I don’t know what to say about this remake of a very good, very influential movie, other than to say you could see it coming with blinders on and it looks like utter crap.

Okay, okay. The movie itself doesn’t look bad, but that trailer. My god. I’m no rocket scientist but what is up with the Limp Bizkit score and the movie’s tagline: “Titans Will Clash”? The movie is called Clash of the Titans and the best the marketing department could come up with as a slogan/tagline is titans will clash. Jesus H. Christ someone should be fed to the guillotine.

Also? Is Sam Worthington the real deal or is he just the latest in a string of Hollywood male leads they are really trying to jam down my throat. It was hard to tell with the latest Terminator, but we’ll get a really good look with Avatar and now this. Still, if anyone has seen Somersault then you know the guy is capable of delivering a nuanced and subtle acting performance.

Amy Adams is, without reservation, poised to inherit the romantic comedy crown Julia Roberts was more than willing to walk away from.  And after sitting through the dreck of Night at the Museum 2 where Adams’s plucky Amelia Earhart was the only redeeming thing, it’s evident she could act her way out of a Chinese prison camp (do those even exist?!?) with both hands tied behind her back.

Adams is a revelation and there is nothing wrong with the plucky heroines she portrays time and time again.  It’s a rare quality that few actresses can believably pull off and do so without being annoying.  I would watch her in just about anything, even if we already can tell how the movie will end.

Turns out the practical joke was from director David Fincher himself.  The original two-disc DVD is one of my favorites, in fact it was the reason I bought a DVD player in the first place back in 2000.  Fight Club bombed at the box-office in 1999 (the best year in recent memory for movies), while the Drew Barrymore rom-com did not.  The gag was approved by Barrymore at the behest of pal and Fight Club-star Ed Norton.

I don’t think this will make me buy a Blu-Ray player, but it will certainly make me polish off the movie and watch it again for the umpteenth time.

The title aptly sums up my feelings for this movie.  Normally, I’d say no thank you to a movie like this (think any of those recent Diane Keaton flicks where she falls in love with Jack Nicholson, Steve Martin or Keanu Reeves, or whomever), but it’s hard to resist the charms of Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin.

I have a feeling this is a rental I’ll end up watching when I visit my parents in Boston, either on the airplane or when there is nothing else to do.

This winter, Avatar is the only motion picture event.  There is no Harry Potter, no Lord of the Rings, no obvious competition for this type of film.

Especially when you look at all the numbers involved between a $300 million production budget, $150 million marketing/publicity budget, 14 years spend developing the necessary camera technology.  Yeah, sure there are no bankable stars, but it’s directed by James “freaking” Cameron?!? I get worried reading between the lines that Fox is already making excuses for the movies perceived failure.

I’m still not sold on this flick, but the voice talent alone might make it worth it.

Normally, a premise as hackneyed as this one — two brothers go off to war and when one is suspected of being dead his widow falls for the living brother — has about as much chance of being a decent flick as it does a Lifetime Original.

But the talent behind this picture is too huge to ignore. Director Jim Sheridan is back to challenging, emotionally human interest drama (we’ll forgive him his paycheck cashing 50 Cent gangster flick) with the talents of Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobie Maguire in front on the camera.

An awesome replica of the Fight Club soap featured in the Fight Club movie poster is now on sale at Etsy for just $8 and yes you really can use it as soap — though there is no indication it is made from the human lard of fat ladies.  If that particular link sells out, check the Dirty Ass Soaps shop for possible duplicates. [via]

The film will reunite Boyle with Slumdog’s creative team (Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script, Christian Colson will produce) and may star Ryan Gosling, though nothing’s been made official.

I hope this project happens, not only because Ralston’s story deserves the big screen treatment, but also because Boyle’s at the top of his game and I’m sure has something interesting to offer this story of survival and determination. [via]

What’s better than one Slave Leia?  How about two catching some rays.  Kottke came across this photo of Carrie Fisher and her stunt double napping during the Tatooine shoot in Return of the Jedi. Enjoy!  But just know that I’m going to need a moment or two to catch my breath.  [via]

In Columbia Pictures’ Salt, Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world’s most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.

This movie was originally written with Tom Cruise starring as Evan Salt (or something like that) but when he dropped out it was rewritten for Jolie.

Salt hits theaters on July 23, 2010.

Which is to say, the dude is broke.

“In a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, the National Treasure star, 45, claims that his longtime business manager, Samuel J. Levin, ‘lined his [own] pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin.’”

Hold onto your seats because I have a feeling we’re going to experience a Nic Cage shit show the likes the world has never seen before.

Remember there was a time when George Lucas didn’t screw up everything he touched?  It was so long ago.  Here is Kurt Russell’s not-so-good audition for Han Solo. Now imagine the original trilogy with Russell as Han instead of Harrison Ford. Wait for it, wait for it.  Okay. It’s strange and almost wrong, watching Russell’s take on a good-guy Han Solo.  It’s absent everything that became endearing about Han — the cockiness, the ego, the brashness. [via here/here]

First official trailer for Mike Newell’s big-screen adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Kingsley, is due in theaters May 28, 2010.  And you know what?  I had my doubts but this looks to be another solid Jerry Bruckheimer summer blockbuster.  Sure, you’ll forget it 20-minutes after leaving the theater, but man those two-hours sure will be fun.

The latest xkcd comic features several insanely detailed Movie Narrative Charts showing the character interactions in various films. Here’s a larger version.

The charts graph time on a horizontal axis and then how each character interacts with another at any given time.  It’s a very cool way to visualize the plot of a movie — especially the convoluted Primer. 

Speaking to Comics2Film, producer Stephan L’Heureux said “Sin City 2 will go into production in the second half of 2010. Unlike the first movie, which used graphic novels as both screenplay and storyboards, the sequel will be based on an original script by Miller. As with the original, Miller will co-direct with Robert Rodriguez.”

Even with a Predator update and Machete flick in the works, it’s unclear whether or not a Sin City sequel fits into the director’s time line.  What this could indicate is that Rodriguez will be producing or heavily involved from a distance, while Frank Miller directs solo.  That’s a scary proposition for anyone who attempted to sit through the putrid Spirit. [via]

Just a month until the movie comes out, John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road gets a second, much better trailer.  The movie, and story, is a hard sell because, um, not to ruin it for people who haven’t read this book (wait, what?  Seriously run out and read this book now!) yet, but it’s not exactly uplifting.  It’s dark and bleak and to polish the humanity contained within the grime is often difficult.  It’s not for the faint of heart, nor is it for those that like tidy, shiny boxes to unwrap.

John Lennon as a young man.  I’m glad they didn’t just go with bland, look-a-like actors, but it’s a bit strange that Paul McCarthy looks nothing like he did as a young man.  Also?  How come John is the only Beatle that gets any love when it comes to feature films?  C’mon Hollywood give me a George Harrison biopic.  Pretty puh-lease.

This is a much better trailer, at least now I get the gist of the story and it’s not so much “oh look at me and my fancy CGI” which was all the last trailer wanted to do.  I might be sold with this one — even if Cameron did plagiarize his story from an old pulp novel.

If you’re going to make a movie about Nelson Mendela, it’s pretty much a given that Morgan Freeman would play the South Africa president. So it’s no surprise, then, that he shows up here in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-baiting flick about Mendela’s early moments as President, in which he attempts to unite a post-apartheid country through the national rugby team.

Matt Damon shows up as leading player, Francois Pienaar. Of course, the team captain guides his team to the 1995 World Championship and everything in South Africa has been peaches and cream since then. Or something like that. Expect nominations aplenty when this is released on December 11.

Am I worried that director Paul Greengrass has turned an adaptation of Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone into a $100 million Bourne-esque action picture for Universal? 

Absolutely. This is a fairly standard cut action trailer. But that doesn’t make me want to see this movie any less.  Greengrass is, afterall, the Irish madman behind both kinetic Bourne movies and the politically charged  United 93  and Bloody Sunday.

“It’s great, I’ve seen it. They’re finishing some of the effects, and it’ll be ready for March. We got a $100m Iraq movie, so we’ll see!,” Damon said in an interview with Empire Magazine. “I do have high hopes for it, though. I think it’s really good. I know the Iraq movies haven’t been particularly popular so far, but hopefully this will find an audience. It’s a thriller, really, set against the canvas of Iraq in 2003.”

Universal needs to sell this movie (hence the straight forward trailer), but I’m guessing Greengrass has something far better and deeper up his sleeve than this trailer is letter on.

“”We never thought a host was necessary,” Philip Berk told the Hollywood Reporter. “Only when NBC suggested the idea that a host might enhance the show, my response was the only person we could consider for the task would be Ricky Gervais, and we were lucky to get him.”

And get him they did.  Gervais joins a recent list of outside-the-box hosts, including Ellen DeGeneres and Hugh Jackman at The Oscars and Neil Patrick Harris at The Emmy’s. 

This announcement has me curious enough to check out the awards show, when I otherwise wouldn’t.  There’s a lot of people who don’t care about the awards but would watch to see Gervais’s acerbic wit gently prod celebrities.

Nominations for the Globes will be announced Dec. 15. The 67th annual Golden Globes  will air as a live broadcast Jan. 17, 2010 on NBC.

Okay, it’s been a little bit since we were first introduced to Benecio del Toro’s Wolfman. And I’m not sold on director Joe Johnston, but I’ll admit this looks good. I might even be able to overlooked the strange decision to cast Anthony Hopkins as del Toro’s dad. You know? Genetics and all, they look nothing alike. And I should be able to forgive Emily Blunt from marrying Jim Halpert. [via]

When you woke up this morning, you probably said to yourself, “you know? I think I really want to watch a superhero movie about a car.” Welp, your dreams have come true thanks to Wanted’s Timur Blackmambatov and directers Alexandr Voitinsky and Dmitriy Kiselev.  The $8 million dollar movie comes to us courtesy of Mother Russia and though I don’t understand what’s going on since it’s in the native tongue, I do have the foggy notion that it seems to be a sweet mashup between Transformers and Spider-Man, can you dig it? [via]

Someone put together this fantastic video of every entrance Kramer made on Seinfeld, in order no less.  This has been making the rounds. (thx, Tony)

Here’s Spike Jonze and Karen O talking about how they came up with the soundtrack for his number one movie, Where the Wild Things Are. The movie is very good, great in some places, infuriating in others.  But one of the things that really stood out was Karen O’s soundtrack.  It was refreshing to go to a movie and not hear the same recycled soundtrack from some form of John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, et. al.

Happy Halloween!: “Directors Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen), Paul Solet (Grace) and ArieScope Pictures (more here) have just released their own love letter to the Halloween season called Jack Chop, a blood-soaked satire of the now infamous Slap Chop infomercial. Written by Green, Solet and a bunch of other weirdos (and starring Solet as the enthusiastic pitch man who can’t catch a break) you’re going to want to do yourself a favor and check out the full video below. It’s horrifying and hilarious, you freaks are gonna love it. Language and violence alert, mayhaps NSFW.”

It seems that Mel Gibson, who hasn’t acted in a movie in seven years, couldn’t be bothered to perfect his Boston accent.  Not that I’m complaining, because it’s a mercurial thing, the boston accent, something most native Bostonians spend a lifetime running away from.  Well, the educated anyways. 

This thriller, where Gibson sees his daughter murdered on the steps of his home and that MacGuffin leads to shady corporate coverups, looks like standard material.  But I’m interested!

Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) directs the movie, which is a remake of the very highly regarded UK mini-series from 1985 – also directed by Martin Campbell.

There is nothing redeeming about this movie, which I unwittingly slogged through out of curiosity and shear boredom.  Terrible story, boring action, hammy acting, etc.  For sure there was a good movie to be made, but director Stephen Summers didn’t do it.  Really, if you have to watch this movie, watch it for Joe Gordon-Levitt’s delicious turn as Cobra Commander/The Doctor.

Hollywood.com runs down their 10 best assassinations in movies.  It strikes me as a rather odd and obvious list, but there are some good choices, the least amongst them Tarantino’s bit of revisionist history from this past summer.  A bit surprised that their list doesn’t include the hit on Sonny Corleone (mostly because their definition of an assassination seems to be slightly skewed to include any random killing of a person in power).

Goddamn, if I didn’t shed a tear with Randy Newman singing over the montage of Andy growing up.  Men of a certain age and time have been there when the difficult decision to put away childish things comes, and yet, we hold on to toys and action figures and recycle our memories into sugar-coated summer movies in the hopes of feeling a fleeting moment of happiness that we felt then.

It’s obvious this one, written by Oscar-winner Michael Arndt, is aiming for the themes of homelessness and abandonment and finding a place in the world as it prepares to leave you behind.

In honor of The Wizard of Oz’s 70th anniversary, Newsweek was kind enough to reunite the five surviving munchkins. 

The reunion wasn’t a time to mourn, though, but rather to celebrate the legacy of the film and the lives of the actors who provided some of the film’s most famous and beloved scenes, which helped change the way the public looked at little people. Reminiscing about the production, the five discussed the generosity of Judy Garland, fears that Scarecrow actor Ray Bolger would injure himself with his stunt work and their discovery that Dorothy’s little dog Toto actually got paid more than the munchkins because “he had a better agent.”

Now this is a great way to swede a movie.  473 groups have the chance to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope scene for scene. 

Go to StarWarsUncut.com, pick one of the 15 second scenes (there are still 112 scenes left unclaimed), film it anyway you can, and upload it. The crowdsourced project, one of the more nerdy things I’ve seen — and by nerdy I mean slavish devotions of love — is more than half-completed.

You know, fuck it, I can’t contain my unbridle geeky love for this project.  This is the greatest thing since the last geeky thing I got excited about.

I would love to see this done with the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.  [via]

Thomas Jane making his directorial debut with what looks to be a fairly creepy, fun movie.  It’s going straight to DVD, which means you can look for it on torrent sites within the next few months.

Geek Tyrants said it, “hearkens back to classic Twilight Zone and film noir elements, rides the dark edge of comedy, and feels like an old DC Comic book that you can reach in to… and often times it feels like it will grab you right back.”

Produced by Bill Simmons, the lineup is fairly tight.  Well-done sports documentaries are hard to come by because often times the subject matter is just not interesting enough.  Here, Simmons has given his filmmakers the opportunity to explore less-familiar stories, or familiar stories with a new wrinkle.

“We were especially attracted to stories that resonated at the time but were eventually forgotten for whatever reason. Like the unique connection between Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble,” Simmons writes.  “Like Tim Richmond taking NASCAR by storm, disappearing just as quickly because of an “illness” (later revealed to be AIDS), then having his story covered up and dismissed. Like O.J.’s car chase, Escobar’s own goal and Jimmy the Greek’s career imploding in just a few sentences. Like the 2004 Red Sox winning four incredible games in four nights against the Yankees; even if the big picture theme had been beaten to death, the small picture theme (every remarkable twist from Game 4 through Game 7) had never really been told. We wanted people to say, “Wow, I forgot how (fill in a word: great, amazing, poignant, crazy, depressing, unbelievable) that was” or “I can’t believe I never knew that whole story.” We didn’t want to check off a laundry list of the 30 biggest stories from 1979 to 2009.” 

Barry Levinson, Albert Maysles, John Singleton, Barbara Kopple, Spike Jonze and Ice Cube are just a few of the directors who contribute. Tonight the series kicks off with Kings Ransom, Peter Berg’s piece about Wayne Gretzky being traded to the L.A. Kings.

The docs air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.  You can preview several of the movies and scope out the lineup here.

It feels so right to have Disney making classic 2D cell animated films again.  [via]