Film Web Blog

Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Casting, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels

For your Monday perusal, here are the latest casting blips from Variety:

• Brett Granstaff, who has appeared in films like Deserted and States of Grace, and looks ridiculously familiar although I’ve never seen his movies, has got himself a role in that Al Pacino/Robert De Niro flick, Righteous Kill. It’s not too shabby for the new actor, since he’s already finished The Deal with the likes of Meg Ryan, William H. Macy, and Jason Ritter. The dude has gone from no-buzz to high-buzz flicks, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of him in the future. For now, you can just stare at the pic to the right.
• The following news amuses me. Just last week, I found myself in need of entertainment and was saved by a very friendly Aussie woman who let me watch some of her CSI: Miami episodes — for amusement, of course. It was this uber-ridiculous, yet almost-funny episode called Triple Threat that you’d have to see to believe. Now word has it that Colin Ferguson, who co-starred in the episode, will star as an ex-NFL football player in an upcoming film called The Egg Factory. According to Yahoo, it’s being directed by William Fruet, and is about a kid genius who is mourning the death of his dad. However, he “finds a new friend and champion in Cutter Hanson, his dad’s estranged brother, a former NFL player.” But that’s not all — the pair team up to “save a young girl from a group of murderous mobsters.” You know, instead of those stuffed animal-loving mobsters. Man, Ferguson knows how to pick interesting, spastic premises.
• Ally Walker, who has spent time on television shows like The Profiler and Tell Me You Love Me, is going to star alongside Sanaa Lathan and Matthew Broderick in Wonderful World. That’s the film I this month, which “centers on a depressed, divorced, and unemployed father who finds solace in his Senegalese roommate’s sister.” Variety says Walker will play Broderick’s wife, but I assume that means “ex-wife.” The awesome kid from Tideland, Jodelle Ferland, is also involved.
• Ah, Brian Bloom. I never watched his first acting stint, As the World Turns, but man, his face was always in those celebrity teen rags. This is some television spin-off news, so I’ll just be brief. He’s scored himself a recurring role in The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Will he be a man? A machine? Variety isn’t saying; however, in the meantime, you can check him out in Smokin’ Aces.

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Tags: Ally Walker, AllyWalker, Brett Granstaff, BrettGranstaff, Brian Bloom, BrianBloom, Colin Ferguson, ColinFerguson, Jodelle Ferland, JodelleFerland, Righteous Kill, RighteousKill, Sarah Conner Chronicles, SarahConnerChronicles, The Egg Factory, TheEggFactory, William Fruet, WilliamFruet, Wonderful World, WonderfulWorld

Source: Casting Bites: Granstaff, Ferguson, Walker, & Just a Litte Brian Bloom

Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Fandom, Distribution, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand

Could Paris Hilton become the next major movie star? Stranger things have happened (give me a few hours to come up with one), and the girl already has two flicks arriving in theaters next year — both of which are extremely opposite of one another. The Hollywood Reporter tells us Regent Releasing has picked up all North American rights on Hilton’s romantic comedy The Hottie or the Nottie with plans to throw it into theaters on February 8 … right before Valentine’s Day. Yay! Because there’s nothing I prefer more than seeing a Paris Hilton flick and then taking my significant other out for a splendid dinner.

In case you’re at all wondering about The Hottie and the Nottie, the film follows a guy (Joel David Moore) who’s been in love (or, as HR puts it, “obsessed”) with the same girl (Hilton) since first grade. But in order to win her love or a date or a cheap one night stand, our hero must find a date for the hottie’s not-so-hot best friend (as played by Christine Lakin — who, funnily enough, is hotter than Hilton in real life). I’m not sure where this wild flick is going to go from there, but I’m sure we’re in for plenty of hilarity and bad acting on Hilton’s part. I can imagine director Tim Putnam now, giving cues to Hilton: “Okay, so just look hot. Don’t act, simply read the lines … and be hot.” Movie magic at its finest, folks.

Tags: christine laken, cinematical, joel david moore, paris hitlon, the hottie and the nottie, TheHottieAndTheNottie, tim putnam

Source: feeds.cinematical.com

Poor Elisha Cuthbert. It’s sad that this clearly smart young woman has been so duped into justifying this loathsome slop of nasty misogyny. “I don’t just want to play the pretty girl,” she says in a Q&A. “I want to do something more interesting.” Shabby kidnap drama Captivity is only ‘interesting’ in the sense that it’s directed by The Mission’s Roland Joffe. Clearly, Joffe is either working with a gun to his balls or he’s too down on his luck to reject this Russian-US mutant that was recut from psycho horror to Saw-riffing torture-porn on the insistence of distributors.

Source: rss1.mediafed.com

A competent detective, Keiko Kirishima, encounters two mysterious suicides. Somehow the two incidents seem to be connected since the victims dialled the same number ‘0′ with their cellphones just before their death. Then one of the victim’s wife who was sleeping next to him, testifies that it looked like someone was attacking him in the dream. Keiko and her colleagues visit the reference room, looking for a clue to solve the mystery of the two suicides. There, they found information about a man, so-called ‘Nightmare Detective’, who can enter one’s dream. Keiko asks him to cooperate with their sting operation but is bluntly refused. The murder’s riddle is still unrevealed and later on we even found out that he holds the same power to slipping into people’s dreams. Though a direful ending is already expected, knowing there is no other way out, Keiko approaches the truth and decides to dial the deadly ‘0′ by herself….

Official Site: http://www.akumu-tantei.com/
Reviews: Fangoria, Dread Central, Cinema Without Borders

Our Review

This is the first Shinya Tsukamoto film that I’ve had the pleasure to watch. During a few discussions before the movie the title of auteur was being thrown around for Tsukamoto plus the comment that Nightmare Detective is his most accessible movie to date. An easy description of Nightmare Detective would be a cross between X-Files and Nightmare on Elm Street. Unfortunately though, this does not do the movie justice. This is very well thought out deep movie that is for those who are willing to put some energy into their movie watching. Do not come in hoping to turn your mind off; if you do you will probably fall behind the complex dream sequences.

Right off from the beginning we are thrown into a nightmare and we quickly see this will not be some easy good versus evil battle within the realms of dreams. Our main character, the nightmare detective (Ryuhei Matsuda) is attempting to help a friend of a friend who has been plagued by reoccurring dreams of a long haired ghost. The detective explains to the man who the ghost is and instead of simply dismissing the ghost the man chooses an alternative. We learn in this scene just how stressful entering the dreams is and the strain that is placed on the detective.

Moving away from the detective we find out that there is a serial killer who is forcing people to commit suicide by entering their dreams after they have talked on a cell phone with him. This is no basic serial killer and the police know it but they really aren’t willing to look to deeply into the supernatural so they throw this task on the newest police detective, Keiko Kirishima. Keiko is played by the Japanese pop singer Hitomi. The choice of a beautiful female lead is not done simply to draw both young men and her fans to the movie but also to highlight the sexist attitudes of her superiors and also her own attitudes. Keiko has been trapped behind a desk and now craves both the attention and the thrill of being the lone beautiful female detective. Keiko tracks down and enlists the aid of the nightmare detective. Together they work at tracking down the mysterious killer behind the cell phone.

What follows should really be standard fair but Tsukamoto keeps it from being so. Even though the story follows the police calling the killer and attempting to catch him by having him enter their dreams there is no huge physical confrontation within the nightmares. What happens instead is a combination of deep character study by working through layers of dreams. This is pretty heady stuff but really pays off in the end.

I plan on seeing Tsukamoto’s other movies in the very near future. Nightmare Detective is a complex, well thought out and deeply engrossing look into the psyche of its characters. This is not the typical J-Horror nor should it really be compared to Nightmare on Elm Street. Tsukamoto has created a wonderful dark world that I can’t wait to explore again and from the sounds of it I will get to as a sequel is being planned. I’ll give Nightmare Detective a 4.5 out of 5.

Source: www.filmgrotto.com

screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can’t guarantee the same results at home (different players/timing) I use WinDVD

I’d like to leave a forwarding address if they happen to find that book.

Unfortunately, along with her book and her own name, the soon-to-be second Mrs. de Winter has also mislaid her syntax. Presumably, she would like to leave a forwarding address in case they find that book, and she would still like to leave it (and in fact will have done so) whether or not they do find it.

I am Nick Davis, and I am an Assistant Professor of English.

But I also have good qualities, including a knack for knowing the right movie-obsessed people: not just Nathaniel, but also StinkyLulu, who hosted one of his notorious Supporting Actress Smackdowns yesterday, in honor of the ladies of 1940, quite possibly my favorite roster in the history of the category (give or take 1996, which we’ve already covered). Unfortunately, the other smackdowners felt less bewitched, as you will read.

I was particularly surprised by the weak showing registered by Judith Anderson as the skulking, mongoosey housemistress Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, one of the few mystery films ever to win Best Picture and a terrific rental choice for the week of Halloween, even if you’ve seen it before. Portentous elegance and Gothic neurosis have rarely been evoked so hypnotically on screen. As for Anderson: iconic and deliciously malign, her Mrs. Danvers originated a pop-cinema archetype that dozens of equal and lesser actresses, and not a few drag queens, have mimicked in the decades since. She’s not in the 20:07 screenshot reproduced above, which concerns a bit of nervous business while Joan Fontaine (who turned 90 exactly one week ago) agitates herself over an impending and frequently interrupted phone call from the broodingly romantic Laurence Olivier. We haven’t even come close to meeting Mrs. Danvers by this point in the film, but you can assume that wherever she is, she already knows what’s happening, and she loathes it. (After all, isn’t Rebecca all about women who are Around even when they’re not?)

If you know and love Rebecca and are hungry for a comparably creepy experience, with similar psychosexual omens and crypto-lesbian flava and wronged women in the invisible background, hunt around for Lewis Allen’s 1944 hit The Uninvited, where last-place Smackdown finisher Ruth Hussey co-stars with Lost Weekend Oscar winner Ray Milland as a brother and sister who move into an English seaside estate (huge mistake!!) only to discover its salacious past and supernatural habits (well, duh!!). Along with its skill at mood and narrative, The Uninvited boasts Oscar-nominated cinematography by Charles Lang, who managed 18 cinematography nominations spread over more than 40 years, and only three times for Best Picture nominees: a good sign of a real talent, and also of a well-liked fella. Plus, it was his camera that caught Marilyn blowing a kiss at us.

Back to 1940, though: the Academy as well as the Smackdowners crowned Jane Darwell of The Grapes of Wrath as the category’s Best in Show, and it’s a hard performance to argue with. (It only testifies to the strength of the field that I like Anderson and Barbara O’Neil even better.) The Grapes of Wrath isn’t a spookfest or a horror movie in any conventional way, so I wouldn’t normally include it within this week’s special Halloweenapalooza in the 20:07 listings. But what of economic horror, haunted spirits, and the undead life of the dispossessed Depression-era migrant? And what of that sooty, scary darkness that engulfs so much of The Grapes of Wrath that even the sight of a gaunt and candlelit face like Henry Fonda’s comes heroically across as an ember of life amidst the snuffing out of a whole way of life?

And if none of that gives The Grapes of Wrath any horror cred, don’t forget that we learn at this very 20:07 moment that nothing more than a few feathers got in the way of Ma Joad’s second career as an axe murderer:

What I don’t understand is my folks takin’ off. Like Ma. I seen her almost beat a peddler to death with a live chicken. She aimed to go for him with the axe she had in her other hand. She got mixed up, forgot which was which, and - when she got through with that peddler, all she had left was two chicken legs!

That Ma Joad. She’s sump’m fierce. So is the Supporting Actress Smackdown. So is Nathaniel. So is The Film Experience. So is 20:07. Catch y’all tomorrow.

Source: filmexperience.blogspot.com

During the press junket for the dramatic thriller Sleuth, Michael Caine provided an update on one of the most anticipated movies of 2008, The Dark Knight. Caines excited about being a part of the second Batman film starring Christian Bale and directed by Christopher Nolan, although he initially found one of his new co-stars a little creepy. Read On…

• The Dark Knight Photos
  
• Christian Bale on The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger

_{(Photo of the Batpod Warner Bros Pictures)}

Box Office Report - Oct 26-28
Horror ruled the box office for the second straight weekend. The fourth film of the never-ending Saw franchise slaughtered its competition, although it didn’t break any Saw records. Saw IVcame in right between Saw III and Saw II.

Top 10 Films Weekend Ending 10/28/07 (Estimates):
1) Saw IV - $32,100,000
2) Dan in Real Life - $12,000,000
3) 30 Days of Night - $6,700,000
4) The Game Plan - $6,200,000
5) Why Did I Get Married? - $5,700,000
6) Michael Clayton - $5,000,000
7) Gone Baby Gone - $3,900,000
The Comebacks - $3,450,000
9) We Own the Night - $3,400,000
10) Nightmare Before Christmas - $3,300,000
_{(Photo Lionsgate Films)}

Source: movies.about.com

Matt Bradshaw
Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek

Warner Brothers has assigned Greg Berlanti to direct a feature film version of the DC Comics character Green Lantern according to a report from Variety. Based on Berlanti’s resume which includes mostly TV work (executive producer and/or writer on Everwood, Dirty Sexy Money, and Dawson’s Creek) as well as helming the 2000 feature The Broken Hearts Club, he certainly wouldn’t have been my choice to helm the adventures of the Emerald Warrior, but I’m going to keep an open mind for now. Several of the other people involved with the project have done work that makes me think these guys may know what they’re doing. Co-writing the script with Berlanti are Marc Guggenheim, who has written the Marvel comic books Amazing Spider-man, Wolverine and Blade, and Michael Green, who is a co-executive producer on NBC’s Heroes and has written Superman/Batman for DC Comics. Donald De Line, will produce the picture.

The Green Lantern character has been through several incarnations since his creation in 1940 by cartoonist Martin Nodell. Probably the best known (and presumably the subject of this movie) is Hal Jordan, greatest member of an intergalactic peace keeping force who use their power rings to bring justice to every corner of the universe. As originally drawn by Nodell, however, Green Lantern was a man named Alan Scott whose high collared cape and red pirate shirt contrasted with the green and black tights that became the standard when the Hal Jordan incarnation was introduced in 1959. Hal Jordan spent several years being dead (though he eventually got better) and was replaced by Kyle Rayner. Other Green Lanterns have included John Stewart (the ring wielder from Cartoon Network’s Justice League series) and Guy Gardner who I best remember as a humorous lunatic from the Justice League comics of the 1980s. No word on casting or how this film will tie in with the hotly anticipated live action Justice League of America movie.

Tags: cinema, Cinematical, Green Lantern, GreenLantern, greg berlanti, GregBerlanti, jla, justice league of america, JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, Movies

Source: feeds.cinematical.com

Drama, Crime, Adaptation, Mystery Movie
The kidnapping of a four-year-old girl draws two private investigators into the seedy underbelly of Boston.
Synopsis:
In the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, the gritty, working-class streets are lined with the wreckage of broken families and dreams. It is here that 4 year-old Amanda McCready has gone missing without a trace. The police have failed to turn up even the narrowest of leads, so Amanda’’s desperate Aunt and Uncle plead with local private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro to take the case. Though they”re wary to jump in, Patrick and Angie know the neighborhood and they also know the truth about Amanda’’s drug-addicted mother Helene. As they dig into her story, they find themselves on a trail that winds into the dark heart of Dorchester and through a chain of drug-dealers, ex-cons and child abusers, but brings them no closer to Amanda. In the glare of the media spotlight, they join forces with a relentless detective Remy Bressant and police captain Jack Doyle–but just as it appears that the emotionally wrenching case is about to be cracked, in the flash of gunfire, the sad truth of Amanda’’s fate is revealed. As everyone attempts to move forward, a haunted Patrick cannot walk away. As he backtracks through the clues, he finds himself lured into an ever-intensifying web of lies and inexplicable violence, the shocking secret that hid truth and facing a moral dilemma that will leave him, and the audience, questioning what is right.
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman
Trailer Gone Baby Gone

Source: movie-cinema.blogspot.com

Lately we’ve been posting some of the cool products and creations we’ve come across while doing our daily news research. So I’ve decided to turn this into a feature called “Around the Web”. So expect to see more “Around the Web” postings in the future, whenever we come across something cool. This is more likely to happen on a slow news day, and won’t interfere with the regular news postings.

Today’s “Around the Web” find is a Steampunk Flux Capacitor. Doc Brown and Marty McFly never had to recreate “the device that makes time travel possible” when they were stuck back in the old west (if you recall, it was the fuel line that was the problem). But if they had, it would probably look something like this. Flickr user absinthetic says that the prop, which he calls a “Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron”, is part of his Halloween 2007 costume. What’s his costume? He’s a 19th century time traveler of course. I hope absinthetic uploads photos of his finished design, but for now, check out the Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron at Flickr.com. I wonder how one would get up to 88mph in the 19th century?