Posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 by Peter Sciretta
While on the Utah set of John Carter, a group of journalists (including myself) has the opportunity to interview to the cast and crew. On the following pages, you can read the interviews we conducted on set, transcribed in full:
I visited Mars almost two years ago. It was April 2010 and the film set was in the middle of nowhere. Finding Nemo/WALL-E director Andrew Stanton was making his live-action debut John Carter, a big screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s novel A Princess of Mars. There had been many failed attempts to bring the material to the big screen, but somehow Stanton was able to convince the studio heads to let him be the one to make the adaptation at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Disney flew a group of journalists into the Las Vegas airport, where we boarded a shuttle bus to a location five hours away. A location so far away that we were no longer in Nevada. Located at the center of the Grand Circle, Big Water Utah has a population of only 417 people (which probably explains why you didn’t see many John Carter set photos). The set was located out in the middle of a desert.
You wouldn’t have any idea a big Hollywood production was being shot in town, aside from small yellow signs that read “BARSOOM” which help crew members find the small dirt road which leads to the set. And by set, I mean a few structures which have been constructed on the grey dirt in the middle of these large brown hills made of sandstone. Barsoom, of course, is what the Martians in the books call their home planet.
Posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 by Angie Han
I haven’t been quiet about my ambivalence toward John Carter, Andrew Stanton‘s live-action directing debut, but I think I’ve finally figured out what my problem with the film is: the dialogue. Or at least, that’s what I’ve come to suspect after watching this new 60-second TV spot. The new video downplays the talking bits and highlights the action, and perhaps as a result, it may be my favorite teaser / trailer / commercial for John Carter yet. Watch it after the jump.
Disney aired a new commercial for Andrew Stanton‘s live action debut John Carter during the big game. After the jump you can watch the super bowl spot, and a 60 second extended spot.
Posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 by Angie Han
We got our first glimpse of the new trailer for Disney’s John Carter on Good Morning America several hours ago, but as promised, we now have a much better version to show you. And by “better,” I don’t just mean higher-quality, but also longer, somewhat more interesting, and a little more promising. Check it out after the jump.
Posted on Friday, September 30th, 2011 by Angie Han
Malin Akerman has signed on to star with Tyler Labine, Lucy Punch, and Daniel Petronijevic in Cottage Country, an dark indie comedy by Canadian director Peter Wellington. Written by Jeremy Boxen (Endgame), the story follows Todd (Labine) as he plans to propose to Cammie (Akerman) at his family cottage. However, Todd’s plans are ruined by the arrival of his slacker brother (Petronijevic) and the brother’s free-spirited girlfriend (Punch).
The film will be Wellington’s first feature since 2003′s Luck. Wellington has been working primarily in television over the last several years, on shows including Rookie Blue and Slings and Arrows. The film is currently shooting in Ontario through late October for a 2012 release. [The Hollywood Reporter]
After the jump, Pacific Rim gets another star and John Hurt joins a project called Labyrinth that is totally unrelated to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Bet you got worried there for a second that it would be a remake.
Posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 by Angie Han
It’s probably a safe guess that Lars von Trier will be courting controversy once again with his next project, The Nymphomaniac, and now we know whom he might be courting controversy with. A pair of recent reports suggests that he’s eyeing previous collaborators Stellan Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe for the film. Though the film is described as a porno, it sounds like Skarsgård, at least, will be keeping it in his pants. Read more after the jump.
If you need proof that the old movie star system doesn’t really exist any longer, here’s a trailer for Fireflies in the Garden, aka the ‘lost’ Julia Roberts movie. The film was shot in 2007 and hit festivals in 2008, and is only not getting a release date. Then again, Fireflies in the Garden is only kind of a Julia Roberts movie — it’s a family drama in which Roberts and Willem Dafoe are parents of a boy who grows up to become a bearded, very serious Ryan Reynolds. You’d think, however, that even with Roberts playing a supporting role — and a very important one at that — the film would have seen some release based on the fact of her appearance alone.
The film also stars Hayden Panettiere, Emily Watson and Carrie-Anne Moss, and if you’re wondering what a movie with all those recognizable people has been doing sitting on the shelf for almost four years, you’re not alone. Check out the trailer below and see if you can figure out why this one has been unseen in the States for all this time. Read More »
