Out Of The Ether 3/8/10

What's new in the movie world? Well, there are a few things hitting the intrawebz this last week that seem worthy of passing on. The Academy Awards were broadcast last night, everyone and their brother are going to be writing about that, and some of them are probably going to be able to score interviews with winners, etc. So, I'm skipping that. If I can find the time, I might throw a separate post together which will just be about the Oscars, the winners and non-winners, and so on.

There is some other big news though. There's a new Iron man 2 trailer out and........... it looks bad ass. I'm more excited about this sequel now than I was prior to the original, and these days, I don't really get very excited for sequels. CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

In other news related to both sequels and trailers, there's a new trailer for George A. Romeo's Survival Of The Dead. I'm unfortunately underwhelmed. Severely underwhelmed would be the description. I might have high expectations from the man who created the modern zombie film, especially when it comes to zombie films, this is true. At the same time, Land Of The Dead was worse than just not good enough for Romero to have made. it was not good enough for Paul W. S. Anderson to have made, and I liked Resident Evil. Diary Of The Dead was a vast improvement over Land, but it certainly had it's flaws, especially in comparison to The Zombie Diaries, a film whose concept is almost exactly the same and was made a year earlier, but released a year later. If you can handle the disappointment, your bag of lifeless guts of zombie movie is here.

A late edition is the trailer for the Tron Legacy trailer. I haven't even watched it yet, and I'm excited. I loved Tron as a kid. I'm really interested to see what's going to come of this. Check it out here.

 I didn't realize how sequel intensive this edition of Out Of The Ether was going to be until now. But, since we're already at it, here's some more. Zombieland 2 is going to be 3D, but the good 3D. It's going to be filmed in 3D, with 3D projection in mind, not as post production. If you're not sure what I mean, the difference between the two is the difference between My Bloody Valentine 3D and Avatar 3D. One of them looks like the gimmick it is (which I enjoyed thoroughly) and the other looks like another storytelling tool to help create the illusion of an existning world. Of all the 3D projects I've heard or read whispers of lately, I think this one is most appropriate. Zombieland was the perfect kind of over the top, funny, silly to do some really fun things with a 3D image. I'll be looking for all the news I can grab on this one, and I'll pass it along to you all. Bloody Disgusting has the full story.

Here's one I have no clue what to think of, and figured maybe someone out there might be able to sway me one way or the other. The Green Lantern is apparently going to be 3D as well. There's some part of me that recognizes some potential for very cool things with Power Ring and 3D, and flight in 3D is pretty freaking cool, but this might just get silly too. Sucker Punch the film 300 and Watchmen's Zack Snyder is working on will be 3D as well. Whatever you have to say about Snyder's film, he definitely has a great visual style, so he might really make this cool. I'm interested in his Legends Of The Guardians kids fantasy film as well. The story is over at /film (accompanied by some very cool fan art).

Sequels and comic book movies, lots of both this week. For a number of years there's been word of Sam Raimi trying to put together a new film version of The  Shadow. I can't think of any Raimi film I've ever seen that I completely disliked (with the exception of Spiderman 3 which I consider a Sony Studios film), so the idea was always pretty cool. News now is that Raimi won't be directing, but will produce and hand the directing responsibilities off to David Slade, director of Hard Candy and 30 Days Of Night. I like this idea. Hard Candy was a gut punch of a little movie and 30 Days Of Night gave us bad ass vampires in a way we hadn't seen in a long time. Check out the details over at /film.

One of the films which got some good word of mouth at Sundance and sounds pretty interesting is Splice, starring Sarah Polley and Adrian Brody and directed by Cube genius, Vincenzo Natali. Warner Bros. is apparently planning a June release for this bad boy, which is about gene splicing and it's consequences. I'm interested. Find out if you are.

In news of the "What was that you just said?" Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of the visually interesting, narratively handicapped Daywatch, Nightwatch and the recent 9), are going to co-direct Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer. The source material is a book written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who had success with "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" as well.. This could be an absolute blast, but it could be a steaming pile of annoying as well. Two directors who's visual senses are beyond reproach but can sometimes be light on character or story might drive this into the ground. Bloody Disgusting dishes it up for you.

The last bit of news I've got today relates to the Fright Night remake I've been hearing threats of for a few years already. /film has a story suggesting the newest version trying to make it to theaters has been written by Marti Noxon of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (the T.V series) and directed by Craig Gillespie, of Lars And The Real Girl. I have to say that if they're going to do a remake of this film (which I watched religiously as a teenager) this sounds like a good combination. Noxon's humor would capture the essence of the original, and Gillespie has certainly shown an affinity for creating characters he cares about and portraying them as believably human and sympathetic, even in unusual situations.

Out Of The Ether 11/14/09

 This is probably not news you're average movie goer is very interested in, but it's big, big, big news whether or not they are interested. MGM is officially up for sale, as reported by Variety. We're talking about a 4,000 film library that includes the James Bond Franchise, The Wizard of Oz, and so many more I'm not even going into it. We're talking about one of the cornerstones in film history. I can only hope the executives over there end up eating in soup kitchens for the next five years (but we all know there's a really big, very golden parachute for them), but the catalog of titles they own is important, and who it is that ends up owning the rights to those films determines what kind of access we have to them in the future, and the quality of the presentation we're offered. MGM has been the king of the half assed DVD release. The image quality is always passable (rarely stellar), but everything else is second rate, at best. They've got a vault full of classic film which deserves a really strong representation and has long term financial viability. The DVD releases of those classic films usually include the film, and if you're really lucky, an original trailer from that film. What they always contain is the trailer for MGM Home Entertainment, just to remind you of the number of other classic films you can see get the bargain basement treatment.

For all of my friends out there whom I know to be Cormac McCarthy fans, and who enjoyed the hell out of The Proposition, there are 10 new clips for The Road. I'm extremely excited about this one. Thanks to Bloody Disgusting for the clips. I haven't watched them, because I'd really like to go into this one having seen as little as possible, but they're here in case you want to.

Let me make something clear here. I am in no way inherently opposed to the big budget studio blockbuster. Iron Man and The Dark Knight are among my favorite films of the last few years. And no, it's not just because they're based on comic books (wise ass), it's because they are good movies. Roland Emmerich, director of such classsic films as Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, Universal Soldier, and 10,000 BC, had his latest epic open yesterday. The latest in what has now been dubbed "disaster porn", 2012 is a film I've been thinking is going to not only be more of the same, but actually probably worse. "Hey Pony, I've seen that trick. Got any more?" Over at AICN, Massawyrm's posted a review basically confirming my suspicions. Since you more or less know where I stand on Roland Emmerich and his latest disaster, here's Capone's review from AICN as well. Decide for yourself whether or not to drop ten bones on this one.

Let's go on to something which is worth celebrating. Neither of those first two items really ring with happiness and excitement, do they? This should. Roger Corman is an icon of independent and cult film. He's the guy who gave people like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Robert Deniro and Sylvester Stallone their first jobs in film. He's also the guy who produced countless drive-in classics like, well, see the three hundred film catalog for yourself. He's finally going to get some recognition for the part he's played in helping to shape the film industry, and inadvertently helping to create a market for independent  and cult film. He's getting an honorary Oscar. Good for you Roger. A legion of geeks, freeks and tweakers are out here celebrating for you.

In other Oscar news, this is going to be the very first time the Best Animated Feature will have a full field of nominees to choose from. For a full five nominees to be chosen, sixteen films have to be submitted for nomination. This year, there are apparently twenty films submitted. /film had the original story, and has now posted a list of the submitted films as well. It's a list of twenty films alright. Does that make them all worthy of nomination? Not on your life, but see for yourself.

Are you over thirty? Are you a horror film fan? Do you remember an awesomely fun little film from the eighties about a teenager whose life gets turned upside down when he realizes his new neighbor is actually a vampire? You do? Well Fright Night fans, pay no attention to the large sharp object in my hand, and put yours right here on the table. Why, you ask? Because I know you've been thinking you'd give a finger to see a remake of this deeply loved favorite, and now I'm going to make your dreams come true. This is really like an arrow right in the heart for me. I've probably seen the original Fright Night almost one hundred times. I don't know that it even gives me any solace to have Marti Noxon, one of the former Buffy scribes working on the remake either. This is almost like seeing someone exhume my childhood pet, just to take the skull as a souvenir. I even loved the artwork for this one.

In more news of unnecessary remakes (the kind of news which isn't ending these days), there's a trailer for the A Nightmare On Elm Street remake. Jackie Earle Haley has done some really great work in the last few years. I can't for one second suggest otherwise, and if they were just going to have to go through with this, he is absolutely the best choice for a new Freddy Krueger. The trailer is kind of interesting. We'll see.

WOW. I'm just realizing how much of today's news is related to either sequels or remakes. They're really running out of ideas out there in the land of plastic and pollution aren't they? Well, here's the trailer for the Clash Of The Titans remake. 

This is the last of the sequel/remake news for this installment, I promise. Is anyone interested in Scream 4? If you're one of the three people in the country raising your hand, here you go.

Over at Bloody Disgusting, Mr. Disgusting himself is raving about a film he's caught at the American Film Market. The Phillipino film, Slice, has apparently impressed him. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for it, though I have a feeling it's going to be a straight to DVD release here in the States.

Good news for Stephen King fans, his latest book "Under The Dome" is headed to HBO as a mini-series. I've always been secretly disappointed that "The Stand" ended up on network television, because let's face it, the book was pretty graphic, and deserved to stay that way. I'm glad to hear HBO is picking up his latest book. Over at Dread Central, they've got that story, a video of one of his book signing's in which he provides an update on the progress of a film for his novel "Cell", and......................................................................
there's a new Dark Tower novel on the way. Here's the link. King is an interesting guy in general.

There's a Hansel and Gretel film on the way. I'm a long time fan of Grimm's fairy tales (I hated that damned Brother's Grimm movie), and I would like to see some more films based on them. This one is apparently going to be more in the tone of Shaun Of The Dead. They've got the story over at Bloody Disgusting.

Here's something that is just plain interesting. The American Film Institute hosts a variety of different programs, and apparently a number of them can be found and heard via podcast. I've been going through some of the older programs, and some of them are really interesting and really entertaining. Some of them are just not my thing, but I figured instead of just posting links to the one's I like, I'd post the link to where you can find whatever YOU might like. AFI PODCASTING is a pretty cool thing.