I love it when embarrassing stuff happens to really annoying people

From iwatchstuff, "Kathy Griffin absolutely fuckin ate it yesterday getting out of her car in London, and even that feels like a massive understatement. You could tie the wheels of someones wheelchair to the bumper of a racecar and jerk the wheels from behind and the person would still land more gracefully than this. She hits the ground like she just fell out of a plane. She looks like a fish someone dropped on the deck. Seriously, her feet end up underneath the car, how the hell does that even happen. It's like a damn sniper got her. No one has fallen this hard since Kate Bosworth fell into my sex trap. Rawr!"

Happy May Day!!!

May all of your Pagan rituals prove fruitful.

Anyone ever heard of this?

Good morning, fellas!

Eric Johnson gets ahead of himself

It’s another remake in the works that’s sure to turn heads, and according to SciFi Wire “Flash Gordon” star Eric Johnson is more than ready to taking on the series and the fan base that comes with it. And it’s all thanks to “Smallville.”

Johnson was cast in the debut season of “Smallville” as Whitney Fordman, the jock boyfriend of Lana Lang. Only a season later, Whitney left the series in order for the show to focus more on the budding Clark-Lana dynamic. But during the course of that year, the actor came to terms with what it was like to be part of an immensely popular series and as an antagonist to a popular relationship.

"I got a taste of that rabid fan base when I was on ‘Smallville,’” he said. “It's always good to know about your character when it's centered on a big mythology like this, but ultimately the fans will always know more than the actors, always."

However, when it comes to “Flash Gordon” lore, Johnson said he couldn’t have done it without the Internet, which allowed him to research the series. Johnson, who received a lot of links from his fans, said that his knowledge of Flash Gordon was virtually non-existent until now.
The actor himself admits he has high-hopes for the series, and compares it to something of an Indiana Jones with a lot of “drama and humor and the girl, with great fight sequences, and it's not going to take itself too seriously, but not be campy.”

“Flash Gordon” is set to launch its 22-episode season Aug. 10.

Final FF trailer, Surfer speaks

Apple.com has posted the final full-length trailer for the highly-anticipated Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in glorious QuickTime formats, including High Definition and iPod Video. You can choose from the formats by clicking on the links below:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer/trailer-large.html

Darren Aronofsky take on Noah

From iwatchstuff, In an interview with The Guardian, Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) said his next project will be a story about Noah, that dude from the bible.

"Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk," he says admiringly. "It's there in the Bible - it was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor's guilt going on there. He's a dark, complicated character."

So basically, expect Noah to drink wine until one of his arms falls off and he ends up going butt to butt with some animals or something. And we'll all learn a valuable lesson about the dangers of alcohol.

And btw? They're already making this movie, Darren, it's called Evan Almighty.
Continue Reading "Aronofsky Writing Noah Movie That Probably Won't be Super Pretentious"

Battle Royale remake shelved for obvious reasons

From bloody disgusting, "I always tilt a brow at the way perspective shifts when horrific events occur in real life. First a movie is made in response ot the horrible events in our world, then someone goes on a killing spree that causes the rebelious film to become the scapegoat, and then finally any film in production that has any similarities to the events gets stuck on the backburner... usually forever. Such the case with Battle Royale and the Virginia Tech murders. Read on for the story.

During a recent interview, Hollywood producer Roy Lee (The Ring, The Grudge) revealed that his production company, Vertigo Entertainment, hopes to produce a remake of the Japanese novel/manga/film/game Battle Royale, but that the project has been greatly impacted by the recent Virginia Tech massacre, according to IGN.Lee was interviewed by The New York Times, which reports that "the killings have seriously shaken the prospects for his Battle Royale, based on a Japanese video game in which ninth graders imprisoned on an island are forced to kill one another."The producer revealed that New Line Cinema has been pursuing the film rights to the game since last year but a deal has not been inked yet. A studio spokesperson informed the Times that there was "no news" on that front.Lee is still willing to go ahead with a Battle Royale movie, but "we might be a little more sensitive to some of the issues" in light of Virginia Tech. He said that, had the film been in production before the shootings, "We would have been slaughtered by the press."He also confirmed that active development on Vertigo's remake of the Asian revenge pic Oldboy -- which supposedly influenced the video that Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho sent to NBC News -- had halted long before the campus killings occurred (news we first reported here)."

Star Wars The Legacy Revealed

Star Wars has Captivated generations of movie goers! Now, a new special from The History Channel seeks to understand why the emotional impact of the Star Wars Saga remains as relevant as ever. The two-hour special, STAR WARS: THE LEGACY REVEALED, is a World Premiere on The History Channel on Monday, May 28 at 9pm ET/PT.

Through interviews with politicians, academics, journalists and critics – all of whom weigh in on the enduring appeal of George Lucas’s creations – the special demonstrates that Star Wars isn’t just a high-action adventure in space. It’s a remarkably complex and sophisticated story about power, politics, sin, spirituality and redemption—almost Shakespearean in its power, humor, presentation and influence.

The special makes the argument that Star Wars’ intensely compelling stories—borrowed from diverse traditions, from Greek mythology and American westerns to the Bible and even Vaudeville—compel us to explore some of the biggest questions of our time. STAR WARS: THE LEGACY REVEALED explores that view through interviews with politicians, academics, journalists and critics, who all weigh in on the creations of George Lucas. The special shows how seldom a movie can make us laugh and think about our role in the universe—which may be why it has stood the test of time.

"The enduring appeal of Star Wars," says Tom Brokaw, "is that it’s this vastly entertaining piece of cinema that also leaves you … with the idea that there are some real issues out there that we ought to be thinking about—good and evil, and right and wrong, and heroism. Generations of people a long time from now will be enthralled by it, just as we are enthralled by the story of Robin Hood or King Arthur’s Court or any of the Shakespearean tales."

The special unites a diverse group of high-profile Star Wars fans, from filmmakers to politicians to journalists. Their comments punctuate the still jaw-dropping footage from all six episodes of the Star Wars Saga.

"The idea of the underdog who’s on the right side defeating the overdog who’s on the wrong side is a deeply American mythology," says former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who climbed a high political fence to agree with current Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the movies’ impact. Says Pelosi: "The legacy of George Lucas fits very comfortably among the classics of all time, whether ancient or modern. "

Adds Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson: "You don’t even have to ask, ‘Will it stand the test of time?’ It has and it will."

This action-adventure film with lighthearted moments and touching purity, demands that we focus on current fundamental themes, including environmentalism, racism and the temptations of power and greed. As author Carl Silvio notes, at times the movies seem prophetic: "In Revenge of the Sith, when we hear Anakin say, ‘You’re either with me or against me,’ it’s almost impossible not to hear that quote and think of another very famous quote," a point the special underscores with a clip of President George W. Bush’s November 2001 news-conference quote: "You are either with us or you are against us in the fight against terror."

The dichotomies of good vs. evil and mechanism vs. humanity is apparent throughout the movies, which carry themes of politics and power. In the Star Wars universe, dictators are ruthless yet charismatic, and while some politicians are well-meaning, as Princess Leia Organa demonstrates, leaders are born from courage and conviction, not from gender.

With regard to other kinds of power, C-3PO and R2-D2 demonstrate that machines can be beneficial, while the feared Death Star shows us their danger. The Ewoks, instrumental in the eventual defeat of the Empire, remind us that natural, environmental solutions have as much as (or more) power than man-made ones. That the movies are fun only gives their central questions and observations more credence

How long will that endure? "A hundred years from now," says Joan Breton Connelly, an associate professor of fine arts at New York University, "someone will be sitting here discussing the impact of Star Wars and they will be seeing different things in it than we are seeing today, just as today we have classes in the university on Homer."

Filmmaker Kevin Smith: "It is bad guys versus good guys and everyone wants to see that story. That story will never grow tired, never grow old."

Miller Talks "Spirit" & "Sin City"

From dark horizons, "A new The Los Angeles Times article on comic artist Frank Miller ("300," "Sin City") revealed some interesting new details.

First up the film adaptation of Will Eisner's "The Spirit" remains on target to shoot this year and a "notable Sin City star" has already been interviewed for the project.He finally confirms that there are two sequels to "Sin City" in the pipeline, but it seems unlikely they will be shot back-to-back.Miller has finished 120 pages of the eventual 170 page "Holy Terror, Batman!" graphic novel. Finally he had a meeting with director Richard Donner, over what project no-one is sure."

New French horror, L'INTERIEUR (INSIDE)!

From AICN, "The new wave of horror has to happen somewhere soon. Asian horror is dead. American horror is in trouble. Imitations and remakes with occasional spikes of originality. Somebody’s got to be making real, ballsy, original horror somewhere... don’t they?
Longtime spy Champagne2000 returns today with a look at a film he seems to think is a step in the right direction:

'First movie from the pair Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, Inside tells the story of Sarah, a pregnant woman (Alysson Paradis, a newcomer who's doing a good job here) alone in her house on Christmas Eve, waiting to go the hospital on the next day to give birth. Then someone knocks on the front door. Who is it? A mysterious woman (Beatrice Dalle, very good... as usual) who wants to take her baby from her... and when I say « take » I mean open her belly with a butcher knife or scissors.'

Inside is a balls to the wall slasher movie. It's short and fast. In a way, it goes against the rules of this kind of movie, the heroine doesn't spend the whole movie wondering where the killer is. No I-open-the-door and-a-black-cat-coming-from-nowhere falls-on-me-with-scary-sounds here. In the last part, the movie turns into a survival when the heroine uses stuff from the house to fight back, Predator in the kitchen-style !Inside follows the path some movies took recently like Saw or Hostel, those movies who seems to have no limits about what can be shown on a screen. With two scenes, Inside goes very far, the way Hostel did or the way Italians did in the glorious 80's with movies like Anthropophagus. Watching the movie, you understand people behind the movie are real fans of the genre (one of the two director is a former movie critic from Mad Movies - kind of French Fangoria), it's not made by a an opportunist music video director looking to get its ticket to Hollywood. Inside, it's « take it or leave it », a kind of punk attitude that is, unfortunatelly, more and more to hard to find in recent slasher movie. So, as we say in France: Merci beaucoup!"