October 31st, 2006
The man that brought us A Tale of Two Sisters, The Quiet Family and A Bittersweet Life is supposedly getting ready to start production on his next film which is currently dubbed The Good, the Bad and the Weird. The movie is apparently going to be “an idiosyncratic western set on the plains of Manchuria.” and is set to star Sang Kang-Ho whom we have seen in Joon Ho-Bong’s Memories of Murder and The Host. In recent years we’ve seen Jee-Woon successfully direct a black comedy, a horror flick and an action-thriller, so surely he’ll be able to pull off a good old western flick with considerable style.
Posted by David in General, News, Rumours
October 31st, 2006
With both Universal and Fox pulling out of the project, Wingnut Films’ have - unsurprisingly - announced that the Halo project, which was originally slated for a 2008 release, is to be postponed until they can “can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen.” The press release goes on to state: “We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.” I’m disappointed. The chances of this film actually happening are decreasing every day.
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Posted by David in General, News
October 30th, 2006
This weekend saw (spot the puns anyone?) Liongate’s latest blockbuster horror sequel Saw III, open with an impressive $34.3m at the North American box office, marking one of the biggest opening weekends for an R-rated movie in over two years. Having seen the success of it’s predecessors and noted the fact that this incarnation has managed to surpass both of their opening weekends, it seems likely that this will go onto to become the highest grossing in the series (The original Saw pulled in $55.2m overall whilst Saw II raised the stakes by amassing a kitty of $87m in total).
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Posted by David in General, News
October 28th, 2006
The first teaser trailer for Hostel: Part II has hit Yahoo Movies and gives you a glimpse into the equally brutal follow-up to his 2005 success. The film follows a similarly orientated plot when compared with it’s predecessor, as a group of women (Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo and Bijou Philips) travel to a remote Slovakian hostel on the strength of a recommendation. Needless to say, their relaxing trip goes a bit wrong and carnage ensues. Yes, I know it sounds amazing but you’re going to have to curb your enthusiasm for a while because the movie isn’t scheduled for release until next year.
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Posted by David in General, News, Trailers
October 26th, 2006
Satoshi Kon, the man behind the excellent Tokyo Godfathers and Memories anime flicks, has managed to strike a deal with Sony Pictures Classics which will see his latest film (critically acclaimed as always), Paprika, receive a commercial release at the North American box office. For those of you that aren’t familiar with what the movie’s about, first of all, sort yourself out and second, here’s the IMDB plot summary: “When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient’s dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it: Paprika.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by David in General, News
October 25th, 2006
If you - like me and many others - have been sucked in by the likes of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, then I’m sure you’ll be excited to know that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will be at the London Movie, Comic and Media Expo on Saturday to show some exclusive clips of their next movie, Hot Fuzz. The duo will be appearing at 2pm on the Main Stage and will be doing a Q & A and signing session afterwards. Their appearances will be propping up an already awesome star line-up which currently features Tom Savini and Christopher Lee in addition to a host of other personalities. For more info on the event including how to get your tickets, visit http://www.londonexpo.com.
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Posted by David in General, News
October 21st, 2006
Johnnie To’s latest gangland flick, “Exiled”, has been banned in Malaysia due to what the censorship committee have described as excessive violence. It’s not a particularly unexpected reception from the censors, Hong Kong’s own censorship board came very close to giving the film a “third-grade” rating, which is the highest possible restriction available to hand to regular movies. Apparently, this was due to the inclusion of some physical gestures reminiscent of triad hand signs. The scenes in question have consequently been removed by the studio. Anyway, this is the best international publicity the film could have gotten, I’ll certainly be watching it.
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Posted by David in General, News
October 19th, 2006
First update in a while - but don’t worry, I’m back on the ball again now so you’ll also see the September and October trailer round-ups soon. Anyway, in the nature of relevance, a massive new further extended DVD of King Kong has been scheduled for a November 16th release. This considerably expanded edition will feature an extra 13 minutes of film time, over 40 minutes of deleted scenes and an unruly horde of other extras such as still galleries, featurettes, production diaries - the works. The projected RRP for the North American incarnation is $34.98 whilst the UK version will retail for a slightly steeper £24.99 (although Amazon
are currently offering it for a more reasonable £17.99). “Taxi! Follow that ape!”
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Posted by David in General, News, DVD
October 4th, 2006
Audiences were brutally split when Eli Roth’s ‘Hostel’ was originally released last year; one side of the river harboured a nasty band of cinema-goers that condemned it as awful whilst others - whom I would affiliate myself with - praised it as a welcome addition to the grindhouse genre. Well, those of you, like me, that belonged to the positive side of proceedings will be pleased to hear that a detailed plot description of Hostel 2 has just been released by Lionsgate which discloses a whole lot of juicy minutiae regarding Hostel’s “feminine” sequel. I won;t spoil the surpise for you here, but one thing that I would like to tell you - before you scoot off into the big bad world alone - is that the sequel looks as if it’s going to be as unashamedly clichéd as the first one (I can’t thank you enough Mr Roth). Anyway, the article - which reveals some interesting particulars - can be found at ComingSoon.net.
Posted by David in General, News
October 3rd, 2006
Legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki recently revealed to Variety that production has started on his next feature film, which is, at this point in time, slated for a 2008 release. The project is currently untitled and no further details such as plot info etc, have been unveiled as of yet, however the news that Studio Ghibli are hard at work again is good enough for me. Anyway, I know you’re all as excited as I am, but I suggest you go and calm down by watching ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ (again…) or something sad like ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ to take the edge off things. As for me, well ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ is actually right next to me and I think I may be too lazy to reach further afield - in it goes. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by David in General, News
