The Flickcast – Page 773 of 1030 – Stuff Nerds Love

Craving More ‘Avatar’? Fox Has You Covered

It may not have taken home a lot of Oscar gold, but many might argue that the jangly coins in Avatar’s pocket might mean a lot more to Fox and James Cameron.  But despite the massive success they’ve enjoyed in theaters, Cameron and Fox want a little more of your hard earned cash.

They noticed that the demand in digital 3D immediately went up when the IMAX run was up. They’re concerned that giving up their screens to Alice in Wonderland may have cost them, in Cameron’s words,  “a couple hundred million dollars.” They know people will eat up more Avatar. So they’re planning a summer re-release.

According to The Hollywood Reporter,  discussions are underway to bring the film back this summer with additional footage. Cameron feels that he was forced to rush the film into theaters to make its December 18 date, and had to leave too many scenes on the cutting room floor.

There’s actually some debate as to how much extra footage there is — Cameron claims there’s about 10 to 12 minutes of scenes that he could toss right back into the film, whereas IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond claims there’s 40 extra minutes. However, an IMAX analog theater can’t handle a film over 170 minutes, so even if Cameron has 40 minutes of unused footage, he can only add 10 or 12 to come in under the IMAX limitations.

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A Tale of Two Hollywoods Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

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Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds Pull A ‘Change-Up’

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman are both very handsome men. Both are very funny men, too.  If you put them together, would the result be a comedy that melts the screen in sheer charisma? We’ll find out, because according to Variety, Bateman and Reynolds are set to star in Universal’s Change-Up.

Directed by David Dobkin and penned by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the two nuts behind The Hangover, the film centers on a comedic trope as old as the hills — body swapping. The plot centers on a responsible family man (Bateman, of course) who switches bodies with his best friend.  Naturally, his best friend is the polar opposite of his buttoned-up self, and is lazy, childless, and immature.  There will be lessons learned, and hilarious misunderstandings.

I worry it could be another Role Models (another film that had a pretty good comedy pair at its core, but just didn’t gel), but I’m hoping that The Hangover duo can make this work. I didn’t think that the film was the second coming of comedy, but there’s no doubt that it was nicely balanced between three very funny guys.  Besides, Bateman and Reynolds can sell even the thinnest role and they’ve been the highlight of just about everything they have played in.

The film is set to begin shooting in September.  Sounds like just the thing for the Green Lantern to have some downtime in, and is far enough away that we’ll have forgotten Bateman swapped something else for Jennifer Aniston in Disney’s The Switch.

Oscar Winning Composer Michael Giacchino Scoring ‘John Carter Of Mars’

Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Review: ‘Green Zone’

Matt Damon in Green ZoneGreen Zone is the third collaboration between director Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon.  Previously, the two brought us The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.  If you are hoping for another adrenaline laced conspiracy drama, this movie will meet you half way.  There is conspiracy in excess, but the adrenaline-not so much.

The first half hour does a great job of depicting how unstable conditions in Baghdad were early on in the Iraq war. Greengrass ratchets up the tension and dread much like Kathryn Bigelow did in The Hurt Locker, by merely giving us a glimpse into everyday life after the initial destabilization of Iraq.  Soldiers wear heavy uniforms in blistering conditions, and crowded city streets could easily be harboring suicide bombers or other dangers.  Everyone is constantly and understandably on edge.

Unfortunately, during the second half of the movie much of the action takes place at night.  Greengrass elected to film these scenes with his signature hand-cam, and these scenes are grainy, jarring and indecipherable.

I don’t mind watching documentary style film, and fortunately I don’t get sick from shaky cam (heed my warning, if you have any tendency to get nauseous during this type of camera work, this movie will do you in), but it is really annoying when you cannot see anything that is going on.  I found my mind wandering to my mental list of chores during some really crucial chase scenes, because I just kind of gave up on trying to figure out what is going on.

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‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ Stimulus Package Coming to XBox 360

Credited as the biggest entertainment launch in history, players have flocked literally by the millions to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on XBox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 to battle through the game’s already legendary multiplayer mode. Since its release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has dominated the top played games over XBox Live without anyone else even coming close.

It’s no surprise that the first new multiplayer maps will be coming to the XBox 360 in the form of the “Stimulus Package” as it has been dubbed by Activision. Other than its release date of March 30th, nothing else is known as of yet about the “Stimulus Package”. Many players are keeping their fingers crossed already for “Zombie Mode” maps to come to fruition as they did in Call of Duty: World At War through DLC.

In additional Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 news, in a move geared to give Activision a more positive image after the recent Infinity Ward controversy, it looks like XBox Live Silver members will get a chance to experience the game’s online multiplayer for free. While PC and PlayStation 3 gamers experience this already, Activision will be allowing XBox 360 users a free weekend between March 12th and 15th to play without the worry of XBox Live’s subscription cost.

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App Store Review: Hot Tub Time Machine Sound Board

Remember about a decade ago when everybody and their mother was using sound boards of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris Walken to prank call their friends and show off to their friends without phones? Well, after the age of the smart phone hit, not many people got the chance to punctuate their funny moments with cool catchphrases from their favorite flick. Until now, that is.

MGM has recently gone deep into their vault with some great sound board Apps. For just a buck, you are able to call up some of your favorite quotes from Army of Darkness, Silence of the Lambs, Robocop, Fargo, or just about any of the Rocky films. It was hard to believe that it could get any cooler than your phone yelling out “This is my boomstick!” until now.

Just released last week, the Hot Tub Time Machine Sound Board has been making it’s way up the ranks of the iTunes App Store. Not only do you get over 6 full pages of sound bites from the film’s stars like John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke, but there’s also a direct link to the film’s trailer, as well as a synopsis, so you can explain to your friends exactly why you’re so stoked for this movie to come out.

Be sure to grab the Hot Tub Time Machine Sound Board App from the iTunes App Store (for free!), and catch Hot Tub Time Machine when it hits theaters on March 19th.

SXSW Preview: ‘Cherry’

As we’ve been doing all week so far in anticipation of the start of the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX we’ve got another preview for you of a film making its world premiere at the fest. The film in question, Cherry, stars Kyle Gallner, Brittany Robertson and Laura Allen and tells the coming of age story of a sheltered college freshman learning about life.

Aaron (Gallner), is said college freshmen and as he embarks on his journey it soon turns out life is more complicated than dorm parties, co-eds and the college’s elite engineering program when Aaron meets Linda (Laura Allen). When Linda invites him home for dinner, Aaron thinks he’s getting lucky.

Instead he meets Beth (Robertson), Linda’s punk, sarcastic and intense 14-year-old daughter who immediately develops a huge crush on him. Once that happpens, Aaron is then caught between these two powerful women and he soon learns that life and love are much harder to calculate than he ever expected.

Cherry will have its world premiere at SXSW. Check out the trailer after the break.

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