Mookie Returns

Epic props to Twitch who revealed last week of Spike Lee directing the Oldboy remake. It's been officially confirmed today as a done deal.

Not the best idea in the world, but certainly not one of the worst either. It feels like a "One for them" type of project (as extreme as that material is) that earns Spike a couple of bucks in his pocket which he can take to pay the bills and, more importantly, put into a project closer to his heart that might be on the more troubled end of getting funding. Which, in around about way, leads up to the crux of this post.

Blackfilm has the scoop that unbeknownst to everyone Lee has quietly mounted his latest and cameras began rolling today (as per his Twitter): Red Hook Summer. Details are being kept on the down-low besides a bare-bones plot description involving an "adult from Atlanta who comes and spends the summer in Red Hook section of Brooklyn, NY."

Here's where things get interesting. According to their source(s), Lee will reprise his character Mookie, the lead from Do the Right Thing, the film that put his name on the map and is, with due respect to the excellent, but bloated, Malcolm X, the defining film of his career. Upon the day he passes, the headlines will read "'Do the Right Thing' Helmer Spike Lee." How much of a factor he plans on using Mookie is the question. For all we know, Spike could pull a Michael Keaton and appear briefly. But that would be awfully random, not to mention, gimmicky if that were the plan.

There's gotta be more to it than just that. Whatever it is, you have my attention, Spike.

New Tintin Trailer Promises Good Old-Fashioned Spielberg Adventure - Just In Motion Capture

That feeling of an old-school 70s/80s era Spielberg is rekindled with the new International trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. This second pass (read: trailer) on winning people over on both motion-capture (Because we apparently didn't speak loudly enough with our wallets on the Robert Zemeckis efforts for the past, oh, decade!) and the original Belgian comic-books amplifies on what Spielberg and Peter Jackson promised from the teaser trailer with its mix of mystery, adventure and exotic locations!

I watch this trailer, and as much as it's winning me over, I still wonder why this wasn't done as a live-action feature from the start.

Here's Gloin & Oin From The Hobbit

Yesterday, Facebook got Dori, Nori and Ori and today Yahoo! Movies has two more prominent dwarves in The Hobbit: Gloin and Oin, played by Peter Hambleton and John Callen. Remember, Gloid (on the right) is the father of Gimli from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Notice the resemblance?

Just as yesterday, this first look also features an accompanying character description:

"Distant cousins of Thorin Oakenshield, these two doughty Northern Dwarves join the Company out of a sense of loyalty to their kin, and also because they have a substantial sum of money invested in the venture. Along with Bombur, Gloin is the only other married Dwarf in the Company (there being a shortage of female dwarves in general). His wife is an acclaimed beauty with a particularly fine beard. Gloin is the proud father of a young son, Gimli, who will go on to become part of the famous Fellowship of the Ring."

By simple process of elimination, we assume another crop of new characters will be introduced by either tomorrow or Sunday.

Harry Lennix Joins The Man of Steel

The cast of The Man of Steel looks like a balancing act of lesser-to-unknowns (Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue) to the big-names who've been in the public eye for years (Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Christopher Meloni, Julia Ormond). Judging by that list, the former outweighs the latter by a hefty margin, would you agree? About time to add more weight to the first group.

Variety reports Harry Lennix is the newest addition to the soon-to-be-lensing Superman reboot. He'll play the "high-ranking" General Swanwick, presumably under the command of Meloni's yet-revealed general, who may or may not, be General Sam Lane, the proud papa of Lois Lane (Amy Adams).

It says he had a big part in The Matrix sequels, but to be honest, I can't recall anything from his performance, other than how much both movies sucked.

Teaser Trailer & Poster For The Dark Knight Rises Drops Next Week

Next week while you're standing outside in the heat to get your Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part II tickets (unless you already purchased them online), here's something a little extra for the effort courtesy of Warner Brothers.

Superhero Hype reports the teaser-trailers for The Dark Knight Rises, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and, the most anticipated one of them all, Happy Feet 2, will be in front of the final Potter next Friday. Next week will also see the debut (...somewhere...) of the teaser poster for Christopher Nolan's Batman swan-song.

So if we see half a dozen shaky-cam YouTube versions surfacing from the Potter midnight screenings, don't be surprised. Also probably best not to get worked up over seeing oodles of new footage. Although it's reported to be 93 seconds in length, there's a chance it's a repeat of The Dark Knight teaser from back in summer of 2007.

Jack & Jill Trailer - You've All Been Warned...

You know...Adam Sandler seems like a really nice guy. I bet if I knew him in real life, he's just "one of the guys" and any one of us could sit back and enjoy some beers with him. I bet he treats his wife, children and mother nice too.

But these comedies he chugs out once (sometimes twice) a year are just grating. I don't go see them, but the fact that they're flashed all over our television screens for marketing purposes and then we have to post the trailers and so forth. If you told me, he and Dennis Dugan spend most of their time together bullshitting about life, family, sports, etc. and only spend whole minutes (maybe even seconds) brain-storming their next comedy collaboration, I wouldn't doubt that.

Which brings up to Jack & Jill, their latest future-blockbusters this coming November and a trailer you must see to believe thanks to Yahoo! Movies. Beside the two minutes worth of jokes of how Sandler is dressed as a woman and speaking in a cringe-worthy Jewish stereotype voice, they supplied one quality dick joke. Courtesy of Al Pacino, who should be ashamed of himself.

Naomie Harris Is the New Moneypenny

What's made the Daniel Craig tenure work, for my money, is the clear effort to not fall back on the traditions of the James Bond franchise. With a few exceptions, gone were the customs of having the opening gun-barrel shot (which they cheated a bit there), playing the 007 theme all throughout, no leading lady with the suggestive-name, no Q and his zany, but useful, gadgets and no Miss Moneypenny to flirt with Bond during the first half-hours of both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

But as been shown by the history of the series, the Broccolis will always slowly renege and go back to their winning formula. When you have a franchise that remains commercially vibrant for fifty years, I suppose I can't blame them because those returns speak for themselves.

Daily Mail says after sitting out from the Craig-starting reboot and its follow-up, M's loyal secretary is set to return for the as-yet-titled Bond (2)3 and Naomie Harris (best known from her turns in 28 Days Later and the first two shitty Pirates of the Caribbean sequels), will follow in the foot-steps of Lois Maxwell, Caroline Bliss and Samantha Bond. They further add that both Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes have been secured for the next installment due out next November.

Putting aside the fact that it's back into place after the MGM fiasco and that it, thankfully, is Craig's third go-around with the gun-barrel, this will have the distinction of showcasing the biggest batch of well-known actors in its cast lineup in addition to having the most established director in their history in Oscar-winner Sam Mendes.

With them going increasingly back to the traditions of the franchise, should we also expect a rebooted Q? Or maybe they're saving him for Bond (2)4?

First Look at Dori, Nori & Ori in The Hobbit

The world got its first look at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins right before the July 4^th holidays two weeks back, and it's time for Peter Jackson and his team behind The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There & Back Again to show off more characters. Specifically those who didn't pop up in The Lord of the Rings trilogy ten years ago.

Warner Brothers (via The Hobbit Facebook page) has done so with the official first looks at Jed Brophy as Nori, Adam Brown as Ori and Mark Hadlow as Dori.

Here's the character description accompanying the photo for those (like me) who haven't read The Hobbit and are ignorant of all things Middle Earth outside of Jackson's cinematic trilogy:

"DORI, NORI & ORI

These three brothers, all sons of the same mother, could not be more different from each other. Dori, the oldest, spends much of his time watching out for Ori, the youngest; making sure he's not caught a chill or got himself killed by Wargs or Goblins. Nobody quite knows what Nori gets up to most of the time, except that it's guaranteed to be dodgy and quite probably, illegal. Dori, Nori and Ori are intensely loyal to each other – and whilst they are perfectly happy fighting amongst themselves, woe-betide anyone who means harm to one of these brothers."

Breaking! Meryl Streep Likely Giving Another Great Performance in The Iron Lady!

When it was first announced Oscar Nominee Staple Meryl Streep would play Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, everyone and their mother assumed two things. First, she'd once again be sitting in the front row at the Kodak Theatre next February for Oscar #3 and second, she'd deliver performance-wise awards-gratifications notwithstanding.

While it's brief (barely past a minute in length), Hey U Guys! grabbed the teaser trailer from its on-air world premiere from BBC Breakfast. So, will either of our assumptions pan out? Based on this morsel of footage...probably.

Spike Lee In Talks to Direct Oldboy Remake

I'll say this about Steven Spielberg doing the Oldboy remake. Munich proved he had it in him to go in dark places with nary a trace of his trademark sentimentality. As pointless as an Americanized Oldboy is (Watch the original instead), it would be interesting to see if the Beard would go through with it and actually top the darkness of his 2005 thriller.

But any hypotheticals are moot since he isn't and Twitch reports producers have moved from one unorthodox filmmaker to another for the job.

Talks are underway for Spike Lee to direct. An equally intriguing choice, I'll admit. Would certainly be an interesting note to his filmography if a deal goes through.

No word on if Will Smith remains involved in any capacity. But as they pointed out, Smith just turned down headlining Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and something like Oldboy wouldn't fit well next to his own trademark onscreen persona. So basically none of us are holding our breath.