Once the Weinsteins (finally) got around to releasing Project Greenlight Movie #3 (aka Feast), it found a rather warm reception on the horror circuit. And while screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan were invited to join the Saw series and the Hellraiser remake, that doesn't mean the team doesn't have time for a sequel or two. (And that includes director John Gulager, who's also big for two more swings.)

We've been hearing little rumblings about Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds and Feast 3: The Happy Finish (?) for a little while now, but Fango brings us new word on a release date: Looks like Part 2 will be hitting video shelves on October 21. And since I've actually seen a few moments of Feast 2's unfinished gore-geyers, I can tell you one thing: They got the "sloppy" part right. Plot-wise, the sequel picks up right where we left off, with the crazy monsters now set to invade a nearby town. Expect a few familiar faces, several new victims, a lot of monsters, and tons of splattery mayhem. (It's like the Tremors series all over again, only in glorious "R"!)

Yes, I'm sorry to say it, but we officially won't be getting any Harry Potter next year. After Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premieres on November 21of this year, we're going to have to wait almost two whole years for Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Coming Soon reports that the first part is set to hit theaters on November 19, 2010, with the second and final installment coming the next summer in 2011. It's nice that Potter fans won't have to wait a full year to see the Part 2, but it's still sad to think that so much time will pass before we can start wrapping up Harry Potter's life on-screen.

The end is still a few years off, but it still brings to mind the start of this cinematic whirlwind. When all this started, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Tom Felton were just wee little things. Check out that cute, bespeckled face above. It's hard to believe this is the nude boy who hurts horses in Equus. How times change. Just imagine how old they'll be and look by 2010!

Man oh man do I love a good Killer Croc flick. Problem is ... there's maybe one true "classic" of the sub-genre (that'd be Lewis Teague's and John Sayles' Alligator, of course), and the rest of 'em are pretty much floating crap. Over the past year or so we've seen a bit of a resurgence in the category: Lake Placid 2 is mindless stupidity; Stewart Raffill's Croc is slightly better than that; that Primeval one is a passable enough time-waster; and the indie Aussie import Black Water is actually quite good, although more of a slow-burn nature thriller than a chomp-'em-up horror flick -- but what of Rogue?

Yes, Rogue. Ring any bells? Sophomore effort from Wolf Creek director Greg Mclean, Rogue looks to be a standard enough Killer Croc flick that stars Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington. The fact that the flick has been sitting on a shelf over at Weinstein Co. for over a year might seem like a red flag, but that's why the world needs horror geeks like me: So I can tell you that early reaction to the flick has been surprisingly positive! The flick came out in Australia last November, and while it didn't do a whole lot of business, I've been hearing rumblings from my horror colleagues that the movie's quite good!

We thought it would arrive as part of After Dark's 2007 event, but since unrated flicks cannot screen as part of AD Horrorfest, at least there was a good reason for the delay. And now with the U.S. release of Xavier Gans' Frontier(s) only a few weeks away, it only stands to reason that we'd be treated to a new poster, trailer, and website for the freaky French fright flick.

May 9 is when the stylish horror salad bar will hit the cinemas, but if you're not presently a part of the release pattern, fear not: You can pick up the DVD only a few days later. Click here to delve into the nutty, nasty world of Frontier(s), which is full of dangerous downloads, powerful pictures, and some decidedly violent videos. And then, since you're already hanging out at Cinematical anyway, feel free check out my review of the flick right here. Word is that the DVD will contain some extra goodies for the horror freaks; I shall update this post as soon as I receive an official note from After Dark.

A few months back I knocked the After Dark Horrorfest guys for not booking Frontiere(s) as part of their second annual sorta-festival. I quickly received a very cordial response from an AD representative who told me basically precisely this: "I'm emailing in regards to your article about "Frontiere(s)" and Horrorfest. Basically, I just wanted to let you know we absolutely are not going to cut this film up in any way. We have not accepted any rating for it so far and at this point we do not know if it's going to be released NC-17 or unrated. We haven't decided. But I promise you it will get released theatrically and in its originally intended form."

He also explained how an unrated / NC-17 film could not play as part of Horrorfest, given the existing contracts between the event and its venues. OK, fair enough. But the horror geeks are getting royally gore-teased by the Weinsteins on Inside, so when can we get a peek at this freaky Frontiere(s) flick already?

May 9, according to ShocktyDrop.com, is when Lionsgate will be releasing Xavier Gens' whacked-out horror stew in theaters. It will no doubt be a contractually-mandated very limited release pattern, but here's some strange-yet-good news: It seems that the DVD will arrive only four days later. Gee, now there's some incentive to get out to the theaters, eh?

Normally the arrival of a new release date wouldn't warrant an entire blog post of its own ... but then again most movies aren't hardcore post-apocalyptic action-adventures from the guy who directed Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Yes, genre fans, Mr. Neil Marshall is back with a concept that should thrill anyone old enough to remember the sheer cinematic awesomeness of Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Escape from New York.

Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Malcolm McDowell, Adrian Lester and the mega-cool Sean Pertwee, Doomsday goes a little like this: "Authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes. The literal walling-off works for three decades – until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare."

Sold! Done! Yes, I'd like to see that movie NOW please, thanks very much! But alas, we must wait until March 14 to enjoy the end of the world, and it looks like Universal chose a very solid release date for the action thriller. Also opening on that date is a family flick (Horton Hears a Who), an awful-looking Karate Kid retread (Never Back Down), and a cop drama (Pride and Glory) -- which means an R-rated action-fest could do pretty well that weekend.

I'm not all that interested in the box office numbers, really. I just want to see Neil Marshall maintain his perfect record.

See, stuff like this just bugs me. According to Twitch (via the Babylon A.D. production blog), two different versions of Vin Diesel's Babylon A.D. will be hitting theaters far apart from one another. It's not that I care so much about seeing a longer version of the film in theaters (which, apparently, is what will take place in the UK), it's just that Fox has once again decided to release a film in the UK first and then wait six months before putting it in theaters here in the states. You'll remember something similar happened with Danny Boyle's Sunshine earlier this year. The film was released in several cities around the world in March, but Fox decided to hold it back until December. Luckily, we're still not waiting for the film because Fox ultimately chose to stuff Sunshine into an already-packed summer line-up.

Anyway, UK folks will supposedly get to see a two hour and forty minute version of Babylon A.D. early next year when it's released across the pond. However, Fox has decided they will in no way ask people to sit through a three-hour Vin Diesel film in America, so they're going to trim that sucker down to a reasonable time and release it on August 29. In my opinion, this is a stupid move because by the time it's released in the states, copies of that sucker will be all over the internet, etc. I remember a good month after Sunshine was released in the UK, that film was all over the place -- one of my friends actually had it, and asked if I wanted a copy. I did not take it. I wanted to see the film in theaters. And I did.

Babylon A.D., a pet project for Diesel, follows a Veteran-turned-mercenary who's placed in charge of escorting a woman from Russia to China. What he doesn't know is that this woman is to host an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a new Messiah. The film was originally supposed to be released in the states on February 28, the same day as the UK, and I imagine they're taking the extra time to trim. Here's my question: Would you even be interested in a two hour and forty minute Vin Diesel sci-fi flick? And does watching the man for that long make a person stupider?

[via Slashfilm]

Within the next week or so, we'll be posting our upcoming interview with director Jason Reitman (son to Ivan Reitman), but for now, this news: his follow-up to Thank You For Smoking has just landed a release date. Fox Searchlight has confirmed Juno will be given a platform release on December 14th of this year. Pic will mark the director's second big-screen outing, following the highly-acclaimed ensemble smoking satire which was nominated for a number of awards including two Golden Globes (best picture and best actor in a musical or comedy -- Aaron Eckhart). We've been following Juno for quite some time now, and I, personally, cannot wait to see what Reitman does with yet another wonderful cast of characters.

Written by Pussy Ranch blogger-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody, Juno stars the very awesome one-two punch of Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Just the thought of those two working off one another gives me goosebumps. Page is like a lightening bolt, and Cera perpetually looks like a dear caught in the headlights. Combined, I'm sure we're in for some hilarious, yet heartwarming stuff.

Here's what Fox Searchlight has to say about the film: "JUNO (Ellen Page) is a whip-smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera). With the help of her hot best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno finds her unborn child a "perfect" set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs." An Arrested Development reunion, another Reitman flick -- what's not to look forward to?

Pay no attention to the August 3rd release date that's come attached to all those Charlie Bartlett commercials and advertisements. Cinematical received an email yesterday stating the film has been pulled from its release date and they're currently looking for better placement. The reason given for the change apparently has to do with "today's overwhelmingly competitive market;" basically, that means they didn't want to go up against The Bourne Ultimatum, Hot Rod and Bratz: The Movie. Which I can totally understand, since Bartlett is set in a high school and is designed to cater toward that audience. But since it was given an R rating (which I'll come back to in a moment), there's no way it can compete with the PG-13-rated Hot Rod and, I'm assuming, the PG-13-rated Bratz.

Currently, there isn't another release date in place, which means it will either get shoveled out on a weekend this fall that doesn't feature any teen-related comedies, or it will get dumped sometime shortly after the new year. Charlie Bartlett premiered earlier this year at The Tribeca Film Festival where I managed to review the film and interview its director (Jon Poll) and star (Anton Yelchin). It's a cute flick that revolves around a Ferris Bueller-type student who decides to become the unofficial therapist of his new high school. The film was rated R because it deals with kids giving other kids prescribed medication -- but it's totally justified (kind of) and in no way over-the-top or raunchy. In fact, it's a real shame this one got slapped with an R because it's a film that should be made available to teenagers. There's a strong message, sure, but it's told in a fun way. And Yelchin (who I happen to like very much) shines in the role, as does Robert Downey Jr. (who plays the school's principal). We'll let you know when we hear more, but here's hoping Charlie Bartlett eventually finds a date and doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

When Rogue/Universal pulled their Liv Tyler / Scott Speedman thriller The Strangers out of its July 13 release date, that left a certain VOID in the movie schedule, which might explain why Lionsgate opted to bump its oh-so-controversial Captivity into that spot. (The flick had previously been scheduled for May 18 and then again for June 22, but now it's set for July 13. Until they change it again.) This means that 1408, A Mighty Heart and September Dawn now have June 22 all to themselves, while Captivity now gets July 13 all to itself! It's great how these things work out, isn't it? (Until another studio realizes what's going and and drops one of their flicks into July 13.)

This gives Captivity a little more time to "promote awareness" following their advertising embargo that was placed on them by the MPAA for having the audacity to publish unapproved posters that were both nasty and inappropriate. Then again, horror flicks rarely do all that well in the summertime, so I'm guessing LG and After Dark just want to unload the damn thing already. The Roland Joffe horror flick stars Elisha Cuthbert as a woman who gets abused. Be there on June 22 July 13. That's two days after the new Harry Potter flick, by the way.