Cinematical

Looks like we have some good (and possibly bad) news for fans of the Mission Impossible franchise. Mike Fleming at Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Paramount and Tom Cruise have indeed put away their past squabbles in order to pave the way for a fourth Mission Impossible film starring Cruise as Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt. The possibly bad news? MI3 director J.J. Abrams will not be captaining the ship this time out.

Deadline reports that Abrams will be producing alongside the leading man, but that the studio is actively looking for a director to hire. I suppose that means Abrams hasn't been ruled completely out - who knows, he may fall in love with the project and hop back into the directors chair - but it's not likely he'll return in that capacity. We do have two more names confirmed for the project though: writing duo Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. The pair may not be all that well known on the cinema front, but fans of the small screen should recognize both as writer/producers on a number of television shows, including the Abrams-produced, spy-loving Alias.

There's no confirmation at this stage as to whether or not any previous cast members will be returning, but if they're keeping the streak going by bringing back Cruise they may as well bring back Ving Rhames for him to play off. Beyond that, however, the only other major bit of news is that Paramount will be shooting this summer for a Memorial Day 2011 release.

But what say you? Are you glad to see Tom Cruise reentering the IMF fold? Or would you rather see a franchise return follow the current Hollywood trend of flat-out reboot with a new cast?

"In Austin Texas, the lives of three young people "Erica, Franki and Nate" intertwine in a fateful, tragic way and head down a rocky and violent road to heart-rending oblivion."

Going off the above description from the official SXSW program guide, Red, White & Blue reads like it could be a number of different films, but two names attached to the production hint at what kind of "heart-rending oblivion" it'll be. First off, this is the latest film from The Living and the Dead director Simon Rumley, so we can begin to rule RW&B out as, say, a Havoc-type melodrama about teenagers dipping their toes into life on the other side of the tracks and winding up in over their heads. Second, its roster of producers includes Tim League, which should give anyone familiar with the cinematic tastes of both Fantastic Fest and the Alamo Drafthouse (League is a co-founder of both) an idea of what kind of genre brew will be coming to SXSW in a few weeks time.

But even with those two nuggets, nothing gives as good an idea of what's in store than seeing the beast in motion. And with that, Cinematical is proud to offer you the premiere of Red, White & Blue's first teaser trailer, starring Noah Tyler, Amanda Fuller and Marc Senter.

Be warned, the below teaser is most definitely Not Safe For Work. Nudity and sexual explicitness abound, so keep that in mind before you click on.

Your sleep has been off lately, hasn't it? You can't quite place your finger on it, but you haven't been getting your full eight and what few hours you do get are plagued by tossing and turning that leaves you feeling like you've barely slept at all. Admit it, you've been rattled by the thought that Wild Things 4 would be the next victim of the Die Hard 4 curse and end up going the PG-13 route.

What, you didn't know there was a Wild Things 4? Well you do now and the good news is it just received an R rating. What's the bad news? Wild Things 4 exists and it's rated R for "some sexuality/nudity, language and violence." I mean, come 'on. "Some sexuality/nudity'? John McNaughton's original erotic thriller starring Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Matt Dillion was given a "strong" classification for the same things 12 years ago!

If you're still trying to cash in on a sexy movie that was a mild sensation over a decade ago by making straight-to-video sequels with the exact same plot, shouldn't you at least up the ante a bit? From "strong" to "some" is not progress. Three sequels in and the rating should be going from "strong" to "absurd", no?

Ah, but who am I to argue. Wild Things 4, which is boldly calling itself simply Wild Things on IMDb, is directed by Andy Hurst, the man who has written all of the Wild Things sequels to date. I haven't seen either Wild Things 2 or Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough, afterall, so I shouldn't be so quick to judge. Maybe what was strong by 1998 standards is pretty tame by today's. Who knows? I don't. I do know one thing, though. After having seen the below (SFW) trailer for Diamonds in the Rough, I have got to see Johnny Cage Linden Ashby in an erotic thriller.

Fan trailers can suck. This one does not. As admirable as they are, typically they consist of low production values and amateur editing that results in a trailer that's awesome for those who are already a fan of the project, but silly for those who are on the outside. Enter Jaron Pitts (the tech-savy gent behind the wishful trailer for Green Lantern that found Nathan Fillion believably taking on the role of Hal Jordan, founder of the Justice League of America), a fan who really knows how to cut together a bunch of pretty cinematic lies into a nice and neat little package.

My almost-doppelganger Peter Ha at Techland points us toward Pitts' latest fan-made trailer and its even better than his Green Lantern film. The task this time around is a live-action adaptation of a Serbian comic-cum-anime called Technotise; what he ended up delivering is one of the slickest fan trailers I've seen. As with his GL tailer, Technotise features bits and bobs culled together from a cornucopia of Hollywood science fiction and fantasy films into a cohesive portrait of a cyberpunk future where Milla Jovovich is implanted with a black market military chip that makes her a living, breathing piece of biotech worth hunting down.

What makes this an even more exciting trailer is the fact that there is a possibility we might actually see a live-action Technotise in the future. Pitts notes on his YouTube page that this was cut together at the request of some producers looking to bring the project to Hollywood. /Film did a bit more digging and it looks like that wasn't just boasting; producers Scott Glassgold and Raymond Brothers are indeed trying to get the film made.

So check it (and the Green Lantern) trailer below and if you happen to have some filmmaking friends with a boat load of cash to spend, it may be worth forwarding their way.

Well, well, well, this is a surprise. When you see the words "Written and Directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant", one particular brand of humor comes to mind. The genius minds behind The Office, Extras, and the Ricky Gervais Show have had their grip on the pressure points of awkward comedy for years now, so one would expect their first true collaboration on the big screen to be full of wry, exacting humor. And those expectations were on track when the duo unveiled the original teaser trailer for Cemetery Junction, which had great laughs at the expense of Ralph "Chuckles" Fiennes.

That was just a teaser, though. Now there's an actual trailer (via Twitch) for Cemetery Junction out and it looks nothing like you'd imagine from the initial teaser and images. Turns out, Gervais/Merchant's latest team-up has them sitting backseat to a coming of age story and, I gotta say, I'm loving it. I haven't been too big a fan of Gervais' last few showings at the cinema (I do think Ghost Town is underrated, however), but that's also because none of those productions shared in the bittersweet sparks the Gervais/Merchant hybrid-mind have all but trademarked.

This doesn't look like Invention of Lying Gervais, or experimenting on Karl Pilkington Gervais; this looks like Extras Extra Special Series Finale Gervais. That may not mean anything to anyone who isn't already a fan of the comedian's work, but for my money the nearly 90-minute long Extras Special is the most heart-heavy comedy I've seen in years. It is absolutely brilliant and features a surprisingly affecting performance from Gervais; so if for some reason you haven't seen it, you should get that sorted.

But enough about the old, onto the new!

I think it's safe to say that Avatar has had a prettttty good run so far, but yesterday...yesterday was kismet. It's been breaking records (and hearts) left and right for weeks now, but on February 2nd it toppled its last big obstacle: Titanic's all-time domestic box office record. As of this morning, Avatar has made about $300,000 more than the decade-plus record holder, which is to say it's sitting on approximately $601.2mil at the US box office.

What's so amazing about that, aside from the obvious, is that Avatar took the crown on the very same day that it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. And those are two things that many, many people thought would never happen. I don't know about you, but my hat is off to Cameron.

It's too early to tell if Pandoran lightning will strike twice for the director, but in a recent conference call for Fox's parent company News Corp, CEO Rupert Murdoch told shareholders that the studio had indeed entered into early talks with Cameron about Avatar 2. There are no details or commitments at this point beyond Cameron having ideas and the studio having the desire to see them realized.

And in final news, the same earnings report revealed that Avatar will be arriving on DVD and Blu-ray before the end of News Corp's fiscal year. That means fans can expect to take a trip to Pandora from the comfort of their couches at some point before June 30th. However, and this is kind of a surprise, but the initial retail release will not be available in 3D. Fellow News Corp honcho Chase Carey doesn't believe that home theater tech is ready to do Avatar justice (something I'm inclined to agree with), so they'll be holding off on the extra dimension until TVs catch up.

Over at Horror Squad we've got a rather extensive interview up with British director Christopher Smith (not to be confused with American documentarian Chris Smith) in regards to Triangle, out today in the States on DVD and Blu-ray. Naturally we talked a good bit about his genre films past (Creep, Severance) and present (Triangle, the forthcoming Black Death), but one of the more intriguing topics was his next film, CHERUB.

It's based on an ongoing British series of books for young-adults by Robert Muchamore about a group of kids the government has turned into mini spies. But before you have visions of Agent Cody Banks or Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker, check out Smith's explanation of what they're going for:

"We're hoping to shoot in the summer. There's a big franchise of books in England called CHERUB and what it is is like a Nikita story. It's about a young kid from a broken family who suddenly realizes that he's an orphan and he's being cared for by the government. We're doing it quite realistically, so instead of the kids, ya' know, jumping out of helicopters and doing that, it's more about how the government uses kids in the same way drug dealers would use kids to traffic things. It's more Bourne Identity than it is James Bond."

And if that doesn't sound enticing enough, he goes on to describe CHERUB as a mix of This is England and The Goonies. I've never read the books, but a mixture of Shane Meadows' grittier side of England and '80s adventure awesomeness sounds like a potent concoction I never knew I wanted but now know I need.

Is anyone out there a fan of the series? If so, hop over to Horror Squad for a bit more on Smith's take on the material, as well as a lot more.

Diehard fans of the Alien quadrilogy are bound to know the history behind this story, but casual fans might be surprised to learn that H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who designed the iconic xenomorph at the center of the franchise, was never asked to be involved with James Cameron's Aliens. His designs from the first film were obviously the inspiration for the designs in the action-heavy follow-up, but Cameron's team never contacted the artist for input in regards to how they'd be (re)shaping his legacy.

While the film was in production, Giger's agent sent a letter to Cameron expressing his disappointment at being frozen out of the creative process. It then took Cameron nearly a year to respond to the letter, but instead of making up excuses for why he felt Giger shouldn't be involved, Cameron explained in earnest a fear most sequel directors may have but never share:

"I found that creating a sequel can be an uneasy exercise in balancing creative impulses, the desire to create a whole new canvas, with the need to pay proper hommage to the original. Mr. Giger's visual stamp was so powerful and pervasive in "ALIEN" (a major contributor to its success, I believe) that I felt the risk of being overwhelmed by him and his world, if we had brought him into a production where in a sense, he had more reason to be there than I did."

The entirety of the letter is available for viewing at H.R. Giger's personal website and worth reading for a different kind of insight into the mindset of one of the most talked about directors still working today. An equally interesting read can be found in the article that turned me on to the letter in the first place; Dread Central's interview with artist Dan Ouellette who feels his concept design contributions to Sundance favorite Splice will never be properly credited to him.

Only eight geeks remain in Cinematical's first-ever On-Screen Geek-Off Tournament and it is, surprisingly, shaping up to be a real nail-biter Cine-Geek election. I expected some close calls throughout this wholly arbitrary tournament, but I wasn't expecting them to be this close.

As of this writing, the gap between Election's Tracy Flick and Real Genius' Chris Knight was a mere 122 votes. Louis Skolnick vs. Garth Algar? 86 votes. Napoleon Dynamite vs. Andy Stitzer? 76 votes. But the real bare-knuckle brawl came down between McLovin and Data by a margin of just four votes!

So please, spread the word for round four. We need as many votes as possible, if only because I don't think my frazzled geek nerves can take any more calls like Round 3 brought us.




Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Ghostbusters vs. Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), Real Genius

If you're unfamiliar with After Dark Films' Horrorfest, its intentions are this: Scour film festivals and film markets for great new genre fare to be part of an eight-strong lineup of films called Horrorfest. Theaters around the US can then choose to partake in said lineup, in turn bringing the 'fest experience' to those who can't travel around the world to actual film festivals to see said films. Unfortunately, the reality of Horrorfest is a little different.

They do indeed scour film markets for acquisitions, but most buzz-worthy horror films tend to attract larger distributors with deeper pockets. That means that the actual pool of festival favorites that ADF has to chose from is rather shallow. Making matters worse, over the last few years theaters have realized that Horrorfest doesn't have big enough films or a big enough advertising presence to make partaking in the fest worthwhile. So instead of having the "fest experience" brought to your local multiplex, chances are you'll have to drive quite a ways to even find a theater offering their slate.

It's not a particularly great business model (if next year's Horrorfest isn't an On Demand operation, I'll be stunned), but there is a worthwhile goal backing the whole thing. That's why I feel bad complaining that Horrorfest 4 is the third year in a row that would require a 2+ hour road trip to join in on this end. Fortunately for me, I've already seen half of their lineup...

Dread, Kill Theory, Lake Mungo, Hidden, The Final, The Graves, The Reeds, and Zombies of Mass Destruction.