Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Movie Minesweeper - Too Much Clutter That Needs Binning Edition

This is a very big update, and there should be something for everyone...

- Lionsgate
are to release Michael Moore's Sicko across the states on June 29th. That's the same day as Die Hard 4.0 and Ratatouille.

- The Film Agency for Wales are to fund Wyndham Price's Abraham's Point, Justin Kerrigan's I Know You and Caradog James' Blonde. They're also lining up Seperado!, a documentary about Super Furry Gruff Rhys' solo-tour of South America that struck me as more appealing than the fiction films put together.

- The premiere of Ocean's 13 is set to raise cash for the Not on Our Watch charity, which supports relief efforts in Darfur.

- La Vie en Rose is the opener for this year's Sydney Film Festival, Day Watch will be the closer.

- People have some preview shots from High School Musical 2.

- Hilary Swank is to be beset by Vampires in Fangland.

- Uri Geller has tried to remove an expose of his pathetic charlatanism from YouTube, but the plan has backfired, and now he's being sued. Good. He's a cynical conman and he might make a good example if this blows up big enough.

- Another Die Hard 4.0 featurette has been certificated for DVD - this time, a 40 minute look back at the first film.

- George Lucas has dissed Spider-Man 3 to Fox News. Silly man - he never directed a film that was a half as well made as Spider-Man 3, for all its faults.

- No more Warner Bros. talker screenings in Canada. Apparently, this is because the Canucks are big time pirates. Let's see if this tactic actually has any effect.

- Five films from CalArts students are now online, and are well worth your time.

- Besides The Jetsons, Robert Rodriguez is also considering a film version of Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell. What an utterly unappetising pair of prospects. I hope he finds something better to do than become a studio hack.

- Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont are scripting Sisters of Mercy as a Will Smith vehicle. Yep - I'm looking forward to Made of Honor, have Can't Hardly Wait on DVD, and I'd buy Josie and the Pussycats if I saw it cheap enough. Sue me.

- Peter and Michael Spierig's Daybreakers is finally moving ahead: Ethan Hawke has signed to star.

- Roger Langridge is working on a Muppets strip for Disney Adventures magazine. Roger and I once had work published in the same comic, I believe.

- The Veronica Mars 2.0 show seems to be a go, after all.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

C'mon Brendon, he did make American Graffiti which I consider much better than Spiderman 3, but of course I was sorely dissapointed by Spiderman 3. If all he had made were the Star Wars prequels I'd agree. To me those films were made by a man not entirely passionate about the material anymore, in comparison with Spidey 3 which was by a humble man struggling with a dinosaur of a project with Sony and Marvel pushing him their way. I blame Avi Arad, that jerk doesn't understand film and he had no right to make Raimi doubt his instincts.

Unknown said...

Anonymous again. I also noticed George Lucas has now made those live action TV shows into more like two TV movies.

Am I sensing another couple of Ewok Adventure type films?

Brendon said...

I certainly fear that Avia Rad was pushy and overzealous.

I don't agree that American Graffiti is a better piece of filmmaking than Spider-Man 3. It certainly feels more coherent, however.

Brendon said...

That series/movie confusion may be just that: confusion.

Anonymous said...

Take away American Graffiti and Lucas doesn't have much that is his. At least Graffiti was personal and aesthetically interesting. The "documentary style" thing was pretty new in 1973. Now it is all over the place.
Star Wars (original) was controlled by others, Return of the Jedi might have actually had more of his input (bleh), and let's not mention the others.