The Last Lions: Impressions
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Disclaimer: The following article concerns an in-progress documentary. These are impressions of an early print of a work still in post-production.
This past Wednesday I had a chance to catch an advance screening of The Last Lions, the new National Geographic film from the team who brought us 2005’sMarch of the Penguins. Having never seen March and not fancying myself a lion fanatic, I wasn’t too pumped about the experience. Add in the film’s “unfinished” status—meaning anything from soundtrack and narration changes to severe editing before wide release—and I could barely drag myself to the theater.
What a fool I was.
This in-progress doc following a mother lioness’s struggles to keep her cubs alive in the face of thousands of hostile buffalo and the rival pride who killed her husband turned out to be one of the best film-going experiences I’ve had this dismal Summer. If you grew up loving The Lion King or nature docs, you’re going to eat this movie up with delight; it provides an in-depth understanding of the life of a mother lioness, informing audiences of an animal lifestyle both extremely interesting and compelling.
The End is Nigh
Posted by Matthew Starr
The L.A Times reported this past week that Blockbuster is planning on filing for bankruptcy in September. The writing has been on the wall for some time now with the success of Netflix rentals delivered to your home and of course their instant streaming service. Add to this the Red Box in various supermarkets and outlets and it is the end of an era. I only used blockbuster for a span of a few years before I joined netflix for good. During my grade school years I had always used to local video store, literally right on my street, to look for the latest VHS releases. They went out of business eventually and then I switched to Blockbuster and DVD's. Instant streaming is the wave of the future as the less people have to get up and go out to get what they want the happier they will be.
Disney withdraws from Annies
Posted by Matthew Starr
If you pay any attention to the awards season you have heard of the Annie Awards. The yearly awards are handed out by ASIFA to what they decide are the most worthy animated features. In 2008 people were taken aback at how Kung Fu Panda swept the awards over the much more critically acclaimed Wall-E and Variety has gone in depth to explain the whole situation.
Basically anyone can pay to become a member of the organization and Dreamworks studios pays for its employees to become members thus swaying the overall voting tally in their favor. Disney/Pixar is not fond of the voting process and has decided to withdraw it's films from contention going forward. Hopefully members don't hold a grudge and will still look to praise a worthy film such as Toy Story 3. Is there a film awards voting body out there that is not biased in some way, shape or form? I doubt it.
The Tempest Poster
Posted by Matthew Starr
Yahoo Movies has released this appealing poster for the upcoming film The Tempest. I just watched Julie Taymor's Across The Universe this weekend and while I found myself having trouble connecting to any of the characters it was certainly a unique journey of a film. I read this play in college but remember very little of it outside the facts that it took place on an island and involved magic. I will have to go to wikipedia and brush up on the basic plot. The film will be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival so hopefully I will be able to catch it in October.
Titanic 2
Posted by Matthew Starr
Titanic II - Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.
Ok this time it's real. In the past I have posted links on Facebook to a few fake Titanic 2 trailers with the best one being that mash up of footage of various films in Leonardo DiCaprio's career. This trailer I just embedded is NOT fake. It is a real film from production company The Asylum who also produced Snakes On A Train.
The Riddler?
Posted by Matthew Starr
First Showing is claiming that they have received word from a reliable source with a studio casting grid that The Riddler is marked down as a villain for Batman 3. On top of that the name of Joseph Gordon Levitt is written in that grid as "interested" in the role.
Levitt is a great up and coming actor but nothing about him says Riddler to me. In fact I believe his fellow cast member from Inception, Tom Hardy, would be a much better fit for the famous Gotham bad guy. Chris Nolan is really going to have to go out of his way to make this character distinct from The Joker because both villains have similar styles and elements of mad genius to them. Then again all of this could just be smoke.
Surprised?
Posted by Matthew Starr
Probably not. But Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Peter Jackson is in negotiations to direct two installments of The Hobbit. As soon as Del Toro dropped out of this film all eyes went to either Peter Jackson or Neil Blomkamp as the possible replacements. Jackson, who has already had a hand in developing this project is obviously the best choice for it. No one knows Middle Earth better than him. This news can only be good. Hopefully the negotiations don't take too long and the studio quickly proceeds with the casting of Bilbo Baggins.
Going The Distance
Posted by Matthew Starr
In case you're wondering that is indeed Curtis Jackson aka 50 Cent. The web site This Is 50 has photos of him after he lost 55 pounds for his role in the upcoming film "Things Fall Apart". He plays a cancer-stricken football player in the film directed by Mario Van Peebles. I can't say I honestly I ever thought Curtis would take acting as seriously as the likes of Robert De Niro and Christian Bale but apparently he want's to stay in this thing for the long haul. Now we know the effort is there but the question remains. Is the talent there?
Andrew Dominik’s Next Project
Posted by Matthew Starr
There are ton of these stories every week about directors and actors signing on to new projects that writing about them all would really make for a lot of clutter. Instead I am going to focus on the players whose work I am always looking forward to. Dominik's last film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, is simply one of the great films of the last decade. Cinephiles everywhere have been eagerly awaiting news on his next venture and now they have some.
Screen Daily has reported that his next film will be Blonde starring Naomi Watts as Marilyn Monroe. The script will be adapted from the imaginary Monroe memoir by Joyce Carol Oates. Dominik explained his interest in this project to Screen Daily,
“Why is Marilyn Monroe the great female icon of the 20th Century? For men she is an object of sexual desire that is desperately in need of rescue. For women, she embodies all the injustices visited upon the feminine, a sister, a Cinderella, consigned to live among the ashes.”
A great director and a great actress working on a biopic of one of the most iconic figures in history and supposedly going in the direction of "a modern Raging Bull" sounds like an excellent combination.
Inception Trailer Music NOT from Hans Zimmer
Posted by Matthew Starr
This man is Zack Hemsey and he is the composer of the music you have heard in the Inception trailers thus far. The Playlist Nation revealed today that Hemsey is indeed the man behind this wonderful trailer music and not Zimmer, whom we all thought was responsible. This is especially surprising since the track sounds so similiar to the work of Zimmer on the Batman movies. It is very likely though that Hesmey was intentionally trying to go for a similar sound when he was tapped to do the music for the trailer.
Here is the page where you can read Hemsey's bio and if you want to listen to the track without any of the dialog or sound effects from the movie you can do so HERE. Hopefully Zimmer's work on this film is just as epic and if Zack Hemsey has any luck he will find himself composing the score for a feature film in the near future.