Here is a new image from the Let the Right One In remake by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield). It shows Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road). It actually doesn’t look too bad.
The LA Times had the pic and an interview with Reeves.
A respectful devotee of both the original novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist as well as the first film, Reeves understands the concerns of those with strong feelings for the original. He had his own reservations about the remake and corresponded with Lindqvist, who also wrote the script for “Let The Right One In,” before taking on the project.
“I think because of ‘Cloverfield,’ people have an assumption, which is, ‘Oh, crazy handicam, he’s going to jazz it up,’ “ Reeves said. “And I think that’s probably what a lot of people were afraid of when they thought of the most cynical version. And that’s the last thing we tried to do. We tried to create the approaching, foreboding dread of movies like ‘The Shining,’ where you feel like something wicked is unraveling and it’s not going to end well. That’s what I responded to about the original, the juxtaposition of those tones, this very disturbing story but at the center of it there are these very tender emotions. That’s a very unusual mix, and that’s what drew me in and dug into me.”
I hadn’t reported on this earlier as there had been lots of conflicting news about it. However, Fox has closed a deal with Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) to direct X-Men: First Class and has set a release date of 3rd June 3 2011.
According to Heat Vision, Bryan Singer, who conceived the story for First Class and was to initially direct the movie before choosing to focus on Jack the Giant Killer for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, is producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. Apparently he has also been doing some stealth casting for the film while casting for Jack the Giant Killer.
According to Fox, the film will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.”
Now I love the X-Men comic, well the one from a few years ago. Been tricky to keep up with it and I initially enjoyed the X-Men movies. The third was the poorest, but recent rewatches of them all have shown that they haven’t really aged that well. Not sure what it is, but I think the stories used a really slight. I would have loved for Fox to lose the rights to the characters so they would revert to Marvel Studios and the X-Men could be thrown into the mix of Iron Man, Thor etc. That’s just me and looks like it won’t be happening anytime soon.
I wonder if Vaugn will bring along his buddies Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher for the film? Maybe Mark Strong could play Xavier, although he’d be great as Magneto.
Instead we have the X-Men early days. What characters do you want to see in the film and who should play them? Should they have Wolverine in it?
Conan O’Brien sings “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” with Jim Carrey for “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour” on 4-25-10 in the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City Walk.
With Kick-Ass upon us, we now wonder what the director, Matthew Vaughn will turn to next.
Latino Review have the news that it could be another comic book film, but one with nothing to do with Mark Millar.
Matthew Vaughn’s next film is going to be a comic book yet again- but this time it is a comic book adaption of the defunct Valiant comic book BLOODSHOT.
There are two volumes of the comic with slightly different stories. The movie will focus on Volume 2. Bloodshot is about a reanimated government assassin killing machine named Angelo. Vaughn is writing along with Jane Goldman who wrote Stardust and Kick-Ass for him. Vaughn is fully financing and intends to cast the film late summer. William Morris/Endeavor did the deal. And Millar has nothing to do with it. As El Taco entiende, Vaughan doesn’t like Millar’s pathological lies either.
I used to like the Valiant line of comics – Solar Man of the Atom was a fave – but I never got round to reading Bloodshot.
More info on Bloodshot via Wiki – Mortalli is a ruthless killer climbing the mob ranks when his crime family betray and murder him. In an experimental procedure the FBI attempt to extract information from his long-dead brain by injecting microscopic computers called nanites into his blood. The nanites quickly go to work, rebuilding his brain and then the rest of his body, unexpectedly reviving Angelo but erasing his memory in the process. The nanites now fully control Angelo’s body (manipulating blood flow, adrenaline levels etc.) giving him augmented reflexes and strength, enhanced hearing; the ability to heal rapidly, and control of electronic devices. Angry, violent and unsure of what he has become, he escapes. Taking the name Bloodshot, he begins the process of piecing together who he was.
For those not in the know Jane Goldman is the wife of Jonathan Ross and a pic of her is below.
Reviews of Kick-Ass are steadily coming through the internet and many of them say how good Nic Cage is as Big Daddy. That character is the father of Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl. In the film Cage based his performance on Adam West’s delivery from the old Batman TV series – initially jarring, but works well.
That got me thinking. Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is one of the all time classic graphic novels. It has an older Bruce Wayne putting the cowl back on to clean up an messed up Gotham. Robin is a girl this time and a similar dynamic to the Kick-Ass set up. Plus Batman ends up beating the crap out of Superman who is a stooge for the CIA.
Therefore, just as a way of passing the time I put the following to you:
Going past the Adam West performance, would Nicolas Cage be a good Bruce Wayne / Batman of they ever made The Dark Knight Returns?
Neil Gaiman is a great comic book writer and novelist. One of his greatest achievements is the DV Vertigo comic, Sandman. It mainly follows the character of Dream or Morpheus of the Endless who is the anthropomorphic representation of dreams. He is Lord of the Dreaming and the Endless is also composed of Death, Desire, Destruction, Destiny, Despair, and Delirium.
The comic had a run of 75 issues with many specials dotted around and featured Lucifer, Merv Pumpkinhead, and numerous other characters. It covered different pieces of folklore and legend and was just bloody brilliant.
The look of Dream was also based on Mr Gaiman and the pic I’ve used on the post was one I used to paint a huge Sandman on a wall in a flat I used to live in. Plus I drew something similar for the wedding of my good friend Neil C.
Needless to say I would love to see Sandman on the big screen. However, due to the huge scope of the tales involved a movie wouldn’t do it justice. It has been mentioned many times over the years as a possible film, as has one about the character of Death (I mentioned that way back in November 2008 and Gaiman has recently mentioned how Guillermo del Toro may be involved). That’s where Matthew Vaughn comes in.
The director of Kick-Ass, Layer Cake and Stardust (another Gaiman tale) has been talking at the SXSW Festival to MTV news about how he’d like to adapt the Sandman to a TV show.
“I think it would make an amazing HBO series, you know, where you can just really create that world,” Vaughn said. “There’s too much to get into an hour and a half, two hours.”
“[Neil and I] talked about it,” he continued. “I think as a movie it’s virtually impossible to make properly.”
Not much yet, but the fact he has been chatting to Gaiman about it sounds promising. However, they would need an awful lot of money to make it, but if they did I feel it would be huge.
Would you like to see a Sandman TV series? If it did come to pass who would you like to see play Dream and the rest of the Endless? What stories from the comic series would have to be included in the TV show?
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