Eat Pray Love

This weekend, the chickiest chick flick of all time-- Julia Roberts' Eat, Pray, Love-- will be unleashed upon an unsuspecting public. The film stars Roberts as a woman whose life has fallen apart: her job's in jeopardy, her bills have stacked up to an unreasonable past-due amount, something bad happens with her marriage-- you get the idea. Well, what else can this woman do but the most likely, reasonable, relatable thing in the world: she packs her bags, heads overseas, and just kinda spends a stretch of time "finding herself" while eating a lot of gelato. Yeah, it's that kinda movie. Anyway, comedian Jim Norton took a crack at reviewing the film, and we're willing to bet that this is the best review we're ever going to see for Eat, Pray, Love. See it for yourselves below, my gentle Examiner readers...

If you're a comedy fan, then you know who Jim Norton is. If you're a filmgoer, then you've probably already been exposed to the trailers for Julia Roberts' Eat, Pray, Love (or if you're a TV viewer, as commercials for this film air approximately every six seconds on some channel, somewhere). If you're a guy, you're probably dreading your girlfriend dragging you to see the film-- instead of Scott Pilgrim VS. The World, which you wanna see-- this weekend. If you're a girl, you may have already fallen for this nonsense. Luckily, comedian Jim Norton's here to straighten everyone out:

Flipped

Reverse is a soft, history overwhelmingly safe and innocent little about this critical moment between childhood and adolescence. It follows a boy and a girl, each about 13 years, grew up in the 1960s.

Even if they have been neighbors for years, they realize they know nothing of each other, simply because they have never taken the time to ask, which adds to their already mixed romantic feelings. The recurring theme throughout the film is that perception evokes different truths and truths are much more difficult to decipher when youare a child.

The film is directed and co-author: Rob Reiner, working on a novel by Wendelin Van Draanen. Reiner as a director is accustomed to this time. His Stand by Me (1986), based on the novel by Stephen King, took place in 1959 and focuses on four young boys searching for the body.

This film is darker and more dramatic shades and flipped though not as emotionally compelling or serious the subject is also lighter. The key to the success of the film is the way Reiner makes the story of his people, and not its validity.

He could have easily succumbed to the temptation of showing all the characteristics that place in 1960 – sets, costumes, soundtrack – but he uses these factors, only the state of mind and mood, while the characters in the story-driven.

Megan Fox Says 'Fathom' Film Will Happen

Speaking with MTV News, Fox confirmed that "Fathom" (based on the Aspen Comics series created by the late Michael Turner) is still in the works and will eventually get made — even if that means someone else has to take on the lead role of Aspen Matthews.

"That's going to happen even if I have to step away from it and give it to someone else," she told MTV. "That movie will happen, just because I love it and it needs to happen."

Of course, none of that's to say that Fox has left the production — and if she did, you can be sure that she wouldn't surrender the role to "someone who doesn't give a s--- about it." But things seem to be moving along just fine at the moment, as the actress revealed that "Fathom" is currently in the scripting stage.

"They're still working on the script and getting that together," she said. "That's in the early fetal pre-production stages."

Beyond "Fathom," Fox addressed the recent rumors of her involvement with "Red Sonja," the delayed (and possibly scrapped) comic book adaptation from producer Robert Rodriguez and actress Rose McGowan.

"Is that coming back around? There were talks of it a while ago, but as far as I knew, someone else was already doing it," she said, speaking of the Rodriguez/McGowan version. "I didn't realize that was open again."

I am curious to see what will happen to the possibly soon-to-be-careerless Megan over the next few months. As you know, she was recently let go/quit from "Transformers 3." Not surprisingly, she didn't have a draw outside the robot franchise with "Jennifer's Body" (although that could also be blamed on the quality of that film). And "Jonah Hex" has really bad buzz surrounding it (although Warners is now trying really hard to take that bad buzz away).
Megan is not really a great actress, so once you get past her looks, I'm afraid that she just won't be around for much longer. Losing out on the sure thing that is "Transformers 3" just might be the end of her career. She seriously should just pose nude somewhere or show her bobbies in a flick or sleep with me for five bucks. Might as well go out in style (there's a really nice Del Taco by my apartment, Megan).

Equalizer

Russell Crowe may soon go back to making movies people want to see. Or at least he’ll make movies we haven’t already seen like, you know, Robin Hood. The LA Times says he’s set to star in The Equalizer, and yep, it’s based on the TV series from the 80s.

Hold on, before you start complaining about television shows being turned into movies. The Equalizer isn’t exactly The A-Team. There’s nothing iconic, or even particularly memorable about it. That means they’ll have plenty of room to do pretty much whatever the hell they want with it. And the premise of the show, well that’s good.

The series was about an aging New York vigilante named Robert McCall. His background was mysterious, but suitably violent, resulting in a show where a man sought penance for his vicious past by righting wrongs, usually with a gun. It’s a part that screams Russell Crowe, and it seems like just the part he needs after forcing us to watch him do increasingly lame movies recently. This could be Russell Crowe’s Batman, and to me that sounds pretty badass.

The movie isn't ready to go quite yet. They don't have a director or even a studio, for that matter. But with Russell Crowe's name to put on the marquee, that seems sure to follow in short order.

Halle Berry to Face Sharks in Dark Tide

Halle Berry is in talks to go swimming with the fishes — Great White sharks, to be precise. The next project she's looking at is Dark Tide, an action-thriller that will follow "a diving instructor who returns to the deep after a near-fatal incident with a Great White shark." The movie will begin filming in South Africa later this year.
The last movie I saw that starred Halle Berry was Things We Lost in the Fire, which I think showcased her talent well, but I'll be excited to see her in new projects. It looks like the next one to hit theaters will be Frankie and Alice, in which Berry plays "a young woman with multiple personality disorder who struggles to remain her true self and not give in to her racist alter-personality." Yikes. From that to swimming with Great Whites, Berry's life is all drama.

Empires of the deep

New set photos of the upcoming 3D underwater-based fantasy film, Empire of the Deep have been released. The photos show the colorfully dressed mermaids and many other underwater creatures, including the good and the bad in their unique costumes.
Starring Jae Choe, Sam Voutas, Alec Su, Steve Polites, Maxx Maulion, Jean-Michel Casanova, William Shriver and Liang Yanfei, it directed by Michael French under the script of Randall Frakes and Jiang Hongyu. It is scheduled for limited release somewhere in 2011. The movie follows the mermaid legends which have existed for over thousands of years in this world, magic and demons and about one man’s struggle against his own destiny. Many of us still have a feeling that they exist and we could meet them some day, although we do know for a fact that it is unlikely.
As far as the legends are concerned this beautiful race displays their seductive nature when it comes to humans via their songs. However many questions have remained unanswered, about them. Empires of the Deep will provide these answers, reveal the hidden secrets and disclose much more relevant fantasies. Empires of the Deep involves underwater creatures like mysterious mermaids, giants, an evil mage and numerous undersea kingdoms and races.
A young man with a hidden power meets the mermaid by coincidence when he searches on a temple that vanished overnight. The meeting gives rise to a series of events that leads to the very foundation of these exquisitely beautiful creatures’ world and an unlikely love story between them begins. Furthermore, the movie also explores the characteristics and capabilities of mermaids like how their love could turn out to be true, bewitching or deadly.
Empires of the Deep will, all in all, keep the attention of audience drawn with its amazing choreography and tremendous underwater fight scenes which have been shot using a new style of huge action set-pieces. It is being said that the movie will franchise comic books, animation and online games and also gifts and theme parks which are currently under development.

Wikus Packs His Bags for District 10

The boys and girls over at MarketSaw have an insider deep within the walls of WETA it would seem. If you’re new to movies, WETA is the digital effects house kick-started by Peter Jackson that handled the Lord of the Rings trilogy and pretty much every awesome effect since then that wasn’t done by LucasFilm.
Rumor is the WETA Workshop is getting ready to explore (working title) District 10, the sequel movie and relocation camp of District 9. All we really think we know right now is that Peter Jackson will produce and Neil Blomkamp will be back in the director’s chair come October.
Now, considering that this is still April, we can probably assume that District 10 is only in some level of scripting. Pre-production usually doesn’t kick in this far out (six months) unless you’re making something huge. Likely an early draft of the script or a detailed outline has been approved and a start date set. Over the next few months the script will undoubtedly be rewritten, or written.
When District 9 first blew us away, talk of a sequel began immediately thanks to Blomkamp’s expressed desire to make on. My opinion then, as now, is that if the original producer (Jackson), the original writer (Blomkamp), the original director (Blomkamp again!), and the original star (Copley) want to make a sequel, then hell yeah let’s do it.

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Death Race 2 Racing Straight To DVD

Death Race with Jason Statham was ok. I was hoping for a Cannonball Run type movie where the participants HAD to go out of their way to run over people like in the original for points. Instead we got a bunch of dudes racing around in a prison yard. But it was still pretty action packed for what we were given.

Here's to hoping the prequel goes the way of the original. Universal has more on Death Race 2:

Start your engines…and load your weapons. The explosive, all-new high-octane Death Race 2 began principal photography on February 13, 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa. The spectacular prequel to Paul W.S. Anderson’s audacious re-imagining of the Roger Corman cult classic stars Luke Goss (Hellboy 2: The Golden Army), Ving Rhames (Con Air, Pulp Fiction), Sean Bean (National Treasure, Lord of the Rings trilogy), Danny Trejo (Planet Terror, “Burn Notice”), Frederick Koehler (“Oz,” “Touching Evil”) and Lauren Cohan (“Supernatural”) and promises even more outrageously outfitted muscle cars and death-defying stunts in a deadly driving competition. Director Roel Reiné (The Marine 2, The Lost Tribe) takes the helm of the adrenaline-fueled chronicle of Frankenstein, the greatest Death Race driver of all time, in an all-out thrill ride through a dystopian future.

The screenplay is by Tony Giglio (Chaos), from a story by Paul W.S. Anderson. A top-flight production team has also been assembled, including director of photography John McKay, production designer Johnny Breedt, editor Josh Galvin and costume designer Moira Meyer.

The latest in the hugely successful line of DVD Originals™ from Universal Studios Home Entertainment Productions, Death Race 2 is produced by Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt and executive produced by Paula Wagner and Mike Elliott. Death Race 2 is an official South African/German Co-Production, produced in South Africa by Universal Pictures Productions GmbH and Moonlighting Death Race Films C.C. and co-produced by Genevieve Hofmeyr and Ralph Tuebben.

Since its introduction in 2005, Universal’s extensive DVD Originals™ slate of new live-action and animated content has dominated sales charts, scored impressive ratings on television network and cable outlets, performed successfully in multi-international markets and helped to shape the made-for-DVD arena. The high profile string of hits includes multiple installments of the powerhouse Bring It On and American Pie franchises as well as the epic saga Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior and most recently the explosive action release, Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball .

Death Race 2 takes place in the very near future, as the United States economy begins to decline and violent crime starts to spiral out of control. To contain the growing criminal population, a vast network of for-profit, private prisons springs up, creating a lawless subculture ruled by gangs, cold-blooded killers and sociopaths. The worst of these prisons is Terminal Island. Convicted cop-killer Carl Lucas arrives on the Island to serve his life sentence just as ruthlessly ambitious television personality September Jones launches the ultimate reality show, Death Race. A brutal prison yard demolition derby that pits prisoners against each other in steel reinforced, heavily armed vehicles, Death Race offers the winner the ultimate prize: freedom — if he can survive to enjoy it. When Lucas signs up to be a driver, the stage is set for the birth of a legendary racer.

Underworld 4 rumored to be 3D and in theaters by 2011

Rumors are abound in regards to Underworld 4. So far it has been confirmed on IMDB that Underworld 4 is going to be shot in 3D and be released in September 2011. However, Screenrant.com is saying it will be released as early as January 2011. We will have to wait for official word in order for this to be determined.
According to movie-moron.com, the creator of Underworld, Len Wiseman "has a concept of what the next film will be.” The prequel left off with connecting the movie to the original so that the time line connects. It shows Selene learning of her family's murder and then leads through both Underworld 1 and 2. It has been said that the movie will pick off where it left off- with Selene and Michael.
With the success of the Trilogy, many fans are looking forward to Kate Beckinsale's return to her role as Selene and according to IMDB and several other on line sources she will be reprising that role. With Wiseman being Beckinsale's husband and him discussing the movie with such fervor then may we assume that Kate will be returning?
But a movie is not all that is on Wiseman's mind. According to Bloody Disqusting.com, Wiseman spoke to them exclusively and said "There's a lot of talk about a television series, I'm looking into that. If I could be very involved and can be a certain way, I'd be very interested in that."

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Transformers 3 Update: New Villain Shockwave, Russians, Death, and oh Yeah, it’ll be in 3D

Well, so much for all those “that a boy!” Michael Bay got when he announced that he had no intentions of shooting “Transformers 3″ (or any film for that matter) in 3D. That’s all changed now, as Bay has been convinced to dive into the 3D Gold Rush pool and either shoot “Transformers 3″ in 3D, or convert it later to the format. Ah, cold hard cash. There’s nothing like it to make Hollywood types forget all those promises.

Besides the commitment to 3D, Bay and company also promise that this time around, when you die, you’ll stay dead. That’s a surprise, especially since everyone from Optimus Prime to Megatron to even human lead Sam Witwicky has died at one point or another in the two movies and then come back, seemingly even more badass than before. Not in the third installment, promises Bay and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. They blame the lack of permanent death, as well as an incoherent part two script, on the writers strike.

In the same LATimes article, the villain of part 3 was also revealed: Shockwave, “the robot cyclops-turned-laser-cannon, who became dictator of their home world of Cybertron after the other Autobots and Decepticons journeyed to Earth.” I’ve never even heard of Shockwave, and when I heard the name, I thought they were talking about the Decepticon that could turn into a boombox. (That was actually Soundwave.) The plot will also involve “a space race between the U.S.S.R. and the USA, suggesting there was a hidden Transformers role in it all that remains one of the planet’s most dangerous secrets.”

Bay also promises that there will be less “dorky comedy” in part three, which is basically Bay saying that the jive-talking twin Autobots that set off a firestorm of racism accusations will not be making a re-appearance, although John Turturro’s G-man turned civilian will be coming back for comedy relief purposes. Oh joy.

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'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn' auditions underway in Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, and Vancouver

The much anticipated casting and auditions process for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" is now underway in Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, and Vancouver - on the heels of the world premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”, which took place in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 24th.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be released as two separate movies, Breaking Dawn Part I has a release date of November 18, 2011, and a possible summer 2012 release for Breaking Dawn Part II is being considered. Director Bill Condon will shoot the two films back to back.

Breaking Dawn II will be released in 3-D, however no decision has been announced about Part I. A 3-D film can be created in two ways. One is to process the film in post-production editing using CGI for 3-D effects. The other method is to shoot the film with special 3D cameras, such as the film Avatar was done using Sony HDC-F950 3-D cameras. It is not known which method Condon will use, but it is highly likely he will shoot using the special 3-D cameras since the effects are far superior.

Filming begins November 2010, and shooting will take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Vancouver, British Columbia. There is a very large amount of filming that takes place in Louisiana due to the large tax credits that the state offers the studios. Louisiana offers a 30% transferable incentive for total in-state expenditures related to the production of a motion picture. The budget on both parts of Breaking Dawn will be substantially greater than the previous installments in the series, therefore Summit Entertainment will benefit greatly by filming in Louisiana. Vancouver shooting will likely consist of locations required for a number of Breaking Dawn settings.

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The Thing

Universal Pictures has released the official synopsis and released date for their upcoming prequel to John Carpenter’s 1980s classic horror/sci-fi actioner “The Thing”. Talk about a genre-bender. The film lands in the frozen tundras of cinema April 29, 2011.
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.
Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.
When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

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