Top Ten News Items this Week
June 10th, 2009by Andrew Robinson
This is once again an attempt for me to create a weekly article here on gmanreviews. I know I’ve disappointed you many times before promising some weekly pieces which have ranged from slightly interesting to completely useless. However, I promise I will try my best to keep this one going. And whenever I can’t find ten news pieces I’ll try to pad with cool articles that I like.
I don’t cover news on the site for the main reason that most of the news reported on film blogs that I read are either uninteresting or unconfirmed rumour most of the time. But on the odd occasion that the news is in fact genuine then that is when I jump up in joy reading some of it and other times fall into a deep dark depression. So here is the TOP TEN NEWS ITEMS THAT BROKE THIS WEEK.
Harvey Weinstein Wants 40 minutes cut from Inglorious Basterds
So for those of you who follow the site and listen to my podcast will know my undying love for Quentin Tarantino and my also undying hatred for The Weinstein Company. I know that Harvey is the one which gave QT his big start in the world of film and without him I might have never been able to find my one true love when it comes to movies, but at the same time ever since I started following the news behind all the films and listening to commentaries and hearing about all these behind the screen dealings I have come to hate the Weinstein’s for their continuous need to somehow interfere with the creative work of directors, and more specifically Quentin Tarantino. Now they are asking for him to cut 2/3 of an hour from the movie that QT specifically added more footage to after seeing how the audience responded to the movie at Cannes. I understand that long movies aren’t for everyone and some people just prefer the ninety minute romp, and the Weinstein’s are looking at it from a completely business point of view but dammit I want my movie the way that QT wants it, and then I’ll hand down judgement on whether it is excessive or not. Also it is worth noting that I recently spoke with Alex Billington, from FirstShowing.net, who attended Cannes and he said that he liked Inglorious Basterds but thought it could do with more editing. So in the end I will wait for the movie to hand down judgement but right now I just feel angry that once again Harvey is interfering.
Stephen Chow’s CJ7 is getting an Animated Sequel
So Stephen Chow’s sci-fi children’s film, CJ7 that was released last year will be getting a sequel in the form of an animated film. The sequel will be directed by Yuen Kin-to (also known as Toe Yuen). I haven’t seen any of Yuen’s work however I can easily say that I am not fond enough of this movie to really want to see a sequel. I loved Kung Fu Hustle, and I liked CJ7 but not enough to think that the story could be stretched beyond the initial film. With Stephen Chow producing this project however I’m sure that they will all find a plausible sequel that won’t upset fans of the first film. What is really nice is that all the original actors will return to voice their characters for this film, so there will be little change in the film’s acting department which I thought was great.
Wes Craven says YES to new Scream Trilogy
Wes Craven has been behind the scenes of so many horror films that have ranged from interesting and creepy to completely cheesy and a waste of time, some of my favourites of his catalogue are Red Eye and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Personally I rewatched the first Scream movie a few months ago and found it quite enjoyable for the reason that it was so fun and wasn’t taking itself serious. I think that another movie would do the franchise well if Wes can come up with an interesting idea, but o stretch it into a trilogy may be a bit much which is why most people are not a fan of the sequels to in this franchise. I will hold off judgement but based on the track record of this franchise this looks pretty uninteresting and like it will be another addition to the “waste of time” column for Wes Craven.
Pixar confirms Monsters Inc. Sequel
So before we all jump for happy this won’t be hitting theatres until at least 2013 since Pixar’s releases schedule is booked up until 2012 and they don’t seem to be expanding to more than one film per year just yet. Now with Pete Doctor’s Up hitting theatres a couple weeks ago and gaining all this critical praise, which is what happens when Pixar is on screen, they have decided that they will be doing a sequel to Doctor’s film that was his directorial debut. I love Monsters Inc and thought that Up was pretty damn good, still working on my review, and am happy to see that we’ll get to revisit the world that is behind your child’s closet door. Now where they plan to take the story is always the question you ask. Will they take us immediately at the end of the last film? Unlikely. Will there be a time jump? Probably. And what will be the situation we’ll be seeing all of our favourite scary monsters in when we get there? All I can say am I’m interested and always ready for another Pixar production.
Transformers 2 will have a longer cut for IMAX Screenings
So the upcoming summer blockbuster from Mr. Blockbuster himself, Michael Bay, has a longer cut for IMAX screenings and I heard this longer cut will be available when the BluRay DVD is released in the future. Mr. Bay has apparently been, up until the very last minute, been putting the finishing touches on the effects for the movie and is ready to premiere the film in Japan. Four scenes were specifically shot with IMAX cameras and therefore if you have an IMAX screen nearby you will be able to see some awesome fight scenes on a 50ft tall screen. Unfortunately I live in Jamaica and we don’t have any IMAX screens here so this new only makes me happy that if enough people say good things about the longer cut I’ll get it on BluRay when it is released.
John Stamos working on “Full House” Movie
Now I remember when I was younger on a rainy day having nothing to do I would switch on the television and instead of watching Three Amigos for the billionth time I might turn on my local television station to see reruns of Full House and even back then I thought that show was ridiculously trashy. Now the show’s only positive is for crappy pop culture references, like in Step Brothers when Will Ferrell and John C. Riley admit to wanting to make love to John Stamos, or in Entourage seeing Bob Saget as a horny older man buying prostitutes. Why would I ever want to see a ninety minute movie of a bad television show? Now I’m sure many of you will mention a ton of films that started out as bad TV and turned out to be average to great, but I totally can’t see this one working. Especially with Stamos talking about it being about the early years of the show and with James Franco playing Jesse, Steve Carell playing Danny and even worse Tracey Morgan as Danny. This is the typical news spewing from Hollywood’s asshole that makes me want to vomit for hours. Please don’t do this find something else to make even worse.
Next Terminator Film will be set in London in 2011
So here is another piece of almost useless news. After watching the new Terminator film and telling everyone about how wrong it McG came out and spoke about his plans for the next part of the franchise. He plans to have John Connor come back to 2011 via the well used time machine and come to help galvanize the militaries of the world for the impending Skynet invasion. As I’ve said before I’ve always loved Terminator, but ever since Cameron left it has been a complete waste of time and even though this idea sounds a lot more interesting that what was given to us in the newest instalment, Terminator Salvation, I’m remaining very sceptical and will not be fooled again by McG and his completely ridiculous name.
Blade Runner getting Prequel Web Series
Ridley Scott’s commercial company, RSA Films, are developing a series of videos called Purefold. This is a will be a series of videos will take place sometime before 2019 and will be inspired by the themes of Blade Runner. The most interesting part of this story is that Ag8, the partner company, will be taking input on the story of the series from the viewers via their website as well as FriendFeed. So if you actually want to change something in the show maybe if you get enough people on your side shouting for it maybe the writers will change it.
Earlier this week, June 4th, it was reported all across the internet and all other new media that David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. The 72 year old actor was found hanging with the rope tied around parts of his body including the neck. I never really became a huge fan of Carradine but I get the fan love for him, I personally enjoyed his performance in Kill Bill Vol.2 very much and will probably look out for older films/TV Shows he was in and check them out now. I send my well wishes to his family and friends and no matter what his circumstances that surround his death know that he was a loved actor and will always live on in his films.
James Cameron joins Heavy Metal
One of the producers of the film, Kevin Eastman, says that James Cameron, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and David Fincher are all apparently going to be directing segments of the upcoming adaptation of the Heavy Metal comic books. I have never watched or read any material related to Heavy Metal, but the list of directors on board for this project is enough to make any movie geek such as myself get excited. With the addition of James Cameron to that roster has just cemented my readiness to see this film as soon as possible. Now I’m aware that this movie probably won’t be seen before 2011 with each of these directors each currently working on other projects, but I just wanted to mention how great it is to see so many creative minds working together on one project. I may have to go find some old Heavy Metal books and see what the whole excitement is about.
So there are ten news items that were released this week. Let me know what you think about them and my comments in the comments and if I missed anything particularly exciting that was released this week.
EXTRA
This week Scott from WeAreMovieGeeks.com made a top ten list of all the movie websites you should be following and even though gmanreviews didn’t make the cut we still love all the guys over at WeAreMovieGeeks.com and think it is a great list. I follow all of those sites and all of them are great.
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