Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
First Look: Monica Bellucci in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
SpoilerTV has the first set photos showing Monica Bellucci (Passion of the Christ, The Matrix Reloaded) in costume on the set of Jon Turteltaub’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Loosely adapted from the classic story from Fantasia, and based in modern-day Manhattan, Nicolas Cage plays Balthazar Blake, a sorcerer who recruits and trains a young protege (Jay Baruchel) to help fight the forces of darkness. Bellucci plays Veronica, a sorceress and the long-lost love of Cage’s character. More photos after the jump. Warning: possible spoilers.
A new trailer for Werner Herzog’s (Grizzly Man) Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans has found its way online. The film is a quasi-remake of Abel Ferrara’s infamous 1992 film, which starred Harvey Keitel. The new film stars Nicolas Cage as a crooked drug-addicted cop who takes sexual favors for bribes. The film co-stars Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Coolidge and Fairuza Balk.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this. The trailer doesn’t impress me in the slightest, but I’ll see any movie Herzog makes. Why did Herzog want to make this movie? He claims hes never seen the original. The remake isn’t even a remake. Herzog himself calls it “a completely independent autonomous story.” Watch the trailer after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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New Photo: Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl in Kick-Ass
Posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a photo (see the previous photo after the jump) of Chloe Moretz as Mindy aka Hit Girl in Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, but it’s definitely a better look at the character in action. The new photo comes courtesy of the new issue of Empire Magazine , guest edited by Steven Spielberg.
As you can see by the comic book to film comparison above, it appears that the character’s outfit has changed in the translation (that is of course unless this photo is of the character out of costume, which is very possible). In the film Chloe plays a pre-teen assassin who’s been trained by her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), seen below.
First Look: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel and Teresa Palmer in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is currently shooting in New York City and the gossip sites have the first look at the film’s cast. JustJared has the first photos of Nicolas Cage (WTF?) filming a scene in a subway station with co-star Jay Baruchel.
Loosely adapted from the classic story from Fantasia, and based in modern-day Manhattan, Baruchel stars as Cage’s Apprentice, who gets into trouble when the broomstick he’s tasked to do his chores while the Sorcerer is away somehow develops a mind of its own. Alfred Molina, not pictured, plays an evil sorcerer. I enjoyed the first National Treasure film (on a pure popcorn level) and am willing to give Jon Turteltaub another chance after Book of Secrets. Celebrity-Gossip has a bunch of photos of Teresa Palmer (Bedtime Stories), who plays Baruchel’s love interest. We’ve included one after the jump.
Editor’s Note: You probably know Alex Proyas as the director of films like The Crow, Dark City, Garage Days, I Robot and Knowing, but for the last few weeks the filmmaker has been guest blogging on /Film. The post below is his last column. Later this week he will answer some of the questions submitted by /Film readers. Also, be sure to click after the jump to see a clip of the completed plane crash sequence.
One of my most challenging scenes in Knowing is the plane crash. I believe it was essential to have one of the predictions come true early on in the story, something so real and so horrible that we could no longer ignore the list of numbers.
I filmed this scene in one shot with a single hand-held camera. A nearly 3 minute continuous take where nearly everything in shot bloews up or catches fire. There was absolutely no room for even the smallest error. I wanted to take the audience right into the depths of that horrible environment with Nic. It took nearly 2 days to set up, and I must say that I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
Alfred Molina Cast in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
I have just gotten word that Walt Disney Pictures has cast Alfred Molina in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Nicolas Cage stars in a modern-day, New York City-set adaptation of the classic story from Fantasia. Jay Baruchel stars as Cage’s Apprentice, who gets into trouble when the broomstick he’s tasked to do his chores while the Sorcerer is away somehow develops a mind of its own. Molina will play an evil sorcerer.
Jon Turteltaub reteams with his National Treasure star. Molina just finished another Bruckheimer production, a big epic video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Teresa Palmer is also on board to play Baruchel’s love interest. Last I heard, the production was gearing up to shoot in New York City later this month.
Exclusive: 3 New Photos from Alex Proyas’ Knowing
Posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Summit Entertainment has sent us three new exclusive photos from Alex Proyas’ Knowing. Summit will be showing two big action scenes from the film at a panel at the New York Comic Con this weekend (February 7th from 4-5pm). And I’ve been told that one of them will be the full plane crash sequence. Check out two more photos after the jump.
Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that Columbia Pictures is officially out to screenwriters for Ghost Rider 2, and star Nicolas Cage is already signed on to reprise the role as Johnny Blaze.
This is shocking because nobody I know enjoyed the 2007 film when it was released. In fact, the Internet Movie Database user rating is a 5.3 (which is somewhere between bad and very bad) and a 28% on the Rotten Tomatoes critics-rated Tomatometer. The film didn’t even make big bucks at the box office. Made for $110 million, the film grossed $228 million worldwide (again, about half of which went to exhibitor costs) which means the film barely made a theatrical profit. But for a superhero movie like Ghost Rider, the real money is made in merchandising and DVD sales, which explains the interest in a sequel.
I use to read Ghost Rider comic books when I was younger, and I really believe that the comic property could be turned into a pretty cool movie. Lets just hope that Mark Steven Johnson isn’t sitting in the director’s chair this time around. Sony needs to learn from Marvel’s recent wins and hire a director who is a few levels higher than the material.
A Little Context for the New Kick Ass Photos
Posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
HitFix have published three new official images from Matthew Vaughan’s Kickass, one of which you can see above. I think I can more or less where each fits in the screenplay, and thought I might provide you a little bit of context to clue you in, the better to understand the images.
In the first you see Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski, the titular Kickass, in full costume and posing with two batons. As he’s looking into the lens, I thought it most likely comes from an early scene in which he poses in front of a mirror. The scene begins with Dave in his underwear, looking lost and alone, but a package has arrived and when he opens it, he pulls out his Kickass gear, suits up and is immediately transformed.
Making Dave look like a kid when he’s out of costume is going to be crucial to making the film work, to capturing the absurdity of this being just a normal child going out and risking their life. Read More »
Darren Aronofsky on Robocop, Nicolas Cage, Vince McMahon, Dave Chappelle and THAT Scene in Requiem
Posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Darren Aronofsky appeared on the Howard Stern show today, and was again downplaying the upcoming Robocop reboot/remake, which he is attached to develop and direct for MGM. When asked if he was directing the next Robocop movie, Aronofsky replied “Oh, I don’t know. We’ll See. We’re working on a screenplay. So we’re developing it but we don’t have a screenplay yet. We’re working hard on it.”
The filmmaker was also making some strange/vague comments about the project at The Wrestler junket last week. Other blogs have already begun to speculate that Darren is either off the project, or it just isn’t going to happen anymore. It’s a little to early to jump to conclusions. Darren is a n extremely sly guy, and I’m convinced that this just might be his way of redirecting the questions back to his current project.
Aside from that, Aronofsky revealed a bunch of interesting tidbits during the interview:
The Budget for The Wrestler was about $7 million, but the budget was a whopping $19 million when Nicolas Cage was attached to star. We’ve talked a little bit about this in our Toronto interview with Aronofsky, but he does say that “two days after we won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival [Nicolas Cage] sent a text saying that ‘The Ram was always Mickey, congratulations.’ He is real class.” … “I thought Nic could have done it, but I had worked so long working with Mickey that it was just the Ram in my head was Mickey.”
Tomorrow, Darren is making the journey to Stamford Connecticut to show The Wrestler to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. I don’t think they would be making such a reach-out if the Fox Searchlight/WWE weren’t interested in doing some kind of promotion for the film.
On Jennifer Connelly’s double penetration (/Film commenters have corrected me, it’s actually “ass-to-ass”) scene in Requiem for a Dream: “That was a tough night. It was a full night of shooting, and after my DP turned to me and said ‘Darren, thats the most fucked up thing we’ve ever done.’” … “I was just very strait up. It’s based on a novel by Hubert Shely Jr. It’s a very very hardcore novel. One the day of, she started to get very nervous. And I said to her, ‘Look, this film is exactly what the book is. It’s about going as dark and as far as you can go. And if we don’t go that far, we’re undermining the book and the whole point of doing the movie.”
Dave Chappelle was Aronofsky’s first choice for the role of Tyrone in Requiem for a Dream: “I always wanted a comedian for that role because when I read it in the book I thought the guy had a lot of humor. I actually went to Chappelle first and I begged Chappelle to do it.” I’m glad that Marlon Wayans got the part, because I just can’t imagine what Requiem for a Dream would have been like with Chappelle.
Summit Entertainment has released the full length movie trailer for Alex Proyas‘ upcoming thriller Knowing. If you’ve seen the previous teaser, than you know that Nicolas Cage comes across a code that predicts every major disaster in the last 50 years, including the upcoming destruction of everything. This new trailer introduces a new (possibly) supernatural element to the story, “the whisper people”, a group of mysterious albino men who stand off in the distance. Yeah, I’m not too sure what role they play quite yet. Watch the full trailer and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Knowing: New Photo; New Trailer in Theaters This Weekend
Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Summit Entertainment has sent us a new still from Alex Proyas‘ upcoming sci-fi thriller Knowing. A new movie trailer for the film will be in theaters this weekend, presumably attached to The Day The Earth Stood Still.
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