paul w.s. anderson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Well, we already knew that Milla Jovovich was going to be back as Alice in the latest installment of Resident Evil, but it turns out she won't be the only comely Zombie-hunter back in the mix. In an interview with Boris Kodjoe (Surrogates), the actor told Blackfilm that he has been hired to star alongside Wentworth Miller and a returning Ali Larter (reprising her role as Claire Redfield) in the latest installment of the zombie-action franchise. Kodje first announced his new job on his twitter account, and so far has been pretty chatty about the production. Not only has he confirmed that Paul W.S. Anderson will be directing (possibly in 3-D), but he also gave us a few juicy plot details.

According to the actor, Afterlife will center on Alice, "...roaming the world looking for survivors and she's wound up in LA, which has been burning for three years. She comes across an LA jail surrounded be these half-dead, uhh... [Zombies] Anyway, she comes across the jail and there's a couple of survivors and she lands on top of the roof and partners up with me to fight the guys that are coming after them. We're trying to get all of the survivors out of the jail to safety." When asked about Miller's role, Kodje told Blackfilm that the Prison Break star will be, "...playing a guy that we actually locked up when we took over the jail because we weren't sure if he was one of them or not. He comes into play as we try to find a way to get out with our survivors" -- and I guess if you need a guy to engineer a jailbreak, Miller is really the only logical choice.

Resident Evil: Afterlife will start shooting in Toronto in the next couple of weeks, and is scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 27, 2010.

In the muddled pre-production slates of Hollywood, we have rival Easter Bunny movies, two directors looking for the Roman Ninth Legion or its Eagle, and now The Three Musketeers have two revivals in the works. One is over at Millennium Films, and the latest is being prepped by Paul W.S. Anderson for Constantin and Impact. Anderson's is the, er, wild card since he's planning to bring us the blue-frocked ones in 3-D. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Anderson has penned the screenplay with British script stalwart Andrew Davies, who Jane Austen aficinados will always remember as the man who had Mr. Darcy jump into a lake.

This film is aiming to remake the Musketeers in a modern mold, and not just by having their rapiers reach out of the screen to whip you in the face. "We are definitely modernizing The Three Musketeers without compromising the fun of shooting a period piece," said Anderson. "But in our film, corsets and feathered hats don't take center stage. Our version is rich in eye-popping action, romance and adventure." Which is, if I recall my Dumas, very much part of his original story as well. But hey, let's allow them to think they're reinventing the wheel.

The latest version of The Three Musketeers is aiming to film on location in France and Germany, and hoping to have the 3-D swashbucklers in theaters by 2011. In the meantime, I'm pondering a 3-D treatment of the scene D'Artagnan fleeing Milady's room stark naked, and hoping that doesn't come to pass.

Resident Evil franchiser Paul W.S. Anderson is probably only a few degrees more popular than Uwe Boll, but at least he tries and generally creates something suitable for a late-night viewing. So, keep that expectation in mind with his newest project, a fantasy epic called The Warded Man.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Anderson and his ever-present producing partner Jeremy Bolt have picked up the rights to Peter V. Brett's debut novel, The Warded Man. The first in a trilogy, it's set in a unspecified future where we're plagued by demons, and mankind has reverted to a feudal state. Three young heroes rise up with the potential to win back the earth, but the one who has the best chance is our tattooed title character, whose tattoos aren't just for fashion, but spellcasting function. The series has good reviews on Amazon, so it might be worth checking out for some late summer reading. I'm intrigued simply because of how Brett penned it, as the entire book was written on his Blackberry during his two hour commute to Manhattan. Here I thought I was cool for being able to write articles with my thumbs ... sheesh.

Anderson and Bolt put down their own money to buy the rights, and their British citizenship paid off as the book was released six months earlier across the pond, enabling them to grab the rights before a big American studio could. Anderson thinks Warded has the potential to be the next Lord of the Rings and while many have made that claim and failed, who knows? The moment I scoff, it'll end up being true.

The dead have risen from the grave! If you're a Castlevania fan who thought you weren't going to be subjected to a big-screen version of your beloved game, think again. In the midst of the news frenzy coming out of SDCC, Bloody Disgusting got the chance to speak with Saw co-creator James Wan, and he confirmed that he has just signed to direct the video game adaptation for producer Paul W.S. Anderson. Wan tells BD, "I'm very fresh on this project, so its early stages and I'm still trying to work things out, but the producers love my vision for it"

The Castlevania video game franchise mainly centered on a war between the vampire hunting family known as the Belmonts and the big bad blood-sucker himself, Dracula. The game is one of Konami's biggest titles, and was considered one of the best action-platform games around. But as we were soon to find out, it wasn't going to be an easy transition from the console to the big screen.

If you haven't been keeping track, (and who could blame you) here's a brief history on the troubled flick: the announcement of a feature film Castlevania first came about in 2007, but over the next two years little ground had been made. For starters, there were personnel changes and then there was the double-whammy known as rewrites. The last anyone had even heard from the project was that Sylvain White (Stomp The Yard) had reportedly been hired to direct. But then the writer's strike hit and the project ran into a brick wall -- but that was then, and this is now.

After the jump: find out what Wan has planned for the Belmonts...

(Just when you thought the Resident Evil series was finished comes word of yet another installment. Why not? Here's Peter Hall reporting for Horror Squad)

The Resident Evil well springs eternal. With three movies already under its biosuit (not counting the animated film Degeneration) and more games than I can shake a controller at, I think it's safe to say that RE is the most prolific zombie franchise ever created. It's influence is felt far greater in the video game world than Hollywood, but that has yet to stop Screen Gems from pumping out the undead actioners.

Which brings us the fourth in the film series (the aforementioned Degeneration was a standalone project more in line with the games than the films), titled Resident Evil: Afterlife. Shock Till You Drop picked up on a production report outlining the film's future, which will begin an eight week shoot starting this September with an expected release date of September 17, 2010. Though there is no director attached to the film yet, it's been confirmed that the always appreciated Milla Jovovich will be reprising her role of the fanboy loved Alice, destroyer of all things sans pulse. Also returning will be fanboy bait Paul W.S. Anderson, though as of this moment his duties will be strictly confined to the word processor side of things.

Read the rest at Horror Squad

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Not long ago, newspapers began showing signs of trouble, which included the laying off of film critics. At around the same time, and probably not connected in any way, studios began increasingly to open movies in theaters without screening for the press, realizing that stupid Tyler Perry movies, or horror remakes, or what have you, would probably make money regardless of what the reviews said. These combined factors led to a series of editorials asking about the necessity of film critics. Thankfully, that discussion has died down, and we're still here. And I can add that I don't think The Dark Knight (375 screens) would have done such monster business without the enthusiastic approval of nearly every critic on the planet.

But what needs to be discussed now is the necessity of directors. If film criticism was viewed yesterday as a job that anyone could do (no knowledge of film or film history necessary!) then film directing today is viewed in much the same way. Take a look at the colossal mess that is Mamma Mia! (279 screens). Here's a film that cost $50 million, and it was entrusted to Phyllida Lloyd, who had no experience. From the looks of things, Lloyd probably decided that, as long as it looks like everyone is having fun, then it doesn't matter if things like tone, moods and pacing ever matches up. You can have self-conscious musical numbers one moment, then moody, emotional ones the next. You can have a knockout performance by Meryl Streep and a mixed one by Pierce Brosnan.

There were no big surprises at the box office this weekend. To officially ring in the fall, it was the first weekend since April when no film debuted to more than $20 million. The best opener was the tolerably-reviewed Anna Faris vehicle The House Bunny, with $15.1 million. Interchangeable Jason Statham Movie, a.k.a. Death Race, followed with an estimated $12.3 million -- among Statham's weakest showings and the worst ever for director Paul W.S. Anderson (not counting the indie Shopping, which played on one screen).

Neither The House Bunny nor Death Race could dethrone Tropic Thunder, which held up fairly well to stay on top with a $16.1 million second weekend. It looks to have better legs than Pineapple Express, and should pass that film before all is said and done. In other holdover developments: The Dark Knight fell to fourth, but should reach $500 million by next weekend; Star Wars: The Clone Wars fell an unsurprising 60%+, and will top out around $35 million -- still not bad for a cartoon, I think.

Two more wide release debuts fared poorly. The Longshots -- the Ice Cube/Keke Palmer football drama directed by Fred Durst -- made a predictably tepid $4.3 million bow. But boy was I ever wrong about The Rocker, which was heavily advertised and promo-screened, but landed out of the top 10 with $2.8 million and an under-$1000 per-screen average. Color me surprised -- it's a decent flick, too. I guess Rainn Wilson not only can't open a movie, but affirmatively turns people off.

Hamlet 2 opened on 100 screens before going wide next weekend. Its $435,000 gross -- around $4,200 per screen -- isn't terrible, but doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion.

The full estimates after the jump.

To paraphrase the scariest horror movie currently in theaters -- Mamma Mia! -- you wait long enough for a red-band trailer and then three come along at once, at least two of which deal with hitting the road in the name of action, so without further ado...

First up is the age-restricted trailer for this week's Death Race. I've yet to watch this one myself, since reactions posted elsewhere have assured me that whatever meager hopes I have for it being just a fun piece of trash cinema -- from a filmmaker who often lives down to that title -- are to be derived from moments shamelessly showcased therein. I'm no prude, having shelf space and soft spots set aside for the man's Event Horizon and the first Resident Evil, for the reliably butt-kicking Jason Statham and for the surprisingly present Joan Allen (him signing up for it, no big surprise, but her?). However, I'm roughly one trailer away (well, one feature away) from giving it the genuine benefit of the doubt.

Erik wrote about the original trailer back in June, and now one only has to wait until this Friday to determine just how fast and spurious this baby is.

After August comes September, and after Death Race comes Righteous Kill. The profanity-spiked red-band trailer for this NYPD thriller has been included after the jump...

Much like the characters in the best-selling game, Castlevania is the movie that will not die. So far the film has undergone personnel changes and became one of the many causalities of the writers strike; but you can't keep a so-so idea down, and it looks like the project is up and running again. Talk of the film has surfaced again now that a script review for Paul W.S. Anderson's screenplay has appeared over at CC2K -- But I should warn you, it's not looking good.

Early previews on Kotaku, described the script as the story of an, "adult Trevor Belmont who, with his fellow "battle-hardened" brother Christopher, is ordered by his king-through man of god Lucius-to dispatch you-know-who." But, according to CC2K's tipster, the latest incarnation of the story is more of a rip-off of Bram Stoker's Dracula with very few similarities to the Belmonts that fans know and love.

Originally, Anderson was going to direct as well as handle the script, but as we all know, he later dropped the project to work on Death Race. Enter Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) to take over directing duties, and who is still committed to the project despite the lack of a solid start date.

Having never played the games, I can't say I'm all that worried about the changes Anderson has potentially made to the Castlevania 'canon'. But I know that fans probably feel a little differently; so get it all off your chest, believe me, you'll feel better.

[Thanks: Ain't It Cool News]

There's a really neat-sounding small-scale sci-fi project in development at Overture Films called Pandorum. But for the news that Paul W.S. Anderson is involved, I'd be really excited. Pandorum will be about two spaceship crewmen who wake up on their ship with no idea who they are or what they're supposed to be doing. Soon, they "make a discovery that threatens the survival of mankind."

Anderson didn't write and won't be directing the film -- those tasks both fall to relative unknowns -- but he is reteaming with his Resident Evil cohorts to produce it. He's not exactly on my must list these days, since the Resident Evil franchise has pretty much died under his supervision and AvP isn't exactly a venerable addition to the list of ongoing big-name series. Pandorum's premise sounds cool, but then so did Event Horizon's until you actually learned what was going on. In any case, Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster (in a possible rare non-psychopathic role?) have signed on to star as our heroes, which is good news. I guess the big question is what exactly the two of them "discover" on that spaceship.

Pandorum is supposed to start production in August in Berlin, according to the Variety piece; no word on a release date. Sci-fi fans, make a note of it.