The release of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest suspense-thriller The Happening is about a month away now, and while I’m really looking forward to it, I know there are a lot of people who really aren’t. It’s to the point where every time a trailer for The Happening plays in a theatre, people around me start giggling and making fun of it. Now I will admit that the trailer itself is pretty vague, and gives you very little to go on (which I’m sure was intentional), but after making a number of movies with a very similar, recognizable style, I think M. Night Shyamalan is running the risk of becoming a parody of himself.
A new clip from The Happening has hit the web this week, along with a review of the film over at Collider, and the reaction has been VERY negative. It may only be one review, but they are slamming it without mercy. And it’s not just Shyamalan they’re slamming: “I’m saying this with no hyperbole, but Wahlberg might very well give the worst performance I’ve ever seen in anything”. Well, I think it goes without saying that if Shyamalan follows up Lady in the Water with something potentially even worse, what little public support he does have will simply evaporate. What do you think… will The Happening be as bad as these early reports seem to indicate? Will M. Night Shyamalan ever get back his reputation as the brilliant young filmmaker who gave us The Sixth Sense? Will studios ever want to go near one of his projects again? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Here’s a promo for another new Fox series called Fringe. This one’s from Mr. J.J. Abrams, and if you needed any more proof that he was officially taking over Chris Carter’s job (and fanbase), well, here you go. This show is about a top secret research division of the FBI known as “Fringe Science”. The head of the division was a renegade scientist named Walter Bishop who became so obsessed with his research into strange phenomena that he ended up being institutionalized. Now his son and a female FBI agent must pick up the pieces and attempt to find the connection between unexplained global occurrences and the “Prometheus Corporation”.
Yeah, it all sounds kind of familiar, but so far I’m still on board with this, save for one minor detail: Joshua Jackson. His acting is pretty horrible in this promo… I simply cannot take the guy seriously. Check out the video below and see what you think. Will Fringe be the next X-Files?
Yeah, I know they’re just leaked pictures from the set of G.I. Joe with no context whatsoever, but come on man… how can you not laugh at this image of Snake Eyes? I’m assuming (hoping) Ray Park is not wearing the full costume here. Maybe they’re going to add his visor in digitally in post. Head over to Just Jared for more pics including some weird ass space suit that Duke is wearing.
It’s no secret that I disliked The Mummy, and I haven’t seen any of the sequels that followed (I did, however, like the roller coaster at Universal Studios), but I know that this franchise has a lot of fans and continues to make some decent coin for Universal. The third installment is nearly upon us, and this time they’ve added Jet Li to the cast… along with an army of undead terracotta warriors. I think the infusion of martial arts fight sequences kind of goes against the rough and tumble adventure atmosphere of the series, but hey, I’m sure it will sell tickets.
Rob Cohen has taken over as director from Stephen Sommers (yes, Rob Cohen, the man responsible for Stealth, The Fast and the Furious, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), while Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) wrote the latest draft of the screenplay. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor hits theatres on August 1st… will you be there to see it? Check out the first trailer below.
A lot of the big networks have started to show off their line-ups for next September, which means we’re getting our first look at some of the new shows. One show that I know a lot of people are interested in is Dollhouse, the new series from Joss Whedon and Tim Minear.
This is a sci-fi series about the invention of female clones known as “Dolls” that have their memories wiped clean and can be rented out for various assignments and/or services. Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy) stars as Echo, the main character, who starts to become self-aware. Although I don’t consider myself a member of the cult of Whedon, I do think the premise sounds intriguing. I’m sure there will be plenty of soap opera elements and Whedon’s trademark humour, but I’ll definitely give this a chance. The only problem is that it’s on Fox, so who knows how long it will last. Dollhouse premieres this September, check out the promo trailer below.
Like most kids in the 80’s, I grew up watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons… especially the various incarnations of Scooby Doo. I think it’s cool that the characters from this show have stood the test of time and are still around today, but they’ve never quite been able to capture the same feel as the episodes that were produced throughout the 70’s. The live action movies were pretty terrible in my opinion, and although I give them props for trying to capture the art design and the spirit of the cartoon, they just had too many modern references and a cast that I didn’t really like.
Alas, it seems that a third Scooby Doo movie is on the way, but with an entirely new cast. I’d say this has the potential to be a good thing, but somehow I doubt it will be. It’s being called a “telemovie”, which means it will probably go direct to DVD or possibly only air on TV. They’re also calling it a prequel, but rather than doing something cool like setting it in the 70’s, they’re just telling the story of how the gang solved their first mystery. Brian Levant (The Flintstones, Beethoven, Jingle All The Way) has signed on to direct. Here’s the real kicker though… in this flick, Velma is rumoured to be Asian. Classic!
After years of doing almost exclusively indie dramedies (and the occasional Garfield movie) Bill Murray has finally opted for a slight change of pace with Gil Kenan’s City of Ember, based on the book by Jeanne Duprau. This is a family adventure movie about an underground city that was only built to last for 200 years before the power generator starts to fail. Two teenagers think they may be able to unlock the city’s ancient secrets and help its people to escape before time runs out.
Kenan previously directed the motion-caption CG film Monster House, which I really liked, and despite my misgivings about yet another children’s fantasy book being brought to the big screen, I have to admit that this one looks a bit different than the Harry Potters and the Golden Compasses already out there. I like the look of this post-apocalyptic city… it almost reminds me of Bioshock. In addition to Bill Murray, who plays the city’s mayor, the cast also includes Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement). Check out the teaser trailer below and see what you think. City of Ember hits theatres on October 10th.
The second installment in the beloved Narnia series has finally arrived, and if you had thoughts about seeing something other than The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian this weekend, well… too bad! No one else even dares to compete with this massive blockbuster. The only other new release this weekend is a Norwegian flick called Reprise, which is playing in all of 3 theatres across North America. Garth Jennings’ Son of Rambow has also expanded to a few more theatres, but it’s still nowhere close to being a wide release as of yet. So I guess the only question is… are you a Narnia fan, and will you see Prince Caspian this weekend?
With the flood of new digital 3D films in development right now, it should come as no surprise that there are some older films potentially getting a 3D upgrade as well (like Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, for example). However, I certainly didn’t expect to hear about about a film that’s nearly 30 years old getting reworked with the new technology. I didn’t even realize that such a thing was actually possible, but apparently it is, because producer Richard Rubinstein has just announced plans to bring George A. Romero’s classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead back to the big screen in true 3D! That’s right, we’re talking about the 1979 original, not Zack Snyder’s recent remake.
The company responsible for the digital upgrade will be In-Three, Inc., based in Agoura Hill, CA, who have apparently impressed such directors as George Lucas, James Cameron and Peter Jackson with demos of their process. The conversion is expected take about a year to complete.
Rubinstein had this to say: “When Mike Messina and I began to investigate using In-Three’s technique, I was very skeptical… I couldn’t see how it could be used without re-editing George’s film, which I was not going to do. I was also concerned that converting a 29-year-old movie would not be competitive qualitatively with the new 3-D live-action features being shot today. I was wrong in both cases. George’s DAWN OF THE DEAD can be reformatted into 3-D without any editing, and the image looks spectacular!”
Well at the very least, this sounds much more exciting than that low-budget Night of the Living Dead 3D movie. Just having the original Dawn of the Dead back in theatres would be really cool. There is also talk of Rubinstein working on a sequel to Dawn of the Dead, which may or may end up being a good thing. What do you think?
Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington in anticipation of the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie.
Last Treknobabble, I was building up courage to approach a lone woman at a nightclub where a 4-day Star Trek convention was just beginning. Mixed in with the coterie of Star Trek geeks were the trendy contingent who occupied most of the dance floor. I made my way down the stairs from the upper level, making sure that I was not in her direct line-of-sight so as to avoid scaring her off. Best to sneak up on the unsuspecting fawn.
“Hi, my name is Reed. You wouldn’t happen to be a fan of Star Trek, would you?” Note that this opening line works best at Star Trek conventions. Now I could make up a conversation here, but truth be told, that whole night is somewhat of a blur (and not because I was imbibing Romulan Ale). From what I can recall, she was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was looking forward to the premiere of Star Trek: First Contact.
