eminem Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There are a lot of conspiracy theories swirling around as to why Warner Brothers intentionally let Michael Dougherty's excellent Trick 'r Treat collect metaphorical dust for two years before giving it an unjust, albeit successful, straight-to-DVD release. No matter what your own theory is, at Fantastic Fest Dougherty cited the film's anthology format as the reason for its shelving. Specifically, no one has made a popular, commercially successful anthology film since Creepshow, and today's audiences might not understand the concept.

Now we all know that's a load of two-week-old Jack-o-Lantern guts; that even the most cynical among us realize that the anthology film is not some kind of ancient cipher that kids today are too busy Twittering and MySpacing to figure out, but that was one of his bigger points of contention with The Suits at WB. Well, that and apparently large corporations with a vested interest in younger demographics don't like it when children are killed in movies, but that's beside the point. And that point is: Dougherty's labor of love has finally made the anthology film relevant again in America.

And as with all things that aren't failures, there are bound to be imitators. Enter Eminem, yes, that Eminem, who is now in talks to lend his considerable popularity to a film called Shady Talez; and yes, it is spelled with a Z.

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Above: MTV revealed the first clear shot of The Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Oh, admit it -- you totally watched the MTV Movie Awards last night because you're secretly obsessed with Robert Pattinson and you knew they'd be overdosing on the poor guy since MTV is fastly becoming the All Twilight Network. In case you missed some (or all) of the action, here are the new clips they aired, as well as a little of the show itself.

First up is that clip from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. MTV took it down for some reason, but Trailer Addict has it up in decent quality. Essentially, Sam and Mikaela are hiding from a whole fleet of Decepticons, and when Sam destroys some weird looking mosquito/satellite bot, all hell breaks loose. Check it out below.



Head after the jump for much more ...

If you like classic French movies like I like classic French movies -- and get a kick out of modern-day interpretations of same -- then check out the clips below. (Go ahead, I'll wait.) In their original incarnations, neither Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile nor John McTiernan's Die Hard: With a Vengeance scream out "50s!!! 60s!!!" or "France!!!," but, nonetheless, they're the type of clips, courtesy of Buzzfeed, that set the imagination soaring,

Fair warning: the fairly lengthy clips (almost four minutes each) are part of a viral campaign for Stella Artois beer. The marketing message is kept to a minimum. With 8 Kilometres, it's the idea of a rap battle taking place in a beatnik bar between two hepcats with a cool jazz band in the background, filmed in black and white. Instead of a heated war of words, it's more like a rather cordial exchange of philosophies. The lead actor is no Eminem, but who is?

Dial Hard moves the action to a colorful coastal city in 1963, with a perky tune playing in the background. Instead of Bruce Willis as McClane and Jeremy Irons as the evil bomber Simon, we get "Inspector Jean Meglain" playing a game of cat and mouse via telephone with "Simone." In this version, Inspector Meglain has a different set of priorities

After the jump: Dial Hard.

With Wanted opening this week, starring rapper Common opposite Angelina Jolie (and, I'm happy to see, getting some awesome reviews, making it one of the few movies I may pay to see just for the heck of it), we thought it would be a good time to revisit seven other rappers who've attempted the treacherous transition from rap artist to movie star.

What makes film producers look to rap stars when casting for the big screen? Well, aside from the built-in audience that comes from casting a popular rap performer in a movie role, rappers have to have stage presence to perform, and that charisma and personality can come across well on a movie theater screen. Here are seven of them; let me know which of your favorite rappers I missed. (And before any of you Outkast fans get all worked up: they are hip-hop, not rap, and this post was for the rappers; Outkast is one of my absolute favorite bands, though, and Andre Benjamin in particular, I consider enormously talented. I'll do a whole column on Outkast and what they're up to movie-wise in the near future, promise.)

1. Will Smith -- Smith charmed TV audiences as a teenager in his popular TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air before hitting it big on the silver screen with the triple-whammy of Bad Boys (1995), Independence Day (1996), and Men in Black (1997). Since then, more hits have followed, and Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, have become Hollywood royalty; Smith's solid marriage and commitment to his family have earned him a reputation as one of Hollywood's genuine "nice guys," to boot. Smith is one rapper who successfully made the transition from singer to big-name actor, largely due to his charm, charisma and natural talent on the screen. His latest film, Hancock, opens July 2.

2008 is not this generation's 1968. Let's get that matter straight, right away. Even if we can draw some parallels or see some similarities between now and then, the truth is that it was a very tragic year, and despite our penchant to fetishize the period and wish that our time could be so important and powerful, we need to pray no politicians are assassinated this year (the fact that one particular candidate has been compared to both MLK and RFK is especially upsetting) and we need to be thankful that there is no draft. But mostly we need to just move on from the '60s already and stop attempting to appropriate its events in order to heighten the relevance of the 2000s. 2008 is indeed a significant year on its own, or it could be if we let it exist as such.

That said, Chicago 10, the latest documentary from Oscar-nominee Brett Morgen (On the Ropes) is literally about events of forty years ago, though the filmmaker claims it is a film about now. Okay, sure, there may be some relevant themes, but imprisoning your film with such definite statements of purpose makes it possibly less enjoyable to the people who are tired of these weak and easy-minded juxtapositions. Without acknowledging the obviously apparent intent, Chicago 10 is actually appreciable as one of the most creative and entertaining documentary films in years. And it could indeed be viewed as significant on its own, if we let it exist as such.

Sometimes, casting alternatives seem to come out of left field, like this latest one. According to MTV, before Hayden Christensen was cast in the new science-fiction flick Jumper, it was... Eminem -aka- Marshall Mathers. What the F***?! I've heard of strange possibilities before, but this pushes those strange boundaries. It would be like hearing Mick Jagger was up for a role Christopher Walken got, or Debbie Harry instead of Mia Farrow.

Sure, Eminem did alright in his movie, but it's not a stretch to pretty much play yourself. Anyway, writer/director Doug Liman says that the two met and they were having "conversations" about his participation. It was back in 2006, right after Liman was tapped to adapt the sci-fi book by Steven Gould. As Liman describes it: "The thing is that you're like, 'Oh my God, what would that movie have been like? But you've got to understand that Nicole Kidman was originally cast as the lead in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Brad Pitt was originally the lead in Bourne Identity." Wow. I'm sure both of those actors are thrilled that their possible casting is being equated to Eminem -- a guy who has only acted as a version of himself. Anyway, when Hayden entered the picture, Marshall's shot faded, and Christensen got to jump around the world all fancy-like.

Who would you have liked to see: Hayden or Eminem?

When you have such an explosive, controversial, money-making video game like Grand Theft Auto, we're almost guaranteed to see a big-screen adaptation arrive in theaters at some point. The game itself has everything: Bad dudes, naughty girls and lots of violence -- all of which has made it a number one target for people who believe everything that's wrong with this society is due to violence in video games. Personally, I rocked out the first two versions of the game, and then fell off the GTA bandwagon when they unleashed the one featuring gang violence. They became too much work for a simpleton like me. That being said, news sprung up recently that a movie was indeed in the works, and that it would star none other than Eminem.

Variety reported earlier this week that a deal was in place with one of the major studios for Eminem to possibly star, but said deal fell apart for unknown reasons. Now, MTV has the skinny on what exactly went down, and they claim Rockstar Games never had a deal for a feature film in the first place. According to Dan Houser, VP of creative for Rockstar, "Some movie producers were trying to put something together to entice us to make a movie, as studios and production teams frequently have done in the past. This proposal was no more interesting than the numerous others we receive. We never entertained proceeding with the project."

Okay, so even if that so-called deal never happened, would Rockstar be open to a feature film based on their popular game at some point in the future? Houser noted, "It is not something we are currently interested in." I'm sure this topic will be revisited once GTA's sales begin to drop, because chances are a movie version would be pretty big. Then again, how do you make this film without giving it an R rating? And seeing as a majority of the game's players are teenagers, that could present a problem. How about you GTA fans out there -- would you want a movie based on the game?

Remakes are always defended in ways that make the general public appear as idiots. Old films are remade because people don't remember, foreign films are remade because people don't like to read subtitles and documentaries are remade because they teach us stuff. But any documentary that can be remade as a dramatic feature is different from docs that just teach us stuff. They already have an engaging narrative and interesting characters -- otherwise producers wouldn't see the remake potential. Rather than finding new ways to market enjoyable docs to moviegoers, I guess it's easier to do the remake, so filmmakers have an easy movie to make and sell, therefore providing two films to be profited on.

I guess the reason that I'm even more angry this time is because Murderball, which has inspired an upcoming project for director James Mangold, is probably the most entertaining, most easily accessible documentary that has ever existed. Sure it teaches us stuff, but it's also hilarious, action-packed and feel-good. Besides, nobody could play lead murderball (aka wheelchair rugby) player Mark Zupan in a way that would better his own appearance in the Oscar-nominated, Sundance-winning doc. Certainly not Eminem, who expressed an interest last year.

Ok, so this isn't exactly a mash-up, but it's a piece that brings together two things that have no business sharing the same screen-space, and makes them fit incredibly well. Everyone, meet 8 1/2 Mile, a trailer for Federico Fellini's masterpiece 8 1/2, set to the soundtrack of Eminem's Lose Yourself. I'm totally going to lose all my credibility as a snobby lover of foreign films here, but I have to admit that it gave me chills. Sure, it's not the best representation of what, exactly, the movie is about, but what trailer is? It creates a wildly effective atmosphere, and the editing is perfect. Plus, you get to look at the wonderful Marcello Mastroianni -- basically, there are a lot of worse ways to spend two-and-a-half minutes on a Saturday. (Of course, if the end result is that you, like me, find yourself seized by a desperate need to go watch 8 1/2, the time commitment is going to be a little longer.)

Edit: The original link stopped working; links now point to a reliable site.

When I first read that Eminem was going to play Paladin in a big-screen version of Have Gun - Will Travel, my primary thought was how incredibly modern Eminem looks. It's impossible for me to imagine the guy even wearing a cowboy hat, let alone playing a gunfighter in the American West. Well, it turns out that I needn't have been concerned -- Paramount are updating the story to the modern day, and Paladin has been turned into, yes, a bounty hunter. Oh, hooray. So, basically, the movie will have nothing whatsoever to do with the TV show, apart from the character's name? Got it.

According to the rapper's representatives, studios have been all over his proverbial jock since 8 Mile came out but he's been cautious about choosing a follow-up project, wanting to pick one that kicks a particularly large amount of ass. One thing they've likely been looking for is a screenplay without a music-related theme, and this one fits the bill -- I can officially report that Paladin is NOT a rapper. Eminem will likely, however, be involved in the movie's soundtrack, so the movie will probably not be an entirely rap-free zone.