Editor of FILMdetail
Aint It Cool has some “work in progress” pictures of Megatron from the new Transformers movie (for the unitiated he’s the main villain).
A face shot:
and the full figure:
For more photos go to Aint it Coo for the full story: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24276
> More information on Megatron at Wikipedia
> Official Site for the new Transformers film
Tom Cruise will not be making any more films at Paramount after Sumner Redstone (the octogenarian overlord at parent company Viacom) publicly announced the split on Tuesday, saying to the Wall Street Journal that:
“His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount”
Could he possibly be referring to the couch jumping antics on Oprah and the bizarre Today show interview last year where Cruise talked about Scientology, antidepressants and Brooke Shields instead of the Paramount film he was promoting at the time? Lo and behold, the LA Times reports:
For more than a year, Cruise’s public outbursts have made headlines and sparked speculation that one of Hollywood’s most bankable figures might be tarnishing his image.
In a series of unrelated incidents, Cruise publicly denounced Brooke Shields last year for taking antidepressants, jumped up and down on a couch during “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and proclaimed his love for fiancee Katie Holmes, and jabbed an accusing finger at Matt Lauer on the “Today” show as he lectured his host on the evils of Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder.
At the same time, Cruise’s increasingly vocal advocacy of Scientology has drawn attention to his faith — at times colliding with his career. “His religion has become very important in his life, to the point that it may overshadow his career,” said a person close to the situation.
Another perspective comes from Red Herring which discusses how different websites are racing to cash in on the story:
The stakes in the race to get the dope on Mr. Cruise’s departure will be high. On the one side are sites with a distinct Web 2.0 sensibility that rely on tipsters and contributors to move quickly; on the other, tabloid publishers with hardened cadres of celebrity reporters.
Momentum is on the side of the newcomers. PopSugar has reportedly received $2.5 million in venture funding. Celebrity web sites like TMZ, partly owned by media conglomerate Time Warner, are breaking news ahead of the tabloids. Some of these web sites are also bringing tricks like community editing and an endless array of interactive forums from blogs and geeky web sites like Slashdot and Digg to a mainstream audience.
The new economics of content also mean web sites will hash out Mr. Cruise’s situation endlessly. Viacom chief Sumner Redstone’s finger-wagging statement that Mr. Cruise’s “recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount” was splashed all over the blogosphere, with many a blogger crowing about how they had predicted that erratic behavior would get the star fired eventually.
But couch jumping and new media meltdown aside, I think people are getting ahead of themselves here. Yes, Cruise was expensive. His antics last year were ill-advised (to say the least) but his films have made Viacom a lot of money over the years (over $2.5 billion) and to dump him in this way seems a tad disrespectful. Perhaps Redstone wants to send out a sign that deals with stars like Cruise are not worth it in an age were questionable behaviour can be so widely disseminated and ridiculed on blogs, TV shows and all kinds of new media. Perhaps we are entering an era where big deals with stars like Cruise are pushed aside in favour of investment in more profitable low cost franchises like the Saw films.
> Nikki Finke at The Huffington Post urges Cruise to sue Sumner Redstone
> Anne Thompson at The Hollywood Reporter with the details of the Cruise Paramount split
And here, just to lighten the mood, is a very funny re-edit of the Oprah interview with Cruise intercut with her lambasting author James Frey (the guy who wrote a memoir that turned out to be fiction even though he didn’t initially admit that). Anyway the editing is spot on:
Paris Hilton is not someone I’d normally write about but her new channel on YouTube is probably significant in how media figures (be they actors, singers or celebrities) market themselves and their products to an audience. From her point of view its a very smart move – not only will she get a ton of hits but it will be a cost effective way of communicating with her fans an also with the ever expanding base of YouTube users. For those who don’t like her I imagine there will be a lot of Paris Hilton spoofs and goofs (like that popular Shakira “My Hips Don’t Lie” video) but all that is just adding to the Hilton brand.
It is also interesting to note that Fox’s popular TV drama Prison Break is advertising on the banner at the top of the page to tie in with the opening of their second season. My guess is that they paid a significant chunk of change for the honour. But although Paris is a big celebrity, the main thing to note here is how popular and effective You Tube has become. A lot of doubters moan about the quality of the videos, question how they are going to monetise their ever growing traffic, how it’s all just a Web 2.0 phenomenon and “not a real business”. But they have a user base that many “real businesses” would die for and if they play their cards right (admittedly a big “if”) they could reap some spectacular rewards.
For me it is very clear why YouTube has accelerated past other video sites like iFilm and Google Video. It is easier to use, doesn’t have annoying ads, has better features and therefore has got more users and (hey presto!) more content. I used to watch trailers on sites like Apple’s trailers section but I got sick of waiting for high quality QuickTime files to load on a broadband connection. YouTube is just quicker, more convenient and works in places where QuickTime isn’t installed. At the moment it is a huge online library of all sorts of video clips but it could become a serious rival to sites like MySpace if they allowed people to add photos and MP3s to their user profiles alongside the videos. Getting someone like Paris Hilton on board as a user might seem like a gimmick but it may well point to a more interesting trend.
Instead of big film or TV stars promoting their latest projects on TV chat shows, they could setup a YouTube profile and communicate directly with their fans like Peter Jackson did during the filming of King Kong. From a filmmaker’s point of view, you would be getting access to a bigger audience and from a film studios perspective you could gauge reactions and views in a way that you simply couldn’t with more traditional media outlets. For more independent, word of mouth films, the benefits are plain to see. In fact, it could impact the film and TV industry in the same way MySpace has affected the music industry. So, for now, the Paris Hilton YouTube channel might just be an ad for her latest album, but it could also signify the beginning of something a lot bigger in how music, films and TV shows promote themselves in the future.
> Paris Hilton at YouTube
> Techcrunch on whether Paris can boost YouTube
> The Times on the new developments at You Tube
> Reuters with a report on YouTube’s “brand advertising”
> CNET with a more tech-savvy take on the Paris at YouTube
> Peter Jackson’s production diaries for King Kong
See Paris greet her fans here:
The Guardian reports today that Paul Giamatti will star in a bio-pic of sci-writer Philip K Dick:
Paul Giamatti, star of Lady in the Water and Sideways, is playing the writer. Giamatti, a lifelong Dick fan, is also co-producing the film under his own banner, Touchy Feely Films. A director has yet to be named, but the film will be written by British screenwriter Tony Grisoni, no stranger to the subjects of drugs and paranoia after his work on Terry Gilliam’s film Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Grisoni is planning to weave elements of Dick’s fiction, particularly his last, unfinished novel The Owl in Daylight, into the story of his life. “I’m not really interested in the literal truth,” he says.
“We’ve been trying to get this to happen for at least the last three years,” says Laura Leslie, Dick’s eldest daughter and one of the film’s producers. “We knew it was going to happen, but we wanted it to be something that was more multifaceted, not just, ‘Let’s focus on this guy’s five wives and the drugs.’ It’s going to be non-traditional. It’s about the creativity and not the events.”
> Official Site for Philip K Dick
> More about Philip K Dick at Wikipedia
> Paul Giamatti at the IMDb
UK film magazine Empire are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the start of the Indiana Jones trilogy with a commerative issue. They recently caught up with original producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg. George has some rather worrying news for fans:
“We’re basically going to do The Phantom Menace”, says Lucas (stay with him here, he’s making a point). People’s expectations are way higher than you can deliver. You could just get killed for the whole thing…We would do it for fun and just take the hit with the critics and the fans…But nobody wants to get into it unless they are really happy with it”.
And he goes on:
“I discovered a McGuffin,” continues Lucas, still reluctant to name said McGuffin. “I told the guys about it and they were a little dubious about it, but it’s the best one we’ve ever found… Unfortunately, it was a little too ‘connected’ for the others. They were afraid of what the critics would think. They said, “Can’t we do it with a different McGuffin? Can’t we do this?” and I said “No”. So we pottered around with that for a couple of years. And then Harrison really wanted to do it and Steve said, “Okay”. I said, “We’ll have to go back to that original MacGuffin and take out the offending parts of it and we’ll still use that area of the supernatural do deal with it”.
Spielberg says:
“Hopefully it will be different in all the right ways and the same in all the familiar ways”.
Just don’t do it guys. Instead of rehashing and tainting the originals why not create a totally new character and surprise us with a completely different trilogy for the modern age?
> Official site for the Indiana Jones trilogy
> IMDb entry for Indiana Jones 4
Cracked.com has a very entertaining list of The 5 Most Obviously Drug-Fuelled TV Appearences Ever and You Tube has posted them as videos on their site.
My personal favourite is James Brown on an LA TV show called “Sonya”:
although Klaus Kinski runs him close:
It wasn’t screened for critics but unlike other films that have been hidden before their release, Snakes on a Plane is more amusing and thrilling than I expected. Reports are coming out now that it has failed to live up to all the Internet hype but a lot of the box office hopes for it did seem a tad optimistic. Plus, its worth remembering that a lot of the buzz about this film was that it was going to be so bad it was good, which would possibly point to a slow burning DVD success rather than an all out bonanza.
If you haven’t seen it yet then you might be taken aback by the intensity of the snake action, the amusing supporting characters and the pleasantly brisk pace of it all. Going in I was expecting a much campier and self conscious affair but it plays like a fairly efficient thriller – albeit with a ridiculous premise. For those unfamiliar with the plot Samuel L Jackson plays a federal agent who has to escort a witness to a mob killing from Hawaii to LA. The only problem is that a corrupt mob boss has paid off an airport worker to plant a time-released crate of deadly snakes on board their plane. When reptiles crawl out, all hell breaks loose and Jackson has to protect his witness as well as survive the havoc on board the aircraft.
No-one should be under any illusions that Snakes on a Plane is going to be a cult success like Donnie Darko or Napoleon Dynamite. Although the bizarre fandom that has grown up around the film reflects how the relationship between audiences and studios is changing, it hasn’t made the film a masterpiece. That said if you have been following its progress over the last few months then you will certainly find something to enjoy here. The drama of the snakes once they are unleashed is effective and the claustrophobic atmosphere is maintained well for most of the film. I get the feeling that some of the violence and gore were ramped up with reshoots and instead of the comedy thriller people director David R Ellis has delivered something closer to a horror.
Samuel L Jackson effortlessly plays his usual cool persona but the real scene stealing performance (and some of the best lines) comes from Kenan Thompson as a passenger with some hidden skills. Other than that the rest of the cast are mostly just perfunctory or ( in the case of Bobby Cannavale) are just given too little to do. But for the most part Snakes does have a lot of low rent charm. The lack of a huge budget has actually helped it in many ways and there is a refreshing simplicity in knowing (to some extent) what you’re going to get from it. Its not the cult film it might have been but in a summer full of bloated big budget dreck like Pirates 2 and The Da Vinci Code it makes a welcome change.
> The screenwriter who inadvertendly helped kickstart the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon
> Reviews of Snakes on a Plane at Metacritic
> Box Office Mojo on Snakes on a Plane
> Sam Leith of The Telegraph on the hype surrounding the film
Yahoo Movies has a list of which Transformers will be in the new film version next year:
Here’s the list of Transformers that will appear in the movie, as announced by the film’s screenwriters here on Yahoo! Movies.
Autobots
Optimus Prime
Bumblebee
Jazz
Ratchet
IronhideDecepticons
Megatron
Starscream
Brawl
Bonecrusher
Skorpinok
Frenzy
Blackout
Barricade
Directed by Michael Bay, it is scheduled for a July 4th release.
> Official site for the new Transformers movie
> Wikipedia entry for Transformers
> Greg’s Preview of the film on Yahoo Movies with the latest developments
I interviewed Samuel L Jackson for TalkSPORT recently and we talked about his latest film Snakes on a Plane. We discussed the proposed title change (“Pacific Flight 121” just doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?), the enormous buzz about the film on the Internet and how marketing a film like this has changed in recent years. We also chatted his love of golf, the atmosphere of a Merseyside derby and whether or not “Snakes…” will be an inflight movie.
Coincidentally, the interview took place in the same TV studios where, 10 years ago, Samuel first expressed an interest in being in the Star Wars prequel which was in pre-production in the UK at the time. In late 1996 whilst promoting The Long Kiss Goodnight on the Channel 4 chatshow TFI Friday he told host Chris Evans that he’d like to be in the “new Star Wars movie” (which turned out to be The Phantom Menace). Someone saw that and word eventually got back to George Lucas who eventually cast him as Mace Windu.
Anyway, you can download an MP3 of the interview from the link below.
> Download an MP3 of the interview from TalkSPORT
> Samuel L Jackson at the IMDb
> Check out reviews and showtimes for Snakes on a Plane near you
> See the latest entries for Snakes at Technorati
On the Movie Cast this week we look at the week’s big cinema releases apart from Snakes on a Plane. It wasn’t screened for critics but I’m seeing it later today so I’ll post a review tonight or tomorrow. Anyway, we review A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Philip K Dick’s novel, teen comedy John Tucker Must Die and the uplifiting spelling drama Akeelah and the Bee.
The DVD picks this week are The Princess Bride and The Devil and Daniel Johnson, plus our website of the week is Hollywood-Elsewhere.
I just came across this Zombie Alphabet on Flickr. Maybe George A Romero could use it as the font for his official site.
> George A Romero at the IMDb
> Another Zombie photoset on Flickr
Sad news to report. Character Bruno Kirby has passed away after complications arising from leukemia. This report from the AP:
Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor who costarred in “When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers” and many other films, has died at age 57, his wife said Tuesday. Kirby died Monday in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, according to a statement from his wife, Lynn Sellers. He had recently been diagnosed with the disease.
Probably best known for his supporting roles in City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally, he also appeared in The Godfather II (as Young Clemenza) and – most memorably for me – as Tommy Pischedda, the frustrated Sinatra-loving chaffeur in This is Spinal Tap.
Variety recently speculated about the possibility of another Superman film after Superman Returns didn’t do the business Warner Bros was expecting this summer. Pamela McClintock writes:
Warner Bros. Pictures execs are mulling whether to go ahead with a planned sequel and ink another deal with director Bryan Singer. The film is not such a blockbuster that a follow-up is inevitable — but not such a disappointment that a sequel would be ludicrous. After all, the first “Austin Powers” pic was a modest hit that begat two huge grossers.
Word on the Warners lot is that the studio is trying to lock down a deal with Singer for a sequel. Many speculate that WB has invested too much time and money to walk away. What’s more, the film fuels a number of Time Warner outlets, including homevid, ancillaries and merchandising — even subsid DC Comics.
Warners and co-financing partner Legendary Pictures have a shot at breaking even on “Superman” once all the revenue streams are accounted for, but it’s going to be a long, tough haul.
Personally, I’d like to see another Superman film from Bryan Singer but I have a feeling that the final decision may well rest with the performance of the current film on DVD. Although there were certain problems with it (e.g. the casting of Kate Bosworth wasn’t quite right, Singer’s late arrival to the project) I was puzzled by some of the negative reactions. Brandon Routh was convincing as Clark Kent/Kal-El, the action setpieces were handled superbly and the reworked score from John Ottman was nicely judged. For most of its running time it was far more engaging than other summer blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code, Pirates 2 or Mission: Impossible 3.
It cost a huge amount because the various attempts to get it made stalled time and time again but Singer still demonstrated that he is very adept at handling action, character and special effects on a large scale. In hindsight it was a mistake to open so near to Pirates and – despite being a familiar excuse in Hollywood – the marketing was a mess. The posters and trailers just didn’t have the right impact and when a superhero film gets bogged down in bogus internet chatter about his sexuality, then someone somewhere has not been doing their job right.
But if there is going to be another Superman film then Singer should definitely be at the helm (X-Men 2 was a great example of a sequel expanding and improving on the original film) and perhaps he chould be bolder with the character and the universe surrounding the Man of Steel. Instead of the usual mad-plot-to-rule-the-world from Lex Luthor and the obligatory threat of Kryptonite, it would be interesting to see genuinely new threats and challenges for the Superman. They will have to weave in a key plot strand from the current film but that could work to the film’s advantage. If its bolder and a little more inventive then Warner Bros could well make up for its disappointing summer at the box office.
> CHUD with some thoughts on a Superman sequel
> Reviews at Metacritic for Superman Returns (it is hard to square these with the financial performance of the film)
> Box Office Mojo with all the numbers for Superman Returns
> Jeff Wells has some radical opinions for the sequel
The LA Times has a short but interesting interview with Devin Hawker from Gas Station Zebra. They are a company that helps copy write and cut trailers and he explains the art behind creating one. He also reveals why footage sometimes appears in the trailer but not in the movie:
“When I talk to people outside the business they think that’s some sort of devious thing going on. But what happens is that [the filmmakers] are cutting the movie the same time we are cutting the trailer. It is a concurrent thing and so they are making their decisions and the studio is making theirs on what the trailer should be so a lot of times the trailer will go out and two months later they will pull something out of the movie.”
> Gas Station Zebra
> Apple Trailers
> Google Video Movie Previews (why didn’t they just call it “Google Trailers”?)
Since 2001 artist Ahree Lee has been taking digital photos of her own face every day. In 2004, she compiled all of her daily images into a short film set to music. It is simply called Me and you can check it out here:
> More info on Ahree Lee at her official website
> Ahree Lee’s profile at YouTube
* UPDATE 12/05/08: For a more updated list click here *
As someone who reviews films and DVDs the internet is an invaluable resource, but what are the most useful sites? After a look through my many film bookmarks and feeds here is my selection of the 10 most useful websites that I use on a regular basis:
If you have any comments or suggestions for a useful site then do send me an email.
On this week’s podcast we take a look at three of the week’s big cinema releases: the marvellous new animated film Monster House, the new Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre and a drama set during the civil war in El Salvador called Innocent Voices. (For scheduling reasons I couldn’t see Lady in the Water before the recording but I will post some thoughts about it later).
Our DVD picks this week are Mephisto and Paradise Now whilst our website of the week is the film portal on Wikipedia.
It was only a matter of time before someone cooked up a spoof trailer about the Mel Gibson affair. Ronan Graffiti’s Steven Santos and Marcus Levy have reworked 2002’s Signs to reflect Gibson’s recent comments.
On this week’s podcast we take a look at the latest cinema releases which include Miami Vice as Michael Mann directs the movie version of the TV show he created and Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson star in the comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Our DVD picks this week are The Squid and the Whale and The Three Burials of Melquides Estrada whilst in the news we analyse the Mel Gibson drunken anti-Semitic meltdown (a phrase I didn’t think I would be writing a week ago).
Our website of the week is Anne Thompson’s Risky Biz Blog.
Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic meltdown is one of the biggest showbiz stories in recent times and a lot has already been written. Here are some interesting perspectives from the last week on the story that is still consuming Hollywood.
Nikki Finke writes in the LA Weekly about the hypocrisy lying beneath a lot of the current finger wagging:
Where is the Hollywood outrage? Where is the industry wide condemnation? No, I’m not talking about Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic slurs. I’m talking about the Lionsgate scandal. Its ads for its slasher flick opening this weekend set a new low by boasting — yes, boasting — about how this movie is way more disgusting than anything the studio has previously brought to the big screen. “People are concerned that the amount of blood and gore in horror films goes too far,” the deep-voiced announcer intones, barely heard above the barrage of shrieks and moans. “On August 4, the studio that brought you Saw and Hostel goes over the edge. The Descent, rated R.”
Instead, the movie biz is consumed by the scandal of a dwarfish über-Catholic bigot with a fondness for blonde fans. Why, I haven’t witnessed so many power players this quick to kick a confessed alcoholic when he’s down and out. A guy who relapsed and drove near 90 miles an hour because he felt suicidal and wanted to wrap himself around a telephone pole (or so one of his intimates spun it to me), and who, when a Sheriff’s deputy put an end to his death wish, said venomous stuff he’s copped to and apologized for, since, well, never.
Over at Slate, Kim Masters discusses the Disney executive who appears willing to forgive and forget his outburst:
Are we really surprised at Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic outburst last week? After his wink-wink Holocaust denials in the past? Probably not. The question is whether Hollywood will continue to countenance him. Disney is set to release his next movie; Oren Aviv, the new head of the Disney film studio, says he is prepared to forgive and forget.
Sandy Cohen of the AP raises concerns about Gibson’s choice of rehab:
A lot is riding on Mel Gibson’s recovery from alcoholism: his health, his image, his reputation and his chance to repair relations with the Jewish community. But unlike other celebrity alcoholics, Gibson is not checking into a treatment facility. Instead, his publicist says the actor is participating in an outpatient “program of recovery,” declining to provide specifics.
And Arianna Huffington at The Huffington Post thinks this incident is a watershed for Hollywood:
So is Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic spew really headline news — or is it just another celebrity DUI? Another high-profile addition to The Smoking Gun’s mug shot gallery (Nick and Glen, meet your new buddy Mel)? Monologue fodder for Leno, Letterman, Conan, and Kimmel? Nothing but a tempest in a tequila bottle?
Maybe that would be the case if these were ordinary times. But, with extremists gaining power and garnering sympathy all across the world, there is nothing ordinary about these times. And that is why this could prove to be a seminal moment in our cultural history. Particularly in the cultural history of Hollywood.
…the town’s power players need to step up and publicly condemn Gibson’s vile comments (in effect, saying in public what they are already saying in private conversations I and many others have had). I mean, it shouldn’t be so hard to publicly denounce someone — even an Oscar-winner — for being a raging anti-Semite.
Where does Gibson go from here? Apocalypto will struggle to do doing any serious business given that it is now tainted by this scandal. People may be curious because of the unusual subject matter (its set during the end of the Mayan civilization 600 years ago) but it doesn’t have the built in audience recognition that The Passion of the Christ did and Gibson is really the only person who could have promoted as it has no stars.
I cannot imagine that he will do any publicity for it unless it is a ‘Mel Apology’ tour but even that seems highly unlikely. Probably the best thing Gibson could do at this point is make a documentary exploring the history of anti-Semitism that analyses why he came to spout such offensive views himself (I have a feeling his father Hutton may have been an influence) and then donate any proceeds to Holocaust charities.
James Earl Jones provided the famous voice for Darth Vader in Star Wars. However, this video from the clever folks at akjak.com features scenes of the Sith Lord that have been re-edited in a highly amusing way. They have used audio clips from other James Earl Jones films and remixed them with footage from Star Wars. The result is absolutley hilarious.
Those rumours about Heath Ledger look to be true after all. According to Hollywood Elsewhere the Australian actor will play The Joker in the next Batman film. Christopher Nolan returns to direct and it will be called The Dark Knight. Despite not being a huge fan of his work prior to Brokeback Mountain, his performance in that film demonstrated that he was not only willing to take risks but that he could really act.
Some people already seem to have reservations but as long as Nolan preserves the tone of Batman Begins I think this could be inspired casting. The title of the new film suggests it may be influenced by Frank Miller’s Dark Knight comics and Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all works out.
> The Movie Blog has mixed feelings
> Devon Faraci from C.H.U.D on the new film
> Wikipedia on The Dark Knight
> Batman On Film report the news
Mel Gibson was arrested early on Friday morning in Malibu after driving under the influence. The entertainment site TMZ recently posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as issuing a “barrage of anti-Semitic remarks” to the arresting officers.
He has issued an apology but where this leaves his career is anyone’s guess. His new film Apocalypto is out in December and given the current turmoil in the Middle East added to the controversy that raged over The Passion of the Christ, the timing could not be worse.
> Sandra Cohen of the AP reports on where this might leave his career
> The LA Times speculates as to whether the LAPD tried to give Gibson preferential treatment
> Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily refutes the idea of a police cover up and also looks
at the incident in the context of Gibson’s recent history
> Timothy Noah at Slate has no doubt as to what he thinks of Gibson and analyses screenshots of the leaked report
According to The Smoking Gun it would appear Lindsay Lohan’s social life is getting in the way of her latest film, Georgia Rule. The producer sent this letter to her:
> The Washington Post with more on the story
> Defamer chip in with their angle
Some folks at Filmcritic.com have come up with this list of classic movie endings. There are some great ones in here and – as usual with these kinds of lists – you can have a lot of fun disagreeing with the selections. (It goes without saying that there are a lot of spoilers here if you haven’t seen the films).
This week we recorded the podcast on the roof as it was so damn hot in London. We take review the week’s big cinema release, which is Pixar’s latest film – Cars.
Our DVD picks include futuristic drama V for Vendetta and Spike Lee’s heist drama Inside Man.
In the news we discuss Richard Donner’s new cut of Superman II and our website of the week is the marvellous review hub Metacritic.
> Get cinema showtimes for Cars via Google Movies
> Buy V for Vendetta at Amazon UK
> Buy Inside Man at Amazon UK
> Check out some of the restored footage for Superman II over at IESB.net
> Check out the latest reviews at Metacritic
Back to the Future helped Michael J Fox to become a big star but one lesser known fact is that Eric Stolz was originally cast in the lead role of Marty McFly. BTTF.com has some interesting images from the original scenes shot with Stolz before he got replaced. (Link via Digg)
> Eric Stolz as Marty McFly
> Wikipedia with more on Michael J Fox vs Eric Stolz
At the cinema this week we review The Break Up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, whilst our DVD picks are Transamerica and The Candidate.
In the news we discuss the launch of Film4 as a free-to-air channel and our website of the week is Launching Films.
On this week’s podcast we take a look at this week’s big cinema release Superman Returns and our DVD picks are Lost: Season 2 – Part 1, Tsotsi and The Proposition.
In the news we discuss the Napoleon Dynamite Festival and our website of the week is Box Office Mojo.
If you hadn’t already noticed Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has stormed the US box office and is doing similar business abroad. The question on any sane person lips has to be: “WHY…?!?!”
> Brandon Gray at Box Office Mojo weighs in with all the stats
> Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily writes an interesting piece on why the huge box office treasure trove has not exactly impressed Wall Street
> The Guardian chimes in with the UK angle
On this week’s podcast we review the big cinema release Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and our DVD picks are A Cock and Bull Story and Syriana. In the news we discuss the Ten Second Film Festival and our website of the week is Ain’t It Cool News (Happy 10th Birthday!).
