RIP Bandit's Snowman aka Jerry Reed

I love that first Smokey movie and a big part of it was the connection between Reynolds and Reed. Just two good old boys trying to beat the Man. Unfortunately, Cletus Snow aka the Snowman has driven off the mortal highway. I'm sure he was hitting the gas singing East Bound and Down rather than When You're Hot, You're Hot.

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Would you like to watch the Watchmen?

Just a quick weekend post but it's all about the upcoming Watchmen movie. First, Steve over at KFR posted a link to the new Watchmen trailer at Apple's website. The 2+ minute trailer is both thrilling to see these characters come to cinematic life yet the look of the "Batman & Robin"-style costumes still makes me more than a little hesitant about how faithful the adaptation will be.

Then, Entertainment Weekly has a great article (which you can read online here) about the movie and the development hell that it went through to get to the point where it is today. Here's the cover to said EW:

Lastly, in the same EW issue, there is a link to download what is being called a "motion comic" for the first chapter of the Watchmen mini-series. I have watched the comic and for what it is, it's a great companion piece to the movie. Hearing the narration and having a score behind the comic does give the show more depth than I thought it would. I can definitely see this being on the eventual double DVD disc release near the end of 2009. To download the 24+ minute chapter, you need to have iTunes installed and click here.

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The Fanatical Review - "Iron Man (2008)"

In case you just woken up from a year long slumber, Paramount Pictures' tentpole summer live-action superhero movie, otherwise known as Iron Man, was released late Thursday night. The barometer on the buzz for this movie was set pretty high when there was a small preview of the film shown during the Iron Man panel at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) and has steadily rose with every new glimpse of the completed film.

But Internet buzz does not always translate into huge box office dollars (Snakes on a Plane, anyone?) or well-reviewed films; especially with the fans. So, the real question is - Does Iron Man bring the goods?

In a resound two words - Hell Yeah! Not only does the script for the theatrical version of Iron Man remains true to its comic book heritage, the movie also brings the sense of humor, adventure and limitless possibilities that only could only be done in a four-color world where a multi-billionaire inventor/industrialist can change his personal ideology practically on a dime and dress up in his creation to save the world.

One nitpick that should be noted is that the end of the conflict between Iron Man and Iron Monger seemed rather rushed and didn't fit with the overall tone of the movie. But it is understood since the movie ran over two hours and the extended fight sequence will probably find life in the DVD release of the movie.

On the acting side, Robert Downey Jr thoroughly placed his stamp on Tony Stark by bringing both the hard-partying, trust-fund-baby lifestyle and the grief-stricken, responsible man-of-action sides of Tony Stark to life. His sardonic delivery gives a good bite to Stark's sarcastic quips. It is just hard to imagine this is the same actor that has walked through so many roles some as recent as The Shaggy Dog.

And while the movie is about one man's transformation from an iron hearted man into a true iron man, he does not go it alone. Jeff Bridges does a masterful job as Stark Industries partner and "concerned" father-ish figure Obadiah Stane. Gwyneth Paltrow infuses the character of Pepper Potts with a sense of feminine strength in between all of the testosterone. If there was one nebbish part, it was the role of Jim Rhodes played by Terrence Howard who's controlled performance didn't jibe with the character from the comic books. But Rhodey's more looser personality might be more on display on Iron Man 2.

And if Downey's performance is the #1 reason to see the movie, the CGI FX should be #1a. To see Iron Man in all of his suit development stages from his hand-made original armor to his final Mark III red and gold one was a sight for more than just the eye. The flight and fight sequences were excellent and certainly benefit from the advancements made in digital modeling technology that were lacking in films like Daredevil.

Overall, this movie may not be on the same level of fan frenzy as other Marvel icons such as Spider-Man or Wolverine. But this movie forces not only non-comic book readers but fanboys/fangirls alike to see Iron Man for what he is - the spirit of inventing and adventure that few comic book heroes can do. And this movie does it well.

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Paramount bumps release date for Iron Man

Maybe in an effort to get as much money as possible as the first entrant into this summer of Superhero Blockbuster/Tentpole movies, Paramount has slightly bumped the release date for Iron Man from May 2nd to the night of May Day otherwise known as May 1st. So, while there will be reviews for this film by that night on the blogosphere, come back here on Friday night for the Fanatical Review of Iron Man.

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"The Spirit" Teaser trailer online

Here's the first teaser trailer for the Frank Miller-helmed The Spirit:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

My random thoughts from the minute plus glimpse - Don't look like the Will Eisner's Spirit that I've read; color scheme looks off; While hard-boiled is an element in the comic book version, it's over-the-top here; If I didn't know any better (read non-comic reader), I would've said that this CGI/Green Screen-centric pic looks like a sequel to Sin City and that's not a compliment. Overall, I have a feeling that this movie will fall into this year's superhero cinematic reject pile with the likes of Wanted, the new Hulk movie and Speed Racer.

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You Damned Dirty Ape! - Charlton Heston (1923-2008)

Cinema icon and the NRA's most famous (or considered by others, infamous) member, Charlton Heston, has passed away at age 84. Most people will recognize the actor for either Ben Hur or Moses. However, to me, thanks to the Saturday/Sunday afternoon movie double feature on cable, he will always be either George Taylor or Det. Robert Thorn. No matter what you thought of his politics, the guy could flat out deliver a memorable quote, which is what I'll leave as tribute to the man who brought so many characters to life on the stage and screen. It's from Planet of the Apes:

"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be. " - George Taylor

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Iron Man MySpace Exclusive

The press machine continues for Shellhead's new movie with this little exclusive MySpace snipet. I'm usually of the mindset that anything is too hyped, I tend to not only ignore it but look down my nose upon said material as a piece of mainstream bastardization. and yet, I still crave more and more of this movie. Damn you, Farveau. Damn you bloody good.

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"Zack and Miri" make a website

Yesterday, the website for Kevin Smith's latest venture, Zack And Miri Make a Porno, went live. Nothing other than a nice flash slideshow and an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly hyping the script is on the main page. But never fear; I'm sure that it will be chockful of stuff once the release date closes in (aside from what the director may say). And just remember kiddies, this movie has nothing to do with The Asknewiverse. So, just because Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes appear on said flick does not mean that their characters are any way, shape or form related to Randal Graves or Jay respectively.

PS. Sorry for lack of items today but it is vacation time and those damn time management skills are on holiday as well which means posting may be on the light side until next week. Cheers!

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Grudge Match - Weinsteins versus Star Wars "Fanboys"

Who has the power in movie today - the film houses or the ticket buyers? That argument kinda played out this weekend as a grassroots campaign to boycott the Weinstein Brothers' spoof "Superhero Movie" was held this weekend (Friday to be more specific) by a group of Star Wars fans angry about the post-production re-edit of "Fanboys", a movie about a group of friends storming LucasFilms' Skywalker Ranch to see Episode I.

So, who wons? Well, if you go by just the sheer numbers, you would have that the ticket buyers won the battle since the movie only took in $9.5 million in the opening week versus the predicted $14-19 million range. But I think that the real reason that the movie underperformed was crystallized by the "Joe Loves Crappy Movies" webstrip:



However, if you read between the lines (minimal turnout claimed by Weinstein; an over-staffed security force by the protesters), the Weinsteins might win the war since you figure in that they have the power to shelf "Fanboys" indefinitely which really is a posing proposition for both sides. But for me, I'm coming out a winner since I found a new webstrip that I didn't know about but that I'm really digging. Thanks, Harv.

If you want to learn more on the protest, you can hit the Stop Darth Weinstein website.

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"Brooklyn's Finest" writer isn't an Overnight sensation

Yahoo! Movies has a great article on Michael Martin, the new screenwriter of the upcoming Antoine Fuqua-directed "Brooklyn's Finest" and possibly the new writer of New Jack 2. What's surprising about the story is that he's still at his old job even after he sold his first screenplay. It's obvious that he's hasn't become the next Troy Duffy.

For those of you who may not recognize Duffy's name, he sold a screenplay to Miramax and turned that deal into becoming a director of the movie he wrote plus got his band to score the movie. There was also talk of Duffy going in 50/50 ownership with one of Miramax's heads, Harvey Weinstein, in purchasing the bar where he was tending bar. Until his ego went unchecked and he blew it all away.

The movie finally was released with a significantly reduced budget. And there was a documentary crew to catch all of the highs and lows of this epic instant success turned into career flame-out. The movie was Boondock Saints. The documentary was Overnight.

If I would have to pick one to watch, I would go for Overnight every time. Not only is it a great snapshot of the time where the "Indie Movie" scene was blowing up to mainstream success and that you get to see a ton of flannel but it a great character study on how someone should not act once they make it "big" in Hollywood. Success can certain happen overnight but it can be taken away just as quickly.

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NYCC blowing up with Miller and Mendes on "The Spirit" panel

Next month's New York Comic-Con just getting bigger and bigger. The latest news is the announcement of "The Spirit" movie panel with none other than the comic book icon Frank Miller and comic book movie veteran Eva Mendes. There will be other suits also on the panel, which will be moderated by former Rolling Stone reporter, now current MTV old man Kurt Loder, plus a clip from the movie will be previewed by those in attendance. More information can be found in the press release below:

New York Comic Con (NYCC) today announced Lionsgate will be at its 2008 event promoting THE SPIRIT, based on the classic comic book series created by Will Eisner and written for the screen and directed by Frank Miller.

At NYCC, production partners Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment will present an exclusive first look at THE SPIRIT on Saturday, April 19 in New York Comic Con's IGN Theater, featuring the world premiere of the film’s teaser trailer. Mr. Miller and Ms. Mendes will be on hand to speak about their respective roles in the upcoming film, which is produced by Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker and Michael Uslan. Co-CEO of Odd Lot Entertainment Deborah Del Prete and Michael Uslan, President of Comic Book Movies, will also be speaking. MTV News Correspondent Kurt Loder will moderate the panel and the teaser trailer will debut to a global audience on MTV.com later that night in high definition, and on MTV the week of April 21. NYCC will also feature the debut of the film’s first teaser poster, which Mr. Miller and Ms. Mendes will sign in a formal autograph session scheduled for 5:00pm.

New York Comic Con is the second largest popular culture event in the United States and features guests including Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola, Grant Morrison, and T.M.Revolution.

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist, and director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of today’s most widely-recognized and influential graphic novelists. His works include The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, and 300. Eva Mendes can be seen in films including Training Day, Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Hitch, We Own The Night, Ghost Rider, and this fall’s The Women. She plays Sand Saref in the new film. THE SPIRIT, which debuted in 1940, chronicles the adventures of a masked vigilante working on behalf of the police and is still regarded today for its deep and diverse narratives spanning film noir and crime drama as well as adventure, mystery, horror, comedy and romance.

"New York Comic Con welcomes the legendary Frank Miller with open arms, and we're delighted to have an actress of Ms. Mendes's caliber join us," Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. "It is a true honor to have them with us, and we earnestly thank all our friends at Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment who are making this spectacular event possible."

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Dark Knight back on the Viral Campaign

After making some changes to their decidedly viral marketing promotion due to Heath Ledger's passing, it appears that the Ad team who is running the Warner Brothers has decided to go for a different tact than the "Why Be So Serious?" one of late last year, according to SlashFilm. This new initiative has a a couple of vans tooling around the country in efforts to campaign Harvey Dent for District Attorney while having some Dent "protesters" with slogans like "Dent is Two-Faced", "Your Future Decided by a Coin Flip" and "Change We Can't Believe In!"; all phrases are in reference to the eventual turn of Dent to the double head coin-flipping villain Two-Face.

I am a real big fan of this type of viral advertising. My own brush with one was with the first X-Men film. FOX had mutant protesters outside Clinton's Re-Election celebration in downtown DC and had some cameramen take some footage of it for some sort of publicity. I tried to get closer and talk with the protesters but security wasn't having any of it. Totally bummer because I wanted to find out how to get involved with that stuff because it looked like a blast. Just like this one does. Man, to be young and willing to work for nothing...

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The A-Team Movie Gets a Date

EOnline (through Yahoo!) is reporting that the hazy details for the new A-Team movie are coming into focus. According to industry trade Variety, the release date for this 80's gem of a TV show is June 12, 2009 with John Singelton tapped to be the director and the guys who wrote the 3:10 To Yuma remake named as screenwriters. And while there is no cast named, Woody Harrelson is the director's choice to be Murdoch while Ice Cube has stated previously that he would be down with playing B.A. Baracus; Mohawk (and probably chain) in all. Here's to hoping that the movie will be as fun as the first Charlie's Angels movie and nothing like the lameness that was the Dukes of Hazard.

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EW's First Look Pics of Del Toro as "The Wolfman"

Just a quick post but I saw the above picture in this week's Entertainment Weekly and knew that I had to find out more. On EW's website, there is a great interview with the legend Rick Baker on how he changed Benicio Del Toro into the latest incarnation of The Wolfman as well as another picture of a fanged Del Toro (pictured below). The article is a must read for every fan of the monster genre.

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Tropic Thunder "Red Band" Trailer Online

If you haven't seen the pics from Entertainment Weekly, you got to check out the website for the new Ben Stiller comedy called Tropic Thunder. Here's the description from the website itself:

Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. lead an ensemble cast in "Tropic
Thunder", an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to
make the most expensive war film ever. After ballooning costs force the
studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting,
leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they end up knee deep
in shit.

The main page has the regular trailer. However, there is a "Red Band" or R-rated trailer located on the site as well. However, in order to see that trailer, you must first provide your age for verification purposes. Once that has been confirmed of 17 years or old, another window will open and the new trailer will start streaming.

I highly recommend that you see the R version. It is truly hilarious stuff. This movie might just bring Stiller back to the heights of funnydom after trolling in the romantic comedy garbage ("Meet The Parents") and the tepid, goofball comedies (Dodgeball, Starsky & Hutch). I guess that the public will make its decision on August 15th.

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A Banner Season for Comic Book Fans - New Incredible Hulk trailer online

Here's the second attempt of making a franchise out of The Incredible Hulk with a new and improved Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) and Betty White (Liv Tyler). the trailer itself is decent enough to give the thinnest of plot details but it does give away the most compelling reason to see the movie (and no, I'm not talking about the Bruce/Betty kiss). But check it out for yourself down below and let your feelings be heard!

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New Wanted trailer

After watching the second trailer for Wanted, I'm of two thoughts on it. The first is, as always, that this adaptation will not measure up to the source materials. That's a given with almost all mainstream versions of literary works (and yes, comics can be considered as literary as a book with illustrations in them).

The other thought is that it could be a totally different animal than the book; a highly-stylized better version of Shoot "Em Up, which would be very cool. Jusge for youselves by watching the trailer below courtesy of Traileraddict.com:

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Extended Iron Man Trailer from last night

As promised, here's the 3 minute trailer for Iron Man. There's a little more plot details and the first time that both Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) make significant appearances along with Stane's creation Iron Monger. All in all, this looks like an awesome summer movie. I think that I'm taking May 2nd off.

But please don't take an admitted fanboy's word for it, have a look for yourself below.

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From the FYI Department - Iron Man spot on ABC's Lost

In case you are not a Lost watcher (which truthfully I am not), there will be a new Iron Man spot on tonight's episode of Lost according to Marvel's Iron Man website:

Not that you need another reason to watch "LOST," but if you do, we have one: The brand new "Iron Man" movie trailer premieres on tonight's episode of "LOST" on ABC and, get this, it's 90-seconds long! "LOST" kicks off at 9 p.m. Eastern/8 p.m. Central. Don't miss a minute of it!

If it is up at the regualr sources tomorrow (YouTube, Google Video), you can rest assured that it'll be here, too.

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"Marvel"-ous Movie and DVD News

I wish that I had the time to break news stories but unfortunately, blogging doesn't pay the bills and in the immortal words of Latrell Spreewell, "I've got a family to feed." To that end, I read on Newsarama of Marvel's 4th Quarter Profits and appended at the end of the press release was this:

Along with listing the upcoming Iron Man and Incredible Hulk movies (hitting theaters on May 2nd and June 13th, respectively), Marvel reiterated that writers have been engaged for Captain America, Thor and The Avengers films, while Ant-Man has both writer and director. Punisher War Zone is slated for a September 12th release, while X-Men Origins: Wolverine is slated for a May 1, 2009 release.

Wolverine and the X-Men, an animated television series, is slated for a spring, 2009 release, with Hulk: The Animated Series and a property called Super Hero Squad. Iron Man: The Animated Series is slated for a spring 2008 release.

Upcoming direct-to-DVD releases include:

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow - August 2008
Hulk Vs. - January 2009
Thor: Son of Asgard - September 2009
Planet Hulk - February 2010

And Spider-Man: The Musical? Still in development.

All in all, some great news for the Marvel Zombies out there (and I know one in training who will especially like to hear about the upcoming Super Hero Squad release). And hopefully, Spider-Man: The Musical will still live only in development hell or at least one can hope.

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