Damn. Steve Carell’s “Get Smart” obliterated Mike Meyer’s “Love Guru.” The former is expected to break $40 million for the weekend hull while the later is going to make around $14. I blame it Carell for being so awesome and on Meyers being such a diva.

Len Wiseman (”Underworld,” “Live Free or Die Hard”) is set to direct the adaptation “Gears of War” for New Line. It will be interesting to see what the movie is like since the Xbox game lacked any real story (just lots of action, aliens, and explosions).

George Lucas’ next movie, “Red Tails,” will focus on Tuskegee Airmen.

The black airmen whose lives will be the basis of a George Lucas movie know the picture will highlight their record of successfully escorting thousands of U.S. bombers in World War II. They also feel it should tell of the trials they encountered stateside, like seeing German prisoners of war being treated better and afforded rights that were withheld from black American citizens.

Wow what I’m posting below is an actual press release sent out by Starz:

SUBJECT: It’s “The Parent Trap” Meets “Saw” - See Lindsay Lohan in “I Know Who Killed Me” on Starz This Saturday Night
Starz Invites You to Experience the Exclusive Pay TV Premiere

                                                        Lindsay Lohan
                                                                 In
                                             I KNOW WHO KILLED ME
                                Saturday, June 14 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) on Starz 

Winner of EIGHT RAZZIE AWARDS (2008) including:
Worst Picture
Worst Actress (Lindsay Lohan) – twice
Worst Director

What the critics had to say:

“Gruesomely tawdry and inept.”  -Entertainment Weekly

“A disaster that exerts a perverse fascination.” -Variety 

“Bad is easy: this level of awful approaches the genius.”  -Flick Filosopher 

“…it is the kind of strangely fascinating terrible that can make for an entertaining time at the movies under the right circumstances.” -eFilmCritic.com 

“No review could really do justice to the monumental trashiness of this mess; it really has to be seen to be believed.” -New York Daily News

“Exquisite in its awfulness….”
-Quad City Times

“The film is so cheap, lurid and overwrought, it could be made up of lost reels from Grindhouse, except it lacks the knowing, self-referential humor of that B-movie parody.”
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

Check it out here.

Disney is now streaming full movies on their website. Currently online are “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters, Inc,” “The Princess Diaries 2” and “Freaky Friday.” Advertising only consists of a short preroll and the movies are determined by those that air during ABC’s “Wonderful World of Disney.”

Totally forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but “Fraggle Rock” is being turned into a live-action musical feature. It is being made by The Jim Henson Co. and The Weinstein Co. The movie will focus on Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red exploring the world outside of their home in Fraggle Rock.

A huge fire at Universal Studios destroyed Hill Valley (from the “Back to the Future” movies) as well as the classic Empire State Building from King Kong. Also destroyed is the current set for “Ghost Whisperer,” but no one is morning the loss.

The composer of the original “Star Trek” theme died.

Courage’s fanfare for the U.S.S. Enterprise, written in 1965 for the first of two Star Trek pilots, was heard throughout the three original seasons of the show and has been reprised throughout all the Trek feature films and several of the TV series, notably Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1980s and ’90s.

I started a discussion over at Pop Candy about the female characters best in Film and TV:

So the comic-book blogsphere is still talking about the Iron Man movie, specifically about whether or not the character of Pepper Potts was a bad character or not. This led me to think, “Hmm, who is the best female character of all time?” I only came up with one answer: Lorelei Gilmore. So I ask ye … what other female characters in film/TV are on par with Lorelai’s overall awesomeness? — Scott K.
You think Lorelei is better than Buffy? I may have to disagree with you on that one … She probably ranks at the top for me. Another person who comes to mind is Maude from Harold & Maude – I love her spirit! Annie Hall is another good one. Frances McDormand’s character in Fargo, Marge, is another one of my favorites.

Buffy is of course a great answer and in my opinion she’s almost tied with Lorelai (after all BTVS is my all time favorite TV show), but the problem with Buffy is that when you get into season 6 and season 7 she goes through a weird personality change for a bit (had to do with being pulled out of heaven) and for a big chunk of episodes she’s just wasn’t not as strong of a character as say Lorelei is.

The movie was fun. Yes you could clearly see where Lucas got a little too digital happy and sure the plot wasn’t perfect, but the bottom line is that it was a fun movie.

5 Reasons I have no desire to see “Speed Racer” in the theater (I’ll of course watch it on DVD cause I watch everything on DVD).

• Don’t want to have a seizure. You’d think Hollywood would have learned from those flashy Japanese cartoons in the 90’s.
• Does anyone remember “Matrix: Reloaded & Revolution.”
• Christina Ricci has scary bug eyes in the trailer and the thought of them on a big screen is terrifying.
• Let’s say that hypothetically it ends up actually being an “ok” movie (which it won’t be) even then it still won’t compare to people’s memory of the cartoon.
• Seeing Mathew Fox as Racer X will make me think less of Jack and I just can’t do that to Jack.

Graduation Day comes on October 24th.

I’m just not excited about this.

Del Toro’s moving to New Zealand for the next four years to work with Jackson and his Wingnut and WETA production teams. He’ll direct the two films back to back, with the sequel which will deal with the 60-year period between “The Hobbit” and “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Partially because I think the whole “sequel” is complete bullshit. It’s like what Warner Bros is doing to “Harry Potter.” It’s about adding an extra movie to make more money. There is no story or character driven reason to have these additional movies

So there was a weird light in the sky last night right around 9p.m. I envisioned aliens or some some apocalyptic event, but turns out it was an Iridium Flare, which is a sunflare from a satellite in orbit.

The Iridium communication satellites have a peculiar shape with three polished door-sized antennas, 120 degrees apart and at 40 degree angles with the main bus. The forward mirror faces the direction in which the satellite is travelling. Occasionally an antenna will directly reflect sunlight down to the Earth, creating a predictable and quickly moving illuminated spot of about 10 km diameter. To an observer this looks like an extremely bright flare in the sky with a duration of a couple of seconds or longer.

“Watchmen” is holding a contest that could earn you a cameo in the final film. What they want is for people to make a commercial for Veidt Enterprise and to upload it here (there are also logos and graphics).

To get started, download the standard definition and/or high definition assets from the links below, and then shoot your own original TV commercial that advertises one of the products! Remember, the movie is set in 1985, so TV commercials should be in 4:3 aspect ratio (so it looks like standard TV, not widescreen) and they should be either 15, 30 or 60 seconds in length. The products are all made by “Veidt Enterprises,” and you can download the product logos for your use as well.

Got the DVD yesterday and found three easter eggs. I’ve posted how to find them after the break. (Read on …)

I learned yesterday about a movement to make filming more “green.” To do so it was said that people should use lights with lower wattage, not shoot on film, and several other ridiculous ideas. I understand the desire to “save the world,”but filmmaking is an art-form. You paint a movie with light and to do so you need big ass lighting set ups. If poorly lit they look like crap. There is no way around that. You wouldn’t ask

Then as to the whole not using film mentality because it means less bad chemicals are used when developing the film— that’s just silly too. Yeah digital technology has come a long, but it still isn’t as pretty as good old 35mm film. Also, shooting digitally means you’re using DV tapes or hard drives. Things that still will have to be disposed of and aren’t really biodegradable.

So the whole Green Filmmaking concept of making a movie without leaving a “foot print” is stupid.

Wow the more and more I learn about George Lucas the more of a prick he seems. In the recent issue of Entertainment Weekly he said this:

We’re only going to get aggravation. The fans think it’s gonna be the Second Coming. And it’s not the Second Coming. They’ve already written the story in their heads, and lemme tell ya, its not that story. So they’re going to be very disappointed. I went through this with Phantom Menace. Believe me, I’ve been there, I’ve done it. I know exactly the way they react. And they’re very vocal about these things. We’re not gonna have adoring fans sending us e-mails saying how much they loved the movie. We’re gonna have a bunch of angry people saying, “You’re a bunch of assholes and you should never have done this. You’ve ruined my life forever. I loved Indiana Jones so much an d now its ruined.” And all that kind of stuff.

It gets better. Steven Spielberg’s response to what Lucas said is:

Uh, he needs to speak for himself here. You need to put in parentheses “George Lucas is totally speaking for himself.” And I absolve myself of any connection with that last statement about fans not liking it.

So here is the skull from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Looks well… lame.

Major Major “Sex and the City” Movie spoiler. Do not read any further if you don’t want to know. (Read on …)

Rachel Nichols as Scarlett.

OMFG! I just say “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and LOVED it. It’s not as great as “Knocked Up” but it’s still awesome and worth seeing. If you even remotely enjoy comedies then go see this movie now! (Plus Kristen Bell is sooooooooooo hot).

CNN reported yesterday that the “X-Files” 2 will officially be named “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”

“It’s a natural title,” Carter said Tuesday during a break from editing the film. “It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. ‘I Want to Believe.’ It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith.”

I’m not even a tad excited about M. Night Shyamalan’s take on “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” The show is so well written and of such a high caliber that I know a movie adaptation won’t even compare. If you want proof then consider the fact that the movie is now just being called “The Last Airbender” because the studio is worried about being sued by James Cameron and his Avatar movie (Oh and the movie will hit the big screens on July 4^th 2010).

Tobey Maguire signed on for the thriller “The Hungry Rabbit Jumps.” What’s fascinating is that the spec script went out on Monday at 7p.m. (I know because I got a copy) and by Friday the movie was greenlit with Maguire attached. I never realized but apparently this is how things normally work in Hollywood (when you have an agent and lawyer).

It goes out to everyone and if it sells it sells FAST. Then if it doesn’t sell it generally gets put on a shelf for about 5 years before the writer tries to sell it again. The script was decent script. It will be interesting to see how much the final product differs from it.

If you are from the generation before mine then you saw the original “Star Wars” trilogy in the theater. If you’re like me and weren’t born when “A New Hope” was playing on the big screen, then how did you first see it? Well this is the story of my first time… (Read on …)

I’m not one of those film guys who thinks “Citizen Kane” is the greatest movie of all time, but I do think it has the best montage that I’ve ever seen. In a matter of minutes, the famous “Breakfast Table” montage not only sums up the destruction of a marriage, but it does it with humor and a terrific visual twist.

I was trying to find a picture of Da Vinci’s helicopoter and radomly stumbled across a steampunk Stormtropper and steampunk Alien.

You see these non-exciting pics yet from the set of the new “Star Trek” flick (click to enlarge)?

EW has 15 pics from the new “Speed Racer” movie. I’d be more excited about the film if the Wachowski brothers weren’t involved. …are they still even known as “The Wachowski Brother” since the one had a sex change?

“Battleship Potemkin” was the first film to ever make use of a montage. It’s not the most visual or entertaining montage in the history of montages, but because it was the first it’s worth mentioning.

It would be wrong to talk about montages and not mention “Rocky.” Now I know a lot of people think that the montage from “Rocky IV” is better than the training montage in the original, but I have to completely disagree. The montage with the Russian was too obvious… too in your face. It tries too hard and comes off forced. Plus the original made better use of a metaphor by starting with Rocky literally training in the streets and then having him literally rise above them when he ascends the staircase.

I must be getting old or have taken too many writing classes or something because I re-watched “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and all I wanted was for Ferris Bueller to get caught. I wanted to see the conflict and drama that would have occured if he was caught and instead of being awed by all his schemes I got annoyed at them.

Thought it was just me but it seems Netflix completely crashed yesterday and it still isn’t up and running right.

Watched “Gremlins” 1 & 2 over the weekend (GREAT movies!) but at the same time they made me sad. In the first film, Billy the main character, is all into drawing and wants to make comics when he grows up. However in the second film he’s all grown up and working as an architect with no mention of his dreams to be a comic book creator.

Yesterday we looked at a very comedic take on the montage. Today we are getting all serious by checking out The Baptism sequence from “The Godfather.” What’s great about the above montage is that it juxtaposes Al Pacino literally becoming the godfather of a baby while at the same time becoming The Godfather crime-boss.

Spoke with someone this past week who attended a test-screening of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” They’re exact words were, “It completely rocked.” They also said that the twist of returning to the big warehouse from “Raiders” was a major fanboy moment because ever since the first film EVERYONE has wanted to see that warehouse again. In terms of the writing, the person loved it saying “It’s exactly what you’d want to see in a summer action flick, but still takes the time for character development and drama.”

Man I’m getting super psyched to see this movie!