Contagion Trailer Is Scary As All Hell

The trailer for Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is here – courtesy of iTunes Trailers and at the bottom of this post. Pick your poison, good reader. But if you're the type who likes to go into your films as spoiler-free as possible, then it's best to carry on with your day reading something else.

What little I'll say is this. This is scarier than anything today's croup of horror filmmakers or Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer could cook up with F/X, mask-wearing psychos or shitty spoof movies. It feels like we're watching real people (who happens to be played by big-name actors) going through this horrific event before our eyes.

David Goyer Adding His Reboot Magic to Godzilla

"TOLDJA" says David Goyer has shifted his efforts from vigilantes dressed as bats and Kryptonian superheroes to giant Japan-wrecking lizards. He's penning Legendary Pictures' long-intended Godzilla reboot/remake/rewhatever for helmer Gareth Edwards.

Following the pattern set before. There will be cool ideas spread throughout, some bad dialogue here and there and a totally jumbled-up third act. And then Christopher Nolan will step in and fix it.

Evil Dead Remake - Now With Director & Writer

Neither of which are Sam Raimi, thankfully.

After all these years and all those ceaseless Internet rumors, a new Evil Dead movie is for real this time with Raimi, Rob Tapert and the Chin himself (Bruce Campbell) serving as producers for Fede Alvarez directing (as scooped by Bloody Disgusting yesterday and whose awesome short-film Panic Attack! apparently got him the job) and indie-darling-turned-fanboy punchbag Diablo Cody writing.

Here's the press release:

"Sam Raimi and original producing partners Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell (who also starred in the original franchise) are gearing up to remake their cult sensation The Evil Dead through their long standing Ghost House Pictures partnership. Raimi and Tapert were such instant fans of Fede Alvarez's short film 'Panic Attack' that they set up a blind deal with the filmmaker and through that process have attached Fede Alvarez to write and direct the film. Alvarez wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is currently doing revisions on the draft. Ghost House is committed to renewing the franchise and has the film on the fast track.

Raimi, Tapert and Campbell will serve as producers. Ghost House Pictures partners Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will executive produce. Nicole Brown and J.R. Young will oversee the project for Ghost House. Lionsgate will handle international sales on the film.

The three producing partners commented, 'We are committed to making this movie and are inspired by the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for the 'Evil Dead' series. We can't wait to scare a new generation of moviegoers using filmmaking techniques that were not available to us thirty years ago as well as Fede bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements.'

Raimi wrote, directed and, along with Tapert and Campbell, produced the original horror classi c The Evil Dead that tells the story of five twenty-something friends who become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover a Book Of The Dead. An archaeologist's tape recording reveals that the ancient text was discovered among the Khandarian ruins of a Sumerian civilization. Playing the taped incantations, the youths unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival. The Evil Dead spawned a franchise with the equally successful installments Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness."

Good on those guys to be wise enough to know if a new Evil Dead must be made, hand it off to younger, fresh-faced talent with something new to bring to the table. Just don't shoe-horn in a Campbell cameo, please.

MGM Hearts Chris Pine for Robocop

With The Hobbit and James Bond both sporting a pulse, attention for MGM has focused on the new Robocop, among others.

Twitchfilm reports that while no offers are on the table and it's not clear on where director Jose Padilha stands on this casting, their top pick to take over the franchise is Chris Pine.

Unlike say his onscreen papa Chris Hemsworth and others like Sam Worthington, Pine is making careful decisions on his film-slate post-Star Trek. Don't want to burn out the public too soon but you don't want to disappear in between installments on your big franchise. So far, he's only done Unstoppable, which did decent enough business last November, and recently wrapped on Welcome to People. In the near-future is Star Trek 2 whenever Paramount plans to release it (4^th of July 2013 weekend is my guess) and the Jack Ryan reboot Moscow, that for no explainable reason, I have a hunch he'll eventually walk from.

I'm sure he was offered every big genre property over the moon the weekend after Star Trek opened. Remember those Green Lantern and Captain America rumors? Good luck at getting him, although it does provide context as to where the studio’s head is at here.

You'll Believe Ed Norton Can Kick Jeremy Renner's Ass

The reason Ed Norton was perfect for Bruce Banner was his lack of physical prowess. He looked like a guy who would need to turn into green giant with anger issues in order to intimidate someone.

That's why it's perplexing to hear from Variety that he'll be the villain in The Bourne Legacy. Great actor, absolutely but I don't look at Norton (for all his reputation of being difficult to work with) and think, "This dude can tear my jaw in half like a piece of paper!"

Something to anticipate, I suppose, for the new Bourne installment starring Jeremy Renner as our hero/assassin in the vein of Matt Damon's amnesic super-spy and Rachel Weisz.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Trailer Has "More of the Same" Feeling

While the world of moviedom waits for The Dark Knight Rises teaser to leak, remember there are trailers to other big Warner Brothers releases being placed in front of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part II this weekend. Namely, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, or as we also call it around the TMT offices, "The movie that everyone, and their mother, will choose to see over Mission: Impossible 4 this Christmas." Long title, I realize.

The first trailer is up and running for your viewing pleasure thanks to iTunes Trailers.

It follows the same formula of the first film's trailers only like most sequel everything is bigger - more action, quips and gags. Look! It's Holmes in drag! Cue audience laughter! And while Jared Harris' Moriarty isn't heavy in terms of screen-time here I remain curious to see if he'll be able to hold his own against Robert Downey Jr. Certainly was a gutsier choice to go for for a lesser-known character-actor instead of a star to throw up on the billboards, such as the case of those Brad Pitt and Daniel Day-Lewis rumblings last year.

One gets a "more of the same" feeling here. If you didn't like Sherlock Holmes two years ago, chances are your feelings will be mutual for A Game of Shadows this Christmas. Since I dug the shit out of it, I'm pleased with what I've seen here.

First Look at Fili & Kili in The Hobbit

When we didn't get any more Hobbit pictures this past weekend as promised, I'm sure many started to panic. But then Production Diary #2 eased those nerves until the next set of official pictures from The Hobbit dropped.

Following in the footsteps of Yahoo! Movies and Facebook before it, MSN has the newest first look at characters from the two Lord of the Rings prequels: Fili and Kili, played by Dean O'Gorman and Aidan Tuner.

"Two of the youngest Dwarves, Fili and Kili have been born into the royal line of Durin and raised under the stern guardianship of their uncle, Thorin Oakensheild. Neither has ever travelled far, nor ever seen the fabled Dwarf City of Erebor. For both, the journey to the Lonely Mountain represents adventure and excitement. Skilled fighters, both brothers set off on their adventure armed with the invincible courage of youth, neither being able to imagine the fate which lies before them."

Johnny Depp Digging Up Another Cult Show-Turned-Shitty Movie For Disney

It will be a testament to Johnny Depp's drawing power if Dark Shadows is a big hit next May when you think about how a lot of people are unaware of the horror soap opera it's based on and it coming too late into the vampire craze. But with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides being the third film he's managed to get to $1 billion box-office (thanks to the foreign markets; Pirates 4 under-performed stateside), Disney knows they'd be fools to turn down anything he wants to do.

From the looks of it (via "TOLDJA"), he wants to translate another cult show into a big-budget feature. He's set to produce, and in all probability star although that remains to-be-determined, The Night Stalker, based on a 1972 telefilm starring Darren McGavin that was popular enough to spawn a short-lived weekly series about a reporter who constantly got caught up in the supernatural. I watched the Hell out of the show during the mid 90s when the Sci-Fi Channel aired it. Check out the show's great intro at the bottom.

I could be more optimistic, yes, especially about the Paul Revere/Midnight Ride project also being set up with Janet and Lee Batchler writing. But I'm just so damned bored with Depp. Maybe if he took a few years off and made us miss eccentric/"colorful weirdo" routine, then we’d develop a hunger for more.

Evil Dead Remake Is Really Real, Really!

Little known fact, for you kids out there, the Internet was first invented for trading pornography, talking about Star Trek and spreading Evil Dead 4 rumors, which is why every year we get another "Sam Raimi said..." or "Bruce Campbell let it slip at a convention..." stories we all disregard. Been there, done that.

Two independent outlets (Dread Central and Campbell himself via the miracle of Twitter) say a new Evil Dead film is happening. For real this time. The former stating Sam Raimi's long-time editor Bob Murawski is headed to Detroit to start work on the new film, while the latter reassuring a justifiably doubtful fan of its status, "Believe in the remake, dawg! The project is real. In the works. Cool as hell. Scary as hell."

If they're really insistent on getting the property going again, then the remake idea (which Raimi and Campbell were trying to do a couple of years back) with a young and hungry director is the way to go. Remember when an up-and-coming kid named Zack Snyder was assigned the arduous task of remaking Dawn of the Dead? Besides the notion of doing Evil Dead 4 with a visibly-gray and fat Ash, still stocking shelves at S-Mart but acting like he’s the same machismo ass-kicker, is amusing to how many people?

Arnold Schwarzenegger Set For The Last Stand As He Faces Uncertain Future Onscreen

Will people pay money to see an Arnold Schwarzenegger starring feature?

That question was worth asking upon the closing months of his gubernatorial reign in California. We all knew by then he was readying himself for a return to onscreen skull-thumping. But the concern was would movie-goers these days accept him, now in his early 60s, getting a bit pudgier and a tad slower, as an ass-kicker still. There's only so much nostalgia people can have for the mid 80s-to-early 90s action genre and there's a feeling maybe The Expendables fished that lake dry last August.

But that question took on a whole new meaning once the public scandal broke of affairs, love-children with nannies and his subsequent separation, now divorce in-the-works, from wife Maria Shriver. With this new, and unflattering, view of him, would the general public, especially the female quads give him and any new movie of his the time of day? Remember how men and women turned on Tom Cruise after he made a jackass outta himself back in 2005/2006, and that was nowhere near as bad as this!

Well, now that some time has passed, Arnold and his representation are hoping (praying!) that perhaps our current attention on the Casey Anthony verdict and the twelve dumbfucks who let her walk scot-free out of a murder conviction will have deviated enough so he get back to making big action movies and, more importantly, selling movie-tickets.

"TOLDJA" says The Last Stand, the action-thriller (now it's being called a full-on western, did I miss something?) that was planned to be his first starring role since leaving office as first reports by Movie Web, is back on with filming looking to start as early as this September. As first reported, Schwarzenegger will play "a sheriff with an inexperienced staff who becomes involved with trying to stop the cartel leader from entering Mexico after the two parties inadvertently cross paths."

It's a role that with the right amount work put into it by him and director Jee-woon Kim could give us a fresh glimpse of the action icon. Show the audience that he's human, older, flawed, etc. Now more than ever, he needs to acknowledge onscreen just as much as off.

But again whether the public is willing to give Arnold their hard-earned money again after all this remains to be seen.