Predator 4 - Truth or Fiction?
Aint-it-cool-news had the scoop that Alien Vs Predator
may never happen and it looks more likely that Predator 3
will.
Producers want The Rock to play the son of Dutch and Anna
from the first movie somewhere between 2017 - 2020 and The Rock's
character has followed in his father's footsteps to become a U.S. Soldier.
The Predator in this film is the son of the Predator from the first movie
and has come to Earth following his "right of passage" to get revenge on
Dutch. Dutch is now dead so the Predator goes after his son. 2/3 of the
movie takes place on Earth the last 1/3 of the film takes place on the
Predator's home world where The Rock is made aware of the Predator's
intentions and why he's being hunted and released into the wild in very
unfamiliar territory.
Queen Of The Damned Vs Fans
The Herald Sun reports The makers of vampire movie 'The Queen of The Damned' have pissed off fans upset they are exploiting the death of its star Aaliyah. The R-rated movie is due for release in the US next month and is being promoted with posters featuring Aaliyah and bearing the tag-line "All she wants is hell on earth". The singer and actress was killed with eight others in a aircraft crash last year in the Bahamas after shooting had finished in Melbourne. Warner Bros deny they are exploiting Aaliyah's death in promoting the movie. "I'm always shocked at how conservative America is," Rymer told Entertainment Weekly. "Everyone is just so terrified of being inappropriate. It's a rock 'n' roll vampire movie that's supposed to be good, dark fun." Aaliyah's brother Rashad Haughton, who dubbed some of his sister's dialogue on the film after her death, has backed the studio. "You have to separate fantasy and reality," he said. "This was her art and her art was her life." For Pressman, this is the second time he's been faced with the quandary of selling a movie in which the star died before completion. In 1994, Brandon Lee was accidentally killed towards the end of shooting for The Crow. "Clearly the worst thing is to seem to be exploiting the situation," Pressman said. "The basic argument is you should bury the film along with the person - it's somehow sacrilegious to exploit a film with someone who's not alive."
VAMPIRES - LOS MUERTOS
Copy of poster from http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com
'Vampires - Los Muertos' is apparently delayed. An anonymous source who worked on the film posted this on Moviehole today to update us what's going on with this much-delayed sequel.
"The film is done. It was finished just before Christmas. But the last thing I heard is that it is going direct to video. I don't know when it is being released, however", our tipster says. "It is a shame, because I think it is a really good movie. I've read the book by John Steakley. It has a horrible prose style and the characters are pretty bland. I had problems with the original film (which retains none of the book besides the basic concept)", he adds.
Of the film and it's mythology he says "Carpenter's idea of the "Vampires" anthology is that the films are westerns. Only instead of Cowboys and Indians, it is Slayers and Vampires. However in the first film, the "heroes" aren't "movie" cowboys. They are what "real" cowboys in the west must have been like: Unsympathetic, trash-talking, misogynistic ass-holes. Tommy corrected that in the second film with his creation of Derek Bliss (Jon Bon Jovi). You actually like this guy. And JBJ gives a good performance. It also added new information about the vampires and expanded upon the Cross of Berzier - which is the only thing from the original that returns."
"The idea for this film was to successfully do what they failed at with the Halloween movies. Rather than make it a series of sequels that re-hash the same plot. They wanted to do what they call an "Anthology Series" where each film is not tied by the continuing adventures of the same character(s), but each film is it's own story about Vampires and Slayers with its own characters that builds on the ideas from the films before it. That was the plan for the Halloween movies was that each year it would be a new film with a new story and by a new director (but produced by Carpenter), and each film would be a horror film that centered around the themes of Halloween - sort of like the TV Series of "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits." They felt the reason it did not work with "Halloween 3" was because it was advertised as a sequel - so people came to the theatre expecting to see Michael Myers & Laurie Strode and were angry that it was another story altogether. I think it is funny that they tried to do something original - and the fans rebelled. They basically said they want the same thing recycled over and over again.
The problems with the film are that it has a slightly low budget feel to it. I think that came from shooting in Mexico, and the film was a bit under budgeted from the start. Another minor problem was that the Studio did not see the film as a western. They expected it to be a scary horror film (why this discrepancy of point of view never came up during script development - I have no idea!). The sad thing is that while it was a work in progress, there were a lot of great plans we had with some cool optical and subliminal cuts. But due to financial restraints - they were all removed. I don't even think that there are any VHS tapes floating around of the early versions that could surface as bootlegs. But the final version is still pretty good." he confirms. "Also, because Screen Gems are planning to release it directly to video, the odds of it being a "hit" to warrant another film are slight. So I think Carpenter's Hopes that this film starts another Anthology Series are dashed. No one who worked on the film expects there to be a Vampires III." he confirms. Source: Moviehole.net
Stephen King to hang up his typewriter!
IMDB reports horror writer Stephen King is to retire after completing his next five books. The famed author is planning to stop writing and end his career in publishing, promising fans just five more projects, two of which are already scheduled for 2002 - including new novel 'From A Buick Eight'. King explains, "You get to a point where you get to the edges of a room, and you can go back and go where you've been and basically recycle stuff. I've seen it in my own work. People when they read Buick Eight are going to think Christine. It's about a car that's not normal, OK? You can either continue to go on, or say I left when I was still on top of my game. I left when I was still holding the ball, instead of it holding me." King's 'Rose Red', adapted into an ABC miniseries, has become a big hit on TV in America - its debut on Sunday drew in almost 20 million viewers. He adds, "I don't want to finish up like Harold Robbins," referring to the pulp novelist who started with well-reviewed works, later suffered a damaging stroke and ended his career in steep decline. "That's my nightmare."
Spielberg digs up the Goonies
According to a piece on Aint-it-cool-news Steven Spielberg is in pre-production on a sequel to 'The Goonies' and is also making 'Indy 4'! In a conversation with Filmmakers he let it slip that he is intending to reunite the original cast of the Goonies and have them as parents, possibly looking over their kids as they get themselves in to all kinds of adventures.
You can probably expect a couple of spin off TV series' and cartoons and the merchandising to follow.
Robocop 4?
(Yet more sequel news! aaaaaGGGHHHH!) According to an interview with DVD Monthly Magazine UK, Paul Verhoeven is said to be interested in doing a new Robocop movie with Peter Weller reprising the role as Detroits' favourite cop.
Let's hope we don't see another Robocop3! - god forbid! Doesn't Hollywood know how to come up with new ideas? Rambo 4 and Rocky 6 anyone?
Goldmember Withdraws prematurely!
New Line on Friday was forced to recall 11,000 movie trailers and untold thousands of posters for its forthcoming Austin Powers3- 'Goldmember' after the MPAA ruled that the studio had jumped the gun in releasing them before an arbitration panel ruled on MGM's complaint that they infringed on its James Bond rights.
Some of the posters were said to be parodies of such Bond movies as 'Goldfinger' and 'For Your Eyes Only'. MGM released a statement on Friday saying that it had "a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who tries to trade on the James Bond franchise without authorization." Apparently the Wall Street Journal reported that MGM execs were particularly upset about the appearance in the movie of Mike Myers's Fat Bastard character coated in gold paint a la 'Goldfinger'.
Personally I think it would do the Bond films well to rip them off as more people might get nostalgic and go rent them or buy them to pick up more of the gags. Like anyone takes them that seriously anyway? I reckon it is all just because the idea of Fat bastard painted gold is too disturbing to put into anyone's heads!
Gaiman sues
Zentertainment reports - Author Neil Gaiman (Sandman graphic novels) has filed a suit in federal court in Madison, Wisconsin against Todd McFarlane and his companies. The nine-count suit claims McFarlane's used the Gaiman-created characters Angela, Cogliostro, and Medieval Spawn without his permission, and also alleges McFarlane has no claim to Alan Moore & Gaiman's comic property MIRACLEMAN. "This suit is not about the money, it's about respecting the rights of the creator and keeping promises," said Gaiman.
Lights Camera Inaction
Those fearless daredevil stunt person types in Hollywood may soon be out of a job according to software designers in LA. They have recently invented a 'Virtual Stuntman', a computerised human skeleton figure, that can be made to look like anyone. It can be controlled to interact with objects, and can be programmed with human responses such as putting hands out to stop yourself falling. (Reported in Computing Weekly).
Rumours have been circulating that this technology has in fact been in use ever since Arnie and Stallone ever decided to become thesps...maybe acting shoudln't be described as 'wooden' but 'lacking in human qualities'.
Matrix 2 under fire!
Apparently the filming of Matrix 2 and 3 has run into a few problems. Dark Side magazine gossip guru martin Coxhead reports that the contract for the special Computer FX was one by Eic Entertainment, a Company formed from staff who left the original company that handled the effects for the first film to form their own company. This means that Manex Entertainment, who developed the original time slice photography technique will sue the ass of Eic if they use anything remotely similar to techniques similar to the ones developed exclusively for the first film.
The film I have been reading about in Fangoria for over a year now, by one of my favourite artists (Rob Zombie), has been axed by Universal as they don't want to touch it with a shitty stick! Apparently it is too scary/disturbing. I'm sorry?...I thought that is what horror films are supposed to be! For goddsakes, he told you it was going to be a tribute to Texas Chainsaw Massacre! I have checked out the web site and everything about this film looks like it will become a cult classic. That is once it finds a distributor.
A spokesperson for LUCASFILM had announced that a few members of 'N SYNC would make a small cameo in STAR WARS II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES. They were said to appear in a "big scene with lots of extras." But the good news is that due to outrage by their fans, the cameo was left on the cutting room floor!
Elektra has been cast!
The role
of Elektra has apparently been cast for the new Daredevil film. Apparently
Avi Arad has cast Jennifer Garner from 'Dude where's my car?' and 'Pearl
Harbour'. If they give her the famous red outfit to wear I think she will
certainly do it justice..oh yes! (Check out Aint-it-cool-news for more
details.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be paid $30 million (21 million pounds) to reprise his cyborg role in the $170 million "Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines," due to be released in summer 2003. "T3" picks up the story a decade after the sequel, when a twenty-something John Connor teams up with his cyborg protector to battle the TX, an advance model terminatrix. While Schwarzenegger is back, the Connor role originated by Edward Furlong is expected to be recast. The project will be directed by Jonathan Mostow ("U-571") as Cameron dropped out along with FOX. Principal photography is set for April.
Second X -Files feature!
Yes folks the Truth is out there and it's soon to be rammed down our necks in a media frenzy of hype and merchandising as Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have purportedly signed on for a second feature film. The question is are the fans out there? Don't get me wrong, I loved the original series, but it's been going on far too long now. I say kill'em off.
The master of flesh and tortured
souls will soon be back with yet another offering!
He is rumoured to
have signed over the rights to Universal to develop a film based on the
'Tortured Souls' illustrations and Todd Macfarlane toys, using the toys
individual biographies as a basis for the films characters. The real
question here is will this film Suck? I mean I looked forward to
hellraiser 4 even though the word sequel usually makes me want to run a
mile from a cinema, and I love Clive's stuff, but the end result after the
studios hacked the shit out of it really puts you off supporting future
ventures. Look at what Universal have done to 1,000
Corpses!
