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Tuesday

06Jan

New to Home Video: 'Pineapple Express,' 'Galactica,' and Garbage

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 5:02AM

We are definitely not in love with this week's assortment of DVDs. Yes, there are a couple you should definitely check out, but at least two of the worst films of 2008 are arriving on shelves today - one of which is so bad it overshadows the few good things that are also new this week. I guess we should expect as much in the first week of the year; it's not like the bar for entertainment is set very high with what's coming to theaters on Friday, ditto the People's Choice Awards.

We'll begin with the good, though, so you can avoid the bad.

Pineapple Express

Not my favorite of the Apatow movies, this Seth Rogen-written action comedy certainly has its moments. James Franco is great, and I find it impossible to not be entertained by Danny McBride. But somewhere around the time Rogen becomes an action hero, jumping from second story platforms onto bad guy Gary Cole, it lost its charm to me.

There is a great final scene, however, which helped raise its stock, but I don't know that it lived up to the advance hype.

Pineapple Express comes in four flavors: R-rated DVD, Unrated DVD, Unrated Special Edition Two-Disc DVD, and Unrated Special Edition Two-Disc Blu-Ray.

(Here's our review, you potheads)

The Wackness

Hey, speaking of pot...

This was one of my favorite risks of 2008. It's a simple story masquerading as something more complicated, concerning a listless rich kid in New York (Josh Peck) who sells dope to his shrink (Ben Kingsley) and has a thing for his shrink's step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby).

It has a really good energy to it, and some worthwhile performances. Also, I'm not sure how many movies are really going for this honor right now, but The Wackness truly captures 1994 in a very cool way, without being kitschy.

(Here's our review)

Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.0

I remember watching the original Battlestar Galactica with Dirk Benedict and Lorne By God Greene and never thinking, "One day, something very cool and almost groundbreaking will come out this poorly-written sci-faux." And yet, it sure has: Galactica is one of the smartest shows of its kind, and it's getting ready for a new spin-off next year.

The official selling points for this set says it includes "over 5 hours of explosive bonus features including deleted scenes, featurettes, podcasts & more! Plus, see the unrated, extended version of Battlestar Galactica: Razor that didn't air on TV!" Sounds like a deal for under $50.

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Tuesday

06Jan

Writer John August Says 'Shazam!' is Dead

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 2:53AM

If you're wondering what's up with Shazam!, please take a seat in the John August section. August, the screenwriter of Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and the Charlie's Angels movies, among others, was hired about two years ago to write an adaptation of the Captain Marvel comic book, also known as Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam, keeping much of its tradition in tact. Or at least that's how it was being reported, more or less.

But now on his blog, August reports that Shazam! is no more, this after a series of rewrites that saw the direction of the project change without his influence.

Chronicling the entire life of the project, August writes:

"I was under contract to deliver one more draft. So I took them at their (written) word and delivered what they said they wanted: a much harder movie, with a lot more Black Adam. This wasn’t “Big, with super powers” anymore. It was Black Adam versus Captain Marvel, with a considerable push into dark territory and liminal badlands like Nanda Parbat. It wasn’t the action-comedy I’d signed on to write, but it was a movie I could envision getting made. The producer and director liked it, and turned it in to the studio while I was in France.
By the time I got back, the project was dead.
By 'dead,' I mean that it won’t be happening. I don’t think it’s on the studio’s radar at all. It may come back in another incarnation, with another writer, but I can say with considerable certainty that it won’t be the version I developed."

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Tuesday

06Jan

Five More Minutes from 'Taken' with Liam Neeson

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:10AM

Sure, it's easy to pick a winner in January, but the quality of the films that surround it notwithstanding, I'm more and more intrigued by Taken, a new revenge flick directed by Pierre Morel and co-written by Luc Besson. Liam Neeson stars as a former spy who has to rely on his training to track down the kidnappers of his teenage daughter (Maggie Grace from Lost) after she's abducted overseas.

Taken is in a unique position with its distribution; the film has already come and gone in almost every major territory in the world. In fact, only Germany will get Taken after it opens in the U.S. The good news is that it has already done quite well with audiences around the globe, earning $68 million overseas in 2008. That means the film has a little house money to play within the next couple of weeks in terms of marketing.

And based on what we've seen, it's a movie worth marketing. We shared a clip with you a few days ago, and hells yeah about that one. Now IGN has a five-minute sizzle reel from Taken, which also happens to include that clip, plus several other crucial moments from the film.

Taken opens in the U.S. on January 30th, and in Germany on February 19th, and I'm damned excited for it.

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Tuesday

06Jan

Four More Added to 'Law Abiding Citizen'

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:22AM

Things are starting to look up for Law Abiding Citizen. The project was admittedly on shaky ground when Frank Darabont departed and was replaced by F. Gary Gray. Nothing against Gray, but...

Now the Jamie Foxx/ Gerard Butler crime drama is about to speed into production, and four new cast members have been named by The Hollywood Reporter. Michael Gambon, Leslie Bibb, Colm Meaney, and Theresa Randle will join the cast of the Butler-produced movie about a District Attorney who negotiates a plea bargain for the release from prison of the killers of a man's family. The victimized civilian then seeks revenge against the D.A.

Butler will play the vigiliante, Foxx the District Attorney, although those roles have been switched in recent months.

It's a good concept - another spin on the justice-over-law genre - but getting the film to this point has not been smooth sailing. In addition to Darabont, Kurt Wimmer and David Ayer have reportedly tried their hand at the script, and now The Longest Yard writer Sheldon Turner is giving it a look before the film begins shooting on January 21st.

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Monday

05Jan

New Kubrick Art Installation Reveals Unfinished Film

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 11:18PM

You've never seen the Stanley Kubrick Holocaust film Aryan Papers because he never shot it. However, in the years before his death, Kubrick had committed countless hours to Aryan Papers, an adaptation of the 1991 Louis Begley novel, Wartime Lies.

But now The Guardian reports that parts of the film will be seen by the general public, with twin sisters and artists Jane and Louise Wilson bringing Aryan Papers to life in a new art installation to open at the British Film Institute on February 13th.

The sisters had been invited to look through the Kubrick archives at the University of London for something that would inspire them to create a piece for the BFI, and though the knowledge of this film was extremely limited - Kubrick was notoriously secretive about his projects - it was the project the sisters immediately took to.

"We did feel a bit like kids in a sweetshop and there is so much there you could easily spend days in there, it really is incredible," said Louise. "Of course the films he has made are so well known we wanted to concentrate on something he hadn't done."

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Monday

05Jan

Lionsgate Trying to Buy TV Guide Network

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 9:44PM

At the end of last week, we told you about an investment bank essentially warning its clients about Lionsgate stock. On the heels of a very bad fourth quarter of 2008, minus the success of Saw V, an analyst prospected that the future of the company very likely hinged on the performance of next week's My Bloody Valentine 3-D.

We wondered if the studio collapsing was really likely due to the many successful ventures Lionsgate has its hands in. Our educated guess was probably not.

And apparently, that's the way Lionsgate feels about it, too, having just reached a deal to acquire TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online for $255 million. Variety reports that a proposed agreement in December between Macrovision, which currently owns the TV Guide properties, and a group headed by investor Allen Shapiro had been "terminated," opening the door for Lionsgate.

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Monday

05Jan

First Look at Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 7:22PM

I think Audrey Tautou and Amélie were robbed for some Oscar nominations several years ago. Though she has popped up in a few major films since - think The Da Vinci Code and Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things - she has kept a fairly low profile in the U.S., but then, she always maintained that she preferred to work in Europe, anyway.

How does that jive with playing one of the more high profile women of the 20th Century? We'll find out, probably at the end of the year, when we see Tautou as designer Coco Chanel in Coco avant Chanel (Coco before Chanel), a biopic chronicling the early years in the career of one of Time's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

The Bad and the Ugly has some new production photos of Tautou as Coco, and I think we call all agree it's pretty terrific casting.

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Monday

05Jan

Roundtable with Best Director Hopefuls

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 5:53PM

The Hollywood Reporter recently conducted a roundtable discussion with six directors who are having their names thrown out for end of the year honors to talk about how they work and the projects that have them on the front burner at this point in time.

Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Danny Boyle, Ed Zwick, Darren Aronofsky, and Gus Van Sant all work a little differently, so it's worthwhile to hear not only how they approach their work, but also to see how intently they listen to the other artists in the discussion. The most telling thing to me was watching what these much younger filmmakers have to say.

Missing from this unofficial gab session is Christopher Nolan, and despite that just being an obvious oversight (unless there were scheduling issues or something), it would have been a fascinating perspective given the success of that film and its larger budget in comparison to the other movies represented. Obviously, David Fincher would have something to say on the subject of making films, as well.

And I don't know why Gus Van Sant isn't actually included in the comments. My only thought on that is that more video is on the way in this series. Let's hope so, because it's pretty rewarding stuff.

On Becoming Directors

On Ideas

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Monday

05Jan

'Button,' 'Slumdog,' 'Dark Knight' Among Producers Guild Nominees

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 1:56PM

Now we're getting somewhere. The Producers Guild of America has released its list of nominees for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, and Best Documentary.

Why is this significant? Because over the past 18 years, the PGA (or the other PGA if you're a golfer) has predicted the Best Picture nominees for the Academy Award with 75% accuracy. That means that three of these are surefire nominees and the other two have a real good chance. Here are the nominees for Best Picture, as revealed by Awards Daily:

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight

Which of those would you throw out of your Best Picture category? Unless the Oscars goes really off the deep end, those are the five most likely contenders. There's room for Doubt, pardon the pun, and maybe Wall-E and/or The Wrestler, but that's about it. I don't think there's a strong chance that Slumdog, Button, or Frost/Nixon are falling out of the race.

The Dark Knight, while I'd be very surprised by an Oscar win in that category, is also hard to overlook. I think Milk is the weakest of the five films, for whatever that's worth, but I'll admit that I'm in the minority there.

But you can certainly expect three of these - and maybe all five - to be announced as Best Picture nominees come January 21st.

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Monday

05Jan

Turner Classic's Classy 2008 Tribute

Monday, January 5, 2009 at 1:15PM

Though it hasn't been updated to reflect the passing of Eartha Kitt, here's the impeccable 2008 Turner Classic Movies tribute to the stars and artists we lost in the past year. There are, of course, many heavyweights - Newman, Carlin, Ledger, Heston - and then there are some you might not recognize simply by their names, but then you see them on screen and an old memory becomes a new one.