The official Star Wars website has revealed the opening crawler text for the final installment in the "new" Star Wars trilogy. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes production tidbits for those of you that are interested in the actual process of filmmaking. The crawler text is:
War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere. In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate. As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor....
Also check out this parody trailer A Lost Hope. It's a little immature but some of it is funny.
Will Smith has agreed to star in the true-life story "Pursuit of Happyness". The movie is based on the real life rags-to-riches story of a Chicago businessman Chris Gardner, which was aired on ABC's 20/20. After circumstances left Gardner jobless and homeless at age 30, he found himself and his infant son living in a bathroom at a San Francisco train station. Gardner continued to fight toward his goal of becoming a broker, eventually landing a job as a trainee and rising through the ranks to his current standing -- partner and owner of a Chicago-based minority brokerage firm and self-made millionaire.
Need an idea for a rental? Check out my recommendations. I'll try to cycle the recommendations fairly frequently so keep checking back. If you've rented a DVD recently that you want to recommend, drop me a line and if I agree (yes, veto power is a beautiful thing) I'll add it to the list.
My favorite online cartoon is Homestarrunner.com and the epsiodes I enjoy the most involve StrongBad answering e-mails from visitors to the site. The e-mail episodes have been released on a 3 disc DVD set, which I will have to add to my collection very soon. However, I have found a great episode guide which all fans of the site should find useful. Check out the Homestarrunner Wiki and enjoy!
More and more you hear how current movies being produced are so awful. Recently, Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman has hit out at the quality of current films and theatre productions. Mick LaSalle, film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, addressed this in a recent column where he tried to answer a reader's question about how current films would stand up against their predecessors.
Personally, I think the problem does not reside in the quality of films being produced but the Blitzkrieg-style marketing of weaker films in order to make a quick profit on opening weekend. Every year since moving pictures became popular, there have been interesting projects and uninspired ones. Don't expect this to stop anytime soon. Just remember that one person's trash is another's treasure.
The complete list of Oscar nominees for this year is now available from Oscar.com. Chris Rock will host the show, which might be enough to get me to watch again. Usually I find awards show to be pretty dry but perhaps Mr. Rock will spice things up. This will be Chris's first stint as Oscar host.
FilmSite.org has posted a listed transcribed from a july 2004 article in Total Film Magazine (UK publication), entitled 50 Greatest Movie Deaths. The list makes for interesting reading (well I thought so!) and the site has many other "greatest" lists worth checking out.
B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen has promised the B.C. film industry some "interim" help by the end of the month to keep production companies from leaving for Ontario. Industry representatives met with Hansen and Premier Gordon Campbell on Tuesday morning to lobby for increased tax credits. The Ontario government recently boosted its tax credit for foreign productions to 18 per cent. In B.C., the tax credit is 11 per cent. The industry has been demanding that B.C. catch up, or face the prospect of losing its lucrative film and TV production business.
Read the rest of the story over at the CBC British Columbia site.
Not content with simply being a "wrestling" company, WWE is expanding into film and on Jan. 18th announced a three film deal with former wrestling star Steve Austin. Austin’s first project for WWE Films will be The Condemned, written by Rob and Andrew Hedden. The story deals with a cop on death-row who is given a second chance when chosen to compete on a deadly reality show. Pursued by ruthless killers, his survival and the key to his freedom depend on him surviving long enough to take down the one person responsible for putting him behind bars.
Sounds like a re-make of The Running Man to me.
Check out the teaser trailer for the Fanatastic Four movie over on the Apple trailer site.
Film footage dating back 100 years was found in a shop basement in Blackburn, Lancs, in 2002 will be shown by the BBC for the first time. The 800 reels give an unparalleled visual record of late Victorian and early Edwardian British life. A crime reconstruction from 1901 and the first footage of Manchester United in action, from 1902, were discovered among the 26 hours of film.
The scratchy, black-and-white film of United is from a match against Lancashire neighbours Burnley at their Turf Moor ground on December 6, 1902. It was made to be shown to workers at the Burnley Mechanics Institute that evening, but the screening was canceled because Burnley were defeated 2-0. The match took place just months after United had assumed their now world-famous name. Until that year, they were known as Newton Heath. The club, founded in 1878 by workers from the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, had almost gone bankrupt the previous year before being saved by a rich local brewer.
Sources: BBC, Australian Broadcast Corp.
Technology enthusiast Dasme has posted a review of two online DVD rental shops from Canada. If you have ever considered doing DVD rentals by mail, this blog entry is worth checking out.
The Globe and Mail is running a story on the debates ongoing in BC about the tax breaks foreign film companies should be offered. Increased competition from other provinces has compounded problems the B.C. film industry faces in light of the rising dollar and the growth in popularity of reality television shows.
The Guardian reports that Universal and Paramount Studios along with Warner Brothers announced plans to release high-definition DVD (HD-DVD) titles in the US by Q4 2005. Universal has a list of 16 titles to be released, while Paramount will start out with 20 titles. Warner Brothers will lead the field with a catalogue of 50 HD DVD titles, again commencing Q4 2005.
All these releases will be initially pitched at the US home video market with no current plans for European roll-outs. DVD-style region coding is expected to be imposed on all future releases. The studios will likely offer these titles at a "premium" price much like DVD Audio, relying on the level of HDTV ownership to steer high-end consumers toward the new format.
Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, has signed to play Lex Luthor in the Superman sequel, due out in 2006. The Usual Suspects star will be reunited with director Bryan Singer for the untitled project which begins shooting in March. Kate Bosworth, his co-star in the recent Bobby Darin biopic Under the Sea, is also being considered for the role of Lois Lane, although Warner Brothers could not confirm her involvement.
Meanwhile, Singer recently divulged a little about the plot - "It's not an origin story; I didn't want to remake what Richard Donner did so well in the original, and didn't want to tread on the great work they're doing on Smallville. He's already part of the culture; he has left the planet. This is the story of his return".
Samuel L Jackson has turned down the chance to work with one of his most admired directors because it would he be in a film starring 50 Cent. The actor has always wanted to work with Irish movie-maker Jim Sheridan and was thrilled when he heard he was being targeted for a new film by the In America director - and then he realized the role was opposite rapper 50 Cent in his movie debut. The actor has been extremely vocal about sharing the stage with unproven actors, and felt he had to turn down Sheridan's offer.
Jackson stated: "Hollywood people tend to think that because one is successful in one aspect of entertainment they can bring them into this particular world and make a success out of them. They ask people like me to be in a film with those people that they are kind of headlining and your name ends up behind them. If you do that, it sanctions the fact that these people come into this world and you think they are worthy of you sharing your time on screen with them. I don't particularly think that."
MovieMistakes.com has released a list of the worst mistakes from films released in 2004. I never seem to catch this stuff so this made for interesting reading. Enjoy!
Dan Brown has written a great article for the CBC Arts website. He discusses the recent fascination with movie prequels and how they relate to other forms of entertainment such as theatre, television and comic books. For a brief article, it's very in-depth and insightful.
New on DVD, this second installment of the video game adaptation did reasonably well at the box office though not as well as the first movie. Still talk of another sequel is circulating and lead actor Milla Jovovich says she is ready to make the third movie. For now, fans will have to content themselves with the DVD release.
The Sony Pictures web site has a number of interview and behind-the-scenes clips from the DVD posted. Sony sent me a link to a clip that is not on the website and I wanted to share it with you. It is a deleted scene and it's easy to see why it was deleted.
Below are links to the trailer for xXx: State of the Union. In this follow-up film, NSA Agent Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson), fresh off the success of his last renegade recruitment, once again finds himself in need of an outsider. Gibbons and his new agent (Ice Cube), also code-named "xXx," must track a dangerous military splinter group led by Willem Dafoe that is conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government. The release date is 4/29/05.
Blockbuster has decided to "eliminate" late fees on movie and game rentals. What they are doing is allowing their customers to be a day or two late in returning, however if you still have a movie or game seven days after the due date shown on your receipt, they will convert your rental to a sale. The movie or game will be sold to you at the selling price in effect at the time of rental, which is either the retail price, or, when available, at the previously-rented selling price, less the initial rental fee you paid. to read more check out the FAQ posted on the Blockbuster site.