According to Variety.com, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, has taken some initiative to get the Bevery Hills Cop franchise rolling again. Also, Eddie Murphy has been slated to reprise his famous, career making role of Alex Foley.

     I for one think this is fairly positive news. First the Rocky announcement, now this. I’d like to see Murphy get back into some harder edge stuff than his latest attempts at kids stuff. Granted he wants to make a positive influence on his kids, but he’s no doubt a comedic genius (well, genius might be a bit of a strong word) and should get back to what he’s good at. Even though I generally hate the idea of another remake/sequel because Hollywood has no originality anymore.

     You can read the full article HERE, but di Bonaventura had this to say:

“Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters, a character that Eddie loves. I’m lucky enough to help bring it back. This genre is missing from the landscape.”

     With some recent Oscar buzz for his role in this winter’s Dreamgirls, Murphy has a real shot at making this franchise work again. And yes, you heard me right; not only is Dreamgirls the current front-runner for best picture, Eddie Murphy himself may actually brandish a best supporting actor nomination for his portrayal in the film.

2007 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS
(BY CATEGORY):

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer)
American Gun
The Dead Girl
Half Nelson
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan’s Labyrinth

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)
Day Night Day Night
Man Push Cart
The Motel
Sweet Land
Wristcutters: A Love Story

BEST DIRECTOR
Robert Altman, A Prairie Home Companion
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine
Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
Karen Moncrieff, The Dead Girl
Steven Soderbergh, Bubble

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
(Given to the best feature made for under $500,000; award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Chalk
Four Eyed Monsters
Old Joy
Quinceañera
Twelve and Holding

BEST SCREENPLAY
Neil Burger, The Illusionist
Nicole Holofcener, Friends with Money
Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil
Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking
Jeff Stanzler, Sorry, Haters

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
Goran Dukic, Wristcutters: A Love Story
Dito Montiel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Gabrielle Zevin, Conversations with Other Women

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
Catherine O’Hara, For Your Consideration
Elizabeth Reaser, Sweet Land
Michelle Williams, Land of Plenty
Robin Wright Penn, Sorry, Haters

BEST MALE LEAD
Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Edward Norton, The Painted Veil
Ahmad Razvi, Man Push Cart
Forest Whitaker, American Gun

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Melonie Diaz, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Marcia Gay Harden, American Gun
Mary Beth Hurt, The Dead Girl
Frances McDormand, Friends with Money
Amber Tamblyn, Stephanie Daley

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Raymond J. Barry, Steel City
Daniel Craig, Infamous
Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine
Channing Tatum, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Four Eyed Monsters
Brothers of the Head
Pan’s Labyrinth
Wild Tigers I Have Known
Man Push Cart

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director)
A Lion in the House
My Country, My Country
The Road to Guantanamo
The Trials of Darryl Hunt
You’re Gonna Miss Me

BEST FOREIGN FILM (Award given to the director)
12:08 East of Bucharest
(Romania)

The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
(Philippines)

Chronicle of an Escape
(Argentina)

Days of Glory
(France/Morocco/Algeria/Belgium)

The Lives of Others
(Germany)

     As Lord of the Rings fans mounted a protest following word that New Line had dropped Peter Jackson from consideration as director of The Hobbit and another Lord of the Rings prequel, producer Saul Zaentz has given assurances that Jackson will indeed direct the two films. Via IMDb.com, a German website, Elbenwald.de, posted an interview with Zaentz, who acquired the rights to the works of the late Rings writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, in 1976 (the Saul Zaentz Company owns Tolkien Enterprises), in which Zaentz says, “It will definitely be shot by Peter Jackson. … Next year The Hobbit rights will fall back to my company. I suppose that Peter will wait because he knows that he will make the best deal with us. And he is fed up with the studios: to get his profit share on the Rings trilogy he had to sue New Line. With us, in contrast, he knows that he will be paid fairly and artistically supported without reservation.” (The preceding quotation is a translation that appeared on TheHobbit-Movie.com from the German interview posted on Elbenwald.de.)

     Thanks to AICN, a likely illegal shot of the Transformers movie has hit the web. Here we have three humans running from an obviously angry Decepticon. Probably the image won’t be around long, but here you go…

     Movie Patron hopes you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat, drink and be merry.

     In the meantime, here’s the trailer for David Fincher’s (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room) new film, ZODIAC - starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo & my favorite actor of all time, Robert Downey Jr.

CHEERS!

     Winner of the audience choice award at Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon has officially been given a theatrical release! According to a myspace bulletin I received this morning from director Scott Glosserman, Anchor Bay distribution has picked up Behind the Mask and it will screen in 12 cities in North America on January 5th!

     For any horror buff, this is a MUST-SEE film. It will easily make my year-end top ten list and Movie Patron gave this film the silver medal at Toronto After Dark. You can read my full review and see the trailer HERE - it includes links to the official site . Please make an effort to see his film if it comes to your area. If Minneapolis is included in the 12 cities, I guarantee I’ll be there for a second screening and will try to bring as many people with me as possible. Glosserman has done something truly unique here and it deserves all the attention it can get.

Here’s the official announcement at Behind the Mask blog

     I am one of the very few who agree with Randall Graves (Clerks) and thinks The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (specifiaclly part 3: Return of the King) is likely the most over-rated movie of all time. Winner of what? 11 Oscars? Shame. Anyway, rumor has been speculating for some time that LOTR director Peter Jackson was interested in doing a prequel to the trilogy; i.e. The Hobbit.

     Well, according to theonering.net, it doesn’t look good for that to happen anytime soon, and certainly not directed by Peter Jackson. Because of a dispute between Jackson and New Line cinema over ownership rights and royalties issues, Jackson’s team has officially pulled out of any project involving The Hobbit. I’m not going into it here, because like I said, I’m not a huge LOTR fan and I really don’t care too much whether a prequel gets made or not. But if you’d like to read the full story, you can read Peter Jackson’s email to theonering.net RIGHT HERE

Cheers to Kurt (again) for the heads up.

     If you’ve seen Airplane!, you may have noticed a poster for Rocky XXVIII in the background of one scene. Well, it looks like that dream got a step closer with the release of the new trailer for Rocky 6; aptly titled “Rocky Balboa.”

     With the well-known music kicking off the trailer and a sweet, remixed version of “Eye of the Tiger” towards the end, there is no way in hell I’m going to miss this movie on opening night in what will likely be the most testosterone filled theater of all time.

To see the trailer in a gorgeous, large QUICKTIME file, CLICK HERE.

     The only question that remains, will Rocky win this fight too? Or he will go down in honorable defeat? I honestly can’t wait to find out. My early opinion? He’ll win.

     What I gather from this, is that The Weinstein Company (TWC), owners to such recent films as The Matador, Derailed, Transamerica and Lucky Number Slevin among others, have just closed a deal with Blockbuster to exclusively carry their films. This means no one else will have access to TWC films; not Netflix, Hollywood Video, or any other store or online rental service.

     Thanks to Kurt (from Twitchfilm.net) for the heads up on this one. Here’s part of the article I was sent:

Under the agreement, which commences on Jan 1 2007, TWC and Blockbuster will share rental revenues from TWC’s theatrical and direct-to-video titles (DTV).

Genius Products will provide distribution services to TWC in connection with the deal, which effectively shuts out Netflix from handling any TWC product until 2010.

Blockbuster will enjoy three years of rental exclusivity for each title released, in exchange for paying TWC a minimum guarantee, determined by box office performance, for each theatrical release, and based on the acquisition or production costs for each DTV title.

The first titles will include Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, Emilio Estevez’ all-star drama Bobby, Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger, The Nanny Diaries , and Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’ horror double bill Grindhouse.

“As the exclusive rental provider, we’ll be the only place, in-store and online, that can guarantee customers a wide selection of The Weinstein Company films available for rent.”

     I’m personally not really sure what to think about this. I think it is pretty stupid for TWC to limit their customers to one store or service. I also don’t like the fact that people who live far from a BB store can’t walk into their neighborhood rental store and to see “Grindhouse” on the shelf. As a Blockbuster user, I’m not concerned for myself specifically, but I am worried that another studio might decide to cut an exclusive deal with some other company and limit the availability of other films to me. I guess overall, I have nothing good to say about this arrangement and don’t really like it. Thoughts?

     Who doesn’t love Hilary Swank? She’s one of my favorite current working actresses; probably in my top three. A beautiful woman who is a two-time Academy Award winner and has been nominated and won countless awards by literally dozens of other prestigious critics, societies and festivals including The Golden Globes. I pretty much love everything she’s been in; or at least loved her role in everything she’s been in; really the only saving grace in The Black Dahlia. Simply put, she rules.

     Her next project being released? Freedom Writers. It’s a story about a white woman who takes over as a new teacher in an urban high school and teaches the kids that there is more to life than gangs and drugs. Wow. How original! I’ve never even heard of a movie like this before.

     Her response? A bloodthirsty tale about various plagues that strike midwest America called “The Reaping.” It actually looks pretty good and original. Stay the course Hilary. Stay the course.

     Meanwhile, the single greatest Hollywood actor working today, Paul Giamatti (yes, I said it - the man is brilliant in everything…EVERYTHING), will be playing Santa Claus in Fred Claus. A story of Santa Claus and his brother Fred; played by none other than Vince Vaughn. How great is this? Along with Michael Higgins Clark, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Wiesz and other great names, how can next year’s holiday season get any better? Seriously. Take a look at this clip and tell me how wonderful the world is.

     This weekend, The After Dark Horror Fest kicks off a three day long marathon of horror films spanning 35 states and 500 screens. Director Courtney Solomon (An American Haunting) has decided to take it upon himself to theatrically release eight films that studio execs had deemed too harsh and would go directly to video. “We thought that was a shame and thought why couldn’t we create a weekend dedicated to horror for fans everywhere across America to get to see these films in the best possible venue, a movie theater,” Solomon said.

     This festival is to be the largest film festival ever produced or released in terms of scope and geography. Solomon hopes to make this an annual event that will eventually lead to creating “a new domestic studio which is indie friendly for filmmakers like myself, so that really good product and films that would otherwise not be seen by the public gets to be seen in movie theaters.”

The eight movies included are:
Unrest
Penny Dreadful
The Gravedancers
The Hamiltons
Reincarnation (Rinne)
Dark Ride
The Abandoned
Wicked Little Things
- - plus, Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror

For TRAILERS, SHOWTIMES, THEATERS NEAR YOU, or more information, you can visit Horrorfestonline.com. As always, We’ll see you at the movies.

*thanks to movieweb.com for the interview excerpts.

     Let the geek-out continue. The year was 1998. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was fast approaching. I was preparing my schedule to wait in line for what was supposed to become the be-all/end-all to my very existence. Little did I know, that four friends were already in a battle to see the film before anyone else by sneaking into Skywalker Ranch for themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… Fanboys:

“NOBODY CALLS HAN SOLO A DIRT BAG!” God damn right!

     Because I’m a dork, the biggest Star Wars fan I know and a recent Battlestar Galactica convert, I had to post this movie. Damn fine fan made film if you ask me. Listen closely to how the music splices seamlessly from SW to Galactica depending on which side “you are on.” Frakin cool.

     The Simpsons Movie, scheduled to be out on July 27th, 2007 will be airing the first real trailer for the movie this Sunday during the Simpsons TV show on Fox at 8e/7c.  The teaser trailer has been out for a while now and doesn’t really give us anything but the fact that a Simpsons movie is coming.  That trailer is all over the web, but you can watch it in Quicktime on the Apple site HERE if you haven’t seen it already.

        

     Ho-hum.  Another, typical, Hollywood, summer blockbuster trailer.  Still, this will be the biggest movie of the year next year (next to Pirates 3 maybe) and everyone seems to care.  So here are links to the new Spidey trailer…

Quicktime (67MB) - (right click on link and choose “save target as…”) Takes some time to download, but the quality is gorgeous.

iFilm version - or click this link. quicker, easier, more seductive.  Streaming quality.

      More than ten years ago, I had heard the rumors of Tarantino doing a Vega Brothers movie.  For those of you who don’t know, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) from Pulp Fiction and Vic Vega aka Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) from Reservoir Dogs, are actually brothers.  Two awesome characters that had great potential in a project together.  However, now that they’re older a prequel is really out of the question and since…

**PULP FICTION SPOILER AHEAD**

Read the rest of this entry »

     Here’s why… The new version of the Blockbuster site is up and working; and it is much better than before.  Still not on par with Netflix, but MUCH better.  But more importantly, the email I got this morning from Blockbuster begging me to return may have convinced me and I don’t see how I can pass this up.

     The CEOs at Blockbuster got together and thought, “What have we got that Netflix doesn’t have?”  The answer of course is stores.  So what could they do with the stores that would give them a leg up on the competition?  What they came up with, is “Blockbuster Total Access.”

     “BTA” allows for me to return my online movie at the store.  Once there, it’s scanned in and instantly cleared from my online queue; allowing the next film to be sent immediately.  On top of this, the movie I just returned acts as an in store coupon for any movie on the shelf.  In other words, by driving to the store, I get my next online movie two days quicker AND get a free movie from the store IN ADDITION TO (not instead of) my next online DVD.  Wow!

     This means I can potentially have twice as many movies at home for the same price, just by driving to the store once a week.  I don’t really see how I can pass this up.  And just as an added bonus, BB has offered me one month free of 4 at a time rentals instead of just 3.  I DO have a life, but still…nice.  Plus I really hate the huge envelopes Netflix uses.  Can you think of a reason why I shouldn’t switch?

     Check out “Arrow in the Head’s” (a division of Joblo.com) coverage of The Toronto After Dark Film Festival.  In it, you’ll read someone else’s different perspective of each of the films shown.  Also, as an added bonus, you’ll get to see a picture of me (extremely exhausted), Rusty Nails (director) and Serena Whitney; the writer of said article.

**UPDATE - I stole the picture for myself

Rusty Nails, Serena Whitney and a very tired Me

      You can see the whole thing at Arrow in the Head.  Once inside, be sure to click on part one of the story and more of Serena’s views on the event and its films.