Posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 by Angie Han
It’s a sad day for comic book fans, as we get updates that suggest two long-gestating adaptations, David Fincher‘s The Goon and Rawson Thurber‘s Elfquest, are no longer happening. Sure, they could get revived somewhere down the line — crazier things have happened — but if I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Hit the jump for updates.
Posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011 by Russ Fischer
We’ve been tracking Ari Folman‘s film The Congress for three years. That’s because Folman’s last film was Waltz With Bashir, a great animated look at a soldier’s unreliable perspective on war. The Congress is something quite different, however. Based on a story by noted speculative fiction author Stanislaw Lem, this one features Robin Wright, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Paul Giamatti and Danny Huston in a story — greatly reworked from Lem’s text — about an actress who makes a deal that changes her future in ways she could never predict.
It is a sci-fi story, of sorts, and the film is being constructed in an usual manner. There is a big live-action component, but a good amount of the movie will be animated. A new interview with Folman makes the film sound like it is on track, but taking time to complete. Read More »
Posted on Monday, December 19th, 2011 by Angie Han
We’ve already had the chance to ooh and ahh over most of the Sundance Film Festival 2012 slate earlier this month, but with weeks to go until the festival four latecomers have just been announced. There are a few last-minute additions every year; last year’s included Miranda July’s The Future, while 2010′s included Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right.
This year, we have the intriguingly titled sci-fi John Dies at the End; This Must Be the Place, starring Sean Penn as an aging rock star; Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo‘s new comedy Predisposed; and the Norwegian drama Oslo, August 31st. Read the descriptions after the jump.
Posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
For me, the best part of the trailer for Adam Shankman‘s Rock of Ages is the prominent display of the Motorhead logo in the first few seconds. After that it’s all downhill. The film adapts the stage ‘jukebox musical’ with Diego Boneta and Julianne Hough playing wide-eyed kids caught up in the mid-’80s LA rock scene. Well, they’re caught up in a vision of that scene, at least, as filtered through comedy, nostalgia and the parameters of the movie musical. Check out the trailer below, which holds the reveal of Tom Cruise‘s rocker Stacee Jaxx until the very end. Read More »
Posted on Monday, September 26th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
Don Coscarelli is back! The director of the Phantasm films and Bubba Ho-Tep may not be the most technically proficient filmmaker around, but he makes films that have an undeniable appeal. I can’t imagine how anyone who likes strange films and genre stuff wouldn’t love Coscarelli’s movies — they create their own space outside the typical horror/fantasy sphere.
And now he’s back with John Dies at the End. I’ve avoided a lot of material about this movie, and prior to watching this trailer knew only that the film features Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown and a story about a new drug and subjective reality.
After watching the teaser trailer I don’t know much more than that, but I do know that I’m very excited to see the film, which appears to be characterized by a really bizarre story and some spectacularly gooey, very practical creature effects. Check out the footage below. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
Good things come to those who wait; sometimes we just have to wait a very long time. Fans of Eric Powell‘s supernatural head-busting comic series The Goon may recall my enthusiasm for the Comic Con panel held for the comic in 2009. That panel was where we learned that Powell was still working with David Fincher to make an animated film based on the comic, and that Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti had agreed to voice the two main characters, the Goon and Franky.
A short test clip was shown in ’09, and it didn’t end up online until now. It’s a fun piece of animation; check it out below. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 by Russ Fischer
The trailer for George Clooney‘s fourth film, the political drama The Ides of March, suggested that the film might turn out to be a good character piece that has appeal beyond the limits of a political drama that is locked in a four-year old contest. (The source material is Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North, which is sourced from Howard Dean’s 2004 primary campaign.)
Now the film has bowed at Venice, and a handful of reviews are in. Cautiously positive seems to be the overall average, and we’ve got a handful of quotes from Venice attendees below. Read More »
I’ll say this for the trailer for George Clooney‘s new political drama The Ides of March: by the end I had no sense that I knew exactly where the movie is going. That’s a very good thing. Adapted from Beau Willimon‘s play Farragut North, the film features Ryan Gosling as a young but influential press secretary who has to manage a political scandal as he navigates the tricky waters of a Presidential primary race. Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei co-star, and the film looks pretty damn solid from here. Read More »
