This looks great.  I love how Matt Damon is not afraid to show off his retarded side!

Tags: Actors, Directors, Entertainment News, indie, Matt Damon, New Releases, steven soderbergh, the informant, Trailers|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jul 2nd

This is an interesting article on the state of Hollywood today. Check it out from LATimes.com:

The stars are not twinkling bright this summer.

Hollywood’s movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding that the heavyweights aren’t winning over audiences like they used to. With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood’s A-list talent.

The studios stocked this summer’s release schedule with so-called star vehicles, including “Land of the Lost” with Will Ferrell, “Year One” featuring Jack Black, the comedy “Imagine That” with Eddie Murphy, and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123.” But rather than igniting ticket sales, the star-studded movies have dramatically underperformed.

The brightest stars of the lucrative popcorn season — which typically accounts for about 40% of annual ticket sales — instead have turned out to be mostly movies with no-name actors — or no actors at all on screen.

So far, the summer’s most profitable film has been Warner Bros.’ surprise hit “The Hangover,” a $35-million-budget R-rated comedy about a bachelor party in Las Vegas that boasts not a single household-name actor but has reached $183 million in U.S. ticket sales since its June 5 opening and is expected to exceed $200 million. Other summer hits like J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” and Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” showcase eye-popping visual effects along with up-and-coming talent.

And, the highest-grossing summer movie so far? Walt Disney’s Co.’s “Up,” the Pixar-animated movie starring the voice of . . . Ed Asner.

The studios, which for years have banked on richly paid stars to open their movies, are now witnessing a new reality: even the most reliable actors can be trumped by what Hollywood executives like to call “high concepts” (a bachelor party gone awry), movies based on brand-name products (Hasbro’s Transformers toys), and reinvented franchises (not your father’s “Star Trek”).

“I think we’re seeing a transformation in what the value of the star system represents,” said Marc Shmuger, chairman of Universal Pictures, which will take a significant loss on Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost,” which cost $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market and distribute. There’s also an “incredible hunger among audiences for something new and different,” he said.

Indeed, that was the appeal of the buddy comedy “The Hangover.”

“Movie stars still hold an incredible value both creatively and financially,” said “Hangover” director Todd Phillips. “But it’s getting to be more about the movie and whether it delivers on the promise of its trailers and commercials.”

Internet plays a role

Moreover, in the Internet age, word of mouth about movies spreads instantly.

“There used to be a free weekend where marketing departments could open a movie and if it didn’t work, word didn’t get out until Monday, but that’s evaporated with Facebook and Twitter,” Phillips said. “The water-cooler effect is much more immediate.”

Even before a major movie hits the big screen, Twitter users and bloggers are weighing in — which can help or hinder a studio opening a movie.

“The world has changed, throwing conventional wisdom out the window,” said former studio marketing executive Peter Sealey. “The star-power opening is fading in importance and the marketing and releasing of movies is going into new territory where the masses are molding the opinion of a movie. People no longer say, ‘It’s a Tom Cruise movie, let’s go see it!’ With social networking, you know everything about a movie before it comes out.”

Doug Belgrad, production president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose studio is behind “Year One” and “Pelham,” said stars alone no longer can compete against the draw of franchise movies and sequels like “Transformers” and “Harry Potter” that come with a high degree of public awareness.

“Movie stars in the right films provide a certain amount of value from a marketing point of view,” he said. “But there is no star power that you can throw at a movie that gives you the kind of brand awareness you get from pre-sold titles.”

This summer’s woes come at a time when studios are already battling the climbing cost of making and marketing movies as well as a decline in DVD sales, which have long supported the economics of the film business.

A telling test case will come this week when Johnny Depp, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, appears as 1930s gangster John Dillinger in Universal’s crime saga “Public Enemies, which cost $100 million to produce.”

Given the poor performances this year of dramas targeted to adults, the prospects of the Michael Mann-directed film gaining mass audience appeal appear dim.

Read the rest here

Tags: a listers, Actors, Actresses, Box Office News, Comedy, Drama, Entertainment News, Gossip, hollywood, internet, Movie Industry, New Releases, summer blockbuster, Technology, trends, viral|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 29th

This looks like an interesting twist on the tired and overdone Vampire genre… keep your fingers crossed!

Two-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a researcher in the year 2019, in which an unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires. As the human population nears extinction, vampires must capture and farm every remaining human, or find a blood substitute before time runs out.  However, a covert group of vampires makes a remarkable discovery, one which has the power to save the human race.

Official Site:

www.daybreakersmovie.com

Tags: Action, daybreakers, Entertainment News, ethan hawke, Horror, New Releases, Trailers, vampires, Violence|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 26th

Here it is, stay tuned for a trailer:

A low-ranking intelligence operative (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) working in the office of the U.S. Ambassador in France takes on more than he bargained for when he partners with a wisecracking, fast-shooting, high-ranking U.S. agent (John Travolta) who’s been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack.

From Paris With Love opens in theaters on February 19th 2010!

Tags: Action, Actors, art, Entertainment News, espionage, france, from paris with love, john travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, New Releases, one sheet, poster, thriller, Uncategorized|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 25th

Can’t wait for this one:

Tags: Action, Actors, Actresses, brad pitt, Directors, eli roth, Entertainment News, Historical, inglourious basterds, mike myers, New Releases, quentin tarantino, Trailers, Violence|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 22nd

Yesterday, Focus Features premiered the one sheet and red band trailer for their highly anticipated release THIRST, directed by award-winning auteur, Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). Recently awarded the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes International Film Festival, THIRST is slated to release in select theaters July 31st.

A priest becomes a vampire…another man’s wife is coveted…a deadly seduction triggers murder. Thirst is the new film from director Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). Already a boxoffice smash in Korea, Thirst was honored with the Prix du Jury [Jury Prize] at the 2009 Cannes International Film Festival.

Continuing his explorations of human existence in extreme circumstances, the director spins a tale that he conceived and then developed over several years with co-screenwriter Chung Seo-kyung.

Sang-hyun (played by top Korean star Song Kang-ho, of The Host) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. The blood he receives is infected, so Sang-hyun lives – but now exists as a vampire. Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for blood, Sang-hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life. Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the Seven Deadly Sins.

Tags: Action, blood, Entertainment News, Horror, New Releases, oldboy, park chan wook, red band, Sci Fi, thirst, Trailers, vampires, Violence|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 19th

Wow,  this might be the disaster flick to end all disaster flicks.  And who else but Roland Emmerich to bring it to you ;)  Check out the first full length trailer for the effects-jammed trailer:

Tags: 2012, Action, amanda peet, Directors, disaster, effects, Entertainment News, FX, john cusack, New Releases, roland emmerich, Sci Fi, Trailers|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 18th

This is awesome.  From MichaelBay.com:

Robots

* 14 robots last time, 46 robots this time (ILM only)
* If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
* Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
* Devastator’s hand is traveling 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid.
* The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.
* All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles
* Devastator’s parts stacked tip to tip would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.
* If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.

Disk space

* TF1 took 20 Terabytes of disk space. Trans2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!
* 145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.

Rendering times

* If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year’s premiere!
* A single imax shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.
* IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

Imax

* Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
* Imax frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic to render.
* IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

ILM screen time

ILM Screen Time is about 51 minutes.

Devastator

* Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.
* Devastator has more than 10 times the number of individual parts found in an average car.
* Laid out end to end, Devastator’s parts would be almost 14 miles long.

Devastator totals

* Number of geom pieces: 52632
* The total number of polygons: 11,716,127
* The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet
* The total length of all pieces: 13.84 miles

Tags: Action, Behind The Scenes, cool, Directors, facts, interesting, michael bay, New Releases, revenge of the fallen, robots, Sci Fi, Sequels, transformers 2|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 18th

In time for the next big, gigantic Transformers movie to hit screens, sister-site WatchMojo.com has taken at look at the backstory and origins of the Transformers franchise.  And it all comes back to the toys… Check out the new series on the Transformers Franchise:

Transformers - The Franchise

Transformers - The Transformer ‘Universe’

Tags: Action, Animated, autobots, cartoon, deceptacons, Entertainment News, hasbro, New Releases, robots, Sci Fi, Sequels, transformers, video|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 17th

Interesting to see ‘time travel’ used in such a romantic and non-sci-fi way…

Tags: Actors, Actresses, Drama, Entertainment News, love, New Releases, romance, time travellers wife, Trailers|
Posted By: jackhammer | Jun 15th