I was happily surprised to learn that director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Beowulf) has been thinking about bringing Roger Rabbit back to the big screen.  Holy cow, that would be fantastic! I’ve been waiting 21 years for a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

At a recent red carpet event, which seems to happen everyday in Hollywood, MTV Movies editor Josh Horowitz asked Zemeckis, who has been focusing on 3D performance-capture movies of late (including the upcoming A Christmas Carol), about using the technology to revisit older movies.  He was alluding to possibly a fourth Back to the Future movie.  Zemeckis’ answer surprised Horowitz:

“I’ll tell you what is buzzing around in my head now that we have the ability—the digital tools, performance capture—I’m starting to think about Roger Rabbit”

Very unexpected answer, but not unwelcome!  I remember seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in theaters in 1988. I was 12 and a big fan of classic Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons, and the mix of live action and animation was fantastic.

The movie was funny, original, and who didn’t love seeing all our favorite Disney and WB characters together?  Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Donald Duck, Mel Blanc providing voices, Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant, mega-producer Joel Silver as Raoul J. Raoul, Jessica Rabbit, and so much more.  Some moments went really dark, like when Christopher Lloyd (as Judge Doom) put the animated shoe into The Dip, which is toxic to toons.  Chilling!

Anyway, though Zemeckis is staying quiet at the moment, I am of the opinion that maybe they should stick with the traditional 2D animation and live-action mix, unless Zemeckis can truly make the performance capture and CGI animation look realistic.  As Ain’t It Cool News put it, the mix of animation and live action was a major part of the plot and world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: toons are real.  Then again, a 3D version sounds awesome.

Will they use a new script, or will they go with the unused prequel script, Who Discovered Roger Rabbit? Are they planning on making the film a sequel, prequel, or a reboot (which are getting as commonplace as remakes)?  Will Charles Fleischer return as Roger?  What about Bob Hoskins and Jessica Rabbit?  We’ll keep you up-to-date as more news is forthcoming.  I suspect we’ll hear more when A Christmas Carol opens on November 2009.

Here’s the full video of MTV’s interview with Robert Zemeckis:

Source: MTV News via Ain’t It Cool News

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3D.  I remember the 1D headaches from watching some older 3D movies.  Yet the entertainment industry thinks 3D is the new tech that will help sales.  Not only is it coming to a theater near you, it’s coming to computer games and some TVs that are already set up for 3D movies.  Or will this newest effort end up in the warehouse with the massive unsold collection of 10,000 Segways?

The Potential of 3D:
Anyone remember trying to sit through a 3D movie with those totally dorky cardboard “glasses?”  Do you also remember the massive eye-ripping 1D headache that came from using those things, or was that just me?  I remember the headache because I just got it again after watching the Monsters vs. Aliens 3D movie trailer commercial that came in after the 2nd quarter of Super Bowl XLIII.

Yet 3D does have its fans.  That is if you look at some ticket sales.  3D is considered to be a success because 3D versions of movies like Meet the Robinsons and Beowulf sold twice as many 3D version tickets than their 2D version counterpart.

On a scary note, they also tout the success of the 3D flick, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour. The Disney 3D film shattered records for a limited release movie.  Groan.

Are There Enough Theaters?
As studios start to pump out 3D products, theaters are starting to add the necessary projectors for the approximately 40 upcoming film projects coming down the pipe.  But will there be enough theaters for this big plan?

It was estimated that there would be around 5,000 theaters with the proper technology installed when Monsters vs. Aliens comes out, but the true estimate is that there are only 1,500 theaters ready to show the movie in 3D.  That’s a sobering number for the hopes Dreamworks had, considering that making a 3D movie costs much more to make than a regular film.

Then again, is this an example of studios pushing their own schedules on everyone before they’re ready?  And I presume that the costs to upgrade are on the theater chains who are already struggling with the finance balances of showing a film.

Some 3D Projects Noted:
Of the 40 planned 3D projects, a few of them you may have already heard of:

There’s already been Journey to the Center of the Earth, the previously mentioned Dreamworks’ computer-animated film Monsters vs. Aliens which is due out next March and James Cameron’s Avatar.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was the first ever live-action film that’s been shot entirely in 3D, but it also had a 2D version out.  Pixar studio is now making all of its computer-animated films in 3D.

On top of that, in the “Is Nothing Sacred” category, Disney’s Pixar is redoing Toy Story (I & II) in 3D, and George Lucas is hoping to keep his Star Wars franchise alive by redoing that in 3D.

The Home Viewing Industry:
With the home viewing industry being a nearly $36 billion industry, some big names are looking at how to get 3D into your home.  Some of the companies include Disney, Universal, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Thomson and IMAX.

Some sports telecasts have already taken place in 3D and there’s a push to develop TVs where you won’t need glasses at all.  (That confuses all three of me.)

The idea is that since Hi-Def made such an impact, 3D HD will be even bigger.  Right now we already have some 3D products in the home.  An estimated 1 million 3D-ready HDTVs made by Mitsubishi and Samsung are already in U.S. homes.  The basic concept from the Philips brand is to place a lens over the screen to create the effect.

Even The Computer Is Not Immune:
Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and FIFA Soccer are coming to the 3D world, and Bioshock can now be transformed into 3D via a package from DDD (Dynamic Digital Depth) and their TriDef 3D Experience.

Do I even want to touch on the process being pitched to make Blu-Ray discs viewable in 3D?  Nah, not right now.

What do I think?
3D needs to be watchable.  It needs to be able to be experienced without the headaches, or more precisely, without the glasses.  It needs to not be a distraction.

What does a 3D platform add to a story?  Most 3D scenes seem to be extraneously injected camera angles to take advantage of a spear being thrust in your face and other such moments where scenes, people or objects are filmed.

Pointing to the successes of 3D sales from a teenage pack of swarming Miley Cyrus fans or Meet the Robinsons and Beowulf may be giving these movies more credit than they deserve and sending a lot of serious funds down the wrong entertainment avenue.  Or are they?  Is this where they think the fan base is really heading?  Yeesh.

As far as that 3D trailer during the Super Bowl, I was impressed… NOT!  There were maybe two moments that looked cool.  The very opening with the paddle ball moment, and then later on in the SoBe commercial that followed it up, when a lizard smacked the screen.  OK, those did look cool, but the rest of the air-time just seemed dark, fuzzy and confusing to me.

A closing note on a very scary development that most of us probably didn’t see coming:  The Huffington Post reports that a Hong Kong “production” company is looking to create the first ever 3D porn movie.  Oh my, the possibilities are just way too frightening to even try to consider.

Back To You:
So is it me, or are you feeling the same, underwhelming emotions about this potential process?

Sources: USA Today, Portfolio.com, Telegraph.co.uk, Huffington Post, /Film,

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There’s a new poster out for the remake of the 80s horror flick My Bloody Valentine. In an attempt to lure audiences back into theaters for yet another remake, this version of the movie will be in 3D.

If you’re a regular Screen Rant reader, you’ll know that I’m a big fan and supporter of the resurgence of 3D movies. However my love of the format is based on it being used in a subtle manner – bringing the audience into the film and adding visual depth to scenes.

This poster however, represents everything I hate about 3D and is exactly the sort of gimmicky approach that is fodder for those who think the format will be a flash in the pan instead of the next generation of movie viewing technology.

Specifically, I can’t stand the “pop out of the screen towards the audience” effects in movies. One of the best examples of 3D in a recent film was in Beowulf: Not the scenes where spears are poking out towards the audience, but those where we feel like we’re actually inside the great hall or at the dinner table due to the additional depth of field in those scenes.

Another “gimmicky” 3D film was Journey to the Center of the Earth which starred family-friendly star Brendan Fraser. That one was chock full of all kinds of annoying effects. Of course the kiddies loved it.

Anyway, check out the poster for yourself…

Poster for the remake My Bloody Valentine in 3D

I suppose that horror movies lend themselves to this sort of thing, especially those crappy ones where instead of building suspense and dread, they use bugaboos jumping into the field of view to startle viewers.

On a side note, it looks like the date will end up quite badly for the goofy guy with the hot girlfriend.

My Bloody Valentine 3D opens on January 16, 2009.

Source: Ugo.com

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Beowulf in 3D did huge business, and with many more 3D movies on the way, this could very well be the future of entertainment.

What is most remarkable about Beowulf is the animation style: Nearly photorealistic. But what is also interesting is director Robert Zemeckis’ decision to make the movie 3D. The primary goal of Zemeckis, the producers and the studio was to make a 3D movie first, and a traditional 2D movie second.

According to the Denver Post, only 20% of theaters screening Beowulf were 3D, yet they accounted for 40% of the opening weekend gross of $28.1 million. And in it’s second weekend, IMAX theaters accounted for 17% of total box office grosses although they accounted for only 2% of total screens! Of course, theaters screening in 3D charged extra, but the attendance numbers were huge. With that kind of success, what’s next for 3D film entertainment?

There are a few movies in the pipeline that are going to be 3D, including some animated films. All release dates are tentative, especially since some of them aren’t opening until 2009. Here is a partial list:

Avatar: James Cameron’s return to feature filmmaking tells the story of an injured soldier (played by Sam Worthington) whose mind travels across space and time, and becomes part of a large alien body (an avatar which he can control). The film will be live action with photorealistic CGI motion capture from WETA Digital. The movie opens May 2009, and will be shot on the Pace/Cameron Fusion 3D System, a 3D Hi-Def camera that I saw footage from an NBA game recently. It was incredible!

Planet 51: An independently financed animated film, from Ilion, which was recently picked up by Fox for a March 2009 release. It tells the tale of an astronaut who lands on an alien world. It’s like a comedic ET, except we go to the aliens and they freak out.

Journey 3D: Starring Brendan Fraser, this is a 3D adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic Journey to the Center of the Earth. The movie is being shot on the Pace/Cameron camera, and opens July 2008.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Another animated film, this one from DreamWorks Animation. Opens March 2009, and I think the title sums up the movie’s plot. Actually, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg says there could be up to 18 3D movies released per year in the future, which makes me think CGI-animated movies like Shrek will go the way of traditional animation as 3D takes over.

Alice in Wonderland and Frankenweenie: 3D movies from Tim Burton, the latter which is an adaptation of an early Burton film. They will likely utilize the same mo-cap/performance capture technology as Beowulf. These were just announced, but I’m thinking a 2010 release, at the earliest. The strike is keeping scripts from being written at the moment.

The Dark Country: Directed by and starring Thomas Jane, this lower budget comic book adaptation is being shot with dual SI-2K and dual RED cameras, which are beyond high definition cameras. In post, they’ll combine the dual images into 3D. The movie opens in 2008.

This is just a sampling of what’s to come in the world of 3D. For a bigger list, check out /Film, which also talks about Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s TinTin adaptations.

I watched Beowulf in IMAX 3D and enjoyed it, though a friend of mine had a headache. I also noticed if I moved my head around too much, the 3D image got blurry, as if I took off the glasses. I’m sure the technology will improve, especially digitally. One more thing, ComingSoon.net is reporting Beowulf’s second weekend in IMAX 3D was the highest in their history!

When I saw the NBA game in 3D, it was projected from a Sony digital system, which is likely going to start popping up in theaters over the next couple of years. Digital projection has around for years, but hasn’t quite made its way into more movie theaters because the technology keeps changing.

I truly think 3D is the future of entertainment, and really, studios need something to get people back into the theater vs. renting or buying DVDs to watch at home.

Sources: Denver Post and ComingSoon.net.

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I’m back from being out of town last week. Although I managed to post up a couple of reviews, a lot of news didn’t get covered. Here’s a summary of last week’s highlights:

- Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire) will play Sarek, Spock’s father, in the new and currently in production Star Trek movie. (StarTrek.com) Hey! They added another old guy to the cast!

- David Twohy, director of both Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick apparently wants Vin Diesel back to play Riddick again. (ComingSoon.net) I thought the first one was pretty dumb the first time I saw it, but upon repeated viewings it grew on me. I also thought that Chronicles was cool in a “guilty pleasure” sort of way.

- Bruce Willis will star the Disney/Touchstone sci-fi flick: The Surrogates. It’s about a society where people interact using surrogate robots that are more attractive than they are. (Variety) Have you been to a Wal-Mart lately? This might not be such a bad idea…

- Jack Black talks about the Green Lantern movie he was rumored to be starring in three years ago but never happened. MTV Thank GOD!

- In it’s second weekend, Beowulf beat out opening Hitman and only fell 41% at the box office. (BoxOfficeMojo.com) I predicted that Beowulf would not drop the typical 60% in it’s second weekend in the comments section of this post back on November 18th.

- Speed Racer is being shot 100% “green screen.” (SuperHeroHype.com) If that’s the case, then why the talk about special cameras to make both near objects and far simultaneously in focus?

- There’s a short featurette talking about the shooting of some scenes of The Dark Knight in the IMAX format that you can watch here. IMAX rocks. I just wish they were shooting the entire film in that format.

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By Vic Holtreman

Short version: In 3D Beowulf is an incredible visual experience that you must see… but leave the kids at home.

I need to make a few things clear before I begin my review:

1. I have not read the source material in any form, be it the classic poem or any graphic novelization of it.

2. Folks, please ignore the PG-13 rating given to this film. This is an R-rated movie!! How in the hell it was given a PG-13 boggles my mind.

3. This is a review of the IMAX 3D version of the film, not the standard projection version and the review will reflect that experience.

The plot of Beowulf is pretty straightforward on the face of it: Monster torments the local kingdom periodically, the King finally says enough is enough, a hero and his hearty band of men show up to defeat the monster, monster defeated… but not really.

You’ve probably read about it (lots of articles about it here on this site) and between all the weirdness of the publicity campaign (restricted trailers for a supposedly PG-13 film) and the talk about how real (or fake) the CGI characters look you may be wondering if it’s worth watching.

I’m here to tell you: Hell yes, it is.

As the film opens you are hit with the 3D effect right off the bat with the production company and studio logos floating and spinning before you. From there we go to a panoramic scene of the countryside and a town and we fly towards it. So far the 3D effect is extremely cool and this gives the viewer a chance to start adjusting to it before the actual story begins.

We eventually enter a building where the townsfolk gather for celebrations and this is where we meet King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins), his vastly younger queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) and the King’s right hand man Unferth (John Malkovich). The King is drunk and barely dressed in what seems to be no more than a sheet, and he is celebrating the construction of this new gathering place as his wife looks on in disgust at his old, overweight and drunken self. The celebration is quite loud, and we witness a very far ranging pullaway shot leaving the town and heading out into the mountains. Eventually we arrive at the cave where the monster Grendel (acted by Crispin Glover) lives. Grendel has incredibly sensitive hearing and unfortunately for him the acoustics of the cave amplify the sound of the celebration to an ear-splitting level.

Grendel is a sad and hideously misshapen creature who lives off of livestock he’s killed. He does have a taste for humans but his mother Angelina Jolie tries to keep his eating of humans to a minimum. However at this point the noise is too much for Grendel and he heads into town and murders almost everyone in the area in a very long and gruesome scene. For some reason he does not kill the King, seeming almost enamored of him although the King wants him to fight.

After this rampage the King sends out the word that they need a hero to come kill the monster, and we meet Beowulf and his boys sailing what looks like a Viking ship on stormy seas. They arrive and it turns out the Beowulf and the King have known each other for a long time. Winstone plays Beowulf with all the power of King Leonidas in 300, but with an overly proud streak. He is fond of boasting (and embellishing on) stories of his adventures, including explaining why he lost a swimming race in rough seas against another man.

I don’t want to spoil too much but of course you know he ends up fighting Grendel. Beowulf comes up with the bizarre manly logic that since the monster is unarmed, he must fight it completely unarmed as well. Now when I say completely unarmed I mean it.

He fights the monster butt-naked.

Now I understand the desire to stay faithful to the original poem, but I have to say I found this distracting to say the least. Half the time I was paying more attention to the creative methods they used to block the view of his crotch in this scene. Yes, I understand the point: It was man vs monster in it’s purest forum, but I mean back then they wrestled naked in the Olympics, so I guess it was kind of the thing to do. The guy could have at least worn some sort of manly skirt or something.

Eventually Beowulf meets Grendel’s shapeshifting mother who makes a bargain with him that will supposedly make him a king forever. Of course we know what happens when you make deals with demons.

I have a short list of things that I didn’t like in this movie… I’ve already mentioned the naked guy fights a monster scene. The other thing that really bothered me is that this is being advertised as a PG-13 film. For a film that is at this rating there is a lot of sexual talk and a couple of scenes of one of Beowulf’s men determined to bed a very large breasted woman through not so subtle comments. There is also a ton of intense and gruesome violence. Seriously gruesome, folks. Just because it’s CGI doesn’t make it “OK,” especially when it’s supposed to be photorealistic.

Don’t get me wrong… I think the violence belonged in this movie. As a matter of fact I would have preferred that they hadn’t tried to get a PG-13 and instead just went for the R-rating and upped the intensity.

Speaking of CGI, I’ve read some reviewers comments saying the it looked like a video game and that the eyes of the characters still have that “dead” look characteristic of CGI-created people. To that I reply: Are you nuts?

Certainly not throughout the entire film and with every character, but there were moments when I was watching closeups of Ray Winstone or Anthony Hopkins and thought “Damn, we are 99.9% there.” The weakness was in most of the female characters: Robin Wright Penn looked like a living Barbie doll, and the village women seemed fairly artificial. But the lead male characters? Holy cow… freaking incredible. I don’t know what exactly changed since Robert Zemeckis’ last CGI motion capture film The Polar Express, but the difference is night and day. That film’s characters had a creepy living mannequin vibe to them that was completely missing from most of the characters in this film, both animal and human.

Angelina Jolie looked incredible, like a magazine cover airbrushed version of herself. Yes, she was essentially naked (again, PG-13?) in more than one scene. What was as amazing was the way they captured her face while she spoke. To me she looked as alive as I’ve seen her in any movie. In the performances of Winstone, Hopkins and Brendan Gleeson (Wiglaf) you could see the nuances of their performances, captured by the most subtle of facial movements and expressions that you only register subconsciously when talking to someone.

And the dragon? Coolest damn dragon I’ve ever seen on film.

Overall it was an amazing experience and surprisingly the 3D effects I liked least were of the “in your face” variety: A spear poking out of the screen towards the audience and that sort of thing. What made the experience rich was when it was subtle and it brought you almost literally into the movie. If you’re going to see this movie, make sure you see it in 3D digital at the very least. If you can make it an IMAX theater that’s a bonus. Beowulf is the movie that cracks the 3D barrier folks.

The future of the movie theater experience is 3D and it’s here.

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There’s been a lot of online discussion regarding the upcoming CGI motion capture movie Beowulf by Robert Zemeckis. While there was some great buzz about it this summer based on the 3D footage shown at the San Diego Comic-Con, for the most part since then people haven’t exactly been talking this one up. Much of the discussion has been centered on the attempt at photorealistic CGI characters, which although it has progressed leaps and bounds, still has a creepy, living-dead quality to it.

Of course there’s also been the controversy surrounding the bizarre decision to release red-band trailers for a movie that will be rated PG-13 (wierdest marketing ever). I’ve commented here previously that I think this mixed-message promotion will come back and bit them in the butt. I’ve also stated that really the primary reason I plan on seeing the film is for the one-two punch combo of IMAX and 3D. Visually, for folks that check out the movie in that venue I think Beowulf is going to blow people away.

But does that mean the movie, as a whole, will be any good? Not necessarily, and this latest bit of footage really, really scares me… and not in a horror movie kind of way.

Check out this scene from the film where Beowulf fights sea monsters:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the narration in that scene could be any cheesier. Seriously… that sounded like it came from a really awful B-movie. The visuals are pretty cool, but that voiceover…. damn.

Or is it just me?

For higher res versions of this footage go to Yahoo! Movies.

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The Beowulf site has four new TV commercials you can view online (the first one is below). Interestingly, although all of us savvy movie website readers know it will be rated PG-13, the commercials state that “This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated.”

TV spot #2 includes the following text:

“Some temptations cannot be resisted, some sins cannot be forgiven”

Sounds like a PG-13 movie, doesn’t it?

Either they’re reconsidering rating it R (which it seems to me it should be rated) or they just didn’t have the info at the time they produced the commercials.

Beowulf opens on November 16th on regular screens, and in 3D in digital theaters and IMAX. I’ll probably pop for the full-on 3D IMAX option just for the experience. If you haven’t seen 3D recently, especially on that monster screen, it’ll knock your socks off.

Source: Latino Review

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There’s a new list out (don’t we all just love lists?) of the 20 most anticipated movies coming out in the next 12 months.

Movietickets.com polled 2,000 active moviegoers to determine what movies they were most looking forward to. What’s an “active moviegoer” you ask? It’s someone who’s seen a lot of movies this summer. Over 50% of those polled have seen at least six films this summer, with almost 20% having seen 11 or more! So I would imagine that means that many of those polled were teenagers or in their early 20’s.

Before I get to the big list, here’s the breakdown by gender:

Top Five Films Guys Are Looking Forward To:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. The Dark Knight
3. Iron Man
4. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
5. American Gangster

Top Five Films The Ladies Are Looking Forward To:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
3. The Dark Knight
4. American Gangster
5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Come on girls, aren’t you interested in Iron Man, a suave playboy/James Bond-type that wears armor and flies?

Here’s the entire list, with commentary by yours truly:

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Um, duh. Money in the bank.

2. The Dark Knight (Batman Begins 2)
Not a surprise at all considering how awesome the last one was.

3. National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Wow… this one is wierd. The first one was just mildly entertaining. Maybe people like the “kidnap the President” aspect…

4. American Gangster
Ok, call me shocked for seeing a drama so high up on this list.

5. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Another interesting one considering there’s been very little news or promotion on this. I hope this one is better than the first Narnia film.

6. Iron Man
I’m very happy to see this one so high on the list, and I’m surprised it’s above some of the films below.

7. I Am Legend
I guess the promos for this don’t make it look compelling or exciting enough.

8. Get Smart
This one’s here based on pure nostalgia.

9. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
I’m not personally a big fan of these, but I’m quite surprised to see this so low in the top 10.

10. Charlie Wilson’s War
Wow. A political drama about the U.S.’s dealings with Afghanistan during their war with Russia in the top 10? Must be a MoveOn.org thing that gets this one so high up on the list.

11. Hancock
Ok, somebody explain this one to me. A superhero movie starring Will Smith that I haven’t even heard of??

12. Beowulf
Coming out very soon and this low on the list? Ouch.

13. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
Ouch, Part 2.

14. Mamma Mia!
Um, what? “The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular ’70s group ABBA.”

15. The Incredible Hulk
People must REALLY be feeling burned by the Ang Lee version if this is below a movie in which the band ABBA plays a significant part.

16. Speed Racer
Memories of the Wachowski’s Matrix Revolutions must be keeping this one down here. You’d think it would be ranking close to Get Smart.

17. Step Brothers
A Will Ferrell romp I haven’t even heard of.

18. Bee Movie
Yikes! This thing opens in about three weeks…

19. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
About a month away from release and way down here. Personally I don’t think I can buy Natalie Portman as a wide-eyed dreamer and Dustin Hoffman just comes across as weird in the trailer.

20. Starship Dave
Eddie Murphy takes yet another crack at comedy to see if people will find him funny again.

Glaring omissions from the list above (I don’t necessarily think these will all be great, I’m just very surprised they’re not on the list):

Saw IV
I thought this series had a following, but maybe folks are done with it.

Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
Really, REALLY surprised this one is nowhere to be seen on the list! It opens the same day as Charlie Wilson’s War and I’m sorry but that smells funny to me. I would bet cold hard cash that AVP-R makes more on opening weekend than the political drama.

Cloverfield / 1/18/08
Another really big surprise. But then again, I thought the viral marketing thing was implemented a few months too early plus it’s just too damned cryptic for most folks.

10,000 BC
Heh. “From the director of The Day After Tomorrow.”

Stephen King’s The Mist
I guess the string of weak King movies has dampened people’s desire for the movie version.

Wall-E
What!? Why in the heck is this NOT on the list, but Mamma Mia! is??

Other movies that I think should be on the list include The Signal, John Rambo and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Source: CNN.com

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I guess CGI motion-capture nudity doesn’t count as much as live action, fleshy nudity: Beowulf has been given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. On the other hand (and thankfully) the Johnny Depp starring film version of Sweeney Todd will be rated R. I’d say that’s appropriate for a movie about a throat-slitting barber that grinds his victims into meat pies.

Here are the detailed descriptions from the MPAA for the ratings:

Beowulf: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity.

Sweeney Todd: Rated R for graphic bloody violence.

So there you have it. Now let’s wait and see if the upcoming movie Hitman actually ends up with the R-rating that Fox says it’s shooting for or whether they’ll strip it down to a PG-13.

Thanks to Firstshowing for the heads up!

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There’s a new trailer out for Beowulf. After seeing 300, I still can’t help but feel that the king in this movie is channeling King Leonidas…

And again, based on the Comic-Con footage, the first trailer and now this one, I still cannot fathom how they can cut this down to a PG-13 and have it be any good. It just looks like it should pull out all the stops and go for the R-rating. I mean heck, look at the aforementioned 300: That was rated R and still made bucketloads of money.

Anyway, on to the new trailer.

There’s still just a touch of “House of Wax” to the closeups, especially Robin Wright-Penn who looks more like a character out of a Pixar movie to me.

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I’m confused… Yet another “red band” trailer for the upcoming motion-capture epic Beowulf has been released (click on the image above to go see it). For those of you who don’t know, a red band trailer is one that is not suited for all audiences (as opposed to the familiar trailers that start with the green background). Red band trailers are considered “restricted” and contain R-rated material.

Why am I confused by this?

Because at the San Diego Comic-Con, the filmmakers stated that they’re shooting for a PG-13 rating for the film’s release this November.

Why would a studio market a movie that will be rated PG-13 using R-rated footage? This means that shots that are seen in the trailer will not be in the movie. Releasing a red band trailer is usually meant to entice and show viewers that want to see more violence/nudity/sex in a movie that the film in question will contain those items. Advertising that and then not delivering it in the final product seems to me like a huge marketing mistake that’s going to come back and bite them in their collective butts at the box office.

Sure, there’s talk of an unrated DVD version, but if that’s their plan, shouldn’t they have released these R-rated trailers just before the DVD comes out?

It’s a very odd marketing decision.

Oh, and about 1:10 into the trailer, it seemed to me that it was channeling 300.

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It seems to be trailer day today. Both AVP2 came out and now the Beowulf trailer that was shown at the San Diego Comic-Con has come online. Sue me, but at the time I sat there at the Con watching the trailer I knew nothing about this movie, not even that it was a motion capture (aka “mo-cap”) CGI film. Not knowing that, it gave off kind of a surreal feeling. The fact that I thought I was supposed to be watching live action but seeing that something was “off” about it was causing my brain to overheat.

Of course eventually I figured it out when they did various closeups of the actors faces and they looked a bit like Tim Allen’s Santa robot in The Santa Claus 2.

Anyway, this trailer is different from the one that’s over at Apple.com. This is the one that folks have been talking about online due to showing Angelina Jolie nude. Of course considering the perfect abs they gave to actor Ray Winstone, you probably shouldn’t get too excited about the fact that it’s a naked Angelina… no doubt they did a fair amount of “enhancing” to her as well.

For those of you who don’t know, not only will Beowulf be released in 3D, but in IMAX 3D as well (guess which version I’ll be watching).

I’m not too sure about the whole motion capture thing… much like in Zemeckis’ other mo-cap film The Polar Express, I guess I don’t see the point to it, other than just doing it because you can and to push the limits of the technology. It’s easy to immerse oneself into a CGI movie if everything is stylized enough (any Pixar film, for example) but I think the closer filmmakers try to get to photorealistic actors the more the viewers’ subconscious will fight it because it’s so close to accurate, yet not.

Souce: BeowulfMovie.com (where you can get an HD version of the trailer) via AICN

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Just, wow.

I hadn’t been to the San Diego Comic-Con in about seven years, and this was the first time I went as a member of the press. If I had to pick one word to describe my experience it would have to be:

Overwhelming.

I did have a lot of fun, especially at the parties held after the days’ events. In the photo above are some of the folks I met who run other movie sites that I visit every day. From left to right they’re Jessica from FirstShowing.net, Peter from /Film, John from The Movie Blog, Kevin (crouching) from Cinematical, then there I am in my Slusho t-shirt next to John from Advanced Iron and finally Alex from FirstShowing.net. I also met Jen from Rottentomatoes.com, and folks from Chud.com, Rope of Silicon and other sites.

As just one person, it’s impossible to cover everything movie-related going on at the Con due to overlapping panel times and the fact that you have to get in line early for the bigger presentations ahead of time. Not only that, but I was covering news for Screen Rant plus Advanced Iron. I did have some help with the coverage for the A.I. site, but I was also limited by other factors.

I knew going in this wasn’t going to work like clockwork, but with what I’ve learned next year I’ll do things a bit differently.

All in all it was a blast and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of folks I never dreamed I’d get to see face to face including Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Burnett (director of one of my all time favorite movies, Free Enterprise), Michael Davis (director of the upcoming Shoot ‘em Up starring Clive Owen) and the writers of Crank and Pathology. I also spent some time talking to Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli from NBC’s Heroes) along with Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes and Spock in the upcoming Star Trek film).

It was great getting a preview of some of the bigger films to come out next year and to be surrounded by tons of other folks who are as geeked out over movies as I am.

I think two of the biggest things to come out of the Con were Beowulf and Iron Man. I think Iron Man is going to turn out to be one of the biggest movies of 2008 and as Marvel Studios’ first film is going to knock one out of the park. It’s too early to tell with The Incredible Hulk, but the panelists certainly were passionate about the project and I think they’re going to come at it from the right angle.

I don’t know how Doomsday will do as another post-apocalyptic movie, Wall-E looks great, Pathology may do well if it can escape being labeled as torture porn (which it’s not). Shoot ‘em Up is definitely worth checking out as a definite R-rated action flick… Balls of Fury could go either way – the clip they showed was pretty funny but I don’t know if the entire film will be. Although doing a send up of the classic Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon with ping pong is a pretty damned funny idea.

The clip and cast of Hot Rod had me laughing, although honestly I thought the scene they showed (which WAS funny) went on for a little bit too long, like they didn’t know when to say “when.”

I know this kind of rambled, but that’s just how it felt while there, so it’s actually quite an appropriate style for this post.

Maybe next year I’ll actually have time to walk the exhibit hall and check out all the booths…

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This post will be continually updated.

At the Paramount panel:

Hot Rod

The three leads from Hot Rod introduced a clip from the film. It was a hysterical parody of a classic scene from Footloose taken way over the top. I have to admit it was pretty damned funny.

Stardust

Neil Gaiman was there to introduce a clip from the upcoming film. It was quite an extended clip showing Michelle Pfeiffer as the Witch turning two goats into men in order to help her staff an inn that she also creates in the clip to trap the young woman (Claire Danes) who is quite literally the star of the movie.

The effects were quite elaborate with everything being created from magic flames. It’s kind of hard coming into a scene like this without much context… one thing that I thought was kind of wierd, was that when the witch turned the goats into men, she decided to turn one of them into a young woman. Although this goat was a man for all of 30 seconds, it/he became amazingly fascinated with the female physique.

In regards to a Sandman movie, Neil stated that he’s rather see no movie made at all than a poor one.

Beowulf

He and Roger Avery then discussed Beowulf briefly. It was disclosed that it will be in 3D and I had no idea (unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the event yesterday where they showed 20 minutes of the film). They discussed how difficult it had been to turn the classic story into a coherent film.

As far as casting, far before production of the film was anywhere near to even happening, Neil said that they sat in a bar and discussed their fantasy cast for a movie, and in the end every single person they wanted ended up in the movie.

It will be the widest 3D release of a movie ever done, and will be viewable in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D.

They did premiere a 2D version of the trailer on the big screen. The only phrase I can think of to describe the trailer is absolutely gorgeous.

Cloverfield

They showed the trailer again, which was great on a big screen with killer audio. J.J. Abrams said that he wanted a monster movie, a REAL monster movie – something to be our version of Godzilla (but NOT Godzilla). He did NOT give the title, but premiered a poster which showed the Statue of Liberty missing it’s head. That’s all for Cloverfield folks!

The Spiderwick Chronicles

This one is basically about fairies and goblins. All the different types of fairies that exist, including the not so nice ones. Big time special effects guy Phil Tippet was there to introduce some info on how they created the characters including your basic goblins, bull-goblins (which look like a freaking ugly frog/angler fish standing on two legs). The goal was to create creatures that look biologically real more than like fantasy creatures.

Iron Man

Jon Favreau did a very cute video presentation promising that is was early animation footage – it was footage of the old Iron Man cartoon from the 60’s. He ended up appearing in person. He then went ahead and showed some footage and all I can say is HOLY CRAP!

Click here for a full description of the Iron Man movie clip from the Comic-Con.

Indiana Jones

Steven Spielberg was onscreen live from the set, and he promised that this movie was for the fans. Harrison Ford was also there talking about being happy to be “back in the sweaty dirty clothes.”

Shia Lebouf and Ray Winston were there as well, wearing their costumes and sitting in director’s chairs and to finish things off, Karen Allen walked in, reprising her role as Marion.

Spielberg reiterated how this one is totally for the fans, and that he thinks about how the fans will like what he’s doing on every single scene he shoots.

Star Trek

Wriiters, producers and director J.J. Abrams were on hand to talk about the film. Abrams said that when he wrote a draft of the script he was really jealous of whoever would end up directing the film.

Casting: Despite rumours to the contrary Abrams said that they are trying desperately to fit William Shatner into the film. He just said they want to do it right on not just squeeze him into the movie.

Zachary Quinto of Heroes has been announced as the actor to play Spock in the film, although they’re still looking for someone to cast as Kirk. I think Quinto will make a FANTASTIC Spock.

They also confirmed that Leonard Nimoy will be reprising his role as Spock in the film. Nimoy is at the panel and he stated that it “was logical” for Quinto to play Spock and that he thought the script is wonderful and fabulous. I don’t take his opinion lightly as he directed a couple of the best Trek films to date.

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I’m not sure if anyone has seen anything on this but the new Beowulf movie coming out has quite a lot of talent attached to it. The cast includes Angelina Jolie, Brendan Gleeson , Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, and Robin Wright Penn. This is quite an impressive cast for any movie, let alone a new version of one of the most famous fantasy stories ever.

It also has one of the best fantasy writers out there, Neil Gaiman. He wrote the story that was the basis for the upcoming movie Stardust. He also wrote the award winning comic series, Sandman, which is one of my personal favorites. It even has Robert Zemeckis directing, how can this movie go wrong?

Well, I have two reservations about this. The first is that Robert Zemeckis directed The Polar Express which used the same motion capture process as this movie is using. I thought the people in The Polar Express were creepy (which might actually work out here come to think of it). The second reservation I have is that sometimes it seems like you can have too much talent in a movie and that overshadows the movie itself, kind of too much of a good thing I guess.
Hopefully it all works out with this because I like all of the talent attached so far.

Check out the teaser site.

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