Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Informant! Trailer

Here is the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh's upcoming The Informant starring Matt Damon. Expect good laughs from Damon here. What do you think?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Best Song category

Last year it was declared that no film could receive more than 2 Oscar nominations in the Best Song category. This year, a new rule has been applied that could affect the number of nominees in the category altogether. Indeed, a song must now receive a tuning score of over 8.25 between 6 and 10 to be determined by Academy members in order to qualify for a nomination. That means that if no song receives a score higher than 8.25, then no Best Song Oscar will be awarded that year. If only one song gets the score, then the next song with the highest score qualifies for a nomination and only 2 songs would be nominated. And with this new rule, the number of nominees will vary between 2 and 5 every year. Not to judge too harshly, but does the Academy really want to be too difficult with this category? This looks very ridiculous in my view, but what do you think?

Amelia Trailer

With already two Oscars in hand, Hilary Swank seems like an early favorite for Best Actress as she stars in the biopic of Amelia Earhart from director Mira Nair (Vanity Fair). Also starring Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor, look for this film to pick up a few nominations in the technical categories and quite possibly, due to the new rule change, a Best Picture candidate perhaps. What do you think?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Oscar goes back to its roots

It was announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis that at next year's Oscar ceremony, the Best Picture category will expand its list from five nominess to ten. While the move is not unprecedented (until 1944, the Oscars had 10 or more nominations in the category), it certainly comes as a surprise to many. The idea of the Academy making a top 10 might open the door to many films which might not usually make the traditional cut (just last year, The Dark Knight and WALL-E may have in all logic been nominated were there 10 nominees) which will certainly please movie fans but where exactly do we draw the line? While certain films deserve to be nominated for a Best Picture within a certain year without making the cut, the purpose is to select the films which will be remembered through time as the absolute best. We must question as whether all ten films really deserved to be labeled as Best Picture nominees. Anyway, ten nominees certainly open the door for more fan-favorite films so we might see blockbusters or animated films slip into the category from now on. What do you think?

Friday, June 12, 2009

Bond gets a heavy... writer

With Academy Award winner Paul Haggis working on the last two Bond films with usual scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, successfully 'rebooting' the franchise, it has been confirmed that the next Bond film will be penned by Purvis, Wade and two-time Oscar nominee Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon). It is unclear if Haggis will participate at this point but it will definitely be interesting to have a fresh and talented mind behind this popular franchise. What do you think?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Shutter Island Trailer

A lot of questions surround this film for the upcoming Oscar season. This marks the fourth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. All three previous films went on to be nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Scorsese, winning both for The Departed. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Actor for The Aviator, losing to Jamie Foxx for Ray. For both The Aviator and The Departed, Scorsese faced off against Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (winning against Aviator) and Letters from Iwo Jima. With his Invictus coming out this year, will these two (arguably of the best filmmakers of our generation) be facing each other yet again? With these questions in mind, here is the first trailer for Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island. Enjoy!

J.J. and Tom pair again

It appears that J.J. Abrams is not looking for a break. He will join up with Tom Cruise as a producer for the upcoming Mission:Impossible 4 in which Cruise will star again as Ethan Hunt. They are already working on a plot for the film. What do you think?

Three confirmed for The Hobbit!

According to Guillermo Del Toro in a recent interview, it appears that Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Hugo Weaving (Elrond) have confirmed to participate in The Hobbit films in their original roles, so that is great news for LOTR fans who will be looking forward for the two films. What do you think?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Whiplash premiere

Here is your first look of Mickey Rourke as Russian baddie Ivan Vanko a.k.a. Whiplash in the upcoming Iron Man 2 opposite Robert Downey Jr. It is still unclear if this character will be employed by Tony Stark's competitor Justin Hammer, played by Sam Rockwell, but you can see his Russian tattoos and a design of his suit and whips, so we'll see how much he'll be able to pound Iron Man. What do you think?

Monday, June 8, 2009

A new Expendable?

According to Moviehole, Steven Seagal recently turned down an offer to participate in one of the biggest action projects in years, Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables because of disagreements with Avi Lerner, one of the film's producers. Fans shouldn't be too disappointed, because it is now rumored that none other than Bruce Willis is currently in talks to participate in the film. Adding John McClane to an all-stellar action cast (Sly, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Eric Roberts, Danny Trejo and Randy Couture, not to mention a cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger), this should promise to be a great hit. What do you think?

Monsters, Inc. Sequel?

With Pixar's tenth hit at the box-office in Up, director Pete Docter is rumored to be working on a sequel to the 2001 Monsters, Inc. which was nominated for a Animated Feature Film award (Shrek won the award). The film went on to make over 250 million dollars at the domestic box office. It would be fun to see if the original characters would be involved. We'll keep you updated.

Full House Film?

Rumours are currently circulating that John Stamos is working to adapt the television series in which he starred in into a motion picture event. A TV series turned into a movie is often a big risk, especially when younger audiences haven't seen the series run, but Get Smart was a good comedy last summer, so we'll see if this project becomes a reality in the near future.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Invictus release date

According to Variety magazine, Clint Eastwood's next pic Invictus will be released on December 11th, just on time for Oscar season. The Nelson Mandela biopic starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, once called the Human Factor, should be a heavy favorite especially for Freeman if Clint continues his hot streak. What do you think?

Thursday, June 4, 2009

R.I.P. David Carradine

The actor who made his fame with the series Kung Fu and was recently seen as the titled character Bill in the Kill Bill movies, passed away today at the age of 72. You will be missed.