A few months have gone by since I've made a post, and for this I apologize sincerely. We all have issues and distractions that take us away from our favorite hobbies. This blog is one of mine. So here's what I've been up to:

* I tried to join a branch of the armed forces, and was rejected due to some poor past decisions and some health issues.
* I got a new job working in a bakery (I know, sounds uneventful. But it's been surprisingly fun and rewarding).
* I've been writing a screenplay for some weeks now.

The latter is probably what this blog will focus on for the next couple of months at least. The story has been in my head since 2 summers ago and at the very least I can promise that it will be very funny. I'm determined to make it so.

Other than that, I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and I'm stoked to start this new year. It's gonna be big.

Apparently Warner Brothers put up one for "Get Smart" too, but it's only available on iTunes... plus I'm nowhere near as stoked about that flick as I am about the car-flipping and bullet-curving glory that "Wanted" has to offer. Enjoy.

(Update)...
I'm sorry, but the video source has pulled the "Wanted" preview, I'm going to investigate and see if I can find another copy. Again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Kevin Spacey was asked to take a year-long position as a theater professor at Oxford University. He's such a nice guy, he couldn't say no.

"It really is an honor for me to have been invited to follow such illustrious names and take up this role at Oxford," Spacey said in a statement. "The university is steeped in tradition and has a great heritage in the arts, and I look forward to working with the students and staff."

Professor Roger Ainsworth, the college's master called Spacey "a truly international star" who "will bring an enormous wealth of talent and experience in both film and theater to bear on the role."

None of my professors played Lex Luther :(

[Reuters]

I know this is the third post about WALL-E in like 3 days, but I who can blame me? This film looks like tons of fun. If it's half as good as Finding Nemo... ah, whatever. I'm a Pixar fanboy. Take a looksy at Stanton's insight [ComingSoon.net] into the new movie. Especially how he pinned down WALL-E's language with beeps and squawks.

Its getting closer and closer to June 30th, the when the Screen Actors Guild's Contract runs out and negotiations start. Maybe this means a strike, maybe it doesn't, but the film industry isn't taking any chances.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) says a de facto strike is already happening "limiting the green-lighting of features and disrupting pilot production" On talent attorney said "No one is doing anything that finishes after June 30, (and) nobody's starting anything now. There is the impact of a strike already."

There's a pretty fantastic lineup of films that will finish production before the contract deadline, but will they be enough to last another work stoppage?

Here's some for-sures.

DreamWorks' - John Hamburg's "I Love You, Man"; Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones"
Paramount - "G.I. Joe"; Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio
Warner Bros. - Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant"; "Observe and Report" starring Seth Rogen; and "Ninja Assassin"
Universal - Will Ferrell starring "Land of the Lost"
Disney - "When in Rome"; "High School Musical 3"
Columbia/MGM's - Newest Bond Film "Quantum of Solace"

That's not gonna be enough to satisfy the masses... not even close.

[Reuters]

Disney/Pixar want to remind you how adorable their new robotic hero is with these 4 movie posters. WALL-E opens June 27th.






Full Size Images at [Film School Rejects]

Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse that will begin production in 2009. The movie is based on a short that Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg created last year. It's about two losers who have to deal with the apocalypse and, after being cooped up for too long, not killing each other. Oh, and there's something about giant monsters taking over the planet.

The trailer is getting a lot of hype though. So much that various studios have been fighting for the rights for some time now. Mandate Pictures eventually won and is producing the film with Rogen and Goldberg. Mandate's Nathan Kahane has nothing but good things to say about Rogen, saying, "he's busy, but he's also unbelievably focused on his business… I've never seen anyone turn around material faster or notes or whatever. He's good." No director has been chosen yet.

Here's the trailer.


[FirstShowing]

In the great American Tradition of recycling old material, the Smurfs are coming to the big screen for a live-action/CGI movie adaptation with Columbia Pictures. What a way to celebrate your 50th anniversary.

Neither the cast nor the director have been chosen yet, but the Studio is in talks with David Stem and David Weiss, who wrote both "Shrek" sequels and "The Rugrats Movie."

[Reuters]

Whoa! They really kicked it up a notch this time. Now Jason Statham's character gets a bracelet clamped on to his arm that will blow up if he removes it. If that's not a blockbuster plot!!.. Ah, you get the idea. Plus they have him riding a bike!

This is what Terrence Howard to Military.com. Marvel has already claimed April 30, 2010 as the release date, so that leaves a little over a year to get it done.

Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jon Favreau are all expected to return, but don't forget you can also catch a Tony Stark Cameo in The Incredible Hulk, which hits theaters this Friday.

[Filmonic ]

There's a pretty long clip for Pixar's WALL-E over at Slash Film. It was shown when ABC aired Finding Nemo, but if you missed it then, here's another shot. The scene has Eve trying to put WALL-E on an escape pod aimed at Earth, but some interference sends him out with a bang.

New clip.

It seems like not so long ago that Spider-Man 4 was a lost cause. None of the actors or the director seemed to want anything to do with it. But the word keeps changing, and quickly. I don't know if I would really want to see another wall-crawler flick anytime soon.

But for the time being, Sam Raimi is down for it. He spoke with ComingSoon.net about possibly helming the next sequel. "James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I'm excited to read it. I think it's going to be done in a few months. I'm hoping it's as great as our discussions were about it and I'm hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man. I'm hoping I'm well-rested enough to embrace it and I'm hoping Sony wants me to do it. If all of those things come together, I would love to do it. There are a lot of unknowns about the future."

Regardless of the criticisms of the third film, I doubt Sony would pass up on having him in charge of the next one. The question is whether or not fans would want him to take charge again after all the previous hate on SM3.

Or if they'd pay to see another sequel at all.

Cinematical.com

Kevin Smith put up a gut-busting teaser trailer a few days ago for his next flick "Zack and Miri Make a Porno.' In doing so, he bunched some panties over at the MPAA and they forced him to take it down. I thought, probably like most of you, that this is bull and the MPAA doesn't or shouldn't have this kind of power. But Smith said on his News Askew website that the reason is "Weinstein Co. (like most studios) is a signatory of the MPAA. As such, there are protocols involving trailers that we failed to follow." That's a bunch of crap, but I guess the incident will only generates more exposure. I can't wait to see what other sort of religious types and activists come out of the woodwork to go toe-to-toe with this film.

Smith continues to explain that this teaser was never submitted to the MPAA because they assumed since there was no footage from the movie they didn't need to. I would have thought the same, but since there's no reliable way to check a viewer's age on the internet, and the trailer obviously deserves a red band rating, the MPAA thought they needed to approve it. Since it's already out there, and copies will obviously be made, it could live on the internet for a long time.

Here's a copy of the trailer at firstshowing.net that as of 11:30 this morning, is still live.

Source

According to Starpulse, Christian Bale was almost chopped up by a descending helicopter that narrowly missed him on the set of The Dark Knight. Apparently, he didn't even notice how close it was until he saw the freaked-out expressions on the cast members' faces.

In an interview with Details magazine, he said "I've been in situations where things could have gone very wrong. I saw a number of very anxious faces on The Dark Knight when a helicopter came incredibly close to me. I was standing on the corner of the Sears Tower, on the outside 110 stories up. I felt quite oblivious to it. I was looking at the face of the pilot and just hanging there, not fully aware that the blades were actually just feet away from my head."

Like Heath Ledger's Joker character wasn't reason enough to see it! Dangerous.

Starpulse.com

I don't know if you can read this, but it's a trip to look back and remember that some of these phrases came out of our President's mouth.

Filming continues for 'W' in Louisiana, and is set for release in October. Oliver Stone has said repeatedly that the film will be a fair and honest portrayal of George W. Bush, but the pic above sets a pretty obvious tone of how it will go down. I guess sad truth is better than lies, as long as it comes in blockbuster form.


IONCINEMA
via
First Showing

The Green Hornet has been greenlit for a summer 2010 release Sony Pictures announced via Entertainment Weekly. Actor/writer Seth Rogen is still working pm the script with Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad. Rogen said they hadn't decided whether the story would be more comedic or serious, but that "it's not an origin story... it's more like a regular action movie."

The Green Hornet is set for June 25th of 2010.

First Showing

News item for Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS sequel haven't exactly been plentiful. The last bit being that Rainn Wilson of "The Office" fame is joining the robot war. Now the rising British star Matthew Marsden (Rambo, Resident Evil: Extinction, Black Hawk Down) is slated to play “Graham,” a character who is part of the British Special Forces fighting the Decepticons side by side with Josh Duhamel's and Tyrese Gibson's characters. Bay was apparently impressed enough with Marsden's acting that he expanded his role. We'll all have to wait to June 26th of next year to be impressed.

MTV Movies Blog

At the moment, this is just one of those superfluous internet rumors credited to "a reliable source" (Joystiq.com) But there certainly is reason to believe movie execs are looking into 2k's new IP as a movie adaptation.

"Digging through all the praise heaped upon Bioshock, you're sure to scrape your nails across several repeated phrases such as 'engaging,' 'gripping' and 'atmospheric.' Some have even said it's 'pretty good.' The most common one, however, is sure to be 'cinematic,' a term that places Bioshock and Hollywood in rather close proximity."

With the Halo movie not expected any time soon (maybe never), Bioshock would certainly give gaming fans something to cut their teeth on. Thinking about Big Daddies on the big screen actually makes me pretty excited as well. The movie would be scary, action-packed, and (provided they keep the plot on track) would actually have some relevant meaning to our lives and histories without having to dive into subjects like Iraq and the War on Terror.

That is something to be grateful for. Relevant fiction.

Anywho, I've sang enough praises for the game. What do you think? Is this something you would want to see in theaters?

So far, the add campaign for Cloverfield has been brief and online only. But here we are, less than a month until this epic monster-movie launches and we finally have trailers... on broadcast television! Who would have thought? BTW, J.J. Abrams must be a pretty smart fella, due to the fact that the monster is still a secret. It's about times someone plugged up the leaks in Hollywood gossip.

If only the Amish had the internet . One trip to imdb.com and I know where I'm taking the girlfriend for almost every weekend this summer: the movies.

If I were to take a guess about how things are gonna to be during the dry season, I'd say buh-leek. I say this because there's so much entertainment coming that God must have planned for us to be looking the other way when he rains fire and brimstone down on our entertained little heads. Seriously, how many sequels can we look forward to at once? Okay, Spiderman 3 is already out that only leaves us with what, like 10 other sequels ranging from Jackie Chan fights while Chris Tucker talks to holy-crap-in-my-pants Bruce Willis can still make everything around him explode even though Justin Long's here too.

So any who, here's a list of sequels I think you should check out. And don't think I won't shun the non-believers.

The Good:

28 Weeks Later - The original was well accepted as being thrilling and scary on a modest budget. From the looks of it, comparing the first film to this one is like comparing Danny Devito to Arnold Swarchenegger. Bigger and the buffer... and governor.

Shrek the Third - Despite starring Justin Timberlake for what's sure to be some really high-pitched voice acting, this movie looks like it'll deliver for the kiddies... and the grownups. Mike Myers may not be as active as he once was, but he can still drive a character. When you add the rest of the A-list supporters, the voices are bound to be solid and the animation just gets more complex and realistic. What more do you want?

Pirates 3 - Swords, action, monsters, antique pirates with crusties all over them. The studio smells a winner. Lets just see if Will Turner finally gets to swash and buckle Miss Swan.

Ocean's 13 - Ocean's 11 made the really simple complicated and audiences loved every minutes of it. Ocean's 12 made us wade through a load of crap even though everything was fine from the beginning. This installment brings us back to the land of chips and dice with Al Pacino playing what he was always meant to play: The Bad Guy. I had high hopes for 12, so I'm gonna roll those over for this one. Danny don't fail me.

Live Free or Die Hard - John McClane is the quintessential bad good guy. Despite the plot diving into techno-terror, Bruce Willis can hold it together. Besides, if cyber-space got in his way, McClane would probably torch that too. Now I know I made it sound like Justin Long didn't belong, and maybe he doesn't. But he's never ruined a movie before...

The Bourne Ultimatum - I still watch Team America sometimes and chuckle when Damon repeats his name like a retard, but Matt Damon has become... ahh, I don't wanna say it! A good actor. Previous Bourne flicks show he can muscle his way through trouble better than bond ever could and Paul Greengrass knows how to stage a fight. This is as real as it gets on screen... you know, except for documentaries.

The Iffy:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I don't know how it got it's appeal going in the first place, but if I had a magic wand I'd use it to make sure this director puts more action into it than his predecessors did. But it might be cool.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - How long can a title be? The trailer for it looks sweet, but the same was true of the first movie. I guess it won't matter if Jessica Alba gets more screen time.

Evan Almighty - Steve Carell may be the funniest man on the planet. And the money being put into this movie might just make it enjoyable. I know money can't fix everything, but I can dream. Were gonna make it through this one together buddy.

Day Watch - This is on the iffy list not because I don't think it can deliver. I just don't know if American audiences can handle it. With a well-built mythology surrounding it from the novels, Night Watch blew away audiences in Russia and the rest of the world. Day Watch looks to show off mind bending action sequences and another reality that would take the matrix's lunch money and give it a four-story atomic wedgie.

Non-Sequels That Probably Have What It Takes:

The Ex - Oh Mr. Braff, what to say about you? Zach Braff has been loyal to the TV show that gave him his big chance... and now he just can't suppress his talent any longer. This looks like a heart-felt comedy that any scrubs fan could enjoy. Amanda Peet and Jason Bateman both know how to deliver, and the Braff is somewhat of a golden boy in the industry. I'd bet on touching moments and uncomfortable moments to drive this one.

Knocked Up - I'm wandering into chick-flick land a little with this movie, but hear me out. Seth Rogan seems genuinely hilarious in his own goofy way. Katherine Heigl has the looks and (however dramatic) the acting chops that she's proven week after week on Grey's Anatomy. What better comedy than a movie based on awkward situations (Meet the Parents, anyone).

Transformers - This obviously has more than it takes, but I'm not going to invent any new categories. Michael Bay is synonymous with action and Shia LaBeouf is probably the fastest rising star out there today. Enormous robots don't hurt either. Hype Hype Hype.

The Simpsons Movie - The trailer is hilarious. It seems like Groening and his gang are pulling out all the stops on this one. It's going to be good plain and simple. And even if it was the worst thing since Pokemon, the fan base the show has created will undoubtedly make it a huge success. I better go wait in line!

There's no final thought here. If you disagree, tell me about it.

And as always, thanks for reading.

Picture Source