Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
The details about James Cameron’s Avatar have been closely guarded, to say the least. When I sat down in UbiSoft’s tiny Avatar theater on the E3 show floor, I was treated to far more information about the movie than I expected to get. As Peter mentioned recently, producer Jon Landau was on hand to discuss how the film went from a story written fourteen years ago by Cameron to the cutting edge movie being edited now. But Landau actually explained (more or less) the whole movie to us. That was a surprise, especially since Cameron had just made two public appearances (at the UbiSoft press conference and at a screening of Aliens and The Abyss) and revealed no specifics about Avatar. Want to know more?
Read on after the jump, but beware: there are many potential spoilers within. Read More »
First Look: Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans
Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Update #2: Warner Bros has provided us with high resolution copies of the photos that appeared in Entertainment Weekly and Empire Magazine.
Warner Bros has released the first two production photo from Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash of the Titans. The two stills feature Sam Worthington as Perseus, “the mortal son of Zeus who was born a god but raised as a man.” Worthington was the best part of Terminator Salvation, and I have high hopes for him in Avatar. Check out both of the photos after the jump. As always, click to enlarge.
Warner Bros has released a new five minute clip from Terminator Salvation on promotional partner Pizza Hut’s website. The clip features a scene where Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) encounter the huge robotic terminator called The Harvester. After the sequence, they have a featurette that shows you how they created the sequence. I’ve embedded the five plus minute clip after the jump.
Read More »
Steve from Collider is a good friend of mine. At least a few times a week we talk about upcoming movies, TV shows, what gossip each of us have heard, and anything else we might find exciting. Since a number of our conversations cover things you also might find interesting, we’ve decided to start recording certain conversations as video blogs. Past video blogs have included The Future of the Batman Film Franchise, The Box Office Prospects of Watchmen, thoughts on the first 46 Minutes of Pixar’s Up, and a four part preview of the Summer 2009 movie season.
Star Trek came out this weekend and beat all the box office expectations, which got us talking about what could possibly come next. But the new video blog is more than that, we also discuss the Star Trek Premiere, Pixar’s Up, how one of the stars of Terminator Salvation watched our video blogs, and a shocking fact: how more people paid to see the original 1979 Star Trek film in theaters than will likely pay to see this new film on the big screen.
Discuss: Please, leave your thoughts on what you’d like to see happen in Star Trek 2 in the comments below.
James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver Talk Avatar, Sam Worthington in Every Scene?
Posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Did you know, Sam Worthington is in every scene of James Cameron’s Avatar? Cameron revealed this bit of information on stage while presenting Worthington with the Breakthrough award at Australians In Film Awards.
“We were making a $200 million-plus movie and it’s all about the journey of one guy, Jake, and he’s in every scene in the film, from beginning to end. It all hangs on that one piece of casting.”
Cameron also did a brief interview on the red carpet before the event, and reiterated the claim that Avatar “takes place in another world and you’ll feel like you’ve been to that world.” Watch the interview after the jump.
Read More »
Christian Bale Says “I’ll Be Back” In New Terminator Salvation TV Spot
Posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Warner Bros has begun airing two new television spots from Terminator Salvation, one of which features Christian Bale as John Connor, speaking the infamous phrase “I’ll Be Back.” Before you groan, in context it’s not nearly as cheesy as it sounds. And hey, we’ve already seen a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) say “Come with me if you want to live…”, which in my opinion is 100 times cheesier.
The second television spot shows a bit more of the story of Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) and Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). Watch both television spots after the jump. Thanks to /Film reader Hargun K for the tip.
Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans Begins Production
Posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Warner Bros Pictures has issued an official press release announcing the beginning of principal photography on Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans. I’ve included the whole press release after the jump, and it is actually worth reading because it includes a detailed cast and crew breakdown, and plot synopsis. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters on March 26th 2010.
More Stupid Batman Casting Rumors: Sam Worthington To Replace Christian Bale
Posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The Australian newspaper The Herald Sun is reporting that “Industry gossip now suggests the rising Australian star [Sam Worthington] could score the part of Batman in the third installment of the successful prequel franchise.” We’ve already gotten a bunch of e-mails linking this story, which means the story is already getting around the internets. But the fact of the matter is, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight sequel isn’t even close to approaching the casting stage. Christian Bale has said that he would return for another film if Nolan came back with a good story, and anyone who believes that Warner Bros would mess with any of the main ingredients in their successful comic book franchise is on crack.
Warner Bros has released the new trailer for Terminator Salvation, which will be attached to Watchmen, on Yahoo. The trailer gives us a better look at the story of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a man who discovers the hard way that he’s no longer human, and is instead a Cyborg Terminator. It’s kinda of like the opposite of The Matrix — instead of finding out that the world you know is fake, you discover that you are, in many ways, not who you thought you were. We get to see how the machines imprison the humans in giant cattle bins, using their stem cells to create a more realistic, more human-looking form of Terminators. Watch the new trailer after the jump. Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Warner Bros has released new posters and production photos for Terminator Salvation on Yahoo. At WonderCon, McG premiered the new trailer, which will be attached to Watchmen, and many people agree that it was the coolest thing they’ve seen at the convention. I hear that the trailer will be online on Monday afternoon, so I’m not going to spend time giving you a full description, as you’ll be able to see it for yourself soon enough. After the ump you can see a batch of new production photos released for the film.
The Los Angeles Times has a first look behind the scenes photo of James Cameron directing Sam Worthington in his big budget sci-fi 3D film Avatar. Look at the incredible performance capture and 3D rig, both of which were probably created for this film, just off camera. And if you look where Cameron is pointing, you will see one of the alien creatures from the movie projected onto the set using a new state of the art holographic projector thinggy. Too bad all of this is happening off camera. You can read the attached one paragraph article (I’ll sum it up: the movie is going to be cool) at LATimes.com.
On July 2nd, 2008, I was lucky enough to visit the set of McG’s Terminator Salvation. Is this James Cameron’s Terminator? No. And it isn’t trying to be. Terminator Salvation is very different animal, far different from the traditional Terminator chase story. In a sense it is a futuristic war film.
When I think of Terminator Salvation, I am reminded of the line in Star Wars - A New Hope when Obi-wan tells Luke about how he served beside his father in the clone wars. Star Wars fans obsessed over that one throw away line for over two decades before George Lucas finally decided to bring The Clone Wars to the big screen. And as we all know, the result was extremely disappointing. Its funny how one line can conjure a better vision than four films and a computer animated television show combined. I am reminded of this because the same thing could easily happen to the Terminator series .
Judgement Day, the future war between man and machines — Cameron teased us with this in the first two films, and I don’t think anyone ever believed they would eventually see it on the big screen. As crappy as Terminator 3 was, the end twist got me excited for the possibility. And I understand that the name McG doesn’t instill confidence. Those of you who visit the site frequently have probably noticed how much I have been sticking up for the film, even before a second of footage was previewed to the public. The reason is that I saw everything up close and personal. I went to Albuquerque New Mexico very skeptical, and came back convinced that McG was the right man for the job, and that the result would be a fun action film, deserving of the Terminator name.
Our group was given unprecedented access to the production which was shooting on all 8 stages of the newly built Albuquerque Studios. Before we did anything, we were brought into a huge room filled wall to wall with concept after and models. The unit publicist gave us a tour of the first two thirds of the film. I’ve been on a bunch of sets where fear of spoiler leaks prevents the studio from providing embargoed journalists with plot information. This is the first set that I was given the all access pass, which allowed me to better connect the dots when we toured the many stages on the studio lot. I was able to look at the locations and sets through the larger perspective of the overall film.
So what Did I see? Since this is a preview piece, I can’t go into much detail. We were able to walk through Skynet’s testing center while it was being constructed. We saw John Connor’s underground bunker, drove by the destroyed 7-11 that is seen in the trailer, and stood in the Silo where John Connor and Marcus Wright go face to face (also seen in the trailer). But the majority of our visit focused on watching first unit photography in a power plant that had been converted into a Terminator assembly factory. You can see John Conner entering the factory in the photo at the top of this story. We got to watch them shoot some intense action sequences, one which involved Connor getting his signature facial scar — how cool is that? More on that later.
But the coolest moment for me was getting a tour of the Stan Winston Studios trailer, which was filled with all sorts of remote controlled endoskeletons and insane prosthetics. Having grown up on the “movie magic” specials of the 1980’s, I could have easily spent all day just in that trailer alone. One thing was immediately clear — the word practical was being thrown around a lot. Almost overused. Sure, this film will have computer effects (you’ve seen the Harvester in the trailer) but a surprising amount of the effects are being shot on the set, in camera or using a combination of tightly intertwined cg enhancements.
We spoke with Anton Yelchin (Kyle Reese), Moon Bloodgood (Blair Williams), and Sam Worthington (Marcus Wright). McG was overly outgoing, giving an enthusiastic pitch as to why we should give him a chance. And while McG exudes an indescribable energy, his pitch is not just enthusiasm and caffeine. He knows what he’s talking about, and says all the right things, referencing screenwriter Jonah Nolan (who was rewriting the script as we spoke) and the post apocalyptic novel The Road. While he launches into an interesting observation the cyborg technology of today, you wonder how this could be the same guy who directed Charlie’s Angeles 2 Full Throttle.
He brought us into his streamline trailer and showed us an 8-minute sizzle reel of the film. People haven’t seen anything yet. And for those who believe this film will definitely be PG-13, think again. We saw a piece of footage that showed Moon Bloodgood topless in the rain, which certainly gave me the impression that the rating has yet to be decided.
Back on the set.
Sparks fly from the ceiling, steam rises from the floor, and balls of fire launch into the air as an assembly line of T-800 endoskeletons move along a conveyor track above my head. I’m standing in a factory where Skynet manufactures Terminators. John Connor falls to the wet pavement, dirty, bruised and beaten. He lifts a big ass gun into the air and fires. A large explosion comes from the factory’s second floor. But whatever John hit, its still coming. John pulls himself along the floor, unable to get himself to his feet. Not that his feet would help at this point, as he appears fairly injured. He grabs for a smaller gun and shoots. A cloud of liquid nitrogen steam fills the air as Connor collapses.
Is John Connor dead? Are the internet rumors true? To be continued…
