Kick Ass – Nic Cage as Big Daddy Poster and clip

How very Batman. Can’t wait for the film.

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Source: UGO

Season of the Witch – Poster for Nicolas Cage’s new film

Cage stars as the medieval knight Behmen who undertakes a mission pitting him against an devious witch and making him the last hope for the world against an ancient and dark force.

His faith broken by years of battle as a crusader, Behmen returns to central Europe to find his homeland decimated by the Black Plague. While searching for food and supplies at the Palace at Marburg, Behmen and his trusted companion, Felson (Perlman) are apprehended and ordered by the dying Cardinal to deliver a young peasant girl ­ believed to be the witch responsible for the Plague ­ to a remote abbey where her powers can be destroyed.

Behmen agrees to the assignment but only if the peasant girl is granted a fair trial. As he and five others set off on this dangerous journey, they realize with mounting dread that the cunning girl is no ordinary human, and that their mission will pit them against an evil that even in these dark times they never could have imagined.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Trailer for Nic Cage Disney film

Not sure if this is better or worse than I thought it was going to look.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub, the creators of the National Treasure franchise, present THE SORCERERS APPRENTICE — an innovative and epic comedy adventure about a sorcerer and his hapless apprentice who are swept into the center of an ancient conflict between good and evil. Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (ALFRED MOLINA). Balthazar cant do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (JAY BARUCHEL), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. Itll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes THE SORCERERS APPRENTICE.

What did you think of that?

Season of the Witch – Full trailer for Nicolas Cage’s medieval horror

Nicolas Cage as a 14th century Crusader who returns with his comrade (Ron Perlman) to a homeland devastated by the Black Plague. A beleaguered church, deeming sorcery the culprit of the plague, commands the two knights to transport an accused witch (Claire Foy) to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in hopes of ending the pestilence. A priest (Stephen Campbell Moore), a grieving knight (Ulrich Thomsen), an itinerant swindler (Stephen Graham) and a headstrong youth who can only dream of becoming a knight (Robert Sheehan) join a mission troubled by mythically hostile wilderness and fierce contention over the fate of the girl.When the embattled party arrives at the abbey, a horrific discovery jeopardizes the knight’s pledge to ensure the girl fair treatment, and pits them against an inexplicably powerful and destructive force.

The film is out March next year.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans – Russian Poster

Nicolas Cage watches the Wicker Man

Thanks to Del for pointing this one out

Bad Lunetenant: Port of Call Yosemite

A great trailer Mashup of Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and some Looney Tune clips.

Werner Herzog talks about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

DIRECTOR WERNER HERZOG’S STATEMENT:

ON THE FILM’S TITLE AND SHOOTING IN NEW ORLEANS:

It does not bespeak great wisdom to call the film The Bad Lieutenant, and I only agreed to make the film after William (Billy) Finkelstein, the screenwriter, who had seen a film of the same name from the early nineties, had given me a solemn oath that this was not a remake at all. But the film industry has its own rationale, which in this case was the speculation of starting some sort of a franchise. I have no problem with this. Nevertheless, the pedantic branch of academia, the so called “film-studies,” in its attempt to do damage to cinema, will be ecstatic to find a small reference to that earlier film here and there, though it will fail to do the same damage that academia — in the name of literary theory — has done to poetry, which it has pushed to the brink of extinction. Cinema, so far, is more robust. I call upon the theoreticians of cinema to go after this one. Go for it, losers.

What the producers accepted was my suggestion to make the title more specific—Port of Call: New Orleans, and now the film’s title combines both elements. Originally, the screenplay was written with New York as a backdrop, and again the rationale of the producers set in by moving it to New Orleans, since shooting there would mean a substantial tax benefit. It was a move I immediately welcomed. In New Orleans it was not only the levees that breeched, but it was civility itself: there was a highly visible breakdown of good citizenship and order. Looting was rampant, and quite a number of policemen did not report for duty; some of them took brand new Cadillacs from their abandoned dealerships and vanished onto dry ground in neighboring states. Less fancy cars disappeared only a few days later. This collapse of morality was matched by the neglect of the government in Washington, and it is hard to figure out whether this was just a form of stupidity or outright cynicism. I am deeply grateful that the police department in New Orleans had the magnanimity and calibre to support the shooting of the film without any reservation. They know — as we all do — that the overwhelming majority of their force performed in a way that deserves nothing but admiration.

ON FILM NOIR AND NICOLAS CAGE:

New Orleans. This was fertile ground to stage a film noir, or rather a new form of film noir where evil was not just the most natural occurrence. It was the bliss of evil which pervades everything in this film. Nicolas Cage followed me in this regard with blind faith. We had met only once at Francis Ford Coppola’s, his uncle’s, winery in Napa Valley almost three decades ago when Nicolas was an adolescent, and I was about to set out for the Peruvian jungle in order to move a ship over a mountain. Now, we wondered why and how we had eluded each other ever since, why we had never worked together, and it became instantly clear that we would do this film together, or neither one of us would do it. There was an urge in both of us to join forces.

Film noir always is a consequence of the Climate of Time; it needs a growing sense of insecurity, of depression. The literature of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett is a child of the Great Depression, with film noir as its sibling. I sensed something coming in the months leading up to the making of the film: a breakdown which was so obvious in New Orleans, and half a year before finances and the economy collapsed, the signs were written on the wall. Even films like Batman turned out to be much darker than anyone expected. What finally woke me up was a banality: when attempting to lease a car I was confronted by the dealership with the unpleasant news that my credit score was abysmal, and hence I had to pay a much higher monthly rate. Why is that, I asked — I had always paid my bills, I had never owed money to anyone. That was exactly my problem: I had never borrowed money, had hardly ever used a credit card, and my bank account was not in the red. But the system punished you for not owing money, and rewarded those who did. I realized that the entire system was sick, that this could not go well, and I instantly withdrew money I had invested in stock of Lehman Brothers while a bank manager, ecstatic, with shuddering urgency, was trying to persuade me to buy even more of it.

ON THE SCREENPLAY:

As to the screenplay: it is William Finkelstein’s text, but as usual during my work as a director it kept shifting, demanding its own life, and I invented new scenes such as a new beginning and a new end, the iguanas, the “dancing” soul (actually this is Finkelstein’s, who plays a very convincing gangster in the film), the childhood story of pirate’s treasure, and a spoon of sterling silver. I also deleted quite a number of scenes where the protagonist takes drugs, simply because I personally dislike the culture of drugs. Sometimes changes entered to everyone’s surprise. To give one example: Nicolas knew that sometimes after a scene was shot I would not shut down the camera if I sensed there was more to it, a gesture, an odd laughter, or an “afterthought” from a man left alone with all the weight of a rolling camera, the lights, the sound recording, the expectant eyes of a crew upon him. I simply would not call “cut” and leave him exposed and suspended under the pressure of the moment. He, the Bad Lieutenant, after restless deeds of evil, takes refuge in a cheap hotel room, and has an unexpected encounter with the former prisoner whom he had rescued from drowning in a flooded prison tract at the beginning of the film. The young man, now a waiter delivering room service, notices there is something wrong with the Lieutenant, and offers to get him out of there. I kept the camera rolling, but nothing more came from Nicolas. “What, for Heaven’s sake, could I have added,” he asked. And without thinking for a second I said, “Do fish have dreams?” We shot the scene once more with this line, and it looked good and strange and dark. But it required being anchored in yet an additional scene at the very end of the film, with both men, distant in dreams leaning against the glass of a huge aquarium where sharks and rays and large fish move slowly as if they indeed were caught in the dreams of a distant and incomprehensible world.

I love cinema for moments like this.

The films stars Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Vondie Curtis Hall, Shawn Hatosy, Denzel Whitaker, Xzibit, Shea Wigham, Katie Chonacas and Brad Dourif.

Due out at the end of November.

Source: Film School Rejects

Kick-Ass – Cool character posters for the new film

It looks as if the marketing push for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass film has begun. You know what I kind of like it. Cool imagery on the posters and I love the fact they are using the characters names. That ties in with the whole concept of real world super-heroes in Mark Millar’s comic. Going from the early review of the film as well I can’t wait to see it.
Of course the Red Mist is played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse.Kick-Ass is Aaron JohnsonHit Girl is Chloe Moretz and below we get our first glimpse of Nic Cage in costume as Big Daddy.
The film is due out on 16th April 2010. What do you think of the posters?

Source: IGN

Kick-Ass – An early review

Kick-Ass is the adaption of the Mark Millar, John Romita Jr Comic. Matthew Vaughn directed it and AICN had this review sent to them by Terry Tibbs. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

Just got back from the screening of Kick-Ass, and I’m happy to report that it is fucking awesome!!!

Just as a side note about the film, I know that the film has been picked up for distribution in the States by Lionsgate, and it says so in the opening credits, but I’m sure that it hasn’t got a distributor over here yet… or has it? The screening was hosted at BAFTA, and it was obviously hosted by Universal as it was their name on the screen before the film started, and there was shit loads of Universal staff there, in fact i’d say a quarter of the audience was Universal staff, a quarter european distributors (I guess), the rest were lucky punters off the street. So I’m sure it hasn’t been announced, but I’d say it was a safe bet that Universal are the UK distributors.

So the movie itself. I’m a huge fan of the Mark Millar/John Romita jr comic anyway, so to see the film so early felt like a massive coup, and I’m happy to tell you that this is the Kick-Ass film that Kick-Ass fans will want to see. It opens like the first comic virtually verbatim (I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read them), but the film itself varies only slightly from the source comic, but the changes made by director Matthew Vaughan and screenwriter Jane Goldman ring true to the spirit of the comic, and never feel strange, in fact the changes made make the film seem logical and help some bring some of the wilder concepts down to earth.

The comic sets out as a modern deconstruction of the superhero concept, with knowing nods to geekdom surrounding comics, and the film takes that idea and runs with. Littered with references to other superhero films from Batman, Superman and Spiderman (even the Spirit movie gets a hilarious nod), this feels like it is happening in our world, and will drive fellow geeks wild. The film veers ever more into outlandish areas as it goes on, but it always feel believable.

As far as the actors go, Brit Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass more than fills the lead role ably handling the accent, but I did feel that he lacked the vulnerability of the comic’s Dave Lizewski, never nerdy enough and definitely too buff, but that’s just nit-picking at a role that should catapult him into the big time. Christopher “McLovin” Mintz-Plasse proves that he has what it takes to hold his own in a comedic role as Red Mist, and he seems perfectly cast. Nic Cage, who I wasn’t really to impressed with when I heard he was cast as Big Daddy, proved me wrong by putting in a hilarious, Adam West-esque performance (although his final scenes did raise a few eyebrows for his scene-chewing, but again I won’t spoil it for you).

There were a few nice cameos from British actors Dexter Fletcher, Jason Flemyng and Tamer Hussan, but the Mark Strong was the pick of the British bunch as gangland boss Frank D’Amico, who steals every scene he’s in with a genuinely brilliant turn. Clark Duke provides ample comic relief as Dave’s high school chum, and Lyndsy Fonseca is suitably cute as Dave’s crush Katie.

But the film truly belongs to Chloe Moretz who, as Hit Girl, tears through the film as the baddest pre-pubescent 4 foot badass ever committed to film. She totally owns every scene and provided the audience with at least three bandstanding crowd cheering moments. She’s funny, witty, knowing, hugely crude, and just massively ass-kicking, her Matrix lobby-esque scene at the film’s climax is just incredible, and again should propel her into the big time by just being one of the most incredibly cool characters in any comic book film ever. Badder than Wolverine, funnier than Deadpool, more athletic than Spiderman and cuter than that kid in Runaways. Just fucking awesome.

Matthew Vaughan does himself proud and he should find Hollywood banging at his door upon the release of this film. He handles the action superbly (a couple of fight scene’s seem to go on a bit, but this was a ‘work-in-progress’ cut we saw, so there is time to tighten them up), and he manages to inject enough humour alongside the brutal violence effortlessly. Fans of the comic will be glad to know that plenty of blood is still spilled, and the violence has only slightly been curbed from the comic, keeping Mark Millar’s ultra-violent tone intact.

Although the film was a rough early cut, everything seemed in it’s place apart from the music (there are replacement bits and pieces from Dark Knight, Superman, 28 Days Later, and possibly I think heard some from X-Men in one bit), some of the dubbing was still to be done too, but the biggest thing that we didn’t get to see what Romita’s animated section, which only appeared as a rough idea of how it will look, but it still looked quite cool.

Still from what we saw, I’m quite confident in saying this is up there with the best comic films I’ve ever seen (Spiderman 2, Dark Knight), and probably one of the best films i’ve seen all year. It’s rude, lewd, naughty and knowing. The violence is brutal, the laughs come thick and fast, and the tone is pitch perfect. At just under two hours long, the film seems to drag in the middle, but the spectacular finale more than dispels any qualms I had with that. There are a couple of plot points that feel fumbled, but that will hopefully be sorted in the final cut.

What Matthew Vaughan and everyone involved with Kick-Ass is just brilliant. They’ve created the ultimate super-hero origin film, one that never feels forced, but always organic, natural, and gut-bustingly funny in the process. Full of cultural references, fanboy in-jokes, and a genuinely comic script, this is the deconstruction of the superhero film that the genre needs at the start of the next decade, something that the Watchmen film failed to do, but the Watchmen comic did for comics in the 1980s. I can’t wait to see it again, and judging by the audience response at the screening, this should be a huge hit.

Oh and it sets up Kick-Ass 2 nicely, but i’ll be damned if i’m going to get excited about a sequel before this even comes out…

It’ll be tough.