Posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Hot Toys will be released a 14 inch highly poseable Predator collectible figure in the second quarter of 2009. The figure is 1/6 scale (14 inches/ 35 cm tall) based on the Predator from the first Predator movie.
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It is easy to get lost looking at the 118 feature-length films in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival catalog. I know I usually become fixated on the U.S. Dramatic Competition, Premieres and American Spectrum selections, and I have often been criticized for my lack of international film coverage. So as Sundance nears on the horizon, I thought I’d include a couple not so typical films in the mix of previews. Sure, everyone is going to cover Big Fan or Adventureland, but what about the next Once or Eagle vs. Shark?
Alexis Dos Santos‘ debut film Glue played at many film festivals domestically and internationally in 2006, but pretty much flew under the radar of mainstream America. His new film, Unmade Beds premieres in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The film is described by Sundance programmer Caroline Libresco as “startlingly visceral and original” and “a rhythmic stream-of-consciousness mood collage”.
Adam Salky‘s feature directorial debut Dare premieres at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival (photos seen below).
The movie is based on Salky’s 2005 short film which was met with acclaim at film festivals. The feature length version which premieres at Sundance stars Emmy Rossum in a story about “three very different teenagers discover that, even in the safe world of a suburban prep school, no one is who she or he appears to be.” IMDB also provides a different teaser synopsis: “The good girl, the outsider and the bad boy…like you’ve never seen them before.”
Salky’s original short seems to be very different – “High school senior Ben secretly lusts after bad boy classmate Johnny. After Ben gives Johnny a ride home one night, the boys end up in Johnny’s swimming pool and have an encounter that breaks the rules and blows Ben’s mind.” I’m guessing that this might be one of the stories told in Salky’s film.
Michael Cassidy, who plays Johnny in the short, went on to have reoccurring roles in The O.C., Smallville and Privileged. The “Alexa” that Johnny mentions in the short film is played by Emmy Rossum in the feature. Zach Gilford plays Johnny in the expanded film and Alan Cumming co-stars. You can watch the original short film below:
Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.
The new issue of Empire Magazine also has a new photo from Pixar’s Up. The photo shows 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen and the chubby eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer neighbor Russell. Aside from the mysterious far away locale visible in the background, not much is new. Head on over the Empire for the full resolution photo. Up hits theaters in Digital Disney 3-D on May 29th 2009.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Amazon is selling Seasons 1-11 of The Simpsons for $15 each on DVD. Free shipping on orders over $25. So if you wanted, you could buy the entire 11-season run released thus far for only $165 shipped, something like 65% off the suggested retail price of $450.
They also have Heroes Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD for only $39.99, 60% off the suggested retail price.
Amazon also has Seasons 1-5 of Sex and The City for only $9 each. Part 1 and 2 of Season six are also available for $9 each as well. Not exactly a geek deal, but I’m some of our readers have some female friends that are owed late Christmas gifts.
Amazon is also offering two Disney bundles: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Blu-Ray 2-Disc / Wall-E on Blu-Ray 2-Disc Set bundle for $30 (scroll down to Best Value) or The Chronicles of Narnia Blu-ray Bundle which includes The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch, & The Wardrobe plus Prince Caspian for $32. Both come with free shipping.
In what has become a weekly occurrence, ABC has released a new television promo for the fifth season premiere of LOST. Only 24 more days to go until the January 25th airing. Thanks to SL-Lost for the tip.
[flv:http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/slashfilm/trailers/lostseason5-24daysleft.flv 460 344]
The new issue of Empire Magazine will have a preview of 2009′s Must See Movies, including a first look at Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Head on over to Empireonline.com to see the photos in larger resolution. If you look closely, you’ll notice some of the strange Autobot/Decepticon hieroglyphics on the pole and possibly on Sam’s shirt. And the third photo shows Bay and Co prepping for a shot on the Pyramids. John Turturro’s character Agent Simmons was spotted by our spies climbing them.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 by Steve Mason
Warner Bros reaches $1.74 billion domestic surpassing Sony’s record set in 2006!; MARLEY & ME headed for $51.8M 4-Day with BEN BUTTON at $39.1M & BEDTIME STORIES at $38.6M!; REV ROAD with Best PTA of 2008!
Dog lovers everywhere united to make Fox’s Marley & Me the #1 Christmas weekend movie with an expected $51.18M in the Thursday-thru-Sunday period for a Per Theatre Average of $14,888. Pre-opening industry tracking pointed to a clear win for Bedtime Stories (Disney), but it was the lovable lab who finished on top.
As an aside, all of us who read John Grogan’s extraordinarily well-written novel should have seen this coming. The book is a joy, and anyone who has a dog, or has ever had a dog, could easily identify with the struggles and pleasures of having a 4-legged member of the family.
The success of Marley slightly mitigates a disastrous year for Fox. Its year started out well enough riding the huge success of 2007 release Alvin & the Chipmunks into January ($70M of Alvin’s gross landed in this calendar year). The January 18 release of chick-flick 27 Dresses scored for Katherine Heigl ($76.8M in the US), then Jumper was a good solid February hit, topping $80M, followed by the wildly successful Horton Hears a Who ($154.5M domestic). Little did Fox know that when the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas played solidly to the tune of $80.2M domestic starting in May, it would be its last legit hit until Christmas’ Marley & Me. This is a huge, redemptive win for Fox, and its sentimental tear-jerker of a dog movie could near $100M domestic by Sunday.
There were 11 consecutive under-performing titles during the Fox drought of 2008, including expensive failures like mega-bombs Meet Dave ($11.8M domestic) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe ($20.9M cume). There were also misses like The Rocker ($6.4M cume), City of Ember ($7.8M cume) and recent disappointments like Baz Luhrmann’s Australia (about $45M in the bank as its run winds down) and the critically-reviled The Day the Earth Stood Still, which picked up another $10.29M during the Christmas-thru-Sunday frame for a domestic cume of only $63M.
