Hell Boy II opens this Friday and to celebrate, AZM regular Tyler Anderson sent over a few clips of Hell Boy chatting with James Lipton. It’s an interesting campaign. I like the Lipton segments much better than the one where Hell Boy is playing video games or the one where he meets Wolf from American Gladiators. Here’s another with James Lipton.

Five fingers? I only count four. Ah well.

Um… now I’m creeped out. When James Lipton says “yesss” like that, it makes me think someone just asked him if he’d like to munch on the femur of a small child. EEK!

Oh well. Here’s a PSA with Hell Boy reminding us to never judge someone based on their color.

Awe! He loves cats!

And finally, here’s Hell Boy auditioning for either a boy band, reality show, or combination there of.

You can tell Ron Perlman had some fun with these. Neat little campaign although the trailer pretty much sealed the deal for me. Actually, the first movie sealed the deal for me. I will see anything with Guermo Del Toro’s involvement.

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Way back in the day, long before the era of foofy foofy, Bridget Nielsen starred in one of the worst cult classic fantasy films of all time, Red Sonja. Not even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a year earlier destroyed the box office as The Terminator, could save this abortive attempt to breath life into a dying genre. It’s amusing, kinda. Ernie Reyes, Jr. plays an annoying spoiled prince which is sort of funny. Maybe. If you’re high while watching the thing. Very. High. Hmmm… shitty 80’s movie that has since become a cult classic? Let’s remake the thing!

Robert Rodriguez will produce Nu Image/Millennium’s remake of Red Sonja with Rose McGowan as the lead. My familiarity with the character is cursory. I saw the original waaaay back in the day and I’ve only seen the covers of the comic so I have no idea if there’s anything more to her than a big sword and even bigger bags of happy fun. There might be some material there for Rodriguez and crew to mine, but I doubt it. The original was a dumb movie and this remake will probably be a dumb summer movie. Although it would be nice to see a female warrior not strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini, this is probably not the film for that. This is probably the movie that will indeed feature the female warrior strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini with dialog to match. Not that there’s anything wrong with Rose McGowan strapped into tiny leather, but I can get that for free on the internet.

Who knows, you might end up seeing it in the actual theater if absolutely nothing else was playing except for Uwe Boll’s latest. However, I suspect that if anything else is playing that weekend, including a Love Boat movie, you’d probably go see that instead.

[Via Variety]

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Alfred Molina will play Sheik Amar, Dastan’s mentor in the live action Prince of Persia, ’cause when I think sheik I think Alfred Molina. Oh, wait, no. No I don’t. Sheik is the last fuck thing I think about when I think about Alfred Molina!

Granted, I think he’s a superb actor. I think he’ll be one of the few reasons to see this film. However, casting him to play a sheik, casting Jake Gyllenhaal to play a Persian prince, that’s like casting David Carradine to play a Chinaman. Oh wait… fuck, they did that, didn’t they.

I’m sorry, but as brilliant as I think Molina is, I will continue to bash the shit out this movie for ignoring the fact that it takes place in ancient Persia and there’s no way a skinny American would be a prince or a Spanish/Italian would be a sheik. I know it’s all fantasy and acting and you can play a murderer without actually killing anyone, but I’m standing firm. No good can possibly come from this movie.

UPDATE: Anonymous points out that Carradine’s character in “Kung Fu” was a white orphan raised by monks. I misremembered. Still, I would very much like them to cast someone of Arab ethnicity other than a bunch of extras.

UPDATE 2: D-W points out that Arabs and Persians are not the same thing which is why Iran is not part of the Arab league. I’m starting to understand the difficulty in casting accurately. Thanks for the corrections all.

Okay, so I want them to cast some Persians who are not just extras. Persians with speaking roles. Iran has a film industry. Some of those actors might actually be up for roles in an American movie. Couldn’t hurt to ask.

[Via Variety]

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New Line’s accounting practices may bite them in the ass yet again. Christopher Tolkien, son of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit scribe JRR Tolkien, is taking New Line to court to stop The Hobbit and sequel movies. According to a 1969 deal that JRR Tolkien signed for a 7.5% share of profits when he sold the movie rights to his works, Christopher Tolkien claims that New Line owes the family £80 million (approximately $156 million USD) for profits from the LOTR films. Tolkien takes New Line to court on June 6.

Well fuck.

Jackson won his day in court for similar fuck upery with New Line’s accounting. And if the judge upholds the 1969 agreement, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t still be valid, New Line is again screwed. It’s clear that Chris won’t settle for a simple pay day. He wants the movies shut down.

I don’t get it. I mean, I get the money part. That sucks. New Line should fucking well pay up. But it’s clear that the LOTR movies are well loved by new and old Tolkien fans alike. There’s so much anticipation for The Hobbit, so much excitement surrounding the pairing of Del Torro and Jackson, so much money to be made (devastatingly HUGE amounts of money). Why the attack on fandom? Why deny fandom something so potentially amazing? If anything, fandom has kept Tolkien’s works alive. Plus, Chris is 83 fuck years old! The hell is he going to do with all that money?

Ugh. We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Via Times Online]

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As long as Jake Gyllenhaal lives, every blogger in the world will use “Brokeback” in some way to describe his latest project. Gay cowboy movie FTW!

Gyllenhaal will star as Dastan in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s live action adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Although I think he’ll do a fairly good job (he’s been picking a lot of great projects lately), is it too much to ask for them to cast someone who’s, oh I don’t know, Persian?

The familiar argument goes something like, “Well no, Jami. We couldn’t cast a Persian because there are none in Hollywood.” I also understand that Gyllenhaal is a HUGE name draw that will bring in audiences not familiar with the game.

Okay, so maybe Iran is currently on our shit list. And that might be the biggest deterent to casting someone of Persian ethinicity. But casting a white guy to play a brown guy is so last century. There are plenty of Middle Eastern actors working Hollywood. How about not casting one as a terrorist for a change and making him a prince.

Color me unimpressed.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]

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Let the music play. Worries for another day. Dance your cares away. Down at the big screen debut of the Fraggle Rock movie!

The Jim Henson Company will produce a big screen feature of Fraggle Rock with the Weinstein Company distributing. How fun! And about freaking time. Okay, so I don’t hate all 80’s remakes. Such a perfect idea for a family feature, it’s a wonder why they haven’t made a Fraggle Rock movie until now.

[Via Variety]

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Damn. I’ve run out of pants!

Does this look like the face of a Hobbit director to you? Cause it looks like the face of a Hobbit director to me!

It’s official! Guillermo del Toro has signed on to direct The Hobbit for New Line! He’s moving to New Zealand for four years after Hell Boy 2 drops to work with Peter Jackson and his Weta and Wingnut teams. There will be two films, The Hobbit and a sequel that fills in the period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Rings.

We may have to wait until 2011 and 2012 to see these films. It also kind of sucks that in the mean time, we’ll be without del Toro movies in the theater. But I suspect there will be much awesomesauce four years from now.

If you’ll excuse me, I must now find new pants…

[Via Variety]

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Reader Colabris (who helped me order parts to my PC) sent along this encouraging bit of Watchmen news. This is the first of twelve web journals that will be released documenting the creation of this film. This first one goes behind the scenes of creating the real live sets used to recreate the comic’s alternate 1985 America. I’m glad they’re taking this approach rather than doing it all in CG ala 300 and Sin City. New York is almost a character in itself in the comic and as good as CG is these days, real sets will allow the characters to interact with the city directly. The sets look great. Can’t wait to see them on film!

[Via Superhero Hype]

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So. Fucking. Awesome!

I just love the creature work. And the Golden Army looks badass. Can’t wait to see them in action on the big screen!

Don’t know how long this one will be up so if they’ve pulled it by the time you read this, check it out over at Yahoo.

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I have been a huge fan of Neil Gaiman’s comics work. Sandman actually helped me sort through my divorce (you know you’re a geek when comics are your therapy. Blech). And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his movies. But while my wife and my father have both read a number of Gaiman’s novels, I have yet to read any of his books that don’t have pictures. Now, I have no excuse.

I got this in the email this morning:

Hi Jami,

I go on and on in the comments on the AZM site about Neil Gaiman’s offerings - his movies, his comics, but most of all: his books. Well, he ran a poll on his website asking which book people would most like to see him release for free. The results are in and the book has been unleashed gratis upon the masses. American Gods is that book and it is mighty. If you point your browser at this link: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060558123 you can have a read through it, start to finish.

Enjoy!
Aegis//Lars Gronholt
——————–
www.legalwarfare.com
Trial by Firepower

I’ve so been meaning to read American Gods. Numerous people have recommended it to me and now there’s absolutely no excuse. It’s high time I start reading books now.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

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