The Pacific surprised pretty much nobody when it beat out its only competition, Return to Cranford to win the Best Miniseries prize at last night’s Emmy Awards. But if you thought that Band of Brothers follow-up would be the last we saw of World War II, or even the Pacific Theater of World War II, well you clearly have underestimated the Greatest Generation once again. reports that The Pacific co-executive producer Bruce C. McKenna has pitched to Warner Bros. the 3D film The Battle of Midway, about the two-day battle in 1942 that was considered the turning point of the war.
They’ve moving fast on the pitch and setting aside a ton of money to make it– McKenna will be turning in a draft 8 weeks from now, and they’re expecting the film to cost 200 million, which is somewhat insane for anything in these tough times, but especially for a historical epic. Then again, The Pacific reportedly cost 200 million as well, so maybe McKenna just can’t write for anything cheaper.
While it’s true that Saving Private Ryan was a financial hit and that the added 3D means the film could make extra money, it seems really risky to spend such a huge amount on a historical story, when audiences seem to prove over and over again they’re looking for explosions and aliens and nothing too deep (unless it comes from Christopher Nolan). Do McKenna’s credentials from The Pacific mean he has what it takes to make World War II appeal to new audiences? Or should John Ford’s 1942 film The Battle of Midway– using actual battle footage, no less!– be allowed to stand as the voice of authority on this particular event?
Source:Cinema Blend

If you read the news that Spyglass Entertainment may bail out MGM from its financial troubles and immediately hoped it meant good things for The Hobbit, you’re not alone. Peter Jackson, who is patiently waiting for the studio to sort itself so he can swoop in and direct the two-part prequel he never really wanted to make, told the New Zealand site that progress was being made toward MGM being a functional company again:
Who knows what “certainty with The Hobbit” might actually mean– for all we know Jackson could bail at the last minute and assign directing duties to, I dunno, Sean Astin. As the MGM financial woes have become more public we’ve just been getting more variations of Jackson’s usual “nothing is official” statements about The Hobbit. Does this mean we should actually have hope, or is this just another way of Jackson saying “Quit asking, nothing is figured out yet.” Keep those fingers crossed for positive news, but I’m not holding out hope that anything has actually changed. MGM seems to be a giant that nobody yet has been able to untangle.

Source:Cinema Blend

Starring: Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Evangline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn Directed by Jack Bender, Tucker Gates, Mario Van Peebles et al. Produced by Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, et al. Written by Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, et al. MAIN SITE NAVIGATION l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l This site is operated by Cinema Blend LLC. For advertising inquiries, contact . CinemaBlend.com is a private, independently owned website which is intended only as entertainment. The views expressed on this website may or may not reflect those of its owner. Don’t take us too seriously. &nbsp &nbsp
Source:Cinema Blend

Doug Liman has been circling around what seems like a ton of projects lately, started when his fell apart when Paul W.S. Anderson beat him to the punch and leading him to consider directing both , about a lone native man living in the Amazon jungle, and , an adaptation of the Japanese novel.
It’s still unclear which of those projects he’ll tackle first, but has now confirmed that Liman is officially signed on for Kill, which is set up at Warner Bros. Here’s the description of the original Hiroshi Sakurazaka, per Amazon:
The first trailer for Liman’s next film Fair Game , and as Liman wraps up that film he’s presumably thinking hard about where he’ll go next. All You Need As Kill would definitely be a big change, but again, he’s the man who made Jumper–clearly he’s not afraid to switch gears.
Source:Cinema Blend

I’ll start by saying this: Inception isn’t a perfect movie. It’s not even the best movie to come out this summer, given all the Sundance gems that pop up week after week, and it may or may not even be better than Christopher Nolan’s last film, The Dark Knight. But love Inception or hate it, fans of good movies have to acknowledge that it’s important, as a very expensive, very heavily marketed potential blockbuster that also happens to be totally original and more than a little bizarre. The fact that Inception exists is a sign of faith from Warner Bros. that we, the moviegoing public, are willing to see something different and weird and maybe a little beyond our comfort zone. And it is our duty to prove them right.
Because if Inception succeeds, it could become a standard bearer for blockbusters in a way even The Dark Knight couldn’t be. It could be proof that, after a long decade of remakes and reboots and sequels, moviegoers are ready for originality again, and that studios should be willing to pay for it. Sure, Inception is in the unique position of following up on one of the most successful movies of all time– and a superhero movie, at that– but it’s by all means a step in the right direction for blockbusters, no matter how imperfect it might be. Below are the five things Inception does right that could inspire the rest of the industry to follow suit, but fair warning: none of this will mean anything if the movie tanks at the box office. Buy your Inception ticket early, buy it often, then read this list of all the good things you’ll be supporting with your purchase.
It assumes you have a brain. Whether they overexplain every tiny detail– allow us to have Liam Neeson lay out The A-Team’s plot one more time– or overlook plot entirely– how exactly did the Washington D.C. Air & Space Museum lead to the Arizona desert in Transformers 2?– the bulk of Hollywood blockbusters operate under the assumption that, if they throw enough special effects your way, you’ll just be glad you don’t have to think for two hours. Even the Bourne movies, uncommonly smart tentpole releases, relied heavily enough on action that knowing who had betrayed who wasn’t crucial to enjoying the film. And while Inception isn’t nearly as complicated as it seems from the outside, it is remarkably complex and layered, and asks the audience not only to participate actively in the events of the film, but ask meta questions of themselves and their relationship with what they’re watching.
It is, in a word, smart– maybe too smart for it’s own good, but that’s certainly better than movies that assume they’re playing to an audience made up of 8-year-olds. There’s plenty of speculation that “mainstream” or “average” audiences won’t go for it, but I believe they will, not just because everyone knows from The Dark Knight to expect great things from Nolan, but because no one likes to be talked down to by a movie. We just rarely get the chance to prove it.
It’s made in glorious 2D.Christopher Nolan has why he decided not to convert Inception into 3D as the studio doubtlessly wanted, but there’s really only one reason: he’s Christopher Nolan, and he didn’t have to. Good on him. There aren’t very many directors making big tentpole releases right now who have the clout to back away from the 3D fad– Marvel’s sure don’t– but every time a movie hits theaters in 2D and is a hit anyway, it puts another chink in that 2-extra-per-ticket armor. The visuals and storytelling of Inception are so immersive that it feels like it’s in 3D, and moviegoers who saw Airbender last week can see it and realize, hey, this 3D stuff isn’t even necessary. Movies can’t make extra money on 3D if we won’t pay for it, and Inception proves you don’t have to.
It’s an original idea and story.You know and I know that the studios are terrified of anything that doesn’t come from an existing property, and even the summer blockbusters that feel original– Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, District 9– started off as something else. Again, Nolan is in a unique position here– he’s the only director in the world who could get this kind of budget for his esoteric dream movie– but audiences embracing this original story is a step in the right direction for studios to even try to promote new ideas. And if we can get on board with a story this crazy, selling a simpler original story should be a piece of cake.
It actually deserves its gigantic budgetWe’re always bemoaning the ridiculous amount of money studios spent making and marketing movies, but Inception is one of those rare instances where 180 million actually seems like the right price. Not only does the movie look fantastic, but elements that might seem indulgent– shooting in 7 different countries, building a rotating hallway for a fight scene– are spectacularly effective in the final product. It’s an incredible gamble for Warner Bros. to spend that amount of money on Inception, but if it it pays off more than something less adventurous (like, say, WB’s next film Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore), it will only be encouragement for them to spend that money on something more worthwhile. Yes, we’ll always get groundbreaking and fascinating films that only cost a few million, but every time
It’s made by a director in complete control. There are plenty of directors whose name count for a lot in getting a movie made, but very, very few of them are making movies on the scale of Inception. Not only can Christopher Nolan garner the kind of faith that inspires a studio to spend 180 million on a mental heist film, but he can convince the studio to butt out entirely, allowing him to make the film he imagined, and not one hampered by studio desires (see: virtually every other major movie this summer, Iron Man 2 included). There aren’t that many directors who even deserve that kind of control over movies this big, but Inception’s success could mean that the ones who do can do their work and do it right.

Source:Cinema Blend

You may remember the Red Riding Trilogy as a series of sprawling TV movies made in Britain that got limited theatrical releases in the United States, but did you realize they started as a particularly ambitious book? Writer David Peace was named one of the best young British novelists by Granta magazine in 2003, and now apparently the movie industry is taking a shine to his work– he also wrote the book that inspired The Damned United, the soccer-based film that starred Michael Sheen last year. Now Peace is going even more Hollywood–Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to his novel Occupied City. Whereas Red Riding was about crime in Britain over a series of decades, Occupied is distinctly different, a thriller surrounding a 1948 robbery at a Tokyo bank. You certainly couldn’t accuse the guy of being stuck in a rut.
There are no immediate plans for putting the adaptation into development, though with Steve Zaillian adapting Red Riding for a Hollywood remake, Peace’s name may come to mean a lot more in the coming years. Occupied City is part of a planned trilogy of novels set during the United States occupation of Japan, with the first, Tokyo Year Zero, published in 2007.
Source:Cinema Blend

Zac Efron has been working hard lately to be treated like a grown-up, first because it was too similar to his High School Musical role, then signing on to play a , a , and coming up soon, a guy who chats with his dead brother in Charlie St. Cloud.
Now the growing pains will continue into a much more mundane stage of life: the office. reports that Warner Bros. has picked up Jason Fliardi’s untitled workplace comedy script as a vehicle for Efron to star in. The movie will also be one of the first efforts from Efron’s new production shingle, which bears the distinctly un-grown-up name of Ninjas Runnin’ Wild Productions. Baby steps, I guess. Other projects set up are Snabba cash and Fire, the films that will star Efron as the financial whitz and CIA college kid respectively, and Art of the Steal, an adaptation of about an accomplished thief.
In short, Efron is not taking his stardom for granted, and is making the smart move of developing his own projects instead of letting Hollywood determine his niche for him. Charlie St. Cloud, quite frankly, doesn’t look to be that big a winner– it looks mopey and sappy in a summer when we want action and lightness– but I wouldn’t worry about it getting in Efron’s way. With those baby blues and an apparent knack for managing his career, he’ll be riding that High School Musical toward an adult career with ease.
Source:Cinema Blend

Considering its been over a year since The Hangover hit theaters, your post-debauchery sickness is long gone and youre well into roofie, alcohol, and tiger-song withdrawal. Lucky for you, Warner Home Video plans to release The Hangover: Extreme Edition on DVD and Blu-ray October 12th.
For those of you out of the loop — and theres absolutely no excuse for that at this point — The Hangover tells the story of three guys who head to Vegas for their buddys bachelor party. Its too bad that, before the night even begins, all four fall into a drunken stupor and awaken the next morning in their trashed hotel room. They have no idea what atrocities theyve committed, and to make matters worse, the groom-to-be is missing.
For anyone who required that brief synopsis, odds are youve got no interest in diving in head first and dropping 33.92 on the DVD or 35.99 on the BD for the Extreme Edition. However, for members of the films widespread fan base, even if you already own a copy of The Hangover, this version could be worth the cash. Too bad production on the The Hangover 2 isnt set to begin until October. The Extreme Edition could have been the perfect place to stash a sneak peek. Here’s what Warners says the new edition will include, plus a peak at the cover art.
The Hangover: Extreme Edition DVD will contain:

Cursing Mash-Up — Hilarious compilation of all the cursing from the film.

Source:Cinema Blend

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Yes, it’s still a really stupid idea for anyone to make a movie based on Legos, but at least Warner Bros. has made one very good early decision. According to , Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will team up to writer and direct the Lego movie, which is of course being kept top-secret for the moment.
Lord and Miller apparently had to run through a gauntlet of an approval process, giving a presentation not just to the Warner Bros. top executives, but the Lego bosses as well. They flew up to the Fremont, Calfiornia Lego convention Bricks by the Bay– yes, there are Lego conventions– and pitched the company on a movie that would mix live-action and animation, and presumably showcase the classic plastic toys in only the best light.
If you don’t know who Lord and Miller are, you obviously made the mistake of pre-judging Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as a crass animated kids movie. In fact it’s quietly brilliant and hilarious, not just a parody of disaster movies but a subtle commentary on American greed and consumerism that just so happens to include a Gummy Bear-obsessed monkey voiced by Neil Patrick Harris. It’s on Netflix Watch Instantly right now; please do yourself the favor of watching it, then join in me in harboring quiet expectations for a Lego movie. If anyone is going to make something reasonable and funny out of building block toys, it’s got to be these guys.
Source:Cinema Blend

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]]> http://www.start-news.com/2010/06/28/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-guys-will-write-and-direct-lego-movie/feed/ 0 http://www.start-news.com/2010/06/22/live-action-akira-movie-gets-a-screenwriter/ http://www.start-news.com/2010/06/22/live-action-akira-movie-gets-a-screenwriter/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:15:07 +0000 Journalist http://www.start-news.com/2010/06/22/live-action-akira-movie-gets-a-screenwriter/

It’s hard for me to imagine exactly how the team behind the live-action Akira redo will make the insane and nigh unfollowable story palatable to a dumbed down American audience. The 1988 anime classic is brilliant in its absurdity as you become more and more deeply immersed in the dementia of the characters. And it wasn’t without source material; the story was a serial comic release between 1982 and 1990, which Dark Horse collected the into six volumes starting in 2000, releasing the rest throughout 2001 and 2002.
has it after an interview with producer Andrew Lazar that newbie screenwriter Albert Torres will hold the sacred pen that will either delight or enrage a legion of fanboys already pissed off at the remake. The role of Kaneda (who will surely be renamed), was rumored to have been taken by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is getting a little too old to play a rebellious teenager in a motorcycle gang. Torres’ only screenwriting work is the Luke Wilson starrer Henry Poole Is Here, a middling comedy that received generally “meh” reviews. That doesn’t inspire very much confidence.
Lazar also mentioned how much the studio appreciates Akira story as a franchise, which breeds a little hope that the producers will aim to take things slowly and tell the whole story in sequels rather than trying to cram eight years worth of serialized material into one two hour film. There is a way to do this story right, but it is on a fine line. Go too far one way and it’ll be just like every adaptation you see of a foreign film, way over explained with the nuances of the original completely ignored. Too far the other way and it becomes a complicated mess with too many characters to properly follow.
Best of luck to Warner Bros, Lazar and Torres with this project in this Herculean task they’re undertaking. My only hope is that the director they find for the piece will be able to tell the expansive sci-fi story clearly. Somebody call Neill Blomkamp immediately. More news on this as we get it.
Here’s the brief IMDb rundown:

Source:Cinema Blend

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