Some readers might have been reminded that today is Groundhog Day because their morning news had a live broadcast from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. That’s where the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. For me, I was reminded because my Twitter feed has been nothing but a live blog of quotes from the classic Harold Ramis film.
Either way, today is Groundhog Day and in the 1993 film of the same name, Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to live the same day over and over again, improving himself a little bit each and every time until he finally gets it right.
In the movie, which many people will be re-visting tonight, there’s no real explanation given for why Connors gets stuck in time. However, someone with knowledge of an early version of the script has revealed exactly why it happened. Read the quote after the jump. Read More »
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If Stanley Kubrick were still alive, Room 237 would make him extremely happy. Directed by Rodney Ascher, the experimental documentary gives the legendary filmmaker a ton of credit, maybe too much at times, as it explores several wild, and not so wild, theories about his 1980 horror masterpiece The Shining.
Some theories, such as the suggestion that the film is a metaphor for the murder of Native Americans, are almost plausible. Others, like that insinuation that Kubrick made the film to clue everyone in that he faked the footage of the Moon landing, are much less believable. But no matter the case, Ascher’s film is a fascinating, funny and incredibly well made ode to a film that’s obviously way more dense than most of us give it credit for. The documentary is an absolute must-see.
Room 237 played as part of the New Frontier category of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and, after the jump, you can check on the poster and read more about it. Read More »
If the name Kerry Conran doesn’t sound familiar, that’s because he’s only made one movie: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. For a directorial debut, though, talk about a massive undertaking. The film is still largely considered a failure but its innovative use of green screen and digital effects foreshadowed what would become the standard in filmmaking in the years that followed.
One of those films is the upcoming John Carter, Andrew Stanton’s hugely expensive and highly anticipated adaptation of the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Before Stanton took the helm, though, John Carter of Mars was a property many, many producers and directors tried to tackle. We’ve all heard about Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez but one name we forget was Conran, a natural choice thanks to his digital work, who was attached to the film around the time of Sky Captain.
His attachment was probably in large part to an extensive demo reel used pitch his vision. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s online. Watch it after the jump. Read More »
If you’re anything like me, you read the headline “Frank Darabont Will Helm New TNT Show L.A. Noir” and immediately thought of the Rockstar Video game, L.A. Noire. Unfortunately, this show has nothing to do with the game but fans will find similarities.
Darabont has just signed to write and direct the pilot episode of a drama set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles about the conflicts between the LAPD and organized crime. After that he’ll slide into a producer role, much like he did for the first season of The Walking Dead, helping catapult that show into one of the biggest on cable TV.
Of course, Darabont no longer works on The Walking Dead after a very public departure from AMC’s zombie hit this summer, but he’s recently come out and explained about how he wanted to start the second season. Read about L.A. Noir and Darabont’s scrapped Walking Dead opening after the jump. Read More »
This article is full of bad news. FOR MY WALLET! *rimshot*
Collider recently sat down to do an in-depth, on camera interview with Justin Ishmael, the creative director of Mondo, the increasingly popular and influential poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse. In the interview, tons of information was released, including:
- The reason why Mondo decided not to release a Ghostbusters poster in the past.
- Either that hoped-for Ghostbusters poster, a Back to the Future or an Attack the Block poster is coming. And possibly two of three.
- Drew Struzan is working hard on his Stephen King Dark Tower poster and they hope to release it at Comic-Con.
- 2012 should bring an expanded Mondo Mystery Movie series, possibly touring the country.
And more. We’ll highlight a few of these and show you the videos after the jump. Read More »
Most movie fans watch movies hoping for the best. We don’t want to see something bad, we want to be transported to another place and entertained for two hours so, even with a bad movie, we’ll try to find something good in it. On the flip side, if you watch a movie looking for the negative, you’re going to find it.
The gang who frequent MovieMistakes.com do just that. They watch movies and look for mistakes. Mistakes in the costumes, editing, production design, basically anything in the mise en scene that a director or editor missed. They then file those in an impressive database and with 2011 coming to a close, they’ve posted their Best Of lists.
Check out The Best Movie Mistakes of 2011 and The Most Mistakes in a 2011 Movie after the jump. Read More »
Fans of films that might-have-been, but never-will-be, are likely aware of David Fincher‘s history with Spider-Man. (And if you read Superhero Bits Monday, you already know about this update. We’ve simply decided to highlight in detail.)
In 1999, Fincher was on a short list to possibly make the film that ended up being Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (you can read about that here). A decade later he was once again on Sony’s wishlist before Marc Webb appropriately took the job to direct 2012′s The Amazing Spider-Man. In both cases, Fincher simply couldn’t connect with the material. We now have a pretty good idea why.
The meticulous director of Fight Club, The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, opening Tuesday, wanted to pack all of Spider-Man’s origin into an operatic music video that would have served as the opening credits before delving into a totally different story. Read his exact quote and more after the jump. Read More »
Like many things these days, it all began with a teaser trailer. The day was April 7, 2000 and New Line Cinema released a 100 second trailer teasing The Lord of the Rings, an epic series of films they had in production based on the famous books by J.R.R. Tolkien. Directed by Peter Jackson, a guy who, at that point, had only done five small movies, this one trailer lit a spark that changed the face of modern movies.
At that point, I’d never read the books but the kind of epic action that was being portrayed in the trailer was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I immediately shot over to Amazon, order the whole trilogy, and devoured the series with delight. The fact that these movies were being made was amazing and my anticipation was beyond fever pitch.
It all let up to ten years ago today, December 19, 2001, when dream became a reality and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in theaters nationwide. It opened to about $75 million over its first five days, eventually grossed $315 million domestic, $871 million internationally, garnered 13 Oscar nominations – including best picture – and won four. Audiences knew we’d seen something epic, new and amazing but we had no idea where the journey would take us and is still taking us today. Read More »
