Posted Aug 8th 2008 10:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images
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If you thought that
Heath Ledger's Glasgow grin in
The Dark Knight was gruesome, consider that it may have actually been
tame. Peter over at
/film has scanned in a bunch of images from
the making-of book, and they illustrate a few of the early Joker ideas that were created in pre-production, before Ledger was cast (check out a couple in the gallery below, and more over at Slash).
It's always fascinating to see how a character came to be, particularly one that's proving to be as iconic as Ledger's joker. The facial scars were apparently decided on quite early, with varying degrees of severity, but the spiky hair was an interesting choice. I remember there was a lot of complaining initially about Ledger's long and "greasy" hair, but I prefer it to the short and spiky look, which says Mark McGrath more than clown-faced madman. I have no idea how much Ledger brought to the table in terms of his look, and it doesn't sound like that's mentioned in the book, either. Creepy stuff -- frankly, if this is how dark Christopher Nolan's team can go, I can't wait to see what they could do with a new villain altogether.
Posted Aug 7th 2008 7:02PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, Scripts, Remakes and Sequels
If you came of age in the '80s then chances are you remember
V. Back in April,
news began to spread that a feature film version was in the works, and creator Kenneth Johnson later confirmed that he was eying a big-screen debut for the legendary sci-fi title. Now, Latino Review claims to have gotten an
early look at the script -- but I warn you there are plenty of spoilers in the review, so tread lightly.
According to LR, the script is an update of the original miniseries that aired back in 1983.
V: The Original Miniseries centered on the arrival of aliens (or as they're better known, Visitors) and when an uneasy truce is struck between humanity and the new arrivals, it begins to become clear that our alien friends are not what they seem -- and, as it turns out, the only place for humans to turn is to another alien race who can bail out the planet earth from the 'lizard' invasion.
The original story was seen as a commentary on the rise of Fascism in the U.S as well an allegory for the rise of Nazis. But it looks like the script will be modernizing the story with allusions to Iraq and the War on Terror. According to the early review, the flick is a hybrid of
V for Vendetta and
Independence Day. But more importantly (at least from the point of view of Hollywood studios), is that the script has set the story up for two more sequels.
It is always a dangerous proposition to try and update something so beloved by fans, but at least this time the original creator is going to have something to do with it. Sound off below and tell me whether or not you want to see
V on the big screen?
Posted Aug 7th 2008 6:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
Cross-overs, an old television standard, have been slowly making their way through the world of cinema. But forget the geek crossovers that popped up this summer because there might be a more comedic twist on the way. While talking with
MTV,
James Franco says there has been discussion about a crossover sequel for
Superbad and
The Pineapple Express. But it wouldn't be a normal intermingling of characters.
Franco noted that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg weren't very interested in the idea of a
Superbad sequel, "And so, an answer to that was to do a
Superbad/Pineapple Express crossover, an unprecedented crossover movie with two directors, Greg Motolla and David Gordon Green, each directing half of the movie and somehow these characters get together, which doesn't make sense at all, but could work."
I could see a scenario where Seth gets too into Saul's weed after feeling shunned at the burgeoning friendship between McLovin and Evan, gets into trouble, and Evan has to save him ... maybe with help from the flying-through-the-air Dale and information from Saul. What I don't see is how it would work to do a half-and-half movie.
But what do you think? Should all the kids meet? If so, how should it be done?
Posted Aug 7th 2008 9:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Comedy, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
The franchise reboots may never end. According to
ComingSoon.net (who spotted it on TrackingB.com),
Shane Black has written a spec script for
Lethal Weapon 5 without really telling anyone but Joel Silver.
The story would center around Riggs' impending retirement (and his, undoubtedly, being too old for ... well, you know). But before he leaves the force, he has to tackle one last case, and as there are no other police officers in Los Angeles, he hauls Murtaugh out of retirement to help him. Allegedly, both
Mel Gibson and
Danny Glover are interested, though no deals have been signed.
Now, I name drop
Lethal Weapon enough that you undoubtedly know that the series ranks much higher in my life than it probably should. Watching it in my pre-teens not only taught me a choice vocabulary, it rocked my world with glimpses at a naked Mel Gibson. My problems with men probably stem from the pedestal I have placed Martin Riggs upon.
But, that doesn't mean I want a fifth movie -- I already sat through the fourth installment, and it wasn't that good. Black has penned some fantastic scripts in his time -- and I firmly believe
A Long Kiss Goodnight is insanely underrated -- and I'd love to see him churning out action-comedies again. But not ones with Riggs and Murtaugh. Let
Lethal Weapon lie, and write a franchise that can give us a new badass or two. Check out the video below of Seth Rogen and James Franco discussing Shane Black's movies from Moviefone's latest
Unscripted chat...
Posted Aug 6th 2008 8:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Remakes and Sequels
This isn't the first murmur of a remake of
The Party. In
October of last year, there were rumors that Sacha Baron Cohen starring in a new take on the Peter Sellers film. But this is a bird of an entirely different feather.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Marco Garibaldi, who directed a few episodes of
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in the '90s, is ending his 10-year absence from entertainment with a new production company. He will write and direct a thriller called
Last Chance Motel, develop
The Vault, but focus on his flagship project --a remake of
The Party. "Remake" is being used as loosely as possible.
Instead of Hrundi V. Bakshi heading to a glamorous Hollywood party and trying to fit in, "a hapless blond Midwesterner will have his appearance changed to resemble an Indian by a zealous studio eager he fit a part." Then he gets to this fancy party and mingles with a bunch of stars popping up in cameos. I guess his challenge is to figure out how to mingle as an Indian man for the role? Or, to confuse people by being a seemingly brown-skinned man with a midwestern accent?
Shmeh. This sounds like a mess.
Posted Aug 6th 2008 8:02PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Horror, Magnolia, Home Entertainment, Remakes and Sequels
Ah yes,
Sleepaway Camp. That ending still packs one wacky punch, doesn't it? Yeah. So here's a quick history lesson:
1983 --
Robert Hiltzik unleashes
Sleepaway Camp unto the world. Ten of thousands of creeped-out teenagers can't stop talking about the ending.
1988 & 1989 -- One
Michael A. Simpson delivered a pair of back-to-back video sequels:
Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers and
Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland. Both are notable for their vicious violence, their goofy gore, and their lead actress, who happens to be Bruce Springsteen's little sister. I forget which movie had the "outhouse leeches" murder, but good lord was that scene disgusting.
2002 -- Anchor Bay releases the trilogy in a box set that ends up censored by the Red Cross. Included in the set is footage from an unfinished sequel called
Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor.
Which bring us up to speed. We've been been hearing word for quite some time now that Hiltzik was working on a Part 4, and now we not only have a release date, but (courtesy of
Shock) we also have a DVD cover (and a trailer) to look at. Vincent Pastore and Isaac Hayes star in the inevitably sticky slasher sequel, and the DVD will hit the shelves (on October 14) by way of Magnolia's new Magnet genre division. And you just gotta love that tag-line:
"Kids can be so mean!"
Posted Aug 6th 2008 7:32PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Music & Musicals, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
Well, what do you know? Here I was thinking I was one of the few people out there who actually had fond memories of Walter Hill's musical flop
Streets of Fire, but you can now add
Albert Pyun to the list of the film's dedicated fans. Reports have surfaced over at AICN that the B-movie director extraordinaire is
planning a sequel of sorts to the 1984 cult classic. According to AICN, the title is
The Road to Hell, and will bring back
Streets' original star,
Michael Paré, to star alongside
Clare Kramer (
Buffy) and
Courtney Peldon (
Boston Public).
If you haven't seen the original, then you are missing out on some prime '80s cheese. What other decade would feature a rock and roll musical set in an urban fantasy land with
Willem Dafoe sporting vinyl overalls in a sledgehammer fight to the death? According to AICN, the film will not be a direct sequel to Hill's original flick, but instead a tribute film that will take "STREETS' mood and energy, infusing 50s styled "hardboiled" dialog and characters possessing "dark" shades of gray."
Now that we finally have
confirmation from Pyun on that
The Sword and the Sorcerer sequel, I guess we'll just have to wait and see which project Pyun makes first. So even though I'm not all that thrilled about a sequel to one of my youth's guilty pleasures, I can't say no to a plot description like this: "Consider it Moulin Rouge meets torture porn. A heavily torqued romantic fantasy where dreams still live but they carry very big knives. "
I'm sold. How about you?
Posted Aug 6th 2008 5:30PM by William Goss
Filed under: Horror, Casting, Mystery & Suspense, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
Well, since it seems that the very few out there who still respect what I have to say about movies, and horror movies in particular, either didn't read or didn't mind my mild admission that I only like Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, I feel a little bolder about bringing another piece of quasi-blasphemy to light: at this time last year, I hadn't seen Dario Argento's treasured Suspiria, and when I eventually did, I was distinctly underwhelmed. Perhaps it was too dated, perhaps I was too jaded, but I was relegated to sitting back and just plain 'respecting' another classic of the genre.
That makes me no more oblivious to the fact that it's sacred enough that a remake announcement is cause for cringing. Making matters a little less cringe-inducing, though (in my opinion), is Bloody Disgusting's confirmation that Natalie Portman is to star in the 2010 incarnation. She's smart, she's sexy... in short, this Oscar nominee could wander curiously around the halls of my eerie ballet academy any day.
However, I still find the reports that David Gordon Green is attached to direct a little hard to swallow; I'm still coping with the fact that he directed the very funny and relatively mainstream Pineapple Express. Maybe a why-not stance would be most fitting at the moment.
Suspiria remake? Portman starring? What do you think?
Posted Aug 6th 2008 3:35PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Sony, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
Helena Bonham Carter gave a few hints on her surprising
Terminator: Salvation role to
Sci-Fi Wire -- and surprise surprise, it's not a cuddly one! "I kind of play a baddie, definitely a baddie. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, but I'm a very bad person."
Now, I know there's readers out there who are more up on their
Terminator mythology than I am (and it feels weird to even refer to it
having a mythology), but were there bad humans? Turncoats who helped the machines? Evil scientists from Skynet? I feel certain this was discussed somewhere in a Kyle Reese monologue, but I may just be filling in gaps. Of course,
Bonham Carter could be playing a Terminator (Summer Glau has proved you can be tiny
and lethal), but I'm trying to keep all options open.
Given Bonham Carter's late in the game casting, it turns out she was replacing another actress -- Tilda Swinton, who I now want to pop up as a Terminator at some point. (I think I would instantly surrender.)
As for Bonham Carter's own interest, it turns out it was all due to her other half. "Tim [Burton] would have killed me if I hadn't done it, because he's such a
Terminator fan. I've been in big movies before ... but I've never been in this kind of big popcorn action movie, a male one, an action one." And honestly, I like that she is in one. I continue to be amazed at the talent who has been attracted to this film, and like the rest of the world, I'm excited to see what becomes of it.
Terminator: Salvation opens May 22, 2009. We must try not to get overdosed on it ... and that's going to be really hard.
Posted Aug 6th 2008 1:32PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
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So if this was the halfway mark on an
E! True Hollywood Story, we'd segue from "Britney's manager accused of drugging her, gets restraining order issued against him" to "Quentin Tarantino offers Spears a role as a lesbian stripper/murderer in a remake of
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Boy would I like to be the voiceover guy during that episode!)
Back in January,
Variety's Liz Smith reported that
Tarantino was interested in
Britney Spears for a role in his Pussycat remake, along with
Eva Mendes and
Kim Kardashian. (Quick, which one of those three never starred in a moronic reality show?) Now, either the
Telegraph is re-running a six-month-old rumor in order to grab some traffic, or Tarantino finally made this particular casting choice official. Says the
Telegraph: "Spears' character murders the boyfriend with her bare hands before taking the girlfriend hostage. The troubled singer will also have sex scenes with another girl before the drama ends in a blood-bath."
Well, that's one way to get your career back on track.
No word on the other two girls, or whether Mendes and Kardashian are still being considered, but for now we'll assume a club remix of "Baby Hit Me One More Time" will be featured on the soundtrack.
Posted Aug 6th 2008 11:03AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, RumorMonger, Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
This is all casual talk, occurring over beers at the Hard Rock Hotel (oh, to have been at the bar next to them), but it's a fun bit of rumors and dream casting nonetheless.
Geoff Boucher of the LA Times'
Hero Complex blog chatted up
Jason Statham and
Frank Miller on, of all things,
Daredevil. The three started talking about a potential reboot of the character, with Statham taking on the role of Matt Murdock. The hard-hitting Brit is excited at the very prospect. "
Absolutely, just give me the chance, I would
love to be Daredevil." (The emphasis is all Boucher.) In fact, when Boucher suggested he'd make a better Bullseye, Statham looked as though he'd hit him with his pint glass. "Forget Bullseye, I want to be Daredevil!"
Miller thinks he should be Daredevil too -- and apparently got quite quite a twinkle in his eye at the very thought of another movie. That's not surprising, since the character made his career, and I could see him ushering a
Daredevil reboot into gear sooner than penning a sequel to
300. (At least, that's what I hope and dream would happen.)
So, what do you guys think? Would Statham be a good fit for the Man Without Fear? As I could watch Statham in just about anything, I'm too biased to judge. (He's got the right jawline for the mask!) I also haven't read as much
Daredevil as I should; I have the misfortune of always encountering him as a secondary or background character, so I don't have a very good feel for him. But I like the idea, if only so I could get the
Elektra reboot of my dreams.
Posted Aug 6th 2008 10:01AM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Comedy, RumorMonger, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
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We go through a lot of rumors here at
Cinematical, some of which eventually turn out to be true and some false. We normally don't spend a whole lot of time on each rumor; if we're in a position to track down "the real truth" fairly easily, we'll do so. If not, we'll let it slide and see where it goes. The other day, Moviehole came out with some pretty big news: That Warner Bros. was in the beginning stages of
putting together a Goonies sequel and that some of the original cast would be involved. Pretty BIG DEAL if you ask me --
Goonies is, like, The Bible for some movie freaks (including me).
That said, we simply had to put this rumor through the wringer. And while we were unable to track down Moviehole's source, we did speak to multiple people "in the know" and they claim it's not at all true. In fact, they suggest this
Goonies sequel might be getting confused with a film called
Treehouse Gang, which is very similar to
Goonies and is actually being described as "Warner's Goonies." That film follows a group of childhood friends/explorers who meet up at their 10-year reunion and wind up on a treasure-hunting adventure. Definitely sounds like the perfect
Goonies sequel if, ya know, they filmed it when all those guys were in their late 20s, not late 30s.
Then again, perhaps there's a big cover up taking place and Warners really is secretly working on a
Goonies sequel. That we do not know. However, I feel pretty confident in saying that it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.
Posted Aug 5th 2008 8:34PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Action, Casting, Paramount, RumorMonger, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels
Less than three months ago,
Eugene told us George Lucas was hinting that his
Indiana Jones franchise might continue on with Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as the main character and that Indy (Harrison Ford) would be more of a secondary figure. But
MTV Movies Blog now reports that Lucas has had a change of mind and instead plans to make a fifth installment with our beloved hero still in the lead. During promotions for the new
Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, he apparently stated that, "Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be 'Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis' or something."
Could it be, as MTV suggests, that due to fans' dissatisfaction with Mutt and/or due to LaBeouf's problems with the law that Lucas no longer sees the character as a viable investment? Or did he merely come to his senses about how much more money the movie would make with Ford starring? Lucas says that "Indy 5" is still only an idea but that people are researching possible artifacts to base the movie around. Personally, I don't care what kind of MacGuffin is used, so long as the Nazis are the villains again. The commies in
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just didn't do it for me. I know the temporal setting can't be WWII anymore, but Indy could always head back into South America and battle the Nazis who escaped to Argentina and Brazil and elsewhere.
Posted Aug 5th 2008 1:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Classics, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
Ugh. I should've known that with the release of
Lost Boys 2, nothing beloved was sacred. Sure, we've posted
Goonies 2 rumors before, when
Sean Astin called it an "absolute certainty," and when Data and Chunk
were approached, even though Josh Brolin had
heard nothing. Now, if
Moviehole's sources are to be believed, it's definitely on the way. And no, I'm not talking about a
Goonies 2 video game re-release. (Will the Wii ever get it!? I keep waiting...)
An unnamed source (one that we'd supposedly "
know straight away this was a solid bit of news") said that it is definitely happening -- not as a
Tribeish straight-to-video release, but as a full-scale feature film (which WB has confirmed). Writers are whipping it up now, and it'll feature
some of the original cast. That's a huge bummer, because the only way I could begin to get intrigued would be if all the surviving people signed on once again. It wasn't too long ago that the entire cast reunited for that DVD commentary, so I'll still hope for a full, or almost full, return.
But still, it's a crapshoot whether this will be worthy of the beloved original. What would they have to do to capture your interest in the sequel?
UPDATE: Corey Feldman tells
Moviefone a
Goonies sequel will most likely not happen: "Well, 'The Goonies' is one of those mythical sequels that will never happen [laughs]. I mean, it's something that Donner and Spielberg were behind for years and years, and again it's a Warner Bros. issue; they just feel they don't want to take the gamble on making the sequel."
Read more ...
Posted Aug 5th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
If you're a faithful Beat reader, you may remember that one of the
very first installments dealt with the nasty, critical side of fandom. You know the types – the ones who spend so much time hating that nothing could satisfy them. (Seth Rogen summed it up in a pithy quote that, somehow, I only just caught: "They could find out Jesus Christ was making a movie with Frank Miller and they'd say, 'That's a terrible combination!'") But now, I'd like to address the other side of the coin – and yes, one side of it is defaced to help me decide these things – and that's the uncritical element of fandom. It's a side I didn't really grasp until I started writing here, where anything vaguely critical can be followed by screams of "You're such a hater!! You want it to fail!"
When I was at ComicCon, I tried to keep up with the news of the outside world. One of the "quietest" geek stories (and something I would have talked about much earlier, had con and editorial demands not sidetracked me) was the release of
The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The bad reviews were pouring in right and left, even garnering heavy discussion on sites where the interests of geekdom are generally disdained. And no matter where you went, the comment fields were populated with X-Philes, and for every one who was verbose and rational, there were ten saying "F--- the haters! They want it to fail!"
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Take a Stand
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