“Think.”

Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York aka If You Can’t Pronounce My Title, You’re an Effin’ Plebe!!! showed at Cannes and the reviews are hitting the Web like steaming intellectual veg patties. We’ll include the plot synopsis at the bottom, but for now just imagine it’s about a former disgruntled employee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of Rockstar Games who spirals into an existential crisis and rebuilds New York City in pixels as a set, and you should be okay. If I had Slashfilm’s psychic pitching machine, it would spit out “a brilliant mess,” “mindf*ck,” “abstruse,” “enlightening,” “Red States won’t get it, but it’s pretty good,” and “[P.C. allusion to] bong rip.” [...]

You special kids can stop meddlin’ with your mashed potatoes because the last major bit of casting on Oliver Stone’s W. is close to a done deal: ass tamale Richard Dreyfuss will play elusive veep Dick Cheney. Wow. There wasn’t any question that Stone was going for the president’s jugular with this biopic, but Dreyfuss adds a bubbly new layer of vitriolic spittle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dubbya chews dip, in both color and Stone’s signature b&w psycho-vision, for the entire running time. Wait, does one chew dip? I guess one dips it.
Moreover, SAG has shined its light on W., giving the Lionsgate production a waiver that allows [...]

A promotional trailer for the new JJ Abrams‘ Fox series Fringe has hit the interwebs. The new series is set to premiere this fall on Tuesday Nights at 9:00pm after House. What is with Abrams obsession with airplane tragedies? This show has gotten a lot of criticism for being n X-Files knock off, but this new trailer shows something deeper than that. Check it out below and tell me what you think in the comments.
Update: We have added the full length trailer below found via AICN.
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If you’re a moviegoer who doesn’t generally dislike George Clooney but reacts to movie news about him like an allergic reaction to salt-and-peppered dander, you’ll want to make an exception here. The actor is set to star in an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s book, Men Who Stare at Goats, a wily nonfiction account of the U.S. army’s history of dabbling in the supernatural that leads up to the current quagmire in Iraq. Here’s a synopsis from Amazon…
“As Ronson reveals, a secret wing of the U.S. military called First Earth Battalion was created in 1979 with the purpose of creating “Warrior Monks,” soldiers capable of walking through walls, becoming invisible, reading [...]

One last TV story, and we’ll return to the regularly scheduled film news programing. ABC has ordered 13 episodes of Life on Mars, an American remake of the popular BBC television series. The story follows a 21st century detective Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) who who finds himself waking up in 1972 after he’s run over by a car. The U.S. version of the show was created by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal). I’ve heard a lot of great stuff about the original series, and am always interested in anything Time Travel related, although the soundtrack seems just a little bit cheesy. Check out the trailer below [...]

Update: We’ve added new video clips from both Fringe and Dollhouse.

We reported a couple days back in Page 2 that both JJ Abrams‘ Fringe and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse were picked up by Fox. We have new information and the first batch of marketing materials including posters, photos and trailers for both shows. So let’s take a look into the future of geek television.

UPDATE #1 : I just received an email from Kotaku editor, Brian Ashcraft, who originally spoke with Konami’s Aki Saito in person and here’s what he said: “Hey Hunter, [Saito] said Paul Thomas Anderson, not just Paul Anderson, but specifically ‘Thomas.’ Hope that helps!” I just asked Brian again if Saito possibly meant to say director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), and he added, “Saito’s handling the movie negotiations, so I’d assume he knew.” The awesome madness continues! More as it develops…
UPDATE #2: Collider talked to someone involved with the production who has confirmed that Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT involved. My guess is that Saito meant to say Paul [...]

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.

 Last week when it was revealed that a Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko was about to enter into production, we passed along an e-mail with someone we know at Darko Entertainment that assured us that “Richard, Sean, and every ounce of Darko Entertainment are 150% NOT INVOLVED.” Now Richard Kelly has decided to come out of the editing room on The Box to publicly denounce involvement in the sequel:
“To set the record straight, here’s a few facts I’d like to share with you all - I haven’t read this script. I have absolutely no involvement with this production, nor will I ever be involved,” writes Kelly. “I have no control [...]

The new movie trailer for The X-Files: I Want to Believe is now online. What are you waiting for, watch it below and tell me what you think in the comments!
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You can also watch The X-Files: I Want to Believe trailer in High Definition on IGN. The X-Files: I Want to Believe hits theaters on July 25th 2008.
I know I’m probably going to get bashed for this but… I’m still wondering what this film will bring us beyond an extended reunion episode. [...]

I’m a huge fan of Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly’s debut film is not only one of my favorite films of 2001, but it’s probably somewhere on my list of favorite films of all time. So when I learned this morning that a sequel was being made, I seriously began to doubt my commitment to sparkle motion. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti sequel at all. I’ll be happy to see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and enjoyed watching Live Free or Die Hard. If the original people are involved, and it doesn’t suck as a movie (forget about comparisons to the original) then I’m in. But that’s where the [...]

Director James McTeigue looks to follow-up his gig on the Wachowskis-produced Ninja Assassin, currently in production, with Revelation, a thriller with a sci-fi twist from Inferno Distribution. The pic will follow a female journalist following a string of “bizarre murders and discovers that the victims were all treated by the head of an org that researches alien abductions.” The brothers Wachowski are not listed as being involved this go around. John Salvati, who penned 2009’s Dali and I: The Surreal Story starring Al Pacino, wrote the screenplay. Nothing about this news makes me raise an eyebrow or a sparkler just yet, you?
 via Variety

“Must escape.”
Last month, we posted about an alleged, albeit totes sketchy, early first review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which called it “the best of the Indy sequels.” Well, the film recently screened and reviews are beginning to trickle in. Umm, they are not positive at all. Update: a new one is positive, summarized here at the end. AICN received three today, one heavy on the “it sucks” and spoilers, the other basically saying, “Yeah, that first guy who said the movie sucks? I see where he’s coming from.” The latest says it’s a worthy addition and brings a smile. Here are some [...]

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 [...]

Greetings to our readers in Poland. XFilesNews nabbed an odd Polish one-sheet for this summer’s The X Files: I Want to Believe. Why does Mulder’s face look like it’s been rebuilt with wax? Creepy. Thus far, the marketing has played up the bleary snow imagery and black helicopters to such a great extent that the plot’s mystery creature(s) seems like nothing more than a MacGuffin. Give us a howl, lumbering shadows, a na-nu-na-nu, something, anything! No more ominous staring and standing and cold weather.