Jumping Jamies

Did you know I love Jamie Bell? Cause I do. A lot. He has a new movie coming out some time in the future (Feb 15 for America) called Jumper. It's a science fiction movie directed by Doug Liman and starring, unfortunately, Hayden Christensen and a hilarious-looking Samuel L Jackson. Christensen and Bell play people who can... jump around through space and time? I dunno. The trailer, which can be viewed right here, isn't particularly clear on that point.

But you know what is clear. Jamie Bell looks scrumptious as a crumpet. Can I have some more?

Everybody now: Awww

Who else things the marketing people at Pixar and Disney are trying to - and I am being 100% serious here - make their new character "Wall-E" the ET of this generation? Just a quick look at the beautiful amazing poster below and I think you can see the connection, but then watch the newly released teaser then you can see they're going to be going for the jugular. And by jugular I mean the tear ducts of each and every cinemagoer. Obviously there is a Short Circuit vibe in there as well, but I think it's ET: The Extra Terrestrial that is the big point of reference. Cute adorable mini creature staring up into the heavens with doe eyes?

And from the makers of Finding Nemo? I think this one is going to be massive come America's summer 2008. The sort of the massive that Ratatouille should've been, ya know?


Who else just loves the way he says "WaaaAAAlleeeE"

"You're Gonna Die!"

I really don't know why I'm following the developments in the release of The Strangers starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman other than it seems to be exactly like French horror thriller Ils, which I had a dubious pleasure of seeing at MIFF.

Below is the "Yellow Band" (fucked if I know what the hell that means. You crazy Americans and your crazy colour-coding) trailer for The Strangers and it certainly makes the film look more action oriented than the more psychologically mind-fucking Ils. I do quite love the trailer actually. It doesn't show so much violence as to possibly turn people off. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best trailers of the year. It's positively fucked up and scary as hell at the same time.

One bit that seemed odd was when the knock at the door is heard and they say "Isn't it four in the morning?" or whatever they say (because knocks on doors are odd at 4am doncha know) yet they have just gotten all dressed up for, seemingly, a nice night out (dinner and a scary movie, perhaps?)

Cassandra's Dream and the Trailer of Doom!

The trailer for Woody Allen's latest Cassandra's Dream finally popped up some time last week. For some reason I was expecting something, well, dreamy. Light. I'd never actually read a plot description so that obviously didn't help (and if I had it was a long time ago and since forgotten by me). It looks good. Tom Wilkinson looks to be having a very chewy year doesn't he? This and Michael Clayton. I think he'll have his date with Oscar come next February.

Happy Birthday to "The Next Big Thing"

Today is the 25th birthday of, depending on who you read, the next big thing to come from these fertile movie star shores - Abbie Cornish. Here she is to the left looking all dreamy in blue light from her breakthrough performance, Cate Shortland's endearingly offkilter Somersault. After also starring with Heath Ledger in last year's drug drama Candy she has the upcoming sequel to Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which is getting mightily big buzz and many are predicting she's Oscar bound. She also has Kimberley Pierce's Stop Loss - finally following up the Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry. It was also the film that started those nasty (and seemingly non-evolved) rumours that she was the reason for the breakup of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's marriage.

Also on Cornish's agenda is Jane Campion's latest Bright Star, which could be amazing and perhaps the chance of being a "Bond Girl" in the 22nd James Bond feature. Busy actress that she is I'm sure she'll have time to blow out some candles and eat a slice of cake. She has four AFI nominations to her name, including wins for Wildside and Somersault and two FCCAA awards for Somersault and Candy. Needless to say, she's one to watch!

Happy Birthday to her! Check out, below, the American trailer for Somersault.

Lucky Clover

I haven't discussed JJ Abram's Cloverfield project yet. I was waiting until I saw an official version of the teaser than played before American cinemas showing Transformers. We got jipped - we got trailers for Licence to Wed and Die Hard 4.0. YAWN. Anyway. I had seen it in an unofficial bootleg (as if there's ever an "official bootlet"?) of the teaser and thought it was amazing. Well, today's my (and some of you guys' as well) lucky day as an official teaser has gone up on Apple.

It's really quite incredible. In the bootleg copy I watched I hadn't even noticed all those wild roars off in the background. Nor did I notice the man saying "It's alive! It's huge!" Man, this is good. I love the idea of doing a monster movie completely in handheld camera format. And I also love that it's an original idea (from the sounds of it).

It does have three big cons against, though. First is JJ Abrams, the film's producer. JJ's three television programs, Felicity, Alias and Lost all showed no clear idea (to me, anyway) that he can't structure something beyong maybe 2 seasons. Until he manages to create a great premise (which he's done, three times) and make it work for year after year after year I will continue to see him as so incredibly overrated. Secondly, it's director is some guy called Matt Reeves. His only film directorial role was for that deplorably Ross Gellar movie The Pallbearer. Yikes. He has worked in TV a lot, but nevertheless. Thirdly, it's being released in January. This screams to me as an August release, but oh well. Surely it's got to be better than other January fare like Hostel or White Noise or those Madea movies or whatever they are. Surely. Right?






Also, check out Ja at My New Plaid Pants. He actually likes Lost (Maybe it's just because the show has died in Australia, but I'm shocked to read that many people still put themselves through that show) and he's already blogged a bit about this movie. It'll surely be another of the movies he blogs about obsessively, no?

Gone, Baby, Gone

So, the trailer is up for Ben Affleck's feature directorial debut Gone Baby Gone. And guess what folks? It looks good! I predicted it for some major Oscar play a few months back including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Ed Harris) noms. Even if it doesn't (which is about as possible as anything at the moment) then I still think Ed Harris could make a major play if they really wanna work (he's never won an Oscar). Casey Affleck looks quite good too in what could be a breakout year for him, what with this, The Assassination of Jesse James and his scene stealing work in Ocean's 13.

Hurrican Elizabeth

I don't know about you, but when Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth says "I too can command the wind, Sir. I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare betray me", I just get chills up my spine. This is why I think Cate will win her second Oscar, and will rank alongside the legendary Paul Newman as only the second actor to ever win an Academy Award for a sequel (right?) - Newman won for The Color of Money after losing for the original The Hustler, if my memory serves me well.

Other than Blanchett's sure-to-be-astonishing performance there looks to be plenty of other things in Elizabeth: The Golden Age such as Geoffrey Rush and amazing cinematography, art direction and make-up - all of which were evident in the original. But The Golden Age also has Clive Owen (I love seeing "Academy Award Nominee" next to his name), Samantha Morton (who doesn't get a credit in the trailer, interestingly enough) and Abbie Cornish (who gets enough screentime to put justification to those Best Supporting Actress ideas).

While I'm not sure if using an Enyesque song for the second half of the trailer was the best movie possible (except at the very end), and I'm sure that Cate's horseback cliff-side speech will remind people of both Braveheart and The Lord of the Rings, this movie looks very amazing indeed and I can't wait. I was a fan of Elizabeth and I am actually a fan of solid adult fare getting sequels - I mean, look at how The Godfather Part II turned out!

My favourite part of the trailer is at the very very end with that shot of Cate wearing that massive white outfit (whatever it is) with the light reflecting through it. Sublime. Watch the trailer below and decide for yourself.

I Like to Torture Myself

This is sort of just to remind me that there is a movie called Death Proof coming out on November 8 (we finally have a release date!) and that it really exists and it isn't just a whole lot of smoke and mirrors and inuendo and lies that the brothers Weinstein are pulling on us. I just need to keep repeating to myself "four months, five days, four months, five days, four months, five days..."

Needless to say, it's only slightly comforting. Especially when we are the last country on the planet* to get it. I dread to think what will be made of Planet Terror.



*Okay, so maybe not officially, but of all the countries with release dates, we are the last one. Uzbekistan doesn't have a release date, so that's something, I guess!

There Will Be Audience Members

If this teaser/trailer/clip-thing for Paul Thomas Anderson's latest There Will Be Blood is anything to go by then it could be either really great (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights) or really boring (Magnolia - I'm going to rewatch it soon, so don't hound me but I fell asleep three times watching that movie). Love that shot of the people running towards the tower which is ablaze. If nothing else, there will be great cinematography and Daniel Day-Lewis (possibly the finest actor of his generation).

Anyway. Watch it.



I rented Punch-Drunk Love recently from the video store but the DVD was cracked when I got it home and they didn't have any other copies, which was kind of a bitch but I dealt with it. I still haven't seen it though.

Blood > Shadows

Ugh! The producers behind the Saw movies are remaking old RKO horror movies including the amazing I Walked With a Zombie. The thought of Jacques Tourneur's scary movie being turned into blood-flowing monster movie is sort of frightening - I still can't bring myself to watch the 1980s remake of one of my all-time truly super-duper favourite movies Cat People, also directed by Tourneur. His movies are all shadows, noises in the distance and suggested horror. What would the Saw people make of that? "No, no, no! More bloody teeth and bloody gushing wounds!"

I also fear that the makers will take the title literally and fill the movie with Dawn of the Dead-remake style action packed zombies. Cause, ya know, there aren't actually any zombies in I Walked With a Zombie. Not the traditional kind anyway - they're zombies via voodoo if I remember correctly.

Below is the original trailer for I Walked With a Zombie. Just 'cause.

Yuma Trailer

JoBlo got the heads up of the trailer at Yahoo for 3:10 to Yuma, the upcoming western starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. This film is sort of in the limbo of anticipation and not-really-caring from me. It does look quite good, even though the trailer shows you practically every plot twist up to the final scene.

The traditional western isn't my favourite genre, in fact it's probably one of my least favourite, but I have admittedly not seen some of the classics of the genre. I like Shane though! And I thought Kevin Costner's recent Open Range was quite spectacular (including the best gun battle of the decade thank you very much). I wasn't too keen on this pic during my early Oscar predictions and I still don't really see it doing much although I could easily see a Leonardo DiCaprio situation happening to Russell Crowe who also has this and American Gangster. DiCaprio, as we know, had The Departed and Blood Diamond and was tipped my most to be nominated for Best Actor in The Departed after a complete bungle involving his campaign (is he lead? is he supporting?) and then ended up being nominated for the lesser Blood Diamond.

Anyway. I'll probably see Yuma purely for the cast.

*edit - and the trailer for No Country for Old Men.

The Weinsteins are Equal Opportunists!

Two pieces of news regarding films I've discussed (Rogue) before (Grindhouse), both of which are being distributed by The Weinstein Co. and their devilish minions. Let it be known that the Weinstein brothers are equal opportunists when it comes to fucking around filmgoers. On the matter of Grindhouse came word, after it's disappointing threatical showing in April, that Death Proof and Planet Terror will be seperated around the world, effectively robbing us not only of a special moviegoing experience, but also of the extra $11 it's gonna cost to see the second movie (neither of which have release dates in Australia, thank you very much Harvey).

But, as I said, never one to rest on his laurels, Harvey has decided to fuck over Americans too (courtesy, JoBlo) with the DVD release. The DVD will not be of the movie that was shown in cinemas around the country (that'd be Grindhouse). No. The DVD will be a release of Quentin Tarantino's half Death Proof and that's it. Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror is being shafted and won't be released on DVD until a later date.

Isn't that just crazy? I mean, is it really gonna hurt the Weinstein's that much to release Planet Terror too as a seperate release, even. Absolutely amazing that they have such contempt for moviegoers. If anything, a Grindhouse release should work better on DVD if many many bloggers/industry types/journalists are to be believed that the reason for Grindhouse's low box office was due to it's "excessive" length. Ugh. Anyway.

Second on the Weinstein's flag waving for equal oportunity mission is the release of Rogue. I didn't mention it on here but I told Ja over at My New Plaid Pants and he told of the news that the Weinsteins are waiting to see how well Greg McLean's anticipated Wolf Creek follow-up Rogue does in Australian release to then decide whether it should go wide, limited or straight-to-DVD for America.

Aren't you guys just so lucky?

I know I will be seeing Rogue and I don't see why it should flop here (I'm sure it'll be on the five or so Aussie flicks this year that actually gets an audience), but if it does and America (and everywhere else? Not sure) misses out then feel free to blast away like I did in relation to Grindhouse.

Nevertheless, the extremely long wait is over for new material in regards to Rogue. We've only seen about seven images online over the last two years. Now, over at Fangoria (via JoBlo) comes the trailer for the movie!!!! It's just under a minute long so you may be thinking it not much of a trailer, but they essentially cut out all the traditional "setup" stuff and jump straight into the action horror of a crocodile river feast. So good to see people like Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington there. I can't wait.

Because the trailer doesn't come with an imbed option (and it's not available on YouTube or Daily Motion as far as I can tell) I took some screencaps for y'all. Enjoy the carnage if you can.


How picturesque... Greg McLean should direct a tourism commercial!


Radha Mitchell looks confused


Green murky water = scary


What is that man doing in the river at that time of night. He'll catch a cold!


This is no time for fun and games!


Sam Worthington = Bloody sexy, alright!


That's Stephen Curry. His character has a video camera. The character with the video camera pretty much always dies early. Sorry Stephen. I hear you were good in The King though!


That's gotta hurt!


It's like a horrendous before and after, isn't it?!


The only problem with Jaws? SHARKS AREN'T AMPHIBIOUS! Thus, this is bound to be automatically better.


We already know that person in the yellow Hawaiian shirt (ugh) dies. So long, pal.


So just a little scratch then, really.


Arial Black Bold font is so scary, y'all!

Anyway, I'm pumped. Now all we need is an official poster and for August 30 to roll around.

Scary Trailers

Two movie trailers for you guys to devour, courtesy of the ace Movie Marketing Madness blog.

First we have the trailer for the upcoming Oliver Hirschbiegel's The Invasion starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Word has it that the movie is terrible and the trailer doesn't have a "this is bad" vibe about it, but sci-fi/horror can always turn out to be debacles. It's usually amplified when they bring in other people to redirect endings and rewrite beginnings (which, I believe, happened to this movie. There are a few moments in the trailer I quite like. There's the bit with the people jumping off the building - kind of creepy. You can see the moment when Nicole got into her on-set accident and I also like the very very end. I always like a good doppelganger, don't you?!



Next we have the trailer for the upcoming vampire movie 30 Days of Night. The plot descriptions sounds exactly like the quite awesome Pitch Black (back when nobody had heard of Vin Diesel and he hadn't had the chance to become a star and then to almost disappear entirely up Hollywood's arse) - A place that's constantly light (Alaska in 30 and a planet with multiple suns in Pitch) placed into darkness (Alaska is like that in general, and in Pitch it was due to a total eclipse), which results in monsters coming out from hiding (vampires and flying creatures respectively). It surprises me more movies don't make use of Alaska's sporadic daylight, but it's a fabulous premise for a scary flick. The only worry is Ben Foster who I can't stand at all. And I'm not the biggest Josh Hartnett fan either, but I can live with him. But, ugh. Ben Foster. And he's A-C-T-I-N-G like always. I do like Melissa George though. Anyway, the movie looks kind of awesome enough for me to get past him and to plant down my $11 for a ticket.



One common link between them (other than they're "scary movies") is that they both seem to use a piece of music (not the same one, mind you) that sounds like it belongs on a Snow Patrol album more than on the trailer for a horror movie. Or is that just me?

American Trailer

I figured I'd been discussing music a lot today so I should probably give you guys some movie goodness. Here is the trailer for American Gangster. I have been a bit psyched about this movie for a while. It's directed by Ridley Scott for one and secondly it stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. I am a huge fan of Crowe's acting (even if the man himself is kind of a tool) so I'll be happy to see him on the screen for the first time since Cinderella Man. I wasn't a fan of Denzel Washington in his Oscar-winning Training Day, so I just hope that he doesn't suffocate the movie, but I still hold lots of faith. I prediced it'd do quite handsomely at next year's Academy Awards and, well, there were also those posters which I all but ate using a knife and fork to devour their awesomeness.

I think they're taking a bit of a cue from Scorsese's The Departed, but that's alright. They gotta do what they gotta do. Below are some screencaps for shits and giggles. Could Roger Bart become a player in the Best Supporting Actor category? Can Russell Crowe even attempt to overthrow Denzel in Best Actor - or could they nominate both?! Or is Russell actually Supporting? The trailer doesn't focus on him as much, and considering they tried to pass Leo DiCaprio off as Supporting for The Departed last year I wouldn't put it past them. Ooh, the questions I want answered now! Alas, America has to wait until November. I hope I and everyone else on planet Earth doesn't have to wait much longer.

Bad Evening

(Firstly, sorry about the lack of updates these last few days, but I've been researching a project and have had work and yada blah et cetera. Learn to deal. If Mandy Moore can do it, so you can too!)

I know others have probably mentioned the new film Evening, which has one of the most amazing casts you're likely to see projected onto a big white screen. I can't really remember anyone discussing the trailer (view it below). And if they did, I'm not sure whether they hated it with the burning fire of a thousand suns. Cause I'm fairly sure I do. I really want to see this movie (that cast!) but my god, what a terrible trailer.

With it's constant cutting back and forth between time periods, with it's Thomas Newman score, which just screams "CRY, GODAMMIT!" (and I love Thomas Newman. It is Thomas Newman, right? Sure sounds like him), to it's utterly absurd switching of background music to Dido's "White Flag" (honestly!) and then the weird way the narrator randomly pops up to say "Evening" at the end. Some of the clips they chose to include don't seem to make much sense. It could have been so much simpler and streamlined. It's a mess. I just hope the movie is not.



Oh, and does anyone else wanna throw up a little when Patrick Wilson (who I adore) gives that whole "that's our star" routine. Blegh. Anyway. Carry on.

Helen Mirren doesn't look so pale anymore

She got out of that crusty old HRM Queen Elizabeth II makeup and instead now sort of looks like Angelina Jolie in heavy makeup. Oh, wait, I was just getting confused by the abundant similarities between the trailers for last year's The Queen and the upcoming A Mighty Heart. My mistake.

Okay, so the similaties aren't huge, but the starts of them are! The paparazzi! The captions (they both "shocked the world", don'cha know)! It made me laugh briefly. Check out The Queen trailer here and the A Mighty Heart trailer here.

Nothings gonna change my world...

...except maybe a brand new Julie Taymor movie. Fact: I loved Titus. I thought it was utterly screwed in the head and bonkers to the nth degree, but that's why I fell for it. Frida was more traditional with only brief scrurries of madness (that trolley car sequence? holy crap! if the whole movie had only been that magically insane...) but I still liked it.

And now comes Taymor's third feature film (she's also a Tony winning director and costume designer for The Lion King and IMDb tells me she's also won an Emmy. Fancy that.) Across the Universe. As it's name suggests, it riffs on The Beatles and how! Check out the trailer. I think I have a very strong candidate for "most anticipated". Just... holyjesus! I was a bit worried at work because I had heard it was actually a "musical" using the Beatles' songs, not just having them as a soundtrack, but then things started to kick into gear and... yeah, wow. Some of those images are just frighteningly awesome. I can't wait to see them on the big screen. Of course, it could easily be a disaster of epic proportions, but it would still be interesting.

Because I am such a generous fellow I am going to post a whole bunch of stills from the trailer, which you just have to click to see larger versions of (if you can't view the trailer then you still have all these to ogle). Taymor seems like she's definitely taking the ability to show everything through an acid-trip filter. Looks amazing.

























So alongside this we have the Hairspray! and Sweeney Todd adaptations and hopefully (PLEASE!!) Romance & Cigarettes, plus I'm sure there'll be a couple of smaller ones that I'm forgetting right now. The movie musical genre could be really good this year or really not. I hope it's the former.