2006 has been labelled by many a weak year in movies, but I have to disagree. While the year started very slowly and with hardly any noteworthy releases in the winter months, and while spring and early summer brought a fair share of mostly disappointing blockbusters, the last three or four months more than made up for it. In fact, I’ve had the hardest time fitting in the viewings of many (of what I deemed ‘must-see’) films in recent weeks, and I’m convinced not only did I see more than a dozen really good movies, I also had the privilige to experience two (not just one, but two!) in particular that I will hold dear among my all-time favourites.

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Posted in Commentary, Movies, Reviews •

Crispin Glover, the enigmatic star who made his name as George McFly in Back to the Future has been speaking to MTV about his upcoming role in Beowulf and his tiff with Robert Zemeckis.

Glover fell out of favour with Hollywood when he sued the producers of Back to the Future 2 (including Steven Spielberg) for using his image on film without his consent. After the actor’s increased wage demands for the sequel weren’t met, Zemeckis used previously filmed footage and body prosthetics on another actor, Jeffrey Weissman, to simulate Glover on screen.

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Posted in Movies •

New pictures of the Transformers toyline that will accompany the release of this summer’s live-action film adaptation have surfaced TFW2005.com.

The first two images show uncoloured prototypes of Optimus Prime and Megatron in robot mode and in vehicle mode (remember: movie Megatron does not transform into a gun like his cartoon original, but into… well, look for yourself). Further, there are four depictions of the very cool (and finished) Blackout toy from different angles: seen from the front, in more detail, from behind, and in vehicle mode (helicopter). All these shots and plenty more are available in our gallery.

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Posted in Movies, Transformers •

Irvin Kershner, the American director who helmed arguably the finest Star Wars movie, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is set to return to the movie making business after a 17 years hiatus.

Kershner is in India scouting for locations and talent for his new film, The Princess and the Wizard, a special-effects heavy fantasy. Arjun Daluvoy, a U.S. based surgeon, is producing the film, which is billed as a middle-eastern fairy tale, chock-a-block with romance and comedy.  Richard Kline (King Kong) is onboard as director of photography and Gerard Schumann, who won the academy award for Lawrence of Arabia, is writing the music.

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Source: Hinduonet

Posted in Movies •

Volver, Pan’s Labyrinth and Black Book were today named among nine films (out of 61 hopefuls) which have been shortlisted for the best foreign film prize at this year’s Academy Awards. The full shortlist of films is: Days of Glory (dir Rachid Bouchareb - Algeria), Water (Deepa Mehta - Canada), After the Wedding (Susanne Bier - Denmark), Avenue Montaigne (Daniele Thompson - France), The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - Germany), Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro - Mexico), Black Book (Paul Verhoeven - the Netherlands), Volver (Pedro Almodovar - Spain) and Vitus (Fredi M. Murer - Switzerland).

The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 25.

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Posted in Movies •

French Composer Alexandre Desplat will score The Golden Compass, the upcoming big-budget adaptation of the first instalment in author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Rumours suggesting this made their way onto the net a few months ago, but only now has Desplat’s involvement been confirmed on his official website, where The Golden Compass is listed along with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and Vantage Point as the next projects he’s going to score. (Thanks to green ink for pointing this out to us.)

Desplat won a Golden Globe earlier this week for his score for The Painted Veil. He has also been nominated for a BAFTA Award for his work on The Queen.

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Posted in His Dark Materials, Movies •

Batman-on-Film reports that Baltimore in County Cork, Ireland will be used for location filming for the Batman Returns sequel, The Dark Knight.

This follows an interview where Sir Michael Caine mentioned Baltimore as a location, with most fans naturally assuming that the veteran British thesp was talking about Baltimore, Maryland in the US. BOF claims that Baltimore in Ireland “will possibly be the location of a Batmobile chase scene.” Baltimore is a quiet harbour town in western County Cork, with a population of just over two hundred. One of the most notable landmarks in the area is the Baltimore Beacon, also known as Lot’s Wife, a large stone structure at the entrance to the harbour.

In other Dark Knight location news, it seems that scenes that were set to be shot in Paris have now been moved to London to take advantage of tax exemption benefits.

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Posted in Batman, Movies •

Superman Returns co-writer Michael Dougherty has told SCI FI Wire that the next movie in the franchise will feature at least one villain from the DC Comics universe but hinted that perhaps there could be more.

When asked if there will be multiple villains in the sequel to the 2006 film, “Maybe” he said, “It’s [Mr.] Myxyzptlk,” he added, with tongue in cheek. Dougherty confirmed that it’s likely that he and Dan Harris will again work with Bryan Singer on the project. “We’re talking, We’re bouncing ideas around with Bryan. Big ideas. Action-packed ideas.”

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Posted in Movies, Superman •

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer screenwriter Don Payne has been talking to Comics 2 Film about some of the plot details for the upcoming sequel.

When asked about the planet-devouring Galactus, the character that seems to be on every fans lips at the moment, Payne is quick to point out that “the story definitely focuses more on the Silver Surfer—otherwise it would be called ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer and Galactus”. However, the writer does go on to explain that Galactus may not actually be explored as a character, but more as a “force.”

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Posted in Movies •

According to Variety, Disney is is in talks with Edgar Rice Burroughs estate about optioning rights to the sci-fi series John Carter of Mars as a potential franchise for the studio.

Disney is eyeing the rights after the Paramount studio options expired. The original Paramount project would have seen Jon Favreau directing with Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks producing. John Carter first appeared in the initial Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars (1917) as an American Civil War captain who is mysteriously transported by a form of astral projection to the planet Mars, where he is blessed with superhuman strength. On Mars, Carter battles alien creatures and becomes a warrior-savior of the planet’s inhabitants.

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Posted in Movies •