Category: Movies

Mark December 13th On Your Calendar!
Hey look! Here’s the brand new trailer for STAR TREK: NEMESIS.

Opening Today At A Theatre Near You
Hey look! Thursday is Indendence Day in America and that means that some new films are opening in our multiplexes today. Three new films, to be exact. Two of them aren’t worth seeing, unless you are a kid or have an I.Q. that is the same as your shoe size.
The other…well, the other is, well its… Men In Black II, or MIBII as its known by some.
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back and so are some of those great little aliens that we loved in the original.
Is it any good, you ask? To put it bluntly- If you liked the original you will like the sequel.
A true sign of the apocalypse will be if they make a sequel to the insipid Like Mike. Like I said, if you have an I.Q. that is equal to or less than your show size, then enjoy!
Also make plans to enjoy The Powerpuff Girls Movie. The movie shows the origin of the Powerpuff Girls before the cartoon series. It explains why they were born and why they dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil.
The kids will love it, but it’s REALLY for grownups…so enjoy! Dig down deep and find the child within and go nuts!
Myself, I enjoyed the two characters who talk entirely in Van Halen references.
So don’t go runnin’ with the devil, just jump at this chance to enjoy your summer nights with a pretty woman!
Hee hee heeee! Enjoy the popcorn and I’ll see you at the movies!
Oh, and Happy Independence Day all you Americans!

More Aliens for Sigourney Weaver?
In an interview with an L.A Correspondent, Sigourney Weaver again talked about the chances of a fifth “Alien” film and whether she’s tired of answering questions about it.
“I have people coming up to me on the street talking to me about when is the next one, Iíve actually spoken to Ridley Scott a number of times. He would like to do five and I have to say that because its six months away from home, I have very mixed feelings about it. I donít know. Maybe that will change” says Weaver.
“You know if I can physically perform her task, or have a very good stuntwoman, I love what happened to Ripley. I love playing an alien” Weaver also talked a bit about the role she is playing in the forthcoming “Holes”. “Louis the writer, Louis and I have quite a bit of sympathy for the warden because in fact, sheís also cursed because sheís had to dig as a child, sheís had to dig her whole life for this treasure so her life has never started. So I can really feel how misunderstood she is but she does do some evil things”.

HEATING UP
The summer movie season has scored its strongest start in history, with June box office grosses topping $800 million for the first time ($856 million, to be exact) and attendance jumping 9 percent compared to last year.

Bugs and Pals to Bring Shorts Back to Movies
Overture! Hit the Lights! Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck will soon bring back a cinematic phenomenon largely missing from movie theaters for decades — the cartoon short.
The Warner Bros. film studio is producing a new series of animated briefs starring its stable of Looney Tunes characters to run in front of such upcoming feature-length family films as the next “Harry Potter” movie.
So far, the studio has given its animation department the go-ahead for a dozen cartoon “featurettes” of favorites like the wise-cracking Bugs Bunny (“Ehhhh, what’s up, doc?”), the stammering Porky Pig (B-dee, b-dee, b-dee, that’s all folks!”), loudmouth rooster Foghorn Leghorn (“That’s a joke, son!”) and the wide-eyed Tweety Bird (“I tawt I taw a puddy-tat!”).
The project is part of a concerted strategy by Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., to make the most of a 70-year-old brand dating to the earliest days of animation and familiar to generations of movie and TV audiences.
“Looney Tunes are classic characters, they’re part of the culture,” said Sander Schwartz, president of Warner Bros.’ resurgent animation division. “It’s a familiar and added attraction that we can offer our family feature audiences.”
Revival of its theatrical shorts coincides with Warner Bros.’ upcoming production of a new Looney Tunes feature mixing Bugs and his cartoon pals with a live-action cast starring Brendan Fraser. “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” slated for a November 2003 release, marks the first such feature since1996’s “Space Jam” with basketball star Michael Jordan.
Extending the brand to yet another outlet of the AOL Time Warner family, the studio also plans to launch a new “Baby Looney Tunes” TV series on cable’s Cartoon Network. The preschool-oriented show, featuring Bugs, Daffy, Tweety and friends as toddlers, debuts Sept. 3.
“Hopefully, all these different media will cross-promote each other,” Schwartz said.
ON WITH THE SHOW
Looney Tunes are perhaps best known to Baby Boomers and younger generations for their longtime TV presence, starting in the 1960s with “The Bugs Bunny Show.” But they got their start 70 years ago as theatrical shorts in an era when cartoons were as much a part of the moviegoing experience as popcorn.
In recent years, cartoon shorts have become almost as rare as the Hollywood musical, though notable exceptions include the Pixar Animation Studios Inc. short “For the Birds” which was released last year with Walt Disney Co.’s computer-animated feature “Monsters, Inc.”
The very first Looney Tunes cartoon, an eight-minute musical short created by ex-Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, was released by Warner Bros. in April 1930.
It starred Bosko and Honey, a diminutive pair of human-like characters who seemed loosely patterned after Disney’s Mickey and Minnie Mouse while displaying some features of racially stereotyped blacks. In later adventures, they were joined by a dog named Bruno, again deriving from the formula of Mickey, Minnie and Pluto of Disney’s “Silly Symphonies” cartoons.
Today’s more familiar crop of Looney Tunes characters came a few years later, with Porky Pig making his debut in 1935, Daffy Duck in 1937 and Bugs Bunny and his goofy nemesis, Elmer Fudd, in 1940. Most of the original human talent behind those cartoons, including animators Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson, are gone, as is legendary Looney Tunes voice artist Mel Blanc.
But at least one veteran, voice actress June Foray, who has done the talking for Granny in the “Tweety & Sylvester” cartoons for 50 years (she’s also the original voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel), is coming back for the latest round of shorts, Schwartz said.

Here’s Some Details On The Status Of Darren Aronofsky’s Next Sci Fi Film Starring Brad Pitt And Word On A BATMAN & SUPERMAN Film.
Rumours surrounding director Darren Aronofsky’s next film The Fountain, were confirmed this weekend by Warner Bros. Talking to Variety, a high-up executive at Warners admitted that work on the film ñ described by Aronofsky as ‘a post-Matrix, metaphysical Sci-Fi movie’ ñ has ground to a halt over budget problems.
‘It was greenlit at a budget in the $60 million range,’ said Warner Bros executive Alan Horn, ‘and it came in higher, so it’s off the table right now. It’s not a go. Everything has to work together.’ That’ll be bad news for the film’s star Brad Pitt who’s recently been sporting a hefty helping of facial hair which most people presumed was in preparation for his role in this film. Now of course, we may have to conclude that Pitt was actually going for the hairy monster look all along ñ news that will have his many female fans in despair, whilst delighting the male population.
Happily, film fans will be soothed by the news that one of the projects Warner Bros is speeding into production is the long-mooted Batman & Superman. Perfect Storm director Wolfgang Petersen is in line to produce and possibly direct the movie.

The Scene With The 7 Cats May Be The Funniest Thing You Will See This Summer
Adam Sandler’s MR. DEEDS tales the Weekend Box Office Crown.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Mr. Deeds,” $37.6 million.
2. “Lilo & Stitch,” $22.2 million.
3. “Minority Report,” $21.6 million.
4. “Scooby-Doo,” $12.2 million.
5. “The Bourne Identity,” $10.8 million.
6. “Hey Arnold! The Movie,” $6 million.
7. “The Sum of All Fears,” $4.8 million.
8. “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,” $4 million.
9. “Windtalkers,” $3.6 million.
10. “Star Wars: Episode II ó Attack of the Clones,” $3.56 million.

SHREK 2 Release Date
Dreamworks has announced that SHREK 2 will be released on June 18, 2004.

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE?
Screenwriter Bryan Goluboff (THE BASKETBALL DIARIES) has been hired by Castle Rock Entertainment to script their upcoming film about the life of troubled but brilliant Beach Boys founder and songwriter Brian Wilson.
“We hope to capture Brian’s life struggle and the underpinnings of his genius, as well as celebrate the extraordinary musical contribution this Mozart from Hawthorne, California, has given to the world,” said Castle Rock co-founder Rob Reiner.

What Is The Worst Movie Ever Made?
Maxim has compiled a list of The 50 Worst Movies of All Time for its July issue.
Who’s No. 1?