Jason Momoa is Conan for the 2011 movie version. The production is currently under way, shooting on location in Bulgaria.
The biggest question is WHAT will the new movie be about. Here’s the answer according to an insider:
A remake implies a new version of an original script. This movie has no connection to any previous Conan movies, it is a franchise restart, like “Batman Begins”. It is a brand new adaptation of the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard.
Solomon Kane is a character created by Robert E. Howard. However, unlike Conan, he has remained a cult “classic”, being more of a adventure hero.
It looks like the movie will follow a similar trajectory. It has been released in Europe, but it’s less and less likely it will get to screens in the USA. Of course, it will eventually end up on DVD (and video-on-demand), so you still be able to see it.
The movie starts with a great scene where Solomon Kane is going after the gold, as a typical pirate. Much to his surprise, the gold is “guarded” by the Reaper who has come to claim Solomon’s soul. Obviously, his soul was damned for his many crimes.
Solomon manages to escape and retreats to a monastery. This is the new Solomon Kane, who has repented and wants nothing more but peace. We wouldn’t have a movie, if everyone got what they wanted, so Solomon is thrown into the world and forced to confront violence.
I wouldn’t go into spoilers but the story arc is very interesting and paints Solomon’s childhood in a harsh light.
It’s a nice little movie, with a budget that’s probably 10% of Prince of Persia’s. James Purefoy does an amazing job, as always. If you haven’t seen him in Rome, you should definitely do so.
Sidenote: If you’re a fan of the Diablo games by Blizzard, you gonna love it. It plays a lot like the Diablo movie that’s in the works!
It may seem like a remake of the absurd Bay vs Boll match. This time Michael Bay drops the M-bomb.
Yes, Michael has passed on its option to hire Megan Foxfor the third installment of Transformers. Megan will probably be OK, she’s red hot property now. The same can’t be said for Michael. Even Cinematical agree to this point.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that Megan likened him to Hitler (Wonderland Magazine):
God, I really wish I could go loose on this one. He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it’s endearing to watch him. He’s vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set he’s a tyrant. Shia and I almost die when we make a Transformers movie. He has you do some really insane things that insurance would never let you do.
Yes, usually I review movies, but for once, Robin Hood has not earned the right to a review. More of a rant really.
I was excited to see the Gladiator crew reunite for another movie. They even amped up the female presence by going with Kate Blanchet.
Max von Sydow is another supposed upgrade, well, let’s just say that playing Kins Osric in Conan was better.
Putting all of English history in one movie was bad enough (Magna Carta in a Robin Hood movie??). Twisting history in unimaginable ways was even offensive.
Exhibit A: French troop carriers doing the invasion were a virtual rip-off of D-day craft. Even Caesar in his invasion of Britania knew he needed ships with a keel because crossing the Channel was impossible otherwise.
I even joked to myself that if I see German machine guns on the cliffs, it will be exactly like Saving Private Ryan. Well, you know what? The English archers lined the cliff and the arrows produced EXACTLY the same effect. Even the sound effects were similar.
So my verdict? Go see any other Robin Hood movie. Or go rent Saving Private Ryan, the battle scenes are much better.
Depending on where you are, Canon’s new flagship might carry different letters but the the bottom line is the same: this photo is GOOD news for aspiring indie filmmakers.
According to DPreview:
The EOS 550D redefines the boundaries of Canon’s consumer DSLR range, incorporating technologies and features more commonly found in semi-professional DSLRs into the compact, lightweight body favoured by consumers. With a newly-developed 18 Megapixel (MP) APS-C CMOS sensor, coupled with Canon’s advanced DIGIC 4 image processor and the ability to shoot Full HD movies, photography enthusiasts are empowered to explore new levels of creativity.
Yes, full HD and an ISO range of 100 – 6400 (expandable to 12800) means you’ll get a lot mileage from scenes with natural (often poor) lighting.
The camera itself is too new, so the previews have been based on pre-production units but I’m pretty excited!
The Wave is an amazing little gem of a movie. A friend of mine suggested we go see it…
A German movie about autocracy (dictatorship)? Sure, sign me up. There’s just one thing that would make this movie better… set it on a German U-boat during WWII. Alas, we can’t have every German movie on a U-boat like my favorite Das Boot.
The premise of the movie is quite simple – take a group of high-school students, dress them uniformly, drill them, and voila, you end up with a true brown (black) shirt movement from 1930s (a.k.a. Fascism). The movie is based on a book that is based on a true story that happened in California, not Germany. The moral of the story is that it could happen anywhere with the right ingredients.
In terms of filmmaking, the movie is very solid. I could imagine it done with an even smaller budget in true Dogma style, without losing much of its appeal. It’s definitely worth checking out.
He takes it to a whole new level for the Prince of Persia. The Jerry Bruckheimer’s production seems to be of epic scope indeed, since Jake has an year to get in character: note the hair, it’s not a wig (I think).
I find it amazing that someone in Hollywood has “underwritten” transferring Prince of Persia to the big screen – as a summer blockbuster too.
Effectively, this is a $150-million one-way bet on video games. Uwe Boll shot video game movies in Canada for 10M and barely broke even. Some even claim he did it for tax purposes, as German investors could write off the losses as an “investment in art.”
I can tell you right now what the NEXT game movie blockbuster is going to be. Sam Raimi was attached as Director to a World of Warcraft movie. Blizzard makes a billion a year in revenues from their MMO, I’m certain they can fork up $150 million.
Update: Gemma Arterton has been working out and tanning quite a bit too. She confessed she had to shed 10 pounds for the role of the princess. So it’s not just Jake that is a “serious” actor as Daily Mirror put it.
This is a tutorial on how to increase the dynamic range of an SLR. SLRs and camcorders are pretty close in terms of dynamic ranges, so you might find it useful in your post-production of video as well. Keep in mind that “digital” has a significantly smaller range when compared to film, so every little bit helps.
This camera shootout is a bit old (end of 2008) but it’s quite comprehensive: 35mm motion picture, RED, EX3, HVX200, HPX170, HPX3000, Sony EX3, Nikon D90, Canon 5D Mark II, Letus35 Ultimate and Elite DOF adapters, RedRock Micro and more.
You’ve probably heard that Blizzard has embarked on a quest to extend the World of Warcraft into a movie franchise.
Wired announced that Robert Rodat (the screenwriter of Saving Private Ryan) has been working on a draft for Director Sam Raimi.
That’s my first concern, when hearing about a game-based movie – the script. Uwe Boll has created a dozen of infamous movies with mediocre (putting it mildly) scripts.
I still think a Diablo horror movie based on Diablo will work MUCH, much better for Blizzard but it’s pretty obvious they want to exploit WoW’s popularity while it lasts. I hope they want to release Diablo 3 first to spark up Diablo’s popularity.
Michael Rubin, an author of books on Mac and editing, has decided to give away his Droidmaker book for free!
The book describes in detail the development of nonlinear editing (NLE) and computer graphics. The book is written from his perspective of working with Lucasfilm and Pixar.
I think this could be a valuable tool for independent filmmakers too, after all, the cost of doing computer effects has been falling steadily.
Roman Polanski found himself in jail facing extradition to the USA, when he tried to attend a film festival in Switzerland.
According to the NYT: “Roman Polanski lost his first bid to win his freedom Tuesday as the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an appeal by the 76-year-old to be immediately released from prison, an official said.”
Galli told The Associated Press that the risk was too great for the government to accept bail or other security measures in exchange for the release of the filmmaker who is wanted by U.S. authorities for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
Polanski was apprehended Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive an award from a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles consider him a convicted felon and a fugitive, and Switzerland says there has been an international warrant out on him since 2005.
His legal representatives are also asking Switzerland’s highest criminal court to free Polanski. Galli said the Justice Ministry has submitted a letter to the tribunal explaining why it opposes release even on bail.
So the Oscar-winning director remains in jail with very little chance to get himself off the hook (again, that NYT story). At the time of his arrest he was working on The Ghost, a movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor.
Blizzard have just announced that Sam Raimi joins the team working on a Warcraft movie. Now, I can understand where their excitement is coming from. After all Sam Raimi has turned the Spiderman franchise into a goose that lays golden eggs.
And on the surface, you could say that Warcraft and Spiderman aren’t that different. Both are cartoony and appeal to nerds.
However, I can’t imagine what a scrip meeting will be like … in Blizzard’s Global domination HQ. Sam will want to limit the protagonists to a reasonable trio, with one being a love interest and one being the comic relief (see Conan). Blizzard will argue that a party of three will get nowhere even if they have been twinked up. Plus, PVP isn’t balanced in groups of three.
A Diablo movie on the other hand will be Sam Raimi’s dream come true. After all, he made his name with the Evil Dead (at least in my book). Total nightmare, one protagonist… hell, he could use the already excellent Diablo 2 cinematics as a jumping point!
Worst of all, when the Warcraft movie gets awful reviews, Uwe Boll will be telling everyone that he was the first to come up with the recipe for turning a good game into an awful movie.
Karl Malden stars in one of my favorite movies – Patton. Admittedly, the role of general Omar Bradley isn’t the one he’ll be remembered for… but frankly, A Streetcar Named Desire isn’t on my favorite movie list.
What an amazing career – spanning 60 years! Rest in peace.
Sasha Grey recently starred in the indie movie The Girlfriend Experience. We now learn from her interview for CNBC that she did 200 movies… No wonder TGE was a bit of let-down for me, Sasha’s dead-pan performance is a result from her being overworked!
I was lying in bed thinking about great movies that I revisit a lot. So what’sthe first line that comes to mind… No objectivity whatsoever!
Conan The Barbarian
Amazing soundtrack and little dialogue to distract you from the imagery/music
Das Boot
The only war movie that runs close to 4 hours and I still feel it was cut short
The Engish Patient
Walter Murch took an year to patch this movie together and I’m still confused after seeing it for the fifth time.
Lawrence of Arabia
Every time someone tells me I’m the most arrogant person they know, I check out Lawrence to make sure I’m still a dwarf (albeit standing on the shoulders of a giant)
American Movie
I think of Mark whenever I feel I’m giving 110% and still failing miserably.
The Producers
When I was a kid I dreamed of meeting Mel Brooks because he’ll recognize me as his rightful heir… the time is running out
What’s your reason for viewing a movie again and again?
Now, this isn’t a review of Transformers 2… I haven’t seen it myself yet.
I have seen part one and it was typical teenage fair. In typical Michael Bay tradition, he amped it up in the sequel. The most obvious result is that Megan Fox is SO sexy, it hurts my eyes.
That’s her at the LA Premiere of Transformers… The only way for Michael Bay to go further will be to have Megan Fox go topless in T3!
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