Brenda Chapman, the first woman to direct a Pixar Animation film, has been removed from "Brave," a person familiar with the matter confirmed.
The director has been replaced by Mark Andrews, who co-directed the Pixar short "One Man Band," the blog Cartoon Brew reported.
Directorial shakeups are nothing new in animation: Indeed, Pixar creative head John Lasseter has stepped in as director for "Cars 2." What makes this significant is that Chapman, who worked as a writer on such Disney animated films as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion Kng," was the first woman to direct a Pixar film, after 11 projects were helmed by male directors -- and focused on male protagonists.
"Brave," previously titled "The Bear and the Bow," is the story of a Scottish princess, Merida, who decides to persue her interest in archery but inadvertently puts her father's kingdom, and her mother's life, risk.
Eighty-five years ago, moviegoers saw Lon Chaney unmasked as “The Phantom of the Opera” at the classic film's premiere, and while the movie was silent, the audience certainly wasn’t.
There were plenty of screams and gasps on Sept. 6, 1925, at the New York premiere of the film that gave us one of the most indelible scenes in screen history -- aspiring singer Christine Daae (portrayed by Chicago-born beauty pageant queen Mary Philbin) pulling the mask off the Old Hollywood icon known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces.”
Chaney earned that nickname with his uncanny ability to transform himself into various characters, including Quasimodo in the 1923 masterwork “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He created the Phantom’s skull-like visage by using cotton and collodion for his exaggerated cheekbones. By attaching a strip of fish skin to his nose, he achieved the up-tilted nose. He used black paint to accentuate the nostrils and used dark eyeliner to achieve that sunken-eyed look. Finally, he wore a serrated set of false teeth.
Though “The Phantom of the Opera,” which also boasts a Technicolor sequence when the Phantom appears at the masquerade ball, is considered one of Chaney’s best films, it was a tumultuous production. The actor and director Rupert Julian clashed from the outset, and their relationship became so toxic that Chaney wouldn’t talk or take direction from Julian, who was best known for completing the film “Merry-Go-Round” after Erich von Stroheim was fired (that film also featured Philbin). Several scenes weren’t lit properly, including the smashing crash of the chandelier at the opera house, and had to be re-filmed.
And, just so you know, Hollywood test marketing is hardly a new thing: After one sneak preview, audiences suggested the film needed a romantic subplot as well as some comic relief. Comedy director Edward Sedgwick was brought in to direct some lighter scenes with Chester Conklin, but those were all discarded after another preview audience gave the thumbs down to the tacked-on sequences.
Black and White are at it again, this time on Cartoon Network. "Spy vs. Spy" and other Mad magazine classics will join a host of new animated sketches -- such as "CSiCarly," "2012 Dalmatians" and "Batman Family Feud" -- in "MAD," a new animated series based on the irreverent humor magazine. The 15-minute comedy show debuts at 8:30 p.m. Monday (Labor Day), and "MAD" gave Hero Complex readers an exclusive sneak peek video clip. Hero Complex contributor Noelene Clark caught up with the show's producers Mark Marek ("KaBlam!" and "Crank Yankers") and Emmy winner Kevin Shinick ("Robot Chicken") for five questions.
NC: How did the idea for a Mad magazine-inspired cartoon end up on Cartoon Network?
KS: The idea was, they want to extend the hours of Adult Swim, which they already have done, so now it starts at 9 instead of 10, and they wanted something that would really bridge the gap, that would give everyone, the kids, the feeling of something they shouldn't be watching, but technically we're prime time.
It’s one of the last things you see on Cartoon Network before it goes to Adult Swim, so there isn't a day that goes by that I don't push the envelope and try and get away with something that could easily be done on Adult Swim, but because it's Cartoon Network, every day we have our battles, and we win a lot of them.
It really does get you in the mood. You will notice a shift from watching Cartoon Network, and then you get "MAD," and then you go into Adult Swim. It's going to be a nice transition.
MM: Quite honestly, we're wondering why it took so long to get this show going, because Mad has been so popular for so many years, and you would think that it would have been produced by now. But I know one of the things was "MADtv" was on the air, and they didn’t want to have this kind of show at the same time. And when that was canceled, a few months after that, a year after that, it was decided, "Hey, Warner Bros. owns this property; let's do something with it..."
On Wednesday, "Star Trek 365" hit bookshelves with an impressive collection of photos and insights from the signature sci-fi television show of the 1960s. Linda Whitmore, a Los Angeles Times copy editor and "Star Trek" specialist for the Hero Complex, reviewed the book here this week and now catches up with authors Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann for this e-mail interview.
LW: The book takes a unique approach to exploring the “Star Trek” universe. Instead of simply summarizing the plots, you’ve delved behind the scenes to look at not only what was going on with the show’s creative forces, but the social upheaval of the late 1960s (Vietnam War, civil rights movement, population explosion, etc.). What prompted you to take this fresh approach?
PB&TE: Well, to tell the truth, we couldn’t really avoid it—we lived through the era, along with millions of other baby boomers. Prior to this, we’d written some very traditional nonfiction Star Trek books, ones that focus on how the various shows exist as a part of their own universe. But this one seemed to present itself as an opportunity to take a more personal point of view, and to put the show into a perspective from that time. Those themes — social, political and religious — are what "Star Trek" was about, and the science fiction setting housed a palatable way for the producers to comment about them within what otherwise seemed like simple stories. It’s well documented that the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, and his writing team were very interested in news stories of the day—the 1960s, that is. Many of those stories are evident right on screen, from tales of characters who are black on one side and white on the other, to an overpopulated world whose inhabitants struggle shoulder to shoulder for lack of space. Like "Star Trek’s" writing team — albeit way less imaginative! — we’ve always wanted our writing to be a combination of entertainment and education...
For “Night of the Living Trekkies” authors Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall, the worlds of Gene Roddenberry and George A. Romero were a match made in Omicron Ceti III. The new sci-fi zombie adventure novel from Quirk Books -- the publisher responsible for “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” -- tells the story of a disillusioned Afghanistan veteran turned hotel manager who leads a ragtag crew of Trek convention attendees in a battle against hordes of undead Klingons and Ferengi. Hero Complex contributor Noelene Clark caught up with the authors, whose book just hit shelves.
NC: How did you come up with the idea to merge these two very different genres?
KA: I love the zombie genre -- it’s one of my favorite horror subgenres -- but I never really wanted to write anything in that genre other than a short story unless it could be something different. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the documentary “Trekkies.” It’s really good. There’s actually a sequel to it too. In 2008, about that time I was watching it, and I was really just trying to come up with some original idea for a zombie novel, and I saw these people (and I’m a "Star Trek" fan, too), and I saw how passionate they are and how organized they were, and I could see people looking at them and cracking jokes and really not seeing that. But in the right situation, that being a zombie apocalypse, these people could be the heroes, and that’s where the idea came from -- melding the Roddenberry world and the Romero world. I developed the idea for about a year, really, really writing scenarios and developing characters and trying to work as much "Star Trek"-ness into it as I could possibly get. I knew a lot about the zombie genre, and I knew a lot about science fiction as far as pop culture, but as far as the real niche stuff, the real "Trek" geek stuff, I was a little lacking. Anyway, at the end of last year, I pitched it to Jason Rekulak at Quirk Books. I guess it kind of landed on his desk at the right time. He was kind of looking for something different, for something that would take Quirk in a different direction. I was shocked beyond belief when he e-mailed me the next morning, and we got the ball rolling from there.
NC: So how did you come on board, Sam?
SS: Kevin kind of touched on it. He’s the zombie guy who knows a little bit about "Star Trek." More than a little bit. And I enjoy the zombie genre too, and I wouldn’t say I have deep "Trek" knowledge, but I have medium "Trek" knowledge. I’ve done several projects for Quirk already, and they said, “Can you come in and amp up the 'Star Trek' components?” How do you say this -- am I the body count guy? I bring a little more depth and detail to mayhem.
NC: There’s been a rash of zombies in books and movies the last few years. Why do you think they’re so popular?
Not everyone is a fabulously wealthy industrialist with enough spare cash lying around to build his or her own suit of high-tech armor. Which is why our friends at Brand X are holding a free screening of "Iron Man" at the Santa Monica Pier at dusk on Sept. 10. Gates open at 7 p.m. and no tickets are required in advance. Incidentally, it kicks off a series of screenings at the pier. More info at iambrandx.ning.com.
Bruce Campbell is currently starring in USA's top-rated spy romp "Burn Notice" as the wisecracking Sam Axe, but for some fans, he'll always be Ash, the beloved hero of Sam Raimi's cult favorite "Evil Dead" trilogy: 1981's "The Evil Dead," 1987's "Evil Dead II" and 1992's "Army of Darkness." Precisely for those ardent enthusiasts, Anchor Bay has just released the original film in the series on Blu-ray featuring two new HD transfers that were supervised by Raimi himself. Consequently, the thriller about a group of unsuspecting friends vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods who inadvertently unleash an ancient demonic force has never looked better. Campbell, Raimi and producer Rob Tapert also teamed up for a new commentary track that details how three young guys from Michigan launched one of modern horror's most enduring franchises -- it involved a lot of fake blood and equal amounts of sweat and tears. Campbell recently took time out of his "Burn Notice" shooting schedule to speak with Hero Complex's Gina McIntyre about what it was like to revisit his past and to speculate about whether he's likely to pick up that boomstick once more (spoiler alert: prospects don't look good).
GM: Could you have imagined while you were shooting "Evil Dead" that the film would still be a part of your life 30 years on?
BC: No, we didn't even know we were going to finish the damn movie. That was the hardest part. It took us four years just to finish it. Then basically we had to put it out to the rest of the world. It was a slow, grueling process. Everything's long term on "Evil Dead." The investors took about six or seven years to break even, 10 years to get into any kind of profit. Now, the last 20 years they've been doing fine, but everything is slow on that movie. Slow to arrive, slow to leave, I guess.
Also, I want to address something too that we always get ragged on. We always get ragged on that we put out 18 versions of "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness." At the end of the day, the three of us -- me and Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi -- we're not business tycoons. If people keep bitching and moaning about something new and different, we give it to them. That's the bottom line. And technology changes, so we had to do a VHS version way back when and we had to do a PAL version and we had to do a DVD version. Now, the Blu-ray's just a logical extension of the next best thing that's available to put the movie out on. This is actually the first time anyone's seen what the hell this movie looks like, and it doesn't look that bad. It's not a bad-looking little horror movie because Sam, firstly, supervised [the transfer] and made it look like it always should have. If you had gone into a theater and seen the original 35 mm print in the early '80s in New York, they were all torn to shreds. You saw scenes that were missing and jumped and film that was scratched and destroyed at any midnight showings for years. They didn't take good care of the prints. They would rip and they would cut the damaged parts out and just splice them back together. These were old-time New York projectionists; they didn't care. They had a screening at 9 o' clock. Something had to go through the projector at 9 o'clock.
So, finally, Bob Murawski, the Academy Award-winning editor for "The Hurt Locker" [who edited "Army of Darkness"], has been behind the Grindhouse re-releasing of "Evil Dead" in theaters, striking new prints off the new negative. It's been a good one-two punch for the preservation of the film. We always like it as filmmakers too, because every time you update to a new version you've gone back in and kept that movie in its most pristine condition. That movie means a lot to us. That's what got all of us into the business, so that's our little baby that we like to coddle and take care of. We're glad it's in a new form now.
GM: What was it like to sit down with Sam and Rob to record the commentary for the Blu-ray? You talk in such great detail about how the movie came together...
BC: We took a different approach this time for the commentary. Normally you watch the movie and go, "Hey, it was cold that time when we shot that," or "Oh, I was really sick when we shot that." Now we were just going to tell the history of making the movie. It wasn't related to the images you're seeing. It's just a backdrop. It made it very easy for us, once we knew what our approach was. "Hey guys, how far back can you remember? Whose idea was this? Where were you? Were you guys living together?" It also gave us a chance to clarify some misconceptions that have come up over the last 30 years -- "Oh, it was a college movie, you did it out of college." That's not really true. It was good. And once you get the three of us going, we jog each other's memories and then any long-winded crap we would cut down and just hopefully make it a reasonable piece.
GM: When you listen to the commentary, it does seem as though you're interviewing one another in a way.
Linda Whitmore, the in-house "Star Trek" specialist here at Hero Complex, checks in with a review of a new bookshelf voyage into the Starfleet universe.
Any Trekkie worth his or her salt can tell a Romulan from a Vulcan, much less a mugatu from a horta.
And although most fans don’t speak fluent Klingon, their shelves bulge with episode guides and “Trek” novels. Before the dawn of the Internet, a spate of books compiled well-researched episode guides (for the original “Trek,” for example, there was Allan Asherman’s “Star Trek Compendium” in 1981) and put plot synopses, photos and cast lists at fans’ fingertips. (For instance, Mark Lenard, who played Spock’s father, Sarek, first appeared as a Romulan commander in “Balance of Terror,” the series’ ninth episode. Basic stuff for the average fan, but one of the book’s bonuses is Lenard’s filmography, up until 1981. Remember Terrans, this is pre-IMDB.)
Authors Michael and Denise Okuda took it a step further with “Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future,” 1993. Michael Okuda was in the art department of “ST: TNG,” “ST: DS9,” “Voyager,” “Enterprise” and several of the films. Together with his wife, they trace the “Trek” roots from the past into the future, starting 6 billion years ago, with the creation of the Guardian of Forever. (For those of you not “of the body,” that’s the time portal that a crazed Dr. McCoy leaps through in arguably the classic series’ best episode, “City on the Edge of Forever,” written by Harlan Ellison. (Sort of.… that's a loooong story.) Most people just remember it as the episode where Captain Kirk falls in love with that chick from “Dynasty.”
New York writer Michael Giltz digs deep into the looming unrated release "Hatchet II," which arrives in theaters after a major MPAA squabble and plenty of splatter.
The movie "Hatchet II" will be unrated when it hits the top 20 or so markets on Oct. 1 via Dark Skyand the AMC chain, making it perhaps the widest released unrated horror film since George Romero’s landmark "Dawn Of The Dead" opened in the U.S. in 1979.
That’s made "Hatchet II" an instant cause celebre among horror fans tired of denuded fright flicks, the latest flashpoint in the endless debate over the MPAA rating system and –- some say –- an ironic victim of the MPAA’s desire to look tough on violence.
For director Adam Green, whose original "Hatchet" grossed more than $3 million on DVD, the moment is exhilarating.
“This is a great opportunity for [fans] to go see something that they’d never normally gotten to see in a theater and I think that’s very exciting,” says Green. He spoke by cell from Leicester Square in London on Thursday night while "Hatchet II" made its world premiere during Frightfest, the largest horror film festival in the world.
While distancing himself from online headlines like the one on Cinematical, he’s thrilled by the comments of people like Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton, the editor-in-chief of horror site DreadCentral. Barton urges people to make a statement by buying tickets to the film even if they don’t even live near one of the cities where it’s showing.
“Would you pay 10 bucks to make a statement that you support unrated releases in theaters?” Barton asked readers. “It's a lot to ask, but you know what? I would and I will. This release could very well be an opportunity to change the game as we know it and have begrudgingly accepted it.”
But in some ways, Green is as nervous as the audience watching his movie. And not in a fun way. “I’m scared though,” Green admitted. “I don’t want to be singled out and have them mad at me or something because they’re a tough organization....”
There were some positive developments, though. Jim Parsons' turn as Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory" netted a win for best comedy actor, and "Dexter" took home two awards -- one for John Lithgow as best guest actor and one for best directing.
Another show joining "Lost" off-air this season was "24." Jack Bauer's travails scored the show two Emmys in its farewell run: best original score and best sound editing for a series.
The "CSI" win was interesting because anyone watching the special-effects TV race (and who wasn't?!) may have wondered who would step into the space vacated by perennial nominees/winners "Battlestar Galactica" and the different "Star Trek" iterations, especially with last year's winner and heir apparent "Heroes" falling from grace. Now we know.
And, no, "Lost" was not completely left out of the prize parade. The island drama won the Emmy for best single-camera picture editing.
If you're a fan of "Modern Family" (best comedy), "Mad Men" (best drama) or other nominated shows, check out the Emmys coverage on The Envelope.
Photos at top, from left: Jim Parsons and his Emmy. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times. Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer on "24." Credit: Fox. Matthew Fox, left, Jorge Garcia and Evangeline Lilly on "Lost." Credit: ABC. John Lithgow with his "Dexter" Emmy. Credit: EPA. Michael Emerson in "Lost." Credit: ABC
Our Hollywood history specialist, Susan King, looks back in horror Monday at Boris Karloff.
Boris Karloff may have created two of cinema’s greatest horror film ghouls -- the Frankenstein monster and The Mummy -- but in real life, he didn’t even like to use the word horror.
“He preferred the word terror to horror,” says his only child, Sara Karloff. “He preferred the word thrill to chill, where [a story] went right up the spine of the viewer and kept them on the edge of their seat. He was opposed to gore of any sort, and he really thought anything that dumped either the solution or the gore into the audiences’ lap was an insult to the intelligence of the audience and felt that suspense and thrills were far more effective.”
And he served up a lot of suspense and thrills as host and frequent star of the classic 1960-62 NBC anthology series “Thriller.” The entire 67 episodes are being released Tuesday on DVD from Image Entertainment.
Though not as strong as the landmark anthology series of the era -- “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Twilight Zone” -- Karloff's “Thriller” did offer some pretty terrific tales.
Robert Bloch (“Psycho”) was among the writers on the show and among its directors were Paul Henreid, Robert Florey, Ida Lupino, Mitchell Leisen and Arthur Hiller. And Karloff is a sly host who talks about the episode with a wink and a nod...
Jay West is a devoted fan and student of the 1982 film "Tron," and he has written a series of guest columns on the viral marketing for the film's sequel, "Tron: Legacy," due in December. Following up on the film's highly anticipated presentation at Comic-Con International 2010, West recounts Comi-Tron's invasion of San Diego and continues to unlock secrets as the movie nears.
Castor:"Change the scheme ... ! Alter the mood ... ! Electrify the boys and girls if you'd be so kind."
-- Michael Sheen as Castor in the upcoming "Tron: Legacy" film
Disney returned to the recently held Comic-Con International in San Diego with a huge promotional presence for their "Tron: Legacy" movie, due Dec. 17 (a "takeover" dubbed Comi-Tron by the studio), showcasing this upcoming sequel to the original 1982 "Tron" film with a star-studded panel in the convention's massive Hall H that included seven minutes of first-look 3-D footage from the film. This, along with the premiere of a new trailer for the film, wowed the audience.
A video reel showcasing the impact of "Tron" on pop culture also was shown during the Hall H panel. It included homages reflected in various TV series, such as "30 Rock," "The Simpsons," "Robot Chicken," "Family Guy" and "South Park," as well as touching on the film's influences on music and featuring the French DJ duo of Daft Punk, composers of the "Tron: Legacy" soundtrack -- as mentioned prior in my ongoing "Tron" coverage. You can watch the reel in the video below:
In the convention's exhibitors hall, "Tron: Legacy" was the theme of a dramatic booth that featured a large-scale recognizer and lightcycle (both iconic "Tron" vehicles), along with previews of tie-in merchandise, such as the full line of action figures, vehicles, electronics and video games inspired by the movie. Attendees also were able to purchase exclusive Comic-Con "Tron" merchandise at this booth: a 1,500 limited-edition vintage-style "Tron" figures -- featuring "Tron" in his classic pose of reaching up for his disc (these figures also came in "Tron" arcade-game-style boxes) and 3,000 limited-edition diecast Sam Flynn lightcycles. No surprise, both editions sold out quickly...
We all know The Mouse, but who ranks as the second most popular character from the classic Disney pantheon? Forget Donald Duck and don't think Goofy -- it's Tinker Bell, at least according to Bradley Raymond, the appropriately biased writer and director of Disney's new direct-to-video feature "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue."
"Along with Mickey Mouse, Tinker Bell is probably the most recognizable character of all time," Raymond says. "She's been popular from 1953 to now because of that multifaceted character we all fell in love with in 'Peter Pan'...There's something mysterious about her. Where does she live, where is she from, how does she communicate with the fairies?"
Those mysteries are explored in Raymond's "Great Fairy Rescue," which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on Sept. 21. Before then, Los Angeles fans of the pixie can also see the new tale Sept.3-19 at the El Capitan Theatre, and there's also a free under-the-stars screening this Saturday at La Cienega Park as part of the Outdoor Cinema Food Fest.
The magic of Tinker Bell dates back to the 1904 stage play "Peter and Wendy" by J.M. Barrie and the 1911 book of the same name. The Disney version of "Peter Pan" in 1953 introduced the enduring contemporary incarnation of the spunky little blond fairy who is especially popular when it comes to the retail shelves and Disney toys, apparel and collectibles. Disney has turned the spotlight on the character with the 2008 home video "Tinker Bell," followed by a four-film series with computer animation. "Great Fairy Rescue" is the third of that quartet.
Raymond, writer and director of two films in the four-movie series, says that for little ones, clapping their hands to declare they believe in fairies is a special part of growing up.
"It's so important for children to be able to wonder if a fairy had been there the night before," he says. "It doesn't matter if they'll become artists or doctors. Inspiration is what's most important. That magic feeling is so important. It ignites your creativity."
The new Tinker Bell stories delve into the origins and history of the charming but mischievous fairy before she met the boy who never grows up. The first DVD opens with the scene of her birth –- the moment when a baby laughs for the first time –- and follows her escapades as a newbie in Pixie Hollow helping to bring springtime to the world. The second film follows the fairy as she contends with new responsibilities with the advent of fall. It's summer in "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue."
John Lasseter of Pixar fame was a strong guiding hand with the new series. "It was John's idea to have the fairies bring nature to the world," Raymond said. "He likes stories that people can relate to. Just like 'Toy Story' was about toys coming to life, 'Tinker Bell' is about the fairies taking care of the Earth. Every day people look out the window and see nature."
In this adventure, Tink befriends a human –- a girl named Lizzie whose father is a butterfly-catching scientist displeased by his daughter's fascination with fantasy. He yearns to catch a fairy and pin her to a mounting board like any other insect. The movie is laced with references to Disney's 1953 "Peter Pan" but has a modern sensibility -- Raymond consulted fans, asking 4- to 11-year-old girls: "If you met a fairy in your bedroom, what would you do?"
Raymond said his goal was a story that would capture the imagination of the youngest viewers and reconnect older audiences with that old familiar magic.
"I love that kind of story where ordinary people have something magical or supernatural happen to them," Raymond said. "If you make a story that's going to entertain yourself, you become more passionate about the project."
"Star Wars Uncut," which is waiting for you at www.starwarsuncut.com, is a shot-for-shot crowd-sourced remake of "Star Wars," diced into 15-second segments and re-created, reenacted, reanimated and recontextualized piece by piece by fans from around the world. Conceived by 26-year-old Casey Pugh -- formerly a developer at Vimeo, on whose platform "Uncut" lives -- the project began last year. But it reached fruition earlier this month when an official, perfectly imperfect shadow version of the original film, stitched together from 472 component parts (selected by vote from multiple entries), went live on the Internet. And on Aug. 21, at the Academy of Television Arts & Science's Creative Arts awards, the website won a Primetime Emmy in the category Interactive Fiction...
Apparently, there's no such thing as a quiet little corner of the world when your name is James Cameron. "Welcome to the wind tunnel," the 56-year-old filmmaker said as a Santa Monica sea breeze gusted through the French doors of his beachside hotel room on a recent afternoon. A hard-backed "Avatar" poster flew off a tripod stand in the corner and the filmmaker chuckled.
"Look at that, Neytiri just leaps at you the moment you walk in the room."
Surprise attacks and second winds are fitting imagery these days. "Avatar," the December release that stands as the highest-grossing film in history and was still showing on 500 screens as recently as mid-April, will return to theaters Friday with nine minutes of additional footage and somewhat uncertain ambitions.
The ubiquitous "Avatar" pulled in $2.4 billion in worldwide box office, which raises the question of who the target audience is for the release of "Avatar: Special Edition" — how can moviegoers miss a film if it never really went away? More than that, "Avatar" now stands as the bestselling Blu-ray ever and in its first three weeks on shelves the film sold a record-breaking 19 million units on DVD and Blu-ray.
"This is the big experiment — we're coming out after the home-video release and relatively close on the heels of that home-video release," writer-director Cameron said. "That's what's weird about this. Most people would say that ends the life cycle. But we know that there were not enough 3-D screens out there to support two big pictures when ‘Alice in Wonderland' opened [on March 5] and then ‘How to Train Your Dragon,' they took half our screens. We know there were a lot of people at that point who wanted to see ‘Avatar' in 3-D on a big screen. Does all that go away after the home-video release? My instinct is that people who wanted to see it on a big screen will still want to see it on a big screen."
Cameron says he hopes to pull in moviegoers who typically dislike sci-fi but may have softened their stance while watching "Avatar" win the Golden Globe for best picture and earn top Oscar nominations, including best director and best film. Most of all, though, he is counting on the true-believer constituency being lured back by the new scenes, which include a dramatic hunt sequence that pits Na'vi spears against the sturmbeest, a large herd animal that Cameron calls "Pandora's answer to a buffalo..."
It's the 30th anniversary of "The Empire Strikes Back," and what better way to look back on that dark pinnacle of the "Star Wars" franchise than in mute admiration...
New York writer Michael Giltz takes a long look back at a truly strange sensation -- "Twin Peaks," the eccentric and eerie murder mystery that took network television down a strange path in 1990.
The TV series "Twin Peaks" hit network television with the impact of a meteor 20 years ago. It changed the landscape forever and can now be seen as the harbinger of numerous trends: the flood of top film directors who now work in television regularly; complex, even enigmatic story lines that lasted for seasons; fan obsession taken to a new level via the Internet; cinematic production values becoming commonplace; and above all the creative risk-taking that everyone from major networks to tiny cable channels must take in order to survive.
"We're still talking about it 20 years later, and we're not talking about a lot of shows that were on then," says Tim Brooks, TV historian and co-author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows." "It reminded us that American television could be experimental."
Indeed, the show featured dream-like sequences, surrealism, a giant offering gnomic utterances and a backward-talking dwarf, among many other unexpected touches. Brooks lists "The X-Files" and "Lost" as among the shows that clearly followed in its wake.
For co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost as well as star Kyle MacLachlan, the show about Special Agent Dale Cooper and his investigation of a murder in a small lumber town still looms large, despite their many successes since then.
Lynch quotes the Bhagavad Gita ("Man has control of action alone, never the fruits of the action") before expressing his bemused, delighted reaction to the biggest pop cultural hit of his career.
"When you make something, you don't know what's going to happen when you release it into the world," says Lynch. "And when something like 'Twin Peaks' goes like it did, you just stand back and you just can't ... there's no … you did not control and make it happen. Something else is going on."
For MacLachlan, it was the role of a lifetime."That perhaps is my most favorite character I've ever done," says MacLachlan, who has gone on to success on shows including "Sex and the City" and "Desperate Housewives." Speaking of TV in general, he says, "Creatively, I think there've been very few things that have even come close to touching 'Twin Peaks.'"
Gary Kurtz, the producer of the first two "Star Wars" films and the man who walked away from the franchise in 1980, is not the excitable type. He speaks in even tones and pragmatic terms, but there was a clear tinge of eager energy in his voice when he sat down recently to discuss "Panzer 88," his first foray into effects-heavy feature films since the 1980s.
"It's a good, good project, you haven't seen anything like it for a while," Kurtz said of the spooky wartime adventure that is planned as a $20 million independent film and will begin shooting in the winter. "It's a visceral, reality-based story with horror overtones, and the idea is to have be like the best of the graphic novels these days."
The plot follows the five-man German crew of theIlsa -- a King Tiger, the biggest tank of its day -- on a mission to the frigid and fearsome Russian border, where they tread into an ancient mystery by stirring a powerful entity. The original screenplay was written by Aaron Mason and James Cowan; they share the writing credit with Peter Briggs, who will direct. Briggs, who co-wrote the screenplay for "Hellboy," finds himself back in the paranormal territories of the Third Reich, but he said this film hopes for a different caliber of character emotion and a "Band of Brothers" sort of ensemble.
"I'd already written a paranormal World War II sequence in the opening of 'Hellboy,' the British filmmaker said. "Tonally, 'Panzer 88' is a tad different from that. Our military aspects are more realistic, and mostly akin to the claustrophobic action and tension of 'Das Boot.' We're aiming to do for the tank genre what 'Hunt For Red October' and 'Crimson Tide' did for submarine flicks. Only, with a supernatural twist. We're upping the ante with visuals, equipment, and scenes that have never been seen in a World War II milieu. In retrospect, it's strange nobody's thought to do this in quite this way before..."
Ask most moviegoers to name a comic-book movie and they'll say "Iron Man," "The Dark Knight" or maybe one of the "Spider-Man" films, but the sector goes far beyond the superhero fare -- just consider the jarringly eclectic film festival you could organize with comics adaptations like "Persepolis," "Ghostworld," "Akira," "Sin City," "300," "History of Violence," "Men in Black," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," "American Splendor" and "30 Days of Night."
The best of the no-cape comics adaptations? Here's a vote for "Road to Perdition," the 2002 crime masterpiece that has just arrived on Blu-ray for the first time and looks fantastic in the format. The movie presents a grim tribal tale of fathers and sons in the Irish gangland of Depression-era Chicago and the cast is outstanding.
Two cinema titans, Paul Newman and Tom Hanks, are studies in restraint and emotional simmer and there is plenty of talent around them with Tyler Hoechlin, Daniel Craig, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law in a truly memorable turn as soicopathic hit man who sells photos of his own crime scenes, a brilliant mash-up of Frank Nitti and Weegee...
On Tuesday (Aug. 24) I'll be interviewing Ray Bradbury and Hugh Hefner on stage at the WGA Theater(135 S. Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills) right before a screening of François Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451." The two icons have a strong mutual admiration society and Bradbury recently told Elizabeth Kivowitz Boatright-Simon of UCLA about the role of Playboy in the classic novel's arrival in the public consciousness.
Bradbury's 90th birthday is Monday and there's a wide range of events in Los Angeles to mark the milestone. UCLA has set up a wonderful online tribute to the famed author with more videos like the one above, writings by Bradbury, a "Fahrenheit" time line and trivia too. There's even a spot where you can leave a birthday greeting for Bradbury. I hope to chat with some Hero Complex readers at the Aug. 24 event, be sure to say hello. For RSVP information, go to the Ray Bradbury Week page on Facebook.
French writer-director Alexandre Aja has a succinct and pithy way to describe his new horror movie, "Piranha 3D": " 'Gremlins' for adults."
That might surprise anyone who has seen the 10 minutes of leaked footage from Aja's movie making the rounds on the Internet, in which a school of hungry prehistoric fish takes a serious bite out of a debauched spring-break party at fictional Lake Victoria. At one point, a support cable holding up a floating riser comes loose and careens through the air, slicing through a woman’s blue bikini top and severing her torso; the upper half of her body is seen sinking into the depths of the bloody water. And she's just one of dozens of scantily clad revelers who meet with a gruesome end under a blindingly bright azure sky.
If memory serves, nothing like that happened in Joe Dante's 1984 hit "Gremlins" -- even if you got the movie's sweet-natured, doe-eyed creatures wet or fed them after midnight.
Then again, Aja, 32, has earned a reputation among genre aficionados for uncompromising films that marry a striking Grand Guignol aesthetic to pointed political subtext. His 2003 debut "High Tension" put a feminist spin on the slasher flick, and his 2006 remake of Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" included a scene in which a desperate father murdered a desert-dwelling enemy by stabbing him with an American flag.
"Piranha," he asserts, is intentionally very different from his previous efforts -- a list that also includes "Mirrors," the 2008 Kiefer Sutherland film. During a recent chat in a Hollywood office building where he was frantically trying to finish the movie's elaborate conversion to 3-D, Aja said he did have some bigger themes on his mind this time around -- what the phenomenon of spring break says about the larger American culture, for example. But to be clear, “Piranha” is not some sort of high-minded message movie. It’s a hard-R-rated, campy gorefest envisioned by its director as a love letter to the 1980s -- hence the casting of actors so strongly identified with that era, including Elisabeth Shue and Christopher Lloyd. (In another fun homage, "Jaws" star Richard Dreyfuss makes a cameo.)
Despite its title, though, it is not an updated version of Dante's Roger Corman-produced "Piranha" from 1978.
"It's not a remake," Aja says. "It's a very, very different movie. The studio decided to acquire the rights to the original to be able to use the title, because we are living in a world where title is more important than anything and where marketing took over all the creative process. I'm not saying that in a negative way; it's the reality. It's just a title that is more easy to package and to market to the audience. Even if you're coming from the planet Mars, you go to the multiplex and you see 'Piranha,' you know what it is. It's going to be a movie about a piranha creature; it's going to be fun."
Susan King writes about classic Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times (and now for Hero Complex) and has interviewed many of the giants of cinema and pop culture over the decades. She says one of the more memorable encounters was a visit to the wonderfully cluttered desk of Ray Bradbury.
Ray Bradbury has the most amazing dreams. “I write screenplays," he says with a wink, "in the middle of the night." When he wakes in the morning, he calls his daughter in Arizona and dictates his dispatch from the Land of Nod, just the latest story in a life of imagination.
John Horn caught up with Robert Rodriguez on Monday to talk about the success of "The Expendables" and the epic fail of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" at the box office for an earlier article, and the conversation turned toward the filmmaker's own plans.
Robert Rodriguez sounds like he's drawing a bead on "Deadpool." But will he pull the trigger?
“It’s a great script and a great property,” an enthusiastic Rodriguez said of the Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick ("Zombieland") screenplay that would bring the "merc with the mouth" from Marvel Comics to the screen in his own film adventure.
Rodriguez says he has been in meetings with Twentieth Century Fox about directing the film, which, presumably, would star Ryan Reynolds, who portrayed the glib gunman "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Reynolds is becoming a major player in comic-book cinema considering his roles in next year's "Green Lantern" film, the planned "R.I.P.D." adaptation as well as his work in the "Blade" franchise.
Rodriguez, who just finished the final sound mix of "Machete," sounded gung ho about "Deadpool" but added that he is still debating his next project. “I’m just working everything out,” Rodriguez said, noting that he is choosing between three options for his next directing job. He said one is the long-discussed "Sin City 2" but he declined to name the other, though it could be "Nerveracker," a far-future thriller that was announced last year but hasn't moved as quickly as anticipated.
PHOTO: Robert Rodriguez at Comic-Con International in San Diego. (Brian van der Brug / Los AngelesTimes). ARTWORK: Marvel Comics
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.
Ben Fritz covers the business of show business for the Los Angeles Times and the Company Town blog and is a familiar byline here at the Hero Complex. Today he looks at the weekend fizzle of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World."
You'd be hard-pressed to find a movie as beloved by those who turned out opening weekend as "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World." It garnered an average grade of A- and it would have been an A if not dragged down by the small number of people over 35 who saw the movie and just didn't take to it.
"Pilgrim" fans loved director Edgar Wright's loyalty to the books, from quirky humor to visual effects inspired by video games. Acoloytes were all over blogs and Twitter professing their love, and many are already planning to go see it a second time, if they haven't already.
Nonetheless, it ended up one of the summer's biggest box-office bombs. Universal Pictures spent $85 million to make the effects-heavy movie (that's before tax credits) and sold only $10.6 million of tickets on opening weekend, far behind box office winner "The Expendables," which opened to $35 million.
Why the disconnect? John Horn and I investigated with a piece in today's Los Angeles Times. Here's an excerpt:
For Amy Berciano, this was the moviegoing weekend of the summer.
More than a year before "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" hit movie theaters, the 20-year-old UCLA junior became a huge fan of the graphic novels that inspired the film. At July's Comic-Con International in San Diego, she waited more than an hour to meet the cast and filmmakers; "I even kissed [director] Edgar Wright on the cheek!" she bragged.
After attending the debut midnight screening of the movie Thursday night while dressed as one of the characters — Knives Chao, Scott Pilgrim's obsessive ex-girlfriend — Berciano declared herself eminently satisfied. "They got the tone of the book just right, especially the way they brought to life those fighting scenes," she said. "I couldn't get enough."
Her enthusiasm was shared by nearly everyone who saw the film in its opening weekend, particularly those younger than 35, who gave "Scott Pilgrim" an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore. Universal's internal exit polls were equally strong, and the film attracted scores of positive reviews.
But as last weekend's box office numbers rolled in, all that hardly mattered at all.
The movie sold only $10.6 million worth of tickets, a disappointing figure given that Universal Pictures spent about $85 million, before tax credits, on production and tens of millions more on marketing.
