November 21, 2009

Dear readers,

“Nine” looks incredible, especially the visual aspect of it, because really, what can you find out from a movie trailer but the basic plot and how good a movie looks?

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the man who made this is going to make PotC 4. It’s a pick that’s seemingly out of nowhere, but makes me hopeful (and apprehensive).

Plus, PotC fans are so used to Gore Verbinski, especially on the special features. “Same thing only better please.” We’ll miss him for sure.

Nostalgia to the MAX.

Love,
Katherine

P.S. “Check the gate.”

P.P.S. A comment on imdb points out that it may be difficult for Marshall to have the same enthusiasm and dedication as Verbinski did to the series. I can see their point – the original cast and crew was there from the beginning, back when it was not expected to make much money. It seemed like a family committed to an insane, impossible project.  Now that its turned into a franchise behemoth, it is kind of difficult imagining Rob Marshall having that same blind enthusiasm that Gore Verbinski had.

Have you ever watched a movie and compared it to shuffling a stack of playing cards? Well that’s probably the best way to describe the new movie from director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean).

Nicolas Cage stars as Dave Spritz, a well paid local weather man who is having a lot of personal problems. Spritz has split from his estranged wife (Hope Davis) and their two kids. His life just never seems to make any sense and it always seem to reach a pinnacle when he is hit in the face with some sort of fast food item from an irate pedestrian.

Spritz is trying to also find to reach out to his kids but they seem to be slipping through his fingers. On top of his declining life, Spritz’s father (Michael Caine) is also dying of cancer.

Before he loses his father forever, Spritz wants to show his dad that he can be a good father, have a good life and make him proud. You know kind of what we all want at some point.

What can Spritz do to stop his family from imploding? How can he save his life and find himself in the process? Trust me; Spritz has an idea or two.

On paper, “The Weather Man” looks like a great film. It is teaming with supporting talent, has a powerful upcoming director and it allows Cage to do what he does best. Then why does it feel so odd?

Well there seems to be two entities in this film. One is a story about a lonely depressed man reaching out to save his life. The other is this twisted sexually confusing sub-culture that seems to creep in at the oddest places.

I really enjoyed the first entity and I found that Cage was brilliant even if we have seen him do this kind of persona in about 5 or 6 other films. I also was a great admirer of Cage’s facial expressions in this film.

My favorite scene in the film is towards the end when Cage and his dad sit in the car and listen to Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock”. It’s touching, poignant and everything this film should have been. It’s everything I wanted from this film.

The second entity was alarming, disjointed, annoying and so inappropriate especially when a lot of it’s time was spent in the sub-plots involving the Cage’s children.

Maybe I am not explaining this monster within this movie very well. Let me try, without giving away too much of the subplots.

Imagine a situation where you are sitting in a psychiatrist’s office. The couch is comfy and you are relaxed. You begin telling this professional about some of the problems in your life. He is very interested and you seem to be benefiting from the session. Then out of nowhere an angry, naked midget comes out from behind the doctor’s desk and begins to dance as he screams at the top of his lungs the rudest language you can possibly imagine. Now think how this would affect you as you continue to tell your deepest problems to the doctor. That is the feeling that I felt while I watched “The Weather Man”.

To say that I was disappointed with this film is an understatement. I just wish that Cage would have shot that dancing naked midget with his bow.

2 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

This absolutely blew me away.  If I ever need proof that the last 10 years of Hollywood have been mostly devoid of originality, I no longer have to search any farther.  /Film recently authored a post responding to Wikipedia’s listing of the top 50 highest grossing movies of the past decade.  Of the top 50, only NINE were original titles.  That is, not based on a previous story whether that be a comic book, TV show, play, clothing line, Disney Ride, whatever.  In fact, in the top 20 only one title (#15) emerged without owing allegiance to a previously liscensed property.  That being: Finding Nemo.  It’s absolutely staggering to think that since 1999 eighty percent of the highest grossing films were adaptations of some sort. 

Now, while it is imperitive to keep in mind that this list constitutes highest grossing box offices and not ALL of cinema over the last 10 years, it does still make a very declaritive statement about the state of film as we have come to know it.  The box office numbers drive production and Hollywood’s willingness to greenlight projects.  And if you were a number’s analyst, wouldn’t you lean more heavily towards projects you knew were going to profit for the studio?  With adaptations and revamps becoming a monetary must for studios, it seems fair to assume that we have a long way to go through the storm of upcoming adaptations.  In case you hadn’t heard the apocalypse-inducing news, Hollywood just recently went on a greenlighting frenzy to board game and toy properties, each of which makes the one before it look less and less absurd.  The laundry list goes as such:

_Candyland
_Battleship
_Risk
_Ouija
_Monopoly
_Clue

And those are just the movies about BOARD GAME adaptations. When you take into account the multitude of ALL upcoming adaptations, the figures are staggering. What’s even more interesting is the cast and crew that are attached to these projects. Ridley Scott is directing Monopoly. Etan Cohen (writer of both Idiocracy and Tropic Thunder) is writing Candyland. And when I last checked, Gore Verbinski was attached to Clue! It sounds insane but these big budget, fully backed films are even getting certified production teams. So while the most prudent reaction would be to sit back and give each production its due and allow these upgrades to try to speak for themselves and deliver a compelling revamped storyline to a priceless piece of Americana, I can’t help but worry that this is going to plunge us into a period of unoriginality the likes of which Hollywood has never seen. The question I’m most concerned with is, do we really want our generation of cinema-storians to be remembered as the era of the remake and revamp?

Back in the mythological times of Ancient Greece, many ancient warriors wanted to claim the head of the snake-haired Gorgon sister, Medusa. Medusa was so hard to attack because one look into her eyes would spell your demise.

In “The Ring” a new film from Dreamworks, a mysterious videotape is watched by a pair of teenage girls. The tape drives one girl to end up in a mental institution and the other to mysteriously die. The tape eventually makes it into the hands of Rachel Keller, a single mother (Naomi Watts of “Mulholland Drive“) and her young son, Aidan.

Rachel is a reporter and begins an investigation to what happened to the two girls (one of the girls happens to be Rachel’s niece). Rachel finds herself slipping down a very slippery slope as she soon discovers that others who had seen the tape had only lived for 7 days after seeing the tape. The tape turns out to be the summit of a giant mystery that will bring Rachel and the people she cares about to the brink of death. What kind of power is housed within the tape? What are the secrets surrounding the tape?

“The Ring” is a nail-biter from the opening frame. It is a roller coaster for the mind that doesn’t let go till every pinpointed detail is revealed. I loved the feeling of this movie as it plays with your mind as the cleverly conceived plot unfolds. The film isn’t afraid to slowly release detail after detail very slowly and methodically. A lot of films these days tend to bash us over the head with a shock-ending or gross-fest but this film is too clever for either movie invention.

I loved that the film was multi-layered in that if you guessed a section of the secret you wouldn’t be disappointed when it came to the final frame. There are just so many twists and turns.

The film is a remake of a 1998 Japanese horror film called “Ringu” which I have never seen and I am sure that this version will the first time Western audiences are exposed to this story. If anything it may help Western audiences to look more closely at Japanese horror. Or at least open our eyes to the possibility.

Director Gore Verbinski (“Mouse Hunt” and “The Mexican“) wasn’t afraid to get dark and spooky with this project. Verbinski’s cinematographer Bojan Bazelli photographs the film very gritty but invokes the camera to do some very interesting angles. Bazelli’s dark gritty gift of camera photography was also witnessed in some of his other works like 1993’s “Kalifornia” and “Boxing Helena” as well as 1992’s “Body Snatchers“. Bazelli created a very lush look for 1998’s “Dangerous Beauty” but he seems to have gone back to what he does best with “The Ring“.

I really enjoyed Naomi Watts in her breakthrough role in “Mulholland Drive“. Naomi continues her strong screen presence and knack for being able to soar in experimental projects with grace and acting passion. There was darkness in “Mulholland Drive” which could have been overtaken by a weak actress but Naomi stood her ground. She continues the trend by making Rachel Keller a real and strong female character. I will be interested to see what she does next.

My only slight problem with the film was the strength of Rachel Keller’s romantic interest, Noah (played by relative newcomer Martin Henderson (Windtalkers)). I found that we never got a chance to know Noah except through the eyes of Rachel and Aidan. I also found Henderson’s performance a little lacking. I never felt he contributed much to the feelings in the film and that he was just there. I wonder how he was used in the Japanese version of the film.

What make films like this so draining and an unreal experience are the conversations that tend to awaken when you exit the theatre. You want so badly to debate and discuss what you have just witnessed. There hasn’t been a thriller this clever since the “Sixth Sense” and it surely will be looked at as the thriller of the year. This is one of the best films of the year.

4.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

There have been a lot of great horror series in the course of Hollywood history. From Freddy’s razor sharp claws to Michael Myers’s ghostly face to blood-stained hockey mask of Jason Voorhees. Ok, all them aren’t great but the series were still a lot of fun.

When it comes to the Ring series, I may have to classify it in another horror series like “The Amityville Horror” series or dare I say “The Omen” or “The Exorcist”. “The Ring” movies are a new brand of psychological horror and like Amityville and others it probably should have stuck with just the one film.

“The Ring 2” follows Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her young son Aidan (David Dorfman) to a remote New England town where they hope they have finally outrun the supernatural force, Samara (Kelly Stables), who plagued them in the first film.

Rachel is concerned about her son when trickles of Samara seem to be coming back through him. She confides in a co-worker Max Rourke (Simon Baker from TV’s The Guardian) and even has to face off against a psychiatrist (Elizabeth Perkins).

What does the willowy Samara want this time? How can Rachel end the cycle of the Ring for the final time? What is Aidan’s link to Samara?

Like Amityville and other psychological horror series, The Ring’s sequel seems more or less like an after thought then a continuation of the series. The film barely chugs along and has little or no punch. There are no real scares or creepiness about the film, it is just there.

What is even more maddening is the wasted use of Elizabeth Perkins, Sissy Spacek and even Simon Baker. One of the small roles I kind of liked was that of Gary Cole as the surrealistic realtor who seemed to have stepped off the bus from Hunter S. Thompson territory. He was quite a gem.

You do also have to give Naomi Watts credit, she does have the feelings terror, shock, despair, desperation and motherly concern down pact. Her performance is quite good even if it does get a little tedious in some scenes.

David Dorfman’s Aidan is sort of creepy and he does a great job playing off Watts. In a lot of the quieter scenes, and there are lots of them, all I could hear echoing in the silence was one phrase, “I see dead people”.

The core of the film seems to be a metaphor for “postpartum” depression which in a lot of ways really bugged me. I know it’s a film but when it came down to this angle it left me quite hollow inside. If we are supposed to cheer for this struggling heroine why unleash such an unforgivable angle. It seemed like an odd choice on how to carry on the series or even in the development of the Rachel character.

I was hoping for a lot of what the original contained but I think one of its biggest faults was the fact that director Gore Verbinski wasn’t back. The film really needed his panache and craziness.

Another surprising fact is that director Hideo Nakata (director of the first 2 Ringu films) is the man responsible for the success of the Japanese films directed this boring mess maybe he is just utterly bored. I am however looking forward to his next scripted horror film, “Dark Water” that is coming out later this year.

“The Ring 2” is a major disappointment when it comes to building a franchise or scaring the pants off someone.

1.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

Pirati dei Caraibi: Ai confini del mondo è il terzo film della saga nata nel 2003 con Pirati dei Caraibi: La maledizione della prima luna e proseguita nel 2006 con Pirati dei Caraibi: La maledizione del forziere fantasma. Il film è uscito nelle sale in Italia il 23 maggio 2007, mentre nelle sale negli USA il 24 maggio 2007. Come le due pellicole precedenti è stato diretto da Gore Verbinski.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Commedia | Avventura | Fantasy | Gore Verbinski | Johnny Dep | Orlando Bloom | Keira KnightleyGeoffrey Rush

Pirati dei Caraibi: La maledizione del forziere fantasma è un film del 2006, diretto da Gore Verbinski, sequel del fortunato Pirati dei Caraibi: La maledizione della prima luna (2003). L’anteprima de La maledizione del forziere fantasma è avvenuta il 24 giugno 2006 al Disneyland a Orlando in Florida, il giorno successivo è stata riaperta al pubblico la famosa attrazione che ha ispirato la produzione del film.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Commedia | Avventura | Fantasy | Gore Verbinski | Johnny Depp | Orlando Bloom | Keira Knightley |

È una produzione Walt Disney Pictures, che mescola Salgari, tradizioni hollywoodiane ed effetti speciali. Il risultato è una pirotecnica avventura a base di arrembaggi e suspence, arricchita da molta ironia, da una love story ed un accenno di horror fiabesco.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Commedia | Avventura | Fantasy | Gore Verbinski | Johnny Depp | Geoffrey Rush | Orlando BloomKeira Knightley

The task this month is to read or watch something scary, spooky, or suspenseful, and Japanese of course!

Immediately after I had read about this 1st Hello Japan! mini-challenge on October 2nd, I ran to to the video store and rented the dvd of Dark Water, a horror movie directed by Hideo Nakata. It has been on my wish list for a long time — I guess ever since I saw Nakata’s 4 movie cycle of Ringu (or Ring). Now, you need to know I am not really a scary-movie-grrl… I can manage maybe 3 of ‘em a year But I was fascinated by Ringu, especially compared to the not-so-impressive The Ring, an American remake by ‘Pirate of the Caribbean’ Gore Verbinski. I found the Japanese original really chilling. I still shudder when I think back  — without spoiling anything — to a certain scene in a well, or how  ‘the girl’ moved… Even though many years have passed since I saw it!

The American version did absolutely nothing to me. I guess Japanese film language is much more frightening!

But I am getting sidetracked… It wasn’t Ringu I watched for the mini challenge, but Dark Water, or Honogurai mizu no soko kara (I love the sound of those Japanese titles

Dark Water got rehashed in the US as well, by Walter Salles. I thought the main character was played by Jodie Foster, but it appears I’m confusing her with Jennifer Connelly — what on earth made that happen? A while ago I started watching the remake on tv, until I remembered my experiences with The Ring — and decided I should wait until I had seen the Japanese original.

A woman and her young daughter move to an eerie, run-down apartment building pending the decision of guardianship after a divorce. The ceiling of their ‘new’ flat has an active, dark leak. In the upstairs apartment, which appears to be the source of the leakage, used to live another young girl that went missing more than a year before…

I enjoyed watching Dark Water. It find it an entertaining movie, even though I was never terrified during the film, just a little tensed sometimes. The story is more… gross, and above all SAD. Because of that it made me think of a book I like a lot: Strangers, by Taichi Yamada. I didn’t find that ghost story horrifying either — and it moved me to tears. I figure there’s a certain distinction between Japanese ghost movies and horror, in which tragedy plays a main part!

I really love the idea of these Japan related mini missions and plan to do all of them. When do you think our host tanabata will challenge us to go to Japan?? )

Jakiś czas temu pojawiła się zapowiedź nowego filmu o Wilkołaku. Będzie bardzo klasycznym ukąszeniem tematu.

Remake filmu o tym samym tytule z 1941 roku. Anglik, Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), przez dłuższy czas mieszkał w Ameryce, w pewnym momencie powraca do swojego rodzinnego domu w wiktoriańskiej Anglii. Pewnego dnia zostaje ugryziony przez wilkołaka czego konsekwencją jest przemiana Lawrence’a w potwora w każdą pełnie księżyca…
Za wygląd wilkołaka jest odpowiedzialny wielokrotny zdobywca Oscara, Rick Baker.
Film reżyseruje Joe Johnston, a główne rolę grają: Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins oraz Emily Blunt.
Zwiastun prezentuje się klimatycznie!
Premiera Wilkołaka odbędzie się 12 lutego 2010 roku.

źródło: Hatak.pl

A do tego plotki i ploteczki.
Jak donosi Hatak.pl

Chociaż Walt Disney Pictures nie zdecydowała jeszcze ostatecznie o tym czy kolejny film z serii Piraci z Karaibów powstanie, to już pojawia się coraz więcej plotek na temat ewentualnej fabuły. Obecnie najciekawsza z nich to ta, w której rzekomo głównym przeciwnikiem nietypowego pirata zostanie ktoś w stylu kapitana Nemo.
Według niepotwierdzonych informacji czarnym charakterem zostałaby osoba, która wykorzystywałaby zaawansowaną jak na owe czasy technikę, dzięki temu mogłaby zapolować na jednego z największych piratów w historii – kapitana Jacka Sparrowa. Tajemniczy informator twierdzi, iż studio określa tą postać jako “piracką wersje kapitana Nemo”.
Reżyserem czwartej części na pewno nie będzie Gore Verbinski, który w wywiadzie powiedział, iż według niego twórcy wyczerpali już całkowicie temat. Najprawdopodobniej w kolejnej części nie wystąpią również Orlando Bloom i Keira Knightley. Jednak już Johnny Depp nie kryje, iż chętnie ponownie wcieliłby się w postać kapitana Sparrowa.

Szumi się także co nieco o filmie na podstawie gry Bioshock.
Wiadomo już, że Gore Verbinski zrezygnował z funkcji reżysera, pozostaje on producentem. Aktualnie, negocjacje w tej sprawie prowadzi Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 tygodni później, Intacto).
Scenariusz do filmu Bioshock napisał John Logan.

Well today on FilmWipe365 we’re going to do something a little different.  We are going to celebrate the worst that cinema has to offer.  Instead of reeling of bad performances from the archives we will keep it nice and fresh focusing only on the actors who have been awful in the last 10 years.  This list is purely subjective but is backed up by anyone who has watched their horrible films.

Keanu Reeves

Does his name really surprise anyone?  The creepiest man in Hollywood deserves the rating that we have given him.  His performance have been terrible in hundreds of films.   Apart from the original Matrix (he has stolen the character of Neo and played him in every  role since) he has not been good in any film.  The man who makes the word versatility seem like the hardest one in the English language.  It is not hard Keanu.  Happy = Smiley face.  Sad = Unahppy face.  Many directors have seen carefully scripted characters turn into monosyllabic depressives who only wear black and look continually like they are going to kill themselves.    Neo in the Matrix, Donnie Barksdale in The Gift, Bob Arcter in A Scanner Darkly and Alex Wyler The Lake House are examples of how he is the same character in every film.  I had hoped his career would have finished after the Matrix and he would have disappeared without a trace.  However, instead he has reappeared time and again looking more and more depressed.  Think of us Keanu.  We are depressed as well.  Watching you makes sticking rusty nails into my eyes seem like a barrel of laughs.

Sandra Bullock

I won’t say too much about Sandra because she tries, and she is in my guilty pleasure film.  For those two  reasons she deserve to be mentioned but not assassinated.  However, she is another performer who plays the same role time and again.  Apart from Crash, which for all of its excellent reviews I am not a fan of the film or her performance, Bullock plays the same quirky and supposedly adorable female character in every film.  From Miss Congeniality to Two Weeks Notice she is a variation of the same character.  Unfortunately as she ages the character becomes less and less believable as you’re thinking she should be developing now.  Yet she is playing the same role she played 15 years ago.  She is talented but has created the flickchick versions of Van Damme straight to DVD classics.  The only difference being is her’s get released in the cinema.

Kira Kngihtley

She is the worst actor i have ever had the misfortune to watch.  Anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbean 3 will remember her infamous fit on the beach.  It is awful.  It is the worst scene in movie history.  Gore Verbinski (the films director) must have been physically restrained from trying to kill himself when he saw that on his monitor.  After he was drugged and the scene edited into the final version he must have been pained to see her performance in The Duchess which surely led to another suicide attempt.  Hollywood studios must be hoping for world wide Harikari as she is rumoured to be in the forthcoming My Fair Lady remake. This is such a grave prospect cinemas will be providing free medical care as well as 3d glasses for anyone who enters the cinema.  Apart from Joe Wrights Atonement (and I think we can thank Mr Wright for getting blood from a stone when he got a decent performance out of her) she has been awful in everything.  Her career is like a box of rotten apples that went out of date 5 years ago.

Orlando Bloom

This is a tricky one.  He can’t act.  But he is likeable.  His performances make pinocchio seem like he was a real boy all along.  Forgetting Pirates of the Caribbean which he is terrible in.  He has been ok in several films.  But he is just a bit dull.  Elizabethtown is case in point.  He tries so hard to make it work.  But you sit there thinking “This is Orlando Bloom pretending to have feelings and be American”.  I can tell you now he fails in both.  Even though this is true I don’t hate him as an actor.  But he isn’t good.  I think he needs to get his teeth stuck into some stage work to really up his skills.  Appearing in such large franchise films has blunted his talent and has left an actor as useful as a wet leaf.

Ben Barnes

Followers of FilmWipe365 will know Ben Barnes’ crimes to acting well by now.    He is the Daily Sport of actors.  Cheap and shallow.  He has no depth.  Emotions are a concept he looked at briefly and then decided he would be better placed brooding through films.  While this might work when your in your 20s it will not in your 40s.  Youth is on his side.  Instead of developing his meagre talents he took cash and went for it.  Hopefully he will be dropped from all future films and then pushed off Brighton Pier never to be seen again.

By Mike Fleming – Variety.com

Universal has set July 1, 2011, for the release of “Battleship,” confirming Peter Berg as helmer of the live-action pic based on Hasbro’s naval combat board game.

Deal is part of a two-picture pic pact Berg has made with U, where he’ll follow “Battleship” with an Afghan war drama “Lone Survivor.”

Universal’s date declaration positions “Battleship” to become the second film release from the studio’s multiyear deal with Hasbro to turn its classic games into features. The studio previously set an April 11, 2011, release date for “Stretch Armstrong,” with Steve Oedekerk about to deliver a script.

“Battleship” is the latest in Universal’s strong push toward branded entertainment films, and Hasbro has fast become an increasingly important cog in that campaign.

“This is a powerful brand, and in an era where brands have become the new stars, ‘Battleship’ is a big opportunity,” said U Pictures chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde.

Aside from “Battleship” and “Stretch Armstrong,” U is separately developing “Clue” with Gore Verbinski, “Monopoly” with Ridley Scott, “Candyland” with director Kevin Lima, and “Ouija” with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes. As a board game, “Battleship” was launched by Milton Bradley in 1967 and has sold more than 100 million units.

Scott Stuber and his U-based Stuber Pictures will produce “Battleship” alongside Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir, Berg and his Film 44 partner Sarah Aubrey. Script was written by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber (“Whiteout”).

Deal reunites Berg with Stuber, who produced the Berg-helmed “The Kingdom” with Michael Mann. Production on “Battleship” will begin next spring.

For Berg, the picture realizes a passion for ship-bound war stories that he picked up from his naval historian father.

“I’ve been consumed with doing one of these since I tried to convince Tom Rothman at Fox to make a film about John Paul Jones, the founder of the American Navy,” Berg said. “As a kid, I was dragged from Navy museum to museum, and spent so much time on ships, listening to my father talk about the great battles of WWII, I did my high school thesis on the Battle of Midway. When this came up, it didn’t take me long to find a take for a film that is filled with raucous action-packed naval battles.”

Peter Berg

Berg called the pic “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle” — but he would not disclose any details about the enemy force.

The film will be the next directorial assignment for Berg, who last helmed “Hancock.”

Berg made something of a quid pro quo pact with the studio to follow “Battleship” with “Lone Survivor,” a fact-based story he scripted about a Navy SEAL team that is sent to Afghanistan and is ambushed.
“It was pretty obvious to me they weren’t jumping head over heels to make a war film in the Middle East right now,” Berg said. “So they said, ‘what if you give us ‘Battleship’ for July 2011, and we guarantee you’ll follow with ‘Lone Survivor?’ I already loved the take we had on ‘Battleship,’ so that wasn’t a hard deal to make.’ “

Other projects percolating for Berg, including “Dune” and “Hancock 2,” will come later.

UPDATE 08/11/09: Now it appears the film will involve the battleships fighting aliens! More here.

Universal has set 1st July 2011, for the release of Battleship, confirming Peter Berg as director of the live-action pic based on Hasbro’s naval combat board game.

According to Variety the deal is part of a two-picture pic pact Berg has made where he’ll follow Battleship with an Afghan war drama Lone Survivor.

Aside from “Battleship” and “Stretch Armstrong,” Universal is separately developing “Clue” with Gore Verbinski, “Monopoly” with Ridley Scott, “Candyland” with director Kevin Lima, and “Ouija” with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes.

Personally I find the whole adapting a board game into a film a bit strange. Although the original Clue (Cluedo to us Brits) was rather funny. Mind you I would love to see adaptions of board games such as Dark Future, Zombies!!!, Arkham Horror and Descent.

For Berg, the picture realizes a passion for ship-bound war stories that he picked up from his naval historian father.

“I’ve been consumed with doing one of these since I tried to convince Tom Rothman at Fox to make a film about John Paul Jones, the founder of the American Navy,” Berg said. “As a kid, I was dragged from Navy museum to museum, and spent so much time on ships, listening to my father talk about the great battles of WWII, I did my high school thesis on the Battle of Midway. When this came up, it didn’t take me long to find a take for a film that is filled with raucous action-packed naval battles.”

That does sound cool though. Lots of ships blowing the crap out of each other. As long as they get a good cast involved then it could be a great war movie.

Berg called the film “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle” — but he would not disclose any details about the enemy force.

The film will be the next directorial assignment for Berg. Obviously this means that some of Berg’s other projects such as Hancock 2 and a remake of Dune will be pushed even further back.

What do you think of a Battleship film? Any other board games out there that should be made into a film?

Al menos esa es la pregunta que yo me he formulado ahora que hay rumores que apuntan hacia que Disney podría contratar a Rob Zombie (si, el mismo del que hablé hace un par de posts) para dirigir la cuarta parte de Piratas del Caribe, la historia del capitán Jack Sparrow, protagonizada por Johnny Depp.

Según declaraciones de Zombie a MTV news, él tenía hace mucho tiempo una idea de hacer una cinta de piratas muy al estilo de Piratas del Caribe, pero todos los estudios se la rechazaron bajo el argumento de que “las películas de piratas no funcionan”.

Rob Marshall, quien fuera director de Chicago, también está en la lista de posibles directores para sustituir a Gore Verbinski, y como ven, los estilos son bastante variopintos… ¿cómo quedará esta cuarta y posiblemente última entrega de los piratas?

1. Peeking inside the envelope when other players weren’t looking.

2. Lying and saying that he had neither Col. Mustard, nor the knife, when he most definitely had both.

3. Moving Prof. Plum to the Hall when it was neither his figure nor turn.

4. Inventing new room, the Arboretum, and insisting other players “rule it out” before giving final guess.

5. Claiming a secret passageway transported his figure to a Monopoly board, allowing it to reap huge benefits in hotel construction, thus securing a high-priced attorney for defense.

6. Grabbing the board by its edges and hurling it into the air, and then declaring that, because the game did not reach completion, it must be declared a draw.

7. Requiring “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” rather than contents of “diminutive and questionable manilla envelope.”

8. Attempting to kill his opponents with a tiny plastic knife.

Gore Verbinski is out! “28 Weeks Later” director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is in! New director found for the upcoming new, “Bioshock” movie based on the hit video game.

Variety Reports:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007622.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

“Bioshock” is one of my absolute favorite video games ever made. The game is hands down amazing.

I hope this guy makes the live action movie a great one and hope he doesn’t fuck it up. He better make the movie more like the video game.

To those who never saw or heard of the video game before, a couple of gameplay clips below.

Kev

According to Variety, Gore Verbinski has climbed out of the director’s chair of the Bioshock adaptation, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts with his animated feature Rango.

Universal is currently in talks with 28 Weeks Later helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to replace him.  With budget reportedly soaring to $160 million this seems a gutsy move by Universal.  And, since studios aren’t known for gutsy moves, this probably isn’t the end of the story.

Bioshock is an adaptation of  Take-Two Interactive’s critically and finally success videogame of the same name.  The script for the feature film adaptation was penned by academy award nominee John Logan.

Tienen en sus manos un producto de primera clase, ¿Sabrán aprovecharlo?.

Está claro que aunque el mundo del vídeo juego no está en sus mejores momentos, sigue estando por encima del cine y que cuando sale un juego que rompe todos los esquemas de calidad, el mundo del cine se fija en el con el fin de sacar provecho.

En el caso de Bioshock, estamos ante uno de los mejores juegos no del año que salió, si no de la historia, por su argumento, sus gráficos, su optimización, jugabilidad, el perfecto doblaje, todo en el es una obra maestra que todo el mundo al que le guste jugar debería probar.

Bien, el anuncio de que saldrá una película me causa escalofríos y un cierto temor, por que el éxito en películas basadas en juegos es muy escaso y no me gustaría ver un subproducto recortado de la grandeza del juego. Sobre la película, se dice que el director será Carlos Fresnadillo, que para quien no lo conozca, ha sido el director de “28 semanas después…” película que tuvo bastante éxito de crítica y público así que al menos por esa parte puede tener un cierto éxito, también se habló del gran director Guillermo del Toro (no quedó en nada) y antes Gore Verbinski, al que le ajustaron tanto el presupuesto desde Universal Pictures que abandonó el proyecto a pesar de cogerlo con mucha ilusión.

Veremos en que acaba y el resultado final, también que el proyecto no se cancele o se convierta en otro “Bola de Dragón”, que tras la inmensa repercusión que causó durante años, se transformó en uno de los productos mas mediocres y decepcionantes de la historia del cine.

En cuanto a actores, fechas y demás como sería en su mayoría rumores, prefiero ser prudente hasta que se haga oficial, entonces crearé otro artículo con mas datos según vayan saliendo.

by Elisabeth Rappe – Cinematical.com

Earlier this summer, the brakes were put on Universal’s adaptation of Bioshock due to its enormous budget, and a need for tax incentives were said to be pushing the film overseas. The budgetary crisis put Gore Verbinski into

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

a bit of a pickle, and he was unsure he would continue with the film if it moved to London. Now it looks like Verbinski is officially off the project, and Universal has hired Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) to go under the sea instead.

Variety reports that Fresnadillo is still in talks, and that it all becomes official if Bioshock’s maker, Take-Two Interactive, agrees to the decision as they must approve the choice of director. But the decision indicates they are shaving that budget, and they are determined to make the film overseas. Universal is also determined that this won’t turn into another Halo incident.

It has to be a huge disappointment for Verbinski, who dropped Pirates 4 to tackle Bioshock, and really seemed to love the project. A lot of hopes are being pinned on Bioshock, and let’s hope a few of them are fulfilled.