Cinematical

Hopefully some of you are old enough to remember the classic Atari video game Asteroids, where the object of the game was to navigate this space ship through an asteroid field and shoot down whatever crazy flying object got in the way. That was it -- no storyline, no insane graphics -- just a bunch of glowing dots on a screen. Obviously the cinematic possibilities are endless (ahem, sarcasm), and so that's why there was a four-studio bidding war (!) for the film rights. Yup, four studios fought to win the film rights for Asteroids. That's where it's at right now in Hollywood ...

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[By: Erik Davis, reprinted from 11/3/2007]

Part of my job involves watching every single movie trailer that comes down the pipeline, and, in most cases, writing about it. Thus, it pains me to keep hearing the same old voice-over lines from the guy with the deep voice. A comedian friend of mine named Jeff Sussman once did a bit on the movie trailer voice-over guy. In it, he speculated what it would be like to live with the movie trailer voice-over guy. Do all of his dinner conversations begin with "In a world ... where chicken cutlets and mashed potatoes come together ..."? It was a pretty funny routine, and Jeff had the voice down good. Unfortunately we lost Don LaFontaine (the legendary voice-over guy) recently, but there are still a host of guys with deep voices there to tease us at every turn with the same overly used lines again and again.

Well I'd like to take a stand today! No more of this! The following lines have been used in countless movie trailers, and I feel it's about time we officially retire them. From this day forward, I urge all of you to take a stand and help us ban the following lines of dialogue from showing up in future trailers. Think about the children, people! This one is for them ...

With his film due out in a couple of weeks, Harry Potter is beginning to make some waves. First up is an update on the Potter IMAX delay. Long story short, Half-Blood Prince won't be arriving on IMAX screens the same day the film hits conventional theaters because of a deal IMAX made with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for an exclusive four-week run. However, three theaters will be getting Harry Potter in IMAX on opening day, July 15th, but if you don't live in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, you're out of luck. Collider tells us those three theaters are as follows: Century City IMAX (Los Angeles), Henry Crown (Chicago), and AMC Loews Lincoln Square (NYC). The first 12 minutes of the movie have been converted to IMAX 3D, and so I'm sure it's worth the trip for those who live in the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, everyone else will have to wait another two weeks.

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Over on the website TNMC (via AICN), they have up a review of the Star Trek shooting script which picks out and describes the scenes that didn't make the final cut -- scenes that were probably shot and cut for a number of different reasons (pacing, running time, etc ..), but will hopefully arrive on the DVD. It's a shame, too, because some of these scenes seem to address my main problem with the movie: the boring villain, Nero (as played by Eric Bana). The scenes in question (which involve an entire Klingon subplot!) appear to give Nero more depth as a character, so hopefully we'll get to see them eventually. Here are a few descriptions from the site:

"The opening sequence, which sees the destruction of the USS Kelvin at the hands of Nero and his mining ship the Narada, has an extra bit we didn't see. While the Narada is trying to recover from being rammed by the Kelvin, bunches of Klingon warbirds decloak and surround it. This leads to a major subplot entirely removed from the final film."

"Next we go the Rura Penthe Klingon Prison Asteroid where Nero and his crew are being held. The Klingons catch someone trying to smuggle Federation maps to him. The Klingons begin to interrogate Nero, during which we learn that he has been there for ten years and hasn't said a word that whole time. The Klingons have a notebook of his that is full of drawings and calculations relating to Spock and his Jellyfish ship. They decide to use that slug thing we saw Nero using on Captain Pike in the finished film."

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With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen absolutely demolishing the box office this week (it took in another $28 million on Thursday), Variety reports that DreamWorks is looking to pick up the film rights to the first book in an as-yet-unpublished six-book series for Michael Bay to produce and potentially direct. The book, titled I Am Number Four, tells of a group of earthbound alien teens who escaped their planet just as another hostile species was destroying it. Now, as they attempt to settle in and build new lives for themselves on earth, the main character discovers that he is being hunted by the same enemy that blew up his home planet.

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By: James Rocchi (reprinted from The Toronto International Film Festival, 9.13.08)

Based on journalist Mark Boal's real experiences following bomb disposal experts in Iraq, The Hurt Locker isn't just a welcome return to big-screen action from director Kathryn Bigelow (who has wrung both fame and infamy from her art with Near Dark, Strange Days and Point Break). It's an assured, confident, swaggering piece of moviemaking that manages to not only evoke every war of the 20th century but also, despite the claims by makers and some reviewers that it's an 'apolitical' film, speaks very specifically to the Iraq war. Even so, plunging us into the thick of things alongside the highly-trained men (and they're all men here) who defuse bombs for the Army, Bigelow and Boal avoid the speeches and postures and long, contemplative talks of home front films like Stop-Loss and In the Valley of Elah by staying in Iraq, and they shun the loopy, loony formal experiments of Brian De Palma's Redacted. Boal and Bigelow stay laser-focused on one group of men with a singular mission, and make us live in the constant possibility of death. Viewed from half a world away, a bomb is a political concern; viewed from less than a foot away, a bomb's just a high-stakes exercise in problem-solving, where making a mistake means a final, terminal education in the physics of expanding gases.

One of the things us genre fans remember most about Michael was his love of sci-fi and fantasy. It oozed out of almost everything he touched, and as visionary filmmakers like James Cameron and George Lucas began making advancements in special effects during the 1980s, Jackson was right there, incorporating his talents into the most memorable music videos of our generation.

Here, SciFi Squad's Mike Moody remembers Jackson's love of sci-fi and comics, and points to some really great content from around the web as all of us come together today to mourn the loss of a pop-culture legend.

Michael Jackson, the king of pop, whose music left an indelible mark on the popular music landscape, died yesterday at the age of 50. It seemed there was little about Jackson's life that didn't make the news or tabloids throughout his long career, with the possible exception of his love of science fiction and comic books.

Jackson was a huge comic book fan, and even considered buying Marvel Comics in the 1990s. MTV Splashpage looks at Jackson's history with comics, and notes that the pop star owned a giant collection of superhero books, costumes and statues that recently went up for auction. Comics Alliance has a rundown on Jackson's 5 greatest moments in comics, including his last public trip to a comic shop and the fate of his Moonwalker comic.

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(By James Rocchi - reprinted from the Toronto International Film Festival, 9/10/08)

The Hurt Locker sees director Kathryn Bigelow craft a big, booming tale of tension based on journalist Mark Boal's experiences and interviews with bomb disposal experts in the streets of Iraq. Toronto didn't just see The Hurt Locker earn raves from many critics; it also saw the film get picked up by Summit Entertainment for distribution. Cinematical spoke with Bigelow and Boal in Toronto about breaking the audience's unconscious link between an actor's salary and a character's destiny, whether or not their film is really apolitical, the fun and excitement of blowing things up on-set, how making the movie yourself is the best way to be sure you make the movie you want to and much more.Cinematical's podcast content is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



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From SciFi Squad

Well, the time has finally come for James Cameron's Avatar to make its first ever appearance, and what a better place to start than at a packed auditorium full of fans the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam! According to various reports, 24 minutes of footage was screened from the new film, and the word "jaw-dropping" was used more than seven times, which, of course, means that the hype machine for this bad boy is already way out of control. On hand to introduce the footage were Avatar director James Cameron and actors Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang. Prior to showing the footage, Cameron declared that the 3D renaissance has arrived.

Here's a few quotes to go along with two images from the film that were on display at an after party:

"Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own." ... "It took my breath away. I thought–just like you guys–that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you're watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul." -- Coming Soon

Read the rest (and see the images) over at SciFi Squad

The latest scoop on Ghostbusters 3 has Sigourney Weaver pegged to return alongside the rest of the original cast members. Well, when SciFi Squad's Mike Moody chatted her up recently, Ms. Weaver seemed to be singing a very different tune. Here's a snippet:

Mike Moody: The rumor is you might revisit one of your famous comedy roles, Dana Barrett, in another Ghostbusters sequel. Where do you think Dana and Peter Venkman's relationship will be when the new movie picks up?

Sigourney Weaver: Probably non-existent.

Really?

SW: Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I think they're still writing it, but (laughs) I'd be very surprised ... You never know. I just did a benefit with Bill (Murray), and we love working together, but I think they're trying to create something new completely with the Ghostbusters, although I know Bill is in it. I hope my little son Oscar (from Ghostbusters II) is a Ghostbuster!

So, you won't be appearing in the movie?

SW: No, I don't expect to have anything to do with it, although I wish them well.

Weaver also talked about the planned Alien prequel, whether she'd have anything to do with it and what it means to her to hear that Ripley was recently named the most iconic science fiction character of all time. Read the rest over at SciFi Squad.