Enchanted Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Enchanted director Kevin Lima is on board to direct a new version of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel Frankenstein. Frank has a helluva twist, though; the scientist cooking up cadavers is an "antisocial" young woman in med school who decides to "create" her own friends. And... it's a romantic comedy. Can you say undead boyfriend?!

According to Variety, the writer and one of the executive producers of this potentially awesome project is Karey Kirkpatrick, the writer of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and James and the Giant Peach, among others. He also directed the Eddie Murphy vehicle Imagine That,

Both Lima and Kirkpatrick have a bunch of projects that are in development, although Lima's have more of a family-friendly vibe (The Spook's Apprentice, Candy Land, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and Thumb). Kirkpatrick's optioned projects include writing, directing, and producing Captain Abdul's Pirate School, about a girl who is sent to pirate school and plans a mutiny against their evil school principal slash lead pirate, as well as the more adult-minded The Best a Man Can Get, which he is also writing, producing and directing.

Based on distributor Fox 2000's track record, Frank could be focused more on the rom-com than the potential for blood and a cool chick lead, but maybe indie production company Radar Pictures (the peeps behind Richard Kelley's The Box, and remakes of The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among a number of other projects) will make sure that we get a dash of gore with our giggles and girly goodness.

I'm voting for Kat Dennings as our protagonist -- she's smart, snarky, and sweet, and she plays the perfect "outsider." Who would you cast?

(Thanks to Zach for noting that Kirkpatrick is a man. Oops.)

It's very popular to hate on princesses right now thanks to Disney and their frenzied marketing, but there's nothing wrong with a good fairy tale once and awhile, especially if they're served up with a bit of snark. So, I have some hope for Once Upon a Time, an Enchanted sort of story that's being set up at MGM. It's moving pretty quickly too. The script was snapped up in March, and now The Hollywood Reporter says that Mike Mitchell is coming on board to lend his Shrek-honed skills to the fantasy flick.

The story follows three famous princesses: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella, who have settled down in domestic bliss with their Prince Charmings, and are prepared to live happily ever after. But the Charming Brothers go missing (clearly, they're charming, but they lack street smarts) and our pretty sisters-in-law must team up, and set out to save their true loves. But a woman's job is never done, and they also have to save their fairy tale kingdom in the process.

It's a live action film, and THR notes that MGM is aiming for a Shrek and Enchanted level of satire. This almost feels like a Shrek spinoff, as all three princesses keep getting more and more screen time in the neverending ogre franchise. Hopefully it'll mix the best of Shrek with a dash of Ever After and Enchanted, and give girls some new princess costumes to wear on Halloween. Ones with swords.

Someone out there will undoubtedly scream "sacrilegious!" or at least "LAME!", but I've always wanted to see The Incredible Mr. Limpet remade. It's a favorite film of both my parents, and so my sister and I loved it too.

Remake talk has been floating around for years, with everyone from Robin Williams to Jim Carrey being attached to star (I always thought Lee Evans would have been a good pick), and the talents of Mike Judge behind the camera. Now The Hollywood Reporter says that Kevin Lima is the next to try and get it off the ground ... and considering his wonderful work on the live action / animated hybrid of Enchanted, he's a natural fit.

The original Limpet takes place during WWII, and centers on a fish-loving fellow (played by Don Knotts, King of '60s Children Cinema) that is belitted by his wife, and rejected by the armed forces. He falls off a pier and magically turns into an animated fish, and ends up a WWII hero because he can help battle U-Boats and submarines. He also meets a sexy girl named Ladyfish, who picks him up in a "Let's spawn!" scene that undoubtedly left many children asking awkward questions.

It's a cute film, and could really benefit from a beefier story and improved effects. The only downside is that they'll probably update the WW2 setting -- although if they got really clever and set it during the Cold War, I would be very impressed.

We've seen the ads countless times. Piracy is theft. If you steal a movie, you're no better than a thief. So on, and so forth. But what actually happens if you do?

As The Hollywood Reporter posts, heading to the theater and recording two films can land you nearly two years in prison. Michael Logan had recorded two films in a theater in Washington, D.C. -- 28 Weeks Later and Enchanted. Granted, the "MPAA says forensic analysis indicates Logan could be responsible for illegally recording more than 100 films from January 2006 to January 2008 in four states and the District of Columbia," but he was only found guilty for two.

Man, I would hope that he did record more -- not to suck it to the studios, but for the simple fact that it would suck if those were the films you got sent to prison for. I'm not saying that they're bad, but if I was getting sent to the slammer for a film, I would want it to be something really great.

Perhaps we'll see a revamp of those commercials in the future. I know tons of non-pirates who think the ads are a big joke, but maybe the message could be relayed a little better if stories like these were used. Weigh in below!

Did you know the Saturn Awards were last night? I sure didn't! You'll remember the Saturn Awards as where William Shatner did his famous rendition of "Rocketman" back in 1978. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films has given them out to the best in genre cinema for 34 years now, and this year's picks are ... kind of strange.

The prize for Best Fantasy Film went to Enchanted, which I think is silly in a category that also included Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Stardust, but okay. Then Sweeney Todd took Best Horror Film, which seems to me like a way to avoid giving an award to an actual horror film, like fellow competitors 30 Days of Night, 1408 and The Mist. I guess I can see why Sweeney Todd would be classified as "horror" -- a lot of throats get slit, after all -- but it's a stretch. Then the kicker: Cloverfield wins Best Science-Fiction Film, beating out, among others, Sunshine. The problem is that not only is Cloverfield not a science-fiction film, it's in some ways the opposite of a science-fiction film. Science-fiction entails some sort of larger cosmic context for the fantastic goings-on, which is precisely what Cloverfield refuses to provide. It's a monster movie in its purest form -- horror, not sci-fi.

After a long, hard-fought battle, the second official trailer for The Dark Knight took home top honors at this year's Golden Trailer Awards (with a margin of victory of 44%). The contest, held over at USA Today, tallied votes on films from several different categories -- all of which were chosen as this year's Golden Trailer winners earlier in the month. Among the top trailers users had a chance to vote on were Enchanted (Best Animation/Family), Tropic Thunder (Best Comedy), Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (Best Documentary), No Country for Old Men (Best Drama), I am Legend (Best Horror) and Iron Man (Summer 2008 Blockbuster), among others. While there are certainly other trailers I would've picked to win their respective category (Pineapple Express, for one), I think we can probably all agree that The Dark Knight trailer is definitely tops.

Check out the trailer one more time above, then head on over to USA Today to see what else was nominated (as well as the official site for The Golden Trailer Awards). In your opinion, does anything beat The Dark Knight?

Even though it wasn't necessarily my kind of movie, I can't deny that Enchanted was a huge hit -- and not just for the kiddies either. Looking to capitalize on some of that magic, Variety reports that Warner Bros. has hired Enchanted director Kevin Lima to helm the adaptation of the children's fantasy novel, The Spook's Apprentice (aka, The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch). Note: Thankfully, Donald Trump is not involved.

The story will be based on the first book from Joseph Delaney's The Wardstone Chronicles, and it's centered on a young farm boy named Tom in a fictionalized Ireland known as The County. Tom is the seventh son of a seventh son, which in the world of The County means he is privy to all sorts of info about ghosts and goblins. Most of the story focuses on Tom's introduction to a mysterious sorcerer known as The Spook, and his time as his apprentice.

Originally conceived as a project for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, WB already has a script courtesy of Matt Greenberg. Now that Lima has signed to direct, his team of producers will be in charge of re-working the whole thing. In fact, the group has already flown to London to work on the script with Delaney. Lima made his name as an animator for Disney, but has proven that he is just as capable with flesh and blood actors. There is no word on a release date for Apprentice, but judging from the box office returns Lima has been earning for Disney, I doubt WB is going to waste much time.

Enchanted
The yester-year of Disney animation is long in the past, and while you probably won't be getting any epic, artistically-driven Sleeping Beauty-type features any time soon, Enchanted offers those old classic scenes with characters ripped out of the cartoon world and delivered to a crazy and manic Manhattan. Amy Adams' Giselle becomes the victim of her soon-to-be stepmother-in-law's evilness and gets transported to the real world, where life isn't animated and the world is very, very different. From there, we've got cartoon Prince Charmings with James Marsden, who comes to save her, and real life beaus with McDreamy Patrick Dempsey. Oh yes, and of course -- Susan Sarandon as evil mommie dearest doing her best reincarnation of Maleficent.

This is your normal Disney DVD -- there are deleted scenes, bloopers, behind-the-scenes featurettes about the film's "cinematic wizardry," and a pop-up adventure with Pip, Giselle's little friend.

Check out Kim's Review | Buy the DVD

Cinematical has just received seven stills from the hit Disney flick Enchanted (which hits DVD on March 18), along with the source of Classic Disney inspiration. Enchanted was one of those films I missed in the theater, but really want to catch on DVD -- especially after our own Kim Voynar gave it such a glowing review. She said, "Enchanted hits every high note, and a great family film that entertains both the kids and adults is something we can all be truly thankful for." Once again, Enchanted (starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Susan Sarandon) will arrive on both DVD and Blu-ray disc on March 18. All seven images are in the gallery below; additionally, feel free to check out Moviefone's Unscripted session with Dempsey and Adams over here.

Note: Release date changed -- thanks for the catch!

Have you ever liked an actor that no one else seems to like? You almost want to keep your adoration to yourself, for fear that you'll be laughed out of a party or a gathering when you say how much you like Josh Hartnett. I actually do like Josh Hartnett, quite a lot. For a pretty boy, he has a very warm screen personality, and though he can appear perfectly comfortable playing a boxer or a cop, he also has a wonderful sense of humor. In short, he's not a brooder or a poser like most of his other pretty boy contemporaries. And yes, he was in Pearl Harbor, but he made up for that with excellent performances in The Virgin Suicides, O, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Hollywood Homicide and The Black Dahlia. Incidentally, these are all under-appreciated or misunderstood movies, just like Josh himself.

There. I've gone on record. Looking down the list of movies currently playing on 400 screens or less, I came up with several other actors I like that have not really received the love they deserve. First up, we have Amy Adams, who I just caught in the new Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. As far as I'm concerned, Amy walks on water. She's like a Carole Lombard for the 21st century. That means that she's not particularly suited for low-key "realistic" roles, such as the one she plays in Charlie Wilson's War (97 screens); in that, she basically trails Tom Hanks and occasionally reads some complicated dialogue to him. (I thought Mike Nichols was supposed to be good with actors.) But in Enchanted (329 screens), Amy is perfectly cast as a slightly cartoonish, screwball kook. She can move her eyes and her entire body in very precise ways for outlandish results, but she still retains a strain of humanity; she never spirals off into anything untouchable or unknowable. I thought she deserved an Oscar nomination for this one, but I'm afraid she'll need to put on a lot of "ugly" makeup before she wins anything.