Archive for February 4th, 2008
It will take an upset of miraculous proportions now to prevent No Country for Old Men from winning the Best Picture Oscar when the Academy Awards are handed out February 24.
After receiving the Screen Actors Guild’s (SAG) Ensemble Cast Award, the Critics Choice Award, and the Director Guild (DGA) Award, Joel and Ethan Coen’s masterpiece now also grabbed the Producers Guild (PGA) Award this weekend, beating out fellow nominees There Will Be Blood, Juno, Michael Clayton and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
The last movie to win these four major Oscar predictors was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which went on to win all thirteen Academy Awards it was nominated for. No Country for Old Men is competing for eight Oscars.
Discuss No Country for Old Men on the X-Boards
Posted in Awards, Movies •
According to IESB.net, Marvel Studios is looking at a potential Spider-Man spin-off film centered on villain Venom.
The studio reached an interim agreement with the WGA last week which allows them to continue developing scripts for potential film projects. Despite Venom’s appearance (played by Topher Grace) in Sony’s Spider-Man 3 last summer, Marvel still holds the rights to the character, and apparently they’ve already met with several A-list writers about the project.
At this stage though it seems unlikely that franchise director Sam Raimi or Grace would be involved.
Discuss the Venom spin-off movie on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •
We may have to wait a little longer for confirmation that Guillermo del Toro is directing The Hobbit.
The acclaimed director of Pan’s Labyrinth told Total Film: ‘The reality is that the Hobbit story has broken early because the negotiations have not ended and The Hobbit is not a sure thing… The reality is, I will know that it’s happening when we have the final word and I am fully and officially on board.’
How badly does he want to do it though? ‘I would LOVE it. I bought all the Tolkien books that were available in Mexico when I was 11 years old, but the one that I read at 11 years old was The Hobbit. So it left an indelible mark in my imagination.’
Discuss The Hobbit on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies, The Hobbit / LOTR •
Hollywood studios pay large sums every year to advertize their big film releases during the media spectacle that surrounds the Superbowl.
Many of the clips shown have now also been released online. Here’s a collection of links:
Iron Man (HD) / Wanted (HD) / The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (HD) / Wall-E / You Don’t Mess with the Zohan / Drillbit Taylor / Leatherheads / Semi-Pro
Oh, and the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in a dramatic game.
Discuss these films on the X-Boards
Posted in Chronicles of Narnia, Iron Man, Movies •
The Associated Press reported this weekend that a breakthrough in talks has been reached between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
It seems the most problematic issues, which concern compensation for projects distributed online, were sorted out on Friday, leaving only some minor elements to deal with. Once a tentative agreement is reached it will have to be ratified by a majority of guild members.
While the WGA Presidents sent a short e-mail to guild members advising them to ‘disregard rumors about either the existence of an agreement or its terms,’ Fox CEO Peter Chernin was apparently overheard at yesterday’s Superbowl game saying that the strike is essentially over according to Deadline Hollywood Daily.
Discuss the Writers Strike on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies, Television •
Richard Griffiths, the actor who plays Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films, told TeleText that none other than Steven Spielberg is a candidate for the director’s chair on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
‘Being in a Spielberg film is a pretty good place to be. My agent had conversations with him, so anything is possible. I’m not in the sixth film so I want bigger roles. I asked JK Rowling if she could write Vernon a bigger part and she said ‘no’, so there you go.’
The final Potter film is scheduled for release in summer 2010.
Discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the X-Boards
Posted in Harry Potter, Movies •
Empire spoke to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull producer Frank Marshall, who revealed that the picture is locked: ‘Steven’s pretty much done editing. And we’re going into the phase with John Williams where he starts scoring the movie.’
The British film magazine also published two exciting new stills from the film - one featuring Indy holding a bazooka, the other showing Cate Blanchett’s Agent Spalko holding Dr Jones at sword-point. Meanwhile, a third new shot with Indy standing at a revealing site has gone up at MTV.
Click here to view all three images in our movie gallery.
Discuss Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the X-Boards
Posted in Indiana Jones, Movies •
New Line Cinemas has set the new release date for their Brendan Fraser-led fantasy feature Inkheart to January 30, 2009 reports Dark Horizons.
The studio announced two weeks ago that they were pushing back the release of the pic from March 2008 to January 2009, in light of the writers strike and marketing issues. This is only the most recent of many delays the adaptation of Cornelia Funke’s children’s book has already suffered.
The Ian Softley-directed film co-stars Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis and Eliza Hope Bennett.
Discuss Inkheart on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies •
Speculation is rife that we’re in store for two more National Treasure films after it was discovered that Walt Disney Company recently registered the domain names nationaltreasure3dvd.com and nationaltreasure4dvd.com.
Viewers of the currently playing National Treasure: Book of Secrets will remember the ominous page 47 in the President’s Book alluding to a potential new adventure. Jim Hill Media claims that a current plot synopsis for the sequels sees the Gates family heading to Easter Island and beyond in search of Atlantis and the secret of its clean power source.
Despite weak reviews, Book of Secrets has already made over $365 million worldwide within its first six weeks, easily outgrossing its 2004 predecessor.
Discuss National Treasure: Book of Secrets on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies •
It’s simple math: a film rated PG can draw in a larger potential audience than one rated PG-13. So in most cases when studios appeal a censorship rating it’s to get the rating reduced.
But exactly the opposite happened in the UK last week. Dark Horizons writes about Disney Studios convincing the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to raise the rating of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-contender (and X-Realms film of the year) There Will Be Blood from a 12A to a 15.
The initial 12A rating meant that children of any age would be permitted to screenings of the film - under adult supervision. Wanting a more adult audience, Disney successfully got the BBFC to reconsider the rating upon a second viewing. Such moves for higher ratings are not unheard of, but usually restricted to films in the horror genre.
Discuss There Will Be Blood on the X-Boards
Posted in Movies •
I am a little leary of the situation. The truth will come out when, and if the US economy, and the dollar begins to strengthen. If prices remain high, you’ll know someone is lying. Either OPEC doesn’t have the supply they claim they have, or Analysts are incorrect when they say demand has decreased. Personally, I don’t buy the claim that demand has decreased. Population is ever increasing, so, the the demand should always be increasing. 