Movie News Thread

[ThePspfanatic]

Korean Pop Star Rain Set to Star in Awaken the Dragon

A few years ago, it was announced that Warner Brothers was remaking Enter the Dragon. This updated version, being directed by "The Shield" producer Kurt Sutter, will be called Awaken the Dragon and is be a contemporized drama about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts fight clubs. Sutter has been looking an established American actor to play the FBI agent and to discover a "fight star" for the role of the monk. Well, according to Latino Review, they've found their monk - Rain - the Korean pop star and actor who stars in Speed Racer and Ninja Assassin.
"I'm a huge noir fan, and this plot lends itself to the film I want to make," Sutter said of Awaken the Dragon. "I wanted to set it in these underground fight clubs where the action is really raw and expose the brutality of Shaolin kung fu. This will be more Raging Bull than Crouching Tiger in its viciousness." Having seen Ninja Assassin, I can tell you that Rain is definitely a great martial artist. I'm right there with all his Korean fans - I love this guy. I loved him in Speed Racer, I loved him in Ninja Assassin, and I'm sure I'll love him in this, too. As it for being another remake, who really cares, I'll just let Sutter do his thing.

First Look: Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci in After.Life

There are always a few horror movies that seem to creep up out of nowhere, and After.Life is one of those. After.Life stars Liam Neeson as Eliot Deacon, a funeral director who holds the fate of young woman caught between life and death in his hands. Christina Ricci plays Anna Taylor, the woman who has a chance of living again until she discovers that Deacon has the gift of transitioning the dead, and he might just be intent on burying her alive. Thanks to Bloody-Disgusting we have some photos from this. In addition to Neeson and Ricci, the cast includes Justin Long, Alfred Molina, Josh Charles, and Chandler Canterbury.











Click any of these photos to see a more on BD. I decided to feature these not necessarily because I think they look great (I'm not the biggest horror fan), but rather because this cast is just too great to ignore. Normally you don't see a whole line-up of great actors like Neeson, Molina, Ricci, and Long all starring in an indie horror movie, but this time that's the case. This was written and directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo, who graduated from NYU in 2003. The film doesn't have a US distributor yet, as far as I know, but I expect it to show at various film festivals sometime later this year and/or next year.

[ThePspfanatic]

Filmmaker John Hughes Dies at 59 of a Heart Attack

Another '80s icon is gone. John Hughes, the writer and director remembered best for churning out classic teen movies such as The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, as well as the scripts for others, including Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, National Lampoon's Vacation, Home Alone, and Miracle on 34th Street, suffered a lethal heart attack this morning while taking a walk in New York City. He was only 59. For those of us who grew up in the '80s, Hughes was a legend, perhaps one of the first filmmakers we knew of by name and could associate with a certain brand of movie.
Though he'll forever be pegged to the teen genre, he was more generally an expert in film comedy, having scripted such favorites as Mr. Mom and National Lampoon's Vacation prior to his debut as a director with Sixteen Candles. After cementing himself as the teen-movie master he also helmed non-teen comedies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck and later stuck primarily to writing younger-targeted fare like Home Alone, Beethoven and Baby's Day Out. It's mostly when another high school-set film is made even nowadays that we still think of Hughes and use his work as a ruler with which to measure the genre by.

Hughes dropped out of directing in 1991, although he still produced and wrote scripts up until 1998. He will most certainly be remembered forever for all of the many great movies that he brought us over the years.

Check This Out: Teaser Poster for Joe Dante's The Hole in 3D

No, The Hole isn't a new porno, it's a creepy new thriller from director Joe Dante, the man who brought us Gremlins and Piranha and other great movies. ShockTillYouDrop has unveiled our first high res look at the poster from the movie featuring the "hole" in the basement in which all the "bad guys" come from. Much like Small Soldiers, one of Dante's other past movies, The Hole is actually made for the younger teenage demographic, but it's still creepy. I got to see an early trailer at Comic-Con and it looks okay, not anything amazing, but just because it's Joe Dante, I'm mildly excited for it. Anyway, check the poster out below!



The Hole, filmed in 3-D, centers on Susan (Teri Polo), a mother who moves with her teen sons to a rural house where the three are forced to face their fears after discovering a bottomless hole in the basement.

The Hole is directed by one-of-a-kind filmmaker Joe Dante, of films like Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The 'burbs, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and Small Soldiers. The screenplay was written by Mark L. Smith, of only Séance and Vacancy previously. The Hole was film independently and doesn't currently have a distributor, although we expect to hear more about its release plans very soon!

[superpau]

Human perfection what could go wrong?? Jesus that freaks me out o.o

[ThePspfanatic]

Are You Ready For a Dystopian, Futuristic Robin Hood Movie?

You know, I was already excited to see Ridley Scott's "revisionist take on the Robin Hood tale," but there goes Hollywood, milking every idea for every last dollar they can. THR's Risky Biz Blog has an interesting article today about another Robin Hood movie (not the one currently in production) being developed by The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven and 300 producer Gianni Nunnari. Roven's Atlas Entertainment and Nunnari's Hollywood Gang have decided to move forward with a pitch from commercials director Nicolai Fuglsig (see some of his work here), who is also currently attached to make his directing debut.
Not much is known about this take on Robin Hood, except that it "will be set in a dystopian London and center on a band of thieves whose activities restore hope to the city's embattled population." The producers are describing it as "a futuristic action adventure” that will be "both inspired by and pay homage to the legend of Robin Hood." Roven said that Nicolai Fuglsig's "stunning visual presentation blew me away. He has a very clear vision for the film, one that will re-invent and modernize a classic story." The more I hear of this, the more I'm liking it, too, I just hate competitive projects (one will always be better than the other).

Jason Hall, who previously wrote the Ashton Kutcher comedy Spread and is attached to a lot of upcoming projects in Hollywood, will write the screenplay with Fuglsig. I hate to get all excited about this all of a sudden, but as I was reading over that vague plot description above, James McTeigue's V for Vendetta came to mind. In that movie, doesn't V try to "restore hope to the city's embattled population" as well? I mean, if we get see a modern, badass Robin Hood doing the same thing (with a crossbow) in a futuristic London (that is anything like V for Vendetta or Children of Men), then hell yes, I can't wait to see this. Thoughts?

Jay Chou Officially Cast as Kato in Rogen's Green Hornet

Forget what we said last week about Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo being cast as Kato in Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet, because apparently that was 100% wrong. Sony has confirmed via a press release today (read it here) that they've cast Taiwanese actor Jay Chou in the role instead. Chou is a singer and actor (much like Korean star Rain) and a huge star throughout Asia and will definitely draw international crowds. “Jay is incredibly unique and charming and fights like a wild dog! When I filmed him next to Seth, they had such great chemistry, and I knew the movie will be great," director Michel Gondry said about casting him.
"It's an overwhelming experience to take on a role made famous by Bruce Lee. I won't try to be Bruce Lee's Kato – I will try to bring my own interpretation to the part. Of course, it's a dream role, and I'm looking forward to the challenge." A classic character of film, television, radio, and comic books returns to the big screen in Columbia Pictures' feature film The Green Hornet, starring Seth Rogen as the vigilante crime-fighter. This being directed by Michel Gondry from a screenplay written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, based upon "The Green Hornet" radio series. The Green Hornet is set to hit theaters on July 9th, 2010.

[ThePspfanatic]

Check This Out: Gerard Butler's Law Abiding Citizen Poster

Unless you read gossip blogs and have seen paparazzi photos from the set, you probably haven't heard of Law Abiding Citizen. The film stars Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton, an "everyday guy" who decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets his family's killers free. His target: The district attorney who orchestrated the deal. It's directed by F. Gary Gray, who last brought us The Italian Job and A Man Apart before that. Don't get this confused with The Bounty though, the film that Butler is currently shooting, as this isn't a comedy, it's a thriller through-and-through. Anyway, check out the poster below.



Update: Added the second poster of Jamie Foxx to the right courtesy of director F. Gary Gray on Twitter.

This actually comes from Fandango (via Gerard-Butler.net), which is an odd place to debut a poster, but oh well. I'm featuring this because I think it's a pretty damn cool first teaser poster (I love the stark black and white design), even though Butler's eyes look like they're slightly deformed. I really hope we get to see a trailer for this sometime soon, as it actually sounds like it might be pretty awesome. In addition to Gerard Butler, this also stars Leslie Bibb, Jamie Foxx, and Viola Davis. Overture Films is releasing Law Abiding Citizen on October 16th later this year. It shouldn't be too much longer till we see a trailer, so stay tuned!

[superpau]

too many news @.@
yay robin hood :3

inspector gadget tats supposed to be out soon

[diggy19]

im excited for wanted 2 the gears of war movie and the expendables

[ThePspfanatic]

Louis Leterrier's Awesome Idea for a Summer of The Avengers

Now this you need to hear! Geoff Boucher of Hero Complex recently talked with director Louis Leterrier on the set of Clash of the Titans recently. As you hopefully already know, Leterrier last directed the newest Incredible Hulk movie, which was much more well-received than Ang Lee's Hulk. Although he doesn't know yet if he'll be back for another Hulk sequel, he does want to work with Marvel again (and is contracted to do another movie for them anyway). "I would love to do the Avengers film. I’d love to work with Marvel again. I loved working with them." There's a lot more to it than that, just listen to this idea, it might be brilliant.

I’ll tell you my real dream: To work with Joe Johnston and ["Thor" director] Kenneth Branagh and Jon Favreau and make like a triptych. We do four movies. We release them one a month for the summer. Or even every two weeks or three weeks. And the whole summer would be Avengers summer. So we do it the way they make television shows. One story arc but told in installments by different directors. So all of the directors that touch part of the Avengers world would do a part; we could make the movies shorter, maybe less than an hour and a half, and we use the same sets and save Marvel money. I would love to sit around a table with all of them a kick around the story. That’s my dream.

Now wouldn't that be awesome to see? I doubt it'll ever happen, not only because the cost is just way too much for Marvel, but I don't know if Paramount (who releases their movies) can handle a distribution pattern like that. Plus, if each movie isn't at least 90 minutes long, I think audiences would hate paying for four tickets when they're not getting a full movie each time at that price. But man, if they could pull this off, it would just be incredible. This is the kind of future of comic book movies I'm very excited to see, not 3D, not hybrid CGI, but movies that are just like comic books themselves, a truly cinematic representations.

This reminds me about something Kevin Feige once said (though I can't remember exactly where/when he said this) about how he hoped that comic book movies would one day mirror comics as well. His examples were crossovers, where you never know who might show up in the next issue that's out this week, and that other superheros could just pop up in movies that weren't their own. And if you apply that to what Leterrier said, well, we get new comics every month, wouldn't it be cool if we also got new movies every month? At least for one summer at a time, that is. This would take a lot of time and effort, but it would be awesome.

"People will get bored seeing the same superhero movie every summer. If we change the concept and package it differently, then we do something really original then people get excited." I think Leterrier is on to something here. What do you think? Could this work? Would you go see four Avengers movies?

[ThePspfanatic]

G.I. Joe Sequel is Already Going into Development Soon

Yo Joe! I would say this was inevitable, but then again, the buzz for G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra was so bad that no one knew if it'd do well on its opening weekend. But this proves that franchise familiarity is king in Hollywood, even with bad buzz. In the LA Times report on the weekend box office (G.I. Joe ended up with $54.7 million) they say that "the studio's vice chairman, Rob Moore, confirmed that a sequel will soon go into development." This is great news for those who liked it, but bad news for everyone else. "The film's lead actors are contractually obligated to return for another film, though director Stephen Sommers is not."

I think this is the kind of movie that a lot of people will be excited for the sequel. Hell, it sets up a sequel in a big way at the end, almost as a cliffhanger. And you've just got to see the newly recruited G.I. Joe's get revenge on that annoying Zartan, right? Although they make it sound like Stephen Sommers won't return yet, let me remind you that he did come back to direct The Mummy Returns two years after The Mummy proved to be a big success for Universal as well. If I can make one suggestion to Paramount - don't bring back Sommers! If only this had better CGI and a better script, I might've enjoyed it just a little bit more.

Hugh Jackman Confirms Wolverine is Heading to Japan Next

Question of the Day: Are you more excited to see a G.I. Joe sequel or a Wolverine sequel? Let me remind you that the next Wolverine movie will see Logan venturing to Japan for some samurai training and Eastern philosophy. MTV caught up with Hugh Jackman recently at the Teen Choice Awards and talked briefly about the sequel, confirming pretty much what we already know. "Japan is where we're heading, [and] we're starting to work on it now. We're in the… first steps of developing that story." It was confirmed back in May after X-Men Origins: Wolverine opened that they'd be heading to Japan, so that's not big news.

"I think the fans love that saga. It's my favorite saga of the Wolverine stories," Jackman says. "That's a movie I've longed to make from the beginning, so that's where we're heading." After that movie hit earlier this summer, despite scathing reviews, most people seemed open to the idea of seeing Wolverine head to Japan because it was actually a good storyline. Frank Miller and Chris Claremont introduced the story arc where Logan heads to Japan back in 1990 in Wolverine #1-4. I think it's a great idea and I'm excited for this sequel. Now they just need to find a better writer and director - why doesn't Jackman announce them yet?