The Korean Society of Cinematographers Golden Cinema Awards were announced today. It’s an award judged by one’s peers for having the best cinematography in a film from the previous year.

This year’s awardees were Kim Hyung-gu for Rikidozan (Golden Prize), Lee Jun-gyu for Arahan (Silver Prize), and Seok Hyeong-jing for R-Point (Bronze Prize). I’ve seen Arahan and R-Point and both were pretty. I haven’t seen Rikidozan so I can’t say much on that.

The Best New Cinematographer award was shared between Kim Hyo-jin for Liar, Kim Dong-cheon for Bunshinsaba, and Park Sang-hun for Spin Kick.

via Koreanfilm.org.

HUGE thanks to Brian for pointing this out ...

Slated to appear at this year’s Jeonju Film Festival is Soul Dancing, a new 23 minute short from Kiyoshi Kurosawa starring Tadanobu Asano!  I’m just about to start looking for more info on this, but in the meantime the official festival listing is here and a batch of photos is here ...

Fresh of its six award performance at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, Sony Classics has announced release dates for Wong Kar Wai’s 2046.  The film will launch on August 5th in New York and LA before rolling out to a wider release ...

God bless Alexis Moore.  Who?  The lovely Sony PR lass who, despite my complete ignorance that such a thing even existed, just dropped me a note to say that I had somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty packs of Kung Fu Hustle trading cards merrily making their way through the postal system to me. I know absolutely nothing about these other than the fact that they are now up for grabs.  Want some?  Here’s what you’ve got to do:  drop me an email here laying out, in detail, what mystical kung fu power you most desire and why.  Those who make me laugh loudest win.  I’ll give you a couple of weeks on this one ... entries accepted until April 15th ...

*** UPDATE ***

I just got JPGs of the cards and they’re using the same designs as those character based one sheets we linked to a while back ... they’ve apparently got vital stats of all the characters on the backs ...

I will admit that a sense of dread came over me when I heard that the hit BBC britcom The Office was being remade for American television. Not surprising for a nation that continually borrows good ideas from other countries [British comedy and Japanese horror to name a couple] but I was not ready to watch them bastardize it. However, upon viewing the first two episodes I may change my tone. Still waiting though. Nothing definitive yet. But, if they continue to roll with just the concept of the series and simply not rehash the other eleven episodes and double episode Christmas special they may very well succeed.

Having said that and gotten that off my chest [what’s with the chest references tonight?] I will proclaim to the massess that Steve Carell is a very funny man. From his days on The Daily Show to delivering the best lines in Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and now the oh-so despicable boss, Michael Scott, in The Office Steve Carell is on the rise to further stardom. He’s wrapped up shooting on Bewitched and is currently shooting The 40-year Old Virgin.

And today we received word that he is part of the remake of the 60s television show Get Smart…

“They’re developing right now, and they are in the process of writing the script so it’s somewhere down the road. Right now, the approach is modern day. The basic premise is that both CONTROL and KAOS have fallen on hard times and are not being funded by the government. They’re not getting the same kind of funding as (the) CIA. They have one last mission to try to get back on top - it’s not retro at all.”

Steve Carell is on his way to being a household name. I just hope we don’t see the trend of saturating the market with a comedic leading man like we’re witnessing with Will Ferrell right now.

via ComingSoon.

You know its been a slow news day when…

Dear lord I hope they mean the kind of chest that is made of wood and full of good and booty, and not Bloom running around with a shirt off. Fingers crossed folks.

I liked the first one. Twas a good romp. Not overly excited about the next ones but I need to keep busy and posting this is keeping me from doing harm to my houseplant while I wait for someone to seed tonight’s episode of The O.C.

Click here for a larger version.

via film247.net.

Just been over again to homevision.com to see if they’re up and they’re up...! Here are small versions of the American discs artwork for Kiyoshi Kurosawas astonishing ‘Seance’ and ‘Charisma’.

Head over to their site to see larger version at each films page; click the relevant name above and then on the small preview shown there.

Cunninghams ‘Rubber Johnny’ short is due during May on DVD, here in the UK at least. Warp have taken the time to interview Chris about the piece, and have included a few great pictures from the six minute film. Don’t look at them in front of your employers or your kids though. Shocking (but cool) stuff. See and read it here.

The Japanese omnibus film female (fîmeiru) was screened at the 29th Hong Kong International Film Festival last Saturday (March 26), and will be screened there again this Saturday (April 2). female is comprised of five shorts. “Momo”, based on a story by Kaoruko Himeno, was directed by Tetsuo Shinohara and stars Kyôko Hasegawa (Hasegawa Kyouko). “Taiyô no mieru basho made”, based on a story by Yuzuki Muroi (Muroi Yuduki), was directed by Ryûichi Hiroki (Hiroki Ryuuichi) and stars Chihiro Ôtsuka (Ootsuka Chihiro). “Yoru no shitasaki”, based on a story by Kei Yuikawa, was directed by Suzuki Matsuo and stars Saki Takaoka. “Megami no kakato”, based on a story by Asa Nonami, was directed by Miwa Nishikawa and stars Nene Ôtsuka (Ootsuka Nene). “Tamamushi”, based on a story by Mariko Koike, was directed by Shin’ya Tsukamoto and stars Eri Ishida.

Dang it! I hate hearing good news about about this film!!! Hurry up and do your theatrical run so I can buy the DVD already!!! Dang it!

Positive review and brief film overview over at The Korea Times. Attention: possible spoilers.

Well this just plain sucks. Having no previous connection with the Dr. Who universe I rather enjoyed Christopher Eccleston in the title role but the BBC has reported that he has quit the BBC’s new Doctor Who series after just one episode of the new series aired. The actor only signed for the current series of 13 episodes.

The first episode attracted around 10 million viewers in its premiere on March 26, and Eccleston feared being typecast, the network said.  He said that he is planning new projects and that he found filming the series gruelling. Christopher, who is dating TV actress Siwan Morris, said he found it demanding being away in Cardiff to film the 13 episodes.

He hinted that he could be set to quit, saying: “I might be the first Doctor to just appear in one series, It’s been brilliant to make but it’s hard work. It’s a long time to be away from home. It’s hard on anyone in a relationship. It would be great to have a 10th Doctor, then an 11th. The show will go on and on - it’s not about me.”

Talks are taking place to replace him with the star of the BBC3 show Casanova, David Tennant. According to DailyRecord other contenders included Love Actually star Bill Nighy, Harry Potter actor David Thewlis, and comedian Eddie Izzard.

The good news is that Billie Piper, who plays Doctor Who’s assistant, Rose, and is incredibly hot, is expected to continue her role. I could watch her run away from evil all day.

Eccleston’s last appearance is expected to be in a Christmas special.

via BBC and DailyRecord.

A lot of people have already commented on how Sin City is the most faithful comic book to film adaptation ever which prompted the good people at FilmRot to ask the question “Can it really be that close?” Apparently the answer is yes, yes it can.  Click here to check out their fantastic comparison of comic frames and still shots from the various trailers ...

Just gave the Jeonju Film Festival website another spin and although it’s still not fully functional - the english option doesn’t seem to be there yet - I was able to turn up some very worthwhile stuff including the first images from Shinya Tsukamoto’s Haze, Song Il-Gon’s The Magicians and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Worldly Desires!  I’m itching to see the anthology project these are part of ... three fantastic directors with very different styles that I think will work very well together.  Song’s effort looks very theatrical and I’m intrigued by it being a one take film, Worldly Desires reminds me a lot of the fantastic Tropical Malady and just what is that in shot number five from Haze!?!  Tsukamoto’s got something odd up his sleeve ...

The entire festival lineup is available here, all nice and alphabetical ...

This has the look of an ‘official’ leak to me, but even so I doubt it’ll be available for long, so act quickly if you want to see it ...

The opening sequence of Danny the Dog (AKA Unleashed) has turned up online and it includes the entire first fight sequence - almost three minutes of goodness.  The video file is a little bit dark but it was definitely taken direct from an official source so it’s all crisp and clean.  Is it good?  Oh, yes.  And definitely the most brutal fight sequence I have ever seen Jet Li involved in ... just wait till he starts bouncing the guy’s head off the floor ...

Happy times start here.

Thanks to Ian for the link.

Okay, all you pinko lefties!  Who wants a free copy of The Corporation?  ‘Cause we’ve got two of them to give away, the fancy two DVD edition, even.  But I want to make sure they go somewhere that they can do the greatest good possible so if you want one, here’s what you have to do:  email me here detailing your sweatshoppiest guilty pleasure.  Got a Nike fetish?  A secret stash of Kathie Lee fashions?  Gimme your list and the two I judge most needy will be the proud owners of their very own Corporation DVD.  You’ve got till April 5th ...