So here we have a 3 year old explaining Stars Wars: A New Hope. Oh, the innocence of one who has yet to learn of "Life Day", or "Yippee!", or "Noooooooo!", or the growing train wreck that is Fanboys.
We can never go back, my friends. We can never go back.
Star Wars according to a 3 year old:
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Don't talk back to Darth Vadar...
Dragons, and cake, and fire!
American Gods online.
Might want to keep an eye out for Firefly influenced free web series (and later this winter on Illusion On Demand) Venus Rises.
A video clip of Weta Workshop's Rock2Wgtn festival dragon, Drusilla. By the way, I love the way Richard Taylor talks.
Toronto's Suspect Video lost its Queens St. location in a six alarm fire on the 20th, taking 32,000+ movies titles (many obscure and/or out of print) with it. While I never got the chance to meet it, I still mourn.
First look at Futurama toys.
The Knight Rider R/C car! Actually, I just wanted to post it because the write up is rather funny: "In fact, this beautifully built R/C car is so evocative you might be tempted to buy an ill-fitting leather jacket, get a perm and cruise the highways fighting crime. Or maybe not."
You too can knit an R2D2 beanie!
Or bake a Yoda cake!
Because of the movies, UCC has revived the Evangeleon Milk & Coffee Project -this time with maid outfits!- exclusively for pachinko parlors. I can't make these things up, people.
DVD releases
42nd Street Forever Vol. 3: Exploitation Explosion - January 29
One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta – February 19
The Smurfs: Season 1 - February 26
Slipstream - February 26
Funky Forest: The First Contact - March 18
Nana - April 8
P2 – April 8
Loch Ness Terror - April 15
24: Season 1 (Special Edition) - May 20
Batman: Gotham Knight - July 8
Mario Bava retrospective
March 13 - 23, Los Angeles' Egyptian Theater, American Cinematheque will be hosting Mario Bava: Poems of Love and Death. A retrospective of 17 Mario Bava films, with guests Ernest Dickerson, Eli Roth, Joe Dante, and Elke Sommer.
Titles include:
Kill, Baby, Kill
A Bay of Blood
Five Dolls for an August Moon
Black Sunday
Black Sabbath
Kidnapped (aka Rabid Dogs)
Blood and Black Lace
The Whip and the Body
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
More here.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Book stuff
Dark Horse has made the first five pages of the Hellboy: The Golden Army comic available online.
Flash Gordon "read along" mp3s! Awesome!
Publisher Random House, Inc. announced they will no longer require the use of DRM for downloaded audiobooks.
Infinity Studios has announced that starting March 1, it will release all of its new manga and manhwa titles, and some old ones, as online PDF ebooks. More information and list of affected titles here.
After winning the poll, American Gods will be available online February 28.
Neil Gaiman on "The Graveyard Book"
"Over the last few months people have written in and asked what kind of a book The Graveyard Book is, whether it's for kids or adults, all that sort of thing. And I haven't answered because it wasn't actually finished, and I figured I'd find out when it was done. And it's done now.
"I think The Graveyard Book is a book for pretty much all ages, although I'm not sure how far down that actually starts. I think I would have loved it when I was eight, but I don't think that all eight-year olds were like me.
"It has a protagonist who is about eighteen months old in the first chapter, four in the second chapter, six in the third, and so on, until, by chapter eight, he is all of sixteen years old. There's no sex in it and no swearing. There is some really scary stuff in there, and a few of the people (all adults) who have read it have written to tell me they cried in the last chapter.
"But it's not a children's book. It's a book that I think children will enjoy, but there's also stuff that's there for adults too. It's a book about life and death and making families. It has ghouls in it, and the Hounds of God, and the Sleer, and the Indigo Man, and a lot of very dead people.
"It's not that easy to describe. I'm reminded of Kim Newman's review of Anansi Boys, which began 'Anansi Boys is one of Neil Gaiman's books for grown-ups, which means that it's a lot less ruthless than the material he produces for children', and it's a very true observation. From that perspective, it's definitely one of my children's books."
The book will be out September 30 in the US, and a few weeks later in the UK.
Funky!
March 7-13, director Katsuhiro Ishii's live action comedy anthology, Funky Forest: The First Contact, will screen at New York's ImaginAsian Theater.
March 21-27 at the Grand Illusion Cinema in Seattle, Washington.
April 18-24 at Los Angeles' ImaginAsian Center. The DVD comes out March 18.
Nana screenings
March 21-27, the first film adaptation of Ai Yazawa's Nana manga, NANA, will screen at Los Angeles' the ImaginAsian Center.
While April 4-10, at New York's ImaginAsian Theater, which will coincide with the DVD release on the 8.
It's about two roommates who are complete opposites, who both happen to be named Nana.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
TV News
Show runner and executive producer Chip Jahannessen has left CBS' vampire drama Moonlight. This leaves Joel Silver and the rest of the staff without an official head writer for this season's last four episodes. The last new episode was January 18, with no word on when those final episodes will air.
According to Jericho's executive producer Carol Barbee, the show's future pretty much depends on how it faired this week. But, she says, if CBS cuts them loose she'll look for another home, "There were other people who were interested in us to begin with, and now, I think, with the whole nuts [fan] campaign, and also with the amazing reviews that we've gotten for these seven episodes, I feel like we have made this franchise more valuable to a cable network who would want to take us on as a niche market." SciFi Channel especially is a contender as they're already showing the reruns.
Rufus Sewell will play the lead in Jerry Bruckheimer's CBS pilot Eleveth Hour. Based on the limited British series which starred Patrick Stewart, it focuses on Jacob Hood, a science advisor to the government who, with his female bodyguard, saves people from the abuses of science. Mike Davis is scripting and Danny Cannon is directing.
Starting this month, NBC Universal will be streaming thirteen old shows on NBC.com, free with advertising. They are: The A-Team; Emergency; Night Gallery; The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; Miami Vice; Battlestar Galactica (1978); Buck Rogers; TekWar; Swamp Thing; Tremors; Crow; Kojak; Simon & Simon.
BBC and iTunes have signed a deal for about ten shows, including Life on Mars, Robin Hood, Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show, Ashes to Ashes, and The Mighty Boosh. Most episodes will be available at about $4.00 (US) or £1.89 for either PC or Mac, video iPods, iPhone, and Apple TV.
Warner Brothers has sold airing rights for Moonlight, Chuck, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Germany' ProSiebenSat.1. The anticipated debut dates are Moonlight - June 2008, Chuck - Fall 2008, and 2009 for The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Yuu Watase's shojo manga Absolute Boyfriend is being turned into a live action TV series that will premiere on Japan's Fuji TV April 8. It's a romantic comedy about a young woman who accidently orders Night Tenjo, the newest model of "lover robots." Mokomichi Hayami plays Night, Saki Aibu plays the woman, and Hiro Mizushima will play the sleazy sorta ex/Night's rival (Or at least he was sleazy in the manga).
Monday, February 25, 2008
Trailers
Some of these links may contain mature material, and MRFH is not responsible for their content.
Coraline
X-Files 2 teaser
Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear (Japanese)
Sky Crawlers teaser (Japanese)
Redbelt
Pathology
Boarding Gate
The Ruins red band trailer
Sweatshop
Sunday, February 24, 2008
China expands ban
China continues to expand its bans on television, radio, and movies. This time the focus is on imported animation. Starting May 1, no foreign animation will be allowed on TV from 5-9 pm. This builds on the ban imposed in August 2006. This includes Japan's Pokemon, and America's Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob.
They're also looking hard at stories that "involve alien-looking characters and fictional story telling, both specifically plotted for the sole purpose of terror." Harry Potter, Shrek, and E.T. are among the titles that will be receiving heavy cuts, and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest was kept out of theaters outright. This comes almost two years after live-action and animation mixed films (like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) were banned along with "terrifying publications" (notably Japanese comic Death Note for its "various scary ways of dying").
Also this year, they've started a campaign against "vulgar" content in video and audio products, ordering producers to stop production and sale, and are recalling already on the market products off shelves.
The end of HD DVD
Blu-ray Disc has won the high definition format war. Toshiba's president, Atsutoshi Nishida, announced February 19th that they will no longer develop, market, or manufacture HD DVD players or recorders. While they'll gradually reduce shipments of hardware, March 31 all sales will come to a halt. They will continue to make DVD players, with no immediate plans to make Blu-ray players. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."
With this announcement Universal, Paramount, and Bandai Visual have switched to Bluray.
However, about Freedom (the only anime title in the US that does not have high def versions in both formats) Bandai Visual released this statement:
"In regards to Toshiba's news, we will continue to release future installments of Freedom on HD DVD/DVD Twin-Disc Format. We do not want to abandon our fans that have purchased Freedom 1-3. Retailers will soon stop carrying Freedom 1-3, but they will be available via our dot-anime.us (http://www.dot-anime.us) website along with the future installments."
The vague future
Gore Verbinski will be directing his first animated feature, an action adventure, set for a 2010 release. The title and storyline are unknown, but it has a projected budget of about $100 million.
Director Roland Emmerich is shopping around his next movie, 2012. The premise is from a Mayan belief that a seismic shift will happen December 12, 2012 that’ll cause either a new Ice Age or the end of the world. He’s hoping for a 2009 release.
Edgar Wright on Marvel's Ant Man, "I finished the script and I'm having a meeting about it next week, but it depends which comes first in the queue basically. I've been working on two at once, and I'm also about to start developing two more scripts, one of which is with Simon (Pegg). It could be Scott Pilgrim [Scott Prilgrim’s Precious Little Life] is next or it could be Ant Man, we shall see."
The latest rumor surrounding the Justice League movie comes from a synopsis from a casting agent: “The film is about Green Lantern, Green Arrow and others of the Justice League of America, an organisation made up of the world's greatest superheroes. They must deal with the expulsion of Batman and the death of Superman at the hands of the monstrous Doomsday.”
Guillermo del To says he’s spoken to Neil Gaiman about doing a movie on Marvel character Dr. Strange, "I said, that’s an interesting character because you can definitely make him more in the pulpy occult detective/magician mould and formula than was done in the Weird Tales.”
Jon Favreau on The Avengers, "I don't want to blow anything, and also I don't honestly know where it's all going to land. I know that there are sort things that have been discussed and tried and talked about. I know at the end of the day on the Horizon is The Avengers, and the idea is to have chapters of all of the characters that would contribute to being The Avengers. ... Hopefully, we're all going toward The Avengers.”
Movie News
Spike Jonze on that Where the Wild Things Are clip, “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...“
David Fincher has signed on to direct, and Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary to adapt, the movie version of Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole. Set in the '70s, the story follows a group of teens who spread an STD that causes strange mutations and erodes humanity.
Columbia Pictures has the rights to Garth Ennith and Darick Robertson's indie comic The Boys. It's about a CIA squad whose job is to watch and, when necessary keep in line, superheroes.
Producer Scott Steindorff and Stone Village Pictures will be working on an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. Some might remember Roman Polanski almost did a version in the '80s, but it fell through.
So here's the rundown on how Twilight, based off Stephanie Meyer's vampire novel, is coming: Catherine Hardwicke is directing, Melissa Rosenberg is writing, and Nikki Reed, Rachelle Lefevre, Cam Cigandet, and Michael Welch have been cast.
Leonardo DiCaprio, along with Andrew Lazar and Jennifer Davisson, will be producing two live action Akira movies, with plans for releasing the first in 2009. Based off Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga, each movie will cover three volumes. If you’ve never read the manga or seen the 1988 anime movie, the story is set in the future after Tokyo has been destroyed and rebuilt as Neo-Tokyo (It’ll be New Manhattan for the movies), and is about a biker gang that gets tangled up in the government’s genetic/psychic program. It’ll be Ruairi Robinson’s feature directorial debut, and Gary Whitta is writing
Having entered into a strategic partnership, Universal and Hasbro will produce at least four movies in six years based on some of Hasbro's games and toy brands. For Hasbro, excepting Transformers and G.I. Joe with DreamWorks and Paramount respectively, this is an exclusive partnership. Monopoly, Candy Land, Clue (Hey, wait a minute!), Ouija, Battleship, Magic the Gathering, and Stretch Armstrong are some of the properties being considered.
Directed and written by Jordan Galland, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead is about an out of work director who gets a job on an off-Broadway bizarre adaptation of Hamlet written by a Romanian who turns out to be a master vampire. And the Holy Grail figures in. Jake Hoffman, Devin Aoki, Jeremy Sisto, and Ralph Macchio. Perhaps more importantly: Ralph Macchio is still alive and working!
Ellen Sandweiss, Bruce Campbell, and Ted Raimi will be teaming up again in Horribleness. According to Sandweiss (to refresh, she got attacked by the tree in Evil Dead) it’s "a hysterical horror-comedy script in the nature of The Munsters or The Addams Family."
A.J. Bowen is producing an indie vampire film called Maidenhead. Shot in black and white, Bowen says it’s influenced by David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Alfred Hitchcock. "It's about a lonely, creepy guy [Bowen] who's taking care of his bedridden father [Parks], but his bedridden father just happens to be a vampire, too. The guy ends up finding his soul through the process. ... We were lucky to get Michael Parks to play our vampire. That was pretty cool." Look for it later this year.
Doris Roberts has been cast in They Came from Upstairs. "I play a sweet grandmother and I get zapped by aliens and become a zombie. It's a great role..."
GallowWalker, a zombie/western starring Wesley Snipes, is about a gunslinger who's cursed with everyone who dies by his gone coming back from the dead.
Lindsay Lohan has joined Jack Black comedy Ye Old Times, along with Ann-Margret, David Arquette, Cary Elwes, and Orlando Jones. The movie is about two rival Renaissance Faire troupes on the competitive circuits.
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston will begin shooting on David Frankel directed Marley & Me. Based on John Grogan’s book, the story follows the trials of a couple who get a dog to test their ability to handle responsibility before trying parenthood.
Shikaku Film announced that director Rintaro's anime Yona Yona Penguin has been pushed back from 2008 to 2009. No reason was given. Also, Yona Yona Penguin has been picked up by Metropolitan for the UK, JBK for France, and Central Partnership for Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
Umi ga Kikoeru (Ocean Waves) has been picked up by Optimum Releasing for the UK, Telepool for Germany, Ocean Films for France, Aurum for Spain, and NonStop Entertainment for Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
Prequels, Sequels & Remakes
Ghostbusters flier from WonderCon. What does it mean?!
The Wall Street Journal has leaked Toy Story 3’s plot: "Woody the cowboy and his toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, leaves for college."
Wolverine update: Dominic Monaghan as Blackwing; Taylor Kitsch as Gambit; Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool; will.i.am as Kestrel; Daniel Henny as Agent Zero; Danny Huston as William Stryker; Lynn Collins as Silver Fox.
Deathstroke (pictured above) was included in The Dark Knight’s line of toys unveiled at Toy Fair. While he’s not in the movie, Christopher Nolan okayed the figure, so maybe Slade Wilson will make an appearance in the future?
Streetfighter update: Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog; Kristen Kruek as Chun Li; Chris Klein as Nash; Rick Yune as Gen. Moon Bloodgood, Taboo, Edmund Chen, and Cheng Pei Pei have also been cast, but still no Bison. Andrzej Bartkowiak directs, Justin Marks writes, and Dion Lam handles choreography.
Mitch Pileggi will be reprising the role of Walter Skinner in X-Files 2.
Haley Webb, Shantel VanSanten, Bobby Campo, Nick Zano, Krista Allen, and Andy Fiscella are cast in David Richard Ellis’ Final Destination 4.
According to Corey Feldman, all additional filming on Lost Boys 2 is complete and there should be a trailer for it attached to I Am Legend’s DVD release.
Hugo Weaving will play Det. Aberline in The Wolfman.
David Wenham will play a violent member of Dillinger’s crew, Pete Pierpoint, in Public Enemies.
Aaron Douglas will play Sgt. Winter in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The cast list for The Stepfather remake: Amber Heard, Paige Turco, Braeden LeMasters, Skyler Samuels, Jon Tenney, Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Penn Badgley, Adrianne Palicki, Chris Meloni, and Sherry Stringfield. The story focuses on a boy who’s soon to be stepfather might be a family murdering psycho.
A sequel to the Japanese cult movie/shorts collection Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume (Eagle Talon) has been green-lit. Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume THE MOVIE II ~Shimane wa Tottori no Hidarigawa Desu~ (Eagle Talon The Movie II - The Island Nation is to the Left of Tottori) will be directed, written, designed, animated, edited, and dubbed by Frogman, just like the first, and feature a song by English indie rock band The Hoosiers. The first will have its North American premiere during the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. The first showing at February 29 in the ImaginAsian Theatre at 8:00 p.m. has sold out, but a second showing in the Village East Cinemas at 8:10 p.m. has been added.
Kelsey Grammer will play Ebenezer Scrooge again, this time for David Zucker’s An American Carol.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Coooookieeeee!
This week's video comes curtesy of Sitting Duck!
You know I think on Sesame Street my favorite character was Cookie Monster (though I always had a soft spot for Grover's "'Near' and 'Far'" segment), so this just put a big smile on my face.
Elizabeth Blair interviewing Cookie Monster on NPR for In Character:
Web comics, events, cult movie musicals, wood cuts!
FreakAngels. A new post apocalyptic, steampunk, superhero-y (I think?) web comic.
If you're in New York Wednesday the 27th, you might want to stop by Kinokuniya at 6:00 pm for the How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded America! event, hosted by Kinokuniya Bookstores and Tokyopop.
Troma's Lloyd Kaufman when asked about Toxic Avenger: The Musical - "Yes! Some excellent theatrical producers, the folks that brought you DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, and I believe the Harriet Tubman story, the musical of course, they are going to be producing TOXIC AVENGER: THE MUSICAL." With music by David Bryan from Bon Jovi. Huh.
Not to be outdone is Spider Baby: The Musical, based off the 1968 cult flick.
Movies(Terminator, Matrix, Harry Potter, etc.) as faux Russian wood cuts (the site's in Cyrillic). The idea is what they would look like as passed down folklore.
Toys and Games
i09 has a look at the new Speed Racer Game.
From Toy Fair 2008, The Leaky Cauldron has a run down on Harry Potter toys and busts. Including the above shown Lupin going lycanthrope with his sexy 'stache.
First look at The Dark Knight Two-Face toy.
Hasbro has updated the Cloverfield toy page to include pictures, so now you can get a good look at the Monster.
Hisstank looks at G.I. Joe movie toys.
The Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs comic
Coming May 14…
The Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs
"Written by Hans Rodionoff
Art by Joel Gomez & Don Ho
Cover by Jonathan Wayshak
Before Buffy…before Blade…there was one name that was whispered in fear and awe among the undead: The Frog Brothers. Edgar and Alan Frog, the no-nonsense vampire slayers from the cult film The Lost Boys, are back with a vengeance in a 4-issue miniseries that bridges the gap between their adventures in the original film and the upcoming feature The Lost Boys: The Tribe, due to be released this summer."
DVD releases
Stargate: The Ark of Truth - March 11
The Seeker – March 18
Sweeney Todd - April 1
Juno – April 15
Séance – April 22
Pot Zombies - April 29
The Complete Toxic Avenger - April 29
Job opportunity 3
(Just a side note, if anyone ever actually gets a job off of one of these posts, I expect a commission.)
April 5, in Fishers, Indiana, the movie Mental Scars will be auditioning:
"We are excited to announce that our motion picture "Mental Scars" has been successfully funded, and ready for casting selections. This NON-UNION film will be shot on 35mm. Payment will be discussed on an individual basis. This is a VERY SERIOUS project that takes more than just a pretty face to make things happen. You must be committal, honest, dependable, passionate, positive, open minded, selfless, talented, and willing to make this an experience that you’ll never forget."
Requirements and details here
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Job opportunity 2
Viz Media in San Francisco also has an opening:
“We are looking for a Assets Coordinator to join our Publishing team!
“Requests and manages digital art assets for book production, primarily sourced from Japanese licensors in addition to conducting publishing acquisitions research.”
Details and requirements here
Job opportunity 1
Tokyopop in Los Angeles has an opening:
“TOKYOPOP is in search of a front desk Receptionist/General Office Assistant to support a busy office. Our ideal candidate will be highly energetic and self-driven with a can-do attitude. As a front desk Receptionist/General Office Assistant, you will greet guests, answer phones with multi-lines, assist with general clerical duties and maintain the overall office. TOKYOPOP is hailed as a leading youth-oriented entertainment brand and innovator of manga creation. Excellent benefits + casual work environment.”
Details and requirements here
Terry Pratchett update
Terry Pratchett has posted an update on his condition:
"Folks,
"Happy New Year!
I'm going to keep this short because I'd like to finish Nation by the end of the week, but things here are looking up a bit since my last report.
"I shall very soon be on medication that in theory should blow some of the cobwebs away and I hope my typing speed and accuracy will improve. Meanwhile, we are in contact with various organisation and researchers and keeping in touch with developments in the field, which is something of a Cinderella compared with other major illnesses.
"In short, we are trying to set up a system so that if any researcher anywhere shouts "Eureka!" I'll be banging on his door even before he's found a towel.
"I still expect to be able to go to the UK and US conventions. Apart from that, all my time in the office these days is spent writing, although there are a few events that I am taking on this year. I regret to say that I'm even cutting down on answering fan mail because my typing is so slow.
"A new book or an answer to your fan letter - don't make me choose.
"We're still getting lots of people saying "Is there anything we can do?" (Including high end brain specialists or other knowledgeable people who make up my "Greek Chorus" of advisors.) What will undoubtedly help, if you feel inclined, is to send some money. We will shortly be setting up a mechanism for you to do so and will post news on this when it is ready. This will be passed onto the Alzheimer's Research Trust, who have been very helpful."
World Zombie Day
Want to raise awareness for world hunger? Want to show off your own patented "zombie shuffle"?
October 26, the hosts of Pittsburgh based The It's Alive Show will have World Zombie Day:
"World Zombie Day will be a day when all fans of zombie culture can join together. There will be an international charity event done throughout the cities involved to help alleviate world hunger, and this will be a first.
“'The It’s Alive Show', World Record Holders for the largest zombie walk ever, will spearhead this event from the very birthplace of zombie culture, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
"The participating living dead are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to each zombie walk starting point. A mass effort will be taken on worldwide to prove that charity, goodwill, and zombie love can flourish in every nation regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or religion, and that no matter where or how we die…
"WE WILL COME BACK!!!"
More info at their Myspace page
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
To the Source...
February 27-April 5, in Montreal, Quebec, La Cinémathèque Québécoise (in conjunction with The National Film Center/Museum of Modern Art of Tokyo [MOMAT], the Japan Foundation of Toronto, and the Régie du cinéma of Québec) will screen “To the Source of Anime: Japanese Animation (1924-1952),” a retrospective of early Japanese animation.
MOMAT curator Akira Tochigi will inaugurate the event and lead a conference on February 29 on early Japanese animation.
Cinémathèque Québécoise for full schedule (French only)
Splat
March 15, the New York Center for Independent Publishing will hold the first annual symposium on graphic novels, comics, and manga, Splat.
“Addressing the graphic novel's considerable impact on the public consciousness, the SPLAT! Symposium, organized by the NYCIP, will provide an intensive educational forum for the publishing community, educators, librarians, and people eager to find out more about the comics universe. It will also supply prospective creators with a unique opportunity to learn what it takes to be a graphic novelist.”
Guests include:
Scott McCloud, Jim Killen, David Saylor, Raina Telgemeier, Ted Rall, CB Cebulski, Bob Mecoy, R. Sikoryak, Nick Bertozzi, Charles Brownstein, Tricia Narwani, and Calvin Reid.
More info here.
TV News
You Jericho fans out there need to be supporting your show, it seems the first episode's numbers weren't so good.
While they won't get them done 'til late 2008 or even 2009, Battlestar Galactica will finish out all 22 episodes of its fourth season.
24 co-creator/executive producer, Joel Surnow, will be leaving the show. With his contract ending April 30, he's been given the okay to get out early. "I did some soul-searching, I took it as an opportunity to write on my own and do other things." … "After doing '24,' I don't know if I want to do a mainstream show again. I like what's going on in cable; there is an opportunity to stretch dramatically there, which is something I'm trying to do."
NBC has renewed Heroes, Chuck, and Life for the 2008/09 season, and say they'll have major relaunch campaigns.
Lost may be moving to a new timeslot in April: Thursdays at 10 pm ET/PT.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars has already produced 30 episodes and is still going.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Trailers
Some of these links may contain mature material, and MRFH is not responsible for their content.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Kung Fu Panda
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Wild Child
Priceless
Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie
The Visitor
Onigocco(The Chasing World) [Japanese]
The Bank Job
Street Kings
Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation
Pineapple Express
The Tournament
Videos
Some of these links may contain mature material, and MRFH is not responsible for their content.
Batman: Gotham Knight promo
Star Wars: Clone Wars sneak peek
Star Trek XI aerial set footage
Where the Wild Things Are – 1 clip
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – 5 clips
The Other Boleyn Girl – 7 clips
Diary of the Dead – 1 clip
Legal issues pt. 2
20th Century Fox is suing Warner Brothers over Watchmen. This lawsuit is a little complicated with the legal red tape.
Watchmen is owned by DC Comics, which is owned by Warner Brothers, right? Not so fast, says Fox.
According to Fox they have they rights to develop, produce, and distribute a Watchmen movie. Fox had the movie rights to the comic book series from 1986-1990. Then they assigned some of those rights with a quitclaim to Largo Entertainment with the understanding that they had exclusive distribution rights.
From this came a couple of screenplays, but Largo dissolves and development rights go to producer Lawrence Gordon. The idea goes around Universal and Paramount, but nothing happens, and everything ends up back at Warners.
But wait, there's more.
Lawrence Gordon had a "turnaround agreement" with Fox, that he would pay a buy out price if he came to an agreement with another party to develop or produce Watchmen.
So now Fox is saying they want monetary damages and to “restrain [Warner Bros. Pictures] from taking actions that violate Fox’s copyrights and which stand to forever impair Fox’s rights to control the distribution and development of this unique work.”
This could mean a delay in Watchmen's 2009 release while the contracts get sorted out.
Now you've done it, New Line
New Line Cinema is being sued over The Lord of the Rings movies again, this time by J.R.R. Tolkien's estate.
Co-plaintiffs, the trustees of British charity The Tolkien Trust and HarperCollins Publishers, on the 11th filed an action against New Line "for its failure to pay a contractually required gross profit participation in the three films" in Los Angeles Superior Court.
With nearly $6 billion (that's with a "B") in cumulative worldwide gross receipts, New Line hasn't paid the plaintiffs any portion of their gross profit participation.
The trustees' UK lawyer Steven Maier, of Manches LLP, said: "The Tolkien trustees do not file lawsuits lightly, and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court. But in this case, New Line has left them no option at all. New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures. To make matters worse, to date New Line has even prevented the plaintiffs from auditing the last two films of the series. The trustees are very aggrieved by New Line's arrogance."
They're seeking $150 million in compensatory damages, punitive damages, and, among other things, a declaration from the Court that the plaintiffs have a right to terminate any rights New Line has to Tolkien's works (that means The Hobbit) due to the breach of agreement.
The trustees' US lawyer Bonnie Eskenazi said, "New Line has brought new meaning to the phrase 'creative accounting.' I cannot imagine how on earth New Line will argue to a jury that these films could gross literally billions of dollars, and yet the creator's heirs, who are entitled to a share of gross receipts, don't get a penny."
China says "No!" to horror
Thanks to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China has officially banned horror. Producers have three weeks to report horror content to authorities.
From Reuters:
"Offending content included 'wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror,' the administration said.
"The new guidelines aim to 'control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health.'"
Full article here
Release date updates
Star Trek XI’s release has been pushed from December 25, 2008 to May 8, 2009, in an attempt to make more money from the early summer movie season.
While horror film Amusement’s release date has been pushed from April to September 12, 2008.
Because most of they players have signed on to other projects and the movie just plain not being ready, Justice League has moved back its start date from mid-2008 to 2010. Ouch.
August 15 is the theater date for Star Wars: The Clone Wars with the television premiere on Cartoon Network in the fall. The theatrical release will be the first three episodes put together.
Movie News
Due to immigration problems David Murray is out and Christopher Eccleston is in as G.I. Joe's Destro. Also in G.I. Joe land, Jonathan Pryce will play the “President of the United States.”
So latest word on Doctor Parnassus is that Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrel will play the rest of Heath Ledger’s role in the film. It might be just crazy enough to work.
Amanda Seyfried has joined the cast for Jennifer’s Body. It should start shooting in March.
The Coen brothers’ next project will be the adaptation of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen's Union. A noir style murder mystery, it takes place in an alternate universe where Jewish refugees have settled in Alaska, and a rogue cop must investigate the killing of a heroin addicted chess prodigy who might be the messiah.
Kristen Bell will be in Mark Steven Johnson’s When in Rome, a romantic comedy about a woman, unlucky in love, who goes to Rome and takes some coins from a “fountain of love” which turns things around for her. Filming starts in March.
Michelle Pfeiffer is in final talks to star in the adaptation of Colette’s novel Cheri. Directed by Stephen Frears, the story is set in the ‘20s and focuses on the romance of an older woman and a younger man, and the young man’s escape into fantasy after the relationship ends.
Thomas Jane will star in John McTiernan's Run, a high speed cross country chase thriller. BMW will provide the cars and filming begins in Argentina in April.
Teresa Palmer and Keri Russell have been cast in the next Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories. The story: Sandler plays a real estate developer who’s ellaborate bedtime stories for his neice and nephew become real. Adam Shankman will direct.
Ellen Page has been added to Peacock, "The title is derived from tiny Peacock, Neb., where (Cillian) Murphy's character, a split personality, fools the town into believing his two alter egos are man and wife. Page plays a struggling young mother who holds the key to his past and sparks a battle between the personalities." Sounds a little bit like 1961’s Homicidal to me.
Bo Zenga will be writing directing Stan Helsing, a horror spoof about a video store clerk who has to save a small town from movie monsters. Starts filming in April.
Larry Fessenden’s next project is House of the Devil: "In the late 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret; they plan to use her in a satanic ritual."
Production on Scott Stewart’s supernatural thriller Legion begins in March. When God loses faith in humanity and sends his angels to destroy mankind, Michael the archangel (played by Paul Bettany) helps our last hope – a plucky group of misfits in a diner.
Blood Shot, starring Brad Dourif and Lance Henrikson, has started filming. The story: A rogue cop (is there any other kind?) Rip must reluctantly join forces with a vampire to stop terrorist Bob.
Dakota and Elle Fanning have left My Sister’s Keeper after Dakota refused to shave her head. They’ll be replaced by, not sisters, Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva. Filming will still start in March.
Wes Craven will write and direct 25/8. About a killer thought to be dead for fifteen years that comes back to kill seven children born on that night, Wes Craven says, ”It's more a thriller than slasher film, and revolves around a young kid with a very dark past involving his family and his father."
Actress Melissa George and director Christopher Smith will be working on Triangle, "The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas. George will play a woman with a mental disorder who relives the harrowing experience through each of her three personalities."
John Landis will be working on Ghoulishly Yours, a biopic about EC Comics and MAD magazine figure William C. Gaines.
New Line’s first 3-D animated feature Planet 51 has cast Jessica Biel, Dwane Johnson, Justin Long, and Seann William Scott. The story: Astronaut Chuck Baker thinks he’s the first to set foot on Planet 51, and finds paranoid little green people. Jorge Blanco directs with Javier Abad and Marcos Martinez co-directing. It’ll be completed by March 2009.
Renny Harlin will direct WWE movie 12 Rounds with John Cena, Steve Harris, Aidan Gillen, and Brian White. The story is your usual detective’s girlfriend gets kidnapped. Filming starts later this month in New Orleans.
Written and directed by W. John Hackwell, Dingo Dreaming will star Charles Matthau and Joe Bugner. The story: An art appraiser from New York travels to an Aboriginal town in outback Australia to authenticate some paintings, and unravels an ingenious forgery.
Lone Scherfig will direct Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, and Emma Thompson in ‘60s coming of age drama An Education
Gina Gershon, Bryan Cranston, and Scout Taylor-Compton join Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci in Taylor Hackford’s drama the Love Ranch.
Prequels, Sequels & Remakes
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has gone into development, with Michael Apted directing and Ben Barnes, Liam Neeson, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, and Eddie Izzard reprising their roles
Michael Bay on Transformers 2, "When you do your first movie, you break the back of it. Now we can have a lot more fun. We can actually make the depth of these characters more fun and a lot more interesting characters. To see actually what you can achieve visually, you never know. When you go into a movie, you never know visually. I think I've got a lot of fun, interesting, funny characters." He uses the word “fun” or “funny” four times. It worries me.
Michael Cuesta’s Tell-Tale Heart will star Josh Lucas and Brian Cox. Josh Lucas will play a single father who gets an organ from a donor who was murdered.
Hank Azaria has been cast in Night at the Museum 2 as pharaoh Kah Mun Rah.
Australian actor Sam Worthington has been cast as Marcus in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.
Eric Bana’s role of Nero in Star Trek XI is pretty much a cameo.
Lynn Collins has been cast as Silver Fox, with Danny Huston as Striker in Wolverine. Also Hugh Jackman has said that the character The Blob will also be in the movie.
Sara Paxton will join the Last House on the Left remake playing Mari Collingwood.
Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton are going to write the Hellraiser remake that should be out next January. I don't know why they're remaking it either.
Minoru Kawasaki will be remaking kiaju flick The X from Outer Space as Guilala's Counter Attack: The Touyaku Summit One-Shot Crisis. Kawasaki has said that it’ll be done with old school rubber suits and no CGI. It opens in Japan in the fall.
Aladygma may be the code name for Cloverfield 2. Or it may be the code name for the supernatural JJ Abrams movie. Or it may be nothing at all.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Noticing a theme for Friday?
I'm way lusting after those bookends.
Neil Gaiman reading chapter 4 (The Witch’s Headstone) of his, still-in-progress, The Graveyard Book. It's an hour and three minutes, so settle in:
Bookends... *drool*
A larger picture of the Sandman and Death bookends ad. They come out in September. I think they're really purty.
You can still get in some last minute voting on which Neil Gaiman book will be available for free online for a month.
Have a horror movie idea, but no cash to bring it to fruition? ADF and Massify are having a contest called Ghost in the Machine: Pitch your idea, and if you win, they'll produce and release it at After Dark's HorrorFest 2008. Contest ends March 17.
John Wiley & Sons (CliffNotes, …For Dummies) are now publishing Shakespeare as graphic novels.
Ain't It Cool has a report from Toy Fair Germany with movie toys that carry possible spoilers.
Speaking of spoilery tie-ins, io9 has the cell phone charm ad that may give away the The Crystal Skull.
Navarre Corporation's subsidiary Funimation is "in very early stages of negotiations to acquire some of the Geneon library of titles." For those not in the know, anime distributor Geneon went belly up in 2007, and so did their licensing deal with ADV, leaving many unfinished titles.
Games
Brash Entertainment is hard at work on a game based off the Saw movies, "The game is due out for 360 and PS3 in October 2009 (in time for Halloween, of course), and will thread its way through the plots of the films. The studio will be collaborating closely with the developers, so the game should at least look and sound just like the movies."
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game to video game.
In case you missed it, Disney Interactive Studios released a second Tron game, Discs of Tron, on Wednesday (the 13th). You can play the original version, or an enhanced mode. Available for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Sanrio has announced that the Hello Kitty Online MMORPG is accepting players for beta testing.
DVD Releases
Across the Universe - February 5
Turok: Son of Stone - February 5
The Rage – February 26
Sands of Oblivion - March 11,
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep - April 8
Alien vs. Predator 2 - April 15th
NYICFF
Tickets are now on sale for three week event The New York International Children's Film Festival, which runs February 29-March 16. The festival will present 100 movies along with workshops, guests, retrospectives, and an awards ceremony.
"NYICFF was founded in 1997 to promote intelligent, passionate, provocative cinematic works for ages 3-18 and to help define a more compelling film for kids. Since its launch, the event has grown to become the largest festival for children and teens in North America, with a paid audience of over 20,000 attending the most recent event. Since 2000, all screenings have sold out in advance."
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Cutting it close? Maybe just a little.
February 13-16, The Japan Society will show classic Japanese animated shorts at its New York location. 38 films in all each night will have a theme: 12 on the 13th for "Chambara Action & Adventure," 6 on the 14th for "Horror & Comedy," 11 on the 15th "Propoganda," and 9 on the 16th for "Music & Dance."
Also on the 16th will be 1925 live action silent martial arts movie Orochi.
Movies with soundtracks will have English subtitles and silents will have live narration by Midori Sawato and Leon Ingulsrud.
That's Krazy!
May 17-September 7, The Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia will present Krazy!: The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art. The exhibition will have art, sketches, concept drawings, animation cells, 3-D models, notes, and other items from genres of pop-culture.
The curators are Kiyoshi Kusumi, Prof. Toshiya Ueno, Art Spiegelman, Will Wright, Tim Johnson, Bruce Greenville, and Seth.
Symphony... In spaaaaace!
June 20 and 21, at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto Canada, Erich Kunzel will be guest conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for Star Trek: The Music.
It will include music from the original series, The Next Generation, Voyager, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country. John de Lancie from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager will appear as onstage cohosts.
For tickets you can go through the RTH box office (416-872-4255 or at tso.ca).
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
TV News
Here’s some spoilers [SPOILERS] for Doctor Who’s season four. I’ll say only two words: “test tube.”
A contractual conflict of interest, not the quality of performance, is the reason behind Will Arnett no longer being the voice of K.I.T.T. The new talking car is a Ford Mustang, and Ford will be pretty heavy in the marketing of, and being marketed by, the Knight Rider sequel. But Arnett is the voice of GMC Trucks, so GM has asked him to leave the TV movie. Val Kilmer will be replacing him. It premieres February 17, at 9 pm.
Joshua Jackson will play Peter Bishop (The son of the institutionalized scientist) in Fringe.
Jewel Staite will continue playing, up 'til now recurring character, Dr. Jennifer Kellerbe as a full time cast member in Stargate: Atlantis' fifth season.
Hayden Panettiere has said that, despite the end of the strike, there will be no more episodes for Heroes’ second season, which had only eleven of the planned twenty-four. The third season should start in September.
Two other shows not affected by the end of the strike are The Riches and Dirt. Both will only have seven episodes for their second seasons.
Meanwhile on Lost… According to Matthew Fox, with the writers back, more episodes will be taping in the spring bringing the episode count up to twelve. Also that JJ Abrams will be back to direct one of the episodes.
TV Guide has a list of the shows impacted by the end of the strike.
While there’s nothing solid, Samuel L. Jackson has said “[He] would love to” reprise the role of Mace Windu for the CGI Clone Wars series if offered.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Trailers and Video
Some of these links may contain mature material, and MRFH is not responsible for their content.
Trailers:
Wolverine and the X-Men (animated series)
Smart People
CJ7
Married Life
Second Skin
Red Cliff
Mongol
Taken
GP 506
Basement Jack
Tunnel Rats
Pig Hunt
Video:
Quantum of Solace - Behind the scenes
Semi-Pro – 8 clips
Diary of the Dead - 1 clip
Shrooms - 4 clips
The Rage - 1 clip
Posters and Images
Posters:
Quantum of Solace
20th Century Boys (Japanese site)
Images:
Iron Man
The Hulk
Book of Blood
The Stone House
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Writer's Strike over
While all the members of the Writer’s Guild still need to accept the terms, it seems that an end to the strike has come. Going over the contract Friday, and finalizing on Saturday, all the majors have come to a tentative agreement. If approved the deal will last through May 1, 2011.
Patric Verrone, WGA West president, and Michael Winship, WGA East prexy, sent a message to members, “It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery. It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, ‘When they get paid, we get paid.’”
You can read Variety’s full article here.
Movie News
Jason Bateman and Jeffrey Tambor have confirmed that they’ve had calls from Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard about an Arrested Development movie. Word is other cast members have been called also, and everyone seems pretty eager to do it. While there isn’t an actual script, Mitch Hurwitz has “a good, solid understanding of what he'd like to do for the movie.” (Submitted by aargmematey)
Christopher P. Garetano describes his movie South Texas Blues, a non-documentary about the making of the 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as, "Shadow of the Vampire, minus the vampire."
After years of development George A. Romero’s Diamond Dead should be underway soon. The movie is a horror comedy about a zombie rock band.
Robert Englund has finally gotten financing to direct evil genie movie The Vij based off Nikolai Gogol’s novel. It stars Christopher Lee and Olga Schuvalova, and will shoot in Italy. The story: An evil genie leads a young priest to commit murders and fall in love with a witch.
EuropaCorp has the film rights to Mathias Malzieu’s La Mecanique du Coeur (The Mechanics of the Heart). Malzieu will write and co-direct -with Stephane Berla- the 3-D animated movie. The story, set in 1874, is about a young man who should avoid strong emotions because his heart was replaced with a clock.
The Weinstein Co. has the rights to Evan Kuhlman’s Wolf Boy: A Novel. According to Variety, "The [graphic] novel concerns the Wolf family, which loses a son in a car accident. The other son channels his grief into the creation of a comic book superhero based on his brother called Wolf Boy."
Karolína Isela Kurková will play Cover Girl in G.I. Joe
Romantic comedy Chilled in Miami has added Nathan Fillion (!) to its cast. It also has Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr., Siobhan Fallon Hogan, J.K. Simmons (!), Frances Conroy, and Rashida Jones. It’s about a business woman from Miami who gets transferred to Minnesota blah blah blah, and it has Nathan Fillion and J.K. Simmons.
Rob Lowe, Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, and Louis C.K. will star in the Gervais and Matt Robinson co-written and co-directed This Side of the Truth, a fantasy comedy about a world where everyone tells the truth.
Gary Oldman, Odette Yustman, and Cam Gigandet are in negotiations to star in David Goyer’s untitled supernatural thriller. Goyer’s script is about a nineteen year old girl who is followed the dybbuk of a boy who died at Auschwitz. Shooting starts in March in Chicago.
Luke Goss will play Steve Fox in the Tekkon movie, which should start filming this month.
Ellen Page to star in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell.
Randall Duk Kim has been cast as Gohan in the Dragonball movie, which is set to release August 15.
Sam Rockwell will play a man stranded on the moon for three years in Duncan Jones’ Moon.
Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robin Wright Penn, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alan Arkin, and Monica Bellucci will star in the Rebecca Miller adapted dramedy The Private Lies of Pippa Lee. The Hollywood Reporter says it, "centers on a dutiful 50-year-old wife whose husband falls for a younger woman, freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a very quiet nervous breakdown."
Michael Goldbach’s teen comedy Daydream Nation has cast Hayden Panttiere and is in talks with Kieran Culkin.
Brittany Murphy will be replacing Lindsay Lohan in Poor Things, with director Scott Marshall replacing Ash Baron-Cohen, who left over “creative differences.” The story: Two con artists meet and murder homeless men in order to collect their insurance. The cast includes Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Rosario Dawson, and Channing Tatum.
Brittany Murphy has signed on to Across the Hall, a thriller about a standoff between a man, his fiancée, and his best friend. Also stars Mike Vogel and Danny Pino.
After having completed filming on I Sell the Dead, Dominic Monaghan will now be in psychological thriller Pet. The story: A man runs into his high school crush, becomes obsessed, and locks her up in the basement of an animal shelter… Only to discover she’s not quite what she seems. Ominous.
David Slade will direct Unthinkable, about a man who knows where to find three nuclear weapons in the US. The movie looks into the psychological manipulation of his interrogation. It’s written by Peter Woodward and Oren Moverman, with shooting planned to start in the summer.
Richard Kelly’s The Box has just finished filming and will start post production. James Marsden and Cameron Diaz play a couple who push buttons inside a box to get rid of their difficulties – only every time they push a button someone dies.
Will Ferrell and Anna Friel to star in and Brad Silbering to direct the movie adaptation of ‘70s adventure fantasy show Land of the Lost. Filming starts next month.
Filming starts in Boston late February on romantic comedy the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a take on A Christmas Carol. It’s directed by Mark Waters and stars Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Anne Archer, Amanda Walsh, and Emma Stone.
Valkyrie has finished its filming in Germany and will start shooting in Southern California. Brian Singer’s “July 20 Plot” movie stars Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.
The Korean live action version of Marimo Ragawa’s Japanese slice of life comic Baby and Me (Akachan to Boku) should be coming out this summer in South Korea. The story follows a nineteen year old boy (an elementary student in the manga) who, along with his father, must take care of his baby brother after their mother dies in an accident. The cast includes Jang Keun Suk, Kim Byul, and Oh Kwang Rok.
Korean GP 506 should come out in South Korea in spring. From Su-chang Kong, the same director of ghost/war movie R-Point, it’s a zombie movie is set in the demilitarized war zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.
Based on the novel Prisoners of Power, Inhabited Island is a science fiction that follows Maxim Kammerer who crashes on a planet controlled by a cruel totallitarian ruling elite. The Russian film is set for a 2009 release.
It has been confirmed that psychological suspense 20th Century Boys (based on Naoki Urasawa's manga) will now be a trilogy. Toshiaki Karasawa will star as Kenji, Etsushi Toyokawa as Otcho, and Takako Tokiwa as Yukiji. The story: Kenji must remember his childhood to figure out the secrets about the cult “Friend” that is connected to several deaths. The first two movies are shooting simultaneously January-June, and the third August-October.
Hayao Miyazaki's Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on a Cliff) opens in Japan the middle of July.
Anchor Bay Entertainment has the rights to Walled In, a thriller about a demolitions expert who finds bodies in the walls of a building about to be destroyed.
Richard Gere and Claire Danes drama The Flock will be going straight to DVD.
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