Posts

WTF: ‘Little Obama’ Trailer Promises A Karate Kid President By Russ Fischer/June 25, 2010 12:01 pm EST This doesn’t quite top yesterday’s WTF, the Sir Billi sizzle reel with an animated Sean Connery, but it comes pretty close. Little Obama is a film loosely (very loosely) based on the part of President Barack Obama’s childhood spent in Indonesia. And it comes complete with sequences in which he’s bullied by local kids, then trains up and becomes a man....

‘Contagion’ Trailer: Steven Soderbergh’s Version Of Realistic Horror By Russ Fischer/July 13, 2011 5:25 pm EST Well, that didn’t take long. Earlier today we showed you the first footage from Steven Soderbergh’s viral outbreak thriller Contagion, which opens on September 9. Now the full trailer is online, and it seems designed to scare the living shit out of anyone who has even the vaguest touch of germ paranoia. See it after the break....

‘Dexter’ Season 6 Previews: “Tragedy Strikes” And “Guest Stars” By Angie Han/Sept. 26, 2011 11:30 am EST The people behind the marketing for Dexter certainly haven’t been shy about showing off their wares. I feel like we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Season 6, thanks to all the featurettes, trailers, teasers, casting announcements, etc. Then again, knowing this show, I’m sure it’s got plenty more surprises and twists up its sleeve....

‘Ender’s Game’ Filmmakers Describe The Visual Style And Approach To War By Russ Fischer/May 18, 2012 2:30 pm EST Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic sci-fi novel Ender’s Game doesn’t open until November 2013, but the filmmakers are already starting to get the word out about the film. Book and film both center on Ender Wiggin, a young boy enlisted in a military school ostensibly meant to train a new generation of soldiers and officers for a war against an alien race....

‘Fraggle Rock’ Film Rights Now With New Regency By Germain Lussier/Oct. 29, 2011 2:28 pm EST Jim Henson’s hit ’80s puppet TV series Fraggle Rock has been on the verge of moving to the big screen for several years. The Weinstein Company had the rights, a director, and a distinct vision of what they wanted, but years passed with very little movement save for a few scattered rumors. Deadline is now reporting the rights to the series reverted, were shopped around Hollywood, and went to the highest bidder: New Regency....

‘Harry Potter’ Epilogue Reshoots Are Finished; Actor Playing Young Snape Revealed By Russ Fischer/Dec. 28, 2010 5:00 am EST Now the Harry Potter series is really finished. The core cast recently reconvened at Leavesden Studios to reshoot one of the more memorable sequences that takes place in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: the epilogue. You might have missed it a little over a month ago when Peter talked to Daniel Radcliffe around the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, and the actor mentioned that there was a plan to reshoot the epilogue to the story....

‘Passion Play’ Trailer By Russ Fischer/April 11, 2011 5:00 am EST When Mitch Glazer pulled together the cast for Passion Play, it seemed like there might be reason to pay attention: Mickey Rourke is a faded trumpeter who encounters what may be a real-life angel (Megan Fox) being held in a sideshow by Bill Murray. But the film was savaged at TIFF last year and is scoring only a limited NY/LA theatrical release on May 6 before it hits DVD on May 31....

‘Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Trailer #2 By Peter Sciretta/June 2, 2011 2:46 pm EST Watch the trailer in high definition on Yahoo. Official Plot Synopsis: James Franco plays “a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes.” John Lithgow plays Franco’s father, also a scientist, Freida Pinto plays a primatologist who helps Franco, Brian Cox plays “the villainous owner of a primate sanctuary who runs the facility without compassion for the animals that live there,” Tom Felton is the son of Brian Cox’s character, and through performance capture and WETA created visual effects, Andy Serkis plays Caesar, the chimp who leads the simian revolt....

‘The Wolverine’ Gets A Rewrite From ‘Jack The Giant Killer’ And ‘Total Recall’ Scribe Mark Bomback By Russ Fischer/Sept. 1, 2011 1:47 pm EST Along with that hire, we’ve got a few details, as Variety says the cast will be all Japanese and Japanese-American actors except for Hugh Jackman and “a newly-expanded character named Viper, who’s the Caucasian secretary for Japan’s Minister of Justice.” (Here’s a wiki entry on Viper.)...

‘X-Men: First Class’ Writers To Adapt Fantasy Novel ‘The Magicians’ For Fox By Angie Han/Oct. 6, 2011 10:30 am EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Stentz and Miller’s most recent screenwriting successes were this summer’s Thor and X-Men: First Class. However, the two actually have more experience in television, having written for Andromeda, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Fringe. The pair clearly know a thing or two about mixing out-there elements with more traditional drama, which bodes well for The Magicians....

By Russ Fischer/Jan. 11, 2011 7:45 pm EST Just over a year ago we heard that Atari was pitching a Missile Command movie. That’s a fairly ridiculous notion, given that the original arcade game was a story free way to mix simple geometry and gaming, but not a very surprising one given the way other projects have been set up at studios in recent months. (Ahem, Battleship, etc.) At the time, it looked like Missile Command might end up at Fox, and now a year later that’s what has happened....

Casting Bits: Chris Klein Confirmed For ‘American Reunion’, Marilyn Manson In Talks For Charles Manson Biopic, Joshua Jackson Joins ‘Lay The Favorite’ By Angie Han/April 19, 2011 8:00 am EST Chris Klein has become the latest actor to sign on for American Reunion, the upcoming American Pie sequel that sees the gang returning to their hometown for their ten-year high school reunion. Reunion has already signed Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy and Alyson Hannigan; other members of the original cast, including Thomas Ian Nichols, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari and Jennifer Coolidge are still negotiating their roles....

Casting Notes: Eugene Levy In ‘Goon’; Angela Lansbury In ‘Mr. Popper’s Penuins’; Marianne Jean-Baptise In ‘Violet & Daisy’ By Russ Fischer/Oct. 27, 2010 3:30 pm EST In the race to make a hockey comedy the clear winner will be Goon, which stars Jay Baruchel and Seann William Scott. (Runner-up might be Kevin Smith’s Hit Somebody.) Goon is based on a script by Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg, which in turn was inspired by the book Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey Into Minor League Hockey....

Cool Stuff: ‘The Fighter’ Blood, Sweat And Art Event By Germain Lussier/Dec. 6, 2010 9:00 am EST Boxing fans know that, more than many other sports, fighting is an art. The way you punch, move and react can be such a fluid, beautiful thing that immortalizing the sport in art makes perfect sense. Saturday night in Los Angeles, that’s exactly what happened as Paramount hosted The Fighter: Blood, Sweat and Art....

Damon Lindelof Writing Original Sci-Fi Film For Disney By Russ Fischer/June 9, 2011 12:30 pm EST Lost mastermind Damon Lindelof has really taken the dive into screenwriting. He worked on the Cowboys & Aliens script with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and will be their co-author for the Star Trek sequel, as well. He significantly rewrote Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel to the point where it became an ‘original’ project, Prometheus. And now he has made a huge deal with Disney to write a secretive sci-fi film that is intended to fulfill “multiple platform aspirations....

Exclusive Clip From The ‘Toy Story 3? Special Features: “Creating Spanish Buzz” By Peter Sciretta/Oct. 29, 2010 3:30 pm EST Toy Story 3 will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 2nd 2010 and Disney has given us an exclusive bonus clip from the release. The clip is entitled “Creating Spanish Buzz” from the bonus featurette Toys! It features animator Carlos Baena (an awesome guy who I’ve met previously, who in addition to working at Pixar is an animation mentor for aspiring animators) discussing the animation of Buzz in Spanish mode after he is reset at Sunnyside Daycare....

Feature-Film Continuation Of ‘24’ Could Shoot Spring 2012 By Russ Fischer/Dec. 5, 2011 2:30 pm EST This makes just a small push from the timeline that has been casually discussed by participants in the past. In October, Sutherland said the script was almost done, Other statements this year had put the hopeful timeline for the shoot as December 2011 or January 2012. Not bad for a show that wrapped a year and a half ago — 24 is actually moving to the big screen pretty quickly, as these things go....

First Look: ‘30 Minutes Or Less’ By Peter Sciretta/Jan. 5, 2011 12:15 pm EST Columbia Pictures have released the first official photo from Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer’s upcoming action comedy 30 Minutes Or Less. The film stars Jessie Eisenberg (Zombieland, The Social Network) as a small town pizza delivery guy who is kidnapped by two wanna-be criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) and is forced to rob a bank. The film also features Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Fred Ward and Michael Pena....

Green Lantern Plot Synopsis Revealed By Peter Sciretta/May 29, 2010 11:18 am EST CBM got their hands on the official plot synopsis of the Martin Campbell-directed big screen adaptation of Green Lantern. Not that there are any surprises, you can read the whole plot synopsis and cast/crew details, after the jump.‘Bringing the enduringly popular superhero to the big screen for the first time, “Green Lantern” stars Ryan Reynolds (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) in the title role, under the direction of Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”)....

James Cameron Wants To Film ‘Avatar 2’ In 60 Frames Per Second, Improve Projection Quality And 3D By Russ Fischer/Feb. 1, 2011 9:00 am EST With James Cameron out doing press for the cave-diving thriller Sanctum, we can probably expect a steady stream of small updates about the Avatar sequels and films like Battle Angel and (should anyone remember to ask about it) The Dive. Here’s your latest Avatar 2 update, in which the director says that the key to improving the 3D presentation for his first Pandora sequel will lie in part with improving theater standards....