Happy Halloween! In celebration of our favourite holiday, we decided to spend our last Saturday night shooting a short movie for our loyal Film Junkies. ‘The Running Tunnel’ tells the tale of a sad group of friends whose lack luster Halloween party forces them to entertain themselves by retelling the tale of the running tunnel. Little did they know, IT WOULD CHANGE THEM FOREVER. The film stars Darth Nameless, Greg, and a few other faces you may recognize from around these parts. (Roman and Matt were in our Guitar Hero 2 mockumentary) This film was shot in one day and was totally made up as we went…and it shows. So turn the lights off, crank up your computer speakers and wait for this bitch to buffer. It’s time to get scared.
Happy Halloween everyone… what better way to celebrate Halloween than by watching others humiliate and torture their pets? You gotta love it. Also this week on Weird Web Wednesdays, a football cheerleader gets sacked, Tom Cruise steals someone’s girlfriend, and an inebriated man attempts to ride a bike with one wheel. Sometimes it can be a real freak show out there, and I’m not just talking about Halloween! Thank god for the internet.
Okay so I’m trying not to grin like a jackass as I write up this next post. The upcoming remake of John Carpenter’s classic Escape From New York has hit a number of major snags this week, leaving the project without a director and also without a star. On Monday it was widely reported that director Brett “The Rat” Ratner was off the project, despite rumours that he had supposedly replaced Len Wiseman earlier in the month. Now comes word that leading man Gerard Butler has decided to head for the hills as well, exiting the film due to “creative differences”. Butler was one of the few potential bright spots for this remake, after his great performance in 300 made him a marketable name among fanboys. (I still don’t know that he could have ever hoped to fill Kurt Russell’s shoes though.)
If you’re a fan of the original Escape From New York, this is all good news. Unfortunately, it seems that they’re still moving forward with the project at this time. Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, U-571) has been hired to rewrite the script with an option to direct. That’s certainly not much of an improvement… come on people, get a clue! Maybe if we all just convince ourselves that this remake never even existed in the first place, it will quietly fade away without any further incident.
In the market for another supremely over-the-top action movie? Maybe something that stars Angelina Jolie? I’ve got the perfect movie for you. Wanted is based on the comic book miniseries by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones about a young man who discovers his father had a secret life as an assassin, and that now he is next in line to take over his job. The big screen adaptation marks the American directorial debut of Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian filmmaker behind the hit movies Night Watch and Day Watch, and the hyper-real style is similar to other recent action films like Shoot ‘Em Up and Crank. The trailer showcases plenty of slow-mo sequences, a lot of explosions and a smattering of bullet time effects. I think the movie could go one of two ways personally; it could end up being one of the single most enjoyable popcorn movies of next year, or it could just get so carried away with style that it’s borderline unwatchable. The movie stars Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp and Common. Watch the trailer over at Yahoo! and decide for yourself. Wanted hits theatres on March 28, 2008.
No big surprise here, but reports are circulating around the web this week indicating that the Halo movie is anything but dead. According to Play, Peter Jackson’s agent Ken Kamins has revealed that Microsoft are currently in talks with other studios to help fund and distribute the film. Neill Blomkamp is still the man they want at the helm, so there may be a question of how much confidence the other parties may have in his ability to direct a blockbuster of this calibre. However, Kamins claims that the project fell apart last time not because of a dispute over Blomkamp, but rather an argument over Microsoft’s profit margins. I still stand by my previous statements that this movie will definitely happen one way or another. There’s simply too much money to be made here, and considering that the movie had already been in pre-production at WETA, it would be a shame to see all those preparations go to waste. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
Posted by Sean on October 31st, 2007 Filed under: Contests, DVD
Congratulations to Marc Tiar of Reno, NV, who has just won himself a copy of Michael Moore’s Sicko on DVD! Marc’s suggestion was to have Moore examine the U.S. criminal justice system in his next film, which would be a pretty huge undertaking indeed. Here are some of the other ideas people had for Moore’s next documentary:
- The Catholic Church (Chris Amis)
- The failure of the public school system (Sabrina Williams)
- Darfur (Sara Bolt)
- The “No Child Left Behind” Act (Michelle Zoromski)
- Peanut butter and why it’s tasty (Dane Forst)
- The American primary election system (Sarah Smee)
- The US Correctional System (Jason Mullen)
- Women who are traumatized from their experiences in porn movies (Henrik Seehuusen)
- The controversy surrounding his own documentaries (K. Rian Miller II)
- All the lies and inaccuracies in all of his previous documentaries (Jay Mooring)
Thanks to all who entered! Special thanks to Beth from Special Ops Media for making this contest possible.
Posted by Sean on October 30th, 2007 Filed under: Movies Source: /Film
Alright, I’ll admit it… I’m starting to get a bit more intrigued about Pixar’s next animated feature, Wall-E, due to hit theatres next June. For a while now, we haven’t heard any announcements regarding voice actors — which, it turns out, is simply because there aren’t many voices in the movie! A large majority of the film is silent, with robots communicating through various beeps and noises instead. However, we now know there are at least two human voices that will be heard during the flick. One is provided by Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), who plays the captain of a starship that houses most of the human population. The other, according to Rotten Tomatoes, will be comedian and frequent Christopher Guest collaborator Fred Willard! Willard will apparently be setting a milestone of sorts for Pixar Animation Studios, as he will actually be the first actor to not only provide voice, but also a physical presence on screen as well.
“I’m going to be the first live character in a Pixar movie. I appear on a TV monitor but I’m more than a voice… I play the CEO of a huge corporation who by the time the movie takes place practically owns everything in the world. It’s kind of a take off on Wal-Mart. It’s called Buy and Large.” So there you have it. Fred Willard is one hilarious dude, and his involvement can only be a good thing in my opinion. I just hope the live action integration doesn’t end up looking like the Spy Kids 3D movie or something! On a more serious note, what do people think about the film being primarily silent? Could it be a bad move, or is it yet another example of Pixar innovation?
A couple of weeks back I posted an Open Forum Friday query that involved George Clooney and his career. His most recent movie Michael Clayton has been underperforming at the box office despite fantastic reviews, and it has lead some people to question his abilities as a leading man. One point that has been brought up is the fact that lately he has made career choices for himself, not for the average moviegoer… that is, he does passion projects and art house films over blockbusters. I say, kudos to him, but the unfortunate side effect is that his popularity may be dwindling as a result.
There’s a rumour swirling this week that would seem to indicate that Clooney does, in fact, care about his popularity after all. He recently dropped out of Joe Carnahan’s White Jazz due to a scheduling conflict, and according to IESB the reason is that he is eager to get himself back into a blockbuster, pronto. Specifically, sources say that he is in talks to star as Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe feature film. Now let me just say that I don’t really buy this story at all. Considering his political leanings, Clooney does not seem like the kind of guy who would choose to star in a big American propaganda film, no matter how much his career depended on it. Besides, it’s not like he’s in dire straits here. That said, Mark Wahlberg was also rumoured to be involved with G.I. Joe, and he and Clooney previously starred as soldiers together in Three Kings. Not sure exactly what that proves, but perhaps somebody wants to put them both back in military fatigues again? Either way, I won’t believe this one until I hear it from the horse’s mouth. What do you think, can you see Clooney as Duke?
Posted by Sean on October 30th, 2007 Filed under: TV Source: Coming Soon
Before Hot Fuzz and before Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg had a comedy series called Spaced on Channel 4 in the U.K. It ran for two seasons and starred Pegg as an aspiring comic book artist and massive fan of science-fiction and video games, who poses as a couple with a complete stranger so that they can rent a flat together. Now it looks like Spaced is about to make its way stateside courtesy of Fox.
Producer McG and writer Adam Barr will develop a pilot, which has supposedly attracted the interest of several networks already. I can see why: not only are remakes of British sitcoms hot on TV right now (The Office, The I.T. Crowd) but so are geeks (Chuck, The Big Bang Theory, Reaper). While the involvement of McG (The O.C.) has me a little worried, Adam Barr was a writer on the cult classic 90’s series Parker Lewis Can’t Lose once upon a time. Hey I’ll give this a shot. Now if I could just get my hands on a region-free DVD player to watch the first season of Spaced that’s currently sitting on my shelf!
It goes without saying that pretty much every new computer animated movie coming out nowadays involves talking animals, a star-studded voice cast and a lot of predictable jokes that we’ve seen a million times before (Pixar movies being the rare exception… usually). So when I clicked over to see the new teaser trailer for Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda I expected exactly that. To my surprise, I saw a live action Jack Black looking back at me. It seems they may have learned a thing or two from the marketing of Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie, in that they are trying to utilize not only the name recognition but also the face recognition of the voice actors as much as possible! The movie features the voices of Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane and Seth Rogen, among others… which certainly sounds good, but all that aside, will there be anything original here? I suppose in the varying levels of terrible that most of the recent CG flicks have been, this one looks like it might not be all that bad. Check out the trailer and see what you think. Kung Fu Panda is currently planned for release on June 6th, 2008.
Happy Halloween everyone… what better way to celebrate Halloween than by watching others humiliate and torture their pets? You gotta love it. Also this week on Weird Web Wednesdays, a football cheerleader gets sacked, Tom Cruise steals someone’s girlfriend, and an inebriated man attempts to ride a bike with one wheel. Sometimes it can be a real freak show out there, and I’m not just talking about Halloween! Thank god for the internet.
Okay so I’m trying not to grin like a jackass as I write up this next post. The upcoming remake of John Carpenter’s classic Escape From New York has hit a number of major snags this week, leaving the project without a director and also without a star. On Monday it was 
In the market for another supremely over-the-top action movie? Maybe something that stars Angelina Jolie? I’ve got the perfect movie for you. Wanted is based on the 
No big surprise here, but reports are circulating around the web this week indicating that the Halo movie is anything but dead. According to 
Congratulations to Marc Tiar of Reno, NV, who has just won himself a copy of 
Alright, I’ll admit it… I’m starting to get a bit more intrigued about Pixar’s next animated feature, Wall-E, due to hit theatres next June. For a while now, we haven’t heard any announcements regarding voice actors — which, it turns out, is simply because there aren’t many voices in the movie! A large majority of the film is silent, with robots communicating through various beeps and noises instead. However, we now know there are at least two human voices that will be heard during the flick. One is provided by Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), who plays the captain of a starship that houses most of the human population. The other, according to 
A couple of weeks back I posted an 
Before Hot Fuzz and before Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg had a comedy series called Spaced on Channel 4 in the U.K. It ran for two seasons and starred Pegg as an aspiring comic book artist and massive fan of science-fiction and video games, who poses as a couple with a complete stranger so that they can rent a flat together. Now it looks like Spaced is about to make its way stateside courtesy of Fox.
