It’s not really a project that I’ve been desperately wishing for, but it still comes as a pleasant surprise to hear that the Broken Lizard folks have decided to go ahead with a sequel to 2001’s cop comedy, Super Troopers. Speaking to Michael Dance at Movie Cultists yesterday, Jay Chandrasekhar confirmed that the team was three drafts into the script, had secured financing and were planning on trying to strike a deal with Fox. Steve Lemme added:
“It’s funny, because we have an independent financier — we have a lot of independent financiers — who are like, ‘Give us that fucking movie.’ And we’re like, ‘We will, we will but we have to go through a studio first.’ But it’s a great thing to go to a studio and say, ‘We have the money.’”
Brian Cox is even set to be reprising his role as Captain O’Hagan. Come on miaow, don’t tell me this doesn’t please you.
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming remake of Korean revenge flick Oldboy has been cancelled. Or at least, that’s what the internet is telling me. I know it’s sad that we won’t get to see Will Smith slaughter another few hours of screen time, but I think it’s ultimately for the best. Look at it this way, now he can concentrate on getting even more smug for I, Robot 2. I’m kidding, Will Smith is a bad ass, I just wish I could rewind 15 years. Anyway, don’t take this report as gospel, just hope and hope and hope some more; I’ll pray with you brothers and sisters.
Sheffield’s Doc/Fest came to a close yesterday and I stayed true to my agenda, making a point to catch a screening of Penny Woolcock’s latest film, 1 Day, before the festivities wound down. Essentially a hip-hop musical, the film is an entertaining look at life on the streets of Birmingham for young black youths. I admire Woolcock’s effort because it’s always hard to make films like this, authenticity is a big issue and for people that have never experienced the circumstances depicted, we can never be sure as to whether it really hits home or not. From an entertainment point of view, however, I was thoroughly enamoured with Woolcock’s script, the lyrics provided by the actors and the excellent performance from Dylan Duffus as the protagonist, Flash. I cared about what would happen to Flash and his friends, whether or not he would overcome his hardships and even forgave some of the deplorable acts he committed, in short, I was enjoying it.
Even though I have respect for Woolcock’s back catalogue, 1 Day was still better than I expected and find it astonishing that it has been banned from public viewing in the West Midlands. The censorship needs to be overturned and everybody needs to watch this. Oh, and I want a soundtrack release, ‘Ride Again’ is brutal.
I attended a panel entitled ‘What Filmmakers Can Learn From Pirates’ led by Brit Doc’s Jess Search as part of Sheffield’s international documentary festival yesterday and, as a supporter of sharing, was pleased to discover that it wasn’t met with opposition and developed as a fair and open discussion of the benefits of piracy to the industry. As expected, the dialogue mainly focused on methods of film marketing and distribution and how filmmakers can monetize the online audience, with Jamie King – of Steal This Film notoriety – detailing his free service Vodo and explaining how dealing with The Pirate Bay allowed him to gain a huge audience for his work without the need to interact with any large distributors. There was also some interesting input regarding civil liberties and surveillance societies from MEP Amelia Andersdotter of the Swedish Pirate Party and leader of the newly established Pirate Party UK, Andrew Robinson.
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The premise of Salt reminds me of Minority Report, which is ironic because apparently Tom Cruise was first choice for Angelina Jolie’s role. A CIA agent who is accused of being a sleeper for the Russian Government in a plot to kill the President? It would have been massive in the ’90s. Still, the trailer is fairly intriguing, if a little grainy (ooo, how gritty). Yahoo won’t allow me to embed, so here’s a damn link.