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'Superman' Reboot to Find Natalie Portman Playing Lois Lane?

By Cinematical Staff (Subscribe to Cinematical Staff's posts), Posted Sep 28th 2010 10:15AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical


To paraphrase: a rumor can find itself halfway around the Web before the truth gets its pants on. Well, here's one that can be taken with a grain of salt. As we told you last night, Darren Aronofsky is one of many directors on the shortlist for the 'Superman' reboot gig, and if he gets it then you might see Natalie Portman playing Lois Lane, according to Moviehole.

Aronofsky would undoubtedly do a fine job with the franchise. He's obviously interested in expanding his portfolio to include larger, blockbuster-type films, having already been attached to helm a reboot of 'Robocop', as well as a 'Batman' movie based on a Frank Miller storyline. From what we know about the next 'Superman' movie, Warner Bros. will most likely take it in a darker, edgier direction, much like they've done with Christopher Nolan's 'Batman' series. Further proof of that could probably be found in the fact that they've actually brought Nolan on to sort of "grandfather" the new 'Superman' movie by helping with all facets of production, from script to casting to choosing a director (hence his meeting with Aronofsky).

However, Aronofsky's style is somewhat offbeat (very few could succeed at making a drama about a professional wrestler) so he may find doing a mainstream movie like this difficult. Then again, perhaps he's been preparing for it his whole life. Of course, the real kicker is Natalie Portman. While Lois Lane is an iconic character, Portman is already doing the "superhero love interest" thing by playing Jane Foster in the 'Thor' movie. Plus there was the whole "Princess Amidala" thing in the 'Star Wars' prequels. Still, there are worse types of characters to be typecast as.

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Everything We Know About the Movie Not Called 'Mission: Impossible IV'

By Cinematical Staff (Subscribe to Cinematical Staff's posts), Posted Sep 17th 2010 7:00PM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
This message will not self-destruct in five seconds: We have the goods on the reboot of 'Mission: Impossible IV.'

Okay, so the information -- should you choose to accept it -- is still very much shrouded in secrecy. Just don't expect a fat dossier is what we're saying.

Yet plenty of facts have emerged about the film -- code name: 'Aries' -- which is scheduled to shoot from December 6, 2010, through March 7, 2011. Here's what we know so far:
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Review: Centurion

By Cinematical staff (Subscribe to Cinematical staff's posts), Posted Aug 27th 2010 1:50PM
Filed under: Action, SXSW, Magnolia, Theatrical Reviews, War, Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


By Scott Weinberg (reprint from 3/18/2010 -- SXSW Film Festival)

Imagine a flick like Braveheart, 300, Gladiator, or King Arthur, only those films have just been stripped of all those boring scenes about kings and princes, peasants and slaves, taxes and trades, and all that jazz. The result would be a movie that looks a lot like Neil Marshall's Centurion, a fast-paced, visually stunning, and action-heavy period piece that focuses on what matters most in a Saturday afternoon matinee: the good stuff. Boasting nary a subplot or an extraneous character to deal with, Centurion seems fully intent on delivering an old-school action adventure that tickles the eye without taxing the brain. And it succeeds on all counts.

It's the story of Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), a trusted officer in the Roman army. Following a brutal attack by the barbaric Picts (ancient Scots are what they are, I do believe), Quintus finds himself stuck deep inside an enemy village -- but not for long. Quintus' escape is aided by the last few survivors of the legendary Ninth Legion, and together the small band of soldiers must make their way to a friendly border. Not only do they have a long way to go, but they also have on their tails a tenacious group of Pict trackers, which is led by the ferociously unwavering Etain (Olga Kurylenko).
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Screw You MPAA! AMC Theaters to Screen NC-17 Cut of 'Hatchet II'

By Cinematical staff (Subscribe to Cinematical staff's posts), Posted Aug 26th 2010 11:02AM
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Exhibition, Movie News, Cinematical
I was pretty impressed with Adam Green's throwback slasher flick Hatchet. While the title has divided genre fans in a lot of instances (some found it corny), I think Green's heart was in the right place and the film was a gory good time. So, naturally, I'm excited about Hatchet II -- the filmmaker's follow-up and the continuation of the Victor Crowley saga.

The film is set to make it's big screen debut on October 1st -- just in time to kick off an exciting Halloween season. The best part of this news is that Green and distributor Dark Sky Films will be releasing Hatchet II unrated -- with all the gore and Victor Crowley mayhem intact and the way it was meant to be seen!

AMC Theaters will be showing the unrated cut of the film as part of its AMC Independent program. This means the uncut version of Hatchet II will be shown theatrically in the top 20 markets in the United States.

Read the rest over at Horror Squad
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Update: Animated 'Terminator' Film Now on Hold

By Cinematical staff (Subscribe to Cinematical staff's posts), Posted Aug 14th 2010 2:02PM
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Newsstand, Movie News, Cinematical
UPDATE: Looks like the Terminator animated film we reported on yesterday may not happen after all. Read our original post below, and then head after the jump to check out the latest update.

Early this year we took a poll asking if the Terminator franchise should be rebooted, continue with more sequels or just go away forever. The middle choice won by a long shot and now we have word of another installment to appease you readers who voted that way. No, we still don't know when or if there will be a direct follow-up to Terminator Salvation. Instead,Dark Horizons reports there's a $70 million 3D animated Terminator film in the works titledTerminator 3000.

The movie will be produced by Hannover House (Twelve) and Red Bear Entertainment and they're targeting a PG-13 rating, which is really no different from the last couple Terminator movies or the TV series. The press release announcing the project does still mention plans to minimize the violence, however, to achieve the classification. No plot has been revealed, obviously, nor do we know when it'll make its way to theaters. Production is expected to begin in January.

I guess it was only a matter of time before there was an animated Terminator. All the major franchises get into the medium at some point. Actually, I'm surprised there was never a cartoon series, though I think we can now anticipate such a spin-off if this is successful -- or maybe even if it isn't (ahem, Clone Wars). Let's hope Hannover uses the following animation as inspiration for what direction to go in:
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Review: Cairo Time

By Cinematical staff (Subscribe to Cinematical staff's posts), Posted Aug 7th 2010 9:02AM
Filed under: Drama, Romance, Theatrical Reviews, Reviews, Cinematical


By Jeffrey M. Anderson (reprinted from 5/2/10 -- San Francisco Int'l. Film Festival)

Ruba Nadda's gorgeous Cairo Time -- which won Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto Film Festival -- will no doubt be compared to Lost in Translation and Before Sunset, delicate tales of dislocated souls who find solace in other, equally dislocated souls, usually in a foreign land. Usually these people are already married, or at least come with complicated baggage, but it's this wistful yearning, this sense of tragedy and lost time that makes these kinds of movies special. Cairo Time is definitely the least of the three movies, mainly because it never trusts itself enough to get truly lost. Yet, even in its careful hesitation, it finds a kind of grace.

Cairo Time has three stars: the luminous Patricia Clarkson, the lanky, gentle Alexander Siddig ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and Syriana), and the city of Cairo itself, sprawled out around and between them at every moment. It's one of those movies in which the very air -- its smells and warmth -- seems to emanate from the screen. The movie is almost a travelogue, except that director Nadda is smart enough to include glimpses of the city's ugliness as well as its beauty, as well as acknowledging the uneasy, necessary balance between the two. It's a movie of moments, good ones and bad ones, all coming one after another, just like life.
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Review: Twelve

By Cinematical staff (Subscribe to Cinematical staff's posts), Posted Aug 6th 2010 4:48PM
Filed under: Drama, Theatrical Reviews, Reviews, Cinematical


By Kevin Kelly (reprinted from 2/12/10 -- Sundance Film Festival)

Poor Joel Schumacher. It just seems that no matter what happens with the rest of his career, he's never going to live down the bat-nipples incident. Sometimes when Schumacher works with relatively much smaller budgets (Phone Booth, Tigerland) he tends to shine brightly enough to wash any taste of Batman & Robin out of our mouths. I mean, this is the guy who directed The Lost Boys, and Flatliners, and wrote the screenplay for The Wiz. Which is why when we heard he had a film coming to Sundance, we began to pep up. After all, that meant it would be a low budget, and a return to Schumacher of days past, right?

Wrong. Instead we were given Twelve, a movie that closed the Sundance Film Festival, and our interest in future Schumacher movies. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Nick McDonnell, who was 17 years old when he wrote it, and when Publisher's Weekly calls an author "precocious," I usually take that as a warning sign. That means, "Gee, isn't he cute? Just wait until he grows up," and the source material definitely reflects that. Schumacher didn't make any adjustments to the story, and as a result this feels like a very special episode of Gossip Girl.
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