A couple of months ago -- and after watching the film spit out monster box office totals -- there was word Warner Bros. would throw The Dark Knightback onto IMAX screens (and possibly conventional theaters) for one last run. With the flick currently lingering around the $996 million mark, a re-release would all but guarantee it the much sought-after $1 billion. However, according to Superhero Hype, it's not gonna happen. They don't give much of a reason or a statement, just that plans to re-release on IMAX screens have apparently been scrapped.
It's unfortunate, too, because the DVD (which we'll review tomorrow) includes a few great behind-the-scenes features on the film's IMAX sequences. And, as someone who did not have a chance to catch the flick on IMAX screens, I was kinda looking forward to taking in a screening this January during the re-release after watching how they went about shooting it. Considering Christopher Nolan and his crew made history by becoming the first major feature film to shoot partly using IMAX cameras, you'd think folks might want to stage an encore engagement. Oh well.
Also of note: Variety reports that The Dark Knight will arrive via video-on-demand in South Korea two weeks before the DVD hits shelves, making it the first Hollywood blockbuster release to go VOD before DVD.
Were you looking forward to watching The Dark Knight again on IMAX screens?
UPDATE: BoF reports (via a Warner Bros. source) that this is not true, and that the film will indeed be released on IMAX screens in January. Superhero Hype has removed the original story from their website. We'll let you know when something a little more official hits, but it looks good for fans ...
In a fitting move to, ahem, milk the boycott against Cinemark Theaters and its subsidiaries for having openly supported Proposition 8's ban on gay marriage, moviegoers are now being encouraged to see Gus van Sant's new film, Milk -- a biopic about Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn), who valiantly fought for gay rights before his tragic death in 1978 -- at any theater but those owned by Cinemark.
The website No MILK for Cinemark! also feature a printable PDF for flyers that say as much, as well as a link to its corresponding Facebook group, which had over 17,000 members as of this writing. Their revised aim is to cost the business $10,000, or equivalent to the amount donated by CEO Alan Stock to the Yes on 8 campaign.
It's a film well worth watching, though I can't say much (and don't really need to -- our James Rocchi will say his piece soon enough), but chances are that those going to see this film will be equally willing to give this movement some consideration.
Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to Darren Lynn Bousman as he talked about the challenges he was facing in getting Lionsgate to properly release his Repo! The Genetic Opera. The studio had taken down rave after rave after a select screening several months before, and now the next night's Fantastic Fest screenings were as good a chance as any to prove the film's worth.
Well, I saw the film the following night amidst an impressive turn-out of die-hard fans, so while I may have already made my own thoughts clear, I cannot deny its growing (and all but inevitable) cult following, and it seems that neither can Lionsgate. Following a limited release and successful road tour, Bloody Disgusting reports that each will be expanded in the weeks to come to include the likes of Phoenix, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston.
As for everyone else, you can either keep your fingers crossed for a third tour (though Bousman and co-creator Terrance Zdunich may want to see their families for the holidays, who knows) or just wait for the DVD, which will apparently still hits stores in January.
There was no hotter ticket at the Toronto International Film Festival in September than The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's new drama about a washed-up professional body-slammer played by Mickey Rourke. I vividly recall the press screening, where every seat in the fest's largest theater was occupied by eager journalists, many of whom had sworn they'd miss whatever other films they had to as long as they could see this one.
It paid off, too -- the acclaim for the film was nearly universal. (Read Cinematical's James Rocchi's rave review here.) Now, in advance of the film's limited release on Dec. 31 (just in time to qualify for Rourke's inevitable Oscar nomination), Fox Searchlight has released the first trailer. Variety has it, and we've got it here, at the end of this post.
The trailer is good in the sense that it accurately conveys the tone of the film: moody, reflective, and only partially set in the wrestling ring. Bruce Springsteen's theme song is a nice touch. We get a few glimpses of Marisa Tomei, who plays Rourke's stripper friend (you'll catch more than a glimpse of her in the movie itself, if you know what I mean), and Evan Rachel Wood as Rourke's estranged daughter. Their performances are terrific, too, as is Aronofsky's direction -- man, I really hope this gets the Oscar attention that everyone thinks it will. It deserves it.
What do you think of the trailer? Does it make you more or less interested in the film? Let us know in the comments.
It's beginning to look a lot like Twilight ... everywhere you go. Remember the other day when I told you about that so-called review embargo on Twilight? Yeah, well ... nice try. Seems most of the major outlets (mainly newspapers) have published reviews, and they're quite positive, with Entertainment Weekly giving the film a B and Roger Ebert giving it 2.5 out of 4 stars (I imagine that's a sideways thumb?). Cinematical will publish our first review (out of two) later on tonight, but in the meantime here's a whole bunch of Twilight stuff to keep you busy:
2000 shows are already sold out this weekend for Twilight, and folks are currently projecting an opening of $45-65 million. Did Summit Entertainment step in sh*t, or what? Here's an entertaining article from the LA Times' Patrick Goldstein on "How the big studios missed the boat on Twilight."
Despite what appears to be positive feedback, Twilight is only running at 39% over at Rotten Tomatoes, though it's still early. Here's a quote from Variety's negative review: "A disappointingly anemic tale of forbidden love that should satiate the pre-converted but will bewilder and underwhelm viewers who haven't devoured Stephenie Meyer's bestselling juvie chick-lit franchise."
And finally, check out an interview with Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart from this morning's Today Show below.
So we've already torn the Motion Picture Association of America asunder for not displaying enough discipline with select film ratings, but what about the times that the MPAA maybe overdid it a bit with their judgment calls?
Earlier this week, I watched Danny Boyle's Millions for the first time in a good while, and I'd noticed that it was only rated PG for "thematic elements, language, some peril and mild sensuality" after an appeal to the ratings board. It's a fitting rating for a film worthy of an audience of all ages, but it made me wonder what the similarly whimsical Son of Rambow did to merit a PG-13 for "some violence and reckless behavior". I suppose the argument could be made that the behavior in Rambow lends itself more to imitation, but I know that my theoretical children (they have their mother's eyes) wouldn't be watching one and not the other.
Later that day, I saw Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, which gets an R for "some language". Now, I know that the MPAA tends to let adult-skewing PG-13 fare get away with an extra f-bomb or two (ex: About a Boy or the particular exception that is Gunner Palace), but by my count, F/N has a single -- albeit loud -- usage of Samuel L. Jackson's favorite expletive, and then nothing else that wouldn't earn an R. Isn't this just Once all over again? Are our nation's teens really going to stumble into this film and walk out worse off for it? (Robert Altman admitted on his Gosford Park commentary track that he intentionally swung an R for similar reasons.)
"I've never been a fan of Star Trek. It's true, I never quite got it." -- J.J. Abrams
Last night Cinematical had the chance to screen roughly 20 minutes of footage from the new Star Trek film alongside select journalists, Paramount executives and Trek director J.J. Abrams. Four scenes in total, each was a fairly critical component of the film -- and while hardcore Trekkers may have a few problems with the final product, there's no denying this rebooted version of Star Trek will kick off the summer of '09 in spectacular fashion.
Below, I'll give you a very brief summary of each scene, then spit out a few initial thoughts on it all before providing a few movie facts (based on what we learned last night). Some of this info will come as a welcomed surprise to those faithful out there, and some ... well ... let's begin, shall we:
Note: We'll be discussing plot points, so there will be spoilers ahead.
Scene Summary
1. Kirk's Introduction -- This was our first introduction to the Chris Pine version of Kirk -- a somewhat disheveled, but great looking punk who hangs around the Starfleet bar looking to pick up chicks. His wooing of one such chick -- who goes by the name of Uhura (Zoe Saldana) -- winds up getting Kirk into trouble with some of the boys. A fight ensues, and a man by the name of Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) steps in to save the day before urging Kirk to follow in his father's footsteps and join the Starfleet.
My favorite film festivals are the ones that are kinda small, intimate and easy to access, which is why we here at Cinematical are big fans of The Big Apple Film Festival in NYC. The 5th Annual Big Apple Film Festival begins this Wednesday at Tribeca Cinemas with the New York premiere of festival darling The Living Wake, starring Mike O'Connell and Jesse Eisenberg. Easily one of the more eccentric films of the year, The Living Wake is a must see for anyone who likes a little absurd with their humor.
Aside from The Living Wake (which also played CineVegas and the recent Los Angeles AFI Fest), Big Apple is screening upwards of 90 films this year (their largest number to date) - most of which come packaged with New York style, settings and edge. Other notable films in the lineup include The Project (Audience Award winner at Slamdance '08), Goodbye Baby, The Ultimate Jew: Jackie Mason, iMurders, Last Calland a pretty cool doc called Beyond Wiseguysabout Italian-Americans in film. Cinematical will be on hand for all four nights of the fest (Wednesday through Saturday), and yours truly will also be moderating six post-screening Q&As, so definitely make sure you stop in and say hello.
For more on The Big Apple Film Festival, like a complete schedule and info on how to buy tickets, please visit their official website. See you later in the week!
The day before opening, I made an educated guess that we'd see a sing-along incarnation of High School Musical 3: Senior Year soon enough. However, while I thought that Disney might go for the relatively open weekends of November 14th or December 5th, last week's 65% drop in business suggests that repeat viewing has already somewhat exhausted itself and that the studio better milk their cash cow dry a bit sooner, so on November 7th, the lyric-laden version of HSM3 will pop up in 125 digital theaters nationwide.
There's something to be said for the digital aspect of this release. Though I have friends and colleagues who still cheer 35mm all the way, to dismiss the merits of digital projection -- whether in this or better cases -- seems downright foolish. Who knows: with any luck, we'll be treated to a digital release of Saw School Musical come next October...
So we heard you actually traveled to Transylvania last week in order to get into the Halloween spirit of things, but then totally forgot a computer and never managed to check Cinematical. Good news for you -- Here's a bunch of stuff that happened last week: Halloween Stuff
It's Halloween weekend, and while you can certainly take in a new spooky flick (The Haunting of Molly Hartley) or two (Saw V), it seems the weekend's biggest film is a comedy. Kevin Smith's hilariously raunchy Zack and Miri Make a Porno finally arrives on the big screen today, for those who'd rather spend this ghoulish holiday laughing at two fools from Pittsburgh who desperately try to create a DIY porno for money to pay the bills. I've seen the film and if you dig a lot of potty mouth in your comedy, then you won't walk away disappointed.
You're on your own for the other two, though word is RockNRolla is very similar to Guy Ritchie's other Brit gangster flicks, only the faces in the cast have changed. Look for several badass characters with and without accents all vying for some sort of whatever that's worth a lot of money. I'm sure it's entertaining, if you don't mind Ritchie's repetitiveness. I know nothing of The Haunting of Molly Hartley, except that practically no one has seen it (typical for a Hollywood horror film). That said, it probably brings the creep factor and if you're itching for some spoonfuls of spooky on Halloween, this might be the way to go.
Of course, if you live in and around New York City, I will instead urge you to go see my favorite documentary of the year (which goes into limited release today), Dear Zachary, which is currently sporting a whopping 100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Yay!
So, what will you be watching?
Note: We've left off the Changeling, "all of the above" or "none of the above" options, so feel free to write those in the comments if that's your choice.
In Utah -- the state so pure that some theaters owners refuse to show the relatively tame Zack and Miri Make a Porno but haven't given Saw V a second glance -- one theater moved their audience for the weekend's #1 movie, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, into a larger auditorium that had been showing the raunchy Sex Drive ... and promptly continued to do so once the lights went down.
This isn't a terribly uncommon mistake to be made. Just last year, a Long Island multiplex exposed children to the gruesome opening of The Hills Have Eyes 2 instead of The Last Mimzy, and back in 2005, I found myself attending a Saturday night sneak of Zathura in a theater where The Fog proceeded to begin instead. (Childless and intrepid as I was am, it took my fetching a manager to correct the situation, not any of the number of vocally concerned parents in the surprisingly full house.)
(No, please, it was nothing.)
I just hope that some giddy HSM3 fan let loose with "Go, Wildcats!" regardless. They wouldn't have been too far off...
We've seen the ads countless times. Piracy is theft. If you steal a movie, you're no better than a thief. So on, and so forth. But what actually happens if you do?
As The Hollywood Reporter posts, heading to the theater and recording two films can land you nearly two years in prison. Michael Logan had recorded two films in a theater in Washington, D.C. -- 28 Weeks Later and Enchanted. Granted, the "MPAA says forensic analysis indicates Logan could be responsible for illegally recording more than 100 films from January 2006 to January 2008 in four states and the District of Columbia," but he was only found guilty for two.
Man, I would hope that he did record more -- not to suck it to the studios, but for the simple fact that it would suck if those were the films you got sent to prison for. I'm not saying that they're bad, but if I was getting sent to the slammer for a film, I would want it to be something really great.
Perhaps we'll see a revamp of those commercials in the future. I know tons of non-pirates who think the ads are a big joke, but maybe the message could be relayed a little better if stories like these were used. Weigh in below!
I will never understand why we're so afraid of sex in this country. It boggles my mind. Not only are we deathly afraid of sex, but we're also afraid of words. Combine a scary word and a film that carries a sex scene or two and you have what some would argue was an act of terrorism. Seriously. Ask Utah Jazz and Megaplex Theatres owner Larry Miller, who is refusing to screen Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Pornobecause he feels "it's very close to an NC-17 with its graphic nudity and graphic sex."
To take a page from Eric D. Snider, who took a page from SNL's Weekend Update ... really? Really, Larry Miller? So you have no problem screening Saw V in your movie theaters and exposing your customers to over-the-top violence and gore, but Zack and Miri is off limits? Really? Seriously? And you'll also screen films like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, which use raunchy, foul-mouthed language and feature rampant drug use, but you won't screen a film that has -- what? -- one to three scenes of nudity and "pretend" on-camera sex? Really? And this man is allowed to own an entire chain of theaters? Seriously? Really?
Now, it's been over a month since I last saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno, but trust me on this one folks -- the on-screen nudity is tame and rather harmless. And if you're ponying up the cash to see a flick directed by Kevin Smith that includes the word 'Porno' in its title, then something tells me you're expecting a little bit of dirty. We here at Cinematical call on Mr. Larry Miller to admit his moronic faults, screen Zack and Miri Make a Porno in all of his theaters and write an apology note to Kevin Smith, his fans and myself for having to waste over 300 words on this idiot.
Oh, and I hope the Utah Jazz have a miserable season.
As far as I'm concerned, all discussion about the merits and viability of 3-D technology must be put on hold until we get a look at James Cameron's Avatar. By all accounts, Cameron is genuinely trying to turn 3-D into a storytelling tool instead of the equivalent of a theme park attraction, and I think highly enough of the guy to suspect he might be able to pull it off.
Meanwhile, cinephile concerns notwithstanding, 3-D's mainstream popularity continues to surge. Guillermo del Toro now won't rule out the possibility that we'll be able to see his Hobbit films in three dimensions. "Right now what we have is, you don't have two filmmakers and two screenplay writers -- you have four screenplay writers," he says. "We'll be talking about 3-D, on IMAX -- but [not] right now."
IMAX, I think, is probably a foregone conclusion. But 3-D? The first Hobbit is slated for release in December, 2011, which is two years post-Avatar, thank goodness. My pre-Avatar brain revolts at the notion of seeing Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films in 3-D. At the moment I'm not thrilled about the prospect for The Hobbit, either -- but there I go again, breaking my own rules. James Cameron sees all, and knows all...
A couple of months ago -- and after watching the film spit out monster box office totals -- there was word Warner Bros. would throw The Dark Knight back onto IMAX screens (and possibly conventional theaters) for one last run. With the flick currently lingering around the $996 million mark, a re-release would all but guarantee it the much sought-after $1 billion. However, according to Superhero Hype, it's not gonna happen. They don't give much of a reason or a statement, just that plans to re-release on IMAX screens have apparently been scrapped. 
In a fitting move to, ahem, milk the boycott against Cinemark Theaters and its subsidiaries for having openly supported Proposition 8's ban on gay marriage, moviegoers are now being encouraged to see Gus van Sant's new film, 
Back in September, standing outside of Austin's Paramount Theatre, myself and a couple of others listened to .jpg)
So we've already torn the Motion Picture Association of America asunder for 
My favorite film festivals are the ones that are kinda small, intimate and easy to access, which is why we here at Cinematical are big fans of 
The day before opening, I made .jpg)
In Utah -- the state so pure that 
We've seen the ads countless times. Piracy is theft. If you steal a movie, you're no better than a thief. So on, and so forth. But what actually happens if you do?
.jpg)
As far as I'm concerned, all discussion about the merits and viability of 3-D technology must be put on hold until we get a look at James Cameron's Avatar. By all accounts, Cameron is genuinely trying to turn 3-D into a storytelling tool instead of the equivalent of a theme park attraction, and I think highly enough of the guy to suspect he might be able to pull it off. 
