Marvel to finance up to ten new films — Marvel Entertainment has received a line of credit to produce new superhero films. The characters in the arrangement are
Captain America,
The Avengers,
Nick Fury,
Black Panther,
Ant-Man,
Cloak &
Dagger,
Dr. Strange,
Hawkeye,
Power Pack, and
Shang-Chi. "These movies are tentpoles for either summer or the holidays," said Marvel chairman and CEO,
Avi Arad. Right. Because who wouldn't want to see a film about Hawkeye? Or Ant-Man? I can't wait! (Related:
how to make a superhero movie that doesn't suck. My first thought? Have a superhero that doesn't suck.)
posted by jdroth
on Sep 7, 2005 -
138 comments
Serenity The trailer online. This makes me soooo happy. I've been watching and re-watching the DVD set far too many times to be healthy.
posted by rexruff
on Apr 26, 2005 -
130 comments
filmaffinity.com looks like another useful tool to get recommendations for your viewing pleasure-once more of us start rating! It's in English and Spanish now (with more languages yet to come).
Movielens seems promising as well.
IMDb Pro looks cool too, though I haven't gone
that far. However,
this guy says beware!!
posted by HyperBlue
on Jan 30, 2005 -
11 comments
xixax is a film community/bulletin board. In addition to forums for new films (released and rumored), stuff on DVD, and tech goodies for filmmakers, they've got director forums for Wes and PT Anderson, Scorsese, Lynch, the Coens, Soderbergh and many others.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy
on Dec 27, 2004 -
2 comments
Anti-Kerry Film Producer Accused of Libel A Vietnam veteran shown in a documentary criticizing Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s anti-war activities filed a libel lawsuit against the movie's producer Monday, saying the film falsely calls the veteran a fraud and a liar.
Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said in the suit that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" combines footage of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with narration that claims that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later "discovered as frauds" who "never set foot on the battlefield, or left the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform."
posted by Postroad
on Oct 18, 2004 -
18 comments
With the DVD of
Walking Tall hitting stores today, it might be nice to read the legend of the real
sheriff Buford Pusser, six-feet and six-inches of Alabaman, two-by-four wielding, vigilante justice. Actually, it's not the first time this story's been told. The 1973 version of
Walking Tall is now considered a classic (in some circles).
What's cool is that Alabama-bred country rockers
Drive By Truckers have devoted not
one, but
two songs on their new album
The Dirty South to debunking the myths surrounding this folk hero
posted by UncleDave
on Sep 27, 2004 -
8 comments
The evocation of dystopian space with contemporary settings. One of the many challenges faced by directors of low- or no-budget SF films is the convincing depiction of futuristic space, especially where it needs to appear oppressive or totalising. What are you to do, when you lack
the wherewithal to create
elaborate sets, and even the
cheesiest CGI is well out of reach?
You use extant buildings and artifacts, and you crop carefully. But which ones? Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center appears particularly popular in this context:
here it is in
THX1138, and
here in
Gattaca - the latter a film which also featured the
Citroen DS and
Studi Avanti to precisely evocative effect. (What's so sinister about this poor building?
In real life it's stunningly pretty.)
Jean-Luc Godard had a
field day in
Alphaville, with the anomic architecture of mid-60s, high modernist Paris, and again with the
same sorts of mainframe installations Lucas relied so heavily upon in
THX. Even (cough)
Logan's Run found low-rent dystopia in various Dallas and Fort Worth settings, here Fort Worth's
Water Gardens.
Maybe the poor Marin Center's a bit played out, huh? As an aid to future directors, then, let me ask you: What are some dystopic settings near you?
posted by adamgreenfield
on Sep 27, 2004 -
48 comments
After swearing off his (five-part) "Jersey Trilogy" forever with the release of
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001, Kevin Smith (already busy with
Fletch Won and
The Green Hornet has
announced that
View Askew is preparing a
Clerks sequel, entitled
Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks. The movie "is about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s."
Since many of us were among those the "lazy 20-somethings" that launched Smith's career, this raises a few questions, most of which
are inside. The simple one, though, is this:
Is anyone still buying what he's selling? For what it's worth, I am.
posted by Sinner
on Sep 1, 2004 -
40 comments
Grayson, the movie that doesn't exist. John Fiorella and Gabe Sabloff have managed to create the most exciting film trailer I've seen in years. The only catch? It's for a movie that might never be made.
Apparently, the two worked weekends for 18 months, creating storyboards, acting, directing, shooting, and editing a gorgeous short film designed to pique interest in a movie about what happens after Batman dies and Wonder Woman and Superman go to work for the enemy. It's a professional-looking and well-edited piece of work (that anamorphic lens pays incredible dividends for them) that somehow manages to come in at a budget of just under $18,000. Imagine what they could do with 100 times that.
[Go to 'MOVIES' and then 'Grayson'. The full trailer is long but worth every second of download time, as is the 'Grayson- Pieces of the Puzzle' short. Also, the film files are mirrored
here]
posted by yellowcandy
on Aug 25, 2004 -
60 comments
Ryan is a documentary about Oscar nominee/animator Ryan Larkin, who now panhandles on the streets of Montreal. A preview clip is at the far right of the photo gallery.
posted by disgruntled
on Jun 4, 2004 -
5 comments
Cannon Films -- the notoriously schlocky independent studio that brought you such fare as
Invasion USA,
Masters of the Universe, and the Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling movie
Over the Top -- now have a fan-made blog devoted to their impossibly awful (yet addictive) movies. Your hosts
Ink Syndicate give an informative and amusing
history of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's peerless cinematic empire.
Unknown Films provide an employee's-eye-view, interviewing Cannon advertising guy
Jim Berteges.
posted by pxe2000
on Apr 14, 2004 -
6 comments
Jesse Friedman's Web Site from the incredibly powerful and amazing documentary
Capturing the Friedmans. A "documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes." When watching the film from start to finish I went back and forth on their guilt or innocence and when the film was over I'm still not sure. In the time of the mass media hysteria and questionable police tactics what would you have done?
posted by suprfli
on Mar 26, 2004 -
3 comments
How the Left views the Right, as viewed by the Southern Baptist Press.
“I don't get it,” said the movie critic, “the people aren't listening to us... don't all those unwashed cretins out there in flyover country understand that we're the ones who tell them what they can watch?”
posted by 4easypayments
on Mar 9, 2004 -
60 comments
Streaming video documentary films about American traditional music. Great American roots music films for free! Click and watch full length documentaries about the Popovich Brothers Tamburitza band of South Bend Indiana, Louisiana creole fiddler Canray Fontenot, the last Black medicine-show performer, sacred harp singing and much more. An amazing collaboration between folklorists and indie film makers.
posted by zaelic
on Mar 8, 2004 -
2 comments
Derailing The Friedmans. An interesting Slate piece on the neutrality of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Capturing The Friedmans." It starts: "When a documentary filmmaker uncovers overwhelming evidence that the subject of his film was wrongly convicted, shouldn't he take a stand on the man's innocence?"
posted by adrober
on Mar 1, 2004 -
22 comments
the separate cinema archive has for almost three decades been the only source dedicated to the art and fascinating history of African Americans in film. The archive of over 25,000 movie posters, lobby cards, stills and material from over a dozen foreign countries, spans the past century of important historic black cinema.
posted by sgt.serenity
on Feb 5, 2004 -
3 comments
Every year we seem to get a few horror or sci-fi movies featuring aliens. What happened this year? I may be missing some, but the only 2003 major release movies that had some aliens in them were
Dreamcatcher,
Good Boy! and
Scary Movie 3. One horror movie and two comedies. Just a coincidence or are aliens no longer cool?
posted by quirked
on Dec 30, 2003 -
17 comments
Taking it public. Ethan Hawke is
looking for investors for his new movie,
"Billy Dead". For $8.75 a share of preferred stock (and only in blocks of 100 - ticker symbol "BILLY"), Hawke hopes to raise about US $7.3 Million through his broker,
Civilian Capital. According to a consultant with Civilian, potential investors will be able to "invest in a film maker, a story or a star."
Is this ushering in a new golden age of public media ownership, or an age of increased corporate hegemony? Also, for what other artforms would you like to see such investment opportunites? Finally, in what directors/actors/storylines etc. would
you like to invest?
posted by SilentSalamander
on Nov 19, 2003 -
29 comments
