We all know that Eddie Murphy will end up on screen again—whether as a jivin’ animal, an obese person near a pool, in a third sequel to June ’09’s awful-sounding NowhereLand, or (hail mary) Inglorious Bastards. But the man who made Buckwheat even bunnier just announced to Extra (classy) that he’s throwing in the towel when it comes to feature films…
“I have close to 50 movies and it’s like, why am I in the movies?” he said, adding, “I’ve done that part now. I’ll go back to the stage and do standup.”
All for it. A (hypothetical) HBO-special with a rowdy blessing from Chris Rock is just what the guy needs. [...]

This is a minor update, sure, but we still consider Warner Bros.’ decision to swipe the throwback horror anthology, Trick ‘R Treat, off their release slate to be a quizzical and ‘tarded ball drop. The Internet was going nuts for the film after it scored stellar reviews from a sneak at The Alamo. Its Halloween release date in 2007 was a no-brainer. Buzz remained steady into ‘08 after WB pushed it back and then, nothing.Movie Hole just checked in with director and X2 screenwriter, Michael Dougherty…
“The struggle continues. There’s interest from another distributor so negotiations have begun. Keep your severed fingers crossed!”
With WB’s Creepshow franchise carelessly spanning time in straight-to-DVD [...]

According to Mark Wahlberg, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fighter will begin filming this October. Awesome. You may remember that the film, a biopic on badass pugilist “Irish” Micky Ward, gained considerable traction in the press last year when Wahlberg and others compared it to a “new Raging Bull.” Brad Pitt later signed on to co-star as Ward’s brother/trainer, which was a welcome surprise after his casting debacle on Aronofsky’s The Fountain.
“I’ve been training for two years now. I’m ready,” Wahlberg told MTV. “I want to look like a champ, not a chump. …I want to do [Ward] proud. The guy did everything I wish I could have done. He came from [...]

I came across this quote from George Lucas in The New York Times:
“I mean, why do we have to make another Indiana Jones? There was no point to it, other than, gee, this might be fun.”
I’m not even going to comment on the quote, because it already says everything I would like to say about Lucas.

Last night in L.A., select film sites including Slashfilm were shown The Dark Knight. The collective positive buzz seems to have only increased in the hours since, reaching frenzied levels that are arguably unprecedented (especially for Twitter). Over the weekend, Movie Hole spoke to Gary Oldman about Heath Ledger’s role as The Joker, and what he thinks will happen per villains for a third film. Note: Some readers feel that Oldman’s quotes fall under spoiler material.
Update: Producer Douglas Urbanski, who is a friend/manager of Oldman, has contacted Slashfilm to say that he was with the actor at the time and believes the following quotes were “taken widely out of [...]

Earlier today, Peter reported on the race to the screen between two new Greek mythology epics inspired by 300. The flip side of this news is that both director Zack Snyder and 300 producers, Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari (who are also producing one the aforementioned epics) confirmed to Collider at the Saturn Awards that a 300 sequel/prequel is finally bubbling.
“We’re working on sequel of 300, the prequel of 300,” said Nunnari. Canton chimed in with, “We’re looking to do another 300 and we’re looking for Frank Miller and Zack to do their thing. …Because we’ve had obviously around the world quite seriously such an amazing journey. It keeps on [...]

Today the angels looking down on Scranton, Pennsylvania are crooning “Beers in Heaven.” Steve Carell has signed on to star as Dunder Mifflin’s quasi-top dog, Michael Scott, on NBC’s The Office for three more years. An understandably elated, Ricky Gervais, broke the news on his blog…
“Steve Carell (now one of the most bankable film stars in the world) has just signed up for another three years with us. He is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me. I mean… well done Steve you are wonderful. …Steve had to do months of that in Evan Almighty and I heard he didn’t [...]

The latest issue of WiReD Magazine has an article on The Dark Knight. The article mainly deals with the technical side of things such as CG and IMAX projection, but RopesofSilicon directed me to this one shiny quote:
The director wasn’t interested in plumbing the murky origins of the Joker himself - the Clown Prince is more a Loki-like force of chaos. “He’s like the shark in Jaws,” Nolan explains. “The Joker cuts through the film, he’s incredibly important, but he’s not a guy with a backstory. He’s a wild card.”
The Joker is like the shark in Jaws? Nolan sure knows all the right things to say to get us excited.

When I posted the teaser trailer for Punisher: War Zone last Thursday, the 70+ comments from you guys were impressively heated and divisive. Until then, the R-rated Lionsgate/Marvel actioner from director Lexi Alexander (Green Street Hooligans, karate) had flown under the radar, with many pegging the movie as a star-less runt in Marvel’s newly consolidated, unpredecented game plan. And many fans still do, even after the teaser, but Alexander appreciates the early attention and welcomes the hate. She was surprised, albeit pleasantly, by the teaser’s release, and once again, she’s emphasizing her flick’s generous helpings of violence and mayhem. Not to be sexist, but it’s pretty strange and cool to hear the rare female director who’s more excited about a comic book film filled with carnage than most geeks. From her blog…

“I’m not sure what [...]

We can all rest easy. Turns out all of those Internet rumors were true: Hellboy 2 director Guillermo del Toro is not a fan of weepy rom-coms and will never ever direct a movie starring Meg Ryan or rabid Manhattan cougars. Page Six got the scoop of scoops by way of an interview in Complex magazine…
“No way. Sleepless in Seattle can go fuck itself,” Guillermo Del Toro said. “Monsters are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. I have no interest in everyday life, except through a twisted mirror.”
Slashfilm tracked down Everyday Life in its mundane cubicle on Friday for a comment and this is what it had to say…
“Listen, [...]

Finding Nemo and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton let another Pixar secret slip while being interviewed by Suite101.
“The day we start thinking about what the audience wants, we’re going to make bad choices. We’ve always holed ourselves up in a building for 4 years and ignored the rest of the world, because nobody are bigger movie geeks than we are, so we know exactly what we are dying to see with our family and kids. We don’t need other people to tell us that. We trust the audience member in ourselves.”
I think this is one of the key reasons why the guys at Pixar are master storytellers. I think someone like [...]

There is white lightning shimmering on the Internet prairie today, as Turok, the Native American comic book hero/dinosaur hunter/video game is apparently headed to theaters in a live-action feature film. Actor Adam Beach (real name), best known for his roles in Flags of Our Fathers, Windtalkers and one of the Law & Orders, tells MTV that he’s set to star as the character after voicing him in this year’s animated, straight-to-DVD Turok: Son of Stone.

“We just finished the animated movie and now we’re going into the feature film movie [which should lens] hopefully in a couple years. We’re about to set up meetings to develop a script and put it [...]

“Listen, we’re going to have this remake, okay? And it’s going to be great, babe.”
With their stint at Crystal Lake going swimmingly, Platinum Dunes slithered out of the devil’s bedroom to talk about their upcoming remake of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby a.k.a Why Not? Michael Bay Made Transformers. Producer Brad Fuller more or less explained my alternative title for their remake to STYD…

“If we don’t do Rosemary’s Baby someone else is,” says Fuller. “They’re not going to pass on that. …All the shit we get for doing these things, it really just comes from being huge fans and wanting to take a shot.”

Fuller’s is the greatest justification, not [...]

Legendary horror filmmaker George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) insists that Zombies can’t run.
“The dead can’t run. Their ankles would break. It doesn’t make sense to me,” Romero told NWA. “The dead move slowly. But they keep coming.”
Question of the Day: Should Zombies be able to run?

Are UFC leg-tanglers brawlers the new rapper actors (or “raptors” as coined by Vulture)? Last night, Ultimate Fighting champ, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where it was announced that he’s a contender for the role of B.A. Baracus in John Singleton’s upcoming A-Team movie. You can watch the clip here to get a feeling for his mannerisms, and I’ve included a requisite photo with digital flames to the right. Yeah, he already wears that chain everywhere.
Kimmel: Now, what’s going on with your hair…because I heard you’re going to play–not Mr. T–but B.A. Baracus in the A-Team movie.
Rampage: I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. [laughs] [...]