Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs Duo To Helm Lego Film

While I utterly hate the idea of an actual film based in the world of or surrounding the famous child toy known as the Lego, you really couldn’t ask for a better group to get behind it.

According to Heat Vision, writer/directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the same mind behind last year’s surprisingly solid animated comedy, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, have signed on to bring this legendary toy to the big screen.

The duo have given pitches to executives involved with the project, and while this films sounds completely and utterly dreadful, as most films of this nature due, I can’t help but think that this could be the rare occasion where it may truly succeed. The two of them are truly talented comedic filmmakers, and while the source material doesn’t seem to be able to make for much of an interesting story, neither did the story for Meatballs, so really, this could be just as big of a surprise. My breath isn’t being held, but hopes are a little high for this one.

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NEWS: Justin Theroux To Pen Space Invaders...

This week has been a week full of WTF moments. Hell, the past few months have left me uttering those three words more than I would like to admit.

Well, add another instance of the famous three letter acronym to the book, and this time, it may actually end up being the rare instance where a project may ultimately make a well made film.

It appears as though Justin Theroux, Tropic Thunder and Iron Man 2 scribe, has been hired to pen a new draft of the astronaut rom-com, Space Invader. The actor-turned-screenwriter is taking over the project which had the original draft penned by Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger, for 20th Century Fox. According to sources, the concept is actually interesting and sounds pretty decent.

Here’s the concept from an early scriptshadow review of the first draft:

Doug, the space shuttle janitor, watches helplessly as his astronaut girlfriend heads off on a 3 month International Space Station mission with Stamp Majors, all-American astronaut superstar and philanthropist (think a cross between a real life version of Buzz Lightyear, and the character Owen Wilson plays in Meet The Parents ). He begins to think that the two are getting it on and decides to…um…intervene. Really liked this one. It’s pretty broad but there are some great touches. We’ve all been in that position where our boyfriend/girlfriend is going to be in close quarters with some attractive dude/chick for a weekend trip or something and in the back of our minds are thinking, “Should I go there?” Of course we never do (well, ahem, most of the time we don’t) but in this case Doug takes it to the extreme, and decides to actually fly his way up to the International Space Station to make sure his girlfriend doesn’t bang Stamp.

With Will Arnet still attached, the project seems to still be on the ground, but instead of being a Fox Atomic production, it’s shifted to the father studio, which could be a good sign. I do like the premise, and like ScriptShadow points out, the story seems pretty relateable.

This is what makes projects like this, Risk, and Battleship intriguing. NO ONE thought of this style of story when playing the original game. This lack of any basic story allows the screenwriters, Theroux being a favorite of mine, to really just go off into any tangents that they want, and while this one just sounds like a rather broad rom-com, it also sounds rather interesting.

At least it’s not off the deep end like Battleship, and not completely crazy stupid like Monopoly, so this is easily my most anticipated board game/old video game adaptation announced yet.

What do YOU think?

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NEWS: The Road To Move Release Dates...Again...

So, the bastard son of John Hillcoat and the Weinstein Company (or as the latter makes it seem like), The Road continues to have a tumultuous release, even though it has garnered quite a bit of buzz coming out of Toronto, and fellow festivals.

A few months ago, the dystopian-end-of-the-world drama was set to hit theatres across the country on November 25, the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. However, it appears as though those plans have once again changed, and not for the better.

The Playlist is reporting that “according to a email we received about local theater chain markets, the film has reverted back to a limited release roll-out plan.” It looks as though the November 25th release date is now simply a New York/L.A. release, instead of a wide one, at it would appear that, hopefully at least, the film would expand in the following weeks.

Sure, it’s gotten mostly mixed reviews, but with Oscar support behind star Viggo Mortensen, those chances are slowly shrinking, especially with fellow TWC film, Nine, hitting wide on the 25th, and getting much of TWC’s Oscar bank.

The Playlist also points out that TWC has been having some/ much publicized money problems, so with the brunt of marketing going to the big time musical, Nine, look for The Road to get the short end of the already minute TWC Oscar stick.

What do YOU think? Does The Road still have a shot, even though Rob Marshall, director of the Academy Award winning Chicago is also hitting theatres with Nine, another TWC film?

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VIDEO: James Franco On General Hospital...

Uh, this is kind of brilliant. Just enjoy. The title of this post says it all.

Thanks to Collider for the heads up.



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NEWS: The Monopoly Film Is Exactly What We Thought It Would Be...

One would hope that, with Ridley Scott at the help, the upcoming Monopoly film would at least sound a tad bit interesting, and could somehow be solid, but nothing, and I mean nothing, could have led anyone to believe that the film would be as George-Lucas-esque bad as the recently discussed premise is. Here’s what Frank Beddor, the man behind the mustache (well, at least the film and its concept), had to say.

[H]e’s in this very vibrant place, Monopoly City, and he’s just come out of a Chance Shop. As it goes on, he takes on the evil Parker Brothers in the game of Monolopy. He has to defeat them. It tries to incorporate all the iconic imageries - a sports car pulls up, there’s someone on a horse, someone pushing a wheelbarrow - and rich Uncle Pennybags, you’re going to see him as the maître d’ at the restaurant and he’s the buggy driver and the local eccentric and the doorman at the opera. There’s all these sight gags.

Uhh, yeah. I honestly have no idea what to say.

Hero Complex, who had the scoop on all of Beddor’s verbal vomit, goes on to discuss the character who we will follow, who happens to be a “comedic, loveable loser, who’s not so hot at his job in Real Estate.” Comparisons to Jumanji and Zathura have run rampant throughout the web, and honestly, those comparisons are for the hopeful. This thing sounds beyond “Indiana Jones 4” style stupidity.

That said, /Film brings up a good point, that this guy, Beddor, is NOT penning the final screenplay, and Pamela Pettler is. Throughout a films production, screenplays change, stories shift, and movies grow and change equally. This needs that to happen, and fast. We don’t know what will be the final story, but how awful the story sounds, and how corny all of the iconography is, just leaves me even more worried about the project than I previously was.

All in all, this is not a project that I have too high of hopes for. Ridley Scott is showing that he may (doubtfully) be losing a step, at least with Body of Lies, but overall, I still have faith in him. But only when the source material works, and this is the polar opposite of that. Chance Shop? That should kind of spell out what the f*** for those out of the 1st grade.

What do YOU think?

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VIDEO: Why You Need To See Antichrist...

Uh, yeah...Awesome...



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WTF: Quinton Jackson As B.A. Baracus...First Photo...Discuss...

Discuss...

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NEWS: Tonight We Dine In Hell...Or Instead, Fox Parts The Seas For Moses Re-telling...

Yeah, that headline is confusing, but just go with me.

Variety is reporting that the same team who is currently working on the graphic-novel style take on Moby Dick for Universal (to be directed by Timur Bekmambetov), have sold a pitch to Fox, based on the idea of re-telling the tale of Moses, all while doing it in the style of 300, or as /Film put it:

Yep, Moses will soon be using the stone tablets bearing God’s laws to knock heads in at a theatre near you. The Bear Jew? Guy’s a pussy compared to this Moses.

The Variety report is based on a pre-preemptive pitch purchase at Fox. Starting with “his near death as an infant to his adoption into the Egyptian royal family, his defiance of the Pharaoh and deliverance of the Hebrews from enslavement.”

Here is how Variety puts it:

The Moses story will be told using the same green screen strategy as "300," so it will feel more like that pic or "Braveheart" than "The Ten Commandments,” the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film.

The popular mythical and magical elements inherent in the Book of Exodus will be there--including the plagues visited upon Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea--but the Cooper & Collage version will also include new elements of Moses’ life that the writers culled from Rabbinical Midrash and other historical sources.

This idea is completely off my radar. Not only is it a Fox project, so until they prove to me that they can make something worth my time, the benefit of the doubt will not be theirs, but the idea of a 300-style film has me cringing in my gladiator sandals. I loathe that film like a Spartan father does his mentally handicapped midget spawn, and the thought of a ruggedly attractive moses parting the Red Sea in some sort of Zack Snyder meets Roland Emmerich love child, CGI-infested hell child, has me wanting to shove a coat hanger up that plans vagina a.s.a.p. Also, the next biblical story that I want to see put to screen, the only one I want to see at this point in time is Aronofsky's Noah's Ark, and until then, don't come a knocking at this door.

That all said, I do totally understand the appeal of this idea. Take a biblical tale, throw rivers of blood in it, and give it a gritty, video-game kind of look to it, and you will easily have a hit on your hand, and one that I will inevitably see. Such is the way of running a film site. However, it's a thought that intrigues me about as much as the thought of getting a reach around from an Asian midget with three arms. Yeah, about as appealing.

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NEWS: Joe Shuster Fetish Art Book To Be Film?

So hear this out for a minute.

Arguably the most influential comic book character in the history of pop culture was created by a dynamic duo of writers. One of these people was Joe Shuster. However, not all of what Shuster did had to do with the man from Krypton. Actually, in the '50's he published a series of fetish art books, called Nights Of Horror.

Well, a new book chronicling these pieces of fetish art, entitled "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster" by Craig Yoe has been optioned as a feature film. Here is what /Film had to say about the story:

According to Craig Yoe’s book Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster, Shuster was the man behind a series of fetish comics called Nights of Horror, produced while he was in dire financial straits due to lawsuits over Superman copyrights. Now, Variety says, The Gotham Group has optioned the book and is sending it out to writers to create a feature film.

Because the project is in early stages, we don’t know if it will be a straight adaptation of the non-fiction book, or if names and events will be changed. The story itself is certainly lurid enough, as Nights of Terror was cited in 1954 by four boys dubbed the Brooklyn Thrill Killers (they were neo-Nazi jews!) as inspiration for their two murders and other crimes. So you’ve got a bunch of ’50s drive-in movie angles: juvenile delinquincy, sex, violence, anti-comic book paranoia and (supposedly) the mob, which published the books and distributed them to shops in Times Square. (There has been a film made about the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, featuring Dan Fogler of Fanboys.)

This is a piece of news that really has me intrigued. I think learning about this important pop culture figure could not only be interesting, but if done well, really amazing. Just throw David Fincher in the mix, and you have easily one of the most anticipated films I'll be waiting for. What about YOU?

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NEWS/WTF: Fincher To Direct Facebook Film?

So, about a year ago, world renowned screenwriter Aaron Sorkin announced that he was currently working on a screenplay that would be based around Facebook. Well, now the film has a title, and possibly a phenomenal director to take the helm.

Variety is now reporting that Fight Club/Benjamin Button/Panic Room/Zodiac/Se7en (his best film imho)/The Game director David Fincher is now circling, or in their words, in "advanced talks" to add The Social Network to his canon.

Columbia Pictures is in advanced talks with David Fincher to direct "The Social Network," the Aaron Sorkin-scripted film for Columbia Pictures about the formation of Facebook.

The film will focus on the evolution of Facebook from its 2004 creation on the Harvard campus by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to a juggernaut with more than 200 million members.

For those interested, the creation that they are talking about goes something like this:

The advent of Facebook came about as a spin-off of a Harvard University version of Hot or Not called Facemash. Mark Zuckerberg, while attending Harvard as a sophomore, concocted Facemash on October 28, 2003. Zuckerberg was blogging about a girl and trying to think of something to do to get her off his mind. According to The Harvard Crimson, Facemash “used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the ‘hotter’ person.” To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard’s computer network and copied the house’s private dormitory ID images. “Perhaps Harvard will squelch it for legal reasons without realizing its value as a venture that could possibly be expanded to other schools (maybe even ones with good-looking people … ),” Zuckerberg wrote in his personal blog. “But one thing is certain, and it’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well. Someone had to do it eventually … ” The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy and faced expulsion, but ultimately the charges were dropped.

After that, he went on to create "thefacebook.com" and from there on, it's all very publicized history.

This news, while interesting, is a bit weird. Personally, I don't see much in the way of cinematic value that would draw Fincher in, and it really doesn't fit his style, at all. He's been known as a darker film maker, as can be seen by his filmography. Even a tale of love that Benjamin Button can be seen as, is, by the directors own admission, a film about death. This also doesn't feature much of a period or style that can feed Fincher's need-to-be-perfect drive. It's really only been about 5 years since the rise of social networking, so it really doesn't fit anything that follows Fincher's style, nor does it warrant this type of super crew that they have, with Sorkin, Fincher, and mega producer Scott Rudin.

Here's my perfect director. Take Steven Soderbergh off of Moneyball, and give him this. Give him a 1-5 million dollar, if even that, budget, and let him go as experimental as the guy wants. THAT is what this film should be like. I'm not saying that Fincher will do a bad job, as I think the film will be amazing, hopefully, with this guys phenomenal direction, but it just seems a bit weird to me.

What about YOU?

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WTF: Where's Waldo? Well, In Your Cinema...

Yeah, I know what you are saying. WTF is Where's Waldo doing in a cinematic form? Well, Universal, who seems more like a pimp than a film studio, has now moved from molesting Hasbro for everything they have, and is now moving onto a film adaptation of the famous children's book, according to THR.

Before you all get out your guns and put them in your mouths, this isn't the first time that an adaptation of the book has been tried (or should that make you get them faster?) Originally planed for a Paramount/Nickelodeon release, the film was originally described as "Waldo, now 30, ends up traveling through time after accidentally activating a malfunctioning travel machine." Yeah, nothing hugely impressive or cool, but at least it's not a film about some random guy who can't be found. Actually, if you give this to Spike Jonze, you would have a masterpiece. Think Being John Malkovich but just more crazy. Now I'm even more depressed. Not to mention that this IS the studio that will be behind Monopoly, Stretch Armstrong, Battleship, and Candyland.

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POSTER: Richard Kelly's The Box...

Man, do I lose more respect for Kelly, and his films, including the shockingly bad piece of cult drek that is Donnie Darko, every second. Especially with horrible posters like this.



I will not even justify this poster with further discussion.

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WTF?: Assassination of a High School President Going Direct To DVD?

This can't happen, and we all have to do what we can in our little power to stop it. /Film reports...

At the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Yari Film Group premiered Brett Simon’s Assassination of a High School President, a film noir mystery set inside the world of a John Hughes-style High School comedy. It quickly emerged as one of the underdogs on the schedule to become one of the most buzzed about films at the festival. Unfortunately, Yari Film Group was forced into involuntary bankruptcy, and the film has been sitting on the shelf ever since. This has presented a very serious problem for theatrical distribution, and because of the legalities of bankruptcy court, the timing of this economic downturn and a whole slew of other worst-case-scenarios, Assassination is on the verge of losing its opportunity to have the theatrical run it deserves.

There might still be hope. Studios are still deciding whether or not they want to take a financial risk by buying the theatrical rights, spending cash on P&A and distributing the movie theatrically. Sony has the home video distribution rights, and from a business standpoint, they think it makes more sense to send the film direct to dvd. But I, like many others, think that Assassination of a High School President deserves to be seen on the big screen. What can you do? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, become a fan of the film on Facebook, and spread the word. Distributors like Sony Pictures Classics, Samuel Goldwyn, Fox Searchlight, etc need to see that there’s an audience out there waiting for an opportunity to see this film.

Not only did /Film love the film, but so did many others...

Ken Evans called it “a film that I fell in love with within the first 15 minutes” and “I would have walked right back into the theater to see again if I could have.”

Mel Valentin called it “wholly satisfying, enthralling high school-noir every bit the equal of Brick.”

MTV said “the film is stuffed with so many rapid-fire laughs that you’ll need to watch it multiple times — especially so you can memorize all the super-quotable lines.”

Film School Rejects said it one of those films that makes you “want to run to the top of a mountain and shout its praises”, calling it “smart, sexy and rich with supporting characters that are at some points as interesting as those who get the spotlight.”

ComingSoon called it “a funnier and more biting look at high school than any we’ve seen in some time”.

UGO calls it “nothing short of brilliant, a hilarious noir-comedy mixture in which each character is more colorful than the last.”

FirstShowing says “The comedy never stops, the story is full of twists that keep you on the edge of your seat, and overall this is one of the best balances of mystery and comedy that I’ve seen in ages” and calls it “a great movie that deserves endless appreciation.”

Aint It Cool News says “it’s witty characters and style make it the kind of film you’d want to visit a few times over just to hang out with it a little more.”


Seriously, if a film like Slumdog Millionaire can get taken out of the DVD doldrums, a true independent film, with a ton of style and a true breathe of fresh air in the world of cinema, can have the same done for it. Check out it's Facebook page, and leave a comment there or at any of the above linked websites. Anything that has critics saying the films name and Brick in the same sentence, while having a straight face, is good in my book.

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WTF MATE?: Fox To Go Full Retard...

Really Fox? Do these guys know ANYTHING about something other than pissing off trillions of fans? /Film reports...

File this in your the “Yet another way Fox has found to inspire geek hate” folder: According to a report by VideoBusiness (Via CNet), 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is going to start stripping rental DVDs SKUs of special features like commentaries and featurettes, in a horrendously misguided attempt to spur retail DVD sales. Retail copies available for purchase will retain all the special features. This policy will begin on March 31st, when DVD releases like Marley & Me, and Slumdog Millionaire will be subject to the features removal. Other Fox films such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Wrestler, and Notorious, will soon face the same fate.

I don't like to use salty language, but Fox..

Fuck you

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