Time to Remake A John Hughes Movie - How About Weird Science?

The urban legend goes Weird Science was written in a day. Not sure if John Hughes was messing around but that might explain why it's regarded as the weak link during his 80s high. Depends on who you talk to, I guess. It has its charms and was my introduction to Hughes (and that was from knowing the mid 90s TV show on USA). So it served a purpose.

Universal and Joel Silver are producing a Weird Science remake, "TOLDJA" reports. Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and one of the Nazi-scalping Basterds in Inglorious Basterds) will write the update.

The 80s it was two teenage dweebs creating the "perfect woman" in Kelly LeBrock. For 2013, watch them flip genders. Two girls create the "perfect man" and it's Channing Tatum. Pure guess.

Harrison Ford Is Still Angry at Chewbacca

Fans may remember a rather unpleasant, yet totally hilarious confrontation between Harrison Ford and his former on-screen Wookie co-pilot during a backstage incident at Jimmy Kimmel Live about two years ago (Oh Chewie, what were you thinking?!).  Well, it appears that they haven't patched things up yet.  While promoting his hit movie 42 on Kimmel's show last night, Ford was asked about his maybe-possible-hopefully involvement in the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII.  

Of course, there's no confirmation on that, which led to a number of awkward audience questions:

If Harrison Ford is indeed doing Episode VII, I hope they keep this feud going.  It's too funny to let go of just yet. 

Neill Blomkamp Still Might Be Up For Your Nerdy HALO Movie

  IGN was at a press event for Neill Bomkamp's upcoming sci-fi actioner Elysium where the Oscar-nominated director of 2009's acclaimed District 9 spoke of possibly revisiting the movie District 9 was supposed to be, if he had more creative input, that is.

"I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo. If I was given control, I would really like to do that film," Blomkamp confessed. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. Then the entire filmgoing audience has their interpretation. You can really live up to or fail in their eyes. That part isn't appealing to me, but the original pieces are appealing."

It's well known around the net that the motion picture adaptation of Microsoft and Bungie's acclaimed and best-selling science fiction shooter was in development for quite a while, with nerd-god Peter Jackson (King Kong, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) producing and Bomkamp directing. The film was to be made with 20th Century Fox and Universal; but the studios later dropped citing budgetary concerns, which is when Blomkamp and Jackson went on to do District 9. 

The only thing to ever come of it, however, was Blomkamps gorgeous "Halo: Landfall" trilogy to promote "Halo 3" back in 2007. If Blomkamp did this on such a small budget, one can only imagine how stunning his full-length major film of it would be...

Amazon's "Zombieland" Trailer Hits; Looks Like You'd Think

In a genre that has quickly become the next "vampire" fad but somehow more obnoxious, it appears Amazon was really serious about making a TV spin-off of the 2009 zombie comedy Zombieland that I don't think anyone really wanted, that probably stemmed from a concept to copy Netflix's successful "House of Lies" while also tapping into the huge fanbase of "The Walking Dead"; but ended up something that comes off as a cheap Youtube video.  Take a look:

The preview for the pilot episode dropped online today, and shows what to expect from this potential series. "Zombieland"is one of seven pilots for shows that Amazon will try out to it's users to decide if it should get a full season order or not. 

The pilot episode is directed by Eli Craig (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) and written/produced by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who helped over see the 2009 film.
Kirk Ward replaces Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, Maiara Walsh is replacing Emma Stone as Wichita, Tyler Ross is replacing Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, and Izabela Vidovic will take-over Little Rock from Abigail Breslin. 

The pilot is available for streaming now, here on Amazon.

Bryan Singer Confirms Bearded Ice-Man in DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Bryan Singer, who has been teasing fans while working on X-Men: Days of Future Past the same way Marc Webb has been while filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2, tweeted yesterday a picture of a bearded Shawn Ashmore doing motion-tracking for the upcoming X-Men film:

Ashmore looks kind of grizzled here, way different than the fresh-faced young-one from the previous X-Men trilogy. I'm also digging the costumes he and Patrick Stewart seem to be wearing. So far from Singer we've seen the foundation for Cerebro, Magneto's helmet on a grumpy cat, an odd video, and of course Patrick Stewart.

The fan-girl inside of me is looking forward to some picture of Fassbender though...hmmm... 

R.I.P.D. Trailer

Delayed and reshot enough times to suggest trouble, there's a bigger problem watching the trailer for R.I.P.D.

It feels as out of time, and dead, as its characters. On paper, it reads like Men In Black sure (itself as John Landis so accurately put it, "The Ghostbusters dressed as a Blues Brothers"). But maybe the visuals and direction of Robert Schwentke (Red) and chemistry between Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds would salvage something worthwhile.

Let's put it this way. There's a reason they keep re-tinkering this film. It's due this July. If it mysteriously gets dumped next January, I wouldn't be surprised.

The New Lone Ranger Trailer

The Lone Ranger is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption.

Get Ready to Get Sick of Star Wars

That specialness of a new Star Wars film, seeing it opening night, then a few dozen more times afterwards, hitting the forums to proclaim how awesome/terrible it was, getting it out of your system, cooling off and then the anticipation for the next one waiting by our computers for the title, actors, pictures and trailers and thinking "If it's as good as the last one, I'll be happy" or, more appropriately, "I hope they don't screw it up like they did the last one!"

That is three years in the making. That's just how the formula works. Well, worked.

Disney announced this afternoon at CinemaCon Star Wars: Episode VII will hit theaters for summer 2015 release and hence forth a new Star Wars installment (the official trilogy and standalone films) will be out every summer other summer. That is the Marvel/Pixar pattern all right.

It might be the scorn of the Interwebs but the two year buildup to The Phantom Menace is unmatched. That time in geekdom I wouldn't trade for anything. Churning out Star Wars movies every. single. year takes away from its specialness. Something George Lucas understood. Say what you will about the man and Lucasfilm's rampant product whoring but he knew the value of a Star Wars movie on the market every three years.

But hey you wanted Lucas gone so bad, this is what you get.

Source: Coming Soon

PITCH PERFECT Sequel to Aca-Assault You in 2015

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Universal's surprise smash-hit, which was 2012 musical comedy, Pitch Perfect.

Well in an unsurprising bit of news, especially after the cast's reunion at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Universal announced at CinemaCon that a Pitch Perfect sequel will be coming sometime in 2015. 
There is no news on cast or crew as of yet; but its been confirmed that Emmy-nominated Kay Cannon will return to write the sequel. It's also expected that the cast, which includes the likes of Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Ester Dean, and Skylar Astin, will all reprise their roles. 

Pitch Perfect, which told the story of a rag-tag girl's college acapella group,  earned $112 million off of it's  $17 million budget, and then went on to garner even more with a reported $90 million across home-media. The film's soundtrack, featuring a varied mix of acapella covers of hip-hop songs and mash-ups, has according to Yahoo! Music, sold 636K total copies, making it the "highest ranking theatrical soundtrack in it's 14th week on the charts." 

The Man of Steel Trailer # 3

The teaser trailer last July was an announcement. Superman is back and not like anything you expected. Nothing more... and then we waited.

The theatrical trailer last December gave our first good gage of the footage, performances and tone. The story of a weird and lonely kid not like anyone else ("My father believed if the world found out who I was really was... they would reject me"). Who happens to be Clark Kent and, as the story progress becomes Earth's protector Superman. Once again it wasn't necessarily what expected from a Superman movie.

The components are there (classic hero's journey) and we know how the story will unravel given the character's 70 years in popular culture. From the cinematography (initially the Terrence Malick comparisons and later Christopher Nolan, the producorial driving force behind Man of Steel) to the music to once again the tone, this didn't feel like a Superman movie. That is a good thing. It needs to be different but familiar.

As the release draws closer, that leaves one more important element left unexplored. The action – it's been the number one priority of this project from its inception. "I hope Superman throws a punch." You heard that from Joe Sixpack and online dweebs alike. It's why one hired a director like Zack Snyder in the first place. He can shoot action better than anyone.

So with this third trailer online, how is the action? See for yourself.