NickCastle Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You know, I think I've been pretty understanding about Hollywood ruining most of my childhood memories, but this time they have gone too far. Cinema Blend reports that they have gotten confirmation that the 80's classic The Last Starfighter is on the fast-track for a follow up movie. A scooper told the site that George Paige and Associates are producing and that the film is set to start shooting later this month. A quick check confirms that the production is listed on the Page and Associates site and a deal with Universal and Relativity Media does make it all seem that much more legit.

For those of you out there who never saw the story of a young man who gets recruited for a galactic war by a video game in a trailer park, then you are missing out. Sure it's outdated, the effects might not be what they once were, but I don't care -- it was the 80's. Plus as a nine-year-old girl, Lance Guest was the height of 'dreaminess'.

There have been rumblings of another flick before, but sources for CB say that this time it is for real. They claim, "It involves original director Nick Castle, writer Jonathan Betuel and actor Lance Guest. It's your basic Son of the Starfighter storyline and actually sounds pretty cool" -- just as long as they don't call it Son of Starfighter, because that might just put me over the edge. So it looks like this flick is about to become a reality and it shouldn't come as a surprise considering the amount of 80's remakes and sequels floating around lately. Nothing is confirmed yet, so stay tuned to Cinematical for the official announcement.

As I was watching the just-released trailer for August Rush on Moviefone, I thought to myself 'this seems a lot like one of those emotional fantasy films that Robin Williams used to make' ... and then Robin Williams showed up in the trailer. Guess I called that one. The film tells the story of two musicians, played by former IMF agents Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell, who get together and have a baby. Something then happens that causes them to actually lose the baby. The baby grows up into an orphan kid played by Freddie Highmore (Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) who inherits the natural musical talents of his parents. The fantasy part comes into play when the kid uses music to send out some kind of actual signal to his parents to come and find him, or something like that. And Robin Williams is dressed as a cowboy. Terrence Howard is also in the film, although after watching the trailer twice, I couldn't quite figure out what his role was. He seems to be giving people advice.

Nick Castle, who helmed Major Payne, Mr. Wrong, and Dennis the Menace has a screenwriting credit on this thing along with another writer, and it's being directed by Kristen Sheridan, whose last film was 2001's Disco Pigs. I'm actually a fan of both Russell and Rhys Meyers -- I think they can do good work when the material is there, so I'll probably check this one out. However, having not even seen the film, I'm advising them to seriously consider cutting down the Robin Williams cowboy shtick. That stuff has an expiration date of 1994. August Rush hits theaters not in August, but on October 19.