Movie Morsels 77: Skyfall Trailer

Well, the new teaser trailer for the upcoming James Bond film Skyfall but the only place I read about it was on LaineyGossip and she only featured its link on a French site! So... this makes me think that people aren't as excited about movie as they perhaps should be. And, to be honest, the only thought I had while watching the trailer was "Was Daniel's hair that short in the other movies? I don't like it."



We'll go see it, of course, but I hope it doesn't require any remaining knowledge of Quantum of Solace 'cause I hate that movie and refuse to watch it again! So, if that's the case, I hope Daniel looks super hot in the movie (read: his unflattering haircut is featured only in a flashback) so I have something to look at while I am confused.

Movie Morsels 76: The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

So, this is verrrrrry belated but I couldn't just let this slip by without some degree of fanfare, however small. Of course, the trailer to The Dark Knight Rises look awesome and I can't wait to see it! Though, after reading through EW.com's dissection I'm ever-so-slightly concerned that my main bat may not survive the series and that would majorly bum me out. I would understand the death thematically but I feel like it would really make the whole thing end so morosely. I know that's TDK's 'thing' but I don't want my hot men to perish! Bah! I'm less attached to Christian since I found out he is a man-whore but still...



Here's the link to EW.com's dissection. I strongly recommend it as it points out a lot of probabilities and possibilities that hadn't occured to me. The Dark Knight Rises: Trailer Clues?

Only 22 Days!

Til The Hunger Games hits theaters and I can't wait!!! And just look at what's showing up (hopefully) in my mailbox tomorrow:

“Is it violent?” says director Gary Ross of his PG-13 film. “Yes. Do we back off from what it is? No, we don’t.”

The March 23 release of The Hunger Games is nearly upon us. While we can’t make the clock turn any faster, we can offer fans of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling dystopian trilogy (and newcomers, too) a deep, behind-the-scenes look into the making of the film, from conception to casting, filming to marketing.

Perhaps no bit of casting news was met with greater surprise than Lenny Kravitz taking on the role of Cinna, hero Katniss Everdeen’s deeply cool and compassionate stylist. Kravitz was working on his album, living out of a trailer in the Bahamas and oblivious to the Hunger Games phenomenon, when Ross first approached him to offer him the part. The director had been moved by the musician’s gentle grace in Precious and was further intrigued by the fact that Kravitz already felt a nurturing bond with star Jennifer Lawrence, who had become close friends with his daughter Zoe during the filming of X-Men: First Class. “I love that girl,” says Kravitz. “The minute I met her she became a part of the family.”


It took one sleepless night of reading a downloaded version of The Hunger Games in his trailer for Kravitz to commit. But Woody Harrelson, who initially turned down the role of Katniss and Peeta’s sodden wreck of a mentor Haymitch, was a harder sell. “Listen, I’m nuts,” he explains. “It was just a stupid thing where I hadn’t read the books yet. I didn’t see that there was enough for me to do in the script. But then Gary called me back and said ‘You got to do this, I don’t have a second choice for the role.’ And of course flattery always gets the best of me so I read the books and really saw the depths of this guy. Holy s—, I would have been bummed to miss this.”

I just finished the third and final book yesterday and am re-listening to THG to see if I pick up anything new now that I know how the story ends. Have I mentioned that they're awesome books and you should be reading them right now? Cause they really are. And you really should.

My New Obsession

Is The Hunger Games. I loooooooooooove it! I resisted it for a long time, writing it off as a young adult book that wouldn't interest me but both my friend, Kristine, and one of the techs at my clinic have just raved about it over the last couple of months so I finally caved. Kristine has all three books of the trilogy as MP3 files so she handed them over to me and I just finished the first book Thursday. The story was so good I couldn't wait to listen more and find out what happened! I loaded it onto my iPod and listened to it in the car, while I cooked and even in the shower. So good!!! Now I'm devouring every trailer and morsel of information I can find about the upcoming movie adaptation (out March 23) because, as I said, I'm obsessed. I already have a date with Kristine to see the movie when it comes out and if any of you are waffling on whether or not to give the books a whirl, I say go for it! I will totally share my audio files with you. :o)

EW.com dissects the new trailer!

The Hollywood Reporter : The High Stakes of The Hunger Games

And I have to add that I am so excited that Josh Hutcherson is one of the lead roles. Were I 16 years old, I would be squeeing over him massively! Seriously. It's kind of embarrassing. I just think he's the cutest darn thing and a good actor to boot. I've liked him since Bridge to Terabithia (I have always been a sucker for a guy an actor that can cry) and I'm happy to see him grab a big, meaty role. But I realize I am a creepy old lady with an inappropriate crush so I will just have to fangirl on the inside... 

Dragon Tattoo Review by MOVIEBOB

For our annual NYE movie night, Robert and I went to go see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. We would have gone to the movies anyway, because who are we to break such a hard-partying tradition?, but I wound up getting $1 movie tickets through a Groupon deal so celebrating at the movies seemed like an more awesome idea! (In fact, Robert was so stoked about our massive savings that he splurged on a soda a box of Reese's Pieces for me. $9.75 later we still made out in the black so woohoo!) And it was a good movie so it was a good choice. I had both seen the original Swedish version as well as read the book so I was able to view the movie with more critical eyes, I think (and a more understanding brain for sure), than the average moviegoer. Robert had, of course, seen the first movie, too, but hasn't yet read the book so even he and I looked at it a little differently. I didn't know anything about the books or the movie when we saw the original Dragon Tattoo so after watching it I was very taken with it. So it's hard for me to say which version I prefer; it's hard to parse out my initial "Wow! That was great!" feeling and look at the first movie objectively for a straight apples-to-apples comparison. I think both films have pros and cons in their own right. I did hop on the IMDb boards the next day, though, and came across this review which I think actually does a pretty good (if somewhat harsh) job of sizing up the films against one another. If you've seen them both, take a look a this and tell me what you think.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Movie Morsels 76: Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!

I was chatting with Wade and Robert about the new The Dark Knight Rises trailer and neither had actually seen it. It was then that I realized my reduced blogging schedule is beginning to hurt the people I love. So I must take a quick moment and post some much buzzed about trailers before it gets too late!

(Make sure you click the little red bubble in the lower right-hand corner of some of the videos to remove the annoying annotations.)

The Dark Knight Rises:



Assessment: Looks awesome! Of course. Though I could've used more hot Christian. And I hope I can understand Bane without subtitles...


The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:



Assessment: I love that Martin Freeman has a job! He's adorable. And Robert and I started our 'movies on New Year's Eve' tradition with the first LOTR movie so it'll be nice to have another to watch at that time of year.


Prometheus:



Assessment: I've never seen Alien (I know... sorry) so this doesn't really mean much to me but I like Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace so I would be willing to give it a whirl. If it isn't to scary/stressful.


Wrath of the Titans:



Assessment: I like Sam Worthington and all but Clash of the Titans was Stupid (note the capital S). A sequel seems completely and utterly unnecessary. And that song is horrid and adds nothing to the trailer. At all. Plus, was Perseus Australian in Clash? Preeeeetty sure he was supposed to sound British. I'm all for actors getting to use their natural accents but let's have a little consistency, please! But I'll probably still rent it because I'm a sheep and will want to see if it's any good, even though I already know it isn't.

Movie Morsels 75: Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack

I downloaded the free 6-track sampler of TGWtDT soundtrack the other day but, of course, it's all instrumentals. Which I expected and I'm down with instrumentals (I do have a movie soundtrack instrumental playlist on my iPod), I would've liked at least one rockin' song like this one. I think it's a great cover:

Movie Morsels 74: The Dark Knight Rises

This info is a few days old but I didn't really see it mentioned anywhere else so chances are it'll still be news to you. According to EW.com, TDKR will be set eight years after TDK left off:

Hollywood franchises don’t really end anymore. If you look at the current list of 2011′s top 10 top-grossing films, eight are sequels/spin-offs/prequels that were specifically designed to create more sequels/spin-offs/prequels. (Heck, four of the movies — Thor, Captain America, Fast Five, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes — all included teasers for the next installment in their freaking end credits.) The highest-grossing movie of the year is Harry Potter 7 — Part 2, the eighth film in a franchise based on seven books. The only non-franchise film is Bridesmaids, a movie that will soon be pushed aside byTwilight 4 — Part 1, which features already the most popular teen pregnancy since the Gospel of Matthew.

It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when no respectable Hollywood franchise lasted longer than three movies. I’m talking about good threequels — like Return of the King, or The Bourne Ultimatum, or the underrated Back to the Future Part III — but I’m also talking about not-so-good franchise cappers. The Matrix Revolutions, Alien 3, and Return of the Jedi aren’t perfect, but by god, they all follow through on the most basic promise inherent in telling a story: They have endings.

The secretive Christopher Nolan hasn’t talked very much about his upcoming third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, but a close reading of his public statements indicate that he envisions the movie in those classical terms. In a new interview with Empire, Nolan explains that the movie is “all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne’s story.” So much so, in fact, that Rises will feature a rather significant time jump: “Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state.”

That’s a huge time jump for a blockbuster franchise, but it’s especially notable in light of Batman’s particular character mythology. The first two films in Nolan’s franchise focused on Batman’s early days: His origin, his first meeting with the Joker, his decision at the end ofDark Knight to pretend to be a bad guy for the good of Gotham. By leaping forward in time almost a full decade, Nolan seems to be shifting focus onto the hero’s declining days. In fact, that time jump leads me to wonder if the director is going for a Dark Knight Returns thing with this final movie. Frank Miller’s iconic ’80s graphic novel was about a middle-aged Batman coming out of retirement just long enough for a few final adventures. Returns has always been a spiritual predecessor for Nolan’s Bat-series, and I wonder if that vision of an older Batman — who was also “not in a great state” — will influence the film.

There are other reasons to be excited about the time jump. An eight-year break means there won’t be any questions about the Joker’s absence. It also means that, hopefully, Bruce Wayne won’t spend the entire movie moping over a lost love interest (a plot point that essentially derailed the most recent James Bond movie). What excites me most of all, though, is the fact that this time jump instantly reconfigures our understanding of the films’ universe. It feels like Batman could genuinely be in danger.

The Batman franchise will probably never really end, of course; Warner Bros. has already put plans in motion to reboot the series post-Nolan. But am I the only one intrigued by the idea that Nolan might actually bring his interpretation of the character to an actual conclusion?

Intriguing. I like this idea a lot; people have been questioning how the story is going to handle the Joker question and this seems like a good way to deal with that baggage. I also like that it sort of sweeps the whole Rachel thing under the rug, too, so two birds with one stone! I say this all the time but expectations are so high for this installment that I hope stupid Anne Hathaway doesn’t ruin it   it doesn't disappoint.

Movie Morsels 73: More Dragon Tattoo

A second - and much longer - trailer for the film has been released and while I like it, it doesn't have the cool urgency of the previous teaser. Plus, I miss the awesome song from the first trailer, too. This trailer does give you a much better preview of the actors' performances, though, and I can't help but wonder why Rooney Mara is portraying Lisbeth with a Swedish(ish) accent, Daniel Craig's Blomkvist just sounds British. Not a huge deal. Just something that twanged in my ear.

Movie Morsels 72: Magic Mike

It's been quite a long while since I've indulged in a Hot Men post and this is the perfect thing to break the drought! You may or may not know that Channing Tatum was an exotic dancer back in his salad days; you also may or may not know that a movie is in the works based on his experiences during that time. (He actually mentioned wanting to make such a movie way back when he told all about his burnt penis last year.) Now, a movie about male strippers pretty much has my interest from the get-go. I mean, even if it's a male Showgirls it's still worth a look-see just for curiosity's sake. But! This one stars these guys, which means they could read the phone book for two hours and it'd still be pretty easy to sit through.

Channing Tatum - the mentor

Alex Pettyfer - the protege

Matthew McConaughey - the club owner

Matthew Bomer

William Levy

Joe Manganiello

Am I right or am I right? Sure, it'll probably be super cheesy but who cares?!

8/24 UPDATE: According to People en Espanol (via dlisted), William Levy has dropped out of the movie. Bummer!!! :o(  He would have been some nice eye candy. Mew.

Movie Morsels 71: The Woman in Black

Being the crazed Potterphile that I am, I have known a little about this movie for awhile but the second teaser trailer for Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Harry era movie was released yesterday. Yahoo! had a little blurb to go along with the clip but you can read more about it here. I am totally fine buying Dan as a character other than Harry - that's not a problem. Will I buy him as a father young son? Jury's still out on that one.

Movie Morsels 70: Amazing Spider-Man

This teaser trailer will air before Captain America (starting tomorrow) so it's not a huge sneak peek but...

Movie Morsels 69: HP London Premiere

I'm going to skip right over my obligatory apology for more Potter stuff and get right into the meat of things:

And here's the link to everything Potter at EW.com. I am Dork Supreme!!!

What's That, You Say?

You want to see MORE Harry Potter stuff? *tsk* Well, if you must!

Movie Morsels 68: The Dark Knight Rises

According to the Huffington Post, the following is a scene from TDKR as recorded by a fan across the street. (I didn't even realize the movie was filming yet so I'm completely sad and out of the loop. Dang!)

Shot in Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, England -- the stand-in for Wayne Manor -- the blurry camera footage captures Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne confronting Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. Rain (or, hose water) pours down as the two talk, and soon Kyle leads Wayne away. What it means, well, no one's quite sure. But at least we now know what Wayne Manor looks like from the front, and that Batman and Catwoman have a plain clothes confrontation.

I would have absolutely no idea what I was watching if I hadn't read it so I'm just going to take it on faith that that really is Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway. Can't say as that is the most interesting scene the fan could've caught but, hey, at least it's something! TDKR isn't slated to open til July 20, 2012 so we still have a bit of time to wait for the final product. With so many new peeps involved - Ra's al Ghul is back as well as Miranda Tate, John Blake, Bane and, of course, Selina Kyle - I'm reeeeeeally hoping the third film stays as tight as the other two...

Movie Morsels 67: More HP

I'm sorry - I'm probably wearing most of you out with my fangirl Harry Potter posts. But it's the last movie! Ever!! So you'll only have to suffer through it for a few more weeks. For that one lonely soul that is interested, EW.com has an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip of Harry, Ron and Hermione in Gringotts. Have I mentioned I'm excited? Cause I am! So excited!! :o)

Movie Morsels 66: Final Deathly Hallows Trailer

LESS THAN A MONTH, PEOPLE!!!!! Oh, and I thought I couldn't get more excited... LOVE this trailer!

Movie Morsels 65: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Yes! It's actually an entertainment-related post! Weehoo!!! Here we go...

The 'red band' trailer for TGWtDT was released late last week and since I am a fan of both the books and the Swedish films, I thought I'd pass it along.

UPDATE: Okay, so I've had to embed this video twice in as many days for it being removed from YouTube so here's the 'green band' trailer instead. Exactly the same but with a shot of people at a dinner table in lieu of side boob. Done.



According to EW.com:

Though the teaser plays out with rapid-fire imagery set to Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, we get our first major glimpses of star Rooney Mara... as the gothic, damaged super-sleuth. There seems to be less of Daniel Craig, and his sullied journalist Mikael Blomkvist appears to be far more vulnerable — or at least far more easily wounded — than Salander, which is as it should be. He’s kind of the damsel in distress in this tale, no?
The footage in the teaser surprisingly plays out in near chronological order, practically the entire story with each scene reduced to a single fraction-of-a-second shot. It could almost be a black-and-white film, with such stark contrast between the snow and so much use of shadow and silhouette (including a little side-nudity that probably earns this clip its “red band” NSFW status.)

I didn't really get the whole 'the entire story was revealed' thing from the trailer but I've only watched it once so maybe I was too sleepy and need to see it again. Regardless, it looks like it's going to be a good movie and I'm glad it's retained the gritty feeling of the book. I'm still curious to see how big a role Erica will play in the film, since she wasn't really in the Swedish version but she's being played by a big name (Robin Wright). I also just reeeeeally hope they don't have distractingly bad accents...

Movie Morsels 64: Bad News for Iron Man

The first Iron Man I liked, very much. The second one? Eh. Not my favorite. Not even close. So, the news that Jon Favreau has left the third film distresses me a bit. Sure, he helmed the second movie and I didn't like it but it's pretty well known on the gossip circuit that he was creatively castrated by Marvel and the studio. In that sense, then, I guess it doesn't really matter that Jon's not directing the third one - he probably wouldn't have the same thing happen all over again. But on the flip side, someone with less vested interest in the series than Jon might just make things 10 times worse. It's hard to know. Annoying! Why do studios always have to muck up the works? Ugh.

via The Superficial:

Great. Now who’s going to needlessly insert themselves into the movie?

While Iron Man 2 was less a movie and more a painful clusterfuck advertising Marvel’s upcoming films, the blame for that rested squarely on Marvel who, instead of letting director Jon Favreau continue to build a successful franchise after taking a genius gamble on Robert Downey Jr., thought it’d be best to make him essentially act like a toy-hawking George Lucas, which miraculously didn’t end in suicide. However, it has brought us to today where Vulture reports Favreau has walked from the third film:

It’s unclear whether the impasse was financial or creative or both. One informed source hears that he was frustrated with Marvel’s urge to stuff more of their in-house heroes into the next film in the wake of The Avengers. In a recent interview with MTV News, Favreau explained that based on his conversations with Marvel Studios executives, he had no clarity as to what a third Iron Man film would even be about. “In theory, Iron Man 3 is going to be a sequel or continuation of Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Avengers,” said Favreau at the time, “This whole world … I have no idea what it is. I don’t think they do either, from conversations I’ve had with those guys.”
… Regardless of why, we’re told that Marvel quietly began the process of finding a director to replace Favreau last night. But Marvel’s task is complicated by the fact that Downey Jr. has both contractually negotiated director approval and is currently the hottest leading man in Hollywood with first pick of dozens of “go” movies around town.

Wait. Everybody just saw that, right? Robert Downey Jr. has director approval. HELL. YES. Finally, my dream of seeing Mel Gibson direct an Iron Man movie has come to pass.

ROBERT: Hey, Mel, got a sec? Was looking over the script and apparently 80% of the scenes are nothing but Iron Man being nailed to a cross by a Russian supervillain named “Record-o-Bitch.” Am I reading this right?
MEL: It’s actually more like 90, but listen, be honest: Do ya think Gwyneth will blow me?
ROBERT: …. God, I made the right choice here. ACTION, PEOPLE!

And I Won't Have Any Tests the Next Week, Either! Woohoo!

Two weeks from today, people!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! I am a dork and I don't care.