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‘Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut’ In Stores November 10th

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:54:06 +0000

Ever since Watchmen came out we’ve heard tale of an “ultimate cut” that would offer fans the TOTAL Watchmen experience, including the full-length director’s cut of the movie, with the added bonus of having animated segments from the Tales of the Black Freighter tie-in film spliced in with the live-action footage, much in the same vein as was done in the original Watchmen graphic novel.

Back in July we gave you some early details about the extras Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut would offer, but now you can find out for yourself as this super-special edition is slated to hit stores everywhere next week!

Amazon is pre-selling both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut for around $30. You can take advantage of that low price by going HERE. As for what special features the new edition(s) will offer, check out this break down:

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Blu-ray:

Disc 1:
• Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Film
• Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

Disc 2: Over 3 Hours of Special Features
• The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
• Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes
• Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
• Watchmen: Video Journals
• My Chemical Romance Desolation Row
• Under The Hood
• Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen

Disc 3: Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

Disc 4: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics; BD-Live

Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut DVD:

Disc 1:
• Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Film
• Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

Disc 3: Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

Disc 4 and 5: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics

I know that true Watchmen fanboys like me have been holding off for months from buying their home copy of the film, wanting to get the full-on, 9.6-hour, all-format, full special feature Watchmen experience. I like that they haven’t left out a single thing – the spliced Black Freighter scenes, Hollis Mason’s Under The Hood documentary, the full director’s cut version of the film, even the motion comic! And it doesn’t matter if you’re a fancy-pants Blu-ray owner, or a run-of-the-mill DVD owner, you won’t get shorted a thing. It’s all there.

If you were a fan of Zack Snyder’s take on Alan Moor and Dave Gibbons’ legendary comic book yarn, I recommend you take advantage while the prices are low (I know I will be!).

As stated, both DVD and Blu-ray versions of Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut will be available this Tuesday, November 10, 2009. Let us know what you thought once you’ve seen the full version of the movie.

Source: Amazon

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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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‘Matrix’ Producer Says His ‘Watchmen’ Would’ve Been Better

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:09:10 +0000

Producer Joel Silver (The Matrix Trilogy) recently gave an interview at the premiere of The Good Son Orphan, in which he talked about how he would’ve done Watchmen differently (read: better) than director Zack Snyder did.

Now, we at Screen Rant are not trying to start any fire where there is no smoke: Silver was NOT condemning either Watchmen or Snyder as a filmmaker – rather he was simply stating what his creative vision was for the film and how it was different from Snyder’s slavish recreation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original graphic novel.

If you’re interested to hear about the movie that would’ve been Joel Silver’s Watchmen, keep reading.

At the risk of starting a beef where there is none, I’ll simply pass on a quote Joel Silver gave to Cinematical:

I love Zack and I love his work, and I think he’s very talented, but the script that we developed, I think was better than the movie they made…I don’t want to say he was a slave to the material because he made changes anyway, but I think it could have been a little more satisfying movie. I think Zack made a great movie, though; I don’t want to minimize what he did. But I think at the end of the day it was more kind of tuned to just the big kind of fanatics of Watchmen as opposed to a broader-based audience who didn’t maybe know the original comic.

Producer Joel Silver

Now I know that there’s no stopping some Watchmen fanboys who read that quote and are already typing feverish responses in the comments, calling for the caning of Joel Silver. Me, I don’t necessarily agree with Silver’s claim – if he indeed had ‘the greatest Watchmen film in the history of the universe’ in hand, he should’ve done something about it. But then, I don’t necessarily disagree with his statements either.

In the end, I think it all comes back to the too-soon-to-call debate about what Watchmen is vs. the wishful-thinking notion of what it could’ve been. Only time (or the inevitable Watchmen reboot that’s coming five four three two years from now) will tell for sure.

For the full scoop on what Joel Silver had to say about Watchmen you’ll have to check out Cinematical.

And, if you want to refresh your memory of how the film turned out, Watchmen: The Director’s Cut will be available on Blu-ray July 21, 2009.

Source: Cinematical

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Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Details & Deleted Scene

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:34:19 +0000

So for some time now Watchmen director Zack Snyder has been saying there would be two versions of Watchmen released on DVD/Blu-ray: a directors cut, featuring the full-length version of Watchmen not shown in theaters, as well as an “ultimate edition” of the film, which would include the full-lentgh film interwoven with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter side-story, just like in the original graphic novel.

After learning that Watchmen: The Director’s Cut will be coming to DVD/Blu-ray (and three movie theaters) this month, we now have the first details of what Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be all about, as well as a highly-anticipated deleted scene from the full-length film: Check out the death of Nite Owl!

It’s funny, last week I wrote a post about the new scenes featured in Watchmen: The Director’s Cut. In that post I made special mention of the fact that in the Watchmen graphic novel, one of the keystone story elements was the life (and subsequent violent death) of Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl, who is wonderfully portrayed in the film (and the “Under The Hood” documentary tie-in) by Stephen McHattie.

I went on to say that McHattie (arguably the best actor in the film besides Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach) deserved more screen time than he got in Watchmen, and how it was especially disappointing that his climatic death had been axed from the theatrical version.

Cut to a week later and now Warner Bros. has released the deleted scene of Hollis Mason’s death to help spark intere$t in Watchmen: The Director’s Cut. Funny coincidence…

Whether by providence or power of the press, check out Hollis Mason’s death scene from Watchmen: The Director’s Cut:

Now that we’ve seen that, is there really any other reason to see Watchmen: The Director’s Cut? To answer that question for yourself, take a look at some of the other deleted scenes you’ll be seeing by going here.

WATCHMEN: ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION BLU-RAY

Click to see details of Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition

SHOCKING: The “ultimate edition” of Watchmen is going to include pretty much what we expected – multi-discs, the “interwoven” format, tons of extras – but what’s this about a limited release?!?!?!

That’s right: It seems Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray will go on sale around the holidays and only be available until the end of June, 2010! If that’s the case, then Watchmen fans better get it while it’s hot!

Watchmen: The Director’s Cut Blu-ray hits stores on July 21, 2009. For details on the limited theatrical release, go here.

Watchmen: Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray will be out around the holidays. We’ll let you know details on the exact date (or the DVD version) when we hear more.

Source: The Blu-ray Blog

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What’s New in Watchmen: The Director’s Cut

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:16:41 +0000

Merrick over at Ain’t It Cool News has a reader named “Ulysses” who reportedly has seen Watchmen: The Director’s Cut, which is set for release on Blu-ray this month, and even a limited run in theaters.

So what’s new in Watchmen: The Director’s Cut? Keep on reading if you want to know the answer to that question, but needless to say, anything you read is going to be a SPOILER.

Here are just a few of the new scenes that “Ulysses” noticed in Watchmen: The Director’s Cut [SPOILERS!!!]:

At the end of Rorschach’s search of the comedian’s apartment. Two cops enter, he knocks one of the cops out and jumps out the window as the other cop is firing his gun at him.
Rorschach has more dialogue from the comic with Dr. Malcom. Also in his story of the girl, the murder is shown as in the comic – walking outside, asking his dogs to bark, when they don’t he draws his gun and enters the building.
…Hollis talks on the phone with Sally, only to be interrupted by knocks at the door. He has a great montage death scene. They also explain why the knot heads go there at an earlier point.

That last bit about Hollis Mason’s (the first Nite Owl) death scene is good news; I really thought that moment was crucial to the story of the graphic novel and the fact that the theatrical version totally skirted over it really was disappointing.

Moreover, if you’ve watched the Tales of The Black Freighter DVD/Blu-ray, and seen the Hollis Mason Documentary included with it, actor Stephen McHattie (so underrated) really does a good job with the character of Mason – I would say (Jackie Earle Haley aside) he gave the best performance in the whole ensemble. So, IMO, McHattie deserves as much screen time available to him..until his head gets bashed-in by knot heads.

Now, those scenes mentioned above are only 3 of 10 that “Ulysses” provided. For the full list, head on over to Merrick’s post at AICN.

Sounds like Watchmen: The Director’s Cut might be worth seeing after all. Or is this all just pointless foreplay before Watchmen: The Ulimate Edition gets rolled out?

Watchmen: The Director’s Cut is coming to theaters for a 3-city weekend run. Details here.

The Blu-ray hits stores July 21, 2009.

Source: AICN

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Watchmen Director’s Cut Will Get Limited Theatrical Run

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:11:13 +0000

Collider recently had a chance to speak with Watchmen director Zack Snyder at a Warner Bros. promotional event for the 300 and Watchmen: The Director’s Cut Blu-rays. After the event, Collider had a chance to sit down with Snyder and talk a little bit about Watchmen.

The big reveal: Watchmen: The Director’s Cut will be getting a limited theatrical release this July! After all the debate about whether Snyder’s film was a fantastic achievement or a flaming disaster, Watchmen fans (or those still on the fence) will have a chance to get the full experience that Snyder intended – that is, if they live in the right city.

Watchmen: The Director’s Cut is putting the “limited” in “limited theatrical release”. According to Snyder, the three-hour cut of the film will only be shown “the weekend before Comic-Con in Los Angeles, Dallas, Minneapolis, and New York.” The film will only be screened for one weekend, and only in one theater in each city – so as you can imagine, scoring a ticket to the event could be a challenge.

Wanna see "more" of Dr. Manhattan and Co.?

While the limited run of Watchmen: The Director’s Cut may be disappointing news to some fans, I totally understand it from a financial perspective. After all, how many moviegoers are REALLY looking for another chance to pay ticket prices for a screening of Watchmen? Those that are eager will treat the event like a holy mecca and make the trek to the closest city; one weekend is the perfect amount of time to get everybody who wants to see it in the theater and keep each screening relatively packed.

Of course, if you don’t feel like making the trek to a theater but still want to see the director’s cut of Watchmen, you can wait for the Blu-ray to hit stores on July 28, 2009. There’s also still a suppossed “ultimate cut” of the film – the director’s cut spliced with footage from Tales of the Black Freighter – on the horizon.

What do you think of Watchmen: The Director’s Cut being shown in theaters? Will you be in attendance?

According to Snyder’s claims, Watchmen: The Director’s Cut will be screened in select theaters the weekend of July 17-19, 2009.

Source: Collider

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Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray Details Revealed

Kofi Outlaw — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:04:04 +0000

A while back, director Zack Snyder promised fans that the DVD/Blu-ray versions of Watchmen were going to be packed with extras, including a director’s cut of film which would run almost thirty minutes longer than the theatrical version.

Well, The Blu-Ray Blog has gotten hold of the details regarding the forthcoming release of the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray. For those who still care are keeping track, feel free to take a look and see how closely the Watchmen Blu-ray is living up to Snyder’s promise.

Who watches The Watchmen? Facebook, baby. According to The Blu-Ray Blog, the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray is going to push Blu-ray’s BD-Live function to new heights, by allowing Watchmen watchers to synch their Facebook friends network with BD-Live, “allowing for interactive community-screening and commenting.”

Now, as someone who doesn’t actually own a Blu-ray player (just constantly mooches off his friend’s PS3 for his Blu-ray thrills), I’m not sure if this BD-Live/Facebook hookup means that you’ll be albe to watch Watchmen simultaneously with people off your Facebook account who also own Blu-ray players and copies of Watchmen The Director’s Cut; or if you (owner of the Blu-ray player and Watchmen Blu-ray) will be able to stream the movie for your Facebook friends to watch online. If I had to guess, I would guess it’s the former (they sell more Blu-rays that way).

Tech geeks, can you help us out here?

Other than the BD-Live/Facebook feature, here is a spec list of what you can expect from the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray:

WATCHMEN: DIRECTOR’S CUT
190 minutes (vs. 162 minutes for Theatrical Cut)
Video: 1080p VC-1
Audio: 5.1 Dolby TrueHD

Special Features:

• Maximum Movie Mode (BD exclusive split-screen, on-camera commentary)
• Watchmen: Focus Points
• The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
• Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes (BD exclusive)
• Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World (BD exclusive)
• Music Video: Desolation Row (My Chemical Romance)
• Digital Copy (theatrical version)
• BD-Live

Ok, so, elephant in the room: This “director’s cut” of Watchmen isn’t the rumored 205-minute “ultimate” cut of the movie, which is said to have footage from Tales of The Black Freighter spliced into the film. If you remember correctly, Zack Snyder said a few months back that the “Ultimate Cut” of Watchmen was going to be hitting stores in the Fall of 2009 (though I’m betting on early 2010 myself).

That means this “director’s cut” is only going to be a stepping stone. If you want to get the full and total Watchmen expereince, you’re going to have to wait until the “ultimate” cut hits stores (Warner Bros. is really milking this film for all it’s not worth).

However, if you can’t wait for the ultimate cut, or you’re just interested in seeing the director’s cut for the sake of some deleted scenes, the Watchmen Director’s Cut Blu-ray hits stores everywhere on July 28, 2009.

Are you ready to re-live the awkward, head-scratching experience that was Watchmen? Will you be checking out the director’s cut? Or are you going to save your time and money for the ultimate cut?

Source: The Blu-Ray Blog

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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – April 17, 2009

Niall Browne — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:11:13 +0000

In this Weeks spell check busting installment: Matthew McConaughey is an Exchange Student; Heffalump writer Spiliotopoulos will write Bekmambetov’s Wanted 2 – will Angelina Jolie be involved? Megan Fox is Crossing over; John Carter of Mars is Chabon and which one of the Watchmen has Morning Glory for Star Trek’s Abram?

1. Matthew McConaughey’s production company J.K. Livin is producing a comedy called Exchange Student. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The story revolves around two exchange students, one who ships out from the U.S. and one who comes in, who experience new environments in very different ways: One has the time of his life, the other goes off the rails. The tenor of the project is described as a family comedy with wry overtones a la Wes Anderson.”

Mike Vukadinovich will write a script from the idea that originated with “Bongos” McConaughey, who may also take a role in the film.

The Sahara star will next be seen in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past opposite Jennifer Garner.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. Evan Spiliotopoulos will write the sequel to last years surprise smash Wanted.
The writer who previously wrote Pooh’s Heffalump Movie will take over writing duties from Michael Brandt and Derek Haas and Chris Morgan.

The Timur Bekmambetov directed film was based on a comic by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones.

The main question is will Angelina Jolie be written into the script or will it focus on James McAvoy’s blossoming hitman career?

I’d expect every effort be made to have Jolie return – but they might just have another actress star opposite McAvoy.

Megan Fox anyone?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. Speaking of Megan Fox, the actress will take the lead role in The Crossing.

“(In the film) a couple returning from a Mexican vacation is carjacked and the husband kidnapped. The wife (Fox) must smuggle heroin across the border in order to spring him.”

No director is yet attached to the Screen Gems production, but several directors have met with the producers. If one is hired soon then the film might start shooting by July.

Megan Fox has a busy year ahead with Passion Plays with Mickey Rourke; Josh Brolin’s Jonah Hex and Fathom all on the way.

She’ll next be seen in low budget art house drama Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

4. Screenwriter and Novelist Michael Chabon is doing a rewrite on John Carter of Mars for Disney.
Chabon said:

“I’ve been hired to do some revisions to an already strong script by Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews. I wrote my original screenplay The Martian Agent back in 1995 because I wished I could do (Edgar Rice) Burroughs’s Barsoom. So this is pretty much a dream come true for me.”

Andrew Stanton is slated to direct the film which could be released in 2012.

Source: Sugarbombs.com

5. Watchmen star Patrick Wilson has joined the cast of Morning Glory. Wilson will join the stellar line-up of Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Jeff Goldblum in the J.J Abrams produced comedy.

Morning Glory is the story of two warring television anchors (Ford and Keaton) who host a morning television show. McAdams is the producer brought in to try and sooth them and boost ratings. Wilson will play her romantic interest.

The Roger Michell directed comedy will start shooting in New York next month.

Abrams’ Star Trek opens on May 8th.

Source: Variety

That’s it for now. See you at the movies!

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Watchmen Writer Penning ‘Battling Boy’ Adaptation

Ross Miller — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:41:01 +0000

Hot off the heels of co-writing Watchmen, Alex Tse has just been signed on to adapt the upcoming graphic novel Battling Boy. The source material was written and illustrated by Paul Pope back in November and it’s about the son of a god who is sent down by his father from the top of a mountain to rid the giant city of Monstropolis of a plague of beasts.

The rights were recently picked up by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, and the film will be co-produced by Paramount Pictures. This is only part of an overall deal between the two companies to bring a slate of adaptations to the big-screen including Eat, Pray, Love (directed by Ryan Murphy), The Killer, The Black Hole (both David Fincher projects) and World War Z (set to be directed by Quantum of Solace helmer Marc Forster).

Although Tse has little experience with adapting (and script writing in general) with only Watchmen and his previously written Spike Lee non-comic-book film Sucker Free City beforehand, Battling Boy certainly won’t be his last. He also has the live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime Ninja Scroll in the works, as well as The Illustrated Man, which is based on a set of 1951 science fiction stories by Ray Bradbury. He’s also adapting Frankie Machine for director Michael Mann.

It seems that people were impressed (and so they should be) with the contribution Tse made to the film version of Watchmen. He’s become a hot property, as they say, and I wish him luck with his upcoming projects.

As for the premise, am I the only one who thinks the story of Battling Boy sounds a bit on the ridiculous side? I’m sure it’s something that the writer of the graphic novel, Paul Pope, thinks works on the printed comic page, but what works there doesn’t automatically work on the big-screen. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t work, but working off that as a written plot (if they’re going to stick exactly to the source material), it’s going to take a lot of work just to stop it feeling extremely cheesy.

So, do you think Battling Boy will work as a movie? What do you think of Watchmen co-writer Tse adapting it?

Screen Rant will keep you up-to-date on the Battling Boy adaptation as more news gets released.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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Zack Snyder Talks ‘Watchmen’ Box Office & The Director’s Cut

Ross Miller — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:44:35 +0000

Although certainly not a box office failure, Zack Snyder’s graphic novel adaptation Watchmen did perform a lot worse than people were hoping and expecting. It had a solid but not-as-good-as-it-could-have-been $55MM opening weekend, dropped by almost 70% in its second weekend, and a month later it has only made $104MM in the US ($172MM worldwide).

Was it the R-rating? The 160-plus minute runtime? The violence? The hard efforts of Snyder to keep close to the source material at every point and turn (some would say far too closely)?

We’ll never know for sure.

Recently, while accepting his 2009 Director of the Year Award at ShoWest, Snyder had the box office disappointment brought up, and gave his thoughts on how this would affect the possible theatrical release of the Director’s Cut of the film:

“The thing about Watchmen is it’s a lot of craziness. It’s a long movie, it’s rated R. Everyone is talking about Monsters vs. Aliens, which is a cool movie, comes out and makes like $58 million and everyone is like, ‘Oh my god, it’s the hugest hit ever!’ And then a R-rated movie, two and a half hours long with superheroes raping each other makes $55 million dollars and every-one’s like ‘WHAT?’ How is that possible? I’m pretty happy with the movie”

“We’re super proud of the movie, the director’s cut is coming soon. So in July you’ll get to see more ‘Watchmen.’ If you didn’t have enough in two hours and forty minutes you’ll have three hours and ten minutes, and I think there is three hours and thirty minutes coming so they’ll be a lot more Watchmen to come, regardless of how people feel about it.”

When asked about the three-plus hour version of the film, Snyder said:

“I think that’s still happening. I think they’re still going to do a limited run of it, or they’re still talking about it anyway.”

I can kind of see where Snyder is coming from when he talks about the box office results. Although it was disappointing in the sense that we fans so badly wanted it not only to be a great film, but also to be as financially successful as it deserves to be. But for the type of the film that it is, with all the stuff it has in it – extreme violence, swearing, sex, murder – it did very solidly.

It would be wise for Warner Bros. to release the Director’s Cut theatrically – if nothing else they can capitalize on those who liked and love the film. In this case I don’t think the fans would mind being taken advantage of (money-wise) if it means getting an extended cut of Watchmen.

Do you think they should release the Watchmen Director’s Cut theatrically or just leave it for the DVD/Blu-ray release? Do you consider the film to be a box-office disappointment?

Source: /Film

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Movie News Wrap Up: March 30, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:44:37 +0000

This week:

Monsters Vs Aliens tops the box office; the Coens remake John Wayne’s True Grit; Val Kilmer talks up a reteam with Robert Downey Jr; Matthew McConaughey is The Lincoln Lawyer; Tobey Maguire knows The Limit; Ben Affleck and Matt Damon hunt for Good Will after Bourne again and Affleck hits The Town.

Box Office

Monsters Vs Aliens was the big winner this weekend with a powerful gross of $58 million. It’s the best opening gross of a movie this year (beating Watchmen). Also, horror isn’t dead with The Haunting in Connecticut scaring up $23 million in ticket sales.

Nicolas Cage’s Knowing dropped a decent 40% with a weekend take of almost $15 million giving the action flick a total gross of $46 million – despite bad reviews.

I Love You, Man managed another $12,7 million, while the Julia Roberts- Clive Owen heist movie Duplicity banked another $7.5 million for a $25 million total.

Dwayne Johnson’s Race To Witch Mountain fell over 50% giving the Disney film a total of $53 million.

Fellow wrestler John Cena misfired with 12 Rounds. The Renny Harlin directed film managed a poor $5 million weekend.

Watchmen eked out another $2.8 million bringing its total to $103.3 million.

Taken took another $2.7 million bringing the action pic’s gross to a huge $137 million.

Horror remake The Last House on The Left managed a weekend take of $2.6 million.

Movie News

1. The Coen brothers will remake John Wayne’s True Grit – the film that won the cinematic legend an Oscar!

The film will be based on the book by Charles Portis.

Variety states:

“Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory.
But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s p.o.v.”

So who will the Coens get to replace Wayne? After all they are big, big boots to fill.

Didn’t they learn their lesson with The Ladykillers?

Source: Variety

2. Val Kilmer believes that we will see a sequel to 2005’s action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
The star twittered:

“RDJ, Jr (Robert Downey Jr) and I talked AGAIN about a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel… Now that he is king of all time and space it will happen.”

I hope this is true. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an exceptional film that didn’t get the release that it deserved by Warner Bros. Funny, compelling and extremely well written – you must seek it out.

Source: Twitter

3. Matthew McConaughey will take the lead in The Lincoln Lawyer.

“The legal thriller that centers on low-level criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller who finds himself representing a wealthy client with ties to a previous murder case Haller handled.”

The film which is based on the book by Michael Connolly will be a return to the leagal thriller genre for the bongo playing star who made his name in Joel Schumacher’s adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill.

Source: Variety

4. Tobey Maguire is attached to star in Columbia Pictures’ The Limit. According to Variety:

“Maguire will star as Phil Hill, who went against his good friend and Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the 1961 Drivers Championship.”

Maguire will produce the film through his Maguire Entertainment production company.

I think that it’s no coincidence that Maguire’s company is set up at the studio that produces the Spider-Man films.

Source: Variety

5. Best friends and Good Will Hunting co-stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reunite for a new film next year.

The film will start shooting after Damon makes the next Bourne movie. Affleck is apparently mulling over directing duties on the film that was not written by the Oscar winning duo.

Affleck told Collider:

“We have a project but we haven’t said what it is just because of lame political money reasons. This is the movie we’re going to do together and I think it will be good.”

Source: Collider

6. Meanwhile, Affleck has been talking up his next directorial effort following the excellent Gone Baby Gone.

“I’m directing another movie and I’m going to act in the movie as well. That’s a slightly daunting prospect, but we’ll see. I’m nervous but excited. It’s called The Town – that’s the title I’m using now but I’m not sure it’ll be that – and it’s based on a book called Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. It’s based on a true fact that there is this neighborhood in Boston called Charlestown where there are more armed robbers per capita than anywhere else in the world. It’s about this group of guys who rob a bank and an armored car.”

Source: Collider

That’s it for now. See you at the movies!

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 22, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:18:54 +0000

It’s Sunday and therefore it’s Wrap Up time. This week:

We Know who is top of the box office; Cage and Bruckheimer make a date; Beatty fights over Dick Tracy; George Lucas’s Red Tails gets Wild(s); get ready for Demonkeeper; Segal meets Little Fockers and Universal knows the Rites of Men.

Box Office
Nicolas Cage is king of the box office with Knowing. The Alex Proyas (I Robot) directed film should manage about $24-25 million over the weekend. Put it this way, Knowing made more on Friday than Bangkok Dangerous made on it’s opening weekend.

The Paul Rudd- Jason Segal comedy I love You, Man should cash in $18 million over the weekend. The R-rated comedy was similar to the weekend starts of the stars previous film like Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Julia Roberts re-teams with Clive Owen for Duplicity. The comedy-caper film should steal $14.5 million from audiences over the weekend.

The Rock’s (or Dwayne Johnson‘s) Race To Witch Mountain should gather another $14 million bringing the Disney film to just under the $50 million mark.

Watchmen should bank another $6-7 million bringing the epic comic book movie to the $100 million mark. Not a bad gross, but it’s quite disappointing.

Last House on the Left dropped $65% to $6.5 million.

Liam Neeson’s Taken managed another $4.5 million bringing the total of the film to over $130 with a world wide take surpassing $200 million.

Movie News

1. Nicolas Cage’s forthcoming Disney film The Scorcerer’s Apprentice has a release date set for July 16, 2010. The Jerry Bruickheimer produced film which co-stasr Jay Baruchel, directed by Jon Turtletaub, is a modern retelling of the Disney classic.

It should make a killing at the box office.

Source: Variety

2. Warren Beatty is being sued by Tribune Media Services so that they can regain the rights to Dick Tracy. The action states that the character of Tracy should revert back to the company as Beatty hasn’t made “productive use” of the rights in a decade.

Beatty has however begun work on a Dick Tracy television special, but Tribune Media Services say that the show is only being produced so that Beatty can retain the rights to the character which he purchased in 1985.

Beatty starred in and directed a Dick Tracy movie that was released in 1990. The film grossed over $100 million at the US box office and co-starred Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Madonna.
It’s not a bad little film. Visually it’s very impressive with a pre-digital Sin City style vibe.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

3. 90210 star Tristan Wilds has been cast in George Lucas‘ Red Tails.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Wilds will play Ray “Ray Gun” Knight, a flyboy nearly blinded over Nazi-occupied Italy who becomes the wingman of his friend and cohort, Marty. The two face the prejudice of the U.S. military as much as the overseas enemy but end up establishing an unprecedented record.”

The film was written by John Ridley and it will be directed by Anthony Hemingway.

Lucas has talked about this film for years, and I honestly believed that it would never see the light of day.

Now just get behind a camera again George and direct something like THX 1138 or American Graffiti.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

4. The Tale of Despereaux and Flushed Away director Sam Fell will direct a liva-action adaptation of Royce Buckingham’s Demonkeeper.

According to Variety:

“Story follows a Seattle teen who inherits responsibility for a house filled with demons. When the youth finally breaks free of his charges to go on a date, he returns to discover that kids have broken into the house, unleashing its most vicious demon, the Beast, Killer of Lost Children.”

Sounds like an interesting premise.

Source: Variety

5. Peter Segal is in the frame to direct the third Meet the Parents movie which is currently titled Little Fockers.

Segal had been expected to direct Get Smart 2, but Steve Carrell signed on to the comedy Date Night with Tina Fey. With Segal at the helm this will be the first Focker movie to to be directed by Jay Roach.

The Robert DeNiro produced film was written by John Hamburg. Ben Stiller, DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand and Owen Wilson are all expected to return.

Source: Variety

6. Jonathan Herman’s new script Rites of Men has been bought by Universal Pictures. The script is being compared to the sleeper hit Taken.

The Hollywood Reporter said:

“Herman’s script centers on a working-class single dad whose only son is murdered and must then set out on a quest to solve the killing.”

The “dad on revenge” movie seems to be a popular new sub genre. Mark Wahlberg is attached to a similar film called Prisoners while Mel Gibson has the forthcoming Edge of Darkness.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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‘South Park’ Episode Spoofs Watchmen & The Dark Knight

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:08:21 +0000

By now it’s a proven statistic: on a long enough timeline, the probability of something you love being ripped a new one by South Park is 100%.

Well, last night it was comic book movie-lovers’ turn to get it, as the newest episode of South Park’s thirteenth season, “The Coon,” took aim at the recent trend of “dark” comic book films like Watchmen and The Dark Knight and lampooned away.

The result was, of course, pretty funny.

The plot of the episode was pretty simple: in the midst if the economic recession, the town of South Park has become “a bloated whore” of crime and loose morality. The cure? Eric Cartman masquerading at night as”The Coon,” a Racoonesque crime-fighting vigilante keeping South Park’s streets from being overrun by criminal vermin, all while narrating his exploits in gravelly, Christian Bale/Rorschach type voice-over.

However, when a second masked juvenile crime-fighter known as “Mysterio” appears and steals the limelight, Cartman/The Coon teams with arch-nemesis Professor Chaos (Butters) to run Mysterio out of town.

This episode was A LOT less offensive than I thought it would be–even less offensive than what has become the South Park standard. Most of the lampooning was aimed at recreating The Dark Knight/Watchmen atmosphere, down to the faux Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard music that played throughout the show. The episode also took some subtle swipes at we, the public, and our fascination with superheroes during tough times. But really, no jaw-dropping, face-cringing moments in this episode. Hell, “The Coon” title was probably the most offensive thing about it.

I thought there would be at least one “blue junk” joke worked in there. But no luck. (And why do I sound slightly disappointed by that fact? Has South Park really desensitized me that much?)

You can check out “The Coon” episode over at the show’s official site, South Park Studios. After you’ve checked out “The Coon,” come back and let us know what you thought about South Park taking on comic book movies.

Source: South Park Studios

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Q&A With ‘Watchmen’ Screenwriters

Ross Miller — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Watchmen co-screenwriter David Hayter recently put out an open letter urging people to see the movie again. The short and paraphrased version of what he said was that people need to go see more movies like Watchmen to show the powers that be that this is the type of quality material we want projected onto our local movie theater screens.

I really hope people do exactly what he urged – although by the film’s extremely disheartening 67% box-office drop in its second weekend, it looks like the fans Hayter was addressing haven’t taken his advice quite yet. Here’s hoping that if Watchmen leaves theaters before people decide to go and see it again, that a lot of support gets shown for it once it hits DVD/Blu-ray in the hopefully near future.

More recently however, Hayter and his co-writer on Watchmen, Alex Tse, did a 100-plus minute question and answer interview over at Creative Screenwriting; an interview which was described by our good friends over at First Showing as “fascinating.” It’s a lengthy interview (you could probably watch over half of Watchmen again in the time it takes to listen to the full interview), but going by just the little bit of it that I listened to, it indeed sounds like a fascinating listen.

Those who have listened to the full interview say that Hayter and Tse talk about all aspects of writing Watchmen, from trying to figure out just how in the world they were going to successfully put it into script form at the start, right up until the final edits about what to cut out and what to leave in. (For those of you particularly interested in their decision to change the ending from the infamous giant squid to what we ended up getting in the movie, you’ll be glad to know they talk about that decision in quite some depth.)

Just as a teaser (or for those who don’t have the 100 minutes to spare), here is a transcript of what they had to say about the change of ending:

“It takes a lot of setup to introduce an interdimensional space squid, it just does… You can’t just say, oh there it is, and look, there’s my squid… The difference between the novel and the movie, and this is the real difference, is, we don’t have the appendices afterwords. And the whole thing with that storyline is all setup in the Wizard magazine, the stories about the comic book, and it’s also setup in Tales of the Black Freighter, to a certain extent – there’s stuff about the secret island, these artists… That’s all stuff that I would have to spend screen time explaining at the end of a movie where I’ve already spent two hours explain a lot. Clearly the movie does not shy away from piling information on top of you. But I felt that that was going to come out of nowhere.”

“For all of the infinite possibilities of film, I believe, you have to be very circumspect about the number of magical things that happen in your movie.” Hayter tangents onto X-Men and the mutant gene briefly, then continues. “You have Dr. Manhattan, who was your element of magic in the story, and then you have the squid, who came out of another dimension and could cast psychic waves of destruction, and that seemed like an extra bit of magic that came in at the end, and needs a lot of setup to justify it. So, it became obvious that if you use Dr. Manhattan, well, it’s already setup, and he is the force, and he is the outside threat that has been throwing the whole world into chaos anyways, the has thrown off history. So in the end, it seemed to make sense.”

Obviously the squid isn’t all they talk about for the whole interview. But it is an extreme point of interest for fans of the Watchmen graphic novel, who maybe didn’t care for what these two did with the ending of the movie. It’s also just one of the points of discussion which shows that these two (particularly Hayter) aren’t just a couple of writers hired at the last minute to adapt “just another comic book” – they’re real fans like a lot of those out there who were chomping at the bit to see the finished film.

I fully admit that I haven’t yet had the privilege to sit down with a copy of the Watchmen graphic novel, but by the feel I got from the movie (which I loved, by the way), and from what fans have been telling me, if I’ve seen the film I’ve basically read the graphic novel. Whether loved or hated, it seems to be universally accepted and agreed that it’s the most faithful comic-book (or graphic novel) adaptation ever made. And clearly the debate about whether that’s a good or a bad thing is what’s splitting most audience opinion straight down the middle.

From what I can gather about the original graphic novel ending with the giant squid, I’m definitely glad they changed it (about the only thing they did change, by the look and sound of it). From what’s been described to me, it sounds like something that may work on the printed page, but would ultimately just look ridiculous on-screen. If they were to sacrifice anything from the original source material, the giant squid was probably the wisest choice.

If you’re a hardcore Watchmen fan (of either the graphic novel or the movie); are just interested in what goes into writing a movie; or are just looking for something movie-related to kill some time, then you can download the full interview with David Hayter and Alex Tse in mp3 format here.

Enjoy. And then come back and tell us what you think.

Source: First Showing and Creative Screenwriting

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Has Watchmen Killed ‘Comic Book Movies?’

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:51:36 +0000

Well the totals are in, and Watchmen is nowhere near to being the box office smash many of us expected it to be.

After a solid $55 million opening weekend, Watchmen suffered a 67% second week drop-off, earning just $18 million for a total two-week domestic gross of $86 million (approx $112 million worldwide). Those earnings are far short of Watchmen’s reported $120 million budget, not to mention the astronomical cost of a marketing campaign so intense it seemed like Rorschach was making a run for The White House.

Now that Watchmen is in real danger of being a box office flop, it’s time to ask the hard question: has Watchmen’s underperformance killed “comic book movies?”

DEFINING THE ‘COMIC BOOK MOVIE’

There have always been two distinct approaches to comic book films. There are films like Watchmen, The Spirit, 300 and Sin City – films which adhere too closely to their comic book sources, trying to recreate those comics (sometimes panel for panel) in cinematic form. For films like Sin City and 300, this imitative style proved $uccessful; for The Spirit, not so successful. In the case of Watchmen, the verdict is still being debated, and will likely continue to be debated for years to come.

Opposite these “comic book movies” are films like The Dark Knight, Iron Man or Spider-Man, which are inspired by comic books but don’t try to BE comic books, instead opting to present the often-fantastic world of comic book superheroes in a more “realistic” cinematic fashion.

Having defined both approaches to comic book films, I ask again: has Watchmen killed the “comic book movie?” i.e., those films which try to be “living comic books,” championing style over substance; slavish fidelity to the source material over the hope of mass appeal?

STUDIO BACKLASH

Zack Snyder has said in many interviews that getting Warner Bros. to make a Watchmen film that closely adhered to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original text (the alternate 1985 universe, the adult nature of the story, a certain climax involving a giant squid) was an uphill battle. The studio (like so many other studios that had previously passed on Watchmen) wisely felt that the denseness and oddity of the comic would limit the mass appeal of the film, which, even in the pre-production stages, was already being tagged with a huge budget.

Snyder argued that to do Watchmen “right,” the source material needed to be slavishly followed–that there was no better way to tell the story other than how Moore and Gibbons had already told it. The result is a Watchmen movie which is both liberated and limited: Liberated in the sense of what big-budget films are allowed to be (wonderfully stylized, full of psychopath heroes and dangling blue junk); Limited in the sense that Snyder’s take on Watchmen never succeeds in breaking free of its comic book boundaries, in order to live and breathe as its own unique piece of art. (BTW, that’s not an opinion: that’s the split down the middle you’ve been seeing amongst critics and audiences. Those who dig the comic book for all its dense, heady weirdness tend to love the film; those that don’t, don’t. And that divided opinion is surely taking its toll at the box office.)

So the question is: Going forward, how many box office millions are studios going to be willing to risk, just to pay homage to the fanboy nation? Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter recently asked moviegoers to see the film a second time, in order to send the message to Hollywood that there is a market for “complex” comic book films. By now, however, he may be preaching to an empty choir.

DO FANBOYS RUN THE SHOW?

One thing that was very unique about the whole Watchmen experience was the level of consideration the filmmakers gave to the fanboy nation. In every interview or panel he was on, Zack Snyder went to great lengths to stress that he too was a Watchmen fanboy, and that he would not let the fanboy nation down by mucking with source material.

Now Snyder could’ve been totally B.S.’ing us all, but I don’t believe that. I believe that as far as filmmakers go, Zack Snyder really is a fanboy who was genuinely making this film for fanboys first, mass audiences second. Time will ultimately reveal the wisdom (or lack thereof) of that approach, but as of right now, it’s surely questionable.

Screen Rant’s own Rob Keyes recently wrote an article on the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, where he posed the question of just how much (or not) the filmmakers behind Wolverine are listening to fanboy opinions about how characters like Deadpool or Gambit get translated to the big screen. In that same vein, I find myself wondering: when it comes to comic book films, who really runs the show? Did fanboys really have that much influence before Watchmen? And now that Watchmen is coming up short, how much influence will fanboys not have going forward? Is a core fan base of comic book geeks really worth catering a big-budget film to? Or is mass appeal the bottom line every comic book filmmaker should be going for?

THE RISK OF MAKING A ‘COMIC BOOK MOVIE’

The simple truth is, some people are really into comic books while others can’t stand them. And we all know the reasons why the haters hate: The characters are too fantastic, the stories are too outlandish, the dialogue is too cheesy, etc., etc.

In order to make comic book films appeal to an audience beyond the comic store, filmmakers have to separate their adaptations from the “trappings” of their comic book sources, mining the raw essence of what made a superhero interesting or appealing in the first place, and then build a film on that foundation. People need never to have read a Batman comic to be intrigued by Bruce Wayne’s dark societal view, or a single issue of Spider-Man to relate to Peter Parker’s teenage angst. Of course, some would say that character recognition has everything to do with a comic book film’s chances at mass appeal (wide character recognition = wide film appeal). I would remind those people of the cases of Batman & Robin and V For Vendetta. Sometimes widely known doesn’t mean mass appeal, and vice versa.

Click to continue reading “Has Watchmen Killed ‘Comic Book Movies?’”

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 15, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:41:28 +0000

This Week:

We watch the Watchmen’s grosses; Ben Stiller leaves family comedy behind with Greenberg; Brendan Fraser returns to The Center Of The Earth; Vance joins Fraser and Harrison Ford in Crowley; Mickey Rourke has Passion and The Strangers become familiar.

Box Office

Dwayne Johnson’s Race To Witch Mountain captured the top spot with an estimated weekend gross of $25 million. There was once a time that people thought that “The Rock” was going to inherit Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action throne – not it appears that he’s the new family Eddie Murphy.

It looks like people aren’t watching the Watchmen – with a drop off of 67% showing that the film does not have legs. With a weekend of $18 million and a total take of $86 million far from a financial disaster, the film must be classed as an underachiever. Having said that – it’s a miracle that the film was ever made at all.

The Last House On The Left remake managed an opening of $14 million. Not bad for a horror remake that has very little name recognition, but poor considering horror openings of recent months.

Taken banked another $6 million giving the film an amazing $126 million total. With a sequel on the way it looks like this is a film that audiences really love.

Madea Goes To Jail managed another $5 million giving the Tyler Perry flick $83 million in the bank.

Slumdog Millionaire continues to connect with audiences grossing another $5 million. So far the film has banked $132 million and with DVD imminent, the film will be very, very profitable.

Speaking of profitable – Paul Blart: Mall Cop arrested another $3 million bringing its total to $137 million.

The top ten was rounded out by He’s Just Not That In To You, Coraline and Miss March all making $2 million plus over the weekend.

Movie News

1. Noah Baumbach will direct Ben Stiller in the “dramedy” Greenberg. Rhys Ifans, Brie Larson and Juno Temple will co-star in the film.

According to Variety:

“Penned by Baumbach, story centers on a New Yorker (Stiller) who moves to Los Angeles to housesit for his brother and figure out his life. He ends up having a relationship with his brother’s assistant.”

It sounds like Stiller is returning to his low budget roots. At least it’s not set in a museum!

Source: Variety

2. Brendan Fraser will star in a sequel to last years surprise hit Journey To The Center Of The Earth.

According to Variety:

“The sequel’s based on Richard Outten’s script Mysterious Travels: The Lost Map of Treasure Island, in which Prof. Trevor Anderson and his nephew embark on a journey to a mysterious island that was the subject of three classic novels (Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels).”

Talk about pillaging classic literature.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth cost $60 million to make and grossed $241 million world wide. Do you see the financial sense?

Source: Variety

3. Speaking of Brendan Fraser – Courtney B. Vance will join The Mummy star and Harrison Ford in Crowley.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

“Vance will play a father whose daughter has the same genetic disease as the children of Fraser’s character.”

4. Mickey Rourke is a very busy man. Having signed on to Iron Man 2, The Expendables and Broken Horses he has now attached himself to Passion Plays.

The drama film will be written and directed by Mitch Glazer, the writer behind Scrooged and The Recruit. The plot is being kept secret.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

5. Horror movies need sequels. It’s almost an unwritten rule.

Laurent Briet is now in talks to direct a sequel to Rogue Pictures surprise hit The Strangers .

The low budget horror starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman cost $9 million and grossed $81 million worldwide.

Expect a remake in 10 years.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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SR Picks [Video]: The Watchmen Tour With Malin Ackerman

Sabrina Cognata — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:24:51 +0000

Well, I have never been an out of work actress with a very famous roommate. However, I am oftentimes an out of work writer, and if the person I lived with was in Watchmen I’d totally give up writing to help exploit their career for a quick buck.

Besides, the world needs fanboys and fanboys need motivation to pursue their quests (whatever they may be), so this one is for the fanboys, in honor of the lengths to which they’ll go to in order to support something. Even if that includes paying someone’s roommate to watch them sleep or shower.

I thought this was pretty funny. I mean, I’ve seen more hilarious things in my day, but it’s good for a chuckle if you’re an avid Watchmen fan or if you know anyone who is. Actually, if you have ever met a fanboy at any point in your life you’ll laugh. I did.

Watchmen Tour with Malin Akerman from Malin Akerman

What do you think?

Source: Funny or Die

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Screen Rant’s Awesome Watchmen Giveaway – WINNERS!

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:46:44 +0000

Thanks to the most excellent Titan Books we ran a contest for some cool Watchmen books giving you a behind the scenes look at the upcoming movie.

We’re giving away both Watchmen: Portraits and Watchmen: The Film Companion and here are the winners!

Grand prize: A copy of Watchmen: Portraits and Watchmen: The Film Companion

Debbie Hubbard – Spring Grove, PA

Runners-up: A copy of Watchmen: The Film Companion

Kerry Williams – Medway, MA
Eugene Kelly – Midgic, New Brunswick, Canada
Marco Margaritoff – Bronx, NY

Thanks to everyone who entered – we have more great contests on the way including an upcoming Terminator Salvation giveaway!

We already gave you a preview of the Watchmen: Portraits book and I think the pictures in it will blow you away. I’ve thumbed through The Film Companion at the local bookstore and it’s chock full of cool info about the transition from page to big screen.

We’ll have two levels of winners: Grand Prize and three runners-up as follows:

One Grand Prize Winner (one copy of each):

Watchmen: Portraits
Watchmen: The Film Companion

Three Runners-Up:

Watchmen: The Film Companion

Here’s the official description of Watchmen: Portraits:

As the official photographer on the set of “Watchmen”, Clay Enos was there at every stage of production as director Zack Snyder filmed the adaptation of the legendary graphic novel. As well as his day-to-day duties making sure there was a visual record of the production, Enos also made time to work on a very special project: a collection of black-and-white portraits of every character in the film, and every crew member in the production.From the lead heroes, including Rorschach, the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl and all the other Watchmen, to supporting characters and even extras in the crowd, plus the crew who put the film together, his lens captured them all. With its wealth of exclusive photographs, this stunning book is a unique look into the world of the film. Clay Enos is a rising star in portrait photography. Whether it s his Streetstudio project, far-flung adventures, New York nightlife or celebrity portraits of Sting and Green Day, Enos brings many styles and unbridled enthusiasm to his subjects.

And here’s what you can expect in Watchmen: The Film Companion:

From Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures and directed by Zack Snyder (300), WATCHMEN, the most eagerly-awaited comics-to-film adaptation of all time, hits cinema screens across the globe in March 2009. To celebrate this incredible release, Titan Books is bringing fans two books to provide the ultimate companions to the movie experience. Released a month before the movie hits cinema screens, Watchmen: Official Film Companion takes viewers inside this colossal movie with exclusive cast and crew interviews and more than 200 color photographs.

To enter you must do TWO things:

1. Send an email to contests@screenrant.com with the subject “Watchmen Contest” and your full mailing address.

2. Subscribe to Screen Rant’s email newsletter, which delivers the day’s stories (coincidentally) once per day to your inbox. You can sign up with the convenient form below.

Yes, I know – TWO whole steps. Tough life, right? (And yes we’ll be verifying both, home-slice.)

Contest ends on Watchmen’s opening day: Friday, March 6th and is open to residents of the continental United States and Canada. Winners will be randomly selected.

Thanks to Titan books we’ll have more cool contests coming up over the next couple of months!

Good luck!

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‘Watchmen’ Screenwriter Asks Fans To See It Again

Ross Miller — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:58:08 +0000

Anyone who was even remotely interested in Watchmen has most likely already been to the theatre to see it (a lot were probably there for midnight screenings, even more have probably seen it more than once already). The critics in general have been pretty mixed on the film and movie fans have been a lot more positive towards it (although not everyone is praising it as much as the closest analogue The Dark Knight).

Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter (who if you’re into your video games you’ll know as the voice of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series) had been working on trying to adapt the graphic novel into a filmable screenplay for about ten years. And to put all that time and effort into something (just so you know he co-wrote it with Alex Tse) must be draining to say the least, and that’s even before you have to worry about people critiquing the final product.

Well in an open letter to HardcoreNerdity, Hayter urges people who liked the film to see it again. Check out an extract from the letter below (click here for the letter in full):

“If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse. Please go see the movie again next weekend. You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film’s got both, literally), or true adaptations – And if you’re thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it’ll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we’d like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.”

At first I looked at what Hayter said and it came off as him just playing up a movie he had a major part in so that the box office numbers would rise. But even though that is still what he’s saying, it’s not as simple as that. Hayter is clearly a fan as well as a writer (if you remember he also wrote the first two X-Men movies), and going just by that open letter alone (not to mention the fact he spent almost a decade of his life developing this thing), his love for the material shines through brightly.

I love the point, and wholeheartedly agree with him, that we should go and see movies like this not only first off but multiple times. That way, as Hayter states, the people who put up the cash for these movies can see that this is the kind of quality stuff we want to see.

We need to stop paying money hand over fist to see cinematic excrement like Meet the Spartans and Beverly Hills Chihuaha, and support the types films we want to see made.

Sources: /Film and HardcoreNerdity

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 8, 2009

Niall Browne — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:01:46 +0000

In this weeks Wrap Up:

Watchmen watches the top of the box office; Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are A Couple of Dicks; we may not get Three Stories About Joan but we will get a lot of suing; Wahlberg takes Prisoners; Steve Carrell brings us the worlds first “Testosterone comedy” in Hi-T; Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck knows The 28^th Amendment (and breaks my spell check).

Box Office

As predicted Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen captured the top spot at the box office with an estimated $55 million opening weekend. A pretty substantial sum considering the near three hour running time and the R rating. Time will tell if the film has legs and the mainstream crossover appeal to the general public.

Madea Goes to Jail banked another $8.5 million to keep acquire the runner-up spot. So far the Tyler Perry film has netted $76 million.

Liam Neeson’s sleeper hit Taken has earned another $7.5 million on its sixth week in release! The film has now almost taken $120 million. I haven’t seen the film but I can only imagine that someone, somewhere is talking about a sequel.

Slumdog Millionaire has made another $6.5 million over the weekend bringing total gross of the Oscar winning film to $125 million.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop and He’s Just Not That Into You both managed another $4 million apiece while Confessions of a Shopaholic, Coraline and Jonas Brothers: 3D all made around $3 million each.

Movie News:

1. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan will star in detective comedy A Couple of Dicks.

According to Variety:

“The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money.”

The film will be directed by Kevin Smith – the first time he hasn’t penned his own work.

Variety is also saying that the Warner Bros. film is Smith’s “first major studio pic” – this is untrue as Mallrats was a Universal production.

The studio also thought about calling the film A Couple of Cops but I’m sure that they realized that Dicks had more comedic mileage.

A Couple of Dicks will be released on January 29^th 2010.

Now get your mind out of the gutter (although that was obviously Kevin Smith’s intent – again)!

Source: Variety

2. Speaking of… Bruce Willis – the star and his production company is being sued by producers for breach of contact over his (ill-fated) directorial debut Three Stories About Joan. They claim that Willis quit the film without notice and are looking for $4 million in damages. However, these guys obviously haven’t seen Die Hard because Brucie is fighting back with a counter suit for $8.7 million. Willis’s lawyer Marty Singer said:

“In over three decades of practice, I have rarely seen such an absurd lawsuit. The production companies admitted they did not have the financing in place for the film, failed to pay members of the cast and crew, and failed to deposit Bruce Willis’ compensation in escrow, which resulted in the film not going forward. After Mr. Willis threatened to sue the production companies for their breach of contract, they responded with this baseless lawsuit.

Mr. Willis and other individual producers will proceed with their multi-million-dollar affirmative claims against the production companies this week, and are confident that they will prevail.”

Source: NY Daily News

3. Mark Wahlberg will star in Prisoners – a kidnap thriller written by Aaron Guzikowski.

According to Variety:

“The story centers on a Boston man who turns vigilante after his daughter and her best friend are kidnapped. Madhouse Entertainment , which manages Guzikowski, is producing.”

No director is attached yet.

I’m guessing that Wahlberg saw the grosses of Liam Neeson’s Taken and figured that he wanted a piece of the action. Either that or he really likes Ransom.

Source: Variety

4. Steve Carrell will star in and produce “testosterone comedy” Hi-T.

According to Variety:

“Hi-T revolves around a man dealing with uncontrollable mood swings after an injury forces him to take testosterone injections.”

“Testosterone comedy” is that a genre that I missed?

Source: Variety

5. We’ve been light on Tom Cruise news of late but that’s about to change!

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives Of Others) is in negotiations to direct The 28^th Amendment for Warner Bros. The thriller may/may not star Cruise as a US president who discovers that a secret organization within the government wants him dead.

Basil Iwanyk and Richard Donner will produce the film.

Source: Variety

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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