On February 6, director Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas) sees his most recent stop-motion feature film hit theaters. Coraline follows the curious adventures of a young girl as she discovers a secret door in her new house that leads her to some sort of alternate version of her very own life. But this new version of her current life is somehow better, like a fairytale, that is until her alternative parents decide they want to keep her there forever.

Dakota Fanning voices the lead role of Coraline and Desperate Housewives Teri Hatcher and The Daily Show's John Hodgman step in as Coraline's real and alternate parents. The film is based on Neil Gaiman's children's book of the same name. Gaiman also wrote the novel turned film Stardust and co-wrote the screenplay for Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf.

Below we have the trailer that Neil Gaiman himself has been promoting and linking like crazy all over Twitter. His linking actually prompted me to ask him via Twitter, how much input he gets on trailers and posters promoting the film (I wasn't expecting much despite the fact he wrote the book). His answer: "I always get input. Sometimes my input 'That's dreadful,' and sometimes the reply is 'Tough.'" His short and concise answer is limited by Twitter's 140 character limit in micro-blog updates but the point is clear. It's really sad that when the creator of an intellectual property has the chance to see his work transformed into a new medium and he's completely disregarded at times. Obviously I don't know any of the key details, but this is definitely something I'm sure happens frequently with adaptations.

Anyway, the Neil Gaiman approved internet only trailer is embedded below. Enjoy!

Labels: Adaptations, Books, Coraline, Dakota Fanning, Henry Selick, John Hodgman, Neil Gaiman, Teri Hatcher, Trailers

Ever since the announcement of a revival of The Green Hornet in a new feature length film starring Seth Rogen and directed by Stephen Chow (who would also be playing Kato, the sidekick made famous by Bruce Lee), not much hype about the project had been heard. Then some sad news took away any anticipation certain people may have had when Stephen Chow dropped out of the director's chair. Well it looks like things aren't getting any better with this little insider info straight from whispers at the Sundance Film Festival looked into by HitFix.

Drew McWeeny (yes that's his real name) writes, "Ever since Stephen Chow started to waffle about his participation in the film, I've been hearing rumors that there were major hesitations at Sony. Then at Sundance, I heard several people say that the film was off completely. I spoke this afternoon with a source close to the film, and while they didn't call it completely dead, they did say it is 'highly unlikely' that the film will shoot in 2009 at all."

While I'm not exactly disappointed, it's a bit disheartening to hear this project might put on the backburner. I don't have any nostalgic memories attached to the Green Hornet (and I would contend that not many of today's film bloggers do), but I thought this would be an interesting collaboration of comedy and action (and an excuse for some kind of cool update of the awesome Green Hornet theme). After seeing Rogen take on the action comedy in Pineapple Express I was at least somewhat interested in how this one would turn out. Oh well, I'm sure Rogen has plenty of upcoming projects to keep him busy. You guys have anything to say on the matter?

Labels: Green Hornet, Kato, Seth Rogen, Stephen Chow

While many of us don't have the cash to spend so much time watching movies in Park City, Utah (and apparently more than usual couldn't or wouldn't cough up the dough), the internet allows us to get the inside scoop on all things related to the Sundance Film Festival. Personally I've been following Cinematical, Spout and /Film for daily reviews, news and deals happening at the fest (as well as jealously following these respective blogs' writer's Twitter updates).

One little gem of news gives us a little taste of the fest and gets us about as close to a screening of said independent films as we'll get, at least until later this year.

Embedded below we have the trailer for 500 Days of Summer, a film gaining a lot of buzz at Sundance, and much praise for performances by both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.

Fox Searchlight summarizes their film, "Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't. This post modern love story is never what we expect it to be -- it's thorny yet exhilarating, funny and sad, a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn't quite go where we think it will. When Tom, a hapless greeting card copywriter and hopeless romantic, is blindsided after his girlfriend Summer dumps him, he shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days "together" to try to figure out where things went wrong. His reflections ultimately lead him to finally rediscover his true passions in life."

As I understand it there are also some musical numbers involving random breaks into song and animated animals. The trailer itself isn't perfect and is reminiscent of the very old trailers for the original Star Wars with it's repetitive monotone voiceover ("Star Wars. The story of a boy, a girl and a universe"). But there's just something there in the footage that gets me excited. This seems like the next Garden State and has the potential to be this year's little-movie-that-could a la Little Miss Sunshine. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.

Labels: 500 Days of Summer, Film Festival, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, Trailers

This installment of FanToys is only for the wealthy, and in these hard economic times, that's probably none of you. Either way, this is just too cool not to post. I've always wanted to own iconic pieces of movie history, the DeLorean from Back to the Future being at the top of the list for sure.

Well now we find out via /Film that Sotheby's auction house has listed a very large sort of setpiece from the recently Academy Award nominated film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The actual house in which Benjamin Button grew younger, the nursing home maintained by his surrogate mother Queenie is being sold through Sotheby's international realty for $2.85 million. The house is over 200 years old and even survived hurricane Katrina. My only wish was that there were two of these houses so I could play with one and keep the other in the package. COLLECTIBLE NERD ALERT!

Labels: Benjamin Button, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, FanToys

After making it's debut at last year's Sundance Film Festival, The Great Buck Howard, is finally making it's way to a theatrical release sometime later this year. I haven't heard anything about this film since it's release and suddenly within the same week, we get an official one sheet and a trailer.

The trailer makes the film look quirky and feels like a melding of the period style of Catch Me If You Can with the pop look of That Thing You Do! John Malkovich is being John Malkovich (you see what I did there?), and this also marks the first time Tom Hanks and his continually rising star son Colin Hanks have been together in a movie (they're even playing father and son respectively). Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think.

Labels: Colin Hanks, John Malkovich, Posters, The Great Buck Howard, Tom Hanks, Trailers

The good news: Trailer Addict has snagged what appears to be an exclusive sneak peek at a brand new trailer for the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The bad news: The trailer is low quality, snagged from some sort of television preview, and has very annoying Japanese voiceover.

Hopefully this trailer hits the US in glorious Quicktime soon and with better voiceover. It's a shame that many international audiences never know the power and the glory of the late Don LaFontaine: The Voice. Anyway, we've embedded the bootleg trailer below. If you'd like a more in depth look, a Japanese Harry Potter fansite snagged stills from this trailer a week ago, but they are just as poor quality as the video. I guess these will hold me over.

Labels: Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Trailers

Here's the newest one sheet for Pixar's upcoming adventure Up. While there hasn't been much in the way of full on promotion for the film yet, Disney/Pixar have said Up is "a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell."

Pixar is an anomaly among Hollywood for churning out hit after hit, continuing to amaze audiences with their original stories and flawless animation. At first, I wasn't sure what Up had to offer in the way of an interesting story, but this trailer sets us up for a great meeting of two unlikely adventurers in the geriatric Carl Fredricksen and the ambtious boy scout Russell. For those who haven't yet had the pleasure of seeing the trailer for this promising Pixar adventure, we've embedded it below.

Labels: Disney, Pixar, Posters, Trailers, Up

Okay so everyone has forgotten about the live-action/CG mixtures that destroyed such lovable and iconic characters as Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks right? RIGHT!? Well if the travesty of those films didn't hurt your soul to the very core then surely Variety's most recent scoop will. We'll let them explain:

"Plans are to bring the constantly warring cat and mouse to life as CG characters that run around in live-action settings.

Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and exec producer on Terminator: Salvation, will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home."

Well that just sounds brilliant! I think we all know how well-received the last venture into a Tom and Jerry film was. I'm most confused by this idea, because who the hell even knows Tom and Jerry anymore? First of all Cartoon Network rarely shows any classic cartoons of Tom and Jerry (though they have an updated version of the MGM toon running). And second, I know that my parents hated the updated version of this classic clashing duo when they attempted a 1992 animated feature (Tom and Jerry talking?! Grow up!), and bringing them back in a live action/CG package isn't going to make things better. While I can't officially pass any judgment until I see a trailer, this is definitely not one I'm looking forward to in the near future.

Labels: Hanna-Barbera, Tom and Jerry

The nominations for the 81st Academy Awards were announced this morning honoring achievement in filmmaking for the year 2008.

There were certainly a number of shockers that people were caught off guard by (and some that I wouldn't really consider shocking). Here's what's surprising people:

• The Dark Knight receives no nominations for Best Picture or Best Director, Christopher Nolan (Personally I was not counting on this happening, and definitely think there are plenty of better films that kept it out of the running. While Nolan did a superb job directing, with his lack of digital effects for such a large motion picture, and his use of IMAX cameras to enhance the movie-going experience, he certainly was up against some stiff competition.)
• Revolutionary Road received significantly less recognition as it was not nominated for Best Picture and both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio do not receive nominations. Also, director Sam Mendes did not receive a nomination either. (This too is not entirely a shocker to me. While Revolutionary Road interests me, it feels like a retread of American Beauty just set in a different time. I'm surprised no one has done a trailer mash-up like The Curious Case of Forrest Gump)
• The Wrestler wasn't nominated for Best Picture, and Darren Aronofsky was not nominated for Best Director
• No Best Actor nod for Clint Eastwood's performance in Gran Torino, but even more interesting, Gran Torino gets snubbed for any nominations, including Jamie Cullum's original song crafted for the movie, which I actually liked more than the song Bruce Springsteen wrote for The Wrestler (which was also not nominated for Best Original Song)
  
• Richard Jenkins gets some well deserved attention in the form of a Best Actor nomination for The Visitor

Check out the list for the major awards below, and for the full list you can check out the official website of the Academy Awards.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Richard Jenkins for The Visitor
Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn for Milk
Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Melissa Leo for Frozen River
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Josh Brolin for Milk
Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder (2008)
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt (2008/I)
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight (2008)
Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams for Doubt (2008/I)
Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Viola Davis for Doubt (2008/I)
Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler (2008)

Best Achievement in Directing
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant for Milk

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Courtney Hunt Frozen River
Mike Leigh Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McDonagh In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black Milk
Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter Wall E

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley Doubt
Peter Morgan Frost/Nixon
David Hare The Reader
Simon Beaufoy Slumdog Millionaire

The 81st Acaedmy Awards will be hosted by Hugh Jackman and broadcast live on February 22 at 8pm EST on ABC.

Labels: 81st Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Nominations, Oscars

Here we have the newest poster for the reboot of the popular horror franchise Friday the 13th. From the trailer (and even the poster) it's clear that this reboot is going to be a much grungier and brutal incarnation of Jason than we have seen previously. Much like Rob Zombie's remake of the Halloween franchise, I think this will be a weaker version of what used to be a great horror film series and will ultimately sacrifice an iconic character for a conventional teen-sex-gore-fest with convenient ready-to-sell packaging. If you haven't seen the trailer, we've embedded it below for your review.

Labels: Friday the 13th, Halloween, Horror, Jason, poster, Posters

Last week there was what seemed to be a bit of disturbing news from Collider regarding extensive re-shoots happening up in Vancouver for 20th Century Fox's summer blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Long story short, people have strong suspicions in Fox micro-managing the film behind director Gavin Hood's back, and even involvement from Richard Donner attempting to fix some sort of debacle that this tentpole film had fallen into.

Well, lo and behold, the waters parted and there was word from up on high. And this information came from a bit of an unlikely source...Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. This was such an important matter to clear up that Jackman took time out of these extensive re-shoots and I'm sure his continuing busy schedule regarding his hosting the Oscars to put the collective fan boy mind at ease.

Ain't It Cool News (AICN) received an e-mail straight from Jackman, and a bit of a bonus was also included with the e-mail. Here's what Wolverine had to say:

Hey Mate- Would you mind posting this? Thank you for your support! HJ

Hey everyone -

It's Hugh Jackman, sending this note from freezing Vancouver. I have read a lot of your online comments regarding the footage that we are currently shooting and I share your passion for the Wolverine character and the movie - I owe it all to you guys!

I wanted to reach out and let you know that due to scheduling conflicts with certain cast members and location/weather considerations, we had to wait until now to shoot a couple of scenes. Please rest assured that WOLVERINE will be badass and hopefully meet all of your expectations. I am stoked by the positive response to the teaser, which clearly reflects the tone and scope of the film. If you like that, we've got much more in store!

In the meantime, here's an exclusive shot of some characters you may recognize...

Cheers,

Hugh

Well this seems reassuring enough, but it seems very hokey to me that Hugh Jackman felt the personal need to include this extra exclusive cast picture with the e-mail. This is worrying to me because I wasn't entirely blown away back when we premiered the first trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and it seems like the studio is using Jackman's apparent trusted nature amongst the web to take care of damage control. I had the same uneasy feeling when meeting Eddie Izzard over the summer and asking him about Valkyrie. Without prompt Izzard proceeded to tell me and his Q&A audience that the jostling around of the film's release date had nothing to do with worry about the quality of the picture but simply a decision to get the movie out of October (apparently a month known for historical dramas) to a better date more accommodating for the thrilling, suspenseful picture that it really was. I love Eddie Izzard, but that just screamed out damage control to me.

Wolverine looks cool enough but maybe too action-packed to the extreme. These re-shoots are worrying and despite Hugh Jackman's reassurance, I'll hold my real judgment until the film is released this May.

Labels: 20th Century Fox, Fox, Gavin Hood, Hugh Jackman, Richard Donner, Wolverine, X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Ever since Bill Hader joined the cast of SNL, his star power has only gone up. He has taken his strong comedic presence to such films as Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Tropic Thunder.

Now it looks like Hader is taking a bold step into seemingly unfamiliar territory. Over at CHUD, Devin Faraci caught up with the SNL regular while he was promoting his current Sundance sweeping film Adventureland directed by Superbad helmer Greg Mottola, and what Hader had to say was quite interesting. He mentioned he and Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich had written a horror movie for Judd Apatow. Whaaaaa!?!?

Now when horror and comedy best came together for my most extreme enjoyment was Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead. Of course the success of this film could easily be seen by anyone who had enjoyed Wright's previous British television venture Spaced which meshed great pop culture fueled comedy and some great horror/sci-fi cinematography throughout.

I'm not entirely sure how an Apatow horror/comedy would work though. I have no doubts it would be funny, but I don't know if Apatow has Wright's touch to so meticulously craft a comedy film within a completely different genre (especially a genre that in itself is parodied in the film). The closest anyone involved with Apatow inspired antics is the throwback to the buddy action movies of the 80's Pineapple Express. Here's what Hader had to say regarding the status of this potential horror comedy:

"I don't know if it's even going to get made. Judd met with us and said 'I want to do a horror movie with you. I want to see you in a slasher movie.' It's partially Straw Dogs meets Halloween meets Home Alone meets Monster Squad. It is definitely about guys nowadays, that idea that you watch fucked up shit on TV, how violence in our culture - this sounds really hoity toity - you watch fucked up reality shows, I love true crime shows. The idea of that thing coming to your house, and what do you do? I would shit my pants. That's basically what the movie is about. What if that guy decided to come to your house? What would you and your dipshit friends do about it."

Sounds interesting and very similar to Pineapple Express in its placing of these everyday guys in traumatic or extreme circumstances and following the hilarity that ensues. Apatow hasn't disappointed me yet, so let's see how this one pans out.

Labels: Bill Hader, Comedy, Edgar Wright, Horror, Judd Apatow, Shaun of the Dead

Ever since Judd Apatow made a name for himself with The 40-Year-Old Virgin his comedic stylings have helped bring back demand and popularity of raunchy R-rated comedies. Along with this newfound love for vulgar laughs, he has brought a group of fresh faces to the comedy genre, most hailing from Apatow's past television, cult classic venture Freaks and Geeks.

Now names like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Siegel are household names. Rogen's jump into the spotlight came with his first leading role in Apatow's Knocked Up (with a laundry list of upcoming projects), Segel is in his fourth season of the successful CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother and wrote and starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Hill has made a name for himself playing small parts in Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and a leading role in Superbad.

Now these three names combined with other comedy stand-bys like Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell and other established (and surprisingly funny) actors like John C. Reilly and James Franco are making for some of the best side-splitting films to be released in the past decade.

And so it is without further adieu that another promising R-rated comedy is headed our way starring Jason Segel and Paul Rudd. I Love You, Man looks like another in a line of recently dubbed "bro-mance" films as Peter Klaven (Rudd) is recently engaged but at a loss for friendship to fill the manly role of his Best Man. And so Peter goes on a series of man-dates looking for the perfect best-friend. When the brash and spontaneous Sydney Fife (Segel) enters his life, it's bro-mance at first sight. Some of my favorite scenes from Forgetting Sarah Marshall were the ones with Jason Segel and Paul Rudd, so having them both as leading men is a great move for my money.

Somehow this movie feels like a familiar romantic comedy, but with the gender roles switched and, at least in this trailer, no evidence of struggling romance or the long hidden love between best friends. Below we've embedded the Red Band trailer for your enjoyment.

Labels: Apatow, I Love You Man, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Red Band Trailer, Trailers

A while back Peter Sciretta over at /Film posted about a fan-made alternate poster to the sort of conventional and uninspiring characters posters used to promote The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The poster itself was created by a reader using a promotional image for the film's Oscar campaign. Flash forward a month and over at Internet Movie Poster Awards they recently posted a much more polished version of the proposed alternate poster making it potentially more official, and perhaps even used in the international marketing of the film.

Upon first glance the image seems very simple, but the difference of the extremely wrinkled skin, gray hair and liver-spotted head of an infant is supremely striking. I am personally very interested and critical in the art of movie posters, and while most posters attempt to use weak Photoshop skills and their cast's familiar faces to try to sell a film, I love when there's some style to the poster and even more when the poster can live up to a picture's expectations of being wort a thousand words.

The image of an infant Benjamin Button in his surrogate mother's arms evokes exactly the same feelings of the film. An all too familiar story following one man's journey through life is made completely out of the ordinary by this burden of aging backwards. Some have simply said Button is Forrest Gump with a twist. But for me, this twist really changes the story, and much like the image of this geriatric baby being held so lovingly, is simply beautiful.

Moving quickly from some praise to some wit, others are a little more forward in their comparisons of Benjamin Button with Forrest Gump. In the below video you can see a funny side-by-side comparison of more than a couple elements in common between the two films.

Labels: Benjamin Button, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Forrest Gump, Funny or Die, poster