After mounting a brief theatrical comeback this past May in celebration of its 25th Anniversary, Tony Scott’s Top Gun is now aiming to return to theatres in a much bigger way: in three-dimensions. The ’80s classic has apparently been added to the growing list of older films slated for a 3D conversion and big screen re-release. A four-minute preview of the 3D conversion featuring the “Danger Zone” sequence was shown Monday at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. While Tony Scott has not yet given his stamp of approval, Paramount is reportedly aiming to have it in theatres sometime in early 2012.

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Sunday September 11th. 10 years ago today I had a unique experience at TIFF. I was standing in line on Yonge St. outside the old Uptown theatre just before 9am with my buddy Jason and I think we were going into see a screening of Shadow of the Vampire. Word was spreading through the line that a bomb had gone off at the World Trade Centre. As we walked into the theatre, rumours became facts and we found out that two planes had crashed into the buildings. The movie played and one of the TIFF programmers came out after and said that because of the tragedy the rest of the screenings that day had been cancelled. The only other film that day that I had a ticket for was The Believer with Ryan Gosling. I met up with my friend Kelly and we went over to the Burgundy Bar & Grill and watch CNN for a bit and I couldn’t believe what was happening.

People were freaked out. Here we all were at a world renowned event. People were wondering if something like that could happen in Toronto that day. With a small panic in Toronto, you couldn’t even fathom what it must have been like in New York or the entire U.S. Throughout the day, I watched hundreds of first responders try to help people. NYPD, FDNY, doctors, nurses, soldiers, common citizens. I’m glad they cancelled the Fest for that day as I was in no mood to watch a movie. I was watching history. A dark history, yes, but history nonetheless. I remember I called my Mom that night and she had been sick all day and had no idea that anything had happened. I bet we all wish we could have had that feeling.

The next day TIFF started right back up again and I still have never seen The Believer.

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Although Robert Zemeckis has not directed a movie since 2009’s A Christmas Carol, he’s been making a lot of industry headlines since then, whether it be due to the shutdown (and subsequent re-opening) of his ImageMovers Digital studio, or the plethora of projects he has been attaching himself to including Yellow Submarine, Major Matt Mason, time travel thriller Replay, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and even a long-rumoured Who Framed Roger Rabbit? sequel. It now appears that none of these films will end up being his next gig behind the camera, however. According to The L.A. Times, he has officially signed on to another project he had been circling back in April called simply Flight. The story revolves around an airline pilot who must deal with a major malfunction to safely land a plane. Denzel Washington is in talks to star, and the good news is this will be Zemeckis’ return to real, honest-to-goodness live action filmmaking.

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It started with a head cold. Hopped up on antihistamines, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn recollects a fuzzy first meeting to discuss Drive with its star, Ryan Gosling. Dinner preceded an awkward ride home in Gosling’s passenger seat (Refn doesn’t have a driver’s license), and in his hazy medicated high, he was brought to tears by “I Can’t Fight This Feeling” by soft rockers REO Speedwagon as it drifted over the airwaves.

Yes, the same Nicolas Winding Refn who helmed the hyper-masculine Bronson biopic and the gritty Pusher trilogy. As it happens, Refn is the 180-degree antithesis of the man his films conjure. As if torn from a Calvin Klein ad, he wears jeans and a white button-down with the cuffs turned out, and stylish, thick-rimmed glasses. And his embarrassing moment of unchecked sentimentality was the inception of the year’s most brutal and effective thriller.

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So far there don’t seem to be a ton of surprises at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, but one of the films that has come out of nowhere to become a very hot topic of discussion is the Indonesian action film The Raid. The film made its world premiere as part of the Midnight Madness program and instantly became a sensation (based on what I’m hearing, I’d be pretty surprised if it doesn’t win the audience award). In order to build on the buzz, the film’s producers have wisely decided to follow up the screening by releasing a kickass red band trailer online.

British director Gareth Evans moved to Indonesia to direct a documentary about a martial arts discipline called Silat, and through that ended up meeting Iko Uwais and making the film Merantau with him. The Raid is their second collaboration, and it is poised to be a breakout hit. The trailer doesn’t make any pretense of trying to set up a story, it is simply two minutes of bloody, intense, bone-crunching action. It’s not just hand-to-hand combat either; there are plenty of guns, knives and machetes involved. Sony Pictures acquired The Raid for distribution prior to its TIFF premiere, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get to see it within the next year or two. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda will also apparently be contributing a new soundtrack, although whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen. Prepare to be physically assaulted by the trailer after the jump!

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It was a solid showing for Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion this weekend as the star-studded thriller managed a $23.1 million opening, toppling The Help from its #1 perch. The same can’t be said for Warrior, however, the MMA drama that earned just $5.6 million despite very positive reviews, most likely due to the fact that Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are not yet household names. Even worse than that, however, were the weekend’s other two major new releases, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and Creature. The Happy Madison comedy opened at #15 with just $1.4 million — less than the Kevin Hart stand up comedy film Laugh at my Pain made on just 99 screens. As crazy as it is, that failure actually paled in comparison to Creature, which apparently notched the lowest opening for a wide release ever, with just $331,000 on 1500 screens. Hey, sometimes it helps if you advertise your film ahead of time! Meanwhile, The Debt and Colombiana rounded out the top 5.

1. Contagion — $23.1M
2. The Help — $8.69M
3. Warrior — $5.61M
4. The Debt — $4.9M
5. Colombiana — $4M
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes — $3.88M
7. Shark Night 3D — $3.53M
8. Apollo 18 — $2.91M
9. Our Idiot Brother — $2.76M
10. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D — $2.51M

I had a big day on Saturday with big plans to get home early and rest up for the push through the meaty part of TIFF. That sounds unpleasant. One thing I forgot to mention on the Day 2 blog was that after The Last Gladiators, I spotted Chris Nilan in the lobby. Being a big Habs fan and remembering him being pretty awesome, I went up and spoke to him, shook his hand and survived not getting punched square in the face. He’s much shorter than I thought he would be.

I started off Saturday meeting my brother for brunch at a place called Allen’s over on the Danforth. A couple of eggs with smoked salmon and some sweet potatoes. Pretty damn good. The coffee, however, was amazeballs. Organic coffee is delicious. Ranking the places I’ve had coffee up here…it goes Allen’s at number 1, then Starbucks, and then Tim Horton’s. Now I’m not saying any of these other places had bad coffee or that I think their coffee sucks, it’s just that from an enjoyment perspective, this is how I ranked them. During our meal, I told my brother about the diet I was on and my attention became focused on a plate of food a couple of tables down. I pointed out the large slices of bacon on a girl’s hamburger. He pointed out that I noticed the large slices of bacon and didn’t even notice her other large…um…things. What can I say? I like bacon.

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As I said last blog, I have 3 documentaries today. Things kicked off in the afternoon with Urbanized. This was from the director of a popular doc from a few years ago called Helvetica, which was about the font of the same name. Urbanized was all about city planning and architecture and focused on a few cities from around the world like Mumbai, Rio, Detroit and New York. It was pretty crazy to see cities in India or China that have millions or billions of people and where the fuck they put them all. On the contrast you have cities like Detroit, which are bigger than Boston, San Francisco and Atlanta combined, but only has 700,000 people. You see a lot of rundown buildings and neighbourhoods, but the documentary introduces you to a guy in Detroit that got the cities’ permission to turn an empty lot into a massive community garden where the residents help take care of it and enjoy all the fresh produce for free. Amazing that no one has ever thought of that before.

I ran into my buddy Doug from high school, like I do every year at TIFF. It`s almost like clockwork. It was good ripping on the douchebags we went to school with. Ha. I keed, I keed.

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Ron Howard’s Formula One racing film Rush officially starts production today, but as you might expect he’s already lining up other projects for the near future. It’s always good to have a number things on the go, as he recently found out when his adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower fell apart a couple of months ago. Now it looks like the veteran filmmaker may be adding something new to his resume: a superhero movie. According to Deadline, he is attached to direct 364, an original pitch that was just acquired by Universal Pictures.

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When the leaves begin to change and people start wearing jackets it can only mean one thing. It’s September and it’s time for TIFF. 9 days of films, plus 3 concerts and a football game to cap it all off. Oskee wee wee.

I headed up to Toronto on Thursday afternoon. I’ve realized it’s best to take the train into town, so I don’t have to pay for parking, plus it’s really not that much of a burden. On the train ride up, I was looking at the route map for the train service and looking at all the different routes and station names. Apparently, on the Richmond Hill route there’s a station stop named “Old Cummer”. I would not want to get off at that station. Gotta watch your step.

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Alright, I know what you’re thinking: not another damn alien invasion movie. Although Extraterrestrial is directed by the same guy who brought us the fantastic time travel thriller Timecrimes, I too was wondering what he could possibly do to set himself apart from the large number of similar films that have come out recently. However, that being said, the first teaser trailer is not at all what I expected. There’s no action, no explosions, and very little in the way of special effects.The movie seems more like a quirky love story that just happens to have an alien invasion as a backdrop, although I’m hoping there’s a little more to it than that.

Julio wakes up hungover in the apartment of the girl of his dreams, and neither of them know how he got there. The fact that there are UFOs in the sky seems only slightly more strange, and as unbelievable as it is, Julio is apparently a lot more interested in the girl. Much like Skyline (ugh), it seems like the majority of the movie will take place in the apartment, but I’m pretty curious to see how it all plays out. Extraterrestrial is making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, and with any luck we’ll have a review up on the site sometime in the near future. Until then, check out the teaser trailer after the jump and see what you think!

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Now that a new season of Two and a Half Men is officially underway without Charlie Sheen and the media circus surrounding his departure has died down, a lot of people have been wondering if some of the warlock’s black magic has started to wear off. His live tour was a bit of a bust and we really haven’t heard much about him since. Well, this week it appears that Sheen has booked his first major role since the meltdown, and he will be starring in Roman Coppola’s next film A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III. The plot seems suspiciously well-suited to Sheen as it revolves around a wealthy and charming ladies man whose life starts to spiral out of control when his girlfriend dumps him. Jason Schwartzman will also co-star.

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