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'Twilight' With Zombies to Pair Teresa Palmer With Nicholas Hoult

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 29th 2011 4:00PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Mentioning the films 'Twilight' and 'Shaun of the Dead' in the same sentence feels sacrilege, but director Jonathan Levine is describing his newest project as a cross between the two. If he gets his way, the zombie love story, 'Warm Bodies,' will pair Teresa Palmer and Nicholas Hoult in a project based on the upcoming novel by Isaac Marion, according to THR.

Palmer faced a few recent setbacks with collapsed casting. However, earlier this year she starred in the not-so-loved 'I am Number Four,' leaving a lasting impression on fans as the badass alien, Number Six. She's also been attached to some bigger-name projects, including Oliver Stone's 'Savages.' If she joins Levine, she'll be a lead player -- the daughter of a military leader who tries to make peace between zombies and humans.
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'Your Highness' Video: David Gordon Green and Danny McBride Discuss Minotaur Genitalia

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 28th 2011 4:10PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Video, Cinematical
The historically inaccurate 'Your Highness' has given us a taste for its obscene funny business via a few red-band trailers, and this latest Funny or Die video follows suit with a truckload of ... d*ck jokes. Director David Gordon Green and star/writer/producer Danny McBride pay a visit to the FX studio Spectral Motion, Inc. to check out all the props and spend a lot of time assessing the size of a Minotaur's junk, among other things.

Instead of McBride being impressed with the creature designs that the director unveils, he spends the entire video fixating on all the wrong things, including the particulars of penises, the hilarity of a stoned kid in a costume, the mechanics of boners, and wanting to steal props from the 'Hellboy' movies to use for his own.

'Your Highness' hits theaters on April 8 and tells the story of a prince (James Franco) whose bride-to-be (Zooey Deschanel) is kidnapped by an evil wizard (Justin Theroux). His lazy brother (Danny McBride) and a warrior princess (Natalie Portman) set out to help make things right. Check out the video after the jump, which is very NSFW unless you work somewhere awesome.
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Johnny Depp's Cameo in Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo Cabaret' Revealed in New Image

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 28th 2011 3:35PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

UPDATE: According to an official source over at Paramount, the image after the jump does not feature Johnny Depp, contrary to the report below. We're not sure who that guy is or how he factors into the story, but the studio is saying it ain't Johnny.

In news about a movie that stars Johnny Depp playing Johnny Depp comes the first image from Martin Scorsese's 3D flick, 'Hugo Cabaret,' based on Brian Selznick's 2007 similarly titled, young-adult novel. Depp's name was attached to the project as producer, but as we all know, Johnny boy can't resist an unusual tale, and 'Hugo' is full of stuff that seems right up his alley: Parisian orphans, turn-of-the-century eccentricities and inventions, and himself, of course, as an abstract painter who hangs out at a train station and helps the title character solve a mystery.

In this photo (see it after the jump), Depp appears as M. Rouleau, along with 'Let Me In''s Chloë Moretz as Isabella and Asa Butterfield as Hugo. Scorsese's film is set in the 1930s and follows the orphaned Hugo, who lives inside the walls of a busy Paris train station. His secret life finds him stealing, being a clock keeper and saddling up with a strange, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy shop.

According to JoBlo, "A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery."
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Cinematical Seven: Girl Gangs That Kick Ass

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2011 10:00PM
Filed under: Best Movies Ever, Columns, Cinematical

As the reviews for Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' come rolling in (you can read Todd Gilchrist's take on it over here) the movie about a young girl who creates a fantasy world to escape from her dark reality got us thinking. Babydoll, played by Emily Browning, is the lead player whose sanity is in question. She empowers herself with a team of ass-kicking friends to help her find her way through things. Girl gangs who buck the system and take control aren't a new phenomenon, but as Moviefone's Gary Susman asked the other day, "Why aren't there more movies like this?"

It'd be an easy task to come up with a list of male-dominated movies where groups of guys bond through a shared experience -- some through the trauma and exhilaration of violence, and some that actually manage to be meaningful. The female spectrum of films like this does exist -- and while some revolve around a romantic plotline, others are just about a bunch of woman trying to find themselves and beating incredible odds to do it. Whether the gang arrives at that juncture through an exploitation, comedy, or documentary lens isn't as important as the journey. Here are seven films that take a variety of approaches and kick some serious ass along the way.
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Framed: Django

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2011 8:00PM
Filed under: Columns, Cinematical

Welcome to Framed, a column at Cinematical that runs every Thursday and celebrates the artistry of cinema -- one frame at a time.

When the American movie cavalry ran out of steam on the Western genre front, the Italians quickly swooped in. If you aren't terribly familiar with Italian cinema, this might seem like a cheap trick with even cheaper imitators piggybacking off the success of their predecessors, but not all of it was a fast cash-in. Some of the reimaginings were uniquely unforgettable, and that's where 'Django' enters the picture.

Sergio Corbucci's 1966 gunslinger doesn't aim to be as operatic as Sergio Leone's groundbreaking 'Dollars' trilogy, but its violence and pulp style was certainly grand. Of course you can't discuss Leone's films without acknowledging Akira Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo,' which by defalt Corbucci's gritty western also makes nods to. The film has its own admirers, however, and spawned over 30 unofficial sequels who tried to bank off its success.
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Should Movie Theaters Be Forced to Post Calorie Counts on Movie Snacks?

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2011 1:00PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical


There are some people who have to buy that delicious, golden bucket of popcorn each and every time they see a movie. Then, there are others who run from the 1,000-plus calories and gobs of saturated fat, opting to skip a snack entirely. Would you avoid these salty, fatty treats if the calorie content were staring you in the face at the concession stand? Cinema owners are worried you might and want to fight a proposed federal law that would require movie chains to post nutritional info for the prepared foods on their movie menu. The rule could be approved as early as Wednesday, according to the L.A. Times.

The FDA asked restaurant chains to post the nutritional content of their menu last year, and said they had every intention of doing the same to grocery stores and concession stands, particularly at movie theaters. That time has come, and members of the National Association of Theater Owners are peeved because they say it interferes with their business that has everything to do with what's on the screen and not in people's mouths. "We're not restaurants where people go to eat and satisfy themselves," said Gary Klein, the theater trade group's general counsel. "It's dinner and a movie, not dinner at a movie."
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'Easy A' Director and 'Social Network' Author Team for 'Sex on the Moon'

By Alison Nastasi (Subscribe to Alison Nastasi's posts), Posted Mar 24th 2011 10:25AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
If Will Gluck can turn 'The Scarlet Letter' into the pleasant surprise that was last year's 'Easy A,' then he might be able to transform a story about a guy who steals pieces of the moon for his girlfriend into another successful feature. While some are waiting to see what Gluck's summer comedy 'Friends With Benefits' has in store this July, Sony and producers are betting on the weirder tale, 'Sex on the Moon.' The story comes from author Ben Mezrich, who also penned 'The Accidental Billionaire' that David Fincher's 'Social Network' was based on.

Mezrich's novel -- which hits stores July 12 -- "tracks the wild escapades of 25-year-old NASA intern Thad Roberts, who in an effort to impress a girl orchestrated a plan to steal lunar rocks from the Johnson Space Center and sell them on the Internet." It's a quirky love story that seems right at home in Gluck's hands, especially after turning what could have been a dumb high school comedy into a smart, engaging little movie that made big bucks and showed the world what Emma Stone was capable of. Thanks to 'Easy A's' success, Gluck is in talks with the studio and 'The Social Network's' producers to helm the new book to screen adaptation.

Are you waiting to see if Gluck was a one-hit wonder when 'Friends With Benefits' releases this summer, or are you placing your bets on 'Sex on the Moon's' stranger story?
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