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Framed: Scream

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 7th 2011 2:30PM
Filed under: Columns, Horror, Cinematical


Welcome to Framed, a column at Cinematical that used to run every Thursday, celebrating the artistry of cinema -- one frame at a time. It's time to say goodbye, though. Thank you for reading and for all your support.

[Spoilers]

Wes Craven returns to the director's chair for another installment in the 'Scream' series, which hits theaters April 15. His 1996 film reinvigorated and redefined the rules of classic slasher cinema, effectively changing the face of the genre for a whole new audience. The movie's opening was an intense sequence that immediately made one thing clear: anyone in the film could die. Kevin Williamson's script reads like a standard horror flick about a group of high school students being terrorized by a masked killer, but all bets are off once the limp body of the movie's top-billing star (Drew Barrymore) is seen swinging from a tree. Craven and Williamson lampoon the same slasher clichés that their characters are acting out on the screen. The cast essentially knows they're in a movie, and does all the things horror audiences have been trained to believe will get them killed: people have sex, people party, people say, "I'll be right back" and never return.

A high school girl is brutally murdered, which rocks the lives of her classmates -- especially Sidney (Neve Campbell) who recently lost her mother to a terrible tragedy. When the killer then sets his sights on her, everyone in the small town becomes suspect, but Sidney fights for her life and tries to unmask the killer in the process. The whole time, Sidney and her friends are living out the roles we've become so accustomed to seeing in horror movies, and each character flaunts that self-awareness in the process. Randy, played by Jamie Kennedy, is a movie nerd who even muses about which actors would play the parts of him and his friends.

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Edgar Wright's Gun Fetish Montage -- From VHS Tapes (VIDEO)

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 6th 2011 3:00PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, Cinematical
Before Edgar Wright paid homage to the nerdy universe he loves in 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,' he was stockpiling his favorite film moments on VHS and editing the living daylights out of them. Everything from 'Goodfellas' to 'Terminator' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' makes an appearance in this montage of screen gems and guns that a 19-year-old Wright whipped up while at Bournemouth Art College.

The 1993 video gives a good feel for Wright's sense of pace and timing, even at an early age. His humor is in full effect, too, as he sets his "bullet ballet" to a Beatles song that blasts the NRA. Wright peeped a little bit about the making of the montage, saying, "All of the clips were sourced from either films I've recorded off the TV, sell thru VHS tapes I had bought and also films that happened to be in the college library. I literally had piles of VHS tapes in the edit suite. So that explains some of the glitchy clips." We forgive you.

Check out the full video after the jump. If you have some time on your hands, see if you can name the movies sampled. Visit Wright's blog to make your movie brain happy.
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'Wild Guns' to Tell Story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 6th 2011 1:00PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

Producer Gianni Nunnari is taking a break from the sword-and-sandal epics he's worked on (Zack Snyder's '300' and currently Tarsem Singh's 'Immortals') to play his hand at a western. Warner Bros. has picked up T.S. Nowlin's script for 'Wild Guns,' which has been described as a hybrid of 'Tombstone' and 'Sherlock Holmes.'

The story follows gunslingers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and takes place after the Civil War. The men set out to rescue the daughter of Sitting Bull, who has been kidnapped by a shaman with mysterious powers who has been ravaging the western plains. No cast or director have been attached to the project at this time.

Earp's been played by everyone from Henry Fonda to Burt Lancaster, Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. Holliday's been tackled by the likes of Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, Val Kilmer and Dennis Quaid. The Old West duo are best-remembered for the famous 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz., which has been the subject of many movies -- some historically accurate and some not.
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'Human Centipede' ... the Musical? (VIDEO)

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 5th 2011 2:05PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, Horror, Cinematical
"We're just some nerds who wanted to make a musical," says the Emerson College comedy troupe who recently created a musical version of one of last year's most talked-about horror films, 'The Human Centipede.' A singing narrator opens the show by telling the audience, "... It's a horrifying tale that will make you hold onto your caboose ..." That's because Tom Six's movie is about a gory human chain -- stitched together, ass-to-mouth.

When a German doctor abducts three people so he can transform them into a human centipede for funsies, things get a little wackadoo after he tells them that he wants to actually face-plant them on the booty of the person in front of them ... permanently. It's not a film for everyone, but there were some entertaining performances, including from the doc himself, Dieter Laser.

This musical parody is guaranteed to be more exciting than 'High School Musical,' and it's not often that you get to hear the word "butthole" sung to you, so there's that. You can check out the first part of this song-savvy extravaganza after the jump if you're curious.

And if you're certain that seven clips of songs about rectums is the best way to spend your Tuesday, just head to the official YouTube page.
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Who Wants to Own the Topless Kate Winslet Sketch From 'Titanic'?

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 4th 2011 1:20PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Back when Leonardo DiCaprio was still on the pages of mags like Tiger Beat and Kate Winslet was a little-known British actress, there was a movie that brought both actors together for a life-changing experience, James Cameron's disaster drama, 'Titanic.' The movie went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a title only recently taken away by Cameron's 'Avatar.'

This weekend, a famous prop from the blockbuster film -- a nude drawing of Kate Winslet -- was auctioned off. It was expected to rake in close to £10,000 (over $16,000). The drawing is sketched by DiCaprio's character in the movie, but was actually drafted by the director himself (those are even his hands at work).

The drawing was up for grabs from movie memorabilia house, Premiere Props, who sell stuff like Nic Cage's used, sweaty wig from 'Season of the Witch,' but we imagine that far more movie fans are clamoring to get their hands on a naked Kate Winslet.
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Lily Collins Is Snow White

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 4th 2011 10:00AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
'The Blind Side' star Lily Collins, who also happens to be the daughter of rock dude Phil Collins, has been cast as the title character in Tarsem Singh's adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Snow White' for Relativity. Collins will be starring alongside the already-cast Julia Roberts as the wicked queen and 'The Social Network''s Armie Hammer as Prince Andrew Alcott.

As we've been reporting, Hollywood is fixated on fairy tales, and the fairest of them all has several projects in the works. Singh's still-untitled version (currently called 'The Brothers Grimm: Snow White') is competing with Universal's production featuring Kristen Stewart as the princess who eats the poisoned apple. There's also Disney's 'Snow and the Seven,' which will take place in China during the 1800s, swapping the seven dwarfs for warriors.
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Warner Bros. Not Done With Young Wizards -- 'Seventh Son' Casts Lead Actors

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Apr 1st 2011 3:30PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
The young-adult literary market is a giant, so it seems inevitable that we'd be swamped with the recent hurricane of film adaptations -- especially with the Harry Potter series soon coming to an end. Hopefully these book-to-screen adaptations will all be as interesting as 'The Seventh Son' seems, because any movie where Jeff Bridges is in talks to play a witchfinder is one to keep tabs on.

Variety reports that Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have tapped two young leads for the roles of Tom and Alice, characters in the adaptation of 'The Last Apprentice,' which is the first of Joseph Delaney's bestselling Y.A. series, 'The Wardstone Chronicles.'
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