Last week, after the workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine had leaked online, most of the major movie sites reported on the happening, but very few felt it appropriate to download and post a review of the unfinished movie. So imagine the shock and horror that must have been felt throughout the top brass at Fox when they discovered that one of their own, Fox News gossip writer Roger Friedman, had done exactly that! Apparently he thought it would be okay to write about the movie since he had only good things to say about it. He thought wrong.
Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that News Corp has since fired Friedman, removed his post and released the following statement:
“Roger Friedman’s views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy. When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr. Friedman.”
And… is anyone surprised to hear this? I’m not quite sure what Friedman was thinking, but it seems to me that he either wanted to lose his job, or is just so completely out to lunch that he didn’t deserve to be working in the entertainment industry anyway. Not only did he review an unfinished version of the movie, but he even talked about how easy it was to obtain. I guess this might have been a more interesting story if Friedman was intentionally “raging against the machine”, but in this case I think it’s pretty clear that the guy is just clueless.
Alright, now I know I’m one of the few people who actually really enjoyed Spider-Man 3, but I can certainly understand where a lot of the criticism comes from. Yeah, maybe Venom didn’t quite get the proper screen time he deserved, and maybe he wasn’t as bad ass as he could have been. And yes, there were some campy elements to Peter Parker’s turn to the “dark side”, so to speak. The weird thing is, some people seem to have written off Sam Raimi’s ability as a director based solely on that film, when it’s clear that he is not the only one to blame for how it turned out.
In a recent interview with Empire Magazine (via CHUD), Raimi seems assured that the same thing will not happen again on Spider-Man 4:
“There were different opinions on the third film and I didn’t really have creative control, so to speak… The best way for me to move forward on films, I realize — and this was a lesson I had to learn for myself — is that I’ve gotta be the singular voice that makes the creative choices on the film.”
Obviously creative control is tough to come by when you’re working on a massive blockbuster franchise, but it sounds like Raimi wouldn’t be doing another sequel if he didn’t have the final say. The question is, will this inspire confidence in fans? The addition of Venom to the film may not have been Raimi’s decision, but something tells me that the jazz club scene was not dreamed up by a Sony exec. Do you have high hopes for Spider-Man 4?
If you’re one of the many G.I. Joe fans who isn’t expecting much from the upcoming Stephen Sommers live action movie, you might be interested to hear that there is another G.I. Joe movie of sorts coming out later this month. Hasbro has been working on a new animated web series called G.I. Joe: Resolute (which, as you can probably guess, also has a related toy line), and although it has yet to be released online, it looks like Adult Swim plans to air the entire thing as an hour-long movie on Friday April 24th at midnight.
G.I. Joe: Resolute was written by Warren Ellis, who was supposedly hired because he knew nothing at all about G.I. Joe (he is British, after all), and directed by Joaquim Dos Santos (Justice League Unlimited). Some early footage was shown at the San Diego Comic Con (see crappy video, embedded below), where it apparently got a lot of people excited. I suppose it looks kinda promising, but I’m not getting my hopes up. These animated movies that claim to be for older audiences always end up being completely forgettable. I just hope it’s better than that terrible Valor vs. Venom CG movie that came out a few years ago.
With the release of the highly anticipated Dragonball adaptation less than a week away, rumour has it that a script has already been written for the inevitable sequel. Justin Chatwin, who from the advance footage completely embodies the character of Goku, says “I know they’ve written a second one and it’s pretty far out there. The second one really goes to some different places that I’ve never seen in any comic book adaptation.” Adding to the speculation, avowed Dragonball fan James Marsters has hopes that the series will eventually reach the majesty known as Dragonball Z, where his portrayal of Piccolo will hew closer to what most people would recognize.
I’m having a hard time gauging how Dragonball: Evolution will do at the box office. Normally I wouldn’t care, but considering there probably won’t be any more Dead Or Alive or Street Fighter movies for awhile, I’m hoping this does well enough to justify a sequel or three. While it seems like a safe bet to prematurely label this one a bomb, I wonder if the combination of a holiday weekend and hordes of Dragonball fans feeling compelled to visit the theatre won’t result in just enough juice to give a sequel the green light. Whether or not you’ve already written off Dragonball: Evolution, would you like to see the franchise continue, or should they stop here and reboot in a few years?
I think it’s safe to say that Vin Diesel is back. His return to the franchise that made him a star led to an astonishing $72.5 million opening weekend, the biggest April opening ever and, indeed, the biggest opening ever for an action movie. Can you believe it? I guess Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez might have had something to do with it as well. Monsters vs Aliens also accumulated another $33 million, helping buoy the entire weekend to an estimated $185 million. Greg Mottola’s Adventureland was unfortunately left in the dust, earning just $6 million in its first weekend, proving once again that reviews mean nothing and advertising is everything.
1. Fast & Furious — $72.5M
2. Monsters vs Aliens — $33.5M
3. The Haunting in Connecticut — $9.55M
4. Knowing — $8.13M
5. I Love You, Man — $7.85M
6. Adventureland — $6.01M
7. Duplicity — $4.3M
8. Race to Witch Mountain — $3.35M
9. 12 Rounds — $2.3M
10. Sunshine Cleaning — $1.88M
It’s rare that a sequel surpasses the original, but a recent casting announcement concerning the follow-up to Ip Man (see Reed’s review here) seems to indicate that director Wilson Yip is gearing up to do just that. Legendary action star Sammo Hung has signed on as Donnie Yen’s opponent in the film, playing a macho master of Hung Gar who takes exception to Ip Man’s introduction of Wing Chun to the streets of Hong Kong, a style dismissed as being too feminine. I’m a great admirer of Sammo Hung, having spent the past few months going over some of his early work, so this is quite possibly the best movie news I’ve heard so far this year.
It’s amazing to see movies of this sort making a comeback. Aspects of traditional martial arts have been used to great effect in enhancing modern action movies, but the pure spectacle of watching two different styles clash in a ballet of fists and kicks has been all but lost for years. What’s especially interesting about this news is the faith being placed on Ip Man as a character outside of his connection with Bruce Lee. I can only imagine that the chance to appeal to both mainland China and Hong Kong with the spectacle of watching their respective combatants square off was a deciding factor. Is anyone else excited by the triumphant return of old school kung fu?
The Pool
Directed by: Chris Smith
Written by: Chris Smith and Randy Russell
Starring: Venkatesh Chavan, Ayesha Mohan, Nana Patekar, Jhangir Badshah
When I heard that director Chris Smith’s latest movie was due to hit theatres soon, I was looking forward to another strange but true documentary along the lines of American Movie, Home Movie and The Yes Men, all of which I enjoyed a great deal. To my surprise, however, his next film turned out to be something completely different. Not only does The Pool mark Smith’s first foray into the world of dramatic fictional filmmaking, it was also shot on location in India — in a language that Smith does not speak.
The Pool first played at Sundance back in 2007, and it has taken over two years to reach Canadian theatres. Considering the fact that the film made a number of critics’ lists for Best Movies of 2008, you’d think there would be a lot more buzz surrounding it. However, now that Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has given mainstream audiences a new fascination with Indian culture, perhaps it will open some doors for The Pool. From here on in I fully expect to hear a lot of comparisons between the two, despite the fact that The Pool was actually shot first, and despite the fact that they are wildly different films.
As most bloggers know, the internet becomes a bit of a minefield on April Fool’s Day (well, even more than usual), and it was tough to sort through the jokes and hoaxes to find any substantial news this week. Probably the biggest story of the week was the Wolverine leak, which lead to some heated debates over whether or not it is ethical to even report on such a thing. A few interesting announcements came from ShoWest in Las Vegas, and Universal unleashed the first trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno. Last but not least, Jackie Earle Haley was confirmed to be a lock for the new Freddy Krueger! It just goes to show, you never know which rumours might actually come true.
An English-subtitled trailer for Carlos Cuaron’s new film Rudo Y Cursi has arrived online courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. Carlos is, of course, the brother of director Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también), and co-wrote the screenplay for Y tu mamá también. He has also directed a number of short films before, but as far as I know this is his feature-length debut.
Rudo Y Cursi (Tough and Corny) is a dark comedy about two brothers (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) who move to Mexico City to become professional soccer players. Their sibling rivalry is constantly at odds with their career aspirations, and the situation is complicated by the fact that Tato (Cursi) actually dreams of becoming a singer, and Beto (Rudo) has a gambling problem. I really wanted to catch this movie at Sundance a few months back, but unfortunately we couldn’t fit it into our schedule. Either way it looks pretty funny, and I’m interested to see what Carlos Cuaron can do on his own. The focus on soccer may limit its appeal here in North America, but fortunately it will be getting a limited theatrical release in on May 8th. Check out the trailer embedded below, or watch it in HD over at Apple.com.
Following the lead of Kevin Smith and his horror project Red State, Judd Apatow is set to produce House of Joel, a slasher-comedy starring Saturday Night Live actor Bill Hader, who also co-wrote the script.
“It is definitely about guys nowadays, that idea that you watch fucked up shit on TV, how violence in our culture - this sounds really hoity toity - you watch fucked up reality shows, I love true crime shows. The idea of that thing coming to your house, and what do you do? I would shit my pants. That’s basically what the movie is about. What if that guy decided to come to your house? What would you and your dipshit friends do about it?’”
The reason I’m most interested in this project is that it seems to be playing off that idea of people overestimating their own abilities in the face of a crisis. You can watch all the horror movies you want, but with few exceptions if a killer came after you odds are you would react worse than even the dumbest characters in a slasher flick. Just the other day a good friend of mine said that he wished some horrible apocalyptic event would occur just so he could test his survival skills. I promised him that while I would not defile his corpse, I would show no hesitation in looting it. All of this raises the question, just how well do you think you would react if you were stuck in a plot straight out of a horror film?
