God, Please Save These Troubled States

Slashfilm's got an interesting piece up about the rarely-seen and much-coveted version of Hansel and Gretel that was directed by Tim Burton over 20 years ago. Only shown on television once, it featured an obvious obsession with Japanese culture and was particularly violent. So why hasn't anyone seen it?

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Well, it appears the actor who just laid to rest Borat is wasting no time trying to escape his past career roles. Sacha Baron Cohen is set to appear as the famous activist and counter-culture icon, Abbie Hoffman. There's no news as to when The Trial of The Chicago Seven will actually go into production, but it's good news nonetheless.

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After the mediocre acceptance of Ang Lee's Hulk, the hype surrounding the "sequel" to that film, The Incredible Hulk, seems to build more every month. Edward Norton, who penned the script this time around, stars as Bruce Banner. And now we've got the first two promo shots from the film!

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After the undeniable success of No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers, after tackling a dramatic comedy, will helm the directorial seats behind what they're calling a "proper western." Meaning a ton of insane violence and probably some jaw-dropping cinematography. Excited?

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We're not sure who is responsible for this, but thanks to I Watch Stuff for posting the most hilarious thing we've seen all day: The new trailer for First Sunday, starring Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, has not a drop of music in it. So, of course, people started putting their own music to the clip and many LOLZ have been brought.

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Neil Gaiman has released a short clip from his upcoming movie, Coraline. Directed by Henry Selick, who was responsible for the stop-motion animation of The Nightmare Before Christmas, it's based on a children's book Gaiman wrote about a young girl who finds out she has access to a parallel universe!

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Even though Pixar's Wall*E is set to take the animation world by storm, Disney is still releasing another animated feature next year. Meet Bolt, a TV superhero dog voiced by John Travolta. After getting shipped across the US, he mistakenly believes his powers on his show are real. Hijinks are supposed to follow or something?

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Continuing the long-standing trend of creating unnecessary sequels, the American film industry is set to release perhaps the most delayed response to a hit movie, Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. That's right. A sequel to the 1987 hit vampire flick is coming, 20 years after the fact. But Corey Feldman is in it! Awesome?

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FirstShowing has released a different kind of year-end list than usual: The 19 films you probably didn't watch, but you should. It's full of gems such as King Of Kong, the Donkey Kong documentary, The Beatles' musical Across The Universe, and the terrifying The Host. What did you miss this year?

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Get this: It appears anywhere from 48 to 192 people were the only ones to pay to see Jessica Simpson's newest film, Blonde Ambition. The project was sent straight to DVD after everyone involved said it sucked, but there were three theaters in Simpson's hometown that showed the flick. And still, almost no one came.

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Roger Ebert's been back at his job reviewing films after a health scare earlier this year and he's posted his top 10 films of the year. His #1 film for 2007 is a bit of surprise, considering his other choices and his usual taste for movies. What made #1? Sweeney Todd? No Country For Old Men? Find out!

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Will Netflix soon have a competitor? The movie and tech blogs are humming with the buzz surrounding rumors that Apple will soon debut it's own rental service for movies. The details of these plans are still tentative and unconfirmed, but it's still an interesting concept. Would you rent movies through Apple?

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It's hard to imagine anything more unnecessary than the revelation that Peter Berg is going to direct a remake of Dune, one of the great science fiction stories of our time. But apparently, someone thinks we need another adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic tale. We're getting it either way, but the real question is whether Berg can provide us with a worthy adaptation.

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Have we really reached a point where this kind of movie is even allowed? Starring Paris Hilton, next year's romantic comedy disaster, The Hottie And The Nottie seems to suggest that good looking people don't have personalities. Only ugly girls do. Can you handle this kind of irony?

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A harsh statement, yes, but the truth. Dwight Little, known for directing such cinematic masterpieces as Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid and Marked For Death will sit behind the camera for a movie adaptation of the long-revered video game, Tekken. There is virtually no chance that this will be good.

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In a strange and surprising revelation made while promoting Walk Hard, John C. Reilly admits that Paul Thomas Anderson actually wrote a part for his friend in his sprawling oil epic, There Will Be Blood. However, Reilly actually talked himself out of the role. Willingly.

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It's almost as if God is giving us an anti-Christmas present: In an interview about Sweeney Todd, Cohen said that he'll no longer be able to play Ali G OR Borat ever again, due to their popularity. Is it possible, though, that we'll get a Bruno movie instead, since that character was never as popular?

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Talk about unrealistic: Mischa Barton is set to play an obsessed "stalker" in a thriller called Homecoming. In it, she plays a woman who is still madly in love with her high school sweetheart, years after he's left town. When he returns....bad stuff happens? We can only guess at this point.

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Hate it or love it, Napoleon Dynamite was a cultural hit and Jared Hess' debut film put him in the creative spotlight. His third film, Gentlemen Broncos, could possibly generate him even more respect and attention. Just imagine if an aspiring fantasy writer finds out a living legend has ripped off his story.

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At least that's what we're hearing. Sam Raimi, revered for his work on Evil Dead, will be directing a low-budget horror movie, Drag Me To Hell, followed by a (rumored) directorial seat for the Peter Jackson-produced The Hobbit. Is this a blessing or a curse?

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Early this morning, the Screen Actors' Guild announced their nominations supporting actors in a wide array of films. Sean Penn's Into The Wild and the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men led the nominations with 4 awards and 3 awards, respectively.

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Todd Youth, one of Danzig's guitarists, has confirmed that the next incarnation of horror punk's Son of Sam will NOT include AFI vocalist Davey Havok. For those who have been waiting years for another Son of Sam album, the good news is that they've already got a new singer and we'll get a new album next year.

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Both CHUD and SlashFilm have posted new details about the upcoming Terminator movies (that's right, MOVIES. Plural.) If you don't want to know anything about the movie, don't click any further. There aren't any plot spoilers, but still. You may like a good mystery!

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Some controversial news this morning, as Variety is reporting that the MPAA has rejected the promotional artwork for Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary on the United States' use of torture, Taxi To The Dark Side. It isn't their rejection that's so controversial as it is their reasoning: It's not suitable for children.

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Having grown up watching Dragonball Z rather excessively, it was very odd to hear that there'd be a live-action version of the tv show. (Seriously, how would they get the hair to stand up?) Now we've got news that Chow Yun Fat will be playing Master Roshi. I am sold.

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In anticipation of the official trailer release on December 21st, the first batch of photos from Guillermo del Toro's sequel to Hellboy have been released online. Looking at them, I'm not terribly excited. At all. Check out the photos for Hellboy II: The Golden Army:

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It's time to use my blog power for celeb gossip good.

That's right. I have hated Perez Hilton for many moons, but this has to take the cake: Don't ever fucking disrespect and thieve from the mother of all gossip sites, OhNoTheyDidnt.

I don't care about the actual people involved in the story, but I must throw my weight behind the genius that is the ONTD community. Early today, they broke the story that the younger sister of Britney Spears, Jamie Lynn Spears, is pregnant. Using some rather ingenius "investigation" techniques (which involved changing the URL on photos hosted on OK magazine's database), they found the following magazine cover which hadn't been released:


Then, that fat douche Perez Hilton later posted the story and gave not a single nod to the originators of the story, ONTD. (Check the comments. ONTD 4 LYFE!)

Why do I care about this? Rule of Blog World #1: SOURCE YOUR GODDAMN STORY. There is nothing lower in the e-world than stealing something and pawning it off as your own. And there's nothing worse than some asshole claiming a story as his own, making money off the hits and advertising, and refusing to acknowledge who the people who actually did the work.

I wanted to post this, which is totally out of the realm of what I normally post about because:

1) ONTD rules.
2) Perez Hilton should drop off the planet.
3) Educate y'all in a little blog etiquette.

Just so you know, ONTD broke this story first. And I'm supporting that.

You read that right. Variety Magazine is reporting that the two actors will be playing love interests in an upcoming biopic of Steven Russel (Jim Carrey), a Texan conman who fell in love with his cellmate, Philip Morris. (Ewan McGregor). Are you ready for I Love You Philip Morris?

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If any of you caught I Am Legend this past weekend, you may have spotted a rather peculiar poster in the opening scenes of New York. Advertising an upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie, was this an easter egg for an actual movie that would be coming out?

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The ongoing writers strike will now affect both of the upcoming awards shows (the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards) if the WGA strike is not resolved in time. The group's board of directors won't be allowing writers an interim to write for the shows. Will this be a disaster?

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After a long and frustrating battle, director Peter Jackson and New Line CEO Bob Shaye have finally ended their public feud over financial issues regarding Lord of The Rings and the upcoming The Hobbit film. While all of Jackson's litigations have been settled, it's been confirmed that he won't be directing The Hobbit, but instead will be the executive producer of the film.

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Reports from XFilesNews, PR-Inside, and ContactNews are all saying that both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are both fighting with producers who have included a love scene in their upcoming The X Files sequel movie. Click for pics and more....

Coinciding with the release of the new The Dark Knight trailer, we've got the latest set of promo posters for the movie. This time around, they feature Heath Ledger as The Joker, with his new catchphrase, "Why so serious?" Could this be the movie to watch in 2008?

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Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd could very well be his best film; much to my surprise, I was surprised how well the songs we performed, how dark and grim the scenery is, and, most importantly, how Burton didn't avoid making an outright musical.

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If you've been following the small tidbits we've been getting for Christopher Nolan's upcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, you know that they're causing quite the storm on the internet. This is for a good reason, though, as made evident by two new promo posters released for international audiences.

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Actually, one of these looks completely and entirely miserable, but anyway:



A remake of a WONDERFUL and TERRIFYING horror movie from Hong Kong, The Eye stars one of my least favorite actresses. Because I don't think I've ever seen her act.

Actually, just go rent the original right now. It slays and the ending TOTALLY RULES.

The Eye is released on February 1, 2008.



WAS THIS NECESSARY? Why are they remaking this film? Everyone swears this is an awesome B-movie slasher, but I was groaning the entire time I saw. (I also cannot take a movie seriously when it stars Leslie Nielsen.)

Anyway, this will be horrible in every way. I assure you.

Prom Night comes out on April 11, 2008.

Via a post on Slasfilm, a YouTube user has used digital processing to enhance the line of dialogue that Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett Johansson's ear at the end of Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation.

Obviously, don't watch it if you don't want it spoiled for you:



My initial thoughts? I'm offended anyone would think that, upon watching that video, I'd think that was an "enhancement" over the sound in the original film. I happen to think that sounding like you're speaking into a toilet isn't one of the more appealing techniques for capturing sound.

That aside, I don't hear what the video says Bill Murray is saying. As everyone in the comments over on the Slashfilm article (and on Digg) has already pointed out, that first part of the sentence makes no grammatical sense. At all. Surely, Bill Murray would atleast make some sort of coherent sense delivering a line that's so important? (I know we're not supposed to hear it, but come on. I don't think either Murray or Coppola are known for writing non-sequiturs into dialogue.)

Whatever. I don't buy this at all. And if this is indeed what he said in such a crucial scene, what a momumental letdown. I'll just go on pretending I never saw this.

Slashfilm is running a fascinating feature about the past 30 years of Christmas card that LucasFilms gave out to it's employees. Being a massive Star Wars nerd myself, of course I'm geeking out while looking at these.

Here's a few of my favorites:


HOLY FUCK. I WISH SANTA WAS AN EWOK. Also, what the hell is that Ewok doing on the ground behind Santa Ewok? Was he just beat?



JAWAS OPENING PRESENTS. INCREDIBLE.



YODA STARING AT A CONSTELLATION OF HIMSELF. I DON'T EVEN GET HOW THIS IS POSSIBLE OR WHAT IT HAS TO DO WITH CHRISTMAS, BUT I LOVE IT.

Ok. Done with the all caps. Please head over to Slashfilm to see the full gallery!

OHMYGOD I AM SO EXCITED.

Check it out. This looks incredible. It's the full version of the scenes from the original trailer.



Wow. And J.J. Abrams is running a contest to promote the film by having people spread that embeddable widget around. You can win a screening of the film in your town!

But whatever, if you don't want to do that, just enjoy the clip.

There's an atonal discordant hum that opens There Will Be Blood. It builds quickly into a sharp, piercing crescendo as the camera focuses on a set of hills in the California desert. The camera pans back down into the shaft that Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) is situated in. Sweating, dirty, and determined, he picks at the rock below, looking for a sign of the oil that is to come.

For nearly 15 minutes, there is not a single line of dialogue. Johnny Greenwood's (Radiohead) orchestral soundtrack once again goes quiet, to a minimal buzz, as we're set to observe the mechanical and methodical processes of Plainview as he eventually discovers oil, breaking his leg and acquiring a son in the process. At times seemingly unrelated to the action, the music swells and sets the viewer into a state of unease.

The first 15 minutes are so integral to understanding this monumental film because it represents  much of what Paul Thomas Anderson has achieved with this film: this is one of the most bizarre, detailed, and fascinating studies of the human psyche I've ever seen.

Set in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the story follows Daniel Plainview's rise to success as an oil tycoon in Southern California. But this period piece is unlike any Western made yet, both for it's unnatural and unnerving soundtrack and for it's ultimately horrifying conclusion about its characters.


This is a difficult review to write, as I'm still contemplating the film's implications and nuances. What I do know is that this is a film so complete, so epic in it's scope, and so dutiful in its attention to detail, I am compelled to do nothing but gush about how spectacular it is.

After a tip from one Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), who may or may not be the twin brother of local preacher Eli Sunday, Daniel Plainview and his son, H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier), arrive in Little Boston, a small ranching community where the oil is literally seeping just under the surface of the ground. Upon meeting with the Sunday family, the two clear forces at work in this movie clash: Daniel and Eli.

Eli, the leader of The Church of The Third Revelation, is a rather inspired and inflammatory evangelical Christian, whose sermons cause people to scream for mercy and beg for their saviour. It is this precise personality that Daniel directs most of his own personal distaste for mankind at. Both men are obsessed with people, though for reasons that are polar opposites. Eli seeks acceptance and control over everyone, while Daniel desires to distance himself from everyone else.

Of the many themes strung throughout this narrative, it is the focus on Daniel's growing distaste for personal interaction that I found the most fascinating and compelling. Let it be known that Daniel Day Lewis absolutely deserves the Oscar for best actor for this role. He portrays Daniel Plainview with a frightening attention to detail, capturing the man's descent into insanity with subtle twitches of the mouth, a burrow of the brow, and a murderous and bloodshot stare of his eyes.


Paul Dano is also noteworthy for his portrayal of Eli Sunday, a man who so desperately wants to save the souls of everyone who he comes into contact with, yet perhaps for all the wrong reasons. After coming off of Little Miss Sunshine, a role he hardly spoke for, it's refreshing to see him tackle a character so markedly different from his previous one.

But back to the film itself. This is not a film for everyone. (This is partially the reason I enjoy it so much.) It's over 2 and half hours long; it's isn't filled with CGI-action sequences. There's no nudity, almost no bad language, and it takes the movie until the final 15 minutes to satisfy the promise of the title.

Don't let this be a deterrent though; I couldn't believe how enraptured I was with the events unfolding on the screen, especially for the length. This isn't a period-piece steeped in documentary-style realism or historical obsession. While the film is very much a realist interpretation of capitalism, religion, and greed, the characters' emotions and drama are front-and-center stage.


This movie is about obsession and the obsessive way it's filmed is ahead of it's time. Anderson's attention to scenery, to the straightforward language of Daniel Plainview that is so captivating, and to the people who cross his path is what will make this film into a legend. I have a feeling that more traditional movies will be honored by the Oscars come next year, but they'd be wrong not to honor this film. Yes, this film is incredibly weird, off-putting, and ultimately, in its final moments, one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. Interpret the ending as you may, but to me, from the second that Eli confronts Daniel at his dinner table over the purchase of the Sunday land, the film is about a determined man falling completely apart, becoming a victim to his own frightening moral standard: No one in the world matters more than he.

And when the blood finally comes at the end, you'll probably have a hand over your mouth in shock just as I did. The conclusion will be debated for years. I imagine that in 5 years, every film student will have to watch There Will Be Blood, to be shown just exactly how you are supposed to make a film, how you're supposed to become a character on the screen, and how you're supposed to take a chance in every way. All of the elements are bold, new, and refreshing on the screen while watching this movie. You are surrounded by the world of Daniel Plainview and I found myself still stuck in it when I woke up this morning.

My verdict: This is the best film of the year. No contest. If I may be so bold, as well, this is probably the best film of the last 10 years. Paul Thomas Anderson has succeeded in creating characters who are so fascinating and real, it's a moot point that you eventually can't even sympathize with them. This works as an indictment of capitalism, of unchecked greed, of self-serving evangelism, but it's much more than that.

This is the what cinema should be.


There Will Be Blood will be released in the US on December 27, 2007.

This is so awesome.

In conjunction with the release of I Am Legend tonight at midnight in select theaters, Cinematical's Peter Martin has posted his list of the 7 Stupid Things Last Men on Earth Do.

I promise to not assualt you with this anymore, but if you haven't had the chance, check out my review of the film. It opens wide tomorrow.

Cinematical, you do us so right, you know that?

Come and take a look at the Larry Bishop-directed, Quentin Tarantino-produced biker fick, Hell Ride. Larry Bishop, a biker himself, is looking to make a film that's a faithful (and respectful) homage to biker films of years past.
Michael Madsen and Larry Bishop.





Synopsis: Bishop plays a biker who watches his woman die at the hands of a Satanic biker gang known as the 666ers and sets out to seek revenge. Bishop penned and directed the film with Quentin Tarantino riding along as producer.

I predict this film will have three things in it:

1) Awesome sets and scenery.
2) A spectacular soundtrack.
3) A ton of gratuitous violence.

Excellent. No release date for the film as of yet, but it will most assuredly be out sometine in 2008.

So says the rumor mill running through the movie blogs this morning.

According to both Cinematical and the MTV Movies Blog (Why do they have a movies blog????), producer Frank Marshall actually tried to make a sequel, but the digital tehcnology present today just wasn't as available as it is now. (And was wayyyyyy more expensive.)

• “I remember we shot the test to try and see how much we could do with digital props - We weren’t even into digital characters yet,” Marshall continued. “The idea was to see what we could do with digital props as opposed to what we did in the original movie where everything was puppeted - all the props were puppeted by strings and wires and poles.”

  For the first time ever, Marshall also revealed details of the plot of “Roger Rabbit 2,” and if you thought Toontown was a trip, you should have seen where they were sending Roger next.

  “New York!” Marshall enthused of the setting for the second film. “Roger was a song and dance man in New York City [when he] discovered that he wanted to be in the movies and so he came across the country. I remember there being a big dance number. He came out with a troupe of sort of Busby Berkeley dancers on a train and they got to Hollywood and he and Baby Herman moved in together. And that’s when he met Eddie Valiant.”

  Sounds too good to pass up, especially now that studios like Pixar exist (and under Disney no less), to help with Computer Animation. So ok, Mr. Marshall, what if we say “P-p-p-p-p-please!”

  “Definitely,” Marshall playfully responded. “I’ll put in a call to [Pixar chief John] Lasseter after I hang up.”

PIXAR. SERIOUSLY. FOR LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND GOOD, TAKE THIS PROJECT AND RUN WITH IT.

I must admit, I didn't even see this movie until a year ago. (I KNOW. BLASPHEMY.) I was surprised how much I really enjoyed it.

So, who else is down for a Roger Rabbit 2???

This year's results aren't too surprising; I think I pretty much agree all around. The only thing I thing I think they completely botched on was not nominating Johnny Greenwood for his soundtrack for There Will Be Blood. (Which I finally saw last night. I'll be posting a review later.)

Here ya go:

In what will surely become the new standard in film, Paramount and MTV will release the third installment in the Jackass movie series exclusively online.

For two weeks.

And for absolutely free.

I have to agree with Peter Sciretta on this one:

• I think this could spawn a huge chain in the way some movies are released. They are basically, in my opinion, betting on word of mouth reaction to drive sales, replicating the same platform style releasing that Fox Searchlight has done so well in recent years. And the stunts of Jackass are perfectly suited to create a “you have to see this” word of mouth buzz.

This is genius. This is the industry coming to terms with the digital age in a smart and tech-savvy way. (Assuming the film isn't crippled with horrific DRM or isn't hosted on a site with the slowest download speeds on the planet.)

I initially refused to see BOTH of these movies at the time they came out, based on some stupid assumption that I wouldn't enjoy. I was wrong on both counts, as I laughed pretty damn hard throughout each film.

This really might be the future of the movie industry. And it will be at our doorstep on December 19th.

This is exciting. Tim Burton always fun opening sequences and this one is particularly morbid.

Head on over to BroadwayWorld to view the first 3 minutes of Sweeney Todd!

I truly wish I was making this up. Never have I wished to be a liar more than this very moment.

In a statement released by The Vatican yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI stated the following:

• "The Human Family, a Community of Peace" is this year's papal message for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1.

  Presenting the nuclear family as the "first and indispensable teacher of peace" and the "primary agency of peace," the 15-page document links sexual and medical ethics to international relations.

  "Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of new life ... constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace," Benedict writes.

Gay marriage is an obstacle to peace.

GAY MARRIAGE IS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE.

Are you reading this???!?!?!?!?!

Clearly, the myriad of actual violence that we have in the world isn't an obstacle. IT'S QUEERS TRYING TO GET MARRIED.

This could be the absolute stupidest thing any Pope has ever said. EVER. I'm dumbfounded and actually kind of pissed that someone didn't stop this man from saying something so clearly deficient in logic. HOW? Please explain to me how gays trying to get married prevents peace from occurring? Do you mean to insinuate that heterosexual couples aren't violent?

This is it: the worst story of 2007. Nothing could possibly beat this.

If you know me, you know I'm a fan of hate lists. So much more fun!

And this one's a doozy. Let me share some of the highlights with you:

• Lame in 2007 #23: The MPAA   Lame because: Spending 2007 on piracy-sniffing dogs, party-décor enforcement, cosmetic reforms that fixed almost nothing and other idiotic decisions (like the PG-13 rating for Beowulf, which hides the details of genitals yet shows the details of decapitation and impalement), the MPAA's had another great year of demonstrating what it's all about: Being useless. Anyone who's been to a movie theater in the past 12 years knows that the 'R' rating is a joke, and anyone with any critical capacity knows that the MPAA is tougher on sex than violence. And, to paraphrase Dean Wormer in Animal House, useless, hypocritical and stupid is no way for a lobbying group and ratings board to go through life. In the MPAA's vision of how things should be, a parent could, hypothetically take their teenager to see the R-rated Hostel II -- but not the NC-17 Lust, Caution. Because the MPAA thinks teens should be able to see (to quote the MPAA's own rating) "torture and bloody violence, terror, nudity, sexual content, language and some drug content," but kept from seeing "explicit sexuality." Ahhhh, the values of the MPAA: A woman being butchered alive is more suitable for teens than a woman having an orgasm. Oh, this year also saw the head of the National Association of Theater Owners ask that the major studios -- which fund the MPAA -- quit releasing unrated DVDs, or at least market them less fiercely. It seems releasing unrated DVDs makes a mockery of the ratings system (which the major studios fund), harms the finances of theaters (which don't bother enforcing MPAA ratings any more than they bother with encouraging quiet, properly maintaining their projection equipment or making sure the film's shown in the correct aspect ratio) and encourages people to wait for the DVD, which is bad for NATO's bottom line. Because, hey, you don't want to see the movie the director made at home -- you'd much rather go to the theater and see the version of the movie that was altered and cut based on the approval and standards of an unelected, anonymous and unaccountable group of randomly-chosen Judeo-Christian parents, right? Right?

I can't disagree with that. Fuck the MPAA.

• Lame in 2007 #18: Peter Jackson vs. New Line Cinema   Lame because: We just want our Hobbit movie already! Oh, and we only want it directed by Jackson. Both the studio and the filmmaker know this, so it hurts fans to think the legal battles are being fought without thinking of their needs. And in the business of geek movies, New Line and Jackson have to know that the fanboy needs must be met. Nonetheless, both parties lashed out at each other, then things calmed down, then we got some sad news, big directors chimed in or wanted in, and eventually things got "healthier". But all of that was so confusing it made our heads spin, and we still don't know what the outcome will be!

New Line, JUST LET HIM DO THE FILM HOW HE WANTS.

And I totally agree with the next one:

• Lame in 2007 #16: Zombies   Lame because: If you reviewed DVDs in 2007, odds are you got a zombie movie on your doorstep. I think we've proven that, unless you're the master George A. Romero, there's not much more anyone can do anymore with zombies. They're just not as versatile as, say, vampires or serial killers. The only real contribution in recent years to zombie lore was to make them faster, even though they were scary enough -- in a feet-stuck-in-the-mud nightmarish sort of way -- being slow.
  
  How to turn it around: Note to future zombie filmmakers: follow the Romero code. Give us some living characters that are more interesting than the dead ones.

Seriously. I love zombie flicks, but it's all recycled garbage at this point. STOP.

And one last more that I can fully support:

• Lame in 2007 #9: Gay Jokes In Movies   Lame because: Well, mainly because it's not seventh grade anymore. So just in case we've forgotten, jokes are supposed to be funny. And gay jokes aren't funny ... especially when your movie has 4,765 of them.
  
  How to turn it around: Take a page from the Blades of Glory's play-book. It can't all be about how "icky" it is when a dude kisses another dude. Although, when you're turning to Will Ferrell comedies for insight, you know you're in a bad, bad place to begin with.

Make sure to check out the full list. #1 is interesting, to say the least.

Expect 80 billion updates per day from me on this project, because that's just how it's going to be.

Our friends over at FlynetOnline have the first exclusive shots form the Vancouver set of the second X Files movie. David Duchovny, Chris Carter, and Amanda Peet are all pictured, but no Gillian Anderson! (Yet!)








Make sure to head over to FlynetOnline to check out all the rest!

OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE.

Excuse my fanboy moment, but this was my favorite book as a kid. I was naturally excited to hear that Spike Jonze would be helming the directorial duties of the adapation of Where The Wild Things Are.

BUT SERIOUSLY. LOOK AT THIS:


AHHH I HAVE GOOSEBUMPS. (Source: FirstShowing. Thanks guys!)

Spike Jonze says he'll combine live-action, puppetry, and computer animation to construct the world that Maurice Sendak created so wonderfully many years ago. And to see these creatures, in full form, brings me back to my childhood.

I have full faith that this film is going to top the Best Of lists of 2008. I can't wait.

I really don't like that title, mostly because I associate that word with greased-up, Jersey douchebags with chest waxes, plucked eyebrows, and orange skin. You know. Because I'm a "hater," according to them.

That's not the point. The real point is that Guillermo del Toro, who has already directed two of my favorite horror/fantasy films (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth) is set to direct an adaptation of David Moody's novel, Hater.

Plot synopsis? Are you ready for this?

• "Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened "Haters" by the media, the attackers strike without warning. Their attacks are brutal, remorseless, and extreme...In seconds rational, controlled people become vicious killers...You can no longer trust anyone, no matter how well you think you know them...By the end of today you could be a killer. By the end of today you could be dead."

As Patrick so wonderfully puts it over at Cinematical, this totally sounds like a zombie movie. Minus the zombies.

AWESOME. I love ambitious concepts and del Toro really hasn't let me down with anything I've ever seen of his.

How's that for alliteration????

As I had mentioned before, there were screenings of I Am Legend last week that also allowed the public to see Christopher Nolan's short film promoting The Dark Knight. This was unfortunately the same night I had my first band practice in months, so I didn't go to the screening. (I don't care that I've already seen I Am Legend. I'll watch that first hour a billion times over; it's that good.)

Well, the first review of the short has popped up on FirstShowing, and Alex Billington is raving that it's the best thing you could possibly expose your eyes to:

• I have never in my life felt this excited after watching just a trailer. I'm a fanboy and I get excited for a lot of things, but the IMAX 7-minute short preview that Christopher Nolan made and is playing in front of I Am Legend is incredible. Dare I say it may even better than I Am Legend on a whole, or at least is worth sneaking into I Am Legend multiple times just to watch it over and over. And in other news, I Am Legend has been approved to play at midnight on Thursday night, so check your local theater listings, as that when you'll want to catch both the Dark Knight short on IMAX and I Am Legend.

  I know we've been covering The Dark Knight excessively recently and I know you've all probably read the description of the short film anyway, but I couldn't live without writing about my own excitement. If you're unaware of what's going on, here's the breakdown.

  Director Christopher Nolan has put together a 6-to-7 minute short film shot entirely on IMAX cameras that is playing exclusively in front of I Am Legend on IMAX screens. The short is a prologue to The Dark Knight and shows the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) robbing one of Gotham City's banks. The one-and-only William Fichtner has a great cameo in this short, too. It also features a few clips from the movie in trailer format, including of Detective Gordon breaking their Batman signal light with an axe and Batman riding his new BatPod through the city.

  I literally had shivers down my spine the entire time. First things first, the visual quality was phenomenal. I'll admit, I hate watching 35mm movies converted to IMAX, as they just don't look as good on the giant screen, in fact they usually look like shit. The Dark Knight is the first movie in Hollywood history to use actual IMAX cameras to film. The difference is that IMAX film is 60mm versus 35mm in size and the cameras are much bigger and much heavier. Knowing how much I hate watching anything on IMAX, this is the first time in my life I was ever blown away by the visual and aural quality of the footage. It looked beautiful. "Good" doesn't cut it, this looked stunning. I have never said that before about anything in IMAX, not even Beowulf, but this time I am. Now I really can't wait to see the rest of the scenes that were shot on IMAX.

Well, holy shit. Now I want to go see I Am Legend in IMAX on Thursday at midnight just to catch this. And if I do, I better have this near-religious experience as well, 'cause Billington has hyped this more than all of J.J. Abrams' projects put together.

I haven't seen the film and I don't doubt that it deserves the recognition it's getting, but this is the first time I've seen a nomination bill or movie "Best Of" list that doesn't have No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood at the very top. Yet Sean Penn's Into The Wild nabbed seven nominations, just ahead of Juno, No Country For Old Men, Atonement, Michael Clayton, Sweeney Todd, and Hairspray. (Hairspray???? Really????) Is this a sign of what the Golden Globes will look like when they're announced on Thursday morning?

Here are the full results of nominations:

Best Film:
Into The Wild
Atonement
Juno
The Diving Bell And Butterfly
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
The Kite Runner
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

Best Actor:
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Ryan Gosling, Lars and The Real Girl
Viggo Moretenson, Eastern Promises

Best Actress:
Ellen Page, Juno
Amy Adams, Enchanted (This has to be a joke.)
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart

Best Supporting Actor:
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Henry Ford
Hal Holbrook, Into The Wild
Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Tilda Swanson, Michael Clayton
Vanessa Redgrave, Atonement
Catherine Keener, Into The Wild

Best Director:
Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
Sidney Lumet, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Sean Penn, Into The Wild
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and Butterfly

The full list can be seen here. Who do you think should win?

Now here's a film I can stand behind. I don't care if I'm 24. This shit is gonna rule.

Synopsis: From the beloved best-selling series of books comes The Spiderwick Chronicles, a fantasy adventure for the child in all of us. Peculiar things start to happen the moment the Grace family (Jared, his twin brother Simon, sister Mallory and their mom) leave New York and move into the secluded old house owned by their great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick. Unable to explain the strange disappearances and accidents that seem to be happening on a daily basis, the family blames Jared. When he, Simon and Mallory investigate what’s really going on, they uncover the fantastic truth of the Spiderwick estate and the creatures that inhabit it.

The Spiderwick Chronicles hits theaters on February 15th 2008.

I saw preliminary clips at Comic-Con. It looks fantastic.

Well, don't I feel stupid?

SlashFilm is reporting, based on four sources who have actually seen Cloverfield (and given it positive reviews!!!), that Slusho has virtually nothing to do with the movie, despite that we've all been associating the two for months now.

Even though the strange Japanese drink has been linked to Cloverfield in the past and it's appeared in an episode of Heroes, SlashFilm is fairly certain we've all been duped:

• All this Cloverfield viral marketing has got me wondering. I have now talked to four people who have seen an early cut of Cloverfield. I haven’t heard one negative so far, although everyone is very reluctant to share any details about the film. But I have been able to confirm something that I have believed all along -

  Slusho! has almost nothing to do with Cloverfield!

  Yes, Paramount and Bad Robot are using Slusho! to promote Cloverfield. I’m not suggesting otherwise. Slusho! branded T-shirts were even handed out at the Paramount panel during Comic Con 2007 (where Cloverfield made a brief appearance).

  What I’m here to tell you today is that Slusho! has very little to do with the plot of the movie, and only makes a brief appearance on the t-shirt of one of the characters. I’m being told that is pretty much the extent of it. So the question now becomes: How did a JJ Abrams inside joke become the focal point of the entire viral marketing campaign for a movie that has nothing to do with everyone’s favorite Japanese frozen beverage?

  I’ve been told by numerous sources that Paramount, Bad Robot, and even JJ Abrams didn’t expect this much interest in their small January monster movie. Possibly afraid of a repeat of Snakes on a Plane, it appears that the studio doesn’t plan to up the marketing budget for the movie. So maybe Slusho! was JJ Abrams’ and Bad Robot’s way of advertising the movie on a low budget? Or…

Wow. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see what develops, then!

If I had the money, I'd do this in a heartbeat.

Gillian Anderson is going to auction off two Day passes to the Vancouver set for the upcoming X Files movie sequel. All proceeds of the auction will go towards NF, Inc. (Neurofibrosis charity.)

SO: You get to donate to a rad non-profit charity and you may get to spend the day on hanging out with everyone who made The X Files happen. That sounds like total win, Y/Y????

(Thanks to to XFilesNews.com for the heads up!)

Guys, there's going to be a Bio Dome 2.

I cannot stress how upset I am that someone thought it would be a good idea to make a sequel to perhaps one of the most unbearable movies ever made.

There will be a Bio Dome 2.
BIO DOME 2.

ASFDLHJADFSJKLASDFLJKSADFJKLADFSLALFJKS
14@#$%#$^%#%$!!!!1!1!!!!!!

Surprise, surprise. Both the US and China, who pollute more than any other nation on the planet, have both refused to agree to set caps on greenhouse emissions at a United Nations climate conference.

Again, are you surprised? The United States, at least, benefits from the industries that pollute so heavily, most specifically the automobile and oil industries. So why on earth would they ever consider regulating these industries? What a silly notion!

• But the chief U.S. negotiator said that, because of "many uncertainties," raising such specific numbers would limit the scope of future talks.

  "To start with a predetermined answer, we don't think is an appropriate thing to do," Harlan Watson said.

How does that even make sense? Just agree to make the cuts and then just fail to live up to them. I mean, that's all we do anyway, so why even refuse these limitations outright from the start? Are you trying to prove that we, as a nation, don't have to care about the enviroment to the rest of the world? Everyone else already knows this!

Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocal years ago, much to the discontent of the European Union and...well, any self-respecting nation. And now here we are, with climate control an even more important topic, and the US is flat-out refusing to do anything to change the direction our world is headed. And you know what's most frustrating?

• But the 25-to-40-percent reference was included only in the nonbinding preamble of the "draft decision," and not in the decisional paragraphs, where such numbers would impose an obligation on negotiators to limit their discussions to that range.

That means that the numbers that the US so vehemently wants to avoid aren't even in the main agreement. They're just in the introduction, meaning we aren't even bound to fulfilling them.

Doomed. We are doomed!

(Just because I'll be running the movies page doesn't mean I'm going to stop my political blogging. Busy days be damned! You can't stop me!)

Come this Wednesday, I'll probably agree with them.

As it stands right now, my favorite film of 2007 is the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men. Haunting, chilling, frightening, and fascinating, I've never quite seen a film like it. It's got fantastic performances across the board and is one of those movies that sticks in your head for days after you've seen it.

But once I heard that Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil!, would be made into a movie, I was kind of excited. It's an ok novel, but it had the potential to be fantastic as a film adaptation. Once I heard that Paul Thomas Anderson was attached to the project, I wasn't too excited. (Not a fan of Magnolia, to be honest.)

However, once the first trailer was released and once we heard the first bits of Johnny Greenwood's (Radiohead) musical score, I was absolutely hooked.



And now, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has onverwhelming chosen There Will Be Blood as the best picture of the year, also honoring Daniel Day Lewis as best actor and Jack Fisk for production design. Read the rest of the list to see who else was honored.

Come Thursday morning, you'll know how I felt too. I imagine it won't be much different.

Man, an exciting day in movie developments!!!

IndianaJones.com has released the first (of probably many) promotional posters for the movie. Drew Struzan drew up the poster and it looks much like a lot of the original ones did.



Head on over to FirstShowing to see their comparison to the old teaser posters from past Indiana Jones movies.