I think that Zack Snyder’s 300 was one of the more surprising big hits of recent years, a film that somehow managed a sizeable box office return despite having no stars, an unfashionable genre and setting and that oft-avoided R-rating from the MPAA. Perhaps - shock horror - it suggested that none of those apparent hurdles were hurdles at all. One Hollywood truism was consolidated by this success story, however - despite an ending that resolved the storyline quite conclusively, to say the least, immediate sequel talk welled up. Seeing as the film was based on a stand alone comic by Frank Miller there was no ready material for a part 2, but it didn’t take long for Miller himself to start work on a follow up strip.
Peter reported that Frank Miller was working on an unnamed sequel, jokingly referred to as 301, as far back as March 2007. Since then, Miller has been busy with his Batman vs. Osama Bin Laden comics, All Star Batman and Robin, that dreadful Spirit film, a script for Sin City 2 and, though he’s now off the project, a proposed Buck Rodgers movie. A lot of plates to spin, so it’s no wonder that we’ve had to wait so long for an update on the next 300.
So, what do we know now? That it’s called Xerxes, for one thing. And also which mythical-historical battle it will be dramatising.
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Sin City 2 has been a project sitting on the horizon for several years. It has started to seem like one of those things that co-director Robert Rodriguez likes to keep on the table because he knows it gets fan attention, while not necessarily being a film he really plans to make.
Now producer Stephen L’Heureux says that Sin City 2 will go into production at the end of 2010, and that Frank Miller will follow it with a film version of Hard Boiled, the uber-detailed and hyper-violent comic written by Miller and drawn by Geoff Darrow. Read More »
In the early ’80s, Frank Miller prefaced his groundbreaking work on The Dark Knight Returns with a limited series called Ronin, which saw a feudal Japanese samurai and his demon antagonist brought forward to a ravaged, lawless modern New York. The story has been potential fodder for a film adaptation a couple times over the past decade, most notably when Darren Aronofsky and New Line nearly teamed up to make a feature. Now Sylvain White, once set for for Castlevania and currently directing The Losers in Puerto Rico, has talked about his ideas for Ronin, which he is tapped to direct and envisions as “a very dark, futuristic, sci-fi film.” Read More »
I’ve been very busy this week, but now I’m back and hitting the /Film trail in a big way. Just to clear my plate enough to get some more on there, however, I’m going to bring you my very own Page 2.
At the head of the post you can see a new still from The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. As well as Heath Ledger you can see Lily Cole and the really very amazing Andrew Garfield. There’s a new fan blog that seems to be posting every scrap they can, including scans from a French Magazine that let slip of some more images.
Countless more fragments of new news after the break. Come join me.
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I think most everyone has given up the idea of a Sin City sequel, especially after Frank Miller’s The Spirit tainted the memory of the original Robert Rodriguez co-directed comic book adaptation. Everyone involved with the original 2005 film has been talking up a sequel for the last four years. Rodrgieuz admitted in March that he’s gotten so use to telling people that “right around the corner, because that’s what everybody wants to hear” but that “It might be a long corner.”
To promote the Blu-ray release, Rodriguez has been doing press, and now claims that he is beginning talks with his creative team and could begin filming as early as next year. The filmmaker tells IGN that “next week we’re going to talk about it some more and get a timing on when we’d be doing it. But there’s a lot of people who are interested in it. … We are definitely going to do that one.”
But this isn’t the first time Rodriguez has put a date on record. Last year Rodriguez said that production could begin by April 2009.
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What would it look like if Frank Miller directed a big screen adaptation of he Highlights magazine “classic” Goofus and Gallant? This new Funny or Die short is directed by Jake Szymanski and stars Josh Simpson. Watch the video after the jump.
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At San Diego Comic-Con last year, Zack Snyder said that he “would love to see Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns made into a movie.” Later at the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel, Miller told Snyder “You can do it anytime you want to Zack”. To which Snyder said he was making a note of Miller’s response.
Earlier this week in our video blog discussion about the future of Batman movies, I suggested that after doing a third Batman film Warner Bros not proceed with another sequel. It is expected that Batman 3 might be the last Batman movie for series helmer Christopher Nolan, and I would love them to instead jump into the future and do an adaptation of The Dark Knight returns or jump into the even further future and do a Batman Beyond movie. That way they could potentially return to the Batman series if Nolan wanted to return after a few years of rest.
Lets be realistic, a Zack Snyder adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns will probably never happen, but it’s fun to imagine what could be. FirstShowing got the chance to ask Snyder what he would do with the material if he ever got the chance to bring it to the big screen.
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Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 by David Chen
In this episode of the /Filmcast, Dave, Devindra, and Adam lament the removal of Stephen Chow from The Green Hornet, discuss whether or not a Schwarzenneger cameo would be a good idea for Terminator Salvation, and evaluate the early movie careers of Seth Gordon and Frank Miller. Special guests Erik Davis and William Goss join us from Cinematical.
Join us next Monday night at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST as your favorite film podcast runs down their top films of 2008 and reviews The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
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/Film reader Koorck sends over the below new television advertisement for Frank Miller’s The Spirit, which includes a quote calling it “one of the best films of the year!” But wait? The early reviews pegged Frank Miller’s comic book movie adaptation as somewhere between the worst movie of all time, or one of the worst films of the year. Even the slightly positive reviews say things like ” entertaining, if forgettable” and “the film has no story to speak of and the tone is all over the place”.
What respectable film critic would make the claim that the movie is one of 2008’s best? Earl Dittman? Nope… Our over enthusiastic friend over at FirstShowing.net — Alex Billington? Nope, we have confirmed that he hasn’t even been shown the film yet. The small type at the bottom of the screen reads: Scott Hoffman MoviePictureFilm.com. Really interested to find out why Hoffman believes the film is so incredible, I’ve tried searching the MoviePictureFilm website for his review, but came up empty handed. I did however find his review from last year calling Southland Tales “one of the best movies of 2007″.
Remember last May when a rumor began to circulate that Frank Miller would direct Buck Rogers, only to be denied days later? Well turns out it was true after all. Odd Lot Entertainment, the production company behind The Spirit, wants to reteam with Frank Miller to helm the sci-fi adventure flick. Odd Lot is in talks with Nu Image/Millennium for the rights to the property. THR reports that Miller’s take is expected to be “darker” and will likely include “Miller’s signature visual elements and themes, such as corruption and redemption.” No, duh.
I’m surprised that any production company is willing to put their trust in Miller at this point. The early buzz has only begun to leak and the consensus is that Miller’s directorial debut The Spirit is beyond disastrous. Early tracking numbers for the film are spread all over the map. It seems like it would be smarter to do this deal after The Spirit’s Box Office debut.
Nu Image/Millennium Films originally planned to develop a $40 million film with genre veteran Flint Dille, who penned a Buck Rogers graphic novel in the 1990s, attached to write and produce. The plan was to turn “the cheapness of the low-budget effects will be a running joke in the movie, which will retain the campiness of the 1980s TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century starring Gil Gerard.” My hope is that Miller’s approach doesn’t result in a slapstick tone, which judging by The Spirit, I have reason to worry.
For those of you who were born post-Back to the Future (I find a lot of generational entertainment is lost in people born of the internet generation), Buck Rogers was created in 1928 by Philip Nowlan. The basic premise is as follows: Rogers, a pilot/astronaut who falls into a coma, only to awaken in the twenty-fifth century. Best known from the long-running syndicated newspaper comic strip, Rogers also appeared in a 12-part 1939 movie serial, a 1979 television series, and in many other incarnations. The development of space technology in the twentieth century launched Buck Rogers into American pop culture.
Discuss: Do you want to see Frank Miller remake Buck Rogers?
