Just the other day, while watching one of Byron Allen’s six or seven late-night entertainment shows, I caught a segment with Neil Patrick Harris promoting Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. When an actor who portrayed a child prodigy doctor on a T.V. series 20 years ago has resorted to self parody in a movie starring Kal Penn, you know the apocalypse is near.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harold and Kumar Escape, etc. was originally planned as a direct-to-video release, but was later changed to theatrical. Well, we all know how well that worked out for 88 Minutes!

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On the surface, Universal’s Wanted - an adaptation of Mark Millar’s series of comics - sounds like a reverse version of The Professional. James McAvoy stars as a man who learns that his father is an assassin shortly before the father is killed. Chosen to follow in dad’s footsteps, the young man is trained in the art of assassination by Jolie’s character.

According to Variety, Jolie recently joined the cast after Lara Croft screenwriter Dean Georgaris tailored the character specifically for her. Whether or not this was at Jolie’s behest is not mentioned.

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Back when Peter Jackson was making low-budget slashers and R-rated Ghostbusters ripoffs (yes, I’m looking at you, The Frighteners!), nobody would have guessed what lay in store for this Lord of the Rings fan. But his passion for the series carried him all the way to New Line Cinema, which gave him the money to create the very first fantasy blockbuster movie - wait, make that three.

Now, Jackson has moved on to other directorial projects, such as the moderately successful King Kong. But he’s drafted someone else to carry on his work; specifically, to film Tolkien’s first Middle Earth novel, The Hobbit.

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There has been surprisingly little talk lately about the live-action G.I. Joe adaptation, coming in the summer of 2009. In fact, the most recent news involved a “mishap” during filming in Prague; this adds G.I. Joe to the ever-increasing list of recent movies with stunts gone very wrong. (New James Bond flick Quantum of Solace recently put a stuntman into critical condition after a particularly dangerous maneuver.) The AFP reports:

Seven people were injured Saturday in a collision between a bus and several cars during the filming of “G.I. Joe” in the centre of Prague, police and emergency services said.

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There have been rumors circling in the movie world that McG’s Terminator 4, alternately titled Terminator: The Return of the Terminator and Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, is on the rocks. Apparently, it all goes back to a post on Ugo claiming that a “source” had overheard a crew member talking about production shutting down; not the most reliable source in the world, unless you’re the sort of person who often purchases diet pills from radio infomercials. Nevertheless, the rumor got around - and most people aren’t buying it.

In direct contradiction to the rumor, The Hollywood reporter announced a few days later that a new cast member was in final talks to star. Moon Bloodgood, known for her starring role in the short-lived NBC series Journeyman, is set to play a “no-nonsense and battle-hardened member of the resistance.”

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You know what we don’t have enough of in this world? Harry Potter.

I’m kidding, of course. Harry Potter is so overexposed that, even in my sheltered childhood, I was able to get my hands on a library copy of the first book. When my mom saw it, she wanted to make sure that “it doesn’t have good witches in it, does it?” But then she read it, and was hooked. One more potential book-burner converted, thanks to J.K. Rowling.

Now that the saga has officially ended - on the book front, anyway - we’re all free to focus on the production of the films and on all the creative marketing that’s going on. The latest effort from Warner Brothers is, naturally enough, a museum exhibit.

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Often called the Top Ramen of literature, Dan Brown has nonetheless penned multiple bestsellers, most notably the mega-mega-mega-hit The Da Vinci Code. There are many things to be said about this book, but most of them have been said already. I fondly recall the words of a critic pointing out that the phrase “Da Vinci Code” makes no sense, given that “da Vinci” is not a last name but rather meant to signify “from the town of Vinci.” The critic stated that you might as well write a book about Jesus and call it “The Of Nazareth Code.”

However, this is an admittedly small quibble. Many people call history’s favorite Leonardo by the name “da Vinci” just for clarity’s sake, and because, as far as I know, nobody else famous ever came from Vinci. The biggest problem with Brown’s work, as usually happens in these situations, is that people take it way too seriously.

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These days, when movie marketing manages to overexpose even the most appealing of projects, it’s kind of refreshing (and confusing) when you hear about something for the first time. If you read film blogs with any regularity, you’re probably familiar with every Disney/Pixar production up through 2011 at the very least. And as cute as WALL*E looks, with the teasers and the images and all the hype, I’m getting a little sick of the movie before I’ve even seen it.

Meet Igor. Igor is a Weinstein Brothers production - yes, it’s animated, and no, it’s not Pixar or Dreamworks. I know. It’s hard to imagine, but such things do exist. It also sounds like a delightful little tale. Cinematical recently premiered the teaser poster. According to AOL Movies, Igor is: [Read more →]

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Back when your local video rental store was your only source for the latest movies, you didn’t really question their purpose. You went in, picked out your movie, and got out. As the years went by, chains like Blockbuster started adding their own version of concession stands - overpriced soda, candy, and popcorn, not to mention the $40 posters of Audrey Hepburn or James Bond. The market was expanding, and so was your friendly local Blockbuster.

Then Netflix came along.

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Amy Ryan. Previously unknown, but recently lauded for her heart-wrenching performance as the bereaved mom in Gone Baby Gone, she was such a perfect fit for her role that security on set occasionally mistook her for a trashy Dorchester drug addict trying to muscle her way into the movie.

VS.

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