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14 Oct
| OK, first thing: this is not a story about a film based on the Midway (RIP) game Psi-Ops. That could be pretty cool, and has in fact been rumored before, but this isn’t it. Instead, this is an original action thriller with a very similar name. (And one that, yeah, has similarities to the game.) Bold Films (the company behind Joe Dante’s The Hole 3D) has picked up the story by Legion and Priest director Scott Stewart, and the idea is that the film will be directed by Stuart Maschwitz, with whom Stewart co-founded effects house The Orphanage. THR says the film “revolves around a covert U.S. military unit of psychological operatives who specialize in exploiting their target’s deepest fears. When on a routine mission to the Amazon Basin, they discover something more terrifying than they could have imagined.” The notion is to bring together impulses derived from Predator and Aliens … |
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13 Oct
| Along with Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho is one of the many great cinematic talents that heralded a new wave of film-making from South Korea. He’s perhaps most famous for his brilliant family-centered monster film, The Host, and his previous effort Memories of Murder breathed new life into the police procedural. While doing rounds for his latest film, Mother, Joon-ho chatted with Frosty at Collider about his next project, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film entitled Snow Piercer—an adaptation of the French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige. The project was formerly titled Transperceneige, and is being produced by Chan-wook. The story takes place in a world covered by ice and snow, and it centers on a train full of travelers struggling coexist while they continue to cling to familiar class structures. As is usually the case with these sorts of stories, it seems to be an exploration of human nature when pushed to the brink. … |
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10 Oct
| At a recent press conference held to celebrate the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release of Star Trek, J.J. Abrams was on hand to chat about his upcoming projects. There were the requisite Star Trek 2 questions (3-D anyone?), and he also talks a bit about Mission: Impossible 4 and Fringe. Several questions focused on Leonard Nimoy’s involvement in these future projects, one of which seems particularly surprising. Abrams was unsurprisingly coy about details on his Star Trek sequel. There wasn’t anything concrete, but Abrams did mention that he’s excited about working with his Trek universe’s alternate timeline, and that he’ll continue to aim at a storyline that has more mass appeal. The latter certainly worked out well for him the first time around, and I would argue that being a bit too focused on the die-hard Trek fans was one of the many elements that led to the franchise’s staleness in the past … |
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9 Oct
| Lars Von Trier has been doing press over the past week for the US release of Antichrist. (Remotely, as he doesn’t fly, and has never been to the States.) But it wasn’t until today that he revealed the name and nature of his next project. Planet Melancholia is said to be a ‘psychological disaster film’, which he will write and direct. Hm. Psychological disaster? Sounds like Antichrist, no? But this one has a sci-fi bent, and a couple other interesting things about it. There’s the possibility that the film is actually just called Melancholia, which is how Variety is currently listing it. The trade says the title is illustrated in their press release by ‘an enourmous planet…that looms threateningly close to Earth.” THR says that Von Trier is “moving into Roland Emmerich territory” with Planet Melancholia, but also calls Antichrist an “art house mash up of the slasher horror genre,” … |
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9 Oct
| BloodyDisgusting has confirmed that Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman is 100% attached to Ghostbusters 3. He hasn’t decided yet if he wants to direct the project, but is definately on board to produce. This shouldn’t come as much of a shock as almost everyone associated with the first two films are also on board for a third film if it goes into production. I have heard that Office / Year One scribes Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have turned in a script, and BD is reporting that the sequel script begins as the paranormal researchers “reopen” their ghost removal service after it has been closed for years. We’ve already heard that the film will introduce a new generation of Ghostbusters, who will be trained/mentored by the original crew. We’ll keep you updated as to any further developments. |
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8 Oct
| Ever since seeing Duncan Jones’ indie feature directorial debut Moon, I’ve been waiting to see what he would do next, when he has a bigger budget and more resources. And we’ve been closely following every little detail of Jones’ next, a sci-fi thriller Mute, which has often been compared to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Now Duncan has told The Age that Mute is “mired in financing difficulties,” although the piece says that Jones is “sanguine about events.” He believes that if there weren’t difficulties getting it made, then he must have got something wrong. ”Every problem,” he points out like a scientist happily positing a theorem, ”is proof that we’re planning a movie very different from the norm.” |
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8 Oct
| You might know the name Ruairi Robinson; if you don’t I’m betting you will very soon. Robinson made the cool short film The Silent City (which I’ve embedded below) and was the guy tapped to direct the live-action Akira. I’m not sure whether he’s still attached to that film, which was recently said to be not as dead as once reported. Regardless, Robinson is now working to finish a film called Bad Robot, and the teaser concept video now floating around the interwebs suggests it could be a lot of fun. Check it out after the break. Quiet Earth has this clip for Bad Robot, but sadly not a lot of additional information. There’s a tagline (“Soon every house will have a robot helper. Don’t worry, your kids are perfectly safe.”) which suggests a lot of things, not least the possibility that while the film is billed as a sci-fi comedy, … |
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6 Oct
| Well, I definitely didn’t see this coming. Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal have cast Adrien Brody in one of the lead roles for Predators. We also now know a few more minor members of the cast for the upcoming visit to the Predator planet, and there’s a last-minute report that Topher Grace is negotiating to join the cast, too. Variety reports the details and says that Brody and his people lobbied hard for the deal. I can see why he might want it, but he’s definitely not my vision of a space marine. (And it may be that he’s not a ’space marine’ at all.) He’s more like the Shane Black character in the original Predator. (“Get it? It’s because of the echo!”) But I did just catch Brody again in some of The Brothers Bloom, so I’m pretty up on the guy right now. He’s a great actor, and if … |
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6 Oct
| Humans think about sex. Animals think about it. Even big giant robots like those seen in Transformers think about it. Joshua Winship Carpenter’s T-shirt design “Lonely Robot Dirty Mind” depicts this exact situation. Available on a Navy American Apparel tee sized Extra Small to XXXL for $18 on Threadless.com. Cool Stuff is a daily feature of slashfilm.com. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be featured on Cool Stuff? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com. |
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6 Oct
| Producer Don Murphy maintains a pretty lively website and forum that was crashed for a bit this morning when Roberto Orci confirmed in a forum post that he and Alex Kurtzman would not return at all for Transformers 3, leaving script duties entirely in the hands of Ehren Kruger. (Well, not entirely, as Michael Bay will have his input.) This is no surprise to anyone who’s been following along over the past couple months. One poster asked today if ‘Bob and Alex’ really weren’t returning for the next film, to which Orci responded “It’s true.” Back in March, Orci had intimated, also on Murphy’s forum, that the pair would not return to write the third Transformers film. “Time for fresh blood!” Orci said . “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the … |
