BLOGS
July 2008 Archives
If you don't read a lot of comic books, and you're looking for a good one to check out, try Y: The Last Man from Vertigo. It's about Yorick, a young man who, for unknown reasons, is the only man on Earth who doesn't die a horrible death on the day that the "man" part of mankind is wiped out. Women take over the world, and the Y-chromosome-sporting Yorick has to stay out of their clutches, since half of them want to kill him and half want to use him in horribly awesome ways. Luckily, Shia "The Beef" LaBeouf knows exactly what that feels like.
There are certain movies that should be put on a "Do Not Remake" list in order to preserve people's memories and enjoyment of them. Casablanca, for one. The Godfather, probably. Oh, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fans have been proving for over 30 years that there is no way to improve on it, if the fact that they keep going to see it and acting it out verbatim is any indication. And yet MTV Pictures is going to remake the film, using the original screenplay. At least the old fans will still be able to say the lines.
God loves me! How do I know? Because he took a whole bunch of my favorite things -- the Seventies, Miami, Marky Mark, cocaine (culture), Peter Berg and the writings of Generation Kill uber-scribe Evan Wright -- and smooshed them all together into one big fat bow-wrapped present! I am so excited!
In just five days, The Dark Knight has already grossed $200 million, besting 2004's Spider-Man 2 which got there in eight. The box office juggernaut is so big that it's gotten its stars perhaps a little too excited.
Break out your brush and stay away from open flame, New Line is about to bust out more Hairspray. The studio has made a deal with the musical's creator John Waters to write a treatment for a sequel to the 2007 hit. According to Variety, director-choreographer Adam Shankman will return for another go, along with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, as well as songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who've pledged to write new songs for the film. And while none of the original cast has signed on yet for a sequel, the story will pick up back in 1962 and follow the Turnblad family after the resolution of the first movie. Hairspray has grossed over $200 million since its release last summer, and New Line wants a new one for a summer release in 2010.
Forbes' list of Hollywood's best paid actors was released this week, and even in this shit economy the boys of the big screen are certainly not hurting for cash. The girls aren't hurting either, but no woman managed to break the top ten in earning. My get-paid-less-for-doing-the-same-job-in-Tinsel-Town bitch session will commence in the break room here at Moviefile headquarters around 12:30, but in the meantime, I'll skip right to the top earners.
So, we only have one day left (unless you're going to the midnight showing tonight, which I am not because I am old and can't stay up that late anymore) before we all get to find out whether or not the X-Files movie is going to suck. For those of us who are hardcore fans, it's a bit of a sticky wicket. On the one hand, I've heard from an X-Phile friend "if it sucks or does badly in theaters, it serves them right for beating the show into the ground its last two years." On the other, I think, are the rest of us who really just want to see the franchise do well against everything else that's currently in theaters. (And I don't know if you've heard, but that Batman movie's doing pretty okay.)
Watch out, Witchblade -- if you don't pick up the pace, you might not be the first sexy Top Cow comic book character to make it to the big screen, and I might stop obsessively writing stories about you. Even though you've already lined up a writer, director and teaser poster, the Magdalena is coming up close behind you. And while that may sound sexy, it could conceivably give you some competition in the scantily-clad, female evil-fighter category. (God forbid Uwe Boll decides to make another Bloodrayne film, or Barb Wire inexplicably makes a comeback.)
Tyler Perry, whom I always think of as The Busiest Man in showbiz, is about to get a little busier. The writer/director just signed a three-year first look deal with Lionsgate, wherein he has promised the studio three more films in addition to giving them first dibs on any other films of his within that time frame. The studio already has two upcoming Perry movies, The Family That Preys which comes out in September, and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, set for a February release, neither of which are included in the deal.
I know it's a bold prediction, but I believe American Teen is the movie that's singlehandedly going to make documentaries cool again. Oh, right, they never were cool in the first place. Maybe in a certain geeky/political Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock crowd, they were considered cool, but not in general. Well, if people give it a chance, American Teen really could change that.
Blog Categories
A Festival for the Rest...ival
25 Entries
Accidents Do Happen
46 Entries
Adventures in Fakery
77 Entries
Animation Desensitization
80 Entries
Awards Schmawards
17 Entries
Box Office Tally
79 Entries
Burning Questions
6 Entries
Coming Soonish
9 Entries
Cool Nerds Guide
6 Entries
Director? I Hardly Knew Her!
156 Entries
DVDs Unwrapped
25 Entries
For Your Amusement (Park)
10 Entries
Foreign Relations
54 Entries
Galleries (and Other Picture Postcards)
23 Entries
Gangster's Paradise
5 Entries
Getting Dramatic
5 Entries
Girls on Film
80 Entries
Happy Anniversary
10 Entries
Hollywood To TWoP: Hello There!
40 Entries
I Voted for GORE!
103 Entries
I Want My DVD
236 Entries
I Want My VOD
24 Entries
I've Got Two Tickets to Merchandise
33 Entries
IMDb Fun Times
6 Entries
Indie Snapshot
57 Entries
Indie, Indie, Come Back Home
40 Entries
It Came From New York
7 Entries
It Came From San Diego
14 Entries
It's a Major Award!
75 Entries
Legal Eaglese
21 Entries
Let's Blame the Media!
49 Entries
Let's Go To The Video!
29 Entries
Letterbox of Recommendations
22 Entries
Lights, Camera... Action Jackson!
184 Entries
Little TV Shows That Done Hit the Big Time
71 Entries
Martial Artistry
11 Entries
Momentous Occasions
25 Entries
More On Movies
38 Entries
Movie Merchandise
4 Entries
Musicalifornication
48 Entries
Obituaries Without Pity
23 Entries
Oscars and Grouchery
11 Entries
Pros and Controversy
26 Entries
Read All About It
5 Entries
Real People, Fake Movies
25 Entries
Remakes R Us
8 Entries
Reviews of Movies We Haven't Seen Yet
43 Entries
Reviews of Movies We've Actually Seen
517 Entries
Scary Monsters & Super Creeps
105 Entries
Sci-Fidelity
151 Entries
Script From the Headlines!
56 Entries
Separate but Sequel
249 Entries
Sequelitis
24 Entries
Shameless Self-Promotion
27 Entries
Sports in Our Shorts
7 Entries
Strike Watch
14 Entries
Stupid Cinematic Celebrity Sayings
34 Entries
Sundance Sundance Revolution
13 Entries
Taste the Reading Rainbow
94 Entries
The Biz
122 Entries
The Casting Conch
192 Entries
The History, Booooyyyyy!
80 Entries
The Kongs of Comedy
206 Entries
Theatre With an "R" and an "E"
11 Entries
Trailer Trashing
73 Entries
Trailers Without Pity
37 Entries
Video Games Killed the Movie Star
23 Entries
We Call Do-Over
177 Entries
We Watches the Watchmen
33 Entries
What's Up, Documentary?
17 Entries
When Animal Movies Attack
14 Entries
You Got Comic Book in My Movie
251 Entries
You Know, For Kids!
132 Entries