Trailer Park: Opening This Week

OK, now that everyone's seen Spider-Man 3, there's plenty of new films opening this weekend at your local cinema.

28 Weeks Later



Delta Farce



The Ex



Gerogia Rule

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Movies that look back to the 1980s or glimpse the future are just a portion of what's in store for this weekend at your local cinema.

Kickin' It Old Skool



Next



The Condemned



Jindabyne

Trailer Park: Opening This Week

Thrillers, both comedic and dramatic, head up this week's releases.

Hot Fuzz



Fracture



Vacancy



Stephanie Daley



The Tripper

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Thrillers, historical action-adventure, personal voyages of discovery and a talking meatball are your new choices at the local cineplex this weekend. Or you could go see Grindhouse.


Disturbia



Pathfinder



Year Of The Dog



Perfect Stranger



Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

Eli Roth Goes To The GRIND HOUSE

While discussing his upcoming film Hostel II with journalists at the New York ComicCon this past February, director Eli Roth talked a bit about the faux-trailer he created for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriquez’s up coming celebration of 1970s exploitation double features- Grindhouse.


“So there was this slasher movie that my friend Jeff and I had been dreaming about,” Roth explains. “Growing up in Massachusetts, Thanksgiving is the biggest f**king deal; it's all you hear about. There's two full-time working Pilgrim plantations that you go to. So, every year there's a new slasher movie for every different holiday - My Bloody Valentine, April Fools Day, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night - I'm like, how could they not have done Thanksgiving yet? I mean, what are they gonna start doing? Passover Massacre? So when Quentin asked what I was going to do, I told him Thanksgiving. It was my 1981 slasher movie. I've been dying to do it for years. So I went from Hostel II - we kind of recycled a bunch of stuff we had from that set, like a decapitated head - and threw it all into this trailer. It was fun. I had a great time doing it."

You can check out the faux trailer for Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Here's a look at some of the films opening this weekend-


Blades Of Glory



Lookout



After The Wedding

Screenwriting 101: Grabbing Reader's Attention

It’s always important for a movie to open with a scene that grips its audience, pulling them into its celluloid world for the rest of its runtime.

Although not meant for general consumption, screenplays need to do the same job to whomever is reading them. A junior executive wading through dozens of scripts, hoping to find the next big blockbuster, doesn’t have time to plow through all 100-plus pages of every script in their slush piles. A screenwriter has maybe ten pages at most to grab the attention of a reader who may hold the script’s fate in their hands.

Perhaps the best example of this that I’ve come across in a while is script for the opening scene of writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s segment of Grindhouse, a zombie thriller called Planet Terror. (Yes, what a surprise. We're talking about Grindhouse. Again.) In just a few sentences, Rodriguez sketches out his protagonist Cherry, giving us some tantalizing information about her that will be explored through the film. And than he hits us with that last sentence, almost daring us not to continue reading.


1. INT. SKIP’S GO-GO-GO DANCE CLUB - STAGE – NIGHT

Over titles, we are close on a pair of red go-go boots as the woman wearing them strides confidently onto the well worn stage.

This is CHERRY, a go-go dancer. She’s too good at what she does, meaning she should think about doing something else.

Oddly, tears run down her face through her dance.

Side Note: The next time Cherry does this dance, people will die.

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Lots of new films opening this weekend. Here's what you have to choose from-

The Hill Have Eyes II



The Last Mimsy



Pride



Reign Over Me



Shooter



TMNT

The GRINDHOUSE Gang

We still have a little over two weeks until Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, but that doesn't mean we still can't get some glimpses of what's in store for us.

Thanks to the folks over at Yahoo, you can get to know "The Girls And Guys Of Grindhouse," courtesy of a short video hosted by Tarantino and Rodriguez. Since Yahoo doesn't offer video embedding (Get with it guys!) you'll have to click on this link to check it out.

The Battle for THE UNIVERSE

Across The Universe, the 1960s set musical utilizing the songs of the Beatles, is at the center of yet the latest round in the ongoing Hollywood struggle between art and commerce.

Specifically, director Julie Taymor is upset that Revolution studio chief Joe Roth has taken the film, re-edited it without her knowledge and test-screened the result last week. In a report in yesterday’s New York Times, an unnamed source has described that Taymor is feeling “helpless and [is] considering taking her name off the movie.”

The film stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturges as a young couple whose relationship is tested and torn asunder by the social turbulence of the 1960s. I have previously discussed the project and posted its trailer here.

While it is normal for a studio to test various edits of a film to determine what will respond most favorably with audiences, it is a process that usually includes the participation of the director. For Taymor to not even be informed of Roth’s cut is a marked departure from the standard operating procedure.

Taymor’s version clocks in at a reported 2 hours and 8 minutes. The edit overseen by Roth – who, in addition to his duties as Revolution’s head since 2000 has also directed America’s Sweethearts (2001) and Christmas With The Kranks (2004) – is reportedly a half-hour shorter. The Times is reporting that Taymor does not have final cut.

It seems to me that Hollywood has forgotten the lessons learned two decades ago when Terry Gilliam duked it out with Universal Studios head Sid Sheinberg over how Gilliam’s film Brazil (1985) was to end. Sheinberg argued that the Gilliam’s darker ending tested poorly and took the film away from the director to have it re-edited to include a more upbeat ending. Gilliam countered by taking ads out in the press chastising Sheinberg and by holding clandestine screenings of the film for Los Angeles critics, who promptly and loudly hailed Brazil as one of the best films of the year. Chagrinned, Sheinberg relented and released Gilliam’s version of Brazil. But the victory came at a price for Gilliam, and despite successful projects such as The Fisher King (1991) and 12 Monkeys (1995), he is still thought of in some circles as a “difficult” director to work with.

As noted, Taymor is reportedly contemplating removing her name from the film if Roth goes ahead and releases his shorter edit. The cat’s out of the bag though, and viewers know that any shorter version that shows up in theaters isn’t Taymor’s. Will this affect the film’s potential box office? Very probably. Although Taymor may not be a household name yet, her work on Titus (1999) and Frida (2002) have proven her to be not only a capable director but one with an exceptional eye for visuals. A move like Roth’s is just plain insulting to a filmmaker of Taymor’s track record.

It has already been announced that the Sony-owned Revolution Studios will cease operations in October of this year with Roth moving on to a producer position at Sony. Revolution already has a varied history, producing hits like Black Hawk Down (2001) and Rent (2005). It also has had its fair share of misses including The Master Of Disguise (2002) and Gigli (2003). With a release scheduled for September 28th, one hopes this would get resolved fairly quickly so Revolution can close its doors on a high mark rather than a low.

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Daydreams of infidelity and impending disaster dominate the two major studio realeases this weekend while the indie studios give us tales of love in London and tribal conquest in 18th-century Kazakhstan.

I Think I Love My Wife


Premonition


Dead Silence


Caffeine


Nomad

The Spoils of 300

This past weekend’s $70 million box office gross for the historical action/drama 300 surprised and surpassed nearly everyone’s expectations*, making its director, Zack Snyder, Hollywood’s Golden Boy of the moment. And that’s good news for those comic book fans who have been waiting for a big screen adaptation of the seminal classic graphic novel Watchmen. Created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen was a deconstruction of superhero tropes disguised as a murder mystery that not only forced those beyond comic book fandom to re-evaluate the potential of the graphic storytelling medium but also became the only graphic novel named to Time magazine’s list of 100 Best Novels Since 1923.

Watchmen has been in on-and-off again development almost since its publication in 1986. Director Terry Gilliam had been anxious to do the film, working with Batman (1989) screenwriter Sam Hamm on the screenplay. Gilliam even wore a Watchmen blood-splattered smiley pin on a 1995 appearance on The David Letterman Show while promoting his just-released Twelve Monkeys. Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass also took cracks at the project before moving on to other films. Chief among the reasons that none of these versions came to pass is the amount of money needed to bring the sprawling epic to life.

But now the Watchmen ball is in Snyder’s court and has been since this past June. Snyder has been deep into script development and has already done some costume tests, as evidenced by the quick image of Watchmen character Rorshach discovered hidden in the most recent 300 trailer by Snyder.

Snyder has stated during the press rounds for 300, itself an adaptation of a comic book miniseries from Frank Miller and Lynn Varney, that he is looking to start shooting Watchmen this summer, although the film has yet to be officially greenlighted by studio Warner Brothers. Industry scuttlebutt says that Snyder’s vision of the Watchmen world will cost the studio somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million, while Warners would prefer to cut that budget by a third to around $100 million.

However, this weekend’s greater-than-expected grosses for 300 give Snyder a rather large bargaining chip to use against Warner Brothers when it comes to discussing the potential budget of the film. Snyder delivered the visually sumptuous 300 on a budget of just $65 million. With this weekend’s receipts at $70 million, the film is well on its way to being one of the first blockbusters of the year. Directors have been handed to the reigns to bigger projects for lesser reasons.


* 300 has done so well, that I see no point in writing up a review for the film. Still, I do want to share one thing I jotted in my notes while watching the film this weekend, just because I like how the wording came out.- “300 makes no pretense at a realistic depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae. It is a myth, a legend, a story told in the light of the modern day, 24 frames per second flickering campfire of cinema.”

Trailer Park: This Weekend's Releases

Local cineplexs are being invaded by gladiators, mutated river monsters and credit card companies this weekend. Here's some trailers to help you decide what to look at while you munch your popcorn.

300



The Host



Maxed Out

Trailer Park: This weekend's releases

In a quandry what to see at your local cineplex this weekend?

Take a gander at these trailers to see what your choices are-

Black Snake Moan



Wild Hogs



Zodiac

Trailer Park: FANTASTIC FOUR 2 and NEXT

We have a pair of offerings of movie trailers into today's inaugural edition of Trailer Park for you to feast your eyes upon today.

First up is the new 30-second TV spot for Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. There’s a few new moments from the film not seen in the previous trailer including our first, albeit quick, look at the Fantastic Four’s classic mode of transportation- the Fantasticar!

Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is scheduled to hit screens on June 15.



We also have Next, the latest attempt to turn a Philip K. Dick short story, in this case “The Golden Man,” into a film. Nicholas Cage stars as a man who has the ability to glimpse the future and who is pursued by the FBI, lead by Julianne Moore, for his knowledge of a possible terrorist attack.

Next is set for release on April 27.

Pop Culture Intersections

They may call it a comic book convention, but that is really an understatement.

This year’s New York ComicCon (NYCC), which is concluding today, is just one of the numerous major similar events held around the country every year that realizes that comic books and their fans do not exist in their own isolated continuum. Instead comic fans interests lie across numerous related fields and comic books themselves influence and are influenced by those fields. So any major convention will have programming tracks that encompass not only comic books, but also gaming, animation and films. There are comic book characters making the transition to television and movies, comic books and movies being created based on the story lines from video games and games are being based on both comic books and films. And as these various hobbies begin to overlap, so too do the creative people involved.

The result is a fertile cross-pollination that results in instances where a session where J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the TV series Babylon 5, can talk about the future of that show as a line of made-for-DVD movies, his script for a film called The Changeling which will begin filming this summer with Ron Howard producing and give hints about the various comic book projects he’s writing for Marvel Comics.

Producer Michael Uslan summed it up best at a panel about a forthcoming adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic comics hero The Spirit with Sin City co-director and comic book writer/artist Frank Miller. Hollywood is always looking for good stories and there are plenty of good stories to be found in comics. These stories are not just guys and gals with super powers and colorful outfits. Films like Men In Black, Ghost World, Road To Perdition and A History Of Violence have proven that.

For myself, I found plenty of good stories at NYCC this year as well, which I’ll be sharing with you as the week rolls on. So look for stories about John Landis’ next film, a sit down conversation with Eli Roth about the upcoming Hostel 2, as well as a preview of what we can expect from Miller’s Spirit film and more.

Stay tuned!

New GRINDHOUSE Trailer!

While it is supposed to officially debut tomorrow simultaneously on television during CW's WWE Friday Night Smackdown! and the Sci-FI Channel's Special Unit 2 and in theatres running in front of screenings of Ghost Rider, Yahoo has let slip the new trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse out a little early.

You can view it on Yahoo here.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE Trailer

Sometimes I anticipate films for what I'm sure others would think are odd reasons.

Case in point: director Julie Tambor's Across The Universe, due out next year.

I know Beatles fans who are anxious to see how a movie musical could be put together using the using the vast catalog of Lennon/McCartney tunes available. A friend of mine who has enjoyed Tambor's two previous films, Titus (1999) and Frida (2002) has mentioned how he can't wait to see the director try her hands at a musical.

But for myself, I was first intrigued by the project when I heard that the screenwriters were Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, whom worked on one of my favorite British television series, Lovejoy. I was familiar with some of their other work - loads of British television, Tracey Ullman's mid-90s American series Tracey Takes On... , the 2005 soccer film Goal! and of course, the 1991 hit The Commitments. Weird, I know, but sometimes it's the writer, the one usually so abused by the film production process, that draws me to a specific film.

However, once I saw the trailer for the film, I went from being interested in seeing it, to nearly salivating with anticipation. The trailer is amazingly cut and seems to showcase visuals that are at times gritty and other times psychedelic, but always seem to capture the mood and tone of the changes that society went through in the 1960s, changes reflected in the Beatles own music.





Across The Universe is currently scheduled to open on September 28. And while there are a lot of fun blockbusters to tide me over through the summer months, this prospect of seeing this film by the time autumn roles around will not be far from my mind.

Howard Stern - MAN OF THE YEAR?

Yesterday, while discussing the movie offers he has received over the years in the wake of his 1997 autobiographical Private Parts, talk radio icon Howard Stern mentioned that he was in talks with director Barry Levinson to star in last year’s political satire Man Of The Year, with Stern in the lead role that was eventually taken by Robin Williams as a political satirist who runs for the highest office in the land. It was announcement that brought to mind visions of his 1994 aborted run for New York governor.

Ultimately, Stern turned down the project despite expressing a desire to really want to work with director Barry Levinson. At the time, Stern was making the move from his FCC-hampered terrestrial radio gig to his new home at Sirius Satellite radio and felt that Sirius deserved his full creative energies at the moment. He also mentioned that he felt the script could have used some punching-up and that he had some ideas in that direction. Unfortunately, Levinson was intent on shooting as soon as possible and couldn’t wait the few months that Stern needed to get to a point where he could concentrate on the film.

What made yesterday’s revelation interesting is that while Stern has mentioned receiving film offers in the past, he has only gone into this amount of detail about these offers once before. Following the release of Private Parts, Stern was set to play the supporting role of a record company executive in the Melanie Griffith project Jane. David Spade was cast as Stern’s character’s assistant. Preproduction on the film had gotten as far as wardrobe fittings before a portion of the funding fell through, resulting in a rescheduled shoot that Stern wasn’t available for. When he dropped out of the project, the rest of the funding for the film fell apart and it was never made.

What isn’t surprising is Stern’s insistence of a re-write of Man Of The Year’s script, especially if the draft he was concerned about is the same one Levinson shot with Williams. Stern has a record of being demanding when it comes to screenplays. The script for Private Parts was in development for nearly three years and had reportedly gone through several writers, including Peter Torokvei (Real Genius, Guarding Tess) before Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko delivered a draft that he approved. Other projects that Stern has announced in the past as developing have also stalled out in the scripting phase.

A Tale Of Two HOST Trailers

One of the upcoming spring films I have been looking forward to the most is the Korean horror import The Host. With its simple yet arresting poster image of a tentacle pulling a young girl through the air, the film promises an interesting genre-blending of classic monster movie thrills and perhaps more modern day horror film chills. The film is already a blockbuster hit in its home country of South Korea and U.S. distributor Magnolia Pictures is hoping that it will click with American audiences as well.

Interestingly, Magnolia films has put together not one but two trailers to whet movie audiences' appetites for the film. The first uses a bit of bait-and-switch, initially appearing as if advertising a light comedy import before dropping the second shoe in the form of a mutated creature emerging from Seoul's Han River.



The second trailer is a more straightforward trailer, letting audiences know up front that this is a monster movie. Surprisingly, though, this is a red-band trailer, meaning that it can only be shown in front of R-rated films. While not particularly more gruesome in content, this second trailer represents an interesting move from Magnolia Films, as the film is currently only set for a limited platform release.



The Host starts hitting screens on March 9 and will continue to roll out to screens through mid-April. You can get more information at Magnolia Films website.