Alright, I admit it; that was the worst intro ever. I figured that “sup bitches,” “hidey ho,” and “ladies and gentleman of the jury” were all right up there with “go eff yourself, San Diego,” so, what can I say? Ready to get to some news? So am I.
I’m in the news business, and business is a boomin’ …
Avengers assemble – Now that Batman footage has stopped leaking to the web, temporarily, at least, we are getting the same treatment for The Avengers. We got our first pictures and even some video of Captain America fighting some motion capture crew (the video is HERE). We also get some video of Thor and Captain America fighting what will be some CG characters, and eventually some motion capture people. This all points to the skrulls theory, but all this footage cleverly leaves out the villain, or what it will look like. This is way better than all the video of Bane walking around Gotham, although, I’m sure some are just trying to avoid spoiling the biggest movie event I can think of since Star Wars Episode 1.
Batman vs. Superman? – A juicy rumor being whispered around the world wide water cooler is that WB is quietly working on a Batman and Superman team up movie. The rumor states that the studio is hoping to get Christian Bale and Henry Cavill to reprise their roles for the crossover movie. Would you want to see this? It seems to me that Bale’s Batman is in a different world from the previous Superman movies; that’s to say if the newest Superman will change that. It seems to me like WB is a bit jealous of Marvels work towards the Avengers movie. If you can get this to work (and the rumor should be taken with a barrel of salt), it would be extremely big, but given WB’s past attempts at the Justice League, I don’t know that I would hold my breath. Would you even want to see these two together in a film? I think it would be more than a bit challenging to see these two characters share a film without one looking like a chump.
Story vs. Spectacle, which is more important? - /Film had an article last week about Walt Disney Animation Studios chief technical officer Andy Hendrickson saying that people come to see a visual spectacle, not a great story, and that visual spectacle movies are at the top of the highest grossing films chart because people don’t care about the story, they want the eye-popping special effects. Before you threaten to murder a mouse, his side of the story isn’t completely unfounded. If you look at the top grossing films of all time, movies like Avatar, Titanic, Dark Knight, Star Wars, Shrek 2, and others seems to back Hendrickson’s point of view. All the films were truly a spectacle. I just don’t understand how someone in the business of making movies can infer that story doesn’t matter. In all of the films in the top 25, nearly all of them do have amazing special effects, but what almost all of them share (the only exception I see is Transformers 3) is a fantastic story. I don’t think movies like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings would’ve made near the money they did without the story being able to stand up to multiple viewings. I understand being passionate about special effects, and they do play a part in films, but any good director will tell you it all starts with story.
Lone Ranger may be off, werewolves blamed – Disney’s Lone Ranger movie, starring Johnny Depp looks to possibly be scrapped. The reason is that the studio didn’t want to spend the purposed $250 million on what Gore Verbinski wanted to pay. Apparently, the huge budget is due to the fact that there would be werewolves in the film. Now, Disney is saying that they will consider moving forward with the film, but at a reduced cost, which Verbinski isn’t too happy with. The film is supposed to have Depp’s Tonto be the hero of the film, but with budget concerns, this film may not get off the ground at all now.
Man of Steele gets synopsis – Thanks to a casting call, we get a sort-of synopsis of the film: “In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time. Clark Kent/Kal-El (Cavill) is a young twenty something journalist who feels alienated by powers beyond anyone’s imagination. Transported to Earth years ago from Krypton, an advanced alien planet, Clark struggles with the ultimate question – Why am I here? Shaped by the values of his adoptive parents Martha (Lane) and Jonathan Kent (Costner), Clark soon discovers that having super abilities means making very difficult decisions. But when the world needs stability the most, it comes under attack. Will his abilities be used to maintain peace or ultimately used to divide and conquer? Clark must become the hero known as “Superman,” not only to shine as the world’s last beacon of hope but to protect the ones he loves.”
While I was excited with the image we saw a few weeks ago, I feel let down by this. This just feels like such a cookie-cutter synopsis, it doesn’t get me excited at all. I’ve not been a fan of the origin story for this film, as everyone knows Superman’s origins, and it’s been done to death, but I figured that would be a small part of the film. Now, I’m not so sure. Thoughts?
Watching TV will KILL you, more at 11… - Over on Blastr.com, they talk about a scientist from Australia who released a study that “for people over 25, every hour of television watched takes 22 minutes off their life.” So, that means, we’re all dead. Except for the fact that the study assumes people who watch TV don’t go out and exercise. So, I would assume if you exercise, then maybe it’s every hour and a half. All I know is, with that formula, Doctor Who should’ve killed me by now, and USA will receive a bill for my funeral arrangements.
Sequels, sequels everywhere and not a drop to drink…
G.I. Joe 2 – This sequel has trouble all over it. Previously, I had reported that Bruce Willis was approached to play the original G.I. Joe in the sequel, and now, we have Walton Goggins (Justified, The Shield) joining the cast. While both are great actors, and I think Goggins was robbed of an Emmy win, I just don’t know how the director of Step Up 3D should make a sequel from a pretty awful first movie.
Resident Evil 5 has a name, and we still don’t care – The newest film with Milla Jovovich reprising her role will be called Resident Evil: Retribution 3D with a September, 2012 release. There are rumors now, that Sienna Guillory will reprise her role as Jill Valentine. Paul W.S. Anderson will return as director. While I thought the first two films weren’t bad, despite being quite unfaithful to the video games, I think the series has just turned stupid, and silly, and I’m kind of done with it. I shouldn’t judge a movie before I at least see a trailer, but I don’t think I could be too much more disinterested.
Blade Runner-er – It was announced this week that Ridley Scott would return to the Blade Runner universe as director of another movie in the universe. More than likely, the film will be a sequel, although it hasn’t been confirmed yet. The rights to the film negate the premise of a remake, so at least we don’t have to worry about that. At the moment, Harrison Ford is not being considered for the film.
'The Chin' gives blessing to Evil Dead Remake – Bruce Campbell has assured fans of the original Evil Dead, that the remake would be worth their time, and he even gave it his blessing. He jokingly called it a gift to the investors, and said ‘bottom line, the original was made by first time directors on a shoe string budget. The fact it stood the test of time is a testament to the film, but maybe more can be done with it.’ The remake is being penned by Juno scribe Diablo Cody. I personally loved the cheese factor, and look at that as one of my favorite parts of the film. I think a serious attempt could miss the point of the film.
Underworld: Awakening gets a trailer – I would love to tell you what it’s about, but I stopped paying attention when a naked Kate Beckinsale did a Terminator impression and got all naked. Other than that, it looks to be a pretty good, if not standard action flick, but with a leather clad vampire. What do you think?
Wolverine 2 starts principle photography in November – The sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks to start shooting in November in Vancouver, at the Canadian Motion Picture Park. It’s a big difference from last year’s reports of Darren Ornofsky filming in Japan. Apparently, 20th Century Fox cited family concerns of filming in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami crippled areas of the country.
Something I thought was cool - /Film had this image up the other day with the caption “where’s Wall-E?” It’s a picture of nearly every robot on film. It has some pretty obscure ones, my favorite being Evolver. Check it out, and let me know which one was your favorite:
25 greatest unscripted scenes in film – I thought this video was really entertaining. It shows some of the more famous unscripted scenes in movies, and describes what was on the script. Most of you movie geeks won’t see many surprises on there, but whether you’ve seen it all before or not, it’s still entertaining.
That’s how Marty and Doc got together? – Bob Gale, who helped create the Back to the Future franchise, one of my favorites of all time, was talking about how Doc and Marty got together. While I never really thought about it, I guess I would’ve imagined that Marty came to Doc about fixing an amp, and Marty would continue to blow these bigger and bigger amps, and as Doc kept rebuilding them, they formed a friendship, which would lead to the events of the intro, with Doc building what he thought would be the ultimate amp that even Marty couldn’t blow up, and spoilers, he would be wrong. Sadly, I was way off. Check it out:
“We never explained it in the movie. But the history of the characters that Bob Zemeckis and I created is this... For years, Marty was told that Doc Brown was dangerous, a crackpot, a lunatic. So, being a red-blooded American teenage boy, age 13 or 14, he decided to find out just why this guy was so dangerous. Marty snuck into Doc's lab, and was fascinated by all the cool stuff that was there. when Doc found him there, he was delighted to find that Marty thought he was cool and accepted him for what he was. Both of them were the black sheep in their respective environments. Doc gave Marty a part-time job to help with experiments, tend to the lab, tend to the dog, etc. And that's the origin of their relationship. -- Bob Gale"
Box Office Breakdown – The Help takes number 1
It’s not often you see a film rise from second place to first in its second week, but The Help, starring Emma Stone did just that, beating out Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Final Destination, and decimating the new Conan movie. Sadly, Fright Night did even worse. It wasn’t a good week for new films.
1. The Help - $20.5 million ($71.8 million total)
2. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $16.3 million ($133.8 million total)
3. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World - $12.0 million ($12.0 million total)
4. Conan the Barbarian - $10.0 million ($10.0 million total)
5. The Smurfs - $8.0 million ($117.7 million total)
6. Fright Night - $7.9 million ($7.9 million total)
7. Final Destination 5 - $7.7 million ($32.3 million total)
8. 30 Minutes or Less - $6.3 million ($25.8 million total)
9. One Day - $5.1 million ($5.1 million total)
10. Crazy, Stupid, Love. - $5.0 million ($64.4 million total)
DVD’s on Store shelves today
The Beaver
Gossip Girl: Season 4
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
NCIS: Season 8
NCIS LA: Season 2
Phineas and Ferb: The movie
Trailer of the Week – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
This week’s trailer of the week is pretty interesting. In one minute and 47 seconds, I’ve had more joy than the entire hour and half of the first film. This trailer shows very little of the plot, but it shows the action got stepped up… a lot. What do you think, movie geeks?
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