British director Danny Boyle's follow up to his Best Picture winning Slumdog Millionaire,127 Hours tells the real life story of moutain climber Aron Ralston who was forced to amputate his own arm after getting trapped underneath a boulder. The film stars James Franco as Ralston, and reunintes Boyle with much of his behind the scenes team from Slumdog, including screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, producer Christian Colson, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and composer A.R. Rahman. Check out the first teaser trailer and my thoughts on the footage, below.
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised given Danny Boyle's penchant for stylised filmmaking (which I love by the way), but I was expecting 127 Hours to be a lot more subdued than this trailer makes it out to be. From all reports, Franco is the only actor on screen for large sections of the movie, including an hour long sequence that contains no dialogue - I sort of assumed it would be like the first fifteen minutes of There Will Be Blood, only for the entire film. Yet this teaser makes it look as though the movie will have far more energy than the premise might suggest.
Either way, this footage has certainly peaked my interest in Boyle's latest experiment, and quite frankly I was already willing to see anything this man makes.
127 Hours will be in theatres in the US from November 5th; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
In order to lend Plus Trailers some much needed credibility, every Saturday 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 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.
After three of the funniest seasons of TV even produced, Arrested Development was tragically cancelled in 2006 by FOX due to the fact that no one in America seemed to get it. Since then, rumours have swirled as to the possibility of a feature film, and every one in a while we’ll get a new update on the project. This time it’s creator Mitch Hurwitz, who claims he’s “half-done” with the script. I’m somewhat skeptical that this thing will ever happen, but after recently re-watching all 53 episodes on DVD in the space of about a week, I’m certainly keeping my fingers crossed. If you haven’t seen the show, comment below so I can berate you until you do.
But while that film continues to flounder, the Justin Bieber biopic is moving ahead at full steam. Oh I’m sorry, did I say Justin Bieber biopic? I meant to say Justin Bieber biopic in 3D. I actually have no idea who this person is, although based on a quick Google search I learned that he “sounds like a girl” and “is totally gay”. Thanks internet!
We’ve known for some time that Alan Tudyk (Wash in Firefly) would have a part in Michael Bay’s third Transformers film, but this week we discovered the specifics of the role. According to Tudyk he will play a Sector Seven agent, not unlike John Turturro’s role in the first two films. I don’t know about you, but when I see an actor get urinated on by a robot and who gets to utter the words “I am directly below enemy scrotum”, that is a guy whose career I’d want to emulate. Other new additions to the cast include Academy Award nominee John Malkovich and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand: no word yet as to the humiliations Bay plans to inflict on them.
Director Steven Sommers will return to helm the sequel to his 2009 avant-garde, ultra low budget arthouse picture G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Critics hailed the first film as “a master of post-modernism”, and declared Sommers “the greatest thing to happen to cinema since Akira Kurosawa”. Famed film reviewer Roger Ebert even went so far as to call it “certainly better than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”. Woah woah woah! Slow down there Roger; let’s not go nuts.
For all of you out there who are head over heels in love with Christopher Nolan’s Inception, stick this in your pipe and smoke it! Turns out that the plot of the film was stolen from…wait for it…a Donald Duck comic book! I haven’t been this disillusioned since we learned that the plot of James Cameron’s Avatar was stolen from Dances with Wolves, Call Me Joe, Ferngully, Noon Universe and Pocahontas. If you’re interested, the entire comic, entitled Uncle Scrooge’s The Dream Of A Lifetime can be read here.
Finally, there were a few new trailers released this week that I thought we worth drawing your attention to. First up is an awesome interactive iTrailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which allows you to unlock all kinds of trivia, interviews and even some short clips from the film. After that you’ve got previews for Jackass 3D, Sucker Punch and the very brief comic-con teaser for The Avenger. You can view the Scott Pilgrim trailer by following this link, and watch the other three embedded below.
I personally think that Ben Affleck's directorial debut Gone Baby Gone is one of the most under-seen films of the past decade. A beautifully shot, perfectly paced, emotionally devestating crime drama set in Afflecks home town of Boston, the film starred younger brother Casey Affleckas well as Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman and a phenomenal Amy Ryan.
Afflecks follow up to that film is The Town, a bank robbery film that looks to share quite a few similarities with Gone Baby Gone, both in it's setting, it's subject matter and the prestige of the talent involved. Check out the trailer, below.
Without beating around the bush, this movie has instantly become my most anticipated film of 2010 (and keep in mind, that includes Inception, which hasn't come out here yet). The cast is fantastic - aside from the older Affleck brother you've got John Hamm (Mad Men), Rebecca Hall (The Prestige), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Chris Cooper (Adaptation.) and Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Supects). In addition to this, the story seems gripping and it looks as though Affleck has crafted some pretty intense action sequences.
The trailer does give away more of the story than I would like, including what appears to be a major twist. I'm going to assume that the reveal of who's under than mask comes early on in the movie, otherwise it seems pretty idiotic to give it away here. The only other issue I have is that the title - The Town - is pretty weak.
Living up to Gone Baby Gone is going to be a near impossible feat for this freshfaced director, but so far things are looking extremely promising.
The Town will be in theatres in the US from September 10th; an Australian release date has yet to be annouced.
After two fairly average looking teasers, this full length trailer finally gives us a substantial look at David Fincher's upcoming film The Social Network, based on the founding of facebook. The main players are Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Andrew Garfield (the guy recently cast as Spiderman in the upcoming reboot) and Justin Timberlake as Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker, two of Zuckerbergs friends and co-founders.
I thought this trailer was pretty terrific; the opening montage highlights the enormous social influence facebook has, and the choral version of Radiohead's "Creep" is absolutely beautiful. The one thing that is jarringly missing is Fincher's name. The big problem this film will have is that a lot of people are going to automatically dismiss it as "the facebook movie", but if I or the people I hang out with are any indication, simply adding the words "from the director of Fight Club" would elevate almost any movie to the levels of a must see.
When you have a prestige director, especially one with such a large following amongst the youthful demographic, aka facebook users, aka the ideal audience for this film, it seem as though it would be a good idea to incorporated his name into the marketing campaign.
The Social Network will be in theatres in the US from October 1st; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
I wanted to write a really scathing piece on this trailer for Vampires Suck, the new film by the guys who make the "movie" movies (epic, date, disaster, etc). But when I sat down to try, I realised I was no longer capable of doing that. In the two minutes that I was watching this trailer, the part of my brain that formed coherent thought was destroyed in a feiry blaze of synapses and bad puns. If I had to guess, my IQ now sits somewhere between the levels of the people who made this movie and a heavily sedated cumquat, and all that remains of my earthly functions is primitive speech, basic motor skills and the ability to discern the fact that I would rather watch Twilight one hundred times and be tortured to deaththan see this film.
On second thoughts, I guess that was pretty scathing.
Vampires Suck will be in theatres in the US from August 18th
A quick wrap-up of some of the more interesting trailers released over the past seven days that I haven’t already had a chance to talk about. Witty comments will be kept to a minimum; for more in depth trailer coverage, generally reserved for only the weeks most excellent or awful entries, click here.
The following trailer doesn't actually look too bad. Or more specifically, the movie the trailer is advertising doesn't look the bad. The trailer itself looks pretty awful. The music is incredibly generic, and the way it has been edited screams unnecessaryAmerican remake. Which it quite possibly is.
However, the visuals look largely faithful to the excellent Swedish original (which became a cult hit in America last year; click here for my review) and KodiSmit-McPhee (The Road) and Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) are amongst the better English speaking child actors out there. Overall, I remain largely positive towards this remake, which might be one of the only positive things to come out of the Twilight-inspired vampire craze. That being said, Let Me In is an extremely poor substitute for the original title.
Let Me In will be in theatres in the US from October 1st; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
Let The Right One In is currently available on DVD.
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. If you want comprehensive or unbiased news coverage you’re probably looking in the wrong place. But if you can stand my poor grammar 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.
The big news this week is of course the release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third film in the ongoing story of one girl’s quest to find self-esteem. The film took approximately US$30 million in midnight showings, breaking the record of US$26.3 million set by its predecessor New Moon. I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the movies success given that I hadn’t heard that much buzz. Then I remembered that I mostly talk to people who are a) intelligent and b) have penises. Suddenly it all made sense*.
*I don’t mean to suggest that having a penis automatically makes you intelligent. After all, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the second highest grossing film of last year. Clearly the lesson here is that human men and human women are the two most moronic genders in existence. I’m applying to become a cat.
In non-sparkly news, the directors of the amazing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (my number three film of last year) have signed on to direct the Lego movie. There is little word as to what the Lego movie will be about…aside from Lego, I guess. I’d suggest making a movie out of Star Wars Lego or Indiana Jones Lego, but on further reflection that’d probably just be Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
There’s been a bunch of casting news/rumours this week for the upcoming X-Men prequel entitled X-Men: First Class. Set in the early days of the Xavier Institute, the movie will be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and is set to star James McAvoy as a young Professor X, Michael Fassbender as a young Magneto, Alice Eve as Emma Frost and Benjamin Walker as Beast.
Furthermore, there are rumours that the studio is interested in casting Amber Heard, Rosamund Pike and Caleb Landry Johns as Mystique, Moira McTaggert and Banshee, respectively. A lot of these actors are largely untested, but just the fact that there’s a new X-Men movie being directed by someone who isn’t completely incompetent is enough to get me excited. Looking at you Ratner.
Meryl Streep has been cast in the upcoming biopic based on the life of Margaret Thatcher, entitled Thatcher. All you need to know is that it’s Meryl Streep, so therefore she’s guaranteed to be amazing, even if the movie sucks. This is true for literally any movie: I could tell you that Meryl Streep has been cast in the upcoming biopic of Michael Jackson, entitled Jackson, and I would still be right. Meryl Streep is god.
The fifth movie in the Final Destination has just received its title: 5NAL DESTINATION. I…I have no words. No sarcastic remark. Nothing. This is the stupidest piece of titling in the history of movies. If you can think of a title for another movie that was worse than this one, please let me know. Otherwise, I’m making it official.
This Week in Trailers
After this week, I'm going to start up a separate post dedicated to This Week in Trailers, which I'm will hopefully be posting every Thursday. Until then however...
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS(first theatrical trailer)
At the risk of seriously upsetting about seventy-five percent of people I know, I wasn't a huge fan of this trailer. I think the movie itself looks pretty good- good special effects, etc, but the trailer itself is just a whole bunch of overly-dramatic music, slow motion and hyperbolic text (this isn't even the motion picture event of the year, let alone an entire generation).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 will be in theatres from November 18th 2010.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 will be in theatres from July 15th 2011.
RED (first theatrical trailer)
An action movie that stars Bruce Willis is nothing new. An action movie that stars Morgan Freeman or John Malkovich is a little more out of the ordinary. An action movie that stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren (wielding a machine gun) as a bunch of ex-CIA operatives called out of retirement is a very rare thing, and a flat out brilliant idea.
Red will be in theatres in the US from October 15th; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (teaser trailer)
One of the only original movies of last year gets a sequel. It would have to be a surprise before it could qualify as an unpleasant surprise. So really, it's just unpleasant news.
Paranormal Activity 2 will be in theatres in the US from October 22nd; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (teaser trailer)
As excited as I am for this movie about the founding of facebook, directed by David Fincher, this first trailer is pretty useless. There's a lot of quotes taken out of context that don't really make much sense, and when it finally ends all we get is the poster we saw last week. I do like the films title design (inspired by the facebook logo), but I really need to see some actual footage before I can properly begin my over-hyping campaign.
The Social Network will be in theatres in the US from October 1st; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
Definitely one of my favourite films of 2010 thusfar, David Michod's Animal Kingdom is a rare thing: an Australian film NOT about Crocodile Dundee to recieve a significant US release. Therefore, I see it as something of a civic duty to convince as many of my international readers as possible to go and see it.
The movie is definitely one of the best crime films in recent years; I would honestly put in up there with The Departed and No Country for Old Men. It also features two of the best performances of the year from Jackie Weaver and Ben Mendelsohn. For my more in depth thoughts, check out my review from last month.
Animal Kingdom is in theatres in Australia now and will be released in the US on August 13th
I can't say I have much interest in seeing Little Fockers, the third and final chapter in the Meet The Parents saga. I figure since I already understand that "fockers" sounds like "fuckers", I've already heard the best joke in the movie, so why pay $14 for a ticket.
Little Fockers will be in theatres from December 22nd
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, covering trailers, posters and insane asinine rumours about board-game to movie adaptations. 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 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.
First up we have this new poster for The Social Network aka The Facebook Movie. But before you get worked up about how ridiculous a facebook movie seems, consider that it’s being directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club). Facebook Movie. Facebook Movie directed by David Fincher. Makes a world of difference, doesn’t it?
Disney is planning on converting The Lion King into 3D for a theatrical re-release. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see Mufasa fly towards me through the air before he’s crushed by a stampede of wildebeests.
There’s a rumour flying around that director Guy Ritchie wants Daniel Day-Lewis to play Moriarty in the next Sherlock Holmes movie. The star of There Will Be Blood might not strike some as the first choice for the role, but on a personal note, he’s my first choice for just about any role (behind Phillip Seymour Hoffman maybe, but he definitely wouldn’t fit this part).
What you see above is one of the first photos from the set of Transformers 3, which is guaranteed to be one of those movies that I bitch and moan about forever but when it comes out I’ll definitely see, only to bitch and moan about my decision to do just that. Sigh. Anyway, this photo gives us a look at Megan Fox’s replacement, Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
This Week in Trailers
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (new international trailer)
With every clip new for this movie I get more and more psyched. Director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) looks like he has perfectly combined film, video game and comic book aesthetics. This end of this trailer gives us our first look at Brandan Routh (Superman in Superman Returns), one of Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will be in theatres from August 13th.
PREDATORS (new international trailer)
I’d actually recommend you DON’T watch this trailer, as it gives away one possibly two character deaths. However I can tell you that the movie looks incredibly awesome, and bloody as hell (which I suppose falls under "incredibly awesome" anyway).
Predators will be in theatres from July 9th.
THE GREEN HORNET (first theatrical trailer)
A superhero comedy starring Seth Rogen and a villainous Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I’m sold.
The Green Hornet will be in theatres in the US from January 14th 2011; an Australian release date has yet to be announced.
RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (2nd trailer)
A return to 3D in it's purest form, where stuff flies at your face for no other reason than to provoke the reaction “ooooh, stuff is flying at my face”. This movie looks pretty awful.
Resident Evil: Afterlife will be in theatres in the US from September 10th and in Australia from October 7th. Sources: /Film, HeyUGuys, Quickflix
Oh no you don't Columbia Entertainment! I know what you're trying to do. If you think putting Neil Patrick Harris into The Smurfs Movie and then having him introduce the trailer is going to prevent me from shitting all over it, you've got another thing coming.
There seems to be a three-pronged approach with this trailer. The first, as I already mentioned, is Neil Patrick Harris. The second, bizarely, is the colour blue. The third thing (and this is where it gets really clever) is by substituting actual words with the word "smurf". For example, the movie's website can be found at www.smurfhappens.com. Now I'm not saying this isn't brilliant marketing, because it clearly is. The only problem is that it doesn't go far enough.
Now if I'd been in charge of this trailer, I'd have had NPH introduce it as "the smurf-clusive look". Then there would've been that same sweeping shot of the ocean, but instead of the narrator saying "prepare yourself" he would have said "smurf-pare smurf-self". And the movie wouldn't be being released in 3-D. Oh no. These days, it's all about "Smurf-D".
But even that's not enough. If we really want this movie to be HUGE, then we need to go viral. We need to get The Smurfs back into the popular consciousness, to the point where people start using the word "smurf" in every day conversation.
So remember: the next time you see a loved one, instead of saying "I love you", say "I smurf you". In maths class, "the smurf root of smurf smurf equals smurf to the smurf of smurf". And in the bedroom, be sure to keep the mood sexy with a little bit of the old "I'd like to smurf my smurf into your smurf and then smurf all over your smurfy smurf".
If we all do our part to get people smurfing one again, I see no reason why smurf can't smurf smurf smurf. Smurf. Smurf smurf smurf smurf smurf. Smurf?
Is it just me or does this project appear to be seriously underproduced? The quality of the animation looks well below what you'd expect from a major studio release. What's more, the trailer itself seems rushed and poorly made; the oh-so-catchy pop song sounds like it's just been laid over the top without any thought, and why the hell is there a space in between "Like..." and "FOREVER"? Although come to think of it, the better question is probably "who the hell approved a line as awful as she's been grounded, like...FOREVER?"
Either way, after four Shrek films, I've officially given up on "ironic" reimaginings of fairy tales. Especially ones that look like they have the production quality of a direct-to-DVD Barbie movie.*
Tangled will be in theatres in the US from November 24th; an Australian release date is yet to be announced.
One of the best directors in Hollywood working with one of the best actors in Hollywood AND it's not a sequel, remake, spin-off or adaptation. The supporting cast - which includes Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard,Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy & Michael Caine - is sensational, the score by Hans Zimmer is appropriately epic and the films concept and visuals seem to herald Inception as this years The Matrix.
Now before you get too excited - and I mean that in every sense of the word - the following trailer is completely G rated, which means no sex, no nudity and no inappropriate use of Batman's utility belt. But even if I have to trawl through every seedy adult site and smutty chatroom this side of 4chan, I will not rest until I find the full and uncut trailer.
Because at the end of the day, I'm the kind of blogger who's willing to go the extra mile for his readers. You're welcome.
The sadest thing about this film is that actress ("actress") Tori Black, a woman whose filmography contains over 500 titles including Cougar Cruisin', One Last Ride and Sexual Blacktivity (please tell me that's a parody of Paranormal Activity) will still probably do a better job playing Catwoman than Halle Berry did.
Batman XXX: A Porn Parody will be available on DVD from May 2th
Full credit to my buddy Brett for linking me to this trailer - how exactly he stumbled across it is between him and his psychologically scared internet service provider.
Why the hell do we get so many movies about a lone-wolf contract killer on his very last assignment? And they always seem to be "the best" too. Seriously, there can only be one worlds top assassin. Then again there does seem to be a very high moral crisis rate amongst men in this profession, so I suppose it makes sense.
Aaaaanyway, here's the trailer for Anton Corbijn's The American. Despite what I just said I'm still pretty interested in seeing it, because Clooney is awesome in pretty much everything, the sountrack sounds cool and, well at the end of the day, assassins as badass. Which I guess is the answer to my question come to think of it.
The American will be in theatres in the US on September 1st
Turns out Hobo with a Shotgun isn't the only fake trailer from Grindhouse being expanded into a full length feature; the Robert Rodriguez's mexploitation film Machete is scheduled to hit theatres in the US this September, and a new trailer has just hit the web. Try watching it below - if the YouTube video is broken you can view it over at Ain't It Cool News.
About half of the footage is just recycled from the original trailer (which I've embedded below) But the reason this new trailer is so exciting is because it gives us our first look at the preposterously awesome cast. Aside from Danny Trejo as the titular character, this movie stars Cheech Marin as a shotgun wielding priest, Robert DeNiro as a racist politician and Steven Seagal as drug lord/martial artist.
It also features Jessica Alba, Michele Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan, three actresses who normally I can't stand (and they look completely atrocious here as well by the way), but whose presence in this film only seems to further the promise of exploitative sleaze. As if we needed any more convincing.
Machete will be in theatres in the US on September 3rd; check out the original trailer (circa 2007) embedded below.
P.S. Yes I realise this movie will probably be awful. Shut up.
Thisproject actually originated as a fake trailer attached to certain prints of the Tarantino/Rodriquez double feature Grindhouse, but clearly the people behind the short felt the premise was rich enough to expand to a feature film. And how could you not?
