All posts by James Henshaw

Documentary ‘Birth Of The Living Dead’ Gets a Trailer Release

September 13, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

Here’s an exciting one for all of you George A. Romero and zombie fans alike; coming this fall is your chance to see Birth of the Living Dead, an exciting new documentary exploring how Romero brought his classic Night of the Living Dead to the screen. The trailer has also recently been released for you to cast your undead loving eyes on!

Birth of the Living Dead is an in-depth documentary written, directed and edited by Rob Kuhns and produced by Esther Cassidy. It details how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburgh citizens — policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner — to shoot, with a revolutionary guerrilla, run-and-gun style, his seminal film, Night of the Living Dead. During that process, Romero and his team created an entirely new and horribly chilling monster – one that was undead and feasted upon human flesh.

Shot in New York City, Toronto and Los Angeles between the end of 2006 and the Summer of 2011, Birth of the Living Dead immerses audiences into the singular time in which “Night” was shot and studies how Romero created a world-renowned horror film that was also a profound insight into how our society really works.

For the film, Kuhns carried out extensive interviews with George A. Romero in Toronto. Kuhns’ previous experience working as an editor for “Bill Moyers Journal” and later on “Moyers and Company,” gave him the opportunity to explore the powerful archival images of American history in the 1960s. Kuhns surveyed television news stories of the racial violence exploding across the country and horrific combat footage of the Vietnam War. He also saw the U.S. government responses to both. Kuhns realized that Romero and his collaborators created “Night of the Living Dead,” a film about the world coming to an end, at a historic time of enormous American upheaval. “Night” was revealing itself as a living document of the time in which it was made.

The Zombie craze is currently at its peak and it is great to see such a talented team put so much effort and love into documenting how it all began. Without Romero and Night of the Living Dead, the horror movie scene would not be the industry it is today. Romero opened the door to independent movie makers to get out there and do their own thing, even with the tiniest of budgets. A tradition that the likes of Jason Blum and Blumhouse productions still carry on today. By the looks of it, Kuhn’s documentary will be the quintessential visual guide to Romero and his creations.

Birth of the Living Dead will be screening across the US throughout October. Head over to the official website for details of when they will be at a screen near you.

Movie News & Opinions

Jurassic World Snatches Release Date in 2015

September 11, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

Universal Pictures officially announced on Tuesday that Colin Trevorrow‘s (Safety Not Guaranteed) upcoming Jurassic Park sequel, will be titled Jurassic World. The movie has also been given the release date of June 12^th, 2015. The Wrap got the scoop on this story late yesterday adding that the film will be shot in 3D. Trevorrow will be directing from a script written by himself and Derek Connolly.

Much like Disney World compared to Disneyland, the title itself is a big fat hint that this film will expand the world and attractions (in this case meat-eating, prehistoric beasts) established in the previous three films, with the rumor being that the “Jurassic World” in the title will be a fully functioning theme park. Numerous sites reported a few weeks ago that The Office’s John Krasinski was up for the role of a Dino wrangler, suggesting that there will be more than the odd paleontologist on the menu. This will really up the ante in terms of drama when things inevitably go belly up.

There has still been no word as the whether Jurassic World will be a sequel, reboot or re-imagining to Spielberg‘s classic series. I would prefer the film to be a continuation of the story. In a world where large corporate companies will jump on any franchise they can see as marketable, it seems logical that someone would want to rebuild Hammond’s failed dreams from the original films. While this idea was explored in the mediocre Jurassic Park: The Lost World, I don’t think it was explored to its full potential.

That idea itself is ironic as the first three Jurassic Park films took in $1.9 billion at the box office and this year’s 3D re-release of the original film has brought in $114 million globally. So it seems obvious that Universal would want to go bigger and bolder for the next instalment as it seems there is still plenty of money to be made from the franchise.

Let’s just hope when Jurassic World opens on June 12^th 2015, like the theme parks guests, we are not left wanting our admission fee’s back too.

POP CULTURE

J.J. Abrams’ Mysterious New Project Is Revealed

September 11, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

As you may know, last month, J.J. Abrams teased a trailer for a mysterious new project he was working on that wasn’t Star Wars Episode VII. In true Abrams form, he didn’t let on as to what the project was and the internet dissolved into a rumor frenzy. One popular theory was that this was a promo for Believe, an upcoming TV project from Abrams and Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron.

Earlier this week, J.J. Abrams not only revealed to EW the second half of the trailer, but the usually tight lipped Abrams revealed the mystery behind the project itself.

The project is a book called S. based on an idea by Abrams and written by Doug Dorst, an American novelist and short story writer who is the author of the award winning novel, Alive in Necropolis.

S. is described as being “about the relationship between a grad student named Eric and a college senior named Jennifer. They trade notes in the margins of a (fictional) 1949 novel by a mysterious author named V.M. Straka.”

In typical Abrams tradition, S. will go beyond the ordinary and contains the novel within the novel as well as plenty of handwritten notes between Jennifer and Eric “a conversation that plunges them into the unknown,”. S. will also expand the reading experience, with extra details such as newspaper clippings and a napkin with a map drawn on it.

Abrams told EW “I could not be more excited for people to get their hands on this book. It is difficult to describe because while it is a compelling mystery and love story, it is also much more than that. The work that everyone has done on S. is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Frankly, I’m amazed it was even possible to do this project at all.”

S. is to be published by Little, Brown on Oct. 29.

Walking Dead Season 4 Tease Last Night Makes Us Ask If It’s October Yet

August 26, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

Last night during Low Winter Sun, AMC took the opportunity to tease us with a short scene from The Walking Dead season 4.

The clip doesn’t reveal much in the way of story, but we do get a glimpse at the beefed up prison defenses as well as fan favorite Michonne (Danai Gurira) riding a horse and then getting into a tussle with some walkers as she tries to get back into the prison. A hatless Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) also appear in the clip as they run to her assistance.

Season 4 picks up several months following the Governor’s failed attack at the end of season 3, after which he turned on his own people and disappeared into the distance with his remaining loyal grunts. The Governor is still out there and Rick and his group, now including Tyreese (Chad Coleman) and the remaining Woodbury survivors they took in, are preparing in case he returns as well as any new threats that are on the horizon.

New showrunner Scott Gimple recently warned fans at the San Diego Comic-Con not to get too comfortable with the nature of the threat the walkers or the Governor impose. “They might get a little comfortable, but then things might get a little dangerous,”. We will see the walkers “evolve” and will get a more determined Governor hell-bent on bringing down Rick and the group.

The Walking Dead the TV series is known for taking the comics only as inspiration in terms of themes and season 3 only just started to touch on the levels of depravity and sick natured acts that the Governor displays in the comic series. It will be great to see season 4 continue to amp up the threat of the Governor following his final step into madness at the end of season 3 and cement his place as one of the greatest TV villains. In case you need reminding, The Walking Dead returns Oct. 13 on AMC. Mark them calendars.

Movie Trailers

Monsters: Dark Continent – Tease Infects Your Screen

August 23, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

In 2010 first time director Gareth Edwards crept up on the world and released the indie spectacular that was Monsters. Having now moved on to direct Godzilla for Warner Brothers, Gareth Edwards has handed the reigns for the sequel over to another first-time feature film Tom Green of Misfits fame.

Empire magazine recently released an exclusive first look at Monsters: Dark Continent, which Edwards is co-producing. The footage reveals very little in terms of story but does a great job at setting up the tone of the film and certainly creates an atmosphere which is reassuringly close to what Edwards established in Monsters.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

Monsters: Dark Continent expands the world that Edwards created and moves the setting to a different Infected Zone, this time the Middle-East, which the U.S. military have now taken control of. Green is aiming to stick to the theme of intimate, human story telling that Monsters captured by piecing together over 100 hours of footage which he shot on hand held cameras as he travelled across North America with stars Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy.

Green has said, in terms of creating the same mood for the sequel:

[quote]“As soon as I watched Monsters I completely identified with the idea of using real locations as a foundation on which to build a world of limitless scale. From my first visit to the location shown here, in Jordan, it was somewhere I felt was key to making Dark Continent work. The moonscape-like environment was the perfect basis for an ‘alien’ landscape. The quarry trucks you see here became ‘buggies’ to transport the remains of firebombed monster herds to be incinerated, with all the leading characters emerging from the dust to witness the scale of the death toll for the first time — and for one character maybe too many times…”[/quote]

Monsters: Dark Continent stars Joe Dempsie (Game Of Thrones), Sam Keeley (What Richard Did) and Johnny Harris (Welcome To The Punch) and will be released in 2014.

Rambo Heading To the Small Screen! Will Stallone Follow?

August 23, 2013 James Henshaw Leave a comment

Currently, television seems the place to be. Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few announcements of popular movies making the move over to our small screens. Notably there was Fargo a little while back and Robert Rodriguez’s El Marichi series earlier this week. Well, add Rambo to that list as Avi Lerner has announced that his Nu Image production company has signed on to co-develop, with Entertainment One (eOne), a TV series based on Avi Lerner’s good pal Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo series. Lerner has stated, “I’m happy to be partnering with a prolific company like Entertainment One who has a track record of creating high quality programming for their broadcast partners around the world.”

The blood-thirsty action packed franchise kicked off in 1982 with First Blood, a very rough adaptation of David Morrell’s novel of the same name, which saw Sly’s Vietnam vet taking on a corrupt small-town lawman. John Rambo has since returned for 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, 1988’s Rambo III and, most recently during Sly’s old-man action come-back, for 2008’s Rambo. Of course, this is not the first time that Rambo has been portrayed on TV. Remember Rambo: The Force of Freedom from 1986? That series lasted 65 episodes! Let’s all hope this new series will be a bit better than that. Perhaps with less shark riding.

“I’m excited by the prospect of collaborating again with my good friend Sly for an encore in this next phase of the Rambo legacy,” commented Lerner, an action movie producing vet who has produced Rambo movies in the past. eOne also seem thrilled by the chance to bring Rambo to the small screen. eOne Television CEO John Morayniss in a statement Wednesday commented, “The ability to fuse the big screen and the small screen through Avi’s feature film expertise and eOne’s domestic production capabilities and international distribution infrastructure, makes for a highly complementary partnership,”

As an added bonus, the seemingly always Stallone is currently in talks to star in the TV series too. Now, in what capacity remains to be seen. I doubt his elderly Rambo will be the focal point of the series. I would love to see a series that documents Rambo’s time in ‘Nam. There is plenty of reference in the movies as to the horrors that Rambo faced as well as his time as a POW. Stallone could easily bookend or even narrate episodes as Rambo as a way of contextualizing how it affected him into becoming the disconnected character that he is in the films.

There is plenty of material to be mined from the Rambo premise and if handled well, it could do what Band of Brothers and The Pacific did in providing a great deal of action and story but also offer a commentary on the war and how it impacted so many peoples lives and the US political landscape.

Grizzly Bomb