armageddon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As usual, I'm late in the game as far as new releases are concerned. I haven't yet seen Transformers -- actually I had almost planned on skipping it. And so, therefore, I didn't see the new teaser trailer for 'Cloverfield', the super secret J.J. Abrams-produced disaster pic. I also missed the trailer while it was available on YouTube. Finally, I caught the thing on another site, which I won't name because it probably won't be there after I write this anyway. Besides, the videotaped copy of the teaser I saw was so bad that I'm not sure I'm any better off than I was before seeing it. Since I never understand viral marketing, I'm not even going to attempt to follow this, but since Erik already summarized it, I thankfully don't need to. Instead, I'm playing it easy and just reading what The Hollywood Reporter has to tell us about the movie.

First off, I now understand that this is a monster movie set in New York City and it is only through the eyes of a small group of friends. Also we now have official word on the cast, who were hired under such secrecy that neither they nor their agents ever saw a script before signing on. The actors are mostly unknowns with short resumes, including Michael Stahl-David (NBC's The Black Donnellys), Odet Jasmin, Mike Vogel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake)and Lizzie Caplan (Mean Girls). THR also clears up what I just saw in the trailer, since I couldn't tell what was going on. Of course, our own Scott Weinberg gave us that info last week. So, if you don't want to see Transformers, but are curious, here are the contents of the teaser. Scott calls it The Blair Witch Project meets the Godzilla remake, while THR calls it Armageddon meets The Blair Witch Project. I didn't like any of those movies, but as a big fan of Abrams' television and movie work, I'm really excited about Cloverfield, or whatever it will actually be called. The movie, written by Drew Goddard and directed by Matt Reeves arrives in theaters in January.

I'm not sure how many of you have been following the Bruce Willis chat over on AICN. Scott mapped the whole thing out for us yesterday; initially, it all started when Vern ranted about the PG-13 rating that was given to Live Free or Die Hard. Eventually, some dude named Walter B. showed up in their talkback section alluding to the fact that he was indeed Willis. After about a day or so of back and forth (keep in mind no one from AICN was able to confirm that it was him), Walter B. posted his iChat name and was willing to prove his identity. Needless to say, some dude connected up with him, managed to snag some photos and a lot of us were amazed to find out that, yes, Bruce Willis had been leaving comments in the talkback section on AICN at 4am for two days straight. And God Bless the guy!

However, during one such comment, Bruce mildly bashed Michael Bay (as you know, the two worked together on Armageddon). Here's just a brief taste of what Willis said about Bay and his experience working on Armageddon: "It was a great crew, but a screaming Director does not make for a pleasant set experience. But look, we were all big boys, and we got thru it. A little to MTV-camera cutty for my taste, but the shots of meteors crashing into the WTC was pretty prescient." And yes, that's Bruce's bad spelling and grammar, not mine. Now, for those who aren't aware, Michael Bay is like the Hollywood version of that kid from high school who, if you accidentally glanced in his direction, would immediately get in your face and go, "What are you looking at? You got a problem?" Yeah, that kid. Thus, it didn't take long for the director to issue a response through his own blog (which you can read in its entirety here).

Here's a sampling of the Bay response in all of its schoolyard bully glory: "I mean it would be sad if he felt this way - he's never one to hide his feelings - I say sad, in that he wouldn't be man enough to say it to my face. But truly sad that such a big time actor would have to hide on a little talk back section." I can almost here the AICN talkbackers chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Bay also admits that Bruce's people called him awhile back to see if he'd be interested in directing Die Hard 4, but he couldn't take the gig because of Transformers. Therefore, he cannot understand why Willis would throw out the cheap shots. Personally, I think the entire thing is hysterical -- Willis said some pretty harsh things (he reminded me of the drunken friend who's too stupid to just shut the hell up), and I'll be curious to see if there's an official apology issued to either Joel Silver or to the producers of Perfect Stranger (a film in which he says he was "disappointed" with). Yet, one thing Willis (aka Walter B.) is sure about -- to a point where he kept saying it over and over -- is that Live Free or Die Hard is going to rock, regardless of its PG-13 rating. And boy, do I hope he's right.

Here's an idea that seem a bit late: a disaster movie spoof. Not only would it have been more fitting nearly a decade ago, when Armageddon and Deep Impact faced off at the box office, and when we'd already seen Independence Day, Twister, Titanic and the dueling volcano movies, but we hardly need a parody of these movies after seeing unintentional spoofs like The Core, The Day After Tomorrow and Poseidon. Still, the cheaply made cheap laughs of the modern spoof trend need something to make fun of now that scary movies, date movies and epic movies have been taken care of. So, thanks to Screen Gems, we are about to get Armageddagain: The Day Before Tomorrow from director Robert Moniot, who co-wrote the movie with voice-actor Travis Oates.

Moniot apparently already has experience spoofing Armageddon -- or at least its title -- having previously directed a short film called Pearl Harbor II: Pearlmageddon. That 11 minute short seems to have been popular enough (based on the IMDb user ratings), but then again shorts and skits are much more tolerable when it comes to silly spoofs. The current model of spoof features is unfortunately like a bunch of these shorts linked together by some forced, incoherent plot. Interestingly, Armageddagain is being produced by actor Noah Emmerich, though as far as I know, he isn't related to Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. In addition to spoofing the long-passed disaster movies of the 1990s, the movie will reportedly feature parodies of upcoming pics like Transformers and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Walt Disney Pictures is finally moving forward with a sci-fi project called Gemini Man, which blockbuster producer Jerry Bruckheimer is producing. Not to be confused with the 1976 television series of the same name -- which could make for a good adaptation or remake -- the movie is about an aging hitman being hunted by his young clone. The clone has been sent to enforce the elder's retirement so that it can replace him. The idea has been around for at least four years, when the CGI team The Secret Lab (Kangaroo Jack; Snow Dogs) was doing test effects involving a young Mel Gibson from The Year of Living Dangerously interacting with an older Gibson from Payback. Originally written by Darren Lemke, the script had then been redone by Armageddon's Jonathan Hensleigh. Now, the project is getting another kick start by Troy's David Benioff, who is also writing the Wolverine spin-off for Fox. Who will play the young and old version of the hitman (same actor? different actors? father and son?) is still up in the air.

The idea of a character fighting a version of himself has been around for years in many different forms, and yet it remains an interesting concept. And it can be done in so many different ways: twins; evil doppelgangers; time travel; split-personalities (I'd link, but I don't want to spoil any films); face-switching. The clone device is not completely fresh -- see The Sixth Day and The Island (actually, don't) -- but the plot of Gemini Man still sounds promising. Just imagine what it would be like to fight a younger you. The clone will have your strength at a time when you were likely more fit, but you presumably have more experience and intelligence. Who will win? The simple Hollywood idea is to have the older hitman win, but if both versions are played by a hot 20-something actor, with the "real" hitman portrayed with old-man makeup, then much of the audience would probably rather see the clone win. Either way, if Benioff can deliver a smart script, hopefully one that comments on the issue of age in the job market -- or even better, self-reflectively on the issue of age in Hollywood -- then the movie will be worth-seeing (especially if it can go head-to-head against the similarly themed Logan's Run remake). Of course, watching a fight sequence where, say, Josh Hartnett beats himself up, could be appealing, as well.

The two alternate identities of Bruce Willis -- curmudgeonly father-figure who must occasionally save the planet from annihilation and baby-boomer pop-bluesman Bruno Radolini -- rarely interact with one another. On August 2, however, they will. As part of the Netflix LIVE! music and movies series, Willis is leading his band The Accelerators in a blues concert outside the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The concert will then be followed by an outdoor screening of Armageddon. For those of you who paid vast sums of money to have Armageddon total-recalled out of your memory, that was the movie where Willis teamed up with Ben Affleck and Billy Bob Thorton to stop a giant rock from crasing into the planet. Willis had this to say about the music-movie event: "It is truly thrilling to return to The Kennedy Space Center to enjoy 'Armageddon' with my band on hand. Movies have been my career, but music has always been my love, so I am excited about merging the two worlds in such a unique way and being able to share it with so many people."

About 5,000 fans are expected to pack the Center's Rocket Garden for the show that begins at 7:30pm on August 2nd and Netflix had this to say about the Willis event: "Netflix LIVE! On Location is a great way for us to share the Netflix experience with thousands of people around the country. Bruce's popularity with movie fans is enduring, and we are delighted to be able bring him back to Kennedy Space Center for this one-of-a-kind event." The Netflix LIVE! On Location series is also expected to announce more music-movie pairings in the coming weeks.