Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Sony has premiered four photos from Ruben Fleischer’s zombie buddy comedy Zombieland on AICN.
Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a teenage who has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn’t have fears. If he did, he’d kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they’re about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other. The film also stars Emma Stone (Superbad) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine).
I had a chance to visit the set of the film while the movie was shooting in Georgia. I wish I could share with you some of my enthusiastic thoughts about the film, but I’m under embargo.The film’s teaser trailer will be attached to Year One. Head on over to AICN to see the photos in larger resolution. Zombieland hits theaters on October 9th 2009.
See Ryan Reynolds As Captain Excellent in Paper Man
Posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Indiewire report that Michelle and Kieran Mulroney’s Paper Man will be receiving the opening night Gala screening of the LA Film Festival. The Mulroneys, in case you had forgotten, were the screenwriters behind the JLA film, Justice League: Mortal. This film, their directorial debut, happens to be a kind of superhero movie too. In the picture at the head of this post you can see Ryan Reynolds as Captain Excellent, alonsgide Jeff Daniels as Richard Dunn, the writer who created him. The film also stars Emma Stone and Lisa Kudrow.
What is Going On with Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch?!
Posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Zack Snyder has lost two more Sucker Punch cast members: Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone have both dropped out due to “scheduling conflicts”. This comes one month after it was announced that the film’s lead Amanda Seyfried was forced to leave the project, also due to “scheduling conflicts”. Am I the only person that finds it strange that half of the announced cast have been forced to drop out due the scheduling issues? The cast was announced before Watchmen’s underperformed at the box office. And while I have absolutely no proof what-so-ever that the events are connected, my gut is telling me that they are.
Seyfried, star of Big Love, Mamma Mia, and Mean Girls was replaced with Emily Browning, whose credits top out with a bunch of crappy horror flicks (The Uninvited, Standed, Darkness Falls, Ghost Ship). And tonight Stone and Wood’s replacements were announced: Jamie Chung (Dragonball Evolution) and Jenna Malone (Into The Wild, Donnie Darko). Malone is a great catch. She’s definitely a talented and underused actress but it’s hard not to see a pattern: Warner Bros is trading down, casting considerably lesser known actresses which most likely will save them considerable cash on the budget side. Could it be that Warner Bros is concerned about the profitability of Snyder’s R-Rated $100 million fantasy film?
According to Variety, Emma Stone is currently negotiating her first lead role. Easy A has been scripted by Bert V. Royal, shooting-star playwright, and will be directed by Will Gluck, previously responsible for Fired Up. Mini-reviews of that one would be appreciated in the comments, just to provide some kind of indicators of potential success or failure.
I like Stone a great deal. There were some scenes in House Bunny that featured little more than Anna Faris and Emma Stone talking to one another and those were easily the best bits, with some seriously strong comedy chops on display from both parties. Stone has also been strong in her other turns, from the good-o of Superbad to the semi-crock of The Rocker, and though the character she’s been landed with for The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past seems a bit broad, I trust Mark Waters and Stone enough to feel some guarded optimism for the finished film. Sadly, though, the premise of Easy A seems a little underwhelming.
Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Amanda Seyfried (Jennifer’s Body, Mama Mia), Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss), Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler, Across The Universe), and Emma Stone (Superbad) are in talks to join the all-female cast of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch.
Snyder has called the film “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns”, an R-Rated $100 million budgeted 1950’s-period action movie which tells the story of a girl named Baby Doll (Seyfried) who is confined to a mental institution by her evil stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. While imprisoned, she imagines an alternative reality to hide her from the pain. In this fantasy world, where she needs to steal five objects to help her out before she is deflowered by a vile man. Hudgens (”Blondie”), Cornish (”Sweet Pea”), Wood (”Rocket”), and Stone would play Seyfried’s fellow inmates who also travel into the alternate reality.
The film is gearing up to begin principal photography in Fall 2009, with an October 8th 2010 release date already announced by Warner Bros.
Two entirely different starlet/zombie updates in one for you.
Firstly, Variety are reporting that Emma Stone is in her final negotiations to appear alongside Woody Harrelson in Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland. Stone is the B&W one in the image above, in case you didn’t know. Stone’s first film was Superbad, and since then she’s gone on to be one of the best things in both The House Bunny and The Rocker. Indeed, the moments in The House Bunny that featured just Stone and Anna Faris were incredibly well played, no matter how lacklustre the script, and it would have been my hunch, as director, to just get those two riffing off of one another as much as possible.
Aint It Cool have a report from a would-be flesh-eating extra in Zombieland, which quotes director Fleischer on some interesting details of the particular brand of zombie we can expect to see:
“Our Zombies are ferocious, infected people that move erratically. They are diseased, as opposed to undead. These are not the lumbering walking dead of Romero’s zombie movies, but instead the super jacked up 28 Days Later / Dawn of the Dead (2004) zombies. They are scary and gnarly and gross.
School of Rock with teens instead of squirts equals this new trailer for The Rocker. Example: “You don’t ask your parents for permission to rock!” And if you watch closely Rainn Wilson (yes, veddy good on The Office) even begins to resemble Jack Black in SoR near the end.
There are some laffs here: fat guy hurricane’ing snot on a hot gal’s forehead (Superbad’s Emma Stone), noodle eating, Jeff Garlin off the bat…and Wilson sprinting is always funnay. There is dated lameness here: a band called ADD, creepy girl saying “Hello YouTube,” porn site password jokes in 2008, cliche “it’s about the music” confession, an unfunny recreation of 1988 (hard to do). Not appearing much, if at all, here, but on the plus side: Fred Armisen, Aziz Ansari, Jane Lynch. Hard to say if this Fox Atomic (ohai) comedy is going to connect or whimper off like a sappier Hot Rod. Who’s the audience, Office fans with bored nephews?
The Rocker opens nationwide on August 1st.
Discuss: What do you think of the trailer for The Rocker? Are soft-irony movies about white guys “rocking out!!!” still funny sans the already championed Anvil! The Story of Anvil?
First Look: The Rocker; Plus Two Negative Test Screening Reviews
Posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 by Peter Sciretta
Our friends at FilmSchoolRejects has a first look at Rainn Wilson in the upcoming Fox Atomic film The Rocker. Too bad the movie is gonna suck. I recently came across two reader submitted test screening reviews of the film, and sadly, prospects don’t look good:
This review is from “Ralphie”:
“Not very good. Think of it this way, it was School of Rock with the story of Kickin’ it Old Skool’. The beginning of it seemed so promising and then turned into a horribly plot comeback movie. Rainn Wilson had the Dwight, from the office, comedy but it seemed to show up the wrong places. Christina Applegate is seen about 10 minutes in the whole movie, and of course she plays the love interest in the movie with Rain Wilson but the plot completely fails in showing any of the relationship growing in between them. Rainn Wilson has a few one liners and there were 1 or 2 funny scenes but that is all to be expected out of this movie. If you dont get to see this movie you are seriously not missing out on anything.”
This review is from “Old Blue”:
“It has a few funny moments, almost not enough to really call a comedy. This was basically a little kid movie. and the plot was like nearly straight out of school of rock, but minus the school. Will Arnett plays the singer of the 80s band and hes kick ass, but there arent too many high points about the film. through the movie there are like 2 love interest lines and none of them are developed, the movie almost lacks focus. while its definitely a come back story for rainn wilson there is little else that drives the plot and every bump in the road is a very minor one. Also the kid appears to be a metal fan but writes these lame post punk, pop/emo songs. I mean for that kind of stuff the music wasn’t really that bad. But the band opposes 80s hair metal and i dont know, seems very mis matched. A movie for like 13 year olds.”
Official Plot Synopsis: The Rocker tells the story of a failed drummer who is given a second chance at fame. Robert “Fish” Fishman is the extremely dedicated and astoundingly passionate drummer for the eighties hair band Vesuvius, who is living the rock n’ roll dream until he is unceremoniously kicked out of the band. Twenty years after his rock star fantasies are destroyed, just when Fish has finally given up all hope, he hears that his nephew’s high school rock band A.D.D. is looking for a new drummer. They reluctantly make him the newest member of the band, giving him a chance to reclaim the rock God throne he’s always thought he deserved, and taking the young band along for the ride of their lives. Also staring Christina Applegate, Emma Stone, Teddy Geiger and Josh Gad.
The Rocker will hit theaters in 2008.
