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Let the Bullets Fly Trailer Starring Chow Yun Fat

Sean — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:09:56 +0000

China's highest grossing movie of all-time is finally coming to North America, but as this trailer clearly states, it "ain't no Avatar." The movie is called Let the Bullets Fly and it is a period action movie set in the 1920s. There's no wuxia to be found here; instead it's filled with bloody fist fights and violent shootouts. It looks to be a Western of sorts, perhaps in the vein of Kim Ji-woon's The Good, The Bad, The Weird. Indeed, I was pretty surprised by how gruesome and off-the-wall the first domestic red band trailer is. The movie stars Chow Yun Fat as a local mobster in a remote provincial town who butts heads with a bandit (Jiang Wen) masquerading as the town's mayor. The two engage in a deadly mind game that ends up leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. The movie debuted in North America at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and will be released by Well Go USA next month. Let the Bullets Fly hits select theatres on March 2nd; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman to Star in John Le Carré’s A Most Wanted Man

Sean — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:53:45 +0000

Although Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy didn't exactly light up the box office, it did make its $21 million budget back and also earned Gary Oldman his first ever Oscar nomination, which is certainly a worthwhile accomplishment if ever there was one. The other indirect result of the film's critical acclaim is that it has brought the works of veteran spy novelist John Le Carré back into the spotlight. An adaptation of one of his more recent books is slowly taking shape over at FilmNation Entertainment with Anton Corbijn (Control, The American) in the director's chair. Now this week they've announced that Philip Seymour Hoffman is in final negotiations to play the lead role of Gunther Bachmann, the head of a German spy unit. Sounds pretty awesome if you ask me! Producer Gail Egan had this to say about the announcement:

"We are completely thrilled at the prospect of Philip Seymour Hoffman playing Bachmann in Andrew Bovell's brilliant adaptation of this very modern thriller by John le Carré. We will start shooting in Hamburg in September and are delighted to be working with Anton Corbijn on this film. His unique vision for le Carré's complex and stylish story is very contemporary, very real, very human."

Unlike Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this will not be a period piece, and the plot revolves around a half-Chechen, half-Russian ex-prisoner who turns up in Hamburg looking to recover his father's fortune from a private bank. Something about him doesn't add up, however, and spies from three different countries watch over him, suspecting him of being a terrorist. The script was written by Andrew Bovell (Edge of Darkness). Although I wasn't a big fan of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy personally, I am always interested in spy movies and I'm very interested to see Philip Seymour Hoffman take on a potentially George Smiley-esque role. I also thoroughly enjoyed Anton Corbijn's The American, so this is definitely a project that I will be keeping a close eye on. Are you looking forward to A Most Wanted Man? Check out a promotional trailer for the book embedded below.

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Brian De Palma to Direct Heat Remake Starring Jason Statham

Sean — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:42:39 +0000

Alright, alright... don't get your panties in a bunch. It's not Michael Mann's Heat that's about to get the remake treatment, but rather the 1986 Burt Reynolds vehicle of the same name (apparently there are quite a few movies called Heat). Directed by Dick Richards (Farewell, My Lovely), the original film starred Reynolds as a former gambling addict who now makes a living as a Las Vegas bodyguard. When a female friend gets savagely beaten, he helps her exact revenge on the mobsters who are responsible. The movie was based on a book by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride), who also wrote the script. Now Brian De Palma has signed on to helm a new version with Jason Statham in the lead role. A remake like this should be an ideal fit for Jason Statham, and will probably be fairly similar to The Mechanic remake that he starred in last year. However, it's a bit more surprising for Brian De Palma, who hasn't really done anything of note in quite some time. It's not that he hasn't directed remakes before (Blow Out is a loose remake of Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up) but he isn't really known for straight up action flicks. Still, technically it also qualifies as a crime thriller, which tends to be his specialty. What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing Brian De Palma team up with Jason Statham and is this version of Heat worth remaking?

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The Bourne Legacy Trailer Starring Jeremy Renner

Sean — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:28:01 +0000

In the lead up to Super Bowl weekend, I was thinking about the few big 2012 summer blockbusters that we have yet to see a trailer for, and The Bourne Legacy stood out as the biggest of the bunch. This week Universal has finally debuted the trailer, but just like Sony did with The Amazing Spider-Man, they decided to unveil it online instead of dropping a few million dollars on a 30 second TV spot that could easily be missed. The question is, will anyone care about a new Bourne movie without Jason Bourne? As previously announced, The Bourne Legacy does not star Matt Damon but rather Jeremy Renner in the lead role, playing a new member of Operation Treadstone named Aaron Cross. Renner is a capable actor, but something tells me this could easily blur together with his recent role in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. It's unclear what Aaron Cross' story will be (aside from the fact that he can also kick all kinds of ass), but Edward Norton apparently plays the film's villain. Director Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplays for the previous three films and also directed Michael Clayton, so the movie seems to be in good hands, and yet it's hard not to see this as an extraneous spin-off from an already solid standalone trilogy. The Bourne Legacy hits theatres on August 3rd; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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This Week on DVD: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Project Nim

Sean — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:58:22 +0000

This week's DVD releases are pretty exciting if you happen to be into glittery vampires, but for the rest of us there aren't many other options out there. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is obviously the biggest title hitting stores today and is probably going to sell a few zillion copies, but beyond that you'll have to choose between A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (minus the 3D, unless you have a 3D TV), Roland Emmerich's strange Shakespeare thriller Anonymous, and the Kellan Lutz lacrosse drama A Warrior's Heart. Yikes. Fortunately there are a pair of great docs in Project Nim (which was already out in Canada with less awful artwork) and Knuckle, plus we also have season 2 of the acclaimed PBS series Downton Abbey and the Diamond Edition of the animated Disney classic The Lady and the Tramp. What will you be buying or renting this week? Check out the full list of new releases after the jump.

Amazon.com Widgets

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The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer #2

Sean — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:56:58 +0000

It would seem that Sony had a new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man prepped and ready to go in time for Super Bowl Sunday but decided to just save the money and release it online the next day instead. In retrospect, it was probably a smart move, although they would have easily been the talk of the Super Bowl since most of the other trailers underwhelmed. The release of this trailer also coincides with a fan sneak preview event called The Amazing Spider-Man: The Untold Story, where the trailer was screened in 3D for fans in select cities along with 7 minutes of additional footage. As for the trailer itself, it's two and a half minutes long and features all kinds of new footage including our first good look at The Lizard. It looks fine, but the big problem, as many thought it might be, is that it feels like we've already seen this story once before. I don't know that Marc Webb's take on the character is doing enough to distinguish itself from Sam Raimi's films, even though they are pushing this angle that Peter Parker's father was as an Oscorp employee who worked with Curt Connors. I guess the other thing it has over the previous films is the 3D element, but that's something we can't judge by simply watching this online. What do you think, are you sold on The Amazing Spider-Man? The movie hits theatres on July 3rd; check out the trailer after the jump and sound off in the comments below.

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Undefeated Trailer: Real-Life Friday Night Lights

Sean — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:01:34 +0000

Since everyone here in North America still has football on the mind, it seems like as good a time as any to post the official trailer for the upcoming high school football documentary Undefeated (not to be confused with the similarly-titled Sarah Palin film The Undefeated). The movie generated a lot of strong buzz at TIFF last year and has since managed to drum up an Academy Award nomination. Although sports docs usually tend to get overlooked at the Oscars (Hoop Dreams, anyone?), this one is distributed by The Weinstein Company, which means it might actually have a shot at winning. The movie follows The Manassas Tigers, an inner-city high school football team in Memphis, Tennessee that has been consistently destroyed by its opponents, partially because most of its star players either end up dead or in jail. However, coach Bill Courtney took over the team in 2004 and slowly started to turn things around, with the goal of winning the first playoff game in the school’s 110-year history. Underdog sports stories may be a dime a dozen, but they are slightly less common in non-fiction form and I've heard that this one packs an emotional wallop. I have to admit, the trailer alone gave me chills. Undefeated hits select theatres on Feb. 17th; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Rango Takes Top Prize at 2012 Annie Awards

Sean — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:27:03 +0000

As we all know, a year without a strong Pixar movie is a year where other studios have a rare opportunity to get some recognition for their own animated features. Since Cars 2 was not even nominated for an Academy Award this year, we've now got DreamWorks and Paramount battling it out against a couple of smaller foreign productions. However, while the Academy Awards are what most of the world uses to judge the best animated film of the year, industry insiders typically look to the Annie Awards instead. In the past, DreamWorks has had their fair share of success at the Annies (How to Train Your Dragon won out over Toy Story 3 last year, while Kung Fu Panda upset Wall-E in 2008), but this year, newcomers Paramount and ILM have taken the title for Rango. Go figure! It's probably not a huge surprise that Rango won Best Animated Feature, especially you when you consider that these awards are generally a little more technical and Rango's tech was pretty damn impressive. However, the question remains: is Rango is now more likely to win the Oscar as well? Not necessarily. Many of the other Annie Awards were spread out to other films, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson took home the directing award for Kung Fu Panda 2. Heck, even The Adventures of Tintin picked up a couple of awards. Check out the full list of winners after the jump.

Best Animated Feature: “Rango”
Best Animated Special Production: “Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters”
Best Animated Short Subject: “Adam and Dog”
Animated Effects in an Animated Production: “The Adventures of Tintin”
Animated Effects in a Live Action Production: “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Character Animation in a Feature Production: “Rio”
Character Animation in a Live Action Production: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
Character Design in a Feature Production: “Rango”
Directing in a Feature Production: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, “Kung Fu Panda 2”
Music in a Feature Production: John Williams, “The Adventures of Tintin”
Production Design in a Feature Production: “Kung Fu Panda 2”
Storyboarding in a Feature Production: “Winnie the Pooh”
Voice Acting in a Feature Production: Bill Nighy, “Arthur Christmas”
Writing in a Feature Production: “Rango”
Editing in a Feature Production: “Rango”
Winsor McCay Award: Walt Peregoy, Borge Ring, Robert Searle
June Foray Award: Art Leonardi
Special Achievement Award: Depth Analysis

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Harrison Ford to Return for Blade Runner Sequel? (UPDATED)

Sean — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:46:38 +0000

Update: Alcon Entertainment has since denied the rumour: "The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment." When it was first announced last year that some sort of Blade Runner sequel or prequel was in development at Alcon Entertainment, it seemed like a pretty questionable idea. Without anyone from the original creative team involved, the project lacked legitimacy... that is, until Ridley Scott signed on to direct. Many of the naysayers started to change their tune once they heard that he would be involved, but it was still unclear what kind of story he wanted to tell. The only thing we knew was that Harrison Ford would not be involved, and that it would be a "total reinvention" of the original film. Well, actually you can scratch that, because we have recently received word that Harrison Ford may be involved in this new Blade Runner project after all. Of course, just how extensive that involvement will be remains to be seen. According to Twitch, Harrison Ford has "entered into early talks to join the new Blade Runner." They didn't have any other details to offer at this time, but they hinted that this would mean the film was a direct sequel to Blade Runner as opposed to a reboot or spin-off. If it is true, this is very intriguing news indeed. Assuming that the plan is to once again focus on Rick Deckard as the protagonist, this brings up a few questions. If Deckard is actually a replicant (which Scott has insinuated in the past), there would be a lot of make-up or CG required to make Ford look like he did in the original film. Also, at 69 years old, Harrison Ford is not really up for much in the way of action scenes anymore (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might dispute that a little bit, I suppose). On the other hand, maybe they're planning a completely computer-generated Deckard like Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance in Terminator: Salvation. What do you think? Could Harrison Ford's involvement be a good thing or is this a sign that we're about to get yet another regrettable sequel to an iconic film?

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Monday Morning Box Office Report: Chronicle Fends Off The Woman in Black

Sean — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:56:37 +0000

The Super Bowl didn't seem to have much of an effect on the box office this past weekend as both Chronicle and The Woman in Black exceeded expectations with over $20 million a piece. Chronicle came out on top but only just barely; the final numbers could still go either way. This seems like a good sign for Daniel Radcliffe, found footage movies and the horror genre in general, all of which continue to bring out teen audiences in droves. The weekend's other major new release, Big Miracle, did not do quite as well, opening at #4 although the Drew Barrymore rom-com will be hoping for a slight boost around Valentine's Day. The Grey dropped 52% to take third place, while Underworld: Awakening managed to hang out to a spot in the top 5. Elsewhere, The Descendants and Extremly Loud & Incredibly Close are benefiting from their Oscar exposure a little more than The Artist, although the latter is still playing on 1,000 screens less. Next week another 3D re-release enters theatres to challenge these films... how much will George Lucas add to his coffers? 1. Chronicle -- $22M 2. The Woman in Black -- $21M 3. The Grey -- $9.5M 4. Big Miracle -- $8.48M 5. Underworld: Awakening -- $5.6M 6. One for the Money -- $5.25M 7. Red Tails -- $5M 8. The Descendants -- $4.6M 9. Man on a Ledge -- $4.46M 10. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close -- $3.92M

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More Super Bowl Trailers: The Avengers, John Carter, Transformers: The Ride and More (UPDATED)

Sean — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:45:22 +0000

Update: Added the extended version of The Avengers trailer with 30 seconds of additional footage. In addition to the trailers that were released online early for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Dictator, and The Hunger Games, we now have access to the rest of the new trailers that aired during Super Bowl XLVI, and they have all been collected right here for your convenience. The most anticipated one of the bunch is obviously The Avengers, and although it's fairly short, it does seem to have the highest ratio of previously unseen footage. In particular, a couple of quick action shots including one of the Hulk punching a plane are sure to make fanboys giggle with delight. Other new trailers include John Carter, Battleship and Act of Valor, all of which did their best to impress their target audience with an overload of explosions and special effects. There is also a new ad for Transformers: The Ride, opening soon at Universal Studios Hollywood, plus a couple of other movie-related commercials including the Ferris Bueller Honda ad that everyone has been talking about. Did we miss any other good ones? Which Super Bowl ad was your favourite? Check out the trailers after the jump.

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The Hunger Games Super Bowl Trailer

Sean — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:05:25 +0000

The new Super Bowl commercial for The Hunger Games has gone online over at Yahoo!, and well... if this is all we can expect from this year's Super Bowl trailers, it could end up being a pretty boring game! Once again it consists primarily of footage we've seen before in other trailers, however, I will say that has a little more energy and urgency than the previous promos. It also has a little more Stanley Tucci, which is obviously a good thing. Lionsgate recently announced that The Hunger Games will be getting released in IMAX but for one week only. Will you pay a little extra to watch it on a really big screen? The movie hits theatres on March 23rd; check out the Super Bowl spot after the jump and see what you think.

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