Posts with tag ChroniclesOfNarnia
Gabriel Casseus Joins Bruckheimer's 'G-Force'
Filed under: Action », Animation », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Disney », Family Films »
Before anyone gets too excited, I should clarify: Jerry Bruckheimer will not be remaking the classic anime Battle of The Planets. Variety reports that Gabriel Casseus (Black Hawk Down) has joined the cast of G-Force, a mix of live action and CGI about "a group of genetically enhanced animal commandos trying to prevent an evil billionaire from taking over the world. Casseus will play an NSA agent who is trying to track down the commandos". The actor has also already sold his script for the action film, Bone Deep, which he will produce and, additionally will take a stab at directing the horror-comedy Boyz in the Wood (and it might just be me, but that sounds awfully similar to the 'urban horror' flick Tales from The Hood released back in 1995).Bruckheimer has been working on the family-friendly action flick since 2004, but his previous engagements -- mainly Pirates of The Caribbean sequels -- have kept the mega-producer bus for the last few years. Now it looks like G-Force is getting the green light for a Summer 2009 release (previous reports even had Disney putting the brakes on the third installment of Narnia to focus on the action flick instead). Already signed to direct G-Force is Hoyt Yeatman, a Visual Effects Supervisor, who will make his directorial debut. Yeatman is an Oscar winner who has worked on everything from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension to the Underdog update released back in August. G-Force is scheduled for release on May 1st, 2009.
*Correction: Image has been updated.
Picturehouse Buys Next Project From 'March of the Penguins' Team
Filed under: Documentary », Foreign Language », Family Films »
Picturehouse has acquired the U.S. rights to The Fox & the Child, the first narrative film from the team that created The March of the Penguins. If you're one of two people not familiar with that movie, it was last year's surprise smash, winner of the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and even spawned a full-length spoof. Since The Fox is also being listed on imdb as Le Renard et l'enfant, I'm betting this will be a French film (I'm excellent with languages). The Fox and the Child is currently in production, with Penguins director Luc Jacquet both writing and directing.
Variety reports that the film is based on Jacquet's own childhood experiences. Seeing that the film tells the story of a little girl who goes into the woods and winds up entering a different dimension by following in a fox's footsteps, I'd say Jacquet had a much more exciting childhood than I did! The story sounds very Chronic - what?- cles of Narnia to me, hopefully these guys will put a new spin on things. Jacquet has his work cut out for him -- the switch from documentary to narrative filmmaking is one that several doc makers haven't made that smoothly. See Michael Moore's Canadian Bacon. Actually...don't. No word on casting for The Fox, but let me just suggest either Jamie, Matthew, or Michael J.
Tips for Tuesday: New to DVD on 12/12
Filed under: New on DVD », Home Entertainment »
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals -- Only worth renting if your kids have already seen The Ant Bully, Flushed Away, Happy Feet, Ice Age 2, Open Season, Over the Hedge and The Wild. (At least three times apiece.) Plot: A bunch of cows do silly things in a barnyard. Extras include filmmaker commentary, four featurettes, seven deleted scenes, two music videos, etc.The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- You know how New Line released those really nifty "extended edition" DVDs for The Lord of the Rings? Yeah, well Disney liked that idea so here comes the mega-huge Narnia release, complete with seven additional minutes of in-movie footage, three lengthy audio commentaries, and two full discs over-stuffed with lions and witches and wardrobes, oh my.
The Devil Wears Prada -- The chick-flick version of Hostel. Anne Hathaway plays a "fat girl" who allows herself to be abused by the evil boss Meryl Streep just long enough to earn an oh-so-important life lesson. Extras include a filmmaker commentary, four featurettes, a bunch of deleted scenes and other random trinkets.
Material Girls -- One of the worst studio releases of the past 15 years. Stunningly bad. Highly recommended, however, if you happen to be a member of the Duff family. Anyone who can make it more than 15 minutes into Martha Coolidge's audio commentary has the fortitude of an Egyptian pyramid-builder. Featurettes and music videos are also included.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby -- Will Ferrell brings his patented brand of stream-of-consciousness goofiness to the easy-target world of NASCAR, and the result is a movie just as funny as we expected it to be. OK, so it's not Anchorman, but it's still packed with laughs. (Plus John C.Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen and Amy Adams are actually allowed to steal a few scenes, with makes me think even more of Ferrell as a comedian.) Snag the unrated edition for extra footage and a truckload of commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, bloopers, promos and more assorted silliness.
World Trade Center -- The year's second 9/11 movie takes a decidedly different approach than its predecessor (United 93) and turns out to be one of Oliver Stone's more accessible projects. The horrible date is re-captured in chillingly realistic fashion, the performances are pretty great across the board, and the extra features (in the 2-disc commemorative edition) are as informative as they are entertaining. Fans of the film can pick through two separate audio commentaries and a second disc filled with mini-documentaries on the film, the survivors and the event itself.
Moseley Talks Narnia
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Scripts », Remakes and Sequels »
You may or may not recognize the name of William Moseley. The young man played High King Peter in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe flick, and will return to reprise the role in the upcoming sequel, Prince Caspian. If you don't recognize his name, I wouldn't worry about it, because unlike Radcliffe and the stars of the Potter-verse, the children in Narnia will not be around for the full seven book run. Peter, in fact, will drop off after book two* and won't show up again in a major role until book seven.**The Hook caught up with William Moseley recently and picked his brain for thoughts on the next flick. Moseley, like everyone else involved with the film, was not able to say much, because "They're keeping it really hush-hush. Whether it's even finished, I don't know." However, Moseley did verify shooting is still set to begin in January, and they expect it to carry well into summer. Moseley also talked about the challenge of acting opposite non-existent CGI characters, and had a very interesting take on it: "When you imagine Aslan you just see some highly individual perception-- I saw a majestic creature. I enjoyed being able to create my own Aslan instead of someone else putting it there in front of me." This makes a lot of sense to me. Moseley, like millions of the rest of us, has read and known Narnia since childhood; of course he had a personal vision of Aslan in mind. We all envision the characters and places we love in great books -- Lewis' description of heaven at the end of The Last Battle has served as my mental image of heaven since I was a child. Moseley was just lucky enough to be a part of his own imagination on the biggest stage in the world.
*Yeah, I'm using the original numbering and not the new chronological numbering. It is how the movies chose to deal with it, which I feel validates my long argued point that the magic of Narnia works best when revealed in the original order. Yes, I know Lewis was cool with chronological order, but I still prefer published order.
**Let's put aside the discussion of grown-up Peter in The Horse and His Boy until we learn how they plan to cast him.
Looking for Caspian
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
As production for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (the sequel to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe )slowly starts up, one key piece of the puzzle remains; namely, the title character. All four of the children from the first flick will be returning to reprise their roles, but the studio has yet to cast the young Prince Caspian himself -- a key role, as the character is not only the title character in this film, he will appear prominently in the third film, as well. Preliminary auditions for the part have been held in England, with more still to come. The final decision will likely not be made until next month, when director Andrew Adamson can fly over and make a final decision.Additionally, casting has begun for extras of Spanish and Mediterranean descent to portray the Telmarines who invaded and subdued Narnia between the time periods of Wardrobe and Caspian. Apparently, if you're willing to part with a small donation fee, you can apply for such a role at StarsinMyEyes. Nice to see some action happening on this flick -- I'm really looking forward to it.
Some Narnia Rumblings
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », RumorMonger », Fandom », Scripts », Remakes and Sequels »
It may not be much, but here is a bit of news for those of you anxiously awaiting action on Prince Caspian, the sequel to the hit fantasy literature film Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Yours truly, for one, can't wait -- Caspian may well be my favorite book of the Chronicles, competing with only The Last Battle.* BANG Showbiz recently caught up with Anna Popplewell (Susan of Narnia) and took a moment to discuss her return to the magical land. Popplewell said that while she is usually well out of the loop, she knows the producers are "out scouting locations at the moment" and she's been told shooting will start early next year with all major cast members excited to be returning. On a personal note, Popplewell admitted she wants to once again try to get a name-drop for her hometown of Finchely worked into the second film. She said she was "over the moon" when she learned it made the cut for Wardrobe, and she hopes to be just as successful this time around. We're currently looking at a summer of 08 release for the film -- a bit later than originally desired, but still reasonably timely. Unlike some series, Narnia has less to worry about with aging child actors -- the four children are only featured all together in two books, and the youngest two kids in three books. Okay, yeah, it'll get tricky if they ever make it to The Last Battle, but they can cross that bridge when they get there.
*I know, Last Battle is not typically a favorite.
Weekend Box Office: Glory takes holdovers down
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Horror », Sports », Awards », Box Office », Remakes and Sequels »
New releases took the top three slots at the box
office this weekend, ending Hostel's short-lived reign and pushing last year's blockbuster holdovers down to
the bottom of the pile. Glory Road, a mushy sports drama directed by newcomer James Gartner, landed
at the top of the heap with an unremarkable $13.5 million; Last Holiday, Wayne Wang's surprisingly
well-reviewed remake of the 1950
film starring Alec Guinness, came in not far behind with $13 mil. The Weinstein Company's long-delayed CGI
meta-fairy tale Hoodwinked! landed in third, and with hostel falling all the way to fifth, that left
room for only one 2005 flick in the top five. That slot went to The Chronicles of Narnia, which managed to
scrape together $10.1 million in its 700th week in release. On awards watch: heading into tonight's Golden Globes it
looks like Munich is just about dead. Spielberg's drama dropped out of the top ten this weekend and isn't
likely to recover.Narnia Storms Out of WTO Meeting Says Forbes
Filed under: Action », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom »
This story is honestly just flat out amusing. According to Australian publication The Age, a farcial story regarding the independent nation of Narnia was issued by financial news agency AFX on Sunday and picked up by several other outlets, including (top business website) Forbes. According to the story, Narnia walked out of recent WTO negotiations in Hong Kong because it was fed up with being bullied by the US and UK, claiming "the major powers were attempting to enforce liberalisation of its clothing sector." According to the report, Narnia spokeswoman Susan Aslan said that the Narnia delegation was returning to their state capital at "Cair Parvel." The Age says that all agencies involved quickly removed the story upon learning of the embarassing error.
A quick Google news search provided the following headline:
WTO MEETING - Narnia walks out of talks; says tired of EU, US ' ...
ForexTV.com, NY - Dec 18, 2005
HONG KONG (AFX) - The independent state of Narnia has walked out of trade negotiations here, citing pressure from the European Union and the US to enforce ...
This is London offers a fuller explanation of the tale, saying that it indeed ran for nearly an hour on the newswires and that AFX, which ran the story, said it came from Chinese media company XFN.
This story was harmless and fun – the way all good pranks should be. Good on whoever managed to sneak this one in, even if the spelling of "Cair Parvel" hurt a bit.
Weekend Box Office: Narnia knocks out Kong in third round
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Box Office », Peter Jackson », Remakes and Sequels »
After two weekends of marginal losses, those
wacky Narnia kids and their magical closet just barely edged out the Big Fake Gorilla for the top slot over New
Year's. With a margin of less than $2 million, it was a small victory, but a significant one: now in its fourth weekend,
Narnia shows no signs of slowing down, whilst Kong has yet to bang out that one major victory that Universal needs for a bona fide phenomenon.
Elsewhere, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and Fun
with Dick and Jane are both doing surprisingly stable business, whilst Rumor
Has It... and The Ringer seem to be just about dead, and the jury's
still out on the mainstream appeal of Munich. Full top ten after the jump.Slump say what? Variety in 60 Seconds
Filed under: Sony », Warner Brothers », Box Office », Exhibition », 20th Century Fox », Home Entertainment »
In a figure that at first glance
seems wildly inflated compared to other reports that are circulating, Ben Fritz writes that, accounting for
higher ticket prices, the year-end box office tally will actually be a whopping 11% down from 2004. Still, it was
hardly an industry-wide slump; Warners and Fox did solid business all year long, and along with third-place ranked
Sony, they'll be taking home about half of the year's total receipts. - Not that anyone should be crying: it would seem that most of the cash lost in the exhibition realm was made back in home entertainment, where spending on DVDs is up 10%.
- There's been a huge influx of new titles over the past ten days, but most, like Match Point and The New World, are still in limited release. That leaves the last box office frame of the year as one more fight between The Big Fake Gorilla and the Magical Closet.
Discuss: Do Sacha Baron Cohen's Antics Bother You?
Interview: Kimberly Peirce, Director of 'Stop Loss'
Discuss: Movie Songs Stuck in Your Head_thumbnail.jpg){kind=logo}
SD Comic Con: Thursday Schedule Online Now!
The Geek Beat: Solo Supervillains
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg){kind=spacer}
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
