The first domestic version of the one-sheet for Guillermo Del Toro produced, The Orphanage, has hit the web. The poster doesn’t do much for me, but it does reek of Guillermo Del Toro’s style, even if he’s not directing. New man in town, Juan Antonio Bayona will be taking the reins for this one and it looks to be very much in the same vein as Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone. Of course, this is just the feel I get from the poster, so we’ll have to wait and see until some footage is released. In the meantime, here’s the marketing shot (click image for hi-res)…

     In case you blinked during the Southland Tales trailer (Apple), that IS Kevin Smith in the wheel chair. Here’s a close-up image of that character.

     I can’t believe that is him! As a side note, as I see this trailer more and more, the more I’m looking forward to it. I think the ridiculous cast will actually work in the film’s favor. Plus I like the comedic, quirky, action-filled vision of the future and what is sure to be a real thinker of a movie (ala Donnie Darko). The kind where you have to watch it 16 times to understand what is going on; and even then have to jump on the message boards to confirm your theory.

     More fun at Toronto After Dark. So much fun in fact that I’ve neglected to get any writing done. It will all be up by the end of the weekend over at the Movie Patron After Dark Headquarters. But the first 6 or 7 reviews are available right now.

Kurt and Todd Brown from Twitchfilm.net.

Bad camera setting shot of Lloyd Kaufman (Troma Films).

Hanging with themovieblog writer, Serena Whitney.

Some of the Zombie crowd for Automaton Transfusion.

Out to lunch with FilmGrotto’s John Allison.

The fabulous Bloor Cinema. All the screenings are here.

     More updates and picture to follow over the next few days. For more info on the festival, check out our full spread of titles, reviews and trailers at our headquarters, or visit the official TAD site

     Here are some pictures from The Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Once I finally got my luggage from the airline, everything has gone fairly smooth and it’s been a real blast. I have tons of pics to post over the next few days, but here are a few from the first couple screenings. Remember I didn’t have my luggage, hence the same clothing in several pics.

By the way, you can see our review for each of the films at our After Dark headquarters if you are so inclined.

With festival director Adam Lopez (awesome host).

Two of the programmers, Todd Brown from Twitch and Peter Kuplowski (short films).

Hanging with legendary film maker Uwe Boll.

Jay Cheel from FilmJunk.com and the documentary blog.

The CN Tower in Toronto.

My wife preparing for the midnight screening.

     More updates and picture to follow over the next few days. For more info on the festival, check out our full spread of titles, reviews and trailers at our headquarters, or visit the official TAD site

     I don’t really like posting stuff like this, but I also like explosions. So here are a few images and a video capture of an explosion on set of the new The Dark Knight movie. The reason I consider them spoilers is because in the video it tells you what it is that is exploding; and you may not want to know. But if you don’t care, you can check out the pictures and video by unwrapping the text below…

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

I would like to introduce the first volume in my new movie comic strip. I am just trying it out to see how it goes but if all goes well there will be more volumes to come. Here is the first one:

     Michel Gondry is a genius. No doubt about it. That word gets tossed around a lot these days, but with Gondry, I really believe it to be true. The man truly is a visionary and breaks the mold of how Hollywood traditionally makes a film.

     His newest release, Be Kind Rewind stars Jack Black as a video store clerk who’s brain gets somehow magnetized, thereby erasing all of the tapes in the store. Instead of re-buying all the movies, he and his co-worker (Mos Def) decide to just refilm all the movies in the own way. It is frakking brilliant.

     Today the trailer for the movie was released and I gotta tell ya, I cannot WAIT for this movie. It looks to possibly be Gondry’s best work. It gets my ten bucks in a heart beat. Check the streaming version below or head over to Yahoo! for a larger version and hi-def versions and thanks to Marina for the heads up.

Stills…

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     I don’t know if this is old news but since I just came across it I thought I would mention it here. Through people doing it on FaceBook I went over to The Simpsons official website and created my very own character. It’s a fun, probably useless way to spend some of your precious time. Head on over to The Simpsons Official Website to create your own character and if possible post them here. Here is mine:

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     Thanks to worst previews, we get our first glimpse of what the new Hulk character will look like via a panel discussion at Comic-con. They also report over there that Edward Norton himself, who’ll be playing Bruce Banner in the film, actually wrote the screenplay for the film. I didn’t realize this until now. IMDb doesn’t make any mention of this, but they’ve been wrong before. With a great cast including William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson and one of the more under-rated actors out there: Tim Roth, this should prove to be at least an interesting film to talk about and will most likely be way better than the attrocious Ang Lee vision of the Hulf from a few years back.

     Time for another random, pointless post.

     Have you ever been watching a film and then half way through you realise that the character you have been watching is played by an actor you know and they look so different that you didn’t even notice it was them? In other words what actors have been in a film where they look so different that you didn’t recognise them straight away? Or even if you do recognise them but they just look so different than they normally do. Here is a bunch that I could think of:

Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich

 John Hurt in The Elephant Man

 Gary Oldman in Hannibal

 Charlize Theron in Monster

Christian Bale in The Machinist

     That’s all that really come to mind. I’m sure there are tons more, feel free to point any out.

     Some first photos have popped up on the web for the new Ryan Gosling film, Lars and the Real Girl. According to movieweb, Gosling plays “a lonely, delusional young man who buys a life-size sex doll on the Internet and falls in love with her, telling people it’s his girlfriend. His brother and sister-in-law step in to help him with his delusion.”

     Gosling is probably my favorite young, up-and-coming actor right now. He’s great in all things big and small (especially Half-Nelson (MP review)). Others in the cast include Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Kelli Garner. Here are some first images and you can click on them for the higher-res version if you’d like.

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     Who knows if it’s real or not. I picked it up over at Flixster. To be honest, the Saw franchise, for me, turned into a steaming pile of dung after the first film. But I’m sure some may be interested, so here ya go…

     Thanks to ComingSoon.net and “the reel chris” from Entertainment Weekly we have a brand spanking new cast photo of the upcoming comic-book adaptation Iron Man. Take a look below:

     Now first off let me say how awesome does Jeff Bridges look?! Now I am not familiar with the comic-book origins of Iron Man so I don’t know and this is just guessing - but is Jeff Bridges the bad guy? He certainly looks very sinister with that look and his pose in the photo. As far as Robert Downey Jr goes as far as I’m concerned he can do no wrong and next to Christian Bale as the newest Batman I think this is the greatest casting choice in comic-book film history. Everything and I repeat everything Downey Jr does he is golden and personally I think he is going to nail this role 100%. Paltrow and Howard also look very cool in the photo. Just taking into account the cast this film has it is shaping up very well indeed. What are your impressions of the photo and the look of the characters in general?

     I have to admit, with the whole Indiana Jones IV thing going on (working title: Indiana Jones and the City of Gods), I haven’t been all that excited. I wasn’t even convinced that the film was actually being made. It still feels a bit like a dream.

     That all changed today when I saw this from IndianaJones.com:

     This feels good. It’s like an old shirt that you loved, found hiding in the attic; a warm cup of java on a rainy, Sunday morning; coming home after a long, gruelling trip. This image just feels so right.

     It seems that over half of the news that has popped up on the net about movies over the past month or two has been related to the upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight. And it’s not that I am sick of it it’s just I think it’s a tad on the overload side of things. But still it’s exciting to read and see new stuff.

     Well now we have something very excitng that has been reported. Please only click the unwrap link below if you are sure you want to know this piece of news aka don’t blame me or anyone at Movie Patron if the movie subsequently (in your eyes) is now ruined to an extent. You have been warned!:

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     Kurt just sent me the link to this story from The Hollywood Reporter about the 36th annual Key Art Awards. I’ve never heard of this ceremony before, but apparently these are the awards that recognize achievement in marketing in regards to film. It ties in really nicely with our recent discussions (both in the Cinecast and posts) about cool movie posters, but it also includes trailers, TV spots and web design.

     These awards break down marketing into several categories. There are awards for different genres in TV spots, posters and trailers, also DVD packaging and even an award for marketing that gets people to go to see a movie that has gotten poor reviews (winner: Step Up); just to name a few.

     Little Miss Sunshine (review) won best overall poster while the terribly underrated Little Children (review) was co-winner for best in show audio-visual along with Thank You for Smoking (review).

excerpt from the main article at Hollywoodreporter.com…

     In the main competition, 442 movie advertising and marketing professionals judged a record 1,452 entries. The eligibility period was January-December 2006. A judging event was held April 25 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

“The marketing has never been more stimulating,” said John Kilcullen, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. “The submissions reflect the great work the community is doing.”

     New categories were added this year to recognize work in animation, documentary and horror films. To present the animation awards, Nancy Cartwright — who provides the voice of Bart Simpson –arrived onstage with a Bart puppet, with whom she conversed in a comedic exchange.

     This year’s presenters also included Tobin Bell, Wes Craven, Rob Cohen and Dave Foley.

Click on this link to unwrap text of all the night’s winners and some images:

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     It seems that my, and many others, wishes for keeping the amount of pictures and info on The Dark Knight very low have gone unfulfilled as more have been released. This time of Batman’s newest vehicle the ‘Batcycle‘ or ‘Batpod‘. You can check out the pictures below by clicking on the unwrap spoiler link:

 UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     Although I am against them releasing pictures, it is ultimately inevitable so considering that I have to say yet again I am happy. Everything, every picture and piece of info I have seen or read about The Dark Knight has left me content and happy. But what are your thoughts?

     I just came across some pictures on the net of Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal on set of the upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight. To view a couple of the photos click the unwrap link below:

 UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

(To view all of the pictures click here)

     These Bourne Ultimatum posters are damn cool. Kind of a 60s retro feel while at the same time, some modernization. Definitely nothing like any other film’s artwork that has been released at any time in the recent past. Click on the unwrap text link below to see the posters…

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     An article in this weeks issue of Entertainment Weekly (and thanks to ComingSoon.net for the picture) shows Christian Bale as The Dark Knight only this time donning a new and improved Bat suit. Take a look at the pic by clicking the spoiler link below:

UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

 

     So what are your thoughts on the new Batsuit? Good? Bad? An improvement? Or a step down? Personally I like it, they had to do something different from ‘Begins’ and personally I think it’s a step in the right direction.