Screen Rant » the spirit

2009 Scream Award Nominations

Ross Miller — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:37:08 +0000

The nominees have been announced for the fourth annual Scream Awards, held every year by Spike TV. The decisively more “fan-friendly” award ceremony (compared to the Oscars) honors films from the sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comic-book genres of movies, TV shows and comic books. The awards are described as, “the first and only global event of its kind,” to honor those genres.

The Scream 2009 nominees were chosen by the Advisory Board of Hollywood and Genre Leaders, a list which this year includes the likes of Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Eli Roth and Zack Snyder, plus many more. The event will be taped on Saturday, October 17th this year at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles, and will air on Spike TV ten days later on Tuesday, October 27th (check for local times).

Along with the awards, the show will also be airing some exclusive, world premiere of footage of some of the most anticipated movies of 2010! Presenters and musicians for the event are to be announced shortly.

Below is the list of a selection of the 32 categories from this year’s Scream nominations. For those of you (all of you?) who want to have YOUR say on which film should win, you’re in luck! Public voting for the awards has opened already and will run right up to October 17th. But before you head off to vote, here are some of the nominees:

BEST FANTASY MOVIE

“Coraline”

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

“Twilight”

“Up”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST HORROR MOVIE

“Dead Snow”

“Drag Me to Hell”

“Friday the 13th”

“Let the Right One In”

“My Bloody Valentine 3D”

“Splinter”

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE

“Dragonball Evolution”

“Punisher: War Zone”

“The Spirit”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST VILLAIN

Eric Bana as Nero; “Star Trek”

Cam Gigandet as James; “Twilight”

Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush; rag Me to Hell”

Liev Schrieber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth; “X-Men”

Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman; “True Blood”

BEST DIRECTOR

J.J. Abrams; “Star Trek”

Tomas Alfredson; “Let the Right One In”

Michael Bay; “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson; “Up”

Duncan Jones; “Moon”

Sam Raimi; “Drag Me to Hell”

BEST TV SHOW

Battlestar Galactica

Dexter

Fringe

Lost

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

True Blood

BEST ACTOR IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Ed Asner, “Up”

Hugh Jackman, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

Robert Pattinson, “Twilight”

Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Daniel Radcliffe, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

Michael Sheen, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

BEST ACTRESS IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Scarlett Johansson, “The Spirit”

Jamie King, “The Spirit”

Rhona Mitra, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

Kristen Stewart, “Twilight”

Emma Watson, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

For the rest of the nominees you can head over to Spike.com, where you can also cast your votes.

Although some of the awards are truly suspect (how the hell The Spirit got nominated for ANYTHING is beyond me), I still like the overall celebration of the type of sci-fi, fantasy, comic book and horror films we here at Screen Rant revel in Although I won’t go into a specific rundown of who I think should win, I’d like to throw my opinion in the ring for a few of them:

Lost should win Best TV Show (I love Dexter, but it’s no Lost); Best Horror Movie should go to Let The Right One In (I would say Drag Me To Hell, but since that’s a comedy too, Let The Right One takes it for me); Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie Or TV Show should go to Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; and Best Comic Book Movie should (EASILY) go to Watchmen.

But enough from me, what and who will YOU vote for? As stated, you can cast your votes over at Spike.com, and you can see if the winners match your picks when the Scream Awards 2009 air on October 27th this year on Spike TV.

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The Spirit Review

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:10:18 +0000

Short version: The Spirit is two hours of your life that you’ll never get back.

Screen Rant reviews The Spirit

Wow.

That’s the first word that comes to mind as I think about The Spirit. It’s an example of a movie that just leaves me plain dumbfounded. It’s so awful that I’m completely in the dark as to how a movie like this can ever actually get funded, produced and make it into movie theaters.

The very first line of dialog spoken in the movie was utterly cheesy – and that set the tone for the entire movie. I wasn’t sure what I was in for… I’d seen the footage and the trailers and it ALL looked horribly bad, but I thought that there might be something else to the film that either wasn’t being conveyed in the footage we’d seen, or that would make what we HAD seen somehow “work.”

As Alex Trebek would say on Jeopardy: “Sorry, no.”

In The Spirit, former police officer Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) (who was gunned down in the line of duty) is now a masked crime fighter in Central City. He’s alive because he was a guinea pig for a scientist’s experiment on immortality.

He doesn’t remember how or why he’s come back from the dead, and hasn’t really cared until his arch-nemesis “The Octopus” (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him that they have more in common than The Spirit thinks. One of the odder things in the movie (which was never explained) is his need to be tended to by Dr. Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson) to help him recover – even though he supposedly has Wolverine-like healing powers.

The Spirit works closely with the police and in particular with the Commisioner (Dan Lauria), who happens to be Ellen’s father. He thinks the masked one is losing it due to his obsession with the Octopus, plus he’s not happy with the fact that the Spirit seems to both put out and be extremely susceptible to pheromones – falling in love with every woman he meets. Ellen pines for the Spirit and even though he romances other women right in front of her, she still can’t help herself.

The Octopus is looking for the key to immortality, and even though he’s most of the way there, he needs to drink some of “Heracles blood” to seal the deal. He has a bunch of cloned henchmen all played by Louis Lombardi who make the “Otis” character in the Superman movies look brilliant by comparison. They wear t-shirts each with a different saying on them – the first three guys have either “Pathos,” “Egos” or “Logos” on their shirt. Later on as more copies appear they have other single, and progressivly stupider, words on them.

Following the swamp fight between the Octopus and the Spirit that included a giant wrench, a toilet and… wait for it…. the kitchen sink, the t-shirt gag was a clue that perhaps director Frank Miller was going for an Adam West/1960s Batman TV show type of camp with the film.

See but here’s the problem: “Camp” is actually supposed to be funny.

And what happens when camp fails to be funny? You’re just left with “stupid.”

There is so much wrong with this movie that I can’t take the time to document it all. There’s cringe inducing dialog (”I had you beat like eggs.”), bizarre visual choices (most of the time The Spirit’s sneakers glowed white), and idiotic story points (Ellen tends to self-healing Spirit while a police officer is critically injured by multiple gunshot wounds). Oh, I could go on – a flashback scene where the Spirit is talking to a cat (and there were a lot of cats in the movie… not sure what the heck THAT was all about), Eva Mendes as San Serif making a photocopy of her “perfect ass,” etc., etc.

The ONE scene in the movie that actually made me laugh was when the Spirit was tied up in a chair and the Octopus was monologing (you know, explaining his evil plan right before the good guy gets free and thwarts the evil plan) and the Spirit asks: “Is there a point to all this? I’m getting bored.” It echoed my thoughts completely.

I’m truly dumbfounded that both the studio and the actors involved in this read this script and STILL went on to finance/become involved with the film. Even on paper this MUST have looked utterly idiotic. If they thought that writer/director Frank Miller (yes, he wrote AND directed this train wreck) would be able to make this work somehow they were sorely mistaken. This is a perfect example of that Hollywood myopia in which you can have dozens (if not hundreds) of people working on a film, watching dailies – and for some bizarre reason no one can tell it’s a steaming pile.

The only reason I’m giving this even half a star is out of deference to Sarah Paulson, who was probably one of the best things in the film (and that’s not saying much) and to Gabriel Macht, who I just pity for having the starring role in this film. Hopefully it doesn’t kill his career – he seems like he’s a decent actor. As to Samuel L. Jackson – Good Lord, man… don’t you have enough money? Can’t you be a bit more discerning in what roles you pick? Pretty soon no one will take you seriously as an actor.

Some people may say this is “fun”… me? I’d use the word “painful.” Avoid The Spirit at all costs.

It’s not even worthy of the “so bad it’s funny” badge – it’s just plain awful.

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Frank Miller To Hopefully Not Ruin ‘Buck Rogers’

Ross Miller — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:42:58 +0000

Hot off the heels of directing his first feature film (c’mon, we all know that on Sin City he basically just got to sit next to Robert Rodriguez while he was directing) The Spirit, it looks like graphic novel writer extraordinaire Frank Miller has his eye on another comic project to write and direct. No, it’s not one of his own (how many does he have left that haven’t already been spoken for?) but rather an adaptation of the classic 1930’s newspaper comic strip Buck Rogers.

However Miller’s version will be a lot different than the original:

“Miller will write and direct his own big-screen take on the comic serial; while the creator has only begun to sketch ideas, it’s expected to be a darker take, with many of Miller’s signature visual elements and themes, such as corruption and redemption.”

Boy, I sure hope that “Miller’s signature visual elements,” doesn’t mean he’s just going to yet again use that stylized Sin City look. As far as I’m concerned it worked in Sin City (and therefore should obviously be kept consistent for those sequels) but after using it for The Spirit (which word around the net is it’s horrible) I think he’s employed it enough. It’s not the only style you can do that looks cool, Frank – how about trying something different?

The rights to the project are currently owned by Nu Image/Millennium, but Odd Lot is in the process of acquiring those rights so that they and Miller can go ahead with the project as planned:

“It’s likely to be a priority project for Miller, though he has been mulling a Sin City sequel.”

For any of you who may not be familiar with Buck Rogers, he began life as a character in two novellas by Phillip Francis Nowlan back in 1928. Then in the early 30’s became a long running newspaper comic strip. Since then the character has seen various (and wildly differing) incarnations – from a TV series done by ABC in the 50’s to another TV series and a feature film done by NBC in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The original story deals with space exploration, one story involving:

“…the space explorer as someone who woke up in the 25th century to find Earth destroyed and was then consigned to roam distant planets.”

I’ve never been a follower of the original stories of Buck Rogers, but I’ve come across the comic strip from time to time and honestly I think it’d make for a good modern film.

I’m still willing to give Miller the benefit of the doubt when it comes to future projects even if The Spirit does turn out to be as bad as people are saying it is (although this might ultimately change the studio’s mind as to whether to even allow Miller get his hands on it). This is the guy who gave us the graphic novels Sin City and 300, so unless he makes error after error with his upcoming film projects I think we can give him a chance. However it’s looking like skill on the printed page may not necessarily translate to movie making skill.

Having said that, I’m going to go against the crowd and remain hopeful. I just know I’m going to be in the minority on this, but maybe he’ll be man enough to take the criticism and learn from it instead of saying “you just don’t UNDERSTAND my film!”

So what do you think of Miller adapting Buck Rogers? Do you think it will make a good modern movie or should it be left well alone?

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter and ComingSoon.net

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A Big Pile Of New Movie Posters

Rob Keyes — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:43:31 +0000

Today we have a pile of new posters we’ve been collecting throughout the week from a variety of sources.

These include the final poster for The Spirit, the first posters for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and new posters for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Lost: Season 5, Red Sonja, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

That’s a lot of posters!

Without going into too much detail about what I like/dislike about each one, I’ll say that they’re all pretty good, actually.

Take a look and see what you think:

For Underworld, this poster definitely serves its purpose with Bill Nighy’s character Viktor sitting on the throne – simple, but epic for fans of the first two installments. As always, the poster is dark and drenched with a blue overlay.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans poster

For Benjamin Button, the posters are a little bland but together are pretty clever with the reversed text on the one featuring Brad Pitt, referring to his reversing age in the film. I’m not too sure the movie will be a massive box office hit, but it will probably be Oscar material and I’ll definitely be seeing it.

Cate Blanchett featured in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Spirit poster references earlier posters which were not good but I actually dig this one a bit (don’t hurt me, Vic!). The prior posters weren’t cool on there own but put together with this better color-scheme and design, it’s pretty cool and aesthetically pleasing I think.

Final Poster for The Spirit

As for Lost, I love that show and this poster simply shows off what the next season will be about – the split of on-island and off-island characters.

Poster for Lost Season 5

Ice Age 3 and Red Sonja serve their purpose (and respective target audiences) fine I suppose.

Red Sonja poster

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs poster

So, any thoughts or favorites?

Sources: The Movie Blog (Red Sonja), Shock Till You Drop (Underworld), Aint It Cool News (Lost), First Showing (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Filmofilia (Ice Age 3), Coming Soon (The Spirit)

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Another Unimpressive Trailer For ‘The Spirit’

Rob Keyes — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:55:31 +0000

Here we have a short Christmas-themed TV spot/trailer for The Spirit thanks to Coming Soon. It seems like we’ve been getting an onslaught of marketing material for this movie, similar to The Day the Earth Stood Still. Maybe it just feels like it, because I don’t care for it that much.

When that happens in combination with trailers not getting much positive feedback, I get the feeling the movie will be bad and that the studios know it. It seems especially odd that this was released during the same week in which trailers for two other movies have been getting lots of love: Watchmen and Star Trek.

This little trailer looks cheap and to me it plays like a straight-to-DVD rip-off of Sin City. The campy style isn’t clicking and it doesn’t have any genuine cool-factor to get me excited for this. With the new Watchmen trailer out this week, this Spirit clip looks like some high school project.

Take a look and see what you think:

[See post to watch Flash video]

I’m not that excited for this film. In my opinion, they’ve had one decent trailer and a bunch of bad ones. I can’t see this film doing well at the box office for the cast it has. Maybe the leading ladies featured in the film can bring in the crowds though…

On a positive note, I think the background music of the trailer is from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas tour, which by the way, is one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

I know I’m being harsh here, but am I off-base? What do you think of this latest trailer/TV spot?

The Spirit stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, and hits theaters on Christmas day, 2008.

Source: Coming Soon

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New Poster For The Spirit Looks Better Than The Movie

Carl Lee — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:21:38 +0000

Yet another poster has been released for the upcoming graphic novel adaption, The Spirit.

The Spirit movie is adapted by Frank Miller, both in terms of writing and direction, but is based on Will Eisner’s old comic strip. Although the trailer and images look plenty like Sin City, it is not a sequel. Miller did work with Robert Rodriguez on his adaption of Miller’s Sin City, so it is Miller’s “style” so to speak. And up until recently, that “style” was evident in the posters for the film.

A few weeks ago, Lionsgate released two posters in an effort to of course promote the film, but also possibly to distinguish it from Sin City. And although this poster is somewhat similar to the first few, it gives the first real clue as to what the movie is really going to be like cinematically.

As also exemplified in the new trailer, The Spirit will have color, and we’re not talking one color shot in a sea of black and white. This poster indicates that the film will indeed be in color, but at times black and white. More than likely, the black/white cinematography of Sin City will be limited to transitions and action sequences–for example, when The Spirit runs on the rooftops of Central City with his distinct red tie, the city will be black with grey smoke. Shots will be highly stylized with most of the characters wearing black and white outfits, but characters will have color. It seems there may be less than what we’ve seen from Max Payne but more than Sin City

New poster for The Spirit featuring Gabriel Macht

Beyond just the poster, but based on trailers and clips from the film it’s clear that Miller should just stick to writing. Miller may have been afraid of someone screwing it up, but he should’ve hired another director of photography. One that would’ve said, “The images you shot for Sin City were great for Sin City, but they don’t apply here.” Sticking to the source material is absolutely necessary and Miller has taken some major steps in the wrong direction; showing The Octopus’ face is one of them, but sitting in the director’s chair was his first one.

Miller’s take on film noir is not appropriate for this film and I’m not excited to see it at all.

In the future, do you think Frank Miller should stick to the pen and drop the camera?

The Spirit opens on December 25, 2008.

Source: FirstShowing.net

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New Spirit Trailer Still Looks Goofy

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:07:13 +0000

Samuel L. Jackson & Gabriel Macht in a scene from The Spirit

There is another (and presumbaly, final) trailer for Frank Miller’s movie version of The Spirit. Up until now, everything about his film has looked ridiculous and pretty awful. I will say that this latest trailer is MUCH better than the previous one or the footage shown at Comic-Con this Summer.

But don’t take that as a ringing endorsement.

I won’t delay any more… watch the trailer for yourself:

[See post to watch Flash video]

To me, this still looks goofy and cheesy beyond belief. There are a couple of hints of the footage we saw at Comic-Con, but it is (wisely) shown only briefly throughout this trailer. I think this trailer is a reaction to the online reaction to what’s been seen so far, and an attempt to make it look more “serious.”

I still don’t buy it. I could turn out wrong, but this looks to me like camp on the level of the old Adam West Batman TV series. I kid you not.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough when The Spirit opens on Christmas Day.

Source: Moviefone.com

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Two New Spirit Posters Better Than The Movie?

Kofi Outlaw — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:48:51 +0000

Here are two new posters from Frank Miller’s The Spirit. The first one is of The Spirit (Gabriel Macht), standing at the wrong end of two big guns, body full of bullet holes and not seeming to care. The other poster is the reverse angle of Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus, gripping said guns and looking mad as hell that his bullets can’t seem to take down The Spirit.

Interesting concept, but is it enough to rebuke all the rampant rumors stating that The Spirit is going to be crap?

Screen Rant’s own Vic Holtreman was at Comic-Con this year for Frank Miller’s Spirit panel. He tried to be upbeat about what he saw, but didn’t sound too convinced, and he didn’t feel the movie will have mass appeal. I happened to catch some of the footage leaked from Comic-Con before it was yanked off the Web, and, I have to say, he was being kind. (And this is coming from a Frank Miller devotee.)

However, I stand for the truth first and foremost: and in this case, the truth is that The Spirit is a movie that is going to be majorly offbeat, a bit awkward – yet stylistically ambitious as well. Basically the end result of Frank Miller being handed a camera and given (maybe too much?) free reign.

Finally, while the teaser trailer made The Spirit out to be a potentially cool movie, there’s no doubt in my mind that the full trailer has managed to alienate a few viewers. But then again, we’ll have to wait for Christmas day, 2008 to know for sure; I’m sure a lot of people underestimated Sin City when it came out, and look how well that ended up doing…

Check out the posters and let us know what you think.

New poster for The Spirit featuring… Gabriel Macht as The Spirit

New poster for The Spirit featuring Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus

Source: Comic Book Movie

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San Diego Comic-Con ‘08 Wrap Up

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:54:09 +0000

So the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con is officially over – today feels like coming down from a “high.” Covering the Con is always a whirlwind, but at least this year (my second covering it) I felt like a was a bit more in control.

We did our best to bring you the lowdown on what is relevant to you although we couldn’t cover everything. That’s the problem with the Con – as far as movies and television almost everything is relevant to what we cover here at Screen Rant: Sci-Fi, superheroes, action and a bit of horror.

We managed to cover:

The Stargate Continuum DVD movie red carpet premiere.
JJ Abrams’ Fringe panel.
Battlestar Galactica.
Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated Dollhouse TV series.
The Stargate Atlantis panel.
Zack Snyder’s follow up to 300: Watchmen.
The pretty much waste of time that was ABC’s Lost panel.
The completely opposite of that, which was the Heroes panel. They brought the ENTIRE cast plus premiered the entire first episode of Season 3: Heroes – Villains.
Bringing you news that Terminator Salvation actually looks like it might be awesome.
The train wreck of a film that is called The Spirit.
Coverage of what I predict will be a monster hit, even if it’s not very good: Twilight.
Plus Knight Rider, Red Sonja, The Wolfman, Max Payne, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Push and Alex Proyas’ Knowing.

Whew!

You know, I hadn’t really put it all into one big list – that’s a hell of a lot of stuff we covered. Kudos to Bruce for helping me flesh out our coverage big time!

I know we missed a lot, but it was just myself and Bruce Simmons on the beat, as opposed to most of my online movie friends who seemed to each have their own entourage of minions (you know I mean that affectionately, guys) to help them cover far more than we could. At least as a bonus Bruce turned out to be a photography buff and we were able to provide you with a few pictures of this year’s event. Actually I think he still has a couple hundred in his camera that didn’t managed to make it onto the server.

Last year was brutal, as I was covering the Con not only in general for Screen Rant but in particular for AdvancedIron.org, the number one Iron Man fan site in the world (with some help from my pal John Comerford). This year I was determined to relax a bit and enjoy the event more.

Probably the biggest reason I go to these things is to have the opportunity to hang out with my friends who run other great movie sites, talk shop, kick back and have a drink (or 4). I had the opportunity to get together with:

Pete Sciretta of /Film (and his boyz, including David Chen who was nice enough to include me in a couple of their Con coverage videos).
Alex Billington of First Showing and his entourage of super nice guys (take a hint from ‘em, will ya Alex?).
The great and mysterious El Mayimbe and Kelvin from from the kick-ass and extremely plugged in Latino Review.
Eve and Dave (who saved me seats in the big hall) from the funky Geeks of Doom.
My friend John Campea (who is always surrounded by gorgeous babes) and finally the irreverant Doug Nagy from The Movie Blog.
Ed Mazamian, the most movie-industry-plugged-in real estate guy on the entire planet.
Robert Sanchez from IESB, who worked his butt off to put together the killer Wrath of Con party.
Michael, who runs the appropriately snarky Great White Snark (the best place online to see the costumed folks at Comic-Con).
Neil Miller of Film School Rejects and the 85 guys he brought with him. OK, I’m exaggerating. A little.
Andy Sorcini from The Drill Down.
Kris Tapley of In Contention.
The beautiful and super-nice Elisabeth Rappe of Cinematical.
The incredibly funny and witty Kevin Kelly, who I affectionately nicknamed “whore.”

If I missed anyone, I apologize… my memory is almost as bad as my hearing.

Highlights of the Con:

Getting to meet in person the entire cast of Stargate SG-1 (except for Claudia Black). I’m a HUGE SG-1 fan and that was a big thrill, especially when they all turned out to be so nice.
Seeing the additional Watchmen footage which was even more amazing than the trailer.
Getting hyped about Terminator 4 due to the footage and McG’s presentation and his description of his vision for the film.
Attending the Tropic Thunder screening (thanks, Tamar!) which was hysterically funny.
Hanging out at the Wrath of Con party, in particular the ladies from the upcoming grindhouse movie Bitch Slap.

Lowlights of the Con:

Verification that The Spirit does indeed look like it’s going to be awful despite the passion of Frank Miller for the material.
Sitting through an hour of the Lost panel to learn virtually nothing. At least the audience participation part of it was funny.
Enduring the almost literally ear splitting (due to the almost non-stop screaming of female fans) Twilight panel, having to listen to questions from the audience like “boxers or briefs,” and watching some of the castmembers totally work the audience with their “yeah I know I’m hot” attitude.
No Star Trek panel or new footage.
Getting into the Wrath of Con party.

While Watchmen and Terminator Salvation were big this year along with Wolverine, they weren’t “Iron Man big” as far as generating buzz on site. I have a feeling that next year’s Con will have more to offer comic book fans with Iron Man 2, Captain America and The Avengers movies coming out in 2010.

That’s about it for this year I guess. I don’t know if it’s doable, but I’m hoping that if Screen Rant continues to grow (tell your friends about the site, will ya??) that next year I can afford to bring Bruce, Jamie, Heath and Kofi to help cover Comic-Con 2009.

Thanks for reading our coverage and your support of it!

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Screen Rant Focus: Watchmen

Kofi Outlaw — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:48:02 +0000

Comic-con has been the perfect starting point for the marketing machine behind the upcoming film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ genre-shattering, classic graphic novel, Watchmen, to start turning its gears. Since the Con kicked-off and that breathtaking teaser trailer premiered before The Dark Knight, the buzz surrounding Watchmen has gone from a few bees in the bush, to an eager swarm of anticipation.

Always ready to serve the will of the people, we here at Screen Rant thought it might be nice to pool a lot of the info about the Watchmen flick together into a nice focus piece – a Rorschach blot that you can look at and determine for yourself how this film is shaping up.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Well, as I’m sure Vic can personally attest, word around the campfire is that the footage that premiered during the Watchmen panel at Comic-Con only further evidences the fact that director Zack Snyder (300) has done right by fanboys and girls everywhere by staying true to the essence of what made Watchmen the graphic novel such a profound, genre-bending masterpiece back in 1986. Despite several different scripts floating around Hollywood for the last decade or so, which tried to alter the setting and/or tone of Moore and Gibbons’ story, Snyder has boldly chosen NOT to update the Watchmen to modern times, or change the tone to a more traditional, campy, comic book flick. This film will be all adult, and rated so.

For those not in the know, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1980’s universe in a U.S. of A where super-heroes have been outlawed by government mandate; a near omnipotent blue physicist has helped America win both the Vietnam and Cold Wars; and, best of all, President Richard Nixon has appointed himself perma-President. (Who knew that the 80’s could even get any more ‘alternate?’)

In the midst of this mad world, only a few of the former heroes are still around, living mundane lives, some getting fatter and older by the day (Patrick Wilson/Nite Owl); some working in secret as government operatives (Jeffery Dean Morgan/The Comedian, Malin Ackerman/Silk Specter II and Billy Crudup/Doctor Manhattan); living in the public eye as celebrities (Matthew Goode/Ozymandias); or, in the case of enigmatic night-prowler Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley), single-handedly carrying on the fight against injustice while evading the law.

The plot thickens when The Comedian is brutally murdered, exposing a plot by an unseen mastermind that could very well lead the world to the brink of destruction – unless the retired league of heroes can pull themselves, and each other, together in time to stop Armageddon.

Those familiar with the graphic novel know how dense a work it truly is. In addition to the central murder mystery/Armageddon plot, which could easily fill the two-hour block of a standard film, Watchmen has multiple side-stories woven into it, including individual back stories for each of its heroes; a comic book pirates yarn that echoes the themes and happenings of the main story; a Randian subplot about a mysterious island where the world’s greatest artists are hiding out; and a scrap-book style collection of newspaper clippings, advertisements, magazine interviews and even excerpts from the biography of one retired hero, which help to flesh out the “real-world” conception of how we as a society would view and judge superheroes if they actually existed. That’s a lot of info to pack into one movie.

Yet Snyder has remained vigilant that he will be able to get the lion’s share of the story (and side-stories) all into the film experience, one way or another. (Except for that over-the-top climax from the original graphic novel. That kind of thing can only happen in comics.)

And, of course, the marketing team over at Warner Bros. is only too happy to come up with some creatively $avvy ways to help expand the Watchmen brand. Poor Alan Moore.

(Continued…)

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Comic-Con ‘08: Day 4 Wrap Up

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:27:57 +0000

Doug Nagy from TheMovieBlog.com, Alex Billington from Firstshowing.net and me with the three stars of Bitch Slap at the Wrath of Con party

Another day at Comic-Con, another sore rear end from the uncomfortable seats in Hall H…

Today’s events included watching the Season 3 premiere episode of Heroes, which was a huge unexpected bonus. It looks like the show is getting its mojo back and if you’re a fan you’re really going to like it when it returns this Fall.

The Lost panel was attended by the executive producers (who revealed next to nothing) and Matthew Fox (who said almost nothing). They did manage to entertain the crowd, but overall it was cotton candy: a lot of fluff but not very nourishing.

One of the big surprises was how awesome the new Terminator Salvation trailer turned out to be. It was really very impressive and I think it’s going to be right up there with the first two in terms of quality and being a fan favorite when all is said and done.

Another pleasant surprise was Disney showing 20 minutes from their upcoming animated CGI film Bolt. I wouldn’t call it awesome, but I have to say it made me laugh quite a few times and was very cute. It’s certainly not Pixar-great but I think it’s going to be a very good family flick.

After that Pixar director Pete Docter gave a similar presentation for next year’s movie Up, that was given last year for Wall-E. There were a few character renderings and explanations of who they were and there were a couple of extended clips that were right up there with the usual level of story-telling quality. It looks like they’re getting back to issues of the heart instead of continuing down the “message-y” path of Wall-E.

I was going to sit through Universal’s panel and write it up, but I couldn’t bear to watch or hear any more about the awful looking Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. There was a scene where Abominable Snowmen (aks Yetis) were brought in to fight and they had such human mannerisms that it was just plain retarded. Don’t believe me? How about one Yeti kicking a bad guy hard enough to send him flying a very long way and another yet sticking his arms in the air and doing the football touchdown sign?

Sam Raimi and the principals from Drag Me to Hell were at the Universal panel and a clip was shown. While it’s a horror movie, it looks like it has the flavor of the Evil Dead films because it was also very funny in Raimi’s horror movie kind of way. If you’re a fan of those movies, this one looks fantastic and brings Raimi back to his roots. He also said he’s very interested in doing another Evil Dead film.

The unrated trailer for Quarantine, the American version of the Spanish horror film [Rec] actually looks pretty damned good.

Although the Wrath of Con party was great, we didn’t get to meet any real celebs since part of it was roped off as a VIP setion. Oh well… got to hang with my move site buds and the babes from Bitch Slap, a grindhouse type movie due to come out later this year.

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Comic-Con ‘08: Day 3 Wrap Up

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:14:00 +0000

Gotta tell you guys, we’re having a blast. Somehow this year I’m relaxing more yet getting more posts out about the goings-on here at Comic-Con. Here’s a bit of a wrap up of yesterday (since it’s 3AM and no longer Friday).

I’ve enjoyed seeing some of my online movie buds in person again. Nice to actually hang out instead of just exchanging emails, Twitters and IMs.

The biggie: Attended the Watchmen panel and got to see new footage. Awesome.
Saw a bunch of trailers, most of which I’d seen. One I hadn’t seen was for Hamlet 2 and while I’ve heard the movie is great (it premiered at Sundance but I missed it), I thought the trailer made the movie look absolutely stupid.
Saw the first footage from The Wolfman and was (along with the audience) very impressed.
Attended the very sad panel for The Spirit and saw new footage which did not inspire confidence in the final product. Peter at /Film thinks it will be “The Dick Tracy of our generation.”
Went to dinner with Bruce Simmons at Dick’s Last Resort on 4th Ave – a crazy/fun restaurant.
Attended the Tropic Thunder screening which was WAY crude, but fantastically funny.
Went out for a nightcap with the crew from FirstShowing and ran into Jen from RottenTomatoes.

As a bonus, David Chen from /Film recorded a short post-Spirit panel interview consisting of himself, Pete from /Film, and a couple of the boys from LatinoReview. Check it out and let me know how you think I did!

[See post to watch Flash video]

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Comic-Con ‘08: The Spirit

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:53:33 +0000

Here’s Screen Rant’s live coverage of Lionsgate’s panel for “The Spirit.” It will be starting in about 10 minutes and I’ll be live-blogging it. It’ll be interesting to see if they have any new footage that will look better than the awful trailer that was released a while ago.

This will be the last “live coverage” item that I’ll be doing today but there will be further Comic-Con updates later on today. I apologize in advance if I make any errors so feel free to make corrections in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly. It’s a bit difficult to pay attention to what’s going on, take it all in and try to get it typed up simultaenously, but I’m doing my best to cover this for you!

Writer/Director Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete were introduced. Frank talked about his relationship to Will Eisner and he became visibly emotional while talking about how Jim Shooter introduced Miller’s work to Eisner, where Eisner criticized his work and that started a 25 year (friendly) argument.

Much like Zack Snyder said in the Watchmen panel, one of the reason’s Miller wanted to do the movie is because he was afraid someone else might screw it up.

Deborah said she’s always been a huge comic book fan and has been attending Comic-Con for many years. She stated this was a dream project for her. She them went on to thank many people in what seemed to be an Oscar speech (just kidding).

Deborah said that she wanted Frank Miller’s vision for the movie because she wanted to see his the artist’s vision on the big screen.

There was a new trailer for the film which showed more footage than in the previous one. For the most part it had the same footage but actually added some action scenes. Overall it still just strikes me as an odd film – which I suppose may be the point.

The audience reacted well to the trailer, however.

Miller addressed the issue that some fans have complained about regarding the fact that the character of The Octopus is only shown as a pair of gloves in the comic. He said that youcan get away with that in a 7 page comic but in a movie you need more and for the audience to be able to see the character, relate to him and fear him.

They talked about how Sam kept wanting bigger guns during production, and constantly saying “where’s the next one?” Miller tried like crazy to come up with bigger and crazier guns for him. Eventually Miller came up with an idea to wire together multiple guns.

Jackson said that eventually the guns got so big that Jackson couldn’t even hold the weight of them.

He also said that Frank Miller was completely without ego which was very different from most directors. He would make suggestions to Miller about camera positions and such and he would be open to trying it.

Then it went off into a non-sequiter discussion about Sam Jackson’s favorite action figure (Mace Windu). He also joked about Nick Fury being a black man and how evolved from being a white man years ago (pretty funny stuff and the audience enjoyed it).

Jackson discussed the background of the Octopus character and how he was encouraged to wear whatever he wanted (I’m not familiar with the source material or how it relates to all the different looks for Jackson in the film).

Deborah talked about how there all these different types of women in the film, “enough to satisfy every man’s fantasy.”

Eva Mendes couldn’t make it due to other commitments.

Jamie King joined the panel. She plays Lorelei Rox, and Miller told her that she represents the angel of death. She is a mystery character that is woven throughout the film.

Miller says that one of the ways you know The Spirit is a noble hero is that he is able to give up being with someone like Lorelei. [Although to me the trailer makes him look like a guy that is basically a gigolo - Vic].

Miller introduced the next clip by saying that San Serif is a fan of jewelry, and she gets a lead on an enormous cache of jewelry. He also said that the technical term for filming underwater is “a f***ing nightmare” and that the clip was supposed to be Eva underwater, but it was filmed dry.

The clip showed Eva diving underwater to get to a couple of trunks full of jewelry and stylistically it looked very cool.

Miller said it’s very difficult to find a man in Hollywood to play a hero, and that’s why we keep seeing Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford and Clive Owen showing up in those roles. He wanted to find someone relatively unknown to play the role: Gabriel Macht.

Macht said the character can be funny, deadly and he falls in love with every woman he meets. The Spirit also has some sort of pheromone that attracts women so they tend to fall in love with him.

Another clip was shown that actually shows a bit of acting between two characters – The Spirit and the woman he really loves (sorry, don’t recall the name). It drew me in more than what I’ve seen before, but I still don’t think this movie is going to “play in Peoria.” As a matter of fact, this is the first major movie panel I attended where I saw people starting to leave before it was open.

That could be because aside from Sam Jackson, the rest of the panel wasn’t terribly charismatic, and Frank Miller seems kind of like a fanboy whose made it big (and good for him on that point).

Surprisingly, there was one final clip that highlighted the relationship between The Spirit and The Octopus. It showed a battle in a muddy mess between the two and highlights their nigh-invulnerability and was actually probably the best thing I’ve seen from the movie so far.

Who knows? Maybe this is one of those movies that works much better as a whole than seen in small snippets.

The Spirit opens on Christmas Day 2008.

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The Spirit Trailer: Action Movie Or Soft Core Porn?

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:02:14 +0000

There was a Youtube, bootleg version of the first full trailer for The Spirit out a couple of days ago, but I refuse to put those crappy versions up here on Screen Rant. Once those pop up you just have to wait a day or two and usually a decent version pops up, so here you go.

Now by “decent” I mean video quality and not the content of the trailer itself because my first gut-check reaction is that this isn’t looking too good at the moment…

I’ll admit I have ZERO familiarity with the comic series this movie is based on. Although Frank Miller (writer-artist of 300 and Sin City) is directing it, he is not the author of the source material – Will Eisner created the masked crime-fighting character in 1940. This is also Frank Miller’s first solo try at directing a film (he co-directed Sin City with Robert Rodriguez).

Now for all I know, this may actually be very faithful to the source material, and I understand that very unique visual styles have worked for movies based on Frank Miller stories – but to me this trailer looks like some weird, avant-garde soft core porn film.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Am I off base here? Do you think this actually looks good?

The Spirit opens on December 25, 2008.

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: April 20, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:31:35 +0000

Welcome to another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week we feature news on: Val Kilmer and 5O Cent in Streets of Blood, Brett Ratner’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, Robert Rodriguez’s Barbarella, Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore to write a big screen Sci-Fi trilogy and see what Eva Mendes looks like in Frank Miller’s The Spirit.

So here we go…

1. Sharon Stone, Dylan McDermott and Brian Presley will join Val Kilmer and 50cent in Streets of Blood, which was previously titled Microwave Park. – Variety

Variety states that :

“‘Streets’ centers on the relationship between two police officers dealing with the lawlessness of New Orleans in the post-Katrina environment.”

The film will be directed by Charles Winkler. It starts shooting next month.

If Kilmer’s in it – I’m interested.

2. Brett Ratner is in talks to direct The Incredible Shrinking Man. Eddie Murphy is currently attached to star in the remake of the 1957 film. – Hollywood Reporter

The film is about a

“Las Vegas magician who is put under a spell that causes him to shrink. He must find a way to reverse the spell before he gets so small that he “disappears.”

Much like Murphy’s career, don’t you think?

I quite like Ratner – check out After The Sunset with Pierce Brosnan… it’s great. However, Murphy hasn’t been funny since Bowfinger.

3. Despite reports to the contrary Rose McGowan is still set to star in Robert Rodriguez’s remake of Barbarella.
The word on the street was that Universal Pictures wanted the budget slashed or the main part recast with somebody with a bigger fanbase. – MTV

McGowan said:

“(It) was really irritating because I know all the people over there and obviously it wasn’t true. It was very malicious and there was no proof. Oftentimes these things have basis in truth but this didn’t. I have contracts to prove it.”

It kind of helps that she’s going out with the director!

4. Tom Cruise’s United Artists has signed Ronald D. Moore to write an original sci-fi trilogy for the studio. The man behind Battlestar Galactica previously worked with Cruise on Mission: Impossible 2. No word on whether Thomas Cruise Mapother IV will star in the franchise, but if it’s good I wouldn’t be too surprised… he needs a new franchise. – Reuters

5. Check out Eva Mendes in The Spirit. – Yahoo movies

The Spirit opens on 16 January, 2009

That’s it for this week.

See you at the movies!

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See The First Teaser Trailer For ‘The Spirit’

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:41:18 +0000

Right on the heels of the first poster for the film, below you’ll get your first real look at the upcoming Frank Miller film The Spirit.

This one looks to have a very film noir look and suprisingly (to me) looks very similar in style to Sin City. I really expected a completely different look for this one, much like how 300 was quite different from Sin City. I’m also quite curious how this one will do at the box office… my gut feel is that it won’t do big numbers, but may end up with a very dedicated but relatively small fan base.

For a larger version of the trailer you can visit MTV.com.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of the CGI-animated tie?

The Spirit opens on January 16, 2009

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First Official Poster For The Spirit

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:51:53 +0000

Ain’t It Cool News has scored the first super-hi-res look at the first (non-billboard) poster for the upcoming film adaption of Frank Miller’s The Spirit, by Frank Miller himself. If you don’t know, Miller is the same guy who brought us the highly stylized Sin City graphic novel and movie. Oh, and he also wrote the graphic novel that the movie 300 was based on.

So if nothing else, this film certainly won’t be boring or ordinary.

For a full look at the poster keep reading…

First official teaser poster for The Spirit (courtesy of AintItCool.com)

The Spirit is a former rookie police officer who returns mysteriously from the dead to fight crime in the shadows of Central City. His arch-enemy is the Octopus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, and he has a different mission: to wipe out Spirit’s beloved city as part of a plan to pursue his own version of immortality.

I like the look of the poster – makes the movie look like it’ll be along the same lines as Sin City or maybe a more stylized Batman Begins. The word is that there will be a teaser trailer coming out tomorrow as well.

For a much larger version of the poster head over to AICN.

The Spirit opens on January 16, 2009

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First Official Photos From Frank Miller’s The Spirit

Niall Browne — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:55:51 +0000

Last week I said that the next big comic book adaptation to watch was The Spirit. I stand by that statement with the release of two official pictures from Frank Miller’s film.

The Spirit stars Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus and Scarlett Johansson as Silken Floss, Eva Mendes and Gabriel “Who did I sleep with to get this role?” Macht as The Spirit

Okay, Okay – I know that they look like Sin City, but that isn’t a bad thing. Didn’t 300 kind of look like Sin City? That turned out okay.

It’s also directed by one of the directors of Sin City, so you can allow him some leeway.

To see the images of Jackson and Johansson… yes…yes… continue reading!

Scarlett Johansson as ‘Silken Floss’

Samuel L. Jackson as ‘The Octopus’

There’s not a whole lot to see, but these pictures do give you a sense of the films vibe.

To some Frank Miller is a genius, to others he is one of the men responsible for Robocop 2, I think he’s closer to genius… so I’m quite excited about this one.

Thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?

The Spirit opens on January 16, 2009.

Source: Comingsoon

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Frank Miller & Will Eisner’s ‘The Spirit’

Niall Browne — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:11:08 +0000

We love a good comic book film here at Screen Rant. Sometimes we even love a bad comic book film, but what we really want to see is a great comic book film. While the other writers here await Iron Man like the second coming and I anticipate the new Batman film, that I’ve waited twenty years to see one could easily forget Frank Miller’s forthcoming The Spirit.

Forget The Spirit! I hear you scream. Never! How could you forget a comic book adaptation starring Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega and Gabriel Macht.

No don’t worry… I’ve never heard of Macht either.

Based on Will Eisner’s comic book; The Spirit is the story of a rookie-cop who returns form the dead to fight crime in Central City. However, his arch-enemy – The Octopus- is trying to destroy Central City and The Spirit must battle his enemy to restore peace to the city that he loves.

How cool does this movie sound?

Directed by Frank Miller in a similar style as Sin City, The Spirit looks to be a fantastic comic book film, one that has gone under the radar for too long. That is however going to change, the film’s official website is now up and running with a video introduction with Miller and some blog updates. Nothing too exciting about that… but there is a clock counting down…with eleven days left. Could it be a trailer? Let’s hope so.

Last week a batch of green screen pictures did the rounds online, before they were yanked down faster than trousers (or pants as you yanks would call them) at a flasher convention. If you didn’t see them, take it from me- they looked cool- very Sin Cityesque. You can however still see the cool outdoor posters for the film right here:

Outdoor posters for The Spirit (click for a larger version courtesy of SHH!)

I know that a lot of you were wondering what comic book movies we were going to cover once the men of Iron and Bat have been released.

Well take it from me, The Spirit has now moved to the top of the list.

The Spirit is due to open on 16 January 2009.

Official website: MyCityScreams.com

Source: The official Spirit website

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