Savages

Deadline is reporting that Oliver Stone is intending to make an adaptation of Don Winslow's novel Savages his next project following the forthcoming release of Wall Street 2.

Stone has grabbed the rights to the book before it's July publication date and details are therefore sketchy.  The promotional blurb describes the plot as follows:-

“young, independent Laguna Beach-based marijuana kingpins are blackmailed into working for the Baja Cartel after one of their threesome is kidnapped.  The group now owes every cent they’ve made for the last five years, and while they agree to pay, they end up hatching “an alternate plan to get her back, get revenge, and then get lost.”

Police Academy

A few years ago Steve Guttenberg was touting a new Police Academy film, which would reunite most of the surviving cast.  Whilst most people put these comments down to desperate pitching from a man reduced to pantomines and infomercials, it looks like Guttenberg may have been at least partly correct.

New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers have announced that they are in fact working on a revival of the franchise.  Unfortunately for Guttenberg and co. it appears that the film will centre on a selection of new recruits and there will be no room for the original stars.

Whilst not surprising, it's a shame the studio could not find some place for the original cast, perhaps as teachers at a new academy, a move which surely would draw in some of the fans of the original series.  

George A Romero's Survival of the Dead

Here's a very brief red band trailer for George Romero's Survival of the Dead.  Romero seems to have a thing for characters with dodgy accents but at least this sequel moves away from the cinema verite style which hampered the previous entry in the series, Diary of The Dead.

This is also the second film today which will be seeing a video on demand release (this time on April 30th) before hitting selected cinemas at the end of May.    It's certainly an interesting marketing strategy, but it remains to be seen whether anyone other than Romero's die hard supporters will trek to the cinema to see something readily available at home.

The Smurfs

As mentioned previously, following the success of Alvin and The Chipmunks, studios are looking for other classic children's properties to adapt.  Next in the live action / CGI cross over genre is 'The Smurfs' which, whilst originally a 1950's comic book is best known for the 1980's animated TV show.

Doogie Howser MD himself, Neil Patrick Harris, will be taking the live action lead, with Jordan Kerner producing.

Warlords

Almost two years after it's release in it's native China, Jet Li action epic Warlords is finally be getting a US release this month.

In a somewhat odd strategy the film will be available 'on-demand' via cable, Xbox Live and Playstation Network from today, before a limited cinema release on 2 April

Cinematical has an exclusive clip from the movie, embedded below, together with this synopsis:-

Set in the midst of war and political upheaval during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s, WARLORDS stars Jet Li as General Pang, who barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow soldiers by playing dead, and joins a band of bandits led by Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). After fighting back attackers from an helpless village, the three men take an oath to become "blood brothers," pledging loyalty to one another until death, but things quickly turn sour and the three men become embroiled in a web of political deceit, and a love triangle between Pang, Er Hu and a beautiful courtesan (Wu Jing-Lei).

Wolverine 2

Slashfilm reports that a script for a sequel to the X-Men spin off Wolverine has been handed in to Fox, who are looking at shooting the film in January 2011.

The script has been written by Christopher McQuarrie, of Usual Suspects fame, which raises hopes it may be a step above the previous entry in the series, or at the very least it may have a plot that makes some kind of sense.

The script is apparently based loosely on Frank Miller's early 1980's comic book (pictured) which first popularised the character, and will apparently feature a romance with a Japanese character.

No director is on board yet, and the director of the previous film, Gavin Hood , has indicated he will not be returning.

Toy Story 3

Here's the final poster for Toy Story 3, highlighting a number of the new characters which will make an appearance in the film, as well as some old favourites.

Death Race 2

Sean Bean is the latest actor to join straight to DVD sequel Death Race 2, according to the Hollywood Reporter.


Produced by the director of the 2008 remake of the original classic, Paul Thomas Anderson, the prequel will centre on racing driver Frankenstein's time as a convice in a corrupt prison system.


Bean will join a cast which already features genre stalwarts Luke Goss (in the lead role), Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames.


The film is the latest in a number of direct to DVD sequels to cinema releases produced by Universal Studios, which have included sequels to Smoking Aces and American Pie and a prequel to Carlito's Way.

Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter is the latest in a series of surprisingly popular 'literary mash ups' from Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.'

The novel is heading to the big screen with Grahame-Smith penning the screenplay.   Tim Burton and Timur Berkmambetov, who previously collaborated on the animated '9' are attached as producers but further details are scarce at the moment.

In the meantime here's a short 'trailer' for the book itself, which is certainly a neat way of promoting it, and not something I've seen before


Source: Slashfilm

Alice in Wonderland

In celebration with the release of Tim Burton's forthcoming Alice in Wonderland, which is apparently the 20th screen adaptation of the tale, the BFI have released a restored version of the very first adaptation which amazed cinema goers as long ago as 1908.


In a surprising echo of the new film, this version even features the director's wife in the role of the Red Queen

Only eight of the original twelve minutes survive, but what is there has been extensively restored, including the reinstatement of some early colour effects.

Indiana Jones 5

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Harrison Ford has revealed that director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas have 'the germ of an idea' for a fifth Indiana Jones film.
Notwithstanding this, you may need to wait a while for the film to hit the screen.   
"The process works like this," Ford explained. "We come to some basic agreement and then George goes away for a long time and works on it."
"Then Steven and I get it in some form, some embryonic form."
"Then if we like it we start working with George on it and at some point down the line it's ready and we do it."
Given that Ford is now 67 years old it looks like we will be seeing an Indiana Jones well into his seventies by the time the next film comes around.

Tron Legacy

Slashfilm has a new image from the Tron film, which takes us back inside Flynn's arcade.  Looking considerably more decrepit than in the original film, the character in the middle is Sam Flynn, the son of the Jeff Bridge's Kevin Flynn.  Flynn Jr. goes looking for his father and soon finds himself dragged into a updated 3d version of the original's virtual world.

Prince of Persia

A new trailer has been released for this summers video-game adaptation, Prince of Persia.  The film stars Jake Gylenhall (with an extremely dodgy accent (as the titular Prince, who finds an ancient artefact that can turn back time.  Looking like a cross between Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Carribean, this certainly looks to be one of the more effects heavy films of the summer.  The Mike Newell directed film reaches screens on May 28th.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

MTV News has a new interview with Edgar Wright about his forthcoming comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim Vs The World which opens August 2010.  The comic tells of a slacker (played in the movie by Micheal Cera) who meets the girl of his dreams but, before he can be with her, is forced to battle her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

Wright talks a bit about the tone of the film, and the changes from the comic book.  Whilst initially faithful to the book, the film's plot begins to diverge around the mid-way point, which is less surprising when you learn the later books in the series had not been completed at the time the screenplay was written.  The creator of the series, Bryan Lee O'Malley, has given his blessing to the changes however, and responses to early test screenings have been almost universally positive.

Ghostbusters 3

A bizarrely attired Bill Murray made an appearance on David Letterman's late night talk show earlier this week and briefly talked about Ghostbusters 3.  Whilst the actor at one point dismisses the prospect of a third film as 'crazy talk' he does go on to talk with some fondness about reprising the role for a recent video game.  He also repeats his earlier statements that he would only return for the film if they killed him off in the first reel and states that the screenwriters have now found a way to do this.  This ties in with earlier reports that the Venkman character would appear as a ghost character in any further sequel.

Here's a brief video of the discussion

Arthur

The Arthur remake appears to be moving forward with the news that Jason Winer has signed on to direct.  Although a newcomer to feature film making, Winer is one of the minds behind ABC's hit sitcom Modern Family.  As well as executive producing the series, Winer is responsible for directing a number of the series most popular episodes.

British writer Peter Baynham is on scripting duties whilst the other roles have yet to be cast, although there was an intriguing rumour a few weeks brand that Brand wanted Meryl Streep to play Hobson, the Butler role for which John Gielguild won a role in the original.

This Weeks New DVD Releases

A mixed bag of new DVD's and Blu-Rays this week.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Wes Anderson's adaptation of Roald Dahl's childrens classic split critics with it's mix of retro stop motion animation and urbane wisecracking.  Nonetheless there is much to delight here, particularly George Clooney's turn as the fantastic Mr Fox.





Blu Ray - Only £16.85
Fantastic Mr Fox [Blu-ray] [2009]

DVD - Only £11.93
Fantastic Mr Fox [DVD] [2009]

Cirque Du Freak - The Vampires Assistant

A speedy DVD release for Universal's attempt to cash in on the Twilight phenomenon.  A talented cast (John C Reilly, Salma Hayek) is wasted on this lifeless tale of a young boy who leaves his normal life behind to go on the road with the titular Cirque Du Freak.

The DVD is however only £7.98 on Amazon
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant [DVD] [2009]



The American President

Bargain of the week goes to Rob Reiner's 1995 rom-com the American President.  The film stars Michael Douglas as the single President of the United States, who risks his popularity by falling in love with a lobbyist, played by Annette Benning.  Michael J Fox and Michael Sheen take supporting roles.

Despite the somewhat bland description above, the film is surprisingly sharp when it comes to it's dissection of the American political system.  The reason why becomes clear when you realise the script was written by Aaron Sorkin, and in many ways the film served as a dry run for the West Wing.  Echoes of the series can be seen throughout the film, from the quickfire dialogue to the casting of Michael Sheen as a senior presidential aide.

Whilst the DVD is bereft of extras, Amazon is charging only £3.14 for the disc, and at that price it deserves a place in everyone's DVD collection.

The American President [DVD] [1995]

Follow us on Twitter

You can now be kept up to date with the latest updates to the site by following @Jonf1979 on twitter.

Whilst we wont be telling you every time a new story is posted on the site we will keep you informed of the major stories of the day, which, as usual, will be whatever interests us at the time.

Foundation

Roland Emmerich has talked to Empire Online about his forthcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov's seminal sci-fi novel Foundation.

Emmerich reveals that screenwriter Robert Rodat has just handed in a 240 page first draft of the film and that they are currently looking at getting this down to a more manageable length whilst still keeping the epic scope of the books.

Emmerich also states that the film will be all-CGI but utilising performance capture techniques and that the flick will also be jumping on the 3D bandwagon.

The director's track record, together with the use of 3D, is likely to worry fans and give rise to fears that the books more cerebral passages will be jettisoned in favour of special effects and action sequences. Notwithstanding this Foundation has had a troubled road to the screen and it may be best to reserve judgment until we see exactly what Emmerich has in mind.

How to Train Your Dragon

New trailer for Dreamwork's next CGI animation, which is released on 26 March in the US and 31 March in the UK

Tron Legacy 3D

Joseph Kosinski, director of this winter's Tron sequel, has revealed to Slashfilm that as well as being shot in the 3D format the film will feature a number of action sequences which will utilise the extended ratio of Imax screens. In a similar fashion to The Dark Knight the majority of the film will be presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, however for five key sequences the screen will expand upwards to 1:7 to 1. This will of course apply only to Imax theatres and is intended to make the audience feel more immersed in the world of the film.

Puppet Master : Axis of Evil

In a world where Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers are getting high profile resurrections, it's interesting to see that other, less popular eighties horror movie series are continuing to pump out direct to DVD sequels all these years later.

In that vein, here's the teaser trailer for the forthcoming Puppet Master : Axis of Evil, the forthcoming tenth (!) entry in the series, which takes the killer puppets back to the Nazi Germany setting of the third film.

American Grindhouse

Trailer for great looking documentary American Grindhouse, featuring a selection of contributors who clearly understand the films in a way Tarantino and Rodriguez singularly failed to do.

Source: Slashfilm

Tangled (formerly Rapunzel)

The forthcoming DVD and Blu Ray release of Disney's The Princess and the Frog features a very brief teaser for Tangled, their forthcoming update of the Rapunzel tale. The film is due for release in November 2010 and, whilst a CGI animation, the imagery does seem to capture that classic Disney look.

Not The Messiah

As part of their 40th anniversary celebrations last year, the surviving members of Monty Python (with the exception of John Cleese), appeared in a stage performance of Eric Idle's oratoria Not The Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy). The musical is of course based on Monty Python's Life of Brian, which many consider the most successful of their films.

The event was recorded and will in fact gain a very brief cinema release for one night only on March 25th. The recording will screen at 90 cinemas in the UK, with no showings planned in the US at president.

No doubt this means the show will turn up on DVD at some point in the near future. In the meantime, here's a trailer for the cinema screeenings