Russell Crowe Is Robin AND The Seriff in Ridley Scott's "Nottingham"

Wait, what? The Movie Blog reports:

How do you top the fantastic one, two punch of Russell Crowe (the single best actor alive today bar none) and Leonardo DiCaprio in the upcoming “Body of Lies”? You do a movie with a one, two punch of Russel Crowe and Russell Crowe. That’s Ridley Scott’s genius idea (no sarcasm intended) for his upcoming Robin Hood film “Nottingham” where Crowe will apparently play BOTH Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

The news comes straight from the helmer himself, with Scott revealing “He’s playing both!” exclusively to MTV News during an interview for his new film “Body of Lies,” which co-stars Crowe. While Scott held additional details close to his chest — saying they would take too long to describe — he did exclaim that Crowe’s dual roles would be “a good old clever adjustment of characters. One becomes the other. It changes.”

I don't know, Ridley. I do like Russell Crowe and think he's a good actor, but to have him playing the protagonist and the antagonist? Sort of seems a bit gimmicky to me. I just think it would make a ton more sense to just cast another great actor for one of the roles and Crowe for the other. Sure, Scott's probably doing this as a way of showing how much alike the sheriff and Robin Hood are, but you could probably do that more subtily and get the same effect with the traditional method.

Or maybe Scott is a fan of Eddie Murphy's recent movies.

New Stuff Regarding The Site

Hey, I just got a couple of things regarding some changes to the site.

-I am a high school student, so I can't spend that much time blogging. Due to this, you may notice little stints without as many updates as usual. Do not panic! I will fix this as soon as possible! ;-)

-From now on, I'm only putting little Digg buttons next to my original articles. Please please digg them! It's a great way to get publicity out there.

That's really it. I'm also trying to get my own website that's not a blogspot or wordpress! But that's probably off in the future a bit.

~Mr. Death

Paul Newman Dead

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sad to report that movie star Paul Newman died on Friday. Film School Rejects tells us:

Early this morning, publicist Jeff Sanderson confirmed that actor Paul Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport. He was surrounded by his family and close friends. Paul Newman was 83.

This is truly a gigantic loss for the film industry. Paul Newman has had so many great movies and has made a huge impact on movies. Movies like Cool Hand Luke and The Sting both exemplify what makes him such a great actor. Ironically enough, I was watching Cool Hand Luke on Thursday, the day before he passed away. It's such a shame to see him go. My condolences to his family and friends. Mr. Newman, I'll gladly suck an egg and drink a glass of Gorilla Grape to you.

Speculation Time: Is "Housewife" The Wasp In Upcoming "Avengers"?

Hell hath no fury like a fanboy's wrath. According to The Movie Blog (who also gave us this snazzy photo), Eva Longoria may be one of the candidates for a hero in an upcoming superhero movie:

A can of worms was opened up this weekend when Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria was shot exiting the Marvel offices in Beverly Hills with a stack of comic books in hand, one of them happened to be THE AVENGERS.

Now, said can was opened today by the LA TIMES who gave this happen-stantial, if that’s a word, photograph some legs by saying she’d be good for WASP in the 2011 AVENGERS film Marvel has planned. The LA Times blogger goes on to talk about Wasp and her characteristics etc, just lending more and more gossip fodder to the fire.

I really hope she stole those comic books.

So Longoria may be The Wasp for the Avengers, huh? Personally, I think there is a good chance she might show up in Edgar Wright's Ant Man, which may also feature The Wasp. I haven't seen much of Longoria in, well, anything. But from the few things I have seen her in, I must say I wasn't impressed. And I don't think this is the role for her. She doesn't seem to capture the real spunky essence that The Wasp embodies. I think a more experienced (and better) actress could play out the part better than Longoria could.

But I'm jumping to conclusions. Who knows, maybe she isn't even being seriously considered. The Wasp may not even be in The Avengers movie! She isn't exactly a top billing superhero anyway. I wouldn't have even heard of her if I hadn't picked up Marvel Secret Wars a couple years ago (a series I would LOVE to see become a movie) so The Wasp may be omitted in favor of Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and other more well known superheros. Longoria may even be a love interest for Captian America in his upcoming movie. So lets not jump to conclusions people. Still, this news is disheartining.

Burn After Reading Review

Hey, check out my review of the new Cohen Bros. movie Burn After Reading over at Healing Touch. Click the poster to read it.

It’s hard to really go into the synopsis much without giving anything away, and trust me, for this movie you want to go into it knowing as little as possible. But I’ll try. The story follows two moronic gym trainers (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who stumble upon files from the computer of Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). Not understanding what these files actually are, they attempt to blackmail him with them. Meanwhile, Osborne’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with ex-Marshall Harry Pfarrar (George Clooney), and they get roped into this whole mess. Look, it’s really hard to explain, I suggest you just see it, and you’ll understand what I mean.

EXCLUSIVE! Interview with Igor Director Anthony Leondis

Hey guys, I was able to score a short little interview with the director of the upcoming movie Igor, Anthony "Tony" Leonidis. Here is the trailer for those who haven't seen it. We talked about many things, including inspiration, design, and comics.

Victory Gin: For those who don't know, what exactly is Igor?

Tony: Igor is an independent CGI animated movie coming out Sept 19th about a guy who isn't allowed to follow his dreams of becoming a mad scientist because he was born different- born with a hunch on his back. In this world a hunch on your back makes you an IGOR and you're treated like garbage. And when he finally gets the chance to build a horrible vicious monster, the monster doesn't want to be evil...she wants to be an actress.



VG: What was your inspiration that made you want to work in the animation business?

Tony: I grew up obsessed with comic books and much of my childhood was spent lost in my imagination. I filled hundreds, if not thousands of sketchbooks filled with fantastical beings who lived in magical worlds- and they all had their own stories. So as I got older I was naturally drawn to film-making, and doing it for a living. Best job in the world.



VG: Where did you learn to animate?

Tony: I went to film school part time in Boston and then went to Cal Arts. I thought I wanted to be an animator until I did my first bouncing ball test. I was like "OK....REALLY BORED NOW!" Design and Storyboarding were the most exciting parts for me so I focused on those two areas. I had two incredible teachers: Sue Nichols and Brenda Chapman. They both taught me so much about telling the story and telling the story visually. I will always be grateful to them for the extra time they spent answering my questions, going over my work, and really inspiring me with their passion for film-making. I also had a great mentor on The Prince of Egypt, (my first storyboarding job) her name is Lorna Cook. The education she gave me on the job was priceless!! People are very generous in the animated industry, if you are passionate they will share their time and talents with you graciously. It's like a family.




VG: How was it working with all the big names in your movie (John Cusack, John Cleese, Jay Leno)?

Tony: I get a little nervous before I meet the talent because so much of animation depends on the voice work. I want the actors to be comfortable with me so they know they can try different things and make interesting choices. Because we storyboard everything first in animation, before the voices, I need to make choices on how the character would deliver a line. But that has to be adjusted in the records because I want the actors to bring 'themselves' to the table, make choices that I wouldn't have thought of so the characters feel real and diverse. I hate it when all the characters in an animated movie speak with the same voice, usually the director's. (I mean that figuratively of course, not literally).

It's really all about getting what I need before the session is over- so I don't have time to be star-struck. But every once in a while I'll look up and think...is that John Cusack I'm directing? Or... Did John Cleese just record lines for MY MOVIE? Or wasn't Jay Leno just on TV like 10 minutes ago? CRAZY!

VG: What do you enjoy doing on your spare time?

Tony: I'm kind of boring actually. Besides reading and playing video games l love to create characters and their stories. For movies, comic-books, TV... I LOVE it! I'll never have time to MAKE all of them, but I just love coming up with them and creating characters. I love exploring the human condition. I guess I'm still that same kid who loves to gets lost in his imagination.


VG: Igor is obviously based off of a character from the classic movie Frankenstein. What is your favorite horror movie?

Tony: I love James Whale's Frankenstein, but my favorite would have to be The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. We had a screening of it in Cal Arts and I remember it BLOWING MY MIND! I grew up in a religious family, Greek Orthodox, so icons were always in my life. Icons are filled with symbolism: every mark, every color, EVERYTHING represents something. It's visual STORY-TELLING, and so, as I discovered, was Caligari! I was so inspired seeing visual interpretations of abstract ideas, it's what I grew up with. So that's why I'm drawn to expressionistic art and films I think, they're familiar to me. Everything is designed to convey a story or an emotion in an expressionistic way. I do that with Igor. I've talked about this before so if you've heard me say it, feel free to skip this part.

All the costumes in Igor are symbols and tell the story of the characters. Igor is a slave in his world, a prisoner, his hands are tied (again figuratively) so I put him in a kind of 'straight jacket' with prison bars on it. He has a cuff on his arm representing hand-cuffs. All the characters have their own story.

The world does the same. Malaria is a country without sunlight and it is filled with hopelessness. In our story Eva, the monster, brings hope to the world, like the rising sun. So I stripped the movie of oranges (the color of the sun) until we see Eva. She's dressed ALL in orange, and she has a collar that looks like angel wings. The movie gets more and more orange and saturated with warm colors as Eva becomes more and more a part of the story. Each set, character, everything says something. These are things the audience won't know, but will feel.

VG: How does working on a CGI animated movie differ from working on a traditionally animated movie?

Tony: The creative process is not very different at all actually, it's just the technical differences. Painting a cel vs. rendering a 3D character in textures...they each have their own challenges, but in the end it's all about telling a great story with great characters.



VG: What was your favorite moment during this movie's production?

Tony: My favorite moment of the production was when I saw the characters in finished full color models. Seeing all these crazy textures and shapes we put together come to life was so satisfying. During the process I kept expecting someone to say- 'this is too way out' or 'we need to pull back,' but it never happened. So everything in my crazy head, from Byzantine Icons to Caligari to my wacky sketches became real! It was like I knew them, they were friends. That said...I would NEVER presume to think I did it all on my own. My character designer Valerie Hadida, and Art Director Olivier Besson were my creative partners and brought so much of themselves to the project as well. But they were helping me find my vision, and seeing it was one of the best moments of my life.

I'd like to thank Tony for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this little Q&A with me. Igor hits theaters September 19th. Check it out!

Will Smith Taharqa and Possibly Captian America

It seems the Fresh Prince is getting a couple movie deals as of late. The Movie Blog tells us:

Braveheart writer Randall Wallace is set to write The Last Pharaoh, with Will Smith in mind to play Taharqa in Columbia’s drama about the pharaoh who battled Assyrian invaders in ancient Egypt.

According to Variety, Smith has long wanted to play the pharaoh and brought Wallace the Taharqa story. The film will focus on his battles with Assyrian leader Esarhaddon starting in 677 B.C.

I'm cool with this. Smith has great charisma and I love a lot of the movies he is in. If there is one thing that The Pursuit of Happyness taught me, it's that Smith can pull out some serious acting ability when he is placed in the right role. Seeing him leading huge armies across the desert would be something I would love to see.

However, right on the heels of this great news, The Movie Blog had to go and spoil this moment for me:

“I heard they offered Will Smith ‘Captain America,’” said Luke, adding that the intriguing casting rumor “just shows you how times have changed.” While this word through the Hollywood grapevine is nothing more than a rumor at this point, it should be noted that Marvel hasn’t shied away from changing up the race - and gender - of established characters in recent years. Upon kicking off his celebrated take on “The Ultimates” (Marvel’s re-imagining of their classic superteam The Avengers), Mark Millar changed S.H.I.E.L.D. head honcho Nick Fury from a crew-cut, cigar-chomping, middle-aged white man to, well… Sam Jackson.

No no no! Bad Marvel! Normally I wouldn't mind the whole crossing races thing, but I do here, and I'll tell you why. Back in WWII, when Captain America originated, black people where not allowed in the same units of the army as white people. In fact, black people where very much discriminated by the army. So if they are choosing to have a black person be Steve Rogers in the movie, that would mean that this movie will probably not be set in the WWII era, which makes me really sad. Plus, Will is all wrong for the role. He isn't at all what Steve Rogers is supposed to be. Lets hope this is strictly a rumor for now.

Rami and Tobey on Board for Spiderman 4

Great news! The star and director of the first three Spiderman movies are locked in for the fourth of the series. /Film tells us:

Sony has locked in both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man 4. Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane character is said to be included in the sequel(s), so the actress is rumored to be returning as well. And in the execs’ best case scenario, Raimi and Maguire would shoot Spider-Man 5 back-to-back. This would confirm what we reported this May: Screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Rundown) turned in a script for the third sequel that, much to Sony’s liking, segued smoothly into an arc for a fifth film. Specific details on what it took to bring back the original star and director are not yet available. Spider-Man 4 remains set for a May 2011 release.

Despite the unpleasantness of Spiderman 3, I really am glad these two are back in this movie. Spiderman 2 is still one of my favorite superhero movies of all time, and I know that these two can bring back the magic again. I really hope they bring in Lizard to be the villain. He is one of my favorite Spiderman villains and I'm sure Rami could get a lot of milage out of him. I really hope they don't use somebody lame like Electro. That guy blows. Alot of people want Carnage to show up, but I don't know. He could go either way. I'm just kinda sick of the whole symbonite thing.

Tom Cruise May Be Villain in "Shrek Goes Fouth"

Tom Cruise has been considered for the role of the villain in the newest installment of the Shrek franchise. The Movie Blog tells us:

Tonight I got an email from one of our regular sources at DreamWorks, whispering in my ear to let you know that Tom Cruise is being considered to voice one of the villains in Shrek Goes Fourth. The sequel is due out in 2010 and this time it’s being directed by Mike Mitchell, who is rumored to be something of a Tom Cruise fan.

Since Cruise’s cameo in Tropic Thunder, everyone has wanted the man to sign on for more comedy. Voicing a character for Shrek 4 isn’t what I had in mind however, because Shrek sucks, and has been played out at 3. Although the franchise may still continue to rake in money, the last film was pure garbage and I cannot see things improving from here.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, all Scientology stuff aside, I really like Tom Cruise. His cameo in Tropic Thunder was beyond brilliant, and I really think the man exceeds, not as an action star, but as a comedian. But I have to agree with the general consensus that this movie will be bad. The original Shrek and it's sequel Shrek 2 were both great, but Shrek the Third was absolute trash. Boo, hiss. Cruise should look for more roles that suit his persona in Tropic Thunder. When he went on that huge, swear filled rant that lasted for a full minute, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard in a movie theater. He should aim for more adult comedys (notice I didn't say raunchy. Just because he would be good comedies aimed at the older crowd doesn't mean he should be in the Superbad style of comedies) and stop trying to be in all this kid oriented drek.

Plans For The Dark Tower Movies

We've been getting some news recently about the future of The Dark Tower movie series, based on Stephen King's famous series. The Movie Blog reports:

We have word today that a seven film adaptation of The Dark Tower book series may be brought to the silver screen by way of Damon Lindeloff and J.J. Abrams. We get the scoop from the mouth of Lindeloff:

The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at. And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable. There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun. If The Dark Tower were in the right hands, I would love to see seven movies executed just right. But you have to get people to see the first one to get them to come and see the second one.

I love the Dark Tower books, and in my opinion they, as well as Salems Lot and The Shining, are Mr. King's greatest books. But on that note, I think trying to adapt these books into movies is a bad idea. While reading books, alot of times I try to mentally figure out ways that it could be made into a movie, like what scenes to cut, what to add, and such. The first four Dark Tower books would be fine for this, but by the fifth book, they take a turn that I can't see working outside of a literary world.

However, J.J. Abrams would be perfect for an attempt to put this epic seven part series into a movie. He is much more than qualified, but I just think that this series should stay out of the movies. And believe me, I very rarely think that.

Don LaFontaine R.I.P.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sad to report that Don LaFontaine has recently passed away. If you don't know who this is, he is the man who does the voiceovers in movie trailers. You know, "IN A WORLD WHERE HAMBURGERS EAT PEOPLE" or something like that. It's a shame that this man is no longer with us, and I will surely miss him. He was 68 years old. In his memory, I present to you the trailer for Terminator 2, where his talents were best utilized.

Superman Trilogy, Filmed LOTR Stlye

Well man of steel fans, It looks like your dreams may come true. Mark Millar, director of this summer's Wanted, has shown intrest in making a Superman trilogy. Not only that, but he plans to pull a Peter Jackson and film them all back to back. /Film tells us:

“I’ve had this plan for like 10 years for a big three-picture Superman thing, like a big Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again with a seven-hour Superman story. And hopefully release them one year after another,” said Millar. “If it works out, we’ll have to start shooting next summer.”

I think this is definitely the road WB wants to go down. Many people are grumbling about how Superman Returns' weak box office performance shows how people don't want to see a new Superman movie. But they're wrong. First of all, that movie made $200,006,305 in the box office. When has that been considered weak? Also, the reason people didn't flock out to see it like they did with Batman is because, unlike The Dark Knight, Superman Returns wasn't particularly good (in my opinion). A three part Superman movie would be great, as long as they don't make him all dark and brooding. Batman broods, Superman winks.