Every man (and woman) needs a stylish trench coat -- and every fan who loves Ridley Scott's neo-noir needs this trench coat. This is a faithful replica of Rick Deckard's trenchcoat of the future, meticulously recreated by Abby Shot. They promise (and their customer reviews back it up) that it will wear the same, even in the endless rain. So, go ahead -- get in a fistfight with that Rutger Hauer lookalike, because it will stand you in good stead. Wear it, knowingly, to a noodle bar! You'll be in fashion in the past, present, and future -- and while all those moments may be lost, like tears in rain, the coat won't be. The grandchild who inherits it will be grateful they had such a cool grandparent.
If Blade Runner isn't quite your style, Abby Shot probably has a coat that is. Among other pieces, you can get the Bride's yellow biker jacket from Kill Bill, Silent Bob's trench, Mad Max's coat, Zoe's Serenity vest, and (my favorite) Wolverine's coat from X-Men. (It would take a special guy to rock that coat.) They're pricey, but they are all custom made for you, which is more than you would get if you spent it at Gucci. Check them out, if only to drool and wish you were really really wealthy.
I really loved the first Speed movie. You had Keanu before he became Keanu, and Bullock before she became Sandra Bullock -- it was simply a nice, refreshing on-screen duo featuring two actors we didn't quite know yet and a villain played by one we already loved. Speed 2: Electric Cruise Ship Boogaloo? Not so much. And even though the sequel wasn't nearly as successful as the first (partly because the story was absurd, and partly because Keanu was replaced by Jason Patric), folks still talked about a third installment in the series -- so much so that The Guardian even announced last year that Dennis Hopper had a role in it. Weird, I know, considering the ending of the first flick, but who knows what these Hollywood types have up their sleeves.
Which brings us to today and yet another Speed 3 rumor. This time, AICN has received a message from one of their sources that says a scriptment for the sequel is floating around and it reintroduces the Jack Traven character, played by Keanu Reeves. And yes, the studio would like to talk Reeves back into starring. No word on whether Bullock would play leading lady (what else does she have to do?), but something tells me folks would rather Keanu if they had a choice between the two, hence Speed 2: Keanu-less Water Park Nightmare.
What say you? Speed 3 with Keanu? You down for it? And did the film Crank already give us the best possible Speed 3 premise?
It's official. Justice League is dead in the water. The last man standing, director George Miller, has dropped out and the film goes back Warner Bros archives -- something I imagine to be similar to the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Reportedly, Miller told an Australian television audience that Warner Bros wants "bigger stars" in the Justice League movie, and that he believes it will be recast. That's not at all surprising, considering the way the world is wetting their pants over Warner/DC's super competitors, The Avengers, which is probably going to be nothing but A-List. What studio wouldn't look at the line-up for Justice League Mortal, where no one compares to Robert Downey Jr., and say "Thanks, but no thanks."
Honestly, I don't know if there can ever be a Justice League movie. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will) but what JLA fans want is exactly what Marvel is doing with The Avengers -- a bunch of solo character movies, establish the universe and the continuity, and then launch a superhero team extravaganza. They want good actors of the appropriate age, not a bunch of young and pretty things. They want it to be a solid effort, not something hastily thrown together for a late summer cash grab -- which is all Justice League Mortal seemed to be. (No offense to all involved, but hey, we're on the outside looking in here.)
When Cinematical visited the set of Sherlock Holmes last month, we certainly wanted to learn a lot more about this much-anticipated film (which we did), but we also wanted to find out once and for all whether the classic Holmes villain Moriarty would make an appearance. Up until this point, Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) was the only villain on record, and so far folks behind the scenes have managed to successfully dodge the big Moriarty question. That is, until now.
Note: Watch for spoilers below ...
While we received a number of shady answers (followed by evil smirks) from the cast and crew regarding Moriarty during our set visit, IGN managed to get someone to talk: Mr. Mark Strong. At the British Independent Film Awards over the weekend, Strong said this about Moriarty's involvement: "Moriarty's in it ... but you don't really see him. I think he's there because if the franchise carries on, there's a possibility that he will appear in a larger guise. But for the purposes of this one and the detective narrative, I'm the guy that Sherlock's after, Lord Blackwood. And he's a cultist/Satanist lord who is the ultimate cad." So he's there, but you don't see him? Hmmm. I guess we'll take that as solid confirmation ... until we find out who's playing him (ahem, Russell Crowe?).
Silly us X-Files fans trying to rationalize why The X-Files: I Want to Believe crashed and burned so badly this summer. It was too thoughtful! Too character-driven! Too focused on giving fans emotional closure, and not enough on slam-bang summer excitement! Long-time franchise producer Frank Spotnitz has a much easier and quicker answer: It was The Dark Knight's fault.
His theory goes thus: The X-Files opened a week after The Dark Knight broke all sorts of records and began its domination of the summer box office. What's more, the dark and brooding film was similar in tone to the caped juggernaut, and not the sort of counterprogramming that might nonetheless have had a chance in its wake. And so you get $21 million domestic.
Look, I'm probably as big a fan of I Want to Believe as you'll find around these parts; for fans of the show it was a lovely, moving conclusion. For fans of the show. The commercial problem with the film wasn't that it was too dark or that it followed The Dark Knight, but that it was too small, and its appeal too narrow. A bigger, flashier X-Files, with more explosions and flying saucers, would have done better, Batman notwithstanding. As it stood, people who didn't grow up on Mulder and Scully didn't see a reason to go. And -- speaking, again, as someone who loves the film -- they probably made the right choice. There wasn't much there for them.
Oh, and as to the possibility of another film that Spotnitz vaguely suggests: no thank you. This was a graceful, satisfying finale.
Fans of the Transporter films aren't usually looking for a lot of subtlety and nuance, not unless those are codewords for "butt-kicking" and "car crashes." But Louis Leterrier, the whimsical Frenchman who directed the second film and co-directed the first one, said in 2005 that he had a subtext in mind for Jason Statham's title character: He was gay.
Chris Lee writes at the Los Angeles Times' fanboy blog that three years ago, when Transporter 2 came out, well, so did Frank Martin. According to Lee, Leterrier pointed to the scene where Frank turns down a romantic advance from Amber Valletta by saying, "It's because of who I am." Leterrier said, "That's him coming out!"
"If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun," Lee quotes Leterrier as saying in 2005. "It's so great -- the first gay action movie hero! ... Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, 'The Transporter, that's such a great movie!' If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."
Statham didn't pay much attention to his director's comments, telling Lee in 2005, "It's just Lou-Lou trying to be funny. Although he did say, 'In Part 2, you will become the gay icon.'" That part might have come true, as Statham's many shirtless scenes made him popular in certain quarters, even if the character himself wasn't overtly gay.
You'd think there wouldn't be a ton of stuff to catch you post-Turkey blokes up with, but it's the exact opposite. So here's some stuff(ing) and things to skim over today:
-- Folks are going bonkers today over news in Production Weekly that the much-anticipated (and kinda secretive) Tron sequel has changed its title to TRZ in order to trick young kids into thinking MTV has adapted their now-retired TRL for the big screen. Okay, that's not the real reason ... but do we really need to know the real reason? TRZ? Here's the snippet of plot synopsis they provided: "After being transported into the surreal landscape of a mainframe computer to destroy an intruder, a programmer finds himself allied with the leader of a rebellion against a corrupt cyber-entity." According to Disney, an official title for the Tron sequel is not set yet.
-- George Miller finally went on the record and told a talk show in Sydney that he's officially off Justice League. He's done. That's it. Over. Dark Horizons says Miller thinks the film will be recast when (and if) it happens because "the studios seem to want bigger stars in their superhero movies now." We wonder why?
-- According to Shock, a source tells them Rob Zombie will indeed return to direct Halloween 2, the follow-up to his successful (at the box office) reboot of the franchise, titled Halloween. Additionally, the site claims Halloween 2 will begin shooting as early as this March.
-- Why do all the Nazi flicks come out during the holidays? And how do you sell them?
-- Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law has been arrested for the deaths of the actress/singer's mother, brother and nephew, according to CBS News.
After the jump: First looks at Whip It and Youth in Revolt, more on Chef and a very cool short film contest.
While I still think there's nothing cooler than the talking Tick I got a friend, this other (in)action figure is pretty cool. At some online outlets like Panik's Toy Box, you can pick up a foot-tall talking figure of Frank the Bunny. You know, James Duval's character from Donnie Darko.
As you can see to the right, Frank is chilling next to a mailbox, and you can choose to keep him at his bunny best, or switch the head and look at human Frank. The phrases that play include: "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?" -- of course -- and "Do you believe in time travel?" As for the price, it's not too bad -- $34.99 -- and it's much more worthy than that damned director's cut. (Although the #1 fan bit rocks.)
Now we just need a Heathers figurine that belts out classics like "How very" and I'll be a happy camper.
Forget about the Clone Wars, because here we have an impressive three-minute trailer for a film that tells of one pen's journey to defend the enslaved pencils from their evil masters, the straight-edge rulers. Described as an "action-packed-epic-romantic-war-thriller -drama-saga starring ... office supplies," The Pen Is Mightier was created for the 2nd Annual Trick 17 Stop Motion Competition where it was awarded the Best Editing prize. According to its little blurb on YouTube, this sucker was "made in 52 hours on 2 dozen redbulls." Now someone get Michael Bay on the horn -- we need to see this epic realized in live-action on the big screen, like, yesterday.
Now that we've entered the final month of the year, look for our site (and several others) to spend some time looking back at 2008. We here at Cinematical will kick off our year-end festivities real soon, but in the meantime Yahoo Movies was first out of the gate with a list of the most popular movie trailers of 2008. Keep in mind this is only according to Yahoo's numbers and represents the most watched, not necessarily the best (we'll have that list later this month).
As expected, a good majority of this list is made up of big summer blockbuster-type stuff, and guess which flick leads the pack? Yup, the one with that damn bat. The top two (Dark Knight and Indiana Jones) don't surprise me in the least, but the next two are ... Twilight (3)and The Incredible Hulk(4)? Really? Those vampires even beat everyone's favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, who came in at a disappointing sixth on the list, behind Iron Man. Check out the titles below -- anything surprise you? Did you expect Twilight to take the third spot behind whoppers like Dark Knight and Indy? Sound off ...
1. The Dark Knight 2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 3. Twilight 4. The Incredible Hulk 5. Iron Man 6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 7. Wanted 8. Hancock 9. Sex and the City 10. Kung Fu Panda
Cinematical has received this exclusive clip from the film Let Them Chirp Awhile, directed by Jonathan Blitstein, and starring a pretty impressive cast of indie talent like Justin Rice (Mutual Appreciation), Brendan Sexton III (Welcome to the Dollhouse), Zach Galligan (Gremlins) and Anthony Rapp (Dazed and Confused).
From the synopsis: "Let Them Chirp Awhile follows three twentysomething artists as they juggle their careers, relationships and emotions in New York City. Bobby (Rice) is a struggling screenwriter who tries to get romantically involved with a woman by agreeing to take care of her dog. His friend Scott (Sexton III) is a depressed, womanizing musician with a sweet and innocent girlfriend while Hart, (Galligan) Bobby's nemesis, is a successful playwright whose campy play about 9/11 has won awards and a run at an off-Broadway theater. What begins as a quirky comedy about relationships and writer's block becomes a coming-of-age tale about competition and self-reliance among the "me-generation."
Let Them Chirp Awhile opens in New York on December 5 (Cinema Village), Chicago on December 12 (AMC Loews Pipers Alley) and Los Angeles on January 2 (Laemmle Sunset 5).
I'm a foodie, so I'm always wowed by the fan cakes that pop up, but this ... this (pardon the pun) really takes the cake. The above should look familiar -- it's an Indiana Jones/Raiders of the Lost Ark Idol Cake, courtesy of Clever Cake Studio. Clever indeed!
Forget old Indy, his son, and the new episodes and sequels. Blech. There's nothing quite like the original, real thing. The only thing that could make this cake better would be to geek it out with a sensor that could tell when the bag is switched with the idol -- without, of course, the tumbling walls and booby traps, that is. To add those would just be a bad idea. Nevertheless, the kid who got that cake is pretty darned lucky.
Or maybe not. I don't know that I could eat something that looks that cool. I'd probably want to leave it out and see how many people practice switching the bag for the idol.
Look, this has nothing to do with films that air on cable television without commercial interruption. And it's even hard for me to rant against films that air on television with commercial interruption because this is the way it's been done for many years now. I can deal with that. I have a DVR, I can record films that air on, say, NBC, and fast forward through the commercials. Sure, from time to time I'll stumble across a flick like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on TNT HD, become sucked in because Peter Jackson created three awesome movies, and have to deal with commercials since I never recorded it. This happened to me yesterday.
But what I didn't sign up for was to watch some stupid character from whatever random television show drop down the middle of my television screen and start waving at me during a key scene in the film. Oh yes, from out of nowhere this guy swings right down the middle of the screen where he meets some girl and -- whaddya know -- it's an advertisement for another TNT show airing later in the week. Thanks. Because it's bad enough they have to interrupt these films with five-or-so minutes of advertisements, but now they're advertising things DURING THE FREAKING MOVIE.
I got over the watermark in the lower corner because they've since made them a bit more translucent (though MTV is notorious for covering up dialogue on the bottom of the screen with their stupid watermark). But this ... I simply cannot get over. I've noticed these little miniature characters walk on the screen during films and TV shows on both TNT and TBS, and I'm not sure who else is at fault but it needs to stop now. It's literally so irritating that I've banned TNT and TBS in my apartment. Not watching either station until they lose the stupid ads. Please join me.
I guess when two out of three films in a franchise are an absolute blast to watch, you kinda try to get behind the odds that a fourth installment will fall somewhere in the middle between awesome and please don't let me see that again ... ever. After watching Beverly Hills Cop 3, I almost filed a police report convinced the filmmakers had committed some sort of crime against humanity. Now, with the next one, you'd think folks would have learned from earlier mistakes. Well, the fact that Brett Ratner is directing hasn't exactly bolstered anticipation -- but maybe the script is good ...
Speaking of, Latino Review managed to snag a draft of Beverly Hills Cop 4 (one they claim "the studio loves, but Eddie Murphy is not too keen on"), and they've slapped a C+ grade on it. Based on their description (which includes spoilers, so watch out), the flick looks to be a combination of the original Beverly Hills Cop and Hitch, with Axel Foley (Murphy) trying to figure out who killed one of his friends, all while helping his new, fat partner score with some girl he has a crush on. LR says it's a "pretty standard police corruption story", and it feels "like the writers took an Arnold Schwarzenegger script they had lying around and changed the details to make it a Beverly Hills Cop movie. There's no fun in it."
Good news is the script will probably change before a final product is shoveled into theaters. What do you think a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie needs in order to be successful with fans of the series?
When we think of the long Thanksgiving weekend, usually a couple of key things come to mind: Lots of food and ridiculous lines at the mall, with people fighting, breathing fire and trampling one another for that next great deal. Thus, check out this fan-created image mash-up featuring the gang from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory flick and Godzilla. I'm not sure where in the world the thought came from to mash these two fantastical properties together, but there you have it. One less sequel you have to dream up. Apparently the image was created for Kaiju Monster Invasion, Miami Beach Fine Art Show, which takes place December 3rd through January 4th. Here's their MySpace page. Check out a larger version below. Freaky, right?
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