Freeze Dried Movies

Most agree that the WGA strike was pretty much pointless. The amount of money the entire industry lost during the 3 months that they were lazily holding signs and blocking folks like me from getting to their damn jobs is exponentially more than the amount of increased revenue the entire guild will see over the next few years. Grats! But while many television shows saw their seasons nearly cut in half as a result, ABC's Lost only saw an impact of two episodes, due to the fact that it was only scheduled to run 16 episodes anyway (of which 14 will be produced). And now it looks like we won't even lose those two episodes forever. ABC has announced that seasons 5 and 6, which are also due for 16 episodes each, will instead get 17 hrs worth of Island (or NON-Island, judging from recent promos) goodness. Read on for more details while I bask in the glow that is the possibility of 84 additional minutes of Evangeline Lilly-in-a-sundress scenes.

If there's one Marvel movie that will definitely stick out from the pack, it's Thor. He doesn't live in the real world, his origin has nothing to do with radioactivity, and his real name is the same as his superhero name. But Marvel is dead set on making the film, despite the fact that its originally announced director is seemingly no longer attached. Luckily (or not), this will have no effect on the release date, which is of course, set in stone, despite no director, star, or even a finished script. *sigh*.

Read on for the details, courtesy of Hollywood Reporter.

About a year or so after the release of The Matrix, I was shopping in a “Book and Poster” store in Boston, which specialized in movie related items. One section was filled with screenplays, both made and unmade, for various Hollywood films. And one thing that struck me as odd was that the Wachowski brothers had like 3-4 unproduced screenplays in there. You would think that after the success of their film, Hollywood would be looking to film something to pitch “From the creators of The Matrix” as quickly as possible. But to this date, none of those screenplays have been produced. And I think I have a theory why: they are probably just as bad as the screenplays for the films that DID get made, such as the Matrix sequels (which aren’t as bad as some seem to think, but still incredibly underwhelming) and now Speed Racer.

Oh man, am I jealous of this guy. I have been a fan of Peter Berg since I was a kid, thanks to Shocker, and as a director he is even more impressive. Every film he has made has not only been good/great, but also one of the best examples of their respective sub-genres, thanks to his ability to take a story that has been told a hundred times (“two guys who don’t like each other have to team up”, “sports team fights their way to the big game”, etc) and approach it from a different angle than other filmmakers might have. So now he is tackling the superhero movie, and from the sounds of this review, it lives up to the expectations I have for a Berg film. Also, I don’t see how a film with two of the most effortlessly charming actors of our generation (Will Smith and Jason Bateman) and one of the most ridiculously beautiful women in the world (Charlize Theron) can be anything BUT pure entertainment. Hancock opens on Smith’s traditional July 4th weekend, and I guarantee I’ll be there opening day (especially since Sony never invites us to press screenings). But for now, read on for SimSandwich's thoughts on an early cut!

Well, if there's one guy who can be counted on to take a property from an interactive medium and make a good non-interactive movie out of it, it's Gore Verbinski. He was the director of all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, of which two were very good. That's pretty impressive, since it was based on a Disney ride that isn't even that fun to begin with (imagine if he had done Haunted Mansion instead!). So now that Pirates is (hopefully) done with (and having already conquered simply adapting other movies, with his 2002 The Ring, a film I also quite enjoy), he is moving on to a new adaptation - that of Bioshock, the award-winning shooter from 2007 that earned many top honors from the usual game mags and sites. Read on for the details.

The other day we presented our exclusive interview with Lee Pace, and now you can watch our interview with The Fall's director, Tarsem. You may remember him from such films as The Cell and... well, The Fall. In the interview he explains partially why it has taken him so long to make another film (Cell was eight years ago!), and also discusses working with Spike Jonze and David Fincher, the cast, and (hurrah!) his next film, which he hopes to begin production on soon. So check out the interview, and if you can, check out The Fall this Friday when it opens in limited release. It's a really good movie, and again, definitely needs to be seen on the big screen to appreciate the extraordinary visuals.

In this age of watered down action films, where formally R-rated franchises are becoming limp, PG-13 rated shells of their former selves, Universal is looking to separate themselves from the pack with one of the most promising summer films of the year. What's really surprising about Wanted, however, is that its slick and stylized trailer just looks tailor made to carry the PG-13 rating. Thankfully, that's not the case. If you head on over to Wanted's official site, you can see that Timur Bekmambetov's US directorial debut has been rated R for strong, bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality.

Next week I will be checking out this comedy, which has one of the best casts for a comedy in recent memory. John C. Reilly is gold, Jenna Fischer is one of maybe 4 comediennes who are also easy on the eyes, Fred Armisen is one of the best SNL cast members right now (and has been for the past 5 years or so)... hell, even Stifler can be good when he wants to (see The Rundown for an example). I'll be seeing the film next week, and hope it's as good as it's cast would suggest. In the meantime, check out the poster below. The Promotion hits theaters on June 6th.

Ah, the LA film festival, aka "the only reason anyone would WANT to go to Westwood." Like previous years, the festival is among one of the largest in the nation, with about a dozen different theaters (all around the same 2 blocks in Westwood) showing everything from independent foreign films to big budget Hollywood blockbusters. Apparently, Universal Studios is the year's big supporter, since the opening night (Wanted) and closing night (Hellboy II) films are both from the big U. I get to see Hellboy II almost a month early? Sold!

Click HERE for the full schedule, and look forward to more coverage on the festival in the coming weeks.

I am excited for the Clone Wars cartoon movie, for many reasons. And by many I mean two:

1. It's completely Portman/Hayden free (I assume - no voice-casting has been announced).
2. It tells a story I am actually interested in seeing.

Maybe I am in the minority, but one thing I never really wondered about was "How did galactic trade route skirmishes figure into the development of a young Anakin Skywalker?". The Clone Wars, however, seems like an interesting (and more importantly, missing) story; one I wouldn't mind paying to go see. While it's not quite as exciting as a new live action film, it still has the potential to be the best SW film of the decade. And it should certainly be better than those Droids animated movies.

Look inside for the press release about when you can see the trailer, as well as the new (pretty sweet) one-sheet. Clone Wars hits theaters on August 15th.