In episode #11 discussion of Snow White and the Huntsman and the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter leads to talk of awkward accents, hot archers, and history lessons from fiction novels. Plus some lessons that Disney probably shouldn’t have taught us.
The roaring 20s they were called, a time for good music, good times and as much liquor as you could drink. That is, if you could find the booze. The 1920 Prohibition Act made it illegal to produce and transport alcohol in the United States for more than ten years. Not that many people abided by this rule; in fact many people took this law as a challenge. Not the least of these was the notorious bootleggers the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County Virginia.
I am not sure how many of you remember the movie Highlander, which premiered in 1986, starring Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish highlander. Throughout the film Lambert is trying to stay alive while waiting for the Gathering, when all of these immortal men will gather in one place to fight to the death, until only one remains. Remember those last words; you hear them so much it hurts in the film. A whole bunch of stuff happens, bad acting, horrible battle scenes, awful effects…do you see where I am going with this? To top it all off this film had three sequels and spawned one of the cheesiest TV series that were so bad they were amazing! Christopher Lambert was just as sexy then, as a ruggedly good looking highland warrior, as he is today.
On July 6 in the US and September 28 in the UK, Oliver Stone’s new film Savages will be released in theaters. It’s based on Don Winslow’s 2010 novel with the same name that details the conflict that three 20-somethings have when a drug cartel attempts to buy out their small family marijuana business.
With a screenplay written by the combination of the Winslow, Stone and Shane Salerno, the film has a cast that mixes young Hollywood with acting veterans including Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Benecio Del Toro and Selma Hayak. Several featurette’s are available to watch on the film’s YouTube channel, but here’s my favorite. It’s called ‘I’m a Savage.’
Adaptation co-host Ryan Smith and I were able to see the film at an advanced screening in April. While it’s very possible that they’ve made some changes since then, I feel pretty confident in saying that the footage that’s been released so far is a true representation of the film. It is definitely violent, but in a way that’s truthful, necessary and leaves you emotionally drained at the end. It will be interesting to see if they changed the ending of the film at all though, because that was the part that we both thought should have been done differently (and that’s all I’m going to say until it’s been released).
Has anyone read the novel? What do you hope to get out of the film?
Leave your answers in the comments!
With less than a week left before the July 3rd premiere of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, the hype and hysteria caused by the Marvel web-slinger is being continually fueled by new sneak peeks and teaser information about the film itself. Most recently, they released two 7-minute videos of behind-the-scene footage, in which the directors and cast discuss the characters, the effects, the story, and much more!
So, where to start?
Two admissions: one, I am a big fan of Philip K. Dick and two, I have never seen the 1990 Arnold Schwartzenegger version of Total Recall.
I know, I know. How can I call myself a fan? Honestly, P.K. Dick’s short story We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale (1966) was enough for me. I didn’t feel like I needed to see some pumped up action film to appreciate the simple genius of the story. Please, feel free to correct this assumption in the comments.
And now I find myself in a bit of a dilemma as there is a remake coming out. Starring Colin Farrell. And if I see it, it’s going to look like I went for the eye candy. To correct this, Adaptation will be doing an episode where we talk about the story and both films. But while we wait for the film to be released, here’s the new trailer to tide you over:
Since Mary Shelley’s novel was published in 1818, Frankenstein’s monster has been reinvented multiple times, most famously in James Whale’s 1931 film adaptation starring Boris Karloff. In 1984, however, director Tim Burton and screenwriter Leonard Ripps took the old monster movie in a new direction.
In a live-action short starring Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern and Barret Oliver entitled Frankenweenie, Burton tells the story of a young boy named Victor who tragically loses his dog to a car, but brings him back to life with lightning. You can watch the 30 minute short in full on YouTube, which if you’ve seen the 1931 version of Frankenstein is very obviously an homage. Some scenes would be deja-vu-inducing if it weren’t for the fact that the ‘monster’ is an adorable pet. This year, Burton is teaming up with screenwriter John August to make an animated remake.
Over the past month there’s been a lot of buzz circling Warner Bros. and DC Comics, and their upcoming plans to turn several DC properties into films. One of those projects was rumored to be directed by Men in Black III’s Barry Sonnenfeld — an adaptation of the comic The Metal Men.
Unless you are a DC comic fanatic or aficionado, you might not be very aware of The Metal Men – though, they did briefly made a cameo in comic-book form on Mad Men.
The premise, however, is one that seems very familiar and easily adaptable for today’s audiences. I even thought I might have seen a bit when I was a kid, but I couldn’t put my finger on if I actually had.
Essentially the story follows a group of artificially intelligent robots created by a scientist, Doctor Magnus, with each one taking on a different chemical element. There’s Gold, Lead, Mercury, Tin and Platinum, and they all have personalities relative to their element as well as having a power similar to it.
Even though The Metal Men have stayed pretty obscure over the years, they have had a few reboots.
After their first appearance in their own comics in the 1960s and 1970s, they got a bit of a change in the 1990s version where the Metal Men are human personalities and intellects that are transferred into blank robots via a lab accident instead of being artificial intelligence. Doctor Magnus is still the creator, but his family, co-workers and apparently a pizza-delivery man named Jack – are the personalities.
In the 2000s they reappeared in the Infinite Crisis series as well as the Superman/Batman series where they gain another female character, the sarcastic Copper, and also fall under Brainiac’s control for a short time. Also, there was a storyline where Doctor Magnus’s brother tries to avert a catastrophic future event by turning the Metal Men into evil, radioactive versions of themselves called the Death Metal Men.
Check out the Metal Men with Batman in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Over the years the Metal Men have been seen fighting alongside Batman, Superman and the Justice League. Not to say that we will ever see the Metal Men in a Justice League film, but if they become a success, who knows, right? –As long as those darn Wonder Twins don’t show up!
It is hard to say, at this moment, what way they will go with this amazingly undiscovered team, but as Warner Bros had said originally when rumors circled that they were working on “an adaptation of a “secret ’60s comic book”. We can assume they may stay true to the original story – but when it comes to Hollywood, who knows. Still, I like all the versions of The Metal Men to be excited for the film. It really could be a monster franchise for Warners if they get it right.
Do you think this will be the next big series franchise?
That’s the tagline for director Rob Cohen’s new film Alex Cross which is an adaptation of James Patterson’s novel Cross, the twelfth in his series featuring his most famous character, you guessed it, Alex Cross. In the novel, the plot revolves around a series of killings in Washington D.C. that are related to a mob boss that Alex thinks is responsible for killing his wife over a decade in the past.
The film, however, seems to have simplified this plot to a serial killer that just enjoys inflicting pain. Starring Tyler Perry as the title character and Matthew Fox as the crazed serial killer, the film will be released October 19 in the US and November 30 in the UK. The screenwriters on the project are Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson. Here is the first look at the trailer and the film poster:
Last week I implied that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in The Dark Knight Rises, John Blake, is a the way that filmmakers are trying to side-step the Robin character while still including some of his storyline. My argument was based on the fact that John Blake is a completely made-up character with a name similar to Tim Drake and he is not only being played by an extremely big actor, but is also featured heavily in the trailer.
One thing that I failed to mention, however, is the fact that the villain featured in the film, Bane, is the same one that breaks Batman’s back in Knightfall, forcing Jean-Paul Valley to put on the bat suit. It makes sense then, that John Blake would be a kind of mixture between Tim Drake and Jean-Paul, especially given the footage we see in the trailer, making it seem like Bane does get the better of Batman. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
No sooner had we posted the last Catching Fire casting update than it was discovered that, not only was Mia Wasikowska never considering the role of Johanna, but she would not be able to due to previous commitments. Do not fret my little fans; this is not the only rumor that has surfaced in the last few hours.
Here is another casting scoop for all you Hunger Games fans: Johanna Mason. You know her; she is the axe throwing, tree costume wearing, bad ass from district 7 who teams up with Katniss and Peeta in the 75th Hunger Games. So who will play her? Well that remains to be seen, though the director has been in talks with not only well known actresses, but some undiscovered talent as well. Who are these women, you ask?
The legacy of Paddington Bear began in 1958 with creator and author Michael Bond. Bond wrote the first book after he noticed a teddy bear all by itself in a store near Paddington station in London, the eventual namesake of the bear. In the story, Paddington is found in the station after traveling from ‘darkest Peru’ with a note pinned to his jacket that says, ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ He is taken in by the Brown family and proceeds to have adventures around the London.
Since the creation of Paddington, he has spawned over twenty books, a television show and toy bears in his image, along with other merchandise. Now, coming in 2014 there will be a movie produced by David Heyman of Harry Potter fame.
There has been talk of the project since 2007, with Hamish McColl writing the script for the live-action film that will feature a CGI Paddington. Finally, this week we got the first look:
The character of Judge Dredd was created in 1977 for 2000 AD, a British science fiction anthology. Creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra placed him in a futuristic world where ‘judges’ were given all the powers to judge, sentence and execute law breakers.
In 1995 the extremely popular comics were turned into a movie directed by Danny Cannon. With a story by screenwriters William Wisher Jr and Steven E. de Souza, the film’s critical reception was lacking in enthusiasm, despite a cast that included Sylvester Stallone as Judd Dredd accompanied by Armand Assante, Diane Lane and Rob Schneider.
This year, director Pete Travis is giving Dredd new life. Earlier this week, the trailer for the upcoming film debuted:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, published in 2004, won the Literary Fiction Award at the British Book Awards and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year Award. It tells six interconnected stories that range from the 1850s on a Pacific Ocean voyage to current day Britain to futuristic, post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Each story is nested into the next through an observer or reader and left unresolved until the end.
The film adaptation is written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix, V for Vendetta). The cast includes Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent.
On September 7, Kiera Knightley will join the likes of Greta Garbo, Vivian Leigh, Jacqueline Bisset and Helen McCrory in playing the title character of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. The novel tells the tale of a socialite’s extramarital affair and the repercussions in her aristocratic circle. It has has been adapted to film, stage, television, opera, ballet and even radio.
Earlier this week, the new film version which pairs director Joe Wright with Knightley for the third time (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) came out with this new poster and trailer:
It has begun.
That’s right…the official cast announcements for the upcoming Mortal Instruments film, based on the ever-popular series by Cassandra Clare!
And in an unexpected—but not unwelcome—twist on Hollywood protocol, the author herself has been given the go-ahead to break the news of who’s playing whom, posting her impressions of new casting decisions on her blog for all her devoted followers to read.
Although the official Twilight saga YouTube channel refers to this only as the second teaser, it sure feels like a full on trailer, especially since the last three have been under a minute long and told us very little about the storyline. The newest however, outlines the main plot of the film nicely, for anyone that doesn’t already know (do those people still exist?).
The trailer doesn’t give us a good look at Renesmee, though it does point to her as the catalyst in the conflict. I would think they were trying to make her appearance a surprise if not for the pictures we’ve already seen. It does, however, provide a few more shots of the new characters that assemble to help the Cullens, and hints that we might actually get some action in the film, despite the book’s lack of it.
Rumor has it that he will. Over at BleedingCool.com, Brendon Connelly admits he’s been getting many email tips claiming that they have inside sources or have gotten a sneak peek. But, as he can’t prove it, he’s chalking it up to speculation. On the other hand, with the new trailer (below) released on the 19th, he is willing to admit that it makes sense.
I’m willing to take it a step further. Gordon-Levitt is credited with the role of John Blake in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and he seems to be a prominent part of the trailer. However, a quick search on the DC Comics Database found only one mention of a John Blake, that of Adam Blake’s (Captain Comet) deceased father. However, the name does sound a bit like Tim Drake, Batman’s third Robin. It’s a leap, I know, but stay with me.
Along with a press release announcing the beginning of production on the 2014 film, Disney also gave fans the first look at Angelina Jolie (Wanted) donning the iconic Maleficent headdress. The film will focus on the origin of this famous Disney baddie and explain what pushed her to the point of cursing the princess in an attempt to hurt her family and the kingdom.
The character is a Disney invention from their version of the Grimm Brothers original story where the thirteenth fairy curses the princess and then proceeds to never be heard from again. In their 1959 adaptation of the tale, Disney expanded the character to a level of determined resentment that certainly merits explanation considering that, as far as we know, all King Stephan did was not invite her to a party.
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