Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Fast & Furious Makes it Four
Diesel & Walker reunite for the Furious franchise's latest offering
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Eight years after Rob Cohen's street racing film The Fast & the Furious (2001) hit summer theatres, Justin Lin directs the original cast in a new high-octane "interquel," the fourth installment in this popular film series.
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster have returned for Fast & Furious (notice the subtly different title), which picks up where the 2001 film left off--hence the film's slogan "New Model, Old Parts"--forgetting that the last two Furious movies even exsisted. This marks the first time that all four stars share the screen together since '01, when The Fast & the Furious became a surprise hit around the world, and making a household name out of Diesel, who has starred in a string of failures over the last few years.
Diesel rehashed his role as L.A. street racer and ex-con Dominic Toretto, who finds himself reuniting with just-released-from-prison-former-agent Brian O'Conner (Walker), in order to combat a common enemy, meanwhile pondering each other's loyality. They find themselves working alongside the feds to bring down a heroin operation, and doing it in fashion, steering some expensive and exotic muscle cars through California and Mexico.
Diesel refused to appear in John Singleton's 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious (he also turned down a sequel to his XXX film), though Walker opted to continue his role as O'Conner, with a supporting cast that included model-turned-actor Tyrese Gibson, former soap opera actress Eva Mendes, and hip-hop star Ludacris.
The sequel proved an even bigger success worldwide, though the same couldn't be said for a third effort, 2006's The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Lin also directed Tokyo Drift, though it featured a whole new cast of actors (Lucas Black, Sung Kang, and rapper Bow Wow), and fizzled at the box office. Diesel made a small cameo in Drift, which had nothing to do with its predecessors, plot-wise.
The Furious series, which has always been associated with hip-hop music (Ja Rule made his feature film debut in the 2001 original), perserved the tradition with this latest feature, which includes cameos by Xzibit, Lil' Wayne, T.I., and T-Pain, while Gibson and Kang also make appearances. The soundtrack will also feature some big names in hip-hop, including Busta Rhymes, Pitbull, Soulja Boy, and The Neptunes.
With an $80 million budget, Fast & Furious is expected to do well when it hits theatres this Friday (April 3), but has a lot to live up to. The previous three films have grossed a combined $600 million in global ticket sales, and millions more in merchandise. Below is Universal Pictures' trailer for Fast & Furious.
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Eight years after Rob Cohen's street racing film The Fast & the Furious (2001) hit summer theatres, Justin Lin directs the original cast in a new high-octane "interquel," the fourth installment in this popular film series.Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster have returned for Fast & Furious (notice the subtly different title), which picks up where the 2001 film left off--hence the film's slogan "New Model, Old Parts"--forgetting that the last two Furious movies even exsisted. This marks the first time that all four stars share the screen together since '01, when The Fast & the Furious became a surprise hit around the world, and making a household name out of Diesel, who has starred in a string of failures over the last few years.
Diesel rehashed his role as L.A. street racer and ex-con Dominic Toretto, who finds himself reuniting with just-released-from-prison-former-agent Brian O'Conner (Walker), in order to combat a common enemy, meanwhile pondering each other's loyality. They find themselves working alongside the feds to bring down a heroin operation, and doing it in fashion, steering some expensive and exotic muscle cars through California and Mexico.
Diesel refused to appear in John Singleton's 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious (he also turned down a sequel to his XXX film), though Walker opted to continue his role as O'Conner, with a supporting cast that included model-turned-actor Tyrese Gibson, former soap opera actress Eva Mendes, and hip-hop star Ludacris.
The sequel proved an even bigger success worldwide, though the same couldn't be said for a third effort, 2006's The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Lin also directed Tokyo Drift, though it featured a whole new cast of actors (Lucas Black, Sung Kang, and rapper Bow Wow), and fizzled at the box office. Diesel made a small cameo in Drift, which had nothing to do with its predecessors, plot-wise.
The Furious series, which has always been associated with hip-hop music (Ja Rule made his feature film debut in the 2001 original), perserved the tradition with this latest feature, which includes cameos by Xzibit, Lil' Wayne, T.I., and T-Pain, while Gibson and Kang also make appearances. The soundtrack will also feature some big names in hip-hop, including Busta Rhymes, Pitbull, Soulja Boy, and The Neptunes.
With an $80 million budget, Fast & Furious is expected to do well when it hits theatres this Friday (April 3), but has a lot to live up to. The previous three films have grossed a combined $600 million in global ticket sales, and millions more in merchandise. Below is Universal Pictures' trailer for Fast & Furious.
Monday, March 30, 2009
SiM Trailer: Tyson
Director: James Toback (Bugsy screenplay)
Stars: Mike Tyson (himself)
Distributed By: Sony Pictures Classics
Due Date: April 24, 2009
Synopsis: A film crew follows infamous boxing legend Mike Tyson around and explores the heavyweight's inner demons in this 90-minute documentary, produced by Nicholas Jarecki (The Outsider). Director Toback tells Tyson's story from childhood to his rise and fall in the sports world, using archive footage, interviews, and photos to piece it all together, showcasing a "startling complex, fully-rounded human being" (apple.com). Tyson first screened during last year's Cannes Film Festival.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Box Office Battle (March 27th)
Monsters vs. Aliens easily fights off the competition.
DreamWorks Animation's 3-D animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens grabs the number one spot on its opening weekend with $58.2M. While not playing in 3-D in approximately 7600 screens it opened on, the overall contribution from the 3-D screens was just over 56%. Being the largest 3-D launch ever, it bodes well for future films with a 3-D tag attached to them. 
Second place would be taken by The Haunting in Connecticut which grossed $23M also on its first weekend of release. Its debut landed in the Top Ten of supernatural horror movies (according to BoxOfficeMojo), shy of the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. "Based on true events" was also the marketing scheme that Amityville had used.
Summit's sci-fi thriller Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage had another strong weekend despite not being able to hold onto No. 1. The film dropped 40% yet still finished third, grabbing $14.7M bringing the total up around $46.2. Across the ocean and into the international box office Knowing looks to have snatched another $9.8M placing itself at No. 1.
Last weeks big release I Love You Man finished fourth, the R-rated comedy from Paramount had a 29% decline but still pulling in $12.6M with a cumulative total of $37M. Duplicity, the Universal flick with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen dropped almost 50% bringing in $7.6M for fifth place and a total gross of $25.6M.
Race to Witch Mountain maintained a steady pace with $5.6M, the Disney film has grossed $53.3M so far. 12 Rounds opened this weekend as well to a first round knockout from the other 6 films ahead of it. Grossing only $5.3M, the WWE may want to reconsider the venture into movies with its wrestling stars.
Watchmen has continued to fade worldwide. Domestically falling 59% in its fourth weekend to an estimated $2.8M for a total of $103.3M. Overseas, it grossed $4.6M for the weekend, $68M overall internationally. The property is not quite well known outside the USA but it is still disappointing for Legendary Pictures and Paramount.
Rounding out the top ten is Taken, with a total $2.7M bringing its impressive take at $137M. The Last House on the Left fell 4 spots in the third week of release. Garnering $2.6M which brings the remakes total just above $28M.
Trailer: Give 'em Hell, Malone
Hannibal Pictures' trailer for their upcoming crime-action feature, Give 'em Hell, Malone, looks kinda bad-ass, but let's not forget that its director, Russell Mulcahy, started out helming '80s music videos, including The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" and Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." But Mulcahy's latest work is getting compared to the likes of John Woo, in spite of last year's The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. Malone, which is due to hit limited theatres on April Fool's Day, stars Thomas Jane (The Mist), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Elsa Pataky (Snakes on a Plane), and...wait for it...French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun)!! The trailer is set to George Thorogood & the Destroyers' "Bad to the Bone."
DVD Pick: Let the Right One In
Swedish 'romantic horror' feature goes above & beyond the norm
Oskar leads a lonely exsistance, something he has in common with Eli, the two of whom converse at the nearby playground before eventually striking up an alliance and going "steady." Alfredson is sporadically loyal to Lindqvist's novel--which is set in the early-'80s--delivering an almost pederastic tone to the children's relationship, one that leaves my "Americanized" eyes awkward and uneasy at times.
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
North Americans have seen more than their share of vampire movies, so we've come to expect the expected when another one premieres on the big screen. But leave it to the Swedes to break the long-set mould, with the haunting, yet placid Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's theatrical take on a 2004 novel by fellow Swede John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also tackled the screenplay.
North Americans have seen more than their share of vampire movies, so we've come to expect the expected when another one premieres on the big screen. But leave it to the Swedes to break the long-set mould, with the haunting, yet placid Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's theatrical take on a 2004 novel by fellow Swede John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also tackled the screenplay.
The producers were intent on finding young actors who displayed chemistry onscreen, accurately casting two 13-year-old unknowns, Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson. The former portrayed Oskar, a 12-year-old boy who spends his free time daydreaming of bloody retaliation on schoolyard bullies. Leandersson makes us forget that she's barely a teenager, with her role as a somewhat androgynous vampire named Eli, who has been "12, about" for the last 200 years. Eli and her "guardian" Hakan (Per Ragner) have just moved in next door to Oskar in a sombre apartment complex in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg, where Hakan is committed to murdering locals in order to salvage their blood so that Eli doesn't have to.
Oskar leads a lonely exsistance, something he has in common with Eli, the two of whom converse at the nearby playground before eventually striking up an alliance and going "steady." Alfredson is sporadically loyal to Lindqvist's novel--which is set in the early-'80s--delivering an almost pederastic tone to the children's relationship, one that leaves my "Americanized" eyes awkward and uneasy at times.The film seems to climax during a disturbingly graceful pool scene that left me ecstaticly jolted, and lends some much-needed energy to its slow pace. John Soderqvist composed a melodic score for this film, light at times, dark at others, setting every tone of every scene, and delivered by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra.
In a year that saw massive attention and fascination for Hollywood's own vampire contribution, Twilight, Let the Right One In distanced itself from big-budget glamour and poised itself as an alternative, highlighting its foreign authenticity (it was filmed and set in Sweden, and comes sub-titled) at the risk of feeble international ticket sales. Unlike Twilight, Alfredson's film will not expand into a blockbuster franchise, or produce any teen-girl glee or even action figures for that matter, but it will leave you more satisfied than its exploited rival, I'm sure. Although this film's stars aren't even high school students yet, this is a very-adult movie, one that tangles with its own essence to trigger self-awareness in its audience. Mission accomplished.
4/5 stars
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Ice Age 3
A new Ice Age 3 trailer that is slightly edited with new music and much better picture quality.
DVD Pick: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is an astoundingly solid film. Every aspect is near flawless, from the acting, music, direction and some of the best visuals in the last decade. With a run time just under 3 hours, the slow moving plot never loses your attention.While Brad Pitt doesn’t have much dialogue, playing a terrifying Jesse James who we see has love for his family, self pity, homicidal urges as we witness how vulnerable he really is makes it awkward to watch and feel compassion for him. Making this a fantastic performance that Casey Affleck almost matches with a purposefully shaky and nervous take on Robert Ford. While Affleck makes Ford show a confidence at times that he never seems to believe he has. Sam Rockwell also shines in his little screen time as Charley Ford, brother of Robert.
Roger Deakins has crafted what may be the best cinematography of his career. His career includes many unique and thrilling films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and A Beautiful Mind just to name a few. Deakins’ visuals are what give this film its heart. With blurry landscapes, wheat fields and the classic opening train robbery provide the film which arguably will become an iconic scene. The film leaves us with dozens memorable sequences. You never notice anything that should be out of place in the 1800s.
You may argue that this is a Hollywood “art film”, and when the credits played I wasn’t sure what I thought of the film. With some unforgettable imagery and surreal depiction of the western ear it left me wondering if during that time there was that much violence and tension floating around between everyone. An authentic atmosphere helps label this a western film, but the parallels of Jesse James to the celebrity of today are uncanny.
4/5 Stars
Colin Enquist
Friday, March 27, 2009
Dragonball Delayed and News in Film
20th Century Fox has moved back Dragonball: Evolution two days so that it will open on Friday, April 10th now instead of the previously scheduled Wednesday opening. The movie is written and directed by James Wong, the big screen adaptation stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, 
Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson. It will now be debuting the same day that Hannah Montana The Movie and Observe and Report are released in theaters.
Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson. It will now be debuting the same day that Hannah Montana The Movie and Observe and Report are released in theaters.Summit Entertainment is looking to make an action thriller that is Indiana Jones crossed with Sherlock Holmes. Based loosely on the life of Harry Houdini and how he is portrayed in the 2006 book, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero. The novel became known for insinuating that Harry Houdini acted as a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II's court in prerevolutionary Russia. It also portrayed the master escape artist and magician as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the controversial theory that Houdini's death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback. The studio is looking for writers to adapt the book with hopes that the recognition of Houdini's name will potentially launch a franchise.
Tony Scott and Mark Bomback are working on the script for the film "Unstoppable". Which Scott intends to direct for his next feature. The drama will involve an unmanned runaway train that is carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. An engineer and his conductor find themselves in a race against time. Scott most recently completed a remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3," the Columbia Pictures drama that will be released June 12 starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Marvel Searches for Next Big Thing
Comic book conglomerate is looking for writers to script ideas for lesser-known characters
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Comic book nerds everywhere are excited over the recent news that Marvel Entertainment is searching for talent to step forward with script ideas for film adaptations of some of the more than 5,000 heroes and villains the company owns rights to.
Scriptwriters are encouraged to come forward with any concepts for Marvel's library of comic book characters, many of which are extremely obscure. Some of the lesser known characters that Marvel are contemplating for a feature film include Doctor Strange, Vision, Black Panther, Cable, Nighthawk, and Iron Fist.
Whatever hero/ villain is chosen as the next big screen blockbuster, it will join an elite list of A-class Marvel franchises, including Spider-Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and their latest recruit, last year's Iron Man.
Whatever hero/ villain is chosen as the next big screen blockbuster, it will join an elite list of A-class Marvel franchises, including Spider-Man, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and their latest recruit, last year's Iron Man.
Some of the other comic series that have been adapted to film have seen less enthusiastic box office numbers and critical praise, including Daredevil (2003), The Fantastic Four (2005), and Ghost Rider (2007). Marvel is currently in the production phase for several upcoming comic flicks, such as The First Avenger: Captain America, Thor, The Avengers, and sequels to Iron Man and Spider-Man, though these films are not part of the script search.
Iron Man was one of the reasons why Marvel sparked a look back at its dusty catalogue of characters, grossing almost $582 million in worldwide ticket sales, despite being a less popular persona.
Marvel is asking potential writers to take on specific pitches for either future character developments or franchises already produced, and is offering as much as $100,000 for a one-year salary. Some of the writers who penned Marvel material prior are not eligible to submit work, including Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Zak Penn, and Justin Theroux.
Marvel's Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies have earned more than $3.63 billion combined in worldwide box office ticket sales alone.
Bad Robot Gets A New Deal
In July 2006, J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions signed a deal with Paramount Pictures. Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures have announced an extension of its agreement to run through 2013.
"Today's announcement is meaningful to me in many ways," said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures Corporation. "Bad Robot was one of the first deals we made to help rebuild the studio. J.J. has since become part of the fabric of Paramount and we look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration for many years to come."
"Bad Robot has had an incredibly fun and productive collaboration with Paramount," added Abrams. "We are all so grateful for their amazing support and creative team, and feel like we're just getting started. We are thrilled that we get to stay right where we are."
The first collaboration between Bad Robot and Paramount was the 2008 release, Cloverfield. It holds the record for highest grossing January opening weekend at $40M, and went on to gross $170M worldwide. Next up is the highly anticipated Star Trek (May 8). which is also directed and produced by Abrams. Production has also been slated to start in June for Morning Glory, starring Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams. Before signing the first deal, Abrams directed Mission Impossible III for Paramount.
"Today's announcement is meaningful to me in many ways," said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures Corporation. "Bad Robot was one of the first deals we made to help rebuild the studio. J.J. has since become part of the fabric of Paramount and we look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration for many years to come."
"Bad Robot has had an incredibly fun and productive collaboration with Paramount," added Abrams. "We are all so grateful for their amazing support and creative team, and feel like we're just getting started. We are thrilled that we get to stay right where we are."
The first collaboration between Bad Robot and Paramount was the 2008 release, Cloverfield. It holds the record for highest grossing January opening weekend at $40M, and went on to gross $170M worldwide. Next up is the highly anticipated Star Trek (May 8). which is also directed and produced by Abrams. Production has also been slated to start in June for Morning Glory, starring Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams. Before signing the first deal, Abrams directed Mission Impossible III for Paramount.
American Jesus
Comics creator Mark Millar is becoming a big name in Hollywood. Wanted was a hit film, Kick-Ass sounds like it could be and now American Jesus will be brought to the big screen.The story follows a twelve-year-old boy who suddenly discovers he's the returned Jesus Christ. He can turn water into wine, make the crippled walk and perhaps even raise the dead. How will he deal with the destiny to lead the world in a conflict thousands of years in the making?
Originally a 3 issue miniseries, Millar is now stating it will be 9 issues total. But a trilogy of 3 issue arcs. The first arc, titled "Chosen" is just released back into print this week. The second installment will be released sometime in the fall.
Matthew Vaughan who is directing Kick-Ass is eyeing "American Jesus" for his directing feature. Vaughan's film studio Marv Films and his partner Kris Thykier will finance the film independently in the same manner as Kick-Ass.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Three Stooges--The Movie?!
Comic kings are looking to introduce a new generation to the legendary 'Three Stooges"
The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb & Dumber, There's Something About Mary) are in the closing stages of casting for their next comedy feature, a rehashing of "The Three Stooges" franchise.
The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb & Dumber, There's Something About Mary) are in the closing stages of casting for their next comedy feature, a rehashing of "The Three Stooges" franchise.MGM has apparently signed two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn to play "Larry," and are still in talks with Benicio Del Toro as "Moe," and Jim Carrey as "Curly." Carrey is even said to be in the process of putting on an extra 40 pounds to match Curly's plump dimensions.
Bobby & Peter Farrelly--who also co-wrote the screenplay--have been trying to get this project off the ground since the '90s, failing to come through with Columbia and then Warner Bros., before getting the green light from MGM.
Mary Parent, chairman of the Worldwide Motion Picture Group, was instrumental in getting the film underway, purchasing the "Stooges" scripts from Warner, and brockering a deal with C3 Entertainment, who owned the rights to the franchise.
The original "three stooges" were an American comedy and vaudeville act made up of slapstick comics Larry Fine, and brothers Moe and Shemp Howard. The latter of whom was later replaced by another brother, Curly. Their legendary act began in 1925 and continued for several decades, but came to an end when Larry was left paralyzed following a stroke in 1970.
Production on the film, which is not a biopic, is set for fall, with a release date sometime next year.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Gatchaman!
You may know the show as Gatchaman, G-Force, Battle of the Planets or even Eagle Riders. The Japanese anime first debuted in 1972 and has gone through many edits and re-edits for U.S. syndication. In 2010 we will get a full CGI film that is being penned by Paul Dini who you may know from many Warner Bros/DC Comics animated series and more recently the ABC series Lost. The film has an estimated budget of around $100 million. Above is the first poster released.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Year One
On June 19th, 2009 we will see the release of the Judd Apatow produced comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera. This film is drawing comparisons to Monty Python's The Life of Brian.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
DVD Pick: Milk
Penn rekindles a forgotten legacy as Milk
BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
Milk begins with real-life footage of police officers raiding gay bars in a 1970s San Francisco, and ends with actual video of a candlelight vigil of tens of thousands of mourners marching the city's night streets in honour of the film's late namesake. In between we confidently rely on director Gus Van Sant and star Sean Penn to fill in the rest of the story of Harvey Milk, a New York-born gay rights activist who subsequently became California's first openly gay man elected to public office, serving on the San Francisco Board of Members.
Spider-Man's James Franco played Cleve Jones, Milk's complacent boyfriend who assists and supports him through tireless campaigning and civic bigotry, only to bow out when Milk peeks politically, and becomes the most relevant and powerful gay rights voice in the state. Penn is at peek performance himself, shedding his own identity for an all-encompassing role as Milk, a portrayal that deservingly landed him his second Best Actor statuette from the Academy Awards (Dustin Lance Black's original screenplay also won an Oscar).
Van Sant doesn't just focus on Milk the politician, but also introduces us to the character and values of Milk, loosely based on The Times of Harvey Milk, a 1984 Oscar-winning documentary that itself was loosely based on Randy Shilt's biography The Mayor of Castro Street (referencing the same street that Milk originally resided).
Josh Brolin is, perhaps, at his best here, as Supervisor Dan White, a family man who initially accepts Milk and his ideologies, only to gradually elude his kinship. Milk's influence and White's resistance led the way to White's pre-emptive resignation, before he shot and killed both Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in November 1978. White spent just five years in prison, for manslaughter, but committed suicide two years later. But the film ended at Milk's assasination, one that forced a naive nation to examine its own behaviour towards the gay minority, and shed light on the gay movement, a cause Milk unintentionally became a martyr of.
4/5 stars
News in Film...
Knowing tops box office, Richardson is honoured on Broadway, Betsy Blair succumbs to cancer, Beatty is sued over Dick Tracy
Alex Proyas' sci-fi thriller Knowing (starring Nicolas Cage) reigned supreme at the domestic box office, pulling in an estimated $24.8 million in its opening weekend (Friday-Sunday), while the R-rated comedy I Love You, Man (starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segal) premiered as runner-up, with $18 million. Julia Roberts and Clive Owens' Duplicity debuted at #3 with $14.4 million, pushing last week's #1, Disney's Race to Witch Mountain, to the fourth spot, adding $13 million to its 10-day total of $44.7 million. Rounding out the Top 5 was Watchmen, which made just $6.7 million in week three for a total take of $98.1 million, far less than what Warner Bros. was hoping for. In just its second weekend The Last House on the Left slipped to #6 at the box office, with a 58% drop to $5.9 million, bringing its sum to $24 million. Box office numbers were down 5% from this same time frame last year.
Tribune Media Services has filed a lawsuit against Oscar-winning actor-director Warren Beatty, over the TV and film rights to the legendary Chester Gould-penned comic strip Dick Tracy. According to Delaware court documents Tribune--which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December--claims that the rights should revert back to them, because Beatty, 71, has failed to make any "productive use" of them within a 10-year period. Beatty, who purchased the exclusive rights back in 1985, directed and starred in the 1990 motion picture Dick Tracy, which won three Academy Awards (Original Song, Makeup, Art/Set Direction) and co-starred Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Madonna. Beatty initially sued Tribune last November, claiming that he was working on a Dick Tracy television special, which would render Tribune's suit uncredited.
Alex Proyas' sci-fi thriller Knowing (starring Nicolas Cage) reigned supreme at the domestic box office, pulling in an estimated $24.8 million in its opening weekend (Friday-Sunday), while the R-rated comedy I Love You, Man (starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segal) premiered as runner-up, with $18 million. Julia Roberts and Clive Owens' Duplicity debuted at #3 with $14.4 million, pushing last week's #1, Disney's Race to Witch Mountain, to the fourth spot, adding $13 million to its 10-day total of $44.7 million. Rounding out the Top 5 was Watchmen, which made just $6.7 million in week three for a total take of $98.1 million, far less than what Warner Bros. was hoping for. In just its second weekend The Last House on the Left slipped to #6 at the box office, with a 58% drop to $5.9 million, bringing its sum to $24 million. Box office numbers were down 5% from this same time frame last year.The theaters of Broadway, in New York, dimmed their lights to pay homage to the late film and stage actress Natasha Richardson, who died last week following an accident on a Quebec ski hill. Richardson's husband, mother, and sister (actors Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Joely Richardson, respectively) were amongst the crowd at the rare Broadway tribute, which lasted for exactly one minute at 8:00 last Thursday evening. "Her theatrical lineage is legendary, but her own singular talent shined memorably on any stage she appeared," remembered Charlotte S. Martin, the Broadway League's executive director. The Tony-winning actress was just 45-years-old at the time of her death, which was caused by bleeding in the skull, as the result of a fall on a training hill.
New Jersey-born, London-based film and stage actress Betsy Blair died March 13th at the age of 85, following a battle with cancer. Blair (b. Elizabeth Winifred Boger) was still in her teens when she worked as a dancer at a New York nightclub, where she met choreographer (and later actor) Gene Kelly, 12 years her senior. The couple married in 1941, moved to Hollywood, and then divorced in 1957, but not before Blair earned an Oscar nod for her supporting work in 1955's Marty. Her strong left-wing beliefs eventually led to Blair being blacklisted in Hollywood, which stunted her acting opportunites almost altogether. In 1963 she wed Czech filmmaker Karel Reisz, and made her final appearance in the 1994 mini-series Scarlett.
Tribune Media Services has filed a lawsuit against Oscar-winning actor-director Warren Beatty, over the TV and film rights to the legendary Chester Gould-penned comic strip Dick Tracy. According to Delaware court documents Tribune--which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December--claims that the rights should revert back to them, because Beatty, 71, has failed to make any "productive use" of them within a 10-year period. Beatty, who purchased the exclusive rights back in 1985, directed and starred in the 1990 motion picture Dick Tracy, which won three Academy Awards (Original Song, Makeup, Art/Set Direction) and co-starred Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Madonna. Beatty initially sued Tribune last November, claiming that he was working on a Dick Tracy television special, which would render Tribune's suit uncredited. Friday, March 20, 2009
President Obama Talks to Leno
U.S. President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on last night's episode of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the first time ever for a sitting president on any late-night program. Obama tackled some of the issues that have been making up recent headlines, including the AIG bonus fiasco, which he claimed was "a problem, but the larger problem is we've got to get back to an attitude where people know enough is enough and people have a sense of responsibility and they understand that their actions are going to have an impact on everybody. And if we can get back to those values that built America, then I think we're going to be okay."
After Leno spoke of his fears over excessive government taxing on choice individuals and/ or coporations--as in reference to tax hikes for the 400 AIG execs who receieved $185 million in bail-out cash as bonuses--Obama used a metaphor to explain how to handle the situation: "Make sure that you close the door before the horse gets out of the barn."
Obama also divulged his feelings on new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, saying he is doing an "oustanding job," despite the challenges. "I don't think people fully appreciate the plate that we handed to him. This guy has not just a banking crisis. He's got the worst recession since the Great Depression."
"I do think in Washington it's a little bit like American idol,
except everybody is Simon Cowell"-Obama
Leno spent 35 minutes with the 44th commander-in-chief, and avoided grilling Obama like other, more serious, talk shows have, keeping the tone light and mostly positive. The mood was a little less optimistic outside the show's NBC studio, where a crowd of about 100 actors were picketing in order to raise awareness over contract disputes with SAG (Screen Actors Guild). The following morning Washington offered an apology over the faux pas Obama made during his historic appearance, after he laughingly compared his poor bowling score (129) to partaking in the Special Olympics. "He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world," commented White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton to reporters on his way back to D.C.
Obama first appeared on The Tonight Show in 2006, when he was a senator. He made another visit to the legendary late-night show when he was running for head office last year. Last night's show also featured a performance by country singer Garth Brooks, who performed his 1991 hit "Rodeo."
Sorority Row
Plot - When five sorority girls inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again so they can get on with their lives. This proves easier said than done when, after graduation, a mysterious killer goes after the five of them and anyone who knows their secret.
Directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Jamie Chung, Rumer Willis, Caroline D'Amore, Margo Harshman and Audrina Patridge. This is a remake of the 1983 film The House on Sorority Row.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
'Nother Friday the 13th, 'Nother Remake
New take on The Last House on the Left is actually worthwhile!
It doesn't bother me when new directors update a classic--or not-so-classic--horror movie, but what does bother me is when they sacrifice novel ideas and character progress for a cinematic cash-cow or perhaps a timely release date. Such was the case of a recent remake of the dusty Friday the 13th franchise, which did little to enhance the cult following of the movie's villain, in the midst of a convenient Friday the 13th premiere. Fortunately, this year's second consecutive Friday the 13th offered something much more acceptable, and it too, was another Hollywood remake.
Director Dennis Iliadis borrowed the bulk of Wes Craven's scandalous 1972 horror feature The Last House on the Left, which he also scripted, but plot aside, Iliadis' rehatch is visually advanced, and it arouses more emotion than most other films in its class. John & Emma Collingwood (played copacetically by Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) are the well-off parents of swimming prodigy Mari (played by TV and teen movie beauty Sara Paxton), all of whom leave the city to vacation at their gracious lake house, a year after the death of their son. Soon after their arrival, Mari strands her folks at the house and borrows the vehicle to visit friend Paige (Superbad's Martha MacIsaac) in town.
Paige freely flaunts with havoc, as it seems, and gets the pair entwined with a group of savage felons. Television vet Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood, ER) leads the pack as Krug, who's son Justin (Unbreakable's Spencer Treat Clark) innocently travels with the trio (also made up of Aaron Paul and Riki Lindhome), but refuses to conform. They kill off Paige and leave Mari to die, and then happen to take refuge at the Collingwood's lakeside residence. When a barely-alive Mari finds her way home and her parents realize that their sinister house guests are responsible for their daughter's rape and indignities, they seek merciless vengeance.
The Last House on the Left evokes various sentiments in its 110 minutes, from absolute revulsion during a rape scene, to utter rapture when the Collingwood's redefine vigilante justice. And that's all we can ask from a film, to stimulate our emotions and keep us awake for the ride...to remind us why we go to the movies in the first place. Now don't get me wrong, a classic this movie is not, but it is clear that this revamp is superior to its 37-year-old master, and one that had me begging for more bloody retribution than ever before!
3/5 stars
Emil Tiedemann
It doesn't bother me when new directors update a classic--or not-so-classic--horror movie, but what does bother me is when they sacrifice novel ideas and character progress for a cinematic cash-cow or perhaps a timely release date. Such was the case of a recent remake of the dusty Friday the 13th franchise, which did little to enhance the cult following of the movie's villain, in the midst of a convenient Friday the 13th premiere. Fortunately, this year's second consecutive Friday the 13th offered something much more acceptable, and it too, was another Hollywood remake.Director Dennis Iliadis borrowed the bulk of Wes Craven's scandalous 1972 horror feature The Last House on the Left, which he also scripted, but plot aside, Iliadis' rehatch is visually advanced, and it arouses more emotion than most other films in its class. John & Emma Collingwood (played copacetically by Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) are the well-off parents of swimming prodigy Mari (played by TV and teen movie beauty Sara Paxton), all of whom leave the city to vacation at their gracious lake house, a year after the death of their son. Soon after their arrival, Mari strands her folks at the house and borrows the vehicle to visit friend Paige (Superbad's Martha MacIsaac) in town.
Paige freely flaunts with havoc, as it seems, and gets the pair entwined with a group of savage felons. Television vet Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood, ER) leads the pack as Krug, who's son Justin (Unbreakable's Spencer Treat Clark) innocently travels with the trio (also made up of Aaron Paul and Riki Lindhome), but refuses to conform. They kill off Paige and leave Mari to die, and then happen to take refuge at the Collingwood's lakeside residence. When a barely-alive Mari finds her way home and her parents realize that their sinister house guests are responsible for their daughter's rape and indignities, they seek merciless vengeance.
The Last House on the Left evokes various sentiments in its 110 minutes, from absolute revulsion during a rape scene, to utter rapture when the Collingwood's redefine vigilante justice. And that's all we can ask from a film, to stimulate our emotions and keep us awake for the ride...to remind us why we go to the movies in the first place. Now don't get me wrong, a classic this movie is not, but it is clear that this revamp is superior to its 37-year-old master, and one that had me begging for more bloody retribution than ever before!
3/5 stars
Emil Tiedemann
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wild Things to be Unleashed
To the left (click to enlarge) is the first poster released for Where the Wild Things Are. Which was a children’s picture book published in 1963. The book is about the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max, who is punished for “making mischief” by being sent to his room without supper. Max wears a distinctive wolf suit during his adventures and encounters various mythical creatures, the wild things. While the book is only ten sentences long, it is regarded as a classic of American illustrated children’s literature.Many times in the past has the book been adapted or attempted to being adapted. Starting in 1973 with an animated version directed by Gene Deitch. In 1983, Walt Disney Pictures was set to produce a CGI version of the book, but never got production off the ground. Randall Woolf created a ballet version for the American Repertory Ballet in 1997, which subsequently toured the United States. A musical emerged in 2004 from a Chicago based group, Emerald City Theatre Company. 2006 saw a commemorative stamp depicting a Wild Thing in a series of “Favourite Children’s Book Animals”.
Fast forward to October 16th, 2009 and you will find yourself sitting in theatres. That is right; Where the Wild Things Are is being adapted for the big screen. Directed by Spike Jonze and written by Dave Eggers, the film stars Catherine Keener, Max Records, James Gandolfini, Angus Sampson, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O’Hare and Paul Dano. The film will combine live action, suitmation, animatronics and CGI.
New in News...
'Darth Vader' falls ill, Cloverfield 2 in works, Kelly Clarkson hits #1, David Cronenberg honoured
The bodybuilder who played Darth Vader in the 1977 cult classic Stars Wars film, David Prowse, has revealed that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 73-year-old part-time actor underwent radiation treatment at the Royal Morsten Hospital in London for the last two months, and claims that he is feeling "fantastic." Prowse has also had small parts in Casino Royale (1967), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Vampire Circus (1972).
The bodybuilder who played Darth Vader in the 1977 cult classic Stars Wars film, David Prowse, has revealed that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 73-year-old part-time actor underwent radiation treatment at the Royal Morsten Hospital in London for the last two months, and claims that he is feeling "fantastic." Prowse has also had small parts in Casino Royale (1967), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Vampire Circus (1972).Following months of speculation, mega producer J.J. Abrams (Alias, Star Trek remake) has confirmed that he is working on a sequel to the 2008 thriller Cloverfield, which grossed $170 million worldwide last year. "We're actually working on an idea right now," Abrams announced at the 2009 WonderCon in San Francisco. He continued, "If you're going to do something, it should be because you're really inspired to do it."
For the second time in her career, inaugural American Idol champ Kelly Clarkson finds herself atop the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, with her fourth effort All I Ever Wanted (RCA), which sold 255,000 copies its first week out. Clarkson, 26, worked closely on the record with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who co-produced the set and co-penned five of its 17 tracks. The first single, "My Life Would Suck Without You," also hit No.1.
Consul general Jerome Cauchard will host an April 1st ceremony in Toronto to honour Canadian director David Cronenberg with France's Legion d'honneur, the highest distinction in the French nation. Also known as the Medal of Knight to the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, the prestigious accolade recognizes Cronenberg's film work with the French culture. His movies include Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), Crash (1996), and Eastern Promises (2007).
Natasha Richardson Dies In New York Hospital
Tony-winning stage and film actress Natasha Richardson has succumb to unspecific injuries she sustained during a skiing accident two days ago at a Quebec resort. The wife and mother of two was just 45."[Husband] Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha," affirmed a statement issued by Neeson's publicist earlier this evening. "They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."
The initial fall on a training ski trail seemed minor, as Richardson turned down medical advice, only to end up in a Montreal hospital. She was then transferred to a facility in New York, where she was pronounced brain dead and then deceased, with Neeson at her side.
The Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, located 80 miles outside Montreal, also issued a statement: "She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor."
Richardson was part of a dynasty of award-winning movie and stage actors, including mother Vanessa Redgrave, father Tony Richardson, grandfather Michael Redgrave, aunt Lynn Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson, and husband Neeson. The late actress' work included films Nell (1994), The Parent Trap (1998), and Maid in Manhattan (2002), and stage productions Anna Christie (1993), Cabaret (1998), and A Streetcar Named Desire (2005). Her final film was a 2008 teen comedy titled Wild Child.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Actress Richardson Seriously Injured in Quebec
After what seemed like a minor tumble at a Quebec ski resort, 45-year-old British actress Natasha Richardson was hospitalized in Montreal for possible brain damage. On Monday, Richardson was skiing on the "beginner's" hill at the Station Mont Tremblant, about 80 miles northwest of Montreal, and was training without a helmet and under the supervision of a professional instructor.Richardson seemed fine after her fall and twice refused medical attention in order to rest in her hotel room. When her discomfort failed to improve, Richardson--who has been married to actor Liam Neeson since 1994--was admitted to Montreal's Hospital du Sacre-Coeur, before transferring to a hospital in New York on Tuesday. The condition of the mother of two has flucturated according to the source, some claiming that Richardson may even have suffered permanent brain damage.
Richardson is best-known for roles in movies like The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Nell (1994/ with Neeson), The Parent Trap (1998), and Maid in Manhattan (2002/ with Neeson), and won a 1998 Tony Award for her work in Broadway's Cabaret. Her mother is Oscar & Tony-winning legend Vanessa Redgrave, and her late father Tony Richardson is an Oscar-winning movie director and producer, who had succumb to AIDS in 1991. Neeson left the Toronto set of the Chloe movie he is in the middle of filming to be with his wife of 15 years.
Posthumous Ledger Projects Arise
Indie pop-rock group Modest Mouse are exciting Heath Ledger fans with their recent news about the animated video for their single "King Rat," which was directed by the late actor, and animated by Terry Gilliam of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Ledger worked on the clip shortly before his untimely drug overdose in January 2008, and the band only recently added "King Rat" as a bonus track for their 2007 album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
"Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, my fiance and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea," remembered Mouse frontman Isaac Brock in a 2007 interview with VH1. "The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it."
Spin magazine also reported that Ledger--who was 28-years-old when he died--also had helmed a music video for a cover of David Bowie's "Quicksand," by Aussie blues singer Grace Woodroofe, who was to be the first act signed to Ledger and friend Ben Harper's indie label Masses Music Co.
Best known for his roles in Brokeback Mountain (2005) and last year's The Dark Knight, Ledger had previously directed videos for Harper ("Morning Yearning") and the late Nick Drake ("Black Eyed Dog"), the latter of whom Ledger had been "obsessed" with, and who had died under similar circumstances in 1974. Both "King Rat" and "Quicksand" will be released this year, though no specific dates were available. Ledger's final film, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Pamassus, is also slated for this year.
"Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, my fiance and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea," remembered Mouse frontman Isaac Brock in a 2007 interview with VH1. "The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it."
Spin magazine also reported that Ledger--who was 28-years-old when he died--also had helmed a music video for a cover of David Bowie's "Quicksand," by Aussie blues singer Grace Woodroofe, who was to be the first act signed to Ledger and friend Ben Harper's indie label Masses Music Co.Best known for his roles in Brokeback Mountain (2005) and last year's The Dark Knight, Ledger had previously directed videos for Harper ("Morning Yearning") and the late Nick Drake ("Black Eyed Dog"), the latter of whom Ledger had been "obsessed" with, and who had died under similar circumstances in 1974. Both "King Rat" and "Quicksand" will be released this year, though no specific dates were available. Ledger's final film, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Pamassus, is also slated for this year.
Monday, March 16, 2009
New Lennon Film Underway
18-year-old British actor and former underwear model Aaron Johnson will portray a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, an indie biopic of the former Beatles' turbulent youth, in which his mother Julia (played by Anne-Marie Duff) and aunt Mimi (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) faught for custody of the future icon.
The Weinstein Co. had just recently announced that it had acquired many of the applicable rights to Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy, a title inspired by the Beatles' 1965 hit "Nowhere Man." The film's screenplay was penned by Matt Greenhalgh, who also scripted Control, a 2007 biopic of Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis. 2007 also saw the release of J.P. Schaefer's Chapter 27, a film telling the story of Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman, starring Jared Leto (as Chapman), Mark Lindsay Chapman (as Lennon), and Lindsay Lohan.
Nowhere Boy, which started filming in Liverpool just days ago, is based on the book Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother John Lennon, authored by the late singer's half-sister Julia. It is expected to hit theatres sometime next year.
The Weinstein Co. had just recently announced that it had acquired many of the applicable rights to Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy, a title inspired by the Beatles' 1965 hit "Nowhere Man." The film's screenplay was penned by Matt Greenhalgh, who also scripted Control, a 2007 biopic of Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis. 2007 also saw the release of J.P. Schaefer's Chapter 27, a film telling the story of Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman, starring Jared Leto (as Chapman), Mark Lindsay Chapman (as Lennon), and Lindsay Lohan.Nowhere Boy, which started filming in Liverpool just days ago, is based on the book Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother John Lennon, authored by the late singer's half-sister Julia. It is expected to hit theatres sometime next year.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Edgar Wright Here
For those who don't know, Edgar Wright is posting a picture a day on his blog (http://edgarwrighthere.com/) from the set of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Below are a few of the pictures that I like but there are so many more for you to check out.
Drag Me To Hell
Sam Raimi returns to the horror genre with a film about a young woman trying to escape an evil curse.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Treevenge Interview
By Colin Enquist
I recently had a sit down with the two filmmakers of the short film Treevenge. The film examines what would happen if the Christmas trees we chop down every year decided to take revenge on humanity.
Stories in Medium: How did you both get into film making?
Jason Eisener: I started making skateboarding films in high school with one of my best friends. In grade 10 drama class our teacher wanted us all to come up with an idea for the school play. The teacher told us our idea was too crazy for the stage and we should try making it into a movie. So we did just that and made a little movie. We showed it to the class, and they really got into it. Their reaction was addictive, so we just kept making movies through high school. After high school I enrolled in the two year Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College.
Rob Cotterill: I have always had a lifelong affinity for film, as a kid I worked in a video store. When I was at Concordia University I took the film study course, and that was the bases of my education. I worked on a few independent films in Montreal, but fell out of it when I moved back to New Brunswick. Inevitably the industry called me back and I started working as an AD (assistant director) and have been doing that for the last 10 years.
SiM: How did the two of you meet up? Did you know right away that you were going to work together for the future?
RC: We met on the set of Trailer Park Boys.
JE: Rob was working as an AD and I started on the set as a daily. We started talking about movies and met at a bar where I showed Rob a short film I shot. He saw some potential and we started working on our own projects together.
RC: We found out we both loved genre films, started hanging out and then started making movies, together.
SiM: You won the South by Southwest Grindhouse trailers contest with "Hobo With A Shotgun", did winning that contest lead into other opportunities?
JE: Hobo was the first project that Rob and I, plus our good friend John Davies did together. It helped get our names out there, espicially in our home town. So when we were putting Treevenge together it helped us get a good crew together. It also helped to get a feature Hobo With a Shotgun movie, which we hope to start soon.
RC: With the success of Hobo and now Treevenge, we have two good calling cards that are helping us get financing together to do a Hobo feature film later this year.
SiM: What inspired you to come up with the idea for Treevenge?
JE: A couple years ago when my family, who really gets into christmas, were decorating the christmas tree and started putting the hooks onto the tree. All I could think was how horrifying an experience this must be for a christmas tree. Being chopped down, dragged into the house, screwed into a stand, lights thrown across them, with christmas music blasting as you are humiliating the tree by placing decorations all over them. It was a really interesting perspective, so I pitched it to Rob while we were making Hobo and he thought it was a really cool idea. After Hobo was finished we sat down and put the story together.
SiM: Shooting the film from the trees perspective was that how the script started or did you start by taking looking at it from a humans perspective?
JE: It was always from the christmas trees perspective. Just seeing what it would br like for the tree on christmas and how overwelming it would be. I thought telling the story through the eyes of the chrstimas tree would be pretty interesting.
RC: The script is entirely from the trees point of view. We were very consience of keeping it that way. The human story around the christmas tree isn’t that interesting.
SiM: Now that the film has finished is there anything you would change?
JE: It is what it is, with any project you wish you had more time for certain scenes. Or if you could back and just change that part you would but you just have to move on.
RC: We have seen the movie so many times that I am sure we could find a few things to change but I think as a whole the movie is pretty great and I am proud of it and I think Jason is as well.
SiM: Like Hobo, is there any chance we will see a full length film of Treevenge?
JE: I think it serves the purpose of the short film, but I don’t know we are always coming up with ideas for other things.
RC: There was some various things we talked about doing for Treevenge that we would have loved to have done, but we just doing a short film.
JE: If there was someone interested we would definitly entertain the idea.
SiM: The trees in the movie, were they a full costume or real trees you just manipulated?
JE: A little bit of both, Rob and our good friend Sara Dunsworth went around after christmas picking up tree carcasses that were left out and we recylced those. There is part in Gremlins where you see a guy in a christmas tree suit. Gremlins was a big influence on this film and we knew instantly we needed a costume like that.
SiM: Did you create a “tree” language for the film?
RC: We didn’t create the tree language, we basically just recorded a several of actors doing a bunch of crazy noises and whatever kind of garble they can come up with.
JE: We took sound effects from squirrells, racoons and dolphins and played around with those. The actors based some of the noise off this and we blended in some of the animal noise as well.
RC: Making the tree voices was a difficult task. But it was worth it, they defintaly needed to have their own language.
SiM: What insights did you gain from making this film?
JE: Rob really got the set to run like an actual film, unlike Hobo which was just him, a few friends, myself and our actor just running around the streets. Treevenge had a film crew, so it was the first time I had to give up the camera and had it in the hands of another camera operator. It was big learning experience for me, I had some challenges getting used to directing the camera operator from a monitor. It was frustrating at first as I was always used to rehearsing with actors and then just shoot it myself. I had to really learn how to convey how I wanted the shot to look.
RC: It was an important process I had to put Jason through. He seemed after the first couple days of it that he got the hang of it pretty quick.
SiM: The film stars Trailer Park Boys regulars Jonathan Torrens & Sarah Dunsworth, was it an easy task of getting these guys to sign on?
RC: They are good friends. I have been working on Trailer Park Boys since season 3. Sara helped us on Hobo and Treevenge, with costumes and casting. There are some really talented people in Halifax and they wanted to help us out.
SiM: Do you feel you went a little over the top for the “baby killing” and “tree rape” scenes? Or did you cut something else out entirely that you felt was to excessive?
RC: There is a deleted scene that was less excessive than what actually made it into the movie. Also there were a couple scenes in the script that we cut out but they wouldn’t have been any more excessive than the baby killing. I am comfortable with it, especially with the opening of the film with the killing of the trees, specifically a sapling that gets stomped on.
SiM: Treevenge played at Sundance Film Festival where it garnered an Honourable Mention. Was this your first trip to Sundance? And will the experience help you become better filmmakers?
RC: This was our first time attending as well as having a film in the festival. It was definitely an eye opening festival for us. This was the first time that Treevenge had played for a non converted audience and we were out of our genre element.
JE: With the film not playing at a genre festival we weren’t sure how the crowd would react. It was interesting to see how the film was going to play.
RC: And it went off, just like any of the genre film festivals which was really amazing to us. Some volunteers came up to us after and said they have never seen a reaction like that in the years they had been there.
SiM: What are your future plans? Any upcoming projects we should know about?
RC: The Hobo feature is what we are working on right now. Hopefully sometime it will be released in 2010.
SiM: Last question, were you wary of putting up a christmas tree after making this film?
RC: I don’t do Christmas trees; I have a fake tree because my girlfriend wants one. That was our compromise.
JE: I really like Christmas trees and I had a real one this year
RC: Isn’t yours still drying out in the living room?
JE: No, we took it down sometime around January 9th.
RC: But you didn’t water it once.
JE: No we did water it.
RC: Yeah right.
Here is the trailer for the movie if you have not seen it yet.
Treevenge has won a number of awards from film festivals including, New York Horror Film Fest, Toronto After Dark Festival, Fantasia Film Festival and a few others. Sundance Film Festival also gave the film an honourable mention. Treevenge also received the Best Short Film award from Rue Morgue Magazine.
Look for Treevenge in a city near you. Below is a list of a few film festivals coming soon that it will be playing at.
SXSW Film Festival
The Saratosa Film Festival
Festival Mauvais Genre
Calgary Underground Film Festival
Boston Underground Film Festival
Faux Film Festival
AFI Dallas
Reelshorts Film Fest
You can also check out Rob and Jason on treevenge.com and also on the treevenge facebook group.
I recently had a sit down with the two filmmakers of the short film Treevenge. The film examines what would happen if the Christmas trees we chop down every year decided to take revenge on humanity.Stories in Medium: How did you both get into film making?
Jason Eisener: I started making skateboarding films in high school with one of my best friends. In grade 10 drama class our teacher wanted us all to come up with an idea for the school play. The teacher told us our idea was too crazy for the stage and we should try making it into a movie. So we did just that and made a little movie. We showed it to the class, and they really got into it. Their reaction was addictive, so we just kept making movies through high school. After high school I enrolled in the two year Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College.
Rob Cotterill: I have always had a lifelong affinity for film, as a kid I worked in a video store. When I was at Concordia University I took the film study course, and that was the bases of my education. I worked on a few independent films in Montreal, but fell out of it when I moved back to New Brunswick. Inevitably the industry called me back and I started working as an AD (assistant director) and have been doing that for the last 10 years.
SiM: How did the two of you meet up? Did you know right away that you were going to work together for the future?
RC: We met on the set of Trailer Park Boys.
JE: Rob was working as an AD and I started on the set as a daily. We started talking about movies and met at a bar where I showed Rob a short film I shot. He saw some potential and we started working on our own projects together.
RC: We found out we both loved genre films, started hanging out and then started making movies, together.
SiM: You won the South by Southwest Grindhouse trailers contest with "Hobo With A Shotgun", did winning that contest lead into other opportunities?
JE: Hobo was the first project that Rob and I, plus our good friend John Davies did together. It helped get our names out there, espicially in our home town. So when we were putting Treevenge together it helped us get a good crew together. It also helped to get a feature Hobo With a Shotgun movie, which we hope to start soon.
RC: With the success of Hobo and now Treevenge, we have two good calling cards that are helping us get financing together to do a Hobo feature film later this year.
SiM: What inspired you to come up with the idea for Treevenge?
JE: A couple years ago when my family, who really gets into christmas, were decorating the christmas tree and started putting the hooks onto the tree. All I could think was how horrifying an experience this must be for a christmas tree. Being chopped down, dragged into the house, screwed into a stand, lights thrown across them, with christmas music blasting as you are humiliating the tree by placing decorations all over them. It was a really interesting perspective, so I pitched it to Rob while we were making Hobo and he thought it was a really cool idea. After Hobo was finished we sat down and put the story together.
SiM: Shooting the film from the trees perspective was that how the script started or did you start by taking looking at it from a humans perspective?
JE: It was always from the christmas trees perspective. Just seeing what it would br like for the tree on christmas and how overwelming it would be. I thought telling the story through the eyes of the chrstimas tree would be pretty interesting.
RC: The script is entirely from the trees point of view. We were very consience of keeping it that way. The human story around the christmas tree isn’t that interesting.
SiM: Now that the film has finished is there anything you would change?
JE: It is what it is, with any project you wish you had more time for certain scenes. Or if you could back and just change that part you would but you just have to move on.
RC: We have seen the movie so many times that I am sure we could find a few things to change but I think as a whole the movie is pretty great and I am proud of it and I think Jason is as well.
SiM: Like Hobo, is there any chance we will see a full length film of Treevenge?
JE: I think it serves the purpose of the short film, but I don’t know we are always coming up with ideas for other things.
RC: There was some various things we talked about doing for Treevenge that we would have loved to have done, but we just doing a short film.
JE: If there was someone interested we would definitly entertain the idea.
SiM: The trees in the movie, were they a full costume or real trees you just manipulated?
JE: A little bit of both, Rob and our good friend Sara Dunsworth went around after christmas picking up tree carcasses that were left out and we recylced those. There is part in Gremlins where you see a guy in a christmas tree suit. Gremlins was a big influence on this film and we knew instantly we needed a costume like that.
SiM: Did you create a “tree” language for the film?
RC: We didn’t create the tree language, we basically just recorded a several of actors doing a bunch of crazy noises and whatever kind of garble they can come up with.
JE: We took sound effects from squirrells, racoons and dolphins and played around with those. The actors based some of the noise off this and we blended in some of the animal noise as well.
RC: Making the tree voices was a difficult task. But it was worth it, they defintaly needed to have their own language.
SiM: What insights did you gain from making this film?
JE: Rob really got the set to run like an actual film, unlike Hobo which was just him, a few friends, myself and our actor just running around the streets. Treevenge had a film crew, so it was the first time I had to give up the camera and had it in the hands of another camera operator. It was big learning experience for me, I had some challenges getting used to directing the camera operator from a monitor. It was frustrating at first as I was always used to rehearsing with actors and then just shoot it myself. I had to really learn how to convey how I wanted the shot to look.
RC: It was an important process I had to put Jason through. He seemed after the first couple days of it that he got the hang of it pretty quick.
SiM: The film stars Trailer Park Boys regulars Jonathan Torrens & Sarah Dunsworth, was it an easy task of getting these guys to sign on?
RC: They are good friends. I have been working on Trailer Park Boys since season 3. Sara helped us on Hobo and Treevenge, with costumes and casting. There are some really talented people in Halifax and they wanted to help us out.
SiM: Do you feel you went a little over the top for the “baby killing” and “tree rape” scenes? Or did you cut something else out entirely that you felt was to excessive?
RC: There is a deleted scene that was less excessive than what actually made it into the movie. Also there were a couple scenes in the script that we cut out but they wouldn’t have been any more excessive than the baby killing. I am comfortable with it, especially with the opening of the film with the killing of the trees, specifically a sapling that gets stomped on.
SiM: Treevenge played at Sundance Film Festival where it garnered an Honourable Mention. Was this your first trip to Sundance? And will the experience help you become better filmmakers?
RC: This was our first time attending as well as having a film in the festival. It was definitely an eye opening festival for us. This was the first time that Treevenge had played for a non converted audience and we were out of our genre element.
JE: With the film not playing at a genre festival we weren’t sure how the crowd would react. It was interesting to see how the film was going to play.
RC: And it went off, just like any of the genre film festivals which was really amazing to us. Some volunteers came up to us after and said they have never seen a reaction like that in the years they had been there.
SiM: What are your future plans? Any upcoming projects we should know about?
RC: The Hobo feature is what we are working on right now. Hopefully sometime it will be released in 2010.
SiM: Last question, were you wary of putting up a christmas tree after making this film?
RC: I don’t do Christmas trees; I have a fake tree because my girlfriend wants one. That was our compromise.
JE: I really like Christmas trees and I had a real one this year
RC: Isn’t yours still drying out in the living room?
JE: No, we took it down sometime around January 9th.
RC: But you didn’t water it once.
JE: No we did water it.
RC: Yeah right.
Here is the trailer for the movie if you have not seen it yet.
Treevenge has won a number of awards from film festivals including, New York Horror Film Fest, Toronto After Dark Festival, Fantasia Film Festival and a few others. Sundance Film Festival also gave the film an honourable mention. Treevenge also received the Best Short Film award from Rue Morgue Magazine.
Look for Treevenge in a city near you. Below is a list of a few film festivals coming soon that it will be playing at.
SXSW Film Festival
The Saratosa Film Festival
Festival Mauvais Genre
Calgary Underground Film Festival
Boston Underground Film Festival
Faux Film Festival
AFI Dallas
Reelshorts Film Fest
You can also check out Rob and Jason on treevenge.com and also on the treevenge facebook group.
State of Play
State of Play is a BBC mini-series that aired in 2003. It has been on my "need to watch" list for quite some time now. Yet I still haven't seen the damn thing. Fast forward, now 2009, and on April 17th the hollywood film will be released. The film is directed by Kevin Macdonald and starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Jason Bateman. And after seeing the trailer a month ago I thought it looked really good, and now, I think it just may be my most anticipated movie of 2009. Watch the trailer below and tell me what you think?
Watchmen
The Watchmen started out great. Lots of action, and it was following the graphic novel quite well. The story of former super heroes who were forced to quit by the government, which turned out to be quite a bit more than that. When you think the movie is only about that, it quickly goes into another direction near the end of the movie. At approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes, that length was needed for all the material that was in the book. It was quite faithful until near the end where it went into what pretty much every comic book adaption leads to, making their own endings, changing it to make it more movie friendly perhaps? I quite enjoyed the movie up until those changes were made, thus making it a very good movie for me, which should have been great.
3.5 out of 5
Monday, March 9, 2009
Worth the Wait!
Compliments to director Zack Snyder on his laborious quest to bring one of the most celebrated graphic novels--Dave Gibbons & Alan Moore's Watchmen--to a theatre near you. Visually stunning, melodically nostalgic, and just plain fun to watch, the 162-minute epic updated a story first told back in 1986, and in my humble opinion, was well worth the wait. As one of the darker superhero movies we've seen, the R-rated Watchmen shamelessly delves into the loathsome chambers of humanity and its heroes, and comes out the other end questioning the morality of one's thurst for unity and peace, all wrapped up in a pretty--and expensive--package.4/5 stars
Emil Tiedemann
Who Watched The Watchmen?
After the anticipation of hearing that one of my favourite books was being brought to the screen, I got a little worried. Could it be transferred without losing its effectiveness from book to film? Guess I shouldn’t worry when Zach Snyder is directing the adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons 12 issue maxi-series, which is now known as one of the greatest graphic novels of our time. “Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorshach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion, Rorshach glimpse a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity, but who is watching the Watchmen?
Snyder adapted the film faithfully, not missing a beat even though he was forced to cut out scenes or avoid sub-plots from the book. The direction of the movie shows he was the right choice, not skipping any minor detail that was on the pages. Small hints at items from the book, a joke only someone who has read it would get but he did it without confusing the casual movie fan who has not read the book. The montage that Snyder created for the opening credits over “The Times They Are A-Changing” was worth the ticket price alone. Aside from the one scene that could have been probably left out as it almost ruins your view on a certain character right away. Bringing us the history, albeit brief history, of the Minutemen and the way the path the world has taken since the dawn of the costumed hero era started in the 1940s.
Casting was extremely well done; Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman are perfectly cast. But it is Jackie Earle Haley who takes the weight of the movie on his shoulders by really becoming the character Rorshach, almost to the level that Heath Ledger did with the Joker in the Dark Night. The only character miscast I felt, was Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. Robert Wisden as Richard Nixon also was miscast, but that could just be because of Frank Langella’s spectacular performance in Frost/Nixon as the same character.
Attempting to bring Dr. Manhattan to the big screen in his entire blue glory was probably the one thing I was worried wouldn’t work. Yet again, Snyder and crew make it work perfectly. Along with the stunning visuals was the soundtrack, which was taken from various artists in that era. While those songs may not have worked in other films, it works wonders for Watchmen. The soundtrack to the film reminded me of the Donnie Darko soundtrack. While the score for the film was almost forgetful, yet it worked well not overpowering the superheroes on the screen.
The ending has been changed, more of tweak from the book. Without giving it away, all I can say is the effect is the same. They just used a different means to get to the end. The only flaw I found within the movie was the lack of worry about the nuclear holocaust. Maybe it was because I knew the outcome of the book and assumed it was the same for the movie, but it came across as an empty plot just in the background. With more focus, it would require more emotion from the characters as well as the viewer if we were shown that a mass genocide was immanent
This film is a highly complex character study which is layered with everything from military posturing, politics, patriotism and asks the philosophical question of what is right and what is wrong. Sitting in the theatre after the credits roll, I still don’t know who was right as both sides have very valid arguments.
With the announcement of a really good chunk of footage being added to the DVD release I will have to do another review, as the movie will be much different. Until I can see those special features I will just imagine Snyder sitting with the cast and crew showing them storyboards, but really they are not storyboards. Just the graphic novel cut out and pasted in front of them, which is how faithful the movie really is. Alex Tse and David Hayter didn’t really write a screenplay, they just took Alan Moore’s graphic novel and typed it out word for word. Not to say they didn’t work on the script but, let’s be honest, Alan Moore wrote this film and Dave Gibbons shot it.
Snyder adapted the film faithfully, not missing a beat even though he was forced to cut out scenes or avoid sub-plots from the book. The direction of the movie shows he was the right choice, not skipping any minor detail that was on the pages. Small hints at items from the book, a joke only someone who has read it would get but he did it without confusing the casual movie fan who has not read the book. The montage that Snyder created for the opening credits over “The Times They Are A-Changing” was worth the ticket price alone. Aside from the one scene that could have been probably left out as it almost ruins your view on a certain character right away. Bringing us the history, albeit brief history, of the Minutemen and the way the path the world has taken since the dawn of the costumed hero era started in the 1940s.
Casting was extremely well done; Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman are perfectly cast. But it is Jackie Earle Haley who takes the weight of the movie on his shoulders by really becoming the character Rorshach, almost to the level that Heath Ledger did with the Joker in the Dark Night. The only character miscast I felt, was Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. Robert Wisden as Richard Nixon also was miscast, but that could just be because of Frank Langella’s spectacular performance in Frost/Nixon as the same character.Attempting to bring Dr. Manhattan to the big screen in his entire blue glory was probably the one thing I was worried wouldn’t work. Yet again, Snyder and crew make it work perfectly. Along with the stunning visuals was the soundtrack, which was taken from various artists in that era. While those songs may not have worked in other films, it works wonders for Watchmen. The soundtrack to the film reminded me of the Donnie Darko soundtrack. While the score for the film was almost forgetful, yet it worked well not overpowering the superheroes on the screen.
The ending has been changed, more of tweak from the book. Without giving it away, all I can say is the effect is the same. They just used a different means to get to the end. The only flaw I found within the movie was the lack of worry about the nuclear holocaust. Maybe it was because I knew the outcome of the book and assumed it was the same for the movie, but it came across as an empty plot just in the background. With more focus, it would require more emotion from the characters as well as the viewer if we were shown that a mass genocide was immanent
This film is a highly complex character study which is layered with everything from military posturing, politics, patriotism and asks the philosophical question of what is right and what is wrong. Sitting in the theatre after the credits roll, I still don’t know who was right as both sides have very valid arguments.
With the announcement of a really good chunk of footage being added to the DVD release I will have to do another review, as the movie will be much different. Until I can see those special features I will just imagine Snyder sitting with the cast and crew showing them storyboards, but really they are not storyboards. Just the graphic novel cut out and pasted in front of them, which is how faithful the movie really is. Alex Tse and David Hayter didn’t really write a screenplay, they just took Alan Moore’s graphic novel and typed it out word for word. Not to say they didn’t work on the script but, let’s be honest, Alan Moore wrote this film and Dave Gibbons shot it.
4 out of 5
Colin Enquist
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Watchmen has big first-day numbers
Zack Snyder's Watchmen epic pulled in an estimated $4.6 million in its midnight shows alone, hitting theatres across North America at 12:01 am Friday morning. That bested the $2.5 million that Snyder's last blockbuster, 300, earned with its midnight showings back in March 2007, but came up short for first-day tallies, as Watchmen made about $25 million on Friday, compared to 300's $28.1 million take. That gives Warner Brothers' Watchmen the third highest-grossing first-day total for an R-rated film, behind 300 and The Matrix Reloaded, which garnered $42.5 million in '03. Watchmen also opened in more theatres--3,611--than any other R-rated movie in history, some 500 more than 300, which went on to produce an accumulated $210 million at the domestic box office.Watchmen, which is a superhero feature based on the 23-year-old 12-book DC graphic novel series penned by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is the first major blockbuster flick of the year, and is expected to rake in about $65 million in its first weekend, less than the $70.9 million total that 300 did two years ago. These numbers are more than good enough to give it the #1 spot at the box office this Sunday, bumping Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail from its two-week reign at the top.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Album of the Month (March): Only by the Night by Kings of Leon
The Kings of Leon are a Nashville-based rock band made up of brothers Caleb (lead vocals & rhythm guitar), Nathan (drums), and Jared (bass) Followill, and their cousin Matthew on lead guitar, and Only by the Night is their breakout record, and one of the best collections of songs I've heard this decade.Originally formed in 2000 in a town synonymous with country music and its Grand Ole Opry, the Kings of Leon (named after their Pentecostal preacher grandfather) eventually signed a major recording contract and issued a couple of EPs in 2003 (Holy Roller Novocaine and What I Saw), before launching their first full-length album, Youth and Young Manhood, that same year. With 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak the band's early garage-punk rock sound--with a hint of reggae--barely shifted, but demonstrated growth from their esteemed debut. They eclipsed their potential with a third effort, 2007's Because of the Times, which, like their first two albums, was an applauded commercial success throughout Europe, but sizzled on home turf, despite killer tracks like "On Call" and "Charmer."
Fast forward to September 2008 and the U.S.-launch of Only by the Night, which finally garnered the Kings some real homegrown attention, in addition to a Grammy Award and their first No.1 rock hit. With Angelo Petraglia (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin) and Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Tom Waits) at the helm, the Followill's penned all eleven tracks, including the radio-friendly, aptly-titled "Sex on Fire," which served as the lead single. The Kings are optimum with "Sex on Fire," but just as riveting on "Crawl," en route to be single as well, with a fuzzy bass strutting alongside Caleb's tangled anti-war serenade.
Caleb stretches out his rough voice as the record's most distinctive and enticing instrument, one that has the versatility to make one want to cry and dance at the same time, such as with "Revelry" and the album's second single "Use Somebody," which is a poignant distress call that lyricist Caleb credited to the city of Glasgow, Scotland for easing him through a bleak moment while on tour there. On the second half of Night the band changes gears slightly, and play around with a few unconventional ideas that only make the set more ambitious and charming, including "I Want You," "Be Somebody," and the enslaving "Notion."
At times Caleb's lead vocals sound like a cross between Jay Malinowski (of Bedouin Soundclash) and Jonny Lang, but he seems to find his own on most of the album's cuts, including "17," "Manhattan," and the haunting closer "Cold Desert," which exposes its singer probably more than anything else on the record. Despite all of the public comparisons--including U2 and an early Bruce Springsteen--Only by the Night is unambiguously the Kings of Leon, a band that has grown into its own by now. Only by the Night has captured the best of four provoked musicians that are in between their perpetuate arrival and their global dominance.
5 out of 5 stars
Emil Tiedemann
Public Enemies
In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.