Alcon Entertainment Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Book of Eli had me halfway when they cast Gary Oldman -- but they got a guaranteed ticket sale from me when they cast Ray Stevenson. I'm disappointed that he's playing another badass assassin type, but hey, at least I'll believe he could kick Denzel Washington's ass.

The plot description has been incredibly dry thus far -- a man named Eli protects a book that may be humanity's salvation, Oldman is the despotic mayor of a struggling town, Mila Kunis is an assassin sent to kill Eli, but who ends up joining him. But we have a little more, courtesy of its newest cast member. Stevenson sat down with Reelz Channel, and shed a little more light on the bleak future this film will inhabit. "The world in which it is set is completely uncompromising. The most precious commodity is actually water, because virtually all of the water is poison, toxic -- whether it's due to eruptions from the earth or the poisons in the sky. These very basic things are what drives human nature down to almost animalistic qualities. But what still separates us from the animals?"

Hmmm. Shades of Waterworld, a threat that looms over every post-apocalyptic film not titled The Road. There's never an in between when it comes to this genre ... you either end up with something cool and Max Maxish, or you end up with The Postman. Let's keep hoping for the best, though. The film begins shooting in February, and has a release date of January 15, 2010.

I am starting to see a new pattern emerging in the latest graphic novel grabs -- monsters and the teams who hunt or protect them. That's a trend I can get behind (as opposed to the superhero deconstruction -- leave that to the masters). The latest according to Variety is Jerry Carr and Allan Gross' graphic novels Cryptozoo Crew, which has been purchased by Alcon Entertainment. No director has been named yet, but Joe Gazzam has already penned the script.

The Cryptozoo Crew is a secret organization devoted to protecting the identity of strange and rare creatures called the Cryptids. They aren't as strange as you might think, because they're often things like the Loch Ness Monster, Yetis, and El Chupacabra. (Maybe the Montauk Monster can pop up at some point -- have they figured out what that thing is yet?)

The series centers around married crew members Tork and Tara Darwyn -- funnily, press releases are focusing on how beautiful Tara is, whereas I find Tork to be equally pleasing to the eye. They bicker about their relationship while pursing mythical creatures, thus making it the most realistic monster series yet. You can check out previews of the first two graphic novels on the official Cryptozoo website. The series seems like it is a lot of fun, with a good dose of humor. It could be a nice summer flick. Frankly, I can't wait who see who they cast as the muscle bound Tork.