- Sam Raimi Wants to 'Get Back to the Basics' on Spider-Man 4 (111 Comments)
- Must Watch: Teaser Trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street! (109 Comments)
- Must Watch: Intense Trailer for Mel Gibson's Edge of Darkness (81 Comments)
- Must Watch: Second Official Trailer for Lee Daniels' Precious (78 Comments)
- Check These Out: High Res New Na'vi Photos from Avatar! (77 Comments)
- Paul Blart Director Steve Carr Hired for the Short Circuit Remake (Oct 27, 2009)
- Hitman's Xavier Gens Set to Direct Action Thriller 'The Fallout' (Oct 27, 2009)
- Bruckheimer & Straczynski Adapting 2K's Shattered Union (Oct 27, 2009)
- Steve Carell on Par for Rick Reilly Golf Comedy 'Missing Links' (Oct 26, 2009)
- Jason Reitman Calls Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim 'Matrix for Love' (Oct 26, 2009)
- Matt Damon & Josh Brolin Joining the Coen Brothers' True Grit (Oct 26, 2009)
- Ricky Gervais to Host the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards (Oct 26, 2009)
- Woody Allen's New Film Titled 'You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger' (Oct 26, 2009)
| Inglourious Basterds | 10/10 |
| It Might Get Loud | 9/10 |
| Inglourious Basterds | 8.5/10 |
| Star Trek | 9/10 |
| Monsters vs Aliens | 5/10 |
Pixar's Up Gets a Gorgeous For Your Consideration Ad in Variety
One of the many perks of the awards season are the For Your Consideration ads that studios run at this time of year. Basically, full-page ads are taken out in the trade mags to get Academy voters to consider that movie when they're voting. It's part of the epic political process of getting a movie nominated at the Oscars. While this may seem a bit odd to those not a part of the industry, I like these FYC ads because they're always beautifully designed and they always highlight a great movie. For example, this full-page ad for Pixar's Up (scanned via Awards Daily) is quite gorgeous and shows that Disney really wants this to win Best Picture.
Mike Dougherty Explains How He Would've Written X-Men 3
You're probably wondering why I'm writing about X-Men 3 some three years or so after it first came out. Well, despite making some $234 million a the box office, most comic book fans hated the movie, claiming it was a huge let down and that they butchered the Dark Phoenix storyline. Well, you may have also heard the name Mike Dougherty recently, and that's because he directed the cult horror hit Trick 'r Treat (buy the DVD). But before he directed that, he worked closely with Bryan Singer and is credited as one of the writers on X2. He even helped brainstorm an entire story for X-Men 3 with Singer that never got used. But what if?
Director Marc Forster on the Importance of Failure in Filmmaking
I've been waiting and waiting to feature a video interview from Making Of for a long time. If you haven't ever heard of Making Of, it's an incredible new website that focuses on the filmmaking process. They post new interviews daily with some of the most talented and brilliant filmmakers out there talking about their own process and some techniques and tips. I finally found a video today that I wanted to feature and it has Marc Forster in it talking about how important failure is in filmmaking. That may sound odd at first (how can failure help?), but if that title gets you to watch this video, then all the better. Anyway, check this out.
World's Longest Film Will Screen All 150 Hours of Running Time
So what exactly happens in a film that runs almost as long as an entire week. Well, it looks like anything really since the film itself, titled Cinematon, is comprised of over 2000 segments, each 3½ minutes long, of footage from celebrities, artists, philosophers and journalists, as well as children who were allowed to do exactly as they please in front of the camera. So basically it's YouTube: The Movie. I jest, but the film should offer much more than just skateboarding dogs with subjects like film director Ken Loach, actors Roberto Benigni and Samuel Fuller, chess grandmaster Joel Lautier and the infamous Terry Gilliam.
Check This Out: xkcd's Brilliant/Confusing Movie Narrative Charts
I love xkcd. It's one of my favorite webcomics and is daily reading for me. It's very geeky, mainly for tech and math geeks, but it's brilliant. Simple style with big ideas. The latest comic created by Randall Munroe on xkcd.org features a series of Movie Narrative Charts that map out characters throughout an entire trilogy (specifically Lord of the Rings and Star Wars). It maps their relation (are they near or far from each other) over the horizontal axis of time. Take a look, it's pretty damn cool, you'll understand once you see it. And to top it all off, he threw in charts for 12 Angry Men and Primer as well, for a laugh. You've just got to see this!
Joss Whedon's Open Letter to Buy the Terminator Franchise
If you haven't heard yet, the rights to the Terminator franchise are going up for auction later this month. The Financial Times reports that The Halcyon Co. is selling off the entire rights to the franchise, which will "give the buyer the ability to make new Terminator films, TV programmes and other spin-offs that build on the popularity of the franchise." Sounds like a hell of a deal. It will reportedly sell for more than $60 million, which is what the TMNT franchise sold for recently. But that's not the best part. Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood published an open letter from Joss Whedon to the owners of the rights and it's just hilarious.
Exciting New Avatar Featurette on James Cameron's Vision
Are you ready to dive head first into the mind of James Cameron and the world of Avatar? You've read about him, seen the world he's created, now you can get a glimpse behind his vision in this new featurette released by Fox. This video was released in coordination with the new trailer to continue to build hype and excitement for Avatar and show us a little behind-the-scenes of it all. There's lots of new footage (almost too much) as well as a few good interviews with actors and so much more. If you're still excited for Avatar (or need more to get you pumped), then just watch! It shows the world of Pandora like you've never seen before.
Martin Scorsese Picks 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time!
If there is anyone I would want to choose what movies I watch this Halloween weekend (besides Stephen King or Wes Craven), I'd want it to be Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese. He's a genius filmmaker and I'm sure he knows great horror when he sees it. I think this would've been much better coordinated if his new movie Shutter Island was actually out in theaters (damn you Paramount), but either way this is a great list. The Daily Beast asked Scorsese to choose some horror movies for Halloween and he came up with his own list of the 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time. Read on to see what great classics he chose!
New Sherlock Holmes Facebook Viral Game Launches Online
I'm not entirely sure if this is connected with the "Widen your gaze Mr. Holmes" mini-viral from August, however, I get the feeling that this is the next step in that game. Earlier today I received an email in my inbox with a telegram saying: "London seethes with crime — STOP — find your partner upon whom you will rely — STOP — evidence secured for your advance assessment — STOP — the game is afoot — STOP — make all haste to 221B now." It then linked to a site located at 221B.sh where users can visit and participate in a viral game on Facebook for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie. It's not amazing, but it is a lot of fun.
Orson Welles' Original War of the Worlds Broadcast Returns
With our society's extensive use of the internet, viral marketing has become an invaluable tool for movie marketing. In recent years I think it's safe to say The Dark Knight is the reigning champion for best viral marketing campaign which inspired activity from people all over the world. However, the greatest publicity stunt ever achieved goes all the way back to 1938, when Orson Welles' radio broadcast of H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds created unparalleled panic and fear of a real alien invasion. Now, exactly 71 years later, the broadcast will return as a live stream brought to you by the upcoming film Me and Orson Wells.
You Are the Experiment: Richard Kelly's The Box Has a Viral
If you've seen any of the TV spots for Richard Kelly's The Box, they all include the phrase "You are the experiment." What does it mean? Well, we're not entirely sure yet, but a new viral website has popped up: youaretheexperiment.com. Warner Bros is obviously not trying to cover it up (their info is at the bottom, as is a link to buy tickets), but it does have some interesting videos labeled Exhibit A, B, and C. If you watch the three of them, you'll notice that they are all about NASA's Viking program from the 1970's where they sent two space probes to Mars. What does Mars have to do with The Box? Another answer we don't know yet.
Check This Out: TwitCritics Real-Time Movie Ratings from Twitter
While Rotten Tomatoes still remains the king of the movie rating world, I've started to really care less about them, mainly because of their ridiculous rules that allow for such hacks as Armond White to be included in the Tomatometer. Thanks to SlashFilm, I finally discovered a potential alternative called TwitCritics (twitcritics.com) that capitalizes on the Twitter craze, compiling reviews of movies and giving an average rating, like Rotten Tomatoes. There are obviously issues (such as how does it know what you said was good or bad), but I think this may be the first time that Twitter feedback is being harnessed in a usable way.
A Christmas Carol Featurette with Jim Carrey & Robert Zemeckis
Yesterday a new Japanese trailer for Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol hit the web. Not only was it too low quality, but it just wasn't that exciting, so I decided not to feature. I'm glad I decided to wait, because a new featurette just hit the web today that not only includes a lot of great new footage in it, but also includes some interviews with Jim Carrey and Robert Zemeckis. It's not truly a behind-the-scenes featurette per se, because it doesn't show us how this made, but instead features the two talking about their collaboration in bringing the Charles Dickens' tale to life. It's a great little featurette that I suggest everyone check out!
Spike Jonze and Max Records' Short Film 'Vampire Attack'
I promised I wouldn't share any more footage from Where the Wild Things Are, but then I came across this! I've seen the movie already and it's wonderful, thanks especially to Max Records' performance as the kid in it. I don't know where this came from, but it's a little behind-the-scenes video showing director Spike Jonze and Max Records making a 30-second short film called Vampire Attack. Yea it's funky and fun, but that's exactly the kind of spirit that made this movie so amazing. Other examples of this kind of brilliance can be found in the book they're putting out - I took some photos here and here. Anyway, check this out!
Check This Out: Sequels That Bombed Box Office Graphic
I love the graphics that MovieFill makes. We've featured plenty of them before (the $400 Million Club one most recently) and now they've got another one that I've got to share! It's called simply Sequels That Bombed and is inspired by the overwhelming success of The Final Destination, as they say it should've failed miserably (and didn't). So instead, they chart the biggest sequel bombs from 1982 to 2009. "Most of the films we included made under $35 million. A few (Blair Witch 2, Analyze That), made over $35 but were still considered bombs because of the significant drop in sales from their predecessor. Bombs away!"