Posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 by David Chen
I haven’t been keeping up with Saturday Night Live this season, but a flurry of SNL-related tweets last night piqued my interest. Actress Sigourney Weaver hosted last evening’s show, which featured three separate Avatar-related sketches. James Cameron even stopped by to tout his next “game-changing” film, Laser Cats 5. Whether or not you think the clips are funny, what’s undeniable is that Weaver and Cameron are both excellent sports (Plus, it was worth it just to hear Weaver, playing herself, scream “I should slap her in her bitch mouth…I’m Sigourney freaking Weaver!!!”) Clips are embedded via Hulu after the jump.
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Lionsgate has released a new Kick-Ass theatrical poster on the film’s official website (found via IMPA). The poster features all the main costumed characters: Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist, Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready aka the vulgar and deadly 11-year-old assassin Hit-Girl and Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass. Check out the full poster after the jump.
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Posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 by David Chen
The /Filmcast: After Dark is a recording of what happens right after The /Filmcast is over, when the kids have gone to bed and the guys feel free to speak whatever is on their minds. In other words, it’s the leftover and disorganized ramblings, mindfarts, and brain diarrhea from The /Filmcast, all in one convenient audio file. In this episode, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Adam Quigley talk about internet fanboyism, their feelings about The Truman Show and Gattaca, their most anticipated films of 2010, and their thoughts on the Late Night wars.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review The Lovely Bones.
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Fox has posted James Cameron’s script for Avatar online to be read/studied/mocked as you please. The script is dated 2007, and from what I’ve read includes some Earth-based opening scenes that never made it to the film. It’s a shame too, because those scenes actually serve to set up Jake Sully as a character fairly well. Cameron’s future Earth would have also made the impossible beauty of Pandora all the more magical in comparison.
The script also includes some other cut scenes, including a short look at one of the Na’vi schools, and some mentions of a Neytiri’s dead sister Silwanin. It’s worth reading if only to see how much better the film’s narrative would have been if some of these scenes were left in.
[Via First Showing]
Hollywood Video owner Movie Gallery has struck another blow against the continued viability of brick and mortar video rental stores. The struggling chain could be closing as many as 1,000 stores (out of the 2,700 stores in the U.S.) to help pay off $600 million in debt. That many of these large video rental chains will die off is inevitable — what with the increasing popularity of Netflix, Redbox, and various streaming and digital options. Blockbuster may be able to survive given their current hybrid approach with online, in-store, and on-demand rentals, but the days are numbered for the likes of Hollywood Video.
On a brighter note, the demise of big rental chains could bring about a rise of boutique rental stores with unique and curated options. Don’t expect it to have much of an effect on the mom-and-pop rental stores though.
[Source WSJ via Movieline]
Images removed at request of Fox
There’s been a deluge of behind-the-scenes Predators images arrive online today, first surfacing at the AVP Galaxy Forum. I suppose they contain moderately serious spoiler material, so click on with due caution. I’ve put my selection below the break here, but there’s even more on the forum.
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In recent times, Adam Scott has sparkled in pop-culture for two masterful performances as manicured, modern cornholios in the Will Ferrell-endorsed comedies Step Brothers and Eastbound & Down. In the former, his character coached an obnoxious wife and kids in a caravan acapella of “Sweet Child of Mine,” while faithfully rocking a Bluetooth headset. In the latter, Scott was a delusional assistant to an assistant of a Major League Baseball team who brags to Kenny Powers that his black AmEx can purchase fellatio from the Jonas Brothers. Ironically, Scott’s character proceeds to offer sex—even with “the kids”—to recruit Powers, a karma-deal that snorts the iconic wind from Powers’s mulleted sails.
On Party Down, one of the strongest and most left-field cable series to debut last year, Scott has managed to be just as funny and biting as the lead amongst a stellar ensemble cast. His character, Henry Pollard, is an out-of-work actor riding out his prime and the recession as an L.A. caterer, a role fleshed out with drama, depression and romance. But I was still surprised to see Scott’s performance in the upcoming indie, The Vicious Kind, which recently earned him an Independent Spirit Awards nom for Best Male Lead. He’s in serious company with Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth for playing a construction worked named Caleb Sinclaire. A self-righteous, aimless man with an estranged father (J.K. Simmons) and a misogynistic albeit amusingly bleak worldview, Caleb sinks to new lows in making a hate-play on his innocent brother’s weary girlfriend (Brittany Snow).
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We don’t really know much about Spike Jonze’s next project, a short film titled I’m Here which is set to premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Funded by Absolut Vodka, the half-hour short film has been described as a “robot love story” and stars British actor Andrew Garfield (Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Social Network). When I learned tonight that Spike wanted to know if we would be interested in premiering the first official production photo from the film, I immediately responded, “did you even really have to ask?”
Spike shot this short during the Fall of 2009, and is still putting the final touches on it as we speak. From Spike, “For me the movie was getting back to working light” after Where The Wild Things Are, which was much more labor intensive. I’m Here marks Jonze’s third short film screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It will premiere on Thursday, January 21st at 8:30 pm at the Egyptian. It will play as part of a shorts program. After the jump you will see the full uncropped photo. You can even click on the image to get a high resolution look.
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Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 by David Chen
The Tobolowsky Files is a new podcast from the people who brought you the /Filmcast, featuring a series of stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry, as told by legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. In this episode, Stephen tells stories from the sets of Single White Female, Thelma And Louise, National Security, and David Milch’s inimitable Deadwood.
You can always e-mail Stephen at stephentobolowsky(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or you can e-mail David at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com. You can also follow Stephen on Twitter or follow David on Twitter. Please let us know what you think of the show! You can find every episode of the podcast at http://www.tobolowskyfiles.com!
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It seems like it was only earlier today that I was writing about George Miller and his Mad Max sequel… oh waitaminute, it was only… et cetera, et cetera.
According to (!) Jay Baruchel, Teresa Palmer has the prize part of “main chick” in Mad Max 4: Fury Road - so, move over Charlize, at least into the position of “not so main chick”. Baruchel was speaking to press at the Dreamworks PR launch of How to Train Your Dragon, which features vocal turns from both Baruchel and Palmer. The Herald Sun have the full story, though no further details on the Mad Max role are given.
Meanwhile, Movieline got the scoop that Miller has also cast Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. How’s that for some starpower? But hold your horses - he hasn’t cast them in the Mad Max sequel. Instead, he’s given them voice roles in his second Happy Feet picture. Movieline know nothing of the specifics - heck, the guys might not even be playing penguins for all they know- but they’ve already been recording for the film this week. I’m visualising… a narwhal and an arctic cod, what about you?
