Saturday, February 03, 2007
News Round-Up: 2/3/07
In a business move that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone, DreamWorks and Aardman have split ways, terminating their seven-year partnership this past Tuesday. The move comes after the poor financial success of Aardman's last two (critically embraced) films, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away. Aardman will now be tasked with having to find other means of financing and distribution for their work, but I imagine that for an animation studio that's won four Oscars (three for Wallace & Gromit projects, and more specifically, projects that weren't shit), it shouldn't be too difficult.
The companies did have one other film in development, Crood Awakening, which was announced at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and penned by John Cleese. Rights to the project now revert to DreamWorks. Don't count on ever seeing it. However, according to Reuters, Aardman is apparently already at work on a Wallace & Gromit sequel! There's your light at the end of this tunnel.
Source: Variety, Reuters, Ta
Solid journeyman director (I'm ignoring Vertical Limit here) Martin Campbell will apparently not be returning to helm the glorious buttocks of Daniel Craig in the impending follow-up to the wonderful Casino Royale. This is too bad since Campbell's two 007 outings (Goldeneye and the aforementioned Royale) were the two best of the last ten+ years. No new blood has been mentioned but let the rumor mill begin milling. Cameras aren't expected to start rolling on Bond 22 till January 2008.Source: IGN
WARNING: SPOILERY!The Departed, Scorsese's fantastic film where practically everyone, well, dies, is apparently unhindered by such trifling facts of the obvious. The film's Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven) is already hard at work on a viable sequel to the coked-up Italian's most (financially) successful film to date. Word is that the proposed sequel will follow Mark Wahlberg's Dignan and a new character that would be played by Robert De Niro. Yes, please! Scorsese's never done a sequel to his own work before (Color of Money doesn't count) but hey, you know what? I hope he does it. Let the motherfucker school Hollywood in the sequel department just like he did with the remake.
Source: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, JoBlo.com
Woody Allen, having been through one bit of hotness in Scarlett Johansson, is now moving his attentions over to another, Penelope Cruz. Allen will be filming an untitled comedy-drama with the luscious brunette in Spain, presumably as soon as he's done with Cassandra's Dream, a drama in the vein of his excellent Match Point, which is due out sometime this year.Source: FOXNews.com
In "Oh, huh, that's kinda weird" news, Russell Crowe is going to be playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in a revisionist version of the Robin Hood story. Variety reports that Universal Pictures has bought Nottingham, a hotly-pursued spec script from the creators of the now canceled show Sleeper Cell, in a deal that will reunite Russell Crowe with Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment. No director's yet attached.Source: Variety
Finally, it seems that there will be a Ghostbusters III. Sort of. Apparently, according to a radio interview, Dan Aykroyd revealed plans for a CG film entitled Ghostbusters: Hellbent. Even Bill Murray is on board, they're saying. Sigh. If they were going to bring back the Ghostbusters, it would only be worth a shit if they focused on the fact that these guys are now balding, fat, and sardonic. And then show Ernie Hudson: Looking as good today as the day he burst out the womb.
Source: CISN Country, AICNDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Labels: 007, Aardman, DreamWorks, Ghostbusters, News, Nottingham, Penelope Cruz, Russell Crowe, The Departed, Woody Allen
Continue reading News Round-Up: 2/3/07Friday, February 02, 2007
News Round-Up: 2/2/07
It's Friday evening, I'm bored, and in a vain attempt to prevent this site becoming SethRogen.com, I thought I'd swing some superhero-related news your way. Aren't I generous?
Everyone's favourite webhead is back this summer, but he's back even sooner in a digital sense, following in the footsteps of X-Men 1.5, The Punisher: Director's Cut, and Daredevil: The Version You Never Wanted To See. Hitting stores on April 17th, Spider-Man 2.1 will include a whole eight minutes of new footage - including extended fight scenes - as well as new commentaries, featurettes, and a sneak preview of the third flick, out this summer. I've always been in two minds over the flick, as, on one hand it's the greatest superhero spectacle since Donner's Superman, and a pretty good responsibility parable to boot, but on the other hand, it has a lot of incredibly tedious stuff involving Kirsten Dunst and her lazy eye. Still, it'll probably be worth picking up just to see more Doc Ock. Click on the picture for the cover art, courtesy of DavisDVD.
Source: DavisDVD
The Hulk 2 hype seems to be gathering pace, and director Louis Leterrier has been mouthing off about the film on SuperheroHype's message boards. He hasn't revealed a great deal, but hey, it's a slow news day. Here's what he has to say so far:
"HULK is CG. We are using prosthetics for other areas of the film.
The main villain is "Thunderbolt" Ross. Emil Blonsky isn't far behind...
We're very close to casting Bruce Banner."
Right then. All signs point to this being a more straightforward adaptation of the character than Ang Lee's 2003 masterpiece. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'll let you decide (it's not).
Source: SHH Boards
Head-in-a-box Gwyneth Paltrow has been answering questions about her role in Jon Favreau's upcoming Iron Man, which is blasting onto screens in 2008. Here's what came from her gob:
"I play Pepper Potts, who's Iron Man's assistant. They have a very charged dynamic.
When do you start Iron Man?
March.
And what do you do to get ready?
Pump it up! [Laughs] I'm exercising.
So why Iron Man?
You know why? Because of the people involved. It had nothing to do with the size of the budget. It was like, if I got a call that there's a six-million-dollar movie, and these are the people, I'd do it. I've always wanted to work with Robert Downey Jr. He's a genius, and I had never been asked to do a film with him before. I'm really excited that it's Iron Man because I've never done anything like it. I'm really thrilled."
I don't know whether it's funny or sad that six million dollars is considered a low budget for a movie nowadays, but there we are: She's Pepper, she's working out and she loves Robert Downey, Jr. Phew, the world can finally go back to normal after those sensational revelations.
Next week: what sandwich Joss Whedon is making while writing the latest Wonder Woman draft.
Source: Entertainment WeeklyDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Labels: Hulk, Iron Man, News, Spider-Man
Continue reading News Round-Up: 2/2/07Thursday, February 01, 2007
"Was your vagina drunk?!"
Update: Head over to Yahoo! Movies for the official North American trailer and Empire Online for the Quicktime version of the international trailer.
The international trailer for Judd Apatow's Knocked Up has appeared on YouTube. Watch your speaker volume, worker bees, as a few f-bombs accompany the bits of Rogen-esque hilarity seen in this short but sweet trailer.
Source: AICN, YouTube, Yahoo!, Empire OnlineDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Labels: Knocked Up, Trailer
Continue reading "Was your vagina drunk?!"Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Seth Rogen's Seed Spreads
Following up on the brilliant simplicity in design of The 40 Year-Old Virgin's one sheet, Ain't It Cool brings us one of the new Knocked Up sheets above. And Seth Rogen's look says more than a million floating heads ever could.
Here's a quick look at two other designs. The one with Katherine Heigl is great too since, again, so much is told in one shot. For a bigger look at the one sheets, head over to Ain't It Cool by clicking any one of these pics.
Source: AICNDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Labels: Knocked Up, News
Continue reading Seth Rogen's Seed SpreadsTuesday, January 30, 2007
There Can Be Only One George W Bush
Here's a thing. After recent political setbacks, like the Democrats taking control of both senate and congress and the continuing situation in Iraq, US President George W Bush has been back-tracking on his denials of the existence of global warming and started trying to woo moderates with talk of protecting the environment, carbon off-setting and alternative fuels. The most recent initiative to come from The White House is to block some of the sunlight reaching Earth. I don't think it is the place of a lowly movie blog to give opinions on the political or scientific acuity of this initiative so I will limit myself to pointing out that this is the plot of Highlander 2.
The very early 90's concern about the hole in our o-zone layer was solved in Highlander 2 by means of an 'electromagnetic field' covering the entire planet, that sort of worked, but cursed all the people Earth into living in a perpetual night.
Current theories on reducing sunlight, according to this Monbiot fellow anyway, include releasing millions of aluminum balloons into the atmosphere (side-effect: destruction of the o-zone layer), releasing lots of salt water into the atmosphere (side-effect: massive drought) and putting a really big mirror in space (side-effect: is a plot device Star Trek fans would scoff at).
The real outcry here is not so much that the leader of the free world is taking his cues from movie plots, but that he is taking them from really bad ones.
Would the world not be a better place if, to get rid of Saddam Hussein, he had just sent one of the Sheens up the Tigris river on an army boat? My vote would have been Emilio Estevez, as it may have stopped him from making the deeply crappy Bobby.
Or how about installing Terry Gilliam as the leader of Iraq? If Lost in La Mancha (the documentary about his attempts to film Don Quixote) is anything to go by, the entire country would have been on its knees in three weeks, wracked by tornadoes, floods, illness and incompetence, with only one cranky old film-maker's sanity and, possibly, talent as casualties.
I guess in such media saturated times it is to be expected that the line between art and life become increasingly blurred - Ronald Reagan pretty much acted like Rambo with his foreign policy throughout most of his term in the 80's. Hell, even Joe Carnahan has been claiming that his brain-numbing bang-a-thon, Smokin' Aces, is actually a metaphor for Iraq and, if he means a complete disaster and affront to humanity, he could well be right. Stories, if we're honest, are dead important in politics. If they are any good, we tend to believe them, with truth becoming meaningless in comparison to that great 3rd act twist. We are suckers for them, and politicians know this. If they can hijack the plot of a popular movie to hide their unpopular policy behind, they will, and often do. It's our fault really - we're the ones that fall for it. The problem thus returns to: George W Bush is using the plot of Highlander 2.
I know he spent a large part of his life drunk and all, but can we face the possibility that the most powerful man in the world actually likes Highlander 2? Dear Lord, save us.
Source: The GuardianDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Labels: George W. Bush, Highlander II: The Quickening, Opinion
Continue reading There Can Be Only One George W BushMonday, January 29, 2007
MODOKTV: Week Of 1/29/07
Say hello to MODOKTV! He's the all knowing and very menacing floating meathead of television. If I was a funnier person I would pull off a whole column pretending to be an obscure Marvel Comics villain that actually has nothing to do with television. Unfortunately, you'll have to suffer through me flinging dry criticism of today's TV series and obscure internet humor that no one will understand.
Enjoy!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR ALL THE LESBIANISM
If you didn't already know, HBO's period drama series entitled Rome has begun its second and unfortunately last season a week or two ago. It's unfortunate because Rome is a great historical drama, with some particularly wonderful acting and even better designs and sets. The new season picks up right where the first left off, with Marc Antony discovering Caesar's dead body. It continues to spiral into the conclusions of all the problems that were left at the end of the first season. Probably the most affecting being the major deaths that left us devastated at the season's close.
What Rome does so well is not unlike the since passed Deadwood, where the show couples real and historical individuals and events, with fictional characters and storylines. In Deadwood we got characters like the Earp brothers wandering into town. With Rome we have all the classical individuals that have saturated our literature and history lessons, along with fictionalized (but apparently documented) characters on the sidelines, whose view is usually the most adaptable and relatable to the audience.
What I think Rome does even better than Deadwood is their portrayal of those historical characters. Octavian is exactly as you'd expect him to be, and the young actor they have playing him is refreshing and entertaining to watch, making you almost automatically favor his side. The same goes for the walking tower of charisma that is Ciaran Hinds's Julius Caesar and James Purefoy's rather slimy and arrogant Marc Antony. It's all portrayed well from the acting and characterization to the authentic nature of the sets and costumes and the nudity.
And lesbianisms.
You can see Rome and Polly Walker naked Sundays at 9 P.M. EST on HBO.
Source: HBO
I CAN'T WAIT FOR ALL THE MIDGET SEX
It's titles like the above why I can't have my mother visit this site.
George R.R. Martin is a pretty damn good writer. In fact, he is one of the few contemporary fantasy writers I would even bother to read anymore. His books also take a long fucking time to come out, considering that on average they're about 1000 pages in length. This is both good and bad. For fans of his series, A Song of Ice and Fire, they've had to wait sometimes three years between books to get the little resolution and story crippling character deaths he's willing to toll out.
This is the reason he has thousands of rabid man children and obsessive nerds clawing at the very gate of his blog and most likely slowly rattling the nerves of his mind. It does not help he gives languishing updates mentioning "the book will be out soon, check in a month or two" and no update comes for three. I can only imagine that his penchant for writing long, descriptive paragraphs about food and explicit sex is holding him up.
Or it could be that he is taking a long time crafting what is genuinely some good character driven storytelling. A Song of Ice and Fire is unlike most fantasy, opting to not have contrived and shallow storylines like the GooseMen of the Mechaisland Tolos'Kandromonoman searching for the lost Shurikenrifle of the Dark Wizard Saucelord the Bold. Instead it has historical roots and often focuses on politics with that high fantasy seasoning on the side.
Fans of the books will be happy to hear that HBO, probably the best syndication for TV drama right now, has optioned Martin's book to be made into a series, with each book being a season. This humble internet scribe believes that if you were going to ever put these books into a visual format, this would probably be the way to do it. Nowadays it's kind of default geek etiquette to say that anything that is long in length should be a HBO series. I still hear to this day the same thing about Watchmen. And I believe Preacher is getting the same treatment (oh, joy...meatsex and arsefaces).
This is only bad news because of the years of production rumors and geek dream wankcasting we will have to endure until the damn thing finally comes out.
I myself am just curious how the more disturbing things, like the oddly detailed and frequent midget sex, will turn out.
Seriously. There's midget sex all over the third book.
It's still a good book though. Just, you know....
...midget sex.
Source: Variety, Not a Blog
SERIES OF YORE AND YONDER
Cowboy Bebop
1998
Okay. I know what you're thinking.
"No, I will not watch anime. It represents everything that is wrong with the world."
But it's cool. This anime is alright. It won't hurt.
Let's first ignore the fact that it inspired the almost emoesque image of a rose in a puddle of water. Or that it also spawned what can only be referred to as the Pale Horse that death rides upon, also known as MAN FAYE (don't search it, I'm warning you (seriously don't search it (seriously))). Instead, let us focus on how the show is one that helps bring the whole western to science fiction genre transformation theory full circle (NO WHEDON DID NOT DO THIS FIREFLY IS BAD NO). Or furthermore how the series is often shaped and amplified in its impact by the pretty incredible blues and jazz music on display.
Cowboy Bebop follows the exploits of a bounty hunter crew in the future. The episodes are everything from stand alone stories to plots focused solely on character development (especially since half the crew has the penchants for mysterious pasts, which actually makes for some of the better scenes on the show). The characters hunt down everything from senile chess players to child harmonica prodigies. It carries all the basics of a science fiction atmosphere, but thickens the style and tone with haughty blues music and western structure, making it this melting pot of some of the best geek genres around.
Though the show sometimes (albeit rarely) leaves you with that same dirty and dry taste you get in your mouth after your friend makes you watch some anime that you wished you could scrub from your brain with a sandpaper(I can thank Twilight of the Dark Master for that), it always hits back with some genuinely good storytelling and style. The music alone, composed by Yoko Kanno, is enough to hold up some of the episodes in praise.
If you're an anime lover, you've probably already seen this and make me sick you Pocky sucking Japperwhore.
If you hate anime, you'll at least find this interesting, if not just a really good watch.
Just, you know, don't use it as a gateway anime and start watching Sailor Moon and shit. It's not long after that you'll find your inner Otherkin and start flying around like a dragon.
The Wire: Season 5
2008
I spent the better part of two hours looking for a picture that would best sum up The Wire. In the process of this searching I saw awesome pictures that reminded me of the last four seasons. Then I decided to watch the third season over again. So, in essence, you can blame the very nature and greatness of this show for making this column three weeks late (also: I'm lazy and fat). That's how truly wonderful this show is.
Really, there is no one picture I can find that sums up The Wire because the show itself has so many themes, plots, and characters that it would do it a disservice to post one picture that would explain it all. Nor could I effectively summarize it, other than giving the unfair brief of it being the life and times of the Baltimore police as they battle the never-ending drug war. Instead you should really just watch it from the beginning and look on in wonder at how it evolves and gestates into the show it has now become. Now just finishing its fourth season, it hasn't lost any of its original charm and intelligence that got it going in the first place.
David Simon, the creator of The Wire, minor deity, and journalist who wrote such great books like The Corner and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, says that the fifth and final season will continue The Wire tradition of having a central theme that will encompass the show. Like season three's reformation focus or season four's concentration on inner city education, this next season will see us dipping into the world of the media. A world that David Simon knows intimately himself.
To be honest, the only thing disappointing about The Wire is that it has to end, and that the ending is far too near. No other contemporary show (and in some cases contemporary entertainment in general) has ever been this thought provoking and inspirational.
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Labels: A Song of Ice and Fire, Cowboy Bebop, MODOKTV, Rome, The Wire
Continue reading MODOKTV: Week Of 1/29/07We've Upgraded!
We're now officially using the new version of Blogger, which has a slightly nicer backend than before. Or maybe it's just because I like ass. Anyway, you'll begin to notice a new labeling system appear on articles that'll hopefully help as another method of finding our archived brilliance.
If you notice any technical oddities, please let us know in the comments below or on our message boards.
Enjoy, folks!
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Labels: TFL
Continue reading We've Upgraded!Sunday, January 28, 2007
1 (900) HOT-CHAT
The crazy and lovable bastards behind what could potentially be the best comedy of the year wanna chat your hot, fuzzy asses off tomorrow. Be there.
Chat LIVE with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost!
Log on at the Working Title site on Monday, January 29th at 10:00 AM US Pacific / 1:00 PM US Eastern / 18:00 PM GMT to join a live web chat with the team behind Hot Fuzz.
Early word is that Hot Fuzz is at least as good as Shaun of the Dead, which pretty much makes it Top Ten material automatically. I sure hope so. Luck Brits get it on February 16th (Andrew and Charlie, I hate you) while we lowly Americans must wait till April 13th.
And simply because it's awesome, check out the Hot Fuzz trailer yet again... in HD!
Note: Dial 1 (900) HOT-CHAT at your own discretion. The Fake Life will not be held responsible for whatever sexual atrocities you may or may not encounter on said calling service. You pervs you.
Source: Working TitleDiscuss this and other Fakery on our message boards! Continue reading 1 (900) HOT-CHAT
