The Movie News Thread!

[ReZourceman]

Actually...that is. I hate Pirates though. But meh. Im sure I'll see it anyway. Don't want to be a loser or anything.

[Cube]

Russel Brand is being reported to be in the next "Pirates" movie, playing Captain Jacks brother. He's reportedly going to earn up to 5 Million for the role too.

 

I actually think that's some rather good casting by Disney, if it's true.

 

Apart from the publicity, how is it good casting? His acting was incredibly bad in whatever that film was called. And he was playing himself.

[ReZourceman]

Russel Brand is quite similar to Jack Sparrow.

 

 

Eccentric(sp) and annoying. Heh.

[Slaggis]

Apart from the publicity, how is it good casting? His acting was incredibly bad in whatever that film was called. And he was playing himself.

 

They could basically be the same person. Watch the way they both talk, how odd they both are, and how they look. Also, Brand can be rather funny.

 

You couldn't get someone in real life that was more like Captain Jack (I.e mannarisms and such) - other than Keith Richards that is, but they already used him.

[Happenstance]

Its a good thing I havent liked the Pirates movie since the first one or I would be really annoyed by that casting news

[Ashley]

Apart from the publicity, how is it good casting? His acting was incredibly bad in whatever that film was called. And he was playing himself.

 

Sarah Marshall?

 

(Although he has been in more, was in whats it called...St Trinians and I think is going to be in another Apatow film).

[ReZourceman]

Sarah Marshall?

 

(Although he has been in more, was in whats it called...St Trinians and I think is going to be in another Apatow film).

 

I think hes in....Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler. Also rumoured Sarah Marshall spin-off.

[Jav_NE]

That's awesome! I think he fits that role perfectly. Besides, he's a funny guy, and when he's playing a role he can't adlib as much as he normally would playing himself, so he wont be annoying to those who dont like his style. Personally i think he's great and i can already sense good chemistry between him and Depp.

[Chris the great]

gotta say, it works for me. i hated brand till i actualy watched him do somthing, hes very funny, and indeed, rather mad. i cant help but feel if i had been in the cool crowd i would be a bit more like him. though i often get told im like a walking episode of the mighty boosh.

[D_prOdigy]

What... the... hell?

 

Spielberg and Will Smith to tackle "remake" of Old Boy

 

Now, I'm sorry. But this is just no. Anyone who has seen the Korean thriller will know that Hollywood could never do this storyline properly. And if they alter it to make it less downbeat, then I for one would be on a warpath. I can give most films a chance before I've seen it, but this is one I just wish dies before it gets anywhere.

[triforcemario]

What... the... hell?

 

Spielberg and Will Smith to tackle "remake" of Old Boy

 

Now, I'm sorry. But this is just no. Anyone who has seen the Korean thriller will know that Hollywood could never do this storyline properly. And if they alter it to make it less downbeat, then I for one would be on a warpath. I can give most films a chance before I've seen it, but this is one I just wish dies before it gets anywhere.

...

...

...

...

...

RRRRAAAAGGGGGEEEEE

[Hellfire]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Mundi]

 

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Dante]

Live-Action Akira Script Review

 

According to the trades, Warner Bros. will turn anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo's six-volume graphic novel "Akira" into two live-action feature films, the first of which is being fast tracked for release in summer 2009. Each feature will be based on three of the books in Otomo's series. The story takes place in New Manhattan, a metropolis that was rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years earlier.

 

Dr. Strangefist is a huge fan of the 1988 anime and recently took a look at the script by Gary Whitta. He chimes in with his thoughts below.

 

In the meantime, you can follow my updates on TWITTER.

 

I am not anti-remake. They do not incense me like they do some people. In fact, I kind of like the idea when they’re done well, even if that’s not all that often, and when they are bad I generally subscribe to the notion that the original is still out there for you to watch and the remake can only increase awareness of it amongst the general movie-going population. So no harm no foul. Still, I can’t help but be a little skeptical, or at the very least nervous, when I hear that a film I love is being remade, or a book I love being adapted, and so on. Even if a remake isn’t ultimately going to take away from its source material I want it to do it justice and maybe even turn out to be something good in its own right. So as I’m sure you can imagine I was pretty damn skeptical approaching Gary Whitta’s screenplay for a live action American version of Akira, a personal favorite and easily one of the best and most influential anime films of all time. Many of you will probably be surprised to hear that the verdict is overall positive, or at least not altogether negative. In fact it’s pretty firmly somewhere in the middle.

 

The story takes place in a burgeoning new metropolis of the future, several years after a cataclysmic event destroyed the old city that once stood in its place. Unbeknownst to most of the populace, the real cause of the event was a small boy with incredible psychic powers, part of a top secret government program attempting to harness such so called “Espers” as weapons. The project is deemed too dangerous, and the young boy – AKIRA – is put in cryogenic stasis in a secret underground facility to prevent such a disaster from ever occurring again. In probably the most significant change and the only one that really bugged me, the events of this version are shifted from Tokyo to New York – but after the city is destroyed and the United States’ economy collapses, burgeoning superpower Japan buys the devastated island to construct a new city to house their ever expanding population. So the film will still technically be set in New Tokyo, but on the island of Manhattan, and with about half the characters being American and the rest remaining Japanese. It’s a somewhat odd way of appealing to American audiences and fans alike, and feels somewhat awkward, but does allow for some up to date political commentary.

 

In the ruins of the surrounding boroughs live KANEDA and TRAVIS, two young men who became good friends after being orphaned by the disaster and have since looked out for each other. They are now part of a biker gang called the Red Devils, which tries to maintain the peace in the lawless, neglected, impoverished outskirts they call home. KANEDA is the cocky leader, like a big brother to restless TRAVIS. Following a run-in with a rival gang and a chance encounter with some people smuggling a strange young boy out of the city, TRAVIS inadvertently unlocks dormant psychic abilities and KANEDA gets involved in a resistance movement attempting to stop the resurrected Espers research program, headed by the military and Vanguard, a Blackwater-esque private military contractor. SHACKLETON, an army colonel who was part of the original experiments, mainly wants to contain these powerful psychics and protect the city, while NELLIS, defense secretary in the pocket of Vanguard, wants to restart the weapons development side of the program.

 

With the help of his new allies RAY, former Vanguard employee and leader of the resistance, and KAY, one of their former test subjects, Kaneda attempts to rescue Travis, who has been taken into custody by Shackleton and his team. Travis’ new powers are so powerful that they awaken the mind of the sleeping Akira, and Shackleton fears a repeat of the cataclysmic event that destroyed the city so many years before. Travis finds himself inexplicably drawn to Akira, and, his ego and powers spiraling out of control, he escapes from captivity and goes on a rampage of destruction trying to reach the secret facility where Akira is kept. The story becomes a race to stop him – Kaneda, Kay, and Travis’ girlfriend KAORI wanting to bring him back alive and sane, and Shackleton intent on destroying him to prevent another apocalyptic event. True to the epic scope of the original, this is only part one of two planned movies, so the script ends with a huge but intriguing cliffhanger.

 

The people out there who demand faithfulness in adaptations and remakes should be pleasantly surprised, even if not outright delighted by this script; sure, a few elements are slightly watered-down, Hollywood-ized, Americanized – but there is no outright wrecking, ruining, or childhood raping going on here. All things considered it is shockingly faithful to the source material, at times reading like a flat-out transcript/description of the animated movie, and even incorporating aspects of the original manga that were left out of the anime version. It is faithful not only in plot and character details, but in tone. It retains the darkness, the violence, the epic qualities and even some of the themes, though they’ve been tweaked, Americanized, and updated to apply to current events. They are also maybe a bit less complex, but still this is admirable. This adaptation actually retains a lot of the style and, more surprisingly, substance of the original. If you are already a fan, you will probably like this adaptation, because a lot of the same things are good about it.

 

The other side of that coin, though, is that it’s not bringing many fresh ideas or perspectives on the material to the table. What I love about good remakes or adaptations, what in fact makes some of them good, is that they are opportunities for artists with distinct voices and visions to take already existing works and re-interpret them, pay respect to them but use them to say new things and make them their own. There is very little of that happening here. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I’m talking about how faithful it is, a lot of that reaction is due to my surprise that it’s not a complete bastardization. We’re not exactly talking Gus Van Sant’s Psycho levels of slavishness here. But it’s not a particularly fresh take either. Neither infuriatingly dumbed-down nor invigoratingly creative and exciting, it just kind of exists - at least as a script.

 

The big, looming unknown that remains now is if the quality of the filmmaking can not only do justice to the words on the page, but ultimately to help justify the whole thing’s existence. The original is known as much if not more so for being a stunning visual feast as it is for its story and themes, so if this project fails in that regard it will probably be a disappointment regardless of how true the script is to the source. And at the same time, I think what I’ve said above applies to currently slated director Ruiri Robinson just as much as it does to the writer; if he just apes the visual style and shots of the original it’ll get points for being faithful but won’t be very exciting or interesting. It’s going to need to look just as good, but at the same time different to really stand apart from the other version, at least in the eyes of this fan.

 

Having said all of this, I’ll add that I’d still rather have a finished product that hews very close to prior incarnations and maybe doesn’t have a lot to say on its own than one that hopelessly dumbs down or simply discards everything that made the original a classic – and of course, that all depends on how things pan out in part two. If this script is an indication of the direction in which this project is headed, and if it indeed stays on this path, than I think it will yield something that fans will find satisfying overall and which also potentially has a lot of appeal to newcomers. I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who hasn’t seen or maybe even heard of Akira before and I’m thinking that this would strike me as pretty awesome stuff. As a remake it may not be necessary, but then again what really is when we’re talking about entertainment?

 

Grade: B

[Paj!]

STOP.

 

REMAKING.

 

PERFECTLY.

 

GOOD.

 

MOVIES.

[Chris the great]

well, the story of akira was good, but pleanty of people are put of cos "its a cartoon, they are for kids!" let em remake it. it'l never be the same will it? so why count it as part of the story. if its shit, it wont ruin the origional cos its just a remake.

[Dante]

yeah it was the main basher for animes in the 90's.

[Ashley]

Last I heard Joseph Gordan Levitt was attached to play the role of Tetsuo. Which gives me some hope as the boy can act.

[triforcemario]

I take back my comments against the live action Akira remake. It doesn't sound all that bad, tbh. Hopefully, it'll turn out to be half decent.

[Dante]

Not Another Not Another Movie

 

Chevy Chase and Burt Reynolds are spoofing the nonstop flood of spoof films in the upcoming indie comedy "Not Another Not Another Movie."

 

Chase plays a studio head who quits his floundering company, leaving his ex-con sibling (Michael Madsen) in charge. Soon their equally inept gangster friend (Vinnie Jones) takes over and assigns a production assistant (David Leo Schultz) to direct a spoof of spoof movies. Reynolds plays an actor playing the director of the chaotic film within the film.

 

Writer-director David Murphy's "Movie" features cameos from actors playing themselves spoofing their memorable roles, including Richard Tyson (the villain in "Kindergarten Cop") and Wolfgang Bodison (the young African-American Marine on trial in "A Few Good Men"). "Stuttering" John Melendez, Ellie Gerber, Tim Piper, Jennifer Sciole and James Duval also star.

 

Star Trek footage write up:

 

CLIP 1

 

The first clip begins in Iowa, on Earth. We see an American bar, much like one in the 20th century, except for the outfits and the occasional alien patron. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura weaves through the throng and goes up to the bar. She orders a round, including a fire tea, Budweiser classics and some Cardassian sunrises. In a sly nod to Abrams’ other work, the bartender recommends the Slusho mixer as well. Just as she finishes the order, a clearly intoxicated man two seats down says he’ll pick up the tab. She rebuffs him and the two engage in a lively bout of verbal sparring until he introduces himself “it’s Jim, Jim Kirk.”

 

Uhura, it seems, is studying Xeno linguistics and Kirk’s grasp of the subject indicates he’s more than what he seems. Uhura: “I’m impressed, for a moment I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals.” Kirk: “not only.” A group of burly Starfleet cadets (including a surly looking Sulu) intervene to ask if the drunk ‘townie’ is making a nuisance of himself. Uhura says he is but she can handle herself. Unfortunately the cadets have something to prove and, after being summarily dismissed by an unimpressed Kirk, the leader lays him out.

 

What follows is a sizeable ruckus as Kirk fends off all four before being pounded nearly senseless on top of a table. As Sulu and the others continue to throw punches a shrill whistle penetrates the brawl. It’s Captain Pike, he glares at the wayward cadets before telling them to get out.

 

Cut to: Pike and Kirk sitting at a table, Kirk mopping the blood from his nose. Pike reads Kirk the riot act for wasting his life and being the only “genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest.” Pike served with Kirk’s father aboard the USS Kelvin and suggests that joining Starfleet academy would be a better use of Kirk’s time than brawling. “You understand what the federation is. It’s important, it’s a peace-keeping armada.” Kirk, he says, could be an officer in four years and have his own ship in eight. “Are we done?” the youth shoots back. “I’m done,” says Pike, and tells Kirk where the shuttle for recruits is leaving. “Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives including your mother’s and yours. I dare you to do better.”

 

Cut to: Kirk on his motorbike driving to the shipyard where the Enterprise is being constructed (yes, on Earth).

 

Cut to: Kirk on his bike the next day arriving at the shuttledock. He throws the keys to his bike to an admiring tech and board the shuttle. Catching Pike’s eye he says “Four years? I’ll do it in three.”

 

 

CLIP 2

 

Abrams came back out to introduce the second clip, saying: “So Kirk joins Starfleet and immediately he’s there he gets in trouble. They all get assigned to ships but Kirk does not. However Bones finds out that a loophole where, if you’re treating a patient, the doctor’s allowed to bring the patient on board. So he injects Kirk to give him symptoms and make him look sick. This is the sequence where he first gets brought on board the Enterprise.”

 

Bones and Kirk come out of a turbolift and Kirk does not look at all good. They stagger into the medical bay, Kirk complaining all the way.

 

Cut to: The bridge where Captain Pike asks the “Russian whizkid” at the helm what his name is. It’s Ensign Chekov. Cue a comedy sequence where Chekov attempts to enter an authorization code into the computer, announcing “nine, five, wictor, wictor, two” in a perfect Walther Koenig exaggerated Russian accent and being denied. Chekov goes on to address the ship over the comm., stating that anomaly has been detected in the neutral zone, a lightning storm in space. A distress signal from the Vulcan (“wulcan”) high command has caused the Enterprise to go and investigate.

 

Cut to: Sick bay, Kirk hears the transmission and panics. “lightning storm?” He gets up but he’s had a reaction to the injection and his hands have swollen up. “Good God, man!” says Bones in a spot-on DeForest Kelley. Despite this, Kirk runs form the sick bay pursued by the anxious doctor. “We’re flying into a trap!” “Dammit, Jim, stand still!”. The pair run through the corridors before locating Uhura, who is more preoccupied with the size of Kirk’s swollen hands. As he tries to explain, his toungue goes numb, leading to much slurring and misunderstanding. While it sounds daft here, the comedy in the scene is pulled off well, showing that JJ has nailed the sense of humour he promised to bring to the film.

 

Cut to: the interior of Nero’s ship: dark, red and menacing. An officer reports: “Nero, seven federation ships are on their way.”

 

Cut to: Vulcan. A beam, emitted from Nero’s ship, bores into the planet’s surface. A lone figure looks out and survey’s the attack. It’s Winona Ryder as Spock’s mother.

 

Cut to: Exasperated, Kirk runs onto the bridge and shouts that they need to stop the ship as it’s a trap. “Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster, it’s being attacked by Romulans.” Pike all but has him dragged off the bridge and Spock’s instant animosity (it almost comes to blows between the two) indicates that, at this point at least, these two do not get on at all. Kirk ultimately breaks through though and explains that the same anomaly was spotted years before on the day of his birth, before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin. He goes on to say that the night before, 47 (yes forty seven!) Klingon Warbirds were destroyed by a single Romulan vessel. Uhura backs Kirk up and Pike gives the order: “shields up, red alert!”

 

The ship comes out of warp amid a sea of debris: there are broken hulls as far as the eye can see. This is what remains of the other ships sent on the ‘rescue mission’ To Vulcan.

 

 

CLIP 3

 

Abrams: “So, Kirk later pisses of Spock and gets marooned. He lands on this planet and ends up meeting the older Spock. The two of them go to meet another character. A character played by Simon Pegg.” Pegg then came up to introduce this clip amid much gushing over his part in the film.

 

Kirk, along with Nimoy’s Spock are walking through an engineering structure in winter gear with snow still clinging to their garments. They walk up to a small alien standing next to a human. It’s Scotty.

 

Pegg’s begins to complain in his Scottish accent (flawless to the extent that it’s infinitely more believable than James Doohan’s atrocious burr ever was). Nimoy raises a Spock eyebrow “fascinating. You’re Montgomery Scott.” It turns out that Scotty has been in exile down here since he experimented with transporter technology and dematerialised the admiral’s dog. Pegg is clearly the bulk of the comic relief in the film but pulls it off without being ridiculous or embarrassing, which is no mean feat given the character’s heritage. “The Enterprise? I’d like to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you’ll pardon the engineering parlance.”

 

Spock and Kirk need to be beamed on board the Enterprise, it seems, while it’s still at warp – an impossibility, they’re told. “the notion of transwarp beaming is like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet while wearing a blindfold, riding a horse.” Scotty, however, invented the technique, only his present self has yet to make the necessary discovery. Spock helpfully fills in the gaps by providing the future Scotty’s formula.

 

Spock reveals to Kirk that he won’t be going with him. “that is not my destiny.” He instructs Kirk to never tell the younger Spock of his existence and that Kirk must expose the younger Spock (currently in command of the Enterprise) as being emotionally compromised so that he can assume command of the ship.

 

Spock: “To stop Nero, you alone must take command of your ship.”

Kirk: “How? Over your dead body?”

Spock: “Preferably not.”

Kirk steps into the transporter along with Scotty.

Kirk: “coming back in time, changing history, it’s cheating.”

Spock: “A trick I learned from an old friend.”

 

 

As the computer begins to energise, Spock raises his hand in salute. “Live long and prosper.”

 

 

CLIP 4

 

Abrams: “The last scene is a scene earlier in the movie. The tether that comes down from Nero’s space ship drills into the planet and a bomb gets dropped into the planet to destroy it. This is a sequence where the good guys are space jumping down onto the drill to destroy it.”

 

Transporters are being jammed and so three crew members are instructed by Pike to jump from a shuttle and freefall to the platform. Kirk, Sulu and… Engineer Olsen are ordered to go. You can see where this is going, can’t you? Pike will pilot the shuttle and leaves Spock in command of the Enterprise, Kirk is shockingly promoted to first officer amid much protestation from the Vulcan.

 

 

Spock: “Captain, please, I apologise. The complexities of human pranks escape me.”

Pike: “It’s not a prank Spock, and I’m not the captain. You are.”

 

The three jumpers suit up in armoured suits before loading onto the chuttle.

 

Cut to: Bones amid a devastated sick bay, who is promoted to chief medical officer after his superior is killed in the attack.

 

Cut to: the shuttle.

 

Kirk to Engineer Olsen “You’ve got the charges?”

Olsen ( who is English): “Oh yeah, I can’t wait to kick some Roluman arse.” The man's even wearing a red shirt - you can all but hear his death approaching.

 

The shuttle departs and the three are jostled around in their seats.

 

Kirk to Sulu: “What kind of combat training do you have?”

Sulu: “Fencing.”

 

The three jump from the shuttle, being reminded that they can’t be beamed back until the drill is shut down. We see the three bodies free-falling through the atmosphere towards the platform, the huge drill arm flying past them as they plummet towards their destination. As they reach a certain height, Sulu and Kirk hit their chutes but Olsen decides to get in closer. He finally pulls the cord but it’s too late, he bounces off the platform, slides over the edge and is swung straight into the drilling beam and disintegrated.

 

Kirk hits the platform and nearly meets the same end before hitting a button on his harness. Instead of ejecting, the chute is sucked back into the pack on his back. Several Romulans emerge from hatches on the platform and a melee ensues, Kirk using his helmet as a makeshift bludgeon to keep them at bay.

 

Sulu is the next to land but his chute becomes caught and he can’t get free. He pulls out a steel handle, which extends into a katana blade. He cuts himself free and enters the fray. Far from the Sulu we remember, John Cho’s character is a fighter and lays into the Romulans, flourishing his blade and executing a series of kicks and somersaults.

 

Kirk isn’t faring so well and is hanging on to the edge of the platform while a Romulan tries to kick him off. Dispatching his own assailant by pushing him into a gout of flame, Sulu impales Kirk’s attacker and pulls him back onto the platform. That old bar room brawl has now definitively been put behind them.

 

Exclaiming that Olsen had the charges, Kirk picks up a discarded Romulan disruptor rifle and begins to unload it into the drill until the machine shudders to a standstill.

 

Cut to: Nero, seeing the drill has stopped, nevertheless orders the “red matter” dropped into the hole.

 

Cut to: The Enterprise. Chekov reports that nero is creating a singularity – a black hole – in the heart of Vulcan, which will destroy the planet. Spock jumps up and orders a planetwide evacuation before heading to the turbolift. The Vulcan council, including his parents, must be saved and Spock is going to get them.

 

Cut to: The platform, Sulu is swept over the edge and Kirk jumps after them. The Enterprise cannot lock onto the pair as they plummet towards the surface. On board the Enterprise, Chekov runs down to the transporter room and struggles to get a lock. Unsurprisingly he manages it with mere nanoseconds to spare, the pair dematerialising metres from the ground and appearing in a heap on the transporter room floor.

 

Sulu: “Thanks.”

Kirk: “No problem.”

[Happenstance]

Enterprise revealed for new Star Trek movie:

 

[Dan_Dare]

I like how that ship makes no sense whatsoever. Genius.

[Cube]

I like some parts and hate others. I like how the saucer looks a lot more like Enterprise (Yes, I liked it. So what?),but the deflector dish just looks wrong.

[Dante]

I like how that ship makes no sense whatsoever. Genius.

 

[Hellfire]

I don't think he's saying it's unfaithful just that the design doesn't make any sense. Star Wars ship design ftw