Well to be honest, my expectations for the latest installment of The Mummy aren't too high, so if I look on the bright side then maybe I will get a pleasant surprise after all. Director Rob Cohen has announced on his production blog that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has wrapped shooting in China. Starring Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell, this time, the O'Connells (Maria Bello, Fraser, and Luke Ford as their son, Alex) are bound for China to battle an immortal emperor (Jet Li). Rounding out the cast are John Hannah, who returns to play Evy's brother Jonathan, and Michelle Yeoh as a "double-crossing sorceress".

Cohen has made this particular announcement on his blog a veritable love fest for his cast. Cohen gushes over his new stars, Maria Bello as the 'new and improved' Evy, saying, "Her beauty and intelligence, wit and courage were something I appreciated each and every day". Jet Li wasn't left out either, and Cohen says that he was everything that "epitomizes graciousness, spiritual depth, and physical grace". Just because shooting has finished, there is still a lot of work ahead on the film, including somewhere around "800 visual effects shots" to be completed.

Considering no one was all that anxious for a third film in the series, the blog has maybe managed to improve things just a little. I know my opinion on the film has fluctuated wildly based on the few pictures that have been released so far. Just for the record: those opinions varied from everything from "Well, maybe this won't be so bad after all" to something with a lot more expletives in it that I probably shouldn't get into here. The Mummy 3 is set for release on August 1st, 2008.

You know, if I hadn't seen any of Rob Cohen's films, I might almost feel sorry for the guy. Having already been accused of making one of the worst films of 2005, fans of The Mummy franchise have been less than thrilled when the director was tasked with breathing some life back into the series. But, Cohen has decided to let fans in on the production with his blog for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Launched last week, there isn't tons of information available, but Cohen did take the time to address some of the questions plaguing the film, mainly the loss of Rachel Weisz. Cohen says, "Rachel decided to leave the franchise many years ago, after 'The Mummy 2' finished shooting. We all had hopes that she would change her mind but I never had the opportunity to meet her or talk to her." Cohen also confirmed that he has "shot about five weeks of our twenty-week schedule".

Dragon Emperor reunites Brendan Fraser and John Hannah from the original films, alongside Maria Bello, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Wong, and Luke Ford. The now-retired adventurers Rick and Evelyn O'Connell have a fully grown son (Ford), who has taken up the family business of archeology. This time, the action leaves Egypt far behind and instead is based in China and Li stars as the cursed Dragon Emperor. Cohen writes, "The family is reunited and high adventure ensues: crash landings, treks thru the Himalayas, Yeti, avalanches (bigger than the one I did in XXX), Shangri-la, three-headed dragons, pools of eternal life, epic battles, a shape-shifting Jet Li....I could go on but I don't want to give it all away" -- sure, it sounds impressive, but I still wouldn't hold my breath. The Mummy 3 is set for release on July 30th, 2008.

[via Filmstalker]

I like reading blogs from filmmakers, whether they're periodic reports on how a specific film is going, discussions about movies the filmmaker has been watching, or essays about anything that catches the blogger/filmmaker's attention. So you can imagine how pleased I was to learn that documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) has just started a new blog over at the online version of The New York Times. Morris's blog is called Zoom: A Filmmaker Uncovers the Hidden Truths of Photos -- the tagline tells me that this isn't going to be a "Today we edited that scene with the banana" type of filmmaker blog.

Morris has only posted one entry thus far, but it's thought-provoking and is spurring discussions around the film-blogging universe. (I am not using the word "blogosphere.") In fact, it's already received more than 140 comments. He brings up the topic of whether a photo is "true" or "false" and demonstrates why he feels that is a ridiculous label to attach to any image. It is an interesting debate for anyone who watches documentary films, especially in light of the criticism heaped upon Michael Moore for showing footage in films like Sicko that is sometimes considered to be taken out of context or otherwise labeled as "false." Anthony Kaufman (on whose site I found the link to Morris's blog) wonders if the entry was inspired by the Abu Ghraib photos. Morris's upcoming documentary, S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure, is about the Abu Ghraib scandal. I hope Morris will post more blog entries along the same lines, although I also wouldn't mind hearing about the film he's working on, as well.

The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:

• If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
• Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
  
• Peter Martin at Twitch reviews the workprint version of Apocalypto, including plot spoilers. He's also posted capsule reviews from Friday, Sunday, and Monday's films.
• At News of the Dead, Wiley Wiggins has been posting photos, MP3s of festival Q&As, and his impressions of various films. He perfectly summarized my feelings about The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes.
  
• Austinist has some capsule reviews from the first four days. The site also posted an interview with Lucky McKee, who will be available at Fantastic Fest screenings for The Woods (which he directed) and Roman (in which he stars).
  

It seems like everyone's in Toronto this week (including Cinematical). Man, I feel so left out. However, since I couldn't possibly make a dent in all the Web coverage of the festival from news sites and blogs, here are a few blogs with some interesting reviews and opinions regarding TIFF:

• First and foremost, check out the Toronto Doc Blog if you haven't already. Filmmakers with docs at the festival are blogging about their experiences.
• John DeFore is posting colorful anecdotes about TIFF at Austin Movie Blog. He's bemused by the security measures at even the most obscure festival offerings and wonders if this isn't the wrong approach to take when publicizing an obscure film.
• Twitch is covering TIFF like crazy, cranking out reviews and interviews faster than you can say, well, twitch.
• Moviepie caught five movies at TIFF on Tuesday (yes, that's one person), and is reporting on 2-3 movies on other festival days.
• If you want still want to read more about TIFF, GreenCine Daily not only has daily dispatches, but also entries chock-full of links to festival coverage.

Here we go for another lap around the blogosphere. This time, seeing as I've been knee-deep in my new Eat My Shorts feature, I figured we would take a look to see who else was talking short films. Check it out:

• Over on the Atom Films blog, Chris is freaking out over how hot it is right now in California. I feel for you man. In an attempt to vent his frustrations, Chris points us towards a short animated film called 107.6 Degrees about "two prehistoric critters on a quest for shade."
• Dong Resin from Screenhead delves deep inside the twisted short film that is Randy and Steve. He notes, "Probably just as well that these two can't biologically have kids ... they'd be like Truman Capote reading The Dude's lines from The Big Lebowski, and they'd almost certainly sit next to us on a long bus ride."
• Allan from short film review dissects The Whistler, a short animated film that definitely reminded me of those old school Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. Produced by Trunk films, Allan tells us The Whistler was one of Indiefilm's top ten funny choices from Aspen's Short Film Festival.
• How much would it suck if you were Darth Vader's little brother and, instead of blowing up planets in an attempt to rule the galaxy, you were forced to take on the role of day shift manager at your local supermarket? Dave from Soliloqueer points us toward Chad Vader, yet another humorous and creative Star Wars fanfilm.

Film blogger Flickhead has organized an Angie Dickinson blog-a-thon for today. Anyone (that means you, if you have a blog) is welcome to join: post an entry about Dickinson to your site, and then let Flickhead know the URL. If you don't care to blog, head over to Flickhead's site for a good long afternoon read.

If you haven't ever seen an Angie Dickinson movie ... well, you've probably been living in a cave. Her filmography spans decades and a number of genres, and includes Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven (she also has a fleeting cameo in the remake), The Killers, Big Bad Mama, Dressed to Kill, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. She also worked a lot in television and starred in the show Police Woman.

If you're in Austin next week, you have a chance to see a Dickinson movie on the big screen. On the closing night of QT Fest, Pretty Maids in a Row screens on Sunday, April 30. The 1971 film was directed by Roger Vadim, written by Gene Roddenberry, and starred Rock Hudson, Dickinson, Telly Savalas, and Roddy McDowell -- is this for real? I hope I'll get to see it.

So you haven't had quite enough of post-Oscar news coverage, commentary, and rants against Crash? Of course you haven't. Here's a roundup of some of the most entertaining blogger reactions to the Oscars.

• Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech points out the irony of Academy members encouraging the rest of us to buy tickets to see movies in theaters instead of on DVD.
• Aaron's post-Oscar commentary at Out of Focus notes that "the Oscars are the hardest room in town" for comedians, even the top-notch variety such as Chris Rock and Jon Stewart.
• The Reeler performs a much-needed chore that I would not have had the stamina for: he reviews several Oscar liveblogging entries. That thing about the "God dust" scared me, and made me feel glad I spent Sunday evening at a nice quiet Oscar party with no internet access.
• Finally, Reverse Shot saves a thousand words and sums up their reaction to the Oscars in a single photo (which you might not want to look at from the office).

One of the great things about the blogosphere, at least for animation buffs like myself, is that a lot of artists from big studios like Dreamworks and Pixar have started personal blogs, giving anyone who is interested a chance to see what they can create beyond the output of their day jobs. Case in point: Jim Capobianco, a story artist for Pixar, has been working, when he has free time, on a hand-drawn animated short called "Leonardo." He's created a blog where you can follow along with his creative process. Capobianco has been working on the short since 1999 (cut him some slack, animation is a busy business) but he hopes to have it finished by the middle of next year.

[via Cartoon Brew]

Leave it to The Reeler to scoop us on our own gossip. As Mr. VanAirsdale reported earlier today, I am indeed giving up the corner office here at Cinematical Headquarters on March 1. I am, indeed, signing the baby over to James Rocchi, who will lead a talented editorial team also consisting of reader-turned-blogger-turned behind-the-scenes wizardress Martha Fischer, and current Managing Editor Kim Voynar. Yes, I am indeed leaving in order to work on a new project for our corporate overlords, AOL. And yes, I will cease regular daily posting (which, as your emails indicate, many of you have noticed I've basically done already).

But it's not going to be that easy to get rid of me: Monday morning I'm going to help kick off our two-week Oscar blitz with the first installment of our new weekly podcast, and ten days after Rocchi takes the wheel, I leave for Austin, where I'll speak on a blogging panel at the SXSW Film Festival. And, yes, I'll be writing a weekly column right here starting in early March. You won't have a chance to miss me, I promise - but if you do anyway, hit me up at karina AT cinematical DOT com. In the meantime, let's have a round of applause for the new editorial team. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go have my Editor Emeritus baseball cap resized...