One, two Freddies new and improved . . .

Ready for another horror movie reboot? Today the first trailer for the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street arrived on the internet. This time around it falls to Jackie Earle Haley, (aka Watchmen's Rorschach) to don the iconic fedora and stripey jumper -no easy task considering the cult status of their previous owner. With horror movie vet Robert Englund the face of this franchise for so many years, will audiences accept a new Freddy Krueger?

Acceptance aside, the trailer looks to be a potential cut above the rest of most recent horror retreads. We glimpse a post-burnt Krueger hunted by angry parents; a fleshed out backstory perhaps? However, when it comes to the inevitable nods to iconic scenes from the original, lets hope they don't rely on them too much. Some fancy new death scenes would be nice.


Could this reboot the franchise for a new generation of teens? Check out the teaser below.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is released on 30th April 2010.

Animals wearing clothes.

Check out these recently released character posters for the upcoming Fantastic Mr Fox, the latest Roald Dahl story to be given a big screen make over. More information about Wes Anderson's latest foray into the world of stop motion can be found here.

The colourful posters seem to convey the whole tone of the adaptation. Mixing the original source and Anderson's unique style looking to give us one of this years most interesting films. Click to embiggen!

Fantastic Mr Fox is released on the 23rd of October 2009.

Olds and News

When a nugget o' movie news hits the web its new - its news. I try to post whatever i deem to be cool news asap while it's relevant. However as mentioned in my previous post I've been busy lately so inevitably some stuff slipped through the net. So here's a double-bill, some news that just hit the net earlier today, and some old news, some 'Olds' if you will, that people may already be aware of, but keep getting wrong.

The Buzz is. . .


You can't go five minutes without a studio deciding to give some dusty 80's gem a 2009 re-polish or churn out some unnecessary sequel. When word of this news hits more often than not you should be afraid, very afraid. . .

But maybe not this time. Earlier today Aint it cool news ran the story that a remake of the 1986 classic The Fly is in the works - no surprise there. However what may come as a surprise is that director of the original film David Cronenberg may return to write and potentially direct.

Although Cronenberg maintained an interest in the property post 86' he's since been quoted saying that he didn't want to be associated with a remake. Risky Buisness Blog reports that despite these previous statements he is indeed in talks with Fox to return.

There's no denying that it would be interesting to see how he would handle the gruesome transformation with today's technology, but is a remake really necessary?

Rambo V: The Savage Hunt



Before beginning the publicity trail for his latest testosterone fueled outing The Expendables, Sly Stallone decided to address rumours regarding the return of arguably his most iconic character, John Rambo.

An early draft of Rambo V took a interesting path. Shying away from the blood spurting action of the previous entries it focused on the Vietnam vet searching for his father. This soon changed however and Rambo V:The Savage Hunt is now being fast tracked and promises not to disappoint gore fans.

We find Rambo in the Pacific Northwest where he's been sent to clean up a government experiment gone awry. The program in question was attempting to create an elite solder without compassion and motivated by savage rage which soon got out of control.

Que Rambo hunting and shooting and just generally killing things.

Although, Sly's quick to point out that this isn't to be confused with Universal Soldier as he explains to AICN "It's not me fighting some super soldier, it's actually a feral beast, it's a thing. It's this amalgamation of fury and intelligence and pure unadulterated rage, it's before men became human".

A mock poster was released at this years Toronto film festival, check it out above. Expect to hear more about these films in the coming months.

Star Wars: Attack of the clooneys?

This trailer has been around for a while now, unfortunately due to a lack of time and my impressive laziness i haven't had time to post this blog. But better late than never.

Based on the book by Guardian columnist Jon Ronson The Men Who Stare at Goats explores the bizarre and highly secretive world of military psychic training. Mind reading, passing through solid walls and erm . . . killing goats - you'd be crazy not to think this was the stuff of fiction, but it's actually based on real events. Google it.

Ewan McGregor plays Bob Wilton, a journalist following up this unusual lead hoping for his next big story. He soon stumbles upon Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) ex psychic soldier and member of this secret team who claims to have been 're-activated' after 9/11.

Together they set off to track down Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), the missing founder of the mind control team who's job it is to end all war. Their trail leads them to the military training ground which has now been taken over by disillusioned clairvoyant Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey).

You wouldn't classify Clooney as a comedian as such, but there's no denying he has a certain knack for the job. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Welcome to Collinwood and most recently Burn After Reading all harness his unique comedic wit. The Men Who Stare At Goats looks to be no exception, proving that Clooney can be winning awards one minute and killing farmyard animals for laughs the next.

Check out the trailer after the jump.



The Men Who Stare at Goats is released on the 4th December 2009.

A Christmas Carrey.

Still looking for the Christmas movie to top The Muppet's Christmas Carol? Well don't give up your search just yet, but in the mean time check out the recently released trailer for this November's A Christmas Carol.

Jim Carrey stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge, the old geezer spooked into rethinking his life. He'll also play all three of his ghostly visitors alongside a supporting cast consisting of Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins and Colin Firth. Through performance capture; the art of translating real life movement into a digital performance, director Robert Zemeckis hopes to breathe new life into this familiar story.

An avid supporter of performance capture technology, Zemeckis has given us The Polar Express, Monster House and Beowulf with a recently announced remake of Yellow Submarine in the pipeline. And with rumours of a Roger Rabbit sequel utilizing the same technology, love it or hate it, it seems motion capture animation is here to stay. Check out the trailer after the jump.

@ Yahoo! Video

A Christmas Carol is released on the 6th November 2009.

Jacks Back

If it weren't for internet geeks we'd have to wait ages for any decent movie news. One particularly interesting piece hit the web tonight, suggesting the return of one of cinema's coolest characters.

As Johnny Depp strolled on stage to the usual insane applause at this years Disney's D23 Expo he had more than Mad Hatters and Cheshire Cats on his mind. The mega star appeared on stage as Captain Jack Sparrow, revealing the official title of the heavily anticipated fourth installment of the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise.

Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has been given a ETA of summer 2011. As of yet, there is no official word on plot, with Depp simply adding that the script looks good and hopefully most familiar faces will return.

Will we see Captain Jack go searching for the fountain of youth? After all that's where he was heading when we last saw him. Or will we see captain and crew go on some new adventure to strange and distant shores? Hopefully they'll steer clear of the pitfalls that tainted the previous installment. No unnecessarily complex plot thanks, just show us Jack Sparrow drinking rum and sword fighting. A sea monster would be nice too.

Check out the official teaser poster below.



Expect to hear more about Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in the coming months.

Development Arrested?

If too much of a good thing is bad for you, then that certainly can't be said for 2004's Arrested Development. Its brief run gave us a glimpse at greatness, sadly only lasting two lengthy seasons and a rushed third consisting of only 13 episodes. So what went wrong? How did one of the funniest and most original shows of recent years get cut short? And more importantly, will we ever see the Bluth family again?

Multiple award wins, an exceptional cast and packed with more comedy nutrition than a Bluth frozen banana, Arrested Development was the show that no one saw. Due to poor scheduling decisions by Fox the show failed to find it's audience and was subsequently axed. But it wasn't dead yet. With such heavily layered comedy, the show rewards repeated viewings; you hear something new each time, and so as time passed people began to take notice. And as DVD sales rocketed pretty soon floods of fans were left wanting more.

Talk of an Arrested Development movie began as a series climax joke, but these days any news of a big screen outing is serious business. With cast and crew eager, rumours that Superbad star Michael Cera was reluctant to return rubbished and with mega-director and series narrator Ron Howard dropping the occasional hint, the movie appeared to be fast tracked.

But like the Bluth family who are all talk and little progress, development seems, for now at least, temporarily arrested. Whilst promoting his new film Extract Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth) let us know how things currently stand "The script's being written and when Mitch (Hurwitz, creator) is done with it we can go to the scheduling part . . . Once he writes it then, just like any other movie, then it becomes something a bit more real . . . it's got the same life that any other project would have".

So from on saying to another: good things come to those who wait, it may take a while to arrive but a movie is definitely happening, which is great news for fans. If like me you're still impatiently waiting for more, why not enjoy some of the shows finest quotes after the jump.

Michael Bluth: We're not here to talk nonsense to Bob Loblaw.

Tobias Funke: Who the f*$@ stole my hard boiled eggs!

Michael Bluth: Are you bleeding?
GOB Bluth: No . . . well . . . my socks are wet.

Buster, holding Franklin over his nub: “I don't want no part of your tight ass country club, ya freak bitch!”

Tobias Funke: I just blue myself.

Michael Bluth after seeing his family's chicken impressions: Has anyone in this family even seen a chicken?

These are just a few, if I've missed out your favorite add it in the talk back!

Funny People.

The ringleader of the 'Frat Pack' has made it. With his fingers in so many comedy pies in recent years, he's sculpted a new breed of humour. So it's no surprise that when Judd Apatow decides to head up a film personally it's considered a big deal, and Funny People, his latest, is no exception.

George Simmons, (Sandler) a megastar who's not above making low rate comedies for high rate pay checks is living proof that money can't buy happiness. When informed that he may only have months to live, he decides to reassess his life and make amends with an old flame.

Funny People lives up to it's name, as it's filled with them. A flab-free Seth Rogen leads the supporting cast as comedy PA to Simmons, with a toned down performance proving that he's more than just a walking pot joke. As struggling stand up Ira, he's in constant competition with friends Leo and Mark (Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman). Both are very funny but are overshadowed by a hilarious turn from Aussie Eric Bana, playing the husband to Simmons' 'One who got away' Laura (Leslie Mann).

But just when you think you've got Funny People clocked, it pulls a fast one on you. Rom-com? Hardly - in depth character study more like. Adam Sandler as an egocentric character forced to question his life is a great change from the flawed nice guys he often plays. Over time the increasingly unpleasant George learns the price of happiness, eventually finding it down an unlikely path.

So many spontaneous one-liners make it into the final cut of Apatow's films that their run times do tend to be quite long. Sure Funny People could be shorter, but the clue's in the title, we're looking at people not plot. In the two hour plus run time we learn what makes these characters tick, and in that sense every scene is justified.

It may not be everybody's cup of tea and it may not be Apatow's funniest, but in an age saturated with churned out formula comedies polluting cinema, Funny People is a smart, refreshing change, and change is good.

Funny People is in cinemas now.