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Friday, April 18, 2003
Least popular movies of the last 15 years
Check out this everything2.com article about the least popular movies of the last fifteen years, as calculated by box office receipts vs. what they cost to make.
Sample excerpt:
"It's Pat (1994) cost $10 million to make and had total global box office receipts of only $60,822. That translates to a loss of 99.39%. The studio would have done better had they thrown the money into a pile and burnt it; eventually the flames would have died down and they would have had more than 0.61% left. "
posted by Christopher 10:46 AM | Comments
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Chadzilla's News Roundup for April 17, 2003
Alan Howarth, composer and sound effects man, has joined the celebrity list for the Halloween Returns to Haddonfield convention. Also new to the list is Nicholas Grabowsky, the author of the Halloween 4 novelization. Didn't know there was one, looks like my library is in need of another tome. Then again, maybe not.
Sad news for Dawn of the Dead fans, the deluxe box set has been pushed to a February 2004 release date.
Unearthed Films have picked up two British Thrillers. The first is Revenge of Billy the Kid, wherein a Farmer fathers a half-man/half-goat after, uh, never mind. Not surprising is that it is supposed to be a comedy as well as a horror movie. Unearthed calls it Monty Python meets The Evil Dead. Second on the docket is Boy Meets Girl, a tale about a chance meeting at a bar that goes very, very bad. This sounds promising, although the idea that the filmmaker made it as strictly to challenge the censor board in the UK makes me wonder if the grue will have any deeper meaning.
–Chad H. "Chadzilla" Saxelid
posted by Christopher 6:01 AM | Comments
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
20th Annual Ohio 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon - April 26 - 27
The Arena Grand Theatre in downtown Columbus, Ohio will be the setting for the day-long festival of modern and classic science fiction films, beginning at noon on April 26. Included in this year's festival will be a showing of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, to be accompanied by a personal appearance of that film's star, Kevin McCarthy. Other films to be aired include Gamera 2: Legion Attacks and Robot Monster (1963).
Although the festival itself does not have a web site, you can find out more by going to the Drexel Theatres Special Events page. Sounds like a great way to waste a day of your life!
posted by Christopher 9:32 AM | Comments
FoyWonder's News Roundup for April 16, 2003
Time for a quick mid-week update.
Holly Valance will not be appearing in the STREET FIGHTER sequel. Her representatives have denied that she will have any involvement with the project. Miss Valance is obviously much smarter than Jean Claude Van Damme is.
My arch nemesis (not Dean Devlin – my other arch nemesis) Jerry O’Connell was back in Australia talking up KANGAROO JACK and its forthcoming sequel when he started talking up his deluded fantasy of playing SUPERMAN. To quote the moron, “They still haven't called me back - so for all I know I'm going to get home and have a cape on my front door step.” Keep dreaming, Jerry! Speaking of KANGAROO JACK, the movie’s loaded DVD will feature an audio commentary track by the marsupial itself, well, at least the guy who supplied the voice. I’m sure that will provide more laughs than the movie itself did as long as there is at least one single witty comment.
The Olsen Twins in an action comedy? It’s going to happen in a NEW YORK MINUTE! That’s the title of the jailbait twins’ upcoming big screen flick that will be set in New York and take place over a 24-hour period. Uh, that’s all we know about the plot so far. Why do I smell an Olson Twins pictorial in Maxim coming very, very soon?
Speaking of age of consent laws, 17-year old Charlotte Church is apparently the frontrunner for the role of Christine in the feature film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Hopefully they aren’t planning to make this movie for several years otherwise they should probably cast R Kelly as the Phantom and let Roman Polanski direct it. (Church is also engaged to be married despite her mother's objections, and has been tapped by the BBC as one of the upcoming guest hosts for the current events quiz show "Have I Got News For You." -Ed.)
According to Ain’t It Cool News, Disney has officially decided on a script for TRON 2.0 but whether or not the sequel ever gets made will depend on how well the new TRON video game does when it comes out this fall. Yeah, wouldn’t want them doing something stupid like spending a hundred million dollars on a movie based on the actual quality of the script! That’s Hollywood for ya!
–Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 9:12 AM | Comments
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
New DVD Tuesday
CultDVDZone, which lists the latest cult DVD releases each week, has been updated.
posted by Christopher 4:44 AM | Comments
Monday, April 14, 2003
FoyWonder's News Roundup for April 14, 2003
Good afternoon, Mr. & Mrs. Fanboy and all the geeks at sea…let’s go to press!
Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Some of you may have read that rumor about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez starring in a remake of CASABLANCA. Well, that’s all it is. Its status as a film not in production has been confirmed. However, the duo will be seen in the upcoming guaranteed stinker GIGLI, a movie so bad that not only has it failed every test screening it has had even after multi-million dollar reshoots but even the producers are now fighting amongst themselves for who to blame for the pictures wretchedness. (This supposed awfulness is the source of much debate – the source of these rumors are a National Enquirer reporter and some anonymous reviews on aintitcoolnews.com. The film's studio, Affleck, and pal Kevin Smith -- who directed both Affleck and Lopez in the upcoming Jersey Girl -- have jumped to the film's defense. -Ed.)
Apparently Dimension is so pleased with what they’ve seen so far from SCARY MOVIE 3 that they’ve already greenlit a SCARY MOVIE 4. According to Variety, SCARY MOVIE 4 will begin filming in June and spoof the superhero genre as well as the horror genre. SCARY MOVIE 3 is set to open this fall and SCARY MOVIE 4 is slated to open sometime in the first quarter of 2004. If ever there was a case of beating a dead horse then this is it. Oh wait, I forgot. Dimension is also about to begin production of HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE. Now that’s a dead horse!
Speaking of movies that seemed destined to be stinkers, not only has THE LEAGUE OF EXTRORDINARY GENTLEMEN's release date has been pushed back a month or two due to post-production problems but the studio has opted to officially change the movies title to, get this, THE LEAGUE. Apparently the pretentious moniker LXG wasn’t inane enough and since the studio thinks the general public are all total morons they’ve decided to shorten the title to make it as lame as humanly possible. And in what should come as a shock to absolutely no one, the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake has got major problems. The film is going through unexplained and massive reshoots, to the point that the film’s scheduled release date of October has been pushed back to January of 2004. As most movie insiders know, January is traditionally the studio’s dumping ground for movies they know are awful and would have zero chance at the box office if up against any real competition.
In fast car movie news, HOT WHEELS: THE MOVIE has a writer in the form of James Robinson, who ironically also wrote THE LEAGUE. Also, the feature film version of KNIGHT RIDER is one step closer to becoming reality as writers have been hired to turn the campy '80s series into an “action comedy.” Oh boy, maybe they can hire Chris Rock to supply KITT’s voice? Why not, Vin Diesel has been rumored to be playing the role made famous by David Hasselhoff.
Since making those dreadful Creature Feature movies for Cinemax and HBO wasn’t enough to convince him that he should just stick to special effects, Stan Winston and his production company have nabbed the film rights to the upcoming video game THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE. The game, which won’t even be released until this Halloween, is based around an angel that has to stop the titular characters from wreaking havoc upon mankind. If it turns out as bad as Winston’s forthcoming feature film WRONG TURN is said to be then perhaps it is time for Winston to let the real filmmakers make the movies.
The Sci-Fi Channel is going bug crazy over the next few months. This Saturday sees the debut of THRESHOLD, starring X-Files’s Nic Lea and Profiler’s Jamie Luner as a medical officer and an entomologist dealing with an infestation of alien DNA that turns people into insectoid creatures. On June 28th, Hong Kong director David Wu spins WEBS about an electrical team that accidentally opens a portal to another dimension that unleashes an army of man-spiders into our world. That sounds like it could be stupid fun and considering it stars Richard Grieco I suspect the emphasis will be on stupid. Then sometime in either July or August, BUGS, directed by MEN IN BLACK’s FX artist Joe Conti, will premiere. BUGS sounds like a throwback to the monster movies of the 50s since it will be about oversized prehistoric insects infesting a big-city subway. That could be entertaining but I have a hard time believing so since it stars Antonio Sabato Jr. and Angie Everhart and rarely is anything that stars either of those two entertaining.
MGM announced a few more DVDs that will be hitting store shelves this August. THE OMEGA MAN, SOYLENT GREEN, WAIT UNTIL DARK, HOUSE OF WAX (Sadly it won’t be in 3-D), THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, and OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (You can’t go wrong with a movie that opens with Shannon Tweed naked and ends with Peter Weller waging mortal combat with a giant rat) all hit store shelves on August 5th. For those John Carpenter completists, his wretched MEMOIRS OF AN INVIVSIBLE MAN starring Chevy “Does anyone even remember the last time I was actually funny?” Chase hit store shelves on August 18th.
Three movies hit video store shelves tomorrow that may be worth seeking out.
CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE – The uncut version of the vastly inferior sequel that premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel just a week or two ago. Can you believe there is actually talk of turning CUBE into a weekly series? And you thought Tremors: The Series was really stretching a premise?
DARKWOLF – A half man/half werewolf (Does that even make any sense whatsoever?) stalks the streets of Los Angeles looking for a “pure” werewolf to mate with while being pursued by sinister forces. This one must be really good because it stars Jamie Bergman, the busty blonde from Son of the Beach.
DESPISER – A guy’s bad luck culminates in his dying in a fatal car crash and ending up in Purgatory where he must join forces with a band of misfit freedom fighters from all points in history to destroy the monstrous being known as the Despiser. Sounds like a winner to me.
–Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 1:57 PM | Comments
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