Cast Breakdowns For Conan Revealed

For his sake, I hope my Movie Moan partner-in-crime (and just overall good pal) Phil gets what he so desires. In this case, he’s been waiting to see a return to the old school “Barbarian Tits & Ass” sword and sandal epics of yester year. Hopefully said film will come in the form of the Avi Arad-produced, Marcus Nispel-directed Conan the Barbarian reboot.

The good folks over at Movie Hole have received a character breakdown for the forthcoming film which is currently in its casting phase. I’m not going to just cut and paste every single description Clint and his guy obtained. I’ll merely show you good folks the description of our sword-swinging hero:

[ CONAN ] He's in his 20s to early 30s, Caucasian, powerfully built, broad-shouldered, sun browned skin lined with scars. Piercing blue eyes and square-cut black mane, tall. He is a savage killer that has matured into the refinement his father tried to teach him when he was young. Conan is very smart, almost inhumanly strong, and very cunning. His entire life, from the moment of his birth, has been shaped by violence. Being the last of his tribe and having to watch his father die a cruel death, he is determined avenge his peoples slaughter by killing all those who led the attack on the Cimmerians, including the all-powerful Khalar Singh. He is prepared to die in order to accomplish his goal. What Conan did not expect, was to find a reason to live… LEAD

So, will this wet the British gentleman’s appetite? Only time will tell.

Green Zone Trailer

Yahoo! Movies has unveiled the theatrical trailer for Green Zone, the Iraq War-set action thriller starring Matt Damon and helmed by Paul Greengrass. The actor/director duo, of course, collaborated on the last two Jason Bourne films to great success (and may or may not return for a fourth go-around).

Going 100% off this trailer, I like what I see. Besides the afore-mentioned Damon and Greengrass, Zone (opening March 12, 2010) also features Amy Ryan (from 2007s finest film Gone Baby Gone) and the always-great Greg Kinnear (even if the film he's in is pure shit). Unlike previous efforts set in the Middle East, this one doesn't come across as talking down to us little people with "a message."

It looks like a geuninely entertaining action thriller. Then again, Peter Berg's excellent The Kingdom was quiet the crowd-pleaser (people cheered during my screening) and that tanked at the box-office. And as retarded as I may sound for suggesting this (certainly not the first time - nor will it be the last), but this feels like the unofficial version of Bourne 4 at the half-way point of the trailer.

George Clooney Producing Delta Blues

God love him. Back in the day (pre-my existence on this Earth), my uncle used to be an Elvis impersonator. Cut to nowadays, he’s a preacher. Talk about pulling a 180, eh? I’m sure there will plenty of jokes in his direction if this becomes a weekly series.

THR reports that TNT has given the go-ahead on Delta Blues, a pilot chronicling a cop who spends his off-hours as a professional impersonator of his royal King-ness. Oh and he still lives at home with good old mom. Presumably, he also solves mysteries and what not. No word on any wise-cracking animal sidekick. The potential show-starter is being executive-produced by George Clooney and written by Cold Case alum Liz Garcia.

So the network that “knows drama” opts to include Blues in their lineup next year, you can expect to see hundreds of thousands of minutes worth of commercials promoting the Hell outta this. So, you’ve been warned.

Steve Carr Set To Direct Short Circuit Remake

I grew up with a lot of films during my childhood. But Short Circuit and its 1988 sequel weren’t among them. So the news that a remake was in development didn’t exactly send me into a firestorm of hatred and/or angry nerdgasming.  That said I get the distaste from those who oppose such an idea. But it’s not like it suddenly cancels out the original film. It’ll always be there.

Variety reports the remake is now further along with Dimension Films lining up Steve Carr (coming off the mind-bogglingly huge success and popularity of Paul Blart: Mall Cop from this past January) to sit in the director’s chair.

This new incarnation won’t be a direct remake of the 1986 film. Reports have the story entailing this updated Johnny 5 befriending a lonely little boy instead of Ally Sheedy and Steven Guttenberg.

I’m sure Fisher Stevens is waiting by his phone for the inevitable “Would you like to do a cameo?” call.

Correction: Kurtzman and Orci Not Producing Doc Savage

So this past weekend, Aint It Cool News revealed that a new Doc Savage movie was in development. Shane Black had been lined up to write and Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman would be producing with the story being set in the 1930s as per to the original pulp novels from that era. Being the film-news site that we are, we reported said item ourselves quickly after it broke.

So far, so good.

However, Collider has an update. They’ve received word that most of the information was spot on - save for one thing. K&O are in fact not producing this cinematic undertaking for the Man of Bronze. That duty instead falls on Neil Mortiz and Ori Marmus, producers behind the currently filming Green Hornet and Bryan Singer-helmed Jack the Giant Killer.

No worries, fans. Although the details behind the scenes have changed, you’re still getting a new Doc Savage film. Now all you have to do is start speculating who will be cast.

Is Avatar Not As Original As Cameron Would Like You To Think?

At this point in the game, I can only hope that James Cameron delivers a good movie with Avatar. I say that because there’s just no way one single film can live up to so much pre-release hype. Sorry, but I’m not buying into the “This will change the way you look at movies” statements made by the likes of Cameron himself.

Don't take that as me shitting on the guy because I'm not. Been a huge fan of his ever since I was a kid. I even remember reading about the status reports of Titanic (on Aint It Cool News, Dark Horizons and Corona Coming Attractions) and being happy to hear that it wasn't a turkey like many predicted. Yes, I was a nerd from early on.

Not helping matters is this rather interesting find by I09 pointing out the similarities between Cameron’s forthcoming 3-D sci-fi epic and a 1950s novella Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson. Both entail a paraplegic having his mind placed in another (artificially created) body so he can go off and explore an erotic uncharted world.  Again in both stories, their new bodies are that of a giant blue and feline looking creature.

You smell that? It’s a lawsuit coming. Any time when there’s money to made, you can bet your ass there’s going to be some schmuck there claiming “damages.”

But in this case, the similarities are rather damning. It'll be interesting to see when (and if) Cameron, producer Jon Landau and/or 20th Century Fox will pipe in on this latest development.

Ricky Gervais Hosting Golden Globes

This doesn't change the fact that they vote 100% on popularity and whatever celebrity kissed their ass the most. But to their credit, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have pegged actor/comedian Ricky Gervais to host the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards. If you've witnessed the original UK version of The Office and Extras, you know Gervais is one funny dude.

So even though the ratings will still suck (It's on NBC. Nuff said) and most average folk just plain don't care, we'll have someone with a sense of humor to get us through the likely three-hour broadcast. Good for Mr. Gervais.

New Sherlock Holmes Poster

Regardless of how right or wrong I'll be, I still maintain that Sherlock Holmes will end up kicking Avatar's ass at the box-office this coming Christmas. Controvesial opinion? Certainly. But I've heard from various folks who talked up how much they can't wait to see Holmes and how "retarded" Avatar looks.

Nonetheless, Cinematical has the exclusive "First-Look" at the new poster for your enjoyment.

George Miller Shows Off Mad Max 4 Cars

Days after casting rumors surfaced, director George Miller is now showing off the vehicles that will be driven (and presumably wrecked) in Mad Max 4.

Does that mean the movie will definitively happen? Not yet. I recall he also showed off sets that were under construction for the ill-fated Justice League: Mortal. If memory serves me correct, he was accepting an award via satellite where he was sitting in the middle of what was supposed to be the Hall of Justice. And that project was further along in development at the time (he’d already cast most of the lead roles by then).

He confirms in the video interview that casting is still under-way saying, “Despite all the stuff that we see on the net and so on, I don’t even know who the final cast’s gonna be.” Fair enough.

What I found more interesting was how at the half-way point, Miller discussed bringing productions to Australia. If you’ll remember, he fought tooth and nail to get the production of Justice League to shoot exclusively in his home country. Thus ensuring that their local film economy would keep going and people would have jobs. Say what you will about the would-be movie, but you have to respect Miller for pushing as hard as he did.

Rumors of Rocky 7 Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

A few days back, Teen Say picked up on a German interview with Sylvester Stallone where he discussed making Rocky 7. This is despite the fact that he swore up and down that the last film (2006s Rocky Balboa) would be the swan-song for the character. Hell, he went into Balboa with everyone (yours truly included) ridiculing him for going back to the well, and at age 60 to boot. But he surprised us when the movie was great…and, as it turned out, a commercial success.

As it turns out, this was nothing more than being “lost in translation.” Devin Faraci of CHUD and Clint Morris of Movie Hole have both come out and shot down the report. As it turns out, Sly was in fact referring to making Rocky Balboa in said interview and not a seventh installment. Rest assured Rocky fans. It was just a bunch of nothing.

Having said that, we shouldn’t put it past Stallone to suddenly come out and announce Rocky 7 down the line. “How so?” you ask. Frankly, he also swore to the high heavens that last year’s Rambo would be a fitting conclusion to his ‘Nam vet-turned- action hero. However (just like Rocky Balboa before it), Rambo turned out a nice profit and we’ve now got a sci-fi oriented Rambo 5 in development.