So this should be taken with a giant salt lick, but apparently, Cher is in talks to play Catwoman for the third Bat flick. According to a stuiod exec:

Cher is Nolan’s first choice to play Catwoman. He wants to her to portray her like a vamp in her twilight years. The new Catwoman will be the absolute opposite of Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry’s purring creations.

Hmm…

If you’re going to go that route, I kinda want to see Eartha Kitt as Catwoman instead. Personal preference, but she’s always been my personal favorite for Catwoman. I think she’d make an excellent Cougarwoman.

So what do you all think? Does Cher plus Depp plus Hoffman equal win? Does an aging Catwoman interest you? Is this all just bullshit?

[Via The Telegraph by way of Occasional Superheroine]

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Make no mistake, Babylon A.D. is going to stink like a fresh steamy turd squirted out of the anus of a rotting elephant corpse. I’d even venture to say that this little animation of Vin taking on the summer blockbusters will be more entertaining than his upcoming flick. I’d further venture to say that Fast and Furious 4 Life will be more entertaining.

Still, it’s probably not a good idea to fuck with Vin Diesel.

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What do you do when one of your top two comic book characters obliterates the summer box office? Reboot the one that sucked!

*groan*

Warner Brothers is looking to emulate the success of The Dark Knight with a “reintroduction” of Superman. According to Warner Brothers Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov:

Superman didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had Superman worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.

Sorry sports fans, no Routh/Bale teamup any time soon. To make matters worse, they want their new Superman to be dark and brooding, two qualities that the studio feels made The Dark Knight a success. Sure, dark and brooding makes a lot of sense for a border line psychopath who dresses up as a flying mouse. But for Superman? Superman is a big red, white, and blue boyscout with good hair and a chiseled chin. Dark and brooding just doesn’t fit.

Superman Returns didn’t fail because it wasn’t super dark. It failed because it was super boring! The most super thing he did in the entire movie was save that airplane. The big evil plot was some kind of mega real estate deal. Come on! No one wants to see that. That’s a boring fucking movie!

Never liked Superman much anyway. But darkening him up is for shit sure the best way to end Superman’s film career. You know sometimes if it’s broke, leave it the hell alone.

[Via Superhero Hype]

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What’s the best way to calm irate fans who are pissed off at your for pushing back Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to next year? Tell them it’ll be worth the wait. At least that’s how Warner Brothers Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn is handling things. Observe:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between “Half-Blood Prince” and the much-anticipated first part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for “Half-Blood Prince,” the wait from that film until “Deathly Hallows” will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

Hm… If you will, allow me to retort. What do Harry Potter fans look like? Do we look like a bitch? DO WE LOOK LIKE A BITCH? Then why’d you try to fuck us like a bitch, Alan? You did! Yes you did!

Way to add fuel to the fire, Alan. “It’ll be worth the wait” isn’t the kind of explanation that will mollify the hoards of fans screaming for blood. The worst part? There are probably no consequences for Alan. He’s not going to get fired. He’s not even going to get invited to take an extended leave of absence. Because in the end, mad droves of Harry Potter fans will see Half Blood Prince no matter when it’s released. It’ll be the gigantic box office smash that WB wants and Alan can just sit back with a shit eating “I told you so” grin on his face. ARGH!

[Via Coming Soon]

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As Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) move into an eighth week of stalemate, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) issued a statement defending its new media deal with the AMPTP and the non-union exemption clause for low-budget productions. In the statement written by DGA president Michael Apted, he stated:

We must be flexible to allow that experimentation to flourish. Critics of this approach argue that union jurisdiction must be absolute. If some productions are allowed to be non-union, they claim, producers will take advantage of the loopholes, and eventually, all productions will be non-union. But before there can be a union job, there has to be a job. And despite all the grandiose talk about the coming bonanza, new media hasn’t yet started raining money.

The exemption allows non-union members to be hired for internet based programming and applies to productions with budgets under $15,000 a minute, $300,000 per program or $500,000 per series. Certainly Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog would not have happened if the production was forced to hire everyone at scale. The actors did it for no up front money. The DAG feels this will allow internet based programming room to grow and prove its profitability before a new deal is worked out for more of a share of internet revenue. Sounds like a decent enough idea to me. But the SAG thinks otherwise. SAG national executive director Doug Allen responded:

I think what really stands logic on its head is the idea that the way to organize union work is to encourage signatories to produce non-union under our contracts. It is not appropriate to wait until new media reigns supreme to assert jurisdiction.

So the stalemate continues. It’s interesting that the word “strike” hasn’t be thrown around. I think the SAG knows they’d have a very difficult time with a strike. But they just won’t budge over this new media issue. More as it develops.

[Via Variety]

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Angry Zen Minion Tyler Anderson writes in with the sad news that Julius Carry of Brisko County Jr. and The Last Dragon fame has passed away at age 56 due to pancreatic cancer.

Among his many roles and guest appearances, Carry played my most favorite movie villain of all time, Sho Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem. He was so over the top yet so serious that you couldn’t help but believe he was the meanest, prettiest, baddest mo fo low down around this town. Months after seeing The Last Dragon for the first time in the theater, I was quoting all of his lines and screwing up my face to match his expressions. I kind of hoped I could one day shake his hand and thank him for creating such a memorable character.

So here’s the Julius Carry that I will always love and remember. Our hopes and prayers are with his loved ones.

And of course, there’s Busta Rhymes’s tribute to Sho Nuff in his video for “Dangerous.”

Rest well Julius Carry. You’ll always be one and ony Master to me.

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MGM has hired Stiles White and Juliet Snowden to write a remake of Poltergeist. No director is yet attached to the project and I hope it stays that way. It’s not often that you have a horror movie franchise that is itself cursed. Dominique Dunne was strangled to death by her ex boyfriend shortly after the release of the first film. Julian Beck died of stomach cancer during the filming of the second film. Will Sampson died of complications during heart surgery a year after the second was released. He even tried to bless the sets and locations during filming to fend off evil spirits. Heather Michele O’Rourke died of illness during the filming of the third film.

I’d say that’s half a hint for your ass that the first film was just fine.

Seriously, besides the fact that I think remakes are just plain lazy, leave this one the fuck alone. Poltergeist doesn’t want any sequels and you can be damn sure it won’t like a remake. Please, there’s enough scary shit out there to write a perfectly new and equally bat shit scary movie without digging up old ones.

[Via Variety]

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And now from our Alan Moore may just get his wish department, a judge is allowing 20th Century Fox to sue Warner Brothers over the right to make a Watchmen movie denying WB’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. If the lawsuit is successful, Fox could win rights to any profits made from the film. But they’re not interested in money. No. Fox wants to kill the movie:

Warner Bros.’ production and anticipated release of “The Watchmen” motion picture violates 20th Century Fox’s long-standing motion picture rights in “The Watchmen” property. We will be asking the court to enforce Fox’s copyright interests in “The Watchmen” and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros. film and any related “Watchmen” media that violate our copyright interests in that property.

Ouch!

You might think that being a DC Comics property, Warner Brothers would have every right to make a movie based on Watchmen. At least that’s what I thought. Turns out that Fox held the rights to distribute the Watchmen graphic novel through a 1991 claim. There was an option to buy back Fox’s interest in Watchmen back in 1994, but since it was never exercised the rights remain the property of Fox.

So this is a pretty solid kick in the wang. Fox must have a solid enough case for the judge to the case. I’m guessing production will continue until they’re told to stop. But I’m sure this thing is going to get messy and push the release date back some. Ugh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to sell rights to our shits!

[Via Variety from Occasional Superheroine]

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Angry Zen Minion Partick Vick sent along some more concept art from that new Halo movie pitch. Look at all the kiddie Spartans playing on the obstacle course! Not depicted is the cafeteria where they can’t have any pudding if they don’t eat their meat.

Latino Review has a higher res version of the pic. Apparently, M$ served them with a cease and desist which they promptly ignored since this is concept art for a pitch and not an actual movie. Not sure how long it will be up so you may want to snag soon.

[Via Latino Review]

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Remember that sweet Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince trailer? Here it is again, just in case.

Fucking on, right!

Well, I’m sad to report that that’s all you get until next fucking summer! Instead of dropping this November, Warner Brothers has decided to push back the release of next Harry Potter flick to next July. Why? And I quote WB president Alan Horn:

Our reasons for shifting “Half-Blood Prince” to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films–changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.

What? Hello! You’re sitting on only the most popular fantasy series ever! Of course it’s going to be a fucking hit you fucking dolt! It’s HARRY THE FUCK POTTER! Dumb fucking fuck all!

Sounds like they have no confidence in next summer’s slate. There’s no way they can possibly duplicate the financial success of Dark Knight save a Harry Potter flick. Harry Potter won’t do as well as Dark Knight, but it will bring in a fuck ton of money. And if summer 2009 is looking thin because of the strike, I guess it makes sense to stick a guaranteed money cow right in the middle.

Well fuck. I guess all there is to look forward to to finish out this year is Saw V.

[Via Aint it Cool News]

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