Not so long ago the word was that French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet would be directing a big screen adaptation of acclaimed novel The Life Of Pi a decision that seemed sound on all sides - he’s definitely got the needed outlook and skills to pull it off - but at the same time rather bland and safe and boring. And so there was no weeping in the House of Twitch when word surfaced that Jeunet was withdrawing from that project - the official reason was given as budgetary concerns - and instead staying in France and returning to the sort of fantasy-tinged comedy that made his name. The film is Micmacs A Tire Larigot, a film written by Jeunet himself along with regular writing partner Guillaume Laurant, with whom he also co-wrote A Very Long Engagement and City of Lost Children.
Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, even if it means you might drop dead any time? Or would you rather have the bullet taken out and live the rest of your life as a vegetable? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? What’s the human cannonball world record?
Find out answers to these questions and more.
A comedy in the vein of Delicatessen and Amélie.
The film’s French release is still some time off in the distance but the first gallery of stills has arrived online, they are fantastic, and we’ve got ‘em. Hit the link below to check them out.
And, yes, because it wouldn’t be a Jeunet film without him, Dominique Pinon does have a role.
This is so long overdue it’s not even remotely funny. After years of toiling in the B-ranks Australian stylist Russell Mulcahey could finally be getting his shot at prime time with upcoming action flick Courier. Despite helming the original - and should have been only - Highlander, a cult classic that has easily survived its subsequent bastardization, Mulcahey has never really been able to attract a-list talent or scripts but with Adrien Brody in the lead of his latest that could be changing ...
A million bucks, just to a deliver a briefcase…
It’s a job too good to be true, especially if you’re the COURIER, a daredevil carrier renowned for taking on impossible missions who’s never, ever missed a drop. The only catch is delivering it to someone who can’t be found, not even by the FBI, and when that someone is the notorious, never seen King of the Underworld EVIL SIVLE who’s very name makes the toughest tremble, there’s a lot more than reputation and money on the line.
With a baying pack of double crossing feds, conniving crooked cops and ruthless rival crime bosses in hot pursuit, the Courier trail blazes a world-wide chase for the most wanted man in the land. Drugged, beaten, tortured and two timed, the bloodhound bagman discovers easy money was never so hard, and tracking the elusive kingpin to Las Vegas learns just why Evil is the one person on the planet no one can find, and why he really is the King…
The plot has some obvious similarities to the setup for the Transporter films but Brody is in a whole different class than Jason Statham and with a script from the writers of 3:10 To Yuma and Wanted this could be something rather good. The film is in pre-production now, more as we get it.
It’s been a long and apparently troubled road for Yoichi Sai to bring his ninja epic to the big screen. After the very difficult production of Korean action-melodrama Soo, Sai - an ethnically Korean Japanese - returned back home to Japan to tackle an adaptation of Shirato Sanpei’s manga The Legend of Kamui Ninja. The film was announced ages ago but there’s been nothing from it since, other than the occassional rumor of some trouble or other on the set. But, finally - and I say finally because the world really doesn’t have enough ninja films and Sai’s got the chops to make a damn good one - we get at least a tease, in the form of a revamped website and big ol’ photo of Kenichi Matsuyama in the lead role. It aint much, but it’s something ...
[Updated with an additional block of stills.]
Just a couple days ago we were fortunate enough to share the first few character shots from Albert Pyun’s long-in-the-works sequel to classic 80’s fantasy flick The Sword And The Sorcerer, the new film being titled Tales Of An Ancient Empire. Those first shots were taken from rehearsals and were shared purely to give fans a look at the characters and feel of the world but now we’ve got the real thing: a trio of production stills taken from the second day of principal photography. No sign of Christopher Lambert yet but we do have some very good looks at lead actress Melissa Ordway as Tanis and Kevin Sorbo as Aedan, threatening someone with a big hunk of meat. Suddenly I’m hungry.
Hit the link below for a look!
We’re big fans of Kiwi director Jonathan King in these parts, much smitten by his horror-comedy Black Sheep of a few years ago. And King has been a busy man lately, writing and directing a healthy budget adaptation of youth-fantasy novel Under The Mountain. Written in 1979 the novel has been made into a television series in the past but has never made it to the big screen until now. Things have been quiet since the film was first announced but with news that photography is now complete and the film in post production under the watchful eye of Peter Jackson’s WETA Workshop, the first still has now arrived.
When teenage twins Rachel and Theo investigate the creepy old house next door, they discover the Wilberforces - shape-shifting creatures that lurk beneath Auckland’s ring of extinct volcanoes.
Guided by the mysterious Mr Jones and with the help of their older cousin Ricky, the twins must rekindle the unique powers they once shared if they are to destroy this ancient evil - before it destroys them.
We’ve lamented the lack of good youth fantasy in these pages lately and this is one of a coming wave of titles that looks poised to fill that void. Hit the link below for a larger version of the still.
[Updated with another piece of promo art]
We first brought news of the impending sequel to classic 80s fantasy flick The Sword And The Sorcerer back in April and while production was delayed some by this past year’s labor uncertainty and while the cast has undergone some slight alterations things are now up and running, with principal photography now freshly begun. Here’s how director Albert Pyun first described the project to us: “It’s got a sexy sorceress, hordes of demonic vampires, a giant serpent, sea pirates, nasty sword (and axe, spear, leg of cow) fights and gore and nudity galore. Everything that a rousing adventure needs to have.”
Though the project has changed some since it began life as a direct sequel to Pyun’s The Sword And The Sorcerer there are still direct links between the two films. Starring? Here are the notables: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and Christopher Lambert (The Highlander) are the male leads, while relative newcomer Melissa Ordway takes the female lead as Tanis, a young woman trying to unite the warrior of her world in a battle against an evil sorceress. Whitney Able (All The Boys Love Mandy Lane), Janelle Taylor, Ralf Moeller (Conan, Cyborg) and Olivier Gruner (Nemesis) also have key parts.
We’ll have more from this soon but in the mean time we’ve got a handful of stills from early rehearsals that show off the look of the characters - I’m rather fond of the Sorbo shot - the first look at the sales art and an early composite shot of Ordway as Tanis. Hit the link below to get a look!
Now, this is a surprising and very deserving move. The National Society of Film Critics have just named Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir the Best Picture of 2008 - a move that should help it’s chances for an Oscar nomination later this month. Bashir would have seemed a sure thing to at least be nominated for an Oscar this year but a shortage of submitted animated features means only three animated films can be nominated and with most people figuring Wall*E and Kung Fu Panda will take up two of those slots that means one of arthouse faves Waltz With Bashir or $9.99 is going to be left out cold.
Waltz With Bashir is on screens in limited release right now, check it out if at all possible. The trailers are below the break and you can find my review at the link below.
Continue Reading "National Society Of Film Critics Names WALTZ WITH BASHIR Best Picture!"...
When fresh images from Oldboy director Park Chan Wook’s much-anticipated vampire picture Thirst turned up in the Korean media earlier this weekend I must confess that I was a little bit underwhelmed, having seen considerably more in the promotional materials and sales reel presented at the American Film Market in November. I passed on posting them up originally but not to worry - I’ve come to my senses. This is the new Park Chan Wook, after all, and while these are relatively old to me they’re certainly not to you and so I’ve gathered them together and put them in a gallery for your perusal. And if, before browsing, you;ve been asking yourself why the Korean media have suddenly released these things, the answer is a good one: production has apparently gone so well that they’re ahead of schedule and now on track for a much-sooner-than-anticipated April theatrical release in Korea. Focus have the film here in North America but have not yet set a release date.
Check below the break for the full HAF synopsis for this tale of a lustful priest-turned-vampire and hit the link below for the images.
Continue Reading "Fresh Images From Park Chan Wook’s Vampire Picture THIRST"...
Imagi Studios has unveiled several images for Astro Boy at their official site. The images include character stills/model rendering and concept art with some revealing two never before seen characters: a robot dog designed as a trash disposal and an unnamed girl who I assume Kristen Bell will provide the voice. Heres the official synopsis:
Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly.
Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way. Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it takes to be a hero.
Astro Boy hits theaters on October 23, 2009. You’ll find the images in our gallery at the link below and the teaser trailer after the break.
Continue Reading "Concept Art and Character Stills for ASTRO BOY"...
It’s not new news per se and I generally don’t dedicate posts to nothing more than poster art but the fine lads at Magnet Releasing have just released the poster for their upcoming US release of Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew’s latest martial arts flick Chocolate - in theatres Feb 6th and On VOD and DVD on Feb 10th - and the tag line they cooked up for the local release was enough to get a chuckle out of me. And so I share it with you. A us trailer should be arriving soon as well but for the time being you can find the Thai trailer - with subtitles - below the break and check the archive for Chocolate coverage o’plenty.
Continue Reading "Taste The Fury! Taste It!"...
Fresh off of their court victory last week - a judge agreed that Fox still owned some rights to Watchmen when Warner Brother shot the film - the suits at Fox have now come out and said that they will be seeking a court injunction to delay the film’s planned March release. The folks at The Hollywood Reporter think this is probably posturing to a certain degree and I generally agree since as satisfying as it may be for Fox to screw Warner Brothers over on this film satisfaction won’t actually make them any money. They want this released and released wide while the marketing is rolling hot, so it’s best to read this as leverage towards getting a better settlement. But, still, a whole lot of people at Warners must be sweating buckets right now ...
The 14th edition of Berlin & Beyond (B&B), the Bay Area’s annual week-long festival of new films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, will take place at the Castro Theater from January 15 to 21, 2009. I walked into the festival’s press conference hoping to find three particular films in the line-up—Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Götz Spielmann’s Revanche and Uli Edel’s The Baader Meinhof Complex. I’m happy to say that two of my three wishes came true.
The one that didn’t, The Baader Meinhof Complex, seemed like such an obvious choice for this year’s B&B. It’s Germany’s 2008 Oscar submission and was just nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film. Festival Director Ingrid Eggers explained that B&B tried hard to secure the film, but regrettably couldn’t make it happen. The movie depicts the 1960s/1970s German terrorist group RAF (Red Army Faction), and Eggers assures us it will arrive in the Bay Area later this year.
Nonetheless, there’s a lot of great stuff in this year’s line-up. Director Christian Petzold makes his fifth B&B appearance with Jerichow, which garnered great reviews at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The film stars Petzold regulars Nina Hoss and Benno Fürmann, and shares a plot with The Postman Always Rings Twice. Revanche is Austria’s Oscar entry for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film, and tells the tale of a Ukrainian prostitute, her boyfriend and the aftermath of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong. Friends who saw it at Toronto came back raving. Speaking of Oscar submissions, Switzerland’s 2008 entry The Friend, will also screen at B&B. The film’s director Micha Lewinsky, has also won the festival’s MK Award for Best First Feature, which carries a $5,000 cash prize.
Continue Reading "BERLIN & BEYOND 2009—Michael Hawley Previews the Line-up"...
Hello Warner Brothers. Allow me to introduce you to the concept of due diligence. Basically it means doing a full and thorough background check on all legal matters related to a contract before executing that contract to make sure everything’s on the up and up. Such as, oh I don’t know, checking to make sure you actually own a comic book property before going and spending hundreds of millions of dollars making a film of it.
A preliminary ruling has come down on the Fox lawsuit of WB over Zak Snyder’s Watchmen, with the judge ruling that Fox owns at least the rights to distribute the picture. Which means Warners has just lost a bucket of money. Ouch.
It was only a couple days ago that Al alerted us to the casting announcement for Jeff Lau’s Robot/Kungfu Cyborg Attraction [tenative - dear god let it be tenative]. It turns out that Wu-jing.org was on the ball a few days earlier than the CRIENGLISH report and has a lot more details about the characters and the story and… well… the general mish-mash of genres that Lau in trying to incorporate into his film.
Kung Fu Cyborg Attraction is about the battle of good vs evil between robots, showing their self-redemption in the process. As the film contains various elements that run the gamut from romance, comedy to kungfu, each actor in the film has their own mission. Wu Jing will do the fighting, Ronald Cheng will tickle your funny bones, while Hu Jun, Alex Fong and Sun Li will add romantic touches to the film.
Kung fu, Comedy and Romance between five characters? It sounds like it is on the brink of being convoluted but if Lau has found the proper balance between all the characters and his film is well paced then there should be no reason why KFCA shouldn’t be a general crowd pleaser. But, this is the same guy who made A Chinese Tall Story, itself a very messy and confounding film. You can find each character’s description after the break.
Unlike earlier reports that suggested that Lau’s film was going to be about giant robots this report suggests that they are androids instead, though there will be giant robots in it.
Director Jeffrey Lau adds that some androids in this film are capable of transforming, turning into very large armored robots. They have even created robot replicas of Wu Jing and Alex Fong, mimicking their expressions and movements possibly using motion-capture. A climatic battle will see Wu Jing and Alex Fong fighting each other, with Alex Fong doing Bruce Lee impressionism, only to be squashed as he’s just an empty vessel. Director Jeff Lau expresses great confidence in Wu Jing, spending 12m yuan on his scenes. Not only has he created an ornate 2m gargantuan blade for Wu Jing, but will also pit Wu Jing against a gigantic CGI robot. This imaginary robot stands 20m tall, and Wu Jing has been suspended on wires, flitting about, slashing at nothing but air with the huge, heavy blade, spraining his wrist a few days ago.
Consider me cautiously… no, not optimistic, just cautious then. But hey. Wu Jing doing the fu! That’s a good thing, right?
Continue Reading "Character details for Jeff Lau’s ‘Robot/Kungfu Cyborg Attraction’"...
Yes, I’m stuck at the day job working a night shift on Christmas Day and had to do the same yesterday as well but what took the sting away a little was the mailman bringing me my copy of Ghost In The Shell 2.0, the completely re-animated version of Mamoru Oshii’s classic. Now, I don’t really want to get into the cell animation versus CG animation argument here - I’ll say only that I’m proud to own both versions, will continue to own both versions and will continue to watch both versions - but I did want to make a few comments on this new edition.
First, it’s gorgeous. If you’re going to mess with a classic like this you’d better do a damn good job and Productin IG have. It looks and sounds fantastic with sterling attention paid to details, lighting, texture, etc. If this were a brand new release today I don’t think people would be hailing the visuals as ground breaking or anything like that but it is certainly upper tier. Secondly, and much to my pleasure, the CG designs have clearly been based directly on the original drawings and not on the later Stand Alone Complex designs. It would have been cheaper and easier for them to use the SAC designs but sticking as close as possible to the original aesthetic was definitely the correct choice. Third? This film is every bit as powerful and relevant today as it was when it was first created. The story hasn’t aged a bit.
If you want a taste of what this looks liek I’ve got two teasers in the Twitch Player below the break.
Continue Reading "Some Thoughts On GHOST IN THE SHELL 2.0"...
