whiteout Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I know, it's been a while since I've written one of these gore-soaked missives, but the upside to that is ... we have a lot to talk about! And since I wrote this during a lazy Sunday (happy belated holidays, btw) I figure it's time to break out the candy-coated bullet points! Let's start out with a freaky fistful of upcoming DVD releases:

Currently strewn across shelves are Donkey Punch and Vinyan, two festival-heavy horror films that couldn't possibly be more different. One's about venal young jerks, and the other is about heartbroken (but stupid) parents. Really bad things happen to all of them.

This Tuesday we're getting the old-school-style monster movie Splinter, which is really quite good. If you like prickly monsters, that is. On the same day ... whoa. It looks like someone actually bothered to exhume flicks like Repossessed, Slaughter High, and My Best Friend Is a Vampire. That sound you just heard was my Netflix queue getting fatter.

Come the 21st we get J.T. Petty's The Burrowers, which played (and played well) at last year's Fantastic Fest, and Robert Hall's Laid to Rest, which is sort of like a non-snarky slasher throwback with a hint of Phantasm-style weirdness. Couldn't find a stranger double feature than these two, believe me.

And mark your calendars, gore-lovers, for April 28, because that's when Martyrs finally hits R1 DVD. According to the UK poster, Scoot Weinberg says it "makes Saw look like Sesame Street," which is one of the most shameless blurbs I've ever heard. Even if the guy is correct, brilliant, and really handsome. (Trust me, this is one rough horror movie.) Also on this Tuesday we'll get the unofficial Donnie Darko sequel, and a movie starring Amber Benson called One-Eyed Monster. I leave the jokes to you fine folks.

2009 has begun on a rather tense note for geekdom as Watchmen became further embroiled in legal soup. As Fox pushes for a delay, we must contemplate a rather thin year of geeky offerings .... which just shows how spoiled we've become. Watchmen and Wolverine alone would have made our year before the wonder that was 2008, when we had Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and the Punisher. But hey, this is going to be the Year of Announcements -- we're going to find out who Captain America and Thor are, who or what Iron Man must face in his sequel, and hey, we might even find out whether Edward Norton will reprise his role as the Hulk. We're going to have fun, no matter what happens with Watchmen.

January
Nothing. Watch The Dark Knight ten more times, I guess (especially when it returns to conventional and IMAX theaters on January 23). Or read a graphic novel; you must have gotten some for Christmas? Anyway, take a breather. You're still recovering from 2008.

February
Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and a limited release of the long-delayed Fanboys both come out on February 6th. Gaiman for the win, no question.

March
Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen.The film is still scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 6th, however Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox are still fighting in court over who actually owns the rights to the property. If a judge rules in favor of Fox on January 20th or before, we may not get Watchmen on time ... but we will get a whole bunch of angry fans. Read more about it on our Watchmen page.



April
Dragonball Evolution hits theaters on the 8th. The excitement is palatable.

May
This is the month of geekdom, kicking off with the film my year centers around, X-Men Origins: Wolverine on May 1. If this isn't good, the Geek Beat will burn with the fury of a thousand suns the following Tuesday. May that be your warning, Fox.



A little independent film you might have heard of also comes out this month: Star Trek hits theaters on May 8th.

Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, which is a horror film that played TIFF but not in the regular horror section, now has a trailer. Get the info and a trailer link over at Twitchfilm. Flick looks pretty cool to me. Speaking of promo clips, Shock has one for Jamie Blanks' remake of Long Weekend, which is viewable right here.

Ji-woon Kim's very good A Tale of Two Sisters is about to spawn a remake of its own. It's called The Uninvited, it stars Elizabeth Banks, and MTV Movies Blog has an exclusive clip. And Bloody-D has new photos from Dread, the upcoming Clive Barker adaptation, while Arrow has some new shots from this weekend's Splinter.

Dread Central reports that Dominic Sena's graphic novel adaptation Whiteout, which stars mega-hottie Kate Beckinsale, has been pushed back to next September. And Shock has some news on the DVD front regarding Eden Lake and a handful of old-school WB double features.

And yes, the guy who directed the mega-harsh Martyrs will now be the guy behind the Hellraiser remake, says THR. Lastly, here's a pretty cool list of relative obscurities from the genre freaks at Bloody-D.

Whiteout finally gets to come off my "Whatever happened to ... ?" list. According to ShockTillYouDrop.net, the Antarctic thriller finally has a release date of September 19th.
The movie stars Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Tom Skerritt, Columbus Short and Alex O'Loughlin.

The film is based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka (and I love that they mimicked Frank Miller's cover for the poster at right). It follows Carrie Stetko, a U.S. Marshall working at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and her investigation of a murder that takes place there. The location is what makes this murder mystery good and tense, as she has to investigate around the deadly climate of Antarctica, and find the killer before Antarctica is plunged into its six months of darkness.

I saw the teaser at last year's ComicCon and thought it looked like a good thrill ride -- and I actually managed to hold the opinion despite seeing it played twice in a row. It's a little odd that it has been delayed so long, as it was obviously finished as of last summer. I'll hold out hope, though, because Beckinsale is one of my favorite action chicks, and she was hilarious at the Whiteout panel, handling the sleazy comments with aplomb. Hopefully, we'll get to see that teaser on the Internet soon. I will probably watch it and wonder why I thought it looked good. Oh well.

Before I get started, I should probably warn you: I have a big soft-spot for Sarah Michelle Gellar. I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer nerd; I've even started buying the comics for season eight, for goodness sake. So I am a little predisposed to defend her choices -- and let me tell you, it hasn't always been easy. In an interview with RadioFree.com Gellar confirmed that she is still in the lead role for the big screen version of American McGee's Alice. Gellar told RadioFree, "unfortunately, it was the victim of regime change in the studio. And I'm not getting out. And contrary to what you may have read, it's still my project."

The film will be based on Rogue Entertainment's third-person shooter set in the world of Alice in Wonderland. The story centers on a pretty twisted incarnation of Alice -- her parents are killed in a fire, and after slipping into a catatonic state, she is institutionalized. "Years later, the White Rabbit summons Alice to aid a radically altered Wonderland, now under the despotic rule of the Queen of Hearts" (played by Jean Marsh). Marcus Nispel is attached to direct -- he is also at the helm for the Friday the 13th update slated for 2009. The Alice script has undergone a few re-writes over the years, but it looks like the final version is going to be the one written by Jon and Erich Hoeber (Whiteout).

Back in December, rumors began to surface that Maggie Grace (LOST) had taken over the role, but it would seem that maybe the gossips confused it with Grace's other project with Gellar, The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing. Alice has been kicking around since 2000, back when Wes Craven was attached, and hopefully this time around, Nispel and company will be able to make it into a reality. But fans need not worry; Gellar tells RadioFree: "...I'm not giving up. Because I believe there is such a beautiful, crazy, cool, twisted story to be told there. [jokes] And if I have to get down and write it myself one of these day [sic], I may have to..."

[via ComingSoon.net]

Beyond Hollywood now has the second poster for Dominic Sena's (Swordfish) thriller based on Greg Rucka's graphic novel, Whiteout. Rucka's limited series was originally released in 1998, and the original story had two female agents investigating a murder in McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Rights were originally purchased in 1999, and here we are eight years later and after a few quick casting switches, Kate Beckinsale was signed to play U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko. Casting was finalized back in March when Gabriel Macht (The Spirit) singed on as UN operative, Alex O'Loughlin, and Tom Skerrit in an unnamed role.

A teaser poster had been released for ComicCon back in July, and, frankly, I thought it was pretty blah. Especially when you consider the quality of the art in the graphic novels; Beckinsale pouting just doesn't quite do it for me. So is the new poster any better you might ask? Well, it's better, but not by much. Maybe I'm asking too much from my movie posters, but I just can't get all that jazzed about something that looks like it could double as a Ray Bans ad.

It hasn't been an easy road to get Whiteout to production. Starting back in 1999 when Colombia Pictures first picked up the film rights and to commission a script from Jon and Erich Hoeber, oddly enough, the first order of business was to do away with one of the female leads in the story and to switch to a man (so much for girl power I guess). Whiteout is set for release in October 2008. See the full poster after the jump.

I'm ensconced back in the press section in the massive Hall H, giving us flashbacks to yesterday's Paramount panel. However, today I have the benefit of a few hours of sleep, a cinnamon roll, and half a banana. The Comic-Con breakfast of champions.

I'll be doing my best to bring you all the hot Warner Bros. deets as they come out. Will we see anything from The Dark Knight? Speed Racer? Watchmen? Goonies II? (Hey, I can dream). They gave us more swag bags on the way in, which included a t-shirt for The Invasion, a pretty swell Get Smart Control/KAOS shirt, and a bunch of other little things, including a very timely Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix pin. Woot!

I must say, I hate when you get a cast list of newly-signed actors, and only some of the roles are described. That being said, I'm going to take assumption and run with it. In February, I confirmed Ryan's post that Kate Beckinsale was gearing up for Dominic Sena's upcoming, and quite literally chilling thriller, Whiteout. With Beckinsale signed on to play Carrie Stetko, the woman rushing to find a killer before winter strikes Antarctica, Variety reports that the other cast is slowly falling into place.

First, we've got Columbus Short. Star of Stomp the Yard and the upcoming The Great Debaters, Short will play Lt. Delfy, according to IMDb. Then there is modelizer-turned-Because I Said So love interest, Gabriel Macht. He's playing a U.N. operative who is investigating the murder with Beckinsale. And then... Then, there is Tom Skerritt. There is no word on who he's playing, so my over-active and hopeful imagination is crossing its metaphorical fingers that Skerritt will play the deranged killer, although I fear that he'll be playing some stodgy man in charge. Please, powers-that-be. The man from Ice Castles, The Dead Zone and Poison Ivy deserves a great part!

The true test of a great action actress is not how she can float around in head-to-toe PVC, with a serious face, double-fisted weapons and a flowing trenchcoat. It's pulling it off in a parka, with a body so under wraps that all you've got to emote with is your voice and the tip of your nose. At least, I wish that would be the test for Kate Beckinsale. As Ryan previously reported, she was in talks for the freezing role in Whiteout, and now she has officially signed on to star as Carrie Stetko in the Antarctica-based action drama. Unfortunately, I'm sure that the filmmakers will cheat, making an elaborate indoor maze for her to hunt through, rather than having their sexy actress look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Based on Greg Rucka's comic, the story follows Stetko, who is stationed in Anarctica and is brought into a murder investigation. There are only three days until winter hits, when the continent will become dark and she will be trapped with the killer. So, obviously, she has to haul arse to find out the person, before one of the two gets to play Alive. The film will start shooting in Montreal (Huh?) in March, and Wikipedia sources say that they'll also film in Manitoba, which makes much more sense. The flick is headed by Dominic Sena, and sure, he's the man who brought us Gone in Sixty Seconds and Swordfish, but he's also the man behind Rhythm Nation, so maybe the parka-laden people can break into an ultra-serious dance routine at some point in the movie.