Posted Jan 5th 2009 4:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Distribution, Polls
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Sometimes these movie sites make me laugh: They'll absolutely trash the remake of a classic horror film like
Halloween, but as soon as the sequel gets going, they race to throw up the first bit of casting news, or photos, or release date, as if the first flick never existed. They're excited all over again -- for what ... we have no idea. But anyway, Rob Zombie's
Halloween sequel (currently titled
H2) has firmed up a release date of August 28th, 2009, returning once again to the time of year that was very kind to it the first time around. A little unrealistic considering August is only eight months away? Sure ... but it's a horror sequel, and they can write, shoot and edit those things in like a month, tops.
Along with the release date, Zombie threw up an image of the new Michael Myers mask in its early sculpting stages on his
MySpace page (check it out by clicking the image below). It should be fascinating to watch this sequel grow, since a) the first one made a whole lot of money, but b) it wasn't successful with fans at all. Could the late summer release actually hurt the film this time around? Would it do better during Halloween season -- perhaps convincing those fans on the fence to see it because it's October and they want more horror? We're sending out a feeler to see how many of you are actually looking forward to this sequel, so sound off below ...
Posted Jan 5th 2009 12:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Universal, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Distribution, 20th Century Fox, The Weinstein Co., Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Lists
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2009 has begun on a rather tense note for geekdom as
Watchmen became further embroiled in legal soup. As Fox pushes for a delay, we must contemplate a rather thin year of geeky offerings .... which just shows how spoiled we've become.
Watchmen and
Wolverine alone would have made our year before the wonder that was 2008, when we had Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner,
and the Punisher. But hey, this is going to be the Year of Announcements -- we're going to find out who Captain America and Thor are, who or what Iron Man must face in his sequel, and hey, we might even find out whether Edward Norton will reprise his role as the Hulk. We're going to have fun, no matter what happens with
Watchmen.
January Nothing. Watch
The Dark Knight ten more times, I guess (especially when it
returns to conventional and IMAX theaters on January 23). Or read a graphic novel; you must have gotten some for Christmas? Anyway, take a breather. You're still recovering from 2008.
February Neil Gaiman's
Coraline, and a limited release of the long-delayed
Fanboys both come out on February 6th. Gaiman for the win, no question.
March Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen. It will come out on the 6th. It will. We must not doubt.
AprilDragonball Evolution hits theaters on the 8th. The excitement is palatable.
MayThis is the month of geekdom, kicking off with the film my year centers around,
X-Men Origins: Wolverine on May 1. If this isn't good, the Geek Beat will burn with the fury of a thousand suns the following Tuesday. May that be your warning, Fox.
A little independent film you might have heard of also comes out this month:
Star Trek hits theaters on May 8th.
Continue reading Discuss: The Geek Movies of 2009
Posted Jan 1st 2009 1:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Action, Drama, Cannes, Fandom, Distribution, The Weinstein Co., Newsstand, Quentin Tarantino, War
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So it seems The Weinstein Co. has opted to release Quentin Tarantino's
Inglourious Basterds on August 21, 2009, which seems to be a strange date for not only a Tarantino flick, but also one starring
Brad Pitt that's set during World War II. Late August is usually dumping ground for iffy action flicks and C-grade comedies. This past August 22 saw the release of
Death Race, The House Bunny and
The Longshots, to give you an example of the type of films we expect to arrive on that weekend.
Tarantino has already stated that he wants to screen
Basterds at the Cannes Film Festival in May, so we assume some sort of cut will be finished by then. One imagines the buzz from that first screening will dictate the film's final release date. Personally, I can't see it staying in late August. Remember a similar move was attempted with the WWII flick
Valkyrie, which was originally a June release before being pushed back to Christmas. If
Basterds receives any type of awards buzz out of Cannes, the Weinstein Co. will package it right up, toss it into the Toronto Film Festival or The New York Film Festival and release it in the fall.
All I know is that both The Weinstein Co. and Tarantino should think real hard about when they want to release this film, especially after the botched release of
Grindhouse on Easter weekend. It should be interesting to see where this sucker eventually ends up. When do you think a film like
Inglourious Basterds should hit theaters?
Posted Dec 30th 2008 12:02PM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Distribution, 20th Century Fox
If Warner Bros. is to be believed, the studio is going to fight to the death to keep from making a payout to Fox. Their lawyers are
running around swearing that a settlement is "unlikely," that they will prevail on appeal or at trial, that tonight they dine in hell, etc.
Don't believe it. Warner Bros. will pay up. Events over the next couple of weeks may determine how much they'll have to pay. But I would be astonished if
Watchmen misses its date with the multiplex.
No one wants to go to trial in the best of circumstances. Something like 95% of all court cases settle. When it comes to big, multi-million dollar brawls between huge corporations, that number jumps even higher. Trial is expensive. Warner Bros.' legal fees would be astronomical. Trial is uncertain. Juries are unpredictable. You could be clearly right and still lose.
Furthermore these are not the best of circumstances for Warner Bros. I'll skip over most of the legal-speak involved here, but the crucial fact is that the judge has
already decided the biggest issue in the case: whether Fox owns a distribution right in
Watchmen. It's a done deal. The jury's not getting another crack at it. What's left to decide is stuff like damages and whether Warner Bros. should be enjoined from releasing the film. So even the best case scenario for Warner Bros. at trial isn't that great. To take a risk like that would be... Well, I repeat that I'd be astonished.
Continue reading Why We'll See 'Watchmen' on March 6th
Posted Dec 21st 2008 5:32PM by William Goss
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Horror, Independent, Romance, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Paramount, Sony, Sony Classics, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Fandom, Distribution, Exhibition, The Weinstein Co., Comic/Superhero/Geek
Coming up on the new year, it's interesting to see which films we had thought would've been released by this point. In the summer of 2007, I recall myself and several colleagues showing up for a press screening of Jonathan Levine's lauded slasher,
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, only to discover it was canceled just that morning and the film had been sold from the Weinstein Company to Senator that afternoon. (The film has since landed at Sony, whose indie arm, Sony Classics, already saw Levine's follow-up,
The Wackness, to a proper theatrical reception.)
At least the Weinsteins gave something up for a change. The oft-shuffled
Killshot and
Fanboys are tentative January and February releases at the moment, respectively, and I just want to see for myself if
The Poughkeepsie Tapes has been worthy of its modest reputation following a BNAT '07 screening -- the same BNAT that featured the reportedly sweet
Trick 'r Treat that WB continues to hoard.
A perhaps more morbid curiosity has me keeping an eye on Paramount's
Case 39, just to see if it's really that bad, and who knows what similar straits
Assassination of a High School President,
The Accidental Husband (originally last March), and
Possession (originally last February) are in following Yari Film Group's bankruptcy -- not that I have much invested in the last two, but
Assassination is a perfectly release-worthy noir take-off that deserves a home.
So what do you guys and girls think? Which of these are you most dying to see? What was the longest you ever waited to catch something, and were you ultimately disappointed or satisfied by the time it came your way?
Posted Dec 11th 2008 7:42PM by William Goss
Filed under: Comedy, Mystery & Suspense, RumorMonger, Distribution, Fantastic Fest, Toronto International Film Festival
This had been hush-hush for a mild while now, but it looks like Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom has been bumped back yet again to next May. Back in September, I had mentioned that the crime caper had moved from October to a NY/LA qualifying run next week and a wide release in January. The difference between that post and this one is that I was fortunate to see the film at Fantastic Fest a couple of months back, and it was good enough to make me equally anxious to just see the film again.
Writer-director Johnson confirmed the rumor on his message board, then joking that his own December birthday had been pushed back by Summit to May, when there are less of them to contend with. All kidding aside, Bloom is now scheduled to bow in limited release on May 15th -- opposite DaVinci Code sequel Angels & Demons and Borat follow-up Bruno -- and then wide on May 29th, up against Sam Raimi's return to horror Drag Me To Hell and Pixar's anticipated-by-default Up.
It's tough competition, to be sure, but believe me (and Eugene, and James) when we say that The Brothers Bloom will be well worth the wait.
Posted Dec 10th 2008 6:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Horror, Distribution, Home Entertainment
So a few years back I reviewed a horror flick for
DVD Talk called
The Plague. Not great, not awful, but kind of a choppy time-waster that starts out with a cool premise before devolving into some sort of forgettable zombie affair. A few months later I got an email from
The Plague director Hal Masonberg, thanking me for the review, but also intent on setting the record straight: That a film he directed, co-wrote, and had big plans for ... was basically yanked out of his hands by Sony (Screen Gems Division), re-cut (badly), and dumped onto the video market with Clive Barker's name in front of the title. (Barker's production company made the film, but it is not based on anything he has ever written, so it seems really obnoxious to call it
Clive Barker's The Plague. Of course I mean no disrespect to Clive Barker, who is a true lord among horror writers, but I'm just a little confused.)
I'm certainly not the first horror geek to cover this tale, but I figure it's worth mentioning again -- simply because I like people who try to make good horror films, and I say Hal Masonberg got screwed bad. Now the guy is risking some burnt bridges because he simply
WILL NOT STOP trying to get his "Writer's & Director's Cut" released by Sony. The man is in a tough spot because it's really hard to support a Special Edition DVD when the first DVD went mostly unnoticed -- but Sony seems to think Hal has the better part of a million bucks, because that's what they're asking in return for the rights to the property.
Continue reading Fan Rant: How Sony Sank 'The Plague'
Posted Dec 10th 2008 9:45AM by William Goss
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Horror, Romance, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Universal, RumorMonger, Distribution, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels
I was originally going to start out this post by going off on those studios that
habitually change dates on their releases and wait until the last minute to do so. Instead, I'll try to remain positive and emphasize one particular studio that has given us a head's up on the shuffling of their 2009 slate: Universal.
Of utmost priority is director Joe Johnston and star Benicio del Toro's take on
The Wolfman, which has been bumped back from this spring to next November (
not unlike The Box). Usually, such shuffling might seem like a bad thing, but about six more months to polish what I'm guessing are so very many special effects sounds like a fair enough compromise (which isn't to suggest that Oscar-winning make-up wizard
Rick Baker didn't do a fine job the first time around). Also moving back is Ridley Scott's
Nottingham, now pushed to a TBD date in 2010.
Continue reading Universal Release Date Shuffle: 'Wolfman' Back, 'Furious' Up
Posted Dec 5th 2008 8:15AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Warner Brothers, Fandom, Distribution, Exhibition, Comic/Superhero/Geek
I was compiling my tentative best-of-the-year list yesterday (there are three or four contenders I have yet to see, but a
Cinematical deadline forced me to jump the gun), and surprised myself somewhat by how high I wound up placing
The Dark Knight. I loved the movie back in the summer, but my tendency with these films is to geek out initially, then come to my senses after a few weeks. But
The Dark Knight stayed with me after two theatrical viewings, and the Oscar campaign Warner Bros. is ramping up suddenly seems like serious business.
If anyone is still on the fence about the film -- or if, God forbid, anyone hasn't seen it -- you'll get another chance to check it out in theaters on January 23rd, according to a press release making the rounds yesterday. There was some speculation
just this week that the planned January rerelease wouldn't include another IMAX appearance by
The Dark Knight, but this isn't so. The nationwide rerelease will include both IMAX and regular theaters. This is good news for me, since I never got around to seeing the film in IMAX. Initially, I was afraid that Christopher Nolan's fondness for quick edits and choppy cinematography would make
The Dark Knight a blur on the huge screen, but everyone says it's glorious, so I'll give it a shot.
Part of the motivation here is surely to have
The Dark Knight surpass $1 billion in worldwide grosses, which it is less than $4 million from doing. It would only be the fourth film in history to do so. It is currently sitting $70 million behind
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, so it is likely to remain in fourth place for the time being.
Meanwhile,
The Dark Knight hits DVD on December 9th. Will you go back to the theater in January?
Posted Nov 24th 2008 7:32PM by William Goss
Filed under: Horror, Independent, Music & Musicals, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Lionsgate Films, Fandom, Distribution, Exhibition, Fantastic Fest
Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to
Darren Lynn Bousman as he talked about the challenges he was facing in getting Lionsgate to properly release his
Repo! The Genetic Opera. The studio had taken down rave after rave after a select screening several months before, and now the next night's Fantastic Fest screenings were as good a chance as any to prove the film's worth.
Well, I saw the film the following night amidst an impressive turn-out of die-hard fans, so while I may have already made
my own thoughts clear, I cannot deny its growing (and all but inevitable) cult following, and it seems that neither can Lionsgate. Following a limited release and successful road tour,
Bloody Disgusting reports that each will be expanded in the weeks to come to include the likes of Phoenix, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston.
As for everyone else, you can either keep your fingers crossed for a third tour (though Bousman and co-creator Terrance Zdunich may want to see their families for the holidays, who knows) or just wait for the DVD, which will apparently still hits stores in January.
Posted Nov 18th 2008 11:03AM by William Goss
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Awards, Distribution, Fan Rant
There's a reason that us critics tend to hold certain films in excessive regard -- because after seeing hundreds and hundreds of them every year, to champion one or two or a dozen across those fifty-two weeks is a chance to bring attention to something that deserves it, something distinctly non-mediocre and perhaps unconventional.
Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father falls into that category. Erik praised it effusively from its
Slamdance premiere and
beyond; soon joining his ranks would be
Monika; and it currently lingers second to only one on my own tentative top ten list for 2008. We get it. According to
Rotten Tomatoes, 33 out of 34 critics get it. In fact, it seems like the only ones who don't get it just happen to make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Continue reading Fan Rant: What's Up, Doc Committee?
Posted Nov 17th 2008 4:45PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: New Releases, Distribution, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie
The Internets are saving independent film again! Often the biggest dilemma for small-time filmmakers is that distributing their movies, whether in theaters or on DVD, costs too much money. So we're seeing more and more films skip theaters, skip DVD, and go straight to the Internet, where movie downloads are becoming increasingly common.
The latest development is that a company called Cinetic Rights Management is releasing its catalog of indie films through Amazon's
Video on Demand service and its CreateSpace DVD on Demand system. The arrangement will allow customers to rent or buy digital copies of films that aren't available anywhere else, many of which are just as worthy of being seen as the ones that were lucky enough to get theatrical distribution. (And that often really is the only difference between a movie that makes it to theaters and one that doesn't: luck.)
The new arrangement launches today with the featured title
On Broadway (pictured), a gentle comedy about a Boston man who writes and stages a play in the back of his pub. The cast includes Eliza Dushku, Will Arnett, and New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre.
Continue reading More Independent Films Being Released on Amazon
Posted Nov 10th 2008 3:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Deals, MGM, Distribution, Newsstand, Home Entertainment
Who doesn't love watching full length movies, free, from the warmth of your laptop? It sounds lame, but I live for the weekends when I can curl up under my down comforter (I live in a climate akin to Moscow) and watch
Magnum Force at 2am. (
1970s Clint Eastwood and I are still going very strong, thank you.)
Well, thanks to a new deal struck between MGM and YouTube, free movie junkies will have another outlet to get their fix. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube will begin showing full length television shows and films from MGM archives. The partnership kicks off with old
American Gladiator episodes (yawn), but will soon step it up to include such brilliance as
The Magnificent Seven. (For some reason,
Bulletproof Monk is cited right alongside it -- which, arguably, is fine for 2am viewing but shouldn't be mentioned anywhere near
The Magnificent Seven.)
The downside? There will be advertisements running right alongside the video. And while ad banners are so rampant as to be easily tuned out, nothing can gunk up a streaming video like those wonderful badly coded advertisements. So while it will be very nice to be able to access
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly at any time of the day or night, it might be too, well, bad and ugly to watch. If you're dying to watch free movies, take it from Scott Weinberg and I -- just invest in a Netflix subscription and stick with the Watch Instantly feature for now. Hopefully, MGM will soon realize its movies deserve a similarly luxurious treatment, and make their film archives available to subscribers.
Posted Nov 5th 2008 9:03AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office, Distribution, James Bond
If you lived in England, you could have seen
Quantum of Solace, like, six times already. Did you know that? How does it make you feel? Is it inappropriate, at this historic juncture, to say that I'm kind of outraged about this? Worse: it will open in fifty-seven (57) new markets this week, while we wait for November 14th.
Casino Royale opened in a few countries a day or two ahead, which was mildly pride-rankling, but this is ridiculous.
My (largely tongue-in-cheek) America-centrism aside,
Quantum of Solace made $39 million last weekend in the U.K., France and Sweden. According to
Variety, that's comfortably a record for a film opening in so few territories. In the U.K. alone,
Quantum topped
Casino Royale's first-weekend take by 35%.
In America (U-S-A! U-S-A!),
Casino Royale opened to $40.8 million around the same time of year in 2006. A UK-type spike domestically would put
Quantum at around $55 million in two weeks, which actually seems about right.
Casino Royale came on the heels of a bunch of Pierce Brosnan installments that many people considered middling (though I should note that the series' grosses nonetheless rose steadily through the Brosnan years). Bond is back now, and everyone knows it.
Quantum of Solace will be the biggest Bond yet.
Posted Nov 1st 2008 10:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Foreign Language, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Family Films, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek
You might remember that at the end of September, word came that
Steven Spielberg was having trouble
financing his Tintin trilogy. Universal Studios had passed on the film, leaving Spielberg and co-director
Peter Jackson without a major backer. According to
Variety, they've found one. Sony and Paramount Studios are in talks to co-finance the franchise, with Sony handling the foreign release, and Paramount overseeing the domestic. DreamWorks will have no association with the film whatsoever.
The news that
Tintin will still go ahead is good for fans -- but as always, there's a catch. Under the deal currently being negotiated, it looks as though there will only be two
Tintin films. Considering that a director was never assigned, or a script written, this may have been decided long before the financing fell through. Perhaps a third film hinges on the success of the first two installments, and its a project Spielberg and Jackson plan to return to. It's going to be a hard sell here in North America, where Tintin is largely unknown, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sony and Paramount are hedging their bets a little.
It's also unclear when this film will ever start shooting. When the deal fell apart with Universal, Spielberg lost the participation of his lead actor,
Thomas Sangster. They're going to need another Tintin -- and fast, as the first film is still expected to make its 2010 release.
This is a passion project for Spielberg and Jackson -- and at this point, it's going to take every ounce of that enthusiasm to ever get a motion-capture
Tintin on the big screen.
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