Tag Archives: Keanu Reeves

47 Ronin: First Trailer for Keanu Reeves’ New Samurai Flick

47 Ronin, the long waited and twice delayed samurai film starring Keanu Reeves, is finally getting its first official trailer. Newcomer Carl Rinsch is at the helm of this epic, marking his feature film debut. Universal has apparently went all in on this tale, putting forth upwards of 170 million dollars towards its budget. Aside from starring in the great documentary Side by Side, Keanu Reeves has yet to have a major hit since his Matrix days. Samurais. Fantasy. Badassum. This could be that major hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t9UVcxHGlE&feature=share

The premise is a fantastical take on a said to be true story of the forty-seven Ronin, which of course it takes its title from. The basic story is a group of samurais set out to avenge the death of their master, who’s life was taken by a ruthless leader. Sounds like a simple revenge flick, but from the looks of the scale and fantasy elements, this could easily be much more than that. Additional to Reeves, the film stars Tadanobu Asano (Thor) as the villainous leader, and Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim review) as his samurai servant.

47 Ronin

47 Ronin is due out on Christmas Day this year, right in the thick of other holiday season films looking to be in the awards hunt. Check out what is sure to be an Oscar contender with this 12 Years a Slave trailer.

New Trailer: The Hunger Games

The newest trailer for The Hunger Games is out and thank God it’s not another spinning acid trip in the woods.  For a while there I thought I was watching daytime outtakes from The Blair Witch Project.  With slightly less snot.

I will say from the top that I like the trailer.  It encapsulates the character of Katniss quite well, and I am more than pleased with Jennifer Lawrence in the role with what I’ve seen so far.  That and Donald Sutherland is basically a badass, so you know he’ll be awesome.  I can make my peace with Lenny Kravitz, I really can.  I’m sure he had the best acting coaches money could buy that auto-tuned his on-screen performance.  I’m sure he knows some guitar hypnosis voodoo to get what he wants.

I really have a hard time making my peace with Woody Harrelson because of what an obscenely awful actor he is.  He wasn’t exhibited much in the trailer, but I think this role should be a cinch for him.  He’s like Keanu Reeves.  Keanu has solid performances when he plays someone who has no clue what’s going on; because Keanu has no clue what’s going on.  In this film, Woody portrays a crazy drunk who tends to lash out in a violent rage.  Three shots of Tequila and he just has to read the script.

Anyhow, here it is…

I have high hopes for this film because I did thoroughly enjoy the book.  There is a wide margin of screw-up possibility, as in any book to film adaptation.  However, being that this was the only book in the trilogy that was actually worth reading, I’m excited to see it.  This new trailer really gave us a glimpse into Katniss’ life before and leading up to the games; her bravery in volunteering to die to save her sister’s life, her friendship with her fellow tribute, Peeta.  It felt inspiring.  Hopefully the film lives up to the hype.

Hunger Games will be released on March 23, 2012.

Akira Changes…Again

I’m just going to come out and say it: will everyone involved in this project please just pack it up and walk away from the whole thing? From the inability to cast two lead roles even from the likes of Keanu Reeves to the switching of directors, now there is the announcement of a budget cut of about 50 million bucks. Not that budgets make a movie, but with all of the problems combined this project is heading for nothing but trouble if it ever indeed gets off the ground.

Here’s the latest from IGN:

 Variety has the report, adding that the project has been reconfigured as a $90 million tent pole. That’s down quite a bit from the previously reported $140 million budget.

But that’s part of why Collet-Serra has been brought in, as he apparently has a reputation for turning in money-makers on tight budgets (see also his House of Wax remake and the recent Liam Neeson thriller Unknown).

As for Collet-Serra being the new director, I didn’t mind Orphan and House of Wax, but I have yet to see Unknown. This movie would definitely be his big break after Unknown, but quite frankly I wouldn’t care if they cast this movie into the destroying hands of Uwe Boll. As I discussed with a colleague the other day, I think Akira might be better as a CG movie instead of animated. And at the rate the live-action movie is going that may be coming true sooner than we think.

Akira: Keanu to be Kaneda?

In a huge vomit inducing report, Keanu Reeves is in talks with the studio bringing us Akira to play one of the main characters. I wasn’t crazy about the front runners to play Kaneda and Tetsuo before, but Keanu Reeves? And now it takes place in Neo Manhattan instead of Neo Tokyo? Jeez, why not just call his character Kevin and call the movie a U.S. equivalent of Akira? Adam perhaps, or Alex. Why does it need to have anything to do with Akira when it’s the complete opposite of everything but the plot. And I’m willing to bet that the plot will be warped somehow too.

Oh look! It's.... Keanu Reeves...Damn it.

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