Watch Pixar’s Fun Comic-Con ‘Groovin’ with Ken!’ Featurette
To promote Toy Story 3 at Comic-Con last year, Pixar debuted this short 70’s style Groovin’ with Ken! featurette introducing the character of Ken, voiced by none other than Michael Keaton. It took almost a year to end up online, but the video can now be watched on YouTube (via Upcoming Pixar). You’ve got to hand it to the Pixar guys, they truly know how to have fun while promoting their movies. Anyway, Toy Story 3 hits theaters in just under three more weeks, so make sure you catch it in theaters (in 3D, too). It will definitely be one of those don’t-miss-it summer movies. And in the meantime, enjoy this short featurette. Have fun!
Watch the “Groovin’ with Ken!” featurette for Toy Story 3:
Woody, Buzz, and the rest of their toy-box friends are all dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, departs for college. Watch the final theatrical trailer and final internet-only trailer online as well.
Toy Story 3 is being directed by Lee Unkrich, another one of Pixar’s creative masterminds who previously co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. The screenplay was written by Michael Arndt, the Oscar winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine who is a newcomer to the Pixar family. Disney will be bringing Pixar’s Toy Story 3 to theaters everywhere in both 2D & 3D starting on June 18th in summer.
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Peter Jackson Might Direct The Hobbit… Only If He’s Allowed
As expected, an interesting bit of follow-up news regarding Guillermo del Toro’s decision to no longer direct The Hobbit arrived today by way of a new article in the The Dominion Post (via The Playlist). They actually caught up with Peter Jackson himself and talked about the news and what it means for the project’s future The production is worth “many millions of dollars” to the city of Wellington’s economy, which is why they’re trying to do everything they can to keep things moving, too. “It was simply longer than anyone expected, the fans and the filmmakers,” del Toro told them about the film’s delay. But could Jackson return and direct?
The key bit of news was that Jackson could end up directing The Hobbit, if worst comes to worst and they don’t find anyone. “Jackson met studio representatives yesterday to begin the search for a new director but wouldn’t rule out directing The Hobbit himself if a suitable person could not be found.” But it’s not up to him. Like Bryan Singer, he has contractual commitments to other projects. “If that’s what I have to do to protect Warner Bros’ investment, then obviously that’s one angle which I’ll explore,” he says. But he has two other films in the works, one starting next year, and “the other studios may not let me out of the contracts.”
The Dominion says that the reported $150 million budget for The Hobbit is more of a “ballpark figure” and could be higher if they go 3D. Some are guessing that Guillermo was “kicked off” because he didn’t want to shoot it in 3D and New Line was unhappy. I don’t know if I believe that, so we’ll stick to the facts. Any idea when they’ll be shooting? “I just don’t know now until we get a new director. The key thing is that we don’t intend to shut the project down. We don’t intend to let this affect the progress. Everybody, including the studio, wants to see things carry on as per normal. The idea is to make it as smooth a transition as we can.”
We’ll obviously keep you updated on all the latest with The Hobbit. But for now, I’d like to open up the floor to discussion, since there’s a lot to consider about the future of this adaptation. Would you be happier seeing Peter Jackson return to direct both films again or should they find someone else new to direct, and who?
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Victoria’s Secret’s Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Congrats Video
Wow, Victoria’s Secret really loves their models! Reader Gaz A. informed us that the lingerie company just debuted a video on their Facebook page congratulating “angel” Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who got the big role in Transformers 3 replacing Megan Fox as announced by Deadline last week. It was first reported that Huntington-Whiteley was the frontrunner along with other candidates like Sarah Wright and Brooklyn Decker. This was probably directed by Michael Bay and is just a big “look how beautiful our model-who’s-now-a-star is yay!” But boy is she purty to look at. And that’s why we love this… So feast your eyes on this!
It was announced a couple of weeks ago that Megan Fox had dropped out of Michael Bay’s Transformers 3 over reported disagreements between her and Bay. We’re not exactly sure how Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s character will be worked into the script as a replacement, since we don’t know much about the story to begin with, but there will probably be a “I’m dumping you Mikaela” moment and then we’ll get this beauty. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope she can act, because it would suck to have a replacement who’s worse. But so far so good, she’s absolutely gorgeous, and it’ll be good to see a fresh new face in this one. Go Get ‘Em Rosie!
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Another New John Hillcoat Project? Le Cercle Rouge Remake
The Road director John Hillcoat has been in the news quite a bit recently. Last week we covered the news that Hillcoat would be directing a film called The Revenant next. He’s also attached to a few other project, as revealed in a recent interview with NY Mag, but it was The Playlist who put two and two together and linked a Production Weekly listing for a remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic 1970 neo-noir Le Cercle Rouge (which translates to The Red Circle) to Hillcoat’s statements about being attached to “another contemporary thriller, crime thriller, set in Hong Kong and Macao.” Well, we can add another project to Hillcoat’s line-up.
According to Prod Weekly, an offer is out to Hillcoat to direct The Red Circle remake and it sounds like he’s accepted. I guess the locations have changed in the remake in Steve Knight’s script, because Le Cercle Rouge is a heist film that takes place in Paris. This remake has been gestating for a while, one time with John Woo directing, then with Johnnie To, who even had Liam Neeson, Chow Yun-Fat, Orlando Bloom and Tim Roth attached to star. Obviously people move on from projects and it sounds like Le Cercle Rouge has ended up in Hillcoat’s hands and it’s something he’ll direct down the line after The Revenant or whatever he does next.
For those unfamiliar with Melville’s Le Cercle Rouge, the film is about an aristocratic thief who is released from prison the same day a murderer has escaped the custody of a police superintendent. The thief ends up robbing his mob boss and enlisting the help of the murderer and an ex-police sharpshooter for a jewel heist. Meanwhile, the mob boss persuades a nightclub owner and a pimp to help him trap the thieves, while the police officer is also looking to apprehend the convict. Sounds like a great, twisted heist film and I’d love to see a talented up-and-coming director like Hillcoat tackle this. We’ll keep you updated on anything we hear.
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Takashi Miike’s Samurai Film Thirteen Assassins Gets a Trailer
“The streets will run red.” Oh hell yes – Takashi Miike is back! Another trailer (via Quiet Earth) I just had to feature was this one for Takashi Miike’s new samurai film Thirteen Assassins – based on Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film of the same name. This looks totally badass, just wait until you get to the final fight scene montage at the end, there’s some cool shit in there. I’ll use their intro for the film: “From Asia’s most controversial and popular director comes Miike’s horror vision of a samurai tale.” Unfortunately there aren’t any English subtitles, but if you just want to see a badass samurai trailer, fire this up! And let us know what you think?
Watch the Japanese trailer for Takashi Miike’s Thirteen Assassins:
Thirteen assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord. Based on Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film.
Thirteen Assassins, or Jûsan-nin no shikaku, is both written and directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, of films like New Third Gangster, Audition, Dead or Alive, Ichi the Killer, One Missed Call, 3 Extremes, Detective Story and God’s Puzzle recently. The screenplay was co-written by Miike and Daisuke Tengan, another filmmaker who also wrote Miike’s Audition and other films like Dr. Akagi, Waiting in the Dark and The Most Beautiful Night in the World. As far as we know, this doesn’t have a US distributor yet, so we’re not sure when it’ll be making its way to the US. But we’ll certainly keep you updated! Thoughts?
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Officially Announced: Guillermo del Toro is Off of The Hobbit!
Holy crap this is big. It was announced by Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro today on TheOneRing that del Toro will no longer direct The Hobbit, but will still co-write the screenplays. “Out of respect to the legions of loyal Tolkien fans,” they broke the news on the site and will make sure “the films are everything that the fans want them to be.” Del Toro: “In light of ongoing delays… for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.”
This is so sad to hear and means a lot more about the project’s delay, which has been stalled since MGM went bankrupt last year and on hold until they find someone to re-finance the entire company. As for the future of The Hobbit, we’re not sure what to expect. “We feel very sad to see Guillermo leave The Hobbit, but he has kept us fully in the loop and we understand how the protracted development time on these two films, due to reasons beyond anyone’s control, has compromised his commitment to other long-term projects,” Jackson said. It sounds like there’s a very interesting story behind this and maybe we’ll find out more in the coming months about what happened, such as if GDT is announced as a director on another different film.
According to TheOneRing.net, The Hobbit is still planned to be adapted into two movies, one to be released in December 2012 & the other in December 2013. So as far as they know, it’s still on, but no mention of who’s taking his place instead. “The blessings have been plenty, but conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated,” said del Toro. “Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director.” Thoughts?
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Indie Trailer Sunday: Acclaimed War Documentary ‘Restrepo’
One of my very good friends, Yama, that stayed in the same apartment with us at Cannes talked about this documentary quite a bit, not only because there were a few similar docs showing in Cannes, but because it’s a great film. Today I wanted to feature the official trailer for Restrepo, a documentary about the year that journalists Hetherington & Junger spent with a platoon in the “deadliest valley in Afghanistan.” This looks like it’s an incredible documentary, definitely a strong Oscar contender next year, and National Geographic is bringing it to theaters this summer. I highly suggest watching the trailer and seeing the film this summer.
Watch the trailer for Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger’s Restrepo:
You can also watch the trailer for Restrepo in High Definition on Apple
Follows the year that Junger/Hetherington spent in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, embedded with an Airborne Brigade Combat Team platoon in the Korangal valley. Visit: restrepothemovie.com.
Restrepo was co-directed by Tim Hetherington, a photographer and cinematographer for The Devil Came on Horseback, and Sebastian Junger, the author/journalist best known for The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. This first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. National Geographic is bringing Restrepo to limited theaters on June 25th this summer.
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Easy Rider Star Dennis Hopper Passes Away at Age 74 Today
Even more tragic news following Gary Coleman’s death yesterday. ABC News (via Reuters) is reporting that legendary Oscar nominated actor Dennis Hopper died this morning at age 74. Hopper passed away from complications due to prostate cancer on Saturday peacefully at his home in Venica, California surrounded by family and friends. This is truly sad news as I think of Hopper as a true American acting legend. He’s been in a lot of films, as villains, and even as the director. It’s very sad to see him pass. Hopper received two Oscar nominations: one for writing Easy Rider in 1970 and for Hoosiers in 1987. He is survived by four children.
Hopper fell ill last September, but continued working, both on the show “Crash” and on a book showcasing his photography. His final months were also consumed by a bitter divorce battle with his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy. Hopper has had quite a career, starring in everything from Cool Hand Luke to Easy Rider (which he also directed) to True Grit to Blue Velvet to True Romance to Speed to Land of the Dead to Hell Ride and so much more. He last appeared in Swing Vote, and on the TV series “Crash”, and has also voiced a character in Lionsgate’s Alpha and Omega. We’re not sure if he’s attached to other upcoming projects besides that one.
Back in March this year, Hopper received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A deserving honor for a great actor and filmmaker who will certainly be missed and never forgotten. Rest in Peace, Mr. Hopper.
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Tom Cruise Back as Les Grossman at the MTV Movie Awards!
Back in ‘08, I lost myself in uncontrollable laughter every time Tom Cruise appeared in Tropic Thunder as the insanely angry studio executive Les Grossman. The good news is that Cruise has not only returned as the bald, screaming exec, but also as Joel Goodsen, his career-making role from Risky Business. The bad news is that it’s only in the form of a 45-second TV spot promoting the MTV Movie Awards which, if you’re into shitty, meaningless awards, will be broadcast live on Sunday, June 6th at 9PM EST. Still, the spot is worth watching if only to see Cruise yelling at himself and making film history in that iconic scene. Watch below!
The MTV Movie Awards are those awful awards with categories like Best Kiss, Best Fight, Best Villain, Best WTF Moment, Biggest Badass Star, Best “Scared-as-S**t” Performance, and of course, the Global Superstar award because why the hell not? Unless you’re maybe a kid in high school, who really even cares about these at all?! You can still vote on the official website for whatever you want (it’ll probably be all Twilight winning anyway). And if you want, tune into the awards show next week. Or, as Les Grossman might say, “Oh, wait! I got a better idea. Instead of watching the MTV Movie Awards, how about I send you a hobo’s dick cheese?”
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Sound Off: Disney’s Prince of Persia Movie – Your Thoughts?
Now that you’ve seen it, what did you think? In theaters worldwide this weekend is yet another video game movie, one that we thought could change video game movies forever. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is finally out in theaters after being delayed for more than a year. How is it? Is it another bad video game movie or actually entertaining? How is Gyllenhaal as Dastan? How is Gemma Arterton as Tamina? Was it entertaining to watch the parkour action and fight scenes? If you’ve seen it, leave a comment and let us know what you thought of Prince of Persia!
To fuel the fire, I probably enjoyed Prince of Persia more than most, but I still thought it was a forgettable, bland and ultimately a poorly crafted movie. I first saw this at ShoWest last March and I honestly was very excited to see it. Unfortunately, it’s just not really that good – there’s not enough parkour, the story takes way too many weird, lengthy detours, and Gemma Arterton was unbearable to watch by the end. It could’ve been so much better, but sadly it wasn’t. Guess I should’ve expected that from a video game movie. The only really cool part was the overall story structure, where [spoiler] they get sent back in time all the way to the beginning, at the end. That was a great concept applied well, but the rest of this was just another let down.
So what did you think of Prince of Persia? A fun summer action movie or totally forgettable?
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