The Three Stooges Remake................WHY ????

For some reason 20th Century Fox have decided to remake The Three Stooges as a feature length film set in the modern day. I am not sure why they have done this as its clear from the trailer that its a awful idea.

Directed by the Farrelly Brothers and starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos the movie is due for release in the US in April 2012.

We need more fresh ideas not all these sequels and remakes that we are being bombarded with. The Three Stooges weren't that funny originally so I can't think for one minute that a "re-birth" will change that.

I wouldn't normally post a trailer for a film that looked so bad but I just couldn't resist.

Good luck if you can last the whole 1min 46sec of the trailer !

Full Length "John Carter" Trailer

Disney have recently released a brand new full length trailer for the upcoming Sci-Fi adventure "John Carter" (formerly titled "John Carter From Mars"), based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Directed by Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Wall-E & Finding Nemo), this new trailer looks like the film has some promise. The original teaser trailer looked a little too Conan for my liking but this final trailer, whilst maybe still looking a bit Conan with a bit of Avatar thrown in, looks exciting and I can't wait for its release in March 2012.

Ridley Scott - Prequels and Sequels

First of all sorry for the lack of updates.

Now onward !

One of my all time favourite directors Ridley Scott recently announced he was to revisit one of his greatest films to date, Blade Runner. At the time of the announcement he didn't let on if the planned project was to be a sequel or a prequel, and most people were surprised to hear that Scott was going to revisit Philip K Dick's universe at all as Dick never wrote a follow up to his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", to which Scott's film was based.

Scott has now confirmed that the project will be a sequel and is close to finding a writer. From that nugget of information its probably safe to say that we won't be seeing anything on screen for at least a couple of years yet then. The 73yr old Director also confirmed that Harrison Ford would not be reprising his role as Rick Deckard. No surprise there as its no secret that Ford did not get on well with Scott during filming of the original Blade Runner.

So will this be any good ? 

Is Ridley Scott messing with perfection and risking what George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels ?

Well the answer is Yes and No to both questions. Scott is one of the best directors in the business and has more that proved his status with films such as Alien, Bladerunner, Gladiator, Legend and American Gangster but the trouble is he has also missed the mark on more than one occasion with films like G I Jane and Kingdom of Heaven. I am also surprised that he wants to revisit one of his original titles at all. Up until now he has avoided directing any sequels to his own films (he wasn't tempted to return for Aliens and instead passed the baton to James Cameron) and this news has surprised a lot of people, especially as its hot on the heels of his return to the Alien franchise......more below

All in all I have a lot of faith that Ridley will get it right. Blade Runner was panned on its original release and, like The Shawshank Redemption, found its home in the Home Video Market. From there it slowly gained a cult following and is now regarded as not only one of the best Sci-Fi films of all time but one of the best films ever, topping many critics lists. Scott has a lot to live up to but at least he is revisiting his own baby and not trying to re-imagine somebody else's past creation. Time will of course tell and I will keep you updated with any further news as it comes.

As I mentioned before Scott is also returning to the Alien franchise.....in a manner of sorts.

Prometheus has just finished filming and is currently in the early stages of post production.

The plot follows a team of explorers as they discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. 

It was originally intended as a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien, but Scott decided to turn it into an original film with Noomi Rapace (who was already set to star in the prequel) still in the cast as one of five main characters. Some time later however it was confirmed that while the movie will take place in the same universe as Alien, and greatly reference that movie, it will, for the bigger part, be an original movie and not a direct prequel. 

With a screenplay by Damon Lindelof (Lost) and a cast including Charlize Theron, Idris Elba (Luther), Rafe Spall and Guy Pearce I think this is looking promising and I hope to bring you a trailer within the next couple of months.

In Focus.........Embargo Films "I, Anna"

Embargo Films is a small British production company specialising in high quality international feature films.

Based in London, Embargo was set up by Barnaby Southcombe and Felix Vossen to develop in house material as well as producing and co-producing British and International feature films.

Barnaby is the son of Charlotte Rampling and a very accomplished Television director with  Waterloo Road, Bad Girls and Teachers to his credits but he is breaking onto the big screen with his first feature directorial debut "I, Anna" starring his mother Charlotte and Gabriel Byrne in the lead roles.

Bernie, (Gabriel Byrne) a police detective dazed by his own rocky marriage, is distracted from his duties at the scene of a brutal murder by a brief encounter with the striking, enigmatic Anna (Charlotte Rampling). Going through the motions at work, Bernie persists in his romantic pursuit of Anna, but when they finally meet, she has no recollection of the night their paths first crossed. As his professional judgement battles with his desire for intimacy and love, the mystery deep within Anna's mind unravels, revealing a truth too painful to bear.

The film is based on Psychoanalyst Elsa Lewin's debut novel of the same name but moves the action from 1950's New York to present day London. It also turns your typical film-noir upside down by telling the story from the femme fatale's perspective. Shooting began in February 2011 with shooting locations in London's Pimlico and Southbank, Southend and Hamburg.

My spies tell me that this film is looking great, with superb acting all round but from what I hear particular credit goes to some of the supporting cast, including Hayley Atwell (Captain America), Ralph Brown (Withnail & I, Alien 3, Nighty Night) and Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes, Dissapearance of Alice Creed).

I, Anna is currently in post production with no trailer available as yet but TheProductionDiaries will bring you it as soon as it's available.

I am looking forward to all of the projects Embargo are working on. I think they could be a very strong force in the British movie industry. For more information visit their site http://www.embargofilms.com/

Hobbit Production Diary No.3 Plus New Images

Peter Jackson's video diaries are a bit like buses - you wait for ages and two come along at the same time. No sooner had we been treated to his second video a couple of weeks ago, along comes a third....and what a cracker it is too. So what does the video feature....

For reasons that aren't explained Peter is at Pinewood studios filming what appears to be internal Bag End scenes whilst looking for Andy Serkis (who I assume is probably asleep somewhere due to him appearing so knackered in video number 2)

The diary then shows us some fascinating footage of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Andy Serkis in full gimp suit and head cam as Gollum filming some cave scenes. Lord of the Rings set designer Dan Hennah makes an appearance and you can see from his face that he is glad to be back in Tolkien's world and clearly in his element - after all he is an Oscar winning Art Director and Set Decorator responsible for making the best movie trilogy ever look so great !

It's great to see Ian McKellen struggling with all the Dwarf names. It can't be easy as there are 13 of them. I often struggle with Snow White's gang but I am sure they will be household names just like Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in a couple of years.

"Lots of rubber, lots of hair"

Again for reasons that are not explained, but maybe that is a good thing, Mark Hadlow (Dori) is wearing a Sailor's outfit and according to some of the other dwarves he does favour other odd military regalia from time to time????

Some great footage appears in shoot day 38 of 'Trollshaw' - an epic battle scene featuring the Dwarves directed by second unit director and Gollum actor Andy Serkis.

Shoot day 38 brings back memories as we see Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett looking beautiful reprising their roles from Lord of the Rings.

The hightlight of the whole video for me is seeing John Ryhs Davies on set with the whole Dwarf gang in Wellington at Bag End showing some empathy 'of sorts' for the heavy costumes and prosthetics the actors have to wear. John of course played Gimli in Lord of the Rings so it must of been strange for him to see his dad Gloin, played by Peter Hambleton.

Last but not least there is a treat right at the end but I don't want to spoil it too much so you will just have to take a look at the video yourself

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in late 2012

As a bonus here is another James Fisher photo of Richard Armitage as Thorin exclusively for theonering.net

John Carter Of Mars - First Trailer

Walt Disney Studios have just released the first teaser trailer for "John Carter of Mars", due for release 2012. 

John Carter of Mars is inexplicably transported to the mysterious and exotic planet Mars, and becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions and discovers that the survival of the planet and its people rests in his hands.


Visit the official website at http://www.disney.co.uk/john-carter


John Carter is a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). John Carter is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

I featured the teaser poster and concept art images a short while back but it's great to actually see what the film is going to look like although I am a little worried....

This is Pixar director Andrew Stanton's first foray into live action film making and although both Wall-E and Finding Nemo were brilliant films they were both Stanton stories but John Carter isn't. It's an Edgar Rice Burroughs story and one I never thought could be brought to the big screen.

Andrew Stanton in John Carter Production Meeting 

copyright Disney

Andrew Stanton is a very strong story man having been involved in story for all 3 Toy Story films along with A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and Wall-E but I am not sure from this trailer if it will match up to his animated work.

To me it looks like a cross between Prince of Persia and Conan The Barbarian and seems to offer nothing new, which is something Andrew Stanton normally delivers in spades. Lets hope I am wrong and to be fair this is just the teaser trailer and there is still a lot of post production to be done before it's release this time next year.

Eamon Butler, former Disney Animator, now Head of Animation 

@ Double Negative discussing some of the props from the film

New Hobbit Images - "Fili" and "Kili"

To the left are Dean O'Gorman as "Fili" and Aiden Turner as "Kili" in a brand new promotional picture from The Hobbit.

Two of the youngest Dwarves, Fili and Kili have been born into the royal line of Durin and raised under the stern guardianship of their uncle, Thorin Oakensheild. Neither has ever travelled far, nor ever seen the fabled Dwarf City of Erebor. For both, the journey to the Lonely Mountain represents adventure and excitement. Skilled fighters, both brothers set off on their adventure armed with the invincible courage of youth, neither being able to imagine the fate which lies before them.

This brand new picture follows hot on the heels from my previous post of the second Hobbit production diary.

The picture was taken by renowned Australian photographer James Fisher who has taken photographs of some of Australia finest including Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Hugh Jackman. To see more of his amazing work visit http://www.jamesfisher.com.au/