vineri, 15 august 2008

Fan Created Dark Knight Sequel Movie Poster

/Film readers Max B and David B have sent over this fan made poster for a possible sequel to The Dark Knight. Seems like the artist, like most everyone I have talked to, wants The Riddler to attack Gotham City in the next film. But yes, it is just a fan creation (If the question mark didn’t give it away). But the rest of the poster is well done. I doubt they would use the title The Dark Knight Returns unless it was an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel. I have heard that the next film might employ the cape crusader’s on screen nickname “The Batman” in the title. “The Return of The Batman” anyone? Click on the image below to enlarge.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Moved to Summer 2009


Warner Bros has just announced that they are moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November 21st 2008, back to July 17th 2009. The reasons given are that the summer season is a more ideal window for for a family tent pole release, and that the writers strike left a big gap in the Summer calendar. I’m not quite sure if I buy the first reason. The three Potter films released in November averaged $916 million worldwide, while the two summer releases averaged $866 million worldwide, which is about a $50 million difference.

It’s also worth noting that ICE Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opens two weeks earlier, Ronald Emmerich’s sci-fi disaster movie 2012 opens the week before, and Land of the Lost opens on the same day as the new date. The november release had virtually no competition until a month later when Twilight hit theaters on December 12th. The good news is that the release date change will not alter the production schedule for the future Harry Potter films, and the move will shorten the gap in-between.

Kick-Ass New Movie

Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin from Superbad) is in negotiations and Chloe Moretz (Dirty Sexy Money) has been cast in Mathew Vaughn’s big screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book Kick-Ass.

Based on the creator-owned comic from Marvel’s Icon imprint, the story follows a a 15-year-old boy named Dave Lizewski who attempts to become a real-life superhero. The catch is that he has no powers or any of the stereotypical reasons for choosing to fight crime. The screenplay was written by the Stardust team of Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. The violent nature of the source material and obvious issues with the useage of the title in marketing has caused Hollywood studios to pass on the project. Some studios showed interest but wanted Vaughn to either tone down the violence or raise the age of the lead character. Vaughn believed in the project so much that he raised $30 million from private investors to produce the project independently.

Mintz-Plasse is not in line for the lead role, but instead that of the Red Mist, an angry teenage son of a mobster who is out to uncover Kick-Ass’ true identity. Moretz’s character is described by THR as “a ferocious, potty-mouthed 11-year-old who chops down crime thugs with a ninja sword.” Vaughn is also talking to “several high-profile stars” to play the parents or mobsters. The main character, Dave Lizewski, has not yet been cast. Vaughn hopes to begin production in the fall.

Mark Millar is also the creator of Wanted, and writer on many successful Marvel comics titles such as Spiderman, Wolverine, X-Men, Civil War, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four

Jay Baruchel New Movie !

Welcome to another edition of Movie Playlist, where we talk to the writers, directors, and stars about their favorite films. I’ve always found the celebrity playlists on iTunes to be interesting. Most everyone in the film business moved to Hollywood after discovering their love of films. And I’ve always love talking to people about their favorite films. So talking to the people who make the movies about their favorite films just seemed like a natural idea.

Jay Baruchel was relatively new to American audiences before his debut as the star of the critically acclaimed FOX-TV series Undeclared. The Canadian-born actor has since appeared in a number of feature films, including The Rules of Attraction, Almost Famous, Million Dollar Baby,and Fanboys. Baruchel reunited with Undeclared creator Judd Apatow last summer in Universal Pictures’ smash hit Knocked Up. You can see him in theaters now as Kevin Sandusky in Tropic Thunder. /Film’s David Chen conducted this interview.

Jay Baruchel: “There is sort of a repertoire that I will — once a year I will have to watch each one of them. I’ll say that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I can watch that movie anytime. It’s pretty much the prefect comedy and it’s kind of an amazing movie plot wise because it doesn’t follow the sort of usual quintessential Joseph Campbell story. It’s not about a guy that learns anything over a journey and becomes a different person. Ferris is the same son of a bitch the whole movie, he just effects change wherever he is and really the stakes are really never all that high and he’s happy the whole time. And the fact that they pulled that off and it is as funny as it is and as cool as it is, it just amazing.”

“A Japanese film called Battle Royale is one of my favorites and that’s like a John Hughes movie on crystal meth. Like to me Battle Royale there is not greater meditation on Teen X than that movie. That is the greatest coming of age movie I’ve ever seen.”