and feel of it is like a darker grittier version of the Playstation 3 game Little Big Planet, and I love the style.

A blogspot page seemingly just about this trailer shares:

9 is an upcoming sci-fi CGI animated movie created and directed by Shane Acker. It is co-produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov and animated by Attitude Studio (in Luxembourg) and by Starz Animation (in Toronto), with a few sequences done by Duncan Studios in LA. The film can boast a nice voice cast with: Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly and Crispin Glover. 9 will be released on September 9, 2009, yes; that’s 9.9.9!

This looks like it will capture all the wonder and fascination of the original short and bring it to a deserving full feature. I can hardly wait.

Shane Acker’s original film may have spoilers for the overall plot, but you can see it here

With the triumphant return of Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, years after their prime it was only a matter of time before we saw Stallone in an action role again. And we will see him in The Expendables but soon after that we could see him tying on the red bandana and tearing it up as Rambo again.

ComingSoon says:

Sylvester Stallone, who is preparing to shoot action-adventure The Expendables, told Extra that he’s planning to play John Rambo again.

“Yeah, we are doing another ‘Rambo,’ but the conflict is whether to do it in America or a foreign country,” said Stallone.

Personally, I think the Rambo story doesn’t need another chapter. I don’t mind seeing Stallone returning to his combat roots. Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing him in a comedy again.

But why bleed Rambo dry?

Here’s that segment they did on Attack of the Show about best movie blogs. If you don’t watch this… you’re stupider. Yes that right… you are stupider. So stupider that I can’t even describe it ;)

Nic Cage has signed on to star in the sequel to Ghost Rider. I was not surprised to hear they hadn’t made a sequel despite its modest success at the boxoffice. But now a year and a half later, they are moving ahead with another movie based on the biker from hell.

Bloody Disgusting offers:

It’s pretty shocking that it has taken this long for a sequel to get a move on, but finally Columbia Pictures is gearing up for GHOST RIDER 2, the sequel to the smash-hit comic book adaptation from 2007 that saw Nicolas Cage as a stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze who gives up his soul to become a hellblazing vigilante

Now I understand that this is purely a numbers game when they say “smash hit” since it did have a $45m opening weekend and a $229m worldwide gross compared to its $110m budget.

But critically this movie stunk it up. 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and blogs everywhere ripped this a new one.

So I can only presume that this is a financial decision to offer up another Ghost Rider and perhaps with the low expectation of the first one they can only do better right? Ok, I can just HOPE they do better.

I used to be a huge Cage fan, but he has more misses than hits now. At least we might hope to see more of Eva Mendez strutting angry in a slinky dress. That was worth the admission alone.

When Joaquin Phoenix quit acting I was disappointed. I enjoyed pretty much everything he has been in, so it was upsetting that he would be stepping away from the camera. I wonder what he has been up to lately?

Well it looks like we will have a chance to see what he has been doing. His career change is going to be the subject of Casey Affleck’s personal project.

Screen Rant offers up:

After Phoenix announced his retirement from acting people assumed it might have been a joke. Then he took the stage in Las Vegas and performed his act in front of a crowd. It was a stumbling, bumbling lackluster performance to say the least. And once it was over Phoenix fell off the sage and into the crowd.

Now it appears his apparent decent into madness might actually be a huge hoax or as I like to look at it, true method acting. Especially now that we know Joaquin’s brother-in-law, actor/filmmaker Casey Affleck is making a film documenting Phoenix’s career change.

Phoenix appears to be having a breakdown of Britney proportions but with only himself to embarass he isn’t getting a lot of attention for it. Check out that picture above. Clearly he wrote this on his fists without thinking about how that was going to work out. Positively brilliant.

I really hope that he sees this as a learning experience and actually focuses on succeeding at something other than fist decorating (that still needs work) but hopefully he will get back to acting.

Do anything you want Joaquin, just do it right.

With the economy scaring the pants off of everyone, even the studios are hedging their bets. Even the Chronicles of Narnia series faced inevitable obscurity as Disney announced that they didn’t think Voyage of the Dawn Treader would be worth the financial risk and cut it from their prospects.

However, fear not Naria fans! It seems that Fox has picked up the baton and intends to carry on the franchise without Disney.

MovieWeb says:

When Walt Disney Pictures left the project, Fox got the first chance to make The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader due to the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label. The label made the promise to make the project. The plan is for a 2010 release via the Fox Walden label.

Currently, there is a no budget and work is still being done on the script but the plan is for a 2010 release around the holidays. It will come out via the Fox Walden banner.

Fox and Walden plan to go halves on production and P&A costs for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader. The budget is currently in the $140 million budget range.

I liked the first two movies and I was a little disappointed to find that they were not going to finish out the franchise. There was still more Narnia books to adapt and the stories are wonderful.

So maybe in hindsight Disney will kick themselves for letting this option go, or the movie will not cash in as much as the first two and they will have a quiet “I told you so” look on their collective faces.

Time will tell!

Hey there everyone. Ok, for those of you who are late coming to the party, you may have noticed that I (John) haven’t been doing a lot of posting in the last 2 weeks. Well… the reason for that is that in 4 days I start shooting my first feature length narrative film. It’s called “The Anniversary” and I’m excited as hell about it. You guys have been so amazingly supportive about this project of mine that I like to give little updates from time to time. So here we go.

1) Although we originally thought we were going to shoot the movie on the Panasonic HVX-500, we have decided to bite the bullet and go bigger. So, we’re now shooting the movie on the new RED camera. For those of you who may not know, this camera has completely turned the digital production world on it’s ear and a lot of Hollywood studio feature films are now being shot on it. We’re very pumped to be using it.

2) Since I only mentioned this once on a podcast I’ll repeat it here. I went out and got Robert Sanchez (Senior Editor of IESB.Net) to come on board with me as my co-producer. Robert is just one of the most resourceful individuals I’ve ever met and his help on the project has already been monumental over the last few months. This simply wouldn’t have been possible without him.

3) My former Live Show producer, the one and the only Chuck Norris, is producing all our web and dvd extra videos as well as editing the film. He’s also just an amazing guy to have around.

4) This past Tuesday we had our very first cast and key crew meeting in Hollywood in preparation of the start of shooting. The meeting went great and I’m so thrilled with the group of people we’ve assembled. I’m attaching a few pictures from the meeting below.

5) We’re crossing our fingers to have a cut of the movie ready for Comic Con this summer. I’ll keep you updated.

That’s all for now… much more to come in the coming days. Thanks again for all your support.

John talking to the cast and crew of The Anniversary

From left to right - Betsy Crammer, Marita Gromsrud, Kathryn Primeau

Co-Producer Robert Sanchez dishing out some info at the meeting

From left to right - Ashley Oxford, Manolis Zontanos, Allison Sanchez

Astroboy has gone from classic animation to kitchy fashion icon accessory and now thanks to Imagi Animation, he will be returning to media in the form of a feature film.

I have been anticipating this nostalgic piece of my younger days for a while now, hoping to see a teaser trailer, or stills or something. But it seems that someone forgot to pay the staff, so they had to lay off a bunch of people until the cheques clear. Its coming, but right now they can’t pay their staff, so they are getting an involuntary holiday.

Deadline Hollywood shares:

So the financially squeezed Hong Kong-based studio responsible for TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) realized Friday night that it couldn’t make its Los Angeles payroll, called everyone on Saturday and laid off almost 80 union animators out of the 120 staff in the LA office, and halted production on the upcoming CGI-animated feature film Astro Boy for Summit Entertainment. Behind the scenes, the company is privately assuring Summit that this won’t affect the pic’s release this year.

So…. why did you have those animators on the job to begin with if laying them off for a couple months would not affect your release date?

Perhaps they had a few months of room before the deadline that this layoff will eat up?

I hope nothing else goes wrong. I really want to see more about this film, but if they are not working on it, it will be a while before we have news!

With the next installment of Transformers right around the bend, we are picking up information from all sorts of places. Mostly toys.

Speculation exists that Megatron will still be in it because he has a toy, and we now know that Bumblebee will get some bling to his Camero mode. Also, we get our first peek at Soundwave in his new incarnation as an alien Jet via his toy.

Soundwave is something of a fan favourite and he has made it in this time around ,with something of an upgrade. The logical progression would have been to turn him into an MP3 player, but Bay and his team have instead turned Soundwave into a jet. A supersonic one, we’re guessing.

I liked the fan art Soundwave Jeep that hit the net a while back, but I guess making him into a Jet is not the end of the world.

I would sooner see him as a jet than a walkman. The movie seems to have presumed mass actually means something so if they did make him into a portable music device, he would be wee tiny and that might just insult poor Soundwave. Imagine the fans that were itching to see him in the first movie finally get introduced to him and he is 4 inches high!

Megatron first hit the scene as a Jet, it makes sense that Soundwave, to still be an effective warrior, would also be a Jet - and much like Megatron he is unlikely to have an Earth form. No word on wether small bots will emerge from him like the old cassette. The strangely blade wing aircraft does give Soundwave a little bit of that alien look.

But it also makes him look like he is wearing a cape or coat and tails! Maybe Soundwave is an orchestra conductor?

The guys behind He’s Just Not That Into You promise us a romantic comedy chick flick that is different from all the rest. But honestly, don’t you think they all say something like that? But now we get wind of this little clip that illustrates exactly what they mean. They have 10 Chick Flick Cliches that are NOT in their film.

I was waiting to see if they would hit up the “Guy loves Girl but she is already dating a Jerk” thing. Why do they always have to be a jerk? Wouldn’t it be a grander conflict if the guy was in love with a girl but her boyfriend was a great guy too? Do you break them up and be selfish, or are you just happy that she’s happy?

But at least we now know that these guys considered the cliche’s before diving into a romantic comedy chick flick - and they told us so in a funny manner!

I have to give them props for that.

Via

Hey there guys, just a heads up. For those of you who watch “Attack of the Show” on G4 (and what self respecting geek doesn’t?), they’re apparently doing a segment on tonight’s show about the best movie blogs on the web. They’re naming 3 of them. The Movie Blog is one of them. Cool!

From what I understand 2 of my favorite other sites are also being listed. Slashfilm and CHUD.

So make sure you watch it tonight (thanks to Rob for the heads up)

The new trailer for the 3d stop motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is on the net.

Latino Review describes it:

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door and discovers an alternate version of her life on the other side. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life and the people in it – only much better. But when this seemingly perfect world turns dangerous, and her other parents (including her Other Mother voiced by Teri Hatcher) try to trap her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to escape this increasingly perilous world – and save her family.

I think the trailer looks wonderful. I am already a Neil Gaiman fan anyways but I wasn’t fully sold on this when I saw the first teaser. However it is a good fit with director Henry Selick on board giving this a whimisical Nightmare Before Christmas feel to it and it works pretty well.

This trailer has me more interested, that is for sure.

With Megatron making appearances all over toy packages and even with his own figure, speculation is abound that Megatron could in fact be in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This is just a glimmer of hope that we might see the short lived Decepticon leader on screen again.

/Film rants:

Michael Bay should tell the company that designs the packaging for all the Transformers sequel toys that Megatron isn’t in the new movie, or else they might have to recall all these misprinted boxes. Wow, and to think that they spent a lot of extra time redesigning a character who clearly doesn’t even appear on screen in the sequel

Obiously the writer at /Film offers up this bit with a degree of snark and sarcasm so I am not going to attempt to challenge their statement in that regard.

However, the idea that Megatron is showing up on all the packaging for the toys might hint that he is supposed to be in this movie, however Bay, and all involved are saying that including Megatron on the toy line was just to sell toys.

There were a LOT of Movie Version toys that never appeared in the film. They just wanted to envision some popular characters in the movie style - and sell toys.

If Megatron is in the film, I actually hope that it will be part of some stinger at the end of the credits teasing us to a new film. I don’t want to see Megatron at all in Revenge of the Fallen. With a predominate baddie like The Fallen already front and center, we run the risk of Megatron not being as big of a part.

I would sooner see something that hints to Megatron’s return in Revenge of the Fallen and then have him come back big and proper as the main badass in Transformers 3!

So put him on the toy boxes all you want, but don’t waste the character trying to bring him into this film just to have him there. Make his return triumphant (and have him hand Starscream his ass in the process for taking up leadership without him)

We just mentioned a few days ago that Green Hornet would not be filming in 2009 and now Seth Rogen has come forward to reassure that this movie is still happening as planned.

FirstShowing says:

“[The studio heads] have every intention on making it, and assuming we’re able to hire a new director in the upcoming weeks, which seems like a distinct possibility, it should still hit the release date,” Rogen told HitFix. Not only is he starring in the film and co-writing it, but he’s also producing, which means he has more than just a strong say in what happens.

I am still undecided about seeing Rogen as the Green Hornet. And with Stephen Chow pulling out on directing but still staring it in, I couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing either. If he walked altogether, I would think he gave up on the project, but he is still on the job, just not in the comfy chair.

So provided they get themselves a new director, which shouldn’t be hard to find, the movie will be going on as intended with this as one small speed bump in their plans.

Tomb Raider looks to be getting another feature film treatment on its way, but not with the actress rumoured over the last few days. However one thing is clear; It will be a relaunch.

Yesterday I wrote about the wild speculation that Megan Fox could be taking up the khaki hotpants and dual pistols, but Fox’s management denies she was ever considered. Fair enough, I didn’t like the idea to begin with.

Latino Review says:

Warners Bros. and producer Dan Lin are in early development on a a reboot of “Tomb Raider,” the popular video game action franchise.

“Tomb Raider,” which was published in 1996 by a London-based video game company called Eidos, was a wildly popular game that involved the daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft on a series of global missions. Several spinoff games have been published since, with a 10th-anniversary edition of the game released in 2006.

With the Tomb Raider chapters being pretty isolated on their own, I don’t know why they are relaunching the series. They could just put a new actress in the role and tell a new adventure. There is no subplot weaving through the franchise, its just another adventure.

So who should be the new Tomb Raider. They are tossing the “reboot” word around which means they are unlikely to approach Jolie for the role again (which I thought she did very well) and someone mentioned Rhona Mitra could do the gig considering she was once a Lara Croft model and coming hot off her role in Underworld Rise of the Lycans.

My vote would be Evangeline Lilly. She’s a fine actress, very attractive and physically fit.

Who would you pick?

The rumour that an A-Team movie would join the leagues of other 80s shows adapted to the big screen has finally come to pass.

Fox has given the green light and hired on some writers, directors and producers.

Latino Review says:

Studio has set Joe Carnahan to direct and Ridley Scott to produce, with Tony Scott exec producing through their Scott Free banner.

Also producing are Jules Daly and Stephen J. Cannell, the latter of whom created the original TV series.

Carnahan will team with Brian Bloom to polish a script by Skip Woods. The intention is to start production by June for a June 11, 2010, release.

Fox has struggled to find a way to exploit the branded TV show while avoiding the series’ campy tone

I think it would be a clear choice to have someone like Michael Clarke Duncan to take on the role of B.A. Barakus, and since they are avoiding the cheese he wont have to step on B.A’s trademarked “Fool” but still have that in-your-face attitude (and fear of flying)

I think the A-Team has some great potential to be translated to a more realistic team of characters while still being fun and perhaps even landing a bullet. For such an elite team of special forces commandos, they sure managed to miss a lot when shooting.

My Dream A-Team would be as follows.

Hannibal - Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis. They can both swagger and charm while still exuding leadership.
Face - Brad Pitt. Who else can play the conman, ladies man and look sharp in a suit.
Murdock - Matt Frewer. Still alive and well on Eureka. He can be crazy and zany and Murdock always had one schtick or another in every episode. For the movie I vote for the talking tennis ball.
BA Barakus - Michael Duncan Clarke.

So do you think this movie will be better played straight avoiding that “it was only funny in the 80s” cheese factor? And who do you think could play the A-Team?

Check out the new teaser posters for G.I. Joe.

I like how the style of these cuts off the face just to show the body designs of each character. The characters were always codenamed by what they did, and they were always defined by it, so in a sharp style they show off the body, and their gear with most of their identity stripped away. Much like the special operatives of G.I. Joe and Cobra were.

I have high hopes for this film. I know its become the cool thing to cuss out this movie, but I haven’t seen anything that makes me think this will be bad at all. This might change after I see the teaser trailer on this weekend’s Superbowl, but so far I am eager to see this.

Latino Review has 5 more to check out on their site.

Liam Neeson is returning with a can of vengeful kickassery in what looks to be a great action film called Taken in theaters this week.

I have to say that Neeson has that fatherly charm that reminds you how deeply he cares for his daughter but he also has a VERY imposing physical presence. His talk on the phone with the would be captors of his daughter is bold and scary. If I had been scooping up young girls in Paris, that inspiring talk alone would make me reconsider my occupation in a heartbeat.

Via

The Trailer for Eddie Murphy’s latest family film Imagine That has hit the net.

Cinematical calls it:

In his continued quest to pursue proud family-friendly mediocrity, Eddie “Meet Dave” Murphy seems to be starring in a comic fantasy about a workaholic dad (Murphy) who neglects his pweecoshus daughter (Yara Shahidi) until imaginative elements of her creation begin to have an effect on his career

I have to agree that Eddie Murphy hasn’t hit one out of the park lately. Even though he seems more inclined to do family friendly films, there is no reason they cannot be big hits.

Unless he plans not to be in them.

However this one doesn’t look so bad. I actually don’t mind the neglected child/workaholic dad story with a supernatural twist that brings them together. Its not the most original concept in the world, but I don’t think its been beaten to death and still stands a chance at a happy ending.

I still hold a glimmer of hope that we will see Eddie Murphy shine again.

Hilary Duff and Kevin Zegers could be playing Bonnie and Clyde, showing a different side to their story than just the bandits-on-the-run story you might expect.

Movie Web says:

Hilary Duff and Kevin Zegers are in negotiations for The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, a new retelling of the 1930s bank robbers.

Tonya S. Holly will direct the film and it has been stressed that this is not a remake and that this film will show different parts of the couple’s lives that had not been previously seen in films like the 1967 classic, Bonnie and Clyde, which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

Hilary Duff has yet to wow me with any performance, but I still find myself entertained by her light fluff films. However lately she has been making some bold moves to prove that shes no longer a cute little kid.

I could give her half a chance in a more serious role as the badass bank robber Bonnie.

As for Kevin Zegers, I really don’t have an opinion on him. Anyone else familiar with him?

Can you see them together?

The cast is assembled and everyone is on hand while Principal Photography starts on TinTin.

Latino Review says:

Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment have announced the start of principal production in Los Angeles on the 3D Motion Capture Film “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn,” directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot,” “Defiance”) as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig (“Quantum of Solace,” “Defiance”) as the nefarious Red Rackham.

Bell and Craig are joined by an international cast that includes Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.

I am waiting to see just how this is going to pan out. I was never a fan of the series (only vaguely knew it existed), and the cast intrigues me.

I imagine that the movie will be targeted at both the long time fan and those who have never see this character. Hopefully it works out well.

There’s a new game here at The Movie Blog. I call it WILD SPECULATION where we will make an observation based on an internet rumour or information of our own that we just wildly speculate on with no basis in reality.

Today that rumour is going to revolve around a tidbit that Megan Fox might replace Angelina Jolie the Tomb Raider franchise.

Simon at Hardcore Nerdity reports:

The new Entertainment website HitFix says there’s a chance that Megan Fox will reprise the Lara Croft character for Paramount in a new installment of the Tomb Raider franchise. The source is very sketchy (some Euro- Spanish article)

Its not bad enough that because of one or two images online where Megan is wearing makeup very similar to the very popular and trendy style that Angelina was sporting, people want to ignorantly label here as a Jolie-Wannabe clone. Personally I would think the full lips might be a comparable feature but otherwise I see no comparisons.

However I would not be eager to see a Tomb Raider movie with Megan Fox. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Megan Fox is plenty hot enough and can ooze the sex appeal of the character (which is never illustrated in game - just a fanboy assumption combined with Jolie’s performance) but she doesn’t have the physique to be a convincing action girl.

Even Jolie’s recent waif status would disqualify her for that matter.

As illustrated above, Jolie still had some meat to her sexy frame while Fox (still hot) is better as a lingerie model than a convincing sassy adventurer.

Also, Jolie has some maturity to her that gives some credibility to the whole “world traveling treasure hunter” that I just can’t be convinced of in a 22 year old.

I think this is just a fluff rumour to further advance the desperate attempt to parallel Fox to Jolie. But if it did turn out to be true, would you want to see Fox as Lara Croft??

A couple of weeks ago we heard the word that Marvel had approached Mickey Rourke about playing a villain in the upcoming Iron Man 2. We all, collectively, LOVED the idea especially after seeing him return in The Wrestler.

The word on the street right now is that Marvel has offered Rourke $250k to play the part. Remember… that’s an amount of money it would take most of us 5-7 years to make kind of coin. And Rourke will probably have to work, at most, about 15-20 days for it.

Also keep in mind that 18 months ago Rourke was basically an outcast from Hollywood.

Now here’s the thing. Rourke has not come out and started bitching about the amount he’s been offered (to the best of my knowledge) and I hope it stays that way. I hope Rourke continues to show some humility and remembers what the last 10 years have been like and just appreciated the opportunity to be back in the spotlight again. I’ve been cheering for Mickey to make a comeback the last few years and I would hate it if he suddenly developed some sort of sense of entitlement again. That would turn me off.

Some people are talking about how Marvel is being cheap. Me, I kind of appreciate a new studio trying to make the money that flies at actors a little less insane and be a little more financially responsible in theese crazy economic times where people are losing their jobs and homes.

But like I said… keep it in perspective before we jump on the “the studio is being cheap” bandwagon. They offered Mickey Rourke, in my estimation, $12,500 A DAY to get to star in one of the most anticipated movies coming in the next couple of years. You won’t see me shedding any tears for him… and thankfully so far, I don’t see Rourke shedding any either.

Stay real Mickey!

One of the award shows I never pay any attention to during Oscar season is the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. I’m not really sure why that is since I think it’s a far more credible award than the Golden Globes and carries some significance because it’s actors honoring actors. Still… I never care about it.

So last night the SAG awards were on and something curious struck me. The Dark Knight was NOT nominated for Best Ensemble Cast. The Best Ensemble is basically the the SAG version of the Best Picture award… and I was surprised… nay… STUNNED that The Dark Knight didn’t get nominated for the big SAG award.

Recently, as all of you know, The Dark Knight was not nominated for the big Oscar (prompting the ridiculous assertion by some people that the academy just purposefully “snubbed” The Dark Knight because they hate comic book movies… which doesn’t explain why they nominated Heath Ledger for his role and gave TDK a total of EIGHT… count them EIGHT Oscar nominations in total… yeah… real snub).

Anger was swift amongst The Dark Knight supporters towards the Academy and all sorts of irrational conspiracy theories about coordinated efforts to “snub” TDK surfaced. Me personally… I didn’t think TDK was one of the top 5 films of the year (although I do have in in my top 10). But here’s the funny part…

If anything, I thought The Dark Knight DID deserve a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble Cast. Not only did Heath Ledger give one of the single best performances of the year, but those turned in by Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman were all superb. Not only were they individually fantastic, but they all worked together so damn well.

If anything, in my opinion, I would have definitely given The Dark Knight a SAG nomination before the Oscar.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think SAG “snubbed” The Dark Knight… but I do certainly feel they made a mistake in failing to give it a nomination, especially for just the cast.

My questions is… since (in my opinion) The Dark Knight deserved a Best Ensemble nomination far more than it did a Best Picture nomination… why is the interweb not up in arms about SAG “snubbing” The Dark Knight? Where are the scores of people proclaiming SAG just hates comic book movies or some other form of prejudice?

Just a thought. What are your thoughts?

Michael Uslan is officially the only person signed on for the next Batman movie, though many are confident that Bale and Nolan will return.

So the first bit of official news comes from the only guy with a contract a la Bat. The plan is to have Batman sequel out in 2011

ComingSoon says:

Uslan will be onboard as executive producer for the “Dark Knight” sequel, which he estimates will be theaters by 2011. As for the identity of the next round of Batman’s supervillains and love interests, Uslan remains tight-lipped. “It’s one of those deals where if I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he says with a chuckle.

I have no doubt that Christian Bale will return as Batman/Wayne. In the previous big screen series they thought to “James Bond” the character allowing different actors to take on the role and while that series got worse and worse as each film came out, I don’t think the rotating Batman actors was the cause.

However this new franchise seems to be breaking the sequel curse offering up a rare better film for the second chapter, and they will have some big shoes to fill to make an even better third, so I would think they would keep with the winning formula and go from there.

With the plan for a new film in 2011, this leaves them plenty of time to get it right. I expect we will hear more soon.

Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet project has been put on hold after Stephen Chow has stepped down as director (but will still co-star as Kato). However word on the street (and by “street” I mean internet) is that this project has done more than slow down, and is at risk of getting the full stop.

MovieWeb shares:

Ever since Stephen Chow started to waffle about his participation in the film, I’ve been hearing rumors that there were major hesitations at Sony. Then at Sundance, I heard several people say that the film was off completely. I spoke this afternoon with a source close to the film, and while they didn’t call it completely dead, they did say it is “highly unlikely” that the film will shoot in 2009 at all.

This is one film that dances in and out of my attention span. I am not convinced that Seth Rogen is the right choice for Green Hornet, but as time passes I am more convinced that I need to see it to believe it. Benefit of the doubt (and there is a lot of doubt), but when he lost his director I swayed back out of caring.

Seems the studios are not all that confident either.

If this doesn’t ever get made it will still be on Rogen’s public resume. People will still look on his career and see his films and what he has accomplished then mention as a side note “Remember when he almost did that Green Hornet movie?” and reminisce how we will never now how that worked out.

Or it may eventually find itself being made and we will either talk about how surprisingly good he was as Hornet or how it failed completely. Who knows?

Drew Barrymore may not have been short of work lately, but its been a while since this odd starlet has been dancing in the spotlight. But lately she has been thinking of returning to Charlie’s Angels!

MovieWeb offers:

Barrymore kicked off an updated retelling of the 1970s television series nine years ago with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu. Three years later, they returned with Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

“It’s percolating up,” said Nancy Juvonen, Barrymore’s Flower Films producing partner. “It’s rising to the surface.”

Barrymore added, “They’re hard movies to make, but they’re fun.” And lucrative! The franchise grossed $544 million worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com.

The Charlies Angels films were fun. Lots of eyecandy and sassy ladies kicking some ass. Lucy Lui is easily the hottest of the three. I liked the films for what they were. Fun silly action fluff. They were not trying to put out some tear jerking masterpiece. They just wanted to have some fun.

I just hope that if this does happen that they don’t use so much campy wire work. That is starting to wear on me badly. Wire action can assist in some of the impossible moves, but when it just becomes too apparent that they are suspended in unnatural poses then physics isn’t stretched - its broken.

And all the peices are all over the ground.

Rumours speculate that there may be another Angel added to the crew (the original series had Fawcett’s character’s sister join) so who do you think would make a good addition to these splodey sassy action ladies?

Eager to cash in on the potential return of Star Trek fans, the original series and the first Six Feature Films are scheduled for Blu-Ray releases just days after the new film.

FilmJunk shares:

The Norwegian site Release.no managed to get a hold of the cover art for both Star Trek: The Original Series, Season 1 and a collection called “Star Trek: The Motion Picture Trilogy”. While it appears that this European release will only feature the first three films, The Digital Bits reports that in North America it will be a box set of the first six. They have also obtained the following information:

* Star Trek I, II and VI will feature the original theatrical cut of the films
* Extras will include famous fan commentary tracks for each film, as well as a featurette with select scenes from a Klingon performance of Hamlet by the Commedia Beauregard
* The Original Series release will include both the original broadcast version and the new remastered version of each episode

I feel I must point out again that the new film is unique in that it is going to reboot the series and give it a much needed boost. Most of the fans have given up on Trek for a number of reasons. But this “reboot” does not ignore the previous series. Even though this will go back to its humble origins there is a Time Travel plot (a staple in Trek Feature films) that will change history.

That doesn’t mean that all that has gone before never happened. This is just a new beginning. Its a sequel AND a reboot at the same time.

So to pay tribute to all that has gone before, all things Trek will be released on dazzling Blu-Ray for your consumption.

Lest we forget.

Old Timers hockey is a fun game to go watch. They often do charity matches against local police teams and sway their tarnished talent to remind you that despite being retired for 20 years they are still better than you.

With the thick nostalgia of glory days past, it looks like we will see a film based on those Oldtimers called Stan’s Cup.

Written by Rice, the movie centers on a broken-down, once-great hockey player who gets a chance to fill his legendary father’s skates by giving his hometown, known as Hockeytown USA, a pseudo rematch of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” game against a Russian team of ex-Olympians.

The filmmakers see the movie as having a “Full Monty” vibe rather than that of a traditional sports movie, focusing on an unusual place and the eccentric people who inhabit it.

I became somewhat of a hockey fan once my boys decided they wanted to play. Every season I change my sports fan wardrobe to match the teams they play in. It is easy to get swept up in the excitement.

So I am looking forward to seeing a quirky comedy revolving around some Old Timers returning to the ice once more. Sounds like some good fun.

I’m suddenly depressed. I’ll never look this good in my life… and Stallone is 62. Look at him. Behold him. Worship him. Dude is getting in prime shape for his upcoming film “The Expendables”. Fuck. That’s all I have to say. Fuck. Excuse me… I’m off to eat some damn salad and then go to the gym. Thanks to Joel for the pic.

The Star Wars Universe is something of an inspiration in that it has such a wide and diverse world within and without.

On the inside it is a world that has 6 movies, 2 Tv Movies, 4 Animated TV series, (Even a Christmas Special in a world without a Christmas) a good number of comic book runs, and more novels than any other series has ever spawned.

On the outside we have the largest social network of fans with one common thread. Their love and hate for this series.

Now let’s leave the money out of it. I don’t think Lucas “needs” the money. I am sure that had some motivation in the begining, but after the original trilogy his world was pretty self sufficient. So lets leave all that out of the equation. Ok?

In a quoteabout aging by an author unknown

In his late years Pablo Picasso was not allowed to roam an art gallery unattended, for he had previously been discovered in the act of trying to improve on of his old masterpieces

John may have given up the faith on Star Wars, but frankly I have no issue with Lucas returning to the blackboard to bring out a “new” version of his own work.

I am talking more about the special editions and the improvements offered therein. Some people argue that the Special Editions were not required, but being the artist that he is, he has the right to fix it. But those who think they know better will argue the point. Say he shouldn’t. Leave well enough alone.

This is where the illusion lies.

The thing is that these films belong to Lucas. They were born of his imagination. Influenced by his own favourite films and breathed life into a vast universe of tyranical military leaders and a fledgling rebellion. And the mystical Jedi and their Force.

Its not yours.

Like it or not, Lucas can move, create and breath more life into any part of this world. He even has the right to enlist others to do the same under his watchful eye.

I used to be in the camp of hating change. But I long ago discovered that change can be good. Things change in an effort to be better. Add more. Provide more enjoyment. Its the best of intention.

The Star Wars Saga started with a New Hope, but then the Empire Struck Back and then the Jedi Returned. But as ground breaking as all that was, 20 years later technology caught up and Lucas thought it would be a good idea to do what he envisioned in the 70s and people both applauded and criticized him for it.

But keep in mind that Lucas himself opposed change too. It was far too long a wait to see the Original Trilogy on DVD - a format comfortably adopted by all studios.

Then Lucas returned to his fantastical world with the prequels and all bets were off.

Clearly this man had lost his mind. This artist was told to stay out of the gallery. Your “improvements” are not welcome.

I have to tip my hat to him for trying. And thank him as well.

You know, it may not have turned out the best for everyone’s tastes but for the most part its more hit than miss.

Notice how the Medichlorians were not mentioned again after Phantom Menace? Notice how JarJar was reduced to a cameo role? - a tool of Palpatine’s ambition. Even Lucas had to admit his own misses and steers around them from that point on.

I love Star Wars. The franchise is very dear to me. Every chapter and every chance I get to escape this world and venture into his is a treat for me. But just like this world, there is no guarantee I will love it all.

I don’t defend the flaws in Star Wars however I love it enough to overlook them. And I don’t mind the artist wandering his gallery considering his own works.

At some point Dakota Fanning turned into a beautiful young teenager and I didn’t notice. And while casting rumours for the Twilight sequel, New Moon have lately included High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, the latest is directed at Miss Fanning.

ScreenRant offers:

According to E!, the 14 year old is in talks to play Jane, a character described “as a petite blonde with a “Botticelli angel-like face…[and] crimson irises,” in a casting notice that was released earlier this month.

“Jane is a member of Italy’s Volturi, the most deadly group of bloodsucking killers in author Stephenie Meyer’s’ best-selling series,” says Yahoo Movies.

Apparently this little star has earned this role without an audition. It was an offer and with the offer comes negotiations, so while it isn’t a done deal yet, the producers of New Moon clearly want her to fill the role.

I haven’t read the book, so does anyone have an idea on how big a role she may play after reading that description?

Looks like we will get to see a lot of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. Buzz around the net implies that the reshoots we were told about last week were just to add more Deadpool.

/Film says:

According to a user on the site, “most of the footage shot included Reynolds and Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman,” and Reynolds’ appearance will be significantly more than a cameo. This implies that at least some of the reshoots went to doing significant character work; whether you interpret that as good or bad, I leave up to you.

Now many people are thinking they upped Deadpool’s involvement in the film. I have a different opinion.

I think the reshoots offered the opportunity not to cut him OUT of the film. As Jackman explained to the fans, many of the retakes were just because of location problems and weather as well as scheduling conflicts. They call them “reshoots” because they happen after the film wraps principle photography. So these were likely just to ensure the scenes they wanted in the film originally were not lost as a result of inconvenience.

So I presume that this was to avoid cutting Deadpool out instead of adding more in.

The Shadow has long been collecting dust on Sam Raimi’s shelf and every now and again he reminds us that he plans on doing a movie about the pulp comic character.

Well now he actually has more people involved other than rumours. Michael Uslan gave us some insight on the project.

Cinematical reports:

Uslan has promised that the latest version would be a brand new take on the character — and Uslan’s cryptic description might leave visions of The Spirit dancing in your heads. “I think the one thing going in is we all see The Shadow as more of a force of nature than a specific person in a secret identity. The Shadow may actually be many people.” But they’re also doing the proper research to stay true to the character. “We’ve gone back to the pulp roots, the comic book roots of The Shadow, with a dash of the radio roots. But we’ve deeply ensconced ourselves in the world of pulps and comics.”

I am a fan of the old pulp style heroes, and I actually thought the 90s version of the Shadow was pretty true to the origins and feel of the pulp comic.

I have a lot of faith in Raimi, but I hope he doesn’t change the Shadow into something he is not. Force of Nature was never a quality that identified The Shadow. The Shadow was a man with an enlightened telepath of sorts that could peer into the soul and cloud the senses.

Only the shadow knows the darkness that lies in the hearts of man.

I think his take is an interesting concept, I just hope he doesn’t try to fit it to an intellectual property just for name recognition. Hell, make that movie but don’t try to pretend that it is The Shadow.

A new clip has surfaced showing some of the action of Push. Check it out:

I find this movie slowly growing on me. One of the things I always liked about Heroes on TV was that it showed pretty much how things might work if there really were superpowers in the real world. We wouldn’t have spandex clad freaks popping out of phone booths, they would be more like secret agents. Just people in people clothes.

Push seems to have picked up on this, and after clips like this, I can dig that.

Via