Kevin Reynolds Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So it looks like it's not just the big productions that are now DOA thanks to the writer's strike; it's hitting some of the 'the little guys' too. Variety reports the next two features that have been put on hold are the big-screen adaptations of Castlevania and the period action flick, Ironbow: The Legend of William Tell.

First up was Castlevania, which had been struggling to make it to production. This might not be the worst thing in the world when you consider the script problems the film was having in the first place; it was probably in serious need of some tweaking. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) had been signed to direct and the film was due to start shooting in South Africa this April. Rogue Pictures had hoped that Castlevania would have been the start of a new franchise for the studio. Rather than waste the $40 million budget, Rogue decided to focus on some of their other projects that were slotted for 2008 that were ready for production. Instead, Rogue is going to work on the remakes of Near Dark and The Last House on The Left.

Hopefully Spyglass, who was behind the action adventure story Ironbow: The Legend of William Tell, also has another project ready to occupy these long lazy strike days. Ironbow was written by Count of Monte Cristo scribe, Jay Wolpert. Director Kevin Reynolds (Tristan and Isolde) had just been signed and the film was ready to begin casting. But, the need for some re-writes to the story of the 15th-century Swiss crossbow legend William Tell who returns home to lead his people to independence (and maybe some fruit target practice) has put the film on hold for now. Well, at least these two films are in good company as 'victims' of the strike, along with Angels and Demons, Shantaram and Pinkville. So if the strike doesn't end soon, I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot more of these kinds of announcements in the near future.

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.