M O V I E N E W S
James Cameron (AVATAR) has been talking about potentially remaking the manga Battle Angel Alita for some time now, but itâs always seemed like a distant reality. Now Cameron is hinting that the tech heâs developed for Avatar will be instrumental in Alita, and that the film may actually be closer than we thought.
Cameron recently spoke to MTV, who asked about the status of Alita, and if the film would be more difficult to produce since itâs more a mixture of live-action and CG elements. James Cameron’s response:
The mixture of live-action and CG is a little trickier in 3-D than it is 2-D. Now we see itâs good to have done Avatar first before Battle Angel, because the tricky scenes are where youâre blending live-action photography, stereoscopic photography and CG.
Shooting live stuff in 3-D and then adding CG characters and landscapes beyond that, thatâs a little tricky.
…Weâre not that far down the line. We have a very good script and weâve done a lot of production design. Weâve done about a year of production design and weâve put together an art reel that shows the arc of the film.
[First Look] At Iron Man 2’s War Machine
In related Iron Man news; Jeff Bridges admits Iron Man had no script! Iron Man may have seemed as polished as fresh power-armor, but the movie actually had no screenplay at all, says Jeff Bridges. The chaos freaked him out, until he decided to think of it as a $200 million student film.
In an interview with InContention, Bridges explained that the Marvel superhero movie rushed into production to make its release date, with the director and star making up scenes as they went along: [io9 has the story]
And here’s the newest pic of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow:
[First Look]Â Alice On Set For Resident Evil: Afterlife
Milla Jovovich as Alice talks about her new action/zombie film in the works over at io9 where she mentions showers, and Ali Larter a lot. I think maybe Milla is a marketing genius.
[First Look] A Live-action Tekken movie?!?
Fair enough, it’s going to suck balls though. Playing Tekken 6 will be more fun than this đ There’s no way it will be a blockbuster success, but it may gain some major cult followers. I don’t remember the anime that well, but this will be better than that at least.
I’ve always enjoyed the casual Tekken Cosplay, but a whole film about the game, without the crazy hair? I dunno. And the boobs are way too normal.
Location Scouting For The Next Riddick Has Begun
The newest news about the greatest Furyan boosts our hope that the next Chronicles Of Riddick project will be made. The team is scouting new Riddick locations in New Zealand.
According to Vin Diesel’s Facebook page, the Riddick crew is headed to New Zealand to look for locations. Which is totally different than any Riddick world we’ve seen thus far.
I wonder if New Zealand will be the hostile planet Riddick will be stuck on, “surrounded by hostile beasts.” I hope so, because it’s gorgeous. And while I’m happy to have Riddick back, I’m hoping that they attempt to explain the Necromonger world that was introduced in the Chronicles of Riddick â but so far the new Riddick sounds more space action and less space opera. Still, always good to have the Furyan back.
A Furyan in the shire! I for one am riddickulously excited about this.
President Obama Inspired Independence Day 2
Roland Emmerich is readying a sequel to his White House-exploding alien invasion movie Independence Day. What’s taken him so long? He was just waiting for the right president to take the Oval Office.
“In Independence Day, it was about a king who leads his country into a fight against an outside invader. I didn’t want to make that movie during the Bush years. It was not thought that George W. Bush would have made a great king. Now with Obama, it’s another story.”
The sequel would, in fact, focus on the US President, but it’s still plagued by funding woes and disagreements between Emmerich and Fox as to whether to bring back Will Smith. But Emmerich seems determined to return to the universe of what he calls his “defining film.”
…Hmm, the only info I got from that is, Will Smith will be the president.
Also, Roland Emmerich is planning not one, but two Independence Day sequels!
Speaking of sequels đŚ
Robert Zemeckis wants a Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel
Two new tidbits from Toon Town have leaked out this week. First, the Roger Rabbit sequel has retained the original screenwriters for its new script. And second, major hints are being dropped that the animated characters may go Mo-Cap.
In an interview with MTV, Robert Zemeckis revealed that the next Roger Rabbit film will retain the original writers, Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price, but Toon Town may be in for an upgrade.
“All the other characters that [the cartoons] would sort of have fun with would be magnificent in performance capture technology…I wouldn’t use it for the cartoon characters, because I think they should stay two-dimensional because that’s what – I wouldn’t dimensonalize Roger,” he said. “And I couldn’t dimensonalize Jessica even if I wanted to because she doesn’t have a nose. We wouldn’t want to give her a nose.”
Well, thank god for that â Jessica Rabbit is perfect just the way she is, thank you very much. This is all pretty exciting, except for one giant flaw. Bob Hoskins still isn’t on to return in the role of Eddie Valiant, and that’s a pretty important character to maintain.Â
Original Directors Want To Make Their Own Blair Witch 2
Fair enough, but why not I don’t know, come-up with something new? Blair Witch has a whimsical ‘ghost stories around the campfire’ feel that is loved by a great many. To do something like that again for an audience that is all to familiar with the shaky camera feel, would just be repetitive and boring. But good luck to you.
The Blair Witch directors aren’t done with their little stick dolls just yet. Eduardo SĂĄnchez wants to make his own sequel to the mockumentary, and simply pretend that Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 never happened.
While speaking with Toronto Star co-director Sånchez, who worked with Daniel Myrick, hinted that he and his partner may be ready to get back into the fake documentary business, as long as we all just ignore Blair Witch 2.
Joss Whedon bids $10k for the Terminator franchise đ
After Terminator Salvation didn’t do quite as well as expected at the box office, the current owner Halcyon has mentioned that the rights to the franchise will be up for auction, with bidding expected to go as high as $60 million.
But Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse, wrote an open letter to Halcyon on his blog offering the paltry sum of 10 grand. The offer may be far-fetched, but it’s gotten Whedon fans wondering how he might change the franchise. [very tonge-in-cheek]
That’s not Joss Whedon [above] btw, just a really hot robot.
 [First Look] Jessica Alba Machete Poster!
Featuring Steven Seagal and Robert DeNiro FTW! …But what’s all this Lindsay Lohan shit?
“Machete” is based on the “fake” trailer in Rodriguez’s 2007 Grindhouse. The feature version of the trailer finds Machete (Danny Trejo) a renegade former Mexican Federale, roaming the streets of Texas after a shakedown from drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal). Reluctantly, Machete takes an offer from spin doctor Benz (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate McLaughlin (Robert De Niro) a corrupt Senator. Double crossed and on the run Machete braves the odds with the help of Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), a saucy taco slinger, Padre (Cheech Marin) his “holy” brother, and April (Lindsay Lohan) a socialite with a penchant for guns. All while being tracked by Sartana (Alba), a sexy ICE agent with a special interest in the blade slinger.
While we’re all day-dreaming about Jessica Alba, I can tell you she ‘bares ass’ in her upcoming movie based on the novel by legendary pulp writer Jim Thompson,”The Killer Inside Me” directed by Michael Winterbottom.
I can already tell you it’s not my cup of tea, but I think the director has great vision. [probably a body double]
THE KILLER INSIDE ME tells the story of handsome, charming, unassuming small town sheriff’s deputy Lou Ford.
Lou has a bunch of problems. Woman problems. Law enforcement problems. An ever-growing pile of murder victims in his West Texas jurisdiction. And the fact he’s a sadist, a psychopath, a killer. Suspicion begins to fall on Lou, and it’s only a matter of time before he runs out of alibis.
GATTACA getting developed into a futuristic CSI?
It seems that Denis Learyâs production company, Apostle Films (Rescue Me) have bought the rights to turn one of my favorite scifi films, GATTACA, into a one-hour police procedural television drama.
The man in charge of pushing the pen is Gil Grant, who besides a few episodes of 24, doesn’t have much experience as a showrunner.
I don’t want to sound like a spoil sport or anything, but a GATTACA television show that’s seen from the point of view of cops doesn’t sit well with me. The world of GATTACA is dystopian, where the cops are the enforcers of outrageous discriminations based on genetics. They seek out “invalids” (or those people trying to pass as genetically superior) and essentially destroy them. Seems to me, the company has bought a sellable name rather than a story they intend to be true to.
“I came up with a world which is populated with Valids and Invalids, the same premise [as the movie], but taken into a police department where we’re⌠integrating, using the analogy of the â60s Civil Rights struggle…Even though it’s technically illegal to discriminate against Invalids, just like in the â60s, people did,” Grant continued. “So it’s come to pass that [the government has] ordered the police department to hire their first token Invalid into the detective department. What we’re doing is we’re taking an Invalid and teaming him up with a Valid, a seasoned officer. You know, it’s oil and water.” – NCIS producer Gil Grant
Sadly, he doesn’t think any of the original characters will be returning, and this project is wholly on his own, so no help from the original producers or directors of Gattaca. Still, I like the idea of watching a police procedural set in a civil rights movement in the future. It’s like Life on Mars, only in reverse. And odd-couple buddy-cop shows are always a good thing.
I love Gattaca. I find the ending is very poetic.
MGM Is Up For Sale, But Who’s Buying?Â
Never mind the Terminator franchise – the entire MGM studio and back catalog is up for sale.
Actually, the MGM library is pretty impressive, including such sci-fi classics as Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Soylent Green, Westworld and Logan’s Run, as well as the original Clash of The Titans, Species and the upcoming Robocop remake (Also, Spaceballs… but that’s not really a major selling point). If some interested – and rich – parties picked up the studio and the Terminator rights, they’d have an immediate in with the geek dollar, if they were so inclined (Who wouldn’t want to see Robocop Vs. Terminator In Westworld?).
S I L E N T  H I L L  2 Yess pleassse
As pre-production on a sequel to 2006’s Silent Hill movie plods along, a few new details are being offered up as to the direction the film is going to take, courtesy of producer Don Carmody.
For starters, Roger Avary – who wrote the first movie – may not return. He’s, uh, busy. And while we don’t know which cast members, if any, will be returning, Carmody confirms that Christophe Gans won’t be back in the director’s chair, as he “wants to direct something new”.
Carmody then opens up on the course the movie will take, while at the same time addressing some of the complaints fans of the series had over the first film’s tone and depiction of familiar characters.
“I think we need to make it a little more accessible to the movie-going public”, he told STYD. “Silent Hill is not a blockbuster game like Resident Evil or the other games out there. It’s a connoisseurs’ game. It has its own, rabid fan base. They’re not cheap, these things. You have to appeal not only to the gamers, you have to appeal to a wider audience. So we have to get some story in there that helps explain a bit more. I think that’s all happening. Of course, [the story] is going to happen years later and the main character – without giving too much away – is much older and representative to the movie-going public which is in that age group.”
 And to end on a good note: UWE BOLL you bastard son of a how the fuck…
Uwe Boll is alleged to be committing second-degree filmmaking again, this time as a sequel to his last Bloodrayne film, with or without a sequel to the actual video game.
Game or film would be bad enough. Both together would be like multiplying zeroes. The Movie Blog drops word of Boll’s latest ambition, which is confusingly titled Bloodrayne 3: Warhammer. Yeah, I have no idea what that means, either, except maybe a C&D in the mail from Mythic Entertainment? Kirstanna Loken is said to be back in the lead role.
I couldn’t track down what The Movie Blog was sourcing but this post says this movie will begin filming in January. Which means it’ll be finished in February. Or at least look like it. HA!
 I do think the character is femme fatale sexy looking though. Such a shame.
Ok I’m burnt. No more. There are web-sites that specialize in this sort of stuff.
đ 