Weekly Film News: Trailers, Posters, tons of X-Men stuff & Tarantino talks about his "masterpiece"

In order to lend Plus Trailers some much needed credibility, every Friday I am going to be writing a little about the week’s film news. I will only be reporting on things that interest me – fans of Twilight will have to go elsewhere. In fact, if you want comprehensive or unbiased news coverage you’re probably looking in the wrong place. But if you can stand my poor grammar, prejudicial "journalism" and nerdish rants about whatever it is that Hollywood is screwing up this week then by all means read on. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Get it?

It has been an absolutely gargantuan week for trailers, with previews for several major summer (Australian’s read: winter) blockbusters hitting theatres and the web. They include G.I. Joe (link), Night at the Museum 2 (link) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (link). Some smaller gems include a live-action adaptation of the cult anime series Blood: The Last Vampire (link), a cheesy bullet ridden private eye movie starring Thomas Jane and Ving Rhames called Give ‘em Hell Malone (link), a pseudo-documentary/sci-fi film about Aliens who land in South Africa called District 9 (link) and an Indonesian kung-fu film called Merantau (link – this one looks kickass.) You can view the trailers by clicking on the links.

Character posters from Quentin Tarantino’s new WWII film Inglourious Basterds are beginning to surface online. Three have been released so far; the first features Brad Pitt, the second features Eli Roth (the director of Hostel in his first major acting role) and the third features Diane Kruger. You can view all three posters here.

In related news, Tarantino has recently given an interview in the New York Times. When asked about the rushed production of Inglourious Basterds (which will premiere at Cannes film festival this month), he stated that he “wanted to have a masterpiece before the decades out.” I love the man’s movies, but Christ he’s arrogant (of course, I have no doubt that the movie will be a masterpiece). You can read the full interview here.

I don’t feel as though I can comment on the above poster for Ninja Assassin, because I haven’t decided yet if it’s completely amazing or retarded and lame. I’ll let you know when I’ve made up my mind. The film is directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) and produced by the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). It will be released in Australia on November 26th

Sigh. The nominations for this year’s MTV Movie awards have been announced, and it’s pretty awful. Twilight has seven nominations, Slumdog Millionaire has six, High School Musical 3 has five and The Dark Knight has four. You can read all the nominations (as well as a bitter rant from yours truly) here. You can vote at MovieAwards.MTV.com.

Three character posters from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have been released, featuring Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Starscream. You can view those posters here.

There is a whole heap of news and rumours surrounding the X-Men franchise after X-Men Origins: Wolverine made a massive amount of money in its opening weekend. First off, star/producer Hugh Jackman confirmed that Wolverine 2 is in the works, and that he is currently looking for a writer to pen the screenplay.

20th Century Fox have also confirmed that they are developing a Deadpool spin-off. The beloved character made a brief appearance in Wolverine played by Ryan Reynolds, who was a major highlight of the film. Reynolds will reprise his role; there is no word on whether this will be a set before or after Wolverine as of yet.

Halle Berry, who played Storm in the first three X-Men movies, has also expressed an interest in a Storm origin film. Let’s hope not.

10 Photos from the set of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes have been released. The film, which is a more action oriented affair than one might expect, stars Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson and will hit Australian screens on December 26th. You can view all the photos here.

Jack Bauer (by which I mean Kiefer Sutherland) will have to report to prosecutors after head butting a guy at a celebrity shindig. Fashion designer Jack McCullough reportedly knocked over actress Brooke Shields at a party in New York…little did he know CTU’s finest was also in attendance. Apparently Sutherland asked the McCullough apologize; when McCullough pushed him away, Jack…sorry…Kiefer head butted him and broke his nose. My theory is that McCullough had information on an imminent terrorist threat…or maybe Sutherland has been drinking again.

DVD’s

It’s another awful week for DVD’s here in Oz. Feature film releases include Yes Man, Beverly Hill’s Chihuahua, Marley & Me, Choke, Mirrors, Diary of the Dead and (the highlight) Funny Games (the English version, not the Austrian…it’s good as long as you realise it’s being subversive). On the TV side of things we have South Park season 6 (hooray) and NCIS season 5 (all things considered, NCIS isn’t a very original or clever show, but its good comfort entertainment.)

Sources: /Film, Movieweb, Trailers411, EzyDVD