16 August 2009

News/Rumors Overview

Marvel is releasing a four-issue IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH limited series, starting in November, in order to introduce better the main villain of the next Iron Man film and to establish his background. Few images were released as promo for the comics.


First official photo from Avatar, new Battlestar Galactica movie, details about Wolverine's sequel, Terry Gilliam update, Kato is found, new TV series with zombies, Sharon Stone is topless again, posters, pics and info about more projects. Below.


New image from Avatar was released. This is the first photo from the actual movie, not concept art and not picture from the filming set. August 21st is still an Avatar day, on which selected IMAX theaters will screen short preview from the film and the trailer for free. Still no details in which theaters, but since we are very close to the date, expect updates next week at the official website of the film.

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New season of Mad Men begins this weekend on Sunday and I am pretty sure it will continue to be the best drama series on TV. Here is short recap of the previous season.



In addition to that, Christina Hendricks did a photoshoot for Esquire, and here is number of images of the redhead, with all her body curves.


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While digitizing their photo archive, LIFE magazine discovered previously unpublished photos of Marilyn Monroe, taken by photographer Ed Clark in Griffith Park in August 1950. She was just 24 years old and relatively unknown actress at that time.


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And someone who actually has Monroe's tattoo on her arm, nowadays sex symbol Megan Fox, was visiting the Teen Choice Awards ceremony, where she received a "Choice Female Hottie" award. I found this pics pretty funny, but I am not quite sure what is going on there.


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And just to close off this topic, here is 51 years old Sharon Stone doing her thing. Topless.


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Not related to previous item in any way, Legendary Pictures maybe interested in rebooting Godzilla franchise. The production studio behind Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Superman Returns, upcoming Ninja Assassin and more, considering a new movie with the giant monster.
A movie about ugly reptile destroying a city and shooting fire out of its mouth? I think this movie was already confirmed as a sequel to Sex and the City. Sarah Jessica Parker is not that tall, but I do see some facial resemblence.

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Director Brian Singer is very interested to produce and direct new Battlestar Galactica movie. According to the sources, it won't be a sequel to the recently finished TV series, but a re-imagination of the original show from 70's.

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The work on X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 is in progress, and now the movie has a writer. It is Christopher McQuarrie, the writer that worked with Brian Singer, from previous item, on The Usual Suspects and recently on Valkyrie as well. So this gives some kind of hope that the screenplay will be tolerable enough.
Hugh Jackman has said that a sequel will loosely follow the early 1980s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller comic book miniseries, where Logan travels to Japan and attempts to cool his killer instincts, and trains to live life under the samurai’s code of honor and respect. Riiiight.

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Breaking news from last week confirmed what many people wanted to happen - Sony Pictures Classics picked up The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for distribution in theaters, with December 25th as the date.

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Speaking of Gilliam, he is busy now resurrecting The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, his next project that will start shooting next year. In recent interview he announced that Johnny Depp will not join the film and he is now looking for the lead.
I can now honestly say that I'm not working with Johnny on Don Quixote. He's booked himself up on a lot of other films. I wanted to shoot Don Quixote next spring. He said he's not available and we have both agreed that I'm going to die soon, so it would be nice to get this film under my belt.
Some rumors, that started on the web, claim that Colin Farrell is the man that Gilliam is eyeballing for the role instead.
The picture above is from Gilliam's short animation "Story Time" from 1968, which you can watch here.

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Disney have announced that they will be producing an adaptation of Anne Frank story to be written and directed by David Mamet. Personally I never thought I will hear words Disney, Anne Frank and David Mamet in the same sentence, and yet here we are. Right now the meaning of this announcement makes no sense, especially alerting is the "adaptation" part, but maybe at some point things will get clearer.

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Cable television channel AMC won the rights to create adaptation of the Image Comics series The Walking Dead. The series will be written and directed by Frank Darabont, that currently attached to this interesting project. Establishing themselves as leading creators of quality content, AMC are responsible, among other titles, for Mad Men, Breaking Bad and upcoming The Prisoner.
The comics considered as one of more intelligent and realistic treatments of zombie genre, with the emphasis put on development of characters, trying to survive in post apocalyptic world, and their personalities, rather than on gore and blood just for the shock value. This sounds very promising, and since AMC are behind that, my thumbs are up.

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The Blair Witch Project, one of most profitable movies in history and huge genre breakthrough on its own, pretty much establishing the concept of diegetic camera point of view way before such films as REC and Cloverfield, might get a new sequel.
The creators of the film gave some details in recent interview, saying that the sequel might be a direct continuation of the first film and that number of possibilities are considered by them.

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Controversial director, that everybody loves to hate, McG is talking about his next projects, which are 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo and Terminator 5. Apparently the idea of Will Smith to take the role of Nemo was abandoned, and now Sam Worthington is his first choice. He also admits that mistakes were made in Terminator Salvation, and he promises to make next Terminator better.
Better is relative term, so I wouldn't get my hopes high, after all it's McG we are talking about.

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Underworld 4 is on its way, and now in 3D. Encouraged by the success of the Rise of the Lycans, which was successful only due to its low budget, production companies responsible for that abomination decided they want more. Pretty and never aging Kate Beckinsale is rumored to return, but no solid info right now.

This image is totally fake, but you have to admit its quality can easily fool people. Someone is getting really good with Photoshop.

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The role of Kato, that at some point belonged to Bruce Lee, in the upcoming adaptation of The Green Hornet is now officially taken. Taiwanese actor Jay Chou was selected for the role next to Seth Rogen as Green Hornet himself. Chou is huge pop idol in Asia, he started in music business and then slid to acting career. He is of course very excited, since he always admired Bruce Lee, but he promises to create his own personality for Kato.


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Ridley Scott wants to adapt Aldous Huxley’s 1932 classic Brave New World with Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading role. Having read the book and absolutely loving it, I have my doubts about this adaptation, and I only hope that Scott will not use the story of the book and only take the background world for his own idea. This is the only way everybody wins without completely butchering the origin, which I guarantee you will happen if he decides that he wants to tell the same story. Huxley's vision was complex and ambiguous, I am pretty sure Scott will not be able to pull it off as a movie.

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Ninja Assassin and V For Vendetta director James McTeigue is starting to work on his next film, based on the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

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Great poster for Coen's A Serious Man. It's a hard work to hold the skies on one's shoulders.

2 comments:

  1. Sharon Stone at 50 looks better than a lot of women in their 30's. Although who knows how much plastic surgery she's had.
    It would be interesting to see a new blair witch...but i think the first movie was such a huge hit that any other blair witch will never live up to the original.

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  2. The photos went through photoshop, as usual for such magazine covers, so I am not sure how much of that is actually her. But she still looks fine for her age.

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