I Still Believe In Santa Claus

As I write this it is snowing outside and I am sipping a steaming cup of hot chocolate wishing it was Christmas again. Although the holidays have long since past Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Lumenas Animation Studios has their mind on St. Nick himself.  The studio based out of Salt Lake City, has begun pre production on a film titled "The Legend of Santa Claus". The Colin Brady directed film is going to deal with the origin of young Nicholas during the 19th century and is being billed as the first part of a trilogy.

"After scouring archives and vaults throughout the world, we've uncovered some all-but-forgotten history while piecing together our hero's adventurous journey," Lumenas president and CEO Darin McDaniel, said of the project, the first feature from Lumenas, which has a full range of services for visual effects, feature animation and commercial work.

Brady has worked on such Pixar features as "Toy Story," "Toy Story 2" and "A Bug's Life," as well as on visual effects for "Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events," "Hulk" and the special edition of "E.T." Tab Murphy, who received an Oscar nomination for "Gorillas in the Mist," is writing the screenplay. Mike Belzer is serving as animation director.

Watchmen & Wolverine Posters

Within a week geekophiles were greeted with two posters from upcoming comic book films. First it was the final poster from Watchmen and now it is the teaser poster for Wolverine. I have to say I like the Wolverine poster much better, although it has a similarity to one of the X3 posters.

He-Man Has An Axe To Grind

When I was a kid I was HUGE on action figures. I had these great DC related action figures that would actually punch when you squeezed their legs. I remember I would repeatedly instruct Superman to kick Batman's ass with a simple squeeze. However, my favorite figures were the "Masters of the Universe" collection where the chest would take damage to them by revealing slashes that resembled wounds from an axe or sword. My battles between He-Man and Skeletor were epic within the walls of the minature Castle Greyskull. They even went into battle on their respective battle cats, Skeletor's purple and He-Mans green with orange stripes.

Hopefully we'll get an updated version of those figures because He-Man is on his way back into the mainstream. Another scoop put forth by Latino Review in November has finally been confirmed by the trades. John Stevenson is slotted to direct "Masters of the Universe" for Warner Bros.

Silver is producing through his Silver Pictures banner. Mattel's Barry Waldo will be executive producer.WB acquired the property in 2007, and Justin Marks wrote the first draft of the script based on a story he developed with Neil Ellice.

The Mattel property became iconic by way of the 1980s cartoon series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe," and the property was previously turned into a campy flop by Cannon Films in 1987, with Dolph Lungdren as He-Man and "Frost/Nixon" star Frank Langella as the villainous Skeletor.

The film project is a big priority for Mattel, which licenses a high-end line of He-Man toys that are popular with hardcore collectors. Hollywood has become a magnet for branded toy-line properties, as DreamWorks and Paramount ready a June 26 release for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and Paramount preps for an Aug. 7 release on "G.I. Joe," both of which began as toy lines that became hit animated series.

Stevenson said the first film came to mind when he was asked to consider the job, and the impression wasn't a good one. He changed his mind when he went to Mattel headquarters and was shown into a secret lair that contained the visuals created by the toymaker staff.

I haven't bought many action figures since hair started appearing on my chest, but you can be sure if this flick gets off the ground and they bring back the "hack & slash" figures, I'll be first in line.

Universal Brings Back "The Thing"

Prequels. Requels. Sequels. Reboots. Revamps. Reorigins.

I don't know how much longer we are going to continue down this path but my head is certainly spinning on a daily basis because of it. The trades are now confirming a September Latino Review article that announced "The Thing" prequel.

Studio has set "Battlestar Galactica" exec producer Ron Moore to write the script and commercials director Matthijs Van Heijningen to direct the re-imagining.

It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp. Strike Entertainment's Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. David Foster will be exec producer.

To me "The Thing" is a classic horror flick at its very best and definately one of my favorite Carpenter flicks. It is certainly an interesting idea to give the viewer a glimpse into what happened to the Norwegians, but it might be almost 30 years too late to take advantage of the story.

Paul Blart Strums Up A Box Office Victory

Werewolves and vampires were no match for the rotund Paul Blart as the comedic Kevin James helped to strum up a win against Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Just barely. Paul Blart: Mall Cop had werewolves nipping at its heels but pulled in $21.6 Million thanks to an impressive drop of only 32% in its second week. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans pulled in a solid $20.8 million to fall just short of the top spot. New films Taken, The Uninvited, and New In Town will look to overtake Paul Blart this upcoming weekend.

Weekend Estimates (Jan. 23-25)

1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop $21,623,182
2 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans $20,828,511
3 Gran Torino $16,244,462
4 Hotel for Dogs $12,860,944
5 Slumdog Millionaire $10,699,629
6 My Bloody Valentine $10,012,658
7 Inkheart $7,601,379
8 Bride Wars $6,868,664
9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button $6,085,919
10 Notorious $5,779,692

Isla Fisher Gets Animated

Variety is reporting that Gore Verbinksi has added Isla Fisher to the cast of his animated film "Rango". Fisher will play the female lead in a movie that already features some big names.

The "Confessions of a Shopaholic" star will play alongside Johnny Depp and Abigail Breslin, who have already boarded the Paramount Pictures project. Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty round out the voice cast.

Story centers on a household pet (Depp) who goes on an adventure to discover his true self.

I've been doing some searching and have yet to find what kind of creature this "household pet" is. Apparently this flick is going to be created using CG animation courtesy of ILM. Imagine Depp's head on a tarantula or a lizard? That scares me for some reason. Sounds more like a horror movie then a kid friendly animated adventure.

I think Gore is definitely barking up the right tree with this one though, movies about pets seem to be doing fairly well, look at the success of Marley & Me. To be fair Marley & Me was a live action venture, a better comparison might be Bolt which has pulled in over 112 Million. This isn't a bad number, but when the budget is north of 150 Million, it doesn't look as good. This movie is due to drop in 2011 so I guess we'll have to wait to see Depp's head on a "household pet".

Munroe Still In The "Dead Of Night"

A project I have been following since it was announced is Kevin Munroe's Dead of Night.

I had heard that the film was waiting for the financing and since Shock Till You Drop is reporting the film is still going forward, I can only assume said money arrived not too long ago. Good news in my opinion:

"We're hopefully going to New Orleans next week to begin location scouting," Munroe tells us. "Filming will hopefully begin at the end of March. The crew is coming together right now. The script is pretty much done and we started going out to the cast last week. It was fun to start sending it out to the people we think would be right for the film. Everyone is responding to it really well. It's nice to know you're not the only one in the room who thinks it's a great project."

I think this flick is a good fit for Brandon Routh. Shooting up some of the undead will go a long way towards shaking off the typecast that might have come with being Superman.

Of course some on the interwebs believe Routh was selected for the role of Superman simply because his resemblance to Christopher Reeve's Superman.

Well, if you've ever picked up a Dead of Night comic, Brandon sure has a certain resemblance to the character of Dylan Dog.

Hilary Duff Is Bonnie

I always forget that Hilary Duff is an actress, isn't she also a singer? In fact, I forgot about Hilary Duff all together but her sister was in Napolean Dynamite. That I know.

According to Variety, there is an indie Bonnie & Clydee feature in the works which will produced by Cypress Moon Studios:

Tonya S. Holly will direct the film from her own script, which is a new adaptation of the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow rather than a remake of the 1967 classic film starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Holly began working on the project after reading old newspaper articles about the gangster pair in an abandoned house on her family's property.

I never was a huge Warren Beatty fan, but he was in Bullworth and that song from the movie was pretty good at the time.

It would have been more interesting (to me at least) if they were remaking the film and recast Beatty as Clyde and brought on Duff to play Bonnie.

Warner Bros. Gets Biblical

Warner Brothers, who had the biggest year amongst studios, is surely keeping busy in an attempt to defend their title.  Variety is reporting that WB has "parted the seas" to make room for a modern take on the historic story of Samson and Delilah.

WB prevailed in a three-studio bidding battle. The seven-figure deal comes despite a sluggish year so far for deals on material. Aside from a strong writer and director, the project sparked bidding because it had a big idea that can be shaped into a tentpole project in which the concept is the star.

Scott Silver will write the script, and Francis Lawrence will direct. Erwin Stoff will produce through 3 Arts.

This doesn't really excite me all that much, but we'll see how it plays out. I'm not sure how they are going to modernize it.

Maybe Samson has his hair cut off with laser beams and fights a lion from a flying car.

TMT's Movie Moan: Episode 2

My pleasure to once again introduce Movie Moan on TMT featuring creator Phil Gee and the TMT co-owner Jamie Williams.

TMT's Movie Moan: Episode 2