Rachael Taylor Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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In just a little over a month from now, a whole bunch of Cinematical lunatics will stomp their way through Austin, Texas in search of the next great indie beauty via the 2009 South By Southwest Film Festival. And, like we do for a few other festivals each year, we'll be previewing some films, debuting images, clips and trailers -- while basically trying our best to keep you in the loop with regards to what's going on in this groovy film world.

First up for us (and you) this year is this exclusive first look at the film Splinterheads, which, sadly, is not a documentary about fans of the character Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- but is, instead, a romantic comedy for the Harold and Kumar crowd (or so I've been told). Starring newcomer Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor (Transformers), Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Dean Winters (HBO's OZ), and Jason Rogel as Wayne Chung, Splinterheads follows a regular dude (Middleditch) whose life changes when a traveling carnival comes to town.

Director Brant Sersen returns to SXSW after winning the audience award for his 2004 film Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. We'll bring back word on Splinterheads as soon as we hit Austin for the festival, which runs from March 13-21, 2009. Check out the official synopsis for Splinterheads after the jump.

If you think back to the warmer days of summer, you might remember that Jessica posted about an upcoming Internet porn flick called Middle Men. Set to be a comedy, the film was said to follow some normal dude who ends up in the center of that biz we call adult entertainment during the early days of Internet porn (mid-90s, I guess?).

And now we have our men of porn. Variety reports that James Caan, Gabriel Macht, Peter Stormare, and Rachael Taylor have signed on for the film, which will star Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi -- all in yet-to-be-disclosed parts. The film is also sounding a wee bit different these days. Yes, it's still about some regular guy -- a "straight-and-narrow businessman who builds the first online billing company dealing exclusively with adult entertainment." But then there's a bit of an insane twist. He finds "himseld in the middle of a whirlwind filled with starlets, conmen, Russian mobsters, federal agents, and international terrorists."

Well, this is nothing like I expected -- dudes spending late nights on Stile Project's old cam pages while girls contort themselves while basking in the glow of their monitors. Maybe writers George Gallo (who will direct) and Andy Weiss were hanging out with Guy Ritchie. How terrorists, conmen, and Russian mobsters all get involved is anyone's guess, but it's kind of hard not to be intrigued with that cast.

Has anyone kept track of all the remakes of Asian horror films? It fairly numbs the mind to even begin counting, as soulless and derivative as they are. I know I've had to slog out to the Cineplex many an opening Friday to catch the latest one that was withheld from press screenings. Even the originals begin to blur together, following the same formula of a wronged spirit -- usually a ghostly girl with stringy black hair and hollow eyes -- entering into the lives of unsuspecting people, often through technology. Usually the heroes think they've solved the riddle at some point, but there's always one more overlooked step at the climax. Very often in the middle the heroes find themselves someplace like a library or an office building that's supposed to be brightly lit, but instead is illuminated only by a few buzzing gray lights. The original Shutter (2004) is different only because it originated in Thailand -- and is set in Bangkok -- rather than Japan. The new American remake squashes even that one unique factor by turning right around and setting the story among Americans in Tokyo.

Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) is a professional photographer newly married to blonde hottie Jane (Rachael Taylor), who apparently works as a 6th grade teacher and not a photographer's model. (Um... yeah. How did they meet again?) Just after their honeymoon, they land in Tokyo so that Ben can start his amazing new job, shooting colorful layouts of geisha girls. On the road, their car strikes a girl, though no evidence of her body is ever found. More strange things begin happening. White streaks appear in Ben's photos and Jane begins seeing the girl all over the place. With a little detective work, Jane discovers that Ben actually knew her. She was Megumi Tanaka (Megumi Okina), a shy, uncertain translator. Ben may have been her first love, but he didn't love her quite the same and things ended badly. So why, then, are Ben's buddies Bruno (David Denman) and Adam (John Hensley) suddenly dying?

Ladies and gentlemen, Pacey is back! I don't care how far Joshua Jackson goes with his career, he'll always be Pacey -- lovable bad boy of Dawson's Creek -- to me. Pacey is starring in the new horror film Shutter with Rachael Taylor (the impossibly hot blonde computer expert in Transformers). They play newlyweds who start to see ghosts in their photographs. Spoooooooky! Rounding out the cast are a few more television stars -- John Hensley from Nip/Tuck, James Kyson Lee from Heroes, and David Denman from The Office. The film is a remake of the 2004 Thai film of the same name. It comes from the producers of The Grudge, and is directed by Masayuki Ochiai (Infection). The script was written by first-timer Luke Dawson.

MTV Movies Blog has the exclusive premiere of the trailer for Shutter, and it looks...pretty much like every other PG-13 horror movie to hit multiplexes in the past few years. They kick things off with that ominous camera snap from the trailer for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Then there's some Discovery Channel-style voiceover about "spirit photography," where images of the dead are caught on film. Some creepy "actual" photos, some whispered dialogue, a girl in a nightgown, Pacey making out with a dead chick, bada-boom-bada-bing. It all looks pretty standard to me. What do you folks think? Will Shutter make you shudder? Find out when it flashes into theaters on March 21st.

Some of today's casting tidbits I managed to throw together while watching Breaking Vegas on The History Channel (which immediately depressed me because it made me wish I were smarter):

• Samuel L. Jackson wants to play a bad guy -- either that, or the neighbor from hell. The Snakes on a Plane actor has joined Kerry Washington in Lakeview Terrace, a thriller written by David Loughery in which James Lessiter and Will Smith will produce. Story revolves around a black LAPD officer (Jackson) who isn't too fond of the interracial couple (with Washington as the female half) that just moved in next door. In fact, he's determined to run them off his block in any way he sees fit. Something tells me these folks wouldn't make for great contestants on TLC's Trading Spaces.
• Speaking of The History Channel's Breaking Vegas, Columbia Pictures is currently rounding up a bunch of cool cats to star in the big screen version of the very real-life story explored in Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. Laurence Fishburne is in negotiations to co-star in 21, while Liza Lapira and Josh Gad have joined Jim Sturgess and Masi Oka in the pic, to be directed by Robert Luketic. Fishburne would play the Vegas security chief placed in charge of tracking down the group of M.I.T. students who, through mastering the art of card counting, raked in tons and tons of cash.
• Rachael Taylor (See No Evil, Transformers) is looking to hop on the horror remake bandwagon -- she's signed on to star in Shutter, a remake of the 2004 Thai film. She'll be playing one half of a recently married couple who are spending their honeymoon in Tokyo when -- holy crap -- images of ghosts begin showing up in all their photos. Hey, it's better than drunken fat guys and middle fingers, right?