Sneer's to you, Joel Silver for having the foresight to re-boot John Carpenter's wickedly fun Escape from New York and expand it, Peter Jackson-style, into a trilogy. Now you and Studio Canal just have to find a young-ish Snake Plissken who can carry three three films with the same sardonic charisma that made Kurt Russell such a joy to behold on the big screen. According to Deadline, the first of the three movies will be an origin story — perhaps one that shows how Snake got the eyepatch and how New York City became a maximum-security prison, or whatever plot twists Silver wants to throw our way since, according to the report, The Matrix producer is planning an "entirely new take" on the story. more »
Deadline's report that Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin plan to turn the 1970s sitcom Good Times into a feature film reminded me that there are still quite a few sitcoms from that era that are substantial enough to translate to feature films. Here are three: more »
Director Bryan Singer told Deadline yesterday that Emmy-winning actor Peter Dinklage will play a “key role” in X-Men: Second Class Days Of Future Past. This is, of course, great news for the spiffily dressed but not terribly interesting Mad Men mutants. Fans of Game of Thrones, Elf, 30 Rock, and The Station Agent have long known that Dinklage brings intelligence, gravity, and a scary-sharp wit to every production. In fact, I’d go so far as to declare that Dinklage is such a valuable asset every tentpole this year should add him to its cast. The Words of Peter need to spread far and wide.
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Proving that even your grandparents now know what video games are, Wreck-It Ralph was a happy surprise hit for Disney earlier this fall. Nabbing a healthy $202,184,813 box office take, the film not only got asses in seats, it also gave the studio its best-reviewed non-Pixar film in years and confirms the company's power as a producer of genre-based popular culture. Obviously, that makes a sequel as inevitable as death, taxes, and launch-day DLC. more »
If the last Presidential race produced a fine docudrama, Game Change, based on the equally fine book, surely this year’s dust-up between the elephant and the donkey is worth dramatizing. Therefore, , submitted for your approval, is Movieline’s notion of ideal casting and concepts for the 2012 GOP slate, complete with courtiers, financiers and mountebanks. Tentatively, we’re calling it Liar’s Poker.
Let’s start at the outer circle of the power nexus and gradually move inward. more »
