world of warcraft We haven’t heard anything on the upcoming WarCraft movie since it was announced that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi would be directing. Raimi recently said that Spider-Man 4 would begin filming next March, so there is still over a year or so until he can turn his attention to WarCraft. In the meantime, however, Robert Rodat will be working on the script.

From MTV:

Among the revelations Raimi had to share was the news that “Saving Private Ryan” writer Robert Rodat will be tackling the “Warcraft” script as well (a subsequent call to Rodat’s agent confirmed this as true).

Raimi confirmed that the story, which had previously been believed to be an adaptation of the book “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King” after the IMDB listing changed (it has since changed back), will actually be an original effort based in the universe of the popular online role-playing game. “We would choose… something that encompasses lands and characters and storylines, and we would be true to it. But our story may or may not be about one of those central characters.”

The aim is to adapt the game, rather than a previously conceived story written within that world. “We want to be really faithful to the game,” Raimi said. “We would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a ‘World of WarCraft’ adventure. Only obviously it’s very different ’cause it’s expanded and translated into the world of a motion picture.”

Raimi understands that there’s a massive “Warcraft” fanbase out there, and a need to serve those fans as much as he serves the need to create a mass-marketable event film. The hope is that they’ll properly capture “the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents. I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible.”

Blizzard have said in the past that they want to do this right, and they want to make a great movie. With Sam Raimi on-board that looked likely, and now they’ve got an Oscar nominated writer to work on the script. Things are looking good, although it’ll be a while before it hits the big screen.

batman 31 500x228 It’s still the weekend and there’s still no worthy news so here’s another cool fan trailer. It’s from the same guy who made The Incredible Hulk vs. Wolverine, but this time Batman faces off against Blade, defying not only studio rights but also comic book worlds.

You can see more videos like this on YouTube user silverlightsaber’s account by clicking here!

bryan singer There have been hints over the past few months that Bryan Singer could return to direct an X-Men film. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said it was “a possibility” and now the director himself was asked whether he would return to the franchise at South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival:

From THR:

“I’m still looking to possibly return to the ‘X-Men’ franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,” Singer said.

“I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast,” he said, referring to the Australian actor who plays Wolverine.

Singer said he enjoyed making science fiction and fantasy movies because they allowed him to discuss serious issues through entertainment. He said the “X-Men” series, which follows a group of mutants with superpowers who struggle to fit in with humans, is about tolerance and social structures.

He said he likes to “trick audiences into thinking they’re seeing fireworks, but they’re learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say.”

“The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is — the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition,” Singer said.

The franchise peaked in 2003 with Singer’s X-Men 2, and it hasn’t reached the same level of greatness since. Sure, it’s still making $300 – 400 million every three years, but X3 and Wolverine could have been so much better.

Out of all the X-films lined up Singer will most likely return for either Wolverine 2 or X-Men: First Class. The second Wolverine film already has a writer, Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the script for Singer’s The Usual Suspects. Hiring McQuarrie could have been Fox’s way of luring Singer back. First Class would give Singer the chance to go back to the origins of the X-Men, however that would mean he’d have to cast the characters he already cast nearly 10 years ago, and there will be no Hugh Jackman.

There is also a small chance he could direct X-Men Origins: Magneto, although Singer said back June that he’s already “lived in that universe” before having directed Apt Pupil and Valkyrie so he “might need to take a little break before I do something like that.”

hulk slide19 It’s the weekend and there’s not much news so I thought I’d post this rather cool fanmade trailer I came across today. Earlier this year Marvel Studios released a Hulk Vs. Wolverine DVD , however due to different studios owning different character rights we will probably never get to see such an epic clash on the big screen for many years, if ever. YouTube user silverlightsaber knows this, and had decided to do something about it by making his own Incredible Hulk vs. Wolverine trailer, and it’s not bad.

If the trailer made you tingle in places you never knew existed then you will probably enjoy the Batman vs. Terminator trailer which was posted a few months ago. Click here to watch it!

spiderman4 Earlier this week we learned that Gary Ross would be re-writing Venom and may end up directing, however Spider-Man director Sam Raimi recently told Splash Page that at the moment Ross is still hard at work on the script for Spider-Man 4. Raimi also said that pre-production is coming together and they hope to start filming next March.

“We’re hoping that it’s the first week in March,” said Raimi.

At the moment, pre-production is in full swing, even as screenwriter Gary Ross (“great director and a very fine writer,” said Raimi) continues to work on the script.

“He’s working on a draft,” he continued. “I just gave him some notes and he’s doing a rewrite right now.”

On other fronts, “Spider-Man 4″ continues to chug along. “The production is starting to come together,” Raimi told us. “I’ve got a production designer who is starting to design the sets and the environments that the picture will take place in. We just brought aboard Scott Stokdyk as one of the two visual effects supervisors, and I worked with him on all three ‘Spider-man’ pictures.”

With Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst set to reprise their roles, Raimi and his team will soon turn their attention to filling out the rest of the cast. “None of the casting has really taken place, but we’re starting to think about that now,” the director said.

I doubt we will know which villain(s) will be involved until the casting gets under-way in a few weeks/month.

Now is a good time to be a Spider-Man fan with both Spider-Man 4 and Venom in the works. I think Raimi knows what mistakes were made last time round so Spider-Man 4 has the potential to be better than Spider-Man 3.

Toy Story 3 trailer!

by Liam on October 9, 2009 · 5 comments

toy story 3 teaser We weren’t expecting the new Toy Story 3 trailer till Monday but it appears to have escaped early. In the film Andy is now a young adult who is heading off to college, which means his toys are sent to storage, apart from Woody who he wants to keep. However, Buzz and the gang are accidentally thrown away and end up at local day-care center where they are abused by the youngsters. It’s left to Woody to save them and help them escape.

From Movie-List:

kristenbell

There isn’t much great about this news except Burlesque is turning out to be one of the hottest upcoming movies. And when I write “hottest,” I mean physically, not awards or anything.

Burlesque is going to be Christina Aguilera’s major motion picture debut as a small-town girl who moves to Los Angeles and, thanks to her enormous singing talent, finds work at a “neo-burlesque” club…

…run by Cher.

If that’s not tempting enough for you, Kristen Bell has joined the cast as Aguilera’s main competition, the “it” girl of Cher’s neo-burlesque who doesn’t like little-miss-backwoods taking the spotlight off of what I can only hope is a smoking hot, semi-nude stage show.

As a guy who has a major crush on Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars, Fanboys, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Starz’ Party Down and (sadly) Heroes, I would be on board if only Kristin Bell was in the movie. But Christina Aguilera? All I’m thinking is THIS. Or THIS if we’re feelin’ dirrrty (NSFW-ish).

Twilight‘s Cam Gigandet also stars and has these tantalizing vocal promos to share:

“I am a struggling piano player, and I’m currently working as a bartender at Cher’s burlesque club,” Gigandet said of his character. “Christina and I meet, fall in love, and drama ensues.”

[...]

But that’s fine, since he doesn’t consider “Burlesque” to be a musical. “There’s music in it, and they do sing,” Gigandet said. “I mean, they’re at a burlesque club, so they do sing and dance. It’s a very sexy, sexy movie.”

There’s only two types of people when it comes to this Burlesque news: those who won’t see it and those that are bringing the discreet hand lotion.

nine

Ok, Weinstein Company. It took you long enough to notice that you were crowding Thanksgiving releases with your award-hopefuls. Viggo Mortensen by-the-way of John Hillcoat has The Road, another Cormac McCarthy adaptation drama, this time with cannibalism, opens for Thanksgiving and has also been delayed almost a year to hit its award stride.

The newest victim of jockeying for awards positions is The Weinstein Company’s movie musical based on a Broadway musical based on a play based on a Fellini film, Nine. Nine stars Daniel Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman which should already have Academy members salivating. It’s the newest directorial effort from Rob Marshall, who won Oscar gold in 2003 with Chicago and will be bringing us the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film our way in the future.

Nine has been pushed from its November 25th opening, which would put it in competition with The Road, to a December 18th release date in New York and LA, expanding wide on Christmas Day.

Because who doesn’t want a musical on Christmas? Eh? Eh?

This year has been full of choppy waters for The Weinstein Company, who barely kept their heads above water with Inglorious Basterds doing the lionshare of the profit-raising this year. Now all they need is more awards presence and they might live on to make…I dunno, Halloween 3?