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  • Deadpool will get his own movie and ‘Green Lantern’ might have its star

    Deadpool“X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE” SPOILERS THROUGHOUT THIS POST.  YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

    If you saw “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” over the weekend, then you know this is most certainly not what comic fans know as Deadpool.  I don’t know what the hell it was, to be honest, but then again, Ryan Reynolds wasn’t the guy playing…it.  Scott Adkins from “The Bourne Ultimatum” was credited as Weapon XI, so there are outs.

    Well, the race to spin off from the spin-off first has ended with Rob Liefeld’s creation getting the solo Hollywood treatment.  The Hollywood Reporter gives us the following, with MAJOR “Wolverine” SPOILERS (via Liefeld’s Twitter page):

    Reynolds is attached to reprise the character for what for now is simply being called “Deadpool.” Lauren Shuler Donner and Marvel Studios would act as producers.

    Deadpool is known as “the merc with a mouth,” a character that under Reynolds lived up to his billing in “Wolverine” until the end, when the movie deviated from the comic book persona, imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut.

    It is understood that Reynolds would regain the ability to mouth off, with the movie going back to the roots of the character known for his slapstick tone and propensity to break the fourth wall. The character also was disfigured in “Wolverine,” though it’s unclear at this time how much the studio would want to mess with Reynolds’ handsome mug.

    The project is out to writers.

    Fox considered a “Deadpool” spinoff early in “Wolverine’s” development process, which is why it cast Reynolds. The actor was brought back in the month before the movie’s release to shoot one of two “Easter egg” scenes that appeared after the end credits. The scene showed Deadpool alive, though when last audiences saw him, he appeared to be dead.

    …which, of course, takes none of the “outs” into the scenario, so who knows what the hell is going on.  One thing is for sure: this is a project destined to lose money if the production budget gets too out of hand.  “Elektra” numbers, maybe.  Unless the film gets some supporting character help.  The general audience doesn’t know Deadpool from a circus acrobat, after all.

    Sigh…

    (Also in comic casting news, it looks like Bradley Cooper, from “The Hangover” and television’s “Alias,” is being seriously considered for the lead role in “The Green Lantern.”)

  • J.J. Abrams, a.k.a., JJ Cool J

    Check out the full interview here.

  • LAFF announces line-up, ‘Public Enemies’ to play as centerpiece film

    What a sweet move on the part of Universal Pictures to unleash Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” a week or so early at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June.  The Johnny Depp starrer will play as the fest’s centerpiece film.  This will be a great way to drum up more and more recognition for the film leading into its July 1 release date.

    Aside from that exciting news, I’m totally stoked for the “Behind the Scenes” screening of John Schlesinger’s “Midnight Cowboy,” which will include an extended conversation with actor Jon Voight.  “Midnight Cowboy” remains one of my favorite films of all time, so just from a cinema geek perspective, I’m there.

    The L.A. Film Fest runs from June 18 to June 28.

  • R.I.P. Dom DeLuise

    The AP reports of the unfortunate passing of a comedy legend.  Most will remember him for “Canonball Run,” but I’ll always have a place in my heart for his work with Mel Brooks.  Here he is in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”:

  • SHORT TAKE: “Moon” (***1/2)

    MoonIn the harrowing finale of Alejandro Amenábar’s “Abre Los Ojos,” actor Chete Lera screams in defiance at the unthinkable events unfolding around him: “I’m real and I have two daughters!”  Falling to his knees, he slowly accepts the gut-wrenching realization that is the film’s final twist.  That idea is front and center in Duncan Jones’s “Moon,” an all-too-rare instance of sci-fi entertainment that understands the value of human emotion in a genre that can often eschew it.

    In what might not be a too-distant future, given the nature of Earth’s depleting resources, energy companies have sought out the cosmos for further profit and power stability.  The film opens with a typical advertisement from one such company called Lunar Industries that sets the scene: mining the planet’s primary source of energy Helium-3 on the far side of the moon is the answer to sustaining our delicate existence.  “Sleep in comfort knowing you’re in our hands,” that kind of thing.  And the sight of giant combines harvesting lunar soil for the isotope is quite an alarming one indeed.

    Sam Rockwell stars as astronaut Sam Bell, a Lunar contractee nearing the end of his three-year stint overseeing the harvesting in what has to be the loneliest job in the universe.  He wakes up, he jogs on his treadmill, he might take a trip out to the combines if something goes awry, but mostly he chats it up with his only company at the outpost: GERTY, a computer system know-it-all voiced by Kevin Spacey in an obvious tip-of-the-hat to Douglas Rain’s HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”  Only the ominous red orb is replaced by a yellow emoticon that gets played up for a laugh or two throughout.

    However, something’s not quite right (but of course).  Sam keeps seeing things: an odd blip of his former self barking out commands on a monitor here, the vague vision of a woman floating out near the combines there.  After a lunar crawler accident sends the plot’s mysteries on an inevitable course, Sam discovers he and GERTY are not alone after all.  The unfortunate realities this new visitor represents are the ideas “Moon” smartly concerns itself with.

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  • Hope Davis lands a Tony nomination for ‘God of Carnage’

    Hope Davis in God of CarnageBack in March I expressed some slight irritation over the fact that Marcia Gay Harden was pulling attention away from my new crush Hope Davis for her admittedly brilliant turn on Broadway in “God of Carnage.”  It’s not like I have it in for Harden or anything, mind you.  All four principles in the cast deserve awards recognition for their work in the superlative play.  But Davis, I felt, stood out from the rest of the pack.

    Well it seems the Tony gods have smiled down on Davis today.  The actress landed a nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, right alongside Harden.  Co-stars Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini also wracked up nominations for lead actor and the production also popped up in the Best Play and Direction (Matthew Warchus) fields, bringing the tally to six.  Bravo to all involved.

    I haven’t caught anything else that’s current so I can’t comment on the rest of the field, but it’s nice to see that Scott Rudin’s double-dip with “Carnage” and Eugene Ionesco’s “Exit the King” (four nominations) stuck the landing.

  • 5/5 Web Round-up

    Robert Duvall• VIDEO: “Star Trek” writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman on how to be a sci-fi screenwriter. [Time]

    • Robert E. Lee descendant (and, of course, Academy Award winner) Robert Duvall squares off against Wall-Mart in Virginia. [Associated Press]

    • Noah Forrest calls Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience” the year’s best film so far. [Movie City News]

    • Nathaniel Rogers posts a test screening reaction to Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” [The Film Experience]

    • Jeffrey Wells expresses some trepidation over the upcoming “Angels & Demons.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Christopher Campbell cranks out a list of 10 mutants who need an “X-Men Origins” movie. [Spout Blog]

    • Hugh Jackman, meanwhile, is full-speed-ahead developing a “Wolverine” sequel. [Variety]

  • Just the one, then?

    Quentin TarantinoYou may or may not have caught this piece on Quentin Tarantino in Sunday’s New York Times magazine. Overall, it’s a fairly flimsy Cannes-oriented interview that serves mainly as an accompaniment to some pretty pictures (very pretty, in the case of the Diane Kruger shots), but two of QT’s statements jumped out at me.

    In the first, he (fairly, I think) defends his decision to hand “Fahrenheit 9/11” the Palme d’Or in 2004 as a reward for being “a movie of the moment” — but when the conversation turns to “Inglourious Basterds,” he offers up this line:

    NYT: On this movie, you worked very quickly. Was that partially to have the film ready in time for Cannes?

    QT: Yes. I wanted to have a masterpiece before the decade’s out.

    I’ll let slide the overweening pride of Tarantino’s statement for a moment — partly because, as many misgivings as I personally have about the new film, it’s that brash confidence that also gave birth to a genuine masterpiece like “Pulp Fiction.” Largely, however, it’s because I detect a note of cryptic self-deprecation there.

    Perhaps I’m reading too much into his wording. But the use of the indefinite article “a” rather than, say, “another,” intrigues me. Is he admitting that, “Basterds” aside, he hasn’t made a masterpiece this decade? If so, on behalf of “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” — and only that, I hasten to add — I’d like to disagree.

  • Nolan continues casting the hell out of ‘Inception’

    Add Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy to the ever-expanding, impressive slate of actors signed up for Christopher Nolan’s still-shrouded-in-mystery “Inception.”  Watanabe, of course, will be re-teaming with Nolan after starring in 2005’s “Batman Begins,” while Hardy was making waves earlier this year in the Sundance hit “Bronson” (you might recall the amusing story Michael Shannon told about that film back at the Santa Barbara Film Festival).

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Watanabe will play the film’s villain, a man who is blackmailing DiCaprio. Hardy is a member of DiCaprio’s team.”  Can’t…friggin…wait.

  • Watch the first three minutes of Coppola’s ‘Tetro’

    Apple has the exclusive on the first three minutes of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro,” which you can check out in standard and HD quality if you like.  Once again, Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon is quick with an embed, so have a look:

  • I don’t want my MTV

    Anne Hathaway in Bride WarsWhat do Paramore, The Rock and Kate Winslet have in common? Why, they’re all nominees for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, of course. Like, duh.

    I have no idea what the MTV Movie Awards are for. Nobody knows or cares who wins them. (Who took Best Actor laurels last year? I doubt Will Smith could tell you — and he won, for Chrissake.)

    Subject to public vote, they serve largely as a popularity contest along the lines of People’s Choice honours — but then they taint the purity of such a credo by throwing in a mention for something incongruously credible like “Milk.” (In the prestigious Best Kiss category, to boot — how honoured Gus Van Sant must feel.)

    Anyway, this year’s nominees are a typically ill-thought and ill-fitting bunch. “Twilight” leads the race, closely followed by “Slumdog Millionaire,” which should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the awards. They claim that the nominations were also determined by the public, though I have a hard time believing that the same people who decreed Vin Diesel a Best Actor contender for “Fast & Furious” also voted Kate Winslet in for “The Reader.”

    Speaking of which, there’s a delicious hint of Bizarro World in the Best Actress category, which finds Anne Hathaway repeating her nomination success at the Academy Awards — except, wait, it’s for “Bride Wars,” not “Rachel Getting Married.” Riiight. Angelina Jolie, meanwhile, finds herself in the race for “Wanted” rather than “Changeling” — though that’s a preference I heartily endorse.

    One thing is worth noting, however: even the bloody MTV Awards could be bothered to nominate Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” theme. The Academy will never live that one down. (Check out the MTV nods here, if you dare.)

  • Director Lurie writes up “real man” Roger Ebert

    Roger EbertDirector Rod Lurie recently presented his film “Nothing But the Truth” (which finally benefited from a mass-market release by landing on DVD last week) at Roger Ebert’s Ebertfest.  Using the sad news of Ebert’s paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, filing Chapter 11 in March as a spring-board, Lurie writes up a nice love letter to the famed critic in this Huffington Post item.

    In the piece, Lurie recounts Eberts physical reactions to the film’s screening and the undeniable passion for cinema that still oozes from his every pore, despite the throat cancer that has been such a terrible burden.  Here’s a taste:

    This all registered with me with a special profoundness. I have followed his writing since I was a teenager. When I was 14, I sent him a letter asking for his ten best of all time list. He wrote me back. In longhand. That’s a mensch for you (Citizen Kane was number one, I remember). He is the one critic who can convince me to see films that everybody else hates because he has a unique sense of finding hidden talent and hidden value. Whenever I have a film coming out, his is the one opinion I take personally. When he has given me a smack here and there I have deserved it…

    Ebert now communicates by writing on a small pad. Matt Dillon and I were peppering him with questions. Matt wanted to know who his favorite directors were (I think I saw Hawks, Huston, and Keaton on the list), I asked him what movie has he never seen that everybody would have expected to have come under his gaze (The Sound of Music)…As I watched him write his answers — and he did it with zeal and pleasure — it struck me that his pen had become an IV to him. His lifeblood.

    It’s a great read and a touching dedication.  Read the full piece here.

  • A pleasure deferred

    As I walked past my local cinema (that would be my beloved Dalston Rio, if there are any other fans out there) en route to the supermarket this morning, I was rather struck by this new poster for Charlie Kaufman’s masterpiece “Synecdoche, New York.”

    Synecdoche, New York

    After spending a moment admiring the one-sheet and wondering why I had never seen it before, it only then occurred to me that the film has yet to be released in the UK. Yes, you Yanks read that right: the film only hits Limey screens in a fortnight’s time. (Of course, to make up for it, we get a lot of European titles ahead of the States — with the curious exception of “Let the Right One In,” which only bowed last month.)

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  • ‘Button’ sparkles on Criterion Blu

    Cover of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Criterion Blu-rayThe Criterion release of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a superlative piece of home entertainment to say the least, especially on Blu-ray.  Claudio Miranda’s photography was absolutely gorgeous as it was in cinemas, but being largely digital, the transition to high definition is seamless and probably belongs in the top tier of Blu-ray releases thus far from a visual standpoint.

    Technical attributes aside, I can’t say enough about the epic making-of documentary that is featured on the film’s supplemental materials disc.  At nearly three hours, it all but dwarf’s the film’s already massive running time.

    Opening with a rather emotional personal story from Fincher that recounts his father’s death at the hands of pancreatic cancer, the brief intro gives you more than enough insight into the director’s reasons for taking on the project, which of course had been bouncing around Hollywood for two decades when the wheels were finally put into motion.

    In fact, the doc does a brilliant job of showcasing the years of non-starts that producers Kathleen Kennedy and Gary Marshall had to suffer through on the way to finally realizing the project on screen.  No matter your opinion of the film, you have to respect that kind of dedication.

    There is an exceptional amount of behind-the-scenes footage stitched together by talking-head interviews with principles both above and below the line.  But most interesting were accounts of the day-to-day troubles of working in post-Katrina New Orleans, which ranged from a depleted trolley car fleet (which the production was dependent on for period correctness) to a lack of public works personnel to assist in the production (because the department had been whittled down considerably due to countless lay-offs).

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  • Not such funny people

    Judd Apatow and Leslie MannI recently discussed the positive buzz building around Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” which has thus far turned up numerous allusions to the unabashedly sentimental seriocomic stylings of James L. Brooks — a comparison that promises either polished awards-bait, mawkish pap or both, according to taste.

    Suggesting that the Brooks similarities hold true beyond a glib glance-over of the film, Apatow fully acknowledges his debt to the “Terms of Endearment” filmmaker (with whom he worked on the 1990s animated series, “The Critic”) in this recent New York Times piece, which addresses his and his team’s weightier aims for the project:

    Asked why, at 41, he would follow movies about sexuality and childbirth with a film about mortality, Mr. Apatow was circumspect. “I’ve unfortunately been around people who have been ill and seen people figure out how to deal with it,” he said. Some, he added, “just keep plowing on forward, and they don’t seem to change.”

    “What I took from (working with Brooks) was, the audience is supposed to like the movie, as simple as that sounds,” Mr. Apatow said. “If they’re not loving it, you failed.”

    But even Mr. Apatow’s closest confederates recognize that “Funny People” may not be as easily loved as his two previous films. “I wouldn’t describe it as dark,” said Mr. Rogen, a star of “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” “I would say it’s more ambitious in what it’s attempting to make light of.”

    This sober tone colours the entire piece, as Apatow expresses his desire to make a “Tuesdays With Morrie”-type story but — before you retch — with the twist that “the main character learns nothing,” while the words “grown-up”, “intensely personal” and even “existential” come up at various points. No pressure, then.

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  • REVIEW: “Star Trek” (****)

    Star TrekFrom pulse-pounding beginning to edge-of-your-seat end, J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” moves at a break-neck pace that never lets up, never misses a beat and shockingly, never loses itself in its labyrinthine story.  It is a near-perfect action thrill ride that ticks off every box on the ultimate movie experience checklist and perhaps adds a few more.

    Fans of Gene Roddenberry’s series may or may not be impressed by Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s re-imagining of a sacred geek mythos, but they’ll do well to understand that their beloved universe is in tact.

    Despite the expectation that Gen-Y casting across the board would make for a moan-inducing CW-style prequel, the filmmakers have smartly devised a way to launch their own “B” timeline in a series that could go a million different directions from here.  That their brilliant scheme makes for a stand-alone classic with something for everyone is unexpected to say the least, and exhilarating as a result.

    Chris Pine stars as famed Federation Captain James Tiberius Kirk, though particulars of the story (which I dare not spoil here) put him on a different universal plane than William Shatner’s incarnation that has delighted audiences for decades.  A wildcat that seemingly breaks the hell-raiser mold, Kirk is born under chaotic circumstances in the film’s initial sequence.  We soon catch up to him as a youth racing through the fields of Iowa to the sounds of a then centuries-old Beastie Boys track before zipping ahead to encounter his bar-hopping mid-20s self in the form of Pine’s cock-sure stud.

    Intercut with the Kirk story is the equally brief introduction of the Vulcan Spock who, as a result of being half-Vulcan, half-human, is seen as disadvantaged by a society that demands a sense of perfection.  Zachary Quinto (television’s “Heroes”) takes the reins of the character, who enlists in the United Federation of Planets as one of the top minds in the corps before meeting Kirk and developing a relationship that will ultimately rest at the heart of the film.

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  • Vote on the next Criterion Blu-ray release

    I’ve gone head-first into the tank for Blu-ray ever since I broke down and bought a player last year.  And despite a high retail tag in most quarters, Amazon.com remains the number one spot for finding the best deals.

    Criterion has slowly been putting together a rather varied slate of titles on Blu, from Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket” to Gregory Nava’s “Norte” to David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which will be hitting store shelves tomorrow.  Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” hits next month, which has me doubly excited, but frankly I’ve been a touch disappointed with the output so far.  Where’s the Malick stuff fer cryin’ out loud?

    Amazon has now partnered with Criterion to give you a say in their release schedule allowing customers to vote for the next Criterion Blu-ray release.  A list of five possible titles has been offered up:

    Together with the Criterion Collection, we’re offering customers the unique opportunity to select an upcoming Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection. From now until May 25th, select from Au Revoir Les Enfants, Down By Law, Howards End, Kwaidan, and Picnic at Hanging Rock. The winning title will be released later in 2009.

    My vote went to Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” but I wasn’t totally impressed by that quintet of possibilities.  Regardless, I’m glad Criterion is in the HD fold and I’m sure the company will continue to deliver, as always.

  • “I’ll be back.”

    Come on.  You knew they’d go there, right?