‘Akira’ Testing for the Role of Tetsuo

Sigh. Gamma Squad‘s got the latest on casting for Warner Bros.’s Akira project and boy oh boy, there’s no getting away from how bad an idea this movie is. To recap, Garret Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) is still the probable choice for the role of Kaneda, Helena Bonham-Carter and Gary Oldman (both from Harry Potter) have been offered roles as Lady Miyako and Colonel Shikishima, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight) has been offered the role of Kei, who you can expect will have her character thrillingly revitalized as a bored white girl with no discernible personality.

She can hardly contain her excitement…

Here’s some more exciting news, if you think ‘exciting’ means crapping on things that exist: Kaneda and Tetsuo are now brothers! Betcha didn’t see that coming. Now this conflicted relationship between old friends decaying into resentment and hate is replaced with…sibling rivalry, I guess? Cool?

Speaking of Tetsuo, Warner Bros. is now screen-testing 8 actors for the role of the best-friend-turned-psychic-monster, though none of the listed actors look to me like they can pull off being in a cyber-punk biker gang:

From Left to right: (Top) DJ Cotrona (Detroit 187), Logan Marshal Green (Devil), Toby Kebbell (Rock n’ Rolla), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones). (Bottom) Rami Malek (Twilight: Breaking Dawn—Part 2), Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Paul Dano (Cowboys & Aliens), Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro)

I suppose of all of the candidates, the only actors I’m familiar with are Richard Madden, Paul Dano and Michael Pitt. I really enjoy Game of Thrones and am a fan of Paul Dano, however, so I think by default my go-to is Michael Pitt. He’s great on Boardwalk Empire, but I don’t have a vested interest in it, so I don’t mind seeing him tarnished by this tripe.

To be fair I shouldn’t be this cynical without having seen the finished product, but in my defense, WHAT THE HELL, HOLLYWOOD??

In Case You Missed It: Teenage Paparazzo

When many of us think of celebrities, we think of the glamorous lifestyle, the notoriety, and all the cool stuff we could do. Fame, noted by most celebrities, has its ups and downs. But of all the good and bad things, the most annoying of all of them might be the paparazzi. Known as the vermin of the entertainment industry, paparazzi are everywhere, but their job is to seem as if they’re nowhere to be seen. But as much as we hate them, it seems as if we know less about them than the celebrities they’re chasing.

Adrian Grenier, the star of HBO’s Entourage in which he plays a movie star, is beginning to have the line between reality and fiction blurred due to his fame in real life. He’s adjusting to the lifestyle of Vincent Chase both on and off the screen, except in real life he’s not playing a character. He’s Adrian Grenier. One day, while coming out of a club, amidst the mob of paps around him, he sees a young boy snapping his picture. He approaches the child; to only find out that he’s a thirteen-year-old paparazzo named Austin Visschedyk, a smooth and fast-talking kid from Los Angeles. This street-smart adolescent had recently gained interest in the life of a paparazzo when he met Adrian. This boy fascinated Grenier and before he knew it, he was making a film about him.


Camera crew in hand, Grenier and Visschedyk began taking the Hollywood streets by storm; Austin for his pictures, Adrian for an answer. Teenage Paparazzo offers not only a look into the life of a celebrity, but the people who put these celebrities on the cover of every gossip magazine known to man. The film, which was directed by Grenier, shows the human side of the paparazzi, insisting on talking to them one-on-one rather than dehumanizing them and writing them off as scum like everybody else in Hollywood has. Austin was only the beginning for Grenier. The life of a pap is unlike anything else; the adrenaline, the constant motion, the 24/7 workweek, and most of all, the money. Austin was making anywhere from $500-$1000 for a good shot of a hot celebrity, more if it met certain requirements.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the things that go on in Teenage Paparazzo, because that’s half the fun, finding out what’s going to happen next. Weaving in interviews with various celebrities as well as Austin’s story, the film really does give the viewer a neutral view of the lifestyle of both the paps and their victims. The relationship between certain paps and certain celebrities isn’t as strained as many think, which I find to be very interesting. With that being said, most of them are and it can get very, very, annoying. The price of fame is a price to pay, and Grenier is sure to convey this to the viewer. He explains what its like to walk out of your home and not three steps later start being flashed by camera lights at every angle.

If Teenage Paparazzo succeeds at something, it’s the truth that rings throughout the entire film. We’ve seen these people on TV, we see them in movies, on the news, on the internet, but do we know them? No, of course not. We think we do, but we don’t. It seems that a lot of people have yet to recognize that, though.

5/5 Bears

In Case you Missed It: Melancholia

Early this year, Pastor Harold Camping, a former radio host for a Christian family radio station, claimed that Jesus would return to Earth on May 21st of this year, take all the righteous persons, and leave the rest to rot for the next five months until the universe’s destruction on October 21st. Obviously, this didn’t happen. Camping resigned from his position on the station, and refused to give interviews regarding his false predictions. He earned millions of dollars in donations, and when his theories were proven false, he simply said, “We’re not at the end. Why would we return it?” My question to him is, “Why do you even need this money if the world is going to end?” Enough about my resentment of Christian fundamentalists, though, back to the article.

My point is, the end of the world is a scary thing. People tend to worry a bit when it’s announced that all that they know and love will soon be destroyed, including themselves. Others just come to terms with theories like this and act as if nothing is wrong. These two viewpoints are the focus of director Lars Von Trier’s new film, Melancholia. Focusing on two sisters named Justine and Claire (Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, respectively), one getting married, the other trying to hold everything together. We then learn that a recently discovered planet named Melancholia is going to do a fly-by to Earth, but it will not hit it, as Claire’s husband, John (Kiefer Sutherland), assures her, as well as the audience. We know better though, we know exactly what’s going to happen.

That’s one of the many things wrong with Melancholia. We know all of Trier’s tricks (clever, huh?) before they actually happen. We’ve seen them before, and seeing as Melancholia is strangely similar in many ways to Trier’s previous effort, Antichrist, they do not surprise us.

Melancholia’s opening sequence, a super slo-mo overture set to the theme of Tristan & Isolde, is among the most pretentious, unnecessary scenes in cinematic history. Lasting for almost 8 minutes, it reveals the entire film, as well as serving no purpose other than to look interesting. Using slow motion to capture the, well, melancholic feeling of the entire film worked in Antichrist, but it definitely doesn’t work here. In fact, it detracts from the mood that the film sets for the remainder of its duration.

Opening on Justine’s wedding to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), her very understanding and helpful fiancé, the film begins to gain momentum in all the eccentric characters presented to us. The wedding sequence itself lasts for about an hour, and opens up the doors to a lot of great opportunities for an interesting second half. Being part one of a two-part film, though, it abandons everything that ever was in its first half, including Michael, who Justine leaves after the wedding is over, and sticks her in Claire’s house for the rest of the movie. The second half is a mind-numbing exercise in pretentiousness, obvious symbolism, and absolutely no direction rather than the inevitable ending of Earth. The drastic contrast between Part 1 to the almost completely standstill Part 2 of Melancholia make the film almost unwatchable at a certain point.

The film’s storyline is fascinating, as are its characters, the situations, the dialogue, and especially the directing, but its refusal to tell a story and some inspired symbolism that is pounded into submission, makes Melancholia too melancholic for its own good.

Von Trier has been under fire recently for claiming that he sympathizes with Hitler at a recent Cannes Film Festival press conference. The blogosphere has named him a Nazi-sympathizer and a fascist. Now, I’m not one to sympathize with Nazis, but in Trier’s defense, his comments weren’t so radical as everyone seems to think they are. He seems to be an intelligent man, and anyone educated on Hitler would know that he was harshly abused as a child by many of his peers, as well as his family. Now, again, I don’t want to take the same path as Trier, say I sympathize with Hitler, and subsequently be known as a Nazi, but there’s two sides to every story, and a lot of times we don’t want to hear the other side. That’s all I have to say about that little shenanigan.

As far as the film itself, I’d go so far as to say it’s crap. I respect Von Trier as a filmmaker very much, and I was one of the few defenders of Antichrist, but he’s really outdone his own narcissism with Melancholia. If he keeps making films like this, being called a Nazi is going to be the least of his problems.

1.5/5 Bears

Hero Express – ‘Booster Gold’ Gets a Pilot, ‘Dark Knight’ Rumors Rise and ‘Star Trek 2’s Unlikely Villain

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

This is the Hero Express for November 23rd, 2011:

SyFy shooting Booster Gold Pilot – (MTV)

Here’s a short one to lead us back in to where Scoot left off in yesterday’s Express: Andrew Kreisberg , whose work you may know from Fringe, is slated to write a pilot for SyFy based on DC hero, Booster Gold. Executive Producer Greg Berlanti will be backing the project, which fits in nicely with his previous work on Green Lantern and No Ordinary Family.

It will be interesting to see if DC can find a place for its lesser-known heroes on television, as it seems they remain unable to find a lasting home on the silver screen.

‘Powers’ Pilot getting another Shot on FX – (MTV)

A while ago it was announced that the popular comic, Powers, was shooting a live-action pilot for FX, though it seemed initially like it wasn’t going to make it through. However, word is that FX has passed on a competing pilot and given Powers another chance, provided they can go back and do some more work on the special effects.

The comic’s writer, Brian Michael Bendis, tweeted happily about the news:

“In regard to ‘Powers’ TV: the pilot was crazy expensive and very lovely and shows incredible potential for a long series,” Bendis wrote. “The reshoots are planned for January and are all about tone and clarity. I am very proud of the pilot, as [is] [Michael Avon Oeming]. Stay tuned.”

Supposedly, according to Bendis, the process of going back to work on a pilot is not necessarily a bad sign, as FX is known to do this sort of thing. He mentioned that hit series Sons of Anarchy had to do the same.

A Slew of Set Photos from The Amazing Spider-Man – (SuperHero Hype/Newscom)

Two sets of photos have surfaced regarding The Amazing Spider-Man production. One features an extensive gallery of the cast on set for re-shoots, which you can see here. The other is much smaller, but much more revealing:

Most exciting to see, at least for me, is Rhys Ifans‘ ugly hand up there, which looks a lot like it means Connor’s experiment was a success (Giant lizard-monster transformation notwithstanding).

Empire Magazine’s TDKR Issue – (SuperHero Hype)

And here we are with the the Hero Express segment that likely overshadows the rest of these links; welcome to Dark Knight Station. Here are some photos (The best quality the internet has of them so far) of the Empire issue dedicated to the upcoming Batman movie:

Continue reading Hero Express – ‘Booster Gold’ Gets a Pilot, ‘Dark Knight’ Rumors Rise and ‘Star Trek 2’s Unlikely Villain

Sexy Seyfried in “Gone” – Check Out The Trailer!

On February 24, 2012, Gone will hit theaters everywhere!

In Gone, Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, In Time) plays Jill, a woman who was a victim of attempted murder.

Two years before present-time in the thriller, Jill was kidnapped and thrown down a hole to die. In that hole, she saw other human remains. She somehow escaped, only to experience her sister being kidnapped two years after her attack. Now, Jill must find her captor, as she assumes he also took her sister.
Cast alongside the sexy star are:

Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)
Sebastian Stan (Captain America)
Wes Bentley (Jonah Hex)
Daniel Sunjata (Grey’s Anatomy)
Joel David Moore (Avatar; Also has a robot vagina)
Katherine Moenning (The L Word, Also played a he-she in an episode of Law and Order SVU)

Here is the trailer that has us so excited:

I expect that I will be in a comfy movie theater seat February 24th to see this.

Hero Express – ‘The Avengers’ Banners, ‘Man of Steel 2’. and ‘TDKR’ Wraps?

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the news filled world of superhero’s in Film, TV, Video Games and whatever else floats your boat.

Continue reading Hero Express – ‘The Avengers’ Banners, ‘Man of Steel 2’. and ‘TDKR’ Wraps?