solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

Images of the teaser poster of the hotly anticipated return of 007 have surfaced on the web and it appears like the 'dark and moody' feel we were promised is in full effect. I reckon Daniel Craig is going to do a great job of portraying a new kind of Bond, and I can't understand the huge fuss being kicked up over his casting. After the debacle that was Die Another Day (invisible cars = not good) and the two superb Bourne films as competition, a return to a more realistic, gritty 007 is in order.

Casino Royale is due for release in November. 

Or to give it its full title "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". mmmmmm Long. Brad Pitt's new movie is over-explained by the title already. Pitt taking the lead as the notorious outlaw Jesse James, and being told where to stand by Andrew Dominik, ozzie director behind the brilliant 'Chopper'.

The first short trailer turned up online here. It looks really pretty, and if the film turns out to be half as engaging as Chopper then my ticket is already bought.

Click the poster above to see a bigger version. 

Trailer in quicktime or windows media format here

Some stills over in our flickr account here

Stolen from filmstalker.co.uk

Fans of Sofia Coppola's first two films, the superb Virgin Suicides and critically lauded Lost in Translation, will be awaiting the premiere next month of her latest, Marie Antoinette, at the annual film festival of Cannes. The film focuses on the story of the 19-year-old Austrian who, after marrying a Frenchman, later became Queen of France, led a decadent lifestyle and eventually suffered an unlucky fate at the advent of the French revolution.

Suicides' Kirsten 'hotness' Dunst takes the title role, and is supported by a decent cast including Jason Schwartzman as her husband Louis XVI, Steve Coogan, Asia Argento and the legend that is Rip Torn. The film has been shot on location at the Palace of Versailles, Antoinette's home for 19 years, and is said to focus mainly on the Queen's early life and the first five years of marriage.

It feels like a long time since Translation so we'll soon see if the 3 year wait has been worth it.

Whether or not you're a fan of period costume dramas, with Coppola at the helm, and the promise of it not being a BBC-style yawnathon, it's definitely one to watch.

For now, check out the New Order soundtracked trailer (the bit with the fan and the Dunst and…) and Cannes poster.

Brick is a supposedly this year's 'Donnie Darko'. What a crock of shit. I haven't seen the film yet, so I can't comment, I just hate marketing people trying to build hype by comparing a new film to a previous years 'indie' hit. That being said Brick has been a critical success in the states, and is set to come out in the UK on the 12th of May.

"High school student Brendan Frye prefers to stay an outsider, until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily, reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes. Brendan's feelings for her still run deep and he becomes consumed with finding his troubled inamorata. To find her, Brendan enlists the aid of his only true peer, The Brain, while keeping the assistant vice principal only occasionally informed of what quickly becomes a dangerous investigation. Brendan's single-minded unearthing of students' secrets thrusts him headlong into the colliding social orbits of rich-girl sophisticate Laura, intimidating Tugger, substance-abusing Dode, seductive Kara, jock Brad, and - most ominously - non-student The Pin. It is only by gaining acceptance into The Pin's closely guarded inner circle of crime and punishment that Brendan will be able to uncover hard truths about himself, Emily, and the suspects that he is getting closer to."

The uk poster (shown above, source) is quite pretty, but the US Versions were also very nice (Although slightly derivative of Saul Bass's 'Bunny Lake is missing')

Check out the trailer here 

and take a look at all the stills and Posters in our flickr account here 

David finchers next film is 'Zodiac' also known as 'the chronicles' or 'the zodiac chronicles' (fake names it was given during its production). Here's a little synopsis from imdb…

"A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith's book, the movie's focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people."

The first glimpse we're getting at it is from the apple site. Not where you might think however in the 'trailers' section, but rather in fincher doing a spot talking about apples product 'final cut pro'. the (very small) pieces of the movie, are mixed in with fincher yakking about apple products, and the future of post production.

here's the video on apple(be warned its quite large) here

a direct link to the .mov file here (right click to download)

and there's a few stills over in our flickr account here

I found this story over at filmstalker

but also at the zodiac blog here

There's a new piece of news flying around about the Tarantino/Rodriguez production every five minutes; Rodriguez has stopped filming, Rodriguez has started filming again blah blah blah….

The movie will be two 75 minute features, played back to back with fake trailers wedged in between.. but more about those later.

'Grind House' is being produced through 'RIP' or 'Rodriguez international pictures' Quentin is directing 'Death Proof' apparently starring Mickey Rourke, John Jarrat (from wolf creek) and Zoe Bell (a stuntwoman from Xena: warrior princess, and Kill Bill… yeah its weird… I know). The plot revolves around a guy who hunts and kills women with his 'Death-proof' stunt car there's a little script review over at aintitcool.

The image to the left is the front cover to the script, describing the film as 'A White-Hot Juggernaut at 200mph!'. It sounds like a cross between 'Death Race 2000' and 'The Hitcher', Although even more-so it sounds a lot like an under-the-radar flick from a couple of years ago called 'Highwaymen' about a guy who killed people with his car, He kills James 'Jesus' Caviezel's wife, and so Jim hunts the guy down for revenge. Not a great film but it had its moments.

Rodriguez is taking care of the second half of the film called 'Project Terror' a zombie film, and as we reported earlier he has apparently brought in 80's falling star Michael Biehn to lead the project. Very little is known about the plot, and filming recently shutdown (rumoured to be because Rodriguez broke up with his wife so he needs some time-out) but will be up and running again very soon.

So Tarantino's doing the first half of the film, and Rodriguez is doing the second half. In between they're going to stick trailers for fake films. The early word was that there would maybe be a sexploitation trailer called 'Cowgirls in Sweden' (which even involved Tarantino going to Sweden to search out really hot cowgirls…. nice job if you can get it). Another confirmed trailer is 'Machete' which Rodriguez hopes will eventually become a proper film. A stalk and slash film starring the eponymous 'Danny Trejo'. As for the other trailers there's lots of speculation flying around about a 'Fox Force Five' trailer, a spaghetti western trailer, and an 'Evil Dead' style horror flick. What is known is that guest directors will be filming the trailers, with Eli Roth and Edgar Wright both confirmed to be doing one each.

I realise this isn’t exactly movie news, but I enjoyed it enough to want to post it, I can’t wait for Wes to start filming ‘The Fantastic Mr Fox’.

Video Blog number 5 from the 'Hot Fuzz' set arrives. This episode see the crew filming in a weird fake supermarket… and Edgar Wright looking really really tired.

His beard looks longer too, I think he's trying to transform himself slowly into Francis Ford Coppola. Lets hope he goes crazy and we see some 'Hearts of Darkness' antics. We get to see a 4 hour workprint of Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg has a Heart Attack in the middle of filming and Nick Frost goes all Brando and starts mumbling about snails crawling along the edge of straight razors. maybe not.

There's a nice interview over at AintitCool with Edgar too, talking about the production, how shooting is going, and what we can expect from the final film…

Check out the Video Blog here

and read the Edgar Wright Interview at Aintitcool here

I can't help but Love Will Ferrell his 'idiot man-child routine' shows no sign of getting old, and he cracks me up everytime, even in relatively serious films like 'Melinda & Melinda' I can't help but laugh just from looking at him. I AM NEIL DIAMOND, I WILL SMACK YOU IN THE MOUTH!.

Ferrell seems to be churning out films at quite a rate at the moment, this summer brings the 'Days of Thunder' inspired comedy 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby' to the screens. Set in the world of Nascar,Will Ferrell playing the lead role of Ricky Bobby, partner in a two man driving team named 'Thunder and Lightning'. No matter who you are naming your children 'Walker' and 'Texas Ranger' is funny.

Ferrell's next movie is already filming in North America and parts of Canada. 'Blades of Glory' looks set to be another laugh-till-I-piss comedy, here's a short synopsis from imdb:

In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. Presently, however, they've found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.

The killer wig/flared ski trousers combination is already making me laugh. Click on the image to see a bigger version.

Checkout the trailer for 'Talladega Nights' here

and the poster here

I found this image over at filmschoolrejects go check them out

The 'neatest beard' Oscar is already in the bag for Edward Norton next year, after 'Down in the Valley' comes 'The Illusionist' from new director 'Neil Burger', Norton playing the lead role of Eisenheim a professional Illusionist. Here's a little synopsis:

A talented magician attempts to undermine the rigid social structure of turn-of-the-century Vienna by using his talents to win the love of a woman above his standing. Unfortunately Princess Sophie (Jessica Biel) is engaged to Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell). As the tensions between the Eisenheim and Leopold elevate, urbane Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) finds his sympathy toward Eisenheim growing despite his formal obligations to the powerful prince.

Anyway some clips have turned up on variety.com here

and there's some stills over in our flickr account here