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Thursday, May 08, 2003
Chadzilla's News Roundup for May 8, 2003
It has been said that success is the sweetest form of revenge. Well, Rob Zombie is dishing it out to Universal in heaps. House of 1,000 Corpses (which the studio dropped) has done well for itself, scooping in some 11 million dollars to date in limited release. Not surprisingly, distributor Lion's Gate has green lit a sequel the Zombie will write and direct, reuniting Sid Haig, Karen Black and other cast members. An April 2004 for release is planned (just in time for the one year anniversary of the first 1000). Fangoria forwards the news from Variety.
While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake goes through reshoots and tinkering, Michael Bay's Platinum Dune (the company responsible for it) is moving ahead with another horror movie project, entitled Superstition. Based on the David Ambrose novel, it concerns a college psychology experiment that stirs up a malevolent spirit.
Fangoria is helping a grass roots "Give us a deluxe boxed set of Friday the 13th movies" campaign to Paramount. Details are here. An early look at the supposed controversy can be found here. I'm drafting a letter later this week. Should be worth a few laughs.
–Chad H. "Chadzilla" Saxelid
posted by Christopher 6:34 PM | Comments
FoyWonder's News Roundup for May 8, 2003
What do Rob Zombie, SARS, giant eels, Tommy Lee Jones, musical vampires, and the junk in Charlotte Church’s trunk all have in common? They’re all part of today’s loaded news report.
We’re overdue for some comic book movie news so let’s start off with some. George Clooney as Mr. Fantastic in the FANTASTIC FOUR movie? You’d think Clooney would want to stay away from comic book movies forever after the BATMAN & ROBIN fiasco, but it looks like it is going to happen. F4, you just know they’re going to use that abbreviation when marketing it, is already set for a November 4, 2004 release. Considering the volume of special effects such a movie would require and the amount of post-production time that will require they may want to wait until they actually begin shooting the movie before they set a release date in stone.
Let’s do some simple bad movie math. Nicholas Cage + fast car movies = crap! Having not learned his lesson from the abysmal GONE IN 60 SECONDS, Cage is going to get behind the wheel again to star in RPM, which is about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-like of outlaws using an illegal European car race as a cover for a heist. The movie will also reunite Cage with his CON AIR director Simon West. You’d think he’d have learned that lesson too!
Here’s a premise for you. Tommy Lee Jones plays the same sort of gruff, hard as nails lawman he plays in virtually every movie only this time he has to go undercover as the coach of a high school cheerleading squad. This upcoming comedy is called CHEER UP and if it’s as lame as the premise sounds then I suspect Tommy Lee Jones may need some cheering up too very soon.
Looks like SON OF THE MASK is on its way. No Jim Carrey or Cameron Diaz this time around though. Instead the sequel will follow an aspiring cartoonist, played by Jamie Kennedy, who is not ready for fatherhood but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the Mask of Loki. Say what? So this one is THE MASK meets LOOK WHO’S TALKING? Wait, it gets ever stranger. Allan Cumming, fresh off his scene-stealing performance as Nightcrawler in X2, has signed on to play the Mask of Loki. Not sure how that is supposed to work but it really does sound like a step back for Cumming’s career.
Here’s you nauseating, high concept romantic comedy for the day. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers is paying big bucks for the spec script HERGATORY, written by former MTV veejay Susan Brightbill. A mid-30s woman who is unlucky in love makes a wish to go back and re-date her old boyfriends. The wish comes true and becomes a curse, however, when she suddenly finds her ex’s coming back into her life one by one, but at the ages they were when she dated them, including an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old who is trying to get to second base. During the course of the dates, she finds true love with the one person she least expected. Oh, I hope it’s the 8-year old!
Maybe they should call it HOUSE OF 1,001 CORPSES? Variety reports that Lion’s Gate is going to produce a sequel to Rob Zombie’s horror opus HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES. The $3 million horror movie that spent nearly 3 years on the shelf before getting released to decidedly mixed reviews and lukewarm box office has still grossed $11 million to date and apparently that’s enough to warrant another installment set to open in theaters next April. Lion’s Gate hopes to turn this into a franchise. Rob Zombie is already working on the script as we speak. I suppose we’ll be hearing about DARKNESS FALLS 2 and FEARDOTCOM 2 any day now?
Speaking of musical horrors, Elton John and his longtime songwriting partner are working on a Broadway musical version of Anne Rice’s THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. Stop laughing! I’m serious! It should come as no shock that this brilliant idea was conceived by Warner Brothers, who have been foolishly trying to concoct a BATMAN Broadway musical for some time now. The $10 - $15 million production is set to take the stage in 2005. John claims it won’t be a rock opera, but will instead lean towards a more classical sensibility. Oh yeah, this is going suuuuuck! And I don’t mean that in a vampiric punny sort of way either.
Continuing on the musical horrors theme, Charlotte Church won’t be starring in Joel Schumacher’s big screen version of the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA musical. 17-year old Church told In Style Magazine that they wouldn’t even let her audition until she dropped a few pounds because Schumacher and company felt she was a bit too chunky for the part so she told them to “bugger off.” Smart girl. Somewhere out there, Katie Holmes is very happy. Hopefully her singing lessons are going well.
While it may not be a horror movie, this next film does star a singer and it may be horrifyingly bad. Remember the dueling movies with similar premises both using the title FIRST DAUGHTER that I reported on a few weeks back? Well, the one starring Mandy Moore has officially changed its name to UNTITLED MANDY MOORE PROJECT until the powers that be can come up with a new title. Mandy Moore plays the President’s 18-year old daughter, who gives the Secret Service the slip and takes off on a European vacation with Secret Service agent Jeremy Piven in pursuit. Mandy Moore and Jeremy Piven, together at last? I am so there. Not!
The fine folks at UFO Films, makers of such fine flicks as ANTIBODY and DRAGON FIGHTER, have another fine flick coming down the pike. This one is called DEEP SHOCK. A group is sent in to investigate a distress call from a high-tech oil drilling facility below the Arctic Circle. They find that the hull has been ruptured and everyone inside is seemingly dead. Soon, they have to fight for survival against the creature responsible for the carnage – a giant electric eel! Yep, a giant eel with jaws of steel that can track prey via electrical signals. You know, I’ve been thinking we were overdue for a killer eel movie. Too bad this one is coming from a production company that isn’t known for making good movies or even entertaining schlock for that matter.
Who says America has the market cornered on shameless headline grabbing movies? According to Screen Daily, two different movies about the deadly SARS virus are set to begin shooting in Hong Kong shortly. One, a currently untitled Chinese production, will be a serious drama about a nurse who selflessly treats SARS patients before succumbing to the disease herself. That one may end up starring respected Asian actress Gong Li. The other, one of those “only in Hong Kong” productions, is being produced by Hong Kong’s Mandarin Films. Entitled CITY OF SARS, the film is a comedy-drama interweaving three stories centered around the fatal respiratory virus. One is a love story about two people who meet when they are forced into quarantine. The second revolves around Hong Kong's medical workers and their struggle to cope. The third involves a businessman who attempts to catch SARS after the illness makes him bankrupt. As I said, only in Hong Kong.
Finally today, if you’re in Gainesville, GA this October you may want to check out the “Sid Vicious Fright Fest: Independent Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival." Hosted by ex-professional wrestler Sid Vicious, the horror film festival is slated for Oct. 11-12 at the Georgia Mountains Center and Roosevelt Square. Vicious also co-stars in one of the short films being shown at the fest. Personally, I’m waiting for Abdullah the Butcher’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival myself.
-Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 6:11 PM | Comments
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Underworld will not be renamed
A Sony Pictures spokesperson released a statement today regarding a rumored name change for an upcoming title.
Official statement regarding Underworld title:
May 7, 2003 – Screen Gems confirms that the title to the upcoming thriller UNDERWORLD, starring Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman, has NOT been changed. Rumors circulating to the contrary are false.
UNDERWORLD reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city’s underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and a nascent Lycan – deadly rivals for centuries – fall in love. Len Wiseman directs Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman in a fast-paced, modern-day tale of deadly action, ruthless intrigue and forbidden love, all set against the backdrop of an ancient feud between the two tribes in a timeless, Gothic metropolis.
UNDERWORLD opens nationwide on Friday, September 19.
posted by Christopher 12:46 PM | Comments
FoyWonder's News Roundup for May 7, 2003
Good morning, Mr. & Mrs. Fanboy and all the geeks at sea…let’s go to press!
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE 2 is on its way! Variety reports that the script is being written as we speak. Hey, maybe this time they can have a white guy go to the hood and teach a black family how to act Caucasian? Wait, I forgot, racial humor is only acceptable these days if it’s the other way around.
Almost as disconcerting is the report from The Evening Standard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering making KINDERGARTEN COP 2. The premise behind the sequel – this time he goes undercover at an all African-American school. Oh joy! Just call it BRING DOWN THE SCHOOLHOUSE and put us all out of our collective miseries!
Apparently there is some sort of 3-D revival going on. First of all, SPY KIDS 3-D opens this summer. Secondly, James Cameron has said that whatever his next movie is it will be made in 3-D. Now comes word that music video turned movie director Hype Williams is working on a new 3-D horror movie called THRILLA. In it, young twenty-somethings in Jamaica awaken the living dead and end up fighting for their lives against the zombie onslaught. The most frightening thing about this movie is the fact that Disney is producing it. You don’t normally think Disney when you think about the living dead. On the other hand, you do tend to associate vampires with Disney since Disney movie execs are really good at sucking the life out of film projects. It will be interesting to see just how horrific THRILLA turns out to be assuming it ever actually sees life.
There are more three-dimensional thrills to be had at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, September 12th through the 21st. The famous theater will be running a 10-day 3-D film festival that will include such movies as CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, RETURN OF THE CREATURE, HOUSE OF WAX, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, and ROBOT MONSTER amongst others. The movies won’t be shown using the traditional red-and-blue 3-D but rather using Polaroid’s 35mm “double interlock” system. More info on the fest can be found at www.3dfilmfest.com.
Disney must be preparing on what they perceive will be the success of next summer’s live action THUNDERBIRDS movie because Variety reports they are planning a live action version of the British puppet adventure series JOE 90. At this rate we should expect the announcement of a live action version of CAPTAIN SCARLETT any day now.
Surefire sign #3958745 that the end of the world is near: Not only has Johnny Knoxville been able to parlay his JACKASS success into an acting career, now we can add producer to the resume too. Knoxville will star in and produce a currently untitled comedy for Paramount and MTV Films based on an idea he came up with – a war between two hot dog vendors in downtown Los Angeles. Even though the studio is going to hire a real screenwriter to flesh out Knoxville’s seemingly one-joke premise, you can still expect the gross out quotient to be astronomical. Let’s be honest for a sec, Johnny Knoxville isn’t famous for anything actually related to talent.
Coming to home video this September – COYOTE UGLY 2! Piper Perabo reprises her role from the original in this made-for-video sequel. Remember when people were talking about her as the next Julia Roberts?
A few weeks back FREDDY VS. JASON director Ronny Yu claimed this movie would be the first in a new franchise. Now Freddy himself, Robert England, is telling Celluloid Shockers that this movie is a one-time deal. Either England is saying stuff like this because he plans to demand more money for any possible future sequels or he, Ronny Yu, and the folks at New Line Cinema need to get together and get their stories straight. The film’s official website opened over the weekend featuring new stills from the movie that don’t reveal much other than there seems to be an abundance of top-heavy actresses in the film. You can see for yourself at www.freddyvsjason.com. Duh!
Scare Tactics won’t be the only reality show on the Sci-Fi Channel for much longer. The network is currently looking for 5 people with “alternative lifestyles” to compete on a reality game show to be called Mad Mad House. Producers are seeking people who identify themselves as Wiccans, vampires, Trekkers, Witch Doctors, Modern Primitives, Yogi Masters, etc., to live together in "Alt Manor" for a month and compete for a grand prize. I wasn’t aware that Trekker now qualifies as an “alternative lifestyle.” Anyway, if you want to try and make it onto the show then head over to the Sci-Fi Channel’s website, fill out the questionnaire, and email it to them . . . if you dare.
For those of you wondering what happened to Tremors: The Series, it got yanked from the Sci-Fi Channel schedule for unknown reasons and isn’t scheduled to return until June 20th. The same cannot be said for reruns of Cleopatra 2525, which have also been pulled from the schedule but without any planned date to return. Ouch! That makes the show a 2-time loser!
Filmjerk reports that a made-for-TV spin-off of the NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION films is preparing to pollute the airwaves. According to the site, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S COUSE EDDIE’S CHRISTMAS VACATION LOST will feature the Randy Quaid character, Cousin Eddie, being fired from his job at Christmas time. Hoping to avoid a lawsuit because he’s bitten by a laboratory monkey, Eddie's former employer sends him and his family on a vacation to the South Pacific. While there, the family and their pretty tour guide get stranded on a tropical island, where Eddie will finally get his chance to prove himself as a man and a good provider. Could that title be any longer and could that premise be any lamer?
Finally, I have a new review up at Ain’t It Cool News (Actually, there’s been so much stuff posted on AICN in the last 24 hours it’s already been bumped off the front page) for the film INFRATERRESTRE, the newest Santo movie out of Mexico that I reported on a short while back. Believe it or not, it’s a mostly positive review as the movie is positively luchariffic! Even more surprising was that less than an hour after the review went live I received a very nice email from a representative for the film’s production company thanking me for my feedback, both positive and negative. You can read my review of the Mexican wrestler vs. aliens from inner earth flick here. And just a reminder, the loaded DVD (albeit most of the extras are in Spanish without subtitles) comes out today.
- Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 6:53 AM | Comments
Chadzilla's News Roundup for May 7, 2003
Fangoria's website announced today that George A. Romero's next project looks to the something called The Ill. The story concerns a college student who falls for a foreign exchange student who hails from Eastern Europe and has "strange appetites". P-Kino Films is producing, IN-Motion Pictures has secured international distribution rights. No US distributor has signed on the dotted line as of yet.
May 12 is the air date for the two hour prequel to Rose Red, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer. Ridley Pearson adapted his novel of the same name while Rose Red director Craig Baxley brought it to port.
And the inbred mutant thriller Wrong Turn has a website. There is no trailer though, according to Fangoria, Fox is having trouble getting one approved! Makes me want to see it even more.
Blue Underground has a pack of Larry Cohen movies coming out this summers. Special Edition treatments of God Told Me To, Q: The Winged Serpent, and his debut effort, Bone. Commentaries and the usual geeky coolness that stuffs all of Blue Underground's discs.
posted by Christopher 6:22 AM | Comments
Monday, May 05, 2003
Summer dreams, ripped at the seams
From The Hollywood Reporter:
Hoping "Grease" lightning can strike a third time, Paramount Pictures is drawing up plans for "Grease 3," a continuation of the hit musical franchise.
The plan is to set the new project in the late-'70s, feature plenty of disco music and have the story evolve around the children of the original characters. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, stars of the 1978 original, have already been given a heads-up that their services will be sought once a script is completed. A search for writers is underway.
Somehow I don't see "First Lady" Stockard Channing coming back, but stranger things have happened. And what else does Olivia Newton-John have to do these days?
posted by Christopher 3:07 PM | Comments
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