On hiatus

I've been running this blog for eight months. It's helped me with my writing, especially with writer's block, but sadly, it has become sort of a distraction from my other work. Between the novel, three short stories, a few screenplays, a short film, two blogs and scraping money together for either film school or a literature degree, something has to give. Unfortunately I'm making the difficult decision to put Come Back Shane! on hold. It's been a fun eight months and hopefully I will be able to return to this eventually. Thanks to all those who supported the blog.

New Women in Trouble trailer

The trailer for Women in Trouble (via The Movie Blog) looks like the film has just as much tragedy as it does comedy. Which I didn't expect. I think it's worth it just for Josh Brolin's hilarious accent:

A serpentine day in the life of ten seemingly disparate women: a porn star, a flight attendant, a psychiatrist, a masseuse, a bartender, a pair of call girls, etc. All of them with one crucial thing in common. Trouble.

Beyonce nowhere close to being cast as Wonder Woman

I don't usually like being fooled, but this is the exception. That whole Beyonce as Wonder Woman story? Total crap. Why do I never believe the real stories, but always fall for the BS? Anyway, the whole thing was a hoax. Which is mildly amusing, and brings me a sense of relief. Carry on.

Toy Story 3 trailer

I admit, I haven't been paying much attention to this film. Mostly because the second Toy Story was a major disappointment for me. I hated it. Toy Story 3 is set to open in June of 2010 in 3-D, and the trailer looks surprisingly good.

Trailer courtesy Movie List (via Get the Big Picture)

Nine moved to December

It was bound to happen. According to RopeofSilicon The Weinstein Company has officially pushed Nine from November 25 to a limited release on December 18 in New York and LA. The film goes into wide release on Christmas Day. Earlier rumors that the film would get pushed to next year were obviously off, but the move isn't surprising.

I don't think the move helps Nine's chances. It would originally have had to deal with The Road (another Weinstein Oscar hopeful), The Princess and the Frog (limited release), Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Me and Orson Welles. New Moon, which is a guaranteed hit is set to open on November 20, so perhaps Nine is being moved to be saved from that.

Now Nine has to contend with A Single Man, which has now been set to open wide on Christmas Day, Avatar (December 18), Sherlock Holmes, The Young Victoria, It's Complicated, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I haven't even mentioned the opening of Invictus or The Lovely Bones which open a week before Nine's new limited release. On paper this looks like a terrible idea, but I'm not really great at predicting box office and its effect on awards season.

Along with this news Nine - the Movie (via ONTD!) points us to the November cover of Vogue with the women of Nine.

Adrien Brody signs on to Predators

I don't know if Adrien Brody should fire his agent. Or maybe he should kiss his agent - I've posted about the guy twice in one week. Or maybe the casting people should be fired. Or maybe this is a genius bit of casting. As in maybe somebody is trying their hand at irony. Some folks are not exactly pleased, but whatever, I'll be on the side of liking the casting. Maybe because I've never watched a single Predator film and now Adrien Brody has given me a reason to care about this crappy looking franchise. This description of the odd casting made me lol:

Schwarzenegger he ain't, and I don't know if that had anything to do with the decision, but...wow...I don't want to say Brody's thin or anything, but I understand to get him on location in Hawaii to begin shooting the film, producers are just going to fax him to the islands. [Get the Big Picture]

My being a Brody fangirl aside, I would seriously consider writing the dude an open letter. His film choices have been fucking all over the place since he won that well deserved Oscar for The Pianist. Some have been decent to good even though they've crashed and burned at the box office (The Darjeeling Limited, Cadillac Records, The Brothers Bloom, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox looks decent), but some of the choices have been pretty bad. The Village made me want to gouge my eyes out and WTF was King Kong? Yes, I know it's good to have a huge film on your filmography especially with all the smaller pictures, but that shit was nearly unforgivable. Why do I get the feeling that this Predators business is going to be like Kong all over again?

Beyonce could be Wonder Woman?

Well, this is disappointing. According to Comic Book Movie Beyonce might be considered to play Wonder Woman. I suppose it would be "bold" to cast a black Wonder Woman (something Get the Big Picture points out Beyonce has said). But now that I think of it, should anyone be surprised that Wonder Woman might not be white? The TV version of Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, is Hispanic - her mother was Mexican-American.

Anyway, I wish I was making the Beyonce part up:

Just got back from a press conference tonight with Beyonce and she spoke of a few upcoming movie projects. The last on her list was Wonder Woman!

Yes, Wonder Woman! She said she has to meet up with the writers and directors in a couple months and things will start to pick up by mid-2010 for a late 2011 release. She said the writers were Stuart Beatti and David Elliot, the guys that wrote GI Joe: Rise of Cobra and the director was John Moore, the guy that directed Max Payne.

I think everything about this news is horrible. Yes, Beyonce was surprisingly not bad in a movie like Cadillac Records, but she was in her comfort zone in that film. In films where she's out of her musical element she just sort of dawdles in front of the camera. And this thing is going to be written by the GI Joe guys, and directed by the guy who made Max Payne? That's even worse than the Beyonce news.

Now just because Warner Bros., hasn't reported Beyonce's involvement doesn't mean she isn't involved. We were dangerously close to a Justin Timberlake as the Green Lantern so anything is possible.

To be fair to Beyonce, I can't think of a really good Wonder Woman. Marion Cotillard is the only actress I can think of, but she'd be rejected by most. Some of the other suggested actresses like Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, and Jessica Biel are either equally horrible or even worse.

The Princess and the Frog: new billboards + the first five minutes

I thought I would be taking a break from discussing this movie since I've been doing a lot of it lately. But, I couldn't pass up on sharing five minutes of the film. The billboards from ComingSoon are just a bonus.

The opening five minutes of The Princess and the Frog were unveiled late yesterday and you get a feel for where the movie is headed. The first few minutes are the completed 2D animation in gorgeous color, but after that some of it is the pencil drawn stuff that isn't finished. I wish we could have gotten a completed five minutes, but I suppose it's interesting to get a look at the different stages the animation goes through before it's totally finished.

First clip from Splice

Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody play a husband and wife research team who achieve fame by splicing human DNA with the DNA of different animals to create a new creature. In the process they ignore their society's ethical and legal boundaries. The scientists name their creature "Dren", which is initially a deformed female infant, however, rapidly develops into a beautiful but deadly winged human-chimera. [Wiki]

According to /Film Splice may be re-titled Hybrid and may not get a theatrical release at all, which is disappointing because I love sci-fi and Adrien Brody. Guess we'll have to look out for the DVD. Movie clip and cast interviews below:



Via ONTD!:

Second trailer for Shutter Island

Paramout unveiled the new Shutter Island trailer today over at Apple. I wish they hadn't moved the release date to February because it looks really amazing.

Trailer via FirstShowing:

Kristen Stewart, Floria Sigismondi, and Joan Jett on the set of The Runaways

In this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly (via MTV), reporters were on the set of 36 movies and TV shows, including the set of Floria Sigismondi's The Runaways. Kristen Stewart is pictured with director Floria Sigismondi above in a photo from the EW issue.

Joan Jett is reportedly always on the set scaring the heck out of Stewart:

...watching Kristen and her fellow "New Moon" costar Dakota Fanning channel her and her '70s girl group was an unusual experience for the music legend. "It's really hard to put exact words on it beyond saying it’s surreal,” Joan explained.

To help Kristen with her portrayal, Joan gave her tapes of herself talking and singing at the age of 14, which Kristen spent weeks listening to.

“I’m sure it was a strange pressure [on Kristen],” Joan said of her constant presence on set. “She was kind of intimidated by it, but by the same token she wanted me there.”

There are also some kick ass photos of Kristen Stewart from Interview magazine. Some are posted below, but you can check out the rest courtesy of ONTD!

Emily Blunt talks The Adjustment Bureau and The Young Victoria

The Adjustment Bureau which co-stars Matt Damon is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's science fiction short story, Adjustment Team. The film is written and directed by George Nolfi who also wrote The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean's Twelve. Damon plays David Norris, a congressman who falls fo a ballet dancer named Elise Sellas (Blunt). Their affair is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart. Emily Blunt talked to MTV during a break from shooting in New York City:

"It's like a modern love story, but it's got an ominous sci-fi backdrop to it...It's going to be exciting and disconcerting and strange, which is what I like about [Dick's] work. It's very cool and clever. It's got a really tight script."

"The term soulmates is used so casually, but in this case, in this film, it is true," Blunt explained. "They are sort of destined to be together and they fight fate to be together."

"Matt's thrilled because this time it's me who's been thrust into the month of training, because I play a dancer in it, which is kind of arduous training seeing as I've never bloody danced before. And Matt is actually thrilled that for the first time it's me who has to do that kind of thing and he's got off scot free."

"I really would love to do a movie where I kick ass!" she laughed. "I'm not doing any wire work or anything [in 'Adjustment Bureau'], so I'm bitterly disappointed!"

Blunt also discussed her role as Queen Victoria. She pointed out what we've known for years. All British actresses have to do a period piece:

"You have to don the bonnet at some point, otherwise you're simply not a British actress," she declared to MTV News.

Across the pond, Victoria as a historical figure is known as something of a downer. After all, she spent a decade in self-imposed exile, mourning the death of her hubby Albert. "That was my impression of her – that she was repressed and in mourning and never smiled and waddled around with that dour-faced expression and a hanky on her head," laughed Blunt.

"I loved that no one had seen that side to her – that young, passionate, fiery side," Blunt explained. "I was very surprised by the love story, which really did happen. When I read her diaries, I realized this wasn't just Hollywood sensationalizing this woman's life. It really was a meeting of souls when she met Albert."

...the actress approached Victoria as a woman first and a monarch second. She hopes viewers will do the same. "There are not that many people who know what's it like to be a queen, but I think everyone knows about falling in love for the first time," she said. "Everyone knows about a dysfunctional family. It's a really intimate portrait of her private life and what's it like for a girl who has a job and she feels in way over her head."

The Young Victoria focuses on Victoria's years as a princess, her romance with Albert, and her struggle with royal life after becoming queen at 18. The film though, is more love story than royal thriller. It breezes along from Victoria's pampered beginning to a happily-ever-after ending.

It's a fluffy costume drama, but some of the performances are quite good, including the one from Rupert Friend, whose Prince Albert is the real star of the whole show. Blunt carries the film quite well with a lot of grace and innocence. It difficult to make an audience feel sorry for a princess who has everything, but Blunt pulls it off. It's in her eyes, I think. Mark Strong, who plays the villain, is great as well, but he hovers in the background for too long to be a real threat to anybody.

I suppose it makes more historical sense for the film to be lighter fare - by the time Victoria became queen, monarchs had almost no political power. When the film treads into dark territory, most of that scene is pure fantasy that never took place.

The Young Victoria opens in limited release in the US on December 18 and goes wide a week later.