‘Burn After Reading’ Release Date Announced

I am very excited for Burn After Reading. It may even be my most anticipated film of the year, and I’m glad it is solidifying well. This comes from Yahoo News:

“Moviegoers won’t to have wait long to see the next film from Joel and Ethan Coen, the Oscar-winning brothers behind “No Country For Old Men.”

Their next project, the dark espionage comedy “Burn After Reading,” will be released September 12 via Focus Features, the studio said Monday. The cast includes George Clooney, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand, Joel Coen’s wife.”

This cast is stacked with so much talent it is ridiculous. I can’t see any way for this film to go south. The Coen brothers are some of the best creative minds in the business (personal favorites of mine), and with their Oscars for No Country For Old Men it isn’t any surprise that they’ve attracted all this talent. They are masters of dark comedy and they’ve brought in people like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and John Malkovich, who are equally suited for the genre. September is still a ways away, but It’s comforting to have something to look forward to.

Ellen Page Drops Off of ‘Drag Me To Hell’

Due to scheduling conflicts Ellen Page has dropped out of Sam Raimi’s return to horror, Drag Me To Hell. Production for the film has been bumped back because of a longer than expected pre-production process. Pushing the production date back caused a scheduling conflict with two other films Page is set to star in. Drew Barrymore’s roller derby comedy, Whip It and the thriller Peacock also starring Cillian Murphy. Part of the time crunch is caused by the physical training preparations Page is undergoing for Whip It.

A statement from Ghost House and Mandate:

“We were racing to start production so that we could accommodate Ellen’s schedule, but like so many other productions trying to start before the potential SAG strike date, this one needed more time and we had to push back the start of production.”

You read correctly, we are facing yet another monumental strike in Hollywood.

Now the rush is on to find another actress for the role, while at the same time trying to keep investors that bought into the movie mostly based on Page’s participation in the film.

John Goodman and More Join ‘Gigantic’

The more I hear about this film, the more excited I get about it. More great names have signed for Gigantic this week, including one of my personal alltime favorites, John Goodman. We get the news from Yahoo:

” Ed Asner, Jane Alexander and John Goodman are joining Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel in the indie romantic comedy “Gigantic.” Dano, in theaters with “There Will Be Blood,” plays Brian, a depressed mattress salesman whose quest to adopt a Chinese baby is sidetracked when he falls for Happy (Deschanel).

Asner is set as Brian’s pot-smoking, gangsta rap-loving father, and Alexander as his long-suffering mother. Goodman will play Happy’s brilliant, domineering dad. Director Matt Aselton starts shooting the indie film Monday in New York.”

In my opinion, it is nearly impossible for John Goodman to do any wrong and I must say that the role sounds perfect for him. I’m even willing to give Speed Racer (I think it looks absolutely ridiculous) a chance, simply because he is in it. Gigantic already had my attention and the addition of Goodman can only make it better. Also joining the cast are the two veterans, Ed Asner and Jane Alexander, both of whom are beyond qualified to be in any film. The story and the characters sound great, and I cannot wait to hear more.

Paul Dano Signs On For ‘Gigantic’

Paul Dano is set to star alongside Zooey Deschanel in a new indie film entitiled Gigantic. This news comes from the Hollywood Reporter:

“Paul Dano, coming off his featured role in “There Will Be Blood,” will star in and executive produce “Gigantic,” an offbeat romantic comedy being helmed by first-time director Matt Aselton. Zooey Deschanel will also star in the indie feature.

Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Charles Pugliese are producing, as is Mindy Goldberg of Epoch Films.

Written by Aselton and Adam Nagata, the script revolves around a mattress salesman and a young woman he meets at his store.”

There isn’t much in the way of details on this one yet, but I am still pretty interested. Paul Dano made a name for himself in Little Miss Sunshine which he followed up with There Will Be Blood, playing Paul and Eli Sunday. I am also a big fan of Deschanel, I’ve loved her in most everything I’seen her in. From Mumford to Winter Passing and even in Elf she’s proven herself as an excellent actress.

Production for Gigantic is tentatively set for early March in New York.

After Gigantic, Dano will move onto another indie feature by the name of The Good Heart, reuniting him with Brian Cox. The two starred together in L.I.E. directed by Michael Cuesta. The Good Heart is set to start in late April. Deschanel will be seen next in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening alongside Mark Wahlberg.

First Look At ‘Bedtime Stories’

We get the first photos from Hairspray director, Adam Shankman’s, new film entitled Bedtime Stories, from the guys over at /Film In the fantasy comedy, Adam Sandler plays a man whose life is turned upside down when the wild, outlandish bedtime stories he tells his nephews start coming true. In these photos, Sandler is shown sheilding himself from a magical shower of gumballs with an umbrella.

Adam Shankman is a funny guy, and he has plenty of experience in the realm of family comedies. As long as this Sandler is on point in the film, I think it will turn out just great.

‘Superhero Movie’ Poster ***PROFANITY WARNING***

The fellows over at Cinematical give us this poster and synopsis:

“A spoof of several popular superhero flicks, Superhero Movie revolves around a high school kid named Rick Riker who develops superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly. Thus, he soon becomes The Dragonfly … and must go on a quest to stop a supervillain called The Hourglass from taking over the world. Of course, look for a whole slew of ridiculous antics in between.”

I don’t get it. How to the keep throwing this bullshit in our faces so quickly? It seems like the last bullshit spoof movie, Meet The Spartans, only came out a few weeks ago. Every time these movies get released the reviews are rightfully heinous, but they do mindbogglingly well at the box office. The fact these movies make any money at all make my brain want to fucking explode. They’re all the same fucking thing. Why would you need to see more than one!? Seriously, this poster is the exact same thing as all of these other shitty movies. I can’t put into words, exactly how enraged I am right now. All I can say is, for the love of anything that you might hold dear in your hearts don’t see this movie. For the love of any sort of god or other deity, DON’T SEE THIS MOVIE. DON’T SEE THIS FUCKING MOVIE.

‘Where The Wild Things Are’…..To Be Reshot!????

I’ve been hearing nothing but bad news today in reference to the fate of Spike Jonze’s rendition of Where The Wild Things Are. This is a bummer. Chud is reporting that the suits over at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are extremely unsatisfied with the film and are considering reshooting THE ENTIRE $75 MILLION FILM. Ridiculous. Check this:

“Yet I’m hearing that just such a massive reshoot is what is on the table right now. And it’s not because of technical issues, unless you want to consider the lead kid actor and the script technical issues. Sources tell me that the suits at Legendary and Warner Bros are not happy with Max Records, the actor playing Max, the mischievous boy who is crowned King of the Wild Things. Worse than that, they don’t like the film’s tone and want to go back to the script drawing board, possibly losing the Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers script when they do it. Apparently the film is too weird and ‘too scary,’ and the character of Max is being seen as not likable.”

Apparently, the test screenings last year yielded poor response. These are some of the respopnses to the test screenings, most of which I find to absolutely laughable, from /Film:

“I don’t think it’s for young children. They’d probably like the video version from ‘The Children’s Circle’ better.”

Another test screener writes:

“And some kids at my screening began to cry and asked their parents to leave, so that should give you an idea.” “The things are not cute. Max comes off a bit weird and off-putting ‘He slaps his mom!’ and he seems confused and not charming at all.” “No rumpus, no big set pieces, no ‘state-of-the-art’ lucrative sequences just some running around on some desert place and thats that.”

I hope this all blows over and we get to see what Jonze intended, as I trust his judgement. I always thought the story was failry dark. As for “The things are not cute,” they are monsters. Scary monsters that want to EAT Max. As for Max being “a bit weird and off-putting,” he is a bad little boy in a wolf suit, that dreams up a world of scary monsters. He threatens to eat his mother in the book. The leaked test footage looked cool enough, and wasn’t really anything according to Spike Jonze:

“that was a very early test with the sole purpose of just getting some footage to Ben our vfx (visual effects) supervisor to see if our vfx plan for the faces would work. The clip doesn’t look or feel anything like the movie, the Wild Thing suit is a very early cringy prototype, and the boy is a friend of ours Griffin who we had used in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs video we shot a few weeks before. We love him, but he is not in the actually film…Oh and that is not a wolf suit, its a lamb suit we bought on the internet. Talk to you later…“

Bottom line, this movie looks awesome and all the “negative” aspects I’ve been hearing about the film, seem like things I wanted to see in it. I’ve been excited about it for a long time and was glad that folks as great as Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers were involved. Hopefully everything works out and they get to show their film and I get to watch it. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open on this one, for sure.

The Test Footage:
**EDIT**: Sorry it’s been yanked off of youtube and I do not know how to do anything else, but you can watch it HERE!

The Story:

‘The Box’ News

Thanks to the kind souls at /Film we get a first look at the new Richard Kelly film, The Box.

“A mysterious stranger shows up on the doorstep of a desperate married couple’s (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) home with a mysterious box. If they press the button inside the box, they’ll instantly get the money to save their ailing son, but in exchange, someone, somewhere in the world will die. But the temptation to save their dying son becomes too much, and Norma (Diaz) pushes the dreaded button and a gun shot goes off somewhere nearby. Consumed with guilt, Norma must do everything in her power to solve a murder she has knowingly caused.”

The story, based on a short story by Richard Matheson called Button Button, sounds really interesting.Richard Kelly has a huge hit with Donnie Darko and a general miss, with Southland Tales (I didn’t think it was so bad), so this could go either way. I am not usually a fan of Cameron Diaz, especially recently, but she does have her moments. this film will be interesting to say the least.

Ellen Page and Cillian Murphy To Star In ‘Peacock’

She just keeps piling the jobs on. Ellen Page is set to star alongside The Dark Knight’s Cillian Murphy in a psychological thriller entitled, Peacock. This comes from big bad Yahoo:

“The independently financed film is set in the small town of Peacock, Neb., where a man with a split personality (Murphy) fools the town into believing that his two alter-egos are man and wife. Page will play a struggling young mother who sparks a battle between the personalities.

Michael Lander will direct from a script he co-wrote with Ryan Roy.”

Ellen Page is really the hot ticket right now, as this is the third film that she has been cast in over the last month or so, including Whip It and Drag Me To Hell. Like her or not (I do), she’s going to be around a lot in the near future. The movie itself, sounds pretty interesting, and Cillian Murphy, who was also in 28 Days Later is great. I’ll keep my eye on this one.

Chocolate!

The trailer for Chocolate, the latest Thai film from the director of Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong, came out a while ago and it looked awesome. I completely forgot about it until now, when an international AICN spy saw the film and wrote a review of sorts.

“‘Chocolate’ is the story of Zen (Jeeja) autistic girl with the gift of fighting. The same way as Rain Man with Math gift, Zen remembers the fighting movement she watched on TV screen and can react it right away. She was a child of Japan Yakuza who came to do business in Thailand and fell for this girl who’s in loan shark gang. The Gang Boss didn’t impress with this affair and wanted it to end. Japan Yakuza flied back to Japan while the gang girl raised her child alone. But since she’s autistic, mom has to contact the dad to let him know, in case something happen to her.

Zen grew up but Mom get sick with cancer. So Mangmum – the only friend of Zen – took Zen out to get some money on the black book of debts Mom’s hiding.

I mean the storyline is better than before (for Pratchaya and Panna). Making the girl autistic and has the gift for fighting makes sense after I watched the movie. Zen doesn’t afraid/aware of pain. That’s why she fights so hard. And she got the moves from Bruce Lee (Ice Factory scene) and Tony Jaa (Warehouse scene). The first 30 minutes shows you the character and the background. After that, action scenes one after another. The final fight scene will leave you breathless. Just watching this scene in theater makes you feel exhausted. “

I really want to see this movie and I cannot wait until it get’s an American release. You can watch the trailer for it BELOW.