As previously reported, Platinum Dunes has made plans to remake yet another horror movie from the 80's, The Monster Squad. The original wasn't exactly considered a classic like some of the other films they've provided remakes for in recent years, so it make you wonder, why this project?
Shocktillyoudrop recently spoke to PD Producer Brad Fuller about the project. Shock inquired about the status of the project with Fuller today who told them:
"I'm in the process of finding a screenwriter. I'm meeting with writers every day. So we'll get someone in the next two or three weeks and get them writing."
The original film resurrected Universal's classic monsters, tapping into a healthy obsession many kids growing up in the '80s had with the creatures. But now faced with a new generation, does Platinum Dunes intend to revive these familiar faces again or can we expect a new line-up of foes? "That's something we're definitely talking to writers about and I don't have an answer for you yet," Fuller said.
He maintained, "We're definitely using the original film as a blueprint and love the fun parts of it. We have three or four different takes, some stick closely to the original - others are going to be a bit different. It's about sitting down with Rob Cohen and the studio and figuring out which storyline we're going to go with. But I can tell you all of the story lines, whereas Friday the 13th isn't like the original, this will be close to the original. It's about a group of kids who have a monster squad, monsters come to their town and they've got to figure it out."
The original Monster Squad released in 87' made only 3.7 million at the box-office. This was considered a box office flop even in 1987, a time when other movies with in the horror genre were making exponential amounts of cash at the box-office, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 for example made 44 million that same year.
I can't see the remake for Monster Squad making much more impact then that of the original. Maybe if Platinum Dunes can get the Green light for the currently "Dead Friday the 13th" franchise, they'll scrap this guaranteed failure for their guaranteed money maker.
It looks like 'How to Train Your Dragon has taken the number one spot again! in their 5th week at the box office Dragon has made it's way back to the top. New movies opening this weekend were the Jennifer Lopez comeback 'The Back up Plan' landing the number two spot, and the aptly titled 'The Losers' came in with a poor opening in fourth.
1. How to Train Your Dragon (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) - $15.3 million
2. The Back-up Plan (CBS Films) - $12.2 million
3. Date Night (20th Century Fox) - $10.4 million
4. The Losers (Warner Bros.) - $9.4 million
5. Kick-Ass (Lionsgate) - $9.3 million
6. Clash of the Titans (Warner Bros.) - $8.9 million
7. Death at a Funeral (Sony/Screen Gems) - $8 million
8. Oceans (Disney) - $6 million
9. The Last Song (Disney) - $3.7 million
10. Alice in Wonderland (Disney) - $2.2 million
I ended up fairly close with most of my predictions from last week, to see how I did go HERE.
Be sure to check to TMT on Thursday for this coming weekends predictions, where we'll have the new Nightmare On Elm Street and Furry Vengeance being added to the mix.
Syfy is promoting that the trailer for Jonah Hex will debut this Thursday on the channel and you can watch the brief footage using the player below. The trailer will hit theaters with A Nightmare on Elm Street this weekend.
Directed by Jimmy Hayward, the comic book opens June 18th and stars Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Will Arnett and Michael Shannon.
Bruce Timm is a man who needs little introduction, with his work on Batman: The Animated series just one highlight of an extraordinary career. He’s one of the main people behind a lot of the recent DC Animated features that have been released direct to video.
His next project to be released will be Batman: Under the Red Hood.
TMT had the opportunity to take part in a round table interview with Timm, as well as an exclusive interview with Bruce at this weekend’s Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. You can read the exclusive interview below.
Why did you choose Batman: Under the Red Hood as your next project?
When I was first Pitched the idea of Red Hood, I wasn’t at all interested, and I hadn’t actually read the comic at that point either. I picked up the comic, and I thought it was “okay”. It could be done, but I really wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t until after I sat down with Judd (Winik), for every issue I had, he had a solution. After that, we started working on it right away. We actually just watched the finished product in its entirety the other day. I’m not sure if its been officially announced yet, but our plans were to premiere Red Hood at Comic Con San Diego this July.
What would you say the tone of ‘Under the Red Hood’ will be?
It’s definitely a very dark and intense movie, It’s not geared towards the “soccer moms”, or young kids. I’d say it deals with very serious subject matter, and it’s a very violent film.
What is the MPAA Rating for ‘Red Hood’?
That’s a great question we’re always aiming towards a PG-13 rating, obviously because it’s a lot a harder to market a direct to video animated feature that’s anything more than a PG-13, and for the fact that “super hero” films are generally geared towards a younger demographic.
The problem we think we might have with Red Hood, is that it’s extremely violent, and not just for something animated. We’re hoping it comes back PG-13, but there is a strong possibility at this point its going to end up with an R Rating. We’d love to leave the film as it is now, we’re all extremely happy with how it’s turned out. But the marketing department at WB isn’t about to allow that. They’re a very conservative group, intent on having the direct to video features having an above average chance of making their money back.
If it does come back with an R rating we’ll have to change a few things to bring the rating down to a PG-13. In the opening sequence a teenager is beaten to death with a crow bar, so the tone is very dark. We don’t want to lose that, but we may have to tone it down slightly.
We were actually working on something a couple years ago that was planned to have an R Rating. It was a very popular book, I’m not allowed to say what it was, but it was before Watchmen came out. Everyone at WB was happy with it, the plan was to go ahead full force, and then Watchmen came out and tanked. The Marketing people and the exec’s said no, no more R Rated super hero films, especially not anything animated, and just like that the project was gone. That’s not to say it won’t ever happen, I’m sure at some point it is a possibility.
What will be your next project after ‘Red Hood’?
I’m not currently allowed to talk about that, not in great detail anyways. The people in charge of publicity at WB control what we say with an iron fist! We are however hoping to make two very exciting announcements soon. We have one feature in development and one that’s being animated right now.
Did you feel a lot of pressure dealing with such iconic characters, when you started working on Batman: The Animated Series?
There was definitely a lot of pressure. But we were actually quite lucky, when that show was being developed we were coming off the heels of the Tim Burton Batman films, which were very dark in tone. That actually created a great transition for the animated series. It made it easier to go to the Fox network and tell them we wanted to approach the show with a darker more serious tone, and more dramatic take on the character, which is what we had originally planned to do.
When you were developing B:TAS, you wanted to distance it from the 60’s animated series. What are your thoughts on the new animated Batman series ‘Batman: The Brave & The Bold’?
I think it’s really fun, it’s great because it came out around the same time as The Dark Knight. I loved the The Dark Knight, but it wasn’t really intended for kids, at least not young kids anyway. I think a lot of the time now we tend to forget that super hero movies and these characters biggest audience is the younger kids. With brave and the bold, I think we’re creating a whole new generation of Batman fans. It allows the younger kids to enjoy batman as much as we do while watching movie like The Dark Knight.
I always try to keep in the back of my own mind that these movies or shows are going to be generally watched by a younger age group. When I’m creating something, I do like to do things that I know I’d enjoy, or people my age would enjoy, but I have to remember to not make things too complicated or serious to the point that our biggest audience isn’t able to garner interest. Brave and the bold does a great job of giving the kids something that’s just for them
Are you still planning on doing an animated Vampire Batman movie? I know you had previously expressed interest in that.
Not currently, no. We were pursuing something related to the Vampire Batman not all that long ago, but then they did the Batman Vs Dracula recently, so it would really just seem redundant at this point to re-hash a story that was literally just done.
Are there any current plans to for ‘Judas Contract’ to be developed as an animated feature?
We had quite a few drafts done up, but nothing that we really loved. We did love what they did with it in the Teen Titans series, and for now we’ll continue to go that route. Again it’s like the Batman Vs Dracula, it was done recently, and it worked. It would be redundant to do something different right now.
Is there any chance of ‘Hush’ or ‘The long Halloween’ being developed?
Hush isn’t something that we’re all that interested in our end, but it has come up. The real problem with Hush is that it works better as comic then it would as a movie, it could work as a show, maybe. The same can really be said for The Long Halloween as well. It works a lot better as a comic, and not so much as a movie.
I wouldn’t rule out either of them altogether, but it won’t be happening anytime soon.
Is it true, that the Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue” was not originally intended to be the ending for Batman Beyond?
Yes. We did the return of the joker, and that at one point was almost how we were ending it. Then we did epilogue with Justice League and that worked. What we had originally planned on doing was another direct to video movie just for Batman Beyond, where Terry finds out that Bruce is actually his biological father. That’s something we were really looking forward to, but it didn’t work out at that point in time.
Are there any plans to re-visit Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond) in the future?
Not currently. But I wouldn’t rule it out in the future. We’ve definitely discussed having a Batman Beyond re-union of sorts, but it won’t be happening anytime soon if it does get made.
Do you plan to have any of your DC animated films released to theatres, like ‘Batman: Mask of the phantasm’?
No. DC is really focused on their Live Action films right now. We were extremely nervous about Mask of the Phantasm. That kind of movie really work better for the TV movie or direct to video release.
When we did that, we had everyone from every different department at Warner Bros telling us how we had to do things, or what we had to be doing with Marketing and things of that nature. There was a lot more people to answer to doing a theatrical release than what there is with TV or direct to video.
If you could develop any comic book hero or story line into a theatrical release, what would you do?
There’s too many to name, and really the problem is more the ones being made are terrible. For example I read about the Avengers and Captain America happening, and then I’ll read something about them, and they sound like they really suck. It always seems to sound good on paper, and then you see what’s going on with a project and it just isn’t nearly as interesting.
Are there plans to do any more sequels for the recently released DC animated films?
We had originally planned to do sequels for Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, but Wonder Woman’s sales started out extremely slow and then over time were eventually able to catch up to probably Justice League Frontier. The Exec’s decided because it wasn’t able to sell quickly right away, where as Justice League was, that there wouldn’t be any more female super hero films right now. We were developing and hoping to get started on a batgirl film based on Year One, but because of Wonder Woman’s slow sales start, that won’t be happening now.
With Green Lantern, it didn’t perform nearly as well as what they had hoped it would. In the long run it eventually made its money back, but the sales weren’t there right away during its release. Hopefully with the release of the Live Action film next year, that will open up the doors for more Green Lantern relate material.
Are there any current plans for an ‘Aqua man’ animated film?
No. We did developed an Aqua man script for a direct to video movie. Marketing decided it wasn’t going to be profitable enough to release.
The comic book needs to be wiped clean and have a re-boot once a year, they’re not able to keep the fan base interested any longer then that.
Was there a reason you decided to use John Stewart in Justice League?
Well for one to be honest, it was affirmative action. Every hero included at that point was white, it was my idea to include him. I felt we needed not only a diversity in ethnicity but also in personality, and Stewart was great for both.
When you’re developing Justice League related properties, are you able to use any character you want, and are there certain characters you prefer to use over others?
We used almost everyone we wanted to, but there were other characters we weren’t able to use due to licensing or legal issues.
If you could cast any actor for any role, what would you do?
Whenever we do something with Batman, we’re like cant we just have Kevin Conroy do it(laughs). We actually tried to have Ed Harris voice Batman, but he was not at all interested in the slightest.
Does Warner Bros give you full creative control over what you do?
For the most part yes. We used to hand something in and have it turned down, and we’d be furious, but now whenever something like that happens it forces us to be more creative. We try to create things that we know will work to begin with, but even then there’s still some people at WB that are going to say “Batman can’t do that, or he doesn’t do this”.
I do wish they would be willing to roll the dice a little more often, and take chances on some projects.
What is your favourite Live Action DC Comics related film?
I would have to say the original Superman from 78’. It’s the one that I’m still able to sit through from start to finish and enjoy it. I would say after that I really like The Dark Knight, and even Tim Burton’s Batman films as well, maybe the first more so than the second.
I love what Nolan did but I also still enjoy what Burton did. It’s fair to say though that, Nolan’s batman is the polar opposite from Burtons, and I didn’t enjoy Schumacher’s Batman at all.
Batman: Under The Red Hood will be released this Summer. Check Back to TMT for our official review.
Scott Morse is an animator, filmmaker, and comic book artist/writer. Much of Morse's published work consists of stand-alone graphic novels. He's currently working on 'Cars 2' for Pixar Animation.
TMT had the opportunity to take part in a round table interview with Scott Morse, as well as an exclusive interview with him at this weekend’s Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. You can read the exclusive interview below.
What can you tell us About Cars 2?
I'm actually not allowed to talk about that at all right now. What I can tell you is that for the people who liked the first one, but didn't love it, they're going to love Cars 2.
How long does it take for an Animated Feature Like Cars, to be fully developed?
With movies like cars, where we're using 3D animation. It can take anywhere from 2-3 years up to sometimes 8-10 years from the original inception of the idea. A lot of time and money goes into developing these worlds the movies are set in, to make them appear as real as possible with out making it too realistic.
In other words in order to keep an audience interested for an entire film, the look needs to be somewhat grounded in reality, and have a certain element of realism to it.
What is the hardest thing to do with both 2D and 3D animation?
I would have to say in terms of 3D animation, whenever your dealing with water, its extremely hard to replicate cresting waves. If you look at Finding Nemo, you'll notice this.
As for 2D a lot of the time every different character will be drawn by a different artist. For example The princess and the frog, every character was different in some way because they had their own individual artist. It's very hard to integrate several different artists work together into one film to make them look cohesive.
Pixar has roughly 1200 people working for them, and maybe 100 of them actually draw traditionally.
Do you think that with Animation being done primarily in 3D, that 2D animation is done?
The thing is, 3D is getting to be alot cheaper and easier to do. So I think 2D will have to re-invent itself and in some ways learn to be smarter and stay relevant. 2D will need to evolve.
What are your thought's on Stereo 3D being used for animation?
I think it should only be used for event films, not just as a gimmick. Lately everyone seems to be turning to Stereo 3D just for the gimmicky effect. When it further expands the experience of going to the theatre to see a movie, then it's don't its job. People need to feel like they're getting something special when they need to spend so much to see a movie in the theatre.
What is your Favorite project, that you've been apart?
The thing is, whenever I get on a project I love it. Like Cars 2 for example at first it's amazing, and then about half way through I hate it, I want nothing to do with it anymore, then once we're closer to finishing it, you begin to love it again. It's really a love-Hate relationship with most projects.
My absolute favorite thing to do though, would have to be my own original graphic novels.
Chris Claremont is one of the X-Men's most prominent writers, and Len Wein is one of the co-creators of Wolverine.
TMT had the opportunity to take part in a round table interview as well as an exclusive interview with Len and Chris at this weekend’s Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo.You can read the exclusive interview below.
Len, Why is Wolverine from Canada?
No reason in particular, I just threw a dart at the map in landed in Canada, I said fuck it, he's from there. No, what really happened was, at that time x-men comics weren't selling in the states, but was selling in a lot of other country's, and the marketing people at Marvel decided hey lets make the characters from all these different locations to help boost the sales. The problem was, they didn't tell us where they were selling, so we just made the different characters wolverine included from wherever we felt like.
Claremont, your known for writing very strong female heroes, which is your favorite to write?
I've known them all so long how do you pick favorites, I could say I love this about storm or so and so is very cool for this. There really is no way I could narrow it down to just one character, I love writing all of them, for different reasons.
Len, How did creating Nightcrawler come about?
The thing about Nightcrawler is he started out just as a visual. We had a bunch of characters drawn up, that hadn't been developed yet. We wanted him to be the nicest guy on the team as well as the most Christian, partly just due to the fact that he looks like a very demonic character. We also thought it would be great for him to be best friends with Wolverine, just to really throw people off. Sometimes we would do ridiculous things just for the fun of it, no story arch, no plan, just for fun.
As far as Nightcrawler's ethnicity and his origin, that relates back to the Marketing people wanting every hero to be ethnically diverse and from all over the world.
What kind of decision making goes into killing off a character?
In some cases it's just a lazy writer, someone who doesn't care about that character. I'll notice someone is killing off a character, and I'll ask them why, they tell me because I hate them, so I say don't use that character anymore. One writer may hate a character they're writing and want to kill them off, but that doesn't mean that when they're done someone else isn't going to come along and love that character, but look now that character is dead.
Other times we'll plan to kill someone off right from the start. It can be for different reasons, they're popularity starts to fade off, or it serves a story arch that may last several months or years. A lot of factors are usually taken into consideration before killing someone off.
Back in the day, Marvel said if they're dead they stay dead, but now you can kill a character today and bring them back next week.
Len, What was your involvement with the X-Men animated series from the 90's?
I worked as a writer as well as director for a short period of time. I know that I worked on at least three or four episodes, but I was actually credited and paid for five (laughs).
What are your opinions on the Marvel Live Action films?
I loved Iron Man, can't wait for the sequel, and I liked most of the X-Men films. I always thought the casting was amazing. I mean Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, for Wolverine and Storm were great. They got the heights right for Wolverine and Storm, except in reverse (laughs).
When Lauren Shuler Donner cast Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, that's when you could tell she'd earned her money, that casting was brilliant!
Robert Downey Junior as Iron Man, how many people heard this and thought, yes this is the guy. Another situation with amazing casting.
What do you think about Hollywood's current infatuation with comic book movies?
It all has to do with the studio executives. Their number one job is to keep their job. They pick books and characters that people will know, and then hire actors that at the same time are "hot", and if the movie fails, they can say how could I have known this would fail.
The Calgary Entertainment & Comic Expo is a showcase for just a few of those obsessive, shared loves. Comic aficionados, of course, have a place centre stage, but with the recent influx of blockbuster superhero movies and the $2 billion acquisition of comic giant Marvel by Disney, it’s getting harder to argue that comics live on the fringes. And why should they?
This year’s expo featured writers and artists who’ve made the genre such an explosive force, from the X-Men’s Chris Claremont who was one of a few people we were able to get an Exclusive Interview with, to Bruce Timm the co-creator of Batman: The Animated Series as well as several other DC comic's related properties was also in attendance, and TMT had a chance to sit down with him one on one, to discuss his next project Batman: Under the Red Hood, what's next for him and much more. Scott Morse Known mostly for his stand alone graphic novels, is now working for Pixar Animation, curently on Cars 2. TMT was also able to sit down with scott for an Exclusive Interview.
All of the TMT Exclusive Interviews from the expo can be read HERE.
The Highlight of the show for everyone, was likely the appearance from the nearly retired Leonard Nimoy. He was officially welcomed to the city by our Mayor Dave Bronconnier, who actually told him to use the force. As hilarious as it was, I don't think Dave will be getting the vote from any local fanboys this next election.
Other "Big Name" guests in attendance included Billy Dee Williams, Malcom McDowell, Brent Spiner, and Peter Facinelli.
This being the 5th annual event hosted in Calgary was said to be the biggest yet. Last years Expo had over 10,000 guests in attendance, and they're looking to grow the event even more for next year.
The next Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo will be April 30- May 1st, 2011.
Shockoptillyoudrop released the latest clip from A Nightmare on Elm Street is here. This time, it's Katie Cassidy who's having a run-in with Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley).
This is a huge improvement over what we saw in the last clip. If this is a sign as to what we should expect, then I'm in. Freddy needs to be scary, not Rorschach burnt to a crisp.
If you remember the last we heard of the Ninja Turtles franchise, Nickelodeon bought out the global rights to the series and unveiled their plans for a new CG animated series and live-action film – both for 2012.
Before that Peter laird, one of the original creators told MTV:
“The basic idea, as I understand it, is to do an all live action shoot, with actors and stuntmen in full Turtle suits,” explained Peter Laird, co-creator of the original comic series, to MTV News. “To add expressiveness to the Turtles’ faces which would be difficult if not impossible to get with animatronics and/or puppetry, there would be ‘face replacement,’ with CGI Turtle faces superimposed on the live action performers’ heads.”
That was the last we heard from the new TMNT "Batman Begins" style reboot back in August 2009. This new movie, coming to theaters in 2011 from Legendary Pictures, will be closer to the original comic, according to TMNT co-creator Peter Laird.
Now Latinoreview has got their hands on what looks to be the design for the "new" Ninja Turtles.
The thing about this design is it would work more for the Batman Begins-inspired reboot from Legendary Pictures, then it would for something I'd expect out of Nickelodeon. Which makes me really wonder, what's going on with the Turtles Franchise if this is in fact a "real" design.
Is Nickelodeon working with legendary pictures now to bring the best of both worlds together? Nothing has been confirmed nor denied from anyone at this point, but I'm sure with this picture making its way online, we can expect at the very least a denial from one if not both parties presumably involved at this point.
What do you think, is this what you were expecting the new turtles to look like? Or are you disappointed like me, they decided not to go back to the original Jim Henson designs from the original Live Action films. Well at least the first one that is.
The third and fourth clips for Iron Man 2 are now online, You can watch them in the players below.
The more I see for this movie, the better I think it will be. It might not match The Dark Knight in terms of story, but I'm sure it will be a close battle for popularity and box office. I'd expect to see some very big numbers from Iron Man 2 when it opens on May 7th.
Check back to TMT in May for our official Iron Man 2 review.
Copyright @ ThinkMcflyThink.com. All rights reserved.All other trademarks and images are property of their respective owners.
ThinkMcflyThink.com is a privately owned website. The opinions expressed on the website belong to each individual writer and are not necessarily representative of the staff as a whole. The site has no affiliation with any studio, major or minor.
ThinkMcflythink.com is not affiliated with Back To The Future, Universal City Studios, Inc. or Amblin Entertainment, Inc.
All names and photos of Back to the Future™ characters, vehicles and all other Back to the Future™ related items or their likeness are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of Universal City Studios, Inc. and U-Drive Productions, or their respective trademark and copyright holders.
Mon, April 26, 2010 
