NYC Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We've been receiving emails all morning from folks who've discovered that Cloverfield (aka that mysterious J.J. Abrams-produced monster flick) is now shooting scenes on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Of course, this now means my lazy ass will need to stop by tonight after my Superbad screening to see what's really going on, but based on the pics coming in, it looks like folks have dropped a ton of concrete on a car and scattered the street with debris as if something monstrous had just moved through. In the meantime, you can scope out some of the damage here and here, and stay tuned to Cinematical for more updates once I'm able to check out the scene for myself.

Wait, we're not done yet. Since it's a new day, Cloverfield has been given another title. Contrary to me wanting them to just call it The One Where I Punch J.J. Abrams in the Face, some internet MacGyvers are saying that the film might be called Overnight. Apparently, some lawyer who's worked with Abrams is registering names with something -- I dunno, nor do I care. We do know, however, that three teaser posters were released at ComicCon. All of them featured the same image of the Statue of Liberty without a head, but two of them were titled: Monstrous and Ferocious Furious. Could the teasers be leading up to a new poster with the title Overnight? I'm not crazy about the name, but it would make sense since all the action appears to take place, well, overnight. Or, in the middle of the night. And if you listen to the Billy Joel song River of Dreams, it begins with the lyrics: "In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep. From the mountains of faith, to the river so deep." Could Billy Joel have something to do with Cloverfield? Is the river he's speaking of the Hudson River? Is Billy Joel the monster? And the plot thickens ...

It's certainly not much, but what appears to be the first teaser poster for next summer's The Incredible Hulk has popped up over at the Licensing Show in New York City, among an assortment of promotional material for films like Where the Wild Things Are, The Golden Compass, Beowulf, The Dark Knight, Speed Racer, Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man. That's it to the right of your screen (courtesy of Wizard); as you can see Hulk looks pretty much as he should from behind, all jacked up and what not. What's interesting about the poster (and I don't know if this was done solely because of the location of said Licensing Show), but it appears Hulk is standing in the shadows on a New York City street. Does this mean most of the film will be set there? Should we now start looking forward to Hulk hurling a taxi cab at someone? Granted, those two street signs could be anywhere, but NYC immediately popped into my mind when I saw it. You be the judge.

Also of interest (to me, at least) is the first image from Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are, adapted from a book that I read about a trillion times as a kid. Jonze and Co. are taking their time with this one; originally, I thought it was supposed to hit theaters this fall, but apparently I was wrong -- the release date on IMDb shows October 3, 2008. Those interested can also check out two posters for Iron Man, as well as more shots of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer and the Batpod from The Dark Knight. Wizard has a full gallery of images up now, so head on over there to check it all out. And, as the poster declares, The Incredible Hulk will crush theaters on June 13, 2008.

Cinematical was invited to Sony Pictures on Saturday for a top-secret screening of several scenes from Spider-Man 3. Needless to say, they didn't have to ask me twice. I would have spent several days after I'd gotten the invitation building web-shooters if I needed to. Although Peter now uses organic webbing in the movies, so I'd have to try and genetically splice spider-DNA onto my own, which would have been too time-consuming. Thankfully, they weren't that demanding. OK, before we proceed any further, I should wave the giant spoiler alert flag. If you don't want to know anything about the plot of Spider-Man 3, then you should read no further. You especially don't want to find out from me that Aunt May is actually Galactus. Whoops. Sorry, but you've been warned. Just wait until you see a 300-foot tall May stomping on New York. It's not pretty. Although imagine the size of the cookies she could bake.

Anyhow, onto the screening and into the swanky Cary Grant theater. Sony, if you're not using that theater all the time, mind if we use it for movie watching and playing video games? OK -- here's what happened. Sam Raimi himself (dressed in his ever-present suit) came out and introduced the footage to us and called it a "super ... sneak .... preview ... scenelet." He told us the footage was brand-new, hadn't been seen outside of Sony, had a temporary score, and that some things had been shortened a bit for this preview. He then had to run off to do some audio recording with Stan Lee, who was next door, so we begrudgingly let him go. I mean, no one makes Stan "The Man" Lee wait, even if he does have yet another scene in this Spidey flick.

On the Filmmaker blog, Scott Macaulay ponders how the now-ending transit strike might have thus far impacted New York producers trying to hustle their features through post in time for Sundance. "Fortunately," he writes, "the project I'm working on is picture-locked and all elements are to the appropriate vendors. My worry is with the vendors and their employees, hoping that the strike doesn't slow them down." He goes on to ask others involved with NY productions, Sundance or otherwise, to shar their horror stories. The major catastrophe for us is that I missed two press screenings on the first day of the strike - Casanova and Rumor Has It – and will be able to write a straight review of neither. How should I handle this conundrum? What would you like to see instead? And if you have other movie-related strike stories, do tell. Now that it's all over it's time to take stock – and take the L train into city for the first time this week.