Universal Films is backing the Pang Brothers’ next movie, which will be a return to the horror genre with ‘The Childs Eye’. The movie will be a 3-D release, making it the first digital 3-D horror feature to hit the Asian market.
Danny and Oxide Pang are directing this project and production will begin in June, shooting in Thailand. ‘The Childs Eye’ is familiar ground for the Pang Brothers, having made the horror film ‘The Eye’ in 2002, spawning the American remake starring Jessica Alba.
‘The Childs Eye in 3D tells the story of six stranded Hong Kong travelers during the shutdown of the Bangkok airport in the November 2008 anti-government protest and their supernatural encounters after the disappearance of three in the group.
The showpiece of the film will be an underworld made up of paper replica houses, filled with paper dolls and paper cars  a city formed by all the paper-made facsimile of the real world burnt and offered to the deceased in the traditional Chinese ancestor worship ritual. The twins also will be introducing a monster in the film. — HR
‘The Childs Eye in 3D’ has a budget of about $4.5 million and the Pang brothers are excited to be working with this new 3-D technology and seeing how they can apply it to their own visual style of horror. Keep an eye out for their next film ‘The Storm Warriors‘. It’s a fantasy/martial arts comic book adaptation and it looks pretty awesome!
I admit, this may not be exciting news to all the John Wayne fans out there, seeing as this was the ONE movie that won the Duke and Oscar, but for the rest of us this is awesome news!
It may come as no surprise to most of our regular readers that I am a Coen Brothers junkie. I don’t care what they do, I’ll go see it and can say with 99% accuracy that I will love it… period! So, I’m always pumped when I learn what they’re doing next.
Joel and Ethan Coen are about to give another genre their Midas touch as the remake adapt ‘True Grit’ from it’s original source material, being the book by Charles Portis. The 1969 original starring John Wayne was apparently not very faithful to the book and the Coen Bros. plan to offer that in their own version, which will also tell the story from the girl’s point-of-view, rather than the law man’s.
Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory. The original starred Kim Darby as the teen, Wayne and Glen Campbell as the lawmen, Jeff Corey as the killer and featured Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper as fellow outlaws. — Variety
As always, the script was written by the Coen Brothers. The movie will be produced through Paramount by their partner Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men). The Coen Brothers just completed ‘A Serious Man’ for Focus Features/Working Title. ‘True Grit’ has moved up to be their next project, in front of their adaptation of ‘The Yiddish Policemens Union’, a book by Michael Chabon.
…this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption… — Publisher’s Weekely
In a unexpected decision, production company Yellow Bird and Swedish Television have agreed to release the two sequels to box office success “The Girl with Dragon Tattoo” theatrically worldwide. — Variety
So, I have not read any of these books and to be completely honest… don’t really “plan” to either. However, knowing nothing about the story before reading this news, I am actually excited to see these movies!
The story sounds very compelling, sort of a modern techno-fim noir concept that, with the write director and a good script adaptation could make for a kick-a** movie of the type we don’t see very often.
The first book in the trilogy is called ‘The Girl with Dragon Tattoo’ and the sequels are called ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’ and ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest’. The two sequels were intended to be made into TV mini-series in Scandinavia, but after the box office success of ‘The Girl with Dragon Tattoo’ the producers have decided to think much bigger.
If all goes as planned, ‘The Girl Who Played with Fire’ will release theatrically in Sweden this September, followed by ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest’ in November. Time will tell how much international exposure these films will get and whether we get any significant theatrical release here in the States. If there’s a petition to bring it here, I’d gladly sign it!
Here’s two new stills from Spike Jonze’s new movie adaptation of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. I am really excited to see this one and with every little morsel of the movie that gets released I am even more excited. Jonze is the man and this is such a cool story to adapt for the big screen. Enjoy…
UPDATE: Harry Knowles over at AICN just reported another casting change in the role of Hale CAESAR, which once belonged to Forest Whitaker before 50 Cent took over. Movie Geeks will be pleased to know that 50 Cent is out and TERRY CREWS (The 6th Day) is now ‘Expendable’ as Hale Caesar.
Alright, this news is maybe a couple days old, but I felt compelled to share it anyway. Any movie geeks on the testosterone team out there ought to be aware of Sly Stallone’s newest project called ‘The Expendable’. If not, well… what’s up, man?
Of the various cool casting choices made for this movie, including Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Eric Roberts and even Randy Couture, the best actor to fill out this action-fest was Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker. That is, of course, until recently when he was forced to drop out due to a late start in production.
So, who did Stallone go to to fill in the gap? Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr, hell… even Wesley Snipes? Nope. Stallone made a not so “sly” movie in casting 50 Cent of all people! Huh? (my thoughts exactly) Here’s what Stallone had to say when asked to comment on this recent change of casting:
“The anger of the casting of 50 Cent is understandable, but not fair. A player is only as good as his coach. If a man can communicate in one medium, he can communicate in another if his strengths are brought out and he has the support of well-wishers.” — Sylvester Stallone
New Line and Playtone are developing a feature film adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s book with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman producing. The movie will be a World War II spy drama and has attached Mark Bomback (Race to Witch Mountain) to write the screenplay.
…tells the story of Edward Arnold Chapman, a career criminal who was trained by the Nazis to be a spy during WWII. On a mission to sabotage an airplane factory in England, he contacted the Brits and began a life as a double agent. — Variety
Tom Hanks certainly has a strong admiration and respect for the topic of World War II. This will be the fourth WWII project Hanks has been involved with. Personally, I am glad he’s committed to the subject because he always does a great job. On the other hand, I am a bit concerned with his choice of writers on this latest project. Bomback certainly did not strike gold as a writer with ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ and his previous efforts include ‘Deception’ and ‘Live Free or Die Hard’. Hopefully, he proves he’s a better writer with this more significant project.
Fox 2000 purchased the rights to ‘Demonkeeper’ even before Puffin published the book. The studio is developing a live-action feature film adaptation of Royce Buckingham’s novel ‘Demonkeeper’. Sam Fell, whose work includes the animated films ‘The Tale of Despereaux’ and ‘Flushed Away’, has been selected to direct the movie.
Story follows a Seattle teen who inherits responsibility for a house filled with demons. When the youth finally breaks free of his charges to go on a date, he returns to discover that kids have broken into the house, unleashing its most vicious demon, the Beast, Killer of Lost Children. — Variety
While this is yet another crossover movie for an animated director to take on a live-action film, it does have a good side… Laeta Kalogridis (Pathfinder) is writing the screenplay. His best work is possibly yet to come, having written ‘Shutter Island’ for Martin Scorsese and ‘Battle Angel’ for James Cameron. The story sounds cool and while it could make a neat dark movie for kids both young and old, the concern with these kinds of movies is always one of whether the studio will dumb it down and lighten it up, maintaining the false belief that kid’s can’t handle darker subject matter.
The new (at least, updated) Tom Cruise rumor is that he’s already started working on ‘Mission Impossible IV’ which is currently in the story development phase.
A reader of Ain’t It Cool News sent in some information about Tom Cruise’s appearance on a popular Japanese television where he was asked about the Mission Impossible franchise. Cruise’s response was that he has started work on the fourth installment and they are planning the story for it.
He also mentioned that he was thinking about planning a big action sequence in Tokyo for the next film – What a coincidence because he was in Japan when he said it! I wonder if he made that up on the spot. — ScreenRant
I thought the franchise was alright. The first one was good, but the second and third were just OK in my opinion. The only thing I really liked in the third was in casting Philip Seymour Hoffman as the evil mastermind.
This makes me curious about who the big bad guy would be (casting wise). Then again, a part of me says three movies is where the line should be drawn. Anything beyond a trilogy (with a few exceptions) is usually just overkill.
First things first, I predict there will be a lot of people who don’t like this movie. Already, a number of public screening attendees have approached me and asked what I thought of ‘Knowing’ and, when I told them, have given me this wonderful look of surprise. It seems that a lot of people were relatively pleased with the first half of the movie, but feel the later half (especially the ending) falters. I honestly must disagree completely and state what is merely my opinion… a great number of people who dislike ‘Knowing’ will feel so, even unwittingly, as a result of something deeper than that of the film artistic and technical level of achievement.
‘Knowing’ is the newest film from director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) and stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, an astrophysicist who stumbles upon an incredible set of predictions that has been buried in an elementary school’s time capsule with drawings of the future from the other students for the past fifty years. The predictions come in the form of a single sheet of paper covered with what at first appears to be a random series of numbers, written fifty years ago by a strange little girl at the school named Lucinda. Jump ahead to modern day, the school unearths the time capsule as part of an anniversary celebration and John’s son Caleb receives Lucinda’s entry into the capsule, which is how John acquires the coded message.
The first half of the film feels much more mainstream than is normally expected from Proyas, but it certainly does still provide much of his signature visual style. One area in particular that Proyas really nails is his use of sound and score to evoke exactly the feeling he wants as we follow John’s journey of discovery surrounding the numbers on the paper. A number of moments in ‘Knowing’ gave me the feeling I was watching a new, undiscovered Stanley Kubrick film because the play between the carefully crafted visuals and the powerfully and oddly appropriate music was so descriptively imaginative. You know, like in so many of Kubrick’s movie where no dialogue is spoken but so much is said? The structure of the story keeps us wondering what it’s all about, but it’s not so much of a mystery that we are unable to begin forming our own theories as to what’s happening. This is part of the fun in watching this movie.
The special effects are good, but not always “great” in that they have a slight CGI feel at times. However, the disaster scenes really pack a powerful punch as Proyas managed to really nail the intensity of the moments and we feel every bit of the horror and chaos invoked during these scenes. Rose Byrne (28 Weeks Later) plays Diana Wayland, also a single parent and, while her and her daughter serve a vital role later in the story, the movie mostly revolves around the character of John Koestler. Which brings me to another important distinction. Nicolas Cage does a decent enough job, but he is as he always is and is to be expected… Nic plays Nic. Furthermore, none of the performances truly stand out or “pop” but ‘Knowing’ works because the story is so well told.
So, you may be asking what IS the story anyway? Well, I can’t tell you that. It would ruin the movie. Seriously, if I tell you anymore it would spoil the experience. What I will say is that ‘Knowing’ is a great science-fiction retelling of a very old story. That’s it! I’m not giving you anymore! My recommendation is to DEFINITELY see this movie, but go in with your mind as wind open as possible, leave your personal beliefs and philosophies at home and allow yourself to enter into an experience that is so rarely exemplary of what true science-fiction should evoke… thought.
‘Knowing’ [PG-13] opens today in theaters everywhere.
Watching ‘Moscow, Belgium’ got me to thinking about foreign films, specifically those from the European region of filmmaking. I realized I hadn’t seen many lately and I’d almost forgotten about how well the European filmmakers often understand the language of the cinema.
What I mean is, this movie, directed by Christophe Van Rompaey, is such a well-made movie that prefects that unique style of charming European cinema. It amazes me at times how European films often master the art of dialogue so well whereas in American cinema it seems too often a goal that we must struggle to achieve.
The story follows Matty (Barbara Sarafian), a 41-year old mother of three who is struggling to keep it together from day to day while her artist/teacher husband Werner (Johan Heldenbergh) is away having a mid-life crisis with a much younger student of his.Matty finds herself feeling fed up with waiting for Werner, which leads her on a path of rediscovered happiness with a 29-year old truck driver.
The task of caring for three children and working a full-time job all by herself is taking a toll on her ability to be happy and maintain a healthy mental state as her nerves begin to fizzle. At the beginning of the film, Matty has an accident with a truck driver named Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet) in the parking lot of a grocery store, sending her near the edge of losing it. Matty and Johnny get into a heated argument over the accident before the cops arrive and settle the situation, but Johnny experiences a sudden change of heart just before Matty leaves which becomes the central catalyst for the story.
‘Moscow, Belgium’ is a wonderful love story that is romantic and beautiful in it’s realism and portrayal of real characters with real issues in the real world. The movie doesn’t get lost frolicking in the make-believe world of the typical romantic comedy. I wouldn’t even really call this a comedy aside from it having some genuinely humorous human moments. The relationship that develops between Matty and Johnny is bumpy and is constantly challenged by Werner’s attempts to win Matty back, but ultimately survives as an example of a love that seems so natural to Matty that she may be willing to risk everything to give it a chance.
The cinematography falls into that wonderful category of cinema verite, which seems to be making a comeback in motion pictures. With that said, the movie still captures a delightful palette of colors and benefits from the imperfect charm of the town in which it was filmed. Barbara Sarafian gives a remarkable performance as Matty and sells the internal emotional and psychological battle she is waging with herself over deciding between Johnny and Werner. I’m making an early call and placing her on my personal list of top performances for 2009.
‘Moscow, Belgium’ [Not Rated] opens today in Saint Louis and is playing at the Tivoli Theatre.
