Tekken

Did you know they are making a movie of popular video game Tekken? Following on from such great successes as Double Dragon, Streetfigher and Mortal Kombat, comingsoon.net has a selection of new images from the film, such as this :-

The movie stars Luke Goss, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tamlyn Tomita, Gary Daniels, Chiaki Kuriyama, Cung Le, Jon Foo, Kelly Overton, Ian Anthony Dale, Lateef Crowder, Darrin Dewitt Henson, John Pyper-Ferguson, Mircea Monroe, Gary Ray Stearns, Candice Hillebrand and David Pitt.

When the only vaguely recognisable name on the list is former 'Bros.' singer Luke Goss, it may not come as a surprise to know that the film has yet to be picked up by an American distributor.

Kick Ass

New restricted trailer for the action comedy.

Zaitochi

For those of you lucky enough to be based in the US, Hulu keeps getting better and better with it's movie offerings. The latest company to jump on board is art house DVD specialists Criterion. The first offerings are six films in the popular Japanese Zaitochi - The Blind Swordsman series, with more films from Criterion's wide ranging collection set to follow

Woody Allen's Next

Owen Wilson has signed on as the lead in Woody Allen’s as yet untitled next movie. Little is known about the movie except that Carla Bruni has a small role.

This is of course Allen's next movie to film, while his prodigious work rate means we will be seeing his already shot 'You will Meet a Tall Dark Strnager' in September, starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto and Lucy Punch.

When You're Strange : A Film About The Doors

Trailer for the forthcoming Jim Morrison/ The Doors documentary. The documentary is directed by Ton DiCillo, best known for his feature work including the much undderated 'Living in oblivion'. Not too much information is given in the trailer, but hopefully this will vanquish memories of Val Kilmer's portrayal in the overwrought Oliver Stone bio-pic of a few years back.

Cop Out

Two new R-rated clips from Kevin Smith's buddy cop comedy, which hits US theatres next week., via www.newsaskew.com.

After a pretty poor first trailer, subsequent marketing has raised expectations for the film, which looks like a pretty fun return to the days of Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills cop.

American Pie 4

The LA times reports that Universal are beginning work on 'American Pie 4'. Unlike the numerous straight to DVD spin offs this is aimed at a theatrical release and will feature the characters from the original trilogy.

Harold and Kumar writers Jon Hurwitz and Haydyn Schlossberg have been tasked with writing the screenplay and several of the original actors, most of whom are now well into their thirties, have expressed an interest in returning. Given the less than stellar careers most of them have progressed onto (with the exception of Alyson Hannigan and Seann William Scott) this is not entirely surprising.

James Cameron Interview

MTV.com has a wide ranging interview with James Cameron. There's lots on Avatar of course, including details of the home video release and inevitable sequel, but Cameron also talks at length about the wider industry, including his thoughts on Terminator sequels, superhero movies and the future of 3d. Cameron is particularly interesting when talking about the process of 'retrofitting' 3d to existing films and the use of the technique purely as a marketing process, as can be seen in this clip

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Source: Slashfilm

Roger Ebert

Esquire magazine has a lengthy article on famous film critic Roger Ebert. One of the most respected critics in the business, Ebert has suffered serious health problems in the last few years, which have left him unable to eat and speak. Despite this he continues to turn out a prodigious quantity of journalism, most of which can be found at www.rogerebert.com and collected in numerous books.

Wall Street 2

Unfortunately you have to visit The Sun's website to see it, but the new international trailer for Wall Street 2 features a lot of footage not seen in the US teaser. Those wanting to avoid spoilers should be aware however, as the trailer appears to give away a good chunk of the films plot.

Avatar

Whilst Avatar continues to smash box office records, stories are beginning to emerge about the future of the franchise. Whilst a sequel is no doubt inevitable it will also take several years to come to the screen.

Notwithstanding this, it seems we will be seeing new Avatar material much sooner than this, in the form of a novel written by Cameron himself.

Speaking to MTV news, producer Jon Landau indicated that the novel would be a 'big epic story that fills in a lot of things' including the death of Jake's brother and how main villain Quaritch ended up on Pandora.

The producer also indicated that other material originally intended for the movie, but cut for time, may make an appearance either in the novel, or another medium such as comic books.

Kick Ass

Empire Online have the new poster for Matthew Vaughan's forthcoming comic book adaptation Kick Ass. If you follow the link you'll also find a short behind the scene documentary on the film, which is due for release on March 26 in the UK and April 16 in the US.

Taxi Driver 2

Lars Von Trier producing partner has moved quickly to debunk yesterday's story that Von Trier was working on a new version of Scorsese's 1970's classic Taxi Driver.

Speaking to Screen Daily, Peter Aalbaek Jensen stated that the story was without foundation Whilst he confimed that Scorsese and Von Trier had met at the Berlinale he said rumours that the latter wanted to re-make Taxi Driver were “rubbish”.

Whilst many will breathe a sigh of relief at this news, a part of me was intrigued at what the Danish provocateur would have produced.

Whilst the Wolfman update has done better than expected at the box office with a $32 million opening weekend, reviews have not been kind. Stories have abounded about this being a troubled shoot, with numerous writers, a last minute change of director and extensive reshoots, and many critics have claimed that this is clearly reflected in the final product.

Joe Johnson, who replaced Mark Romanek as director, has given an interview to Time Out magazine in which, whilst not expressing displeasure with the final result, he is unusually candid about the difficulties in bringing the film to the screen. Amongst his choice quotes:-

“One of the issues with the previous director was that he had said he needed another 20 days, [...] and that became one of the areas of disagreement that led to [the studio] looking for a new director.”

Johnson goes on to state that whilst he initially brought the film in on the timescale set out by the studio, this was at the expense of jettisoning several sequences for time and budget reasons, including "a much longer sequence at the end and one in London where the wolfman is loose"

After cutting the film together it became apparent that the film did not work without these sequences, necessitating five further weeks of reshoots and significant delays in the film's release.

Whilst this is only the latest in a number of tales of films which have gone wildly over time and budget as a result of creative disagreements and studio politics, unfortunately for Universal The Wolfman looks to be another Last Action Hero rather than the next Titanic.

Arthur

In the second Russell Brand story of the day, The Hollywood reporter reports that the makers of his forthcoming Arthur Remake have approached Mery Streep for the supporting cast.

Streep is apparently wanted for the role of Hobson, the valet / butler originally played by John Gielgud. Obviously some work will need to be done to re-tool the role for a woman, but Streep is one of the few actresses who could give the necessary gravitas to the role, for which Gielgud won a best supporting actor oscar.

British screenwriter Peter Baynham, who contributed to Borat and Bruno, as well as being one of the creators of Alan Partridge, is working on the script for the film, which begins filming this summer.

Taxi Driver 2

File this one under weird rumours at the moment, but stories are emerging from the Berlin Film Festival that De Niro and Martin Scorsese are looking to revisit perhaps their most famous collaboration, Taxi Driver, with Lars Von Trier in the director's chair.

No word on whether this is a sequel, remake or pure fantasy, but the idea of the Danish filmmaker getting his hands on this material does have a certain appeal.

More details as and when we get them...

Get him to the Greek

We have the full trailer for 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' spin off 'Get him to the Greek', centring on Russell Brand's rockstar character Aldous Snow.

Jonah Hill plays a music industry assistant tasked with getting the British Rocker from London to LA to perform an anniversary show. Unfortunately, it appears that Snow has fallen back off the wagon since his appearance in the previous film.

People's opinion of this film will no doubt depend on their tolerance of Russell Brand's schtick. The film is also his first starring role in an American movie, and it will be interesting to see whether he can carry a film.

Toy Story 3

New full length trailer for Pixar's 3d sequel, which hits cinemas on June 18th