D-War Trailer
So I was doing my usual rounds today, checking all the major scoop sites for something that may be of interest to me and this new D-War trailer appeared to be a rather regular fixture. It may have been the awesome posters that drew me in, but it was the trailer that really got me excited; after all, the last Korean monster I saw was The Host and that was fantastic. The trailer is short but, as I’m sure you’ll agree, intriguing, with the final scene depicting a large serpent-like dragon curled around a skyscraper in a King-Kong meets Anaconda sort-of fashion (if you have any better serpent examples, send them in, there’s no need to glorify a snake that killed Ice Cube). I had actually heard about the project before, but as such things do, it had slipped from my mind and I wasn’t expecting it to appear in such a fashion. Read the rest of this entry »
Not only are this year’s Hollywood blockbusters grossing astronomical amounts in their usual territories, it seems that they have also swept away the competition elsewhere, in places where domestic cinema is often more successful than the produce of its Californian counterpart. This weeks box office figures from South Korea show that Shrek the Third managed to amass $11.3 million worth of ticket sales in just 3 days - Korea’s biggest animated film opening ever. The Mike Myer’s voiced ogre managed to leapfrog Hwang Jin Yi, a film which received a wider release than Shrek and was expected to take in more than the $4.9 million it ended up with. Shrek’s success follows similar triumphs from Spider-man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean as both films went on to gross $34 million and $31 million respectively, marking them as Korea’s two highest earning films of the year. If only us here in the English speaking world would accept foreign films so readily, it could happen you know. 
I know I’ve always got a friend in Randy Newman, but Woody and his pals won’t be back on our screens until 2010, so what’s filling the gap between this year’s Ratatouille and such a far-off prospect? Well, Pixar have recently announced it and it’s called Up. Due for a 2009 release, Up - according to 
Kim Jee-Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters is an absolutely masterful horror film, so I am understandably skeptical of the upcoming Western remake which will no doubt turn out to be just as poor as The Grudge was. Anyway, Elizabeth Banks (Slither, Spider-man 3, 40 Year Old Virgin) has now signed onto the project which makes me feel a little better about it - at least it will be watchable now (with the sound turned off perhaps). She’ll be stepping into the shoes of the cruel stepmother who terrorizes her partners’ two mentally ill daughters, preventing their recovery…that sounds really vague, but I don’t want to give anything away because the film is pretty genius. Anyway, Banksy’s on the cast list and I’m happy, man, I’m so shallow. 
I’m not the biggest fan of Gus Van Sant, I know quite a few people that worship the ground he walks on and I concede that he has made some excellent films (Good Will Hunting anyone?), but I really couldn’t stand Elephant and after I watched it, my opinion of him was considerably lower. Nevertheless, his film Paranoid Park was received well at Cannes and now he has started work on a new project entitled The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, so I thought I’d better mention it. The film will be a big-screen adaption of a 1960s novel by Tom Wolfe, which is as bizarre as it sounds (well, maybe not quite that strange). According to 
On January 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl’s world changed forever. Her husband Daniel, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew them to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned. In the face of death, Danny’s spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his eventual murder in her memoir A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. 
As expected Ocean’s Thirteen claimed first place in the weekend box office figures, taking in a relatively decent $37.1m and knocking Pirates of the Caribbean off the top spot, however it was still the worst opening for a film in the Ocean’s franchise, taking in roughly $1m less than Ocean’s Eleven when that was released in 2001. Elsewhere in the charts, Surf’s Up enjoyed an $18m opening whilst Hostel: Part II languished down at 6th with a measly $8.75m for it’s first few days and Knocked Up continued it’s strong run by raking in another $20m, bringing it’s total gross to $60m (almost double it’s $33m budget).
Set against a backdrop of one of history’s most controversial events, September Dawn tells a fictionalized Romeo and Juliet romance amidst the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a heavily denied and notorious tragedy in which over 100 men, women, and children were killed while traveling in Utah on September 11, 1857. Starring Jon Voight (Enemy of the State, National Treasure), Trent Ford (Gosford Park, The West Wing) and Tamara Hope (Shall We Dance, A Different Loyalty). Anyway, as the title says, here’s a pictures/stills/screen caps gallery for y’all (cowboooys) to enjoy. 
When one of two fireman buddies finds himself in an insurance jam, the two decide to pose as a gay couple, going through a wedding, honeymoon, and series of ridiculous adventures in an attempt to fool the world. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry stars Kevin James (King of Queens, Hitch), Adam Sandler (Billy Madison, 50 First Dates) and Jessica Biel (no movies here, just a comment of approval). Here’s a stills/screen cap/picture gallery - peruse at will! 
A deadly military-developed virus is leaked to the public causing a pandemic and killing everyone and everything, Robert Neville survived, alone. However, unbeknown to him, the rest of the population have been turned into bloodthirsty vampires and, well, you know what kind of awesome action sequences that could provoke! Anyway, I am of course talking about I Am Legend, a film which boasts the most expensive scene of all time ($5m - the scene on Brooklyn bridge) and a rather intriguing storyline. Starring Will Smith (I, Robot, Independence Day), the project went through an unbelievable amount of false starts before getting going and finally, it seems to be pretty much finished and fairly good - thanks to Francis Lawrence. The trailer went live yesterday and can be caught over at 
