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2009 | 2008 | 2007

1-20 of 23 articles from 2009   « Prev | Next »


The Latest Next 'Harry Potter': Nicholas Flamel

19 November 2009 6:37 AM, PST | GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news »

It has been proven rather indelicately over the past decade that you can't just reproduce the success of Harry Potter just because you buy the rights to some young adult novel series. Even sturdy titles like The Chronicles of Narnia have had their issues staying on track. So when producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura not only plans such a movie franchise but invokes Potter by name, you've got to be a little bit skeptical.

In promoting his most recent acquisition, di Bonaventura says that the Delacorte Press series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is "a natural evolution from Harry Potter." So that means being something that Vampire's Assistant, Spiderwick Chronicles, City of Ember, Lemony Snicket, Eragon, and The Golden Compass weren't. Good luck, cap'n. »

- Colin Boyd

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Terry Loane Casts 'This Beautiful Fantastic'

16 November 2009 11:29 PM, PST | IFTN | See recent IFTN news »

Ifta nominated Irish director Terry Loane (Mickybo and Me) is readying his latest project 'This Beautiful Fantastic', a film based on Simon Aboud's novel of the same name. Produced by Constance Media's Kami Naghdi (Boogie Woogie) 'This Beautiful Fantastic' tells the tale of an obsessively tidy children's author who falls in love with an erratic inventor – the story will be told like a classic fairytale and will star Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie, Shakespeare in Love), Christopher Eccleston (Amelia, The Others), MacKenzie Crook (Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, City of Ember), Joanna Lumley (Corpse Bride, Ella Enchanted) and Carey Mulligan (An Education, Public Enemies). »

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Irish-American Bill Murray says no one ‘claimed’ him in Ireland (IrishCentral)

9 November 2009 8:42 AM, PST | IrishCentral | See recent IrishCentral news »

Bill Murray is making the media rounds promoting the new animation film “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and last week he made his way to Ireland. The famous Irish-American actor is the voice of Badger in the movie adaptation of the Roald Dahl story, in which George Clooney and Meryl Streep also lend their voices. The film marks Murray’s fifth collaboration with “The Royal Tenenbaums” director Wes Anderson. Murray falls perfectly into place with the all-star lineup, but he revealed to Ireland’s Evening Herald how low key he is about the idea of “celebrity.” The actor showed up to the interview alone – no publicists, no assistants, no agents. "I like to travel by myself,” he said. “Having to travel with others makes me nervous. I like to think I'm self-sufficient and who really needs to have all those kinds of people around anyway? They just irritate everyone." Murray claims he »

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New 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians' Poster

31 October 2009 2:10 PM, PDT | GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news »

You don't have to throw out all of the following examples to assert that Percy Jackson & The Olympians is not a sure thing, but we will anyway. Of the many Harry Potter gravytrainers, only Twilight really appears to have exceeded expectations. Narnia needs a much better third chapter after Disney dropped it following Prince Caspian, while Eragon, Lemony Snicket, The Spiderwick Chronicles, City of Ember, The Golden Compass, and the brand new Vampire's Assistant have all failed to deliver. In the latest case, Vampire's Assistant probably won't get past $20 million. So we won't see a sequel there.

But the studios all want something similar to the lucre Warner Bros. has made courtesy of its British boy wizard, but it's demonstrably easier said than done. So Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief will have to overcome that genre history as well as a title that's just way too long. I »

- Colin Boyd

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The Good, The Bad And The Wtf: Let's Exploit Dead People

25 October 2009 6:24 PM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

Welcome to an oversized edition of "The Good, The Bad and the Wtf," to make up for last week's absence. This time, we take a look at X-Men updates, a Turtles buyout, David Spade's shamelessness, a Michael Jackson controversy and how Denzel Washington is allegedly the worst person on Earth.

The Good

• Talking to Empire mag, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner updates fans on the status of future X-Men projects. Good news for those of you who were pissed off by Wolverine's treatment of Deadpool, because this is what Donner said about the proposed Deadpool movie:

I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane.

Cue collective sighs of relief.

• Here's the first official photo of the new A-Team. I'm not holding my breath for this one, »

- Arya Ponto

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Ann Peacock Adapting Eoin Colfer's 'Airman'

23 October 2009 12:29 AM, PDT | IFTN | See recent IFTN news »

Emmy winning screenwriter Ann Peacock (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) will pen the big screen adaptation of 'Airman', a novel from bestselling Irish author Eoin Colfer. With an estimated worth of $150million, the motion-capture project is backed by Disney and Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers, the movie is to be directed by Gil Kenan (City of Ember, Monster House) and will be produced by Jack Rapke (Beowolf), Steve Starkey (Matchstick Men) and Robert Zemeckis (Gothika). »

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Retro Slave: Long lost post apocalyptic kids flick Dark Enemy (1984)

20 October 2009 7:21 PM, PDT | QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news »

Around the time the wonderful City of Ember came out, we asked if the film was the first true post-apocalyptic kids flick. Well we were pretty sure it was until we found info on this little weird gem, a long lost Pa production from the UK called Dark Enemy which sounds like a cross between John Wydham's "The Chrysalids" and M. Night Shyamalan The Village.

Directed by Colin Finbow, Dark Enemy is a product of the old British "Children's Film Unit" which was funded to encourage children to create movies. A sort of by kids, for kids kind of deal. It's a post-nuclear holocaust story set in a bucolic valley where children have to work because the adults are all dying off. They're told never to leave the valley, but they do, discovering some sort of secret.

Synopsis:

After a nuclear war, a group of children at an isolated farmhouse »

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‘Airman’ Focuses on Unsung Hang Glider Heroes

20 October 2009 6:56 PM, PDT | newsinfilm.com | See recent newsinfilm news »

Disney and ImageMovers have hired Ann Peacock to write an adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s novel “Airman” for director Gil Kenan (City of Ember).  The $150 million production will be utilize the motion capture techniques pioneered by Robert Zemeckis on such films as The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol.

The title doesn’t refer to the military term for flight personnel in the Air Force.  No, this can’t be a movie focusing on actual heroes.  Just the fictional kind with makeshift costumes.  Nor is it about the kind of hero that pilots a fighter jet or swoops in on mutant wings.  It’s better.  Finally there will be a movie that centers on the graceful sport of hang gliding.  Yes!

I can barely contain my excitement.  Sure there have been scenes with actors hanging from fabric.  Kurt Russell in Escape from L.A and Harold and Kumar Go »

- Jeff Leins

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Balloon Boy Has Nothing To Do With Robert Zemeckis' Next Performance-Capture Project

20 October 2009 11:00 AM, PDT | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »

This may not be the best time to be developing a movie about a young boy and a flying contraption, but I guess the adaptation of Eoin Colfer's "Airman" won't be arriving in theaters for awhile. The movie, which Variety reveals Robert Zemeckis is producing as his latest entry into the performance capture animation trend, will be directed by Gil Kenan ("City of Ember") and scripted by Ann Peacock, who previously adapted "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

Set in the 19th century off the coast of Ireland, "Airman" tells of a flight-obsessed boy wrongly sent to prison for allegedly killing his king. Not only does he escape from his jail by building a flying machine, he also constructs gliders that help him rescue a princess, save his family and otherwise act the hero as a swashbuckling pilot of homemade air transports. He even »

- Christopher Campbell

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City of Ember Director to Adapt Airman with Producer Robert Zemeckis

20 October 2009 8:06 AM, PDT | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »

ImageMovers, the Robert Zemeckis motion-capture animation studio behind Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, has a new project. Ann Peacock, who wrote the adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is penning an adaptation of the Eoin Colfer novel Airman, which sounds a bit like a combination of The Rocketeer and the mid-period movies by Miyazaki. Could this be the mo-cap project to convince non-believers like myself? Variety reports that Gil Kenan, who last helmed City of Ember, is directing. I loved the production design and some of the world-building in City of Ember, but thought it was full of contrivances and uninteresting characters. So that could be a problem. The trade reports that the story is about Connor, "a boy who lives on an island off the coast of Ireland, where his father is the king's bodyguard. When the king is murdered, Conor is blamed for the crime »

- Russ Fischer

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Zemeckis Continues Motion Capture Obsession with 'Airman'

20 October 2009 12:47 AM, PDT | firstshowing.net | See recent FirstShowing.net news »

At least Robert Zemeckis will leave the directing to Gil Kenan (Monster House, City of Ember) this time, as Variety reports that ImageMovers and Disney will be producing a $150 million motion capture adaptation of Airman, an action-adventure book by Eoin Colfer. The story centers on Connor, a boy who lives on an island off the coast of Ireland, where his father has the honorable job of protecting the King. But when the King is murdered, Connor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison where he designs a flying machine that uses to escape. Oh, how I wish all prisoners did that while passing the time during their long sentences. This continues Zemeckis' undying interest and dedication to motion capture films after adapting three other stories (The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol most recently) into the computer animated world. And while I respect and in some ways »

- Ethan Anderton

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Disney launches Airman

19 October 2009 8:14 PM, PDT | JoBlo.com | See recent JoBlo news »

I know CGI technology looks amazing nowadays, but Polar Expressed just creeped me out, so does Zemeckis have to keep making those damn motion-capture thingies? I'm starting to fear a Bttf remake with that technique... He won't be directing this one, but it'll still be the same schtick. Zemeckis' Image Mover set up joins forces with Disney for a $150M mo-cap adaptation of Eoin Colfer's recent young adults best-seller Airman. City Of Ember directed Gil Keenan steps behind cameras, with a... »

- Tony Lang

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Fantastic Fest

14 October 2009 5:39 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

[1] Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. In years past they have presented the world premieres of There Will Be Blood, Apocalypto, City Of Ember and Eagle Eye, while their guest roster has included such talent as Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. Fantastic Fest is held each year, primarily at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse was named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly and features food and drink served to your seat without any disruption of the movie experience. [1] http://2009.fantasticfest.com/default.aspx »

- Ricky

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Ghostbusters 3 Rolls Forward with Ivan Reitman

9 October 2009 7:17 AM, PDT | Atomic Popcorn | See recent Atomic Popcorn news »

In a perfect world, we’d have a Ghostbusters 3 with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, with Ivan Reitman returning to direct. Also in a perfect world, Ghostbusters 3 would be a worthy sequel to the original, a great swan song of classic comedy performers returning to the roles they’re so often synonymous with.

The good news is that this perfect world is one step closer — Ivan Reitman is returning in some capacity, either as a director or a producer. What’s also great is that Rick Moranis (who has disappeared into oblivion) and the lovely Sigourney Weaver are returning as well.

The film will take place “when the paranormal researchers ‘reopen’ their ghost removal service after it has been closed for quite a few years.”

I’m sort of in shock, to be honest — this mammoth project is actually moving forward at a sure but steady pace. »

- John Cooper

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Fantastic Fest: Day One - Nazi Undead, Broncos, & House Demons

25 September 2009 1:41 PM, PDT | ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news »

Fantastic Fest: Day One is now officially under the belt, as are a large amount of bizarre culinary treats, including the aformentioned root beer cookies. As promised, they are amazing. Amazing and extremely filling. Don’t eat this with a horror movie, or a film about sailing at sea during rough weather, because it’ll make you toss those cookies right back. I probably don’t need to eat sweets for a month now.

So how did the first day fare? It was a bit of a mixed bag. Things didn’t get rolling until the late afternoon, and it was a roller coaster of different movies that ended up being the good, the bad, and the in-between.

 

Thankfully, I did work in several frames of bowling at the new Highball lounge recently opened up by the Alamo Drafthouse as a place to kick it between flicks. That gave me »

- Kevin Kelly

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Irish eye on Hollywood: ‘The Lovely Bones’ and ‘The Fighter’ (IrishCentral)

25 September 2009 2:40 AM, PDT | IrishCentral | See recent IrishCentral news »

This December, look out for “The Lovely Bones,” based on the best-selling novel by Alice Sebold and starring wunderkind Northern Ireland actress Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement,” “City of Ember”), as well as Irish-American actor Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. “The Lovely Bones” tells the tragic story of 14-year-old Susie Salmon (played by Ronan), who is killed by a neighbor. The rest of the story is told as Susie, uncomfortably perched in the afterlife, watches how her family and friends cope with her loss. “The Lovely Bones” is directed by “Lord of the Rings” impresario Peter Jackson. Speaking of Mark Wahlberg, one of the most anticipated upcoming Irish-American films is “The Fighter,” starring Wahlberg as Irish boxer Mickey Ward. But nearly as compelling as Ward’s unlikely rise to fame is the life story of Richard Farrell, who helped write the screenplay for “The Fighter.” From the Irish stronghold of Lowell, »

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Walden Rubs The Genie's Bottle

22 September 2009 1:22 AM, PDT | EmpireOnline | See recent EmpireOnline news »

Walden Media, the production company behind wee'un-friendly films like The Chronicles Of Narnia series and City Of Ember, have picked up Randi Mayem Singer's script for Gene.The Hollywood Reporter describes Gene as a modern-day take on the genie story. According to Walden CEO Michael Bostick, it's a family comedy combining  "originality, humor, heart and broad appeal that all ages can enjoy". And hopefully a giant blue fat man in hotpants.Screenwriter Singer is the creator of TV series Jack & Jill and co-writer of Mrs. Doubtfire, which bodes well, and is currently working on a script for Big Momma's House 3, which doesn't.No director is attached yet, but Jordan Kerner (Charlotte's Web) is producing under his Kerner Entertainment Banner. »

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Vince Vaughn developing Wicked Lovely as a film

16 September 2009 7:43 AM, PDT | Corona's Coming Attractions | See recent Corona's Coming Attractions news »

The film rights to Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely fantasy novel have been sold to Universal Pictures. Developing the project is Wild West Picture Show Productions, the company that Vince Vaughn owns. Vaughn isn't thinking of starring in the movie, which is a good idea since Marr's main character is a woman, but he'll serve as a creative producer.

The novel came out in 2007 and introduced Aislinn, a young woman who has the ability to see faeries. Taught by her grandmother (who can also see the magical beings) to never let the faeries know that the two women can see them for fear of being attacked, Aislinn has grown up and mastered the ability to walk right past a faery and never let he/she know that a pair of human eyes know they are with us. But when a faery leader named the Summer King comes to realize that »

- Patrick Sauriol

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Fantastic Fest 2009!

8 September 2009 5:05 PM, PDT | SmellsLikeScreenSpirit | See recent SmellsLikeScreenSpirit news »

In a little more than two weeks Fantastic Fest will be upon us. I've personally been looking forward to this since the moment SXSW 2009 came to a close, and the anticipation has only intensified. The lineup of genre films this year brings some very exciting dilemmas to the table since some of the films I want to see are playing on the same night and only screening once. Instead of sitting at home moping along to my favorite Morrissey songs, decisions must be made and priorities set. Here is the link to the films that will be featured in Fantastic Fest 2009. Fflogo For those of you that are unfamiliar of the badassery of Fantastic Fest, below is the official about statement: Fantastic Fest was founded in 2005 by Tim League (founder of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) and Harry Knowles (founder of Ain’t It Cool News). Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U. »

- Dave Campbell

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Review: 'City of Ember'

31 January 2009 7:59 AM, PST | Comicmix.com | See recent Comicmix news »

Other than the Narnia movies, and more recently Inkheart, there really haven’t been many good fantasy films aimed at families. That’s why 20th Century-Fox’s City of Ember proved to be such a major disappointment.

The film opened last fall after an extensive marketing campaign aimed not at the families but at the fans who might have kids. The mainstream marketing was lackluster and may have resulted in the film earning just under $8 million at the box office and vanishing without a trace.  Which also goes to explain the plain vanilla DVD release, now on sale.

Based on the book series by Jeanne Duprau, the film quickly introduces us to the concept of the underground city of Ember, constructed and populated in the case of global calamity. The elders who conceived of this audacious plan prepared a container with instructions on how to exit the city and set »

- Robert Greenberger

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