Frickin' Eh Movie News 6.24.09: Super Soul Edition
Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 06.24.2009
Cher joins Aguilera's Burlesque, John Grisham finally allows a movie rendition of his 1999 novel The Testament, new Inglorious Basterds, The Last Airbender, and Halloween II trailers and more!
Moving is becoming a disaster, to put it simply, as I may now have to drive all my stuff back to the farm for a couple days and then drive it back on the first. This is going to be the last time I move in a while, I hope. Yes, I am knocking on wood as I write that.
Since my only unpacked entertainment (besides more packing, of course) appears to be either watching television on my computer or playing Final Fantasy VII, it looks like I'll be doing the latter for most of the week. Hopefully I can finish it before my roommate moves out and takes the Playstation, otherwise I'm going to have to start all over again, and that's just not going to happen. But anyway, let's get into the news:
The Mid-Week Box Office Time Machine
So this past weekend The Proposal finally managed to top The Hangover. It earned $33.6 million in its opening week, while second-place The Hangover took in $26.8 million. Up settled for third with another $23.5 million. Year One opened at fourth with $19.6 million. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 dropped two spots to fifth in its second week to make another $12 million. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian went to sixth from fourth and made $7.8 million. Star Trek stayed put at seventh, Land of the Lost fell from fifth to eighth, and Imagine That dropped from sixth to ninth. Terminator Salvation rounded out the top ten with $3.3 million.
What's opening this weekend? Well, first we have My Sister's Keeper, a drama starring Cameron Diaz. It sounds like a very strange movie, but it could be an interesting one. The second, and almost guaranteed box office topper, is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Bigger and flashier than the original, and with Megan Fox, this is going to be the top of the box office next week.
Director Chosen for Predators?
Latino Review reports that 20th Century Fox and Robert Rodriguez are eyeing Vacancy and Armored helmer Nimrod Antal to direct Predators.
Opening July 7, 2010, the film is expected to give the franchise a facelift. No plot details have been announced.
Antal's got scant credits and literally Vacancy and Armored are his only English films. If I remember correctly Vacancy wasn't too bad but wasn't too great, either. Armored looks interesting but somewhat generic on the whole. Is this really the guy to revive a franchise?
New Inglorious Basterds Trailer
The new trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which aired on Spike, is now online and can be watched using the player below!
Opening August 21st, the film begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.
Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own...
This trailer definitely gives me more interest in this movie. The first trailer was a little bland but this one really picks it up and gives a much better idea as to what this movie's really going to be like. And it looks pretty good, I must say. Pitt obviously does a great job in the movie. This looks like it might just be one to see.
Grisham Allows The Testament
After a decade of saying no, John Grisham has made a movie deal for his 1999 bestselling novel "The Testament," reports Variety.
Producers Mark Johnson and Hunt Lowry are teaming with 821 Entertainment Group to option the book, with 821's Eric Geadelmann and Ben Horton taking executive producer credit.
In the novel, a billionaire defies his greedy relatives and leaves his $11 billion fortune to a mysterious illegitimate daughter doing charity work in the Brazilian wetlands. A down-and-out lawyer helps her battle her relatives over the fortune.
"The Testament" becomes one of several Grisham legal thrillers headed for the screen. An adaptation of Grisham's nonfiction novel "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town" moved from defunct Warner Independent Pictures to Warner Bros., with Smokehouse partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov (the picture is stalled pending a lawsuit filed by a subject in the book). Phoenix Pictures continues to forge ahead on "Playing for Pizza," with a script by J. Mills Goodloe and Adam Shankman directing; and Paramount is developing "The Associate" with Shia LaBeouf and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
I wonder why Grisham wasn't letting this one go until now. Maybe money's tight. I doubt it, but you never know. Sounds like an interesting story and it should make for a fairly interesting movie if you like the legal drama types. Of all the projects, The Associate seems to be the only one with any publicity whatsoever. I'm sure they'll all gain steam eventually, though.
Cher Joins Aguilera's Burlesque
Variety reports that Cher will star opposite Christina Aguilera in Burlesque, a contemporary musical at Screen Gems.
Steven Antin will direct from a script he wrote that was revised by Susannah Grant.
Aguilera plays an ambitious small-town Iowa girl with a big voice who comes of age in a neo-burlesque club on Sunset Boulevard that's run by Tess (Cher), a former dancer who struggles to keep the club open and gives the young girl a chance to shine.
Cher will sing onscreen. Production begins in November.
I suppose she's a good fit for the movie they're making. Does it make me want to watch this movie more? Hell no. Especially the singing onscreen part. But also the general Cher part.
New Halloween II Trailer
Dimension Films has revealed the new trailer for Rob Zombie's Halloween II is online and can be watched using the player below!
In the sequel, opening August 28th, Michael Myers has returned home to sleepy Haddonfield, Illinois to take care of some unfinished family business. Myers will stop at nothing to bring closure to the secrets of his twisted past. But the town's got an unlikely new hero, if they can only stay alive long enough to stop the unstoppable.
While I've got no knowledge of this movie myself, I've listened to the guys I work with talk about it, and from what they're saying, this is going to be not only a fitting sequel but a great movie, as it continues the tale and does it in style, too. Check out the trailer and see what you think.
Julianne Hough Joins Footloose
We guess these screen tests went well, as "Dancing with the Stars" pro dancer and country singer Julianne Hough has now landed the lead female role in Paramount's remake of Footloose. The casting is contingent on the studio and Hough working out scheduling, but she would star opposite Chace Crawford.
Filming is set to begin in March with plans for a "more mature version" than the original, says Variety. Dylan Sellers is producing alongside Ortega, Craig Zadan -- a producer of the original film -- and Neil Meron.
Kenny Ortega, helmer of all three "High School Musical" films, will direct.
Well, I suppose casting a dancer to a dancing movie makes sense, no? Not that it's really going to help that much, I fully expect this to be fairly terrible, but at least it adds a little weight to it. I didn't actually know that Efron was gone yet. Crawford's just more of the same, but it's not Efron, which is something.
The Last Airbender Trailer
The new teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender is now online and can be watched using the player below! Opening July 2nd, Paramount's big screen adaptation stars Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Jessica Jade Andres, Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim.
Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.
The Fire Nation is waging a ruthless, oppressive war against the other three nations. The film's hero, the reluctant young Aang (Noah Ringer), is the "Last Airbender" -- the Avatar who, according to prophecy, has the ability to manipulate all of the elements and bring all the nations together. Aided by a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her bull-headed brother Sokka, Aang proceeds on a perilous journey to restore balance to their war-torn world.
Jackson Rathbone plays Katara's brother Sokka, and Dev Patel plays Prince Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation. Mandvi is set to play the role of Commander Zhao, an ambitious and hot-tempered Fire Nation commander. Toub is cast as Uncle Iroh, the retired Fire Nation general and devoted surrogate parent to Dev Patel's character Zuko. Curtis is set to play the ruthless ruler Fire Lord Ozai. Keong Sim has been cast in the role of Earthbending Father.
Having never watched the television show, this trailer gives me very little idea of what the movie is going to be like, but it gives a general idea about how the movie is going to look and feel, and it doesn't seem too bad. I just want to see Cliff Curtis, he should be awesome in this. Check out the teaser and see what impression it leaves you with.
Rapid-Fire: Vanishing Point (1971, starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger)
My dad has always talked about this movie and one day I tracked down a copy in a cheap bin, and bought it. It's taken me a while to finally watch it, but I did (while making perogies) and here it is:
On the back of the DVD this is described as a cult classic and I can see why. This is a very specific taste, and it's a weird movie to boot. Kowalski (Newman) is racing from Colorado to San Francisco to deliver a 1970 Dodge Challenger and picks up cops all along the way. At the start nothing is known of the protagonist besides his name; only through very cleverly done flashbacks and police bulletins do you find out anything about the character, and even then it's a little vague.
A lot of the movie is simply driving; shots of Kowalski driving the Challenger, a lot of them quite possibly the same reused shots, and playing with the camera. This could have gotten quite bland, and parts do get a tad long, but luckily they are broken up with good chases and cuts to other areas of the story, and as the movie progresses this is less of a problem.
This is definitely the seventies, and it's a little weird. You've got a blind radio DJ who guides Kowalski across his radio (Super Soul, played by Little), a crazy prospector in the desert, a guy dressed as a Native American, and a naked girl on a bike. And all of these oddities make the movie what it is.
The acting isn't the strong point of this movie. Newman actually has a relatively small role; Kowalski doesn't really say or do much besides drive, but the parts he actually has to act in, he does fine. Little does his job well, and his over-the-top scenes are great when you put them next to his dryer, serious scenes. Jagger as the Prospector is a little crazy but is perfect for the role. All the cops are typical but good in their roles, and everyone else does well in their roles, but it's nothing exceptional.
Of course, what you're going to want to make it through this movie for is the ending, and if you've grown up with the typical Hollywood endings of the current era then definitely stay put. All in all, the movie is a weird one, and definitely an acquired taste. If you really like driving movies then tune in, but otherwise, you're probably not going to find much merit to this one.
Closing Time . . .
Alright folks, I'll be here next week for your news fix, even amid the chaos of moving. So until next week . . .
