The Dark Knight’s Direct-to-DVD Anime
Batmanonfilm has gotten their hands on a leaked info sheet for an yet-to-be-announced Batman anime project. The project would function much in the way that the Animatrix did for The Matrix films (which coincidentally was also released by Warner Bros).
The memo says that the project would consist of sic short stories which help bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The PG-13 rated anthology will be geared to core fans and tween boys. The names supposedly attached to write the stories include: “Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen (The History of Violence), screenwriter of the Blade films and Batman Begins David Goyer, and famed comic book writer Brian Azzarello, amongst others.”
I’ve always found this type of intertwining extended movie world to be an interesting idea. I’m actually one of the few who liked the original Matrix video game, which connected the dots between the first and third films, and the Animatrix, using exclusive story footage shot with the film’s main actors as a reward to keep people playing. The quality of the connectivity between The Matrix properties can certainly be debated, but the idea was a good one. You can read the full Batman Anime memo at BOF.
TIFF Movie Review: Eastern Promises
David Cronenberg is a director that tends to polarize audiences. Either you love him, or you hate him. I’m one of the few people who sways back and fourth depending on the film. I was a fan of his earlier films, and really ended up digging A History of Violence. And I was very excited to see his latest film Eastern Promises.
Have you ever been in a movie for only a few minutes before you knew that you weren’t going to like it? This is what happened to me in the screening room. I sat there in shock. I wanted to leave but chose not to because I had a scheduled roundtable interview with Chronenberg and star Viggo Mortensen. I wanted the film to get better, to draw me in, and I sat around, waiting for something that never came. To be fair, it did improve slightly before offering a total cop out of an ending.
Cronenberg likes to take a traditionally trashy genre story (in this case a mob movie) and elevate it using a slower indie tone and some interesting ideas that usually evoke questions. I have met many people who have left a Cronenberg film calling it boring and slow. I’ve usually been one to (a least internally) say “They just don’t get it.” I know that sounds elitist, because, well it is. But I left Eastern Promises happy that it was over, but not glad that I had seen it. And may-be “I just don’t get it”, or maybe it’s just “such an accomplished film that it’s out of my understanding”, but I’m pretty sure otherwise. Either way, I’m now a lot more excited to see American Gangster and We Own The Night.
Most of the characters are cliches of cliches. They are one dimensional stereotypes with the possible exception of Kirill, which would have been original if it hadn’t been played on The Sopranos last season. Naomi Watts’ character Anna Khitrova is naive to the core. Her sole mission is to protect an innocent baby, but every move she makes puts the baby in further danger. There is a story point late into the film which was entirely unnecessary and felt like something that a studio executive would have fought for in a big Hollywood action movie. Cronenberg should be ashamed for allowing Steve Knight’s character twist to appear in his film. I found a few connections of ideas and plot points to New Testament bible stories to be interesting, but not much more. I would like to discuss these points in the review, but that is impossible without revealing major spoilers from late into the plot. And while these connections maybe interesting at first glance, I have found that there isn’t much substance to the ideas.
And in typical Cronenberg fashion, there are outbursts of excessive gore and violence (sometimes even to a laughable degree). There is one sequence which takes place in a bathhouse which was incredibly intense and bloody. In a better movie it could have been the icing on top of the cake, but it just felt out of place in this film. Viggo Mortensen fangirls will no-doubtedly flock to theaters to see the Lord of the Rings star in the buff. I will offer this cautionary comment: the full frontal nudity does not occur in a love scene with Naomi Watts, but instead in the bloody bathhouse sequence that I just spoke of.
Oh, and I canceled my interview with Cronenberg. I mean, what could I really ask him about this flick? And how could I have looked him in the face knowing that I had seen it.
Maria Bello cast as Rachel Weisz: Proof That The Mummy Has Jumped the Shark
When a guy named Jon Hein first coined the term “Jump the Shark” he discovered that a bunch of television shows began to “suck” when one of the lead actors was replaced (for instince, Becky from Roseanne). The audiences hate this sort of thing, almost to the point that they feel insulted. So when Rachel Weisz announced that she would not be returning for The Mummy 3, I just assumed like most other people, that the story would be cut to exclude her character. Word had leaked that the script would be formed into more of a father son story. Apparently not.
Maria Bello has been cast to replace Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan O’Connell in the upcoming third film. Maria Bello’s filmography includes A History of Violence, World Trade Center, and Coyote Ugly. Do they actually believe they can replace an Academy Award winning actress from the girl who did Coyote Ugly?
The new film will focus on the O’Connells (Brendan Fraser and Bello) and their son (Luke Ford) as they journey into the forbidden tombs of China and the Himalayas, where they come face to face with a shape-shifting mummy of a former Chinese emperor (played by Jet Li) cursed by a wizard (played by Michelle Yeoh). And how bad does that plot sound?
Shooting is expected to begin in late July.