Welcome back from the long-but-not-long-enough holiday weekend. Hope you had a nice barbeque or whatever, but just so we're up to date with important current events, let's catch up with the most interesting movie news from the past week. And it just so happens that I spy a little spider going up the cash spout....
THE GOOD
• A big conceptually weird movie like Inception deserves a big conceptually weird advertising, and so Warner Bros has done so, transforming two Manhattan buildings into dream-like visages amidst the New York concrete. I went to see these two buildings in person over the weekend and snapped these photos. In case you're wondering, the water one is located at E 23rd St and Park Ave South and the peeling off one is at W 33rd St and 9th Ave. If you look them up on Google Maps street view (click the links), you can see the how two buildings look right before the ads went up. An improvement, no?
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• The votes are in (was there voting? I forgot) and a new Spiderman has just been crowned. The good news is that they picked a pretty damn good actor in the role: Andrew Garfield, best known for his work on Boy A, Lions for Lambs and the Red Riding Trilogy (where he played a reporter, hmm). He looks like he could be a great Peter Parker, but if they're really rebooting to Peter's high school days, Garfield (27) looks even older than Tobey Maguire did in the third movie, let alone the first. In any case, my condolences to Donald Glover.
• My favorite quote of the week goes to one Mr. Harrison Ford with this badass piece of frugality: "I've never bought a single suit in my whole life. Instead, I just always wear the clothes from my films."
• Trent Reznor announced on the official Nine Inch Nails site that he will be doing the score for one of my most anticipated movies of the year, the David Fincher-directed, Aaron Sorkin-written Facebook movie, The Social Network. This movie just keeps getting more intriguing.
I was planning on taking some time off after the continual waves of touring that ended last fall and spend this year experimenting around with what would become How To Destroy Angels and some new NIN. Well, that plan didn't work out so well. David Fincher started inquiring about my interest in scoring his upcoming film, The Social Network. Yeah, the movie about the founding of Facebook. I've always loved David's work but quite honestly I wondered what would draw him to tell that story. When I actually read the script and realized what he was up to, I said goodbye to that free time I had planned.
• This Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer has certainly cast a spell on me. A very sexy spell. The kind of spell that makes a man want to grip his magic wand tight and let the sparks fly... Anyway, it's a very moody and evocative trailer, promising an epic crescendo for the end of this saga.
THE BAD
• While the trailer itself is cool, it could've been a lot darker, had it not been required to follow the "all audiences" certificate of the MPAA, like all green band trailers. One of those requirements, looks like, was to CGI blood off of it. Here's a screenshot from the movie, showing Hermione's hands covered in blood. In the trailer above (take a look at 1:17), they've all been removed. I wonder if any of the other scenes shown are bloodier that what the trailer suggests.
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• Buried within this sweet LA Times piece on actress Gloria Stuart's 100th birthday is a confirmation of sorts that James Cameron will release his 1997 hit Titanic in 3-D on April of 2012. In the build-up to Avatar, Cameron was the most vocal about the importance of shooting with 3-D cameras to achieve good 3-D effects, so why do this conversion 3-D crap?
Beyond that, though, one simply can't get too excited at the idea of seeing one of history's greatest disasters in 3-D. "That passenger drowning to death feels totally immersive!"
• According to Variety, superproducer Don Murphy has bought the rights to a popular (apparently) series of vampire novels called Vampire Academy, and he's not even ashamed to admit that it's to cash in on Twilight's popularity. Supposedly, this series is more action-oriented, so the movies will aim for a male teen audience as much as the females. Here's the official synopsis of the first book:
Forbidden romance, a ruthless social scene and unspeakable nighttime rituals... all part of the scene at St. Vladimir's Academy. Hidden away, St. Vlad's Academy isn't your typical boarding school: it is a place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens are trained to protect them. However all isn't fun and games as the fierce and deadly vampires, the Strigoi, threaten to close in on the student body...
• There is a fifth Final Destination movie coming. That's not the part of this news worthy of your groans. No, it's the part where the title of the movie will be 5nal Destination. A bold title, considering many are already misreading it as Anal Destination.
• And more bad news for fans of horror sequels that are past their welcome date. Scream 4, which had just begun shooting last week, is already looking like it's stuck in the middle of a sinking ship. Zap2It reports that Kevin Williamson has dropped out of the film, which is now pending a new draft by Scream 3 writer Ehren Kruger. Hayden Penetierre is also furious that her character, who's supposed to be a horror film nerd, has been dumbed down a lot.
To make matters worse, Wes Craven commented on the story on his Twitter. Rather than questioning any of the rumors, Craven simply defended himself, saying he has "not been given control of the script." A director with no control over the script? That's one reason to scream.
THE WTF
• This is a new promo image from Marcus Nispel's upcoming Conan, starring Stargate: Atlantis' Jason Momoa. At least that's what it's supposed to be. I'll also believe you if you tell me that it's an ad for ulcer medication.
• We are all familiar with how aggressive Twilight fans can get, but this LA Times article about the really obsessive fans sounds like an episode of Intervention. It tells the tales of Twilight Moms facing marriage crises and addicts who would break down and cry if they don't read the books or watch the movies. This is the kind of stuff that moves the fandom past pitiful and into disturbing.
• Lucasarts is considering to sue a laser company in Hong Kong for marketing a laser device that's been hailed by many tech blogs as a "real life lightsaber." According to the cease-and-desist letter they sent the company, they're not too keen on the fact that a highly dangerous weapon (yes, this thing is a weapon that can set you on fire, not a toy) has a hilt that looks a lot like a lightsaber's, not to mention the fact that since all the press coverage comparing it to the fictional sword, the company have received an uprise in orders (it's only $200!).
• Already racking nearly two million views on YouTube is this teaser from the upcoming feature film High School Sucks: The Musical, made by a couple of popular YouTube personalities. It seems to be riffing on High School Musical, but with the added knowledge that real high school life just plain sucks. It's a bizarre mix of satire and sincere, it looks like, and who knows how it'll turn out. I guess it's apropos that they've named the school W.T.F. High School.
The film will be released later this year through online distribution, but Lakeshore Records (a division of Lakeshore Entertainment) is looking for a limited theatrical release, as well.
• This is just a minor gaffe and I expect it to be resolved soon, but for the moment it gives me great amusement to see the I Spit on Your Grave remake rated "G" on Rotten Tomatoes. You know what? I'll be honest, I'm more interested in seeing a ludicrous family-friendly version remake than a conventional R-rated one.
