Mention the word “reboot” or “remake” to anyone and you’ll probably face a dissatisfied sigh. Hollywood’s movie recycling program in the last few years has left everyone with reboot/remake fatigue. However, once in a while a project comes along that peaks collective interest. The upcoming A-Team remake is one such film.
And now, the new A-Team adds two more names to its roster. Jessica Biel (Blade: Trinity, Stealth) will appear as an ex-love interest to Lt. Templeton “Face” Peck, played by Bradley Cooper, while District 9‘s Sharlto Copley will be playing H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdoch. While Biel’s involvement is pretty standard fair (Don’t get me wrong, I like her) it’s Copley’s inclusion that is a great casting choice. While a relative unknown, Copley gained a lot of attention with his performance in District 9 (If you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for?). I anticipate a brilliant performance after seeing D9.
Rounding out the rest of the team is Liam Neeson as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Baracas. Departing from the campy ’80′s TV series, this iteration of the special forces team wrongfully convicted of a crime, will be of a more serious tone. Who knows, maybe some of the bullets will actually hit their mark this time around. Given that Smokin’ Aces’ Joe Carnahan is directing, there’s probably a very good chance a lot of things are going to get shot up in this movie.
This week on The Flickcast, your tireless threesome dive into some great new topics including the film Kick-Ass being picked up by Lionsgate, the box office and merits of District 9 versus G.I. Joe, Frank Darabont taking on The Walking Dead for AMC, Christopher McQuarrie writing a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Bryan Singer’s Battlestar Galactica movie and a whole lot more.
The team also made some new picks this week including Christina’s pick of the documentary Boy Interrupted, Matt’s pick ofBoston Legal, featuring James Spader and William Shatner, and Chris’ pick of Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic The Walking Dead.
As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.
With director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 making just over $37 million at the domestic box office this weekend ($7 million more than the production budget), it only makes sense that the studio and crew would be gearing up to return to the project for more. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Blomkamp mentioned that he would love to return to the franchise in a sequel.
”I would do anything to go back to the world of District 9 again,” Director Neil Blomkamp says. ”Or District 10.”
It makes perfect sense for the studio to do a sequel as well, being both cheap to make and lucrative. Also, with the story, the Robocop-style ending leaves the film open for many directions, and possibly many more films. We are even guilty of comparing this film to last year’s Cloverfield in our review, but the film has a similar tone.
The difference in this situation is that Cloverfield ends with pretty much no room for a sequel, unless you were to tell the story again from a different point of view. This would work out in the D9 universe perfectly. No word yet on how or if this will effect production on Jackson and Blomkamp’s Halo film.
There are a few types of Summer blockbusters out there these days. Of course, you’ll have the big “tent pole” films that cost $200 million and make triple that. You’ll also get the ones that cost a fortune and fizzle out fairly quickly. But every once in a while you’ll also get a film that comes virtually out of nowhere and leaves your mouth agape. District 9 is that film.
District 9 takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, where aliens landed nearly 30 years ago. Since then, they have been subjected to living in slums while their defunct mothership hovers above the city. On the macro level, the world is split between people who wish to embrace the differences of the aliens and people who discriminate against them and wish to kill them. On a micro level, an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA, making him neither human nor alien.
At it’s core, this film is many things. It’s not just a sci-fi action film. It has some serious undertones from oppression and bigotry to the evil things that man is capable of. It is many things, but if one were to stand out, it would be “smart.” From the first moments of the film where a collection of news and documentary footage helps introduce us to this world where aliens are real and have been inhabiting the planet for some time all the way to the conclusion, this film delivers.
With the release of District 9 imminent, two new clips — via MTV — have been released to give fans a small taste of what life is like in the mysterious District 9. The clips feature the local MNU (Multi-National United) representative and what they have discovered about alien weaponry. They also invite you to walk around the alien slums with Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) to experience first-hand the conditions there.
As a warning, the clips rely on a shaky cam so it might be a bit unsettling, but rest assured that the process is used to enhance the experience. Directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, District 9 will be in theaters Friday.
Hoping to drum up support for the lesser-known fantasy horror film, Legion, Sony Pictures paired it with the highly anticipated District 9 at Comic-Con on Friday. They then upped the ante by having producer Peter Jackson on hand to make sure the crowds showed. Variety is reporting that the daring move might just pay off.
The panel opened with Legion’s director, Scott Stewart, presenting the film’s clip, after commemorating the experience on his iPhone. Legion is the story of a band of strangers in a post-apocalyptic world, one of whom is a pregnant diner waitress who just happens to be carrying the new messiah. The film is exciting and visually compelling, juxtaposing hyper-violence and religious imagery to slightly campy effect.
Stewart was joined by actors Adrianne Palicki, Doug Jones, Tyrese Gibson and Paul Bettany, who talked about the joys of making their “angels with machine guns” film and the film’s religious subject matter. Stewart said that Legion was “not a religious movie,” but more of a cross between Terminator and The Exorcist. When the panel concluded, you could almost hear the collective increase in heart rates. Legion opens in theaters January 22, 2010.
The crowd was then treated to about seven minutes of footage from District 9, with Jackson sharing the stage with director Neill Blomkamp and star Sharlto Copley. Jackson explained that the creation of District 9 had been an “unusual experience” because of Blomkamp’s decision to do the film in a highly improvised manner without strict adherence to a formal script.
Sony Pictures has released three new viral videos for Neil Blomkamp’s upcoming sci-fi drama District 9. The film, which is Exec. Produced by Peter Jackson, is one of the upcoming releases we’re really looking forward to here at The Flickcast. In these new videos, we’re given some more information about the aliens who inhabit the quarantined sector of District 9 and the men and women who keep watch on them to protect humanity.
I particularly like the fact that these videos are so well done and obviously indicate the care and attention being paid to the film by the filmmakers and the marketing team at Sony. They obviously feel they’ve got a winner on their hands — and I do to. Actually, I think District 9 will be this years Cloverfield and maybe even better. There, I said it.
Of course, I was one of the people who was skeptical when Peter Jackson initially thought Blomkamp was the right choice to direct the Halo movie, which as we know ended up going nowhere — at least not yet. Who knows, if District 9 does end up a huge success, we may see the Halo movie project resurrected.
Check out the three videos after the jump, courtesy of the folks at Trailer Addict. District 9 hits theaters on August 14.
Of all the movies coming up during the rest of this year, one that we’re particularly excited about is District 9, written and directed by Neill Blomkamp and Exec. Produced by Peter Jackson. We’ve talked about this movie before and had some info such as a poster and an earlier look at a shorter trailer for the film.
Now, we can bring you a good look at the new, full-length trailer for the sci-fi drama which stars Jason Cope, Kenneth Nkosi, and William Allen Young. At this point, we still don’t know a great deal about the story of the film. But from what we do know, an alien race has come to earth and is stranded in South Africa. At that point, the aliens are seen as yet another mistrusted minority, treated as “non-humans” and forced to live in a dangerous ghetto and work for little to no pay.
But when a human encounters some strange, non-human, technology that begins to affect him in disturbing ways, his perspective on the situation changes drastically and hes compelled to act. Expect to see District 9 in theaters August 14. Until then, click through to check out the full trailer.
It’s official, the full schedule for San Diego Comic-Con is now online. This year promises to be an exciting time and it looks like there will be plenty of stuff to keep us busy at the Con. From panels to screenings to booths and everything in between, we’ll bring it all to you right here at The Flickcast.
Looking over the schedule for this year, here’s a few of the TV and Movie events, panels, and more that we are particularly interested in and the days on which they happen. Tomorrow, look for our picks of the coolest and most interesting comics and games-related panels and events coming up at the Con.
Wednesday, July 22
6:00-9:00 Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings— Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present exclusive pilot premiere screenings of some of the most buzzed-about new TV series of the 2009–2010 season—Human Target, V, and The Vampire Diaries—as well as an exclusive preview trailer for additional upcoming shows. Ballroom 20.
Yahoo has just released the first full trailer for District 9, and with it we get a lot more footage of aliens, things blowing up, and the general plot of the film. The first teaser gave us very little to go by, alluding that there were aliens, and they were being held hostage in South Africa. Now we know that they revolt, and cause a lot of havoc in the process.
The film stars Jason Cope, Kenneth Nkosi, and William Allen Young, with Peter Jackson producing and Neill Blomkamp directing. It looks as if it’s meant to utilize elements of Cloverfield with hand-held photography and bigger special effects. The one downfall is that there are gigantic robots, which seem to be everywhere in theaters this summer.
The plot has been under wraps for quite some time, but from what we know now, an alien race has come to earth on a one-way ticket, becoming stranded in Africa. Now seen as yet another mistrusted minority, the “non-humans” live in a dangerous ghetto and labor for little to no pay. But when a human encounters some strange non-human technology that begins to affect him in disturbing ways, his perspective on the situation changes drastically. Click here for the full trailer, and expect to see District 9 in theaters August 14.
We talked about this movie on the most recent episode of The Flickcast and both Matt and I thought it looked pretty interesting. The movie in question is Neill Blomkamp’s debut feature film District 9. The film, which was also written by Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, tells the story of a race of aliens living among humans in South Africa. Of course, the alien’s motives are somewhat of a mystery and as often happens in these type of movies, things are not always what they seem and don’t go as expected.
Previously, both Matt and I had seen a trailer for this film where the alien’s face was obscured with pixelization. Now, thanks to the folks at Film School Rejects and YouTube, the “uncensored” trailer for District 9 is now online. Plus, courtesy of Yahoo Movies we also have the new poster to show you as well. Check out the trailer below and a bigger version of the poster after the jump. District 9 opens on August 14th.
Last week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt had to go it alone and discuss topics such as Predator and Robert Rodriguez news, blockbusters like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek, the fate of TV shows like Dollhouse, Lost and Sons of Anarchy and lots more.
This week, Christina is back and the trio hits the ground running with discussions on the box office success and relative merits of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the latest G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra trailer, the upcoming District 9, produced by Peter Jackson, the appeal of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, renewals for some of the team’s favorite shows like Southland and Heroes, J.J. Abrams taking on an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and the potential box office for Star Trek’s opening weekend.
Plus, the team makes more cool picks this week including one of Matt’s favorite TV shows, Party Down from Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd, Christina’s pick of the very funny Hot Fuzz featuring Simon Pegg of this Friday’s Star Trek and Chris’ picks of the comic book Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and the movie The Player, directed by Robert Altman, written by Michael Tolkin and starring Tim Robbins.
As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter or via email. Thanks for listening.
Mention the word “reboot” or “remake” to anyone and you’ll probably face a dissatisfied sigh. Hollywood’s movie recycling program in the last few years has left everyone with reboot/remake fatigue. However, once in a while a project comes along that peaks collective interest. The upcoming A-Team remake is one such film.
This week on The Flickcast, your tireless threesome dive into some great new topics including the film Kick-Ass being picked up by Lionsgate, the box office and merits of District 9 versus G.I. Joe, Frank Darabont taking on The Walking Dead for AMC, Christopher McQuarrie writing a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Bryan Singer’s Battlestar Galactica movie and a whole lot more.
With the release of District 9 imminent, two new clips — via 
It’s official, 
Yahoo has just released
We talked about this movie on 
from Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd, Christina’s pick of the very funny 
featuring Simon Pegg of this Friday’s Star Trek and Chris’ picks of the comic book 
by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and the movie 
, directed by Robert Altman, written by Michael Tolkin and starring Tim Robbins.
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