Morning Sketches

Nuevos posters de ‘Agora’, Amenábar ataca fuerte

Hombre, su ’status’ no es el mismo desde que dejó para la Historia de nuestro Cine aquel peliculón llamado ‘Mar Adentro’. Y me refiero a este filme, porque por entonces, antes de su estreno, me parecía increible, e incluso una temeridad, que un director abonado al género del suspense a la española, que estaba tratando de tú a tú a Hollywood, se metiera en un fregao como aquél.

Se arriesgó, con el colchón de ‘Los Otros’, y acertó en mi corazón: ‘Mar Adentro’ ganó, entre otros galardones, el Globo de Oro y el Oscar a la mejor película de habla no inglesa en 2005, le puso la alfombra a Javier Bardem para que despegara su carrera en la Meca del Cine, y le consagró como realizador.

Sony Buys Pitch For inFAMOUS Video Game Adaptation

Sony Pictures and Sony Computer Entertainment of America are working out a deal to produce a film based on the recent PlayStation 3 exclusive game inFAMOUS, and THR reports that writer Sheldon Turner’s (The Longest Yard, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air) pitch to adapt the game has been bought by the studio. The game follows Cole McGrath, a bike messenger who is gifted with extraordinary electrical powers when he is caught at the epicenter of a bomb blast that destroys much of his hometown Empire City.

inFAMOUS Video Game - Concept Art

“What excited me most about the game was it was the first of which I’ve come across that had a big idea and a character arc,” Turner tells THR. “It is, I believe, the future of gaming. The game, while big and fun, is at its core a love ballad to the underachiever, which is what our hero, Cole McGrath, is.”

I don’t agree with that take at all. At it’s core, inFAMOUS is exactly like the original Marvel comics, with a few modern storytelling tropes thrown in. Cole faces the classic ‘great power = great responsibility’ equation, and the game allows players to rise or fall with respect to the moral imperative by taking good or evil routes through the game. They’re nudged by Cole’s former fiancee, who believes he’s responsible for the bomb blast and has to be convinced of Cole’s good nature and by a best friend that increasingly attempts to trade on Cole’s new fame as Empire City’s superpower.

There’s a lot more story here than in a game like Dead Space, and a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan that occurs towards the end. Visually, the hook of the game was the explosive electrical powers, odd mutant gangs that plauge Empire City and Cole’s parkour-like ability to scale walls and rooftops. There’s a lot of good action to put on screen, and the story is solid enough that this could be one of the better game-to-film adaptations.

Vicky Christina Barcelona Review

I haven’t liked Woody Allen’s movies in quite some time maybe because he’s been trying to handle themes of crime misdemeanors instead of going with what made him cool back in the day which was dealing with relationships and the humor aspect of it all. VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA is… Woody Allen returning to his game. This is definitely one of my favorite films this year. It’s funny in a way that it makes you slightly embarrassed in a good way because either the characters remind you of someone you know, situations you may have encountered or that the dialogue is so bold and daring, you find yourself let loose and easy to give in to the temptations.

Penelope Cruz as María Elena

Delve Deeper Into Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

With the two successful films, Underworld and Underworld: Evolution, a franchise was created. Now they’re going back to how the whole war between the vampires and the Lycans all started with the prequel Underworld: The Rise of The Lycans, which will hit theaters nationwide on January 23. I had the opportunity to head to picturesque Venice, California to preview the film at Luma Pictures, where myself and selected press members also got to chat with first-time director Patrick Tatopoulos – who is no stranger to the franchise, having created the Lycan effects for the first two films – and VFX supervisor James McQuaide. Before we got into all that, though, we were lucky enough to see two thrilling sequences from the film, which I’ll describe below.

Michael Sheen as Lucian

The first sequence we were shown features Michael Sheen as Lucian, the very first Lycan, and his new love Sonja, played by the lovely Rhona Mitra, a vampire who is forbidden to be with Lucian but goes against her father Viktor’s (Bill Nighy) will and flees with Lucian and his trusted friend Raze, played by the hulking, deep-voiced Kevin Grevioux, who has appeared in all three films and co-wrote the original Underworld film with director Len Wiseman and co-writer Danny McBride (not the funnyman Danny McBride, FYI). This scene features Lucian, Sonja and Raze slaying an army of werewolves – in gruesomely awesome fashion, might I add – when, confronted with constant werewolves, Lucian removes his shackle that prevents him from turning into a werewolf and transforms – in a rather incredible fashion, I must say – into a hulking werewolf, which obviously confuses the hell out of the werewolves that were about to attack them.

Watchmen Trial Settlement Talks Going Well

It seems that a nasty lawsuit that threatened the March 6 release of Watchmen might be settled out of court. According to Associated Press, attorneys on both sides of the Fox/Warner Bros. lawsuit over the upcoming Watchmen film say that settlement talks have been quite productive.

A hearing was scheduled for today, but attorneys for both Fox and Warner Bros. asked U.S. District Judge Gary Allan Feess to delay the hearing so settlement talks could continue over the weekend. Feess agreed, but did indicate that a January 20 hearing is still scheduled to determine if the March 6 release will be blocked or not.

DiCaprio is Ex-Hitman

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play a former hit-man in Beat the Reaper, according to Variety.

Leo will star as a contract killer who enters the witness protection program and becomes a doctor. He is drawn into his former world however when a mobster recognizes the medic from his former life.

The New Regency film is based on the novel by real-life doctor Josh Bazell, with the tome is set for publication next year.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Ex-Hitman in his new project

DiCaprio has just finished filming Martion Scorsese’s thriller Shutter Island and is also developing a live-action version of anime classic Akira for Warner Brothers.

First Look at the Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Teaser Poster!

Paramount Pictures has just released the brand new one-sheet teaser poster for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which is set for release on June 26, 2009. Click below to enlarge this brand new one-sheet.

Transformers 2 - Teaser Poster

Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots return for the live action follow up to Michael Bay’s 2007 blockbuster Transformers.

Batman’s Commissioner Gordon, Pat Hingle, Dies at Age 84

Pat Hingle, known to many for his appearance in the 1990s Batman series of films as Commissioner Gordon, passed away Saturday, January 3, 2008 following a long battle with blood cancer. The Press Association reports that Hingle, 84, passed away in his home in Carolina Beach.

A family spokesperson says that Hingle had been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006. Hingle had lived in Carolina Beach since 1986. He settled in the town in North Carolina after completing filming of Maximum Overdrive.

Pat Hingle - The Batman

Hingle’s career in film and television spanned six decades, and in that time he received a Tony Award nomination in 1958. Hingle’s last film appearance was in 2006’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

A Date with Megan Fox

Jennifer’s Body, the upcoming dark comedy/horror film by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, has been set for a September 2009 release date.

Fox Atomic now has the Megan Fox flick penciled in for September 18, 2009. The move may raise some eyebrows among film enthusiast who are well aware that September has been traditionally considered a dumping ground for movies in which studios have little confidence.

The new date will put it up against the offbeat CG-animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the heist thriller Armored, and the Soderberg-directed Matt Damon thriller The Informant.

Jennifer’s Body stars Fox as a sexy cheerleader who is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a small Minnesota farming town. Her “plain Jane” best friend (played by Mean Girls’ Amanda Seyfried) must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshipping rock band responsible for the horrible transformation.