I’m sure many of you, like myself saw this coming just as soon as the production of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower project was pushed back a number of months. Yes, unfortunately Universal has chosen to bail out of the huge undertaking of three Dark Tower movies and two seasons of a TV show to bridge the gap between movies. Universal reps have not stated as of yet why but I have a safe assumption: money. Because we all know how much capital it would take to nurture a project that surpasses the gamble was The Lord of the Rings.
Adam Sandler left SNL and got huge in the 90s. From vehicles like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, to ensemble flicks like Bulletproof and Airheads, Sandler was gold. Everything he did was funny. Then it culminated in ’98 with The Wedding Singer. That was his peak, and it’s been all down hill from there…
As the 90’s came to a close he did some decently funny/likable films – The Waterboy and Big Daddy. I even liked Punch Drunk Love, though it crashed and burned at the Box Office. From there the drop off got steeper and he set a new bar for ‘mediocre’ with Anger Management and 50 First Dates. Then he started piloting remakes like Mr. Deeds and The Longest Yard. And then he just stopped trying – Click, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan , and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry were all terrible.
So in an attempt to revitalize things and get more mature, we got Grown Ups and Funny People. Neither was any good. Something did seem to click in Funny People though. In the movie he attempted to make fun of himself and the ridiculous movies he’d starred in. Now he’s actually made one of them, and not since White Chicks has there been a trailer that made me less interested in a movie. Check it out…
And George C. Scott seems even less impress than Stan…
This is what it’s come to.
And Yes – You did see Katie Holmes and Al Pacino in there. How sad is that?
Holmes presence is no real shocker, as her career has been in the shitter since she skipped out on all the Batman Begins pub to be Tom Cruise’s beard.
But Pacino. He was once counted amongst the greatest actors alive. And now, outside of some really good TV stuff he’s done, he’s not been in a decent movie since 2003, and even that was’t great. But it’s not like he’s the only one – Harvey Keitel was in Little Nicky, Christopher Walken was in Click, and Jack Nicholson did Anger Management.
It seems like Al Capone is making quite a comeback these days. With the famous gangster known the world round as “Scarface” already featuring more and more prominently in the hit HBO show Boardwalk Empire, it would seem that Harry Potter director David Yates may be the next one to tackle him in the movie Cicero. And who to play the famous Alphonse Gabriel Capone? Well who better than Tom Hardy, fresh off his venom injected stint as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises?
According to IGN, the Inception alum, and soon to be Mad Max, will star in the biopic following Capone’s rise to power – and also his fall… into syphilis. Check it out from IGN below:
Dark Knight Rises actor Tom Hardy is reportedly going to play infamous Chicago mob boss Al Capone in Cicero, a biopic that Harry Potter helmer David Yates may direct.
Vulture has the scoop: “Hardy has attached himself to the project, which was originally written in the seventies as a TV pilot by Walon Green (the screenwriter of Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece, The Wild Bunch) but is now being readapted as a film. And possibly more than one: There is talk that, like The Stand, it could be stretched out, with a first film only tracking the gangster up to his rise to the top of the Chicago criminal food chain; his reign and downfall would be in a subsequent film(s).”
I like the idea of any movie involving Al Capone, I can’t get enough of the character on Boardwalk Empire where he is played marvelously by Stephen Graham. But I do have some misgivings about subsequent movies about the guy unless they are some of the best crime-drama’s ever made. I’m thinking they would have to be Godfather caliber to merit two or even three movies about the life of Al Capone. But then again, Tom Hardy seems to have all the makings of an up and coming star to help make something like that happen. So hats off to whomever gets the directing job on Cicero and make it good! What do all of you fools think?
Does Tom Hardy have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of the great Robert Deniro in portraying Capone?
As a child, there were a lot of shows that my mom watched that I had to suffer through whilst being in the same room: Columbo, Perry Mason, In the Heat of the Night and a whole slew of others. Normally I would have tried to understand what was going on in the court room during Perry Mason or wondered why Columbo always played dumb, but I would quickly lose interest and continue playing with my Transformers and He-man action figures. But one show that always caught my interest, and I still watch whenever it is on SyFy channel was Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Sure it looks cheesy as hell now, but some of the shit on that show used to scare me as a kid. I always thought about how cool it would be to be Carl Kolchak as he investigated cases that would run him afoul of creatures such as Zombies and Vampires. Plus he had a really awesome camera he always carried with him. (Even though with the shoulder strap it always looked like he was carrying a purse.)
Now, the late Darren McGavin(The dad from ‘A Christmas Story’) will pass the torch posthumously to none other than Johnny Depp. According to IGN, Depp will show more love to the 70’s by taking on the role of my favorite tabloid-supernatural-investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. Check out more below:
Deadline reports that Depp is reteaming with Disney (the studio behind his billion-dollar blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland) to bring the ABC series The Night Stalker to the big screen. The site claims “The Night Stalker will push the boundaries of the family film formula that Disney is following (under current management).”
Depp will produce via his Infinitum Nihil company and will star as tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak, a role first made famous by the late Darren McGavin. Kolchak’s intrepid investigations often entangled him with various ghouls and creatures of the night.
Now there might be those of you out there who are just plain sick and tired of seeing Depp in movies, but if that’s the case just ignore certain movies you know will suck such as The Tourist and Alice in Wonderland.
I think Depp will play the role of Carl Kolchak pretty well, which will be sort of a hybrid of his characters from the Secret Window and The Ninth Gate. Then again they may go a whole different direction with the story and the era it is set in, but personally I would like to see it take place in the 70’s when the TV show was released.
So are there any other fellow Night Stalkers out there who can’t wait for this movie to get underway? (Unfortunately there was no tentative release date) Anyone not liking Depp in the role?
Judge Dredd – Old Stoneyface; the law man of the future – is coming back to the silver screen. For those of you who don’t know who Dredd is (do you live on the moon or something?) here is a quick history lesson:
Judge Joseph Dredd first appeared in the second issue of the British SF anthology comic 2000AD – dated the 5th of March 1977. He was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra – with some input from then editor Pat Mills.
Dredd is a law enforcement officer in a massive, violent city – Mega City One – in the distant future. The government of the city is the Judges. Judges are police, judge and jury. And, in the overpopulated city – where city ‘blocks’ are enormous sky scrapers housing thousands of, mostly unemployed, citizens – are all that stands between order and outright chaos. Dredd is – as he puts it – The Law.
The current Judge Dredd film is being shot in Cape Town, South Africa. It isn’t the first however. Back in 1995 Sylvester Stallone stared as Dredd in a film that also featured Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Armand Assante and Max Von Sydow(The Exorcist, Strange Brew).
The plot saw Dredd framed by his clone ‘brother’ Rico (Assante) after the latter was released from prison by corrupt Judge Griffen (Jurgen Prochnow). Chief Judge Fargo (Von Sydow) – Dredd’s former mentor – blames himself for Dredd’s apparent failure, resigns his post and takes ‘The Long Walk‘ in to the wasteland outside the city. Griffen takes his place as Chief Judge – his plan all along.
Dredd is sent to prison in the wastelands, but, due to a huge coincidence, escapes and heads back to the city – after learning, from Fargo (who he – coincidently – bumped into) that he and Rico are clones.
Meanwhile Rico – on Griffen’s orders – has been causing chaos so that Griffen can reopen the cloning project that created Dredd and Rico, and take full control of the whole city. Dredd arrives back and saves the day, with Rico falling to his death from atop the Statue of Liberty. And if you want to know more details you’ll have to go and watch it yourself.
Whilst it is not a truly terrible action film – there are far worse – it’s just not Judge Dredd.
One thing that many fans complained about at the time – and still do – is that, for most of the film, Dredd doesn’t wear his helmet. While this doesn’t seem like a big thing – and in a sense it’s not – Dredd, in the comics is never seen without his helmet on – a conscious decision to help show the facelessness of the law.
A much larger problem with the film was its lackadaisical plot and use of elements from the comics – some of which just feel stuffed-in in an attempt to woe fans. For example, in the film the ‘Angel gang‘ attacks Dredd in the wastelands. They are an important part of the Judge Dredd mythology, but here they are reduced to cannibal rednecks – with only Mean Machine coming close to the comics – and are all dispatched in the space of 10 minutes. Pointless.
The film was a wasted opportunity, and quite disappointing. Hopefully the new film will help to erase at least some of it from the memory. So far there has only been a trickle of news about the film – a few photos of the sets, which remind me more of Robocop than the 2000AD comics (not that that is a bad thing). So it’s nice to see a new picture of Karl Urban as Dredd (via Bleeding Cool), and it looks really good.
The new film is being directed by Pete Travis and will feature, along with Urban, Olivia Thirlby as Psi Judge Anderson, and Cersei LannisterLena Headey as the films villain Madeline ‘Ma-Ma’ Madrigal.
It’s slightly disappointing that the Dark Judges don’t appear to be in the film, but the word is that Dredd will keep his helmet on for the entire film. Fan boys can breathe a sigh of relief.
It’s rumored for release in the U.K. on the 1st of December 2011 – yup, this year. Odds are it will actually be 2012, so far no word on an official release date for the U.S. (or anywhere else).
The trailer for John Carter looks awesome. Granted I’ve never read much about him or his adventures on Mars, except for a really old comic book called John Carter and the White Apes of Mars – which to be quite honest sucked an egg. The story itself has been around since 1911, when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote of the Earth Man’s exploits on the red planet. Here is a little background on the story behind it…
John Carter is a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War, who dies afterward (it would appear), but is reincarnated on Mars. There he becomes a warrior and savior to the people, facing down all matter of alien and beastly foes. And by the way, he can kick twice as much ass due to the greater gravity of Earth making him stronger. (if that makes sense).
It’s on Mars where Carter meets his future wife ‘Dejah Thoris of Helium’. In the movie, GambitTaylor Kitsch (FNL) stars as John Carter, whilst Lynn Collins stars as his love interest Dejah Thoris. Hopefully them both being in X-men Origins: Wolverine previously won’t make the movie terrible.
Check out the trailer below:
Aside from all of the cool special effects, Kitsch and Collins won’t be left to carry this movie themselves, because there are a few pretty capable actors in their supporting cast. They are joined by Willem Dafoe (Spiderman, Platoon, Boondock Saints), James Purefoy (Rome, Camelot, Iron Clad) and Mark Strong. (Green Lantern, Kick Ass, Sherlock Holmes).
I for one will be checking this movie out. Disney has done a pretty good job over the last few years to keep me entertained, so I’ll give it a chance. It can’t be as bad as the picture below suggests. Right?
Grizzly Bomb 