A couple new photos from Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone have shown up online. The film stars Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, who faces his most deadly foe yet: Jigsaw. I’ve also included the previously released photos below. As always, click to enlarge.

Yup, looks pretty shitty. Punisher: War Zone hits theaters on December 5th 2008.
via: Filmz

Lionsgate has revealed new details about the future of the SAW franchise. The fifth installment, follows Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), who has been carrying Jigsaw’s (Tobin Bell) legacy, goes on a man hunt after the secret is threatened.
“People escape one trap, just to get caught in another; it’s closer in feel to the original SAW as thematically it’s about teamwork. I am far and away convinced that these are the best traps we have ever had,” Producer Marc Berg told Bloody-Disgusting. “This film is far less confusing and more linear, and there are TWO great twists. Just when you thought you figured it out, we twist again.”
The film features six different [...]

The latest issue of Comic-Con Magazine has the first official photo of Samuel L. Jackson as The Spirit arch-enemy the Octopus. They also have an interview with Frank Miller talking about the upcoming comic book adaptation. Click to enlarge.

The Spirit hits theaters on Christmas 2008.

Originally scheduled to open wide on July 2nd, Religulous, Bill Maher and Larry Charles’s documentary aimed at the pulsing jugular of all religions, will now be released on October 3rd, 2008. Lionsgate says the film wasn’t ready to premiere at this month’s Cannes Film Festival, where it would have become a “media lightning rod” according to studio president Tom Ortenberg. The movie is a smart one. Against the blanketed media coverage of this summer’s box office goliaths and rah-rah flops like Speed Racer, mainstream/traditional media would have easily buried the controversy/discussion that Maher’s doc needs to be a Michael Moore-like hit. Lionsgate now hopes to hit the fall festival circuit [...]

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has the first photos of Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as George and Laura Bush from Oliver Stone’s upcoming film W. Problem is, when we posted the photos last week no one had a high resolution scan of the two photos. Click on the photo above and below for higher resolution versions.

Co-starring James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, and Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer. Based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush, Stone has compared W. to The Queen and Nixon. The screenplay was written pre-strike by Stanley Weiser, who had co-wrote Wall Street with Stone. [...]

Yesterday, we posted the first, rather ace photos of Josh Brolin as the worst U.S. president of all time for Oliver Stone’s W., and today brings word that the flick has picked up a distributor, Lionsgate, and is set for release nationwide on October 17th, 2008. Keep in mind that even though the film graces the cover of the latest EW, production kicks into gear next week and the role of Dick Cheney remains unfilled, so Stone is clearly on a mission. And what about a possible SAG strike this summer?
There are rumors going around that the film will be high on comedy, no sarcasm from me. And there [...]

Lionsgate has decided to move the release date of Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit up from January 16th next year to Christmas Day (December 25th 2008). Apparently Lionsgate’s president Tom Ortenberg decided to change the release date after he saw the reaction to the film’s teaser trailer at the New York Comic Con. And I’m sure Paramount’s decision to move Star Trek from that date to Summer 2009 (May 8th) had nothing to do with this decision.
The Spirit will now go head to head with Disney’s Adam Sandler family fantasy comedy Bedtime Stories, and the adaptations of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Marley & Me, both of [...]

Earlier in the week it was reported that Corey Haim had been cast in Crank: High Voltage. And now we have our first look at Haim in action, at the receiving end of a beat-down by Amy Smart, who returns as Eve, the girlfriend of Chev Chelios (Jason Statham).

Meanwhile, Collider has a huge scoop: Directors Neveldine/Taylor have decided to film the entire movie using consumer grade video cameras. Since the duo used the new RED camera to shoot their last film Game, everyone just assumed that they would also be using the same technology for this film.
“We love red cameras, we’re going to shoot with them again, but it’s like [...]

The Movie Blog is reporting that Corey Haim has been cast in a role in Crank 2. No other details are known at this time. Let the Haim comeback begin! AWESOME.

Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate have teamed for a new, yet-to-be-named, cable pay-channel which hopes to compete with HBO, Showtime and Starz. Showtime previously had a deal with Viacom to air their new films, but the money was not enough.
Here are the details direct from the press release: The new venture will have access to Paramount and Paramount Vantage titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2008 and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2009. This includes such films as Iron Man, Star Trek, Pink Panther 2, Cloverfield, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Shutter Island, GI Joe, Love Guru, and Valkyrie. In [...]

Crank 2: High Voltage is set to begin shooting on April 28th in Los Angeles and the casting announcements were made over the weekend:

Jason Statham returns as hitman Chev Chelios
Amy Smart returns as his girlfriend Eve
Dwight Yoakam returns as Doc Miles
Efren Ramirez returns, but as a character named Venus (Ramirez played Kaylo, who died in the original film)
Clifton Collins Jr. has been brought on board to play Chelios’ nemesis
Bai Ling has also been brought on board

Crank 2 begins seconds after the end of the original film. Chelios must face a mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered robotic heart which requires regular jolts [...]

Lionsgate has released the official teaser trailer for Frank Miller’s big screen adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit. I’m actually surprised at how well Miller has been able to translate his visual style to the big screen. I was, and still am, quite skeptical in Miller’s directing ablities, especially with Robert Rodriguez not at his side. As expected, the visuals almost make the film look like a sequel to Sin City. The visuals are so uniquely Miller that I wonder why the film is called Will Eisner’s The Spirit instead of Frank Miller’s The Spirit. I also dugg the Untouchables music. Check it out below and tell me what you [...]

Update: Watch The Spirit Teaser Trailer Here.
Lionsgate just released the new one-sheet for Frank Miller’s The Spirit featuring the film’s signature catchphrase, “My City Screams,” spelled out in noir-ish sooted city brick. Really well executed, don’t cha think, and this is merely the early lead-up to the movie’s January 2009 release. I’m sure the marketing department won’t like to hear this, but I’m getting a slight Darkman vibe from the materials so far. You see the similarity? Hopefully an inescapable line of “Who is…The Spirit?!” buttons are not planned for theater employees.
Head over to AICN to bask in their monolithic high res version of the poster above.
Official Plot Synopsis: Adapted [...]

So many photos, so little time. I’ve bunches these all together to save on the room. Enjoy.

FilmSchoolRejects has a photo of one of the new billboards in Los Angeles advertising The Spirit. Much cooler than the crappy production photos released a couple days back. There are supposedly more billboards like this around Los Angeles, but no photos are yet available.

Darren Aronofsky is busy editing his next film The Wrestler on an island off of Africa. The photo above shows editor Andrew Weisblum working on the film.
A storyboard page from Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li has been released on the film’s official website. From the looks of it, these [...]

Last week set photos from Frank Miller’s big screen adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit leaked online, leaving some fans disappointed.
Update: Today Lionsgate has released two new production High Resolution photos, both of which desperately scream “See, the movie looks like Sin City, I swear it really does, don’t look at those other unauthorized unfinished photos!”. Click on the photos to enlarge.

The first photo features Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss, a jewel thief with dangerous curves. The second photo features Samuel L. Jackson as The Spirit’s arch-enemy The Octopus. The teaser trailer will premiere on April 19th at 7:00pm eastern, 4:00pm pacific, so keep a look-out.
Discuss: Will The Spirit be [...]