Over the weekend we snagged a story from Drew McWeeny over at HitFix regarding some negative talk at Sundance about Seth Rogen's upcoming adaptation of Green Hornet getting off the ground. Apparently Seth Rogen wasn't too happy with these reports, and he got in contact with Drew via e-mail to settle the score.

I'm betting Rogen was pissed and maybe even laid into Drew a bit since the only excerpt from this e-mail used is in regards to all the people who are hard at work on Green Hornet and I'm sure that this created a stir among the production team as to whether or not they were going to have jobs. In the e-mail Rogen comments:

"'The Green Hornet' has many people working for it, including production designers, costume designers and many conceptual artists, office staff, etc. [The studio heads] have every intention on making it, and assuming we're able to hire a new director in the upcoming weeks, which seems like a distinct possibility, it should still hit the release date."

Well I'm glad Seth was nice enough to keep everyone in the loop, and it's good to hear that we'll at least get a chance to see how this project turns out. Other good news includes a report over at Ain't It Cool (ironically enough the former stomping grounds of Drew McWeeny aka Moriarity) that while Stephen Chow is no longer directing he is definitely still in for portraying the Hornet's faithful sidekick Kato. Stay tuned for any further developments as they come along.

Labels: Green Hornet, Seth Rogen, Stephen Chow

After over a week of non-stop updates and news straight out of Park City, Utah, the 2009 Sundance Film Festival has finally concluded. After jealously pouring over Twitter updates from other film bloggers, it looks like the news and conversation flow may finally be getting back to normal. Having said that, I couldn't go without calling some attention to the films that garnered some buzz or simply caught my attention. Without actually being at the fest, we can only speculate as to how good these films might be or read reviews from our fellow film bloggers who you can see linked at the left.

Below are 13 films that I'm most curious to check out in the coming months. But who knows how long before these films get a wider audience. We only recently premiered the poster and trailer for The Great Buck Howard a film that premiered at last year's Sundance. Some other films of note that we're interested in (that we've already covered) include 500 Days of Summer and Mary and Max. Anyway, check out the list below...Plot synopses provided courtesy of Netflix.

Big Fan
Parking attendant and New York Giants fanatic Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) must reexamine his life after he's beaten up by his favorite player in this comedy written and directed by Robert D. Siegel, a former editor-in-chief of "fake news" paper The Onion. Also starring Kevin Corrigan as Sal, Michael Rapaport as Philadelphia Phil and Marcia Jean Kurtz as Theresa, the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Grad student Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) is perplexed by her endless string of romantic failures. Combining work on an anthropological dissertation with her quest for personal answers, Sara embarks on a series of interviews with many different types of men, whose confessions range from banal to bizarre. Writer-director John Krasinski's romantic comedy is based on a collection of short stories from author David Foster Wallace.

Cold Souls
Paul Giamatti stars as himself, an actor in the throes of anxiety over an upcoming performance -- until he gives his soul to a mysterious company that promises to freeze and store it until he wants it again, along with his anxieties. But when his soul goes missing, Giamatti embarks on a journey to track it down. Along the way he learns a thing or two about engaging every human emotion, however difficult. Sophie Barthes directs.

Humpday
During a getaway at a sex-positive commune, best pals Andrew (Joshua Leonard) and Ben (Mark Duplass) find their friendship tested in strange new ways when a dare leads them to contemplate filming a live sex scene for an amateur porn festival. As the shoot date looms, our heroes must contend with two major logistical difficulties: Ben's wife, Anna (Alycia Delmore); and their heterosexuality. The indie comedy screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

It Might Get Loud
Davis Guggenheim, creator of the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, directs this fascinating profile of three contemporary guitarists: Jimmy Paige of Led Zeppelin, U2's The Edge and Jack White of the White Stripes. Each talks about their creative process, technique and influences as cameras follow them to key locations in their own music history. A jam session featuring all three musicians is woven into their discussions.

Lymelife
Set in 1970s suburbia, this coming-of-age tale revolves around the exploits of a pair of Long Island families grappling with complex relationships, financial woes and an outbreak of lyme disease that's "terrorizing" their community. Brothers Derick Martini and Steven Martini helmed this quirky dramedy that features a stellar cast, including Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Kieran Culkin, and Cynthia Nixon.

Mystery Team
At age 7, pint-sized sleuths Jason, Duncan and Charlie solved all manner of kiddie mysteries in Oakdale. Now, at 18, the Mystery Team is about to leave their Encyclopedia Brown-style tactics in the dust with their latest case: a real murder. High jinks ensue in this goofy, fast-paced caper comedy written by and starring Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson and Dominic Dierkes. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Rudo y Cursi
Stuck working on a banana ranch, two super competitive soccer-playing brothers dream of getting off the farm and finding stardom: Beto (Diego Luna) as a pro goalie and Toto (Gael García Bernal) as a singer -- but it might break them. When a professional soccer team ignores Beto's goalie skills in favor of Toto's fancy footwork, Beto signs on to a rival team, and the battle between brothers is on. Carlos Cuarón brother of Alfonso Cuarón directs this comedy.

Shrink
In the wake of a personal tragedy, Hollywood's psychiatrist to the stars (Kevin Spacey) devolves into a slovenly pothead and worries he's become incapable of helping his patients in this sharp indie drama that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film also stars Saffron Burrows, Robin Williams, Robert Loggia, Dallas Roberts, and others as the shrink's diverse brood of showbiz clientele.

World's Greatest Dad
After his son (Daryl Sabara) dies in an awkward freak accident, high school poetry teacher Lance (Robin Williams) ghostwrites a suicide note to spare the family embarrassment. But when the note becomes an unexpected hit, Lance sees a chance to resurrect his writing career. In a bid for literary fame, Lance writes his son's journal and passes it off as his own. Written and directed by Bob Goldthwait.

I Love You Phillip Morris
When upstanding Texas cop Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) realizes he's gay, he changes his entire life and pulls a series of bold con jobs that lands him jail -- where he meets his one true love, cellmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). When Morris is transferred to another prison, lovesick Russell mounts a series of jailbreaks just to be with his beloved soul mate. Glenn Ficarra directs this comedy based on a true story.

Adventureland
Unable to afford the European vacation he'd dreamed of, recent college grad James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) reluctantly takes a gig at a local amusement park, only to learn that the dead-end job is, in fact, excellent preparation for the real world. Writer-director Greg Mottola's semi-autobiographical comedy-drama, filmed in Pittsburgh's Kennywood Park, also stars Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart.

Grace
When an accident takes the life of the unborn, 8-month-old fetus inside her, Madeline Matheson (Jordan Ladd) insists on delivering the stillborn child -- only to discover that the baby is alive and heinously hungry. Before long, voracious baby Grace spurns milk and forces Madeline to slake her insatiable appetite for blood. Paul Solet directs this masterful horror movie, while Gabrielle Rose and Stephen Park co-star.

Which Sundance Films are you looking forward to?

Labels: Adventureland, Big Fan, Brief Interviews..., Cold Souls, Grace, Humpday, I Love You Phillip Morris, It Might Get Loud, Lymelife, Mystery Team, Rudo y Cursi, Shrink, Sundance, World's Greatest Dad

An official press release announced yesterday that principal photography began on Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's collaboration on bringing the classic comic character Tintin to the big screen. Along with the announcement of production commencing, the project was also given an official title and confirmed cast.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is a 3-D motion-capture film being directed by Steven Spielberg utilizing state-of-the-art technology from Peter Jackson's WETA Digital. Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Coupling) are credited with writing the screenplay. This project has been in development for some time now tracing all the way back to Spielberg's first hearing of the comic series just after someone had compared Raiders of the Lost Ark to the adventures of Tintin and a history of its development has been traced by UK's Sunday Times. The comic focuses on the adventures of a young Belgian reporter in pursuit of a great story.

Taking on the role of this intrepid reporter is rising star Jamie Bell who was most recently seen in Defiance and is better known for his portrayal of the title role in Billy Elliot. Also recently unannounced is the involvement of 007 himself, Daniel Craig, as the character Red Rackham. Toby Jones (Infamous) is also on board in a still unknown role. Today's press release also confirmed the previously rumored casting of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thomson and Thompson and motion capture legend Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock.

While I don't have any sort of nostaligia connected to Tintin I still vaguely remember the animated series of the comic strip being on Nickelodeon. What's got me most excited about this film now is seeing Spielberg tackle a motion-capture film with Peter Jackson (who will actually be directing the second in a planned trilogy of Tintin's adventures). Two of my favorite directors combined with the writing talents of Edgar Wright and Steven Moffat and a great cast make this a must-see for me when this one gets released in 2011. I just don't know if audiences are going to clamor to see a character who hasn't had any sort of mainstream exposure since the early 90's. Spileberg and Jackson's involvement is a big boost, but time will tell and a trailer will surely make or break the hype machine. If you'd like to read the whole press release, head on over to ComingSoon.net.

Labels: Adventures of Tintin, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Edgar Wright, Jamie Bell, Nick Frost, Peter Jackson, Simon Pegg, Spielberg, Steven Spielberg, Tintin, Toby Jones

Isn't weird how a headline like that doesn't garner any sort of concern for George Clooney? Everyone just assumes that he's healthy and doesn't have to go to the emergency room AGAIN for medical attention. Bet you'd feel pretty stupid if George Clooney had to go to the hospital wouldn't you...STUPID!

Well, luckily for Clooney that's not the case. The photo to the right is simply confirmation from Starz Life of his return to the very show that made him the household name he is today. For the fifteenth and final season of ER there have been plenty of reports of former cast members returning to the show for one last hurrah (dead or not). While there has definitely been rumor after rumor about Clooney's potential return, these photographs prove to be some welcomed nostalgia for longtime fans of both Clooney and ER. No word on the exact date of his appearances but they will definitely be towards the end of the season.

I've never watched ER, but that's not because I don't enjoy it. The show started back when I (or for that matter anybody) didn't have a DVR or any sort of loyalty to remembering when a TV show was airing. Either way I always love seeing an actor return to his roots and pay homage to where it all started. Even for people who aren't fans, is Clooney's appearance enough to get you to watch?

Labels: ER, George Clooney

Today we have another Sundance trailer making its way across the interwebs. This one is for a stop-motion animation film, which doesn't usually grab a lot of attention at the fest, or at least enough to make waves outside of the festival itself.

Mary and Max features the voices of Toni Collette as Mary and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Max. The plot synopsis from IMDB: It is a simple tale of pen-friendship between two very different people; Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight year old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44 year old, severely obese, Jewish man with Aspergers Syndrome living in the chaos of New York. Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, Mary and Max's friendship survives much more than the average diet of life's ups and downs. Like Harvie Krumpet, Mary and Max is innocent but not naïve, as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual difference, trust, copulating dogs, religious difference, agoraphobia and much much more."

With this description Mary and Max feels like it could be similar to the upcoming Pixar film Up regarding its relationship between the young and old characters, but sans the Disney whimsy. I'm automatically interested in anything Philip Seymour Hoffman does, and this looks quirky enough to be something different for the animation genre. Trailer is embedded below courtesy of Collider

Labels: Animation, Mary and Max, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stop-Motion, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, Toni Collette, Trailers

Probably one of the most exciting moments of this summer's blockbuster season was seeing Marvel set up for the impending superhero team flick The Avengers with a bumper introducing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man. Even cooler was Marvel's choice to begin to create their own cinematic Marvel universe by having Robert Downey, Jr. make a cameo as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk. But now it appears the coolness factor of this little venture might be in a bit of a spot.

IGN sat down with Sam Jackson himself and asked him about the rumors circulating that Marvel may not be able to afford to have him aboard:



This is not good news for Marvel or fans of the upcoming potential franchise. While some might think that it's not necessary to have Jackson keep the role for this to work, this predicament is just as annoying as when Marvel switched out the already established Terrence Howard (Rhodey from Iron Man who later becomes the character War Machine in the comics) for Don Cheadle. Not that I don't like Don Cheadle, but casting changes like this for what is to become a franchise is just frustrating.

I can't say that Marvel is being stingy with their money, especially because we don't know how much Jackson is supposed to get paid for portraying Nick Fury (I would hope that he'd be willing to take a pay cut to participate in something like this, especially since the man makes about 5 films a year). However, Marvel's negotiating tactics don't seem to great considering their first offer to Mickey Rourke as a potential villain in the sequel to Iron Man is a lowball figure. Anyway, I really would like to see this all successfully come together, and hope that Marvel and the negotiating talent can come to some sort of arrangement. What do you guys think about this debacle?

Labels: Don Cheadle, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Marvel, Mickey Roure, Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson, Terrence Howard, The Avengers

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