6 comments
  Email this

Posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 20:50:37 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie news scifi gallery adaptation

The new adaptation of Dune is going forward, even if Peter Berg is no longer attached - he’s been replaced by French import Pierre Morel (known around these parts as director of District B13). Now some concept art has appeared online for Berg’s vision of the film and though Morel has said that he and Berg have a completely different approaches to the material, I can’t imagine completely scrapping these concepts. It’s difficult for me to believe that Morel and his team can come up with something better than this.

Comic book artist/movie concept artist Jock has taken his website live and with it posted some of the concept images he worked on while Berg was still involved with the project. They’re dark and beautiful and exactly the kind of thing I expected from a good adaptation (and I liked Lynch’s wacky version) and I must admit, I’m a little worried about the new direction of this project. It’s not bad enough that they’re talking of taking this thing 3D (why people, why? Do we really need sand worms coming out of the screen? I didn’t think so.) but they also scrap perfectly great concept art? Yeah, it’s troublesome.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that a Dune film will never meet my high expectations. It’s a good thing we’ve got the miniseries. They're not perfect (the first is far superior to the second) but they're pretty darn good. Now we just have to wait and see how badly Morel and his team mess things up.

Thanks to MovieWeb for the heads up. Gallery after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 20:54:17 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news thriller drama crime

Producer Michael Morrissey is ready to make the jump from producing to directing and if the trailer for his first feature is any indication, he’s about to arrive with a bang.

Taglined “Beware the Hero,” Boy Wonder isn’t your caped crusader hero film. Heck, it doesn’t even truly follow the recent batch of awkward super hero’s we’ve been seeing of late (Kick-Ass (review) and Defendor (review) come to mind) as he has no bright costume but Sean Donovan is a hero none the less.

After witnessing the brutal killing of his mother, Sean grows up obsessed with finding her killer. A good student by day and vigilante hunter of bad guys by night, the boundaries of right and wrong begin to blur and his dual lives begin to collide.

The trailer is pretty amazing, cutting between Sean’s past and his present with great speed and short glimpses while never losing site of the mystery it's building or losing the audience. It’s a little jarring but extremely effective.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 16:37:59 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama festival

Writer/director Justin Lerner has made a couple of well received short films but Girlfriend, his first full length feature which is premiering at TIFF, suggests that we should have been paying attention a long before his feature film was due to premiere.

Also written by Lerner, it’s the story of Evan, a young man with Down Syndrome, who comes into some money and rather than doing something nice for himself and his mother (played by Amanda Plummer), he decides to pursue the girl of his dreams, the girl he’s loved since high school: Candy. She’s beautiful but troubled. A single parent with huge debts, Evan comes to the rescue with much needed money just as she’s being evicted from her home and the resulting relationship (one in which Candy feels she must repay Evan for his kindness), turns into a triangle when Candy’s ex-boyfriend enters the picture.

It all sounds like melodrama but that’s the beauty of this trailer. It manages to take what could be your average TV movie of the week and elevates it to something special. At least that’s the feeling I’m getting off of this trailer which is beautifully cut together to outline the basic plot without going into story details.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 0:04:06 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news thriller Canada

I was pretty excited at news that Carl Bessai, one of my favourite directors, was working on a sci-fi film, something of a change of pace for Bessai who is best known for his intimate character studies. Earlier in the year we shared a synopsis and a gallery of images for the film which already looked promising. Making it’s world premiere at TIFF certainly helped raise the profile of the project (yes!) which is now one that folks are talking about going into the festival.

The first teaser for the film has just gone live and though it’s crummy quality, it suggests that Bessai, while venturing into a bit of genre faire, is still dedicated to the character study.

Trailer, via HitFix, after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 23:46:52 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news horror thriller drama

Dyer Evans has a story. It’s a good one. One that he’s hoping to get off the ground.

Currently in development, Evans’ describes his film The Damned as a “dark family tragedy with psychological elements rather than a straight out horror film” but if this first look teaser trailer he’s put together in order to raise funding for the project is any indication, Evans definitely has some horror elements working in his favour.

The official synopsis reads:

Twelve year old Kaylie Addison, tries to accept her father's new wife, while still trying to come to terms with her mother's suicide. A tragic family getaway tests her faith even further when a killer enters her life

I saw this short video before knowing anything about the story and the thing that caught my attention was the terror that Evans manages to build in 60 seconds. There’s a great sense of discomfort as the camera moves through the trap door which is heightened by the music that adds great momentum to the trailer. Nothing like a little terror to encourage you to warm up to your stepmother eh?

That’s all we have at the moment but be sure to stay tuned to this space and the film’s official website for more updates as the film develops.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  2 comments
  Email this

Posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 22:11:38 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama finland

Before she makes her move to Hollywood and the craptacular machine that are Hollywood cut outs like MI4 & Sherlock Holmes 2, dragon tattooed girl Noomi Rapace has a few European titles in the works and the first to hit the international front is Svinalängorna (Beyond).

Directed by actress turned director Pernilla August and based on a best settling novel by Susanna Alakoski, Rapace leads the pack of great Finnish actors including Ville Virtanen (Sauna (review)) and Outi Mäenpää, as Leena, a woman who, on the morning of Christmas eve receives a phone call from the hospital of her childhood hometown explaining that her mother is dying, a call that brings up her dark childhood and leads her to seeing her mother for the first time in her adult life.

The trailer for the film is a little over dramatic (the music certainly doesn’t help though it builds a chilling mood), but it looks like a powerful drama. I’m rather surprised that it wasn’t picked by the TIFF programmers (especially with a name as attractive as Rapace's) from the ranks of Venice’s Critic’s Week. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of this film.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 22:23:54 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news horror festival

Shaky cam. A man on the hunt. A woman on the run. A spiffy trailer with the makings of all horror goodness.

The good guys at Heat Vision have unleashed on the world the first trailer for Adam Wingard’s A Horrible Way to Die. You may recall that Wingard previously made the excellent Pop Skull (review).

From TIFF:

When a serial killer escapes from prison, the dangerous past of a young woman dealing with alcoholic rehab quickly begins to catch up with her.

The film, a low budget affair, looks much more promising than I expected considering that most of these ultra low budget horror films tend to look well, ultra low budget. This one looks great though I’m concerned that there are a few moments in the trailer which are so shaky, they’re nauseating. I hope that the film keeps these to a bare minimum.

To go with the trailer, we've got an exclusive look at the film's gorgeously (and deceptively) bright poster. As for the trailer, check it out at Heat Vision.

  5 comments
  Email this

Posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 20:08:15 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama festival Romania

Another year means another small batch of Romanian films. They’re out there but the recent trend of new wave Romanian films only ever seem to make a splash at festivals and from there, usually one (if even that) sees life outside of the festival run. This year’s candidate looks like another "festival only" sort of fare.

Adapted by director Bogdan George Apetri from a story by Cristian Mungiu and Ioana Uricaru (is there any Romanian film Mungiu isn’t somehow involved with?), Outbound (Periferic) stars Ana Ularu as a Matilda, a troubled woman serving a five year sentence for an unnamed crime. When her mother dies, she is given a 24 hour leave but it’s soon apparent that she doesn’t intend on returning to jail. She has arranged for a truck to pick her up outside prison and for 1,500 Euros, the driver will smuggle out of the county; money she doesn’t have but hopes to get. That right there sounds like trouble.

No trailer yet but we’ve dug up three clips all of which point to a demure film. It also appears as though Ularu may be heading down the footsteps of Anamaria Marinca who gained international attention for her performance in Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days.

Clips after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 16:40:38 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama denmark

There isn’t a month that goes by that I don’t silently send thanks to having gone to high school before cellphones were the hip thing. If it was hard being an awkward teenager before, it’s undoubtedly more difficult now when your awkwardness can be instantly uploaded online for everyone to see.

That doesn’t seem to be exactly what happens in Kaspar Munk’s feature film debut Hold Me Tight (Hold om mig) but it’s darn close. Written by Jannik Tai Mosholt who was also responsible for the Danish horror film Room 205 (review) (currently in Sam Raimi’s remake pile), it’s the story of four teens and an event that arises from a misunderstanding and is caught by cellphone video.

My language skills aren’t enough to discern what’s going on in this trailer and the video clues are tantalizingly vague but it certainly looks promising. Add in the official verbage which glosses over the main points without delving into the details of what’s to come and my curiosity is peaked. The official synopsis reads:

A film about peer pressure and taking responsibility for one's own life. The story revolves around Sara, Mikkel, Hassan and Louise, four teenagers, who are searching for their own identity and an anchor in their lives. One ill-fated day in the classroom a misunderstanding is thrown out of proportion and creates a wave of chaos. Suddenly they are the guilty ones and the victims of a game that has got out of hand.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 17:34:50 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama romance festival hong kong

Ah, the internet. A thing to love, use and abuse. It also lends itself well to abusing others and Barbara Wong’s The Break Up Club fits into this latter category.

The film stars up-and-coming HK star Jaycee Chan as Joe, a young man who is devastated when his girlfriend Flora breaks up with him. To get over the heartache, he joins “Break Up Club,” a website that claims he can be reunited with his girlfriend if he breaks up another couple. He quickly gets to work on breaking up his best friend’s relationship which then brings Flora back into his life. Until she breaks up with him. Again.

To add to the frustration of first love and this crazy club which plays with people’s emotions, through this entire process of rejoining with Flora, he’s talking to a director (Wong playing herself) about the Break Up Club.

The result is a film that looks like a documentary but is a drama about life and love in the internet age. I’m getting flashbacks to Paper Heart but thankfully, this looks better than that did (not to mention it doesn’t star Michael Cera).

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 16:09:01 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie news action drama festival gallery spain

Curious about what happens when a philosopher makes films? I suspect that some may already be familiar with the result as Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia has made a number of acclaimed films but this is my first brush with the Spaniard. After all, when a film is described as a parody of the Spanish Civil war with clowns, how could I overlook it?

The Last Circus (Balada Triste de Trompeta) is described as a wild and hilarious film that exposes the nature of political conflicts in his country’s recent history. Set in a circus, the film offers a pointed metaphor for the Spanish Civil War and the years of Franco’s dictatorship.

It sounds like it should be a serious story full of big ideas and poignant observations and though I don’t doubt the latter, de la Iglesia is a man who knows that comedy is a good way to expand audience and what we have is the big ideas told in the microcosm of two clowns fighting and disfiguring each other over the love of the same woman.

No official trailer yet but I had to see what this looked like and in my search I stumbled on a few things. In addition to the images provided by TIFF, there’s a gallery with a handful of additional images after the break, along with a video interview with de la Iglesia (in Spanish), in which he speaks of the production. The bonus here is that the video also gives us a first look at footage from the film.

Can. Not. Wait. Full trailer on the way soon (I hope) but for now, check out the images and video after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 16:43:05 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news thriller uk in development

An unfinished film by a master director. A young director convinced he can finish it. This already sounds like a promising story but Nitrate only gets better from here.

Written and directed by Guy Ducker and Gavin Boyter, the film is currently in development so it may still be years away but it’s one that looks and sounds promising. Here’s the official synopsis:

Hotshot young filmmaker George Lewis sets about reconstructing the unfinished final masterpiece of a maverick director murdered back in 1960. As George struggles with an impossible mountain of footage, he and his producer Emily investigate the dark mystery surrounding the director’s murder. A tale of obsession, old lies and history repeating itself.

That alone sounds good but the trailer they’ve put together to raise funding for the film is the clincher, promising murder, mystery and intrigue all rolled into a pseudo-documentary. There are two cuts of the trailer, the shorter being the best of the two but either one is more than enough to convince me that this is a film that needs to get funding.

Thanks to the Avery Mining Corp. for the heads up on the trailer.

Trailers after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 22:52:34 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: news festival film

In addition to the previously announced titles, TIFF just keeps adding more great stuff to their line-up.

The most recent announcement (I’m sure there are more to come), includes a couple of interesting titles along with a couple of heavy weights. Up front is Danny Boyle’s story of survival 127 Hours starring James Franco, Casey Affleck’s bizarre biopic/drama I’m Still Here (trailer), Guillem Morales’ great looking Spanish thriller Julia’s Eyes (trailer) and Matt Reeves’ remake Let Me In (trailer).

Other titles which sound promising include Mitch Glazer’s Passion Play, a fable starring Mickey Rourke and sex bomb Megan Fox, Álex de la Iglesia’s insane parody about the Spanish Civil War with clowns The Last Circus and Benoît Jacquot’s Deep in the Woods.

All of the new additions after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 19:23:51 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama france

The only thing better than Oliver Stone making a movie about Wall Street is having a French dude make a film about trading and casting a very unlikely character to fill the shoes of the bad guy.

In truth, the story for Fabrice Genestal’s Krach feels a tad out of date (though considering the current state of the world economy not exactly out of touch) as though it’s a left over from the late 80s/early 90s but it has one thing none of its predecessors had going for it: Michael Madsen. Yes, Madsen as a big wig on the trading floor of a bank, facing off against the dude he fired for losing truckloads of money. Can you imagine it? I sure as hell can’t but thankfully I don’t have to because the trailer features lots of Madsen at his office job.

What’s best is that there’s a quick scene in this trailer where Madsen really looks like the badass he usually plays. Maybe they’re going for the meta element here? I’m not sure but it’s both amusing and entertaining.

Will it be good? Chances are highly unlikely but I’m willing to put my money with Madsen playing power hungry corporate big wig yelling at his peons. Wonder if he ever pulls out a real gun when he loses his cool?

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 16:59:57 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news thriller drama festival gallery

OK. I may have spoken too soon. There was another film in TIFF’s Midnight Madness line-up that caught my attention: Julien Carbon and Laurent Courtiaud directorial debut Red Nights and though it sounded interesting, I didn't expect it to look quite this good. Described by festival programmer Colin Geddes as a “fetishistic thriller” the film stars Carrie Ng as Carrie, a patron of the arts in search of an elixir which enhances sensations.

The official verbage reads like a twisted fairy tale:

During the reign of the first emperor of China, an ingenious torturer concocted an elixir that paralysed its victim's limbs, while increasing the sensitivity of their nerve endings tenfold. Kept in a jade skull, the elixir could provoke sensations in infinite variations - everything from erotic caresses to appalling lacerations. Haunted by the desire to experience the extreme sensations caused by the elixir, the executioner kills himself with his own poison, intensifying his death experience. His pursuers never found the skull, which had been concealed within a large imperial seal. But the curse of the jade skull, responsible for its creator's death, will endure within the seal, bringing misfortune to all of those who possess it. Until today...

If this doesn’t get your attention, maybe this trailer, which is equally sexy and creepy will. The pretty visuals are only a bonus at this point. I expect twisted!

Trailer and stills after the break.

Continue reading

  11 comments
  Email this

Posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 16:36:34 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: post apocalyptic movie trailer news scifi drama festival

Aside from Aronofsky’s Black Swan (trailer), one of the other films premiering at TIFF that I’m pinning at the bit to see is Brad Anderson’s Vanishing on 7th Street.

A PA styled thriller about a global blackout that causes huge chunks of the population to simply vanish, Vanishing sounded (and looked) like the kind of film we sometimes wait entire years to see. Now that a trailer for the film has appeared I’m still excited to see it but I’m also a little concerned.

Yes, even through the grain of this low quality trailer it’s clear that Anderson’s film looks fantastic but I’m worried about Hayden Christensen who has managed a couple of decent performances in his short career but who seems to be reaching a little too far as the lead here. I’m hopeful his performance isn’t this bombastic throughout the entire film.

Trailer, via STYD, after the break.

Continue reading

  11 comments
  Email this

Posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 21:19:44 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news thriller

It’s haunting and absolutely gorgeous. It’s also the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a film we’ve been looking forward to for some time.

The pictures which came to light a few weeks ago certainly suggested more greatness from Aronofsky and the trailer delivers on all of Aronofsky’s strengths: gorgeous visuals, a little mystery and a sophistication we’ve come to expect from the director.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 15:51:43 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: news festival film

Very good! How good? Well, in addition to the previously announced Fubar 2 as the opening night film and yesterday’s late day announcement which included Bunraku (yey!) and Super, the remainder of this lineup rounds up beautifully with Brad Anderson much anticipated Vanishing on 7th Street (stills), Jim Mickle’s Stake Land (teaser) and the return of John Carpenter with The Ward!

All of the goods after the break.

Continue reading

  1 comment
  Email this

Posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 15:36:54 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news action comedy kungfu china

Do you want weird? Here’s weird. A Chinese trailer for Wu Ershan’s martial arts comedy The Butcher, The Chef & The Swordsman (Legend of the Kitchen Knife) has been unleashed on the interwebs and boy, it’s… well it’s a little strange.

A group of misfits become mixed up in the struggle to own a deadly kitchen cleaver made from the top five swords of the martial arts world in this wild and brash action comedy that is sure to have audiences running to Chinatown after the film for a late night snack.

Trailer and images after the break.

Continue reading

  0 comments
  Email this

Posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 17:44:18 GMT by: Marina Antunes
Posted under: movie trailer news drama indie

I’m an Ed Burns fan. Be it Burns in actor mode or Burns in director mode. Turns out his newest project includes a little bit of both and lucky for us, it looks like a good little romance.

Matt Bush stars at Johnny, the titular character in Burns’ Nice Guy Johnny. He’s a young man on the verge of giving up his dream job for one that pays better, all in the hopes of pleasing his fiancé (that right there is a sign that that marriage won’t last). Unhappy by his nephew’s decision, Uncle Terry takes Johnny in what he hopes is an eye opening weekend in the Hamptons and when Johnny meets Brooke, he starts to question his upcoming life altering decisions, something which I assume makes Uncle Terry a pretty happy guy.

The trailer doesn’t say much about the plot, all we see is a guy and a girl who appear quite comfortable with each other, partaking in a series of activities. I’m not familiar with either of the actors but do love the look of this trailer.

Trailer after the break.

Continue reading