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Len Wiseman, the creative force behind the Underworld series of horror movies, says he has plans to adapt popular video game Gears Of War into a big-screen trilogy.
After nabbing Wiseman on the red carpet at the premiere of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Bloody-Disgusting.com learned that the writer/director/producer became interested in the game after using it in a scene during Live Free or Die Hard, and wants to develop it into a triumvirate of edgy sci-fi movies:
I'm writing 'Gears Of War' with Chris Morgan, who wrote 'Wanted'... It's going to be much more [on the] science fiction side of it than the creature side of it. I've always been much more of a sci-fi action fan than a horror fan... The hope is that we're wanting to do three movies and really cover the bases on everything. Basically a harder edged 'Lord Of The Rings.'
Posted 01.26.09 by reelz -
Could Brad and Angie stop complaining about how hard it is to be famous? Could we all stop pretending that Benjamin Button deserves all these accolades? (See our review.)
Thankfully we have one Robert Downey Jr. to serve as a refreshing, rehabbed antidote to Brangelina. Downey participated in a Newsweek Oscar roundtable with Brad Pitt, Anne Hathaway, Mickey Rourke, Frank Langella, and Sally Hawkins. Pitt does his usual being-me-is-so-hard-I-have-no-privacy-I-just-get-to-impregnate-Angelina thing, says he's never Googled himself, and says he doesn't even know how to use a computer (who is he, John McCain?).
The others pretty much confer with him, except for Downey who admits to Googling himself and says, "Oh, I love all that s*** personally. Sorry. I just love it. Because it's a hoot. Some people overstate their support, like they know you. Other people are busy doing something else and just want to go on this chat site and say some despicable character assassination, which I honestly think they kind of nailed it. I do have that shortcoming. It's really fun."
Downey's refreshing honesty continues later in the roundtable when he says, "Lately for me, the biggest, most commercial projects that I've done are the most creatively satisfying, the most collaborative and the ones that the audiences respond to."
We love a good indie as much of the next person, but after losing hours of our life to some of this year's dismal wannabe-prestige pics (you know who you are), it's nice to hear that Downey doesn't take it, or himself, as seriously as some of his cohorts. This bodes well for Iron Man 2.
Posted 01.26.09 by reelz -
In his new movie, I Love You, Phillip Morris, Jim Carrey spends substantial screentime kissing his co-star Ewen McGregor. And when he's not kissing him, he's telling him how much he loves him. And yet at a Sundance press conference, the actor exclaimed, "I don't think it's a gay movie. It really is about the lengths we go to for acceptance and love."
In the movie, which is based on a true story, Carrey plays a married Christian family man who, in the wake of brain trauma sustained in a car accident, metamorphizes into a con artist who likes men. Or at least Ewen McGregor. Who, while not being quite as butch as, say, Keira Knightley, is, as far as we know, a dude. Of course, one must consider marketability, and so apparently Carrey thinks it best to describe his flick in terms of romance novel abstractions rather than physical particulars. This approach certainly worked for Brokeback Mountain's horny cowboys, so who knows, maybe it will work again.
Here's the trailer.
Posted 01.26.09 by reelz -
For Trek fans, the first issue of Countdown, which hit the streets on Wednesday, fills in a lot of key details connecting the world of the The Next Generation to the upcoming franchise reboot. It explains what happened on Romulus after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, with the budding relationship between Spock and the presumed new Trek villain Nero at the center of it all. In this installment at least there is no sign yet of Nero's dramatic facial tattoo or of his no doubt inevitable turn to the dark side. But his sympathetic treatment here is clearly aimed at adding some depth to his later transformation.
If you are up for a detailed and spoiler-filled summary, check out this review over at AICN.
Posted 01.26.09 by reelz -
How many intriguing and imaginative angles can you find to promote a new movie? Even amid the avalanche of trailers, magical boxes, gothically illuminated letters, and mysterious keys, this latest promo video really stands out. In it, Coraline author Neil Gaiman explores koumpounophobia, the fear of buttons. It's a real phobia apparently and one that Coraline makes the most of. Now Gaiman does his best to make it even more contagious with an amazing deadpan Rod Serling-like monologue that has already drawn comparisons to Hitchcock giving us a tour of the Bates Motel.
Posted 01.26.09 by reelz -
Source: BOXOFFICE MOJO
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Shocker! Keira Knightley has signed on to do another film set in modern times. The bony starlet has already shot Last Night, a romantic drama with Eva Mendes. Now, she's signed on to star in the contemporary crime drama London Boulevard opposite Colin Farrell. The movie will mark the directing debut of William Monahan, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Departed.
But fear not! All is still right with the world. Young Keira also has a host of period pieces on the horizon. She's set to play Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in the Jazz-age The Beautiful and the Damned; do some Shakespeare (and perhaps trade not-eating tips) with Gwyneth in King Lear; and maybe play Eliza Doolittle in a new version of My Fair Lady. Surely there's another corset or two in her future.
Posted 01.23.09 by reelz -
Bringing a version of Star Trek to the big screen that Trekkies will embrace is no small task. Perhaps the only challenge more daunting is truly owning the captain's chair so famously filled by the legendary William Shatner.
While there have been no reports of Chris Pine sharing notes or engaging in any kind of Vulcan mind-meld with the oh-so-smooth Shatner, it's not difficult to imagine the sage advice Kirk would give his young protégé. So...that's exactly what we've done, complete with a 12-point video demonstration in Shatner's Suggestions: Tips for the New Kirk, Chris Pine.
Posted 01.23.09 by reelz