When you see the words "performance artist" in a news article, you can almost bet the words "publicity stunt" will soon follow, and I believe that's what we have here. A Beijing artist named Zhao Bandi, who uses images of pandas in all his work and walks around all the time carrying a stuffed panda, is suing DreamWorks over its offensive depiction of the animal -- the Chinese national symbol -- in the recent animated hit Kung Fu Panda.
The film has been successful in China, too -- or, as Varietyputs it, "has done boffo B.O." -- which suggests the average Chinese citizen doesn't find it insulting. But Zhao says differently. His two major points of contention? First, Po, the panda voiced by Jack Black who is the film's protagonist, has green eyes, and green is the color of evil. (I have zoomed in on the eyes in the picture so you can see for yourself how evil they are.) Second, Po's father in the film is not another panda but a duck. (Well, Zhao says he's a duck. I thought he was a goose. If I'm right, will that technicality invalidate the lawsuit?)
Variety quotes Zhao as demanding to see DreamWorks' "creative meeting records" to explain Po's green eyes, which he insists must be a "conspiracy." As for the duck issue, Zhao says this: "Drawing the father of the giant panda as a duck is an insult to the Chinese people. In a few years time, I'm worried some young Chinese people will think their ancestor is Donald Duck." I confess I don't see why thinking you descended from a duck is any worse than thinking you descended from a panda, but my knowledge of Chinese culture is somewhat limited.
Dang it's pretty wild how just one little movie has turned Diablo Cody into the most discussed screenwriter since Joe Eszterhas. (I was going to say "...since David Mamet," but he's a playwright first.) The gal has a tons of projects in the percolation stage -- from the Showtime series The United States of Tara to the Fox-heavy thriller known as Jennifer's Body -- and now she's been hired by Steven Spielberg (once again) to turn one of his ideas into a movie. (It's only a matter of time before Spielberg forces Diablo Cody to marry Shia LaBeouf, isn't it?)
According to Variety, the untitled project is a comedy. Oh, also the "studio is keeping story details under such tight wraps that even dealmakers involved with the project were in the dark." That's it. An idea by Spielberg that Cody will adapt. No producers, actors, directors have been announced. And yet ... somehow I know that DreamWorks already has a hit on its hands.
Just about every studio is still trying to find its Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter franchise, and here is DreamWorks' latest attempt. According to The Hollywood Reporter, they bought the rights to P.B. Kerr's Children of the Lamp series a while back. Lee Hall wrote a draft before the WGA strike, but the duty of adaptation has now been handed to Dave Guion and Michael Handelman. No time-frame or director has been set for the project.
Children of the Lamp is a series of four books that deals with a family of dijinn (known casually to Western culture as genies) who disguise themselves as humans, but can still grant wishes to humans. It centers around two young dijinn twins, John and Philippa Gaunt (nice nod to the Plantegenets there), and their challenges adapting to the world of magic and wish-granting. While honing their skills, they must often confront the powers of evil in order to keep the balance between good and evil. Their adventures take them from their childhood home in Manhattan to the snowy reaches of Nepal.
Yes, it sounds more than a little like Harry Potter, albeit with more globe-trekking. Hopefully, that's just a misconception born of Wikipedia and not a reflection of the actual books. Has anyone out there in Cinematical comment land actually read them, and can fill us in?
Even though the inevitable backlash against Shia LaBeouf has already begun, you have to respect a guy who made his start in flicks like Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd and made his way to the coveted spot of Spielberg's go-to leading man. Plus, he has a way of making me enjoy films that I normally wouldn't plunk down my hard-earned dollars for. Trust me when I say that it took a lot of restraint not to throw things at the screen during Transformers, so, I really hand it to the guy. Hopefully some of that magic will rub off on the Dreamworks action thriller, Eagle Eye. JoBlo now has the first look at the poster and Mr. LaBeouf seems to really be working the 'intense look' this time around.
LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker who returns home after the mysterious death of his successful twin brother -- gee, do you think there will be a case of mistaken identities? Along with a single mother played by Michelle Monaghan, the two are framed as terrorists, and are threatened into becoming members of a cell plotting to assassinate a politician. Joining in on the fun are Rosario Dawson, and Billy Bob Thornton as the two government agents that are a step behind.
Eye reunites LaBeouf with Disturbia director, D.J. Caruso, in an action thriller that was originally on Spielberg's to-do list. Now that we got a better look at the film, the longer trailer helped ease some of my concerns that instead of Rear Window, Caruso and company were looking to rip-off North by Northwest this time around.
I've come to the conclusion that Steven Spielberg must not need any sleep. Because Variety is reporting that he's just added another project to his busy plate: 39 Clues, a multiplatform adventure series that will launch September 9th and run for two years. It spans a series of ten books, collectible cards, and an online game. The game will actually be designed around a contest, where young participants will try to solve the mystery scattered throughout the books, with a chance to win $10,000. Whew! Just typing all that makes me tired, I can't imagine sorting through it to make a movie.
39 Clues does have a neat, Indiana Jones feel to its storyline -- it centers on the most powerful family in the world, the Cahills, who boast Houdini and Napoleon among their relatives. The adventure kicks off in the first book, Maze of Bones, when the death of the Cahill's matriarch, Grace, sparks off a race for the inheritance. She hasn't made it easy, you see: Her last will offers her descendants the choice between $1 million, or a clue. Scattered around the world and throughout history, the clues will reveal the source of the family's secret powers. Spielberg is contemplating taking the director's chair, and aims to have a screenwriter attached in the next few weeks. And the first book hasn't even hit Barnes and Noble yet!
When we last saw a (teaser) trailer for Eagle Eye - the forthcoming thriller that reunites star Shia LaBeouf with Disturbia director D.J. Caruso and Transformers executive producer Steven Spielberg - I commented with something along the lines of, after "reading the synopsis, I've always thought that Caruso and company were following their Rear Window re-do with North by Northwest 2.0."
...which I then followed up with "Whether that's the case or not, I'm a sucker for a chase movie, and more so for [co-star Michelle] Monaghan. Count me in." Well, judging from the new trailer up at Yahoo! Movies, I'll be having a modest amount of crow for lunch later today, as there now seems to be enough distinct differences between that Hitchcock classic and this paranoid techno-thriller that it'll likely excite on its own merits (fingers crossed).
Sure, we seem to have another one of those incredibly elaborate plans on behalf of the baddies that already appears to have too many variables for its own good, but you know what? So long as the thing moves, I'm not above setting aside brains in favor of brawn.
With a cast that also includes Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Michael Chiklis, Eagle Eye hits theaters on September 26.
But is it really fair for Paramount to be bragging so much? On her Variety blog, Anne Thompson weighs in on the news, pointing out that all three of the studio's summer blockbusters were produced outside the main studio. Indiana Jones was Lucasfilm; Iron Man was Marvel; Panda was DreamWorks Animation. Of course, Paramount deserves a lot of credit for the marketing of these films, but Thompson wonders what it will be like if DreamWorks really does break away soon. Fortunately it has a good looking slate for the next few years, thanks to next year's toy-based titles Transformers: Revenge of the Fallenand G.I. Joe, and then the next four or five Marvel Studios releases in 2010 and 2011.
Downey Jr. would play Zeke Jackson, a former Union Army gunslinger, who is engaged in a battle against the Apache. But the battle between settlers and Native Americans is interrupted when an alien spaceship crashes into the Silver City prairie. Turns out, they have their eye on conquering Earth, forcing the warring westerners to form an uneasy alliance.
The project has been in and out of development for years, but apparently the latest draft is catching some A-list interest. As it was written by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who were behind Iron Man and Children of Men, I am immediately expecting good things out of something that, if handled poorly, could be as bad as Wild Wild West. Good writers and a good actor like Downey Jr. could make this movie incredibly fun. This is how movies like the first Pirates of the Caribbean come about.
I have to say, between this and Downey Jr.'s rumored interest in a comic-based Sherlock Holmes, I wonder if he is going to plunge into Hugh Jackman levels of geekdom. They will have to start fighting each other to get to the best comic book scripts. And that should be a movie all its own.
Yahoo! Movies has the first look at the trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and yes, all those sassy creatures that moviegoers dug to the tune of $193.5 million in the summer of 2005 are back, and this time... the penguins still seem to be stealing the show (I don't really have anything against the first movie, but the penguin-centric holiday short spin-off was itself far more amusing and, as such, has been included after the jump.)
From the look (sound?) of things, the entire voice cast is back, as lion Alex (Ben Stiller), hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer), and zebra Marty (Chris Rock) try to return home to New York City from the eponymous island on which they were last stranded. Sacha Baron Cohen also appears to be returning to his role as the nutty Julien, king of the lemurs. Those working on the production have been tight-lipped as to whether or not hijinks and/or pop culture references ensue.
I love a surprise, even a small one like finding out that Kung Fu Panda was more likeable and fun than I might have expected. I have a secret mini-crush on Jack Black (okay, maybe not so secret), so I was hoping that Kung Fu Panda wouldn't suck and if nothing else, I'd be able to enjoy his vocal stylings in the Dreamworks animated film. Surprise! I liked the movie for more reasons than Jack Black.
Black voices the title character, Po, who helps in his father's noodle shop but dreams of becoming a kung fu fighter and joining the Furious Five: Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) and especially Tigress (Angelina Jolie). He wants to watch the Five compete to be the great Dragon Warrior, and is somehow dragged into the selection process himself. Kung-fu master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) is irritated that a fat clumsy clown of a panda is joining his elite cadre of students, especially since it's predicted that the supremely evil snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) may escape from prison and try to steal the Dragon Warrior scroll of power for himself.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks has emerged the victor in a heated bidding war for Bryan K. Vaughan's Roundtable. It seems many studios were desperate to get their hands on his spec, and no wonder -- he is arguably the hottest writer on the market these days.
And I have to say, Roundtable sounds like one heck of an idea, and I am usually very dismissive of King Arthur revisionism. Vaughan's take will be a supernatural comedy along the lines of Ghostbusters. It revolves around Merlin trying to assemble a group of modern day knights to battle an ancient evil, only to discover that they are sorely lacking in the 21st century. The only heroes he can find are washed up athletes, cowardly scientists, or Academy Award winning actors.
The comparison to Ghostbusters has me all wound up -- and even at this stage, it sounds much better than the latest spin on Arthur, Galahad. A comedic take strikes me as far more daring than trying to cast Queen Guinevere as a villain. And who knows? It could be the heir apparent to Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. (Or is that just blasphemy to even utter?)
Perhaps I am just blinded by the talent of Vaughan. But I don't think this man has made a single misstep yet. Even his episodes of LOST are terrific. So I'll turn it over to your unbiased thoughts: Is Roundtable too ridiculous to be believed, or so crazy that it just might work?
After weeks of rumors, centering mostly on Jonah Hill, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the cast of Transformers 2. Joining the just-announced Rainn Wilson, and the already confirmed LaBeouf, will be Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro.
Of course, director Michael Bay is returning to helm it, as well as the original writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are joined by Ehren Kruger.
No word on story details yet, but filming has already begun in Los Angeles. It will move to Pennsylvania, and then overseas. Photos have been cropping up on the Internet already, though largely of scaffolding and trucks at this point.
I hope you're sitting down, because I have shocking news. DreamWorks has scoured all of Japan and managed to find a Japanese film with supernatural elements that has NOT already been remade.
I know! I was as surprised as you are. It's called Yomigaeri (Resurrection), and it was a hit in Japan in 2003, picking up nominations for best director, screenplay, actress, and musical score in Japan's film awards. The film is about a village where the dead are returning to life -- not as zombies, but as regular people, inexplicably back from the great beyond, at the same age they were when they left. It's described not as a horror film but as more of an uplifting fantasy. (That makes sense: I think there really aren't any Japanese horror films that haven't already been remade.)
DreamWorks plans to get to work on the remake later this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with British screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) assigned to the script.
Yomigaeri never played in the U.S. (it did make an appearance at Cannes), so I suspect I'm not alone in being unfamiliar with it. A couple of reviews, here and here, make it sound very intriguing, though, and I'm curious to see what the American version does with it.
I wondered how long it was going to take another studio to hoist the colors. Variety reports that DreamWorks has finally done it, and they're tackling the most famous pirate of all: Blackbeard.
The film will have an interesting team behind the scenes, too: David Franzoni, the writer behind Amistad and Gladiator, will pen the screenplay, and Barry Josephson is producing alongside former prexy/co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, Pat Croce. Croce has a real devotion to piracy -- he wrote Pirate Soul, a book chronicling the Golden Age of piracy, and owns a pirate museum in Key West, Florida. He's working with Franzoni on the screenplay.
Blackbeard's story is certainly open for Hollywood flights of historic fancy, so Franzoni is (for once) safe from my history professors. Other than his death, I don't think there is solid documentation of his exploits. (I'm told by our resident Jack Sparrow that not even the flag touted as his is real.) So the big question is: Will they totally romanticize Edward Teach, or make him as terrifying as he was reported to be? I vote the latter, because I would love two hours of a Captain Barbossa type. Plus the image of his headless body swimming around the Adventure freaked me out as a kid -- I doubt that would be in a movie, but one can hope.
I was hoping Pirates of the Caribbean would start a trend, and that swashbuckling wouldn't end just because Johnny Depp hung up his eyeliner. I want to see more real-life pirates tackled -- everyone from Grace O'Malley to Captain Kidd. Of course, this means my house will never be free of tricorns or cutlasses, but that's just the way it goes.
If you're anything like me, you have completely given up on the next installment of Transformers having even a whiff of plot, and instead you are just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Speaking of, it looks like it's going to be quite the show, too. The keen eyes over Comic2Film noticed that in the Dolby News release for ShoWest 2008, Transformers 2 was listed as a 3D film slated for 2009.
There have been plenty of updates for the film lately, but unfortunately most of them turned out to be smoke and mirrors -- just ask Teresa Palmer. But, a 3D release could be the real deal, even though we haven't heard a peep from Michael Bay on the matter. Kind of surprising, too, considering he is not the kind of guy who likes to keep quiet about these sorts of things.
Transformers 2 is scheduled to start filming on location in Pennsylvania this June, but everything is going to hinge on whether or not the SAG strike can be averted. A 3D release does make sense if you think about it, especially since the only way to top the FX of the first film is to have them flying off the screen at the audience this time around. (Yay! A monster truck is flying toward me at 150mph! Ain't this fun!)
Weigh in below and let us know if you think 3D is the way to go for our robotic friends, or will it just be an excuse for Bay to spend even more time on the FX and even less time on the script?
When you see the words "performance artist" in a news article, you can almost bet the words "publicity stunt" will soon follow, and I believe that's what we have here. A Beijing artist named Zhao Bandi, who uses images of pandas in all his work and walks around all the time carrying a stuffed panda, is suing DreamWorks over its offensive depiction of the animal -- the Chinese national symbol -- in the recent animated hit Kung Fu Panda. 
Dang it's pretty wild how just 
Just about every studio is still trying to find its Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter franchise, and here is DreamWorks' latest attempt. According to 
Even though the inevitable 
I've come to the conclusion that Steven Spielberg must not need any sleep. Because 
Over the weekend, Paramount Pictures International 
According to 
Yahoo! Movies
According to 
After weeks of rumors, centering mostly on Jonah Hill, 
I hope you're sitting down, because I have shocking news. DreamWorks has scoured all of Japan and managed to find a Japanese film with supernatural elements that has NOT already been remade. 
I wondered how long it was going to take another studio to hoist the colors. 
If you're anything like me, you have completely given up on the next installment of Transformers having even a whiff of plot, and instead you are just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Speaking of, it looks like it's going to be quite the show, too. The keen eyes over Comic2Film noticed that in the Dolby News release for ShoWest 2008, 
