GammaSquad via Variety is reporting that the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie may be getting a director soon. Jonathan Liebesman, director of Battle: LA and the upcoming Wrath of the Titans, is negotiating right now to take the helm of the franchise. The film is using a script from the Iron Man writing team of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, but Paramount and Nickelodeon have employed the Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol team of Josh Appelbaum and Andrew Nemec to rewrite.
“I am totally available to reprise that role.”
Now that we got all that stuff out-of-the-way, here’s what we know about this movie: It’s a live action movie that wants to emulate Rise of the Planet of the Apes and use CGI characters replacing a motion captured actor in a practical environment. The Foot will be present (hopefully they won’t just gather and get their asses kicked methodically, oh wait, it’s the Foot, of course they will), and April O’Neil and Casey Jones will most likely be involved so that Kronner can yell “Casey Jones” anytime that new actor comes on in any other movie, a privilege normally reserved for Elias Koteas. [F–k Yeah!]
No word if Vanilla Ice will jump on board. I personally think this movie should not exist until ‘Keno’ gets involved. My boy needs work, and with Linsanity happening, I think Ernie Reyes can be your next superstar. I mean, did you NOT see Surf Ninjas? Actually don’t. It seriously does not stand the test of time. Nor did it stand the test of time when it came out. I did not know any better as a 10-year-old…
“Let’s surf and eat pizza!!! God the 90s were awesome. Now where did I leave my roller-blades and Spin Doctors cassettes? Oh – is that a Laser Disc of REALITY BITES?”
2011 marked the announcement of a film that literally sealed the deal for the death of Hollywood. Granted, it’s based off of a marginally successful, tongue-in-cheek novel of the same name, but it’s true when they say that some things are just not meant to be movies. Regardless, this Spielberg produced “historical” action flick has been garnering quite a bit of buzz over the last few months for being as outlandish as it can be.
Of course, every mindless action pic has its low-budget imitators, but there are some movies that are rehashed so poorly, they make history. The Asylum, which is the production company known for taking movies we love and turning them into remakes/sequels we detest. A couple of names that may sound familiar are: Almighty Thor (originally just Thor), I Am Omega (instead of I Am Legend), 2010: Moby Dick, Battle of Los Angeles (not be confused with Battle: Los Angeles; the colon makes all the difference in the world), 3 Musketeers, and sadly, Titanic II.
Now, The Asylum is deciding to bastardize Hollywood even further by redoing Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, as Abraham Lincoln Versus Zombies. Again, world of difference, got to give credit where credit is due. I mean, just look at the originality that is seeping from the loins of The Asylum, here! It really is quite astounding. I mean, if hearing the title Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter doesn’t already make you do a double take, then taking on zombies definitely will.
Of all the ideas that The Asylum has had, this one might be the most absurd, which in turn makes it the most watchable of the bunch. John Wilkes Booth has been turned into a member of the “New Secret Service”. I mean, who can resist historical accuracy this rich with flavor? One thing is for sure, if I had the choice between vampires and zombies, I’m almost positive I’d take the walkers.
People have to be on alien overload right now! Falling Skies on TNT, Cowboys and Aliens, Attack the Block, Skyline and Battle: LA are the most recent alien invasion movies to hit the screens. Out of all of those movies I truly only enjoyed Battle: LA. Attack the Block I have yet to see, but I’ve heard it is most excellent. I would say that the Darkest Hour was just another alien invasion flick but it does look to have it’s own identity in the form of the alien’s appearance.
Check out the trailer starring Emile Hirsch whom I haven’t since in a movie since the puke-fest that was Speed Racer:
Sure it’s another alien invasion flick, but the part that intrigues me is that the aliens are energy based lifeforms. How the hell do you fight something like that? It looked a little ridiculous with them having some sort of alien zapper guns, but I’m interested in seeing how humans could fight aliens that you can only see when they are around electronics.
Alien-Vision!
They actually reminded me of the phantoms in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in terms of detecting their presence. We’ll see if the movie is at least decent come December, but I’m not holding out much hope. I think it will still be better than the oft delayed Apollo 18.
It would appear that the newest Peter Pan movie will not feature Channing Tatum pretending to be a little boy and flying around in green tights, and thank heavens that is the case. Instead we will get yet another reimagining of a beloved classic in the vein of the recent Alice in Wonderland and the upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful. However it appears so far that this film will not take place in Neverland.
Here is a description of the movie’s plot and three excellent actors/actresses joining the new film from IGN:
A whole lot of people have to be getting burned out on alien invasion storylines. We’ve had more than our fair share of them just in the last six months and still have Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens coming our way.
Could it be that the movie studios are all alien operations trying to catch us off guard for an invasion? Maybe. But I still think if an interesting new piece of alien entertainment comes our way it can’t hurt to check it out, because let’s face it: We’re screwed if there is an invasion coming.
So now we have Falling Skies, an alien invasion that starts off six months into the whole ordeal. It focuses on the people left fighting on against these invaders and trying to stay unified with most of the civilized world in ruins.
I suppose what sets this alien show apart from the others is that it takes place after the initial attack and invasion. Most of the recent ones and a couple older movies take place over a couple of days since they are only two-hour movies, (Independence Day, Skyline, Battle: LA) so it will be nice to see the remaining humans striving to survive and figuring out what the aliens are after besides kicking our asses over the course of ten episodes.
The effects, like the similarly Spielberg produced Terra Nova, look pretty darn decent for a T.V. show. It seems summer carrying into fall we will have a couple new Sci-Fi shows to sustain us with Falling Skies and Terra Nova since V will most likely be canceled.
So what does everyone think? Does this Spielberg produced project look any good? Is it going to be another War of The Worlds, this time dragged out over ten hours? This could be Spielberg making up for that boring piece of crud. Bore of the Worlds…. heh heh heh.
Sound off below in the comments section or be annihilated!
For those of you who loved Clash of the Titans and are eagerly awaiting the sequel, then I have good news for you via Cinema Blend. The plot has now come to light and the cast for the movie is definitive. Check out the synopsis below:
Set 10 years after Perseus (Sam Worthington) defeated the Kraken, the hero is trying to live a quiet life as a father to his son, Helius. But while this is going on, things are going a bit crazy on Mount Olympus, as the gods can no longer control the imprisoned titans due to the humans’ lack of faith. The leader of the titans is Kronos, who also happens to be the father of Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). But when Hades and his son Ares (Edgar Ramirez), the god of war, team up to help Kronos capture Zeus, Perseus is called back into action. Bringing a team together that includes Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Argenor (Toby Kebbell), son of Poseidon, and Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), a fallen god, they head into the underworld to rescue Zeus.
I’m a huge fan of movies involving extra terrestrials, [Ed. – ET for Life!] and there here has been a whole slew of them in the past year. None though stood out to me, or left a real lasting impression. I either disliked the aliens in them, or the cast of human characters trying to survive against them. Out of District 9, Monsters, and Skyline – I really only took a liking to District 9. Monsters didn’t show me enough aliens and Skyline had too many idiotic humans in it. But then I watched Battle LA.
Battle: Los Angeles was basically a simple storyline with excellent visuals. But being simple didn’t by any means make it a terrible movie. By simple I mean “Aliens are here killing people. We had better kick their asses.” which makes up pretty much 85% of the movie, but all the fire fights between the marines and aliens never wore thin for me. It was spread out and the scenes in between gave chances (albeit sparse) for character development. They also gave a nice overview of the characters at the beginning.
The cast was pretty rounded, very well put together. You get to see Ramon Rodriguez in a not so annoying role as a young commanding officer, as opposed to his vomit-inducing portrayal of Leo Spitz in the crap pile that was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Bridget Moynahan and Michael Pena were good, though both felt under-utilized. To their credit though, as civilians they didn’t bog the movie down at all and their characters actually enhanced scenes.
Even Michelle Rodriguez took a departure from her normal role as “Female Hardass Character who Yells a lot” in to a more realistic Air Force intel specialist who can fire a rifle. Still no ‘Damsel in Distress’, but something different for her. And then our hero of the movie, Aaron Eckhart. Eckhart was solid and believable as Marine Corp Staff Sargent Nantz, who was actually on his way out of the Corps when the alien aggressors launched their invasion. It’s his experience that gets our cast of characters moving.
The cast also includes a great young ensemble of actors as the grunts, including Cory Hardrict (Gran Turino), Noel Fisher (Terriers), and Will Rothhaar (Jack Frost). Hell, we even had child actor Bryce Cass, who was better than twenty Jake Lloyd‘s could have ever been!
Now I’m expecting a lot of people to ‘rabble rabble‘ about how cliché and melodramatic Eckhart’s couple of speeches to the troops are, but personally I had no problem with them. In terms of melodrama Independence Day still takes the cake on that one. And while I may feel the different about Battle: Los Angeles in about ten years, right now, I thought it was well done and heartfelt.
The movie was shot in a familiar way, the closest thing I can think of being Black Hawk Down, in terms of the urban warfare and house-to-house fighting. The camera utilized the ever-popular ‘shaky sense of urgency’ during the battle scenes, making you feel like you were in the middle of a firefight, actually watching the aliens landing in L.A. And their drone ships hovering all about the war-torn landscape of Los Angeles gave me goosebumps.
The aliens themselves overall were done pretty well. You only catch glimpses of them at first as they ambush our brave marines and seem nearly unkillable. After a certain point though, a weakness is obviously discovered, and then it’s game on.
The aliens reasoning for attacking Earth (which I won’t spoil) may initially sound stupid, but makes perfect sense once you think about it. If anyone out there is a fan of military movies, and alien invasions then this movie is the best of both worlds for you. Good pacing, great cast, and realistic looking effects.
It’s also very refreshing to see it win the weekend box office up against a variety of animated kids films and a Red Riding Hood-Twilight hybrid with a $36 million rake in. (Box Office Mojo)
Grizzly Bomb 