Christopher Nolan by Liz Baylen | LA Times

In an interview with Hero Complex, Christopher Nolan has revealed the title of the third Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises,” set to be released in 2012. Another piece of news he let slip was the film will not be shot in 3D but  in 2D, with additional assistance from IMAX cameras and HD approaches. The best piece of news was his confirmation that the Riddler will not be the villain in the film. No word on who it will be. I say “best” because that puts to rest the rumors of Johnny Depp playing the Riddler, a casting choice that I believe would have been the biggest mistake. Depp is no longer a character actor and he would not be believable. So there you have it. Thoughts?

This movie took things to the next level and showed what can be done with a new director. Alfonso Cuaron took over and in doing so allowed the actors to grow in their roles and bring small traits to their characters, to make them believable. One theme that was focused on was legacy.

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were friends of James Potter, Harry’s father, and wanted to find the traitor in their group. The root out Peter Pettigrew and intend to kill him, but Harry convinces them not to do it. When told Pettigrew deserves to die, Harry replies that the truth would die with him and he feels his father wouldn’t want his friends to become killers. At 13, Harry shows maturity and insight with his handling of the situation. He was intent on killing Sirius, in discovering the events leading up to his parents death, but Harry held his emotions in check and got to the truth. This is something he does well, something that will continue to serve him as he grows older. Although he never knew his parents, with that statement Harry feels there are things he likes to believe his parents would approve and disapprove of, that even in the heat of the moment Harry knew a bit more than his father’s closes friends. Mature, indeed.

We see Harry and his friends move into adolescence, some going through the motions of what is typical, such as jokes, pranks, surliness, and awkward attractions, but as much as Harry would like to be typical he cannot be and here we can see why.

While promoting “RED,” Bruce Willis recently stated that he would like to do Die Hard 5 and 6 before he gets replaced and too old to do them.

“I want to do Die Hard 5, then one final Die Hard movie — Die Hard 6 — before finally hanging that white vest up for good. At the moment, I can run and I can fight on screen. But there will come a time when I no longer want to do that. That’s when I’ll step away from the Die Hard films. In the next few years they could easily find a replacement for me or call the character someone else.”

Awesome, just awesome. Like many, I grew up watching the Die Hard films, and if two more are in the works then I am there. At 55, Bruce Willis can still kick ass, as in “RED” at the moment, so he can still get the job done. As for being replaced? John McClane is Bruce Willis and Willis is Die Hard, simple as that. Thoughts?

Dreamworks has announced its plans to adapt Rodrigo Blaas’ incredibly creepy animated short “Alma“ into a feature-length film. Additionally, Guillermo Del Toro has been attached to produce the adaptation. For those of you who haven’t seen the short, you can check it out below. “Alma” is about a young girl who, while on a walk in a small village, is lured into a mysterious doll shop. There she soon realizes that things aren’t quite what they seem.

It’s no surprise that Guillermo Del Toro is attached to a film like this. The story is very simple, but intense. The film itself is visually gorgeous. It didn’t come as a shock to us when we learned Blaas has previously worked on various Pixar films, including ”Finding Nemo” and “Up.” Blaas is also set to co-direct Del Toro’s upcoming Dreamworks film, “Troll Hunters.”

Thoughts?

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

First, a thank you to Eddie for bringing this to my attention and now I bring it to you fellow geeks. Comic book mastermind Grant Morrison is currently writing and storyboarding an independent western film called “Sinatoro”. For information about this film let’s hear what Morrison and director Adam Egypt Mortimer have to say.

Grant Morrison: I kind of wanted to do something based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead and modernize it. The one experience that we all go through (but no one wants to think much about) is death. We’re going to study all the latest information on what happens to consciousness during the process of death. We wanted to look at what’s supposed to happen afterward based on all the confessions we can study and understand. But as a story, it’s boy meets girl and all that sort of thing. It uses the building blocks of Hollywood.

Adam Egypt Mortimer: The story and its surreal landscape draw from American pop culture. The main character is a bright-eyed, beautiful, 20-year-old kid with no memory. He walks away from a car crash in the desert where everybody died. Sinatoro is a shamanistic code word for “Frank Sinatra.” There’s no actual analogue to Sinatra, but the movie draws from the Sinatra ideal — the blue-eyed American pop icon with these strange aspirations to be connected to gangsters. It’s a mnemonic code, it’s an archetype.

What archetypes might appear?

AEM: There’s the biker gang, the lonesome, drunken cowboy, the astronaut who lives in the middle of desert, the wandering hobos from the 30s and 40s. There’s going to be visual cues to the American pop universe. [For example,] there’s a scene when someone gets shot and it mimics a Jackson Pollock painting.

GM: Because we have the freedom, we wanted to do a movie that does Hollywood better than Hollywood. It’s my version of what the the 21st century American movie looks like. It’s all about the Western, the badlands. It’s the idea of the endless road, which is usually represented by the old Route 66. We’re taking ideas of the Western, the road movie, the crime film Natural Born Killers.

Why in the west?

GM: There’s a darkness to a lot of Americans. They have a sense of shame and downplay how cool America is because of – to a large extent – a lot of foreign policy decisions in the States. But that’s not what this is about. As an outsider looking at all the stuff we love about America, I wanted to take that stuff and make a myth for the 21st century.

On Working outside of Hollywood:

GM: It’s the absolute freedom. If you’re working in Hollywood, there’s rules, that whole Robert McKee “Story” stuff. Think of video games. I was just playing Red Dead Redemption. It’s a subjective experience. There’s a story behind it even though it’s not a movie. You can ignore the cut scenes but still play it and feel like you’ve had an experience.
We began to think, “Why are we as an audience watching Tom Cruise pretend to be someone else when we can log on and become someone else?” We can be Batman in the Arkham Asylum game. We don’t need Christian Bale! He’s a great actor, but people can log on and become Batman for hours [within the game]. Hollywood has a tight structure and I think a lot of that storytelling has become outmoded. We want to add the new influences we’re getting from games and other media and add it to this film narrative.

AEM: I’ve known Grant for years [...] I think about a year or two ago, I became aware that Grant does whatever he wants in comics. I said to him, “If we do something super low-budget, I promise you I can find producers who will let you do the movie and not give you notes.” I brought his ideas to producers, and they were excited about making a pure Grant Morrison film.

I love love love love this idea! It sounds out of left field and so brilliant that I want to see this film right now! I’ve read much of Grant Morrison’s work so I look forward to a film he has a good portion of control over. Thoughts?

Pixar has just released a teaser trailer and an assortment of concept images for their upcoming animated sequel, Cars 2. From the looks of it, Lightning McQueen and Mater will no longer be in their hometown of Radiator Springs, but instead traveling the globe as spies?

Personally, I’m barely excited about this, mostly because it has the Pixar name attached to it. I think I’d be more excited if it was a sequel to Wall-E, Monster Inc., or The Incredibles. Thoughts?

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DailyBLAM has gotten a few images of the Power Battery that will appear in the up coming Green Lantern film starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. During the Spike Scream Awards, that will air on Tuesday October 19 at 9pm PST, Ryan Reynolds was presented with the “Most Anticipated Movie” award for Green Lantern. Reynolds arrived on a giant version of the power battery each Green Lantern Corps member uses to recharge their ring in the comics and most likely in the film.

I like how alien this looks but still has the basic design of what the battery has had for the last 50 years. I’m sure there will be objections but as always I ask those, how would you have done it?

This is a really fun action movie. I enjoyed the explosions and the gun fights. The movie is full of wit and and interesting characters. One problem with this movie is, athough this is an intense action movie, the beginning of the movie is extremely slow. The main villain is William Cooper (Karl Urban), he really isn’t a bad guy but someone who works for the CIA and is caught between orders and his curiosity of what is really going on. There is a twist at the end but the twist seems weak. The plot overall feels weak. This is a movie most people would go to for the great action, explosions and brief action comedy. Morgan Freeman is in the movie but the previews portrayed him as a bigger character than he really is. His character seemed more like a really long cameo instead of a supporting character. I do have to say this movie is a lot funnier that I thought it would be. This movie struck me as a tamer version of smoking aces but it held it’s own ground as something different.

This was an all star cast. All the acting in the movie was fantastic and is what you would expect from the quality of actors in the movie. When I first saw that Morgan Freeman was in this movie, I thought the story would be more engaging since he is usually in movies that have somewhat interesting stories, but then again he did “Wanted” and “Bruce Almighty”.

Over all this movie was really fun. No one can go into this movie and take it seriously. “Red” is intended to be funny and over the top for the sake of being funny and over the top. Nothing more and nothing less. I really enjoyed how well the explosions were done but if they made a sequel I would like to see a better story and a faster story, but the action felt like the right amount.

The writing and dialog in the film is top notch. The story is engaging but the whole movie is one large flashback. At certain points in the story, the viewers jump into two different conference rooms that each hold lawyers, Zuckerberg and the people suing him. The movie overall is easy to follow but still contains an engaging and twist heavy plot.

The acting in this movie is very well done, especially Jesse Eisenberg, who plays a believable Mark Zuckerberg. He comes across as someone who is always in control and who is smarter than everyone else. Armie Hammer plays both of the Winklevoss twins, the people who hire Mark to make their website. He surprisingly pulls off both of the roles to the extent that I thought they actually cast twins for the role. Andrew Garfield plays Edwardo Saverin who is Marks best friend when he is in college and fronts the money to start Facebook. Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker who was the inventor of Napster. He plays someone who screwed the system and still wants to screw the system. Timberlake was the surprise of this film. Going into “The Social Network”, great performances were expected but I wasn’t sure if Timberlake would preform to my standards. He pulled off the role and I enjoyed his character.

Overall, this movie is fantastic. The plot is very well written and the cast hold their own. I think this will get an Oscar nomination but I’m not sure if it will win best picture. I should mention that most of the story depicted is not true. A lot the script is exaggerated, taken out of context or just plain made up. This is not the true story of Facebook but instead, a more exciting, Hollywood version of the birth of Facebook.

According to Deadline Hollywood, Johnny Galecki has officially signed on to co-star in the upcoming sci-fi flick, I’m Mortal. Galecki joins a cast that includes Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy), Amanda Seyfried (Jennifer’s Body), and Cillian Murphy (Inception). The film is written and directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca).

I’m Mortal is set in a futuristic world where scientists have discovered how to genetically stop the aging process. When everyone reaches the age of 25, they stop aging. However, time must be bought so immortality has become a commodity that only the rich can afford.

Sounds promising. Thoughts?