It’s an appropriate week for Universal to announce they’re making an adaptation of the classic Atari game Asteroids, because chances are the thing will end up opening on a 4th of July weekend. Just like Independence Day and Armageddon. Actually, as far as I can tell a movie of that arcade game could very well be a sequel to Armageddon. Except that Universal won the four-studio bidding war, and Disney did not (I’m unsure if Disney was even one of the bidders, which also included Fox and Sony). But Disney should go ahead with Armageddon 2 anyway in order to give us another summer like that of ‘98. DreamWorks can also get in the game with a Deep Impact sequel, but it’d probably have to be distributed by Disney, so that might be an issue.
I have to concentrate on when this thing will be, because focusing on what this thing will be is futile. And that’s the primary reaction to the news today: what the hell will an Asteroids movie be about that will fill up a feature-length running time? And why did four studios fight over such a simple property? Check out some of these reactions from the film blogs after the jump:
…Read more
Tragedies often affect films with untimely footage and/or marketing. Usually it’s something like 9/11, a space shuttle disaster or a sniper on the loose that causes Hollywood to show its sensitivity by delaying film releases and pulling trailers from theaters. I can’t recall a situation when the death of an individual influenced an upcoming movie’s ads or content. Last night, though, out of respect to Michael Jackson, the makers of Bruno cut a scene featuring MJ’s sister, LaToya Jackson.
I haven’t seen the film so I can’t say how the scene played out, but it is odd how PC the filmmakers are being considering the intentionally offensive tone and focus of their mockumentary. Does it even have that much connection to MJ to be viewed as being in poor taste? And anyway, won’t most of the audience for this film be over MJ’s death enough in two weeks, when the movie opens in theaters?
Check out what the film blogs are saying about the cut after the jump:
…Read more
Sorry for the late posting of the Bloggery, but I’ve been traveling all day to a retirement community in Arizona, and as you might guess the Interweb isn’t the hottest thing in these parts (obviously the hottest thing is the temperature, but anyway…).
So, I’m a bit late in addressing the news about Universal making a Where’s Waldo film, but it is the most fun movie topic of the past 24 hours (plus), and I just can’t let it be passed up for anything else. Mostly I just want to call back the clip of the day from almost exactly one year ago where I spotlighted a Bourne Ultimatum parody involving everyone’s favorite hard-to-find world/time traveler. And the thing I find most interesting about this actual film-to-be is that Universal is the same studio that produces the Bourne movies. Could there be at least a crossover cameo from Matt Damon? I am certain that he’d be down for a little winking tribute to that excellent fake trailer.
After the jump, check out a roundup of other blogged responses to the Where’s Waldo movie:
…Read more

It’s Halloween, a time when sales of candy and rentals of horror movies spike off the charts. Candy has been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians, but the horror film is barely 100 years old. The genre is enjoying a resurgence in popularity over the past several years: right now you’ve got Saw V in wide release, Let The Right One In in limited theaters, the vampy teen Twilight coming up in a few weeks and True Blood making waves on HBO. Studios can’t seem to go more than a few months without releasing some sort of a zombie flick, and vampires are coming back into their own.
But what was the first real horror film? Before movies existed, people had to get their scares from books and the local newspaper, but now you can just switch on cable and tune into NBC’s Chiller channel for instant scares. Check out a brief history of the horror movie after the break, and look just how far we’ve come.
…Read more

The casts and crews of The Mummy: Brendan Fraser Must Do Huge Business Internationally and Death Race show off their wares. Yay, unnecessary sequels and remakes! (Yes, Karina wrote this intro.)
Highlights:
–Sam Raimi says another Evil Dead movie is “in the wheelhouse.” If you’re not familiar with it, that expression means “being very close to accomplishing a goal.”
–Two surprise clips of Drag Me To Hell were shown; one was good/funny, the other awful.
–Sid and Marty Krofft say H.R. Puffnstuf will be turned into a movie after Land of the Lost, and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters after that.”
–Brendan Fraser is apparently perennially hopped up on over-the-counter cold medicine.
–Joan Allen swears a lot in Death Race.
Full live blog after the jump!
…Read more
Two days after the Universal Studios fire, there are a lot of rumors going around as to the extent of the damage. A FishbowlLA tipster from a revival house in Alabama fed the blog an email that they say came directly from Universal, warning that “nearly 100% of the archive prints kept” on the lot went up in flames, and as a result, the studio “will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here.” The tragic details after the jump.
…Read more
As if Toy Fair 2008 wasn’t reminding us enough about the intermingling of Hollywood and the toy and game industry, Hasbro and Universal had to go and announce a six-year partnership, which will result in at least four (mostly) board-game-inspired feature films. It wasn’t that surprising, considering the success of Transfomers and the anticipated success of G.I. Joe, both of which are based on Hasbro properties, and the still-shocking news from last summer that Ridley Scott is developing a Monopoly movie (not to mention that Hasbro had previously announced its intentions while switching from CAA to William Morris last year). Plus, this comes as a perfect follow-up to the recent Mattel/CAA team-up.
Personally, I’m wondering why the deal is so exclusive against brands that aren’t board games (Stretch Armstrong being the exception). I would love to see movies based on Mr. Potato Head, Lincoln Logs and Easy-Bake Oven. And as far as the games that aren’t getting any love, I’d be interested in movies based on Guess Who, Mouse Trap, Jenga and Risk (the Australians take over the world!!). Like me, the rest of the blogosphere has gone ga-ga for alternate ideas. Also, a lot of bloggers have been overly critical of the deal and have had some harsh responses to the list of properties that were optioned for the partnership. Check out some of my favorites after the jump.
…Read more
Link: Why Hollywood Movies Prefer to Premiere in New York.
“But the real reason is that New York’s the home base for the burgeoning, always-hungry celeb-photo press, guaranteeing coverage…The joke is that I don’t think you have to show the movie. If you say “red carpet”, they’ll come, they’ll take the pictures, they’ll ask the same questions, and they’ll go home”
This reminds me of a great article I read in The Times a couple of weeks ago about the recent decline in the box office. In the article, Mr. Lynton of Sony said he would be focused on making, “only movies we hope will be really good.” Mr. Shmuger, of Universal, said the he intends to reassert “time and passion” in movie production. He goes on to say that some of his own summer movies should have never been made.
It is evident to me that Hollywood is willing to blow off their audience if it does not effect their bottom-line. But now, audiences are no longer taking Hollywood’s crap and are forcing them to actually think about making quality films. They are no longer fulfilled by the empty experiences of the multiplex. As audiences are turning away from the multiplex, what will we do now for our film watching experience?
Dave