| THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WTF: Think, The Fly! Think! |
| Written by Arya Ponto |
| Monday, 28 September 2009 |
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This week's edition has quite a bit of trailers in them, most notably Michael Bay's company Platinum Dunes successfully bungling another slasher franchise by making the same dumb movie but with that pretty Bayesque glisten. If you're real nice, we'll even show you a trailer for a vampire movie that does NOT have a brooding emotional vampire in it.
THE GOOD • These vampires just won't stop coming. Here's a teaser trailer for the horror film Stake Land, directed by Mulberry Street helmer Jim Mickle and starring Danielle Harris. Nothing to get too excited about, but it does have a nice aesthetic to it, at least in the teaser. Sort of like The Road meets True Blood's opening credits.
• Evoking the visuals of Gus Van Sant and the mysterious mood of Michael Haneke comes this trailer for the independent film Afterschool. Written and directed by first-timer Antonio Campos, this potentially terrific film is about a prep school gripped by the deaths of two of its popular students—and the boy who accidentally caught their dying moments on tape.
• The supernatural thriller script Hereafter from Frost/Nixon scribe Peter Morgan has finally found a director and star in Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon. The plot is still kept under wraps, but the project was pitched as a horror story in the vein of The Sixth Sense. I'm keeping an interesting in this, if only to see Eastwood tackle the otherworldly. Meanwhile, their previous project together, the Nelson Mandela biopic Invictus, is set for a December release. • Want to see the next hot remake property? Accident is a new action-thriller that just opened in Hong Kong last week, with a premise too nifty for Hollywood to pass up. Produced by action maestro Johnnie To, it's about a cartel of "accident choreographers"—assassins who specialize in staging murders as the perfect untraceable fatal accidents. Let's count down the days until the American version is announced.
• You thought Edward Norton is done with Marvel after the dispute over The Incredible Hulk's final cut? We did, too, but apparently Norton is still game on reprising his role as Bruce Banner, even if nobody makes another Hulk movie. MTV News caught up with the actor and asked if he would want to join the planned Avengers movie, and his answer?
THE BAD • I saw this same Nightmare on Elm Street trailer (or something nearly identical to it) at Comic-Con. I wasn't impressed then and I still don't like it now. To be fair, what kind of movie did I expect, really? It is what it is. One thing I noticed this time is how awkward Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy voice is. I can't help but think of it as a poor Robert Englund mimic.
Speaking of which, what's up with Haley so eager to play characters strongly related to pedophilia, anyway? Maybe a Roman Polanski biopic is next for him. Zing. • Diablo Cody is going to adapt teen-lit series Sweet Valley High, Heat Vision reports. This is either an ingenious effort in matchmaking or a secret plot to undermine and ultimately destroy the public education system—and I don't believe in efforts... On her Twitter page, Cody wondered if she should try "playing it straight" for this movie. • The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft could be a fun little Lovecraftian horror movie or a stupid Van Helsing clone, but with Ron Howard at the helm, it'll probably just end up being boring as hell. Based on the Image Comics graphic novel, it tells the story of young Lovecraft fighting to keep the evil forces he writes about at bay. Tell me that doesn't sound like a script that would kiss Guillermo del Toro's feet begging him to direct.
• The Book of Eli has a fantastic cast, two very talented directors and a cool post-apocalyptic setting. So why is the theatrical trailer so bland? Aside from the handsome photography and a chance for Gary Oldman to do another hammy villain performance, this trailer features cheesy dialogue, overworked action shots and weird Biblical references. Don't tell me the eponymous book is going to be the Bible?
• Roger Ebert's review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs sparked a minor oddball ire over at Rotten Tomatoes, with people making the silly accusation that Ebert didn't really watch the film because some of his descriptions of the food items are inaccurate.
These folks apparently don't understand the concept of extrapolation. Or jest.
THE WTF • Even when he's playing things straight, Harmony Korine's work weirds me out. This time it's precisely because it's played straight. Liberty Mutual (yes, that Liberty Mutual) hired the Gummo director to create a series of ads for them called "The Responsibility Project," centering around an ordinary working-class family. Ironically, the ads look more cinematic than Korine's own films. You can check out the series here.
• File this under the "something's fishy" folder: David Cronenberg is in talks to direct a remake of his remake of The Fly. I'm not entirely sure why he all of a sudden thinks that he should try a new version now. Risky Biz seems to think that he will utilize special effects advances unavailable in 1986, which if true is a really silly reason to remake a movie; especially since the "original"remake won its only Oscar for its fantastic effects. Perhaps directing the stage opera adaptation of The Fly last year got Cronenberg back in the mood again. • There's a clip from the movie The Human Centipede going around the web. I'm not going to post it, because it actually doesn't quite convey the grossness of the premise, so instead I'll post this somewhat ambiguous still photo. In case you can't figure out what's happening, the film is about a deranged surgeon who kidnaps three people and turn them into a human centipede by joining them ass-to-mouth, to form one digestive system. Gross? Yes. Reminds me of the artworks of Shintaro Kago. If you don't know who Shintaro Kago is, I don't know if I should recommend you to look him up. His comics are an... acquired taste. • Funniest headline of the week: Disney says David Mamet's adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank is "too dark." No! Really? In Disney's defense, The Wrap reports that Mamet turned in a script that is not at all about Anne Frank's Holocaust story, but rather a contemporary Jewish examination of the effects of suicide bombing—a project that's obviously too risque for a company like Disney to produce. This could be a blessing in disguise, if Mamet can set up the project elsewhere. Regardless of the politics behind the script's reportedly pro-Israeli, it sounds like an intriguing story nonetheless, especially in Mamet's hands. |
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