We’ve come to the end of 2009, so we thought we’d weigh in with a look back at the first 10 years of the 21st century in the movie world and discuss the various different “events” which shaped the decade. Obviously we can’t cover absolutely everything, but sticking true to our core movie genres on the site, we’re just going to concentrate on the comic-book, sci-fi, action (and so forth) types of movies and take a look at what films had the maximum impact over this decade.

It’s amazing to think that it’s been 10 years since movies like The Matrix, American Beauty and Fight Club (to name but a few) came out in 1999 (check out our 1999 decade highlight, if you haven’t already). A LOT of movies – somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000-6,000 – have been released since then. We’ve had the good, the bad and ugly in that time (much like every other decade, to be fair) – some we’ll look back on as classics in decades to come, and others we’ll probably look back on and wish we could forget about them (most video game adaptations, I’m looking at you).

Behind the scenes we fervently debated which areas we should discuss in this article, and eventually we came up with 10 big ones that will hopefully bring out strong thoughts and opinions from you, our loyal readers.

So without any further ado, here are the 10 events (trends, franchises – call it what you will) that we believe have shaped the decade for the types of movies we all like to revel in around here:

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10. The Rise of “The Apatow Comedy”

Judd Apatow is a producer who’s actually been working since the 90s (did you know he produced the Jim Carrey dark comedy, The Cable Guy, for instance?) but it was in 2005 that we started to see the emergence of “the Apatow comedy,” thanks in large part to The 40 Year Old Virgin. It was a truly hilarious film (I can’t remember ever laughing that much in a theater) but also one with a lot of heart and relatability. Sure, you had your crude sex jokes, but you also had a sweet story at the center, brought to life particularly well by stars Steve Carell and Catherine Keener.

The 40 Year Old Virgin was a smash hit, and it led to a slew of comedies from the Apatow camp, even if (as some people often forget) Apatow himself didn’t direct most of them. Superbad, Knocked Up, Funny People, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story – all big hits with audiences. I don’t personally find all of his movies as hilarious as most people do, but there’s no denying the impact his style has had on the comedy genre. For instance, you’ll often hear people say, “It wasn’t as funny as [insert Apatow comedy here].” And I don’t see any sign of the Apatow comedy train slowing down anytime soon.

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9. “Torture-Porn” Horror Takes Over

In 2004 a fresh horror movie appeared on the scene called: Saw. It was a small, very low budget film that would shape the horror genre from thereafter. It effectively started a genre that we now know as “Torture-Porn.” That is horror films that consist of people being tortured, and we, the audience, get to see it in all its bloody, gory, detail. It’s just ironic that the original Saw has very little actual on-screen gore in it, and is actually a very smart, well-made film for what it is (it’s one I still revisit from time to time).

Unfortunately, it was the torture element that was latched onto by other filmmakers, and all of a sudden we were plagued with torture films; from Eli Roth’s Hostel and Hostel: Part II to the Elisha Cuthbert film Captivity (which was changed half-way through, with entirely new scenes shot in order to heighten the gore factor, out of fear it wouldn’t sell well to audiences otherwise – a weak box office of under $2 million opening weekend showed how bad that idea was). Saw has spawned a franchise consisting of 5 sequels already (with more coming – in 3D no less!) and is really the only torture property (with a heart of gold?) that still makes decent money. How much longer can this trend that we’ve seen grow wildly go on? Will it still be as prolific – if around at all - in a decade’s time?

Continue Reading “10 Movie Events That Shaped the Decade”

Drug addicts, doctors, renegade police offices and anyone else that may need “to help themselves” should stay on edge as it looks like the Jigsaw Killer will be on the lamb for the foreseeable future as Lionsgate recently stated that they will continue making the Rube Goldberg horror series Saw “as long as we make money.”

Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns spoke those exact words at the Median and Money conference in New York on Thursday. To further prove his point, the confident Burns states that Dirty Dancing, 20 years after its debut, still sells an average of 2,000 DVDs per day.

While the most recent Saw VI didn’t perform as well as its predecessors, most people are attributing its dramatic drop off to the phenomenon of Paranormal Activity. I know most people say that the Saw stories aren’t good and it’s the same thing over and over, but the box office numbers don’t lie and while the $26.9 million of Saw VI is less than half of what Saw V took in, it still brought in over double its production budget of $11 million. That’s without even considering how much more than that it will make on home video.

Still, if there’s one thing the Saw franchise knows, it’s about making money. Check out how this money making machine has done over the years for the fat cats at Lionsgate.

Saw – $55.2 Million
Saw II – $87 Million
Saw III – $80.2 Million
Saw IV – $63.3 Million
Saw V – $57.7 Million
Saw VI – $26.9 Million

Those figures are just the domestic box office. You can almost triple those numbers when you add in the foreign box office, DVD sales, cable rights and everything else that comes out of each Saw incarnation.

While we’ve previously reported about plans for next year’s Saw VII, Lionsgate has schedule Saw VIII as well for 2011. Why not Saw VIIII and Saw X? Well, some may say that they’re being cautious, but the real reason is that their original deal with Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell were for the first movie with a seven sequel option.

If Lionsgate wants anymore after Saw VIII, it looks like they’re going to have give up some more money to Wan and Whannell, which just may be worth it to have the guaranteed successful film and cash injection.

What do you think? How long does the Saw franchise have left?

Like clockwork you can catch the next installment, Saw VIII, in October, 2010. While I’m at it, I’ll just throw it out there that you can expect to see Saw VIII October, 2011… I’m sure you can continue with this on your own. Although, in case you’re wondering. Saw MCXXII comes out October, 3126 (Unless the world ends in 2012).

Source: The Hollywood Reporter [via: Shock Till You Drop]

No matter how it silly it may seem that the Saw franchise has gone on for this long, it doesn’t stop them from making money and (I stress this word) consequentially making more. We reported back in July that Saw VII was already in the works before the sixth one came out (they’re pretty much automatic cash for the studio so they have no problem putting that kind of faith in it).

However, what wasn’t known at the time (either that, or it flew passed us quicker than we could catch it) was that the seventh installment of Saw would be in 3D. Yes, even the franchise that effectively kicked off the torture-porn phenomenon less than 10 years ago has jumped aboard the 3D bandwagon. And something tells me the technology isn’t going to be employed subtly (read: correctly)…

Saw III, IV, V and VI screenwriters, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (The Collector) are returning for the next installment, and two more after that, as we learned recently (that’s NINE frickin’ Saw movies!). David Hackl – who helmed the fifth film in the franchise (although weirdly not the sixth) – is returning to direct the seventh. Shock Till You Drop reports Lionsgate has already set a release for Saw VII 3D on October 22, 2010, just in time for Halloween – man, we’ve just put our pumpkins away and they’ve already set a date for when the next Saw is going to be unleashed upon us…

I wonder how much longer the Saw franchise will keep on going – will nine be it? Or will they go one more to round it up to a nice number 10? I can’t imagine they’d go many more than that. I mean, it’s already beyond ridiculous how much they’ve dragged (yes, dragged) this series on, milking it for all it’s worth and more. But if we get to the point of a world where Saw XIX exists (that’s Saw 19 if you don’t know your Roman numerals ), I think we might as well give up as a species…

No really, Jigsaw, feel free to stay dead…

What do you think of Saw VII being released in 3D next year? Do you agree the franchise has dragged on way passed its sell by date? Or is there plenty of more blood left to flow before they should finish things off?

As stated, Saw VII in 3D has a release date of October 22nd, 2010.

Source: ShockTillYouDrop

The approach of Fall brings about many seasonal treats: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin beer, pumpkin soap, pumpkin lotion… pretty much anything pumpkin. Luckily (the veritable pumpkin buffet aside), it also means that, for the sixth year in a row, we will receive the newest installment in the Saw franchise, Saw VI. In the usual “Saw” fashion, things are being kicked off with the return of their highly successful annual Saw Blood Drive.

Since the original Saw movie in 2004, Lionsgate has teamed up with the American Red Cross for a special ad campaign associated with the popular horror franchise. Over the past six years, Saw film-goers have donated over 80,000 pints of blood which has helped to save over 350,000 lives.

As in previous years, the ad campaign is being led by the infamous Saw nurses. While the Saw VI nurse posters were released last month, today we get to take a glimpse behind the scenes of the photo shoot.

Check out the video below to see Tim Palen (Co-President of Film Marketing for Lions Gate) work his magic with new Saw VI nurse model, Katherine MacDonald.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the Saw series, it’s always nice to see a successful franchise such as Saw make use of their popularity to benefit the American Red Cross.

Saw VI will be in theaters on October 23, 2009.

Source: Yahoo! Movies [via: shocktillyoudrop.com]

Due to the baffling fact that the Saw movies keep making money at the box office, it’s no surprise they just keep shoving out making more and more of them. The franchise that kicked off what we now know as 21st century “torture porn” (some say it started decades ago, only in a different shape), Saw will see it’s sixth installment hit theaters this October, and now we learn that the rumors we previously reported are now confirmed: Saw VII has been greenlit and is on the way.

But first we have the first teaser trailer and first clip from Saw VI, which just came online yesterday. I think the Saw movies got past the point of an actual story a few films ago (or is that just me?) and is now, as it has been since the third one, just about how gruesome they can get with different traps.

The teaser trailer isn’t half bad I must admit, with a creative use of moving about the kind of dank and dreary location we’ve come to associate with the franchise. The clip is also pretty cool, and serves as an appropriate out of context showcase for fans of the franchise. [Clip removed by request of the studio] Check out both the teaser and the clip below (moderate NSFW warning):

The Trailer

Now onto the news about Saw VII:

Variety is reporting that David Hackl – director of Saw V and production designer on Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV – has been pegged to take the directing reigns for the seventh movie (funnily enough he didn’t direct the upcoming sixth installment). It seems that they’re going with the scribes of the gorier sequels, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI). Mark Burg and Oren Koules will produce, as they have for all six films in the franchise.

It’s interesting to note that Saw VII’s writers, Dunstan and Melton, also wrote the upcoming horror-thriller, The Collector, which was actually first conceived to be a prequel of sorts to the Saw franchise. Go figure.

I lost interest in the Saw franchise right around the point a guy was being drowned in mashed up pig fluid in the third movie. To me, that’s when it crossed the line from gory franchise with some smart ideas and intellectual stimulation for the audience, to just plain torture porn.

As I have said before, I know there is a strong audience for that kind of stuff, and I’m not taking anything away from them. If some people love that kind of thing in their horror, that’s fine. But personally it’s just not my thing, and unless I see some wildly positive, “the franchise has turned around,” praise, I won’t be bothering with Saw VI or Saw VII.

The taped messages from Jigsaw just keep on coming

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the hell they keep making the Saw movies here’s your answer: The first five combined have brought in over $650 million at the box office. For a horror franchise that’s gone on this long, those are impressive numbers.

What do you make of the first teaser and clip from Saw VI? Are you interesting in seeing it or its now greenlit sequel, Saw VII?

Saw VI opens on October 23rd, 2009. Saw VII’s production is set to start in January, 2010, and even though no release date has been set, you can expect an October release once again.

Sources: ShockTillYouDrop, TrailerAddict and Variety

Last week, Screen Rant gave you a first look at an upcoming horror-thriller from the writers of three of the Saw movies called The Collector. The film follows an ex-con who plans a heist at his new boss’s country house, only to discover the house has been “claimed” by another, far worse, criminal who has rigged the place with a maze of lethal traps.

Sounds a bit similar to the Saw movies, right? Well, that may be because The Collector was almost a prequel to that successful gore-franchise!

In an interview with Bloody-Disgusting, The Collector co-writer Patrick Melton talked about the upcoming movie and how it’s being pushed pretty hard by the studio. And going by what he says, I guess the similarities between this and the Saw franchise weren’t an accident:

“Well, the story is that Leigh [Whanell - Saw 1, 2 and 3 writer] didn’t want to do any more after 3. So, they were looking for writers. They didn’t have much of a story for 4, and an executive over at Twisted read The Midnight Man and thought it could be a good prequel, explaining a traumatic incident that happened to John Kramer (Jigsaw) when [he was] young… The idea got squashed, but the script as a sample is what got us the deal to write Saw 4, 5, & 6.”

Considering The Collector script was originally considered as a prequel to Saw, loads of bloody violence are expected. Melton explains how violent and bloody The Collector actually is:

“It’s pretty hardcore. We didn’t necessarily set out to make an overly violent or bloody movie, but when our lead character finds himself in the deadly situations of the film, it gets pretty violent and bloody… The violence, though, is organic. There is no gore for gore sake. When someone is being hurt, there is a purpose. Information is either being elicited or our hero is hurting himself in order to save others. That being said, by fade out, this might end up being the hardest R in theaters this year.”

“We got an NC-17 for “Pervasive, sadistic bloody violence. I believe we were the first film to get that. It took four times at the MPAA to get that down to an R. But as I said, it’s pretty hard.”

For more on The Collector from co-writer Patrick Melton, you can head over to Bloody-Disgusting.

Is The Collector TOO similar to Saw? Both are about a lead “hero” trying to survive contraptions and situations that a (presumably) sadistic killer has set up. The only real difference from what I can tell is that The Collector killer doesn’t have a moral motive as Jigsaw did, and presumably he just does it for the sake of doing it. That might be interesting as it raises the question of how do you reason or negotiate with The Joker someone like that?

No, I am The Collector. I just look alot like Jigsaw.

But you’ve got to wonder: would The Collector been better off as a Saw prequel, rather than a seeming carbon-copy that moviegoers could potentially view it as?

The trailer certainly has me interested, and I’m willing to give it a go to see if what Melton says about it not being gory just for the sake of gore actually turns out to be the case (fingers crossed!).

Do you think The Collector is too similar to the Saw franchise? Do you think it would have been better off as a Saw prequel?

The Collector will hit US theatres on July 31st, 2009.

Source: Bloody-Digusting

If you’re a sick kind of demented – meaning, you like the Saw franchise – then there is some medicine on the horizon for you, if fates will have it.

Tobin Bell, the man behind the silky-smooth voice of calculated doom known as Jigsaw, was recently chatting with Bloody-Disgusting writer Jeff Otto. Bell said that if Saw VI (which opens on Oct. 23) does well enough, we’ll be seeing a 7th chapter of the bloody-good franchise as well. In fact, as long as the franchise continues to turn a profit, it might go as far as a 9th movie!

Bell said that there are other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle we haven’t seen yet, and from what I can tell, the Saw filmmakers would love to let us in on them. Dudes (and dudettes), would that not make an awesome, head-chomping gift set for Valentines day?  A boxed set of 9 Saw movies and a dozen roses.  Nice!

When Saw first broke on the scene in 2004, I thought it was the sickest movie I had ever seen.  Insidious writing leading to insidious situations forcing people to make insidious choices.  True character merit tests.  And a surprising cast that met with my own approval because I liked Cary Elwes and Danny Glover.  Oh, so sweet!

What wonderfully twisted minds these writers had and the story lines did not require a large cast as they used tightened plot focuses to develop our sense of impending doom.

Saw was directed by James Wan.  Wan was also a co-writer with Leigh Whannell.  Did you know that Leigh played the part of Adam in the first Saw?

Saw II hit theaters in 2005 with Darren Lynn Bousman directing and co-writing with Whannell.

2006 let Saw III out of the bag with Bousman directing again.  Saw III also saw the return of James Wan co-writing with Whannell.

2007, Saw IV had a change up in writers.  Bousman brought his Saw expertise to the director’s table while a couple of new writers, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, came on board and created the screenplay.

I am so going to kill my agent…  if I get out of this thing.

This writing duo of Melton and Dunstan continued on the track of destroying emotional sanity with Saw V and the upcoming Saw VI, though the two those films have different directors.  Saw V had David Hackl helming, and for the upcoming Saw VI, Kevin Greutert will direct.

Greutert comes from mainly an editorial background that has a few known titles under that part of his resume.  Donnie Darko, Armageddon and Titanic are a few of his note worthy credits.

Since Hollywood is all about remakes and such, maybe when they’re done Sawing, they can make an origin film and call it “Hammer?”

How do you feel, hearing that there are plans for even more Saw than what we’ve seen already (a lot more than I thought they had fuel for, that’s for sure)? Do you think they have drawn this franchise on too long?

Is anyone looking forward to being totally disgusted when Saw VI hits theaters on October 23, 2009?

Source:  Bloody Disgusting, IMDB