“The Dark Knight” hit it big at the Saturn Awards. The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films awarded Batman five statues including the ones for best action-adventure-thriller, best music, best writing, best supporting actor and best special effects. Both “Iron Man” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” won three taking home the awards for best sci-fi film and best fantasy film respectively. “Hellboy II” was named best horror film and “Wall-E” best animated film. Angelina Jolie finally got the praise she deserved for her role in “Changeling” and Robert Downey Jr. for his role in “Iron Man.” Click here to see Variety’s complete list of winners.
Senator John Kerry wants to get involved in film, but will have to get past the Federal Election Commission first. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee is requesting to use $300,000 in campaign funds for a project called “Keeping Faith.” If all goes to plan, Kerry would be an executive producer for the White Mountain Films documentary about injured Iraq war veterans. Kerry’s role would involve lining up investors and interview subjects. He won’t be receiving a paycheck for his efforts, but Kerry could get up to a 120% return on his investment.
It’s official! “Watchmen” will return to the big screen with an additional 25 minutes. Zack Snyder’s director’s cut will be shown on July 17th at four theaters in Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York. Variety reports he made the announcement at an event promoting the July 21st DVD and Blu-ray release. I’m a big fan of the graphic novel and loved the film, but I’d rather just wait the extra four days and watch it in the comfort of my own home and not spend over three hours in a theater.
When there are multimillionaire dollar robots, wizards and vampires invading theaters, it’s difficult to get the lower budget films the attention they deserve, but one studio may have found a way. According to Variety, Gigantic Group will launch an Internet service that will give viewers access to their films. The initiative will kick off on August 26th with the documentary “Motherland” and the indie studio plans to add at least four more titles by the end of the year. For $2.99 you’ll get three days of unlimited viewing. Mark Lipsky of Gigantic explains, “Even with rave reviews, films can be off screens so quickly that the audience has no time to find them. Not only can we keep a film on screen indefinitely, but we can dramatically extend their reach into the marketplace and grow the audience in areas of the country that have never been exposed to indie films.”
What happened to Alessandra Torresani? Torresani’s casting in “The Runaways” must have been overturned or merely a rumor because now Variety reports that Scout Taylor-Compton will play the role of Lita Ford. Both are named on the film’s IMDB page, but Torresani’s name appears next to Ford while Taylor-Compton’s is dubbed ‘Jackie Fox (rumored).’ Nowadays you never know who to trust, but I’m going to go with Variety on this one. I don’t see much of a difference between the two girls anyway; they both kind of look the same and are relatively unknown. Maybe after “Halloween II” hits theaters and we see Taylor-Compton in a leading role we’ll know whether or not she has the potential to shine in this film.
When a film’s screenwriter can’t confirm the pic is going to be great, you might have a problem. According to Sci-Fi Wire, during a question-and-answer session at the Los Angeles Film Festival, “The Avengers” writer, Zak Penn said, “It's hard to make a good movie … we all have the best intentions, and it still might suck.” Penn better get that negativity out of his head or the film will stink! His frustration seems to have come from his experience writing the last two “X-Men” films during which he was denied permission to get the Fantastic Four involved.
Either Sandra Bullock scared him off or Ryan Reynolds just really wants to do something other than a romantic comedy, because he’s just signed on to star in something entirely different. According to Variety, Reynolds will play a guy captured in Iraq who wakes up to find himself buried in a coffin in the desert in “Buried.” At least his captors were nice enough leave him a cell phone, candle and knife. Wait, why would they leave him a phone? I sense some physiological torture coming on.
If someone hands me a box with a big red button in it and say not to touch it, there’s no doubt in my mind I’d be pushing it about two seconds later. In “The Box” we’ll see if Cameron Diaz and James Marsden can hold out when a semi-faceless Frank Langella tells them they’ll get a million dollars if they push a button, but it’ll also cause the death of someone they don’t know. Check out the film’s trailer below:
