Category: Movies

“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” Gets a New Character Poster

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Robert Rodriguez tweeted this sweet character poster of Frank Miller for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Miller is, of course, the creator/writer/artist of the original Sin City yarns and co-director with Robert Rodriguez of the two Sin City movies.

I think it’s cool that Miller received his own poster for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.  Outside of Hitchcock, I can’t think of many other directors who weren’t also acting in the films represented to get the honor.

10 Sets of Co-Stars You Didn’t Realize Hated Each Other

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It’s not that unusual to learn that co-stars of movies and tv sometimes don’t get along.  It is surprising though when the co-stars seem to like each other and have on-screen chemistry.

TopTenz posted 10 Sets of Co-Stars You Didn’t Realize Hated Each Other.

The list has a few surprises [Richard Dreyfuess & Robert Shaw, Steve McQueen & Yul Brenner] and several that everyone probably knows about [Bea Arthur & Betty White, David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson, Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep, William Shatner & George Takei, Bill Murray & Lucy Liu].

I was surprised that Bruce Willis & Cybill Sheppard and Vivian Vance & William Frawley didn’t make the list!

 

R.I.P. – James Garner

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James Garner, star of movies and tv, was found dead in his Los Angeles home yesterday.  Mr. Garner was 86.

If you are a child of the 50’s then James Garner is probably best known to you for the role of Brett Maverick [the role that launched him to stardom] in the series Maverick.  Garner played a new kind of hero, one that preferred to use his wits rather than his guns or fists to get him out of trouble.

If you grew up in the 60’s then you probably know James Garner the movie star.  Movies like The Great Escape, The Americanization of Emily, Duel at Diablo, Support Your Local Sheriff, and Marlowe all come to mind.

The 70’s saw a combination of movies and tv.  The early 70’s included the movies Support Your Local Gunfighter, and Skin Game as well as the short-lived tv series Nichols.  Then in 1974, James Garner’s other cornerstone character, Jim Rockford began appearing when the Rockford Files premiered  (which ran until 1980).

James Garner went on to star in many more movies [Victor/Victoria, Murphy’s Romance, Space Cowboys,  and The Notebook are just a few], but time and time again he would return to Brett Maverick [tv series and movies] and Jim Rockford [tv movies].

My favorite James Garner roles include the two Support Your Local… movies, Marlowe [Bruce Lee appears and Garner plays Phillip Marlowe!], Nichols [watched and enjoyed the series as a kid and would love to see how it holds up] and of course Jim Rockford.

Many actors are called legendary.  James Garner embodied what it takes to get that designation.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

Mike Torrance and Robert Rath

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Mike Torrance aka The Krayola Kidd is back and he’s brought Sly as Robert Rath from Assassins with him!  Over the coming weeks/months I’ll be posting more of Mike’s sketch card commissions.  My goal is to eventually get a card for every character Sly has played.  We’re well on our way!

You can see more of Mike’s art at his Deviant Art site. Mike is available for commissions and his prices are very reasonable.

 

15 Things You May Not Know About “Lock Up”

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IFC recently posted 15 Things You May Not Know About Lock Up.  Although the majority of readers here will know most, there may be a few surprises.  Here are two that I didn’t know or had forgotten…

11. Frank McRae Had NFL History

McRae was a solid choice for the football scene – he’d actually spent a short stint as an NFL defensive tackle, playing six games for the Chicago Bears during the 1967 season.

12. Danny Trejo Is in the Movie

Danny Trejo makes an appearance as one of the gang members led by the character Chink Weber (played by actor Sonny Landham).

Every Stephen King Movie & TV Show in Development

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Stephen King.

King is one of the world’s most successful writers… not only at getting his books published and into the hands of his millions of fans, but also at getting his novels adapted into movies and television events.

Den of Geek recently posted a list of Every Stephen King Movie and TV Show in Development.

There’s a lot of potentially fun/good stuff on the list.  Here are my top five (in no particular order:

11/22/63

The premise of this show is as Stephen King as it gets: a guy must go back in time and stop the Kennedy assassination. Anyone who’s familiar with The Dark Tower series andThe Dead Zone will recognize a recurring theme: altering the past before it affects the future.

In 11/22/63, a guy named Jake steps through a pantry that magically transports him back to 1958 — plenty of time to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing the President. As expected, Jake discovers on his journey that some things are better left in the past.

J.J. Abram’s Bad Robot production company has acquired the rights to adapt this novel into a TV show. Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) was working on the script, but he dropped out over disagreements on the direction the show should take. Bummer.

Cell

This is King’s big zombie story. He’s written a couple of other short stories, including the great “Home Delivery” from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, but this is the one he will be remembered for. The zombies in Cell aren’t your typical brain-eating monsters. Instead, it’s a strange cell phone signal from an unknown source that turns most of humanity into a zombie hive mind, whose goal is to turn the remaining humans into zombies. Sure, it’s all chaos at first, but the monsters begin to organize in a weird way, kind of like in George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead.

Eli Roth (Hostel) talked about adapting this novel into a feature film a few years back, but that didn’t happen. Instead, it’s currently in production eyeing a 2015 release. It stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Owen Teague. The film will be directed by Todd “Kip” Williams (Paranormal Activity 2), with King and Adam Alleca (Last House on the Left remake) writing the screenplay.

The Dark Tower

If there was a Stephen King cinematic universe, The Dark Tower would undoubtedly be its Avengers. The series of books ties most of King’s book together in a very large web of monsters, magic, and alternate timelines. Inspired by The Lord of the Rings trilogy and spaghetti westerns, King created the anthem of all geekdom. The books are full of magic, gunslingers, sorcerors, battles on horseback, time-travel portals, evil A.I., vampires, demons, werewolves, and giant parasite-infested robotic bears. Why haven’t they made a movie already?

Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) has been trying to make this movie for years. At one point, he even tapped Javier Bardem for the lead role of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, who must travel to the eponymous Dark Tower in order to stop the Crimson King from tearing fabric of reality apart.

Now it looks like Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind) might play the role of Roland along with Idris Elba (Pacific Rim) in an unspecified role. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) has also met with Howard about a part. Writer Akiva Goldsman and producer Brian Grazen, both ofA Beautiful Mind fame, are also attached to move this adaptation along.

The big problem is getting a studio to finance such an ambitious project. The idea includes film and TV series that would tell the entire story in the most faithful way possible. Universal almost bought into it at one point and HBO had the television rights. Now it’s rumored that Media Rights Capital will produce the film. Who knows anymore.

The Shop

Remember when I mentioned that whole business about how cool it would be to start movie franchise revolving around The Shop? Well, they’re getting their own TV series thanks to TNT. What is in it’s most basic form a sequel to Firestarter, will undoubtedly branch out to tell other Shop stories involving new characters with supernatural powers.

Charlie McGee will be back, once again running from an even more powerful Shop. Luckily, she’ll have a guy named Henry Talbot, a former Shop employee, to guide her through her life as a fugitive.

The project is written by Robbie Thompson (Supernatural) and produced by James Middleton (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jaime Paglia (Eureka) and Thompson.

The Stand

A superflu called “Captain Trips” wipes out most of the world’s population in King’s mangum opus. It’s all about surviving the apocalypse for the main characters in this monstrous novel. But it’s not just a pandemic the survivors have to worry about. There’s real evil out there. Enter Randall Flagg, the most notorious villain in the King universe. The evil wizard hippie dude has shown up in many of King’s books and stories to f*** things up for the main characters. But The Stand is the best of those books, a true examination of good and evil.

Josh Boone is directing and writing this one, too. Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars), who has already worked with Boone, is rumored to be in the cast. The film would be a 3-hour movie adaptation — plenty of room, but it probably won’t be as expansive as the 1994 TV series.