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VOTD: ‘How They Felt,’ A Muppet Mumblecore Short Film By Germain Lussier/Nov. 23, 2011 2:00 pm EST The reason why a movie like The Muppets works so well is the characters and ideas are something many of us grew up with. From as far back as we can remember, humans interacting with puppets was no big thing. In fact, it was something many of us dreamed about. Characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzy were more than just puppets, they were living things and a part of our lives....

Watch A Brief History Of Movie Title Designs By Russ Fischer/March 16, 2011 8:00 am EST As part of the screening put together in relation to the SXSW Title Design Competition, Ian Albinson from the website The Art of the Title Sequence put together a nice two and a half minute compendium of excellent film titles. (That features an occasional piece of television, too.) For any long-time film lover, this little video will probably elicit quite a few responses simply on the strength of the title cards on display....

By Germain Lussier/April 4, 2011 12:41 pm EST Despite writing and directing a multiple Razzie award-winning film his last time out, M. Night Shyamalan has now officially bagged two major stars for his follow-up. Shyamalan had previously mentioned he was prepping a sci-fi film for Jaden Smith and that’s just been made official, adding the news that Jaden will co-star with his father, Will Smith. The Sony Pictures press release refers to the film as “an untitled sci-fi adventure” but, last year, Shyamalan had been calling it One Thousand A....

Zack Galifianakis And Will Ferrell To Play Political Rivals By Germain Lussier/Dec. 3, 2010 4:00 pm EST How crazy is it to think that in less than two years we’ll once again vote for President of the United States? Here’s how crazy. There’s currently a pitch going around Hollywood that would pit Zack Galifianakis against Will Ferrell as political rivals in a comedy timed for release near the 2012 Presidential Elections....

$120 Million Adaptation Of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ In The Works By Adam Quigley/Oct. 12, 2010 9:00 am EST There have been a dozen or so adaptations of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, but none that have earned nearly the recognition that a story of this stature could sensibly attain. A studio in the UK is intent on changing that though, as they plan to “do to the story of ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ what Guy Ritchie did to ‘Sherlock Holmes’....

‘A-Team’ Helmer Joe Carnahan To Write And Direct ‘Umbra’ By Russ Fischer/Oct. 14, 2010 8:54 am EST I can’t help but feel a certain sympathy for Joe Carnahan. After coming out of the gate early with the very good Narc, he struggled to make appropriate follow-ups like Killing Pablo in between stumbling with Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team. Mr. Carnahan is working now on The Grey, with Liam Neeson, but he’s also just signed to rewrite and direct a thriller called Umbra....

‘Avatar: The Exhibition’ Opens In Seattle This Weekend By Germain Lussier/June 2, 2011 1:00 pm EST Pandora and Seattle have a lot in common. Both have a strong pro-environmental stance, lush, beautiful green foliage and a valuable natural resource. And though Pandora is fake and Seattle is real, the two become one this weekend as the Experience Music Project Museum will host the inaugural opening of Avatar: The Exhibition. The exhibit will be open from June 4-September 3 and include “authentic props and costumes, interactive displays, concept models, and sketches” from the highest grossing film of all-time....

‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’ Clip And Featurette Offer A Taste Of Sundance 2012’s Most Talked-About Hit By Angie Han/June 7, 2012 10:00 am EST [via Yahoo!] Although it’s tough to get a sense of what exactly the movie’s about from this clip, one thing that comes across loud and clear is the lively charm of young lead Quvenzhané Wallis. Beasts of the Southern Wild is her first-ever movie, but by all accounts she turns in an astonishing performance....

‘Braveheart’ Inspired TV Show On The Way; Maybe Someone Can Just Develop ‘Best Picture: The Series’? By Russ Fischer/March 13, 2012 10:00 am EST Here’s a pitch: now that we are seeing more than a few television series based on classic or well-known films, how about enabling someone to create an anthology show expressly designed to travels paths worn by the biggest films? One week we could see a black and white musical extravaganza in the vein of The Artist, while the next episode might see what happens when a Union Army officer with a fondness for Lakota Indians meets up with aging gunslinger William Munny....

‘Captain America,’ ‘Super 8,’ ‘Transformers’ And More To Have Super Bowl Commercials By Germain Lussier/Jan. 20, 2011 6:00 am EST Ads this year cost $3 million for a 30 second spot, slightly up compared to last year, so other studios have chosen to save money and buy time during pregame or Glee, which will air immediately following the game. Read which films will appear in those slots and also why we believe this isn’t the end of the Super Bowl shuffle....

‘Hall Pass’ Red-Band Trailer By Russ Fischer/Feb. 18, 2011 11:30 am EST The best way to sell a Farrelly Brothers film is with a red-band trailer, and so WB/New Line has dropped this red-band clip for the upcoming Hall Pass, in which Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis are married guys who can’t stop thinking about the sex they’re evidently not getting at home. Given a week’s break from the confines of marriage, the two get into some ridiculous hijinks....

‘Heavy Metal’ Will Be Back On Screen…as A Live-Action French TV Show By Russ Fischer/Feb. 8, 2011 5:30 pm EST We’ve been waiting for word that the David Fincher-produced new version of Heavy Metal might actually go forward. That film, which is an update/follow-up to the animated 1981 version produced by Ivan Reitman, has a number of big directors attached (Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Zack Snyder, Rob Zombie, Gore Verbinski and Mark Osborne have all been mentioned) but we haven’t had a reliable update in some time....

‘Hunger Games’ Helmer Gary Ross In Talks For Summit’s Houdini Spy Film By Angie Han/May 2, 2012 12:30 pm EST For a while there, it seemed all but certain that The Hunger Games helmer Gary Ross would return for the sequel, Catching Fire. But that, of course, didn’t pan out, and with Francis Lawrence now firmly positioned in the director’s chair for that film, Ross is weighing a few different options for his next move....

‘Paradise Lost,’ Indeed: Legendary Pictures Kills Big-Budget War In The Heavens By Russ Fischer/Feb. 9, 2012 11:45 am EST Briefly: There’s not much info at this point, but both Variety and Deadline are reporting that Legendary Pictures has scrapped the Alex Proyas film Paradise Lost. The big-budget film was originally set to shoot early this year in Australia with Bradley Cooper playing Lucifer and Benjamin Walker, Casey Affleck, Djimon Housou, Diego Boneta, Camilla Belle, Sam Reid, Rufus Sewell and Callan McAuliffe set to play a variety of angels, both exalted and fallen, in a film that would use John Milton’s epic poem about the fall of Lucifer as a springboard to present massive aerial battles....

‘Simon Killer’ - A Disturbing, Visual Coming Of Age Story [Sundance 2012] By Germain Lussier/Jan. 22, 2012 12:00 pm EST Watching Antonio Campos’s Simon Killer at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, I couldn’t help think of AMC ’s TV show Breaking Bad. Both that show and this film embrace their titles and feature the systematic devolution of a human from generally likable to downright nasty. Simon Killer just does it through an indie film lens: subtly, psychologically and with a younger character....

‘Spider-Man’ Reboot: Emma Stone Signed For Sequels; Details On Los Angeles Shoot And Budget By Germain Lussier/Dec. 22, 2010 12:30 pm EST From Superbad to Zombieland and Easy A, Emma Stone’s big screen presence has been as a redhead. So when she dyed her hair blonde for her role as love interest Gwen Stacy in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot, it was news. Now, the latest in Emma Stone hair news is that she’s going to have to stay blonde for a while as she’s apparently signed on for “a few” sequels....

‘The Campaign’ Trailer: Will Ferrell And Zach Galifianakis Have Some Babies To Kiss By Angie Han/May 11, 2012 7:30 am EST When real-life politics get ugly, it’s depressing, but when fictional politics go negative, it’s hilarious. After whetting your appetite with Monday’s silly political ads, the first full-length trailer has been unveiled for Jay Roach’s The Campaign. Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell star as rivals competing for a Congressional seat in North Carolina....

‘The Trashmaster’ Is A Feature Film Created Entirely From ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ Footage By Russ Fischer/Jan. 11, 2011 6:30 pm EST I’m not sure where this fits into the whole ‘video games are / aren’t art’ argument, but I’m looking forward to seeing how people try to use it as evidence for one side or the other. Mathieu Weschler spent two years culling and assembling footage from Grand Theft Auto IV into The Trashmaster, a full-length feature about, yep, a garbage man....

‘Training Day’ Director Antoine Fuqua’s ‘Tupac’ Biopic Set To Go Into Production This Summer By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 10, 2011 5:30 pm EST Training Day/Brooklyn’s Finest helmer Antoine Fuqua is set to direct a Tupac Shakur biopic titled Tupac, which will go into production in late Spring/early Summer 2011. The film will be shot on location in Los Angeles, New York, Georgia and Las Vegas and is currently being cast. Here is how Morgan Creek describes the story:...

By Adam Quigley/Oct. 8, 2010 4:00 pm EST David Mamet’s efforts were dashed last year when his follow-up to Redbelt, a reframed look at the life of Anne Frank, was put into turnaround at Disney for being “too dark”. Fans of Mamet were surely less than thrilled by this development, but now he has a new project in the works that could be just as interesting. In conjunction with HBO Films, Mamet will write and direct a film about Phil Spector, the celebrated record producer turned murderer....