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Posts published in “Entertainment Talk”

Trailer(ing) the movies

Trailers have always been an important part of a movie’s marketing campaign (for obvious reasons).
Even so, nowadays it’s pretty common to find unoriginal, or dare I say clichéd teasers that barely bring anything new to the table, let alone peak people’s interest.
Fortunately though, a few recent (somewhat) innovative trailers have been popping up. They also are incidentally attached to pretty cool feature films coming up this fall.

From Sept. 25 ’til Nov. 25, here are, in chronological order, all the movies you must absolutely check out, if only for their epic trailers.

Special mention to both A Serious Man and Where the Wild Things Are.

Coming out Sept. 25
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (adapted and directed by John Krasinski)

Why should you go see this movie?
For one, it has an incredible cast.
For two, incredible is the cast.
But most importantly, it looks fun.

Pandorum (written by Travis Milloy, directed by Christian Alvart)

At first, it looks like Alien meets Resident Evil.
Turns out, it’s way more epic.

Coming out Oct. 2
A Serious Man (written and directed by Ethan & Joel Coen)

Ding, ding, ding!
Here comes the next Coen classic.

Zombieland (written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, directed by Ruben Fleischer)

Woody Harrelson going on a little zombie-hunting trip.
Who doesn’t want to see this?

Coming out Oct. 16
Where the Wild Things Are (adapted by Spike Jonze & Dave Eggers, directed by Spike Jonze)

It already has one of the best movie trailer ever made, what more can you ask?

Coming out Oct 30
Gentlemen Broncos (written by Jared & Jerusha Hess, directed by Jared Hess)

Emmy-nominated Jemaine Clement stars in this (probably soon-to-be cult) movie.
I smell comic genius.

Coming out Nov. 6
The Men Who Stare At Goats (adapted by Peter Straughan, directed by Grant Heslov)

Yet again, a movie with a great cast.
Plus, there’s George Clooney staring at a goat.

Coming out Nov. 25
The Road (adapted by Joe Penhall, directed by John Hillcoat)

One year later, it’s finally here , ready for the 2010 Academy Awards.
But before you go see it, do one thing first: read the book.

This fall, there’s finally a reason (actually, multiple reasons) to go back to the movie theatre.

Pulling them back in

Back to the usual today with a few very interesting news bits.

I’m not going to discuss the Marvel $4-billion acquistion.
It’s been pretty much talked to death already.

However, there was a double dose of duh yesterday with the announcement of a fourth season for Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire getting picked up at HBO.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ Lena Heady will quickly be back on TV thanks to another HBO show, Game of Thrones. In this complicated piece of fiction, she’ll play “Queen Cersei of House Lannister, wife of King Robert and sister of twin brother Jaime Lannister and outsider younger brother Tyrion”.

Equaly as thrilling is Megan Mullally joining the second season of Rob Thomas’ Party Down.

WGA Award-winner Davey Holmes saw yesterday his spec script come to fruitition (almost) with FOX picking it up for a pilot commitment.
What am I talking about? Worthy, a show about “an Arizona politician named Worthy whose struggle to do the right thing takes a wrong turn after he is involved in a hit-and-run and gets blackmailed by a mob boss.”
Says Holmes:

I’m fascinated by moral dilemmas in politics. I also love the intensely colorful characters who spring from that world, the sweaty dance they do as they angle for power, weighing personal beliefs against their desperate need to win the next election.

Despite seeming to be cable material, Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice loved so much the script that it’s now at FOX.

Pippin my studio: The Weinstein way of dealing with problems

Pippin my studio: The Weinstein way of dealing with problems

You’ve probably heard by now about the Weinstein Company kind of being on the verge of bankruptcy (even though it’s starting to get back up following Inglourious Basterds’ success). If you don’t know what the hell I’m on about, then check out right now this in-depth look from the New York Times’ David Segal on why “Weinsteins Struggle to Regain Their Touch.” It’s eye-opening (take a look at the studio’s market share).

All done catching up?

Anyway, the Weinstein brothers still haven’t found the perfect equilibrium between filmmaking, and, let’s just call it “mogulamania”. Case in point with their acquisitions in 2006 of A Small World (Millionaire Facebook) and the Halston fashion brand while making, you know, movies. Go figure the correlation here.
But don’t feel too bad for the studio. It has found its way back on top.

Indeed, it looks like what is going to save the company is neither a Kevin Smith nor a Quentin Tarantino film.
How awesome is that:

From the producers of The Crow 3: Salvation and The Punisher 2: War Zone comes another revolutionary take on an American classic.
The Weinstein Company is proud to present to the world Pippin the Hunchback, the Musical: The Movie.

Yup, one of Harvey Weinstein’s passion project (for real) is none other than a movie adaptation of the popular 1970 Broadway musical Pippin.
And I’m dead serious about that.


First things first: I’m not talking about The Lord of the Rings’ Pippin. Let’s be honest, who would want to see a play based on this character?


I’m here blabbering about a musical with a story loosely based on (read: a fictitious account of) Pippin the Hunchback’s life. What is so exceptional about Pippin (aka Pepin) is that he is the eldest son of Charlemagne. That’s a fascinating subject for a musical, wouldn’t you say? There was even a 1981 television movie directed by David Sheelhan. Perhaps this will allow William Katt to leave his work on Alien vs. Hunter and reprise for a third time the role of, you guessed it, Pippin.

Regarding the Weinstein Company, well basically the story goes that following the 2003 success of Chicago, Miramax (then-owned by the Weinsteins) bought the same year the rights for a potential movie adaptation of Pippin. The rest is History (extremely clever pun intended).

In any case, even though the brothers have had the property for some time now, it seems like the project is back on track as they’re currently looking for a writer. That and, as I said, it’s Harvey’s love baby, so he’s “never gonna give [it] up” (insert Rickroll comment).
This looks like the greatest segue to success, ever.

For all you Weinstein Company lovers, don’t panic.
If that’s not enough to revitalize the dying studio, they have another ace to play: a revival of Knight Rider (yes, that Knight Rider) through a movie (seemingly written by Bruce Feirstein, screenwriter of all the Pierce Brosnan/James Bond movies).

Gives a whole new meaning to the expression “crash and burn.”