Posts

New ‘Drive’ TV Spot And Poster By Russ Fischer/Aug. 12, 2011 4:45 pm EST Because there is more than a slight risk of over-hyping the Nicolas Winding Refn film Drive, I’ve resisted posting the regular green-band trailer for the film, which dropped a week or so back, because it is almost exactly the same as the red-band version that hit during Comic Con. The trailer shows just a bit too much, I think, because the film is fairly thin on plot, instead prioritizing character and atmosphere....

New Photos: Rainn Wilson And Liv Tyler In James Gunn’s ‘Super’ By Russ Fischer/July 29, 2010 12:00 pm EST I’d been looking forward to seeing footage from James Gunn’s strange low-fi superhero movie Super, and Comic Con provided the goods. I really liked what I saw; Gunn has come up with a no-frills, low-budget approach that lets him play with some characters that are possibly quite sick and twisted. It’s the world of underround comics come to movie form, without all the overhead of a big studio film....

Offer Out To Nicolas Cage For ‘Cemetery Man’ Director’s ‘Treasure Of Pompeii’ By Russ Fischer/Jan. 29, 2011 12:00 pm EST Briefly: Earlier this week fans of the great, weird zombie movie Cemetery Man got a boost when we heard that director Michele Soavi might make a sequel. At the same time, there were comments about the director making a movie ‘in the style of The Goonies’ starring Nicolas Cage. Now we know that the film is Treasure of Pompeii....

By Russ Fischer/Nov. 1, 2011 11:00 am EST In 2009, Paramount released Oren Peli’s tiny little movie Paranormal Activity, to great success. That film has already spawned two hugely successful sequels, and even as Paranormal was being released Peli was already working on another film called Area 51. There’s not yet any sign of Area 51, two years later, but Peli is reportedly still finishing that movie, while working as a producer on other projects: the TV show The River, Rob Zombie’s new movie The Lords of Salem, and a project he wrote which was called The Diary of Lawson Oxford, but is currently being referred to as the Untitled Oren Peli Project....

Rumor: Disney Is Developing A ‘Hocus Pocus’ Sequel By Germain Lussier/July 6, 2012 3:30 pm EST My memories of the 1993 Kenny Ortega film Hocus Pocus are of its purple VHS box sitting on a shelf in my local video store, always rented out. The film starred Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as witches who terrorize a small town on Halloween and was a moderate hit for Disney, raking in about $40 million at the box office....

Shawn Levy To Direct ‘Fantastic Voyage’ For Producer James Cameron By Germain Lussier/Feb. 7, 2011 8:48 am EST Most of the film is going to be completely CGI, which makes Levy an off-beat choice. He has yet to release a full effects film but he’s certainly done very well for Fox, helming an fair amount of hits including both Night at the Museums (which are fairly effects heavy), Date Night and Cheaper by the Dozen....

Sheryl Crow And Barry Levinson Adapting ‘Diner’ Into A Broadway Musical By Angie Han/Sept. 21, 2011 1:30 pm EST There are some films that seem like logical inspirations for Broadway musicals — such as Sister Act, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and The Lion King, to name just a few of the shows currently playing on the Great White Way. Barry Levinson’s 1982 coming-of-age dramedy Diner doesn’t seem like one of them....

Toronto Midnight Madness Winner ‘The Raid’ Hits Theaters This Spring By Germain Lussier/Nov. 29, 2011 4:45 pm EST Coming out of this year’s Toronto Film Festival, several films enjoyed massive buzz. You’re Next was one, God Bless America was another, Sleepless Night a third. But the one most with most heat was The Raid. Peter called this Indonesian action film about a SWAT team who attempts to infiltrate an apartment building controlled by a drug dealer “the best action film I’ve seen in years” and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions quickly gobbled up the rights....

TV Bits: NBC Orders ‘Mad Men’-Like Playboy Club TV Pilot, J.J. Abrams Eyes ‘Pulp’ Fiction TV Series By Germain Lussier/Jan. 6, 2011 3:30 pm EST The second show, called Pulp, is being championed by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot. Like most things Abrams is involved with, not much is known about it yet except that it’s an hour-long drama with a “heightened sense of reality” like in Pulp Fiction. It’s currently being shopped to networks....

VOTD: The 100 Greatest Movie Insults By Peter Sciretta/July 1, 2010 12:00 am EST

Watch: Red Band Trailer For ‘The Raid’ – The Best Kick-Ass Action Movie I’ve Seen In Years [TIFF 2011] By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 9, 2011 3:00 pm EST When I walked into the theater today to see Gareth Evans’ The Raid, I knew nothing about the film. I had heard some positive buzz coming out of the film’s midnight madness premiere last night at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival, but that that was it....

‘Cloverfield’ Monster Designer Neville Page Working On JJ Abrams’ ‘Super 8’ By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 23, 2010 12:00 pm EST Neville Page is working on JJ Abrams’ Super 8. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering that concept designer/creature creator Page created the Cloverfield monster in the Abrams-produced sci-fi movie, and worked closely with the filmmaker creating the creatures and characters in Star Trek. Neville’s credits also include Garfield, Fantastic Four, Superman Returns, The Chronicles of Narnia, Watchmen, Avatar, Piranha 3D, Green Lantern, Tron: Legacy and even David Fincher’s upcoming 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea: Captain Nemo....

‘Godzilla’ Dated For May 2014, In 3D By Russ Fischer/Sept. 13, 2012 10:41 pm EST Briefly: If you’ve been waiting to see the Godzilla teaser (or proof of concept footage) that was shown at the San Diego Comic Con this past summer, you’re going to have to wait a while longer. But now we know when the real thing will be in theaters: Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have set a May 16 2014 release date for the film....

‘Transformers’ Ride Coming To Universal Studios Orlando? By Angie Han/Sept. 23, 2011 3:38 pm EST With Transformers: The Ride — 3D about to launch in Hollywood and Singapore, Universal Studios is looking to bring the giant alien robots to at least one other park. Or at least, so says Steven Spielberg. Though Universal has yet to make a formal announcement about a new Transformers-themed attraction for its Orlando resort, the director claimed in a recent interview that a ride was in the works....

2010 Domestic Box Office Visualized In Chart And Video By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 29, 2010 11:00 am EST Exhibitor Relations has reported that the 2010 box office will “be on par with 2009–$10.55 billion vs. $10.58 billion. That’s a moderate drop of just 0.3%, however a decrease in attendance of nearly 5%.” Our friends at TheFilmStage have directed us to Xach, who has created a cool visualization of this year’s box office in today’s Daily Distraction....

Alex Kurtzman And Roberto Orci Producing ‘Dragonology’ By Germain Lussier/Aug. 27, 2012 4:57 pm EST Dragons are real and they’re among us. That’s the hook to the children’s book series Dragonology, which Universal bought the rights to in 2008. At that time, screenwriter Leonard Hartman was hired to crack the story of a team of dragonologists – people who study dragons, of course – who try and stop an evil group from turning the world’s remaining dragons on humanity....

Brendon Fraser Exits ‘Journey To The Center Of The Earth’ Sequel, Brad Peyton To Direct By David Chen/May 25, 2010 9:25 am EST Deadline is reporting that Brad Peyton will soon become the director of the sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. The original film was directed by Eric Brevig, and while his return to the director’s chair would have been an optimal situation, Warner Brothers wants to release the film by fall 2011 and Brevig is currently tied up with the Yogi Bear film....

Carter Burwell Talks About His Approach To Scoring ‘True Grit’ By Russ Fischer/April 22, 2010 7:58 am EST Joel and Ethan Coen are in New Mexico right now filming True Grit, their take on the Charles Portis novel that inspired the 1969 film of the same name. We know that this version will hew closer to the source novel than the original film did, and given the fact that the Coen Brothers are behind it, we can make certain guesses about the general tone of the film....

Casting Notes: Christian Slater In ‘Playback’; Lauren Ambrose In ‘Wanderlust’; Malin Akerman In ‘The Numbers Station’ By Russ Fischer/Sept. 13, 2010 7:32 am EST In the past couple years, Christian Slater has been seen much more on TV than in films, and quite a few of the films he has made, well, have been…underexposed. (Show of hands: who saw Lies & Illusions? That’s what I thought.) But perhaps Playback will fare better than most....

Character Sketches For ‘Dorothy Of Oz’ By Russ Fischer/June 19, 2010 1:16 pm EST In part because of the runaway success of Alice in Wonderland, a story like The Wizard of Oz is hot stuff in Hollywood right now. So there are loads of Oz-related projects in the works: Disney’s Oz, the Great and Powerful, to be directed by Sam Raimi with Robert Downey, Jr. starring; the Polish Brothers’ Oz; a Wizard of Oz sequel called Surrender Dorothy potentially to be directed by Drew Barrymore; and the animated Dorothy of Oz....