Thankfully there was also some interesting news announced this week which helped to calm my geeky mind, enough to put away my George Lucas voodoo doll anyway (which is full of pins attached to small pieces of paper reading “Be good again!” –  so far I have yielded no results).

So let’s have a look shall we?

Toy Story 3 Teaser
We reported last week on a rumour that the teaser for Toy Story 3 would be attached to Pixar’s latest film UP, which opened across the US this week. Thankfully, those murmurs were true.

Pixar have a track record of showing very little in their teasers, and this is no exception. We’re told absolutely nothing about the plot, but are immediately thrown back into the world of the first two movies.

I can’t help but smile every time I watch this teaser, it’s great to see the gang again. When Toy Story 3 is released next year, it will have been 15 years since the first film premiered. I can hardly believe it’s been that long. This amount of time also speaks volumes about Pixar’s commitment to story and making sure they get it just right before going into production….unlike some sequel happy animation companies *cough*DreamWorks*cough*.

Toy Story 3 is expected to hit our screens on the 24th of June 2010…here’s hoping it doesn’t get delayed like UP.

Sounds like a cool – if not familiar – premise eh? After watching the trailer, I’m not quite sure what to make of this film. It seems to start out pretty well but there’s a point (involving a ‘kick ass’ female character) that took me by surprise and made me think oh, it’s one of those movies. Silly action fun maybe, deep sci-fi movie? Probably not.

No release info for Pandorum, but it looks like it’ll fly onto our screens around December.

Rise of Cobra is expected to blow up the Eiffel tower (where’s Team America?) on the 6th of August.

Alien reboot/origin story?
It’s been revealed that Ridley Scott, along with Michael Costigan and Tony Scott, is on board to produce a new film in the Alien franchise. Apparently this story will take place before the first film. Not much else is known at this point except that Carl Erik, a commercial director who works for Scott’s production company RSA is slated to direct…wait what?!

This may not be horrible news though, as Erik does seem to have a lot of artistic talent and with Ridley Scott producing, it can’t turn too sour, can it?

Below is one of Carl Erik’s commercials, what do you think of this announcement?

I think the first film is pretty damn hilarious, but it almost feels like they caught lightning in a bottle. Do you think it’s possible that they could re-create the same hilarity?

“I just want to go, go, go. Get as much footage, and as many kills as possible, and not be self-conscious. Because when you’re moving at that speed, you’re not thinking, you’re just feeling and you’re going on instinct. And that’s where the best stuff comes from.”

Endangered Species, Roth’s first big budget effort, will be a sci-fi film….other than that, we don’t know much about it.

Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch have been cast in supporting roles, which makes me even more excited for the hilarious-ness of this movie. But who’s voicing Paul? Seth Rogen. That seems to be the icing on the cake for me, is there any way I can freeze myself until this movie is released?

International: October 2011
United States: December 2011

2011? Really? They’ve just finished principle photography! I guess there is a tone of work involved in the post production process, since the whole film is being created with motion capture technology.
I’m hoping that Spielberg and Jackson can show Robert Zemeckis how to make a Mo-Cap movie that actually works.

Yep, that’s my third dig at Zemeckis in as many weeks. Sorry.

The biggest cinema releases – for Aussie screens – were probably Observe and Report and Angels and Demons. If you’ve managed to catch either of those movies feel free to leave a comment below and tell us what you thought (stay tuned….or logged… to Movie Nation for our review on Observe and Report).

Along with some small news pieces we’ve also seen the release of some brand spanking new trailers. So let’s have a look shall we?

The Road trailer
Starring Viggo Mortenson and Charlize Theron, The Road is a post apocalyptic thriller/drama. I’m not sure when it is set, but needless to say most of the earths population seems to have disappeared. The basic plot outline goes something like this: A man and his son as they do whatever is necessary to survive in a post apocalyptic world. Their goal – to reach the coast – does not make a lot of sense and they aren’t sure what they’ll find once they arrive. But they’ve got to have some sort of goal, right?

I’m a huge fan of apocalyptic stories and this trailer looks amazing. From what I hear, it’s quite an emotional story as well. Can’t wait to see it.

There is no official Australian release date for The Road yet, although it’s due to screen this October in the US.

As a huge animation buff I’m extremely excited to see what Disney can produce with this movie, it’s quite beautiful to see this stunning art form back on the big screen again. Here we’ve got the trailer and the poster, which the folks over at cinematical.com managed to get their hands on.

 You’ve got to love the way Disney can instantly win you over with nostalgia. The Princess and the Frog will leap onto Aussie screens on the 26th of December.

It’s going to be a lot of loud fun, plus with Gerard Butler in the lead role, it’s almost impossible this movie won’t fulfill your action expectations.

No word on a release date for Gamer yet, but it looks as though it’ll be around September/November.

No release date for Whatever Works. Unfortunately, I think it’s a long way off an Australian release. 

And in other news…

Cannes heading UP!
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival began this week, and with quite an impressive opening. For the first time in it’s history, the festival opened with an animated feature, none other than Pixar’s Up. Word of mouth is already spreading with critics calling it another hit for Pixar, some suggesting that it is their best film to date. Is it possible those guys will ever make a bad film? I really don’t think so.
It’s a shame then, that Australian audiences won’t get to see the movie until the 3rd of September, when it was originally slated to be released in June! 

It’s been rumored that the hotly anticipated trailer for Toy Story 3 will be attached to Up in cinemas. I certainly hope this is true, because it means we will be getting it online at around the same time, and the US release is only a few short weeks away!

I’ll wait…

Okay, you’ve seen it now? Pretty impressive right? Mr Jonze recently created a blog for the movie. It’s updated pretty regularly and has a lot of information on the creative process Jonze is undergoing to create the film, as well as his general thoughts on everything Wild Things related. You can check it out here.

“I have a half-written prequel ready to go if this movie’s a smash.”

Apparently the story of this prequel would follow a group of African American soldiers, stuck behind enemy lines. A subplot cut from the original film.

Scorsese is currently in post-production on his latest film Shutter Island, which sounds all sorts of awesome.

A group of Jewish-American soldiers, “The Basterds”, are chosen specially to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by brutally murdering Nazis in France during World War II. They soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who manages a Paris movie theatre that has been targeted by the soldiers.