Direct Download Link For Indiana Jones IV Video Podcast

See Spielberg, Lucas, champagne, jeeps, cars, beards, peaked caps.... and not much else. Download the first Indiana Jones IV video podcast now.

Direct Download Links For Three Robot Chicken Star Wars Trailers

Choose from the Saga Spanning, Boba Fett or George on the Couch preview looks at Robot Chicken's Star Wars special.

Movie Minesweeper - The Pirates 3 Was Boring Edition

Who am I kidding - of course Pirates 3 was boring. Pirates 2 - or for that matter 1 - hardly rocked the bells and this one had all of those loose ends to force into knots, and desperately too. Maybe a completely ridiculous collection of unresolved plotlines would have been better than a completely ridiculous collection of pseudo-resolutions and two hours worth of coma-threatening exposition.

Anyway. Enough about that blight on the CV of Johnny Depp. Here are some links for you...

- A trailer for the next animated Star Wars series is now on YouTube. It's pretty ugly, unfortunately.

- Trent Haaga has written the script for Poor Things, and that fact alone has me hooked. Ash Baron Cohen ('faintly' related to Sasha, I'm told) is directing and that's intriguing too. And look at the cast: Rosario Dawson, Shirley Maclaine, Olympia Dukakis... all well and good, in their own way. Oh. And Lindsay Lohan - which dulls the blade somewhat, but hey, fingers crossed... hers might be a small role. Or she might drop out. Again.

- David Lynch has taken some portraits of some actresses, for French Elle, and half of each portrait (you'll see what I mean if you click over) has been scanned and posted to a forum. Some of them are quite striking. Some of them are not so much.

- A judge has announced that he'll throw Carol Burnett's case against Family Guy out of court.

- Oh... and more Family Guy news, in case you've been living under a rock or on Mars. George Lucas has given the official thumbs up to a Family Guy reenactment of Star Wars. That's the film Star Wars, not the whole Star Wars series ('saga'). And yes, it is called Star Wars - this New Hope nonsense is just a tacked on invention and I find it quite embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as the claims Lucas had all six films plotted out in his head from day one. He didn't have any idea where he was going, and I wish he'd just admit it. He's his Dad? And she's his sister? Well, okay - but there's no way that was in mind while Star Wars was in production.

- Harry Potter 5 will be 138 minutes long.

- On-set camcorder footage of Public Enemy No.1 or, possibly, Death Instinct being filmed is now online. The two films each star Vincent Cassel as Jacques Mesrine, and each tells half of his story.

- The first Fanboys poster is online now, even though the film has been pushed back until 2008. Neither that news or the poster inspires confidence, I'm afraid. And I wish I had more to report that wasn't to do with Star Wars.

- There's another clip from Ocean's 13 online and I love this one too. If you don't like it at all, I fear you'll be a hard sell on the film overall.

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.

That Indiana Jones Feeling

George Lucas has admitted that the current Indiana Jones script has a role for Sean Connery in it, but should he decide not to appear, a 'quick rewrite' will remove the part.

That seems to mean one of the three following things: a) his part is absolutely insignificant and can be removed without wobbling the script structure at all b) Lucas and co don't much care about tidying up loose ends and would just nix the Connery role and to hell with tidying up around the omission c) their script operative (whoever it might be on rewrite duty) is so good that they can quickly and efficiently tidy up an entire screenplay after a character with a point and purpose simply evaporates into thin air.

Who knows which of these it is, eh? I certainly have my suspicions...

Aliens Versus The Holy Grail

An old rumour about Indiana Jones was given a fresh burst of speed when Slashfilm reposted it earlier in the week. Now half of the internet is hopping up and down about it - but not me.

For one thing, the story dealt with a now discarded draft of the Indiana Jones 4 script - at least, Frank Darabont's version as nixed by George Lucas. That pretty much renders any fuss irrelevant because this isn't even the version set to go before cameras. But, even if it didn't nullify the whole argument, there would still be no need to get alarmed.

The rumour is this: that Darabont's script involved Indiana Jones investigating UFOs in 1950s America - Roswell, New Mexico, no doubt. And people don't like that idea. Oh no. They don't want any aliens in Indiana Jones.

Why on earth not? He's looked for the lost Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail and some magic stone things - what's wrong with him looking for alien artefacts? The only difference I can come up with is that there's no reason to believe the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail or these crazy stones exist but, in any realistic evaluation, there's bound to be some kind of alien life in the universe somewhere, even if it is just some puffy gas bag rolling around in an all liquid planet surface (or whatever).

Is this alien lifeform flying to Earth in shiny saucers, crashing and then getting filmed while being dissected? Of course not. But that's just the specifics - that's like me arguing about the design or location of the Holy Grail, rather than the simple fact that it doesn't exist...

I could care less what Indiana Jones goes looking for because whatever it is it will be something faintly silly and clearly fantastical. I'm sure Frank Darabont's script was much better than the shooting draft by Jeff Nathanson and David Koepp - it's exceedingly obvious which of the three is the better writer - and isn't that really the key factor?

If the basic premise of Darabont's script was really what gave Lucas his problem, he could have been decent and interjected at an earlier stage. When Darabont called his year working on this film 'wasted' I was in total agreement.

And while we're on the subject, I think the latest Indiana Jones story at Aint it Cool is a fake that they've been duped with. The inclusion of John Rhys-Davies on the cast list should have been enough to alarm them. I guess Harry just didn't want to be scooped.

Star Wars Toy News: Sit Up!

I know people like toy news. It comes along here every now and then, and it gets linked far and wide and the hits for that story far outweigh anything I might choose to post about even a slight bit less obviously adolescent.

That said and done, I think these look gorgeous. They're R2-D2 and C3-PO as originally conceived by Ralph McQuarrie, Star Wars concept artist and production designer. The painting in which they appeared like so is a very popular one - yes, with Star Wars geeks but also with the (wider? probably not) geek community just generally into film design.

McQuarrie did some incredible work for the film, and seeing one of his classic images rendered in posable plastic is quite fun.

Disclosure notice: I was playing Lego Star Wars II for a bit yesterday.

Some Indy Facts

Here are two Indiana Jones facts for you.

Firstly, it is Indiana Jones and the City of Gods. Definitely. This was the title of an older script, not the new one - but it is going to be used as the title of the film, in place of the title on the front page of the new script. Not sure why, but it is apparently 100% true,

Secondly, Shia LaBeouf is in. For sure. No idea why he's been rocking the boat, but he's in.

[EDIT: And now I'm hearing that Gong Li is in. Quieter voices have suggested Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington too, but the boys don't seem to check out at all]

I received a tip-off about the title and LaBeouf facts together, and have been able to confirm each separately. All three folk involved really would know too. So I'm confident, and happy to take it to the bank. I'm happy for you to remember me getting so loud and clear on this one, prepared to risk the egg on my face because, frankly, I don't doubt either of these facts at all.

[EDIT: A pretty good source has now suggested that Teotihuacan is involved. Does that clear anything up for any of us?]

[EDIT: Hollywood Elsewhere are also positing the involvement of Gong Li. Interesting]

[EDIT: Okay, got to the bottom of the Gong Li mystery. The idea was first posited on a Gong Li messageboard and picked up by a few folk. One of them mailed me, another one of them was Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere. No matter what he says, this seems to be the origin of his info - I don't believe he read the article he mentions at all.

The messageboard have been rumouring Gong Li's involvement for two years, but a lot has changed in the Indy camp since then.

Truthfully? She's (at least in talks) to star in The Mummy 3. I feel sincerely stupid for not noticing this earlier, but it has been pointed out to me - very kindly - and it was suddenly so obvious. She really is likely for the third Mummy film - even while Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz aren't]

City of Gods

Seems that everybody has been getting the same anonymous e-mail. There's a strong rumour going around that the next - and surely final - Indiana Jones film will be suffixed and the City of Gods.

Does that mean anything to anybody out there? Is there any chance there's truth to it? And if so, what might it be referring to?

Oh... and while we're here, of course, you know by now that Cate Blanchett has been officially announced as a member of the cast. That's two - Blanchett and Harrison Ford - with Shia LaBeouf pending.

Is This Funny?

The Magic Bullet

According to Nikki Finke, the bearded triumvirate of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg have been lined up to present the Best Director Oscar together this Sunday. The thinking seems to be that Scorsese is a shoo in, and the four of them will make for a historical photo opportunity.

The only thing that could come close to turning this shudder-fest around would be Little Miss Sunshine picking up Best Picture right afterwards but, sadly, I'm not expecting that to happen.

Yoda And Friends

That's Yoda. Seen him before? The image popped up on Collecting HQ having been gathered at the New York toy fair. What you're looking at is the CG design for the wee Jedi Master as he'll appear in the upcoming animated Star Wars TV show.

Despite being animated in 3D, the show is going to be based, visually at least, on the model sheets and styles of the old 2D-animated Clone Wars series.

This is a big year for the Star Wars cash cow, and a lot of the efforts seem to be aimed at setting up a new, young audience for the films - the old audience is growing up, finally, and their loyalty to new Lucas product has been on the wane since the prequels, anyway. Not all new Star Wars items are shooting for the young ones, though: there's a special 30th Anniversary DVD on the cards for later in the year, and that's aimed squarely at the aging geek market.

Speculation has been rife that this DVD will somehow be a new part of the Star Wars fictional canon, most likely as another re-edit of one of the first film. All the evidence I can muster (don't ask - I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you) suggests that this new, 30th Anniversary DVD is nothing of the sort, and is simply a 'Special Features' type project, centring round a documentary but with plenty of bolt-on little parts. There's a number of shots and short sequences still on the shelf from the first film, even after all of the tinkering, and with a bit of spit and polish from ILM they could make a very nice set of 'Deleted and Extended Scenes'.

We'll find out soon enough as the announcement can't that be far away - though it is worth noting that the DVD release appears to be timed for a 'Just In Time For Christmas' launch, not at all marking the actual anniversary date. Interpret that how you will.