Who says the movies are recession-proof? A lot of people, actually, yet for every record-breaking opening weekend while the economy is in the shitter, a small film studio, distributor or film festival is likely still hurting financially. Maybe even going bankrupt.
Today movie lovers are saddened by the financial woes experienced by two very different film-based institutions. CineVegas, a favorite film festival of Spout’s Karina Longworth, announced it will be taking a year off due to the current economy. Meanwhile, MGMis also in a desperate situation, though not necessarily due to the recession, and that could mean future Hobbitand James Bond films are also at least temporarily in jeopardy.
I’m not as concerned for those film franchises as I am for Leo the Lion, beloved MGM mascot and monumental film icon. I hope to never have to see the likely punny headlines referencing a certain Tokens song if the lion is forever put to sleep. As for CineVegas, I’ve never even been to the Sin City event, so I can’t speak firsthand to what a loss this is for the 2010 film fest circuit. Still, it made me very sad to read the news of its troubles today.
Check out what the film blogs have to say about each of these depressing stories after the jump: …Read more
Disney probably should have saved its Marvel acquisition news for this week’s big D23 Expo (”The Ultimate Disney Fan Experience”), because nothing announced at the event could possibly top it. Plus, many of us would rather now hear about Disney’s plans for the comic company’s film adaptations instead of plot details on Toy Story 3and Cars 2 and a title reveal for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbeaninstallment. The fact that Guillermo Del Toro’s secret “D” project ended up being just some animation production company rather than a Deadmanmovie doesn’t help fanboy reactions, either.
Still, I was glad to hear that the screening of the first 30 minutes of The Princess and the Frogwas well received. I’m also grateful for comedian Paul Scheer for this image of a robot Abe Lincoln. Although it’s probably just a relic from the Halls of Presidents exhibit at Disneyland, I’ll be dreaming tonight of the Lincoln film I wishSteven Spielberg would make.
Oh, and umm, any update on the next Muppet movie is obviously going to put a smile on my face. Presumably this is the Jason Segal project we’ve been excited about for 18 months now. And it’s title is: The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made. Hopefully this means Gonzo will be directing and that it will therefore be as silly as possible.
Check out the other film blog reactions to the D23 announcements after the jump:
Many have wondered how it’s possible to have so many irons in the fire. Is he going to shoot Frankenstein on his cell phone during the 14-hour flight from New Zealand after meeting with Peter Jackson? Is the Heavy Metal segment just going to be a deleted scene from Hellboy III? No, the truth is much more exciting. Del Toro recently lost one of his legendary sketchbooks, in which he constantly records his many ideas. We have obtained that sketchbook. Amid the detailed sketches of demons, faeries, and man-eating toads, we found the secret to his insane schedule: All thirteen aforementioned projects are actually a single film. A fantastic eight-hour epic the likes of which cinema has never seen!
The following is the pitch Mr. del Toro delivered to the executives of Universal Studios, as transcribed in his sketchbook:
Following his five-year commitment to the two-partHobbit movies, Guillermo Del Toro already has enough projects lined up to keep him busy and us entertained through the end of the next decade. In his pipeline are new, more faithful versions of “Frankenstein,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and “Slaughterhouse-Five,” as well as an adaptation of Dan Simmons’ upcoming novel “Drood,” about Charles Dickens. Oh, and there’s always that chance of him making another Hellboysequel, too. Apparently he’ll be able to keep all productions alive simultaneously by maintaining a split personality and an uncontrollable ability to become unstuck in time.
Remember that TV series that involved five individuals who came together to make one bigger superpower? I mean Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but if you were thinking of Voltron, you were kinda close. Mark Makowski, whose biggest credit is for directing episodes of Queer Eye, is in talks to helm the bigscreen, live-action version of Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
Unsurprisingly, Disney’s direct-to-video Little Mermaidprequel, Ariel’s Beginning, sold like hotcakes last week. Now I can still hope for DTV spin-offs and sequels like Caterpillar’s Hookah-Induced Adventures and Song of the South II: Intolerance.
Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army hits theaters this Friday. Del Toro is a rare filmmaker who, despite his unique vision, often works on projects based on material from an outside source (Pan’s Labyrinth being a notable exception). Assuming all the legal issues get ironed out, he’ll next direct a two part film adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the most prestigious property to date to get the del Toro treatment. Here are seven either failed or unjustly obscure movies ripe for being remade by Hellboy’s father.
1. Spawn - Todd McFarlane’s comic about a Hell-trotting anti-hero indebted to the Devil opened my young eyes to genuinely dark storytelling. While the 90s were a simpler time in terms of comic to movie adaptations, I was already dreaming about a big screen adaptation after reading the first issue. Unfortunately, my dream came true in 1997, when Mark A.Z. Dippé’s god-awful Spawn slumped into theaters.
It’s been three months since the trades reported Guillermo Del Toro was in talks to direct The Hobbit(as two separate films). So why has it taken this long for the deal to be set in stone? Over at The Movie Blog, John thinks some of it had to do with Del Toro wanting to make sure he would have enough creative control, considering he’ll be working for producer Peter Jackson.
How much control will Guillermo del Toro have? I’ll be willing to bet this was one of the big issues delaying the official announcement of his agreeing to direct the projects. Peter Jackson helmed The Lord of the Rings… will he allow del Toro (a better director over all in my opinion… although both are insanely gifted) the freedom to make these films as he sees fit with modestly limited interference? Clearly del Toro should listen to the studio and to Jackson in particular… but these are HIS movies now, not Jacksons, and for the most part he needs to be the man in charge now. Will they let that happen?
April 1 proves that there are essentially two types of people on the internet––nay, in the world!––those who think rickrolling is funny, and those who really, really don’t. I’m the latter, somebody at YouTube is the former, and the philosophical gulf keeping us apart is not easily reckoned with. Oh, internet…I love you, but you’re getting me down.
But because the last thing I want is for you to forget what day it is only be taken in by nefarious pranksters, here’s a round-up of fake movie stories I’ve come across on this agonizing day of digital torture. Hey let’s make this interactive––you can vote for where each one falls on the Painfully Unamusing Scale in the comments!
Peter Jackson will follow up The Lovely Bones by directing both The Hobbit and The Hobbit 2. [If It's Movies]
Benicio DelToro drops out of the remake of The Wolfman, to be replaced by “[Snarl] Busey, fathered by Gary Busey during an affair with a coyote six years ago during a trip to New Mexico.” [FilmDrunk]
Harrison Ford will star in Han Solo. Written by Carrie Fisher, the belated Star Wars sequel “will tell of the Space Pirate’s post-Return of the Jedi life – his rocky relationship with Leia, their mischievous Jedi-training twins, and principally, Solo’s ongoing battle with The Hutt’s.” Sic. [Moviehole]
Leonardo DiCaprio, whose character––spoiler alert!––ostensibly died at the end of Titanic, will nonetheless be back for Titanic 2: A New Voyage. Reports Fandango: “One version that has been slowly leaking onto the Internet finds DiCaprio’s character, Jack Dawson, last seen submerged and turning blue, being picked up by a Portuguese trawler and miraculously thawed out.”
IGN has a trailer for a movie based on The Legend of Zelda. It’s really elaborate and totally humorless, so who knows––based on the game-to-movie track record, it would not be outside the realm of possibility if this were real.
David Edelstein apologizes for suggesting that Harvey Weinstein might have limited the late Anthony Minghella’s potential. Oh, wait––this might be a real story. I don’t even know anymore!!! They shoot film bloggers, don’t they?
In what is something like the 27th lawsuit to arise from New Line’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate is suing the film studio for $150 million, based on claims that “the trust has not received any of its gross profit participation payments for the three films based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.” The estate also wants to sever all ties between Tolkien’s works and New Line, which means bye-bye to The Hobbit if the suit is successful.
In more franchise news, the new 3D animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars will debut in theaters this summer before moving to several Turner-owned cable networks in the fall. And for the first time, George Lucas is partnering with Warner Brothers instead of Fox to get his robot drivel works of genius to the masses.
And you thought the reviews of Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead skewed skeevy…Marisa Tomei will play a stripper in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.
I’m sure you heard about the announcement heard round Middle Earth the world yesterday: Peter Jackson has settled his differences with New Line and has come on board as executive producer of the studio’s two Lord of the Ringsprequels. It wasn’t mentioned in the press release, but Jackson has decided not to direct either of the installments in New Line’s adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, though the news that he’s involved should be enough. Clearly, the studio simply needed to get some good news, any good news, out there — likely more for Time Warner shareholders than Tolkien or Jackson fans.
I wasn’t the only person to immediately assume the settlement between Jackson and New Line had something to do with the latter’s disappointment with the box office of The Golden Compass. Both bloggers and blog comments were quick to claim that, “The Golden Compass’s low box office was the best thing that could have happened for LotR fans” (said “E” on Cinematical) and pat themselves on the back, as if it was all planned: “Well done everyone for not turning up for Compass!!” (from “wildphantom07″ on AICN). The real question, then, is how much more in Jackson’s favor was the settlement? We’ll probably never know, but we can imagine. After a very bad year, New Line was possibly pretty desperate.
Of course, nobody at the studio would ever admit to such a suggestion. Entertainment Weekly has the denial:
New Line is quick to point out that The Hobbit resolution is in no way a reaction to disappointing domestic box office numbers for their most recent release, The Golden Compass, which they had hoped would launch a new franchise. “Absolutely not,” said Lynne. “This has been in the works for a while now. Golden Compass, by the way, overseas, is performing spectacularly. Obviously, we have been disappointed with its performance here, but I think overall it will do quite well.”
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Disney probably should have saved its Marvel acquisition news for this week’s big D23 Expo (”The Ultimate Disney Fan Experience”), because nothing announced at the event could possibly top it. Plus, many of us would rather now hear about Disney’s plans for the comic company’s film adaptations instead of plot details on Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 and a title reveal for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment. The fact that Guillermo Del Toro’s secret “D” project ended up being just some animation production company rather than a Deadman movie doesn’t help fanboy reactions, either.
It’s been three months since 
April 1 proves that there are essentially two types of people on the internet––nay, in the world!––those who think 
In what is something like the 27th 
