After the huge success of Zack Snyder’s 300, it looks like a lot more people are flocking to the “sword and sandals” genre. As a result, Avi Lerner and Millennium Films have reportedly set up a new Hercules movie with Sean Hood (Halloween: Resurrection, The Crow: Wicked Prayer) writing the script. No word yet on exactly what approach they will be taking, but I’m assuming they will try to hit the same audience that 300 brought in, that being the macho male crowd and ladies who enjoy seeing muscular men with no shirts. The problem with doing a Hercules movie, I think, is that there have been so many incarnations of the mythological character over the years that it’s damn near impossible to stand out. Obviously the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys starring Kevin Sorbo is the main thing that comes to mind, but there was also a recent Disney animated version and a number of Italian films over the years. Personally I think their best bet is to do a remake of Hercules in New York starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now that is something I will pay to see.

Say what you will about Harmony Korine, but he is a pretty unique director and I for one am glad we have his warped and twisted visions to look forward to every now and then. But if you thought Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy were outrageous, wait until you get the lowdown on his latest film, Mister Lonely. Perhaps it’s best if he describes it himself: “I started dreaming about nuns flying, falling out of airplanes and praying the whole way down and surviving. Then I started to fixate upon specific images and characters. One of them was the idea of a Michael Jackson impersonator walking the streets of Paris. I had these different images although they really didn’t have anything to do with one another. But I knew that there was something in there I was trying to get out, a unified idea, but I wasn’t sure how to say it.”

The movie stars Diego Luna (The Terminal) as a Michael Jackson impersonator who goes to Paris and meets up with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike (Samantha Morton) and a whole bunch of other fellow impersonators living together in a commune. Yes, Werner Herzog even makes an appearance again in there somewhere. Genius or pretentious gobbledee-gook? You decide. Check out two clips from the movie via the link below.

For the past few months i’ve been pretty addicted to the call-in radio show Loveline. It’s been around for years and years, and thanks to a now defunct online archive, I’ve been spending a lot of time at work listening to past episodes in which desperate and confused young adults call in and ask Dr.Drew and co-host Stryker (who replaced the much superior Adam Corolla last year) for some advice. The best part is the array of guests the show produces. Some are better than others, but I’d have to say any episodes featuring David Allen Grier, Tom Green or Gary Busey are pretty amazing. This week I clicked on the Bijou Phillips episode and was pleasantly surprised to hear that Eli Roth, the second fittest film director in the world, was in fact the guest for the entire hour and a half. Not only am I a fan of Roth’s films, but his DVD commentaries are some of the best available, trumped only by the classic John Carpenter/Kurt Russell tracks on The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape From New York discs. Anyways, I figured I’d throw this out there for any fans of Roth who are waiting for Hostel 2 to hit theatres. Check it out at the link below. Also, keep an eye on the Loveline Archives… it’s currently down but there’s hopes it will be back up in the near future with five or so years of past episodes at your fingertips.

A lot of people blame Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin for temporarily killing comic book movies back in the late 90’s, but I am reminded of another terrible comic book flick from the same year that certainly didn’t help matters: Spawn. Todd McFarlane’s dark and violent comic series was huge throughout the 90’s, and I remember everyone thought that the Spawn movie would completely kick ass. Unfortunately, it did not. Some would say it was a victim to poor early CG effects, while others would say the acting was terrible… personally I just think it was an all-around mess. Since then the popularity of the comic has cooled to an extent, but Todd McFarlane has never been one to accept defeat. In a recent interview with Home Media Magazine he announced his plans to make another Spawn movie, and this time around, he’ll be paying out of his own pocket. It also looks like the movie will be a “reboot” of sorts, as the script (being written by McFarlane himself obviously) will have no connection to the previous film. McFarlane also promises that the movie will be darker and creepier, and describes it as “a spooky, suspenseful thriller that will scare the crap out of you”. I respect Todd McFarlane as a very successful businessman, but he also has a pretty huge ego and I have to wonder if this is something that he wants and no one else does. At any rate, he’s got more than enough money at his disposal, so I suppose if he wants bad enough, one way or another we’re going to get it!

Warner Brothers have announced this week that they’ve got another new superhero franchise in the works — an adaptation of the long-running DC comic The Teen Titans. The original comic debuted in the 60’s and featured a team consisting of the teenaged sidekicks to some of DC’s more prominent heroes including Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy and Aqualad. As such, the original series (I think) is seen as a bit of a joke, but they revitalized it in the 80’s with darker, more mature storylines and some new characters including Cyborg, Starfire and Raven. The Teen Titans was also made into a Cartoon Network animated series recently, which makes it an ideal property to adapt to a live action movie as all the kiddies will be familiar with it.

I’m generally a fan of comics involving superhero teams, and I’d be all for seeing this on the big screen, except for a comment from producer Akiva Goldsman, who said “the tone will be consistent with such recent Warners’ comic book fare as Batman Begins, Superman Returns and the upcoming Watchmen”. To me, Teen Titans is a comic that aims at a younger audience and is begging to be done with a somewhat lighter tone. I’m sure there are fans of the comic who would disagree with me, but I don’t know how seriously I could take this. The full line-up of characters has yet to be announced, but it appears they will be using Nightwing instead of Robin. Mark Verheiden (Timecop) has been hired the write the script, who recently penned Bruce Campbell’s upcoming comedy My Name is Bruce — another reason why they should inject a bit of comedy into this! I suppose his work on Smallville and the new Battlestar Galactica will be more in line with what the producers want though.

I have to admit, the actual video of George W. Bush getting hit by bird poop is nowhere near as entertaining as it sounds. In fact, I can’t even tell with absolute certainty that it was bird poop that hit him. But what is pretty damn hilarious is that all the major news networks picked up the story and ran with it. CLASSIC. Also on this week’s installment of Weird Web Wednesdays, Arrested Development’s Michael Cera blows up on the set of Knocked Up (yes it’s fake),
a guy on Cheaters goes on a paintball rampage, and the fattest kid on earth is… well, fat. Enjoy this weekly dose of web hijinx, specifically designed to lower your IQ a few notches!

Bird Poops on Bush
The Secret Life of Skeletor
Celine Dion covering AC/DC
Comic Con Participants Reveal Their Day Jobs
Fattest Kid on Earth
Michael Cera Gets Fired on the Set of Knocked Up
Guy’s Eye Falls Out?
The Life of a Blogger
Paintball Rampage
Crazy Calls Commercial: Funny Answering Machine Messages!!!

Ever since I heard that a new Terminator trilogy was in the works without the involvement of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I pretty much lost all hope of the new movies being worth watching. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was a disappointment, but at least it had Arnold and some air of authenticity to it. For me, without Arnold there can be no Terminator. Still, I suppose there’s money to be made and it’s pretty much inevitable that someone else will continue the franchise… the question is, who will replace him?

There’s a rumour floating around the net this week about Dutch model Marcus Schenkenberg, who recently did an interview on TV and mentioned that he landed a few deals at Cannes… including a part in the upcoming Terminator 4. Now there’s been no confirmation that he would play The Terminator, but I certainly can’t see them casting a muscle-bound hunk like him for any other role. He also reportedly mentioned that Schwarzenegger would have a 30-second cameo. Well that changes everything! I’ll definitely see this movie now! Seriously though, if this rumour is to be believed, I think it sums up what is wrong with action movies nowadays. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a body builder who became an action star because of his massive bulk. Schenkenberg is a model! Yeah sure he’s muscular too, but there’s a huge difference… action stars should not be pretty boys, they should be bad ass and gritty and they shouldn’t moisturize. Agree or disagree?

Have you been watching Mark Burnett’s new reality show On The Lot? Well, if the Nielsen numbers are to be believed, then the answer is probably no. The show seems to be struggling to find an audience at the moment, with Monday’s two-hour episode, featuring the premiere of each contestant’s short film being judged by a celebrity panel, came fifth in its time slot. Yikes… a reality show that’s not performing well for Fox? That’s gotta be something they weren’t prepared for.

I have to admit, I’ve been enjoying the show and I think that most movie buffs would also get something out of it, but the sudden switch in format from last week may have thrown a lot of viewers off. (It also probably didn’t help that judge Brett Ratner was replaced by Disturbia director D.J. Caruso… what gives?) The first couple of episodes were more along the lines of The Apprentice, showing the various young filmmakers learning to work together and dealing with the pressure of deadlines. This week it became a more straightforward American Idol-style show, with the short films playing before a studio audience and viewers at home voting. I was hoping they’d go back and forth between both styles, but it’s looking like the behind the scenes stuff was just a one time thing, which is kind of a shame. Personally I’m pulling for Canadian contestant Zach Lipovsky, whose special effects driven films remind me of a young Michel Gondry. I just hope the show can actually stay on the air long enough to crown a winner. If you’re in the U.S., you can watch full episodes online over at www.thelot.com.

I remember reading somewhere a few weeks ago that a sequel to Michael Bay’s Transformers was already being talked about and that a script may even be in the process of being written. No big surprise, right? With all the hype surrounding the film, it’s looking like it will be (at the very least) a moderate success, and a sequel is a no brainer. However, now Digital Spy is reporting that the higher-ups at Dreamworks have already given the green light for not one but two Transformers sequels. And this, my friends, is something that is becoming all too common with movies lately, and it really bugs me.

On this week’s Film Junk Podcast I mentioned the fact that I thought the Pirates of the Caribbean series had been stretched beyond its limits, and part of the problem is that studios now take a successful movie and automatically plan to turn it into a trilogy. They don’t just do a part 2 and wait to see how that is received. I don’t know if it’s The Lord of the Rings that is to blame for Hollywood’s new obsession with trilogies, or The Matrix sequels which were shot back to back to save money, but either way, it’s just another example of studios ramming out more product with a quantity over quality approach. Why can’t we just take it one step at a time?

Zombies are hot in Hollywood right now; in fact, probably the only thing hotter than zombies are funny zombies. We’ve been seeing a lot of comedic horror flicks following in the footsteps of Shaun of the Dead, and now it looks like the idea is about to jump across to the small screen as well. Dana Gould, an actor and former writer on The Simpsons, is currently developing a half-hour sitcom with Comedy Central called The Last Larry. Gould will write and star in the series, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a small group of survivors try to continue on with their lives. Gould had this to say: “It’s a very traditional sitcom set in the world of a zombie holocaust… I felt fairly positive after I pitched it that I wouldn’t hear a lot of ‘Not that idea again.’” Funny he should say that, because that’s exactly what I’m thinking to myself right now! Of course, to be fair, it hasn’t been done on TV yet, and I’m a bit surprised. Even a serious zombie TV series could be a huge hit on a cable network like Showtime or HBO. Gould did reference both Shaun of the Dead and Battlestar Galactica (?), saying “If I could combine those two shows in a sitcom, I think I’d be accomplishing something.” Indeed he would. What do you think, is this idea ripe for prime time, or is it already played out?