Sweeeeeet ... the teaser trailer for Fatih Akin’s Crossing the Bridge is now available online in MPG format here and it looks amazing.  With his previous film - the searing Head On - Akin took a fictional, and pretty grim, look at the cultural collision of east and west using his own Turkish roots as a basic.  With Crossing the Bridge Akin is working in similar territory, this time from a documentary approach using the music of Istanbul as his reference.  The teaser’s mighty slick - stylish and loaded with humor - and I hereby consider myself teased.  You can check the full website here.

Sweet!  I went out searching for some images from this flick myself a little while ago without any success, but Ion Cinema has just turned up a series of shots from Broken Flowers, the latest film from Jim Jarmusch starring Bill Murray.  I love the look of this thing and I’m hugely looking forward to seeing these things move ...

Would I care about this if I didn’t have a kid?  Honestly, probably not, but the boy had a major Spy Kids phase a while back and I’ve become a bit of a fan thanks to him.  Rodriguez just makes solid kids films - inventive, full of action and remarkably unsanitary for kid’s fare.  The man’s got kids himself and his approach to telling them stories is a hell of a lot more interesting than the mass produced focus group approach employed by Disney and their ilk.  Anyway, check out the trailer for his latest here.  It’s in AOL’s crappy proprietary streaming video format but looks passable nonetheless.

Lions Gate has released a new internet only trailer for High Tension that basically boils down to a kill reel ... mighty bloody and spoiler heavy stuff.  Sadly, streaming Windows Media only.  Hit the high res version here.

Via Bloody-Disgusting.

Just spotted this over in the KFC Forums ... the latest from Tsai Ming-liang, the director of Goodbye Dragon Inn, raised a bit of controversy in his native Taiwan where he fully expected a fight with film censors over the film’s sexual content.  The fight never came, but a Silver Bear at this year’s Berlinale did.  The film is due for a Hong Kong release soon and the HK trailer has turned up online here in streaming Windows Media.  The trailer doesn’t show a whole lot but the film is supposed to be one of Tsai’s best ...

Following on the from the superb 2003 book ‘Agitator : The Cinema Of Takashi Miike’, also from FabPress, Mr.Mes’ new book is on Tsukamoto. Good year for fans of this particular director.

Amazon.com have it listed as July 10th, Fab Press’ own site has it down as June 2005. Again, it seems as though there is both (potentially limited) hardback and paperback editions of this to come.

Amazon listing is here. You can also order direct from the publishers site (in the near future) which is here.

To begin on TV in Japan on July 2nd 2005, a new 38 part show of ULTRAMAN - and it’s the responsibility of the production team behind the recent movie ‘Ultraman : The Next’.

Those hired to direct episodes include : Shusuke Kaneko, the man behind many recent Gamera movies, the Godzilla movie before ‘Final Wars’ and the recent ‘Azumi 2’ amongst others. Akio Jissogi, who is currently making ‘Ranpo Jigoku’ with Tadanobu Asano, and has helmed more than a few Ultraman movies in recent years. Finally, Takashi Miike is still putting the finishing touches to ‘Yokai Daisenso’.

Via Fangoria.

DVDTimes have had a press release with upcoming Premier Asia and HKL releases listed. At the bottom, hidden away is the announcement of the first (as far as I know) official Subtitled DVD for Ong-Bak. By the time October comes around, there’s a good chance the USA disc will also have been announced, and it could be out sooner. For now, my radar is partly fixed on this one.

Others announced for UK releases are : (HKL) > Project A Box Set (13th June 2005), Dragons Forever (27 th June 2005), Hand of Death (15th August 2005), Fist of Fury: Platinum Edition (12th September 2005), Wheels on Meals (26th September 2005), Chinese Ghost Story (24th October 2005), (Premier Aisa) > My Wife Is A Gangster (11th July 2005), Once Upon A Time In High School (22nd August 2005), Taegukgi (5th September 2005).

Via DVDTimes.

A few days ago, the PIA Film Festival (PFF) official website updated its “PFF nyûsen kantoku saishinsaku jôei jôhô” page, which provides info on current/upcoming movies by Japanese directors who, in the past, have had movies selected for PFF. The page currently provides info on 14 movies and 1 movie series; they are as follows: Naoko Ogigami’s Koi wa go-shichi-go!; Isshin Inudô, Shinsuke Satô et al.’s omnibus movie Inu no eiga; Yuki Iwata et al.’s omnibus movie Hairstyle (Heasutairu); Tetsuo Shinohara, Shin’ya Tsukamoto et al.’s omnibus movie Female (Fîmeiru) [see Twitch articles here and there]; Shion Sono’s Into a Dream (Yume no naka e) [see Twitch articles here and there]; Akira Ogata’s Itsuka dokusho suru hi; Izuru Narushima’s Fly, Daddy, Fly (Furai, dadi, furai) [see Twitch article here]; Kiyoshi Kurosawa et al.’s horror movie series Umezu Kazuo: kyôfu gekijô [see Twitch article here]; Sang-il Lee’s Scrap Heaven (Sukurappu hebun); Naoto Kumazawa’s Niraikanai kara no tegami; Takahiko Akiyama’s Hinokio; Isshin Inudô’s Touch (Tacchi); Kentarô Ôtani’s Nana; Shun’ichi Nagasaki’s Christmas in August (8-gatsu no Kurisumasu); and Isshin Inudô’s Maison de Himiko (Mezon do Himiko) [see Twitch article here].

Just a reminder that we’re down to two weeks left on our Layer Cake Giveaway ... get cracking on your best bad Madonna / Guy Ritchie movie ideas and send ‘em in for your chance to win posters, books and hats.  My personal favorite image so far involves a certain former Andy of Mayberry cohort cast as Cthulu ... Check all the details here and get to it.

That the film’s being made isn’t really news at this point, but Grady at Kaiju Shakedown just had a wee chat with Tony Leung about his upcoming flick for Wong Kar Wai in which he’ll play Bruce Lee’s master.  Check it out here.

Title says it all, really ... new behind the scenes videos on the official Tideland website.  Go, now.

Wow ... too much good stuff to recap it here, suffice it to say that Stauffen’s turned up a bunch of new films from Japan that I’d not heard of yet ... Check ‘em out here.

Here’s a little something to console all of us Canadian folk still distraught over last year’s collapse of the sequel to Strange Brew ... the long rumored feature film from The Trailer Park Boys is a go with Ivan “Mr. Ghostbusters” Reitman’s Montecito Pictures at the controls ... Nice ... Hit the Screendaily story here and the official TPB website here.

What better way to celebrate the release of Todd Solondz Palindromes than by posting an interview of the man hissef. Todd Solondz isn’t a house hold name but his iconoclastic output ranks as some of the most interesting American cinema in recent years. His new film Palindromes is drawing the usual hate love responses from audience and critics alike but in conversation he proves himself to be anything but a hater. Ever get the feeling a movie was watching you? That’s exactly where Solondz wants his audience.

Continue Reading "INTERVIEW WITH PALINDROMES’ DIRECTOR TODD SOLONDZ"...