Movie News: Wednesday, October 11

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Solid stand for "X-Men" DVD sales (Reuters)

Solid stand for "X-Men" DVD sales (Reuters)
Reuters - "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "The Little Mermaid" continued their strong first-day sales momentum, selling 5 million and 4 million units, respectively, during their first week in stores, studio sources said.

Around The Web - October 11th 2006

Here is some of the other movie news floating around the web today that you might find interesting:

- Perfume Poster
I like it. From the same director who did "Run Lola Run"

- Flushed Away Poster
I have next to no hope for this animated movie at all

- Charlotte's Web Posters and images
This movie, like the original story, is going to just rule. I can't wait to see it. About 40 posters and images from the movie here.

- Rush Hour 3 Set Pictures
Don't even get me started

- Rachel Weisz Joins The Brothers Bloom
“It’s about these two guys who grow up in and out of foster homes as kids and they learn to survive by becoming con men. It starts out with this ten-minute sequence of them pulling their first con as kids. It has a kind of Paper Moon-type feel to it, that opening sequence. But in the rest of the movie it’s them as adults. It’s not period but it’s very much its own world, if that makes any sense. I think the style of it will owe more to the earlier part of the 20th century than the later.”

- New Line trying to find new home for Blade TV Show
I watched the whole first season, and to be honest I didn't hate it. The only weak part of the series was the guy who actually played Blade. Which is too bad.

- EA Ships Superman Returns: The Videogame on Nov. 20

- Snakes on a Plane DVD info
Let's see if if bombs as baddly on DVD as it did in the theaters

- Scott Speedman joins Strangers
"Speedman and Liv Tyler will portray a couple living in a remote house who come under attack by three masked strangers (including one played by model Gemma Ward) and have to fight for their survival."

- Julia Roberts Joins Eat, Pray Love
The movie sounds fine enough... but I thought she said she was done with appearing in live action movies???

Harry Potter 5 teaser trailer to debute November 17th

The first trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be coming out soon. November 17th according to the good people over at comingsoon.net give us this:

Warner Bros. Pictures has announced that the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix theatrical teaser trailer will debut in theaters on November 17th. The trailer can only be seen in front of the studio's comedy adventure film, Happy Feet. The trailer should be online sometime the week after.

The highly-anticipated fifth "Harry Potter" installment hits theaters and IMAX on July 13, 2007.

Like Rodney I also am a fan of Harry Potter, anything that can bring a bit of magic into our lives is a great thing. Plus there is nothing like being on a long flight, looking over at the other passengers and seeing at least one or two grey haired men in business suits reading the newest Harry Potter book.

Can't wait to see this teaser and pairing it with the insanely cute animated movie Happy Feet is a winning match.

Dancing Penguins and teenage magicians go together like...um.....well it works anyway.

Balls Of Fury

Balls-Of-Fury About 6 months ago I told you guys about a new film called "Balls of Fury" which was going to star Christopher Walken as a leathal crime lord who is also a master at Ping Pong... and get this... his name is FANG!. The CIA recruits a former (now down on his luck) champion to infiltrate Fang's operation by entering a "Mortal Kombat" style Ping Pong tournament. How glorious does this sound?

Well anyway, the good folks over at CHUD had a chance to see a few clips form the film and had this to share:

Randy has been recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a Triad gang whose leader, played by Christopher Walken in an unbelievably garish succession of outfits, holds a Mortal Kombat-style ping pong tournament. The first scene, which had David Koechner singing with a parrot and wearing an incredible wig, was funny. The second scene was hilarious. It was Randy’s first match in the tournament, where he’s up against Terry Crews (giving this film a weird connection to David Lynch’s Inland Empire). Before showing the clips, Thomas Lennon had described the movie as a Jean Claude Van Damme movie with ping pong instead of fighting (and no Jean Claude)

Every other film that thinks they have a chance at any Oscars at all in 2007 should just give up now. Balls Of Fury will break Return of the King's record of 11 Oscars in one year easily... it'll even win best animated film. Come to think of it... they should create a new Oscar category for "Best Movie Title". Balls of Fury would win that one too.

Apocalypto Behind the Scenes Video

Gibson-Apocalypto Despite all the noise and drama surrounding Mel Gibson as of late, I still can't think of many films I'm more looking forward to than his new project Apocalypto. There is just something so refreshing about this guy and how he's doing these projects with his own money that so many people and "experts" say will never have any success or make any money. He just laughs all the way to the bank.

Anyway, I was over visiting my fellow Canadian Movie Website, Movies Online, and noticed that they had a short video up of Mel Gibson talking about Apocalypto with footage of him sort of explaining what the movie is while on set in the jungles of Mexico. There is some cool stuff.

You can hop over and see the video here.

Plane Dead

Plane-Dead Ok, now this is getting ridiculous... and yet... I can't look away from it. SO you thought SNAKES on a plane was a tough thing to deal with? Well how about ZOMBIES on a plane. Yup... you read that right boys and girls. There's a movie coming out called "Plane Dead" that's basically.... well... Zombies on a Plane.

Here's the quick synopsis:

A deadly virus is unleashed aboard a 747, changing a group of occupants into "un-dead" killers. A handfull of survivors must fight to stay alive on the flight.

Oh my goodness gracious me. And it gets even better! There is a trailer up and online for it already. To see the Plane Dead trailer you can just head on over here and check it out at the official site. There are also some picture galleries and stuff already up as well.

Thanks to Michael for the heads up.

Christopher Nolan stands behind Ledger as the Joker

Chris Nolan says that Heath Ledger will be perfect as the Joker for the Dark Night Returns. The people at slashfilms.com give us this little tidbit:

Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan insists that Heath Ledger will make a perfect Joker in The Dark Knight.
"He's just exactly the kind of energy I needed for the character," Nolan told SCIFI. "Everything about the risks that that performer is willing to take are the things I need for somebody to take on that iconic figure. It's going to be a huge challenge for us to create it, and he's exactly the guy you want to be in the trenches with."

Stand by your man Nolan. Stand by your man.

Audio Edition - October 11th 2006

Welcome to this installment of The Audio Edition Mail Bag! Today's topics include:

1) The censorship of "Death of a President"

2) Peter Jackson and Ian McKellen MUST be on The Hobbit?

3) Evan Almighty Budget inasnity

4) Google buying YouTube

4) X-Men 3 DVD breaking records

5) Should George Lucas be allowed to change moives he didn't direct (Empire and Jedi)?

6) Who will take Nov 17 th box office? Casino Royale or Happy Feet?

7) What are the Hardest things about starting and running a movie website?

8) Prince Of Peace - God Of War - What did I use to shoot and edit it, what was the budget, and how to you get it to the screen?

Subscribe to The Audio Edition on iTunes! iTunes will automatically download each new episode for you as soon as they go online! Just click this button. iTunes will open to the Audio Edition page. When it does, just click "subscribe". It's that easy!

Or you can manually download this installment of The Audio Edition here.

Bobby - Trailer 1

Bobby - Trailer 1
Revisits the night Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968. With an incredible ensemble cast portraying fictionalized characters from a cross-section of America, the film follows 22 individuals who are all at the hotel for different purposes but share the common thread of anticipating Kennedy’s arrival at the primary election night party

Bon Cop Bad Cop

I know there is a great deal of Canadian talent shipping south, and people ask WHY we dont make our own blockbusters? A good number of movies are filmed on location in Toronto and Vancouver, and a great deal of celebrities still hold to their Canadian roots. So why are we not making our own movies? Why not have a megastudio here in Canada?

MediaCaster gives us:

Bon Cop Bad Cop can now be called the most successful
Canadian-produced theatrical release of all time.

Erik Canuel's comedy claimed the title, knocking Porky's out of the position that it has held since 1982.

With $9,013,345 in receipts in French, and $2,342,142 with its English version, Bon Cop Bad Cop now has a cumulative box office record of $11,355, 487 -- officially breaking Porky's unofficial box office record of $11,200,000, the distributors say.

So maybe thats why.

The biggest Canadian boxoffice draw was from a movie that I had never heard of. Maybe I should see the English version if it can make a bigger draw at the theatres than Gigli.

Has anyone else been to this movie? Was it any good?

Transformers Movie Soundtrack: Stan Bush

I have to say one of my musical guilty pleasures is "The Touch" by Stan Bush.

You know the one. It was the most inspiring moment in the Transformers Animated movie. You can watch the confrontation of Optimus Prime and Megatron in the movie here. In it you will hear the Stan Bush song "The Touch" and its SO 80s and yet SO cool.

I admit. Its in my Mp3 Collection.

But this is news that I am conflicted about. Seems Stan Bush is writing a new song that he hopes will be featured in the live action Transformers Movie.

Stan himself wrote a letter to Seibertron.com which is posted here:

I wanted to let the legions of Transfans know that my Producer and I are in the studio mixing a new track for a certain upcoming live-action movie directed by Michael Bay ... I think you know the one!

It's a BIG song, with 70+ tracks at this point! We hope to submit this track in the next couple weeks.

Also, you can give your readers the link to my new website/MySpace page: www.stanbush.com.

All The Best,
Stan Bush

Now whether this is a farce, or a Stan Bush publicity stunt to the flavour of recent Hasselhoff attempts, or perhaps the producers are actually offering Stan this as another nod to the cartoon that made this movie even possible.

If the song makes the cut, I would hope the song is not so 80s, or maybe I do want some cheese. I cant decide.

New Ghost Rider Poster

After the last "floaty head" version of the Ghost Rider poster, we are treated with a new teaser poster that in my opinion is FAR better than the last one, despite the fact that they put some lame "The RIDER is coming" tagline across the top of the poster. Its still damned cool.

Its probably a fan made poster, as it lacks the Ghost Rider title. The character is less than iconic so they would have to rely on keeping the title in the poster to make sure people get where its from.

Id buy one of these.

via

Dark Crystal 2 Storyboard Art

Let me just start by saying that I love the original Dark Crystal. This Jim Henson masterpeice was something I felt compelled by DUTY to show my kids. Its just that good.

That being said, I was obviously a little nervous when I found out about a sequel to the Dark Crystal being considered. I thought for sure they were going to CGI the muppet characters that gave the original so much life. I held my breath and prepared to bash the sequel.

"Puppetry has come a long way since 'The Dark Crystal,' " said the amicable co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company. "When 'The Dark Crystal' was made, it was the first time that all those techniques were really refined to the degree that they could be put in a feature film. Since then, puppetry has come so far that the puppets we're going to use are going to be much more emotive than the originals. In addition to that, we can augment them with digital effects, but very subtly."

Now I am fully behind it. It appears that the MUPPETS ARE IN. Oh sure, they will touch them up with CGI, but hopefully not TOO much. I liked seeing the "limitations" and still seeing personality. Still, this is shaping up to be super cool. And just to add more icing to the cake, we have concept art from the Director Genndy Tartakovsky.

CinemaBlend says:

MTV is running an interview with the film's director Genndy Tartakovsky. If that name sounds familiar it's because he's the geek hero behind the absolute genius "Clone Wars" animated series and even more genius "Samurai Jack". He's now hard at work on The Dark Crystal 2, and along with their interview with him MTV has posted pics and storyboard art from the sequel currently titled The Power of the Dark Crystal.

Read the entire MTV article and see the rest of the concept art pictures, by clicking here.

People in the news (AP)

People in the news (AP)
AP - Ellen Barkin's jewelry, more than 100 pieces that included her wedding ring from her marriage to Revlon billionaire Ron Perelman, has fetched $20.3 million at auction.

Stars cut up at `Scissors' premiere (AP)

Stars cut up at `Scissors' premiere (AP)
AP - For Augusten Burroughs, it was real-life Hollywood ending: the world premiere of the film version of his life story, "Running With Scissors."

"Trailer Park" opens big in Canada (Reuters)

"Trailer Park" opens big in Canada (Reuters)
Reuters - Hollywood producer Ivan Reitman's Canadian comedy "Trailer Park Boys: The Movie" earned an estimated C$1.3 million ($1.2 million) at the local box office last weekend, according to distributor Odeon Films.

Ellen Barkin jewel collection nets $20M (AP)

AP - Ellen Barkin's jewelry, more than 100 pieces that included her wedding ring from her marriage to Revlon billionaire Ron Perelman, has fetched $20.3 million at auction.

David Bowie adds SpongeBob to his resume (AP)

AP - All it took was daddy's little girl to turn David Bowie from a rock star into the voice of a cartoon.

Early Oscar favorites arrive (AP)

Early Oscar favorites arrive (AP)
AP - Helen Mirren could be crowned best actress at the Academy Awards. Seven-time loser Peter O'Toole may finally win that elusive Oscar. Jack Nicholson could tie Katharine Hepburn with a record fourth win.

Cash tugs Campbell Scott to 'weird' film (AP)

AP - Campbell Scott has a steady gig in the new ABC series "Six Degrees." A big paycheck, though, lured him into a "really weird" new TV movie.

Movie to make millionaires of lost Mexico fishermen (Reuters)

Movie to make millionaires of lost Mexico fishermen (Reuters)
Reuters - Three Mexicans who spent nine months drifting across the Pacific Ocean in a flimsy fishing boat eating raw fish and sea birds are to be paid at least $3.8 million to turn their story into a movie.

"Mermaid" DVD sells 4 million copies in week (Reuters)

"Mermaid" DVD sells 4 million copies in week (Reuters)
Reuters - Seventeen years after its theatrical debut, Walt Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is making a big splash on DVD.

Tara Reid undergoes surgery to reverse bikini "nightmare" (Reuters)

Reuters - Actress Tara Reid, whose botched breast surgery made her a Hollywood laughingstock two years ago, underwent additional surgery to repair the damage, according to a report in Us Weekly.

Bug - Trailer 1a

Bug - Trailer 1a
A lonely waitress with a tragic past, Agnes rooms in a run-down motel, living in fear of her abusive, recently paroled ex-husband. But when Agnes begins a tentative romance with Peter, an eccentric, nervous drifter, she starts to feel hopeful again - until the first bugs arrive...

The History Boys - Trailer

The History Boys - Trailer
The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.

Grindhouse trailer

Oh... My.... GOD!!!! I have just witnessed the single greatest trailer of all time. The trailer for Grindhouse is up online and it.... well it.... I don't know what to tell ya... it's just spawn of awesome. Check it out. And don't forget... he kills the bad guys. WOW! Leave a comment below.

Thanks to Seymour for the heads up.

Schwarzenegger winning celebrity race (AP)

AP - Want to know who's ahead in the California governor's race? Follow the celebrities. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's double-digit edge in the polls makes him the favorite in November, but he's already clobbered Democratic rival Phil Angelides in another very public measure: Star wattage.