lakeshore entertainment Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Just the thing for Friday afternoon! The official Crank 2: High Voltage trailer has hit the net (in a far more "Safe for Work" form than the earlier one!) and ... well, it looks exactly like it should. Hilariously over the top, full of dubious science and medical treatments, and a rehash of the first Crank in all the right ways. You should be sold on it from that first glare from Jason Statham. (But then, that might be a girl thing.) When I heard they were doing Crank 2 and that it revolved around a robotic heart, I thought it was too stupid for words. But such is the power of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor -- the ridiculous not only makes sense here, it's insanely cool.

In fact, you might want to watch only the first thirty seconds or so, just enough to whet your appetite and get the concept, as I fear this trailer ruins an awful lot of the stunts and heart-starting gags. If you're going to spend the money to see Crank 2, then you should see it as unspoiled as possible -- consider that you're warning, and make your own choice, but IGN let us embedded it for you. Watch, laugh your ass off, and be glad there's some April action to look forward to.

It has not been a good week on the "Movies Elisabeth Wants To See" front. First there was that wretched news that Warner Bros isn't particularly interested in RocknRolla, then Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was delayed a whole year. And now, producer Gary Lucchesi told SciFi Wire that Game has been pushed back to the increasingly crowded summer of 2009.

Game is a futuristic thriller directed by the insane duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, and stars the ever-so-lovely Gerard Butler. While he's reason enough to see it, it's also the kind of frantic, maniacal movie making we've come to expect from Neveldine and Taylor. We were treated to some footage at ComicCon, and it was a hell of a lot of fun. Later in that same day, Butler described it (and his directors) as being not only in tune with Internet, science, and pop culture, but having a nightmarish sensibility. "You're literally walking around the set at night and there are people hanging with hooks coming out of their skin and that's your day filming. There's blood dripping. I had blood on me. These people did it for fun." Come on! Who doesn't want to see that right now?

Well, if wishes were horses, and all that. Lucchesi said we should get a teaser by Christmas, and a solid date will be set very soon. But that doesn't satisfy me -- and so I'm just going to abandon my posting duties to build a time machine, and travel to the Summer of 2009. I'll wait around for The Road and Australia, of course, but I fully intend to skip ahead a year to see Harry Potter, Wolverine, and Game. I'd come back bearing Star Trek news, but frankly, I would rather not return to a bleak Colorado winter. Especially when the movie selection is getting thinner and thinner.

If there's one movie descriptive that can actually get my jaded heart racing, it's "in the style of L.A. Confidential." Sure, it's glib, and probably sells the potential film and its source material short, but I can't help it, it's a magical phrase. And The Hollywood Reporter (by way of Lakeshore Entertainment) used it to describe Barry Levinson's latest movie.

Levinson is set to direct an adaptation of Peter Dexter's novel Train, a story set in 1950's Southern California. It centers around Miller Packard, a white sergeant in the San Diego Police Department, who has little time for the hypocrisy and racism of his age. An avid golfer, he befriends a troubled young African-American caddy named Lionel "Train" Walk, who harbors knowledge of an unreported murder that haunts his past. The city politics and racism of the 50's surround the murder investigation, and threaten their friendship.

Dexter's books have been popular in Hollywood recently -- he was the pen behind Mulholland Falls and The Paperboy is currently in production with Paul Verhoven and Jan de Bont. Unlike with Falls, he won't be penning the script this time around. That job falls to Allison Burnett, who's a pretty popular writer at Lakeshore, adapting Fame and penning Untraceable for them.

Hopefully, a Cinematical reader or two can chime in on the book. From its reviews, the source material sounds pretty enticing. Here's hoping this can not only be a comeback for Levinson, but a noir rival for L.A. Confidential.

As the smoke cools on the Fanboys drama, the boys behind it are managing to find work elsewhere. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Ernie Cline, co-writer of the never-to-be-seen film, has just sold his comedy spec Thundercade to Lakeshore Entertainment. (And yes, that's Cline to the right. I think writers should get pictures too.)

Thundercade is the story of a video game junkie facing a midlife crisis who learns that a young punk had broken a record he set as a teen. He and his two best friends embark on a journey to reclaim his place in video game history and win the world's ultimate gaming championship, Thundercade.

Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? A bit like a journey of some geeks to Skywalker Ranch. But it also sounds a little like an adult version of The Wizard, which I have fond memories of. Anyway, at least Lakeshore will not actually cut out the midlife crisis bit because it strikes them as a bit sad.