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Short Film Corner: Justin Ambrosino's The 8th Samurai
12 December 2009 6:25 PM, PST
| ioncinema
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We caught up with Justin Ambrosino, an up-and-coming filmmaker (and at one time, a reporter on this website) to discuss his latest short-film. - We caught up with Justin Ambrosino, an up-and-coming filmmaker (and at one time, a reporter on this website) to discuss his latest short-film. The 8th Samurai has been making the rounds on the film festival circuit and has managed to garner several awards along the way including the "Best of Fest" Award at the La Shorts Fest. The talented NY filmmaker, and AFI graduate, has been involved with an impressive range of productions in the past; from George Clooney's solid but little known faux-reality series "Unscripted", to Scorsese's "The Departed" (to name a few stand-out titles). Regardless of the roll he played on those sets, his ambition has always been to write and direct. Clearly, he's off to a strong start.As you may have gathered from the title,
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- Ioncinema.com Staff
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James Cameron’s Next Film Revealed?
10 December 2009 6:28 AM, PST
| Filmofilia
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According to Production Weekly, James Cameron developing a new science fiction film.
“Avatar” director is working on a Shane Salerno-scripted sci-fi action script for Fox, described as an “event” film set in the future.
The script is entitled “Doomsday Protocal“, featuring a group of humans and aliens gathered, Seven Samurai-style, to defend the Earth against attack.
Here’s what was offered as a synopsis: “Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is known to be an epic science fiction adventure in the vein of “The Seven Samurai” involving a group of aliens and humans with various abilities who are brought together to save Earth.”
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- Allan Ford
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Cameron's samurai?
9 December 2009 12:25 PM, PST
| JoBlo.com
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James Cameron may have another movie on the horizon with his special obsession, aliens.
These are not your average run of the mill aliens. These aliens wield magnificent samurai swords. It would be something along the lines of Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai. Word of this new project comes from Production Weekly, "James Cameron is developing a Shane Salerno-scripted sci-fi action script for Fox, described as an "event" film set in the future."
However, io9
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- Niki Stephens
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DVD releases for Tuesday December 8, 2009
8 December 2009 8:16 AM, PST
| QuietEarth.us
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Without a doubt, the biggest release of the week is the Ak 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa boxed set coming from The Criterion Collection. The 25 disc set (amazon) has been put together for the occasion of the centenary of his birth and is the largest Kurosawa collection ever assembled. It includes most films spanning his 50 year career (1943 to 1993). At $400 retail however, I'll probably have to settle for revisiting my 3-disc Seven Samurai set for now.
Another big release this week is Home Movie (amazon), Christopher Denham's horror festival favorite. It garnered some amazing reviews when it played well over a year ago, including a 10/10 by our own Rick Mcgrath, so it's gotta be good.
Another long awaited release is Tkashi Miike's cult shocker, Gozu (amazon), which is getting a 2-Disc Collector's Edition.
Carlos Moreno's gangland drama, Dog Eat Dog (amazon), about an "agoraphobic kingpin of the Columbian underworld
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This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: December 8, 2009
8 December 2009 1:20 AM, PST
| Rope of Silicon
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DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
Ak 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa (Criterion Collection)
Sure, there are some of 2009's bigger film releases hitting DVD and Blu-ray this week, but this set from Criterion is undoubtedly the release of the week. This set offers 25 of Akira Kurosawa's films, four of which had never been released on DVD, and an illustrated book featuring an introduction and notes on each of the films by Stephen Prince (The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa) and a remembrance by Donald Richie (The Films of Akira Kurosawa).
I was not sent a copy for review, but DVD Beaver has an extensive three page look at the set right here. If you are interested, it is selling for $284.99 at Amazon as of the posting of this round-up. A list of the films included is directly below followed by a
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- Brad Brevet
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[Mainland Reviews] 我的唐朝兄弟 (The Robbers)
7 December 2009 8:00 AM, PST
| Twitch
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Although predictably (or, better, inevitably) replaced by Mao's legacy as the main melody-themed rush towards the 60th anniversary began in full force, for a good while the favorite piece of Chinese historiography of many a film director and TV producer was the pomp and circumstance of the Tang Dynasty, with leading lights like Li Shimin and Wu Zetian carrying the flag of such exciting and culturally abundant times's glorification. For instance, the honor of essaying Tang Taizong for a second time on CCTV-1's 2007 flagship historical drama, the fascinating 贞观长歌 (The Zhenguan Era), went to Tang Guoqiang, who made a career out of playing legendary figures like Mao Zedong - last in line in the exalted flag-waving douchebaggery of 建国大业 (The Founding of a Republic) - the Three Kingdoms' Zhuge Liang and Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing.
An irresistible mix of John Wayne-like macho posturing, sparks of unyielding youth
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Weekly Poll Results: Best Martial Arts Movie
3 December 2009 10:53 AM, PST
| FilmJunk
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Before we get to this week's poll results, I think it's worth mentioning that there was some heated discussion over what exactly constitutes a "martial arts movie". The truth is, I have no idea... I was thinking of just about any action movie in which the majority of the combat uses some form of Asian fighting style. Clearly that's a pretty broad way to categorize it, but some people felt that a movie like Seven Samurai should not qualify, probably because it has a little more to it than simply fighting for the sake of fighting. Either way, Bruce Lee came out on top, although the number of votes seemed to correspond largely to how well-known a movie was (ie. the more obscure "classics" ended up getting the least number of votes). Do you agree that Enter The Dragon is the greatest martial arts flick of all time? What are
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- Sean
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Criterion Collection DVD & Blu-ray Disc Sale @ Amazon.com
25 November 2009 1:07 AM, PST
| Affenheimtheater
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Bargain time for all you cinephiles out there! Amazon.com has started a Criterion Collection sale with DVDs from $13.99 and Blu-ray Discs from $15.99. The sale includes 29 titles including Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and Kagemusha, Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and the controversial Japanese thriller In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no corrida). European buyers should note that Criterion has so far region coded all their releases to Region A, so bad luck for most of us…
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- Ulrik
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John Woo Returns To American Theaters With Epic 'Red Cliff'
19 November 2009 11:59 PM, PST
| MTV Movie News
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'I wanted to introduce an American audience to a rich part of Chinese history,' director says.
By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Tony Leung in "Red Cliff"
Photo: Magnolia Pictures
It's been too long since we all had some John Woo in our lives. DVD viewings of "Face/Off" and the second "Mission: Impossible" flick can only do so much to quell the need for insane, "How in the world did they do that?" action sequences. Where has this guy been? Why has it been six years since American audiences last got a glimpse of his work in the theaters?
The answer is now clear: Woo spent five years creating a ridiculously elaborate war movie, mind-boggling in scale, adrenaline-raising in action. Behold "Red Cliff," a retelling of a key point in Chinese history that ushered in the end of the Han Dynasty in the second century, a
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Carl Rinsch To Direct ‘47 Ronin’
18 November 2009 12:51 PM, PST
| ScreenRant.com
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If you don’t know Carl Rinsch’s name, he is the young protegé (and potential son-in-law) of acclaimed directors Ridley and Tony Scott. Rinsch’s name first surfaced on the movie blog radar when Sir Ridley tapped him on the shoulder to direct the upcoming Alien prequel that 20th Century Fox is developing. The studio has since nixed that arrangement, insisting that Ridley himself direct the new Alien.
Well, it seems as though Carl Rinsch has managed to land on his feet: He’ll be helming 47 Ronin, a samurai historical epic being developed by Universal and producers Scott Stuber and Pamela Abdy, starring Keanu “Whoa” Reeves in the lead.
Rinsch’s filmography consists mainly of “futuristic” TV commercial work (Heineken, BMW), but if the Scott brothers took him under wing (and into their household) then there has got to be some potential there. Remember, District 9 director Neil Blomkamp
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- Kofi Outlaw
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This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: November 17, 2009
17 November 2009 2:12 AM, PST
| Rope of Silicon
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DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
I don't know if any of you took my advice on the 50% off Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble I mentioned two weeks ago, but you have one more week and I have already taken advantage of it by getting Battle of Algiers, the Fanny and Alexander box set and upgraded my single-disc version of Seven Samurai with the three-disc edition. I basically paid about $70 for the whole thing with my Barnes and Noble Membership card and it's about $160 worth of DVDs so that's a good deal in my book. Take advantage of it and use this coupon to save an extra $5.
Now, for this week's DVDs.
Gone With the Wind (70th Anniversary Ultimate Collection)
I just reviewed the Blu-ray edition of this and was incredibly impressed. What's even more impressive is Amazon is charging only $45.49 for both the
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- Brad Brevet
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Roger Corman: Scorsese, Stallone, Sayles, and other A-listers talk about the B-movie king
13 November 2009 12:48 PM, PST
| EW.com - PopWatch
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He gave life to teenage cavemen and candy-stripe nurses. Crab monsters and humanoids from the deep. T-bird gangs and towns that dreaded sundown. His name is Roger Corman. And on Nov. 14, he will receive an honor that no one would have predicted: an honorary Academy Award. The 83-year-old B-movie titan has made nearly 400 films as a director and producer. From the start, Corman was a magnet for hungry young actors, writers, and directors who would work for slave wages for the chance to make their first film. They called it the "University of Corman," and the alumni include Francis Ford Coppola,
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- Chris Nashawaty
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Holiday Preview: A Repertory Calendar
3 November 2009 1:01 PM, PST
| ifc.com
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Tim Burton invades New York, New Italian Cinema hits Los Angeles, Harold and Kumar spread holiday cheer in Austin and everywhere you look, they're celebrating All Tomorrow's Parties -- just some of the holiday film fun you can have this winter at your local repertory theater.
More Holiday Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Repertory Calendar] [Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
In November, the 92YTribeca Screening Room will have some special guests in the house when it hosts the already sold out "A Conversation with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman" on November 10th, with the two longtime collaborators discussing their latest film "Fantastic Mr. Fox." But tickets are still available for the night before (Nov. 9th), when actor Ben Foster and director Oren Moverman will screen their acclaimed new post-war drama "The Messenger". Much of the rest of the month is devoted to Cinema Tropical's Ten Years of New Argentine Cinema series with screenings of Adrián Caetano's immigration
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- Stephen Saito
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MTV: Chris Weitz On 'New Moon' To 'Eclipse' Transition
30 October 2009 10:12 AM, PDT
| twilightersanonymous.com
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Chris Weitz recently spoke with MTV concerning the transitions between The Twilight Saga movies both between Twilight and New Moon and now between New Moon and Eclipse. Chris also spoke about some major differences we might notice between styles in Twilight and New Moon.As a fan and a filmmaker Im excited to see finished stuff from Eclipse rather than anything in progress Weitz said. When you see works in progress theres always some guy standing in front of some big green curtain and its all terribly disappointing. You really want to see the good stuff once its all finished.After New Moon was finished filming Summit Entertainment announced that David Slade would be directing Eclipse. Weitz said he had some early chats with Slade to let him know what New Moon was going to look like and how he had filmed the story and then let Slade decide how
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'New Moon' Director Chris Weitz Hasn't Seen 'Eclipse' Footage
30 October 2009 3:52 AM, PDT
| MTV Movie News
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'I'm excited to see finished stuff from 'Eclipse' rather than anything in progress,' director says.
By Terri Schwartz
Chris Weitz and Kristin Stewart on the set of "New Moon"
Photo: Summit Entertainment
With filming on "Eclipse" wrapping up, we couldn't resist asking "New Moon" director Chris Weitz whether he had seen any of the footage from next summer's blockbuster. He hadn't, he said, because he's been busy working hard to bring fans "New Moon," which hits theaters in less than a month. Surprisingly, he said he didn't really want to see the footage yet.
"As a fan and a filmmaker, I'm excited to see finished stuff from 'Eclipse' rather than anything in progress," Weitz said. "When you see works in progress, there's always some guy standing in front of some big green curtain, and it's all terribly disappointing. You really want to see the good stuff once it's all finished.
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Movie Poster of the Week: "Le feu follet"
8 October 2009 9:15 PM, PDT
| The Auteurs
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This suitably autumnal poster for Louis Malle’s Le feu follet (The Fire Within) was the creation of the brilliant German designer Hans Hillmann. Now 83 years old, Hillmann was a major film poster designer in the 60s and 70s and is one of Germany’s best known graphic artists. His film posters are abstract and witty in equal measure and he benefitted from working much of the time for a revival distributor where he could riff on already known quantities (in the same way the Criterion Collection’s designers are able to). Though the majority of his posters are illustrations, for Louis Malle’s suicidal odyssey he simply took a photograph of star Maurice Ronet, strewed it with dead leaves and re-photographed it. Conversely his poster for Rene Allio’s little known Pierre et Paul—a face constructed from a crowd of people seen from above—looks like a photograph but is,
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Fox Beats Pixar to William Joyce's 'Leaf Men'
24 September 2009 9:32 AM, PDT
| Cinematical
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If you have ever wandered into the children's section of a bookstore, you've undoubtedly seen the work of William Joyce. If you have small ones, you may have even read them. Joyce is a wonderful author, one of the rare picture book authors who write as well as they draw. Few of Joyce's books have made it to the big screen (a truly curious thing), but one of his more recent efforts will be coming to theaters near you, as Variety reports that The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs has been re-optioned by Fox.
At the moment, though, the story behind the option is causing more of a stir than Joyce's work. Pixar and Fox were both fighting over The Leaf Men, which was originally set up at Fox with Chris Wedge directing, and a script by Joyce and James V. Hart. Allegedly, Wedge was then given permission
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- Elisabeth Rappe
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Paul Giamatti Gets Medieval On Megan Fox
18 September 2009 1:12 AM, PDT
| cinemablend.com
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Paul Giamatti is taking on a bad guy role for the movie Ironclad. According to Variety the movie is sort of a medieval take on the classic Seven Samurai formula. Actually this story first broke through multiple sources back in 2008, when Paul Giamatti first entered talks for a role in the film. It took them nearly a year but now he.s on board.
In the film, a Templar Knight leads a group of seven in defense of Rochester Castle in 13th century England. Outside the walls is Paul Giamatti as the tyrant King John, leading an army on the offensive. Already on board the Jonathan English directed film is James Purefoy as the Templar Knight. Also rumored to be playing supporting roles in the film are Megan Fox, Bob Hoskins, Colm Meaney, and the great Richard Attenborough.
Though the involvement of an evil despot named John and a crusading
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Pay Tribute to Paul Giamtti as King John in Ironclad
17 September 2009 11:28 PM, PDT
| Collider.com
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Paul Giamatti has just been cast as King John in the upcoming medieval action flick “Ironclad”. King John is the villain* and he’s throwing down against a “Seven Samurai” (except knights instead of samurai) led by a formidable Knights Templar played by James Purefoy. Hit the jump to find out who would win in a fight.
Variety says that King John has an entire army on his side but that’s more than a character played by Giamatti needs. If Purefoy wants to throw down with Paul Giamatti, he’s more than welcome. Yes, Purefoy is best known for playing Marc Antony on the HBO series “Rome” but Paul Giamatti is best known for suffering more existential angst than most men would dare face in ten lifetimes. Also, look at that photo below. That’s a dude who’s ready to eat your babies and wash them down with your sorrow.
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- Matt Goldberg
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Edition of Akira Kurosawa’s Legendary ‘Kagemusha’
20 August 2009 6:43 AM, PDT
| HollywoodChicago.com
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Chicago – Now that he is widely recognized as one of the best filmmakers of all time, it’s almost hard to believe that there was a period in the career of Akira Kurosawa when he couldn’t get financing to make a film. Kurosawa went through a very dark time in the ’70s, punctuated by his disastrous experience with “Tora! Tora! Tora!,” and needed the weight of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas to help with his comeback, “Kagemusha,” now available in a beautiful Criterion Collection Blu-Ray release.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
I adore stories like the one behind the making of “Kagemusha” because they reflect the ripple throughout the ages that comes with amazing creativity. In the excellent special feature, “Lucas, Coppola, and Kurosawa,” the interviews draw a definitive line from John Ford (whose “The Searchers” influenced Kurosawa) to Kurosawa’s work to “The Godfather” to “Star Wars” to “Kagemusha,” which itself inspired countless filmmakers.
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- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
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