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Aug 16, 2008

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August 5, 2008 - Tuesday

LETHAL WEAPON 5!
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Apparently Danny Glover ISN'T Too Old For This Shit


Following in the path of ROCKY, RAMBO, DIE HARD and INDIANA JONES, the characters of Riggs and Murtaugh are locking and loading for one last go around.

What's interesting about this film is that it was NOT generated by Warner Brothers looking to cash in one last time.  Instead, original writer Shane (MONSTER SQUAD) Black has been working on this script for the past year or so in secret, not telling a soul about it.  Which meant that when he was done writing it there was no guarantee that Warner Brothers would even make the film once he was done writing it.

Once Black finished the script, he called Producer Joel Silver and told him about the project. 

Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are both on board for this last go around. 

No specifics about the story are known other than Mel Gibson's character yanks Danny Glover out of retirement for one last case.

However, anybody who knows anything about Shane Black knows that he intended for LETHAL WEAPON 2 to be the last film in the franchise, going so far as to kill Mel Gibson's character of Riggs in the end.

Warner Brothers wouldn't hear of it however, knowing that would be like flushing money down the proverbial toilet.  Jeffrey (INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE) Boam was then brought in to rewrite Black's script leaving it open for two more films, both of which were NOT written by Black.

So, I think it's highly likely that Black, who has much more clout these days, will more than likely end the series exactly how he intended to back with LETHAL WEAPON 2.

7:47 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

July 11, 2008 - Friday

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS Script Thoughts
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS Script Thoughts


Well, just as I had hoped, Tarantino's script for INGLORIOUS BASTARDS landed in my lap.

My initial reaction? 

Excellent.

My reaction after mulling it over this morning while drinking my coffee and eating a scone?

Perhaps even brilliant. 

Without giving too much away, Tarantino seems to take the best aspects of the skills he showed in PULP FICTION and KILL BILL and utilizes them to weave, yet again, multiple story lines that eventually intersect in the film's satisfying third act.   The execution  here, as with PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN, is nearly flawless and really shows QT at the top of his game. 

With the story of "The Basterds" (QT's spelling, not mine) he successfully captures the essence of a "men on a mission" movie, harkening back to films like THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, but definitely puts his "Tarantino Stamp" on the material.   Yes, the script is rife with Tarantino dialog, but I have to say, despite rumors, it's less self indulgent than DEATH PROOF, and has far more in common with the monologues from PULP FICTION and TRUE ROMANCE.  And the shocking violence we've become accustomed to from QT is definitely here as well (baseball bat - that's all I'm saying). 

The other primary story is that of a young Jewish girl named Shosanna, the lone survivor of the slaughter of her family at the hands of the Nazis, namely our primary villain known as The Jew Hunter.  With this tale QT shows us something different from his filmmaking repertoire, using black and white French New Wave cinema to tell the girl's tale of living in hiding as a movie theater owner in Nazi occupied France.  QT is quite adept here at weaving a love story, and he also shows us he is not simply the product of 1960s and 70s cinema and is, in fact, a well versed cinephile.  I expect the interest in 1920s and 30s German cinema to increase significantly after this film comes out. 

All in all, if Tarantino executes this film as described in the script, and gets the casting he wants, I think INGLORIOUS BASTARDS will be one hell of a movie that, when all is said and done, even the QT haters will have to admit is pure genius on many levels.






11:26 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

July 10, 2008 - Thursday

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS Update
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

INGLORIOUS "BASTERDS" Update


The script is leaking out.  While I haven't laid my hands on it yet, someone at New York Magazine did.  Check out their write up at the link below; script sounds just as self indulgent at KILL BILL and DEATH PROOF, but it does sound as though it could be one heck of a movie:

NY MAG

Oh yeah, and Brad Pitt is set to star as the lead as of this writing. 

8:28 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

July 8, 2008 - Tuesday

Tarantino’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS!


Hearing the script for Quentin Tarantino's next pic, INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, has finally gone out to the town.  This DIRTY DOZEN esque pic, which has been on Tarantino's "to do" list for some time, is described as a Spaghetti Western style World War II flick about a group of POW's who must make a daring escape before their imminent execution.

Long time Producing partner Lawrence Bender is on board once again.

Spec has gone into Warner, Universal and Paramount.  I'm hearing that Paramount is VERY interested in the project.

Check back here for updates...



1:47 PM - 12 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

June 20, 2008 - Friday

The Lionsgate Debacle and MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

The Whimper of Lionsgate


Seems new Lionsgate head, Joe Drake, has already started off on the wrong foot with the fans who made the company into the player they've become over the past eight years or so.  For the unitiated, former LGF head Peter Block, who made the company what it is by aggressively pursuing horror and exploitation titles, both new and old, was let go a few months ago.  He's now been replaced by Joe Drake, who has numerous horror credits under his belt as a Producer.  Seemed like a logical choice to replace Peter... at the time. 

But now, something's afoot at LGF, and it appears the studio horror fans felt they could rely on to provide a continuous stream of genre content (most of which has been highly profitable for the studio) may be switching gears in a manner that echoes the moves made by New Line Cinema in the late 1990s. 


The story of New Line is well known, but to recap for those who may not: Founder Robert Shaye built New Line into a player by pursuing horror titles and cult films.  Among those titles were Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD and Wes Craven's NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.  Both films spawned lucrative franchises, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET in particular, and the studio became known as "The House That Freddy Built".  New Line eventually purchased the rights to the character of "Jason Vorhees" from the FRIDAY THE 13TH films, as well as picking up the rights to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE franchise.  In short, Bob Shaye, and then right hand man Mike DeLuca orchestrated a business scenario to where they had just about every horror film icon under their roof, save for "Michael Meyers" from the HALLOWEEN franchise.  And what did they do with that incredible arsenal at their disposal?

Zilch. 

Despite a couple films here and there, mostly unwatchable exercises I'll admit, New Line seemed to be slowly, but surely, abandoning the genre that made them into what they had become.  The first sign of trouble was when JASON X, the tenth film in the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise, sat on the shelf for well over a year after it was completed.  Release dates came and went, sometimes it would appear in press kits, sometimes it wouldn't.  It just seemed New Line had no desire to spend money marketing or releasing the movie.  Add to that New Line had no other horror titles in the pipeline, it was obvious there was trouble on the horizon for  horror fans.

Eventually, New Line threw those fans a bone by finally releasing JASON X in 2001, then followed that up with FREDDY VS JASON in 2003.  But, after that... bupkiss.

During this entire horror "boom" that has taken over Hollywood for the past eight years or so, New Line has remained virtually silent.  The horror cannons that fired continuously in the 1980s and early 1990s have been locked down and unmanned, as Robert Shaye and Co. sought to find legitimacy in Hollywood by pursuing real titles such as THE LORD OF THE RINGS films.  Wonderful movies, mind you, and a roll of the dice that paid off in spades.  However, the LOTR's films were three hits amid many misses.  Most recently, Shaye rolled the dice on the GOLDEN COMPASS, a popular novel series in England, with a moderate fan base here in the U.S.  Somehow, the story about a group of people out to kill God didn't quite ring with U.S. audiences the way the LOTR's did (yeah, quite the head scratcher eh?) and the film was yet another flop for New Line. 

This flop, however, was an expensive one and drew the attention of Time Warner Execs who had aquired New Line when it merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1996 (Turner bought New Line in 1994 making Shaye a very wealthy man).  It wasn't soon before the rumors about New Line were flying through the town; "Bob Shaye is going to be fired...", "New Line may fold..." etc etc.  It wasn't soon before those rumors finally played out; Bob Shaye's contract was not renewed by Warner and New Line was folded into the Warner mother ship.  With the exception of a handful of staff, everyone at New Line lost their jobs.  What remains of the one time pillar of the independent spirit is a dirty, cracked shell of what it once was and now serves as a cautionary tale. 

The catastrophic mistake made by New Line was that they didn't dance with the date that took them to the prom to begin with.  They were able to take those non-genre risks due to the war chest created by the highly profitable horror titles they had been releasing for two decades.  And instead of maintaining that revenue stream, they simply shut it off as though they no longer wanted to be associated with something as dirty as horror.  Let's face it, despite being the cash cow it is, horror is barely considered one level above porn in the industry.  It simply gets no respect, even though it has literally saved the town from financial disaster over the past eight years.  All those stories about Hollywood's failing box office started to disappear once the horror boom began and films like the SAW franchise, HOSTEL, DAWN OF THE DEAD (redux), THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (redux), THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, THE RING, THE GRUDGE, etc began hitting the screens to serve a rabid fan base.  Despite all that, studios still see horror as a red-headed step child.

Which brings us back to Lionsgate, which, unfortunately, seems to be following the New Line paradigm a little too closely.  Now that Joe Drake as taken over, horror titles such as Clive Barker's MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN and Darren Lynn Bousman's REPO! seem to be disappearing from the release slate with no real explanation, with the exception of MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN which has gone from a wide release to a small 100 screen release to promote the DVD release a week later.  Which, ultimately, knocks it down from the national theatrical release it once was to a direct to DVD title, despite positive buzz which has been surrounding the film for months.

This has all happened much to the ire of Clive Barker, who made a public appeal to fans to contact Lionsgate and demand the movie be released in theaters properly.  Something fans have responded to in spades.  According to many sources, E Mail boxes are overflowing at LGF.  Most wondering why in the hell the prod co, which has been horror fan friendly, is now switching gears all of a sudden.

But, one has to wonder if horror fans have only themselves to blame here.  Point of fact, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN is a hard R rated horror film.  And, honestly, with the exception of THE STRANGERS (which was produced by Joe Drake by the way) and the HALLOWEEN remake, R rated horror films have not fared well at the box office.  Even well reviewed R rated horror titles such as the 2005 films THE DESCENT and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS under whelmed at the box office.

But, I think there is far more going on here than concern over releasing a hard R horror film in a market that hasn't treated such fare too well.  All one has to do is look at Lionsgate's main web page to get an idea of where the company is going.  What you'll find there are titles like BANGKOK DANGEROUS, MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL, RELIGIOUS, THE BANK JOB, FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, DISASTER MOVIE, THE PUNISHER and THE SPIRIT. 

What's missing from this list?  Anything even remotely resembling a horror title.  And when you look at the tracking boards and see what scripts and projects Lionsgate is pursuing, there's not much for the horror fan to be excited about there either. 

So, in a bit of advice to Joe Drake (if I may be so bold): don't follow the New Line scheme to the bitter end.  If you want to take risks and expand your product base, go for it, but protect your revenue stream. 

Horror makes money. 

Good horror makes lots of money. 

No horror makes no money.

And neither did THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

Get it?

8:29 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

June 12, 2008 - Thursday

Variety Loves Them Some HULK
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

HULK Smash Box Office


As many of you who frequent the Fangoria Forums know, I am waaay over superhero films.  It doesn't get any better than SPIDER MAN 2 in my opinion.  Which is why, with such low expectations, IRON MAN blew me away in how good a time I had while watching it, thanks, no doubt, to the inspired casting of Robert Downey Jr. who gives one of the better performances of his career. 

And now we come to the "relaunching" of the Incredible Hulk franchise, after the train wreck, directed by Ang Lee, failed to even remotely titillate the fan base.  I've never been a Hulk fan to begin with so my expectations aren't really low, as much as I'm just disinterested.  But, according to the review by Variety, this may turn into an unexpected pleasure in the same way IRON MAN did.

Great... now I have expectations... sigh...

Check out the Variety review below.

"What seemed, in theory, the least-necessary revival of a bigscreen superhero emerges as perfectly solid summer action fare in "The Incredible Hulk." Revisiting the character Ang Lee and James Schamus put under a psychological microscope in 2003 to mixed results, Marvel, Universal and several of the same producers have repackaged one of their better-known stable stars in a straightforward actioner that delivers the goods with no unnecessary frills or digressions. Happy to give the intended audience what it wants, this loud and quick-moving production will shake loose ample coin in all markets.

To anyone wondering why the Marvel team would so soon embark on a makeover of the growly green giant after all the angst endured on the previous one, the answer is provided by the final scene, in which the star of the most recent Marvel B.O. smash unexpectedly turns up to ask, "What if I told you we were getting a team together?"

New film thus marks the first step in the label's plan to begin shuffling its major characters into films together, a la some of the comicbooks -- a scheme that seemingly required the rehabilitation of the Hulk from something that came to be regarded as perhaps too rarefied, not of a piece with the studio's other cinematic stalwarts.

Viewed in this utilitarian light, the new film gets its job done. It's not especially exciting or surprising, lacking the cheek and sheen of "Iron Man" and the opulence and star power of the "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" series. But it's better than the "Fantastic Four" pictures and "Daredevil" and manages to shift the title character from a hopelessly conflicted Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to a wannabe good guy.

It seems that none of these Marvel-based films can begin with anything other than a medical experiment gone madly awry, leaving its subject with a drastically split personality. This one gets it over with pronto, after which scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) hides out anonymously in a Brazilian favela while desperately trying to decontaminate his blood, eliminating the cells that can make him, if sufficiently incensed, turn into a raging, bemuscled, 9-foot screamer with disagreeably antisocial habits.

Keen to track Bruce down is Army Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (a cigar-chomping William Hurt), who oversaw the experiment. He wants to bend the results to military purposes and sends mad-dog soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) flying down to Rio to snatch the elusive fugitive. Resulting pursuit is a partially parkour-style chase through the pinched passageways and across the roofs of the hillside slums that entertainingly recalls but doesn't nearly match the flair of the opening sequence of "Casino Royale." The Hulk makes his first kick-butt appearance in Brazil 23 minutes in, but is only partly seen, and in shadows at that.

Despite the manpower expended to bring him to heel, Bruce is able to make his way back to Virginia, stopping en route in Mexico to buy a pair of stretchy pants, which he rightly predicts will prove useful down the line. In the intervening six months or so, g.f. Betty (Liv Tyler), old Thunderbolt's daughter, has taken up with a new guy, but she immediately drops him when her old flame reappears with major issues to deal with.

First and foremost, her dad wants to extract whatever's inside him to augment the Pentagon's arsenal (there's no discussion of whether or not this super-steroid constitutes a chemical weapon). Second, Blonsky, who admires his adversary as "a whole new level of weird," can't wait to attain that level himself. After he volunteers to receive a dose, he's able to compete with the Hulk up to a point in an explosive battle on a university campus lawn, but he'll need more juice to have any hope of besting the green one in a street brawl.

Which is exactly what the showdown consists of. Following an interlude in which the Hulk takes Betty to what looks just like King Kong's cave, both he and Blonsky enlist the services of an enthusiastic research doctor (Tim Blake Nelson in an amusingly over-the-top turn) to become battle-ready. With Blonsky transformed into a creature fully justified in being called the Abomination, they proceed, ripped and roaring, to lay waste to Harlem; that the finale would seem to be almost entirely a CGI-animated sequence will be noticed but not much minded.

It's all par-for-the-course cinematic demolition and destruction, staged efficiently and with a hint of enthusiasm by helmer Louis Leterrier (the "Transporter" films, "Unleashed") and penned with sporadic wit by Zak Penn. Visuals lean toward the dark and murky, but editing by three -- actually six -- hands is fleet, and Craig Armstrong's ever-present score is simultaneously bombastic and helpfully supportive of the action. Effects are in line with pic's generally pro but not inspired achievements.

Norton gives indications of perhaps wanting to go places with the role that remain off-limits this time around (he no doubt would have been happy teaming with Lee), but he's kept largely on the straight-and-narrow, to decent effect. Tyler is no more or less memorable in the femme lead than Jennifer Connelly was in "Hulk," while both Roth and Hurt happily underplay by a bit what might have been expected of them in their villainous roles."



8:15 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

June 11, 2008 - Wednesday

THE HAPPENING -- Ain’t; Variety Review
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Variety Review: THE HAPPENING


This is pretty much going down like I thought it would.  Each film Shayamalan has made post SIXTH SENSE has gotten steadily worse, with the exception of UBREAKABLE, which was unique enough to hide most of its flaws.  SIGNS showed the first, uh, signs of real weakness in that Shayamalan may be a one trick pony in that his strength, and ultimately his weakness, lied in his twist endings.  Unforunately, you can only do that so many times before it becomes too daunting a task for a filmmakers, as was seen with THE VILLAGE.  After the debacle that was LADY IN THE WATER, Shayamalan looked to rebound with a more conventional horror flick.  Getting back to basics, as it were.  But, when the original spec script hit the town under the title THE GREEN EFFECT and there were no takers for weeks, that was the first clue that this was going to be yet another clunker.  Even after an extensive rewrite that Fox eventually picked up, I heard nothing good about the project.  And, after reading Variety's review, it's clear why.

Check it out...

Variety:

One might charitably describe "The Happening" as a transitional work for M. Night Shyamalan. In an attempted rebound from the critical and commercial calamity of "Lady in the Water," the writer-director has scaled back most of his characteristic touches -- the contorted horror/fantasy mythology, the "gotcha" twist ending, even his trademark cameo -- instead serving up a patchy, uninspired eco-thriller whose R rating (a first for Shyamalan) looks more like a B.O. hindrance than an artistic boon. After an initial bloom of interest, the Fox release will likely wilt quickly in the summer heat.

At the very least, Shyamalan's latest will almost certainly be greeted with less impassioned scorn than its predecessor; unlike 2006's "Lady in the Water," it arrives in theaters unencumbered by embarrassing tie-in tell-alls or reports of overweening directorial ego. (And if there are any movie critics among "The Happening's" many victims, the pic doesn't call attention to it.)

Trouble is, it's hard to imagine "The Happening" being greeted with much impassioned anything. Shyamalan's story -- about a married couple and a small child being driven farther and farther from civilization by a fatal airborne threat -- covers territory already over-tilled by countless disaster epics and zombie movies, offering little in the way of suspense, visceral kicks or narrative vitality to warrant the retread.

A mildly creepy prologue unfolds one morning in Central Park, where several pedestrians suddenly freeze in place and others start committing bizarre acts of self-mutilation and suicide. ("Those people look like they're clawing at themselves," marvels one onlooker, in one of the script's less felicitous examples of telling and not showing.) Meanwhile, the leaves rustle ominously in the wind, providing an early clue to the source of this strange, and deadly, epidemic.

Cut to Philadelphia, where high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) hears of what is initially characterized as a bioterrorist attack. He and his lovely, slightly kooky wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), traveling with math teacher Julian (an over-talkative John Leguizamo) and his 8-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), flee the city, only to have their train break down in the middle of nowhere.

Julian abruptly leaves Jess in the care of Elliot and Alma so he can catch a ride back to the city to search for his wife. Hiking across broad, rather beautiful stretches of Pennsylvania farmland (mostly shot on location), the three soon hook up with other refugees, only to find their way blocked by fresh corpses at every turn -- they see dead people! -- suggesting the danger is closing in on all sides. Yet the fact that the infected kill only themselves immediately dilutes any sense of real peril.

Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock have been Shyamalan's two most oft-cited filmmaking forebears, and the scenario here carries faint echoes of Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" and, particularly, Hitchcock's "The Birds," in that the nature of the threat here (cue more wind effects and trembling branches) seems organic rather than man-made. Elliot, being a science teacher, deduces what's going on fairly quickly, spouting the occasional mouthful of botanical mumbo-jumbo when he's not arguing with Alma.

As he did in "Signs" (which "The Happening" comes to resemble as its characters seek refuge in a little house on the Pennsylvania prairie), Shyamalan tries to show a family breaking down, then piecing itself back together, while an apocalypse rages outside its windows. Yet he never taps into what makes Wahlberg and especially Deschanel so uniquely edgy and compelling to watch, and, although both actors emote bravely, neither feels like an intuitive match for their underwritten roles.

While the R rating allows for more explicit gore effects than Shyamalan has resorted to in the past, the violent incidents are relatively few and typically viewed from a distance. The helmer's gift has always been for conjuring suspense from silences, shadows and enclosed spaces, a talent that gets little workout here.

In short, this is a Shyamalan movie minus the bravado, the swagger; there are no audacious attempts to pull out the rug from under the audience, no ham-fisted lessons about the importance of religious belief or the power of storytelling. The director even limits his customary appearance to an offscreen role, a choice that seems sadly in keeping with the rest of this oddly hesitant, insubstantial film. The big surprise at the end of "The Happening" is that even viewers who've been annoyed by his tricks and traps in the past may find themselves hoping he uses them -- or something better -- the next time around.

7:45 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

May 5, 2008 - Monday

TERMINATOR 4 To Be PG-13
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Making A "Kid Friendly" Terminator


Me thinks the success of the rather violent super hero films as of late, all of which have been PG-13, has Producers thinking of new ways to make violence more "acceptable".

From Variety:

'Terminator' guns for kid-friendly rating

Halcyon aims to deliver PG-13 movie

The "Terminator" will indeed be back -- but this time with a more kid-friendly rating.

As production starts today on "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins," the next installment in the action franchise, producers at the Halcyon Co. say they aim to deliver a PG-13 movie to Warner Bros. for release on May 22, 2009.

The "Terminator" series is one of the highest-grossing R-rated franchises of all time, with the first three films having grossed more than $1.03 billion worldwide. But Halcyon producers thought it was time to broaden the upcoming fourth film's audience base, and they believe the PG-13 won't compromise the series' gritty vision.

"The ratings have changed," said Halcyon co-founder and co-CEO Victor Kubicek, a broker-turned-writer-producer. "The PG-13 has increased in intensity."

Move follows last year's "Die Hard" film, "Live Free or Die Hard," which went out with a PG-13 after three prior R-rated installments. That pic went on to gross $382.1 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing in the series.

A family-friendly rating opens many doors, including a "Terminator Salvation" licensing deal for action figures with Playmates Toys.

"Our merchandising program will be the largest to date for 'The Terminator,' " said Halcyon co-founder and co-CEO Derek Anderson, ex-owner of ad agency In the Mix, who adds that he had not discussed the possibility of an R-rating with Warners. "We won't force it. We are carrying on in the tradition of the mythology, with an exciting approach to the action. If we can make a compelling film to reach the widest audience, why wouldn't we do it?"

Halcyon has already launched Halcyon Games to create a "Terminator" game for release at the same time as the movie. "The first three games were all bad," Anderson said. "The core fans are screaming for something fresh; they won't be just playing the movie."

Anderson and Kubicek founded the Halcyon Co. in 2006 with funding from Wall Street hedge funds and private investors. They scooped up rights to the "Terminator" franchise from Carolco's Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar for an undisclosed sum as that company was closing down in May 2007.

Warners acquired rights to domestic theatrical and TV distribution on "Terminator: Salvation," while Sony obtained international distrib rights, less some territories. Halcyon brought in Moritz Borman to exec produce and hired "Terminator 3" scripters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris to script. Paul Haggis did a polish. McG directs.

Set in post-apocalyptic 2029, an adult John Connor, played by Christian Bale, leads the war to save humanity from the killing machines.

Signing Bale, who also stars in the current "Batman" series, was a huge coup. Sam Worthington, who fronts franchise creator James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar," also stars. The Terminator role is still under wraps; speculation centers on Josh Brolin.




8:55 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

April 1, 2008 - Tuesday

R.I.P Jules Dassin
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

RIFIFI Director Passes Into Shadow

For those who have never heard of Director Jules Dassin, I encourage you to check out his noir film RIFIFI, which is about a perfect a crime thriller as you’re going to find.

From CNN...

American director Jules Dassin, whose Greek wife Melina Mercouri starred in his hit movie "Never on Sunday" and six more of his films, died late Monday at an Athens hospital, officials said. He was 96.

Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri, shown here in 1960, first met in the mid-’50s.

The cause of death was not made public. A spokeswoman for Hygeia hospital said only that he had been treated there the past two weeks.

Dassin, a leftist activist whose more than 20 films also included "Topkapi," abandoned Hollywood in 1950 during the Communist blacklist. His 1954 thriller "Rififi," made in France, contained a long sequence that was free of dialogue. The movie won him the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, where he met Mercouri.

He married the actress-politician in 1966 and settled permanently in Athens. Dassin directed his wife in seven films, including 1960’s "Never on Sunday," in which she gained international notice for her portrayal of a kindhearted prostitute.

Reacting to news of the director’s death, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called Dassin "a first-generation Greek."

"Greece mourns the loss of a rare human being, a significant artist and a true friend," Karamanlis said in a statement. "His passion, his relentless creative energy, his fighting spirit and his nobility will remain unforgettable."

After Mercouri’s death in 1994, Dassin focused on her main unrealized goal while she was Greece’s culture minister: trying to persuade the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles, a large collection of sculptures taken from the Parthenon by a Scottish diplomat nearly 200 years ago.

"If there is anything I want to be remembered for it is for fulfilling Melina’s dream," he told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview.

Dassin’s Hollywood credits include "Reunion in France," a 1942 wartime romance with Joan Crawford and John Wayne; "Brute Force," a 1947 prison drama starring Burt Lancaster; and the detective thriller "The Naked City" in 1948.

His 1974 film "The Rehearsal" was based on the Greek student rebellions that helped bring down a 1967-74 military junta that had forced Dassin and Mercouri into exile in Paris.

In 1980, Dassin made the Canadian-backed film "Circle of Two," starring Richard Burton as an aged artist with a romantic fixation on a teenage student, played by Tatum O’Neal. Dassin was disheartened by its weak box office performance and never made another film.

Born December 18, 1911, in Middletown, Connecticut, to a Jewish barber who emigrated from Russia, Dassin was raised in working-class neighborhoods around New York.

He joined New York’s Yiddish Theater in 1936 and wrote adaptations of theater plays for radio.

After moving to Hollywood, Dassin worked as an assistant to Alfred Hitchcock on "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." A year later, he directed his first film, "The Tell-Tale Heart," based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story. He moved on to make films at MGM, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

Dassin, who was active in leftist political causes, was denounced by Hollywood contemporaries as being a Communist enough to be placed on the era’s infamous blacklists.

He moved to London in 1950 to shoot his next film, "Night and the City." Dassin then lived in Italy and France before returning to the cinema with "Rififi."

After meeting Mercouri, he began to build his career around her.

In 1974, Mercouri gave up acting after being elected to the Greek parliament as a fiery Socialist. She became culture minister in 1981 and served in the post for more than eight years, setting her sights on returning the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures to their homeland.

After his wife’s death, Dassin created the Melina Mercouri Foundation to continue her work. The main goal of the foundation was to push for the creation of a new Acropolis museum big enough to reunite the marbles held in the British Museum with those remaining in Greece.

After repeated delays, the glass and concrete museum at the foot of the Acropolis is set to open to the public in September -- with plaster casts replacing the works still displayed in London.

Dassin’s funeral arrangements were not immediately available. He had expressed a wish to be buried alongside Mercouri in central Athens’ First Cemetery.

2:56 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

March 31, 2008 - Monday

Wes Craven’s Latest Horror Opus
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Craven’s Return To Horror "25/8"

If the synopsis for Craven’s latest horror opus, "25/8", is correct, um... it kind or sounds like Craven is ripping off his own work... just a little...

From The Hollywood Reporter:

"Henry Lee Hopper, Denzel Whitaker, Shareeka Epps and Emily Meade are prepping to star in Wes Craven’s tentatively titled horror thriller "25/8" for Rogue Pictures.

Hopper, the son of Dennis Hopper, will play the lead role of Bug, one of seven teens haunted by a serial killer who supposedly died when they were born 15 years earlier. The film takes place over the course of a day as the mystery of who (or what) is stalking the small-town high schoolers unfolds.

Epps ("Half Nelson"), Whitaker ("The Great Debaters") and Meade (the upcoming "Assassination of a High School President"), who are all expected to be part of the cast, are teens with several projects under their belts. But "25/8" marks Hopper’s professional acting debut. Craven is casting relative unknowns to avoid giving viewers any preconceptions of who will die onscreen.

Hopper landed the lead after meeting Craven at a party for his godfather, Julian Schnabel. The pair bonded while discussing art, including the abstract expressionist paintings the teen made in his Venice, Calif., home studio. Craven said he fit the role of the initially naive, innocent Bug who is changed by strange events, and Craven invited Hopper to audition.

One might expect any son of Dennis Hopper to be perfect casting for a horror film. But the greatest surprise is that he appears to be a seemingly grounded teen despite being raised by one of Hollywood’s most infamous wild men.

9:16 AM - 6 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment


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