EDITORIALS

Welcome back to another Kickstart This, FirstShowing's weekly column dedicated to highlighting cool (and sometimes unusual) independent fundraising projects that need your help to survive. This week, we've got two Kickstarter campaigns and an IndieGoGo project that we think are worth your while. There's Dome, an animated film about a robot with multiple celebrity endorsements; It's A Terrible Week for Singing, a musical feature about an unlucky puppeteer; and also Creep!, a multifaceted project about a terrible monster movie from the 1960s. Check out all of them below, and don't forget to donate if you can. Read on!

› Posted April 6 in Editorials, Featured, Kickstart This | 2 Comments

Cinematic Reunion: Ethan Makes the Call for Five Big Screen Returns

As the release of American Reunion is right upon is, it seems fitting that other comedic ensembles are returning in the form of an Anchorman sequel and a Dumb & Dumber sequel, which could even end up shooting this September. And while other blasts from the past include follow-ups to Midnight Run, there are several other big screen reunions that I'm much more keen on seeing come together. Now this is by no means an assembly of the best and most desired returns to the big screen, but my personal picks of certain movies with recognizable groups or duos that I would absolutely love to see back in theaters again.

› Posted April 5 in Discussion, Editorials, Featured | 25 Comments

Kickstart This: 'Kenny' Doc, 'P5YCH' + IndieGoGo's 'Halo: Helljumper'

Welcome to this week's edition of Kickstart This, our weekly column devoted to shining the spotlight on interesting fundraising projects that need your help to get made. We're finally spreading our wings a bit and looking outside the Kickstarter umbrella to IndieGoGo this week, and we've got three projects that we think are worth a look. There's Kenny: A Documentary in G about the sax player, a horror flick called P5YCH that brings together classic horror icons, and a badass webseries called Halo: Helljumper that's so awesome it almost makes us forget that a big screen version hasn't been made yet. Check them out below!

› Posted March 30 in Editorials, Kickstart This | 12 Comments

Kickstart This: 'Coker Creek,' 'Jurassic Farce,' 'Flex is Kings' & More

Welcome back to another edition of Kickstart This, FirstShowing's new column devoted to spreading the word about cool up-and-coming projects that need our help to become a reality. In our first entry in this series last week, we profiled a doc called Us and the Game Industry and a short called Beyond (which you can still help support), but this week we're taking it up a notch. We've got four projects for you to check out today, and they include a traveling theater production from Austin, a documentary in New York City, a short film from Tennessee, and even an RPG video game based out of North Carolina. Check them all out below!

› Posted March 23 in Editorials, Indies, Kickstart This | 2 Comments

Interview: 'The Hunger Games' Writer & Director Gary Ross Spills All

"I'm as proud of this as anything I've ever done in my life." I haven't met him before, but I know his films, Pleasantville and Seabiscuit. Now he's at the head of a new franchise, a new adventure in filmmaking. Gary Ross is the director of The Hunger Games, and he co-wrote the screenplay with Suzanne Collins, the author of the books this is based on. I've already seen the movie twice and I love it, it's a fantastic slice of post-apocalyptic sci-fi with gritty worlds and robust characters. A few weeks ago, I was invited to sit down with Gary for an interview on Hunger Games, to discuss any and everything about bringing this story to life.

› Posted March 22 in Editorials, Featured, Interviews, SciFi | 5 Comments

Love or Hate 'Game Change,' Julianne Moore Morphs into Sarah Palin

HBO's politically charged film Game Change premiered over the weekend and became the most watched original film on the cable network in eight years. No doubt the star power of subject Sarah Palin in her run for vice president in Senator John McCain's 2008 bid for the presidency fueled viewers' curiosity, but the battle across the aisle between liberals and conservatives about the film's unfair portrayal of the Alaskan governor's short-comings probably didn't hurt either. However, while I found the film to be quite good, I'm not here to argue anything except the undeniable fact that Julianne Moore disappeared into Sarah Palin.

› Posted March 13 in Editorials, Hype, To Watch | 18 Comments

Landing on Mars: Visiting the Set of Andrew Stanton's 'John Carter'

In 2010 I visited Mars. Well, not exactly the red planet 63 million miles away, only the set of John Carter, the live-action Andrew Stanton-directed adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic sci-fi stories. The actual location was in Big Water, Utah, right on the northern Arizona border. They had found natural red locations in the rocky, desert region that looked a lot like Mars already and built big sets to look like stone-carved buildings that had been there for hundreds of years. That was where we visited, and this was nearly two years ago in April of 2010, when Stanton and his crew were hard at work actually shooting the movie.

› Posted March 4 in Editorials, Featured, SciFi, Set Visits | 5 Comments

Rant: You Know What? I Don't Even Want 'Ghostbusters 3' Anymore

Though we tend to hold off on all the monthly updates on the status of Ghostbusters 3, mainly because they're always the same, recent word from Dan Aykroyd seems to be putting nails in the coffin of the long gestating and anticipated sequel. In speaking with The Telegraph (via Collider), the Ghostbusters star and writer stated: "At this point it's in suspended animation. The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and [co-star] Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn't want to be involved." It was at this point that I realized, I don't even want to see this movie anymore.

› Posted February 29 in Discussion, Editorials, Featured | 19 Comments

Discuss: Are Remakes Like 'Let Me In' Any Less Genuine or Honest?

On the movie news front, it seems every week there's another remake, reboot or reimagining coming our way. Most of the time, myself and many of my colleagues are quick to complain at the mere prospect of a remake, but when the right directing and acting talent comes together, there just might be something special to be made. This is even more likely when remaking a highly acclaimed foreign film for American audiences. However, director Tomas Alfredson, who saw his film Let the Right One In quickly remade into Let Me In by Matt Reeves, doesn't seem to be a big fan of the remake, or any remakes. More below!

› Posted February 27 in Discussion, Editorials | 56 Comments

The 19 Best Movies That You Didn't See in 2011 - Stellar Indie Gems

The best of the best - that you didn't see. It's back again and we're a bit late, but with the Oscars coming up, perfect timing once again. Back by popular demand is our fifth annual list of the 19 Best Movies That You Didn't See in 2011 (you can find our past lists here: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007). Featured below is a hand-picked selection of the best independent and/or mainstream films that were either quietly dumped, ignored by audiences, or just not marketed well enough. So to give them some extra time in the spotlight, and to support some of the best filmmakers out there, we've put together a 2011 recap. Read on for the list!

› Posted February 22 in Discussion, Editorials, Featured, Indies | 34 Comments

Editorial: Discussing Oscar Voter Demographics, Diversity, and More

When The King's Speech won Best Picture over The Social Network at last year's Academy Awards, it confirmed something I had suspected for a long time: my personal views on most films do not align with those who cast votes for the Oscars. Over the past year, The Los Angeles Times did some digging and recently published an investigative report uncovering many of the identities of Oscar voters, and the results are staggeringly one-sided: of the 5,765 voting members, 94% are white, 77% are male, 2% are black, and less than 2% are Latino. Just below we can take a look at what those numbers actually mean. Keep reading!

› Posted February 21 in Awards News, Editorials | 20 Comments

Wait, What?! George Lucas Asserts That Greedo Always Shot First?

It's been a point of contention amongst fanboys since 1997 when Star Wars (again, I will not call it A New Hope) returned to theaters in Special Edition form complete with new special effects, creatures and remastered sound and picture. However, one of the biggest changes to the film came in the form of an extra split second of footage in the Mos Eisley cantina in which Han Solo is confronted by Greedo. Now in the original film, Solo blasts Greedo without a second thought, but in the Special Edition, galactic history is rewritten to have Greedo taking the first shot. However, George Lucas never saw it that way. More below!

› Posted February 9 in Editorials, Hype, Movie News | 76 Comments

Is It Personal? No One Ever Likes the Best Picture Winner Anymore