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Stephen Frears Reteaming with 'High Fidelity' Writer

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:02:08 +0000

High Fidelity should have done better at the box office a million years ago. It did OK considering - $27 million plus about another $20 million internationally, but I think Disney was probably the wrong place to distribute it, and it probably never made a big impression on a lot of people until it hit the home video market.

One of the things the film shows is the versatility of director Stephen Frears (The Queen). It doesn't hurt that they had a fantastic Nick Hornby novel to work from, and now, a decade later, Frears and High Fidelity screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis might reunite to tackle "a dramedy set in the world of geeky gamblers," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is an adaptation of the upcoming memoir Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog by Beth Raymer, which is basically 21 with middle-age guys.

J.J. Abrams In Talks to Produce 'Micronauts' Movie

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:45:39 +0000

Should this news turn out to be true and a movie version of Micronauts happens, I'm pretty glad J.J. Abrams would be involved. The Wall Street Journal says Abrams is in talks to produce a film based on the old Japanese interchangable toys - a precursor to Tranformers, Go-Bots, and Alexis Arquette.

Hasbro recently acquired the property, and we know that Hasbro has put itself on the forefront of this whole toys n' games movie tie-in business. While I don't want to necessarily take this one to the bank just yet, it's a powerful combination of a company on the move and filmmaker who can call his own shots. Plus, J.J. is already talking, and he never does that.

Two New 'Wolfman' Posters, And One Is Even Good

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:30:49 +0000

What to do about The Wolfman? Originally, this was a fantastic idea. Universal was going all the way back to its vaults and reintroducing the monster movies of the 1930s, most of which have stood the test of time. You had Rick Baker doing make-up effects (the created the Oscar in that category for his work on An American Werewolf in London, still unsurpassed), and Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) lined up to direct Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving.

Romanek left and was replaced by Joe Johnston (Jurrasic Park III) and then there were grumblings that the visual effects were so bad a fair percentage of them had to be redone. The movie went from April to November to the following February, and that's where we are now: A re-tooled bit of classic monster madness opening on Valentine's Day, already carrying more than its share of dashed expectations.

Here are the two latest posters for The Wolfman. One's pretty good, the other one has been Photoshopped to death (and bears a striking resemblance to a poster for Wrong Turn, and that can't be good).

'9/11' Tops 'Telegraph' Movies of the Decade List

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:11:11 +0000

We're just a couple months away from the acknowledged end of the decade (it's really next year, because there was never a year zero, so this decade actually ends in 2010), and that means we'll get Best of the Decade lists on top of Best of the Year lists. I'm actually looking forward to the process myself and I'm revisiting some of the 25 movies or so I think have a chance to make my own list.

The Telegraph has unveiled a top 100 list, but not necessarily in terms of quality. Instead, we have the most significant hundred films from the past decade, the movies that "defined" the decade. There are, of course, some picks you'll certainly agree with; we have the top 25 listed and you can read the paper's entire list and see even more great films. But their selection of Fahrenheit 9/11 as the number one movie of the past ten years is almost completely unqualified.

"It may not have been the best film of the decade. It may not have been the best film Moore has made (that honour still belongs to 1989’s Roger and Me). Nevertheless, it’s hard to overstate the importance of this film, a modestly funded political documentary that was shunned by its Disney backers but went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, coin more than $220 million around the world, and boost the emergence of politically liberal, agenda-driven multiplex fare such as Supersize Me (sic) and An Inconvenient Truth."

I can think of one problem right away: Super Size Me came out about two months before Fahrenheit 9/11 and spent three weeks in summer 2004 in the top ten despite only playing in a couple hundred theaters. So I can't see how 9/11 had a tremendous impact on Morgan Spurlock's movie.

Secondly, while there have been great documentaries since 2004, this decade may have seen even better documentaries before Fahrenheit 9/11, and I'd argue that Moore's film might have actually diluted the effectiveness of the non-fiction film, based in part on his reliance on shaky half-truths to tell a more incendiary story. There's a fair amount of tabloid journalism in that film, and I'm not sure that's what the format is supposed to foster.

So here's the top 25 films of the past decade, according to the editors of The Telegraph:

Director Julie Taymor Unveils Broadway's Spider-Man

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:06:03 +0000

It will not be Jim Sturgess slinging webs on Broadway in the new comic book musical Spider-Man Turn of the Dark. Instead, director Julie Taymor (Across the Universe) has hired another young actor she recently cast in a film version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Reeve Carney will play Peter Parker to Evan Rachel Wood's Mary Jane Watson, and here's a look at the 26-year-old actor.

In addition to acting, Carney is the lead singer of a band that features his last name, and is the final piece of the puzzle to the 2010 Marvel musical, which will open at the Hilton Theatre in New York in a few months. “Having recently finished shooting The Tempest with Reeve as the young prince, I am thrilled to cast him in an entirely different role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man," Taymor said in a statement.

"When I first saw Reeve, he was performing with his terrific band Carney. The music of Bono and Edge requires an extraordinary talent— not only is Reeve a great rock and roll singer but his acting is equally fresh and authentic.”

Gyllenhaal, Portman, Maguire - New 'Brothers' Trailer

Colin Boyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:20:31 +0000

I would have thought Brothers would be in the conversation by now. You know the conversation, the end-of-the-year talk where movies come out of nowhere to gain the indie world's rapt attention. But so far, it's kind of flying under the radar.

Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan are a pretty good foursome. Seriously, Jim Sheridan has six Academy Award nominations, so maybe Brothers being under the radar is par for the course. (No more golf references, I promise.) The lone trouble spot - unless it's just terribly maudlin - is that this has a war undertone. That won't diminish the quality of the film, but it could stand in its way when it comes to finding an audience.

There's a new version of the trailer, heavier on the Portman, methinks. The film will be in theaters on December 4th, so there's enough time to turn around its fortunes if it's as good as it certainly could be.

Get Your Name on the 'Paranormal Activity' DVD

Colin Boyd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:46:01 +0000

There's a great opportunity for Paranormal Activity fans to have one final, permanent connection with the micro-budgeted horror flick/multiplex phenom. Paramount is giving the fans a chance to have their names featured on the DVD credits.

This has been done before, and it's always a bit of a publicity stunt, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Paranormal from its "Demand It" infancy to back-to-back $20 million weekends to the most profitable movie ever made and a date with $100 million any day now. The success of this film has as much to do with creating buzz as it does the movie itself.

It's impossibly easy to get your name listed; it took me about ten seconds and I'm a gigantic moron. So just go to ParanormalActivityProject.com and sign up. First and last name, e-mail, and date of birth is all you need.

Aykroyd, Faris, JT in Talks for 'Yogi Bear'

Colin Boyd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:06:12 +0000

If these things lived in a vacuum, it might be a different story. On its own, there's nothing wrong or inherently evil about making a movie based on The Flintstones or Scooby Doo or even Rocky & Bullwinkle. But when you add them all up (and pay attention to the success rate), you start to get a bad taste in your mouth. That's probably why I was so opposed to this update initially.

I enjoyed Yogi Bear as a kid, although it wasn't an all-time favorite. And because it has a big presence in the pop culture firmament, a movie version isn't a stretch. It just seems that way since we've been inundated by so many of them already. Entertainment Weekly has some casting updates, and I'm not really thrilled about those, either.

Deleted Scene: Brüno Sits Down With Pete Rose

Colin Boyd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:03:23 +0000

Brüno was damn funny in small doses, but as an entire movie, it kind of lost its way. But when the film comes out on DVD November 17th, it will have a few more small doses, like this deleted scene with Pete Rose.

If you saw the film, you know that Sacha Baron Cohen tried the same stunt with Paula Abdul, using "migrant workers" as makeshift furniture for an interview. I didn't think it would be funny the second time through, but I was kind of wrong about that. I don't love the clip, but it's so weird to see Pete Rose here that it's worth a quick look.

The only trouble is, Rose is so well-known for taking any payday at this point that this one could be a complete plant. Sure, he's seen a lot of strange things in his day, but I think I'd be a little less go-with-the-flow than Charlie Hustle is here.

Portman Calls 'Black Swan' Sex Scene "Extreme"

Colin Boyd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:56:46 +0000

We've gotten plenty of traffic here at The Big Picture thanks to the story alleging that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis will have mad sapphic sex in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, so thanks for the hits. Portman recently talked to V magazine about the film and the scene, and while she makes a semantics argument against what's been reported, Natalie is certainly not denying it.

"It's not raunchy - it's extreme," she said. I'm sure there's a difference, if only qualitatively. The tone of the profile makes me think that the extreme scene will involve nudity. Both Portman and Kunis have done nude scenes before, Portman in the short Hotel Chevalier and Kunis in some direct-to-video thing, but now Portman says she's more open to that possibility than she would have been earlier in her career.

"Previously I was figuring out my own sexual identity, likes and dislikes and all that stuff, and it's weird to be doing stuff on film as you're figuring it out," she said. "Also, being a sexual object when you're a kid is really uncomfortable." Well, yes. There's that.