The Eternal director Justin McConnell just passed along five new teaser posters for his developing vampire flick. He also let us know that at this year’s edition of Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear they will be in the house and hosting a contest for visitors to their booth that weekend. Things are still at the developing stages for Justin’s film but as soon as things start rolling again I’m sure he’ll have more news for us to pass on to you.

The Eternal will be once again represented at this year’s Rue Morgue Festival of Fear in Toronto (August 28 – 30). We urge all attending to swing by the Unstable Ground booth to grab some free swag, meet the crew and lead actor Adam Kenneth Wilson, preview the entire first issue of the graphic novel The Eternal: Final Dawn, and enter to win one 3 of “The Eternal” prize packs.

First Prize - A “one-of-a-kind” painting by co-creator Kevin Hutchinson (www.secondskincreations.net), a copy of the printed limited edition first issue of “The Eternal: Final Dawn” (only 20 of this version of the pressing will ever be made!), a “Final Dawn” T-shirt, and the short film prequel “Ending the Eternal” on DVD.
Second Prize – A “The Eternal: Final Dawn” T-shirt, copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.
Third Prize – A copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.

And The Eternal film synopsis…

Samuel Gradius has lived too long. In his 500 years on earth he has seen empires rise and fall, changed the course of history with his bare hands and experienced countless revolutions first hand. Samuel Gradius is a vampire, perhaps the only vampire, and he’s had enough. He wants to die. No longer content with the idea of simple suicide, he makes the decision to go out in the ways of old. He wants a warrior’s death. THE ETERNAL follows Samuel on the pursuit of his own personal oblivion, he hopes, at the hands of someone worthy.

It is obvious to any Twitchfilm reader who has been around long enough that we are big fans of English director Shane Meadows and his films A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England. His latest film Le Donk & Scoz-ayz-ee just premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival but he gave Empire the skinny on his next big film, a horror film, and one we’ve known about for a while now, Beware the Devil...

“It’s based on a book of the same name, based on the life of a guy who, by getting involved with Ouija boards and the occult by trying to disprove it, trying to take the piss out of it, got possessed, had to be exorcised, and later became an exorcist himself. The guy it happened to has died, but his son’s a novelist, and he helped him turn it into a book before he passed away, and now I’m working with him to turn it into a film.” Empire also said Meadows described Beware the Devil to us as “making Dead Man’s Shoes look like Play School”

The man with 30 films somewhere in the production ether has just added another project to his list. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of the Transformers films and the upcoming G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra feature has dipped his grubby hands once again into the 80s properties pool and won a bidding war- A BIDDING WAR!!! for the rights to make an Asteroids movie. Yes, yes, the game where you, a small triangle, shoot and destroy asteroids of varying shapes and sizes until you are mercilessly crushed by one of them yourself. Insert another quarter and go again!

Now, given that Asteroids was around in the days where back story and characters didn’t matter, we were too caught up in the actual state of the art video game action back then, this gives the script writer Matthew Lopez [Bedtime Stories and Race to Witch Mountain... I know] pretty much free reign to do what he wants and create an exciting world around the simple concept of blowing up Asteroids.

So let’s theorize and make up our own script shall we? Here’s what I can make up off the top of my head. Aliens have redirected asteroids from the belt in orbit around the Sun, that one between Mars and Jupiter, and they are launching them at Earth, hoping to wipe out the human race from a distance. It’s up to the Asteroid Defense Human Defenders [ADHD - get it?], a collection of young, hot, thrill seeking space pilots to intercept these Asteroids before they become Meteorites and plunge into the soft recesses of our fragile Earth. They’ll be doing some plunging into some soft recesses of their own because they are so young and hot and thrill seeking. Either an Asteroid will get through their defenses, kill millions, and one of the pilots will have this big emotional moment where they torture themselves in grief only get their vindication when Earth can finally launch an assault on this Alien race and these pilots will be asked to lead the charge once they arrive at the belt. Or, one of their pilots will die, planting themselves on the front side of a massive Asteroid, and everyone will have a joined emotional moment then everyone can get their vindication when Earth can finally launch an assault on this Alien race and these pilots will be asked to lead the charge once they arrive at the belt. There will be lots of special effects and lots of explosions [which you must have even though there is no sound in the vacuum of space] and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is done in Real 3D. After all, it’s Asteroids damnit!

What say you?

We all know how much man love Swarez has for Fred Dekker and his film Night of the Creeps but I think this little contest that Amazon is putting on to choose the cover for the upcoming DVD release might be enough to put him over the edge and send him on a drunken rampage throughout Iceland, drunk on whatever the Icelandic people get toasted on. And given that Swarez has himself designed some really good posters and DVD covers himself I don’t think the nation of Iceland will sleep well tonight. You’re going to have to see for yourselves.

Here’s the deal. Go to the link below and choose one of the three options at the bottom of the page. The cover with the most votes will be the winner and you’ll know what to look for when you go to buy this DVD when it hits store shelves. I think all three are ugly as sin but it looks like it is a matter of choosing the lesser of three evils. Option # 1, the one I think is the least hideous is the one on the left.

And you will buy it because it is an awesome cult film and you don’t want a drunken Swarez showing up at your door in the middle of the night. Do you? DO YOU!?!

Oh Hong Kong you’re so wacky. While a gweilo like me could never fully understand this brand of nonsense comedy there is a certain delirious joy when watching them. They’re just so out there that even without understanding them and all their cultural nuances fully they are no less entertaining. For example we have the trailer for Wong Jing’s upcoming nonsense comedy On His Majesty’s Secret Service. Though quite unlike the James Bond film of the same name from 1969 a quick search couldn’t pick up a lot of details about this film. Thus, I first found what I hoped was a description of the film to the more qualified and sanitary skills of Google Translate and this is what it came up with…

The film story takes place in ancient times, the emperor has to have a direction to 12 named after zodiac ... personal protection. Louis Koo as one of nine days, the representative of the high sign of the Zodiac “dog”, also known as the “灵灵dog,” he indulged in technology will certainly insist that the technology will be better than kung fu, but his inventions are in action on many occasions was busy in doing so out of tune with the other agent, and only his brother, “灵灵Tiger” and fiancee, “Mei hope that” duty-bound to support him. But the face of an infatuated Mei hope, wonder dog灵灵style was unmoved. At this point, the major opponent just Tso ambitious, desire to kill the emperor replaced, but he must first get rid of the dog led to灵灵大内密探. What is unexpected is the father-in-law of conspiracy Cao is only the tip of the iceberg,灵灵dog will have to face more and more powerful enemy, the palace seems to calm potentially dangerous, murderous hidden.

Then a little more digging found this much more coherent synopsis over at Far East Films...

The secret service has been responsible for protecting the Emperor for generations and 12 agents are always assigned to bodyguard duty. Amongst the current group, Zero Zero Dog (Louis Koo) is considered to be the weakest as he shows no interest in the martial arts and spends his time studying technology and creating inventions. When Dog stumbles upon an evil plot to kill the Emperor by the chief eunuch, Cao Yan Chui (Fan Siu Wong), he decides to prove everyone wrong and vanquish the enemy himself.

The film stars stars Louis Koo, Big S Barbie Hsu, Fan Siu Wong, Leung Kar Yan, Liu Yi Wei, Sandra Ng, Law Kar Ying, Chen Jia Jia, and Sang Wei Lin. The trailer is loaded up after the break and I am a tad disappointed that the sound is out of sync but you definitely get the gist of the film. Martial arts, crazy characters and zany comedy are after the break!

Continue Reading "Trailer for zany Chinese comedy ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’!"...

You can do little wrong when you decide to go to Montreal for the Fantasia International Film Festival and this year’s lineup proves to be no exception. Want a taste? David Morley’s MUTANTS, Adam Mason’s BLOOD RIVER, José Mojica Marins’ EMBODIMENT OF EVIL, Tom Shankland’s THE CHILDREN, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST and Satoshi Miki’s INSTANT SWAMP are just some of the titles at this year’s festival.

There is a lengthy announcement after the break. Take your time and we are sure you’ll find some must-sees. Then we’ll see you in Montreal between July 9th and 27th.

Continue Reading "FANTASIA 2009 announces lineup. She be a doozy!!!"...

We’ve been a little caught up with the World Premiere of Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl down at NYAFF this weekend. So much so that we’ve been oblivious to the fact that there was a new international trailer for the film released recently. There is a lot of familiar footage and a lot of new footage so I won’t keep you. Follow the break for copious amounts of blood and gore. Do we need mention that these trailers are completely NSFW? Well they are and rather than tag this posting as NSFW so just the sickos see it we’re giving you the choice. Be responsible. Don’t drag us down with you!

Continue Reading "Vampires, frankensteins, blood and gore! New trailer for ‘Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl’!"...

The second and final batch of films were announced this weekend for the inaugural Shinsedai Cinema Festival happening here in Toronto between August 21st and 23rd. The second wave of titles are in red. And in other good news Jasper Sharp from Midnight Eye will also be coming to town from across the pond to be a part of the festival that weekend.

After a busy few weeks The Shinsedai Cinema Festival is proud to announce the final round of films of our inaugural line-up. Highlights include the Canadian premiere of Yuya Ishii’s surreal father/ daughter comedy Girl Sparks (left), Touru Hano’s moody and sexy indie horror film Thunderfish (Raigyo), plus a very special co-presentation with Toronto’s Reel Asian International Film Festival of the works of Kyoto-based video artist and composer Takagi Masakatsu including the North American premiere of Aruongaku, Takashi Tomohisa’s documentary of Masakatsu’s Tai Rei Tei Rio concert held on November 13th, 2008 at the Grand Gallery of the Iwate Museum of Art.

Bunny in Hovel - Mayumi Yabe (2009) short
Csikspost - Yumiko Beppu (2009)
Electric Button (Moon & Cherry) -Yuki Tanada (2004) feaure
emerger - Aki Sato (2008)
Freeter’s Distress - Hiroki Iwabuchi (2007) feature
Hottentot Apron: A Sketch - Kei Shirichi (2006) feature
Naked of Defenses - Masahide Ichii (2008) feature
Now, I… - Ysautomo Chikuma (2007) feature
Suzuki & Co. - Kazuo Kono (2008) short film
The New God - Yutaka Tsuchiya (1999) feature
Vortex & Others: 5 Short Films by Yoshihiro Ito (2001-2008) short film

Girl Sparks - Yuya Ishii (2007) feature
Little Birds - Takeharu Watai (2005) feature
Aruongaku - Tomohisa Takashi (2009) feature
Thunderfish - Touru Hano (2005) feature
The Evening Traveling - Akino Kondoh (2002) short film
Wiener Wuast & Israel Mix - Maya Yonesho (2008) short film
The Rule of Dreams - Naoyuki Tsuji (1995) short film
Right Place & Maledict Car - Kosai Sekine (2005) short film
A Woman Who is Beating the Earth - Tsuki Inoue (2007) short film

The finalized schedule for The Shinsedai Cinema Festival will be posted July 15th and tickets and passes will go on sale on July 20th!

M. Night Shyamalan has fallen out of favor with the general public as of late. Perhaps this may turn things around for him with his adaptation of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Dropping Avatar [thank you James Cameron] it will be titled The Last Airbender and MNS is only responsible for the screenplay this time around; the story and characters were developed by two other guys, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, who worked on the animated show the film is based on. His DOP is Andrew Lesnie who worked with Peter Jackson on all three LOTR and King Kong films. I’m more or less trying to shift around the blame here because I think Shyamalan still deserves a chance to make another good movie again. The film has its detractors already so there is no need right now to heap it on the guy before next summer. MNS does claim to be as much a fan of the show as his kids are.

The story follows the adventures of Aang, a ten year old successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. Darn you fire!!!

And a teaser simply gives us an idea of production values and scale and both look fine in this matter.

Continue Reading "Teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender’"...

I’m getting the feeling that there will be a great divide amongst ourselves when we finally get the chance to see that movie with the giant robots with mechanical testicles blow shit up. However, I think there is one thing that we can all agree on. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is going to suck larger balls. Don’t believe me? Second trailer after the break. If you dare.

Continue Reading "Something to put our collective hatred towards!"...

Though this program has already screened once already at the Worldwide Short Film Festival there is still one more chance for you to catch this breathtaking collection of short films looks as much at the fragility of life as much as the joy of it and what we do to capture, preserve or remember it. Reminded and spurned on by James’ prior post about Pedro Pires’ short film Danse Macabre by stroke of luck this program was amongst the screeners on my desk or the day job would have kept me from seeing some of these gorgeous creations. You Can’t Take It With You screens again on Saturday, June 20th at the ROM.

Continue Reading "WSFF09 You Can’t Take It With You"...

It breaks the heart of every genre loving film geek when we read of projects never getting off the ground because the world simply lacks an equation where people with money have the testicular fortitude to back these potential gems. The most recent victim was Worst Case Scenario, probably being the nearest and dearest to our hearts. It was like finding out your crazy Dutch uncle on your mom’s side who you only met a couple times passed away suddenly in the night when he fell off the wrong side of a dam walking home drunk at night. So consider it pure joy my friends and readers when we find out today that Timo Vuorensola’s Nazis in space sci-fi epic Iron Sky has finally completed gathering the funding needed to get this project up and running comes as a great relief to all of us here at Twitchfilm. Other than WCS I don’t think there was another genre pic coming out of Europe that had us crossing our fingers and finding religion just so we could say prayers at night for.

Long-gestating Nazis-on-the-moon project “Iron Sky” closed the final gap in its financing with a €800,000 ($1.1 million) grant from the Finnish Film Foundation. The genre spoof, which supposes a group of Nazis escaped to the moon before the end of World War II and are planning a new Fourth Reich, has been making the rounds for at least two years. Its €4.2 million ($5.8 million) budget is huge for Finnish standards but producers Blind Spot have lined up backers including Walt Disney Finland and Finnish broadcaster YLE as well as co-producers 27 Film Production in Germany and Film & Music Entertainment in the U.K. Director Timo Vuorensola is set to begin principle photography on “Iron Sky” in January for a 2011 release. THR

Did you see that? Go back and read the second last sentence. Yeah. Walt Disney Finland. Total awesomeness would be achieved if I could go into a Disney Store and buy a space Nazi from the same shelf as a Stitch doll. ‘Mommy? Why is that fat man crying by the dollies?’

BIG ASS WARNING As per Ard’s subtle suggestion we should warn you that while lofty in price and loaded with nummy bits this version DOES NOT have English subtitles. This aritcle was presented as such solely because we have heard good things about the film, there are some of you out there who speak Japanese, and we hope, more than likely, that the HK discs will have English subtitles. This BIG ASS WARNING has been presented to you by Twitchfilm.net.

Takeshi Kaneshiro stars as an accidental caped crusader in the delightful fantasy action-adventure K-20! Based on a Kitamura So novel which is itself based on characters created by legendary writer Edogawa Rampo, K-20: Legend of the Mask gives a fanciful spin on the storied rivalry between master detective Akechi Kogoro and phantom thief “The Fiend with 20 Faces”, or K-20. Co-starring Nakamura Toru (Shaolin Girl) as Detective Akechi plus top actress Matsu Takako (Hero) and rising star Hongo Kanata (The Blue Bird), K-20 offers a fun time at the movies full of quirky characters, rooftop escapades, mind-twisting mysteries, and good old swashbuckling action.

Directed by Sato Shimako (Wizard of Darkness), K-20: Legend of the Mask is set in an alternate 1949 Japan still under imperial rule, and rife with class conflict. In these chaotic times, K-20, a masked thief who steals from the rich, is both villain and hero, and a perpetual thorn in the side for crime-busting detective Akechi (Nakamura Toru) and his assistant Kobayashi (Hongo Kanata). With the city of Teitu buzzing over Akechi’s engagement with duchess Yoko (Matsu Takako), poor circus acrobat Heikichi (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is hired to take photos at their engagement, but he gets mistaken for K-20 and arrested. Realizing he’s been set up, Heikichi manages to escape, but there’s only one way to clear his name: to capture the real K-20. YesAsia

I thought for sure someone here had seen and reviewed this film. Maybe I remember Todd had seen it at HKFilmart and recall that he liked what he saw. But Yikes. At a whopping $68.49 US for this Japanese Deluxe Edition I don’t imagine we’re going to be hearing the Velcro ripping on everyone’s old school transformers wallets. But it comes with a 64-page thief training booklet [64 pages!!], a bookmark [for books!!], and a Fiend of 20 Faces replica warning letter [which you can photocopy over and over and give to friends to which they’ll reply WTF?], plus making of, trailer, and other extras.

Jackie Chan leads an all-star Asian cast in the 2009 gangster blockbuster Shinjuku Incident. The hard-hitting crime thriller from One Nite in Mongkok and Protege director Derek Yee follows the brutal conflicts of illegal Chinese immigrants fighting to survive in the gritty underbelly of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. Chan takes on a rare dramatic role as a Chinese laborer who gets mixed up with the Japanese mob, entering a violent life of no return. Hong Kong star Daniel Wu (Protege), Japanese actors Takenaka Naoto (Shall We Dance?) and Kato Masaya (Brother), and Chinese actresses Xu Jinglei (The Warlords) and Fan Bingbing (A Battle of Wits) join Chan in this unforgiving gray world of turf wars, ethnic tensions, and back-stabbing power struggles. YesAsia

Contributing reviewer James Marsh was sort of ‘meh’ about it but if you like then by all means don’t let us stop you. The Blu-ray version is all region whereas the DVDs are only R3. Go Figure. But all editions of this release will have the uncut version of the film that was never screened in Hong Kong cinemas.

With a hefty stack still of screeners on my desk and opening night tomorrow night the challenge right now is to find time so I can guide you towards good programs in this year’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. Having been much of a doodler all my life putting pen to paper has come relatively easy for me. Putting that together and making animations and short films like this? Well, that proved to be the hard part.

But look at what can be done! Take for example the Film School Spotlight: Royal College of Art program, a ten year retrospective of some of the best the school has created. The program plays on Sunday, June 21st at the Cumberland 4. The mix is varied and diverse and favourites are a matter of personal taste and palate but with twenty-one shorts to choose from I am sure you’re going to have some of your own. Here are mine…

Continue Reading "WSFF09 Film School Spotlight: Royal College of Art program preview"...