Cinematical

• EXCLUSIVE: New Photos from Spike Lee's 'Miracle at St. Anna'
  

  Filed under: Action, Drama, Disney, Images, War

  Spike Lee and Disney might sound like a pretty odd combination, but I don't really see it that way. (Lest we forget that the excellent 25th Hour was a Disney production.) Love the guy or not, Spike Lee has turned into quite the eclectic filmmaker over the last few decades -- and so when I heard that the guy was helming a $50 million WWII drama for Disney, I was intrigued but not surprised. Based on the book by James McBride -- and adapted for the screen by same -- Miracle at St. Anna tells the tale of four black soldiers who find themselves...
  



• Jodi Benson & Michael Keaton to Play Barbie & Ken in 'Toy Story 3'?
  

  Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Disney, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels

  Now here's a fun little scoop from IESB.net: Turns out that not only will Jodi "Ariel" Benson be returning to the Toy Story series to reprise her role as the legendary Barbie (such a doll) , but this time she'll be dragging her boyfriend into the story. And according to IESB, that Ken doll's voice will be provided by none other than Michael Keaton. So that's why you cover the press junkets for video flicks like The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning -- so you can score cool information like this.
  
  Best known...
  



• Pixar Teams Up With Boom! For Comic Spin-Offs
  

  Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Deals, Disney, Family Films, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

  In all the ComicCon insanity, a pretty cool story slipped under the Cinematical radar -- the news that Pixar had teamed up with Boom! Studios to create comic books and graphic novels based on the Disney/Pixar and Muppet properties. If that doesn't sound exciting to you, get a load of this -- the first series that will be published will be The Incredibles.
  
  The series is confirmed for four issues, but author Mark Waid already has scripts penned for two more, and...
  



• Don Johnson is Back!
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Romance, Casting, Disney

  I can literally hear the Jan Hammer as I type this, but when I think Don Johnson, I think Sonny Crocket (and occasionally, the slightly less cool Nash Bridges). I know that Mr. Johnson has many other fine acting credits to his name, but I grew up in the '80s, what can you expect? But, it's not all white suit jackets and '71 Plymouth Barracuda's for Johnson any more. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the man will be getting back into the feature film game to star in Disney's romantic comedy When in Rome,...
  



• Disney's 'Princess and the Frog' Gets New Artwork
  

  Filed under: Animation, Music & Musicals, Disney, Family Films, Images

  
  
  After the first teaser trailer showed up recently for The Princess and the Frog, Disney's return to traditional hand-drawn-style animation, a lot of the blogosphere was labeling the film potentially racist. Hopefully the political correctness circles have died down a bit, though (or are at least concentrating too hard on Tropic Thunder), and we can appreciate some beautiful new artwork from the film without wondering how it might be reflective of stereotypes and whatnot. Over at DisneyAnimation.com, there is a gallery of "visual development" images that give us more of the...
  



• Fan Rant: Truth Be Sold
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Disney, Paramount Classics, Warner Independent Pictures, Cinematical Indie, Paramount Vantage, Fan Rant

  It wasn't that long ago that documentaries carried the stigma of being educational first and entertaining second. As with foreign-language fare, an audience for them lingered on the fringe, and an industry was willing to offer them their very own awards, but they really weren't terribly high-profile box-office prospects... that is, until the '04-'05 summer successes of Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins made it seem perfectly okay for audiences to see, and for studios to market, a film without so much...
  




• Discuss: The Kids Aren't Alright
  

  Filed under: Action, Disney, Warner Brothers, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels

  

  Back in May, our Eric D. Snider made clear a common complaint regarding the latest Narnia offering, in that it was far too violent -- with or without blood -- for its given PG rating. The film went on to under-perform at the box office, for a litany of other reasons, but it was hard to ignore the potentially dominating influence of family-friendly Disney and their little Christian parable/looming blockbuster sequel on the decision.

  Now, after stateside concerns along the same lines, come reports from the UK that box office behemoth The Dark...
  




• Disney Hires the 'Monster Attack Network'
  

  Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Disney, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek

  Disney doesn't read and buy comic books very often -- the last one I can remember them optioning was Pet Robots, which is still sitting in pre-production land. (And was, interestingly enough, optioned year ago this week!) When it comes to comics, Disney likes to stick to making their own.
  
  But now, according to Variety, they've gone and optioned themselves a new graphic novel -- and it's a loud one. They've purchased the rights to Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman's Monster Attack Network, a story for...
  



• 'Prince of Persia' Release Pushed Back Until 2010
  

  Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Games and Game Movies

  Well, for all of us out there waiting for Jake Gyllenhaal to don the infamous puffy pants for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it turns out we are going to have to wait a lot longer than we thought. Variety announced yesterday that Disney has scrapped their original release date of June 19, 2009 for the big-screen adaptation of Ubisoft's best-selling game, and has pushed the release back to May, 2010 (that's right, almost a full year later). Disney has a lot riding on the production, and are hoping to turn it into...
  



• Review: Swing Vote
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, Politics

  
  
  It must be a horrible, wonderful thing to be a movie star in this modern age -- rewarded and yet tightly caged by the public's perception of you. Stay within the expectations of the ticket-buying public, and you're likely (or, more accurately, more likely) to not fall off the public's radar; at the same time, that gilded cage must, at some point, feel more and more like a prison. I mention this in talking about Swing Vote because Kevin Costner manages a somewhat nifty trick in his performance as Bud Johnston, a New Mexico ne'er-do-well who,...