While she’s not busy beating up the creator of Fantastic Fest, Tim League, Michelle Rodriguez is off making some pretty bad ass films. She was the strong female lead (not the damsel in distress) in this summer’s Machete, and now it seems that she’s got another machine-gun-toting action film in the works with Citizen Jane.

As awesome of a premise as you could come up with given that title, you can imagine what the filmmakers were thinking of when this concept was written out.

Citizen Jane stars Michelle Rodriguez as Charlotte Foster Jane, a lethal assassin hell bent on avenging the murder of her parents in this guns blazing, action packed retelling of Orson Welles 1941 classic, Citizen Kane.

She will do anything for her Rosebud…

Set to release September 5th of next year (during Fantastic Fest ’11, no doubt), we will hopefully get some more info about the film as we get closer to the release date. In the meantime, check out the intense teaser trailer for it after the jump and ask yourself “What would you Xanadu?”

Continue Reading →

Just when you thought it was safe to try and forget about director Tom Six’s rather unique take on ATM in The Human Centipede (First Sequence), along comes a promo for Six’s next chapter in the saga entitled The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence). Event though some may be offended by the first film or what it contains, we’re going to go ahead and show you the new promo anyway in the interest of presenting you with lots of choices on how to spend your entertainment dollar.

If you recall the first film, it follows two rather unfortunate American girls who are kidnapped by a German surgeon. Then, along with a Japanese man, they are surgically transformed into a gory centipede-like creature. Yes, its just about as disturbing as you can imagine.

According to Six, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) will steer away from “realism” this time and instead promises to be “pretty nasty.” Did he not see the first film?

“I had so many ideas that I couldn’t fit them all in the movie,” the director told IFC. “I wanted the audience to get used to this crazy centipede. Now, in ‘Part 2,’ I can use all my ideas. So everything is in it this time. I don’t hold back anything.” I guess he was holding back with part one? This should be interesting. And by interesting I mean even more disturbing.

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is due in 2011 but if you’re curious now (and after the above why wouldn’t you be?) check out the promo after the break.

Continue Reading →

Much like Dick Dastardly strapping Nell to railroad tracks once a week, George Lucas is at it again and re-releasing the complete Star Wars trilogy in theaters again, now in glorious 3D.

The last time, when Lucas released the original trilogy with “a few minor changes” like Greedo shooting first, and shoehorning Ghost Anakin into Jedi. Now that the fans have calmed down from that whole mess. Lucas feels that converting all six movies in a whole new dimension is just enough to stay topical. From THR.

Starting with “Phantom Menace,” Lucasfilm would use several higher-end conversion houses to work on the project. By late winter or early spring in 2012, the exhibition industry should have all the 3D screens anyone could want for such a release.

At present, pics are limited to 2,000-2,500 3D locations owing to an insufficient installed base of projectors and screens. Movie theaters are adding 3D screens at a clip of 500 a month in the U.S. Foreign exhibitors also are pushing into 3D as quickly as possible now that financing for the installations is flowing.

Also pushing the timetable is a potential breakthrough in 3D TV technology. With Samsung penetrating the market with 50,000-plus 3D-equipped sets and Sony recently sending its version to market, the home-viewing experience could be primed for 3D DVD versions of the films by the time the new 3D theatrical releases have run their course.

To sum up: much like he has in the past, Lucas is sacrificing what most thing consider the “holy trilogy” in order to progress modern technology. Boo for SW fans, yay for fans of entertainment technology. Expect to see the new releases mid 2012.

New comics are coming this week but not as many as we would like. Strill, that doesn’t eman we aren’t interested in them. This week we’re looking forward to the latest Casanova, the latest Secret Warriors, X-Men Vs. Vampires and Avengers Prime #3.

All these, and more, can be found at your local comics store. Don’t know where your nearest comic store is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Check out the list of comics you can get below.

Comics On-Sale:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #644
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #644 SPIDEY VS. VARIANT
ATLAS #5
AVENGERS PRIME #3
CAPTAIN AMERICA #610
CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT #2
CASANOVA #3
FRANKEN-CASTLE #21
HEROIC AGE: ONE MONTH TO LIVE #5
MARVEL PREVIEWS #86
NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #2
NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT #2 SHS VARIANT
POWERS #6
SECRET WARRIORS #20

Continue Reading →

Stargate Universe returns this evening on a new night but, luckily, at the same time so it isn’t completely confusing to fans. This season promises the return of more action , adventure, drama and romance for the crew of the Destiny.

In the promo for tonight’s season premiere, we see the crew is in trouble again as control of the Destiny hangs in the balance as the battle continues between the crew and the Lucian Alliance. Lives are in the balance as well as the crew’s hope of ever getting home.

Who will win and what will happen? You’ll just have to watch to find out.

Check out the preview for tonight’s episode “Intervention” after the jump. Stargate Universe returns tonight at 9/8C on Syfy. Any predictions for this new season? If so, hit us up in the comments.

Continue Reading →

Like everyone  else, I was  upset when I heard that they were going to remake the beloved Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In.

However, let it be said that this is one of the most beautiful, poignant, and moving films of the year.

Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) maintains the look and feel of the movie by bathing the frequent nighttime scenes in blue hones.  The crisp snowscape is now set in New Mexico, but the apartment courtyard where the two principals initially meet is nearly identical to the original.

Chronically bullied Owen (Kodi Smit-McGhee) notices a young girl and her father who have moved into his complex.  Over the course of several nights, he strikes up a friendship with the mysterious girl, bonding over a mutual love of puzzles and games.

She is guarded at first, but eventually warms up to Owen.  However, it is quickly apparent that she is no ordinary child.  She walks barefoot in the snow, by choice.  She shuns the daytime hours, and her relationship with her “father” appears a bit more sinister as time goes by.

Continue Reading →

You know her best as Sayeed’s hot yet ill-fated love interest Shannon in Lost and as a daughter who’s father “has a particular set of skills” in Taken. Now, Maggie Grace is set to jump into another role: a vampire who threatens Kristen Stewart’s Bella in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

According to the report, Grace will play the role of Irina in the final installments of the Stephenie Meyer novel, which Bill Condon is directing as two separate films. In case you don’t know or haven’t read the books, Irina is a member of the Denali coven of vampires who are considered cousins to the Cullens as they are the only others who don’t prey on humans.

Sadly, things go wrong as they often do and when Irina blames the Cullens for the death of her lover, she plots revenge. . . and things go downhill from there.

Part one of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be released by Summit Entertainment on November 18, 2011. The second will hit theaters late in 2012.

After the kid focused Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and the somewhat redundant nature of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Spidey fans have been clamoring for a change in the Spider-Man formula. Since Spider-Man 2, most titles have revolved around a sandbox view of Manhattan where everyone’s favorite webslinger traverses back and forth in the city, sometimes racing against time, to match up against his more fearsome foes and crossing paths with various small time criminals committing minor offenses along the way.

While it has proven a successful formula, it had started to grow stagnant. Influenced by that criticism, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions puts together four versions of the Marvel icon, including two who have never been seen in video game form, in a variety of diverse levels and constantly changing gameplay.

Gameplay:

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions plays differently than most previous Spider-Man titles, and not just because of the change away from open world environments. While button mashing combined with Spider-Sense dodging is the focus of combat, traversing through the levels seemed looser in terms of control.

Slinging through levels doesn’t feel as natural or fun as it did in Manhattan in days of Spider-Man’s past. Possibly because of the level design system, less emphasis was put on traversing areas at fast speeds.

Combat also doesn’t feel as diverse. Because each Spider-Man only has three individual levels, there is not a huge diversity in combat abilities. Previous titles, because of only having one or two versions of Spider-Man, had a larger number of different attacks to work with.

Continue Reading →

We may be about a month away from AMC’s big premiere of The Walking Dead, but that hasn’t stopped one creative animator from getting antsy and making his own opening title sequence. The video comes from director Daniel Kanemoto, who is such a diehard fan, he made this video for the love of the art, not for money.

Here’s what he had to say about the sequence.

Just so there’s no confusion, I’m not affiliated with the production in any way — I’m simply a huge fan of both Frank Darabont and Robert Kirkman, and this is my attempt at creating a cinematic introduction to one of the all time great “continuing stories of survival horror.”

It’s refreshing to see a fan who is just a fan and has no alterier motives. It would almost be fitting if AMC decides to buy and distribute this video with the show next month. Producer Gale Anne Hurd even praises praises Kanemoto, saying his opening titles “rock big time”, which almost makes the entire project worthwhile.

The art is taken straight from illustrators Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore, with the song, “Fresh Blood”, performed by eels. Check out the sequence after the jump, and catch The Walking Dead on AMC on October 31st.

Continue Reading →

RIM, maker of the popular BlackBerry line of smartphones, unveiled a brand-new tablet computer today they are dubbing ‘PlayBook.’ The company made the big announcement at their BlackbBerry DevCon, held at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Yes, the same venue Apple used to announce it’s iPad, among other products.

Quite a bold move and perhaps telling that RIM would choose to follow in Apple’s footsteps in such a manner. With RIM losing market share every quarter to the likes of Apple’s iPhone and the numerous popular Android smartphones out there, the company is facing pressure to innovate and regain a competitive advantage.

The newly-announced PlayBook will run on the new BlackBerry Tablet OS and is being positioned as the first ‘enterprise-ready’ tablet computer. Instead of using the recently-overhauled Blackberry OS 6, RIM decided to leverage their recent acquisition of QNX Software, who originally coded the new platform.

Features-wise, the PlayBook sports a 7″ screen (same as the Samsung Galaxy Tab – which we’ve covered extensively), a dual-core 1Ghz processor, front and rear HD cameras and is capable of multi-tasking and running flash-based applications. The PlayBook is uber thin and sexy, weighing in at 0.9 pounds and 9.7 mm thin.

Continue Reading →

Way back in February we brought you some casting news about the Coen Brothers remake of the John Wayne classic western True Grit. And now, thanks to the magic of the Interwebs, we can bring you the first teaser trailer for the film.

With a cast that includes Matt Damon as La Beouf, Josh Brolin as killer Tom Chaney and Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn (the role made famous by Wayne) the trailer brings us a bit of the flavor of the film and brings to light the fact that this film is going to be pretty amazing. The original film, based on a 1968 novel by author Charles Portis, starred Wayne in a role so popular it earned him his only Oscar.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, it concerns 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross who sets out to capture her father’s killer. To help, she hires tough yet abrasive U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn, a man with “true grit.” Over Cogburn’s objections, Maddie accompanies him on the quest and they are joined by another Marshall, La Beouf, who wants Chaney for his own reasons.

True Grit hits theaters on December 25th. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Fantastic Fest 2010 was host to the first public screening of  I Spit on Your Grave: Unrated (2010.) The film is a remake of the shocking, iconic 1978 movie sometimes known as Day of the Woman.

A lot of people argue that there was no need to remake the film, which to this day is considered one of the most disturbing movies of all time.

So, does the update do the original justice? Quite simply, it does, and then some.

(Female) producer Lisa Hansen came out to introduce the film to the audience, and she also participated in a Q & A session following the film.

She indicated that over 100 cuts had been made to the movie to try to placate the MPAA, but finally distributor Anchor Bay threw in the towel and decided to release the movie as unrated. This is a ballsy movie nowadays, as many large chains won’t even book an unrated film, so that may be why you have a hard time finding the film in a theater near you. Kudos to Anchor Bay for sticking to their guns, and director Steven R. Monroe’s vision.

The premise of the movie has remained almost identical to the original. A fresh scrubbed writer type from the big city has sought out the peace and quiet of an isolated cabin in the woods, hoping to get a jump on writing her second novel.

Continue Reading →