Movies/TV's 3R’s 09.07.10: Glee, James Cameron, The Rock, Machete, More

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 09.07.2010

From the controversy surrounding Machete and James Cameron talking smack about Piranhas to Sandman coming to television and the Rock laying the smack down in the Center of the Earth, 411's Shawn S. Lealos breaks down the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous from the week in Movies/TV!



Welcome to Week 63 of The 3 R's for the Movie/TV world.


Without any further ado, here is...

The Rocky Gleeful Picture Show: Do you watch Glee? If you don't, you should. The show is wildly inventive and incredibly enjoyable. This season already promises a Britney Spears episode with the diva herself appearing as well. Now, I just read even bigger news for someone like me who loves geek stuff. This year's Glee Halloween special will be a send-up of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. How freaking cool is that?

Even More Walking Dead: Last week I provided the trailer for the new Walking Dead television series, produced by Frank Darabont. If you watched the trailer and read the comic books it is based on, you might understand why this is my most anticipated series this fall. Well, the good news keeps rolling in. Frank Darabont told Fangoria that, while the first season hasn't even aired yet, AMC has already ordered a second season. Even better news is while the first season is only six episodes, the second season will be a more natural 13-episodes. For fans of the comic, Darabont also promises season two will introduce Michonne! And fans of the comic who love the character, check out what Darabont said about how he wants to introduce her:

"...Boy, is she a character I can't wait to get to – when she comes striding out of the wasteland like a Clint Eastwood fucking spaghetti western character cross-melded with some samurai movie, like the Baby Cart character with the fucking sword, and there's just a little drift of snow in the air. I would love to put that on film."



And more videos!

Battlestar Galactica Creator Gets Magical: Ronald D. Moore, the creator of the hit Sci-Fi network series Battlestar Galactica, has just inked a two-year deal with NBC Universal to work on a new series for the network. The show is described as "an adult Harry Potter set in a world ruled by magic instead of science." Moore joins Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough who are preparing a Charlie's Angels reboot. The Charlie's Angels idea is not a Right but I am fully behind Moore getting the chance to duplicate his Battlestar Galactica magic one more time.

Michael Douglas Talks Cancer: Michael Douglas was on The Late Show with David Letterman and talked about his current fight with cancer. He sounds great and optimistic and listening to his discussion of the battle makes me smile. The guy is great and I wish him the best.

M. Night Shyamalan: You only hate him because you wish you could be him. I was in the theater when the trailer for Devil played and when it was credited to Shyamalan, people groaned. Those people only dream at night they can "Be Like Night." For those who don't know, Shyamalan did not direct Devil. He co-wrote and produced it for Drew and John Dowdle (Quarantine) to direct. The second movie in the Night Chronicles is called Twelve Strangers, which Chris Sparling (Buried) is writing. The great news is the third movie is going to be based on what was supposed to be the villain in the sequel to Unbreakable, Shyamalan's best movie. He talks about it here:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Hobo With a Shotgun: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez had a contest for aspiring filmmakers to make their own grindhouse trailer when they released Grindhouse. Jason Eisener won the contest and received financing to make his trailer into a feature length movie Hobo With a Shotgun. Check out the trailer for the movie, starring Rutger Hauer and then below that check out the original contest-winning trailer.

Alien Prequel: Ridley Scott is looking at trying to sign Gemma Arterton for his Alien prequel movie. Scott saw Arterton in The Disappearance of Alice Creed and immediately wanted to meet with her for a role. If you missed it before, check out an interview with Arterton that I took part in for 411 a few months back:

Machete: Consider this a mini review of the film with some minor spoilers. There are a lot of people accusing Machete of preaching a perceived "pro-illegal immigration" message. Those people either haven't seen it or misunderstood what they saw. In his review of the movie, Trevor Snyder mentions the cartoonish stereotypes of the anti-immigration villains. Now, every villain in this movie is cartoonish and I am pretty sure Trevor knows that but a lot of people don't understand the significance of cartoonish bad guys.

I read a lot of comments claiming the movie is "pro-illegal immigration" but the bad guy in the movie wasn't trying to stop illegal immigrants at all. He was trying to build an electrified fence along the border and allowing a Mexican drug Lord the access to control which illegal immigrants get in. Yes, they used dumb rednecks who like to shoot illegals to achieve these ends but, believe it or not, these people really exist and they deserve to be made fun of. The only "anti-illegal immigrant" supporters in the movie poked fun at are the dumb rednecks. The rest of the bad guys don't care about the illegal immigration problem, they only care about profiting from it.

Now, the movie does paint a lot of the illegals as heroes in the movie because they race in to help save the day. You can hate that all you want. But the movie is not really any more "pro-illegal immigration" than any other Mexican exploitation flick. It is a dumb, fun, ridiculous exploitation movie where Jessica Alba screams, "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us" and Lindsay Lohan dresses up as a nun and shoots people. Anyone who takes this movie seriously has some major issues in their own life.

* Also, for Trevor: Tom Savini's character did disappear right after he said "Machete is coming for you, not me." I figure it is the old exploitation trick of giving Machete something to go after in the next film to avenge his brother.

Sandman Coming to TV: I assume the best way to make any kind of adaptation for Neil Gaiman's Sandman is through television but I am still disheartened by the news it is becoming a reality. I can't really see how any adaptation of the story can work because it is a work perfectly fit for literature and not the motion picture industry. I also don't know how many normal Joe's are going to even care enough for it to last as a TV show. The only good point I see coming out of this news is they are shooting for Eric Kripke, the creator of Supernatural to run the show. Unless it is picked up by a network like HBO, Showtime or maybe AMC, I can't see it getting very far.

Angelina Jolie stalls Gravity: Angelina Jolie has rejected the chance to star in the space thriller Gravity. This puts the film in jeopardy because Warner Bros. really wants Jolie to star in the movie and without her is not as interested in moving forward on it. This sucks because it is Alfonso Cuaron's next film and is immediately one of my most anticipated upcoming movies. For those who don't know Cuaron, he made the amazing Children of Men and also directed the best Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. The guy is a visionary and to see him sidelined while studios stall sucks. Even with Scarlett Johansson reading for the role, the studios still wanted Jolie over anyone else. The movie tells the story of a woman in outer space who is outside of her space station when it is destroyed. She then has to find a way to return to Earth.

The Rock Travels to the Center of the Earth: A sequel to the Brendan Frasier remake Journey to the Center of the Earth is coming and it is going to star The Rock. Just when I thought Dwayne Johnson was moving back to the action movies he was made for (see: Faster), he goes and signs up for another movie like Race to Witch Mountain. Maybe he's doing one for his kids and then one for his fans or maybe he just knows there is more money in family friendly fare. Either way, I am excited about Faster, not so much about Journey to the Center of the Earth 2

The Admiral Twin Drive In Theater Burns Down: The Admiral Twin Drive-In Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma burned down over the weekend. The joke going around concerns the fact it was showing The Last Exorcism and this might be the work of the Devil. With that nonsense out of the way, the reason this news is noteworthy is because this place was a cinema landmark. Opened in 1951, the Admiral is best known to movie fans as the drive in theater from the Francis Ford Coppola movie The Outsiders. The place lives on for anyone who sees the movie but I hate to see such a historic place, in the realm of movie history, destroyed. If this was arson, I will be really pissed.

James Cameron hates Piranhas: This is the James Cameron I remember. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Cameron said Piranha 3D "is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s." Since when did incredibly fun, tongue in cheek horror movies become "not good enough" for 3D? James Cameron got his start making a Piranha movie, for God's sake. What makes this news great is producer Mark Canton's response to Cameron's dismissal of his film:

"What it comes down to, Jim, is - that like most things in life - size doesn't really matter. Not everyone has the advantage of having endless amounts of money to play in their sandbox and to take ten years using other people's money to make and market a film….like you do. Why can't you just count your blessings?"

Besides, it gave us Kelly Brook in 3D!

John Woo Lacks Originality: When John Woo first came to America, expectations were high. Between movies like The Killer and Hard Boiled, fans were excited to see what he could do with a Hollywood budget. After the awesome Face/Off, he stumbled with a few generic films and eventually went back home where he made a Four and a Half Hour movie (Red Cliff). Next up is a $90 million IMAX movie Flying Tigers but then Woo is eyeing remakes. The first film he wants to remake is The Killer. This makes no sense to me since he already did a great job on it once. It makes no sense for a director to remake his own film if it doesn't need improved. What bothers me more is his desire to remake Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai. This fantastic French film is just about a perfect Noir film. There is no reason to remake the movie. I guess Woo might bring something special to it since Melville was one of his biggest influences. When I read this news, I also see that John Hollcoat (The Road) has signed on to adapt Melville's Le Cercle Rouge. It just never ends.

Clash of the Titans 2: Explain to me how a movie that was critically panned (34 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and looked HORRIBLE in 3D made $492 million worldwide. I guess that is pretty low compared to Alice in Wonderland's billion dollar take but it was enough to warrant a sequel. The good part of the news is they plan to shoot the movie in 3D instead of upgrading it after the fact. Now, they just need to do something about the ridiculous script.

Skyline 2: The upcoming alien invasion movie Skyline is already in talks for a sequel. I have never heard of this movie. The best known cast members are Eric Balfour and David Zayas. It is directed by the guy who made AVP: Requiem. How about if they wait and see if the movie makes any money or is even any good before they start talking about a sequel. Here is the trailer. After watching it, I still don't know enough about whether it deserves a sequel.

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