Look at the tone for example far as concerns Universal’s upcoming Couples Retreat: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Malin Akerman, Faizon Love, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis, Jean Reno, Peter Serafinowicz and Ken Joeong (currently extorting money from the trio of drunks in The Hangover). Now look at the first trailer, after the jump.
Couples Retreat sets up a simple premise: four couples, all friends, in changeable stages of success with their partnerships, go to an island paradise (”this looks like a screen saver!”) to improve their relationships. That could be a prescription for tepid, watered-down ‘adult’ comedy, and some of the trailer suggests exactly that (homosexual yoga chuckles!) while other moments suggest that Peter Billingsly’sitting movie keeps just enough of an edge while the actors go to town as part of a huge ensemble. Hopefully they’re not all in the before anything else half sixty minutes. And hey, Peter Serafinowicz!
It’s hardly the after all the rest bastion of online robbery on the high seas, limit Swedish bit torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is certainly the most visible face of illegal movie and music mercantile. Now it is going legit. Swedish crew Global Gaming Factor, which the LA Times says operates gaming cafes, has bought the site for $7.8m, with the goal of offering legal downloads. We’ve seen this trick previous to (Napster being the most memorable version) but there’s a catch this time: GGF says they’ll pay users to download material legally.
In April, site founders and owners Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom were convicted of being accessories to copyright disobedience. The prime movers in the case against them were movie studios, with music labels chiming in. Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, Fox, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI all wanted damages.
Nikki Finke is reporting an interesting bit of news: George Clooney and Grant Heslov are ending their production partnership with Warner Bros. and heading across town to set up store with Sony. Coming just a week after Sony famously shitcanned Steven Soderbergh’s Moneyball, this is a surprising move. At Warner Bros. Clooney was adroit to make the less skilled in commerce movies he’s favored over the last few years, while Sony isn’t exactly known for being a hotbed of artistic aspiration.
The Clooney-WB coterie goes back many years, and during the heyday of Section Eight (the Clooney/Soderbergh production company) quite a few of his produced pictures went end WB or Warner Independent. Section Eight closed workshop in ‘06, though it trickled out a few pictures that were still in production at that character, like Michael Clayton.
The latest trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is streets ahead of the two US edits. It’s faster, it’s funner, it’s flashier… but it’s still not really representative of the thin skin. In fact, you might even consider it the greatest misrepresentation yet. You can see it embedded after the break.
Don’t be worried that if you love this trailer - and I love this trailer - that you won’t like the abounding film. That’s ludicrous. That’s like saying you won’t in the same manner as a Coke because it said Pepsi on the bottle. Enjoy this trailer for what it is, which is a look at the more zippy, snappy moments of the film cut together at something parallel ten periods the pace of the actual movie, and then have being prepared to like the full film on the side of what it is at what time it comes along in a couple of months.
While much of the feeling found here has been created with the use of wipes and swooshy noises, in that place actually is a great deal new footage in the trailer too, setting it apart from the more prosaic family versions. I’m definitely curious as to why this physical is being judged as attractive to the French, when in fact US audiences are getting sold a different picture? The trailers I’ve seen in UK cinemas bring forth been completely but indistinguishable from the US ones, though I think this French trailer is actually much in addition in keeping through general British tastes and, specifically, what we think Tarantino can offer us. I wouldn’face to face be surprised if those if you in the US agree.
With only two feature films and one TV show to his name, writer/director Jody Hill, is now synonymous by ignoring the boundaries and “genre rules” of modern comedy and creating anti-heroes that laughably burble with nihilistic rage, scary faux pas and hot-air egos. But there is also an internal depth to these macho doofuses played by Hill’s longtime friend and writing partner, Danny McBride, and comedy star Seth Rogen, that surpasses the high art of a perfectly-timed and pronounced “fuck.”
Hill’s work on Observe & Report, The Foot Fist Way, and his cultural breakthrough, HBO’session Eastbound & Down, arguably packs more glass-darkly social commentary and life-lived expression than any hotshot young novelist in recent memory. Rather than document the cold realities and yielding pleasantries of another big city with bright lights, Hill is position on exploring the very point that such many creative-types vacate upon the arrival of their first Visa or association acceptance letter: the American South. Moreover, in the same manner with many people middle-class and broke white American males face sobering, if that must be suffered, realizations and disillusions about the future, laughing at Hill’s moronic, unhinged versions as they champion outdated movie/sports star heroics atop small-town kingdoms is like homemade medicine. When it comes to countering the monotony of the average day-to-day? Eastbound is harder to beat still. The sight of Kenny Powers “dancing” in a middle drill gym under the influence of eggrolls and ecstasy or ejecting a topless broad from his Jet Ski is invaluable. Like cheetah-spotted gold or “a bulletproof tiger, dude.”
Shia tenacity … Revenge of the Fallen sits on the No 1 spot for a second week. Photograph: PR
Despite a fall of 48% from its opening last weekend, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continued to pound audiences into submission, resisting the relatively puny attack of new releases starring Jack Black and Cameron Diaz. Michael Bay’s robots flick has taken £16.49m in 10 days, which compares with just over £12m after two weekends for this summer’sitting previous biggest openers Wolverine, Star Trek and Night at the Museum 2. All those three films benefited from preview takings of at least £800,000, whereas Transformers opted not go the preview route.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Release: 2009
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 149 mins
Directors: Michael Bay
Cast: Hugo Weaving, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel, Julie White, Kevin Dunn, Matthew Marsden, Megan Fox, Rainn Wilson, Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson
Guy Pearce has joined the Miramax remake of the master-piece 1973 television movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, scripted by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Troy Nixey. Bailee Madison has also signed on to play his daughter. They’ll be joining Katie Holmes, who was communicate a couple of months ago.
In the original telefilm, John Hutton and Kim Darby played Alex and Sally Farnham, who inherit a mansion from Sally’s grandmother. Despite warnings to leave it alone, Sally unseals a small door next to a bricked-up fireplace, which releases small creatures which torment her. These not much furry goblins with shriveled faces speak softly to Sally and soon start catching an active material role in tormenting her.
When Michael Bay gets about to the next Transformers movie (and I await it will be his next film, a year spent trying to get a ’smaller’ picture not upon the ground possibly coming to nothing quite in time) there could be a beefier role for Ramon Rodriguez, Revenge of the Fallen’sitting conspiracy nut Leo Spitz. There’s a piece at the LA Times’ Hero Complex blog today profiling the young actor, who does be seen to be having a real extension spurt in his career right now. The story was written by Geoff Boucher who reports that Michael Bay “hinted” to him that TF3 would see Rodriguez step up to a bigger role. More immediately amusing, however, was Rodriguez’ description of his audition for this current Transformers film…
As you know, Let the Right One In was one of our favorite movies of last year. And you might also remember, the Swedish bloodsucker coming of age film is getting an American remake by Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. It has been a while since we’ve written each update on the project, but Reeves’ recent interview with the Los Angeles Times provides us with a thinking principle. Here are a few things we’ve learned:
The Fighter has been struggling to force it to the big screen for the last two years, and is finally back on track by David O Russell at the post of command. Production is set to begin in a couple weeks, and the final casting announcements are being made.
Academy Award-nominated actress Amy Adams is in conclusive negotiations to star over against Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg in the sports bio. Adams command perform on “a tough, gritty bartender and former college high-jumper” who ends up dating Wahlberg’s character. I be able to just imagine Adams act now, complete with what I’m sure will be a very believable Massachusetts modulation of voice. But could it possibly rival Amy Ryan’s performance in Gone Baby Gone?
