Babylon AD

Ouch...

Babylon AD director Mathieu Kassovitz has given a no hold barred interview with AMC in which he discusses the troubled production, which gets an American release Friday. Amongst the choice quotes are Kossovit stating that "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience." Of the final film the director believes that "It's pure violence and stupidity [...] instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24."

Source: Cinematical

Zack and Miri

After a successful appeal, Kevin Smiths next film has been awarded an 'r' classification. The film originally garnered an NC-17 rating for language and nudity.

Whilst this guarantees the film a wide release, in one sense it is a shame as this could have been an opportunity for a mainstream film distributor to attempt to overturn the stigma related to the NC-17 rating. The continued refusal of cinemas and some DVD retailers to handle NC-17 films limits filmmakers and prevents the industry from developing movies aimed at an adult audience.

Source: www.newsaskew.com

Source: www.newsaskew.com

Wolfman

Ouch. Rick Baker isnt known for speaking his mind, which makes this interview with Aint it Cool News all the more worrying, and suggests further problems with an already troubled production. CGI in werewolf movies just doesnt work, as anyone unfortunate to see Van Helsing and An American Werewolf in Paris will testify.


It's been coming up on 30 years since we had an entirely successful werewolf movie (although 1994's Wolf had some interesting ideas), and hopes were high for this. The trailer and early posters looked promising and we may yet be surprised, but there seems to be a bad feeling surrounding this film.

Source: Aint It Cool News

The Weinstein Company

Interesing article at The Telegraph (via cinematical) regarding the current state of the Weinstein Brothers new production company, formed in 2005 following their split from Disney and Miramax

RIP Tartan Films

Variety reports that Tartan Films has gone out of business after more than 26 years.  Tartan were responsible for an eclectic range of DVD releases, and were responsible for bringing a wide variety of Japanese and Korean action and horror movies (including the works of Takashii Miike and Park Chan Wook) to a western audience, together with introducing a new generation to classic 70's horror and exploitation with it's 'Grindhouse' label.

This is a great loss for fans of genre and foreign cinema, and hopefully someone will step up to the plate and ensure that UK and USA audiences still have access to this material.

Leatherheads

Leatherheads, the George Clooney directed commentary released this weekend has caused some controversy, with Clooney cutting back his membership with the Writers Guild of America due to a dispute over authorship of the film.

Clooney suggests that he rewrote the majority of the script, and requested a co-writing credit. Under WGA rules a director must be responsible for at least 50% of the script, and they felt that he had not passed this threshold. Sole credit therefore went to the original authors, Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly.

Clooney has not quit the guild entirely, as this would leave him effectively unable to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood, but has instead gone 'Fi Core'.

According to Variety, going fi-core means a member is still technically a member of the WGA, but has limited rights within the guild. Fi-core members have to pay dues and are covered by the health and pension plans. However they are not entitled to vote, or have any of the other benefits afforded to guild members.

Clooney has in the past being a solid advocate of Unions, indicating he would not attend the Oscars if the WGA strike was not resolved, and is also instrumental in attempting to begin negotiations on new contracts for actors and directors.


Source: Variety

Fanboys

The saga of 'Fanboys' continues with the news that we will now be seeing not one but two versions of the film.

Fanboys tells the tale of a group of friends and Star Wars fans. When one of the friends is diagnosed with terminal cancer the group attempt to break into George Lucas's ranch in order to obtain a pre release print of 'The Phantom Menace' for hiim to view before his death.

The film was picked up by the Weinstein company, who decided that the whole cancer sub plot was a potential audience turn off and re-edited the movie to remove all references to it. Both versions were test screened and received almost identical scores. Despite this the Weinsteins' were all set to go with the new melanoma light version.

One thing they didnt count on was that a film called Fanboys would attract a lot of, well, fanboys, who have expressed their displeasure at the editing of the film.

As a result of the furore the Weinstein Company have now announced that both versions of the film will be released on DVD.

There is no word yet as to which, if any, version will see a cinema release, nor any indication of a release date. Given the Weinstein's previous track record this could be an indication that they are preparing to dump the film out there as cheaply as possible and cut their losses. In this instance though the presence of Seth Rogen amongst the cast pretty much guarantees a reasonable audience for any cinema release.

Source: Aint it Cool News, Cinematical

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Variety reports that the new Indiana Jones film will premiere at the Cannes film festival on May 18th, four days before it's worldwide release.

Whilst some lament the takeover of the film festival as a launching pad for summer blockbusters, premiering the film at Cannes guarantees a shed load of publicity for both the film and the festival.

Source: Variety

New Line Cinema calls it quits

Following disappointing box office on their recent films, New Line Cinema has announced it will be no longer exist as a seperate entity but will instead operate in a 'much smaller' capacity as a unit of Warner Brothers. Chairmen Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne will be stepping down from their roles

From Pink Flamingos to A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line has been responsible for some of the most memorable cinema of the last 30 years , however they have struggled with their recent release slate and their attempt to move into blockbuster territory (Rings notwithstanding...). Many people have been speculating that the studio was in serious trouble following the failure of The Golden Compass last year and it appears this is the end result.


Source: Cinematical

BBFC bans 'Murder Set Pieces'

The BBFC have refused a DVD certificate for psycho thriller 'Murder Set Pieces' stating that "to issue a certificate to Murder Set Pieces, even if statutorily confined to adults, would involve risk of harm within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, and would be unacceptable to the public."

according to the BBFC press release "Murder Set Pieces is a feature with a single-minded focus on the activities of a psychopathic sexual serial killer, who, throughout the film, is seen raping, torturing and murdering his victims. Young children are among those terrorised and killed, and their inclusion in this abusive context is an added concern. In relation to the adult victims, there is a clear focus on sex or sexual behaviour accompanied by non-consensual pain, injury and humiliation."

They go on to state that the content of the film "also raises potential legal questions, for instance in relation to the Protection of Children Act 1978, as well as possible breaches of other legislation such as that on obscenity."

In recent years the outright banning of a film in the UK is a rare event, and even then is mostly confined to 'adult' titles. However the BBFC has been under pressure in recent weeks and this may be the first sign that they are taking a tougher stance in an attempt to head off further calls for a reform of the censorship system.

Source: Variety

Odeon Says No To Rambo

The UK's largest cinema chain, Odeon, is apparently refusing to screen this weekend's major new release Rambo. Variety quotes the chain as stating:-

“Owing to commercial reasons, Odeon has made the decision not to screen the film ‘Rambo’ across its cinemas in the U.K.,”[...] “As the U.K.’s largest cinema chain, Odeon offers its guests a wide range of film genres to appeal to many different audiences. As such the decision not to screen ‘Rambo’ will free up screens to show alternative popular new films such as ‘Jumper,’ ‘Be Kind Rewind’ and ‘Juno’.”

Whilst other theatre chains will still be showing the film, this move will no doubt hurt Rambo's commercial prospects in the UK. It is assumed the argument is over the split of revenues between the cinema and distributor, but there is nothing to suggest this is being handled differently to other movies. In any event cinema's have long made their money from concession stands rather than ticket sales, as this recent article shows .

Source: Variety

The Hobbit

Empire Online has an interview with Guillermo Del Toro, who is pegged to direct the forthcoming 'Hobbit' movies. Whilst many sites are reporting that Del Toro is definitely on board, it appears this is not necessarily the case. Del Toro states:-

"I wish it was definite, but it isn’t. It’s still in talks, there are still a lot of 'T's to cross and 'I's to dot. It’s certainly not certain yet"

Taken with news earlier this week that the executors of Tolkien's estate are suing New Line Studios over unpaid royalties from the Lord of the Rings films, the future of the Hobbit is looking increasingly shaky. On the upside if the deal were to fall through it would free up Del Toro to make his long awaited HP Lovecraft adaptation, The Mountains of Madness

And the hi def winner is....

It looks increasingly like the format war between HD DVD and Blu Ray is coming to an end, with Blu Ray the victor. This article from IGN discusses the developments of the last few weeks in detail.

Even with a single format, high definition discs still have some significant problems going forward. The price of the players are expensive and the increase in picture quality over DVD is only evident with a TV size larger than most people have or want in their homes. Furthermore, there appears to be an increasing trend downloads downloading rather than physically purchasing a disk. All off this suggests that blu ray will be, at best, a niche product like laser disc before it.

More Hobbit Trouble

CNN reports that the people responsible for handling Tolkiens literary estate ,together with the publishers of his books, are suing New Line pictures over their failure to pay royalties from the Lord of the Rings films. Apparently the studio agreed to pay the estate 7.5% of the gross of the films yet this has not been forthcoming. New Line has also allegedly refused requests for audits of the accounts of the second and third films in the trilogy.

This sounds a lot like the complaints both Peter Jackson and the stars of the films have had with New Line in previous lawsuits.

As well as damages, the trustees of the estate also seek to terminate New Line's rights to other Tolkien properties, which would obviously effect the forthcoming 'Hobbit' films.

I imagine this will settle sooner rather than later, as following the failure of the Golden Compass New Line will be desperate to move forward on what is essentially a sure fire blockbuster.

Writers Strike to End

Variety reports that a tentative agreement has been reached with the Writers Guild of America which should bring the 4 month writers strike to an end. This means that TV production will resume before the end of the season and the Oscar ceremony should proceed as normal. Expect to see feature films which had been put on hold due to the strike, notably Da Vinci Code prequel 'Angels and Demons' moving forward quickly.

The agreement seems to allow for a percentage payment for work streamed free (ad supported) on the internet, but only after an initial 14/21 day period. I would guess that most streaming is during this period so i'm not sure how much financial benefit this will bring the writers. There is also no mention of an increase in dvd residuals, which was one of the main sticcking points in initial negotiations. No doubt there will be more details in the coming days and weeks as both sides try and spin the agreement as a victory.

Film Preservation Documentary

'Keepers of the Frame' an interesting (honest) documentary about fim preservation is available here .


more details on the film's IMDB page