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'The Hobbit' Really Might Be Delayed This Time
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Scripts, Peter Jackson, Remakes and Sequels
We've been enjoying rumors about The Hobbit for about two years now with no signs of letting up. We've heard it all -- from who is or isn't cast as Bilbo Baggins or Smaug, to whether it'll be in 3D, and if it'll be two films of purely Hobbit-drawn material or if it'll delve into the Tolkien appendices, it goes on and and on. And that's not even counting the year or so that Peter Jackson was out of favor with New Line. It's enough to make you climb into a hobbit hole and have your second breakfast.Now Variety reports that despite the assurances of Guillermo Del Toro and Jackson, The Hobbit release may actually be delayed from December 2011 to late 2012, as previously reported. While discussing Warner Bros' plans for New Line, WB studio leader Alan Horn is predicting that The Hobbit will be released in "the fourth quarter of 2012," though he declined to give any further details.
While Jackson assures everyone the project is on track, I find it hard to believe they can make that 2011 release date, even if they are holding open casting calls. As of last month, MGM still hadn't officially green-lit the film, and they were still on the second draft of the script. I'm not going to lose faith that we'll have an 2011 trip to Middle Earth -- but I'm not going to hold my breath, either. Remember, it was originally given a release date of 2010!
The Farrelly Bros Give Owen Wilson a 'Hall Pass'
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, New Line, 20th Century Fox, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
Once upon a time, Bobby and Peter Farrelly Bros were the kings of gross out comedy. They were blamed for the death of modern cinema, then hailed as geniuses after everyone took Grandma to see There's Something About Mary. And then they grew up and made things like Fever Pitch, and others stepped up to take their peeing-on-a-moped place. (I have to say, I'll always have a soft spot for Dumb and Dumber, if only because every foreigner I meet says "Colorado? Like Aspen in Dumb and Dumber? That's so cool!") As they work on getting The Three Stooges off the ground, the Farrellys have decided they can't sit idle, and have rescued Hall Pass from Fox and remade it at New Line. According to The Hollywood Reporter, they've also lured Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis to the project. Sadly, Hall Pass doesn't sound particularly enticing. The story centers on a married couple who are bored in their relationship. Rather than do the obvious thing and either take a vacation or get a divorce, they decide to take a page from HBO's Big Love and open things up. The wife gives her husband a "free pass" to have an affair. Sudeikis will play the carded manslut's best friend, who also wrangles a pass from his own wife. Presumably, while the men are out spreading their seed, the women will stay home and embroider. Who says chivalry is dead?
Other than Sudeikis (who I genuinely like), this sounds like your standard Owen Wilson sex comedy but without Vince Vaughn or Ben Stiller. You can guess the ending from where you're sitting right now. So, they should do the obvious and cast Jennifer Aniston so they can play out that evergreen Friends episode "We were on a break!" At least then it'll go meta.
Mark Pellington Will Helm 'The Orphanage' Remake
Filed under: Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Thrillers, Deals, New Line, Warner Brothers, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
Plans for an English-language remake of The Orphanage have been ongoing since 2007. If you were thinking that Juan Antonio Bayona's original earned enough attention for those plans to be shelved, guess again. According to Variety, The Orphanage remix is still on at New Line / Warner Bros, and now has a director in Mark Pellington.Pellington's resume is a mixed bag, ranging from U2 3D to The Mothman Prophecies, which I haven't seen. I do have very fond memories of being good and scared by Arlington Road though, but I'm not sure it's the same kind of scare as that delivered by Bayona's Orphanage. On the other hand, Guillermo del Toro is still on board as producer, so we have to assume he believes Pellington can deliver the chill.
Even if this does have del Toro's blessing (he not only produced the original, but has trained Bayona up as one of his successors in eerie Spanish filmmaking), I still wonder why a remake is really necessary. The film is readily available -- it's on Netflix Instant as we speak -- and Bayona has become a pretty popular name. He was even bandied about as an inheritor of the Twilight franchise. Can't it just be left as his calling card? It strikes me as a bit of a slap in the face to take a director's debut film and promptly remake it in an American and unsubtitled image. But perhaps it's meant to be a big compliment, and Bayona is onto such bigger and better things that he doesn't particularly care.
Cinematical Seven: Post-Mortem Protagonists
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, New Line, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, Peter Jackson, Cinematical Seven, Lists, Nicole Kidman
If you're the least bit familiar with the premise of either Alice Sebold's novel or Peter Jackson's adaptation, then you know that The Lovely Bones begins with the murder of young Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), who is then forced to watch her family cope with their grief while her killer remains in the neighborhood.
Unfortunate and grisly though that incident may be, it seemed like cause enough to round up a Cinematical Seven of our favorite film protagonists from beyond the grave. As is often par for the course, we welcome your additions in the comments below, and although the newest film on this (chronological) list is eight years old, I suppose that a spoiler warning is in order all the same, since not every title listed reveals a character's afterlife as swiftly as Susie's does. Enjoy!
The Best of the Decade: Action Flicks
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Disney, Lionsgate Films, Magnolia, New Line, Paramount, Sony, Sony Classics, Universal, Warner Brothers, Focus Features, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Johnny Depp, Peter Jackson, James Bond, Lists, Miramax, Best/Worst, War, Daniel Craig
Cinematical is about to launch into our best-of-the-'00s series, with a different writer tackling a different genre over these last few weeks of the aughts (or whatever it was we decided to call this decade). Yours truly has been tasked with sifting out the most exciting action flicks these years have had to offer, and in the list-making equivalent of flinching, I've decided to divide them up by superlative instead of ranking them in order of awesomeness.
Oh, and before you comment away about what's missing (which we do want), I have left off The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, X2: X-Men United and The Incredibles, so they may be included in any superhero or animated list to come. If those movies are left off those lists, then by all means, give them hell. I might even join you.
Chris Weitz Blames New Line For 'The Golden Compass' -- Do You?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Line, Celebrities and Controversy, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Religious, Fan Rant
Now rolling in New Moon millions, Chris Weitz is being more open about his troubles with New Line and The Golden Compass, a film that sank one studio and sent him into a tailspin. Rumors abounded as to what went wrong on that film, and as recently as last week, New York's Page Six was claiming that residual stress was causing him to leave the industry.Weitz denied any such thing to Variety, and announced he was leaving the world of the supernatural behind with his next film, The Gardener. The film centers around a hard working Mexican gardener and his efforts to protect his son, and Weitz will be making it alongside his new best friends forever, Summit Entertainment. His new friendship enabled him to take a parting shot at New Line. Weitz praises Summit and Stephenie Meyer for trusting him with New Moon, an experience that was the polar opposite of the debacle that was The Golden Compass.
Weitz claims that New Line didn't trust him to handle the content of the book, that the film was taken from him in editing. Heavy-handed hacking resulted in losing nearly 30 minutes of footage from the film, and neatly exercised the edgy thrust of Phillip Pullman's book. "It was an utter violation of my status as a director and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally ... I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the right." Out of loyalty to the cast and crew, Weitz said he "bit through my tongue" when Compass was released.
As a fan of Pullman's His Dark Materials series, I'd love to see all that missing footage to see if it could salvage Weitz's film, and if New Line really neutered it.
Go below the jump for the rest
Cinematical Seven: Silliest Disaster Scenarios
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, New Line, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Cinematical Seven, Lists
We both know that I could probably fill all seven slots of this list with just scenes from Roland Emmerich's disaster-tastic 2012, but in the interests of letting everyone else get a chance to see it, let's stick with films that have already come and gone. Some of these titles qualify because of the uniquely ridiculous nature of their disasters, while others count for what ridiculous plots unfold amidst otherwise ordinarily perilous acts of nature.
There will be a couple of spoilers to go along with our picks, but since most of these have been out for a couple of years, it's not like it's the end of the world...
Adam Shankman Will Headbang To 'Rock of Ages'
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Romance, Deals, New Line, Warner Brothers, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand
If you live in New York, you may have caught the Broadway musical Rock of Ages, and left high on hairspray and Whitesnake. But most of us will be encountering this little-hit-that-could in its big screen incarnation. Late last year, Tobey Maguire and New Line bought the rights to the musical with an eye to bringing it to the multiplex (a bidding war that involved three studios). Now Variety reports that it's setting out on the right foot by hiring Adam Shankman as its director. The film will go into production next summer, and is aiming to hit theaters in 2011. The story of Rock of Ages isn't terribly original. A couple meets at the Sunset Strip club Rock of ages, fall in love, and try to stay together amid the sex, drugs, and excess of 1980s rock. Their turmoils are all set to the tunes of Journey, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Joan Jett, and Jon Bon Jovi. Like Mamma Mia!, it's all an excuse for a great nostalgic soundtrack, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Shankman tells Variety that he was itching to get back into musical territory after Hairspray, and sees Rock of Ages as a distinctly masculine musical: "When I watched Rock of Ages, I was struck by the fact that not only had much of the audience seen it more than once, every guy in the audience knew the words to the songs. I thought, 'This is Mamma Mia! for dudes.' What an extraordinary opportunity to open the genre to an audience that otherwise wouldn't go see a musical." If this could succeed in converting ordinary men to musicals (something Hugh Jackman hasn't even managed), I will love it on principle. Maybe it'll even bring back big hair -- and yes, I wish for that every day because I never got to rock that look.
Pop below the jump for a little Rock of Ages from the Tony Awards. Think it'll convert the menfolk out there?
The Griswolds Are Back! 'Vacation' Franchise Reboot
Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Deals, New Line, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
Lately, I've noticed a blogosphere backlash when it comes to remakes and sequels. Because so many are whining about reboots / remakes, the contrarians now assert that remakes are something akin to a new performance of Hamlet. But I'm not sure even the remake champions can defend New Line going back to the Vacation (formerly of National Lampoon, now owned by Warner Bros) well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has brought on David Dobkin to develop the project. He may also be lucky enough to direct.New Line plans to relaunch the Vacation series by centering it on Rusty Griswold, son of Clark. He's now married with children of his own, and (brace yourselves) takes them on a vacation. THR is quick to point out that because Rusty will think back on the horror that was the trip to WallyWorld it's not a reboot, but a sequel. The studio is currently looking for writers to pen the screenplay, and note that they're hoping for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles over RV.
Now there's always room for a funny travel movie, but who knew the Griswolds would have a saga that rivaled the Skywalkers. I understand the need for familiarity, but the Griswold family weren't intended to be entertainment icons. They were just a mirror of our own families, so why not trot out a new family? But that's assuming we even need a new Vacation movie. The original
may feature outdated cars and clothes, but nothing in the way of family vacations has changed since 1983. But hey, if it was worth doing once, then it's worth rebooting a dozen times to avoid those piles of original scripts ... right?
The Internet Takes Control of Movie Marketing
Filed under: New Line, Fandom, Tech Stuff
A while back I wrote a little post about a movie that I would never see, and plenty of folks lined up to tell me that it was impossible to make a decision about a movie through word of mouth or what I had read on the Internet. Of course, I disagreed, because frankly how else can I make a decision about where to spend my hard earned time and money? But if I had to blame anyone for keeping me away from the movie theater that day, I'm going to have to blame the Internet. Yup, it was thanks to those sneak peeks and early screenings described in detail online that helped me make my decision before those battling robots ever took the stage. People are talking about movies more now than ever before thanks to social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, and a new study from New Line's Web guru Gordon Paddison has proven that when it comes to movie marketing, all the action really is on the web.What the report seems to be saying is that you need to know your audience if you want to sell your movie. Now, there are some daunting statistics that prove the power of the Internet when it comes to going to the movies, and if you aren't buying the effect the net can have on a film's success, keep in mind that 94% of all moviegoers are online, and 73% of moviegoers surveyed have profiles on a social networking site -- and if people are talking, you want to make sure it's positive because as the old commercial goes, they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and before you know it, you have a flop on your hands.
After the jump: so what does this all mean for movie marketers?
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