It’s a new year and a new batch of Alamo posters has arrived. This January the Alamo Ritz will be screening the classic Godfather for the masses and to celebrate the event they’ve gone and made three posters for yall. The artists responsible are Jeff Kleinsmith, Tim Doyle and Billy Perkins.
I must say that Kleinsmith’s poster is my absolute favorite of the bunch but all are good and a must for fans of Italian stereotypes.
All three posters are available from mondotees.com of course but as a special variant Tim Doyle has made a wood version of his poster only available through gigposters.com. There are only 15 copies of the wood edition around so if you like that one you have to hurry.
You can get each of the signed and numbered posters separate for 30 bones each or as a set for 75 bucks, that’s a sweet deal.
Tom McCarthy’s second feature, The Visitor, gets a Region 2 DVD release in the UK on 9th February and is well worth seeking out. It’s a gently comic and ultimately moving tale of a lonely college professor’s relationship with a young immigrant couple in New York, which deftly touches on (an unsatisfactory) US immigration policy along the way. Walter (Richard Jenkins) is a widower of 5 years, bored with his job and simply going through the motions of a middle-aged academic. On returning to New York after an extended absence, Walter finds Syrian musician, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Dania Gurira) enjoying a peaceful life in his flat. Having fallen victim to a rental scam, the young couple politely leave. Realising they have nowhere else to go, the benevolent professor invites them back to stay with him whilst they sort themselves out. At once Walter is drawn to Tarek’s drum playing and they strike up a friendship through a mutual interest in music. Things take a turn for the worse when Tarek is unfairly arrested and sent to an immigration facility, as it transpires that the couple have been living in America illegally. At this point McCarthy’s film changes focus as Tarek’s concerned mother, Mouna, arrives on the scene and a tender love story emerges amongst the struggle to prevent her son’s deportation.
Continue Reading "The Visitor arrives on UK DVD"...
This is so long overdue it’s not even remotely funny. After years of toiling in the B-ranks Australian stylist Russell Mulcahey could finally be getting his shot at prime time with upcoming action flick Courier. Despite helming the original - and should have been only - Highlander, a cult classic that has easily survived its subsequent bastardization, Mulcahey has never really been able to attract a-list talent or scripts but with Adrien Brody in the lead of his latest that could be changing ...
A million bucks, just to a deliver a briefcase…
It’s a job too good to be true, especially if you’re the COURIER, a daredevil carrier renowned for taking on impossible missions who’s never, ever missed a drop. The only catch is delivering it to someone who can’t be found, not even by the FBI, and when that someone is the notorious, never seen King of the Underworld EVIL SIVLE who’s very name makes the toughest tremble, there’s a lot more than reputation and money on the line.
With a baying pack of double crossing feds, conniving crooked cops and ruthless rival crime bosses in hot pursuit, the Courier trail blazes a world-wide chase for the most wanted man in the land. Drugged, beaten, tortured and two timed, the bloodhound bagman discovers easy money was never so hard, and tracking the elusive kingpin to Las Vegas learns just why Evil is the one person on the planet no one can find, and why he really is the King…
The plot has some obvious similarities to the setup for the Transporter films but Brody is in a whole different class than Jason Statham and with a script from the writers of 3:10 To Yuma and Wanted this could be something rather good. The film is in pre-production now, more as we get it.
It’s been a long and apparently troubled road for Yoichi Sai to bring his ninja epic to the big screen. After the very difficult production of Korean action-melodrama Soo, Sai - an ethnically Korean Japanese - returned back home to Japan to tackle an adaptation of Shirato Sanpei’s manga The Legend of Kamui Ninja. The film was announced ages ago but there’s been nothing from it since, other than the occassional rumor of some trouble or other on the set. But, finally - and I say finally because the world really doesn’t have enough ninja films and Sai’s got the chops to make a damn good one - we get at least a tease, in the form of a revamped website and big ol’ photo of Kenichi Matsuyama in the lead role. It aint much, but it’s something ...
Just a couple days ago we were fortunate enough to share the first few character shots from Albert Pyun’s long-in-the-works sequel to classic 80’s fantasy flick The Sword And The Sorcerer, the new film being titled Tales Of An Ancient Empire. Those first shots were taken from rehearsals and were shared purely to give fans a look at the characters and feel of the world but now we’ve got the real thing: a trio of production stills taken from the second day of principal photography. No sign of Christopher Lambert yet but we do have some very good looks at lead actress Melissa Ordway as Tanis and Kevin Sorbo as Aedan, threatening someone with a big hunk of meat. Suddenly I’m hungry.
Hit the link below for a look!
We’re big fans of Kiwi director Jonathan King in these parts, much smitten by his horror-comedy Black Sheep of a few years ago. And King has been a busy man lately, writing and directing a healthy budget adaptation of youth-fantasy novel Under The Mountain. Written in 1979 the novel has been made into a television series in the past but has never made it to the big screen until now. Things have been quiet since the film was first announced but with news that photography is now complete and the film in post production under the watchful eye of Peter Jackson’s WETA Workshop, the first still has now arrived.
When teenage twins Rachel and Theo investigate the creepy old house next door, they discover the Wilberforces - shape-shifting creatures that lurk beneath Auckland’s ring of extinct volcanoes.
Guided by the mysterious Mr Jones and with the help of their older cousin Ricky, the twins must rekindle the unique powers they once shared if they are to destroy this ancient evil - before it destroys them.
We’ve lamented the lack of good youth fantasy in these pages lately and this is one of a coming wave of titles that looks poised to fill that void. Hit the link below for a larger version of the still.
Thailand’s Chocolate and Denmark’s Fighter opened the flood gates for a female-fronted martial arts revival in 2008 and the gates show no sign of closing any time soon. Coming in 2009 are Japan’s High Kick Girl and Hong Kong’s Coweb, the common thread between the films being that all feature first time actresses who are real life fighters and do all of their own fight and stunt work.
Coweb marks the directorial debut of Xiong Xin Xin, a familiar name to martial arts fans around the globe thanks to his acting role as Clubfoot in the Once Upon A Time In China films. Xiong has been absent from the screen for a while now but that’s only because he’s been busy working as a fight choreographer and now as a director. The star? Jiang Luxia, who was spotted on the Hong Kong martial art reality show The Disciple, a show sponsored by Jackie Chan to find the next generation of Hong Kong screen fighters - a successful move as a number of finalist are appearing in upcoming films. Here’s a synopsis:
Newcomer 蒋露霞 Jiang Luxia, a finalist of The Disciple reality TV show, plays the lead role as Guangdong wushu coach Nie Yi Yi who gets implicated by a kidnap case in Hong Kong. It’s up to her to battle waves after waves of fighters to rescue her employer and his wife who are kidnapped. Little did she know that her fights are being captured on video and broadcast live via a website which serves as an illegal online gambling den…
When we first wrote about this back in September there was a trailer and a pair of clips available on the official website. Those have disappeared now but a new trailer has just surfaced which you can find below the break. The video quality is lower than I’d like but the fight quality is nice and high.
Continue Reading "2009: Year of the Chick Fight! First Proper Trailer For Xiong Xin Xin’s COWEB!"...
Since word came down that David Tennant would soon be ending his run as the titular Doctor Who - if memory serves Tenant currently has four one-off specials left to do and then he’s finished - speculation has been running rampant over who would take over the iconic role. And last night the BBC ended the uncertainty with, shall we say, a rather surprising announcement.
Meet Matt Smith, the new Doctor Who. Don’t know who Smith is? Not to worry, neither does anyone else, really. The betting money throughout this process was that comedian Paterson Joseph had the inside line to become the first black Doctor but the Beeb opted instead to go with Smith who, at the age of just twenty six, becomes the youngest doctor ever by a margin of three years. With hardly any significant entries on his resume Smith has just received the opportunity of a lifetime, though also probably one that’s going to typecast him to the nth degree. Hope you like scifi Matt ...
Look at that man sitting there all cross legged in the water. So peaceful. So tranquil. What you don’t know is that if this image were moving his jaws would probably be working away - chewing and chewing and chewing. And what he’d be chewing would most likely be human flesh! Heh ...
The film is titled Naan Kadavul, a long-in-production Tamil effort that seems to have preferred to work only with single-named talent. The director is known simply as Bala, the lead actor Arya and the lead actress Pooja. The title translates to I Am God and the film tracks the life of an Aghori, an Indian sect that is rumored to practice cannibalism. That last bit is key to appreciating the trailer which is dominated by shots of Arya chewing. And chewing. And chewing.
Check it out below the break!
Continue Reading "This Man Will Kick Your Ass. And Then Eat It."...
[Updated with another piece of promo art]
We first brought news of the impending sequel to classic 80s fantasy flick The Sword And The Sorcerer back in April and while production was delayed some by this past year’s labor uncertainty and while the cast has undergone some slight alterations things are now up and running, with principal photography now freshly begun. Here’s how director Albert Pyun first described the project to us: “It’s got a sexy sorceress, hordes of demonic vampires, a giant serpent, sea pirates, nasty sword (and axe, spear, leg of cow) fights and gore and nudity galore. Everything that a rousing adventure needs to have.”
Though the project has changed some since it began life as a direct sequel to Pyun’s The Sword And The Sorcerer there are still direct links between the two films. Starring? Here are the notables: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and Christopher Lambert (The Highlander) are the male leads, while relative newcomer Melissa Ordway takes the female lead as Tanis, a young woman trying to unite the warrior of her world in a battle against an evil sorceress. Whitney Able (All The Boys Love Mandy Lane), Janelle Taylor, Ralf Moeller (Conan, Cyborg) and Olivier Gruner (Nemesis) also have key parts.
We’ll have more from this soon but in the mean time we’ve got a handful of stills from early rehearsals that show off the look of the characters - I’m rather fond of the Sorbo shot - the first look at the sales art and an early composite shot of Ordway as Tanis. Hit the link below to get a look!
Now, this is a surprising and very deserving move. The National Society of Film Critics have just named Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir the Best Picture of 2008 - a move that should help it’s chances for an Oscar nomination later this month. Bashir would have seemed a sure thing to at least be nominated for an Oscar this year but a shortage of submitted animated features means only three animated films can be nominated and with most people figuring Wall*E and Kung Fu Panda will take up two of those slots that means one of arthouse faves Waltz With Bashir or $9.99 is going to be left out cold.
Waltz With Bashir is on screens in limited release right now, check it out if at all possible. The trailers are below the break and you can find my review at the link below.
Continue Reading "National Society Of Film Critics Names WALTZ WITH BASHIR Best Picture!"...
When fresh images from Oldboy director Park Chan Wook’s much-anticipated vampire picture Thirst turned up in the Korean media earlier this weekend I must confess that I was a little bit underwhelmed, having seen considerably more in the promotional materials and sales reel presented at the American Film Market in November. I passed on posting them up originally but not to worry - I’ve come to my senses. This is the new Park Chan Wook, after all, and while these are relatively old to me they’re certainly not to you and so I’ve gathered them together and put them in a gallery for your perusal. And if, before browsing, you;ve been asking yourself why the Korean media have suddenly released these things, the answer is a good one: production has apparently gone so well that they’re ahead of schedule and now on track for a much-sooner-than-anticipated April theatrical release in Korea. Focus have the film here in North America but have not yet set a release date.
Check below the break for the full HAF synopsis for this tale of a lustful priest-turned-vampire and hit the link below for the images.
Continue Reading "Fresh Images From Park Chan Wook’s Vampire Picture THIRST"...
