This may sound paranoid, but I am convinced that Thomas Jane must have made some enemies in Hollywood. The guy is talented, he has great screen presence, he's awfully easy on the eyes; and still he ends up flicks like Mutant Chronicles. If you don't believe me, take a look at the new teaser for the sci-fi thriller over on the actor's personal site, and tell me this movie doesn't look destined for obscurity.
Chronicles is loosely based on the successful role-playing game of the same name from Target Games. In Philip Eisner's (Event Horizon) script, the world has been divided into four corporations who are constantly at war. When a new plague of mutants are unleashed unto the world, an ancient society recruits a battle-hardened soldier (Jane) as humanity's last chance for survival. Joining Jane are Ron Perlman as the mystic Brother Samuel, Devon Aoki as a fellow bad-ass, and John Malkovich as the political leader Constantine.
On paper, the whole thing sounds fine; mutants, elite military squads, and pseudo-mysticism -- what could go wrong? After watching the trailer, the answer would appear to be ... everything. The film was originally announced back in 2006, but other than a quick poster release and a website, there hasn't been much attention paid to the film...and now I'm starting to understand why.
Mutant Chronicles is scheduled for release later this year.
Way back in November, John C. Reilly signed on to play Larten Crepsley in the adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak. Since then, we've gotten a sneak peek at Salma Hayek's bearded lady, but nothing of the sharp-toothed Crepsley -- until now! Empire has posted a first look at Reilly's character, which you can see cropped on the right. (It's a little bigger over at Empire, but unfortunately, not much.)
The film focuses on a 14-year-old kid, Darren Shan (Chris Kelly), who visits an illegal freak show, sneaks in after hours, and gets thrust into a life of freak shows and vampiric servitude. The photo shows Shan and Crepsley, so maybe this is when the poor kid getting pulled into the freakish life. Although really, I think Crepsley's outfit is the most freakish thing. That, and the darkly rouged cheeks.
The flick should hit US shores in 2008, before the scheduled UK release in February of 2009.
*Note: Both the real Darren Shan and the kid who plays the fictional Darren Shan use two names. To clear up confusion between the Empire report, here, and IMDb: The young actor goes by Chris Kelly and Chris Massoglia, while Darren Shan is also known as Darren O'Shaughnessy.
The rule of thumb in this film blogging world of ours is, what goes up must come down. In other words, any trailer that finds itself premiering on YouTube can only find itself taken down from YouTube. So, for now, let us offer you what appears to be the teaser for this winter's big-budget remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, in which an alien visitor (Keanu Reeves) gives us Earth denizens a hefty heads-up that if we don't straighten up our act, he and his giant robot friend will do it for us ...
Now, I may or may not be entering spoiler territory with this following paragraph, so feel free to skip it (in that case, long story short: also stars Jennifer Connelly and due in theaters on December 12th) -- BUT, from what I can recall reading at one point, our main man's angle this time around is not concerns of nuclear warfare (that's SO 1951!), but rather more environmentally-fixated priorities. Who knew that between this, WALL-E, and The Happening that the big H'wood cared so much about the state of our planet.
On the other hand, pitched properly, green can only equal more green in their eyes.
November 21 is slowly inching closer, and Potter Mania is starting to heat up. Just in time for the Fourth of July, we've got a whole slew of new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pics to enjoy. There are seven tasty shots over at USA Today, including the one above, plus another two over at Moviefone.
You're not going to see many drug and sex paralells in these pics, but there is the obligatory trio discussing some important fact (in this case, the potions book), the wonderful Dumbledore, Draco looking much tougher and ticked off, and well, hit the jump to see my favorite one of all.
According to TheGoon.com, Eric Powell's endlessly inventive series has just been optioned by David Fincher, who plans to turn it into a CGI movie. (Is this the first movie to be announced via its character's official domain instead of the trades? I'm sure it isn't, but I find it awesome and worth mentioning nonetheless.) The Goon is a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink (and probably that too) comic that draws comparisons to (and appearances by) Hellboy. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it, though I don't seem to be alone in that. The series follows the deformed brawler of the title, who claims to be the enforcer for a mobster named Labrazio. The Goon and his sidekick, Franky, are frequently trading punches with all manner of otherworldly creatures, from zombie armies to aliens -- and from what I'm looking at on Dark Horse, it never gets boring. And it's hilarious. Check out the preview of issue #8, and tell me I'm wrong. (There's lots of Goon previews up on Dark Horse's page, spend the holiday weekend checking them out! I'm going to. Fireworks are overrated.)
While CGI would be the best way to capture the top-notch art, I can't help but wish this was in live action. I would love nothing more than to see a real live Goon beat down some lame vampires, or get omens interpreted by a psychic seal. But already, this is gearing up to be one of the best comic adaptations this side of The Dark Knight -- a top notch director in Fincher, and hilarious source material.
I didn't get beyond the fifth Harry Potter novel, so I'm not familiar with what goes on in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I never would have thought, however, that it features an adorable version of Voldemort (which reminded our own Kim Voynar of the young Anakin of The Phantom Menace), nor would I have ever imagined, in my wildest years, that it is anything like Trainspotting. Yet that's what Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe told Empire regarding the upcoming movie adaptation. He specifically likened Half-Blood Prince to the heroin-heavy movie, admitting that it is indeed strange to mention those two films in the same sentence. He also stated that in his movie, "there's a fair amount of sexual energy and drug parallels."
Now, of course, that doesn't mean there's actual sex and drugs featured in the movie. And this wouldn't be the first time the Harry Potter films included suggestive imagery or content. One of the early installments (I think it was the original, Sorcerer's Stone) features a scene in which Harry experiments with his wand under the covers late at night. Like with a similar scene from Spider-Man, in which Peter Parker wakes up in his own sticky web, it's pretty obvious what real-world experience the scene is meant to parallel. So, I'm not surprised that as the Harry Potter movies get darker and the cast grows up that we'll be seeing other kinds of innuendo. And knowing the franchise so far, even if the suggestive imagery or content is easily deciphered, there's sure to be good messages tied in. It's not like Warner Bros. would permit improper subliminal encouragements.
Well here's something you don't see every day: A big, flashy summertime "tentpole" movie that A) takes chances, B) bucks convention, and C) takes some real risks with its subject material. Obviously the safe approach is for Will Smith to do (yet another) easily-digestible (if somewhat mindless) blockbuster like I, Robot or I Am Legend or Independence Day -- but this time the endlessly profitable Will Smith is working with a rather distinctive director who refuses to cater to formula. That director would be Peter Berg, and this guy has yet to make a bad film.
Unfortunately the production history on Hancock is not a fantastic one. There was a revolving door of directors and script polishers before Columbia finally started production -- but there were still marketing issues, last-minute reshoots, and MPAA miseries to deal with. And yet, despite all that, Hancock arrives like a breath of weirdly fresh air for moviegoers who like a little heart and soul mixed in with their hyper-kinetic action mayhem. Toss some sharp wit and an impressive display of edge into the mix, and I think you may have one of my favorite movies of the summer. (Although one can plainly tell that there was some late cutting done to the flick, all in the name of the almighty PG-13 rating, of course.)
Every day, another graphic novel is optioned by a studio great or small, and very rarely do they stir much interest in me. They always seem to be a variation on the assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold or superhero deconstruction, which can't even motivate me to pick up the graphic novel, let alone buy a movie ticket. So, it's a rare treat when the trades run the latest comic to be snatched up and I go "Okay -- this one I get." Hiding in Time is one of these.
According to Variety, Warner Bros has bought the rights to Christopher Long and Ryan Winn's series. Time is set in a future where the Witness Protection Program is no longer interested in changing your name and moving you to Tampa -- instead, they send you back in time to hide from those you snitched on. If hiding out in the Black Death to escape your mob buddies sounds too good to be true, it is, as a group of armed thugs begin hunting them down across the ages. It's up to one humble scientist in the Time Portal Division to stop them. (The trades mention that the scientist teams up with a master thief to track down his old crew -- I don't know if that's part of the movie pitch, or if that actually happens in the series.) No director has been named, but Beau Thorne is tackling the screenplay.
When is the news of an actor you really like joining the cast of a high-profile new movie bad news? When you wish that actor were doing other things with his time, that's when. In the case of Thomas McCarthy -- whom you may remember from his masterfully detestable performance as weaselly reporter Scott Templeton in the final season of The Wire -- I wish he were writing and directing another film as brilliant and deeply moving as The Visitor, which at this halfway point is my favorite movie of 2008. I'd even settle for something with the wry, quiet charm of his lovely 2003 debut The Station Agent.
Instead -- ::sigh:: -- he's gone and taken a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's disaster flick 2012, playing Amanda Peet's boyfriend. C'mon, Tom: anyone can do that. Only a handful of people have your behind-the-camera chops. Quit messing around.
I'm being mean, and in this Hollywood Reporter piece McCarthy makes a valiant effort at defending the choice in terms of how working with directors who make different kinds of films helps him with his own work. (The article also mentions that McCarthy moonlights as an uncredited studio script doctor, which I didn't know, and which makes perfect sense given the natural, effortless flow of the films he's written.) Okay fine. But direct something else please.
Call me crazy, but 90 minutes of Milla Jovovich doing anything is worth watching -- doubly so when her activities deal with zombies, monsters, and ridiculous high-tech weaponry. Yes -- deep sigh -- I'm a (slightly) reluctant fan of the Resident Evil series. (Yep, there's even some stuff I like in Part 2. Like Sienna Guillory.) When I'm writing or net-browsing or playing hours of Zuma, I often like to have a familiar movie playing in the background (like most people do with, um, music) and the Resident Evil flicks fit the bill quite nicely sometimes. (Depending on my mood, of course. Last night my relaxation movie was The Mask of Zorro.)
So it's my relative fandom for the series that leads me to share this half-piece of semi-news: According to the always-fun MTV Movies Blog, series master Paul W.S. Anderson has started speaking to Sony about a Resident Evil 4. And don't even dare act surprised when a series that grossed this much money moves forward on another adventure. How many Police Academy movies were there? (OK, bad example that isn't exactly helping my argument, but I seriously lost count. There were about 28 Police Academy movies? Or it only felt like that many.) Mr. Anderson doles out the reliable "Oh, once we get a good script ... We're not gonna do it just to do it" schpiel, which means he's probably about three weeks away from hiring a writer.
This may sound paranoid, but I am convinced that 
Way back in 
According to 
I didn't get beyond the fifth Harry Potter novel, so I'm not familiar with what goes on in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I never would have thought, however, that it features an adorable version of Voldemort (which 
Every day, another graphic novel is optioned by a studio great or small, and very rarely do they stir much interest in me. They always seem to be a variation on the assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold or superhero deconstruction, which can't even motivate me to pick up the graphic novel, let alone buy a movie ticket. So, it's a rare treat when the trades run the latest comic to be snatched up and I go "Okay -- 
When is the news of an actor you really like joining the cast of a high-profile new movie bad news? When you wish that actor were doing other things with his time, that's when. In the case of 
Call me crazy, but 90 minutes of 
