The new, red-band trailer for Punisher: War Zone was released recently and it’s full of all kinds of blood, gore, and violence. Oh, and it looks like it was ripped directly from Grindhouse (i.e. film grain, chair leg in the eye). Depending on who you are, that could be really great or really awful.
Remember when I mentioned Robert Rodriguez directing a Red Sonja remake starring the inevitable Rose McGowan? Well, it’s happening. Sorta.
Robert Rodriguez announced at Comic Con yesterday that Red Sonja is happening and that Rose McGowan would be starring as the title character, however Rodriguez himself is not going to be directing the film due to an obligation to the Weinsteins. Instead, Red Sonja will be directed by Douglas Aarnioko, Rodriguez’s assistant director from many of his films. If you’re a hardcore Rodriguez fan, don’t worry. Rodriguez has said that he will be a ‘hands on producer.’
Since I just write this blog for my own enjoyment and I’m not actually getting paid to do this, there wasn’t anyone to send me to San Diego to do any real reporting, so here are some of Cinematical’s bullet points from the Q&A:
– Red Sonja will hit theaters in the fourth quarter of 2009 (one imagines for Christmas)
– Robert Rodriguez is acting as a “hands on” producer, and will co-direct a good chunk of the flick. Not only is he doing this for Red Sonja, but he’s also negotiating to produce a new Conan film. It seems as if they would eventually (if both are popular enough) cross promote between films.
– The tone will be darker, like the book, and when asked if it would be R rated, Rodriguez said, “My name is double ‘R’!”
–Also on tone and scope, McGowan (who’s quite lively and quick-witted in person) said it’s “hard, cold, dirty and bloody.” And that she’s looking forward to “taking a big giant sword and killing a lot of people.”
– Training is already underway, and McGowan is working with the same swords experts who helped out on Matrix and Ninja Assassin.
– Rodriguez also admitted that Barbarella is officially off, and that Red Sonja has taken its place. He said financing of $70 million did come through from Germany for a shoot next year, but he’s obligated to shoot something else for Miramax. He’s negotiating right now to direct a “huge summer movie” — but he wouldn’t say which.
– On the character, Rose McGowan said: “I will not have a mullet!” The crowd cheered.
– Red Sonja will be shot on location (scouting now) and will use some green screen.
– Asked who should star in the new Conan, RR shouted: “Danny Trejo!”
– On Machete becoming a film, RR said they have plans to turn it into a Mexploitation triple feature disc (and somewhere on that disc will be a trailer for a sequel to Planet Terror.)
– On Sin City 2, Frank Miller has finished writing the script, but no one knows whether or not that’s going to happen with each working on different projects.
Despite everything, I think Red Sonja could actually be a good movie. While I don’t think Rose McGowan is a particularly amazing actress, this seems like the right kind of project for her. Let’s just hope she doesn’t become Rodriguez’s Yoko Ono.
Because we haven’t gotten enough of sequels and remakes, prepare yourself for two more. Oh, and they both happen to be musicals. Last year, we got to see a scrubbed down, covered in glitter remake of the John Water’s film, Hairspray. Despite seeing John Travolta dressed both in drag and in a fat suit, I enjoyed the movie. For me, it’s always been one of those fun, feel-good movies and I have no problem with that. Of course, I prefer the original to the remake, but I thought the remake was able to hold its own. Unfortunately, there are those who think we should be graced with a sequel. As of yet, the only person attached to the project is director Adam Shankman. There isn’t a writer, but I’m hoping if this movie is actually going to happen, John Waters should be writing the script/music. None of the original cast has yet signed on to be apart of the sequel, but really, if they can’t get the original cast, why bother? Otherwise, it’ll just end up like Grease 2. Warner Bros. are trying to release the movie by July, 2010, but I personally hope it never comes to fruition.
And now, if things weren’t bad enough, there’s a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the works. Even though they’re aiming to release it by Halloween of next year, no one is attached to the project yet. if you ask me, some movies were never meant to be remade. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a cult classic. It’s been iconic in the cult world for years and has a fan base of millions. To me, there’s just no way to remake this movie successfully. There really isn’t even a reason to remake it. It’s doing pretty well on its own. I mean, 33 years later, there are STILL showings of it all over the country. I say they leave it alone, but what can you do, they’re going to make it whether or not people really want it anyway.
There was a time when the 80s were 20 years ago. I vaguely remember it. Now, thanks to some kind of tear in the fabric of the universe, we’ve been revisited by some of the classic movies from that decade: Rocky Balboa, Rambo, Indiana Jones, soon-to-be Beverly Hills Cop, and finally, Top Gun. Word on the street is there is a Top Gun sequel in the works. According to the Sun newspaper, Top Gun 2 will focus on Maverick as a flight instructor who is faced with the challenge of controlling a hot-shot female pilot. What a surprise.
While I love each of these 80s franchises, I hate that studios are trying to reanimate them for a new generation of movie goers especially since all of them have more or less sucked. I say it’s time to stop living in the past and let sleeping dogs lie. The last thing I really think is necessary is a sequel to Top Gun. I’ve shed my tears for Goose and now I’m out of tissues and ready to move on. If anything, Tom Cruise should be looking for something to uplift his career to offset all of the bad PR he’s been getting, not something that will reinforce it. I don’t think he’s a bad actor. He just needs to make some smarter choices. All I can say is I hope I don’t hear about a Magnolia spin-off chronicling the adventures of Frank T.J. Mackey.
Sorry I’ve been gone for a while, but here’s something that might cheer you up. The new trailer for Watchmen was released with The Dark Knight on Friday and, being a huge fan of the graphic novel, the trailer looks amazing. Everything literally looks ripped from the pages and plastered onto the screen. March is going to be an exciting month.
There have already been a bunch of segments for Gotham Tonight, but this one is particularly interesting, I think, since it gives some background information on Harvey Dent as a character. Sure, we all know Bruce Wayne, but Harvey Dent is the perfect foil for someone like Bruce Wayne. For example, Bruce came from a well-to-do family, Harvey didn’t. They both feel the need to clean up Gotham City and end the corruption, yet they obviously have opposing view points on how to do so. I’ve always thought the relationship between Bruce and Harvey has been an intriguing one and this video sheds a little bit more light on Harvey Dent for those not so familiar with him. You can see more episodes of Gotham Tonight at GothamCityNews.com
Oh, and yes, that IS Anthony Michael Hall as Mike Engels.
A while back, a green band trailer for Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke was released and, while it was awesome for anyone who has read the book, it didn’t really show much of what the movie is. After all, how can you really show gratuitous amounts of sex and profanity in a green band trailer? You can’t. Here, we get an up close and personal look at what Choke is really all about and it’s about damn time.
Even though the film screams ‘low budget’ and hasn’t really gotten a lot of buzz outside of the indie film world, something tells me that this one will follow the same route as Fight Club, Palahniuk’s previous novel-turned-film, which has become a highly regarded cult classic. Palahniuk’s fans are die hard and there are many of them. I know I can’t wait for September to roll around.
NOTE: The red band trailer is way NSFW.
UPDATE: The trailer was taken down at the request of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
I recently posted the trailer for the Max Payne movie starring Marky Mark. This time, I’ve got some promotional photos courtesy of First Showing. As far as I can tell this neo-noir film has every action movie cliche’ in it’s marketing campaign alone. However, these photos, which ironically feature Mark Wahlberg firing two guns whilst jumping through the air in the rain (not once, but three times) or just standing around (also in the rain), look stunningly close to the game, so I guess as long as it’s true to the source material, I can’t really ask for much more. I predict Max Payne will be, at best, a fun action flick, but that’s about it.
After directing movies like Zathura and Elf, Jon Favreau has finally proven that he’s got the chops to handle big budget action movies. When I first heard he was bringing Iron Man to the big screen, I was skeptical. I had heard that he was a huge fan of the Iron Man comics, which is always a plus, but doesn’t always mean that the final product will be worthwhile. Just look at Ghostrider. Then the trailers started coming out and I had a better feeling about it. Then I saw it and was blown away.
It turns out that Favreau wanted to come back to direct an Iron Man sequel, but was asking for more money from Marvel. Marvel was initially only going to pay him a little more than they did for the first Iron Man. Fortunately for us, Marvel reconsidered and has secured Favreau for the sequel.
The movie is set for a 2010 release, but now there’s a dispute over whether or not that’s enough time.
Favreau told SlashFilm:
‘This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.’
It makes me happy to know that he doesn’t want to rush a sequel. I’d hate to see Iron Man 2 turn into Spider-Man 3.
The new trailer for the video game adaptation, Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, is now online. The only thing I really know about the game is what I learned while watching a friend of mine play for a few hours, but visually, I’d say this film looks pretty awesome. It’s got a lot of the elements that made the game look so badass: tons of shadows, desaturated color, and, of course, a slow motion dive. The only thing I don’t get is the whole giant black bird things. I don’t remember those from the game, and apparently, neither does anyone else. I’m not really sure where they’re going with that.
The movie is currently set to be released on October 17, 2008.
Robert Downey Jr. has become one of my favorite actors in past years and now, with Iron Man catapulting him into the spot light, it looks like he’s finally going to be getting some much deserved attention. He is currently set to star in Guy Ritchie’s drama about the famous literary detective Sherlock Holmes, which will begin shooting this October, right before the Sherlock Holmes comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell. A release is projected to be sometime in 2010.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what Guy Ritchie does with Sherlock Holmes, but with an actor like Robert Downey Jr., how can you go wrong?
Thanks to MovieHole.net, the first image from Ace Ventura 3 is online. Oh and Jim Carrey isn’t in it. It’s starring Josh Flitter (License to Wed). I can tell you right now, it’s going to be retarded.
From SlashFilm.com:
‘After his African adventure in “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” Ace returned to Florida, married girlfriend Melissa (Ann Cusack) and became the doting father of a baby boy. Never one to sit still, Ace’s curious nature took him on another remote case. The goofball gumshoe was never to be seen or heard from again.
Single mom Melissa couldn’t fully put the past behind her. Now a zookeeper, she and Ace Jr. (Flitter) have made a life carrying on without her husband. Much to Melissa’s chagrin, however, 12-year-old Ace Jr. has begun to follow in his father’s comic footsteps. He has recently become a pet detective for the 7th grade set, often trying to recover classmates’ missing pets, and always with big mishaps.
But when a master animal thief abducts a baby panda and his mom is wrongly arrested of the crime, Ace Jr. must jump into action. Now, with the help of pals Laura and tech wizard A-Plus, young Ace must bring the thief to justice and do his inane and lovable dad’s memory justice.’
I can’t even write about this anymore.
In the same vein as Heart of Darkness, a documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, the guys behind Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder have created Rain of Madness, a mockumentary depicting the making of the fictional war movie within a movie. While it doesn’t look as funny as Tropic Thunder, it still looks pretty freakin’ hilarious.
Generally, I hate remakes. Mostly because the movies that get remade are the ones that are already good to begin with. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Remake the shitty movies. Anyway, a Robocop remake is in the works and, according to SlashFilm, it’s going to be in 3-D and rated PG-13 (two signs for a sure-fire suckfest). The original Robocop was rated R, and that was after it had been recut to avoid an X rating (nowadays, known as NC-17). It wasn’t a movie to take your kid to on the weekend. Robocop was hardcore. Now, it’s going to be made more “family friendly” and will receive the 3-D treatment. Fantastic.
The only plus I can see for this movie is that Darren Aronofsky is rumored to be directing it. I love Darren Aronofsky, but I’m starting to wonder what’s happening to him. Pi and Requiem were brilliant and The Wrestler and The Fighter are generating a lot of positive buzz, but I can’t see this man directing a watered-down remake of Robocop. Aronofsky is not a sure thing just yet. It’s all rumors at this point, so there’s still hope.
Personally, I’d rather see Michael Bay do it. If the ship’s going down, I’d rather Michael Bay be at the helm.
Basically, if you mix The Blair Witch Project with Cloverfield with Diary of the Dead, you get the movie, Quarantine. This shot-for-shot remake of the Spanish zombie film, [REC], contains all of the necessary cliches one would expect from such a film.
From IWatchStuff.com:
‘Does it have fearful weeping delivered directly into the camera? Yes, it does. Seemingly scary things happening that the cameraman barely catches a glimpse of? Yes. Someone insisting the cameraman keeps taping? Yes again. The assurance that many will leave the theater complaining about feeling motion sick? Yes! All those clichés and more!’
Now, I liked The Blair Witch Project, I thought Cloverfield kinda sucked, and Diary of the Dead was okay, so I’m not really sure what to think of this movie yet. When it comes to shot-for-shot remakes, it can be hit-or-miss. For example, I loved Funny Games, but hated Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. I’ve heard good things about [REC], so I hope Quarantine is at least half-decent.
If there’s one thing I associate with America, it’s gotta be Batman. Screw apple pie (and Captain America). Just the thought of Batman on the roof of some Gotham City sky scraper with the American flag waving behind him brings a tear to my eye. So, apparently, hack-director Michael Bay ‘wrote’ pages for a Dark Knight script that was ‘ultimately rejected by Warner Bros.’ Now, these pages are completely fake, as you probably would’ve guessed after reading the title page: ‘Michael Bay Presents, In association with Michael Bay Productions, and Michael Bay, Director: Michael Bay’s The Dark Knight by Michael Bay, Featuring Dialogue Scripted by Michael Bay,’ but if you hate Michael Bay as much as I do, you’ll love this. If you love Michael Bay, you’ll probably still love it. Actually, if you love Michael Bay, you may not even want to read this blog. Sorry.
You can check out the hilarious script pages at The Spill.
A new international trailer for the Ben Still war comedy, Tropic Thunder made its way to the internets. If you’ve seen the other trailers, especially the red-band trailer, you know this movie is going to be hilarious. This new international trailer is just a little bit more reassurance. I don’t know about you, but I love Robert Downey Jr. and I can’t wait to see him play a black man. It’s friggin genius.
The film opens on August 15. Between Pineapple Express and this, I think August is going to be one kickass month.
Remember when rumors were flying around about a Friends movie? Well, it turns out it’s not actually going to happen. It turns out the fine folks over at Warner Bros. are denying any plans for a big screen adaptation of the hit sitcom. Publicists for each of the stars have also made statements denying any such project.
From AllHeadlineNews.com:
‘Courteney Cox Arquette’s rep told BBC that he was not aware of the plans, while Matthew Perry’s publicist said “Nothing is happening in this regard, so the rumor is false.”
Likewise, David Schwimmer’s publicist said, “There’s been no discussion about it,” and Jennifer Aniston’s rep has told Page Six that they are “not aware of any such project. I really don’t know [if she would have any interest.]“‘
Well, that’s a relief.
I discovered this today while browsing the internets and thought you might enjoy it. This is a clip of the Joker crashing that party we’ve seen in just about every trailer. It’s sort of reminiscent of that scene in Tim Burton’s Batman when the Joker shows up at that fancy restaurant to deface it with graffiti and flirt with Vicki Vale, although Heath plays a significantly scarier Joker here. While the clip is short, it’s a great look at Heath’s performance. Everything else I’ve seen so far hasn’t really been enough to tell me just how awesome he is. Here, we get to see him for almost an entire minute being the Joker and, I must say, it’s brilliant.
The Dark Knight trailer from last year’s Wizard World Chicago has finally been released online. It’s a pretty awesome trailer. There’s hardly any dialogue, but there’s plenty of action and a killer soundtrack. And another cool thing is that it’s a lot of stuff that hasn’t really been shown in the other trailers (i.e. a tiny piece of Harvey Dent as Two Face). Perhaps this will be the final trailer released before the opening of the movie, but something tells me that they’re waiting until a few days before to release the “final last-minute trailer.” We’ll find out in a week or so.
