Nov 2 2009 Warner Bros. Hoping To Recreate Pure Magic of 'Bucket List'
With Morgan Freeman's death in The Bucket List (Bucket Spoiler!) virtually eliminating any possibility of a sequel ("virtually" because I don't think the idea of a ghost Freeman can ever be entirely ruled out), Warner Bros. is attempting to get the aging duo back together for a new film that will recreate that bucket magic that somehow made over $175 million. From THR:
Warner Bros. is pre-emptively picking up an untitled comedy spec by Josh Cagan and Greg Coolidge to which Morgan Freeman is attached to star and Peter Segal is eyeing to direct.The script, which had a working title of "Dirty Old Men," revolves around an aging playboy who finally meets the love of his life and his best friend and wingman for the past 40 years (Freeman) who does everything to break up the new couple. The tone is described as similar to "Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."
The studio would love to have Jack Nicholson reteam with Freeman on the film; the pair starred in Warners' 2007 hit comedy "The Bucket List." Nicholson is not attached to the project but is aware of it.
Let's hope Nicholson gets on board this thing. We need someone to pick up the old guy mediocre comedy duo mantle left behind by Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau after Grumpier Old Men.
Oct 28 2009 'Invictus' Trailer: This Would Make More Sense If I Understood Any Element of Rugby
Eat your Oscar bait: the trailer for Clint Eastwood's Invictus. Based on John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation, it's a film that shows how a rugby game was able to unite a racially divided nation, and how, apparently, a rugby game can be won if the president tells the captain, "Come on, guys, win this rugby game!" Simple as that:
Oct 23 2009 'Invictus' One-Sheet: See the Poster Before It Wins the Oscars
Continuing the recent trend of airbrushed-on-the-back-of-a-jacket poster design, Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela + rugby film now has an official poster on Yahoo. I'm hoping this style eventually evolves into more of an embroidered-on-a-jacket look, so that I can have a good pattern for embroidering Matt Damon on the back of my jean jacket.
Nov 26 2008 Good Thing 'Shawshank Redemption' Wasn't from 1983
If The Shawshank Redemption was made in 1983, how would the last 20 minutes look? Like this exciting montage, probably, except Jeff Goldblum would have played Andy:
Continue Reading " Good Thing 'Shawshank Redemption' Wasn't from 1983 "
Jun 5 2008 New 'Wanted' Shots and the Art of Weaving
Think all the bullet-bending, car-flipping, fly wing-shooting stuff James McAvoy does in the Wanted trailers was cool? Wait till you see the mad shit this guy does with a loom! You haven't lived until you see textile manufacture in bullet time.
More (un-!)Wanted photos here.
Jun 3 2008 New 'Wanted' Trailer Assumes I've Never Used the Internet
Of all the ludicrous things seen in this trailer--cars flipping and landing, bullets curving with special bullet mind control, Angelina Jolie not within arm-reach of a child--the most unbelievable and insulting is that we're supposed to swallow that a Google search for "Wesley Gibson" would turn up no results (and it's not even in quotes!). Give me a break, Wanted. I'm willing to tolerate breaking every known physical law in the name of mindless entertainment, but this is too much.
Continue Reading " New 'Wanted' Trailer Assumes I've Never Used the Internet "
Mar 6 2008 'Wanted' Trailer Continues Quest to be 'The Matrix'
As I've mentioned before, I have an open but shameful love of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. It definitely has its flaws, but I admire it's commitment to cheesecake antics and its resolute defiance in the face of logic and physical laws. (Make no mistake--I still think director McG is a turd.)
From the looks of this second trailer, Wanted tries to get by on the same combination of sex appeal and physics-defying action as Full Throttle, but makes the mistake of trying to rationalize its absurdity. Like The Matrix, the explanation relies on being part of a select group of world-manipulators--or something like that--a skill demonstrated through the usual method of countless slow-motion bullets. Or, to be more precise, slow-motion bullets with the word "goodbye" etched on the side. Because that's totally sweet, right?
Continue Reading " 'Wanted' Trailer Continues Quest to be 'The Matrix' "
Oct 31 2007 'Wanted' Trailer Evokes Sleek Sunglasses, Trenchcoats
Wanted seems to be trying to create a new genre of "movie about a cubical worker who finds out he's one of the few able to use special powers with bullet-time effects, then becomes an awesome shoot-em-up expert with a hot lady counterpart and a wise black master, but isn't The Matrix."
If so, they've really nailed it.
Wanted Trailer [Yahoo!]
Oct 30 2007 AM Poster Post: 'The Bucket List' Captures Special Moment
It's a beautiful but tragic thing to capture the exact moment when someone exits the realm of legitimate acting and joins the ranks of old guys just being old, but it appears they've done it with this poster. Like the posters for Grumpy/Grumpier Old Men and Secondhand Lions, The Bucket List has no qualms about selling this film based entirely around the idea that once-respected actors are now very old, and probably dying.
Won't it be fun to see how old Jack Nicolson is, and how he interacts with another old man, Morgan Freeman? And it's only compounded by the fact that the plot of the film is based around doing certain things before you die. Jack must have an item on his own bucket list that says, "Make feel-good comedy where I play myself, a man becoming increasingly evil-looking and genderless with age."
The Bucket List One-Sheet [CanMag]
Oct 1 2007 Some Other Crap That Happened...
- Rumors are flying that Tim Burton or Henry Selick may have a new stop-motion animated film on the way. Either way, Hot Topic is going to make a fortune selling its merchandise. [AICN]
- Remember the talk of HBO making a couple Deadwood made-for-TV movies? That was just to subside your sorrow until the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm gave you something else to tell your friends they were missing by not paying $90 a month for premium cable. They aren't happening. [Cinematical]
- The man hired to direct the Wolverine movie spoke out to pretend there were reasons other than money that inspired him to direct a Wolverine movie. Really, though, it's just the money. [IESB]
- Someone is making an animated Noah's Ark picture told from the point-of-view of--get this--the animals! Combining the comedy genius of both Evan Almighty and Madagascar will surely equal something at least as bad as one of them.
- Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas are teaming up in The Code, in which the former will play a veteran thief pulling one final job with a younger thief with a thick, sexy accent and his own line of scents. [Variety]
- Jessica Simpson's latest bimbo-defining role in Blonde Ambition was already headed to the world of straight-to-DVD, but now it's creating a new form of public shaming/release deemed "straight-to-QVC" (which is exactly what it sounds like), where it will be purchased as stocking stuffers by as many as hundreds of grandmas. [Faded Youth]
Jun 22 2007 Casting Shocker: Morgan Freeman to Play Mandela
Freckly black dude and red fu manchu in: Two Against the World
In a casting move even more shocking than Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin, Morgan Freeman will play Nelson Mandela in the upcoming movie adaptation of The Human Factor.
Pic is set after the fall of apartheid, when South Africa was host to the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mandela was in his first term as South African president, and he used the event as a way to end decades of mistrust and hatred between whites and blacks.
It's about as obvious a casting choice as has ever been made. As logical as Howard Stern playing Joey Ramone, Will Smith playing Robert Horry, Jerry Bruckheimer playing a big pile of diarrhea, or Brad Pitt playing me (he'd have to gain about 20 pounds of lean muscle, but actors are good at that stuff.)
On another note, Ronald Reagan got to be president after being in a movie with a chimp. Arnold Schwartzenegger got to be governor after blowing stuff up and screaming "AUUUAUUUAUUUGGHHH!". Meanwhile, Morgan Freeman has being playing deities, presidents, leaders, mentors, and narrators for the last 30 years. If he goes into politics, we may see a dictator for life. Americans are stupid like that.
