Movies/TV's 3R’s 12.01.09: Zombieland 3D, Adam Green, The Muppet Show, New Moon, Stephen King, More...
Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 12.01.2009
From Zombieland going 3D, comedians pulling a prank on New Moon fans, Stephen King coming to Scy-Fy, and Adam Lambert kissing guys to the return of The Muppet Show, Alec Baldwin retiring, Spike Lee not being able to get a movie made, and more, 411's Shawn S. Lealos breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in Movies/TV!
Welcome to Week 23 of The 3 R's for the Movie/TV world.
Without any further ado, here is...
The Right
Hatchet 2!!!!: Adam Green, fresh off his latest film Frozen (coming Feb. 5, 2010), has announced the sequel to his awesome horror flick Hatchet. For those who have not seen the film, Hatchet is a throwback to the eighties slasher flicks and centers around a deranged killer in the swamps of Louisiana named Victor Crawley. It also starred Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street), Kane Hodder (Jason from the later Friday the 13th movies) and Tony Todd (Candyman). He also received lots of help emotionally along the way from Twisted Sister front-man Dee Snider. The guy has led a charmed life. He followed that up by directing Spiral, a movie starring Hatchet star Joel David Moore, and producing the awesome horror flick Grace. What made Hatchet so great is a ridiculous amount of gore and some wicked humor making it a funny, scary and downright good time. The next movie promises even more: "There were things about the first film -- questions that were never answered. Hatchet 2 will start the second the first film ends. Sort of like Halloween II did with Carpenter's Halloween. Part 2 will not be a typical sequel, meaning we're not just taking another group of kids and sticking them in the woods to be killed. We're going to learn about Victor Crowley, find out what happened to him, what makes him tick, and what made him the way that he is. Being that it's a Hatchet movie, there's going to be humor in it, but we're going to focus more on scares this time around. And you can expect a major gore-fest. This one is going to make the first film look like it was PG-13. We are going to go as far as we can possibly go with Hatchet 2. We were talking to Kane about the kills, and even he was excited. That's saying something! He's done it all! If you liked the first film, you're gonna LOVE the second. Also, we're going to have a couple of more horror icons in the movie, but not as just cameos this time. You can expect some big surprise casting news very soon!" I can't freaking wait!
Zack Snyder knows how to cast his movies: Zack Snyder, the director who brought us Dawn of the Dead and The Watchmen, is working on his next film, an animated adventure movie called Guardians of Ga'holle. His cast, as usual, is spectacular. He recently signed Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Geoffrey Rush (Oscar winner for Shine), Hugo Weaving (he starred in The Matrix trilogy and Lord of the Rings trilogy), David Wenham (Faramir in the Lord of the Rings movies) to join a cast already populated by Emilie de Ravin (Lost), Helen Mirren (Oscar winner for The Queen) and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe). That's a pretty damn good voice cast for an animated movie. As far as I am concerned, Zack Snyder is batting perfect so far in making movies that appeal to me, so I will definitely give this one more than just a glance. Look for this movie to hit theaters in September 2010. Following that is Snyder's live-action "chicks in a mental institution" flick Sucker Punch set for a March 2011 release. It will star Jena Malone, Carla Gugino, Vanessa Hudgens, Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish.
Scream 4 gets some interesting news: This is only speculation for now, but Neve Campbell is finally talking about the fourth movie in the series. It seems like only a few short months ago Campbell said she had no intentions of returning to the franchise but bags of money tend to change people's tunes on these sorts of things. It is already known that David Arquette and Courtney Cox are returning but Campbell mentioned a name that makes me a little more excited about the movie. "I'm pretty sure at this stage that Wes [Craven] is back on board to direct and Kevin [Willamson] is definitely writing it...so it is going to be great." I know he hasn't made a great movie in a while, but I still think Wes Craven is a horror legend and wonder what he might be thinking concerning the direction of the franchise. Campbell says she has not read the script (proving my point about the money) but says shooting will start in April 2010.
Predators to be R-Rated: After all the news about the upcoming Predators reboot it is nice to hear from the director it will be definitely Rated R. Nimród Antal, whose previous directorial efforts include Vacancy, Knotroll and the upcoming Armored, spoke with ComingSoon.net about his next project, tentavily titled Robert Rodriguez's Predators. Among the questions regarding this reboot, Antal said Rodriguez is heavily involved but is allowing Antal to have pretty much free rein on his ideas for the film. He and Rodriguez have also found a nice middle ground where Rodriguez likes CG animation but Antal prefers practical effects and in-camera tricks. He also took time to talk about what a big fan he is of the original and wants his movie to have the feel of that first effort. I am really excited about this movie and can't wait to see what these two exciting filmmakers have in store. - Source
Is Jeremy Renner Hawkeye?: God, I hope so. Jeremy Renner, star of this year's breakout film The Hurt Locker has said he is in talks to take on the role of Hawkeye, in The Avengers universe. For those non-comic geeks, Hawkeye is a former thief who turns good and joins the The Avengers way back in the day. He has been in and out of Avengers comics ever since, even taking the leadership role when they formed a second branch called The West Coast Avengers. He is also my all-time favorite Avenger, mostly because of his devil-may-care attitude and lack of respect for authority. I love me a good anti-hero and I think Renner is the best bet to play him. Renner hints that we might first see Hawkeye in Thor before The Avengers.
The wRong
Are Twilight fans the dumbest people on planet Earth?: According to this video from Funny or Die, they just might be...
I love Zombieland but...: If you look at my 2009 movie rankings at the bottom of the column, you will see that I loved Zombieland and it currently sits at my #2 favorite movie of the year. That means I have mixed emotions about the fact that the sequel is in the works. I know I'd love to see these characters again, battling more zombies, but how can they do it without it being a retread of the first movie? To further my doubt about the sequel, word came out this week that the second movie will be in 3D. Director Ruben Fleischer has said it will film in the next few years and will be in 3D but he has not started writing yet because he doesn't know what it will be about. Scary. Movies should come organically and not be processed on an assembly line in the early stages. To tell a writer to sit down and write a sequel to a movie is a lot easier than that writer sitting down to write it. I feel someone who is pushed to write something without a concrete idea ahead of time is doomed to write something uninspired. I hope it is not the case here. - Source
The Amityville Horror to be re-remade: I complained a while back about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot coming up with the Saw guys and now I am going to complain again. The Amityville Horror is being remade - again. My problem is not about the movie getting remade this time but is due to the fact that it was already remade - FOUR YEARS AGO. This time it is the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. Platinum Dunes made the remake in 2005 and is the same studio that just the rights to TCM. I will give in on the Howling remake because it is something that can be made better but why remake something already remade just a few years ago. What is wrong with original ideas? - Source
The Ridiculous
The Apocalypse is coming: The Twilight Saga: New Moon: $231 million. 2012: $480 million worldwide. Old Dogs: $24.1 million opening weekend. Hell, 2012 broke the Russian box office record by making $30 million in two weeks. People accuse me of not liking fun movies but that is not true. I want my movies to not be completely retarded. Make sure your loved ones know how much you care about them because it looks like the apocalypse is near. For those who want to see New Moon, do us a favor and just watch this. It will save you ten bucks.
Spike Lee can't get no love: With the recent release of the Do The Right Thing anniversary DVD I wondered what the director was planning to do next. Apparently he has lots of things in the pipeline but no one is willing to pony up the money to allow him to make them. He wants to do a sequel to Inside Man and has Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster ready to do it but Universal has not green lit the movie yet. He also has his Joe Louis biopic Save Us, Joe Louis which Lee is unable to secure financing for. He has other biopics he also can't get money for about James Brown and Jackie Robinson. He already had to scrap his plans to do a documentary about Michael Jordan. It's sad that Tyler Perry can make all the rubbish he wants and people will flock to see it but a talented director like Spike Lee can't get anyone to even sniff at his projects. - Source
I Spit on Your Grave getting remade: Screw you Anchor Bay.
The Muppets are back!!!: The stars of The Muppet Show are back for our enjoyment. The difference is they are not on TV and not in a movie but instead are joining the Internet revolution as an online experience. Muppets Studio is a new YouTube channel and provides Muppet Show sketches in HD. If you visit the new channel (Subscribe here) you can see sketches with The Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Statler & Waldorf, Gonzo and this amazing music video with the cast of the show performing "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Another great renewal: Last week I talked about how happy I was that Psych was being renewed. Well, add another but of pleasant renewal news to the pile as Burn Notice has also been picked up for its fourth season. Sure, Bruce Campbell is the only reason I started watching the show but I really have started to like it more and more as time goes on. Also in the news, Fox has picked up the back-nine episodes of the Tim Roth drama Lie to Me. I like to believe the show is getting better ratings thanks to the new show-runner Shawn Ryan, the man who gave us The Shield. When we will see these is still unknown however because Lie to Me has been removed from the television schedule to be replaced by 24. Network officials say it will come back "late spring". - Source
The Justice Society to go Green?: For those following Smallville for the last decade, things are about to get awesome. Questions have often arisen about when Clark was going to take on the Superman persona. I don't know if that will happen until the final episode but we have gotten a lot of geek love with Aquaman, Cyborg, The Green Lantern and more over the last few years. Now, there is a two-hour Smallville movie coming up involving the Justice Society. For those unfamiliar with the team, the Justice Society is a team from Earth-2, a parallel universe to our world, whereas we have The Justice League instead. The heroes of the Society are similar to those of our world's League including having some of the same heroes, including Hawkman and The Flash. Well, it has already been announced that Hawkman, Doctor Fate and Stargirl are going to be in Smallville's version of the Society but a new trailer has been released for the show and a familiar green power ring can be glimpsed. It has originally been noted that no heroes from upcoming movies can be in the series (Batman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern) however that ring belongs to The Green Lantern, or at least the Lantern from Earth-2. Could we be seeing The Lantern in the Justice Society movie and does this maybe open up the chance to get to see more heroes in future episodes (like maybe a young Bruce Wayne?) Check out the trailer below. - Source
Stephen King to Scy-Fy: There is a ton of Stephen King news lately. From the shelving of the Dark Tower movie to the optioning of Under the Dome as a mini-series, King has been thrust back into the public eye. Now news comes that the television series Haven, announced last month as a series to be based on King's novella The Colorado Kid has found a home at Scy-Fy. The best thing King does is present us with some amazing, not to mention quirky, characters. This series looks to give us those characters in bulk. Syfy describes the plot: "Deep in the heart of Maine, Haven is a town where people with supernatural abilities have migrated for generations because it mutes their powers, allowing them to lead normal lives. At least, until recently. When hot-shot FBI agent Audrey Parker is called to Haven to solve the murder of a local ex-con, she catches the killer but uncovers a much deeper mystery about this town. Each week, as the town-peoples' dormant powers begin to express themselves, Audrey will try to keep these supernatural forces at bay while unraveling the many mysteries of Haven – including one surrounding her own surprising past in this extraordinary place." Sounds a lot like what we got to see with the great Warehouse 13 and that makes me very happy. - Source
I never saw this coming: I knew that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was going to be optioned for film the minute I saw the book at my local Hastings. Hell, my wife - who hates any zombie movie not called Zombieland - wanted it. Then they made an actual teaser trailer for the follow-up book Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. A trailer for a book! How freaking cool is that? Well, I expected it to be a movie but according to the twitter account @PrideandZombies, Deadline Pictures is going to make Pride and Prejudice and Zombies into a 6 part television series. This might be a way for my wife to get her Jane Austin love and me to get my zombie love all in one bundle! - Source
The wRong
Here is something I learned in screenwriting class: Never write a script based on your life or your friends lives because no one, except you and your friends, cares. There are exceptions, like when a GI comes back from Iraq and writes of his adventures or something, but 99% of the world's population lead lives that are boring to everyone else. Well, Matthew McConaughey disagrees and is developing an animated TV series based on his brother. His brother is Mike "Rooster" McConaughey, best known as a cast member on the reality show Black Gold. The synopsis is about "the world of a beer-swilling, redneck sheriff who marries a much younger woman from Mexico. The man soon realizes, however, that he's gained not only a wife but an entire clan -- 114 members and counting." Ok, then... - Source
Someone save this man: Alec Baldwin says he has lost interest in acting and considers his film career a failure. He said the only reason The Hunt for Red October was successful was because it is based on a Tom Clancy novel. He finished by saying when his stint on 30 Rock ends he will quit acting. This sucks so bad. Alec Baldwin is one of the most genuinely funny actors going today. He has been in a number of movies I love, including Beetlejuice, The Departed and State and Main. He also shined in front of some of the best actor of all time with his small role in Glengarry Glen Ross. He finally was recognized for his talent with his Emmy's from 30 Rock and was also nominated for an Oscar in 2004 for The Cooler. The guy is quality and any reason for his movies failing falls at the feet of the movies themselves and is not indicative of his talent. We are about to lose a great actor and I'd like to see someone step up and give him a role he can really bite into. - Source
The Ridiculous
Adam Lambert scares people: I know this is an easy time to target the overly flamboyant Adam Lambert but I listened to an interview he did with Ryan Seacrest and the guy actually made sense. Good Morning America, or GMA as the cool kids call it, cancelled their scheduled Adam Lambert performance because he was too racy in his American Music Awards performance. I will admit, after the first couple of minutes of the performance I turned back to my computer and continued to play Yahtzee. I think Lambert is a big goof but I still support his argument following his being dropped by Good Morning America (I'm not one of the cool kids). Lambert simply said his performance was at the end of the AMA ceremony, on late night television and he didn't do anything different then what female performers have been doing for years. Now I don't want to jump on the Lambert bandwagon and accuse the morning show of homophobia and discrimination but there does seem to be a double standard here. Madonna and Britney Spears wouldn't get cancelled after doing the exact same things. Oh well, all is well that ends well and CBS called immediately and invited Lambert to perform on its Early Show instead. - Source
Once again, Chuck sucks and should have been cancelled, and Journeyman should be midway through season 3 instead. Maybe if NBC weren't so ADD about their shows, they wouldn't be last place. - Posted By: Steve307 (Guest) - I am interested in what Journeyman is about. I am going to look into what I can find about the show if you think so highly of it. However, I love Chuck, so I'll just leave it at that.
Jackass 3D? I can't fucking wait!!! - Posted By: The Great Capt. Smooth (Guest) - Nor can I!
"...a $141 million opening weekend...With the box office receipts, over 1.4 million people are going to Hell!"
Man, ticket prices have sure gone up. - Posted By: Eric von Erich (Guest) - Umm, I meant that each little girl who goes to see this movie will probably see it ten times each. Or maybe, I just messed up my math...
Sean, I respect your opinion on many things but what in the bluest of blue hell made you rank Defiance under garbage like T2:RotF and mediocrity like Wolverine and Miss March? Do you hate Daniel Craig that much? It was a great film which I'd have considered Oscar material. - Posted By: Gefracht (Guest) - I read back over My Review of the movie and saw that I did seem to like the movie a bit more than I remember. I called it a "decent but flawed" film, about thirty minutes too long with questionable editing. I do like Daniel Craig, which I also spoke about in my review. I might put it above Wolverine but I really liked the fun spirit of Transformers 2. As for Miss March, I am a HUGE fan of The Whitest Kids U Know, so that movie was a solid sell to me from the start (My Review).
I'm black and I wasn't offended by the original poster. They showed the better known actors on the poster, and the characters weren't married. I'm more offended that they put out a separate poster rather than rework the original to include them. It only tends to make any'racism' more obvious. - Posted By: Steve (Guest) - Yes, what he said.
"The reason I like Anderson is because he has a true, geek love for the movies he makes"
Is that why (MK1 excluded) none of them are ANYTHING like the source material? Ever? Resident Evil would've written itself but Paul WS "loved" it so much that he had to "geek out" by turning it into an unrecognizable generic blandfest. - Posted By: Dewey Cox (Guest) - I've watched a lot of the behind-the-scenes material in his movies and I truly believe he was trying to make the properties he adapts into movies have the "feel" of the original material. I understand he did not do a straight adaptation of the videogame but still think he did the best we could have hoped for under the Hollywood system. He is not Uwe Boll.
I don't know, if there is any horror franchise that needs a reboot it is definately "The Howling." It's like you said, one good movie, with the rest being straight-to-video junk. It's practically a forgotten franchise now, as even horror fans don't even talk about it like they do with other minor franchises like the Puppetmaster series. - Posted By: JLAJRC (Guest) - You have sold me on this. I have already argued that the best movies to remake are those flawed to begin with. The Howling franchise is in much more need of revival than something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or A Nightmare on Elm Street.
2009, MY YEAR IN RANKINGS
** Click on movie to read the review **
Is anyone honestly shocked that Twitards are the dumbest people on Earth.
CM Punk: Please add this book series to your crusade.
Posted By: The Dutch (Guest) on November 30, 2009 at 11:50 PM
The Muppets thing is another one of those absurd internet fads, like the RickRoll. I'd hardly say the puppets are "back".
Posted By: Pandora (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 12:13 AM
Sigh. They're not puppets, Pandora. They're Muppets! With an M. Difference? I don't know...but don't question it.
Posted By: YepYep (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 03:54 AM
I stop reading anything after the word "3D" comes up...this always happens. 3D becomes all the rage and all of a sudden it's gone again cause they remember, people don't care and it's dumb.
Posted By: jaked (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 06:26 AM
A youtube channel is all you really need these days to get content out. The fact that this vid is all over the place and their site is posting almost a million hits with almost as many subscribers.
Posted By: AFan (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 10:44 AM
As far as exceptions about making a movie based on your or your friend's lives, how about Swingers? That movie basically happened to Fav in real life with Vince Vaughn just playing himself, doing what he really did.
Posted By: Mr. C. (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 11:45 AM
JSA has been in our universe since Crisis. You may want to update your shit as that was 25 years ago.
Posted By: Guest#4104 (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Is anyone honestly shocked that Twitards are the dumbest people on Earth.
CM Punk: Please add this book series to your crusade.
Posted By: The Dutch (Guest) on November 30, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Dude, that would actually be a fantastic way to get Punk even more over as a hell -- have him extol the virtues of "Twilight" to a bunch of wrestling fans. People would tear his ass apart for that, and it would rule.
Posted By: Used (Guest) on December 01, 2009 at 03:15 PM
