Everyone may have had their sites set of things they knew about like Amazing Spider-Man and Game of Thrones this year at San Diego Comic-Con, but one film that managed to turn tons of heads (that managed to get into the panel) was Francis Ford Coppola’s newest vampire/witchcraft based film, TWIXT.

Starring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning, the film takes the world of Vampires and Witches that modern audiences know all too well and gives it an old spin. Here’s the premise.

A writer with a declining career arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious young ghost named V. He’s unsure of her connection to the murder in the town, but is grateful for the story being handed to him. Ultimately he is led to the truth of the story, surprised to find that the ending has more to do with his own life than he could ever have anticipated.

If Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang taught us anything, it’s that Val Kilmer as a failed anything is much more entertaining and believable than a successful Val Kilmer.m The only unfortunate part of the trailer is the pacing, and how the visuals tend to linger, which would be impressive if they were shots and visual aesthetics that we haven’t seen countless times before.

Judge for yourself and take a look at the trailer after the jump. TWIXT hits theaters later this year.

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He’s had a career most directors would kill for and has been nominated and/or won pretty much every award and accolade show business has to offer. So, after all that, what does he do? Go to Comic-Con in San Diego, that’s what.

That’s right, the man who brought us such films as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation and Dracula is heading to Comic-Con in a few weeks to promote his latest horror project Twixt. The director, who hasn’t been to the Con since 1992, will present portions of the experimental film he calls “one part Gothic romance, one part personal film, and one part the kind of horror film that began my career” on Saturday, July 23 in Hall H.

The film, which stars Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin, reportedly incorporates live music by performance artist Dan Deacon, who will be at the panel. Other than that, details on the film are still scarce. I’m sure that will change soon . . . probably sometime around July 23rd.

This just might be the one thing that gets me to go to Hall H. It sure as hell won’t be Twilight.

This week’s pick takes us back into the heart of darkness with Francis Ford Coppola’s riveting Vietnam classic Apocalypse Now (1979). The film was written by Coppola and John Milius, along with brilliant narration written by Michael Herr. The movie was based off of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness about a man who is sent on a mission to kill a rogue ivory trader in the heart of nineteenth century Africa.

Coppola and Milius loved the story and decided to set the film during the Vietnam War. The film stars Martin Sheen (Captain Benjamin Willard), Marlon Brando (Col. Walter E. Kurtz), Dennis Hopper (Photo Journalist), Robert Duvall (Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore), Albert Hall (Chief), Frederic Forrest (Chef), Sam Bottoms (Lance Johnson), Laurence Fishburne (Mr. Clean), Harrison Ford (Col. Lucas), and G.D. Spradlin (Lt. Gen. Corman).

Apocalypse Now has always been considered the quintessential Vietnam war movie not only for the sheer scope of the film, but because the production was just as massive as the war itself. Coppola had raised over twelve million dollars (eight million of which through his own company American Zoetrope) through investors and outside sources to begin producing the film in late 1975 after the release of the highly anticipated The Godfather II.

Coppola’s two friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg contacted their friend and fellow film maker John Milius to see if he would be willing to write a story that blended most of Conrad’s themes, and the horrors of the Vietnam conflict into one solid script. Milius had written a Vietnam story in the late sixties and had shelved the idea once his directing career had taken off. Coppola told Milius to “put everything you ever wanted in a war movie before into the script.” The result was an absolute masterpiece.

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This week’s pick is Patton (1970) which is a bio pic of famed World War II American General George S. Patton. George C. Scott stars as the man who was feared by his enemies, as well as his allies. Patton is noted for many things such as its music score by famed composer Jerry Goldsmith, top notch direction from Franklin J. Schaffner Planet of the Apes (1968), but is most noted for its amazing screenplay from a young USC film graduate named Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. The screenplay was based on two sources which were Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago and General Omar N. Bradley’s memoir A Soldier’s Story.

The film’s opening sequence is one of the most iconic and emulated images of all time. Patton emerges from a series of stairs in front of a huge American flag where he begins to give a pep talk to his men who double as the audience.

The speech was actually several speeches that were compiled by Coppola for the opening scene. The opening sequence gives insight into the kind of a General Patton was and how he inspired his troops to follow him into battle.

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Among my favorite movies, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now ranks very high. It’s a brilliant and disturbing look at war and its effect on the men who fight it. Plus, it’s full of great performances from an amazing cast, action and also makes you think. What more could you ask from a film?

Nothing, really, except for all of the film’s brilliance and cinematic power, it never got the Blu-ray release it deserved. But now, it seems, that’s going to be remedied as Lionsgate is releasing the film on Blu-ray. Not only will the film be on Blu-ray, the release will come in two different versions, the standard and “full disclosure” edition, which will contain a host of impressive features.

Among these are both versions of the film, never seen before interviews with Coppola and other involved in the production, production stills, script notes, the Hearts of Darkness documentary and so much more. For the full list of features in both editions, check out the full press release after the jump.

Also, be sure to check out the Blu-ray trailer for the film after the jump as well. The Apocalypse Now Blu-ray will hit store shelves on October 19th.

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Building on the success of Avatar, the seemingly everywhere Sam Worthington has apparently already picked his next role: Dracula. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Worthington is currently in negotiations to star in director Alex Proyas’ vampire epic Dracula Year Zero for Universal and producer Michael De Luca.

The film, written by Matt Sazama and Buck Sharpless, will explore the origins of Dracula and his ties to Vlad the Impaler. It will reportedly portray the titular vampire as both demonic evil and tragic, flawed hero. The film currently has no start date and is still in development.

As a fan of Proyas’ previous work with The Crow and Dark City, I’m hopeful his take on Dracula will be equally as visually compelling and also feature interesting characters and situations. That said, the movie does sound a lot like Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version of Dracula, which featured Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.

As for Worthington, I’m still not convinced that he’s the “next big thing” even as studios shove him in our faces more and more. I just don’t find him that interesting. No matter what, I guess we’ll find out how he handles Dracula when this film eventually hits theaters.