Way back in November, John C. Reilly signed on to play Larten Crepsley in the adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak. Since then, we've gotten a sneak peek at Salma Hayek's bearded lady, but nothing of the sharp-toothed Crepsley -- until now! Empire has posted a first look at Reilly's character, which you can see cropped on the right. (It's a little bigger over at Empire, but unfortunately, not much.)
The film focuses on a 14-year-old kid, Darren Shan (Chris Kelly), who visits an illegal freak show, sneaks in after hours, and gets thrust into a life of freak shows and vampiric servitude. The photo shows Shan and Crepsley, so maybe this is when the poor kid getting pulled into the freakish life. Although really, I think Crepsley's outfit is the most freakish thing. That, and the darkly rouged cheeks.
The flick should hit US shores in 2008, before the scheduled UK release in February of 2009.
*Note: Both the real Darren Shan and the kid who plays the fictional Darren Shan use two names. To clear up confusion between the Empire report, here, and IMDb: The young actor goes by Chris Kelly and Chris Massoglia, while Darren Shan is also known as Darren O'Shaughnessy.
"If a film fell in the multiplex, and no one was there to see it..."
Limited release: such a simple phrase, and yet two words that all but indicate to a majority of moviegoers that whatever it is they want to see may or may not escape the confines of a NY/LA run before the film in question comes to them by way of Netflix mere months later.
Meanwhile, screens upon screens across the nation are filled by the likes of the same stars and the same stories, with the same special effects and the same happy endings, leaving the smaller films, the different films, the better films to slip through the distribution cracks, as it were.
Among their number falls The Promotion, a film which we've admittedly supported ad nauseum to the oh-so-ironic tune of $365,928 on a grand total of 81 screens. It opened just this past weekend in my market, Orlando, Fla., on a single screen, for a whopping four days, with a grand total of eight showings, before being shuffled off to make room for that otherJason Bateman co-starring comedy-drama hybrid.
It was the first day of July, and the last night for the film. Having enjoyed it twice before and driven by - I don't know - a sense of romantic futility, I turned out for that final showing. Lo and behold, I wasn't alone...
And we thought that the shrinking gap was only between theatrical and DVD releases. Now it's how soon a project can get off the ground after someone passes away. Anna Nicole Smith had barely been gone a month when projects started to cook up on her life and death. Now Defamer has spotted that a super-respectful NINETEEN DAYS after Tim Russert dies of a heart attack, a telepic is already in the works with a casting notice up on Craigslist. The notice even says that Randy Quaid has already signed on to star.
When the news broke, did someone reach over for their phone, call up Quaid, and get this set up? Or, maybe they, you know, waited a few days so they wouldn't seem eager to capitalize on the man's death (and spent that time throwing together a script). So, this ad says that a New York-based film company is looking to cast an unknown actress in the role of Maureen Orth, Russert's wife, and that the film will follow the last 24 hours of his life. So, not only can they not wait a bit to get this going, but it's also centered on the man's death?
The casting is certainly appropriate, but that's about the only nice thing I can say about this news.
When films turn personal, there are a myriad of ways they can turn out. One way I never thought of -- out of body experiences that need soul saving. Variety reports that Val Kilmer, Shane West, Cam Gigandet, Eric Balfour, and Arielle Kebbel have signed on for a film called Silver Cord. James Ordonez will direct the feature, which he wrote with Ken Gord, and relive some personal experiences.
As Variety describes it, the film "centers on Ordonez's brother who came back to life after being declared clinically dead on multiple occasions. The brother died in 2004." But the summary up on IMDb says a whole lot more, written by James himself: "The story of a young man who is separated from the love of his life. To find her he has an Out of Body Experience but the silver cord that connects his soul with his body breaks and he is believed to be dead. In a desperate race against time his friends have less than 24 hours to save his soul before his body is cremated."
It's not every day you get so-called true life stories about people leaving their body to find paramours and then losing their body and being declared dead. Since he'd been declared dead a number of times, I guess the dude had a penchant for out-of-body travel.
Drug consumer par excellence, Hunter Thompson's legendary hallucinogenic and boozy escapades have by now been sufficiently documented, not to mention brought to pitch-perfect cinematic life by Terry Gilliam's 1998 adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Less well known, however, is his lifelong political conscientiousness, which receives the lion's share of attention in Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Alex Gibney's (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) loving yet even-handed non-fiction bio of the notorious father of Gonzo journalism. Narrated by Johnny Depp (Gilliam's Fear and Loathing star), and overflowing with archival footage and interviews with friends and enemies, the film lays out the vital details of its subject's life, from his outcast adolescence in Louisville, Kentucky to his suicide in 2005. Comprehensiveness, however, isn't necessarily the goal, and thus while most prime topics are tackled, the greatest focus is paid to Thompson's failed attempt to run for governor of Aspen, Colorado on a legalize-drugs platform, and his coverage of the 1972 presidential election, which resulted in the classic Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.
Here's a stat that may or may not blow your mind: According to Box Office Mojo, Sex and the City has grossed $312 million worldwide. Yup. $312,533,654 to be exact -- for a movie based on a hit HBO show that went off the air a few years ago. Since we all know what happens when Hollywood gets a look at those kinds of numbers, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict what the future holds: plenty more TV-to-movie adaptations. We're practically guaranteed another Sex and the City flick, and earlier today Monika brought us news that the long-rumored Friends movie might be moving forward.
Honestly, why wouldn't it move forward? You're telling me Matt Leblanc, whose last credit on IMDb is Joey, is holding out for a massive paycheck? Same goes for Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, with the latter being the only one getting decent big-screen work (though, truth be told, she's about two movies away from becoming yesterday's news). The others are all showing up in bit parts, directing films that don't go anywhere and/or trying desperately to make the TV thing work again. Fact is, together they're a pot of gold. Apart and, well, we don't really care, do we?
But could a re-emergence on the big screen revive these careers? Could they somehow find a way to take the cutesy sitcom and turn it into a feature film people would actually want to see? Could Friends: The Movie make more money at the box office than Sex and the City? And should we care?
After years of Beavis and Butt-Head, there was Office Space. But after red Swingline staplers and the need for flair, Mike Judge took a number of years off from directing -- until the largely ignored Idiocracy. This time around, however, we don't have to wait as long (as Eugene pointed out in April). Extract is on the way, and now EW's Hollywood Insider has shared more of the plot, and who's in talks to co-star alongside Jason Bateman.
The film will focus on a guy who owns a flower-extract plant -- the industrial sort, not the leafy sort. In typical, professional Judge fashion, the guy is having a bunch of bad luck, which includes "workplace issues and a cheating wife." EW sources say that Kristen Wiig is looking into playing the wife, while Mila Kunis might grab a role as a plant employee. That sounds like a set up for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, revisited -- the man can choose between his crappy partner and the wonderful nice girl right in front of him.
Between the possible murk of an actors' strike and Wiig's SNL schedule, the film is slated to start production in August.
The Battle of Britain is not the sort of cinematic theme that would usually pique my interest, but then again most films that tackle the subject don't try to reimagine it. And most projects don't sound as awesome as Jackboots on Whitehall -- a film I have been dying to see since December 7, 2006.
Imagine the German Luftwaffe flying in, bombing Britain into oblivion, as Hitler giggles with glee and takes over the country ... only to get his ass handed to him by the Scots. The idea sounds flipping brilliant, but there's been barely a word mentioned about this feature since some casting notices in 2007. So, using the power that is Google, I sat down today and went through a ton of pages, looking for some sort of word as to what in the heck is going on.
IMDb says it's in post-production. Rosamund Pike said in 2007 that the voices were all recorded. However, according to britfilms.com, which updated news on the project in April, the film should have began principal photography on June 23. Moviefone says it's set for release in 2010, while many other sites say it will be released this year. Whatever the case, it looks like it's still in the works, but hopefully it won't take another two years to get to us.
It was a good weekend at the box office for both of last week's newbies, marking the first time in history that two films opening on the same weekend pulled in over $50 million each. Here's the top five: 1. Wall-E: $63 million 2. Wanted: $50.9 million 3. Get Smart: $20.2 million 4. Kung Fu Panda: $11.7 million 5. The Incredible Hulk: $9.6 million
Only one major release this week, but we've also got one going into wider release. Hancock What's It All About: Will Smith plays Hancock, a hard drinking anti-social superhero, and a PR agent played by Jason Bateman sets out to repair Hancock's public image. Why It Might Do Well: Will Smith may not always have the Midas touch (I Am Legend left me cold) but he's got quite a few successful blockbusters under his belt, and people are loving the superhero flicks these days. I've liked Bateman's work a lot since Arrested Development, and I'm always glad to see him. Also, Cinematical's own Kim Voynar has given the film her seal of approval. Why It Might Not Do Well: Unlike most big-budget superhero movies, this one doesn't originate from another media like comic books, so it doesn't come with the core fanbase of an Iron Man or an IncredibleHulk. Also, the 36% fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com is not encouraging. Number of Theaters: 3,900 Prediction: $45 million
The guy is all sorts of recognizable due to his time as James 'Sawyer' Ford on Lost, but do you know that Josh Holloway is also the dude who got his start in Cryin'? Yes, he played the jerky guy who smiled and then stole Alicia Silverstone's bag, and she had to chase him down and give him a good kick. (Watch it above.) He's come a long way since purse stealing! Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's joined the cast of Stay Cool.
This is the Polish brothers feature that Hilary Duff joined recently -- where a successful author (Mark Polish) goes home to give a high school commencement address, gets hit on by a high school girl (Duff), and has to face his unrequited teen crush (Winona Ryder). But now Holloway has been added to the mix as a former jock who used to date Ryder's Scarlet Smith. Production should begin soon in California.
For quite a while now, the rumor that Huey Lewis would be performing the theme song for the expectedly hilarious Pineapple Express has been making the rounds, and today... oh, today, it has come to sweet fruition, as the theme song hits first the soundtrack's MySpace profile and then my beating heart.
I can't tell you how much it tickles me to have the sax of the News accompanied by the sound of Huey uttering the word 'chronic'. Then again, I can't tell you how much I'm tickled that we're actually facing a summer movie season that will cap itself off with Huey Lewis doing the theme song for a Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed stoner-buddy action-comedy, followed the week after by Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. Seriously, could you have called that this time last year?
If you don't know why I'm so psyched, I've included the NSFW red-band trailer after the jump, and for those of you who are right there with me, Pineapple Express hits (snicker) on August 8th.
[God bless Spout Blog for bringing this to our attention. I'm tempted to send you guys over a basket full of pineapples just out of principle.]
Back when I posted about television shows hitting the big screen in February, I included a joke Matthew Perry made about how the cast of Friends were "trying to organize a thing soon," but he meant a dinner, not a movie.
Did he, in fact, mean a movie? We can take this with a grain of salt right now, but The Daily Mail says that a film based on the popular series has gotten the green light to start filming in the next year and a half, with all of the actors interested in reprising their roles -- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer.
Basically, it's all said to be due to the success of Sex and the City, and their source says: "she [Aniston] and Courteney have already talked this summer about what they want out of a Friends movie, and if deals can be made with them, everything else can fall into place rather quickly." The rest of the piece has a bunch of particulars about money, and how the show is at the top of the TV-to-screen list.
Whether it's true or not, it makes sense. But do you want to see the friends reunite?
As much as I enjoy Star Wars, I was never a big enough fan to buy fan goodies, until the LEGO game came out. Then, well, I spent hours making things out of LEGO pieces and trying to use the force to lift and arrange things. It was awesome to not only have the iconic characters to mess around with, but also to explore the environment of the movie. Now we've got Indiana Jones, but there's another big summer movie that is getting its shot in the LEGOverse -- that sweet, dark knight known as Batman.
Entertainment Weeklyhas posted an awesome new teaser video for the game, which showcases Poison Ivy fooling with Mother Nature, and Bruce Wayne laying the smackdown with his suitcase. If you love the movies, or the source material, you really should check it out. The best thing -- there's a character for everyone. This game showcases peeps like Batman, Robin, and Commissioner Gordon, as well as The Joker, Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, The Scarecrow...
I see a whole lot of time wasting in my future. How about you?
We usually don't report the goings-on of Hollywood relationships (be them long term or of the booty call variety), however this one is pretty epic. According to -- ugh -- the New York Post, sweethearts Rose McGowan and Robert Rodriguez are no longer together and no longer getting married (they were engaged prior to this). Why is this important news? Why should people care? Well, partly because Rodriguez was in the process of lining up a few interesting movie remakes (Barbarella, Red Sonja) with McGowan in the lead. One imagines McGowan had snagged the roles because, well, she was boinking Robert Rodriguez. But when there's no more action between the sheets, does that mean there's no more McGowan in the starring role?
The Post claims their break-up was partly due to the fact that Rodriguez was having a hard time finding financing for Barbarella with McGowan in the lead because she's not a big enough box-office draw. I know some of you beg to differ because she's got the hot "I'll sleep with your man if you leave him alone for five seconds and he can put me in one of his movies" seductress thing going on, but could you seriously see a flick starring Rose McGowan bringing in at least $70 million (reported budget for Barbarella) to the box office? Personally, I can't. With Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie? Sure. Not Rose McGowan. (Last time I checked, her ass didn't exactly ignite a box office firestorm for Grindhouse.)
Should be interesting to see what develops from here. What would you like to see happen?
A brand new trailer forThe Wackness has touched down over at Rotten Tomatoes, and it basically covers a lot of what we've already seen from the film. I tell you, a lot of marketing is going into a flick that's opening up on six screens this Friday (all in NY and LA), so here's hoping you remember this puppy when it eventually expands to your city. It's a fun summertime flick, and with the kids now out of school and Fourth of July weekend upon us, this is the kind of movie you want to chill out with in a darkened, air-conditioned theater. Trust me. You'll dig it.
Additionally, I know we've talked tons about the music featured in the film, so here's what the soundtrack looks like. Kids of the '90s should eat this sucker up -- I know I will.
01. "The What" - Notorious B.I.G. feat. Method Man 02. "You Used to Love Me" - Faith Evans 03. "Flava in Your Ear" -Craig Mack 04. "Summertime" - Fresh Prince 05. "Can't Ya See" - Total 06. "I Can't Wake Up" - KRS-One 07. "The World is Yours" - Nas 08. "Can I Kick It?" -A Tribe Called Quest 09. "Heaven or Hell" - Raekwon 10. "Bump and Grind" - R. Kelly 11. "Just a Friend" - Biz Markie 12. "Tearz" - Wu Tang Clan 13. "Long Shot Kick the Bucket" - The Pioneers
Bonus Tracks (only on iTunes) 14. "All the Young Dudes" - Mott the Hoople 15. "Season of the Witch" - Donovan
Way back in November, John C. Reilly signed on to play Larten Crepsley in the adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak. Since then, we've gotten a sneak peek at Salma Hayek's bearded lady, but nothing of the sharp-toothed Crepsley -- until now! Empire has posted a first look at Reilly's character, which you can see cropped on the right. (It's a little bigger over at Empire, but unfortunately, not much.) 
And we thought that the shrinking gap was only between theatrical and DVD releases. Now it's how soon a project can get off the ground after someone passes away. Anna Nicole Smith had barely been gone a month when projects started to cook up on her life and death. Now 
When films turn personal, there are a myriad of ways they can turn out. One way I never thought of -- out of body experiences that need soul saving. 
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After years of Beavis and Butt-Head, there was Office Space. But after red Swingline staplers and the need for flair, Mike Judge took a number of years off from directing -- until the largely ignored Idiocracy. This time around, however, we don't have to wait as long (as 
The Battle of Britain is not the sort of cinematic theme that would usually pique my interest, but then again most films that tackle the subject don't try to reimagine it. And most projects don't sound as awesome as 
Hancock
For quite a while now, the rumor that Huey Lewis would be performing the theme song for the expectedly hilarious Pineapple Express has been 
Back when I posted about television shows hitting the big screen 
As much as I enjoy Star Wars, I was never a big enough fan to buy fan goodies, until the LEGO game came out. Then, well, I spent hours making things out of LEGO pieces and trying to use the force to lift and arrange things. It was awesome to not only have the iconic characters to mess around with, but also to explore the environment of the movie. Now we've got Indiana Jones, but there's another big summer movie that is getting its shot in the LEGOverse -- that sweet, dark knight known as .jpg)
We usually don't report the goings-on of Hollywood relationships (be them long term or of the booty call variety), however this one is pretty epic. According to -- ugh -- the .jpg)
