I think this is my new favorite Toy Story poster. As reported on Comingsoon.net, Disney-Pixar has unveiled the new international poster for Toy Story 3, due to hit theaters on June 18th:
In even more interesting Toy Story 3 news, it looks like Disney-Pixar is starting a viral campaign as well, releasing a 1980s-style toy commercial for one of the film's new characters, Lotso:
That completely looks like a toy commercial from the 80s. What's really clever about this is that the YouTube user who uploaded this Lotso ad also uploaded a whole collection of real toy commercials from the 70s and 80s on the same channel, making it harder for anyone to realize there's actually a Toy Story 3 ad buried in there.
So I guess we'll have to keep tuning in to see if the other Toy Story characters have any 'old' commercials we haven't seen yet.
Yahoo Movies has revealed the new "Jonah Hex" poster. The film makes its debut nationwide on on June 18th. Stay tuned for the official trailer which will make its way online this Thursday.
Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) is a scarred drifter and bounty hunter of last resort, a tough and stoic gunslinger who can track down anyone…and anything. Having survived death, Jonah’s violent history is steeped in myth and legend, and has left him with one foot in the natural world and one on the ‘other side.’ His only human connection is with Leila (Megan Fox), whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. But Jonah’s past is about to catch up with him when the U.S. military makes him an offer he can’t refuse: in exchange for his freedom from the warrants on his head, he must track down and stop the dangerous terrorist Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich). But Turnbull, who is gathering an army and preparing to unleash Hell, is also Jonah’s oldest enemy and will stop at nothing until Jonah is dead. Based on the legendary graphic novel, ‘Jonah Hex’ is an epic adventure thriller about one man’s personal quest for redemption against the vast canvas of the battle between good and evil.
DreamWorks Animation announced today as part of its First Quarter financial results that a sequel to How to Train Your Dragon will hit theaters in 2013.
"2010 is off to a strong start, thanks in large part to the performance of 'How to Train Your Dragon,' which – having grossed nearly $375 million to date in worldwide box office – has become DreamWorks Animation's next franchise. We plan to release the sequel theatrically in 2013," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation. "3D continues to have a tremendous impact on the industry at large and we are now looking forward with great anticipation to bringing 'Shrek Forever After,' the final chapter in our beloved 'Shrek' series and the first in 3D, to audiences across the globe next month."
How to Train Your Dragon, which was released on March 26, 2010, contributed $59.7 million of revenue to the quarter for the company, driven primarily by merchandising and licensing activities. It has reached approximately $180 million in domestic box office and approximately $195 million in international box office to date.
With the July release of Chris Nolan's Inception becoming closer, it should come as no surprise we'll be getting Viral Marketing the newest trend in Marketing. As seen with Nolan's last film The Dark Knight, the Viral Marketing is a proven and successful tool.
Below is a video intended to appear as Nolan's research for dreams, ideas and theories he would use to include in the plot of Inception.
From what I can put together, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all work for a company that either protects crooks from stealing your ideas in your dreams OR they actually are the crooks stealing ideas from people's dreams.
Here's the official synopsis:
The film follows an agent named Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can drug up tycoons and enter their minds to find out their secrets and strategies. Cobb then uses the secrets to sell to the highest competing bidder. However, the mind is a volatile place, where places can rearrange and people can have power much stronger than in reality, and the complications of the mind can create dreamscapes that can end in mere seconds, trapping the agents with them. After a heist gone wrong, Dom and his team (Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page) become under attack by a CEO (Ken Watanabe) looking to use the technology for his own singular greed.
The tag line for the film is "your mind is the scene of the crime".
If you didn't see it already, here's the official trailer as well:
Heat Vision is reporting that Paramount Pictures is developing a third installment "The Ring" franchise to be titled Ring 3D.
The new film will be written by David Loucka, who wrote the upcoming Dream House and House at the End of the Street.
Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are in negotiations to return as producers, and Vertigo and Benderspink are executive producing.
The first installment, directed by Gore Verbinski (the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films) and starring Naomi Watts, earned an impressive $249.3 million worldwide in 2002. Watts reprised her role in director Hideo Nakata's The Ring Two, which made $161.5 million in 2005.
According to the trade, "the new film is being fashioned as more teen-centric than the first, and though the logline is being kept under wraps, the aim is to reinvent the franchise."
What do you think, will the ring still be relevant after what's already been a five year hiatus from the sequel? Or is that why they've decided to make it more "teen-centric". This must mean that Samara from the first two films will be crawling out of cell phone screens as opposed to TV's?
Hollywood is in desperate need of more new original ideas. I'd be willing to bet in a few years we'll be getting a remake or reboot to this same franchise.
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.
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Tue, April 27, 2010 
