Odeon Says No To Rambo

The UK's largest cinema chain, Odeon, is apparently refusing to screen this weekend's major new release Rambo. Variety quotes the chain as stating:-

“Owing to commercial reasons, Odeon has made the decision not to screen the film ‘Rambo’ across its cinemas in the U.K.,”[...] “As the U.K.’s largest cinema chain, Odeon offers its guests a wide range of film genres to appeal to many different audiences. As such the decision not to screen ‘Rambo’ will free up screens to show alternative popular new films such as ‘Jumper,’ ‘Be Kind Rewind’ and ‘Juno’.”

Whilst other theatre chains will still be showing the film, this move will no doubt hurt Rambo's commercial prospects in the UK. It is assumed the argument is over the split of revenues between the cinema and distributor, but there is nothing to suggest this is being handled differently to other movies. In any event cinema's have long made their money from concession stands rather than ticket sales, as this recent article shows .

Source: Variety

Destino

Destino was an intended collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. The film was begun in the 1940's but abandoned. In 2003 Roy Disney finished the project and since then the film has been shown at a number of festivals. The short (15 min) film is now being released on DVD, with a host of extras, as part of the Disney's Treasures series.

Below is a short clip from the film, which combines classic era Disney animation with Dali's surreal imagery.

The film is set for a November 11th release in the USA, with no UK date as of yet




Source: Cinematical

The Happening

The full trailer for M Night Shyamalan's next movie has been released.

I kind of lost interest in Shyamalan after the ridiculous ending to Signs, and reviews of his most recent movies havent been kind. At first glance the trailer doesnt do anything to allay fears, coming across as a generic 'end of the world' thriller the kind of which we have seen numerous examples of over the last few years.



The Happening upons on June 13th.

Iron Man

The new Iron Man poster has just been released, and offers a detailed look at the costume design.

Source: Screenrant.com

RIP Ben Chapman

The original Creature from the Black Lagoon, Ben Chapman, died today aged 82. Chapman played the creature on land, whilst underwater scenes featured swimmer / stunt man Ricou Browning.

Whilst Chapman had no other roles of note, the Creature from the B;ack Lagoon remains a fifties horror classic, espeially in it's original 3D version). Below is the original theatrical trailer:

Toy Story 3

In an article regarding computer game adaptations of forthcoming movies, the Wall Street Journal gives a first indication of the plot of the upcoming Toy Story 3. The short description is as follows :-

In Pixar’s upcoming movie “Toy Story 3,” Woody the cowboy and his toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, leaves for college.

This outline certainly seems more in line with the themes explored in Toy Story 2 than the previous plan for the film, which involved the characters traveling to Japan.

Toy Story 3 will be released (in 3D) in Summer 2010.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Cinematical

Public Enemies

More casting news has been announced for Michael Mann's forthcoming period gangster film 'Public Enemies' which features the FBI's attempts to catch various gangsters in the 1930s. Christian Bale will play the lead FBI agent, attempting to bring down Johhny Depp's Dillinger.

New to the cast are David Wenham (Faramir in Lord of the Rings), as a member of Dillinger's Crew, and This is England star Stephen Graham as Baby Face Nelson. Giovanni Ribsi and Stephen Dorff will also feature.

Source: Variety

Dark Knight

It's blurry as hell , but various sites have pictures of this Dark Knight action figure which was on display at a recent toy fair.

The image seems to confirm that we will see Two Face at some point in the movie, although current thinking is that this will be at the conclusion as a lead in to the third film. With rumours of the Scarecrow also returning from the first film, and of course Heath Ledger's Joker, there is a slight worry that the film may be too crowded, and Spiderman 3 certainly suffered from multiple villains. That said, director and co-screenwriter Christian Nolan did a great job with the first film, and this remains one of the films to watch this summer

Sex and The City

New full length trailer, for those who like this sort of thing



Edit: The high quality version has been pulled, but the one above is still availabe. Not sure how long this will last.

My Blueberry Nights

Guardian Unlimited has an exclusive clip from Wong Kar Wai's English language debut 'My Blueberry Nights', which opens this weekend.

Reviews for the film have been variable to say the least, and it remains to be seen how Kar Wai's Eastern sensibilities will transfer to a mainstream American fim.

Akira

Further to yesterday's news that a live action Akira movie is on the way, sources are today reporting that the lead character, Kaneda, will be played by Leonardo Di Caprio.

Di Caprio is picky with his projects, and this casting certainly suggests that the studio has it's weight behind the film, however Di Caprio is considerably older than the character in the original film / comics.

Black Hole

David Fincher's next film will be 'Black Hole' an adaptation of Charle's Burns graphic novel about a new STD known as 'The Bug' which rapidly spreads amongst a group of teenagers. The screenplay is by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary.

Source: Variety

Akira

Warner Brothers have announced a live action remake to 'Akira', which will hit cinemas in two parts in 2009.

The original Japanese film was to a large extent responsible for introducing anime to a western audience, and has been a major influence on sci-fi flicks since. How well the film will adapt as mainstream summer blockbuster is not easy to predict however, and the original story will no doubt be substantially reworked.

Source: Variety

Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze's forthcoming film version of 'Where the Wild Things Are' appears to have hit a major roadblock, with suggestions that the entire film may be reshot. Whilst the word being put around is that this is due to technical issues, with the combination of creature suits and CGI being more difficult to accomish than envisioned, other sources are stating that Warner are unhappy with the tone of the film and the lead child actor.

Chud.com has the full story.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

Despite rumours of various big name directors being attached to the final Harry Potter movie, it appears that David Yates director of both Order of the Phoenix and the fortcoming Half Blood Prince, will be staying on board for the final installment. Current plans are to split the film into two, with an Easter and Christmas release, both to allow the story to breathe and also no doubt to allow Warner to squeeze as much money as possible from the franchise.

Source: Chud.com

Street Fighter

20th Century Fox is about to start filming a new 'Street Fighter' movie, and have today announced that the film will star Kristin Kreuk (Smallville's Lana Lang), Michael Clarke Duncan and Chris Klein (American Pie, Rollerball). Little is known about the film, other than that the focus will be on the Chun Li character.

The film will be directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, who was also responsible for previous video game adaptation Doom.

The most surprising news is that this is scheduled for a cinema release, despite the distinct 'direct to DVD' feel of the endeavor.

In any event, it's a step up from this...



Source: Variety

Star Trek Delayed

JJ Abram's Star Trek reboot, originally set for a Christmas 2008 release, has been pushed back to May 2009.

Whilst the studio states that the delay is part of a 'major reshuffle' of the studios forthcoming film release dates, rumours persist that Abrams was unhappy with the script being shot. As a result of the writers strike no further changes could be made, but now the strike is over the director seems to be taking the opportunity to rework the screenplay.

Final Destination 4

Whilst the third Final Destination film suffered from diminishing returns, the film obviously took in enough money for a further sequel, which begins filming next week. The twist this time is that the film will be shot in high definition 3D. The Final Destination films have always been gimmicky in nature, and doubtless the 3D format will bring some imaginative twists to the films set pieces.

With this and the forthcoming Piranha remake, 3D seems to be slowly making it's way back into exploitation cinema, bringing back memories of such 80's classics as Friday the 13th part 3 and Jaws 3D.

Source: Creature Corner

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents - Hobgoblin

Be Kind Rewind

In a promotional tie in for 'Be Kind Rewind', the website 'Film Making Frenzy' has been running an online competiton inviting readers to send in their own 5 minute remakes of Hollywood blockbusters. Whilst the quality is variable to say the least, some of the creativity on show is impressive.

Be Kind Rewind opens in the US and UK on Feb 22nd

Grindhouse

It looks like Grindhouse may be getting a very limited UK release in it's original form after all. Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright will introduce a screening of the film at the Prince Charles Cinema in London as part of the forthcoming 'Frightfest' horror movie festival. The film will then get a limited cinema release at the end of March.

Source : Empire Online

Hancock

New trailer for Will Smith movie Hancock, in theatres this July. Comedy superhero movies don't tend to do too well (see Mystery Men and My Super Ex Girlfriend for two recent examples), but this has a good pedigree, with Will Smith and Jason Bateman starring. Apparently the script has undergone substantial rewrites from the more adult orientated first draft, titled 'Tonight, he comes' but hopefully enough originality has been retained to make this a little different from the usual summer blockbusters.

Be Kind Rewind

The Guardian has an interview with Michel Gondry in which he talks about the inspirations behind his film work. His latest film, Be Kind Rewind, opens on Friday.