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Norwegian director André Øvredal’s "found-footage" horror film, The Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren in Norwegian), about a group of students making an investigative documentary into mysterious bear poachings who end up following a man who hunts trolls, opened in select cities this weekend, but Hollywood is already game to claim this "mockumentary" gem as one of its own. According to Deadline, Chris Columbus's (Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) 1492 Pictures has partnered with CJ Entertainment & Media to acquire the rights to The Troll Hunter with the intention of remaking it for an American audience. In a statement released with the announcement, Columbus said:
Troll Hunter was a visceral, thrilling, cinematic rock and roller coaster ride of a movie. Visually, there are scenes in this film that American audiences have never seen. We want to introduce an international audience to this amazing moviegoing experience.
watch the trailer for The Troll Hunter >> Posted 06.12.11 by BrentJS -
Today's Challenge: It was today in 1502 that Christoper Columbus began his final journey to the West Indies. There aren't too many movies about that event. But Chris Columbus directed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and wrote the screenplay for The Goonies. Can you find the actor link to connect these two Columbus movies?
Our first Facebook movie game, ClusterFlick, plays off that old "six degrees of separation" theory — you know, the one that has a certain Kevin at the center of the Hollywood universe. It's easy to play, but not so easy to win. The goal is to use the major cast of movies to get from Point A to Point B in the smallest number of moves.
Play ClusterFlick >>
Posted 05.11.11 by reelz -
One thing's for sure: People are excited for another Superman movie. Since The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan was reported to be acting as "godfather" on a Superman reboot (tentatively titled Superman: The Man of Steel), speculative questions have followed Nolan everywhere, including who he will cast (Nolan says he hasn't "even thought about" it) and if Nolan will direct (he says he will only "act as producer").
With Nolan definitively not directing, a report spread that Chris Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter movies, was offered the directing job, but Collider disagrees. According to their source, "Chris Columbus has NOT been offered the chance to helm the next Superman movie." For some, this news may come as a sigh of relief. For others that wanted a Superman movie from the director of Home Alone, we send our apologies.
David Goyer is writing the screenplay for the reboot, which Warner Bros. wants to release in December of 2012.
Posted 07.11.10 by Ryan -
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) says that he hasn't "even thought about" casting the lead role in the rebooted Superman movie that he is producing for Warner Bros., but the studio isn't allowing the project to languish. David S. Goyer, co-writer of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, is currently working on the Superman: The Man of Steel (working title) script and, though he has also expressed interest in directing the movie, WB may have already set their sights on another director.
who does WB want to direct the reboot? >> Posted 07.09.10 by BrentJS -
If you really want to be a goddess, persistence pays off. At least, that's what Erica Cerra found out in multiple auditions for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Enthusiasm, flexibility, and a wry sense of humor turned out to be a big help as well, as she explains in an interview with Hero Complex.
Well, unfortunately, [Percy Jackson director] Chris Columbus was not banging down my door, and I had to go in and audition. I initially went in for Medusa and Persephone. Shocking that I didn't beat out Uma Thurman or Rosario Dawson, I know. But, he brought me back a couple of times and I auditioned for another character. Then I came back again for another character and ultimately got the part of Hera. Even before that, though, I ran out to the library and got all of the books. I love fantasy. If I could have, at the time when I was 12, been on Harry Potter, then I would have ... I was like, Percy Jackson and the Olympians! Cool!
Turns out all that research wasn't entirely in vain either. Responding to concerns that the movie might try to make the gods too contemporary, she acknowledges that filmmakers did alter the movie to make it more tempting for an older audience, but insists that they didn't mess with the goddesses too much.
I think they made a really good choice. I think you can see with Persephone in the trailer, he just goes sort of classic and beautiful. I think that they'll, well, I don't think, I know, but I just don't want to tell you too much! Some of the gods are a little bit edgier, but, at least for the goddesses, they're mostly classic.
And classic for Hera means that she is a bit of a mother figure, the mother figure actually, which perhaps isn't the best fit for Cerra, given her looks. But the actress says she took the part head on, attitudes and all.
Well, the story of Hera is that she is a bit of a prude. She is the goddess of marriage so she has a bit of a tough time with what goes on with the gods, their fraternization with the humans and having babies and such. Hera basically dislikes everyone, even her own husband and brother cause he's had a million affairs There is an element of bitterness towards her, and from her a bit towards Percy and Annabeth cause there's the possibility of something maybe happening between the two of them. She just feels that there should be a bit more loyalty.
Outside of the role though, Cerra is a bit more understanding about all the illicit goings-on.
These gods and goddesses hang out for a millennia or more, for thousands of years together ... they get bored.
Find out more about the rest of the pantheon Columbus cast in Meet the Greek Gods and Goddesses in Percy Jackson.
Posted 01.31.10 by reelz -
In Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the young hero discovers that he is the modern-day son of the Greek god Poseidon, and becomes enmeshed in all sorts of adventures with beings straight out of ancient myths. So when director Chris Columbus started looking for a writer to help adapt the immensely popular Rick Riordan book for the big screen, it was only natural that Craig Titley's name came up. After all, he's getting a PhD in mythology.
But when Titley started going over the details of adapting the book for the big screen with the director, he explains in an interview with Latino Review, the biggest change they felt they had to make had nothing to do with the mythology. It was the age of the characters.
Well, the biggest change are that the books skew very, very young, even younger than the Harry Potter books. The protagonists in the books were like nine years old and they would hurl insults like "You seaweed brain." So the first thing we decided to do, and this was where we were both completely in sync, was up the age of the characters, making them like seventeen years old. Once that happened the adaptation sort of all fell into place. Then things that needed to change were like you needed to up the intensity of the action scenes which in the book were kind of cute and silly at times. We got to develop deeper characters and character relationships, things like that, just because you're making them seventeen and they have real world issues as opposed to just kids on the run and having fun.
The idea, of course, was to be able to draw in more of an adult audience as well.
We got to play with a lot of those things and in my mind my way into it was this character of Percy Jackson. He's kind of a troubled kid. He's at a school for troubled kids and it was like, "What if we took Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye and threw him into a Ray Harryhausen Greek monster movie." That was kind of my way in. That kind of became my tonal lynchpin. I think that we kind of wrote it more as like a PG-13, a pushing the envelope PG-13 but the base of fans of the book are so much younger that the final film has kind of skewed back to a PG. But it's still has the feel of being much more — I don't know if grownup is the word but it's not as cute and cuddly.
It's a tricky thing though, making such substantial changes to a story that already has such a large and devoted fan base. The risk of alienating your core audience is fairly high. Only time will tell whether they got the balance right.
Posted 01.22.10 by reelz -
As the release date of director Chris Columbus' new movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief draws near, more and more video clips, teaser posters, and promotional images are emerging.
Only a week after six character posters were released, three more have emerged, different in style and composition than the previous set. The new posters feature Logan Lerman as the title character, Percy Jackson; Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase; and Brandon T. Jackson as Grover.
Based on the novel series by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief was adapted for the screen by Craig Titley. Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, and Luke Camilleri also star.
For more information about the main characters, check out Meet the Cast of Percy Jackson.
Posted 01.15.10 by BrentJS -
In the trailer for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, we get a surprising fresh vision of Medusa. In Greek mythology, she is simply a monster with a head full of snakes who turns all who look at her into stone. But in Percy Jackson's world, she promises to be something more — simultaneously the beauty and the beast — as she entices the young hero to "sneak a peek."
It was in part the possibility for re-envisioning this iconic horror that drew director Chris Columbus to the Percy Jackson project in the first place, as he explains in an interview with the Hero Complex blog:
To be able to use the CGI snakes in conjunction with a real actress was the first thing that was exciting to me. As a kid growing up, she was the most frightening creature. I remember watching an old Hammer picture called The Gorgon, and the original [1981 film] Clash of the Titans. They never got Medusa right. For me, she's not just hideous. Medusa's history is tragic at best.
He then goes on to confess that when he thought of his ideal Medusa, Uma Thurman immediately came to mind.
I told her: "You're my first choice." I explained to her that the more pedestrian way to go is just to make her this hideous monster. With Uma, you get an extra added layer of intense sensuality and toughness ... she's someone who's so sensual and seductive, that you'll look into her eyes and forget that she has 75 snakes on her head.
In some recently released publicity stills for the movie, we can see that she does manage to get at least a few people to sneak a peek, with predictably unfortunate results.
Posted 01.12.10 by reelz -
Six new character posters have just been released for director Chris Columbus's new movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the first in a planned series of movies based on the book series by Rick Riordan.
The posters feature Logan Lerman as the title character, the "Son of Poseidon"; Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase, the "Daughter of Athena"; Uma Thurman as Medusa, the "Fatal Beauty"; Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, the centaur "Warrior Guide"; Brandon T. Jackson as Grover, Percy's sayter "Protector"; and Luke Camilleri as Dionysus, "The Exterminator."
For more information about the movie's leads, check out Meet the Cast of Percy Jackson.
Posted 01.07.10 by BrentJS -
Director Chris Columbus's latest movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, may feature gods and demi-gods with incredible powers, but according to actress Alexandra Daddario, it's their human qualities that make them interesting.
Greek gods are so human in so many ways — they love and they hate and they get jealous — and that's what makes the stories about them so exciting.
Based on the book series by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief tells the story of Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lerman), a boy who discovers he is the descendant of the Greek god Poseidon. Daddario plays Annabeth Chase, the daughter of the Greek goddess Athena, a role that required her to learn archery and fencing.
Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Brandon T. Jackson, and Rosario Dawson also star in supporting roles. See Meet the Cast of Percy Jackson for more details about the lead cast.
Posted 01.03.10 by BrentJS