Josh Trank (Finally) Attached to a Comic-Book Property Worth His Time

Josh Trank shouldn't be wasting his time on the Fantastic Fours or Venoms of the world.

The counter-point argument, I'm sure, would be to say his talent could inject the kind of creative spark we saw when Christopher Nolan, a virgin to the sensibilities to blockbuster filmmaking, took on Batman Begins or J.J. Abrams, still associated as a "TV guy" and licking the commercial wounds from Mission: Impossible III's under-performance rebooted Star Trek. That is a fair point. But sometimes properties leave such a stench its best not to have a young filmmaker, still new to the game and right off the bat with success, getting his hands dirty.

As per "TOLDJA," he's linked to yet another comic-related project The Red Star to direct.

The story, based on the comic-books by Christian Gossett, is set in an alternative world chronicling a post-WWII Soviet Union where futuristic technology and sorcery at commonplace. Cool enough sounding concept, and easily the best thing he's been attached to post-Chronicle. That's more like it.

Seth Rogen Starring in the "Original" Buddy-Cop Comedy

Merely a hunch on my part, but I sense the headlining days of Seth Rogen slowly coming to an end, and we'll see him take the leap behind the camera full time a la Knocked Up co-star Harold Ramis. For as good as his comedies have been overall (Save for the occasional Green Hornet before a 50/50), his presence unfortunately is viewed increasingly as a hindrance as the box-office receipts for his fare get lower. So when we do hear of a starring vehicle for the comedy star, enjoy it while you can.

THR has the details on the latest, an untitled action/comedy telling the first interracial cop pairing, in essence the "father" to the buddy-cop sub-genre with Roth and Kevin Hart attached to star:

"The action comedy aims to be the 'original' buddy cop comedy by having Rogen and Hart be the first white and black cop duo in a story set post-World War II, in the late 1940s. The pair go undercover in the jazz scene to bust up a ring involving marijuana (no surprise there, since Rogen is involved.)"

The pitch was bought by Paramount with Rodney Rothman (a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman and Undeclared, incidentally co-starring Rogen) writing.  

Snow White & the Huntsman - New Trailer, Still Looks Awesome

New Snow White & the Huntsman trailer answers one question on my mind. Does Kristen Stewart (Long rivaled online for Twilight, to the point of people mislabeling her a bad actor by association) sport a British accent? She was conspicuously all-show, no-talk in the teaser.

It sounds British to me though I'll have to get Phil to authenticate and Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth still get more screen-time and lines here. And a first-look at the eight dwarves (The Mouse owns copyright on seven dwarves – No fooling!) all played by digitally downsized character-actors; yes, that's Bob Hoskins.

Looks great, love the creature work, production design, etc. Though the more I look, the more this seems better suited for Christmas 2012 as originally planned than June.

Prometheus Trailer Is Phenomenal

Going back to the world of Alien never sounded like the best idea, and playing with that red-headed step-cousin of sub-genre known as the prequel didn't elicit enthusiasm on face-value either. But you know what? Consider me a convert to the faith after the teaser trailer released during the Holiday 2011 season.

Now Ridley Scott ("Sir Ridley" to his mates) is out and about pimping Prometheus. He finally came out and admitted it is prequel at WonderCon this weekend, perhaps due to his tiring to beat around the bush, the sudden acceptance of Fox-produced prequels in the wake of Rise of the Apes and X-Men: First Class or maybe he just didn't give a damn. I vote the latter.

Well he's dropped the new trailer on the world. The title to this post says it all, baby. Enjoy.

Our Prayers Answered: Leprechaun Remake In Development

Of all the crap Jennifer Aniston has starred in (AKA: her latest excuse to whine about Brad Pitt to celebrity gossip leaches), funny to think Leprechaun is the one she hates to talk about. For all I know maybe it was a terrible experience, or maybe she's the snobby type and looks down on the early work that kept the lights to her house on. I don't know. At least they supplied Warwick Davis a steady paycheck for a decade.

That's all in the past as Variety reports a remake of Leprechaun is in the works. No other details were available (filmmakers, casting, etc.) beside it being a co-production between Lionsgate and WWE Studios. Yes, the wrestling studio.

How long do you give it till the Internet starts fan-casting Peter Dinklage?

100% Grade-A Speculation: Could We Expect Another Wolverine 2 Delay?

Yesterday afternoon came the announcement of Hugh Jackman's re-committal to headline the crime thriller Prisoners. Highly-touted script (Made the Black List few years back), subject matter to hook the general movie-going public (A father takes the law into his own hands after his small child and her friend are kidnapped) and an actor Joe-Sixpack loves. As my cousin and her husband once said of Jackman, "He seems like a real nice guy, not some Hollywood asshole!" It has a director in place with Denis Villeneuve (Incendies), a November 2013 release date and scheduled to start shooting after the Wolverine sequel early next year. It says as much on the press release you can read at Variety.

That's all well and good. But something caught my eye I don't think anyone else has noticed correct me if I'm wrong. THR reports of a contractual tug-of-war between Fox and Lionsgate over Jennifer Lawrence. The latter is so confident in The Hunger Games (and this was before all those wacky box-office tracking reports hit), they set a November 2013 release for the follow-up Catching Fire. In the event it lives up to the commercial hype, production would start this summer in order to meet that date.

But Fox wants her for the sequel to X-Men: First Class, now with Matthew Vaughn, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg all set to return, and mulling over a fall start-date. Though no release date has been lined up for a second swinging, 60s-muttie adventure, there lies the issue. If the Wolverine sequel is a go, and to film this year, why would they be looking to start up that First Class sequel in 2012?

Again someone correct any errors on my end, but what was the last firm information we've had on The Wolverine? That James Mangold was directing and that July 26, 2013 release date. That's it. Shouldn't we be hearing about additional casting, location-scouting and the like? Of course if you've followed the history of the big-screen X-Men, you'll know every film has had nut-crunching tight schedules with the filmmakers racing to the finish line to meet deadlines. Most recent case in point: the production of First Class.

Also the afore-mentioned Lawrence article could be nothing more than news being "leaked" as to give one side the edge for negotiation purposes and Fox, truthfully, has no intention to move forward with X-Men: Second Class this quickly. Not trying to be a non-news running, hit whore but that struck me as off. Strictly playing devil's advocate, folks. We could look up and start seeing official Wolverine information thus making my speculation null and void, and that's fine.

Just some food for thought.

Moronic Decision-Making In Play - Universal Swapping Oblivion Out for 3D Jurassic Park

The thrust of this news-item (as broken by Variety's Jeff Sneider) is Jurassic Park added the growing list of populist fare we grew up watching getting a post-converted 3D theatrical release. Putting aside your love or distain for this, the real story is Universal’s decision to slot it on July 19, 2013.

Universal already had their big late-July tentpole in Oblivion. Its director Joseph Kosinski is coming off Tron: Legacy, true, and even Disney didn't want it after that didn’t bring back light-cycles and stoner Jeff Bridges as hoped. But its big science-fiction action spectacle, that July position has proven to be a prime spot and, most importantly, stars Tom Cruise, coming off Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the biggest hit of his career and widely-viewed as his comeback.

That will instead move up to April 26, 2013, and no doubt, Universal will hope to repeat with their "Summer starts with us..." campaign that made Fast Five steal thunder (No pun intended) from Thor.

Those guys may still have blue balls from all the risks they took that blew up in their faces, but swapping out a 20 year old blockbuster (popular as it is) and slapping on 3D in place of a brand-new blockbuster-in-the-making is a big bone-headed call.

Dark Shadows Trailer Is (and Isn't) What You Expected

UPDATE: Its officially up with embed below courtesy of The Daily Blam!

The trailer for Dark Shadows will officially drop tonight at midnight. But not one to lose sleep waiting to see footage from another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration unveiled, Ellen DeGeneres got to premiere said trailer on her talk-show this afternoon, and being the Internet as it is, footage from the broadcast has made its way online for your viewing pleasure:

For all the smack talk, yours truly has laid down, I have to tip my hat. This isn't the tone anyone expected. A tongue-in-cheek Burton, though keeping the typical gothic production designs, and a less-than-oddball Johnny Depp. Arguably the straight he's played a role with Burton since 1999's Sleepy Hollow.

My cynicism hasn't been chipped off completely though, and one finds it strange Warner Brothers waited this late in the game to present footage (The film opens May 11). But, to their credit, I'm not ready to write Dark Shadows off either.

First Footage of Total Recall Remake

What's Taiwanese for "I liked it better when Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger did it twenty-two years?"

The Film Stage has our first look at the Total Recall remake and Len Wiseman and Colin Farrell retreading the same territory. Only not on Mars. Because who would want to be faithful to the Phillip K. Dick short-story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale?

What's that? The 1990 film already covered that material? That begs the question, why did you even bother remaking Total Recall to begin with if you thought it was a good idea to nuke a vital plot component? To be fair, this isn't even a complete trailer; just 30 seconds taken from, what looks like, a Taiwan trailer. But you'll notice "COMICON" stamped on top. Your guess is as good as mine to the actual source here.

Regardless, to quote Buddy Rich; this guy... this is not my kind of guy....

Robert Rodriguez Promises Sin City 2 News-Item We've All Heard Before #92425234

Here's the thing.

Not only has Robert Rodriguez made these claims before. To the point where we all roll our eyes every time he promises it's coming. But the fact of the matter is he waited too damn long for Sin City 2. The idea of a return to Basin City has us drooling, hungry for more circa 2005 after its release. To his credit, Rodriguez brought the comic-book world of Frank Miller (down to the panels) to life in a way we'd never seen before. Up to that point.

Then we waited for that follow-up, said to be A Dame to Kill For. The rumors, at the time, said Rodriguez had cast Angelina Jolie and so content was he to use her he would wait till after her then-pregnancy. That was back during the days when I believed that kind of bullshit, "official" reasons. Then Jolie had her baby... and still no Sin City 2.

And then 300 came along and Zack Snyder got all the credit for literally doing the same thing Rodriguez did two years prior. But since 300 was a bigger hit, he got all the acclaim... and then The Spirit happened and the thought of a green-screened, comic-universe in live-action form (From Miller, no less) suddenly brought a sour taste in people's mouths... and yet we would still hear stuff about that Sin City follow-up... and then nothing would happen. Lather, rinse, repeat... here we go again.

Speaking at SXSW, via THR, Rodriguez is back to the Sin City 2 promises. This time it will come after he wraps Machete Kills (Another sequel he’s promised for awhile) this summer. Though is possible it happens because, one, a broken clock is right twice a day, and, two he works incredibly fast and well-known for being such a one-man crew. That sure, it could happen.

Not to mention, we know he's all for going back to the well since he helmed Spy Kids 4 last year. And like that, it looks like Rodriguez is trying his best to reclaim his past glories. In that case (as proven by the financial failure of said forth Spy Kids), then stop looking to the past for inspirations.