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News

News and Notes. And occasional snark…

The LA Times reports that the rights for the Terminator franchise are up for grabs.

Anderson and Kubicek’s Halcyon Holding Group has engaged financial advisory firm FTI Capital Advisors, pending bankruptcy court approval, to “evaluate strategic alternatives,” according to a statement. Since Halcyon’s only valuable asset is the Terminator rights, any deal would involve an investment in, or outright sale, of them.

So if you ever wanted to write yourself into Sarah Connor’s love life, now’s your chance, folks.

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Michael Bay has announced he is gracing us with Transformers 3 sooner than anticipated.

Transformers 3: July 1st, 2011
10/01/2009 09:41 AM

Well its official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.

Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for five hours in San Francisco. Currently I’m flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.

P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

Pain and Gain is right after shooting of Trans 3.

Michael

All I can think is that he attempting to hasten to coming of the Apocalypse. If you want proof, just watch Transformers 2. Drop him a line and let him know you are willing to wait until 2012 for it all to come crashing down.

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Danny Trejo announced in an interview with Punch Drunk Critics that his next film will not be another Sin City movie,which is still “in the thought process stage”, but he will be involved in a new Predator film.

Second half of the video is NSFW due to language.



I am trying to wrap my head around Danny Trejo vs Predator in a way that will not equal awesome. I am failing. I am pretty sure it is going to be awesome.

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Back in July, Risky Business Blog announced that Jodie Foster had taken on directing Beaver, a story about a man who wears a stuffed Beaver on his hand and treats it as if it is real. Mel Gibson has been tapped to play the starring role, which leads me to wonder which actor we will get for this. If Gibson can resurrect his comedic timing and amazingly expressive face, ala Lethal Weapon and Maverick, this could very well be the film that brings him back into the spotlight that doesn’t involve alcohol or profanity. Pictures are now available of Gibson working on the role on dllisted.com.

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For those of you who want another remake of the 80s, 20th Century Fox has started filming The A Team in Vancouver. With Liam Neeson as John “Hannibal” Smith, Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, Sharlto Copley as Capt. “Howling Mad” Murdock, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as Sgt. “B.A.” Baracus we can hope for a little more refined dialogue than “I pity the fool” and maybe even a large enough budget for some decent explosions. It is set to open in theaters in June, 2010.

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GeekTyrant reports that Fox Searchlight is in negotiations to bring the Ramones to the big screen in a way never seen before. Based on the book I Slept With Joey Ramone, written by Joey Ramone’s brother and longtime roadie, Mickey Leigh and longtime punk writer and Ramones chronicler Legs McNeil, the movie will “utilize the band’s rich and well documented history”. More details as the story unfolds…

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BadTaste.it recently interviewed Quentin Tarantino who announced plans to move ahead with Kill Bill 3. The new film is slated for 2014 and will be set 10 years after Kill Bill 2. To quote Tarantino – “One: I think Uma [Thurman] and I needed a 10 year break cause the first one was so hard. And second: I really love the character. And I think she deserves a 10 year release of no fighting and being with her [daughter].” Most websites and news outlets that are discussing the announcement tell us to take this with a grain of salt: not every project Tarantino is interested in and involved in comes to light.

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Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 109: Taps

The young talent in this film is pretty impressive.

We have a talk about the film and then slide into a discussion of how the military and military families are portrayed in the media.

Tell us what you think about the movie or the expanded conversation in the show notes, in email, voice mail or by carrier pigeon.

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News

Weekend Box Office for October 2-4

#1 Zombieland from Sony debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $25 million in 3036 theaters. Budget was $23.6 million.

#2 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs from Sony drops from #1 to #2 with a weekend gross of $16.7 million (-33.3%) in 2977 theaters (-142). Total gross to date is $82.3 million. Budget was $100 million.

#3 Toy Story / Toy Story 2 in 3D from Buena Vista debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $12.5 million in 1745 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#4 The Invention of Lying from Warner Brothers debuts at #4 with an opening weekend gross of $7.3 million in 1707 theaters. Budget was $18.5 million.

#5 Surrogates from Buena Vista drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $7.3 million (-50.7%) in 2951 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $26.3 million. Budget was $80 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Whip It debuts at #6 with an opening weekend gross of $4.8 million in 1720 theaters. Budget was $15 million.

#7 Capitalism: A Love Story jumps from #31 to #7 with a weekend gross of $4.8 million (+1,990.8%) in 962 theaters (+958). Total gross to date is $5.2 million. Budget is unknown.

#8 Fame drops from #3 to #8 with a weekend gross of $4.7 million (-52.5%) in 3133 theaters (+37). Total gross to date is $16.6 million. Budget was $18 million

#9 The Informant! drops from #4 to #9 with a weekend gross of $3.8 million (-42.6%) in 2425 theaters (-80). Total gross to date is $26.5 million. Budget was $22 million.

#10 Love Happens drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.7 million (-35.5%) in 1922 theaters (+24). Total gross to date is $18.9 million. Budget was $18 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $94.5 million (+13.8%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

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Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 108: Gattaca

In this episode we talk about Gattaca, the movie that lead to Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman becoming a couple. (God Bless you, IMDB, for your confirmation of something I thought was true.)

Genetics, nature vs. nurture, human will over human body.

Check out our discussion of the flick and drop us some feedback.  Everybody’s doing it.  You know you want to.

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Pandorum

Nearly 150 years in the future, Earth’s resources are at this point virtually wiped out, with the planet on the brink of total collapse. But hope for the survival of the human race has been found with the discovery of Tanis, a far distant planet that’s very similar to Earth in terms of atmosphere, water and plant life. The people of Earth have launched the immense spaceship, Elysium, with a population of thousands immersed in a cryogenic sleep, along with everything needed to turn Tanis into a new Earth. Now, mysteriously, two of Elysium’s flight crew, Bower and Payton, have been awoken from their sleep to find that something has gone wrong on their ship, with both having to deal with memory loss from such a long sleep and the possibility of a type of space madness called Pandorum…

And that’s the premise of Pandorum a new German-financed science fiction movie, starring American actors Ben Foster as Bower and Dennis Quaid as Payton. And while it’s cool to have this sort of science fiction out there, it’s just a shame that the final product is something that’s a s muddled as this is. Pandorum basically suffers from putting too damn much into, which in the end dilutes it’s final twist to the point that it’s impact isn’t really anything that’s too special.

The biggest problem, at least in my mind, is the element that’s the source of the title, Pandorum itself. Basically using the idea that nearly everyone who’s awaken from this hypersleep might have fallen victim to this (and there’s more than just Bower and Payton), makes all of the characters come off a s just a little too crazy in some areas and thus makes it harder for an audience to get too invested in those characters. Oh, attempts are made, specifically with Bower, but those seem to get lost with everything else that the filmmakers have occurring on this ship.

Had this been pared down with a tighter rooting interest in it’s human characters, and then of course probably retitled, I think it would’ve had the chance at being something special on a smaller scale, but as it is, it suffers from throwing too many twists to the viewer in the illusion of making this story more complex than it needs to be, and as I said above, because of that, the final twist of the film, which should be the actual “big deal” here, is heavily diluted.

It also doesn’t help that this is shot extremely dark and edited with many quick cuts in some areas, making it a little harder to get a grasp of place on the Elysium. Action scenes are shot way too close and again with an abundance of quick cuts (probably used to hide seams) making them more indecipherable than anything else.

I think Quaid and Foster are just fine here, Foster in particular, though as I said, they don’t give you much of a chance to really root for them and much give a damn by it’s end. There are other survivors on-board the Elysium, but they’re created as more cyphers than anything else, and there’s nothing that any of them are really given that makes you really care in the end.

It’s a shame, I was looking forward to this, because I like this sort of science fiction movie quite a bit. But in the end, there’s just too much thrown at you here that takes away what should’ve been more of a tighter focus in it’s main plot. and as such, it’s really hard to give a damn about Pandorum in the end…

Categories
Events

Real Men Wear Pink – Take 2

I’m just going to repost this from last year because… well… I think it pretty much says it all.

As a site and podcast that 98% managed and produced by men, it would be easy to say we are doing this to save boobies.  National Breast Cancer Awareness Month not just something to snicker about though.  Too many people are affected and afflicted by this disease.

Women are made aware of the disease and how to look for the signs from an early age.  While not all of them heed the doctor’s advice, they are at least aware of their risks.  Guys are at risk of this too.

Guys we need to be supportive of our women and we need to make sure that we are healthy too.  It’s not enough that encourage our partners to do regular exams, but we should be checking out ourselves too.

Seriously, if you get breast cancer you could die.  As in dead.  As in six feet under.  That is serious.  So what if you get embarrassed having to admit why you have to go to the doctor, or take time off work, or have the scar.  You are alive.   You are alive AND you get to wear one of the special survivor shirts and walk arm in arm with some of the coolest, toughest, most bad-ass women you’ll ever meet and be fortunate enough to call yourself equal to them.  Not a whole lot of men can do that.

We are going pink for the month of October.  For our mothers, our girlfriends, our wives, our daughters and also for ourselves.

Further information from people who really know what they are talking about can be found at the links below:

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month http://nbcam.org/

American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Resources http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PAR/Content/PAR_2_3_Breast_Cancer_Resources.asp

National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast

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Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 107: Black Sheep

This movie is about mutant/zombie sheep.

People die.

Sheep die.

Disturbing things happen to both sheep and people.  Yes… THOSE disturbing things.

And then….

we talk about the movie where these things happen.

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News

Weekend Box Office for September 25-27

#1 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs from Sony continues to hold the #1 spot with a weekend gross of $24.6 million (-18.8%) in 3119 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $60 million. Budget was $100 million.

#2 Surrogates from Buena Vista debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $15 million in 2951 theaters. Budget was $80 million.

#3 Fame from MGM debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $10 million in 3096 theaters. Budget was $18 million.

#4 The Informant! from Warner Brothers drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $6.9 million (-33.9%) in 2505 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $20.9 million. Budget was $22 million.

#5 Tyler Perry’s I Can Do bad All By Myself from Lionsgate Films drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $4.7 million (-51.9%) in 2120 theaters (-135). Total gross to date is $44.5 million. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#6 Pandorum debuts at #6 with an opening weekend gross of $4.4 million in 2506 theaters. Budget was $40 million.

#7 Love Happens drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $4.3 million (-46.3%) in 1898 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $14.7 million. Budget was $18 million.

#8 Jennifer’s Body drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $3.5 million (-49%) in 2738 theaters (+36). Total gross to date is $12.3 million. Budget was $16 million

#9 9 drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $2.8 million (-49.1%) in 2025 theaters (-35). Total gross to date is $27.1 million. Budget was $30 million.

#10 Inglourious Basterds drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.7 million (-28.7%) in 1960 theaters (-559). Total gross to date is $114.4 million. Budget was $70 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend is $82.7 million (-5.2%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:

Box Office Mojo

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Surrogates

In the near future, a new invention has taken over the land, the concept of the “virtual self” where the user can remain at home and by cybernetically connecting to a robot body that can safely interact with the outside world. These “surrogates” act as an idealized avatar in the outside world with the benefit of the host user never being hurt or killed in anyway. Soon though, a murder is committed that not only takes out the surrogate but also kills it’s user, and now FBI Agent Tom Greer has been called in to investigate the case.

Surrogates is the latest comic book to movie adaptation, based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, and it’s the newest movie from director Jonathan Mostow, who’s previously given us films like Breakdown, U-571 and Terminator 3. And it’s a lot of fun…

I’ve not read the graphic novel so I can’t say really how well it compares to that, but what’s here presents a lot of very good ideas, and though this seems to have been somewhat compressed (the running time of the film is right around 90 minutes), overall it’s story is pretty complete. It’s got a great look to it, especially with some of the more artificial aspects of the surrogates themselves, and the action in the piece is pretty darn compelling.

Bruce Willis plays Tom Greer, and it’s a pretty good and deep performance from Willis where he basically serves double duty as both his real world self and his surrogate, and the differences between the two are pretty well done on his part, with him being more bold to action when in his surrogate body and a lot more pensive when he’s forced to be his real self in a world populated by surrogates. He’s backed up with a good cast including Radha Mitchell as his partner, Boris Kodjoe as his FBI superior, Rosamund Pike as his completely disconnected wife, James Cromwell as the inventor of surrogate technology, Ving Rhames as a character called The Prophet, leader of an anti-surrogate society, and Mostow regular, Jack Noseworthy playing the initial murderer. Everybody does a great job, with me having to give props in particular to Rosamund Pike as Greer’s wife.

There really is a lot of good ideas at work here and I just wished the movie had been a little longer to explore some of that more- one of those ideas included the process of how all licensed surrogate users are all interconnected into a central system which is constantly under observation- when two of the users decide to venture a little further into illegal territory, this central base sees the action and immediately procures a warrant that lets them just as immediately shut down those users- pretty fascinating stuff to see how the justice system works with this…

Even though I wish there was more here, this still delivers a pretty good viewing experience. I know I had a great time seeing Bruce Willis back on screen and giving a top-notch performance. Surrogates is very much recommended…

Categories
Back Seat Producers Season 04 Shows

BSP Episode 106: Jurassic Park

Welcome…. to Jurassic Park.

Nazi Dinosaurs?

We dare you not to have visions of velociraptors in Hugo Boss designed SS uniforms with shiny jackboots after listening to this episode. (Apologies to Chris for stealing this line from his email telling us he was done editing this episode.)

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