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Friday, May 30, 2003
Chadzilla's News Roundup for May 30, 2003
Here's some eye candy from the currently developing RESIDENT EVIL 2 movie. It seems that conceptual artist Dan Milligan is also helping with the also developing Ginger Snaps 2.
If you simply cannot wait for the upcoming release of Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER, have no sorrow. Fox Searchlight feels your pain. To ease it with a tease of the movie, they offer drooling fans the first six minutes on the web, just go here to enjoy.
Bill Lustig's Blue Underground has no intention of resting on its laurels anytime soon. In an interview with DVD Maniacs, the cult filmmaker and preservationist shares his opinions on his work for Anchor Bay, the armchair quarterbacking of some fans, and what releases you have to look forward to. And if you think that most 2-disc Special Editions are not that special, Lustig reveals why.
Fangoria had a look at the latest 70s retro shocker, WRONG TURN. So, is the lost travelers hunted by inbred cannibals a fresh twist on an old idea, or is it just stale leftovers. According to them it looks to be a little of both.
-Chad H. "Chadzilla" Saxelid
posted by Christopher 12:20 PM | Comments
Thursday, May 29, 2003
FoyWonder's News Roundup for May 29, 2003
Good morning, Mr. & Mrs. Fanboy and all the geeks at sea…I’ve got lots and lots and lots of news to catch up on so let’s go to press!
First and foremost, Ain’t It Cool News reports that one of the all-time classic bad movies is set to get the DVD treatment in the near future. Folks, MEGAFORCE is going digital! No release date is yet scheduled nor are any potential disk specs available but this one is apparently in the works. This should make many of you happy and others cringe depending on your level of tolerance for this one.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE SEQUEL is on its way and yes that is the title they’re going with. Despite the fact that the original theatrical film was neither a financial or critical success, another one is set for a 2004 release, or so says Variety. This sequel will have a much lower budget than the original, which itself was made somewhat on the cheap at only about $30-$35 million, and is being made specifically for the home video market. Hey, as long as Marlon Wayans isn’t in it then it’s already guaranteed to be better than the original.
(Astute reader Ciaran Conliffe pointed this one out to us as well -- thanks Ciaran! -Ed.)
Speaking of unwanted sequels based on a game, IMDB reports that MORTAL KOMBAT: DOMINATION has completed filming and will get a theatrical release before the end of the year. If that’s true I bet it will get the role of being the low-rent genre film that opens around Christmas only to bomb. I don’t know why but Hollywood does this every few years. Past examples include GHOST IN THE MACHINE, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, and DRACULA 2000.
Continuing the unwanted sequel theme, Ain’t It Cool News reports that Paramount has a script for BEVERLY HILLS COPS 4 and Eddie Murphy is all set to go. Apparently the film will begin production within the next 12 months. This one will allegedly be more in the vein of the original and less overly campy than the last dreadful one. Considering Eddie Murphy’s track record lately I doubt this will be a return to his past glory. But hey, at least Judge Reinhold will be getting a paycheck, as his character from the previous films will return yet again.
MTV reports that Adam Garcia is in talks to rejoin Piper Perabo for the highly unanticipated sequel COYOTE UGLY 2, which will reportedly be more romantic than the original. Even stranger, they say that the film is currently being written. Being written? Well, they better hurry up because the film has been announced as being released direct-to-video in September. Either somebody needs to get his or her facts straight or this really will be a quickie production.
If you needed any further proof that FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY was going to suck this should help. The movie doesn’t even open until June 13th but it will arrive on home video barely 8 weeks later. Maybe they should just skip the theater altogether and save some money.
Remember the movie TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT? No? Okay, remember the movie GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN? No? Well, add another one you probably won’t remember in 15 years. Paramount has bought the rights to the Avril Lavinge song SK8ER BOI with intentions of making a movie around it. The song is about a teenage girl who rejects a skater boy with a crush on her because her friends didn't approve of him, even though she secretly likes him. Years later, he becomes a famous rock star and she is left with regrets. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has hired former Dark Angel scriptwriter David Zabel to pen a script based around the song that will reportedly be about two teens from different backgrounds and the social constraints in which they find themselves. Movie based around songs that were hits at least 2 years before the movie came out tend to both suck and flop. I suspect this film will turn out to be about as unmemorable as those first two I mentioned.
Okay, who out there is clamoring for a biopic about Elvis Presley’s manager? Nobody, huh? That’s what I suspected. Well, whether you wanted it or not you’re about to get it. Variety reports that Warner Brothers is producing THE COLONEL AND ME, about the mentoring influence that Elvis Presley’s manager Col. Tom Parker had on producer Jerry Weintraub. Say what? So it’s actually about this guy’s relationship with some Hollywood bigwig instead of Elvis? Oh, did I forget to mention that producer Jerry Weintraub is producing this movie? Does this sound like somebody’s vanity project to you? Even more shocking is that Oscar winning director Barry Levinson has signed on to direct. Again I ask, does anybody out there really want to see this film?
Variety also reports that Peter “YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN” Boyle has signed on to play Old Man Wickles in SCOOBY DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED. Poor Peter, do you really need the work that bad?
Summer 2004, it’s all about Benji! Production began yesterday actually on BENJI RETURNS: RAGS TO RICHES, which will feature the loveable mutt teaming up with another dog to save Benji's mother from the dangers of a greedy and irresponsible backyard breeder. The movie is set in Gulfport, Mississippi, which just happens to be right next door to the town I live in, but is being filmed in Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah. Just to see how that looks on screen makes me want to see this movie when it comes out next summer.
GARFIELD has a voice! Bill Murray will provide the voice of the lazy fat cat, replacing the late Lorenzo Music who provided the voice in the animated version. Don’t know whether this is good news or bad news. I guess as long as the movie proves to be better than the miserable OSMOSIS JONES then it should be considered good news.
Steven Seagal is about to be UNLEASHED -- or at least that’s the title of one of his upcoming movies. No word on what the plot of the film is but the $14 million production will be filmed in Luxembourg and the UK. With a title like that it better deliver the goods because I can think of about a dozen jokes that could be make at Mr. Seagal’s expense using that title.
As many of you have probably already heard, Tim Burton is set to make CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, which was previously made into a 1971 musical as WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Seems the author of the classic children’s novel hated the original movie version and Dahl's estate gave approval for this version only after learning that Burton would direct. Not sure what to think of this. If nothing else, you can rest assured that with Burton directing it will be a visual tour de force. Not that long ago a rumor was going around that Marilyn Manson wanted to star in the remake.
Those of you dying to see the Ice Cube/Jaime Pressly motorcycle racing movie TORQUE, well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until next year, as the movie has been pushed back until January 2004. January is traditionally Hollywood’s dumping grounds for movies that even they know suck and have little faith in their box office appeal. Can it really be worse than BIKER BOYZ?
Fans of the show Angel may gouge their eyes out of this next rumor proves true. Word is going around that Lorenzo Lamas is going to join the cast when it returns this fall. No word yet on what the former Am I Hot? judge will be doing on the show but just the fact that such a thing is even being strongly rumored should be enough to horrify many.
Variety reports that the Sci-Fi Channel was so pleased with the Steven Spielberg-produced 20-hour miniseries TAKEN that they’re planning an eight-hour miniseries about the Bermuda Triangle to be called simply TRIANGLE. The Sci-Fi Channel has roped two Hollywood genre big shots to produce and develop the miniseries and what an odd pairing they are – Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin. So the director of THE USUAL SUSPECTS and the X-MEN movies is teaming up with the guy who co-wrote and co-produced GODZILLA and ID4. Talk about two people on opposite ends of the talent spectrum. It’ll be interesting to see what their combined talents come up with. Hopefully Singer’s goodness can cancel out Devlin’s badness. Truth be told though, the Bermuda Triangle is a fascinating subject that rarely makes for a good movie so they got their work cut out for them as it is.
Finally, Fangoria has news of some potentially noteworthy genre films coming down the pike that are currently being offered at the Cannes Film Festival marketplace.
First up is DRACULA 3000, not to be confused with DRACULA 2000 or any of its upcoming direct-to-video sequels. This movie does to Dracula what seemingly all horror icons do when filmmakers completely run out of ideas – they blast him into space! Set in the year 3000, Dracula terrorizes a spaceship crew including Erika Eleniak. Erika Eleniak? Well, that alone is a bad movie guarantee!
Next up is MINOTAUR, and no, it isn’t about the mythical Greek monster. The plot is described simply as “a tale of survival set in a world with a prehistoric alien.” Well, that sounds awfully generic. However, what is interesting are the film’s stars and they’re almost as unlikely a duo as Singer and Devlin. The movie pairs highly respected Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi and CANDYMAN himself Tony Todd. Now that’s an odd couple.
Next up is one that I am very much looking forward to because God help me I’m a sucker for movies about the goatsucker. EL CHUPACABRA is about, well, the chupacabra. Nothing more is known about the film other than it is from the same people that made the tongue-in-cheek “giant scorpions on an airliner” monster movie TAIL STING, which was a movie you were either somewhat amused by (Like myself and Jabootu’s Ken Begg) or despised with every fiber of your being (Like pretty much everyone else who has seen it). Either way, you can pretty much count on EL CHUPACABRA to be a very cheap production.
Finally, and I hope I’ve saved the best for last, comes CROAK. “When a comet slams into a tanker truck carrying a radioactive load, a bucolic American town falls victim to a plague of mutant frogs.” I am more than ready to declare this the greatest movie in the history of cinema!
-Scott Foy
posted by Christopher 5:08 AM | Comments
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Get yer new DVD releases here
Cult DVD Zone has been updated with the DVD releases for the next two weeks.
posted by Christopher 7:47 AM | Comments
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