Sunday, December 30, 2007

Random Movie News


Peter Berg set to direct Dune remake.

…As well as Tom Cruise movie Edwin A. Salt.

The Host II (sequel to the South Korea’s bestselling movie ever) should start filming this summer with a 2009 release. It’s being produced by Choi Yong-bae (who also produced the first) and the screenplay is being worked on by comic artist Kang Full. The Host II will be set in 2003.

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li will start filming in March with Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li. Speaking of Street Fighter...

Jean Claude Van Damme will star in a film he’s written and directing called Full Love that will start filming in Bangkok at the end of March/beginning of April. And it’s a romance(!). I will make no comment on the title.

Fox's 2008 Releases

27 Dresses - January 11
Meet the Spartans - January 25
Jumper - February 14
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! - March 4
Shutter - March 21
What Happens in Vegas - May 16
Starship Dave - May 30
The Happening - June 13
Babylon A.D. - August 29

Unknown Date:
Australia

Disney's 2008 Releases


Step Up 2 the Streets - February 14
College Road Trip - March 7
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - May 16
WALL*E - June 27
Bolt - November 26
Bedtime Stories - December 25

Unknown date:
Swing Vote
South of the Border
Morning Light
Miracle at St. Anna
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Bolt

Paramount's 2008 Releases

Cloverfield - Jan 18
Strange Wilderness - February 1
The Spiderwick Chronicles - February 15
Drillbit Taylor - March 21
Stop-Loss - March 28
Shine a Light - April 4
The Ruins - April 11
Iron Man - May 2
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - May 22
Kung Fu Panda - June 6
The Love Guru - June 20
Tropic Thunder - July 11
Eagle Eye - August 8
Case 39 - August 22
Nowhereland - September 26
Madagascar: The Crate Escape - November 7
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - November 26
Revolutionary Road - December 19
Star Trek XI - December 25

Unknown date:
Ghost Town
A Tale of Two Sisters

Warner Brother’s 2008 Releases


One Missed Call - Jan. 4.
Fool's Gold - February 8
10,000 B.C. - March 7
Speed Racer - May 9
Nights in Rodanthe - June 6
Get Smart - June 20
The Dark Knight - July 18
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - August 8
The Half-Blood Prince - November 21

Unknown date:
Whiteout
RocknRolla
Where the Wild Things Are
Untitled Ridley Scott Film

Universal's 2008 Releases



The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggietales Movie January - 11
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins - February 8
Leatherheads - April 4
Wild Child - April 4
Baby Mama - April 18
Forgetting Sarah Marshal - May 30
Incredible Hulk - June 13
Wanted - June 27
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - July 11
Mamma Mia! - July 18
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - August 1
Death Race - September 26
The Express - October 3
The Tale of Despereaux - December 19

Unknown date:
Frost/Nixon
Changeling
Flash of Genius
Doomsday

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Whatever Friday!

The year was 1982. Stephen Spielberg directed a great film about a height challenged alien (oh, wait, "extra-terrestrial") with a taste for Reese's Pieces. And, yea, the children rejoiced.

And then came the game. Bankrupting a company, crashing an industry, adding to a New Mexican landfill. It continues to haunt gamers and live in infamy, to this day.

Here, to finish off the year, is the commercial.

E.T. the video game:

Cult news... From around the world!


A ten year old from Kent has not only the world’s coolest geek bedroom, but TARDIS building parents!

The Doctor Who Christmas Special has offended the last living Titanic survivor.

R2D2 has been kidnapped!
…From a Swiss museum.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

New FEARs Day





FEAR.net is having a weeklong event called New FEAR's Day. A weeklong recap of horror in 2007 and a New Year’s Day movie marathon of ten fan selected movies.

There will also be a watch and win sweepstakes, with a chance to win movie tickets for a year and other prizes.

In programming news...



USA has canceled The 4400 and The Dead Zone. The official reasons are low ratings and making room for a new set of summer shows.

Illusion On Demand will now be broadcasting classic Doctor Who episodes, starting with “Tomb of the Cybermen”. So far it looks like they will start at the beginning and work chronologically.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sunday Sunrise


Arise, Hammer Studio! Arise!!!



Hammer Studio’s last movie was 1976’s To The Devil A Daughter, but now, after a its recent takeover, they are making a new movie Beyond the Rave. The movie will be streamed in episodes through MySpace (who is co-producing), before being released on DVD. The new owners say they will put £25 million (almost $50 million US) into new horror films for the web and mobile phones.

Beyond the Rave will have “vampires, blood, death and suspense throughout.” The cast includes Sadie Frost, Jamie Dornan, Nora-Jane Noone, and Tamer Hassan

Prequels, Sequels & Remakes


An excerpt for the Terminator 4 synopsis from Chud.com:
“John Connor is not the main character of Terminator 4; that character is someone named Marcus. Marcus was put 'out of commission' before the nuclear holocaust on Judgment Day and he wakes up about 15 years before the future we see in the original Terminator films, which puts the movie at about 2015 or so. Marcus is a bad ass - think along the lines of Riddick - and what he finds is a blasted world filled with horror. Radiation poisoning, starvation, rampant jaywalking - all the things you expect post-apocalypse. There's also John Connor, who is trying to build a utopian society while running the human resistance.”

Jon Hamm will play Dr. Granier along side Keanu Reeves (as Klaatu) and Jennifer Connelly (Helen) in the “update” of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Dr. Granier is a NASA official who recruits Helen to investigate the alien Klaatu’s arrival. The aliens message is: Live in peace or be destroyed. Filming started in Vancouver in December.

While Guillermo del Toro will produce the American remake of The Orphanage, Juan Antonio Bayona has turned down an offer to direct. The original Spanish version will open in the US on Dec. 28.

The idea for Poltergeist: Kayeri seems to have been scrapped for a remake of the original Poltergeist.

Straight to DVD sequels for 2008:
Cellular 2
The Cell 2 (starring Frank Whaley and Tessie Santiago)
Lost Boys 2 : The Tribe
Poison Ivy 4
Undisputed 3
Batman: Gotham Knight
2nd animated Justice League
Wonder Woman (animated)
Joyride 2
Behind Enemy Lines 3

DVD Releases



Man with the Screaming Brain – December 18
Gabriel - February 19
Tin Man – March 11
Stargate: Ark – March 11

Thursday, December 20, 2007

(A very special) Whatever Friday!

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy is one of my favorite Youtubers, and if you like superheroes then I highly recommend his videos.

For the last Friday before Christmas I present:

Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas

Hellboy II Ecard and TRAILER!



Feel like sending a slightly threatening E-card to your friends and loved ones for Christmas? Then why not send them a Hellboy II: The Golden Army one?

Hellboy. When you care enough to send the very best!

And since I can’t wait for Trailer Tuesday the Hellboy II Trailer!

Free streaming anime

Anime Network’s (A subsidiary of A.D. Vision) First Look officially opened Thursday. After a soft launch, they added new show Gurren Lagann to the eleven titles already available, with more on the way.

Requiring only Flash Player 9 for American residents, it’s a free (and legal!) anime streaming site, supported by advertisements that run before, after, and during episodes. ADV hopes to increase interest in shows before they’re released on DVD, and then subsequently sales. In the case of Gurren Lagann the whole show will eventually be available for streaming, with the first episode going online two months before the DVD's street date.

ADV President and CEO John Ledford said, "Of course we're going to be watching the reaction to First Look very closely. The success of this program will no doubt guide our future programming."

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Lost



ABC has announced the Lost's fourth season will begin January 31, 2008, with its new Thurday 9pm (ET/PT) timeslot. However it might be an abbreviated season as only eight scripts of sixteen episodes were completed before the, still ongoing, Writers' stike.

Following Lost at 10 pm will be new show Elis Stone. It's about a lawyer who either has a higher calling, or is just experiencing hallucinations.

Jackass 2.5



As the first studio broadband film, Jackass 2.5 will be released online first, iTunes and DVD later. Starting December 19th it will be available for free for two weeks from blockbuster.jackassworld.com through Blockbuster's Movielink. This will repeat internationally early next year with different distribution partners.

The absence of MPAA restrictions means that it may be even more over the top. To keep children from watching the movie Blockbuster will have a multistep registration to discourage anyone under seventeen from watching

Also, February 9th, JackassWorld.com will launch and will be the official online site for the franchise.

You know I was just kidding about theme strikes…

So the Monday before last (December 10th) the writers picketed… wearing shirts that said "Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." And carrying signs with things like, "Beam us down some justice."

George Takei told the Associated Press, "This is really corporate greed vs. the creative people, the story originates in the minds of the writers."

Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of Star Trek XI said regarding script rewrites, "We haven't touched a line and we won't."

Peter Jackson to make The Hobbit!



Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”

Jackson, who directed the “Rings” trilogy, will serve as executive producer for “The Hobbit.” A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.

Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after “Rings,” despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting “The Hobbit” 50/50, spokemen for both studios said Tuesday.

“I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line,” Jackson said in a statement. “We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth.”

Two “Hobbit” films are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, similar to how the three “Lord of the Rings” films were made. Production is set to begin in 2009 with a released planned for 2010, with the sequel scheduled for a 2011 release.

Double Christmas horror

Tonight only, as part of their Grindhouse Film Festival, The New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles will be showing the original 1974 Black Christmas and Silent Night Deadly Night, starting at 7:30 pm.


Hey! If you know of any film events, please submit them. I could use the help.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Sunday Sunrise


When have you oh-so-cleverly dropped a movie quote into a normal conversation?

Prequels, Sequels & Remakes


Producer Thomas Schuehly and Mario Kassar will be remaking the 1927 Fritz Lang classic, Metroppolis. Set in 2026, the original told the story of a dystopia where the privileged abuse the working class.

John Singleton has left Executive Order: Six to direct the A-Team movie.

Steve Norrington will direct the remake of 1981's Clash of the Titans. It's set to begin production 2008.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has wrapped up filming and is set for a world premier in Beijing, China, on July 24, 2008.

Night at the Museum 2: Escape the Smithsonian will star Ben Still, Ricky Gervais, and Reese Witherspoon. Basically the same as the first, only bigger.

Will Arnett will replace William Daniels as the voice of K.I.T.T. in the Knight Rider sequel.

The Return of MST3K! Sort of!

Holy flurking schnit! According to Fark and other sources, key members of MST3K are reuniting for "Cinematic Titanic" -- Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, and Joel Hodgson. According to Hodgson, he's decided "to do a new project that is strong enough for our die-hard audience, and also gentle and easy to swallow for those that are new to movie riffing."

The series intends to, like MST3K, use silhouettes; in the case of Cinematic Titanic, however, the configuration of the silhouette will look similar to that seen in the Cinematic Titanic logo. Host segments will play a part, but will not be as integral to each show as they were to the prior series.

Releases will be available to purchase in a number of formats including DVD, a download to be burned to a DVD, web streams, and flash players (including mobile phones), with subsequent releases coming on a monthly basis. Twelve titles have been licensed so far. The first episode should be available soon.

Upcoming movies


Zombieland will be directed by Ruben Fleischer, and is about some survivors who have to team up in the Southwest after a zombie plague breaks out in America.

The Road is about a father and son who have to cross a post apocalyptic US, while watching out for bandits, and other unsavory types. It’ll star Viggo Mortenson and Guy Pearce with John Hillcoat directing.

In Knowing, Nicholas Cage will be playing a teacher who finds a time capsule at his son’s elementary school. The capsule has strange predictions that make him think that he and his son are involved in the world ending in a week.

In Howl, a lead detective in LA must solve the murder of an actress while dealing with the new found hassles of being a werewolf. Powers Boothe, Parisse Boothe, Kam Heskin, Muse Watson, Stephen Toblowsky (You know that guy!), and Eric Stoltz are cast.

HomeComing, a thriller starring Mischa Barton, is about a college guy and his new girlfriend visiting during Christmas break and dealing with his high school ex who has become insanely obsessed.

James Gunn will be directing the Belcoe Experiment, a horror movie about 80 Americans trapped in their business building in Brazil and are forced into making decisions that cause death to their coworkers by a mysterious mastermind. For some people that’d be a fantasy, not a horror.

The Wayans will be writing and starring in another “spoof” (I use the term loosely), this time on police action films. Keenen Ivory Wayans will direct.

Adaptions

Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter’s Cedric Diggory) will be in the Catherine Hardwicke directed Twilight. Based off the Stephanie Meyer YA novel, the story is about a high school age vampire living a double life.

Toronto based production company, Copperheart Entertainment, has optioned Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern novels.

Tim Burton will produce and direct an adaption of Alice in Wonderland, Alice's Adventures, using both live action and performance-capture animation. Filming will begin 2008, with a script by Linda Woolverton.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Whatever Friday!


Man, I love that picture. This week for Whatever Friday is a link.

Do you like MST3K? Are you one of the few, and the -dare I say it?- brave who willingly watch the Star Wars Holiday Special? Well if you've ever wanted to put these two great tastes together; to hear snarking with sweet, sweet Han & Wookiee hugging action; I present:

Rifftrax's Star Wars Holiday Special for $3.99.

While you're at it check out our Mutant Viewing of the Special.

Star Trek: The Manga!



Out of Tokyopop we have Star Trek: The Manga.

For its 40th anniversary, the "manga" (Japanese term for comic) follows the Original Series characters in short stories from different writers and Japanese style art. The second volume even has Wil Wheaton (Yes, Wil "Wesley Crusher" Wheaton) as one of its writers.

NY Anime Fest fraud

If you went to the New York Anime Festival last week, be sure to check out the following:

"WARNING! A travel agency called VTS Travel exhibited at the New York Anime Festival. In the wake of the show, VTS Travel is contacting attendees, telling them that they’ve won a trip to the Bahamas – but they need to provide their credit card number to finalize everything. VTS is operating a scam. Please report any contact with VTS directly to NYAF’s management. They’ve insulted the New York Anime Festival by offering a fake giveaway at our event, and we do not want any of our attendees to fall prey to them."

NYAF can be contacted here.

Why don't we have "cosplay bars"?

In the middle of December, two new "mobile suit" cosplay (short for costume play) bars, Federation Forces and Zeon will in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. The bars are named after the warring factions of the Gundam anime franchise.

First impressions is that it will focus on the Universal Century timeline from the original Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam ZZ animes. The help wanted ads want female staff to cosplay, and drinks and dishes will be robot themed or will be associated with a character.

It follows the now defunct Gundam Café, which was the first Gundam-themed restaurant, that closed along with the Bandai Museum in 2006.

Toho Film Fest - Okay this is getting ridiculous!


So another film festival out of Los Angeles that's already in progress.

This time it's the Toho Festival: Deploy All Monsters. Every Sunday in December is a different Japanese rubber suited movie.

You can still catch:
Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster (16th)
King Kong Escapes (23rd)
Destroy All Monsters (30th)


Go to The Silent Movie Theater's website for details.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Terry Prachett



December 11th, Author Terry Prachett announced on his website that he has been diagnosed with "a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's".

Geek Charity: Weta tour on auction



A behind the scenes tour of Weta Workshop in New Zealand is one of the items that are on auction for the Kids at Christmas Charity Auction. Proceeds will go towards the Starship, Make a Wish Foundation, and Starjam charities.

The tour will be conducted by director Richard Taylor, and does not include travel or other expenses.

The auction is through Sellmefree. It will close at 9:00 p.m., New Zealand time, on Dec. 19.

Geek Charity: Child's Play



http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

"Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over two million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception."

As you wish.

Along with the release of The Princess Bride 20th Anniversary Edition DVD (which came out November 18th, 2007), The Princess Bride the game will be available for the Mac and PC in spring.

So far it seems that it will be a download only, five episode game. It'll run $20.00, with a discount for people who bought the 20th Annivesary DVD.

Princess Bride game official site

The trailer:

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Lawsuit


Out of Korea:

On December 7th, a Seoul court found Fantom Entertainment Group, a talent management and media production company, guilty of plagiarizing Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Square Enix filed a criminal complaint March 20th after seeing Ivy's "Temptation Sonata" music video.

Judge Gu Hoe-geun, of the Seoul Central District Court, ruled that Fantom had "illegally used 80% of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors from the Japanese video game 'Final Fantasy 7' " in the music video.

The court then fined 10 million won ($10,900 US), with an additional 6 million won ($6,500) in penalties each on Lee Han-woo, Fantom's director, and the music video's director, Hong Jeong-ho.

General Counsel for Square Enix, Yasuhiko Hasegawa said, "This judgment by the Seoul Central District Court is stringent in comparison to other copyright infringement cases in South Korea, and we appreciate that the maliciousness of this infringement has been recognized in a public forum. Square Enix will continue to take decisive action against any infringements upon the company's intellectual property, recognizing that this property is one of our most crucial resources."

A civil suit is still under consideration.

For anyone who's curious the exact scene the music video plagiarizes is the Tifa/Loz fight. I've seen it and, wow, it's almost as shot for shot as the Psycho remake.

But the real Loz is still prettier.

You can see a video comparison here.

Fangoria Convention Tour


January 18-20, 2008, Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors convention will be in Austin, Texas.
In Rosemont, Illinois February 22-24
In Los Angeles, California April 25-27
In Secaucus, New Jersey June 20-22

Click here for more information.

Iron Man game trailer

Machine Girl trailer


Sometimes you're just going along and you stumble across something really bizarre: Today's find is the trailer for Machine Girl (Kataude mashin gâru).

Some yakuza types, with rude eating habits I might add, come and take everything (this involves lots of killing) from a Japanese school girl, including her hand.

Basically, it's a Japanese revenge flick. But it has some cult movie elements: Ninjas, Flying Guillotines, and someone with one hand wielding a chainsaw. So if it sounds like it might be up your alley, you might want to check it out.

Warning: the trailer is very -very- violent, and has a lot of the red stuff:

Machine Girl trailer

Monday, December 10, 2007

Trailers

Some of these links may contain mature material, and MRFH is not responsible for their content.


Speed Racer
Jumper
Inkheart
In the Name of the King
Revolver
Dante 01
Funny Games
Harold & Kumar 2

Deadtime Stories update

The first episode, On Sabbath Hill, is about student who kills herself because of her professor's obsession with attendance, and then comes back to haunt him.


While Dust follows a security guard who steals Mars dust from a secret lab to cure his wife's cancer. The side effects -surprise!- end up being more than he bargained for.

Still no word on the third story or release information.

It's Running Man, only no one dies. What’s the point?

"Run For Money is a fun, fast-paced thriller of a show," said Sci Fi’s Mark Stern. "[It] fits nicely with our reality agenda of putting ordinary people in wild, extraordinary situations. It's high-adrenaline fun, part sport, part real-life video game."

The premise of the upcoming reality TV show is contestants have 60 minutes to make it out of a location “alive” while performing tasks and avoiding hunters.

Production begins in January.

Another Festival in Progress


*sigh* Another film festival I'm late on...

"The Festival will celebrate Conservation, Imagination and Exploration."

The Jules Verne Festival is going on in Los Angeles right now, and... is almost done. But you can still check out "Alien VS Predator Night" on the 14th, and the closing events on the 15th: Appleseed: Ex Machina premiere; Stan Lee being awarded the Jules Verne Lifetime Achievement Award; Heroes - The Event.

The official site for more details.