Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:45PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Comedy, Foreign Language, Sony Classics, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
The term remake has predominantly negative connotations, but once in awhile we see proof that a redo can be a good thing. Just look at Werner Herzog's new film,
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which isn't quite a remake of Abel Ferrara's
Bad Lieutenant so much as it's a stand-alone sequel or simply another filmmaker's take on the same sort of character explored in the original. It's enough to make me wish we could have seen what
Spielberg and Will Smith's version of
Oldboy would have looked like.
And here's another perfect example of a good remake:
Zhang Yimou's version of the Coen Brothers' neo-noir cult classic
Blood Simple, which
Peter excitedly wrote about back in July.
The film now has a title,
The First Gun (aka
Amazing Tales: Three Guns), and an international trailer, which shows us just how different Zhang's version is. The Chinese filmmaker, acclaimed for numerous Oscar-nominated films, whether recognized in the foreign, cinematography or costume categories, recently confirmed that he added a lot of things and changed the whole tone from the Coens' version.
"We brought in a lot of comedic elements and changed the relationship and personalities of the characters," Zhang told Chinese website
Sina.com.
Continue reading When Remakes Look Awesome: Zhang Yimou's "Blood Simple" Redo Has a Trailer, Rap Song
Posted Nov 17th 2009 11:15AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Executive shifts, Disney, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
The klaxons are sounding for the Nautilus and Captain Nemo's origin story.
Variety reports that Disney has quietly shelved the project, and
McG has been released from duty in order to seek better fortune ashore.
The project was scheduled to begin production this February, and was on a fast track under Dick Cook. But as you probably remember, Cook was shown the door a few months ago. Many of Disney's big projects seem to be left dangling as stars like Johnny Depp decide whether they're sailing or staying ashore.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo is just the latest, though Disney insists big popcorn flicks will still be a focus for them.
Leagues had already been a revolving door of rumors, with Will Smith said to be in the running to play Nemo.
Justin Marks was originally penning the script, but was
replaced by Randall Wallace this past July.
Variety reports that the project was being penned by Bill Marsilli, so presumably Wallace was off as well. While it's not unusual to have three screenwriters on a project, it doesn't sound like this submarine had a reliable captain. Perhaps the Nautilus will sail again as a proper steampunk picture that explores his romantic Indian past, and not a slapdash summerfest.
Posted Nov 15th 2009 2:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Remakes and Sequels
This is what we call a slow news day. Even for a Sunday. But then a casual glance through
The Hollywood Reporter yielded some huge sequel news! The sequel to
Stomp the Yard has begun shooting in Atlanta! Since I don't think I've ever seen the first
Stomp the Yard, I'm going to assume it's the tragic story of an ill-fated cement technician who is killed while paving a new schoolyard, thereby prompting the local dance team to "stomp" that beloved yard and win the fancy cheerleading trophy.
And get a load of these funky names! "Collins Pennie ... Pooch Hall, Terrence J, Lil Duval, Tika Sumpter, Kiely Alexis Williams, Keith David, rapper David Banner and music artist Teyena Taylor join "So You Think You Can Dance" runner-up Stephen "tWitch" Boss in the cast." (I love that the rapper has the plainest moniker.) Rob Hardy will direct (he probably is at this very moment, actually) from a script by the guy who penned
Feel the Noise. Hey, writing feature-length rock videos is a specific skill.
The title for the upcoming sequel is (spoiler alert)
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming. And yes, I think they're shooting for a theatrical release on this one. For more on what's sure to be the biggest sequel since
Return of the King, stomp your mouse
right here.
Posted Nov 12th 2009 2:15PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Drama, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Cinematical Indie
Shocker! Displaying a positive attitude that should warm the heart of any moviegoer who loves the female form,
Eva Mendes declares: "If I feel it's appropriate to show some nudity in the scenes then I go for it." She told
Fox News: "As much as I use my sexuality, I have never felt exploited. I feel like it's on my terms and I have no problem with it."
Speaking as someone who first noticed Mendes when Ethan Hawke opened a door in
Training Day to reveal her lying naked on a bed, I say: "I have no problem with it, either." The actress is promoting her appearance in Werner Herzog's
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which opens later this month (and prompted our own Jeffrey D. Anderson to wonder if the remake was
a good idea in the first place.) Mendes has been willing to bare portions of her body for several films, but it's not like she's leisurely walking around naked in any of them. Instead, they're more like brief flashes, tantalizing glimpses that are either frankly sexual (
We Own the Night) or fanboy flirtatious (
The Spirit, pictured).
Mendes was open in talking about 'turning up the heat and turning up the sexuality' when appropriate, admitting that it's "no accident" that she appeared in an "amazing" Calvin Klein advertising campaign that caused American TV censors to tremble badly. I think it's refreshing to hear an actress admit that she uses all of her assets on her terms, rather than feeling ashamed or exploited. Good for her!
Posted Nov 12th 2009 11:16AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Deals, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels
The
Fright Night remake is back on.
Back in January, we learned that the project had been halted when they couldn't come up with a good script. Ten months later,
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Marti Noxon (executive producer and writer on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has been hired to rewrite the horror comedy, trading one set of vamps for another.
While Joss Whedon
is facing cancellation, Marti Noxon is going strong. The vampire slayer marked Noxon's big break in the biz, and since helping run the show, she's had her hand in a slew of series from
Prison Break to
Mad Men. This will be her first big cinematic gig, her lone movie credit to this point being the 1998 film
Just a Little Harmless Sex. But what will it all mean for a redo of
Fright Night, where a kid finds out that a vampire lives next door?
Noxon kicked off her
Buffy writing penning the "What's My Line" duo, the terrible "Bad Eggs," and the sex that turned Angel evil. From there, most of her writing gigs were mainly toss-off eps, with occasional perks in episodes like "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "The Prom." In other words: I'm not so sure what to make of this, other than the fact that her strongest writing seems to be linked to big interpersonal moments, which do not make for the best vamp comedy. Thoughts?
Posted Nov 11th 2009 4:32PM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Remakes and Sequels
Werner Herzog's new film
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans has raised all kinds of hackles, mainly over the "remake" issue. Some movie buffs are crying foul over the remaking of Abel Ferrara's classic
Bad Lieutenant (1992), including Ferrara himself, who launched some famously
acid comments in the press. This fuss has caused most critics to address the issue of how closely the two films resemble one another. In most cases,
critics have concluded that the two films are entirely different with totally different feels and approaches.
Frankly, I'm fascinated by the two films, given that both directors are crazy mavericks, both indulging in their looniest personal whims, no matter what the cost or the outcome. This is not a remake in which anyone is concerned with "staying true to the material" or anything boring like that. Ferrara went nuts on his original film, and Herzog has gone nuts on the new film. Herzog has claimed that he never even saw Ferrara's film, and indeed, it more closely resembles his own earlier films with Klaus Kinski, with
Nicolas Cage playing the part of the unhinged, psychopathic terror onscreen. (Most people I have spoken to have compared Cage's performance with some of his earlier, more extreme work, such as
Vampire's Kiss).
Continue reading Should Herzog Have Made 'Bad Lieutenant'?
Posted Nov 11th 2009 12:45PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Horror, Music & Musicals, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
I have to tell you that this installment of
Scenes We Love was a close one, because the more I searched for the scene in question from
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master, the more I realized that it was a pretty terrible movie. The fourth installment of the horror franchise saw Freddy looking for some fresh meat after he had worked his way through the original "Elm Street brats". But like I said, this is about the song as well as the movie, so
Dream Master (despite it's failings) lived to earn its very own Songs We Love thanks to
"Anything, Anything", by Dramarama.
Now, no one would blame you if the name isn't ringing a bell, but
Dramarama was an LA-based power pop band that made some inroads to fame before fading into obscurity in the early 90's -- with the exception of an appearance on a VH1 reality show, which seems to be the fate of most 80's bands. The song was used during a scene in which one of our young victims is practicing a martial art that will be utterly useless against Freddie, but one look at
Andras Jones as Rick Johnson and this 13-year-old was in love (although I chose to overlook the
Karate Kid headband). So even though "Anything, Anything" never really became a huge hit for the band, according to legend it is still one of "the most requested songs in KROQ [LA Radio] history" -- which I guess means I'm not the only one with fond memories of this tune.
After the jump: Dramarama's contribution to the Canon of Freddie...Continue reading Scenes (Songs) We Love: Anything, Anything 'Nightmare on Elm St. 4'
Posted Nov 10th 2009 6:02PM by Peter Hall
Filed under: Comedy, Universal, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
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I know the demographic who watches all of the
American Pie Presents films is quite narrow, but when I
came across the trailer for
American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, I had to step back and give them a bit of a golf clap. Who would have ever thought that a little high school
sex comedy from 1999 would go on to spawn two theatrical sequels and four straight-to-video titles? Were there any among us who saw
Jason Biggs get intimate with an apple pie and thought, "My God, there needs to be seven of these movies"?
Yet here we are with the trailer for
The Book of Love, the seventh entrant to the canon of Pie. And in case you're not a die hard fan of the last three films, they were a trip to
Band Camp, a lap running
The Naked Mile, and a
Beta House whose crowning accomplishment was playing a game of rugby against some aggressive midgets. While the makers of those all found various tie-ins to the original films, mainly through the lineage of Stiffler, the biggest thread tying the franchise together has been
Eugene Levy, and
Book of Love shows no intention of letting him out of his seemingly eternal contract as Jim's Dad.
This time around, the male populace of East Great Falls High have once again stumbled upon the Bible hidden in the school's library, which you'll recall is the sex guide Casey Affleck gifted to the gentlemen of the first film. Only the book gets ruined in a freak accident, causing the amorous youngsters to track down the Bible's original creator in an attempt to recreate all of the sexual secrets contained therein.
Note: as should be expected from a sex comedy, the following trailer is not work place friendly:
Continue reading 'American Pie' Keeps On Going With the Trailer for 'The Book of Love'
Posted Nov 10th 2009 5:15PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
In their neverending efforts to cover all things
Twilight related, MTV has been asking cast members who they think should helm the final installment (or two),
Breaking Dawn. (Because, if Robert Pattinson is to be believed, the
movie will film next fall.) Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays the Volturi member Caius, thinks it
should be Tim Burton, while Pattinson himself is also playing the guessing game, and
wishes for Gus Van Sant. Apparently, RPatt heard that filming would take place in Portland, and Van Sant "shoots everything in Portland."
In other words: Everyone has different ideas, which seems to be the big theme of
Breaking Dawn.
Do you guys really want it? Sure, after taking this journey, you want to see it through to the end and see the final (and epically long) book make it to the screen. But let's face it -- it's not going to be as you expect. Is your curiosity for
anything stronger than your desire for a worthy-to-the-source adaptation?
Hit the jump for the spoilery discussion.
Continue reading 'Twilight' Fans: Do You Really Want to See 'Breaking Dawn'?
Posted Nov 10th 2009 2:18PM by Cinematical staff
Filed under: Horror, Remakes and Sequels
By Brian Salisbury
As if a massively disappointing delay in release date wasn't bad enough, the upcoming Wolfman remake has suffered yet another setback. Dread Central, by way of Cinemusic, is reporting that legendary film composer Danny Elfman is off the project and Paul Haslinger will be taking his place. Technically the word is that "scheduling conflicts" are to blame, but if you buy that nonsense I have a case of werewolf repellent I would love to sell to you. The film opens in February and I am honestly supposed to believe that Elfman plumb forgot he had a previous engagement? Or that he wouldn't be in the final stages of putting the music together anyway? The damn thing was supposed to come out this week. No, this reeks of studio politics and publicity malarkey.
Read more at HorrorSquad!
Posted Nov 10th 2009 10:32AM by Jenni Miller
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, RumorMonger, Steven Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels
Looks like our friends over at
Latino Review have some news on that
Oldboy remake that would have starred Will Smith with Steven Spielberg directing. The initial news about this remake (which actually would have been an adaptation of
"the Japanese manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya") had fans of the uber-violent and disturbing cult film confused and distressed, to say the least. (Okay, irate. They were irate.) I haven't read the manga, but I find it hard to believe that it would be any easier to adapt for a Smith/Spielberg-type audience than the movie
Oldboy itself. Either way, it's bananas.
So fans can rest easy because a trusted source has tipped off LR that the whole shebang is as dead as a doornail because "Mandate and DreamWorks didn't see eye to eye, therefore DreamWorks has apparently walked away." And the thing with Latino Review is that their trusted sources are, well, trustworthy, so expect more details soon -- and stories in the trade papers that will claim the same scoop. Tomorrow.
I just don't get the appeal of remaking foreign films for US audiences, especially now that services like Netflix and
GreenCine can bring whatever obscure film you just read about on your friend's Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr to your home in a matter of days. Although it could have been fun to see Will Smith
eating a live octopus and disposing of enemies in exceedingly violent ways while under the direction of Steven Spielberg, it's still insulting to assume that American audiences are somehow not smart enough to find these movies on our own. Or, gasp, read subtitles! Oh, the horror.
Posted Nov 7th 2009 12:50AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Independent, Romance, New Releases, RumorMonger, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels, Western
Good news,
Twilight fans. You have the first official news for the fourth
Twilight installment, courtesy of our own Jen Yamato,
FearNet and the
New Moon junket.* The magically-coiffed
Robert Pattinson has confirmed that
Breaking Dawn will begin filming in Fall 2010, and that it's penciled into his schedule for next year.
Of course,
Dawn remains unconfirmed by Summit. The most controversial installment of the
Twilight series, rumors swirl that the studio is hesitant to take it to the big screen. If it is made, it seems likely that it could be split into two films a'la
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I don't see Summit risking the money they'd make on #4, and they'll find a way to steer around the gorier aspects of the book. But now you know when to look for it, though you still have the madness of
Eclipse pre-production to get through.
Pattinson also dished on the movie I want to mark on
my calender (Sorry, I dig boots and spurs more than vampires), a Western called
Unbound Captives. The directorial debut of
Madeleine Stowe, it stars
Hugh Jackman,
Rachel Weisz, and Pattinson. The young heartthrob revealed that it's tenatively scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010, and he sounds enthusiastic for a role that'll be miles away from Edward Cullen. "I'm playing a kid who is kidnapped by Comanches when he was four years old, and he is brought up by them. His mother spends her entire life trying to find me and my sister. When she finds us, we can't remember who she is and can't remember anything about the Western culture she grew up in. I speak Comanche the whole movie. You can't really speak more differently from Edward."
[Special thanks also goes to
Collider who apparently pried the
Breaking Dawn date out of Mr. Pattinson]
Posted Nov 6th 2009 7:02PM by Jenni Miller
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, New Releases, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels
At a press junket earlier this summer for
2012, Roland Emmerich told reporters he's not doing any more blow-'em-up flicks. "I would not know how to top this... It's just one of these things, you know. I had a hard time deciding to do another disaster movie, but... you cannot make a disaster movie if there's not something --- an idea in this disaster which elevates it to something more than a disaster. And so it was this idea, you know, that there will be a global flood and it's a retelling of Noah's Arc."
Later he added, "It's not my
last film, it's my last
disaster film. And that's because I wouldn't know what else to do. It's just, you know what, I really didn't want to do this movie at first... But when I decided that the idea was too good to not do it for the reason I had done before, I said, okay, if I do it, I will do it in such a spectacular manner that nobody can top it for a long time. I have that pride in my work."
Continue reading Roland Emmerich May or May Not Blow Up the World Again
Posted Nov 6th 2009 9:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Casting, Warner Brothers, Family Films, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
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Yogi Bear and Boo Boo are bringing sexy back -- and that image should make you ripe for nightmares tonight. If you doubt me, look to
Variety, who reports that
Dan Aykroyd,
Anna Faris, and
Justin Timberlake are set to go to Jellystone in
Yogi Bear, which
Eric Brevig is directing for Warner Bros.
Aykroyd will be voicing Yogi, and he really is the most obvious choice to play the picnic basket thief. He's funny, he sounds gruff, and if it was live-action it would be a very terrifying thing to see. So thank goodness this is being done as a CG / live-action hybrid.
Timberlake will be voicing Boo Boo. Yep. The man who wants to love your mother, put his d*ck in a box, and who will cry you a river will lend his vocal talents to playing Yogi's diminutive sidekick. In this update of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, expect Boo Boo to be a lot more of a smart aleck. (I was going to say "sassy," but I think that would be a far different Boo Boo.)
Though Faris has done voice work before, it sounds as though she might be one of the live action elements to this unholy hybrid. Variety says she's set to play a documentary filmmaker. Presumably she discovers the tourist robbing bears, and makes a film of them. Or she has to help them preserve Jellystone against evil developers. Either way, she'll have to talk to big rubbery CG bears, and it might be kind of weird. What would be even weirder is if one or both bears fell in love with her, so let's hope she falls into the arms of whoever plays Ranger Smith. Shooting is expected to start in New Zealand next month.
Posted Nov 5th 2009 8:15PM by Jenni Miller
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels
Horror fans will be slipping back into a new
Nightmare on Elm Street on April 30th, 2010, but we're already being teased with new Freddy Krueger toys, thanks to Entertainment Earth and Mezco Toyz. You can buy a little Freddy of your own in
plastic or
vinyl next April just in time for Jackie Earle Haley's debut as the mutilated monster who haunts our dreams.
The first question I had when I saw the plastic toy was, why does he look like those little dolls with dried apple heads that are sold at craft fairs by sweet grandmas? But thanks to a wily blogger over at
Albotas and the wonders of Photoshop, you can see that Earle Haley's Freddy definitely looks more like this toy than Robert Englund's Freddy.
I'm not sure which I prefer -- the menacing creep with a big smile or the flat-faced, expressionless killer. An early review from a test screening posted at
Ain't It Cool News praises Earle Haley for his performance (although not much else in the movie), but will old fans be won over too?
Either one is sure to give me, well, nightmares. It's too bad that Johnny Depp won't be there this time around.
Do you collect movie toys? And, more importantly, do you leave them in the box or take them out?
Check out a larger version of the toy after the jump.
(Via
Dread Central)
Continue reading Eek! A First Look at the New Freddy Krueger Toys
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