Here’s the trailer for the Spartacus prequel, Gods of the Arena. The official series description and two cool behind-the-scenes videos, follow the jump.
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Sam Raimi
A few years ago, I reviewed the complete series set of the anime´ series Noir – about a pair of female assassins who have a mysterious link between them and decide to work together to figure out what that is. It was my selection for best anime´ of the year that year.
Now, word comes, via The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed blog, that Starz – home of Spartacus: Blood and Sand and the Pillars of Earth mini-series – has picked up a live-action series based on Noir. The project comes from Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert [Spartacus, Drag Me to Hell, The Evil Dead Trilogy].
Stephen Lightfoot [Criminal Minds, House of Saddam] is on board as the writer and executive producer.
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Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Evil Dead) has signed on to produce and direct the film adaptation of EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS, based on Radical Publishing’s miniseries created by Matt Cirulnick and David Manpearl and written by Matt Cirulnick and M. Zachary Sherman. The miniseries places a new version of the legendary Wyatt Earp in a gritty adventure set in a dystopian future.
Details follow the jump.
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Sony’s billion-dollar Spider-Man franchise is undergoing a complete overhaul. According to deadline.com, creative differences have led to Sam Raimi pulling out of Spider-Man 4.
Now the next Spider-Man film will be written by Jamie Vanderbilt [Zodiac] and will reboot the series – taking Peter Parker back to high school, where he will be a teenager dealing with contemporary teen problems while simultaneously dealing with the problems of a neophyte superhero.
The film will have a new cast and director. A start fate for film is yet to be determined with a targeted release date of “summer 2012.”
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While millions more movie-goers know Sam Raimi from his three Spider-Man movies, a much smaller – better probably more dedicated – group of Raimi fans have been wondering when the heck he was going to do another horror movie! Now that Drag Me to Hell is finally in theaters, it is time to rejoice. Sam Raimi has come home!
Christine Brown [Alison Lohman] works in a bank, where she’s attempting to buck the system and gain a promotion to assistant manager – ahead of new guy Ray [Reggie Lee], who routinely butters up their boss, Mr. Jacks [David Paymer] with Lakers tickets. We know she’s a nice person – a good-hearted person – from an early sequence where she spends time with her boyfriend, and brand new professor, Clay Dalton. They’re a sweet couple, but not overly so.
When Mrs. Ganush [Lorna Raver] comes into the bank seeking a third extension on her mortgage, Christine is subtly informed by Mr. Jacks that assistant managers have to make the hard decisions – and this is a hard decision. So, Christine ignores her heart and goes for the promotion, placing the elderly woman in the position of having to beg for the first time in her life. What follows is madness…
Although Drag Me to Hell is less quirky than the Evil Dead Trilogy [not that hard to do], it has its quirks and makes them work by giving us characters we can relate to. The script, by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, is brisk and concise. Sam Raimi translates it to the big screen with brio. The movie zips along at a perfect pace – quickly enough that the glimpses of Something Nasty, and the various physical gags that produce the events that drive Christine nearly to the brink, but not so quickly as to let everything run together.
Raimi pulls us into the movie by giving us characters we can relate to, in Christine and Clay, then takes our investment in the characters and twists it just a bit. Although Christine may be morally wrong to refuse Mrs. Ganush, she’s trying to do something to make her situation – and therefore clay’s as well – better.
Between the subtle CG; the mostly terrific practical effects; the sound effects and music, and several solid performances, Raimi manages something rare – a character driven horror movie. He also realizes that it’s best, sometimes, to let the audience’s imaginations run free, rather than inundating it with gore effects. It’s that movement in the corner of one’s idea that is the scariest. That’s why Drag Me to Hell is the year’s best horror movie.
Final Grade: B+
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Horror movies are notorious for many reasons other than the fact that people seem to enjoy a good scare now and then. For many first-time directors [see: Sam Raimi, John Carpenter], horror is attractive because fans are willing to buy into low-budget movies if they’re suitably original and/or smart, and/or fun. In the case of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, two of the three apply.
Somewhere between Raimi and Joss Whedon, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is a movie that has genuine with and more than a little gore – both components being sought after by horror aficionados. The film is a kind of origin story, telling of how Jack’s family was killed by a forest troll – leaving him prone to bouts of explosive anger.
Jack [Trevor Matthews] is a plumber who’s competent but not brilliant at his job and is taking a night course in chemistry to please his annoyingly strident girlfriend, Eve [Birds of Prey star Rachel Skarsten]. The problems begin when the class’ teacher, Professor Gordon Crowley [Robert Englund] asks him to fix the plumbing in his creepy old house at the top of an ominous hill. A weird smoke drifts into the home and possesses Crowley and before long, he’s ingested a demon’s heart – and not by choice!
One of the things that make Jack Brooks fun is the way it plays against convention. For example, in most genre movies, the audience wants the hero to get together with the girl. Here, we want him to bounce the squeaky shrew into the next town! Another is the kind of broad comedy we get from Englund’s Crowley. He doesn’t usually get to do this kind of shtick and he does it very well.
Most of the effects are practical – with the exception of enhancing the weird smoke that gets Crowley, the computer was used only to paint out wires and stunt mats. The result is some extremely fun “mutants;” one of the best Cyclops since Harryhausen [only here, it’s a man in a rubber suit], and some hentai-like tentacles. Of course, there’s also a big rubber demon that is more funny than scary [since it’s pretty much immobile], but the mix definitely gives Jack Brooks the kind of horror/comedy play that has elevated Raimi and Whedon to stardom.
Director and co-writer Jon Knautz keeps the pacing up and isn’t afraid to go for delicious moments of pure camp as well some genuine chills. First-time actor [and co-producer] Trevor Matthews seems to be having a lot of fun as the calmness-challenged Jack, who finally finds a way to put his temper to good use, while Skarsten is fine as the shrill, obnoxious Eve. The script is pretty tight, there are some clever uses of characters like the star student, Janice [Stefanie Drummond] but, is it just me, or are there a lot of star students named Janice?
As one might expect from an Anchor Bay DVD, there a lot of features here, too: Audio commentary by Knautz, Matthews, Producer Patrick white and Composer Ryan shore; Behind the Scenes – a fifty-minute making of featurette; Creating the Monsters; Creating the Music; World Premiere: Sitges, Spain; Five Deleted Scenes; Storyboard Comparisons; Conceptual Art Gallery; On Set Still Gallery and the Theatrical Trailer.
Grade: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer – B
Grade: Features – A
Final Grade: B+
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Tom Cruise
Fresh off of his highly praised and succesful turn as sleazy movie producer Les Grossman in the hit comedy of the summer TROPIC THUNDER, megastar Tom Cruise is now in talks with Warner Brothers Studios to star in their upcoming feature film SLEEPER.
SLEEPER, which is being produced by Warner Bros in conjuction with Stars Road Entertainment and DC Comics, Inc. centers around the adaption to screen of the Sci-fi comic book of the same name in which a covert operative becomes genetic fused with an alien artifact that renders him imprevious to feeling physical pain.
SLEEPER is being adapted to screen by Ed Brubaker who also writes for the comic book and is being produced by Sam Raimi and Josh Donen. No production date has been set for the feature film which will most likely have either a mid to late 2009 or early 2010 premiere.
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