‘World War Z’ Will Be ‘Phenominal’

For those of you who haven’t read Max Brooks’ World War Z, go to your nearest Barnes & Noble right now. Or check it out on Amazon. The novel, written as an oral history, chronicles the experiences of various survivors of the Zombie War from across the globe. It’s considered to be the greatest piece of zombie literature ever written and now, it’s being made into a movie.

The screenplay has been written by Babylon 5 scribe J. Michael Straczynski and the movie will be directed by Quantum of Solace’s Marc Forster. The film is currently being described as a cross between Children of Men and The Bourne Identity (plus zombies), but according to Straczynski, the scale of the film is going to be effin’ huge.

From FirstShowing.net:

‘”Most zombie movies to this point have been small, focusing on a few people in a house. And this has got real scare. You’re in India with hundreds of boats trying to get out of there with a tidal wave of zombies. The scale of what we’re doing here is phenomenal.“‘

Since the book is written as an oral history from multiple points of view, the movie will follow one U.N. representative traveling the globe, putting the book together. As of yet, a lead actor has yet to be announced.

Words can’t really describe how excited I am for this movie. The only thing I hope for is that they don’t rehash the whole running zombies thing. Zombies DON’T run. End of story. Otherwise, I dig the futuristic setting and fast paced style. All I can say right now is that it’s gonna be epic.

‘The Dark Knight’ Says Goodbye To The Big Screen

For those of you hoping to see The Dark Knight in IMAX one last time, you can forget it. Warner Bros. has decided to scrap their plans to rerelease the film in IMAX theaters in January just before the Oscars. Without the rerelease, the film will have earned a grand total of $996.1 million worldwide, falling just below the billion dollar mark. Fortunately for us, the DVD will be coming out just in time for Christmas and will probably come loaded with extras that will probably last you until March, so there’s really not a whole lot to worry about.

Five New ‘Wolverine’ Photos!

Spoiler TV released five new photos from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. They how Logan’s past as a WWII vet as well as his early relationship with Sabertooth. I have to say they look pretty kickass.

Shia LaBeouf To Continue Running From Things In John Grisham’s ‘The Associate’

 So Hollywood needs to find a young high-school/college-aged dude for a legal thriller based on John Grisham’s upcoming novel, The Associate. Who do they cast? Shia LaBeouf, of course. The choice is obvious if you think about it. The guy’s got plenty of experience getting into trouble and running from shit, he’s had his fair share of run-ins with the law in real life, plus, the ladies love him. Look at those eyes.

Anyway, Grisham’s novel hasn’t even been published yet, but Paramount has gotten it’s paws on it anyway. The Associate tells the story of ‘a student who’s about to graduate from Yale Law School when he’s manipulated into accepting a job at a prestige law firm and given privileged information about a multibillion-dollar lawsuit.’

The interesting thing here is that LaBeouf now has an opportunity to test his acting chops. Let’s be honest here. His past work hasn’t exactly been groundbreaking. Hell, I can stand in front of a camera and stare at Megan Fox’s strategically bare midriff. I can also look through binoculars and shout things into a walkie-talkie. For the first time, Shia’s gonna have to prove his worth and not let himself be pigeonholed into cheesy popcorn flicks for the rest of his career. I don’t hate him, but I think the hype is a little unnecessary. He really hasn’t earned any bragging rights yet.

The novel is being published in January, so we’ll probably see a release date around the fall or winter of next year. That’s plenty of time to read the novel beforehand.

First Look: Michael Mann’s ‘Public Enemies’

Collateral director, Michael Mann, is hard at work on Public Enemies, a 1930s, Prohibition-era  gangster flick starring Johnny Depp as bad guy John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis. Other cast members include Marion Cotillard, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham, Leelee Sobieski, Emilie de Ravin, with Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover.

For those of you who are Coen fans, the film also includes the character Baby Face Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), unfortunately, he is being played by a different actor.

Empire released the first images from the movie:

‘Tron 2′ Renamed, Plus Plot Information

Okay, so remember when Tron 2 was announced a few months back? And remember when they decided to call it ‘TR2N’? Well, now, it looks like they’ve changed the title yet again to something even worse: ‘TRZ.’ Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t really get it. At least with ‘TR2N’ I knew it was a Tron movie. Now, I feel like someone misspelled the title when they texted it to the big guys over at Disney.

Along with the ‘new’ title, Production Weekly has given us a short plot synopsis for the movie:

‘After being transported into the surreal landscape of a mainframe computer to destroy an intruder, a programmer finds himself allied with the leader of a rebellion against a corrupt cyber-entity.’

I’m not really sure where Jeff Brydges comes in, but I’m pretty excited to see how this develops.

First Look: Gambit in ‘Wolverine’

So Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch is gonna be Gambit in the forthcoming spin-off, Wolverine. Based on the photo alone, I’d say he doesn’t look necessarily bad, however, I’m not blown away. I was hoping to see the red eyes, trench coat, and maybe a little energized playing card throwing. Playing poker doesn’t count.