'Pathology' Teaser Makes a Timely Reference
Hey, remember when Napoleon Dynamite Fever swept the nation, spreading quickly from dorm rooms to workplaces until gruesomely quoting itself to death, its overly-quirky corpse torn apart and dragged to the clearance bins of Hot Topics? And how you thought that after the DVDs, the t-shirts, the quoting, the Halloween costumes, the posters, the talking dolls, and the continued casting of John Heder, there must be no way to sap more life from this now-hated product?
Wrong! The makers of the upcoming thriller Pathology have figured out one more disgusting way, and made it into a teaser. Hint: it involves cadavers, and it's exactly what you think it is.
Do You Believe in Harvey Dent? How About Marketing Ploys?
After a brief respite in honor of Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight viral marketing train is once again rushing towards us, now asking that you provide Harvey Dent with your email and phone number at IBelieveInHarveyDent.com. Just don't blame me if he starts calling you drunk or forwarding you pictures of cats and text.
New Line Merges With Warner Bros.
In an effort to cut costs and save on distribution, Time Warner has announced the merger of Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema. Under the merger, New Line will maintain separate marketing, production, and distribution, but it's made clear that if they drive anywhere with the Warner Brothers, New Line has to ride bitch. The press release:
New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.' distribution systems.
Hopefully this merger will be as seamless as when the WB Network merged with UPN, and I barely even noticed it was a different channel I was skipping past. If nothing else, maybe now we'll finally be able to order a chess set with Looney Tunes characters dressed as Lord of the Rings characters. It could only be rights issues keeping such an obvious product from existing.
New Line Folds Into Warner Bros. [Deadline Hollywood]
Jamie Foxx to Play Iron Mike?
Having already taken biopic roles as Tookie Williams, Ray Charles, and Nathaniel Ayers, and with plans to play Earl Sanders and Bob Marley, Jamie Foxx has proven himself the man to get for any and every true story about a black guy. So when word spreads of a Mike Tyson film in the works, guess whose name is coming up.
That's right, if you trust Tyson (reminder: a jury didn't), he and Foxx have been in talks to collaborate on a biopic, which may or may not be titled Cannibal Rapist. Says the pugilist:
I have a movie on the verge of happening, probably in two years from now. Me and Jamie Foxx are going to do a collaboration. He's going to play me in my life story. We've talked about it many times.
Of course, if Foxx hopes to play "Iron" Mike Tyson, he will first have to play Piston Honda, Mr. Sandman, and Super Macho Man, whose Super Spin Punch is totally tough.
Jamie Foxx is Mike Tyson? [Cinematical]
'The Love Guru' Trailer is...
I don't even know how to describe the painfulness of Mike Myers' The Love Guru trailer. "Austin Powers: new costume, same jokes" is appropriate, but doesn't really convey the way your brain shuts off around the point the midget jokes start (and never stop). At the same time, "brain Novocain in a sari" doesn't capture how sadly derivative it is, and omits the hilarity of the curly mustache. I guess the best I can do is "Mike Myers smothers your soul with the help of Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, prosthetic hair, midget jokes, and some penis references."
Thanks for the tip, Kyle.
New 'Iron Man' Trailer Continues Clever Use of 'Iron Man' in Soundtrack
As much I find Iron Man and his glib alter ego Tony Stark to be intolerable characters, I have to admit that Jon Favreau looks to have made a decent adaptation of the source material. And with a non-stop barrage of hard rock (AC/DC, Audioslave, Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", of course), constant alcohol imbibing, and the flagrant use of sports cars as backdrops, Iron Man looks to be the first superhero movie to fully capture the sensibilities of Maxim Magazine. The biggest surprise isn't that this looks like a surefire hit but that they didn't put Gwyneth Paltrow in a bikini. Make sure to watch this if you're a male 13 to 35. Otherwise, you're totally going to look like a gay.
So, Gerard Butler WILL be in 'Watchmen'!
Gerard Butler, long-rumored for a part in Zack Snyder's Watchmen adaptation, has admitted that he is providing the voiceover for the Tales of the Black Freighter section of the film--the pirate part of the comic that you mostly skipped over but pretended to enjoy as a brilliant post-modern parallel. Additionally, the actor noted that the section will be done in the style of Japanese anime. In fitting with that aesthetic, instead of using the bloated corpses of his crew to form a makeshift raft, the castaway will use cat-girls to build a really sweet mech.
Gerard Butler Talks Black Freighter [Empire]
'Get Smart' Trailer Earns an Anger Downgrade
The latest offering in the Nick-At-Nite-programming-turned-broad-comedy genre, Get Smart, has a new trailer. Like in the previous trailers, it still looks bland and uninspired, relying on its impressive cast to pull off weak slapstick gags, but enough works that I'm willing to downgrade my anger level from fuming to annoyed ambivalence. My respect for the original series makes me want them to prove me wrong and make a decent film, but I'm also terribly fearful that might lead to a Green Acres movie (starring Will Ferrell and Paris Hilton?).
'Dark Matter' Trailer Reveals It's a Serial Killer Movie
At what point in the film will Dark Matter turn from a fish-out-of-water drama, following a Chinese cosmology prodigy's inability to conform to a university's political hierarchy, to a serial-killer-on-the-loose story? If the trailer gives us any indication, somewhere around the last quarter, when the rapid-fire cuts, mad flailing, and negative images start up. I have to admit, making it seem like I might see an immigrant go on a murderous rampage does make me want to see the film more, but couldn't they find a way to imply he might be a ghost too, or that he and Aidan Quinn are actually the same person? That kind of stuff really amps me up.
Charlie (of Chocolate Factory Fame) to Voice Astro Boy
Imagi International has announced that Freddie Highmore--the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland--will provide the voice for Astro Boy in the CGI adaptation of the manga. I guess the character will have an English accent now, instead of the Charlie Chan-style Engrish accent I was hoping for.
Freddie Highmore Signed for Imagi Studios' ASTRO BOY [Imagi]