sony Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With Sam Raimi dragging everyone to hell this past week, Spider-Man 4 rumors are flying as fast and furious as its webby hero. The New York Post caught up with Sony producer Todd Black to pump him for info, and here's what he had to confirm and deny.

Black says Kirsten Dunst is returning as Mary Jane, which may quash all that undecided talk that has plagued the film since it was first announced. However, there are no plans to unite Peter and Mary Jane in holy matrimony. All rumors of Morbius being the villain are false, but it will be someone from the Spidey comics, and Black drops a very slight hint as to who it could be: "We're just coming up with who the villain's going to be now. We'll be shooting in New York again. Trust me, people will appreciate who we pick, because it'll be a big part of New York."

The villain that hint really points to is Kingpin, but he was in Daredevil which suggests Fox has the rights to that particular villain. (Are there crossover claims? I honestly have no idea.) There are a lot of similar mobsters to pick from, but would they resist the temptation for a supervillain and go all real-world? As for other NY based villains, could it be Wraith? He was a NYPD patrolman, and has a tragic origin story that would be pretty ideal. Two weaker suggestions would be Jackal, who was an Empire State University professor, but as they didn't kill Gwen Stacy, I don't know how they would work him in. I think Hydro-Man lives in the Hudson, but that skirts too close to Sandman. Argh, I'm no good at this guessing game. I'll hand it over to you Spidey fans and go enjoy the weekend.

Steven Spielberg's The Adventues of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn started filming with so little fanfare that I've nearly forgotten all about it ... but I doubt you diehard Herge fans have. Now you'll have a date to circle on the calender as Variety reports that Tintin will be hitting theaters on December 23, 2011, pitting it against Warner Bros Happy Feet 2 and Disney / PIXAR's The Bear and the Bow. (It may be two years away, but you can offer your box office predictions now if you like!)

At least, that's when it'll be hitting theaters on this side of the pond. Paramount and Sony plan to release the film in Europe first, as befitting its heritage and fanbase. There's no specific dates set, but they're eying a fall dates of late October and early November depending on what part of Europe you're in. If you're very wealthy, you could hop on a plane and catch it a few weeks early.

Variety also reports that the film will be released in 3-D. I guess that's a sign I've lost track of this project as I wasn't aware that was ever in doubt, but apparently the two studios have been debating that the past few months. Now after viewing dailies, they've decided that 3-D "would offer the best rendition" for the film ... and frankly the recent ginormous 3-D successes like Monsters Vs. Aliens probably helped convince them of that.

So, there you are, Tintin fans: December 23, 2011 in 3-D. Excited?

Just days after reports surfaced that Warner Bros. is bidding on Midway Games, which filed for Chapter 11 in February, and also took over the rights to EA's Lord of the Rings video game franchise*, Variety is reporting that the studio is getting ready to jump into the iPhone game.

Sony, Paramount, and Warner Bros. have all been vying for attention from mobile gamers with releases like a Star Trek comic book app, an Angels and Demons video game app, and more. However, according to Warner Digital Distribution director of worldwide marketing Stephanie Bohn, WB is planning to release about 40 iPhone applications by the end of the year. WB just released a Terminator comic app tied to the opening of Terminator: Salvation and has more in the works for upcoming releases, as well as ideas for "animated episodic video apps and other apps built around Warner brands."

As a recent survey by marketing research team NPD showed, more people are playing video games than going to the movies, and one distinct reason the numbers are rising isn't just the price of movie tickets. The numbers of casual video game players is increasing exponentially, partially due to the popularity, ease, and increasing quality of games available on iPhones and other handhelds. If movie studios get involved directly with video game developers, will the video game tie-ins improve? And as Bohn points out, "It doesn't cost a lot to launch an app... Relative to a TV show or a film, it's nothing." So, could this new strategy also mean good news for studios' sagging bottom lines (and for iPhone gaming addicts)?

* Gamers are already suspicious of the newest Lord of the Rings game, Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, because it's being billed as family-friendly. EA's license for the franchise expired and reverted back to New Line, thus Warner Bros.

As William Goss noted earlier this week, District 9 seems to have caught us all unawares, despite the slow spread of viral marketing. In fact, the marketing was all over last year's San Diego ComicCon. There were anti-alien posters everywhere (very little pro-alien propaganda which says something about the crowd), especially over bathroom signage. I remember there were even protesters marching through the hall with anti-alien signs chanting about how they weren't wanted on Earth. No one knew what any of it was for! "Oh, it's some sci-fi movie. Peter Jackson has something to do with it, I think" was the refrain any time you asked about them. It was a fairly effective campaign in the "Wow, that's unsettling" department, but not so good on the "Hey! District 9 is coming out next year!" element.

But, the buzz is growing thanks to the effective teaser placed before X-Men Origins: Wolverine (go watch it on Goss' post if you haven't already), and now every movie fan is really chomping at the bit to see more. Over at Yahoo! Movies, they have a little bit to feed your curiosity ... the first official poster for District 9. It's pretty evocative of those ComicCon ones (which I'm throwing into the gallery just for posterity's sake) but with the violence amped up. Creepy stuff, isn't it? This may end up being more Cloverfield hype than substance, but at least it's low-key enough to stay interesting.

If you're anything like the Cinematical staffers, you're spending a frightening amount of time in front of your laptop watching free movies on Hulu, Netflix Instant, and YouTube. Now you'll have a new site to feed your addiction: Sony's Crackle.

Crackle has been running for awhile now, and offering some pretty cool original content like Ed Brubacker's Angel of Death series, starring the kick-ass Zoe Bell. But now they're expanding their full-length movie offerings, and according to Variety you can now watch: Spider-Man 2, Groundhog Day, Stripes, A Few Good Men, 1941, El Mariachi, Big Fish, The Fan, La Bamba, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Johnny Mnemonic, La Femme Nikita and a few Godzilla installments. I haven't watched a movie all the way through yet, but I clicked on Spider-Man 2 and played around with it for a few minutes. The quality is excellent, and I believe they run without commercials, which is a definite advantage over Hulu. (I love you guys, but seeing the same commercial repeatedly for 2 hours is migraine inducing.)

So for the movie-addicted among us, Crackle may just be your new best friend. No longer do you have to scan your shelves and cable channels for something to watch at 2am, there's bound to be something fresh and shiny somewhere online for you. Just be careful curling up in bed with your laptop, as you don't want it to meet a fatal tumble if you fall asleep midway through. Cliffhanger just isn't worth it. Not that I'd know.

Dan Brown will finally get his Robert "he looks like Harrison Ford" Langdon film franchise as according to Variety, Columbia is already prepping to buy Brown's latest symbolist installment, The Lost Symbol. They have first rights to the book, as Sony already owns the rights to the character of Robert Langdon. (Were they able to actually buy Tom Hanks for all eternity, I wonder?)

Symbol was originally supposed to be published in 2006, but has been delayed repeatedly. Now Doubleday has the manuscript in hand, swears its thrilling, and has set a publication date of September 15. It already has a first print run of five million copies, which is actually small fry compared to the 81 million copies The DaVinci Code has sold.

No one knows what Symbol will be about other than it will feature the Freemasons, Washington D.C., and the Kryptos sculpture at the CIA . But where there's a secret organization, I think we can hazard a guess that we'll also find a religious coverup and the Catholic Church! I can't imagine that Brown will ever disappoint fans in that regard. I hope that Langdon runs around Washington D.C. with a copy of the Declaration of Independence which, when rubbed with lemon juice, tells where to find the True Cross, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spear of Destiny. Throw in a beautiful brunette and an evil monk, and no one will remember Nicolas Cage.

Angels & Demons, Brown's latest Langdon film adaptation, will hit theaters on May 15.

Remember the Venom spin-off rumors that were slithering around last July? They've now turned into something official. Sony is developing a Venom movie, and they've hired two writers to develop it: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who have only just left the still-filming Zombieland. The project is in such early stages that we don't have additional details, though more might become clearer once Spider-Man 4 settles down.

However, our Scott Weinberg actually caught up with Reese and Wernick last week and has this to say: "Based only on the half-hour I spent talking movies with the screenwriters, I can say that IF there has to be a Venom movie, then these are the guys who can pull it off. They seem to understand the practical (studio) side of the project, the professional (screenwriter) perspective, and (best of all) the enthusiasm needed to make the movie cooool. They couldn't divulge ANY tidbits at all, sorry! But at this early point, I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about Venom."

So, there you have Weinberg's take on the project and you know he'll probably be right. In the interests of keeping things balanced in cinematic geekdom, I shall remain skeptical about the symbiotic spin-off. Admittedly though, my bias may be purely based on how many jerks I know who sport Venom t-shirts.

Hollywood isn't Hollywood without a competing project. We've had competing projects about asteroids, ants, and volcanoes and now? Now it's the Easter Bunny, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ignoring the fact that a lot of people don't celebrate Easter, two studios are racing to get bunny-themed projects into theaters. Sony Animation is going with Hip Hop, a mix of CGI and live-action that's being penned by Greg Ostrin and Michael Weiss. Sony's Easter Bunny gets tired of delivering eggs and chocolate with so little thanks, and decides to retire. He becomes a suburban family's pet, and turns their lives upside down. Given the title, I have to wonder if he will somehow become a "hip hop" star?

Meanwhile, Universal's shingle Illumination Entertainment has picked up I Hop as its debut live action film. Written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, this Easter flick borrows a page out of The Santa Clause (whose sequel Paul penned), where the Easter Bunny is hit by a slacker's car. Thankfully, animal death isn't as family friendly as killing Santa, so the Easter Bunny only suffers a broken leg. But he's unable to do his job, so the slacker must do it for him, and save Easter. (No egg hunts? No Cadbury chocolate? That's the collapse of civilization as we know it!)

In the meantime if you screenwriters hurry, you should get your your pre-Christian fertility cults scripts done and purchased in time for the next trend ... paganism!