The International is a forthcoming thriller helmed by German director Tom Tykwer (Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer) and written by newcomer Eric Singer. It stars Clive Owen (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Naomi Watts (Funny Games) and Ulrich Thomsen (Hitman).
The movie has a righteous Interpol agent going against a big banking corporation involved in arms dealing. It will premiere in Germany and the US early February 2009.
While I wasn’t blown away by it, and despite the fact it inexplicably uses footage from Ghost Rider, this is a pretty decent trailer. Also, Tom Tykwer is a very interesting director and frankly, Clive Owen is reason enough to watch. Finally, is it just me or are parts of this trailer extremely similar to Quantum Of Solace‘s?
The UK trailer for the new romantic comedy Bride Wars, starring Anne Hathaway (Get Smart) and Kate Hudson (My Best Friend’s Girl), has just been released and while I like the two actresses I must say it really doesn’t look that good. Still, it’s probably just the trailer that’s very badly put together and judging from the pedigree involved, the film should be quite entertaining.
Bride Wars tells the story of two best friends who become bitter rivals when they accidentally schedule their respective weddings the same day. The film co-stars Candice Bergen (ABC’s Boston Legal), Bryan Greenberg (ABC’s October Road) and Chris Pratt (Wanted). It is directed by Gary Winick (Charlotte’s Web) and was written by Greg DePaul (Saving Silverman), and relative newcomers June Raphael & Casey Wilson. Bride Wars will premiere in the US on January 9th, 2009. Will you go watch it?
A man truly responsible for his own success, the underrated and multitalented Sylvester Stallone exploded onto the scene in 1976 with the multi Oscar-winning Rocky (people tend to forget that) and quickly became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. As the eighties drew to a close however, his star was seriously dampened by a couple of failed comedic attempts and his career was in jeopardy. Luckily for him, his 1993 “action comeback” Cliffhanger was a huge success, almost quadrupling its budget worldwide. Mere months later, Demolition Man was released.
In the then future year of 1996, Los Angeles is being terrorized by sadistic criminal Simon Phoenix, but when tough violent cop John Spartan finally apprehends him they are both sentenced to many years of being cryonically frozen as Spartan is believed to be guily of involuntary manslaughter. When Phoenix somehow escapes in 2032, the seemingly utopian society of the time aren’t capable of dealing with him and decide to unfreeze Spartan.
Demolition Man marks the directing debut for Canadian filmmaker Marco Brambilla (Dinotopia) and was written by Peter M. Lenkov (13 episodes of CSI: NY), Robert Reneau (Action Jackson) and Daniel Waters (Sex And Death 101). In addition to Stallone, the film stars Wesley Snipes (The Art Of War I & II), Sandra Bullock (Premonition), Benjamin Bratt (The Andromeda Strain), Nigel Hawthorne (The Winslow Boy), former wrestler Jesse Ventura (Batman & Robin) as well as Rob Schneider (You Don’t Mess With The Zohan) and Jack Black (Tropic Thunder) in early roles. The film takes its title from The Police’s eponymous song which is featured during the end credits. Trailer and review after the jump Continue reading →
For some reason, the prolific Nicolas Cage (Bangkok Dangerous) is reteaming with his Gone In 60 Seconds director Dominic Sena (Swordfish) for the supernatural medieval thriller Season Of The Witch.
Cage plays a 14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague. His compatriots help him bring the girl to an abbey of monks trained in exorcising demons.
Okaaay…Contrarily to a lot of people I think Nic Cage is a great actor, but this sounds seriously laughably bad. A cult classic in the making for sure, Season Of The Witch will start lensing this November in Austria and Hungary.
The only question is, will the trailer play to Donovan’s classic eponymous song?
A true example of cross-culture cinema, The Abandoned is an English-language Spanish film set in Russia, starring British actress Anastasia Hille (The Hole) and Czech actor Karel Roden (RocknRolla) in the lead roles. It marks the feature debut for director Nacho Cerdà, who co-wrote the film with the Canadian Karim Hussain (Subconscious Cruelty) and the South African Richard Stanley (The Island Of Dr. Moreau).
The movie follows Marie, an American film producer who arrives in Russia to learn more about her roots. There, a notary insists that she should go visit her old, decrepit family house in the middle of nowhere which she naturally does. Once there, she starts seeing strange things and eventually encouters Nikolai, her twin brother whe didn’t know about. Slowly, it becomes apparent that they’ll never manage to leave the island on which the evidently haunted house is built. Trailer and review after jump. Continue reading →
Apparently, American movie producers made a bet they could remake every single horror film from the 70s and 80s in the next ten years, as a remake of the 1983 not-so-classic The House On Sorority Row will start shotting next month in Pittsburgh.
Retitled simply Sorority Row, the film will star Rumer Willis (The House Bunny), daughter of Bruce Willis (the Die Hard films) and Demi Moore (Mr. Brooks), Jamie Chung (ABC Family’s Samurai Girl), Briana Evigan (Step Up 2 The Streets), Audrina Patridge (MTV’s The Hills) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia in Star Wars).
In the original film, seven sorority sisters accidentally kill their house mother while playing a prank on her, but decide to hide the body in the pool because they want to have a graduation party before dealing with it. Naturally someone at the party starts killing the girls one by one.
Adapted by screenwriting duo Pete Goldfinger & Josh Stolberg (2 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender), Sorority Row will change the initial accidental death to one of the sorority sisters rather than the house mother. The film is expected to be rated R in the US and will be directed by Stewart Handler (Whisper).
From the looks of the first film’s trailer (above), and its reputation, this remake doesn’t have much to live up to and could easily surpass the original. But then again, so could Prom Night and we all know how that turned out.
Fun Fact: The first film’s writer/director, Mark Rosman, went to direct 11 episodes of Lizzie McGuire and several Hilary Duff movies…WTF?
Relatively recent company Overture Films will produce a sanitized remake of the 1997 Israeli hit The 92 Minutes Of Mr. Baum (original title Mar Baum aka מר באום). Like the original film, the remake will have a man going to the doctor’s to check out some test results, only to learn he has an aggessive form of cancer and will die in approximately 90/92 minutes. The story then deals with the hero’s last actions on Earth.
Titled 92 Minutes, the new film is being written by Daniel Taplitz (Chaos Theory). You can check out an early scene of the Israeli film above. It’s of rather poor picture quality, but it’s the only subtitled video I found. If you speak Hebrew however, you can check out the same scene in much better quality here.
Back in 1973, then 43 year old actor Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) was best known for tough guy roles in such films as Dirty Harry and Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. He had branched out in directing two years previously with the thriller Play Misty For Me, which he followed with the western High Plains Drifter. Immediately afterwards, he made his first movie in which he didn’t star, a little romantic drama that Eastwood claims to this day is his favorite directed film, the forgotten classic Breezy.
Breezy is a pretty teenage hippy girl, who is very talkative and has a big heart. One day, while looking for a ride, she stumbles upon Frank, a dry, middle-aged real estate agent, and basically forces herself into his life. Slowly, through several subsequent encounters, an unconventional yet beautiful love story is formed.
Breezy reunited Eastwood with his Play Misty For Me screenwriter Jo Heims, and stars the late great William Holden (The Bridge On The River Kwai) and relative newcomer Kay Lenz (House). Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd in Star Trek: The Original Series) and Marj Dusay (MacArthur) play supporting roles while Clint himself appears in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. Review and excerpt after the jump. Continue reading →
Did you like the trailer for Blame Society’s new comedy series Thor’s Kitchen? If so you’re in luck as the duo has just released the 1st episode of what will hopefully be many. While not their best work, there’s quite a few fun things such as Hercules’ voice, a throwback to old mythology movies. Tell me what you think in the comments.
Since his first novel’s release in 1994, ex-reporter Jean-Christophe Grangé has taken the position of France’s top thriller writer. His novels always feature tortured characters, graphic depictions of violence and an intrigue bordering on the supernatural. His success has naturally been translated several times in film, with The Stone Council (original title Le Concile De Pierre), his third novel and most supernatural-minded work, being his third book adapted for the silver screen after The Crimson Rivers and Empire Of Wolves.
The Stone Council follows Laura Siprien, an interpreter in French and Russian who goes to Mongolia and adopts a little baby boy, Liu-San. Everything’s fine until a few days before the child’s seventh birthday, when strange events start to happen. Laura and her son seem to share the same nightmares night after night, a strange unexplainable mark appears on Liu-San’s chest and Liu-San starts to chant in an old dialect he’s never learned while sleeping. While attempting to learn more about what’s going on, Laura falls victim to countless hallucinations and is followed by a string of brutal murders.
Directed by Guillaume Nicloux (the A Private Affair/Hanging Offense aka That Woman/The Key trilogy), the adaptation was co-penned by Nicloux and Stéphane Cabel (Brotherhood of The Wolf). It stars Monica Bellucci (Shoot ‘Em Up), Catherine Deneuve (Dancer In The Dark), Moritz Bleibtreu (Speed Racer) and Sami Bouajila (The Siege) among others. Subtitled trailer and review after the jump. Continue reading →
The Movie Planet 
