It Had To Happen: Aliens Versus Ninjas By Russ Fischer/Nov. 6, 2009 9:18 am EST For years, Japan has had an amazing scene where low-budget genre films can flourish. Lately it seems to be exploding, as films like Tokyo Gore Police, Machine Girl and the upcoming RoboGeisha push the form into pure absurd balls-out bliss. These go way beyond the level of craziness in films like Wild Zero and Versus, and those films were already pretty nuts to begin with....
Kal Penn Returning To Harold & Kumar? By Russ Fischer/March 31, 2010 12:55 pm EST When we talked recently about the possibility of another Harold & Kumar movie, one of the big questions was not ‘will the film happen?’ but ‘who will be in it?’ as co-star Kal Penn had left acting over a year ago to take a job as the associate director of the Office of Public Engagement at the White House....
Lars And The Real Girl Director Craig Gillespie’s Cars.com Super Bowl Ad By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 1, 2009 5:04 pm EST After seeing the Wes Anderson-styled Cars.com television commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, I went on a mad search to try to find out who directed it. Thankfully one of the crew members on the shoot responded to my information request on Twitter (I’m loving twitter and crowdsourcing more and more everyday)....
Last Airbender Trilogy Not Being Filmed Back-To-Back, May Take Over 6 Years To Complete By Devindra Hardawar/July 2, 2009 7:00 am EST Last Airbender producer Frank Marshall recently confirmed that the trilogy of films will not be filmed back-to-back (Lord of the Rings style), but will instead be shot one at a time. M. Night Shyamalan is still working on the script for the second film, while also sketching out the trilogy’s greater mythology....
Let The Right One In Director To Adapt John Le Carre Novel By Russ Fischer/July 9, 2009 4:30 pm EST According to THR, Tomas Alfredson, the director of Let the Right One In, has been signed to adapt John Le Carre’s cold war novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The novel is the first of the informal ‘Karla Trilogy’ that also features The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People. Le Carre is working on the screenplay with playwright/screenwriter/director Peter Morgan, and the reputable Working Title is putting it all together....
Matthew Vaughn Off Thor By Peter Sciretta/May 8, 2008 1:44 pm EST Marvel just announced a June 4th 2010 release date for Thor (six weeks after Iron Man 2), but Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) is no longer is attached to direct the live action adaptation because his holding deal expired December. Back in October Vaughn told the Guardian that Marvel loved the latest draft of the script, which he was working on with Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend)....
More Jack Ryan News: Untitled Reboot Script Due Soon By Russ Fischer/July 8, 2009 9:30 am EST Just the other day there was a mention that George Clooney might be interested in taking up the mantle of Jack Ryan, the hero of Tom Clancy novels and films like The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games. Now there’s confirmation, via Anne Thompson, that Clooney’s name is indeed in the mix. But more important, the Hossein Aimini script that was commissioned last year to reboot the franchise, currently just the Untitled Tom Clancy Project, should arrive shortly, and then Paramount will be able to make a decision about really moving forward....
Page 2 By Peter Sciretta/Nov. 30, 2009 6:00 am EST Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 30 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. Mini-LOL: This Twilight Moms photo showed up on Reddit. I apologize in advance for the large amount of Twilight-related items in this edition of Page 2....
Paramount Offers To Pay Print Fees Directly To Exhibitors For Digital And 3D Conversions By David Chen/Jan. 23, 2009 6:11 am EST With more than a dozen digital 3D releases coming out this year (including James Cameron’s sure-to-be-megahit Avatar in December 2009), studios have a vested interest in making sure films can be viewed by the audience in the way they were intended. According to Variety, Paramount is now offering to pay “virtual” print fees directly to theater owners who convert at least 50% of their screens to digital, with a higher fee offered for screens converted to 3D....
Script Rights Wrangle Kills John Woo War Pic 1949 By Brendon Connelly/April 3, 2009 2:43 am EST Now that John Woo has his insanely epic Red Cliff double bill all wrapped up, his next project was due to be a World War II drama called 1949. It was announced at Cannes last year that Woo’s Lion Rock would be producing the film and he himself would be directing. I salivated, I have to admit....
So, Wassup With John Hughes? By Hunter Stephenson/March 26, 2008 2:09 pm EST “Did he make a comeback yet?” In a recent interview with the L.A. Times, Kevin Smith called ’80s director/’00s recluse John Hughes his “generation’s J.D. Salinger.” I’m not going to get into that comparison, no way, but it’s worth mentioning that Salinger hasn’t written anything in 40 years, whereas Hughes hasn’t done much movie-wise in a decade. He has more in common with Terrence Malick (20 years between Badlands Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line) than the completely AWOL Salinger....
Superman: Doomsday Movie Trailer By Peter Sciretta/April 28, 2007 1:53 pm EST Where were you when Superman died? At Wondercon 2007 DC Comics announced they would be making a few straight to DVD animated feature films, one of which includes an adaptation of the Superman: Doomsday series. The storyline was a major media event, and one of the best selling comic books of all time. In the comic book series, Superman engages in battle with a seemingly unstoppable killing machine named Doomsday in the streets of Metropolis....
The Punisher: War Zone By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 28, 2007 5:17 pm EST I don’t quite understand why anyone at this point still has hope for the upcoming sequel. The first film wasn’t good enough to warrant a sequel, and The PunisherPunisher himself, Thomas Jane, supposedly walked away from the project after having doubts about the script/project. Well, according to IGN, the Lexi Alexander-directed sequel now has a new title: Punisher: War Zone I wonder if the storyline has anything to do with the The Punisher War Zone spin-off comic book series that Marvel published from 1992 to 1995....
The Road Will Finally Be Released On October 16th 2009 By Peter Sciretta/May 2, 2009 8:00 am EST Dimension Films and 2929 Productions have finally announced that they will be releasing John Hillcoat’s adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel The Road, on October 16th 2009. The film was originally set to debut during the 2008 Oscar season, but was supposedly pulled due to visual effects issues. Many speculated that the Weinsteins were starting to doubt the dark film’s award potential....
The Ruins Red Band Movie Trailer By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 21, 2008 11:40 pm EST I’ve been excited about Carter Smith’s big screen adaptation of Scott B. Smith’s novel The Ruins since the project was first announced. The previous adaptation of a Smith novel, A Simple Plan directed by Sam Raimi, was an incredibly underrated character piece, and an even better thriller. The Ruins is more of a horror thriller than a character piece and stars one of my favorite actresses, Jena Malone....
The U.S. Movie Trailer For M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening By Peter Sciretta/Feb. 14, 2008 9:53 pm EST An international movie trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening hit the web earlier this month, but was quickly removed by Fox. I think it might have had something to do with the unrated nature of the previous trailer (which can still be found on YouTube). I loved the “mass suicide” sequence shown in that trailer, but criticized the trailer for showing very little of the real story which involved Mark Wahlberg and his family on the run....
VOTD: Don’t Vote - 5 Friends Uncensored By Peter Sciretta/Oct. 2, 2008 12:00 am EST Don’t Vote – 5 Friends Uncensored The Pitch: A boat load of celebrities explain how important it is to register to vote. Jonah Hill takes the cake with his adlib of “I don’t care, I have so much money!” And you have to love Sarah Silverman’s quip about herpes and “pooping”. Thanks to /Film reader Nader for sending this along....
Was Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows LEAKED Onto The Internet? NOPE By Peter Sciretta/April 19, 2007 12:15 pm EST Was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows LEAKED onto the Internet? I have found a 281 page e-book which claims to be the beginning of J.K. Rowling’s final book in the Harry Potter saga has shown up on an internet website ebookscottage.com. I have read most of the Potter books but am unable to confirm if this internet release is real or fake....
Who’s Really Running The Tintin Show? Spielberg Or Jackson? By Brendon Connelly/March 7, 2009 12:45 pm EST As the 32 days of principal production on Tintin come to a close, Variety have done a new piece on the film which yields a lot of matters for discussion. None of this is Hold The Front Page! stuff, but it’s still packed with surprises. The overall impression is that Peter Jackson will be exerting rather a large amount of control over the first Tintin film, even though Steven Spielberg is the credited director....
Zak Penn’s The Argonauts By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 12, 2008 2:27 am EST Zak Penn broke onto the scene with a huge spec Last Action Hero (this is before it was rewritten). He went on to pen PCU, Beyond Enemy Lines, and is credited with the story of X2. That credit lead to five years of comic/geek-related projects, some of which were extremely disappointing (X-Men: The Last Stand) or insulting (Electra), leading to the loss of geek fan support....
