It was inevitable that someone would eventually make a documentary about the folks who upload videos to YouTube, and it's kinda fitting that we get to watch a trailer for said doc on, well, YouTube. Directed by Chuck Potter, I Want My Three Minutes Back "examines the phenomenon of online video through the stories of YouTube video creators." I'm not very hip to the whole YouTube scene (then again, I'm not very hip to any scene), so the following names might not mean much to me, but they may mean a whole lot to you. Among the folks who participated in the doc are Tay Zonday (Chocolate Rain), Judson Laipply (Evolution of Dance), Michael Buckley (What The Buck Show), Phillip DeFranco (sxePhil), Christine Gambito (Happy Slip), Terry Roth (Zipster), Katie Graham (K80Blog), Paul Robinette (Renetto) and Travis and Jonathan (Jackie and Dunlap of Red State Update).

I Want My Three Minutes Back is currently attempting the film festival route, and depending on the final product this is totally something I could see premiering at SXSW. Check out the trailer below, and answer this: You may waste time watching these YouTube videos, but are you really interested in the people who created them?



[via Spout]

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.

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 ...

At the beginning of this past summer, I finally caved and decided to check out Lost on DVD. A friend of mine had gone on some crazy Lost binge, watching all four seasons in, like, a week, and afterward the dude was a little dizzy, dirty and distant. So, instead of going the crazy route, I spread the sucker out over five months and just finished up season four last week ... itching for more, of course. With season five debuting in January, and season four arriving on DVD this December 9, series writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse sat down for a roundtable discussion and answered questions about the show.

Collider has a great transcript, and I could spend hours chatting it up with you, but this is a movie blog and we're more comfortable sticking with things that may or may not end up on the big screen. Case in point: What about Lost? Sure, they've cut a deal to end the series in 2010, but will they surprise us with a finale in theaters? When asked this, Lindelof said, "No. At least not by us. We've always felt that the show should definitively end the same place it started... on television. To bring our characters to some sort of cliffhanger where the audience gets none of the answers that they really care about and then say, "Now give us ten bucks, buy some popcorn and we'll give you the rest!" would pretty much be the worst thing ever."

What do you think? Should Lost stick to the small screen, or would a theatrical finale be more fitting?

I really loved the first Speed movie. You had Keanu before he became Keanu, and Bullock before she became Sandra Bullock -- it was simply a nice, refreshing on-screen duo featuring two actors we didn't quite know yet and a villain played by one we already loved. Speed 2: Electric Cruise Ship Boogaloo? Not so much. And even though the sequel wasn't nearly as successful as the first (partly because the story was absurd, and partly because Keanu was replaced by Jason Patric), folks still talked about a third installment in the series -- so much so that The Guardian even announced last year that Dennis Hopper had a role in it. Weird, I know, considering the ending of the first flick, but who knows what these Hollywood types have up their sleeves.

Which brings us to today and yet another Speed 3 rumor. This time, AICN has received a message from one of their sources that says a scriptment for the sequel is floating around and it reintroduces the Jack Traven character, played by Keanu Reeves. And yes, the studio would like to talk Reeves back into starring. No word on whether Bullock would play leading lady (what else does she have to do?), but something tells me folks would rather Keanu if they had a choice between the two, hence Speed 2: Keanu-less Water Park Nightmare.

What say you? Speed 3 with Keanu? You down for it? And did the film Crank already give us the best possible Speed 3 premise?

When Cinematical visited the set of Sherlock Holmes last month, we certainly wanted to learn a lot more about this much-anticipated film (which we did), but we also wanted to find out once and for all whether the classic Holmes villain Moriarty would make an appearance. Up until this point, Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) was the only villain on record, and so far folks behind the scenes have managed to successfully dodge the big Moriarty question. That is, until now.

Note: Watch for spoilers below ...

While we received a number of shady answers (followed by evil smirks) from the cast and crew regarding Moriarty during our set visit, IGN managed to get someone to talk: Mr. Mark Strong. At the British Independent Film Awards over the weekend, Strong said this about Moriarty's involvement: "Moriarty's in it ... but you don't really see him. I think he's there because if the franchise carries on, there's a possibility that he will appear in a larger guise. But for the purposes of this one and the detective narrative, I'm the guy that Sherlock's after, Lord Blackwood. And he's a cultist/Satanist lord who is the ultimate cad." So he's there, but you don't see him? Hmmm. I guess we'll take that as solid confirmation ... until we find out who's playing him (ahem, Russell Crowe?).

Silly us X-Files fans trying to rationalize why The X-Files: I Want to Believe crashed and burned so badly this summer. It was too thoughtful! Too character-driven! Too focused on giving fans emotional closure, and not enough on slam-bang summer excitement! Long-time franchise producer Frank Spotnitz has a much easier and quicker answer: It was The Dark Knight's fault.

His theory goes thus: The X-Files opened a week after The Dark Knight broke all sorts of records and began its domination of the summer box office. What's more, the dark and brooding film was similar in tone to the caped juggernaut, and not the sort of counterprogramming that might nonetheless have had a chance in its wake. And so you get $21 million domestic.

Look, I'm probably as big a fan of I Want to Believe as you'll find around these parts; for fans of the show it was a lovely, moving conclusion. For fans of the show. The commercial problem with the film wasn't that it was too dark or that it followed The Dark Knight, but that it was too small, and its appeal too narrow. A bigger, flashier X-Files, with more explosions and flying saucers, would have done better, Batman notwithstanding. As it stood, people who didn't grow up on Mulder and Scully didn't see a reason to go. And -- speaking, again, as someone who loves the film -- they probably made the right choice. There wasn't much there for them.

Oh, and as to the possibility of another film that Spotnitz vaguely suggests: no thank you. This was a graceful, satisfying finale.

[via Movie City News]

Fans of the Transporter films aren't usually looking for a lot of subtlety and nuance, not unless those are codewords for "butt-kicking" and "car crashes." But Louis Leterrier, the whimsical Frenchman who directed the second film and co-directed the first one, said in 2005 that he had a subtext in mind for Jason Statham's title character: He was gay.

Chris Lee writes at the Los Angeles Times' fanboy blog that three years ago, when Transporter 2 came out, well, so did Frank Martin. According to Lee, Leterrier pointed to the scene where Frank turns down a romantic advance from Amber Valletta by saying, "It's because of who I am." Leterrier said, "That's him coming out!"

"If you watch the movie and you know he's gay, it becomes so much more fun," Lee quotes Leterrier as saying in 2005. "It's so great -- the first gay action movie hero! ... Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, 'The Transporter, that's such a great movie!' If they only knew they're really cheering for a new kind of action hero."

Statham didn't pay much attention to his director's comments, telling Lee in 2005, "It's just Lou-Lou trying to be funny. Although he did say, 'In Part 2, you will become the gay icon.'" That part might have come true, as Statham's many shirtless scenes made him popular in certain quarters, even if the character himself wasn't overtly gay.

You'd think there wouldn't be a ton of stuff to catch you post-Turkey blokes up with, but it's the exact opposite. So here's some stuff(ing) and things to skim over today:

-- Folks are going bonkers today over news in Production Weekly that the much-anticipated (and kinda secretive) Tron sequel has changed its title to TRZ in order to trick young kids into thinking MTV has adapted their now-retired TRL for the big screen. Okay, that's not the real reason ... but do we really need to know the real reason? TRZ? Here's the snippet of plot synopsis they provided: "After being transported into the surreal landscape of a mainframe computer to destroy an intruder, a programmer finds himself allied with the leader of a rebellion against a corrupt cyber-entity." According to Disney, an official title for the Tron sequel is not set yet.

-- George Miller finally went on the record and told a talk show in Sydney that he's officially off Justice League. He's done. That's it. Over. Dark Horizons says Miller thinks the film will be recast when (and if) it happens because "the studios seem to want bigger stars in their superhero movies now." We wonder why?

-- According to Shock, a source tells them Rob Zombie will indeed return to direct Halloween 2, the follow-up to his successful (at the box office) reboot of the franchise, titled Halloween. Additionally, the site claims Halloween 2 will begin shooting as early as this March.

-- Why do all the Nazi flicks come out during the holidays? And how do you sell them?

-- Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law has been arrested for the deaths of the actress/singer's mother, brother and nephew, according to CBS News.

After the jump: First looks at Whip It and Youth in Revolt, more on Chef and a very cool short film contest.