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If there’s one thing I appreciate about director Robert Rodriguez, it’s that when the man says he’s going to do something like make an entire movie based on a “throwaway” trailer that he made to run with a different movie, not only does he do it, other people give him money for it.

A perfect example would be 20th Century Fox picking up the domestic distribution rights to Rodriguez’ Machete, beating out Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate according to Variety. Or how about Sony Pictures and some other smaller overseas distributors buying the international distribution rights sight almost unseen, which gave him enough money to make the movie last year in Austin, Texas?

Having just caught From Dusk Till Dawn the other day, I’m definitely in the mood for a great revenge flick full of fancy knife-wielding, possibly some explosions, bombastic dialogue, and a whole lot of heart, which I am sure Machete will deliver in spades.

No word yet on when the film will be released.

Related Posts: Robert Rodriguez to bring Predators, Machete to the big screen

It’s been a while since the words “A John Landis Film” have crossed the silver screen, so I’m pleased to note some news regarding his next feature film project.

It was announced last August that John Landis would be working on a horror comedy called Burke and Hare with British actor Simon Pegg. Now, The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Heat Vision” blog is reporting that Andy Serkis will be co-starring with Pegg, replacing David Tennant.

From a script by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft (St. Trinian’s), the film is about two gravediggers whose first names were both William and also happened to be the earliest serial killers in Britain.

(Ooh! Etymology fun time! It’s from these two killers that we get the verb “to burke” which a free dictionary defines as “To execute (someone) by suffocation so as to leave the body intact and suitable for dissection.” And it’s not just regular strangulation, either, as there’s usually an element of chest compression as well.)

Also starring in the film will be Isla Fisher as Pegg’s girlfriend and possible accomplice and Tom Wilkinson as an anatomy lecturer who unknowingly buys the duo’s victims in his search for teaching supplies.

Filming will begin in the U.K. at the end of this month.

I’ve read many thrillers where the soldier of fortune or archaeologist or secret agent sneaks into some temple in Cambodia or Peru or whatever, to steal the eye of an ancient idol. He then runs for his very life as fuming natives chase him to carve out his giblets. The opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark is a good example.

But. Has anyone ever done a scene in a movie where someone from another land (okay, how about Tony Jaa?) comes to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and makes off with the little plate that holds the Host? And he’s then chased out into the street by the outraged congregation? And shot at by irked cops who happen to be Irish-American and good Catholic boys? Do you think anyone would catch the reversal or would audiences just be whispering to each, “What the hell?”
–Dr Hermes, while describing a movie that I’d definitely pay good money to see.

While you’re at it, check out his gallery of obscure movie stills, complete with commentary. It’s this kind of thing that was made for moving to a WordPress-type blog, you know? I sure do wish someone would show him how to make one because this is some great material that deserves a wider audience.

O, to be Mickey Rourke.

One minute, your career is hanging by a thread, the next, you’ve won a Golden Globe, have an Academy Award nomination, and movie offers are once again pouring at your feet. And now, Bill Murray joins the cast of your next indie movie? That’s gotta be pretty sweet.

From MTV.com‘s movie blog comes the news that Bill Murray will be replacing Toby Kebbell as the villain in Passion Play which stars Rourke as a down-on-his-luck trumpet player who is trying to rescue a sideshow freak who has wings growing out of her back (played by Megan Fox) from Murray’s gangster.

Currently filming in New Mexico, the movie is the directorial debut of screenwriter Mitch Glazer who previously worked with Murray on Scrooged. Already, the paparazzi are covering this movie like white on rice and have already reported on the possibility of Fox appearing topless in the movie. No, I am not going to link to those images because we’re a safe-for-work blog.

In a very smart move by the folks behind Iron Man 2 and Thor, Clark Gregg will be reprising his role from Iron Man as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson in both movies, and according to Marc Graser, Marvel is making sure that all the actors they get for those key supporting roles have their schedules cleared to crossover into the other movies. Now that’s some forward synergistic thinking. Too bad comic book editors don’t think the same way. (Source: Variety)

It’s time to get out your calendars, for it’s movie release date updating time! In this edition, Paramount Pictures will be releasing True Grit on December 25 while Footloose will be vacating the June 18 spot due to losing director Kenny Ortega. Am I the only one who thinks it a little funny to like the plot of one movie’s re-adaptation, but not another? (Source: Variety)

Finally, to those of you who are creators and hope to see your creations in print and on film, I urge you: read carefully this seemingly dry piece about who owns the copyright to the Sherlock Holmes character. Currently, the ex-wife of a producer whose husband made a 1954 TV series is battling it out with the non-direct descendants of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all because Doyle’s oldest son’s widow was able to wrest control away from his youngest daughter back in the 1970s. (Source: The New York Times)

Bolstered by his Golden Globe nomination for (500) Days of Summer, Marc Webb has decided to tempt the fates and a fanboy storm by signing on to direct the trouble-plagued Spider-Man 4 movie.

As reported in Variety and ComingSoon.net, Webb will be working from a script written by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and will be carefully watched by producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin as they re-ramp up production later this year.

In discussing his reasons for working on the project, Webb said in a statement:

This is a dream come true and I couldn’t be more aware of the challenge, responsibility, or opportunity. Sam Raimi’s virtuoso rendering of Spider-Man is a humbling precedent to follow and build upon. The first three films are beloved for good reason. But I think the Spider-Man mythology transcends not only generations but directors as well. I am signing on not to “take over” from Sam. That would be impossible. Not to mention arrogant. I’m here because there’s an opportunity for ideas, stories, and histories that will add a new dimension, canvas, and creative voice to Spider-Man.

As previously reported, the “new” fourth film may be a “reboot” of the franchise… kinda. Exact details are sketchy, but the current scuttlebutt has the movie taking place when Peter Parker is still a high school kid, learning how to deal with his powers and survive not just fights with burglars but school bullies as well. How much of this would take place within the existing timeline of the movies is to be seen, if at all.

In addition, exactly how much fanboy favor will bless or condemn the new direction will depend on whom they choose to be the “new” Spider-Man, and names that have been tossed around include Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson and Jim Sturgess from 21 and The Other Boleyn Girl.

As I was writing this, Gordon popped online to remind me that Webb started off his career as a director of music videos (some of which you can see on his website here) and that Webb’s confirmation as director means that we’ll have to wait a bit to see his re-imagining of Jesus Christ Superstar for Universal Pictures—which leaves me just a little disappointed because if movie audiences are going to have to endure another version of the Christ story, we might as well get one with singing, dancing, and a soulful Judas, right?

Related Posts: “Spider-Man 4 No More”?! Not exactly… (updated), Additional details on Spider-Man 4 delay, including Thor and Pirates 4 release dates, Quick Cuts: Spider-Man 4 falls while Deadpool rises, and other stories (updated)

More cast members are being added to director Duncan Jones’ next project Source Code and I couldn’t be happier.

According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s “Heat Vision” blog Michelle Monaghan will star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as his love interest and Vera Farmiga is in negotiations to play the communications officer in charge of helping Gyllenhaal’s soldier navigate the mindscape of a witness to terrorist bombing and is forced to relive it in order to identify the culprits.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea that a movie about the very science fiction-y concept of being able to transfer your consciousness into another body is not beginning and ending with Avatar. A recent review by Donnie Sturges over at Spwug.com reminded me that James Cameron didn’t make a science fiction movie at all, because that wasn’t his goal.

Jones strikes me as the kind of director who isn’t going to bury the questions that such technology asks underneath the guise of an action movie or something else like that.

Filming is set to begin in March.

Related Posts: Director Duncan Jones, actor Jake Gyllenhaal go straight to the Source for Summit Entertainment

If there’s anyone out there with a spare $100,000 who has ever wanted to host a movie premiere in their living room, have I got a deal for you.

Webcomics author Ryan Estrada will be turning his Zuda Comics creation The Kind You Don’t Bring Home to Mother into a feature-length animated movie and he’s taken to the Internet to do some fundraising, asking fans and/or random passers-by to donate money to help produce the film.

Written and directed by Estrada, the plot of the movie goes as such:

The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother is an upcoming independent animated feature directed by Ryan Estrada. It’s a movie about a werewolf, but with one small difference. It takes place between full moons.

With four weeks of freedom until her next transformation, Julia Hobson faces a whole new set of horrors. First dates, disapproving parents, awkward social situations, and the looming lunar deadline that makes her wonder if her new relationship will last the full moon.

It’s only a matter of time before David Duncan finds out if Julia really is the girl of his dreams, or if life with a lycanthrope turns out to be too much to handle.

The rewards for donation range from having your name appear in the credits to having your dog become a extra. Estrada estimates that it would take $100,000 to fully finance this project, but if someone wanted to pay for the entire movie, he will do the following:

• Write a scene into the movie featuring the donor and his family
• Fly out to where you are to record voices for the speaking parts
• Hold the world premiere in the person’s home

(I’m sure, by the way, that Estrada will also apologize for getting “Superfreak” stuck in your head the same way it’s been stuck in mine for the last hour of research for this story.)

If you happen to have a couple thousand lying around and have always dreamed of investing in an indie film—because who doesn’t, really?—you can dig a little deeper on the website to find this information about investment opportunities:

The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother, LLC has 20 shares. Each share is worth $5,000 dollars. Investment into the film involves the purchase of a minimum of one share and agreeing to the Operator’s Agreement for The Kind You Don’t Take Home to Mother, LLC.

The Operator’s Agreement isn’t on the website, and I doubt Estrada’s going to share that info without us ponying up $5K first.

However, one of the things I like about this project is that Home to Mother will feature 2D animation over live-action backgrounds, already making it look more unique than anything else that’s out there right now. The plot’s also just that right mix between slice-of-life romantic comedy and horror that tickles my brain.

There’s no word from Estrada yet on who will be cast as Julia and/or David or how many of the other characters from the webcomic are going to make the transition to the big screen version.

The bad thing about being the directors of Little Miss Sunshine is that for the three years after it came out, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris had to keep answering the “So, how are you going to follow that?” question?

Understandably, it was a difficult question for the married duo to answer because when the first feature film you direct goes from being a typical indie film with financing problems, budget shortcuts, and a bevy of producers to grossing over $100 million worldwide and being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, you kinda have to pick your next project carefully.

So far, two films have been attributed to being under their care (Used Guys and The Abstinence Teacher, but it’s this latest one that I think really has the legs to go the distance.

According to Variety, the pair will be directing Paul Rudd in Will for Paramount Pictures, with Zach Galifianakis in negotiations to co-star.

The plot is described as follows:

Story centers on an ordinary guy (Rudd) who lives in a world where people’s lives and destinies are being written by scribes in Heaven. The man wakes up one day to find that his heavenly writer has decided to no longer draft his life, and he must go about his day unscripted.

That makes it feel like Stranger Than Fiction in reverse, but I think I’m kinda digging the magical realism of a world where people know for certain that someone is in charge of their destinies and what happens to someone who suddenly has to be in charge of himself.

Upon finding out that Demetri Martin originally pitched the movie to Dreamworks and that Paramount got custody of it when they broke up in 2008, it makes me wonder if Martin is also in negotiations to be involved as either a scriptwriter or part of the cast, and I think he’d be great doing either.

As predicted, thanks to the production delay on Spider-Man 4, the studio had to give up its May 6, 2011 release date, but that’s not the detail I’m most interested in out of this story from The Hollywood Reporter.

According to writers Carl DiOrio and Borys Kit, the conflict about the script is a fight once again between director Sam Raimi and the studio:

Raimi wants to have a criminal known as the Vulture act as the primary antagonist in the film while the studio, which dislikes the idea of the winged wrongdoer, is pushing for a romantic sub-plot involving a burglar named the Black Cat in addition to another villain.

Upon reading that Raimi has had this fight with the studio before, and when he capitulated, we got the mess that was Spider-Man 3, it’s all I can do to keep from putting my head in my hands.

In any case, even if a miracle happened and the two sides were able to come to a compromise, they won’t be able to get the release date back because Paramount Pictures swooped in to claim the spot in the name of Thor. Complicating matters is Walt Disney Pictures also announcing the release date for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as May 20, 2011.

Related Posts: Spider-Man 4 falls while Deadpool rises, and other stories

What was originally a winter break for the pre-production team at Spider-Man 4 has turned into a layoff as an unnamed source deep inside Sony Pictures stated that production has stopped on the movie, citing the script problem rumors that have been circulating since last month: “We will not start until we have it right. The feeling is we are not going to rush it to make the [May 6, 2001] date.” Considering that the previous installment in the franchise featured an overly long dance number in the middle of the movie, I’m perfectly alright with a delay. (Source: Variety)

Meanwhile over in Marvel anti-hero land, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick from the hit Zombieland have been tapped to write the X-Men spinoff movie Deadpool. This is a team that’s on a roll, by the way, because the two also took a whack at Venom and recently sold a script called Earth Vs. Moon to Universal Pictures. (Source: Variety)

And finally, despite all the love that’s been bestowed on James Cameron’s Avatar—which equals $1.063 billion dollars’ worth worldwide to date—there’s at least one organization that is hating on it. Enter SceneSmoking.org which gave the movie a “black lung” for its depiction of environmentally-friendly scientist Dr. Grace Augustine as being an avid smoker.

I give Cameron props for defending his movie when he responded in a written statement, “From a character perspective, we were showing that Grace doesn’t care about her human body, only her avatar body.” I’m choosing to take those props away again because Cameron went on to say: “which again is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games.”

What the hell kind of message is that, when the deus ex flora-and-fauna-ina at the end of the movie is the protagonist being able to leave his human body behind forever in order to live in his 10-foot tall non-parapalegic blue one?! (Source: NY Times)

UPDATE: A new story making the rounds about John Malkovich “confirming” a Vulture role seems to be getting a little distorted. According to BadTaste.it (via Coming Soon), Malkovich appeared on an Italian sports show and “not only didn’t deny his involvement, confirmed that he’s waiting for the final script to be sent to him, and that the movie has been delayed. He also hopes that shooting will begin as soon as possible.” This doesn’t really say much, other than that the producers hope to have him involved.

I don’t think it’s safe to assume that he’s definitely starring as the Vulture; only that he’s interested — and waiting to see a script.

Kevin Smith hasn’t directed any films that he hasn’t written himself, and perhaps there’s a reason for that. However, he took that chance and some of the results could be seen before Sherlock Holmes over the weekend:

Of course, true Smith fans know that Cop Out had been going by a different title all throughout filming, and Smith explained to Entertainment Weekly why the movie isn’t called A Couple of Dicks:

[What] I had gone through with Zack and Miri Make a Porno—”porno” had become very problematic, it became tough for us to advertise [the film], blah blah blah. Warner Bros. decided, “Hey man, we’ll call the networks and see if we’re going to get any problems [with A Couple of Dicks as a title], months before the movie’s ever going to come out.” The top 3 networks—CBS, ABC, NBC—said we can’t run one of your spots before 9 o’clock.

Smith goes on to say that it was a quick decision on everyone’s part because of the Holmes trailer opportunity and that he’s somewhat pleased by the meta aspect of the name. I will admit that I also thought the same thing when I first saw the trailer: that doing this movie is a complete and total cop out for Smith.

Cop Out will be released in the U.S. on February 26, 2010.

Ever since the end of the Screen Actors Guild strike in June and the end of the Writer’s Guild strike in February 2008, there’s one thing that’s been on my mind: If the the newness of the Internet is both the reason why it’s hard to calculate royalties for writers and actors and the only way people are watching movies these days, then why is it that Internet-distributed releases haven’t fared well enough for the studios to take notice?

Jack Selby, a former senior vice president at PayPal, hopes to see a change in all of that because according to Variety, he and producer Duncan Montgomery along with writer-director Tiller Russell are teaming up to film and release digital productions via their new production house, Horsethief Pictures.

The first movie on their slate is called The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, and it stars Scott Speedman as Pride and Lizzy Caplan as his lover Juliette Flowers, with Dwight Yoakam, Jason Priestly, Kris Kristofferson, and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles. Horsethief plans to not only release the movie on the Internet next spring, they’re also planning an Internet assault via all the usual social networking systems and viral interactive games as well as a talent outreach and movie blog outreach.

Just like how the marketing folks at Focus Features chose 50 lucky bloggers to receive props from the Coraline movie, Horsethief has already begun its Internet assault by handing over an exclusive clip to the gang at FilmSchoolRejects.com. The write-up by Neil Miller also goes more into depth about Horsethief’s endeavors:

They’ve already started a viral campaign at WhoKilledtheDwarf.com, a website dedicated to the character of The Dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage. [Ed. note: Spoiler, much?] They will also be reaching out to fans via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites, including having the actors reach out directly.

But that’s not all. There are also these two very interesting (and somewhat dangerous) bits of interactivity:

• Horsethief is launching a unique songwriting contest, where fans can submit their own original songs. Fans will vote and select the winner and the announcement will be made by Grammy winning American singer-songwriter and star of The Last Rites of Ransom Pride Dwight Yoakam. The winner will have their song placed in the official movie trailer.
• Horsethief has kicked off a comic book creation contest, where fans can submit their ideas for the comic book based on the script, the winner will be chosen by Ben Edlund, writer of “The Tick” and will receive a first look deal with Horsethief Pictures.

Miller’s a little skeptical of how all the interactive stuff is going to turn out, but I’m a little more optimistic because I personally know a few talented songwriters and comics writers who might be able to bang out a quick pitch or demo over a weekend at very little loss of time to them.

Anyway, I’m definitely eager to see if anything comes of this because if it does… it’s definitely going to help change the way movies get made and people get paid out of them.