Fear(s) of the Dark

Cinematical has a couple of clips from the French animated horror anthology, Fear(s) of the Dark, which is icking up positive reviews around t'internet.

Bolt!

Slashfilm has a four minute clip from the opening section of Disney's next animated fim, which will be released November 21st

Kevin Smith's Next

With the upcoming release of Zack and Miri Kevin Smith has started discussing his next projects. Whilst dark horror 'Red State' is still next up (subject to financing), he also has a science fiction comedy in the pipeline. Here's more details, courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter

Kevin Smith sets space comedy

Indie-film veteran eyes biggest budget yet

By Steven Zeitchik

Writer-director Kevin Smith is developing a futuristic outer space comedy.

The film will reference other sci-fi movies and revolves around a father-son relationship. Smith has nodded to the genre in his earlier work but never made a sci-fi film.

The indie-minded Smith is aiming for a budget in the $45 million-$50 million range, which would be his biggest. He again will produce with partner Scott Mosier via their View Askew banner.

Harvey and Bob Weinstein, with whom Smith has collaborated on most of his movies, could reteam with Smith on the film. Insiders said that TWC execs have read part of the script and are interested in making the movie. Smith has finished a first draft of the script, but the project will not move forward until after his next project, “Red State.” Smith will not be doing that with the Weinsteins but instead is seeking independent financing and a spring start date for his dramatic tale of a domestic terrorist in the Heartland.

The Weinstein Co. this month will release Smith’s Seth Rogen comedy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” That film, at about $25 million, had his biggest-budget to date, but Smith knows the sci-fi movie will be pricier.

“The moment someone steps out of the spaceship, it’s going to cost a little more,” he said.

Smith said he’s looking forward to exploring new character dynamics as well as outer space.

“All the relationships in the flicks I’ve done have been done before, have been either a guy falling for a girl or two dudes hanging out in a ‘bromantic’ comedy,” he said. “I wanted to explore a father and son.”

Source: Newsaskew

Inglourious basterds

Tarantino's World War II flick, curious spelling and all, has begun shooting. Today sees the first shot of Brad Pitt in character as the Lt Aldo Raine

Source: Aint It Cool News

Star Trek

Following yesterday's photo, heres another showing the entire cast of the Enterprise.

Entertainment Weekly also has some more detalis on the plot, suggesting the time travel time commences the flick begins when "a Federation starship, the USS Kelvin (pictured right), is attacked by a vicious Romulan (Eric Bana) desperately seeking one of the film's heroes. From there, the film then brings Kirk and Spock center stage and tracks the origins of their friendship and how they became officers aboard the Enterprise. In fact, the movie shows how the whole original series crew came together: McCoy (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho), and Chekov (Anton Yelchin)."

Leonard Nimoy's appearance as Spock is also apparently more substantial than a one scene cameo, but further details are not forthcoing.

Source: Cinematical.com

Saw V

New image fro Saw V, confirming Tobin Bell makes an appearance despite his death in the previous installment. We assume this is some sort of flashback as opposed to zombie Jiigsaw but who knows, or frankly cares?

In other news the UK amusement park Thorpe Park has announced that Saw: The Ride will open in Spring 2009. Incorporating a 100 degree vertical drop the ride promises to recreate the movie experience. Anyone who has visited the Newcastle oppings will know what it is like to have the feeling the ride could collapse and kill you in an extremely unpleasant way at any moment, but we guess this isnt what they are aiming for...


Source: Slashfilm

Star Trek

This weeks Entertainment Weekly has a lengthy article on the upcoming star trek prequel. The cover (above) gives us one of the first shots of Zachary Quinto and Chris pine in character as Spock and Kirk.

Source: Slashfilm

Quantum of Solace

Click here for a brief clip from Bond's next.

Source: MSN Movies

Zack and Miri

Those of you in the South of America may want to head over to chud.com where you can nab tickets for a free screening of Kevin Smith's latest on October 23rd.

Up

New poster for Pixar's next.

Source: www.chud.com

W

New poster art for the film, playing up the satirical aspect. Courtesy of Cinematical

Iron Man 2

Whilst Iron Man 2 is still on course for a Summer 2010 release, with Tropic Thunders Justin Theroux taking on scripting duties, the Hollywood Reporter suggests that Terrance Howard will not be reprising his role of General Rhodes, due to a dispute over salary. Instead Don Cheadle (pictured) will take on the role , and presuming the film follows the proposed storyline, don the iron suit at some point in the film. Rumours that Cheadle wil perform the entire role in the chirpy cockney accent 'perfected' in Oceans 11 and its sequels are unfounded.

Source : Cinematical

UPDATES

Apologies for the lack of updates recently - work and law exams are taking their toll. We will hopefully be back up and running at full speed from Sunday.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Aliens! Regardless of what you thought of the last Indiana Jones film, the dvd looks like it may have some interesting extras. Those of you interested in such things may enjoy the above sideshow collectibles model which comes with the collectors edition of the dvd.

Source: Cinematical

Zack and Miri

The first of Money shots, a series of shorts from behind the scenes of Zack and Miri is now online at Quickstop Entertainment

2009 Academy Awards

The foreign film nominations have now closed, with each country submitting one film for consideration. Wikipedia has the full list here

I heard You Paint Houses

Scorsese and De Niro are to team up for the first time since 1995's Casino. Their new project will apparently tell the supposedly true tale of the mobster who killed Jimmy Hoffa. Stephen Zallian (Schindlers List) is writing the screenplay.

While De Niro's choices have been somewhat shaky of late, The Departed showed that Scorsese is still on great form, and we can all but hope for one last great film from the pair.

Source: Cinematical

Zack and Miri

New promotional video courtesy of complex.com - probably not safe for work

(Via www.newsaskew.com)

Australia

MSN has the new trailer for Baz Luhrmann's australian epic.  

Nicole Kidman plays a beer swilling ex convict, and Hugh Jackman the Kangaroo she falls in love with. Harold Bishop co stars.  At least that could be the plot from all the sense this trailer makes.  

Bolt

New poster for Disneys November release, in 3d no less.

Source: Cinematical

Ghostbusters 3

In an appearance to promote new fantasy film City of Ember, Bill Murray was asked about Ghostbusters 3. His response was surprisngly positive, according to Aint It Cool News, which paraphrases Murray as stating that:-

"some writers from THE OFFICE" were taking a stab at the script right now (which we already knew) and that he thinks that's a good start. He paused for a few seconds then said that he thinks enough time has passed and that "the wounds from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 are healed" and that he would definitely be into doing another GHOSTBUSTERS movie, stating that the first 40 minutes of the original film is some of the best stuff he's been associated with and the whole shoot was an amazing amount of fun."

Fright Night

Following on from his earlier Childs Play track, director Tom Holland is back with two downloadable commentary tracks for eighties classic Fright Night, this time along with the cast and crew.

The tracks can be found here

Source: Aint It Cool News

Doubt

Trailer for the adaptation of the popular play, Based on the popular play, Doubt follows a nun (Meryl Streep) who accuses a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of inappropriate actions with a young black student.

Source: Cinematical

W

Behind the scenes photo of Oliver Stones upcoming (satirical?) Bush biopic. The picture comes from a lengthy and interesting interview with Stone in USA Today, which can be found here.

Quantum of Solace

Do you like posters? Do you like James Bond? Then it's your lucky day. Would you like a poster with a sliver of originality that would make Sony's Autumn flagship look like something other than a cheap generic action flick? Not so lucky.

Source: CHUD.com

American Psycho

God help us all. With no further comment, we present the following press release:-

”American Psycho, the controversial social satire from acclaimed novelist Bret Easton Ellis, which was adapted into a feature film in 2000 top-lining “Dark Knight” star Christian Bale, will be adapted for the stage.

The Johnson-Roessler Company, The Collective and XYZ Films have partnered to acquire, develop and produce the live stage version.

American Psycho delves into the designer lifestyle and twisted mind of Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, young and handsome Wall Street investment banker in 1980s Manhattan . Whether applying an herb-mint facial masque during his morning routine, comparing business cards with his colleagues at Pierce & Pierce or attempting to get a reservation at restaurant hot-spot Dorsia, Bateman's obsessively materialistic behavior fills his days. By night, his mask of sanity slips into a world of drugs, prostitution and murder.

The Johnson-Roessler Company’s David Johnson, Craig Roessler and Jesse Singer, who brought the project to the company, are producing alongside The Collective’s Aaron Ray and XYZ Films’ Nate Bolotin. Ellis and Edward R. Pressman will serve as consulting producers. No dramatists have yet been confirmed. Original music will revive the nostalgia of the 80’s alongside celebrated hits from the era.

“American Psycho continues to be a cultural phenomenon,” said David Johnson. “Ellis’ book contains so many memorable lines and musical references that a live musical production is the perfect fit. The character of Patrick Bateman has become an icon for fans of Ellis’ book and the film adaptation, and now we can bring this dark but comical world of greed to the stage in an entertaining and thought-provoking way.”

Ellis’ 1991 satire ignited a major controversy due to its graphic depiction of violence. The book was originally scheduled for publication by Simon & Schuster, but the company balked due to outrage driven by massive publicity in advance of its release. Vintage, an imprint of Random House, bought the rights to the book and published it soon thereafter. The book, which shocked the nation and defined the decade, has sold over 1.6 million copies worldwide.

“This is the perfect storm of creative people to turn American Psycho into an entertaining musical play,” said Ellis. “American Psycho’s essence is the high-flying 80s, the decadence and the music -- together, they are the equivalent of a spectacular train wreck you have to watch.”

There has been a recent influx of successful novel-to-Broadway adaptations. Amanda Brown’s Legally Blonde has become an audience favorite and Gregory Maguire’s Wicked has broken box office records in addition to selling well over 1 million soundtrack units.

“It is clear that there is a resurgence of 1980s music with many of today’s top selling acts as they are turning back to the hits of the time for inspiration on style and sound,” says Nate Bolotin. “Ellis’ musical references to bands like Talking Heads, Genesis and Huey Lewis and The News fill entire chapters of the book, and we believe a live musical rendition will give fans and new audiences a chance to experience the story in a whole new way.”

Source: Aint It Cool News

Zack and Miri

Newsaskew has the first TV spot for Zack and Miri, which aired during this weeks Saturday Night Live.

Quantum of Solace

Here is 'Another Way to Die' the theme tune to the next Bond film, as performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys.




Source: Slashfilm.com

The Spirit

New poster for (increasingly said to be terrible) The Spirit

Source: Slashfilm.com

Bolt!

'Bolt' Extended Clip @ Yahoo! Video

Three and a half minute clip from Disney's next, which has apparently been subject to some extensive reworking at the hand of Disney's new head of animation (and Pixar head honcho) John Lassetter.

Source: Slashfilm

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Taking it's cue from Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will be debuting in Imax 3D alongside it's regular release, Empire reports. Only certain sections, totalling around 25 minutes, will be in the format, supposedy split between the major action sequences at the beginning and end of the film.

Transformers 2

This may look like a shapeless lump of plastic but apparently this is a first shot of Megatron from Transformers 2, or rather a prototype of a toy of Megatron. It's a slow news day.

Source: Cinematical

Green Hornet

Stephen Chow, of Shaolin Soccer fame, has reportedly signed on to direct and co-star in Seth Rogen's new take on the Green Hornet. Chow is cerainly reminiscent of a young Bruce Lee, who co-starred in the 60's TV version of the character, and has shown his comedic chops which should also fit in with Rogen's vision for the film.

Source: CHUD.com

Green Hornet

IMDB

The Internet Movie Database, WWW.IMDB.COM now has a wide selection of TV shows and movies available for free screenings. At the moment this service is available in the USA only. Those out of the USA wishing to partake may wish to google Hotshield.

Frost / Nixon

Poster for Ron Howard's political drama.
Source: Slashfilm

Syndechone, New York

'Synedoche New York' Theatrical Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

New trailer for harlie Kaufman's next.

Source: Slashfilm

Bedtime Stories

Trailer for Adam Sandler's family comedy Bedtime Stories, also featuring celebrity Jonas botherer Russell Brand.

Source: Cinematical

Repo : A Genetic Opera

Interesting poster for the forthcoming film from the makers of Saw. More info on the unusual film on the official website.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Childs Play

Last week saw the release of a 20th anniversary Childs Play DVD. Whilst the disc is supposedly pretty packed, one voice was missing - that of director Tom Holland. Website Icons of Fright has dealt with this in a pretty cool way by enlisting Holland to provide an unofficial commentary track which can be synced with the DVD. The track is available for free download here.

Men Who Stare at Goats

Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are set to star opposite already cast star / producer George Clooney in 'Men Who Stare at Goats', which tells of the supposedly real secret Army unit who aimed to creae soldiers with paranormal powers.



Based on a book by Guardian journalist Jon Ronson, the film is set in Iraq and tells of a reporter played by McGregor who meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney). Cassady claims he is a secret U.S. military psychic soldier. Amongst his supposed talents, the ability to kill animals simply by staring at them, hence the title

Bridges will play the founder of the program, Bill Django, while Spacey will play a former paranormal soldier now running a prison camp in Iraq.

Grant Heslov is directing from a script by Peter Straughan.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Fox showed a seven minute montage of clips from their forthcoming sci-fi remake the Day the Earth Stood Still as part of their repeat of the Fringe pilot. The footage is also now online in better qualitynhere

Source: Cinematical

XXX: The Return of Xander Cage

Vin Diesel's once promising career continues to go down the toilet with news that he has signed to return to the XXX franchise in the forthcoming sequel. Original director Rob Cohen will also return.

Source: Variety

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

video de The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
by masalladeorion

Terry Gilliam talks up his new feature film in this new clip

Source: www.quickstopentertainment.com / chud.com

Synecdoche, New York

Wired magazine undertook a two and a half hour interview with writer/director Charlie Kaufman, covering his entire career up to and including his latest release.

The entire audio of the interview can be found here.

Iron Man 2

Jon Favreau, in a recent interview to promote the DVD release of Iron Man, gave some titbits about the likely direction the forthcoming sequel will take.

War Machine is likely to make an appearance, giving Terrence Howard's Col. Rhodes a chance to wear the suit. Whilst comic book ubervillian Mandarin is likely to have a presence as the overarching, behind-the-scenes villain, liberties will have to be taken in order to fit him in to the more realistic universe depicted in the film. Finally, the famous Demon in a Bottle storyline, featuring Tony Stark's battle with alcoholism, is on it's way (possibly in the third film?)

Source: Chud.com

Terminator Salvation

Teaser trailer, courtesy of Variety

Zack and Miri

In our second Zack and Miri post of today, here's a 16 minute Variety interview with Kevin Smith talking about the film:-




Source: www.newsaskew.com

Zack and Miri

Here's the new american poster for Zack and Miri released following the banning of the original poster.

Whilst the poster is clever and quite stylish, I'm not convinced it does the job of selling the picture to the multiplex crowd. The filmmakers are attempting to go for a more mainstream audience with this film, and the poster doesnt convey this.

Source: Newsaskew.com

Star Trek

In an interview with AMCTV, Star Trek director JJ Abrams apparently confirms that William Shatner will not be appearing in the new film, although it appears discussions were held. Abrams is quoted as saying:-

“We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It’s funny — a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”

Of course, how can we not have an appearance from the man reponsible for this:-



Source: Slashfilm

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Cashing in on the success of 'Sex and the City' comes another romantic comedy in which all problems are solved by designer labels. Audiences for this will be pretty divided. Namely, women will swoon over shoes whilst men slowly lose the will to live.

Starring Isla 'Mrs Borat' Fisher, Confessions of a Shopaholic is due for a valentines release.

Source: Cinematical

Quantum of Solace

Yahoo movies has a new trailer for the next Bond film, which gets it world premiere tonight as part of the London Film Festival. Follow this link for some acton packed Bond goodness

Terminator Salvation

More than likely this story comes from a fan with an overactive imagination, but it's also a rumour that's just crazy enough to be true.

Director McG has hinted for some time that Schwarzenneger will have some sort of presence in the fourth terminator film, and his former stunt double is working on the film. The latest suggestion is that CGI will be used to place a digital recreation of Arnie's face over the stunt double, with Schwarzennegger also recording lines of dialogue in post production.

The technology is certainly there and has been used to enhance stunt work for well over a decade now but this still sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Ghostbusters 3

Harold Ramis provided furt;-her detail's of the current status of Ghostbusters 3 in this e-mail to the Chicago Tribune

"yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point. everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we'll take it from there."

Source: Cinematical

Watchmen

Video journal 6, courtesy of IGN.com

Spiderman

Various sources are reporting that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire have both signed to to the next Spider Man movie, currently due for a 2011 release. Kirsten Dunst has yet to put pen to paper, although the character of Mary Jane Watson will appear.

Sony have also tentatively indicated that they wish to shoot parts 4 and 5 back to back in order to save money and take advantage of the director's and casts' availablity.

Whilst the first two Spider Man films are responsible for reinvigorating the genre, Spider Man 3 was showing some signs of creative fatigue that left fans hoping for a change of direction (and possibly personnel) for the next film.

The Wrestler

Clips and behind the scenes footage from Darren Aronofsky's new film the Wrestler, which has just won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and is picking up some Oscar buzz for Mickey Rourke's performance.

Source: Chud.com

Childs Play

Original writer and director of Seed of Chucky, Don Mancini, has provided more details of the forthcoming 'Child's Play' remake. Apparently the idea for a reboot as opposed to a further sequel is to return the series to it's horror roots as opposed to the comedic tone of the last two films). More importantly Mancini has confirmed that Brad Dourif will return as the voice of Chucky and will also have a larger on screen role as Charles Lee Ray prior to his transformation into the doll.

Whilst we don't have a great deal of time for most of the horror remakes doing the rounds at the moment, the fact that the original creative team is behind this film and , at the moment at least, seem to be saying all the right things, make this one to watch. Just as long as there is no CGI Chucky...

Source: Creature Corner

Ghostbusters 3

Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Esisnberg, two of the writers of the American version of The Office, have been hired to pen a third Ghostbusters team. Whilst the film is set to feature some younger acting talent, the hope is that the original team would appear. Previous Ghostbusters sequels have stalled due to Bill Murray's reluctance to sign on to a third movie, but he does provide his voice in the upcoming video game and sources suggest that he may be willing to at least make a cameo appearance.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Slacker Uprising

Michael Moore's new film, Slacker uprising, tells of his 2004 tour to encourage young people to register to vote in the last US election. In an interesting move the film will be available to download free from the website www.slackeruprising.com from 23 September, with a conventional DVD release to follow.

The trailer is available here

Zack and Miri

This is the poster for Zack and Miri, at least for thouse of you outside the United States, where the MPAA has banned the poster.

Source: www.newsaskew.com

My name is Bruce

Whilst the film looks great, this poster.... not so good.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Another (kind of) Break

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last few days, but there has been little of note.

We will be taking a break till Sunday, but will be attempting one or two updates via I phone, more as an experiment than anything. Apologies in advance for the numerous typos that will inevitably ensue as we try to get to grips with the tiny touchscreen keyboard.


Posted with LifeCast

Zack and Miri

Red band trailer.

Source:www.newsaskew.com

RIP Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine, the gravelly voice of a thousand trailers has died aged 68, LaFontaine's famous voice made him a cult star in his own right, as his website shows.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Gremlins

From Slashfilm.com:-

"Sacha Feiner created this incredible alternative fan sequence using the Gremlins 2 Film break scene. Created over two months using computer enhanced puppets. Sacha writes: “I made a new mold out of a hard cast of one of the original sculptures from the production. I created a batch of new foam puppets especially for this project. Their performances are enhanced by computer effects, which makes them able to do nearly anything, from running to jumping or facial expressions. The entire shooting takes place in a bluescreen studio, arranged in my basement, in order to superimpose the gremlins in the chosen movies.” … “This is a fan, non profit project. I did everything alone, from the filming to the compositing. I only had assistants for the puppeteering. The overall budget, including the purchasing of the original sculpture, the HD and studio equipment, the molding and painting of the puppets and the editing, was about US $3000.” Thanks to the Movie Blog for the tip."

Quantum of Solace

Well the film is being released next month, so I guess they're sticking with the title. Heres a new image of Daniel Craig s Bond, courtesy of Slashfilm. Follow the link for more images.

Nowhere Boy

Matt Greenhalgh, the writer of Control, the Ian Curtis / Joy Division biopic, is sticking with the genre with a new film centering on John Lennon. Artist Sam Taylor_wood will make her feature debut as director.

The film will concentrate on Lennon's "childhood and subsequent journey to icon status." according to the Hollywood Reporter, and will portray his personal life as "a lonely teenager growing up as his aunt and the mother who gave him up fight for his love. His only escape is music, art, and his fateful friendship with Paul McCartney."

Source: Cinematical

Wright / Reitman Unplugged

Directors Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Jason Reitman (Juno) interviewed each other for the Just Comedy festival 2008. Slashfilm has video of the event, which can be found here

Source: slashfilm.com

max Payne

Yahoo movies has the bizarre new trailer for Mark Wahlberg's forthcoming action film, loosely based on the computer game series of the same name. Whilst people were expecting a straight action film, this trailer suggests something slightly more off kilter.

The film is released October 17th

Saw V

The final poster for Saw V is the most disappointing one so far. Whilst the films themselves havent been great, the poster design has always been original and boundary pushin. This one however looks just like a generic horror poster.

Also, despite the tagline this is not the end of the franchise, with Saw VI already in production for release next year. Saw V hits theaters October 31st

Source: Creature Corner

Body of Lies

Source: Cinematical.com

Happiness 2 : Electric Boogaloo

... is probably not the title of Todd Solonz's next film. However the film is intended to be a 'quasi-sequel' to his controversial art house pic, perhaps most famous for Dylan Baker's tour de force turn as a (quasi-sympathetic) paedophile.

Variety has a vague outline for the film, described as revolving around a group of struggling individuals. struggling to find a place for themselves in an unpredictable and volatile world. The narrative is told through a series of intersecting love stories.; the past haunts the present and imperils the future: ghosts circle and loom, trouble and console.

Source: CHUD.com

Righteous Kill

Coming soon has a new clip from the De Niro / Pacino starrer Righteous Kill, which is released (US) on September 12th

Source: Aint It Cool News

Babylon AD

Ouch...

Babylon AD director Mathieu Kassovitz has given a no hold barred interview with AMC in which he discusses the troubled production, which gets an American release Friday. Amongst the choice quotes are Kossovit stating that "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience." Of the final film the director believes that "It's pure violence and stupidity [...] instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."

Source: Cinematical

Smodcast 62

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are back after a weeks break with the new episode of their podcast, available now at www.quickstopentertainment.com and next week at Itunes*

SMod 62: The Human Quilt - In which our heroes accost a rocker in the cereal aisle, get unruly on a plane, fear the wrath of a pent-up Paul Bunyan, and go to the movies.


*BTW if anyone can figure out a way to download podcasts directly on to the Iphone please let me know.

Extract

Mike Judge hasn't had the best of luck cinematically, wth his first two films, Office Space and Idiocracy, having been essentially dumped by their distributors, before fifinding new life on DVD.

Judge's newest film, 'Extract' sounds like it may attract more attention, with a big(ger) name cast on board. Ben Affleck is the latest actor to sign on, joining Arrested Development's Jason Bateman. Affleck will play the best friend of Bateman’s character, a flower extract factory owner dealing with workplace problems and a streak of bad luck, including his wife’s affair with a gigolo.

Source: Newsaskew.com

The Fast and Furious 4

On the downward pathe of their careers, most of the original cast reunite for the third Fast and the Furious sequel. Here's the trailer, for those who care.

Fast & Furious


Source:Myspace Movies

Frost / Nixon

Yahoo Movies has the full trailer for Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard's adaptation of the award winning stage play about David Frost's famous interviews with the disgraced former president. Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprise their roles from the original production.

The film is released December 2008 and is already considered a possible frontunner for the academy award nominations.

Source:Slashfilm

The Transporter 3

They may not be art, but the sheer ridiculousness of the Transporter movies makes them somewhat endearing. Heres a teaser trailer for the third in the series, coming briefly to a cinema near you soon.



Source:IGN.com

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

The adaptation of Toby Jones's memoir of his short lived stint as a Vanity Fair journalist hits UK screens October 3rd. Star Simon Pegg is featuring in a series of video diaries for The Granuaid, the first of which can be found here.

Source: The Guardian

Up

A short teaser for Pixar's next is now available here

Source: Cinematical.com

Superman

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Warner Brothers executive Jeff Robinov confirmed that the next Superman will be a Batman Begins / Incredible Hulk style reboot rather than a follow on to Bryan Singers (incredibly dull) Superman Returns.

"Superman [Returns] didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to," says Robinov. "It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had Superman worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all."

Rabinov also confirms a third Batman is on the way together with films based on two other (as yet unnamed) DC characters.

Source: Cinematical.com

Friday 13th

/New close up of Jason Vorhees from the Friday 13th reboot. Whilst the overall look isn't too bad, whats with the hair?

Source: Chud.com

It's Alive

Horror remake fever continues apace with the (looonnggg) trailer for the updated version of Larry Cohens 1974 cult classic about rampaging killer mutant babies. Which is a lot better than it sounds



Source: Aint It Cool News

Australia

New poster for Baz Luhrmann's Australia, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.

Source: Cinematical

Poltergeist

MGM is moving ahead with its pointless remake of poltergiest, having hired 'Boogeyman' screenwriters Stiles White and Juliet Snowden.


The duo have already endeared themselves to horror fans everywhere by deciding people want a remake of The Birds.

So far The Exorcist is the only movie avoiding the 're-imagining' plague, but surely it's only a matter of time.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

New image from the sixth Harry Potter film, which has just been bumped from it's original November release until Summer 2009. Apparently the film is ready to go, but Warner Brothers are holding the film back due to a lack of other product for next seasons summer blockbuster season (a lingering effect of the writers strike)

Eight more new images can be found here.

Source: Slashfilm.com

100 Years of Animation

100 years ago (17 August to be exact) saw the release of the first animated film,Fantasmagorie. Animated by French artist Émile Cohl the short consists of over 700 double exposed drawings, and runs less than two minutes.

The original cartoon is above.

Source: Slashfilm.com

Babylon AD

New poster for Vin Diesel's comeback flick. This sci-fi thriller, with more than a few visual hints of Bladerunner stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh. Diesel plays Toorop, a mercenary who takes on the task of escorting a mysterious woman from Eastern Europe to a futuristic New York.

The film opens August 29th in the USA

Source: Cinematical

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

New TV spot for the Benjamin Button, released on December 18th.

Source: Cinematical

Smodcast 61

Apologies for missing this at the time, but Smodcast 61 is now available for download here (and will be hitting Itunes shortly)

SModcast 61: “Bridge Beach!” -

In which our heroes dream of private tutoring, catalogue questionable laws, survive a star cros’t love affair, rally against lawn art, and unwittingly seduce a funny-book merchant.

Source: www.quickstopentertainment.com

Righteous Kill

Red band trailer for potential pissing on legacy exercise Righteous Kill, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Unlike their previous two films together the two actors share a considerable amount of screen time, but other than the talent involved this looks like a generic cop thriller. Having said that, Inside Man writer Russell Gewitz is responsible for the screenplay, which raises the vague hope this might be something more interesting.

DC Comics

Variety has an interesting interview with Warner Brothers regarding the future of their DC comics franchises. Basically, an offer is out for Chris Nolan to direct a third batman movie, whilst Justice League is on the back burner. Good news all round then.

Outlander

Early word on this Jim Caziavel starrer hasn't been good, and this new clip doesn't do anything to change this. But... Vikings vs Aliens is just such a bizarre concept that I cant help but be intrigued. Whilst the film has no US release date (and I get the feeling this may turn up in Blockuster before your local cinema), anyone happening to be in Berlin in the next few days can catch the film as part of the German Fantasy Filmfest



Source: Cinematical

Iron Man

Ahead of the September 30th DVD release of Iron Man, Access Hollywood gives us a first look at one of the deleted scenes.

Source: Aint It Cool News

Zack and Miri

After a successful appeal, Kevin Smiths next film has been awarded an 'r' classification. The film originally garnered an NC-17 rating for language and nudity.

Whilst this guarantees the film a wide release, in one sense it is a shame as this could have been an opportunity for a mainstream film distributor to attempt to overturn the stigma related to the NC-17 rating. The continued refusal of cinemas and some DVD retailers to handle NC-17 films limits filmmakers and prevents the industry from developing movies aimed at an adult audience.

Source: www.newsaskew.com

Source: www.newsaskew.com

Tropic Thunder

Many people expected Robrt Downey Jr in 'blackface' to be the most controversial aspect of Tropic Thunder, which has just opened in the USA. However the film has been hit by protests from disability rights group over the film within a film 'Simple Jack'. This sub plot relates to the Ben Stiller character's previous film, a shameless oscar grab in which he plays 'a retarded man who believes he can speak to the animals'. Clearly a spoof of such films as I am Sam and Rainman, people have taken offence at what they see as poking fun at the disabled, although it seems clear the joke is at the expense of actors who take on such roles.

Dreamworks have indicated they will not alter the film, but have pulled some marketing, with the spoof website advertising Simple Jack having disappeared.

Richard Pryor at the Mos Eisley Cantina

Fun video of the day, courtesy of cinematical.com

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Various sites are reporting that Billy Bob Thornton has been cast as Freddy Kreuger in Platinum Dunes forthcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Whilst I can see Thornton in the role, casting anyone other than Robert Englund seems a bizarre step to take.

Source:Chud.com