Busy week last week? Too many bills to pay? Not enough time to check out the biggest headlines in entertainment news? (That sounds a little like something they’d say on ET…yuck). Well never fear! MN has a huge catch up of news to satisfy your appetite.
One the menu today we have:
A couple of trailers, a lot of TV spots, some early footage and a tonne of stories about upcoming projects. So let’s have a look shall we?
Surrogates trailer
Touchstone have released the first trailer for Surrogates, a movie based on the popular sci-fi comic series. Here’s a quick synopsis:
“Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.”
I haven’t read the comic, so I can’t comment on how faithful this looks. But I am a human who is interested in sci-fi movies, so I can comment that this looks all kinds of awesome. Director Jonathan Mostow also helmed Terminator 3: Rise and then let down of your expectations. This looks like it could redeem him.
Surrogates will hit Aussie screens on the 9th of October.
Sherlock Holmes trailer
Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes released its first trailer this past week. Starring Robert Downey Jr as the titular hero, and Jude Law as a modern looking sexy Watson, it seems to be following in the steps of the Pirates of the Carribean series with a pretty light-hearted adventure take on the character. Ritchie has always had a stylistic approach to his direction, and this looks no different.
Robert Downey Jr will exhibit an impressive British accent on the 26th of December.
9 Trailer
This is the second trailer for 9, an animated feature which is set in a post-apocalyptic world (my favourite kind) and follows the quests of 9 synthetic beings – made out of various household items – as they try to survive and figure out what went wrong. It’s a feature-length directorial debut for Shane Acker, who previously worked at WETA digital, the best place on earth.
No Aussie release date as of yet, but I’m going to speculate we’ll see this late 09.
Transformers TV spots
Michael Bay’s official website has uploaded three new TV spots for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. They’ve got quite a bit of new footage in them. Not much else to say except they’re getting me even more excited for this film!
Funny People TV Spots
More from the land of TV spots, this time we’ve got three clips from Judd Apatow’s Funny People. Although he has produced roughly a million films, this is only Apatow’s third directorial effort. He’s mentioned that while it’s going to be funny, he’s also hoping that it will be quite dramatic. We saw a little of this trend in Knocked Up and none of it in The 40 Year Old Virgin (which was just a laugh fest). I can see some great films coming from Judd in the future.
It’s also interesting to note that Adam Sandler is somewhat taking the piss out of himself in this movie, although I’m afraid most audiences won’t recognize that and will instead think ‘oh look, Adam Sandler as a baby, that’s funny’…the guy seems to get a free pass with every movie that he makes, even if they aren’t funny. That’s a rant for another time though, he looks really good in this film.
Funny People should be hitting our shores in September.
Zemeckis Fetish video….I mean Christmas Carol footage
It’s no secret that Robert Zemeckis will probably never return to the world of live action film making. It’s just become a fact of the years, since he insists on creating motion capture movies. I’m all for the occasional mo-cap flick, I’m really looking forward to Spielberg/Jackons Tin Tin, but I can’t ignore the fact that none of Zemeckis’ digital creations have been very good. The Polar Express was creepy, Beowulf was a lot of noise and ridiculous close ups (Look everyone! You can see the pores on his face!) and judging from this clip, A Christmas Carol might follow in that tradition.
I’m hoping that this is an unfinished render, because there’s something about it that looks very ‘off’. What do you think?
A Christmas Carol will haunt our screens on the 5th of November.
And in other news…
Pegg and Frost to costume up for ‘Paul’
Slashfilm.com reports that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will be undergoing some elaborate make-up and costume efforts to realize their characters in the upcoming flick Paul. Written by Pegg and Frost and directed by Greg Mottola, it follows two British geeks on a trip to the US for the San Diego Comic-Con who meet the titular Paul, an alien looking to go home.
They’ve also gotten wind that a huge director will be making a cameo. My guess is Steven Spielberg, since he’s just finished working with the pair on Tin Tin. Head on over to slashfilm for the rest of the details.
JJ Talks Trek sequel
J.J Abrams, director of the latest Trek film and all around friend of the geeks, recently spoke to MTV about the possibilities of a Trek sequel. Sort-of spoilers for the first film below:
“I wouldn’t rule out anything [when asked about a Shatner appearance]. The point of creating this independent timeline is to not have the restrictions we had coming into this one. And one of those restrictions was that Kirk was dead.”
J.J also briefly mentioned the idea of fan favourite villain Khan returning to the big screen:
“[Khan and Kirk] exist — and while their history may not be exactly as people are familiar with, I would argue that a person’s character is what it is…Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there … even if he doesn’t have the same issues.”
So there you have it. While nothing is set in stone – there’s no script being written at this point – it’s entirely possible that some familiar faces will be gracing the Trek universe once again. Do you think it’s a good idea to re-introduce characters from the previous films? We’ve already got a new main cast, perhaps it would be better to set off on an original journey, rather than repeat villains? Let us know what you think.
Thor cast
According to Hollywood Daily, Australian actor Chris Hemsworth has been cast as Thor in the upcoming Marvel flick of the same name. Hemsworth is best known to Australian audiences for his work on Home and Away, he can also currently be seen in the latest Star Trek film as George Kirk. I’m really not familiar with Hemswoth’s career to comment on this casting decision. I know nothing about Thor but I always thought he was a little older and a lot bigger. Oh well, time will tell I guess.
Spielberg to produce MLK biopic
And by MLK I mean Martin Luther King, legendary civil rights leader. According to Variety, no one has been announced as director, and the chances of Spielberg undertaking that role are unlikely, since his plate is pretty full at the moment.
Rami talks Spidey 4
Director Sam Rami spoke with the folks over at cinematical.com about the next Spiderman film, in particular how the third film was received and what he hopes to achieve with the next installment.
“I made a lot of mistakes, and it’s part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker. I really think I know in my heart who the character is… I would like one more chance at it [that character].”
It’s great to hear the passion Rami has for the character, it felt as though his heart wasn’t in Spidey 3, fingers crossed the next film will save the franchise from going down the toilet…Or being smacked with a rolled up newspaper, if you prefer a pun closer to the material.
Rami is hoping to begin shooting in February 2010.
GhostBusters 3 news
The Hero Complex caught up with Ghostbusters front runner Dan Aykroyd and were able to draw out a few pieces of information concerning the next Ghostbusters flick.
On the director, Aykroyd stated that Ivan Reitman director of the first two films, would not be returning for the third as he’s ‘too busy as a mega-producer’. Instead Aykroyd is hoping that Groundhog Day, Year One director and Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis may take the lead.
On the story itself, “”I’d like it to be a passing-of-the-torch movie. Let’s revisit the old characters briefly and happily and have them there as family but let’s pass it on to a new generation.”
This is pretty much what we’ve heard before, what’s interesting is that Aykroyd is keen to see a couple of female Ghostbusters, Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku “I think they’re amazing…And I’m excited about the whole idea of getting this done”.
So are we Dan, so are we. At this point, all of the original players have confirmed that they’d return for a third installment.
The voice of Mickey Mouse passes on
We’re ending with a rather sad piece of news this week. Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse since 1977, passed away due to complications from diabetes. Allwine was only the third person ever to have voiced the iconic character, with the first being Walt Disney himself.
Wayne was married to Russi Taylor who provided the voice of Minnie Mouse.
R.I.P Wayne Allwine, you will be missed.
That’s it for this week. If you’re at all interested, you can follow me on twitter at twitter.com/spikeshinizle
of course jj is talking sequel, just like he said he’d do a second cloverfield… I’d be keener if he just finished lost. they’re on the island, they’re off the island… who can follow that shit?