Frickin' Eh Movie News 10.01.08: Under Cover Edition

Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 10.01.2008

Johnny Depp's immediate future, The Lone Ranger news, the new Benjamin Button trailer, Thor gets a director, and more!



My roommate and I had a spirited (well, maybe not spirited, exactly) discussion about music the other day, as we were trying to plan how exactly to hang some records above our record player, and somehow ended up listening to a whole bunch of cover songs. There are a lot out there, and we managed to find some decent ones. My roommate prefers Cake's version of I Will Survive and War Pigs, along with the Foo Fighter's cover of Darling Nikki. Personally, I've found some good ones, most notably Sheryl Crow's cover of Sweet Child o' Mine and Captain Tractor's version of London Calling. There are also some weird ones; a rock version of Dancing Queen and a techno version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was a good time, though. My old favourites still stand, though, as my favourite covers; namely, Ozzy's Under Cover CD, which is the best collection of covers ever. But anyway, this isn't a music column. This is a movie column. So without further ado:


The Mid-Week Box Office Time Machine

Alright, it's time to know what people were watching last weekend and what people should be watching this weekend. First, the past. Number one, of course, was Eagle Eye with $29 million. Second, less fortunately, was Nights in Rodanthe with $13 million. Lakeview Terrace held on at three, followed by Fireproof opening at almost $7 million. Burn After Reading dropped to number five and Igor to six. My Best Friend's Girl snuck in at number seven with around $4 million. Miracle at St. Anna opened at number 9 with $3.5 million.

In the coming weekend, we have a whole whack of movies which I will try to breeze through as quickly as possible. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People looks like some depressing revolting comedy, but if that's your sort of thing, go for it. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist looks like mediocre fare to me, not bad but nothing special. Beverly Hills Chihuahua? Garbage. I mean, come on. Flash of Genius looks like an interesting concept, but I don't see it breaking the mould in any way or drawing much interest. Blindness again sounds interesting, but can it draw much more than a small audience? I'm not sure. Finally, An American Carol, which sounds like it's just trying too hard to be a satire and will probably fail because of it. For me, Eagle Eye will still be the no-brainer. Realistically, look for How to Lose Friends, Nick and Norah, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua right at the top.


Johnny Depp's a Busy Guy

For the sake of sanity, we're compiling all of the Johnny Depp stories that have come out of Disney Studios' presentation at the Kodak Theatre earlier today including the previously unreported announcement that Depp would be returning as Captain Jack Sparrow for Pirates of the Caribbean 4, but first, he'll be reteaming with director Tim Burton to play the Mad Hatter in the motion-capture animated Alice in Wonderland and playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger. Obviously, Disney and Johnny Depp's next few years will be closely linked with these three projects in development.

During Disney's preview today in Hollywood, the studio questioned who could possibly play the titular character in its upcoming feature The Lone Ranger.

With that, Disney rolled out the USC marching band to come down and play the Ranger's theme song. This was followed by an appearance by Depp himself who took to the stage in full Captain Jack Sparrow attire...wearing The Lone Ranger's mask.

According to our Disney reps, Depp is officially signed to play Tonto and not the Lone Ranger as initially implied.

The Lone Ranger, said to be an origin story, is written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.
Disney officially announced today that Johnny Depp will star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

It was also revealed Burton is shooting the film in 3-D.

The film is based, naturally, on the Lewis Carroll classic "Alice in Wonderland," and will combine performance-capture imagery, similar to Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, with live-action footage.

Depp is joining previously cast actors Mia Wasikowska (as Alice) and Matt Lucas. Disney has set a release date of March 5, 2010.

Obviously we've got some huge announcements here, considering Johnny Depp's fame of late, mainly with Disney at his side. So Johnny will be Tonto . . . I'm still not certain that The Lone Ranger won't be a dud, but more on that later. He should be a perfect fit as the Mad Hatter, and teaming with Tim Burton again can only mean great things. That's a movie and a role that Depp fits perfectly into. Finally, the continuation of Pirates of the Caribbean, something I'm personally quite happy and excited about. I thought the trilogy of Pirates movies were excellent, and although I'm a tad worried they'll lose a bit of their glory if the cast fractures, I really think Johnny Depp can pull the entire movie off. So, we know what Johnny Depp's doing for a while, and it's looking like a good future for him.


Let's See . . . I Will Be Legend . . . Or Something

Variety is confirming what Francis Lawrence told ShockTillYouDop.com at Comic-Con International two months ago, that Warner Bros. is starting to get the ball rolling on a prequel to the 2007 Will Smith blockbuster I Am Legend, which grossed $584 million internationally.

As Lawrence already told us, he'll be returning to direct, and Variety reports that Will Smith will return as Dr. Robert Neville, as well as co-produce with his Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter and the original movie's producer Akiva Goldsman. The screenplay is written by D.B. Weiss based on a detailed outline that was created by the combined forces of Smith, Goldsman, Lassiter and Lawrence, which will cover the final days of humanity in New York City before a man-made virus creates a plague that wipes out the population, leaving Neville alone with the mutated inhabitants.

While it's a good sign that the original team is all coming back, and everything seems to be going their way, there is one problem: the original movie was very cinematic and blockbuster-ish, but it was basically a zombie movie; this is clearly not going to be a zombie movie. It can't be. It will be a completely different feel; basically, it will be a completely different movie. This could go either way, then; either the completely different story and feel will help it by making it an original take, or it will hurt it by drawing an audience expecting something completely different. Only time will tell.


War Heroes Gets Picked Up

A week ago, comic book writer Mark Millar, creator of Wanted and Kick-Ass, was talking on his blog about his new Image comic book War Heroes and how it was being circled by various studios (Original story).

Now Variety confirms that the movie rights for Millar's six issue mini-series War Heroes have indeed been picked up by Sony and producer Michael DeLuca, who teamed quite successfully earlier this year for the blackjack drama 21.

They're looking for a writer to adapt the series, which is based on an experimental military program that enhances soldiers with superpowers. The article mentions that Millar will be an executive producer on the pic, along with Zach Schiff Abrams, and also mention the Wanted sequel being developed at Universal.

If you read my article last week, you'd know that Millar was quite high on himself that his script was drawing attention from all the big players in town. Well, obviously he wasn't too self-inflating, because Sony picked it up in a week. I didn't think 21 was that fantastic of a movie, so the pairing doesn't really say much for me. Still, this is just the start of this movie; there's a lot more to happen before we see it in the theatres.


R.I.P. Paul Newman 1925 - 2008

Sad news to report today as legendary actor Paul Newman finally lost his battle with lung cancer, passing away at the age of 83 in his Westport, Connecticut home yesterday. With an impressive resume of films that includes Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hustler, Exodus and Road to Perdition, Newman officially retired from acting in 2007, and his fight with the disease was made public a few months ago.

Newman's last film appearance was providing the voice of Doc Hudson in Disney/Pixar's 2006 hit Cars, which ironically had just had its sequel announced for a summer 2011 release.

Although Newman had been nominated for an Academy Award ten times in his lengthy career, he only won once for 1987's Color of Money, just a year after being bestowed with an Honorary Award. Newman's last live action film appearance was Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition for which Newman would receive his final Oscar nomination.

Newman leaves behind his wife of fifty years, actress Joanne Woodward, with whom he had three children, his Newman's Own food empire, which was also based in Westport, as well as hundreds of great movie classics that will never be forgotten.

Wow, it's been a rough year for actors passing on already, and now another. A legend, Newman was an amazing actor who will not be forgotten, now or ever.


Could This Possibly Be True?

Last week, when Disney announced rather vaguely that Johnny Depp would be playing the role of Tonto in their big screen reinvention of The Lone Ranger, based on the popular '50s television of the same name, it took the entertainment world by surprise.

Maybe people were just shocked that a superstar like Johnny Depp might play a sidekick in any movie he appeared in, not to mention the whole fact that traditionally, Tonto was a Native American who barely ever used prepositions. The real question was who would play Tonto's better half and the title character in the movie that's yet to name a director.

Well, now England's semi-tabloid newspaper The Sun is claiming that Tonto's Kemosabe will be played by none other than George Clooney!

This information didn't come from Clooney himself or from Disney itself, but from an unnamed insider, which makes us skeptical, but here's what they say:

An insider said last night: "George is very keen — he's been trying to do a movie with Johnny for a long time. He thinks they'll make the perfect on-screen partnership."

Written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, who also penned the three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, the Jerry Bruckheimer production will try to revive the iconic character who first appeared on the radio in the '30s but became best known by the version played by Clayton Moore in the early days of television.

Clooney's last attempt to play an action hero was the ill-fated Batman & Robin for Warner Bros. where he had Chris O'Donnell as his sidekick, so hopefully Disney's movie will fare better for the star.

Look for more news on this exciting new project in the coming weeks, hopefully including some sort of confirmation of this breaking rumor.

I have a very, very hard time imaging this rumour to be true. George Clooney and Johnny Depp as the Long Ranger and Tonto? It's a bold idea. As much as I think this is outrageous and far-fetched, the very idea that Johnny Depp is the sidekick – and a Native American one at that – is pretty far-fetched to start with. So maybe there is some truth to this. If Disney wants to really blow this one out of the water they will put Clooney in. I wouldn't be betting on it, though.


Robin Nottingham? Sherriff Hood?

There have been some interesting developments on Ridley Scott's proposed Robin Hood project Nottingham out of the L.A. junket for his upcoming political thriller Body of Lies. The most interesting one being the claim that Russell Crowe will not only be playing the Sheriff of Nottingham as reported earlier, but he'll ALSO play the part of Robin Hood.

During a press conference, Crowe was asked about the project and its progress since back in July, it was reported that the project had been delayed despite Universal having already claimed November 9, 2009 as its release date.

"No, we haven't done that yet," Crowe responded to the reporter's query. "It's one of those things where we're taking our time with. You don't want to be doing Robin Hood unless you're going to be doing it really f*cking well. It's got to be the best one ever done otherwise you should do something else."

He also went on to say that he would not be wearing tights because according to their research, they hadn't been invented and wouldn't be for 300 years. Crowe confirmed that he'd be starring in the movie opposite Sienna Miller, presumably as Maid Marian.

Now that's all well and good, but the actual news would come later when MTV's Movie Blog spoke to director Ridley Scott and he claimed Crowe would actually be playing two roles including that of Robin Hood:

"He's playing both!" (he said) exclusively to MTV News during an interview for his new film "Body of Lies," which co-stars Crowe. While Scott held additional details close to his chest — saying they would take too long to describe — he did exclaim that Crowe's dual roles would be "a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes."

What that means is open for conjecture--it could mean that Robin Hood *was* originally the Sheriff of Nottingham, rather than the presumption that he'll be playing a dual role and be on-screen with himself--but it does seem clear that Crowe is playing Robin Hood in the movie. At one point, it was rumored that either Christian Bale or Sam Riley would be playing the part of Robin Hood, but those rumors seem to have proven unfounded by Scott's statement.

I'm not even going to pretend to know where they're going to take this – I'm not even going to try and take a guess. I'm betting, however, that however they do it, it will be incredibly creative. Especially with Ridley Scott running the show. Russell Crowe also has the acting chops to pull off however this role turns out – whether it's a dual role, a split personality, or whatever else they can think up. Bring it on; I'm ready to see what they can create.


Benjamin Button Trailer

Paramount Pictures just unveiled the first full-length trailer and a new television spot for David Fincher's time-traveling dramatic fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, which opens on Christmas Day.

Based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it tells the story of a man born in his '80s who starts aging backwards starting in New Orleans 1918 and ending up as a baby in the 21st Century.

Despite being initially not interested in this trailer at all, it did progress as normal (unlike the plot of the movie) and I ended up intrigued and curious about it. How is it all going to fit together? That's a question I'll have to watch the movie to find out, I suppose. Ignore the time travel part of the description, it's not quite that, but it's interesting nonetheless. Take a peek and see.


Branagh Takes on Thor

Kenneth Branagh is negotiating to direct Thor for Marvel Studios, reports Variety. The comic book adaptation is scheduled for a July 16, 2010 release.

Branagh is the latest in a string of directors -- such as Jon Favreau (Iron Man), Christopher Nolan (the Batman franchise) and Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) -- with arthouse roots taking on big-budget comic book fare.

Marvel will set a distributor for Thor shortly.

Thor, written by Mark Protosevich, follows disabled medical student Donald Blake, who has an alter ego as the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor.

Well, I'm glad to see Thor coming to the big screen – not because I'm a fan of the comic, I just think it could be a neat movie – but I'm starting to worry about them purposely bringing in so-called "arthouse roots" directors. The first time is a surprise that it worked, and a couple more don't go noticed, but once they begin to think there's a pattern, they pull in someone just because of their origin even though they have no interest or ability to handle something like a comic book adaptation. Not saying that Branagh won't be able to do Thor right; I'm just saying that at some point in the future, attempts like these will fail.


Rapid-Fire: Aeon Flux (2005, starring Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas, Johnny Lee Miller)

There were too ridiculous movies that came out near each other, both looking like over-the-top action movies starring a woman as the heroine. One was Ultraviolet and it was just godawful; the other, and less offensive, of the two, was this:

Let's say this right now: this is an MTV production. Which means it's not going to be anything more than an incredibly superficial movie. That said, it's actually pretty fun. Being a comic adaptation, and a fairly low-budget one at that, it focuses heavily on the action and the cheesy story, and then throws in all the cool gimmicks they can think of – the little gadgets and stuff like that.

Of course, the gimmicks aren't enough to make the movie worthwhile. There are some actually decent action sequences in the movie, and some of Aeon's gadgets are quite cool. The main strength of the movie, though, is the style. They did quite a good job of creating this world, and it looks pretty decent, from the architecture to the clothes.

The acting is definitely nothing special. Outside of the main three, the acting ranges from average to bad, with no real high points anywhere. Within the main trio, Theron is in her fallback role as an action star, and while she does it well, the actual acting part is less than impressive. Surprisingly, I actually thought Csokas did a really good job, and I think he's quite a good actor. Sure, within the context of the movie it wouldn't be hard to do well, but I thought he did a great job. Miller was a decent enough villain. While my roommate didn't like him because he was too ordinary looking, I thought that was perfect; he was just an ordinary scientist who doesn't want to let go of the power he's gained, and so he should be an ordinary, not-very-formidable opponent.

You can't say much about this movie because there's honestly not that much there. It's a mediocre action flick, but nothing more. There's no humour, a fairly ridiculous story, mostly poor acting, and it's just an all-around "meh" type of movie. That said, I don't dislike it; it's still a fun, mindless movie that you can enjoy if you're in the mood for that kind of thing.


Closing Time . . .

What a horrible start to the week. Who decided to put all the stress in the first two days of the week? Now the entire week has gone down the tubes. Two midterms and two presentations is just plain ridiculous for a Monday and Tuesday. But that's university, I suppose. That also leaves another presentation and two more quizzes for the end of the week. Agh . . . I am definitely going to enjoy this weekend. Well, until next week . . .


[All news, images, and other stuff from www.comingsoon.net, www.imdb.com, and www.youtube.com.]