Posts

Three More Photos From ‘The Hunger Games’ By Russ Fischer/July 28, 2011 9:00 am EST As someone who hasn’t read any of The Hunger Games books and probably won’t any time soon (too much other stuff to get through, y’know) I’ve been leaving most of the news breaks related to the film to Germain and others who can contextualize the information. But I’ve got to jump in at some point, and what better place than now, as Lionsgate is releasing more and more images to the public?...

Universal Studios Orlando Re-Animating ‘Spider-Man’ Ride, Announces New ‘Despicable Me’ Ride By Peter Sciretta/May 19, 2011 3:00 pm EST UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT REVEALS MAJOR ATTRACTION NEWS Blockbuster 3-D-CGI Feature “Despicable Me” to Become Attraction Experience at Universal Orlando Plus, Incredible High-Tech Enhancements Underway for One of the World’s Most Popular Attractions: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Orlando, Fla. (May 19, 2011) – Universal Orlando Resort today announced that its newest attraction will be based on Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s blockbuster 3-D-CGI feature “Despicable Me,” bringing minions, mayhem and a whole new level of 3-D family fun to its guests....

VOTD: ‘The Gawper,’ A Short Animated Graveyard Caper By Russ Fischer/Oct. 24, 2011 6:00 am EST Here’s a fun little short film that is part early Universal horror (or RKO — in particular, the Val Lewton films) and part Tim Burton. It is about a minute and half of what looks like stop-motion and puppetry, but is likely actually CGI. Either way that’s fine, as the short is a cute piece of graveyard fun....

Warner Bros. Kills Plans To Release ‘Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I’ In 3D (Huzzah!) By Russ Fischer/Oct. 8, 2010 10:41 am EST Briefly: Warner Bros. just threw a light jab into the face of post-conversion 3D. The studio had planned to release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I in post-converted 3D. But now WB has released a statement saying that the film will release only in 2D and IMAX versions, and that,...

Will Ferrell To Guest On Four Episodes Of ‘The Office’ By Russ Fischer/Jan. 27, 2011 10:00 am EST Some of Will Ferrell’s best work in the past few years has been in short form rather than features. He’s been great on Eastbound & Down and in Funny or Die videos, and did a short arc on 30 Rock as well. Now he’ll appear in a four-episode stretch of The Office, which in part will bridge the show from Steve Carell’s final episodes to the post-Carell era....

‘Elite Squad 2’ Is A Must See Crime Thriller [Sundance Review] By Peter Sciretta/Jan. 27, 2011 5:00 pm EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. One of the films featured on our extensive Best Movies of 2010 That You Probably Haven’t Heard Of list was a Brazilian action movie titled Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within. The original Elite Squad was released in 2007 (now available on DVD), and was highly acclaimed by critics and moviegoers....

‘Kokuriko-Zaka Kara’ Trailer: Goro Miyazaki’s Second Film For Studio Ghibli By Russ Fischer/July 6, 2011 10:30 am EST We just saw a new trailer for Arrietty, the Studio Ghibli movie directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and co-written by Hayao Miyazaki that was released in Japan not long ago and will hit the US early next year. But there is also a new trailer for another Ghibli film, Kokuriko-Zaka Kara, which was directed by the younger Miyazaki, Goro Miyazaki....

‘Nature Calls’ Red Band Trailer: Patton Oswalt Takes On Johnny Knoxville By Germain Lussier/Sept. 20, 2012 1:58 pm EST When the new red band trailer for Nature Calls came online, I started watching it and something felt off. Thirty seconds in it hit me. Not only had I already seen this movie, I disliked it immensily and had all but removed the memory from my brain. But it’s all coming back to me now....

‘NEDS’ Trailer: Peter Mullan Directs A Rugged Coming Of Age Tale By Russ Fischer/April 22, 2011 1:00 pm EST Peter Mullan is a great character actor and a very serious director. His previous two films, The Magdalene Sisters and Orphans, were both pretty intense dramas, but definitely worth a look. He hasn’t made a film since 2002, but now returns with NEDS (short for Non Educated Delinquents), which charts the life of John McGill, a boy on the cusp of manhood trying to make his way through a tough life in ’70s Glasgow....

‘Saving Private Ryan’ Writer Robert Rodat Rewriting ‘Thor 2’ By Russ Fischer/Jan. 10, 2012 6:27 pm EST Marvel’s development of a sequel to this past summer’s Thor has turned into a minor spectacle. Brian Kirk, a TV director with recent experience on Game of Thrones, was nearly hired, but walked away over “creative and financial sticking points that arose during negotiations.” Patty Jenkins, whose last feature was the Oscar-winning Monster, was hired, and then fired....

‘Spider-Man’ Producer Laura Ziskin Dies Of Cancer By Angie Han/June 13, 2011 7:30 am EST Ziskin executive-produced the Academy Awards telecast in 2002, becoming the first woman to ever do so alone, and again in 2007. Both productions garnered her an Emmy nod. But her most successful projects during the ’00s were her three Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire. While working on those films, in 2004, Ziskin was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer....

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Teaser Poster By Russ Fischer/Dec. 9, 2011 3:26 pm EST Well, just look at that. The first real teaser poster has arrived to promote Marc Webb’s new The Amazing Spider-Man, and it is a pretty fantastic shot. I can see some people being put off by the shadowy nature of the image, and indeed it isn’t as sunny as I’d really like to see for Spider-Man. But beyond that the picture is great, I think, and very specifically positions this as a movie that does something different than the Sam Raimi films accomplished....

‘The Departed’ Screenwriter William Monahan To Adapt ‘Oblivion’ For ‘Tron: Legacy’ Director Joseph Kosinski By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 10, 2010 6:46 pm EST For those of you who don’t yet know Kosinski’s work, check out some of his commercials, and the VFX concept footage that he directed to convince Disney to greenlight Tron 2 — all of which is very impressive. Kosinski has since signed on to direct a remake of The Black Hole for Disney, is first in line for a third Tron film (which is currently being written), and most recently signed on to direct a “Bourne”-styled sci-fi thriller titled Archangels for producer Ridley Scott....

‘The Dictator’ Review: Sacha Baron Cohen Blends Offensive Hilarity With Silent Stupidity By Germain Lussier/May 15, 2012 4:00 pm EST A sense of humor is like a fingerprint; no two are alike. What one person finds hilarious another doesn’t, and everyone has their own catalog of things that make them falls into hysterics. Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest vehicle, The Dictator, tries to cover every single kind of humor imaginable. Do you like super offensive, evil humor?...

‘Waiting For Forever’ Trailer By Peter Sciretta/Dec. 21, 2010 11:30 am EST Freestyle Releasing have released a movie trailer for Waiting For Forever, a “Hollywood-set romantic tale” directed by James Keach, starring Rachel Bilson (The O.C., Jumper), Blythe Danner (Meet The Parents), Richard Jenkins (Let Me In), Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray) and Tom Sturridge (Pirate Radio). In “Waiting for Forever” Emma (Rachel Bilson) and Will (Tom Sturridge) play long lost best friends—or so Emma thinks....

‘Won’t Back Down’ Trailer - Viola Davis And Maggie Gyllenhaal Fight For Your Kids By Angie Han/May 16, 2012 3:00 pm EST Having tackled racism in Civil Rights-era Mississippi with the help of Emma Stone in last summer’s The Help, Viola Davis is now taking on the modern public education crisis with the aid of Maggie Gyllenhaal in Won’t Back Down. Directed by Daniel Barnz (Beastly) from a script he co-wrote with Brin Hill, the apparently fact-based drama stars Gyllenhaal and Davis as a pair of determined mothers who team up to establish a charter school for struggling children in their Pittsburgh neighborhood....

Brett Ratner In Talks To Direct Hercules By Russ Fischer/July 15, 2010 12:30 am EST I think quite a few people will be able to get behind this news because, frankly, any time Brett Ratner is attached to a film that you might not care much about in the first place, it’s like dodging a bullet. Ratner could have directed The Hobbit (yeah, right) but instead he’s in talks to direct a new take on the tale of Hercules....

Casting Bits: Matt Dillon In ‘Imogene;’ Mireille Enos In ‘Gangster Squad;’ Stephanie Szostak In ‘RIPD’ By Russ Fischer/Aug. 9, 2011 5:30 pm EST Here’s a lovers and spouses collection of casting news, leading off with a nice change of pace report of an actor being cast as the ’love interest’ for a major actress, rather than the other way around. After the break you’ll find: Matt Dillon will woo Anette Bening in Imogene, The Killing actress Mireille Enos joins Gangster Squad, Stephanie Szostak cozies up to Ryan Reynolds in RIPD, and some of the Jersey Shore knuckleheads appear with famous fictional whackos The Three Stooges....

David Goyer In 2006 Explains Why He Wouldn’t “Ever Be Good To Write Superman” By Peter Sciretta/April 19, 2010 2:17 pm EST /Film reader Ian G noticed something funny in David Goyer’s 2006 interview with the screenwriting-focused interview series The Dialogue. You may recall that we’ve featured The Dialogue Series in a previous edition of Cool Stuff (read more here). You probably also recall that David Goyer was hired to write a new Superman screenplay based on a story that Goyer dreamed up with producer Christopher Nolan....

Disney Adding ‘Avatar’ Attractions To Theme Parks By Angie Han/Sept. 20, 2011 11:34 am EST When James Cameron’s Avatar hit theaters in late 2009, one of its most talked-about aspects was its ability to really bring audiences into the world of Pandora through stunning cinematography, cutting-edge 3-D and graphics, and exquisitely realized details. The world was so beautifully rendered, in fact, that stories started circulating of fans who were heartbroken that Pandora didn’t actually exist....