Tagged: Hollywood

Alex Pettyfer Discusses Being Number Four

Alex Pettyfer was director D.J. Caruso’s first pick for the title role in DreamWorks’ adaptation of I am Number Four. The film, coming to home video tomorrow from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, the role propelled the 20-year-old actor onto the global stage. Here, he talks about the film’s production and his life up to now.

What can you tell us about your new movie?

I Am Number Four is an action-packed adventure entwined with a romantic story – and I play the role of John Smith. John wants to be a normal kid, but he is from a different planet and he has been given this destiny of becoming a warrior. John tries to find out who he is and what he wants to do with his life, but he has a bit of a tough time with it all. I think a lot of people are going to relate to what he goes through in the story because it’s about an outsider trying to fit in. We’ve all been there.

When were you an outsider?

Well, I think we’ve all been in that scenario where we’ve felt like we were alone or different. Everyone goes through that.

What was it like to work with Dianna Agron on the movie?

It was great. Dianna has an old-school movie star quality to her and I had an amazing time working with her, but I also had a great time working with the rest of the cast. Everyone on the set was amazing.

Who else stars in the movie with you?

An actress called Teresa Palmer is a young ball of energy and we also have a guy called Callan McAuliffe who is great. Working with everyone on the movie was phenomenal. We all fit together really well. (more…)

‘Ball and Chain’ in development at SyFy

  • News
  • August 2, 2010

Ball and Chain, the comic series written by Scott Lobdell, drawn by Ale Garza, and published by Homage Comics/Wildstorm in 1999, has found its way onto this season’s development slate at the SyFy Channel.

The plot? After months of emotional tumult, Edgar and Mallory call their
relationship quits. As they say their final goodbyes, the ex-lovers are
nearly hit by a meteorite that, it turns out, imbues them with
extraordinary powers, turning her into Chain Lightning and him into Thunderball. Unfortunately, the powers only work when they are
in close proximity to each other. Though the last thing they want to do is stay together, they’ll need to try if they hope to overcome the
newly arrived other-worldly forces that threaten to destroy them and anyone else who gets in the way.

The series is a Universal Cable Productions/Fremantle Media co-production, and Scott Lobdell will be serving as an executive producer. And no, I don’t think this counts as one of those DC properties that the new regime was promising would be developed by Hollywood.

Historical tidbit: there was also a different pilot made back in 2001, starring Dan Cortese, Mindy Crist, Sasha Alexander, Eric Dane, and Kayla Blake. Executive Producer Howard Gordon later went on to do 24.

Clifford Meth: Welcome to Hollywood, Part Deux

Clifford Meth: Welcome to Hollywood, Part Deux

  • News
  • March 16, 2010

Glenn Hauman promised yesterday that I’d deliver a “fuller explanation of what’s been going on” vis-à-vis my piece “Welcome to Hollywood.” So in the interests of keeping this story alive (because you haven’t lived until you’ve heard the words, “You’ll never work in this town again”) I’ll try to squeeze in another few inches.

Jason Brice and his site Comics Bulletin (formerly Silver Bullet Comic Books) have run my “Meth Addict” (formerly “Past Masters”) column without interference since 2004. Among other things, the column was a linchpin in helping secure an important financial settlement for Dave Cockrum that allowed the X-Men co-creator to live his last few years in relative comfort. Good for you, Jason Brice. If we never do another good deed together again in our wretched little lives, that may have been enough.

The yanking of “Welcome to Hollywood” after CB’s EiC Jason Sacks (the other Jason) had already accepted it and promoted it was a joint decision between the two Jasons shortly after the column was live. I wasn’t in the room when things got weird, but I imagine the conversation was fairly tame and thoroughly professional and went something like this:

Jason: Are you crazy?!
Jason: Huh?

The pair discussed the matter and decided that what I’d written was a little too dangerous for CB. Jason Sacks then pulled the short straw and sent me the following: “Jason and I have decided to pull the column out of concerns about CB’s exposure to potential legal action.”

Within moments, the story was live at Harlan Ellison’s site (“Read it…love it,” wrote Harlan) with offers from others, including comics pros Tony Isabella and Michael Netzer, to re-post. I called Glenn H. because I particularly admired how he’d pointed to the competitive website’s initial story on his own front page. “Want it?” I asked. “Yup,” said Glenn.

Did the Jasons abandon Mr. Meth in his hour of needful spleen venting? Not hardly. “I want to emphasize that as the editor of the piece and editor-in-chief at ComicsBulletin I both support and encourage Cliff to do everything he can to expose the horrible acts of this scumbag,” writes Jason Sacks at Harlan Ellison’s website. “It sounds like Richard Saperstein is the exemplar of exactly the sort of lowdown ripoffs of creative types to whom Mr. Ellison has dispatched his most scathing scorn.”

So where does that leave us? With a bunch of hyperlinks and meta-columns. Could be worse.

In conclusion, I’m sure you agree that it would be a case of chronic irony if the story of how my column was pulled and reposted somehow obscured the far-more-important tale of what occurred with The Futurians movie, the Snaked movie, and my brief love affair with Richard Saperstein.

And they lived happily ever after.

ComicMix Quick Picks – September 22, 2009

ComicMix Quick Picks – September 22, 2009

Here are some of the things we didn’t get to on Monday, bullet-pointed for your reading pleasure:

Anything else we missed? Consider this an open thread.

21 year old Zac Efron to play 11 year old Jonny Quest

21 year old Zac Efron to play 11 year old Jonny Quest

  • News
  • April 14, 2009

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that High School Musical star Zac Efron has been signed to play Jonny Quest in a live-action feature film. The movie, written by Dan Mazeau, is said to be a terrific young Indiana Jones style adventure. Mazeau was recently named one of the 10 screenwriters to watch by Variety.

Also looking to join the cast as a brawny Race Bannon is Dwayne Johnson.

The 21 year old Efron is about a decade too old for the character, based on the Hanna Barbera series form the ‘60s. He’s taking on the title part to distance himself from teen musical roles and establish himself as a leading player so for him it s a canny move.

“I’m more dismayed by news that folks at Warner Bros. are thinking of jettisoning the name Jonny Quest altogether,” Geoff Boucher wrote. “Why? I hear the thinking is that the vintage animation roots of Quest will somehow pair it in the public mind with Speed Racer, which was a major Warners pile-up as blockbuster films go, considering the investment, expectations and critical reception. I’m not surprised because, well, unnuanced thinking in Hollywood is commonplace, and instead of spending the time needed to judge individual properties by their own merits, lots of decision-makers act like my grandmother at the racetrack.”
 

Review: ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

Review: ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

Sitting in the darkened screening room at Paramount Pictures that early May day in 1981, I had no idea what I was about to experience.  Working at Starlog at the time, I thought we were pretty much aware of everything cool that was coming from Hollywood.  But we knew little about this thing called [[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]].  Then we watched it.

An homage to the action serials of the 1930s and 1940s, director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas combined their best skills to produce something iconic and fresh at the same time.  They also did what has become increasingly difficult ever since – create an interesting character from scratch.  Sure, Indy is one of a long line of adventurers dating back to Allan Quatermain if not further back, but still, he was new and cool.

Ever subsequent Indy film has been measured against the original and found wanting. I missed [[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]] when it opened in May so sat with the DVD, on sale today, and was curious to see what sort of experience this would be. After all, the buzz over the summer that while good, it was ultimately a disappointment after waiting so many years.

I was entertained.  The movie wisely moved to the 1950s to reflect the passage of time and evoke an entirely new feeling.  As a result, the Roswell setting, the Crystal Skull possibly being an alien, etc. was all appropriate as was the arrival of the Cold War nemesis, successors to the Nazis for storytelling fodder.

However, Spielberg and Lucas got too cute from the get-go with the Caddyshack-like gopher  popping up as we began the story.  While winks to those no longer with us, such as Marcus Brody were fine at Indy’s home, the statue’s head striking a blow was unnecessary.  While immediately understanding the locale from John Williams’ evocative score, we didn’t need to see the Ark.  Too many winks at the expense of good storytelling.

More should have been done to examine Indy at a point in his life when he was getting a little old of adventure and his life was filled with missed opportunities.   Mutt being his son was telegraphed from the get-go and was totally without nuance.  Marion arrives too late for my taste, trades quips but seems to accept the passage of time with a smile and far more forgiveness than she showed in the first film.  Her spunk and edge, which made her extremely fascinating in Raiders was all scrubbed away, making her likeable and far less compelling.  Thankfully, Karen Allen has aged as gracefully as Harrison Ford and they still have some great screen chemistry.

(more…)

‘Heroes’ Hopes for Rebound Season

‘Heroes’ Hopes for Rebound Season

After a pretty unambiguously down second season, the NBC show Heroes is looking to get the magic back from its debut season that marked it as the network’s most important show.

In an interview with the New York Times, Heroes creator Tim Kring gave some insights into what’s to come, as well as reflecting back on what went wrong last year.

The scale tipped toward disappointment at the start of last season, as Mr. Kring acknowledged in an interview way back in November, just after production was abruptly cut off by the writers’ strike that shut down Hollywood. At that time he cited a list of early missteps, including introducing too many new characters, dabbling too much in romance and depositing one of the fans’ favorite characters, Hiro, in feudal Japan for too long. …

The new volume, which will run in 13 episodes, is called “Villains” and will focus on a single big story line, Mr. Kring said, relying almost totally on its core of main characters, and will return the show to exploring what he called “the primal questions” from Season 1: “Who am I? What is my purpose?”

The third season (volume, whatever) begins on Sept. 22.

Review: Will Smith in ‘Hancock’

Review: Will Smith in ‘Hancock’

With comic franchises pouring from Hollywood’s every orifice this year, something like [[[Hancock]]] would normally be considered a breath of fresh, creative air. This can be said for the film on paper, but it fails to deliver in the latter half of the film. That said, Hancock is still good fun in a theater, and delivers with all the things we wanted to see Superman Returns do time and time again, but never came through.

The plot follows an unruly asshole (not being vulgar, this term is important to the character) of a superhero who resides in downtown Los Angeles, attempts to keep people safe from the ever-rising crime rate, but ends up causing more damage than he prevents. This makes Hancock (Will Smith) the ultimate antihero, being hated by just about everybody in the world (or at least L.A.) He crosses paths with an up-and-coming Public Relations guru (Jason Bateman) who thinks Hancock can become the hero that the world needs, but with a little bit of help.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The text of this review posted after the jump contains descriptions of significant plot points, so consider this your official SPOILER ALERT. -RM]

(more…)

Review: ‘Wanted’

Review: ‘Wanted’

Reviewing Wanted, the film based on the Top Cow miniseries by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, is a difficult request. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the film is enjoyable, but solely on a puerile level, and undoubtedly not for the reasons that Bekmambetov intended. This movie is exactly what would happen if a hyperactive 16-year-old was given free range to write a script; it features an Angelina Jolie butt-shot, bullets that don’t travel at normal speed or in a straight line, and the euphoria of telling off your boss and all the jerks at work. But when asked if this film is actually any good, or even a good comic adaptation, the answer is a strong “No.”

Those of you who remember the comic series remember a truly raunchy adventure about an assassin named Fox who recruits a cubical jockey to take his father’s place in a secret society of supervillains known as The Fraternity. From there, we get a few twists and turns thrown our way, but primarily, this was a comic book about all things comic books: superheroes, villains with puffy capes, a cannibal baddie, and even a few digs on other genre flops like Adam West’s Batman.

With that in mind, the movie takes its own liberties, and generously at that. Replace “supervillains” with “assassins,” “puffy capes” with “bullets that curve,” and “cannibal” with Morgan Freeman. It is totally understandable how this movie was sold, because people are so afraid of doing superhero films that don’t have names like “[[[Iron Man]]]” or “[[[Batman]]]” attached to them, so instead they were going for a Matrix redux, and failed miserably.

(more…)

Review: ‘Speed Racer’ – Emile Hirsch Gets Behind the Wheel

Review: ‘Speed Racer’ – Emile Hirsch Gets Behind the Wheel

So here we are, a mere two weeks into the Blockbuster Season and the veil of bedazzlement has already been lifted. If you are a fan of the original [[[Speed Racer]]] franchise, animated films, or even decent films in general, you will more than likely be disappointed with the film that should’ve been more accurately named [[[Speed Raver]]]. From start to finish, this film is very much like what an 8-year-old would do if he were given a crate of Pixie Stix and free run of a CGI studio, with no knowledge whatsoever about pesky details like story structure, character development or any shred of realism.

For those not in the loop, the story of Speed Racer surrounds not just the titular character (played by possibly one of the better actors of his generation, Emile Hirsch), but his über-supportive family. Pops and Mom Racer, played by John Goodman and Susan Sarandon, respectively. Balancing out the cast was Speed’s girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), his obnoxious and extraneous little brother and pet chimp, and by far the MVP of the film, in Matthew Fox as Racer X.

The plot, or at least what one can gather about it after two hours in the theater, takes place in a world where car racing is king and the car-building Racer family takes aim at the allegedly fixed world of professional racing with their prodigal son, Speed. The plot is almost beaten into our heads for the first hour, with cartoonish performances and poorly rendered backdrops aiding along the way.

(more…)

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