Flying High: A conversation with filmmaker Brad Bird
Trevor Hogg chats with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Brad Bird…
“In the period before The Iron Giant [1999], when I was trying to get movies made, and running against all the walls a lot of filmmakers run up against, half the projects I had on the runway were live-action,” reveals Oscar-winning American filmmaker Brad Bird who won Best Animated Feature for The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007). “It’s something that I’ve been circling for a long time.” When the Great California Earthquake tale 1906 failed to get made, the native of Kalispell, Montana was offered an opportunity to helm the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise by producer J.J. Abrams (Super 8). “With animation you’re pushing people toward a finished state,” states Bird who decided to direct Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011). “You keep pushing the shot forward whereas live-action you’re rolling the dice on catching the shot. You get a »
– flickeringmyth
‘Titanic 3D’ James Cameron: ‘It’s perfect for 3D’ – exclusive video
James Cameron‘s Titanic returns to cinema screens next month ahead of the 100th anniversary of the liner’s fateful first voyage. The record-breaking blockbuster has been remastered in 3D, giving fans the chance to revisit Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet‘s epic big-screen romance all over again from April 6. Digital Spy can exclusively reveal a new featurette of writer/director Cameron discussing the re-release of his Oscar-winning drama.
“I never doubted for a second that Titanic (more) »
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Groupon Now Offering $12,500 Trip To The Titanic’s Wreckage For True Fans
Are you a Titanic superfan, but felt that the Titanic 3-D re-release didn’t get you close enough to the action? Good news! Groupon is now offering a $12,500 ‘Titanic’ vacation package that includes an underwater trek to the actual wreckage of the Titanic, which may or may not be manned by Bill Paxton: Groupon is offering the deal, valued at $59,680… The package features a 13-day excursion that includes round-trip airfare from anywhere in the lower 48 states to St. John’s Island, transport via “a professional ship” from St. John’s to the Titanic site, one day of exploration on a deep-ocean vessel and admission to events relating to the 100-year anniversary of the ill-fated ship’s voyage. Ehhh, I don’t know – even as a massive devotee to badly-aging 90s Oscar bait and real-life grisly disasters that killed over a thousand people, I’m not sure I could swing the 12 grand. »
– Dan Hopper
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The UK Box-Office – John Carter Wins The Battle But Not The War
The UK box-office may only be 4% down on last year (which with things as they are going is a blessing in disguise) but when one considers that this week heralds the arrival of a $250 million Disney production you’ve got to wonder where it all went wrong.
Here’s our look at the UK box office this week and my stab at answering that question.
The Dubious Winner – John Carter
With a weekend intake of £1,960,414 from an actually quite low 456 sites may have temporarily won the day but what John Carter bound to lose is a shed load of cash. Where did it all go wrong? There was $250 million dollars, 26 months in production before release and a supremely confident Andrew Stanton at the helm. Well is obvious isn’t it? All of the above.
Whoever thought that a supremely average IP such as John Carter of Mars would be the »
– Ross Jones-Morris
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Dynamite Entertainment Plan Crossover ‘Prophecy’
If the Mayans, and John Cusack, are to be believed the world will come to an end on December 21st of this year. While the authenticity of these claims are suspect at best, Dynamite Entertainment are grabbing hold of this idea with both hands and weaving the prophecy into new seven issue crossover series, Prophecy.
Dynamite are best known for adaptions of existing properties from a variety of media such as movies (Army Of Darkness, Expendables), T.V. shows (Xena, Warrior Princess, Stargate SG1) and literature (Zorro, Warlord Of Mars), and this new series will continue that trend with characters such as Dorian Gray, Vampirella, Red Sonja, Herbert West The Reanimator, Alan Quatermain, Dracula and many more, all playing a part.
The series will be written by Ron Marz (Artifacts, Green Lantern) with art by Walter Geovani (Red Sonja), and will involve the various characters choosing sides in an upcoming »
– Tom White
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The Raven Italian Poster Offers Another Look at John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe
The upcoming, fictionalized biopic of renown poet Edgar Allen Poe (Cusack) from director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) and Relativity Media is scheduled for release April 27th, 2012. In this gritty thriller, Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) to hunt down a mad serial killer who’s using Poe’s own works as the basis in a string of brutal murders. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), the film also stars Alice Eve (Sex and the City 2), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster). When a mother and daughter are found brutally murdered in 19th century Baltimore, Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) makes a startling discovery: the crime resembles a fictional murder described in gory detail in the local newspaper »
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2 Duds Don’t Halt Box-office Recovery
Two big-budget films bombed over the weekend but that didn’t prevent the overall box office from rising nearly 3 percent above the comparable weekend a year ago. While Disney’s $300-million epic John Carter may only have brought in $30.18 million and Paramount’s Eddy Murphy comedy A Thousand Words, just 3.18 million, several holdovers performed solidly. The second weekend of Universal’s Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax topped the chart with $38.85 million, while Warner Bros.’ Project X, also in its second weekend, held on with $11.14 million. Relativity Media’s Act of Valor continued to perform above expectations, with the film placing fourth with $6.99 million, bringing the low-budget film’s domestic total to $56.09 million. Thus far this year, the box office is up 17.84 percent, while attendance is up 20.55 percent.
The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Box Office Mojo (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date):1. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Universal, $38,846,020, 2 Wks. ($121,724,850); 2. John Carter, Disney, $3,180,188, 1 Wks. (New); 3. Project X, Warner Bros., $11,142,103, 2 Wks. ($39,717,098); 4. Act of Valor, Relativity Media, $6,991,877, 3 Wks. ($56,092,474); 5. Silent House, Open Road Films, $6,661,234, (New); 6. Safe House, Universal, $4,801,510, 5 Wks. ($115,605,325); 7. The Vow, Sony, $3,842,485, 5 Wks. ($117,456,231); 8. This Means War, 20th Century Fox, $3,756,060, 4 Wks. ($46,895,410); 9. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Warner Bros., $3,611,388, 5 Wks. ($90,641,999); 10. A Thousand Words, Paramount, $3,176,280, (New).
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11 Great Posters for 11 Not-So-Great Movies (That I Have Seen)
11 Great Posters for 11 Not-So-Great Movies (that I Have Seen) I can’t remember what exactly sparked the idea to do this little list, but once I got the idea I really liked it so I began brainstorming and emailing a few friends. The result of my (brief) labors lead me to create this list of 11 great posters for 11 not-so-great movies that I have seen. That last little bit is added on there because tomorrow I will be presenting a list of 9 great posters for 9 not-so-great films that I haven’t seen, and in all fairness, that list is far more entertaining and the posters on it are quite fun. Nevertheless, I believe my choices here are quite good, which I will run down with brief comments on each over the next few pages. The posters are listed in alphabetical order, even though a few do like a few better than the rest. »
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Watch: ‘Independence Day’ Meets ‘Pearl Harbor’ In New Trailer For ‘Battleship’
“Warning red, weapons tight…I want everything loaded,” Liam Neeson gravely intones to a bunch of guys stranded in Alaskan wilderness to his crew. Why? Because a bunch of Transformers from space who are gonna create a huge debris field are coming to Earth in the latest trailer for “Battleship.”
The most explosion-y of the spots yet, this trailer makes the case that Universal really, really wanted to make “Transfomers 4” instead. Focusing heavily on the baddies, which look like their suits were ripped out of “Halo,” these aliens (or whatever) seem hella fierce. In fact, we have no idea how these puny little boats are going to defeat a massive onslaught of high tech weaponry from beyond, but maybe Taylor Kitsch and co. run into Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum on the way. At any rate, this looks pretty terrible, a ludicrous plot coupled with lots of loud noises hoping »
– Kevin Jagernauth
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Paramount Release Shakeup: Tom Cruise’s ‘One Shot’ to Christmas; Brad Pitt’s ‘World War Z’ to Summer
Rearranging its release calendar in a major way, Paramount is moving Tom Cruise starrer One Shot from February 2013 to Dec. 21, 2012–the same frame that Cruise’s box office blockbuster Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol opened last year.
As a result, the studio is pushing back Brad Pitt zombie action pic World War Z to June 21, 2013. The film had occupied the date that One Shot now opens on.
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Talk Around Town 