Paramount »

I'm grateful for this Friday, because that's the day that The Men Who Stare at Goats comes out and I can stop seeing its trailer relentlessly attached to anything and everything I see (and given that I try to see most anything and everything out there, it's really only a 'me' problem, I suppose). One night, I had myself a triple feature and saw the preview not one, not two, but three times; as a pal put it, he had "more than a feeling" that I was getting sick of it.

Before that, it was a summer of Taking Woodstock time and time again, and it would already seem that Shutter Island's move to February will insure that I'll be sitting there, trying to piece the thing together for the next three months when not perfecting my New England Leo impersonation.

So, whether currently or in your own formative years, what trailers have you been just absolutely burnt out on? Did you and your friends quote along with them as they played? Were you actually ever turned off from seeing a film because you had it advertised to you too much? Come on, let it all out...

There's big news from Asgard tonight! According to The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary Sir Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of Thor. This isn't one of these tightly kept casting announcements either, as THR reports that he and no one else is playing Odin. (Incidentally, there's no mention of Robert DeNiro and Jude Law among the confirmed cast members, so I'm guessing that was just a fever dream of a rumor.)

If you're not up on your Thor or Nordic mythology, Odin is the father of Thor and the ruler of Asgard. He's your typical white-bearded god sort, fond of wine, women, and wisdom. He's not immortal (none of the gods of Asgard are), but ages slowly, and possesses amazing powers of strength and wisdom. He famously sacrifices his eye for the foresight to prevent Ragnarok, a sadly futile act, but you can't blame a god for trying.

While a lot of people were hoping that the Brian Blessed would be Odin (and my own money was on the recently signed Stellan Skarsgard), you can't really get much better than Sir Hopkins. He'll add just the right amount of gravitas, but he's an actor who can still have fun in a role. I can't wait to see him go up against Loki, and watching him smack down Thor for his arrogance is going to be pure theater. Cheers, Kenneth Branagh!

Last March, the trades confirmed that Peter Berg was the latest director brave enough (or foolish enough) to tackle a new adaptation of Frank Herbert's legendary Dune. News has been scarce since, though just last month Berg was assuring MTV that he was still involved, and that he was trying to crunch Josh Zetumer's 200-page script into something manageable "without offending the purists." Other than some intriguing Robert Pattinson casting rumors, there hasn't been much for fans to really discuss or rant about. But an intriguing story has popped up on Pajiba. Their inside source claims that Berg has dropped out of the Dune remake, and that Paramount is scrambling for a new director.

The search is fraught with difficulty for Paramount, according to Pajiba's source. "The search, however, has run into two issues: 1) they're looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don't want anything resembling the crap effects of the '84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a preexisting passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project." But the search has allegedly landed on two splashy newcomers: Neil Marshall and and Neill Blomkamp. Marshall is said to be the frontrunner, championed by producer Kevin Misher. But the studio lukewarm on Marshall's resume and likes Blomkamp, who they feel has the "vision" for the film.

This is all rumor and speculation at this point, and nowhere is it stated why Berg dropped out of the remake. (A schedule conflict would be likely. Berg has one heck of a full plate.) There's also something a little too dreamy about those mentions of Blomkamp and Marshall. I'm very, very curious to see how this little rumor is played out, and if it could lead to a Dune adaptation that's palatable and faithful to Herbert.

I know, you might be bordering on a Paranormal Activity overdose at this point. It's been slowly rolling out for weeks, every person in America is talking about it, and it so totally scared your best friend, but certainly not you. Well, as you likely know, what is currently playing in theaters is not the original ending to Oren Peli's haunted house triumph. In fact, the new theatrical cut features an ending suggested by Steven Spielberg.

The original ending, as detailed here by our own William Goss, hasn't played in theaters for over a year and a half, but now that the film is king of the demonic world, someone has provided the service of actually putting the alternate ending online. This is actually just one of several endings, as explained in our interview with the director, but until the far-off DVD of the film is released, this is the only way you're going to see it. And I kind of have a feeling that may not be the case for long, so catch it while you can over at Horror Squad!

The biggest enemy of the Footloose remake isn't a music-hating preacher, but its own Creative Differences. After it finally recovered from the loss of Zac Efron by recruiting Chace Crawford and Julianne Hough, Variety reports that Footloose has now lost its captain. Director Kenny Oretega has left the project due to "differences over tone and budget."

Reportedly, Ortega's vision included elaborate dance sequences and a budget of $30 million or more. But Paramount's Adam Goodwin had something different in mind. He saw Footloose with a little less dancing, a little less music, and a lot more edge. He was also hoping the budget would come in around $25 million. Who is right? I don't know. If you want something closer to the original, I'd say Goodwin is spot on. Kevin Bacon did his lithe dance moves in barns and car washes. It was on the cheap. It was also pretty edgy (relatively speaking) in its handling of teenage sexuality. Is any remake going to feature its heroine yelling "I'm not even a virgin!" in the middle of a church? Nah. They'll just dress her sexy.

Paramount is now on the hunt for a new director in order to kick off its Sunday shoes and begin filming by 2010. I was going to say "Maybe this'll be the end of this silly remake" but there's no way that'll happen. Instead, I vote that this Footloose be made with two simultaneous storylines. As they tell the story of the repressive Midwest, we'll also learn about the behind the scenes drama that mirrors the onstage action. Will Ortega's lush vision of music and dance win out? Or will the repressive Goodman crush his freedom of expression? It would be like The French Lieutenant's Woman for high schoolers.

I feel like Justin Theroux is becoming some kind of muse to the masses, gently introducing them to the offbeat and cool before moving onto something else. The majority of American moviegoers probably don't know his name, but they feel his influence. Someday, every man in America will start wearing fedoras again, and not really know why. The reason will be Theroux. But first, he plans to hook everyone on Air Guitar, and introduce the masses to the offbeat world that cherishes the talent.

Variety reports that Theroux has signed on to produce Paramount's Air Guitar, a story centered around the self-consciously ironic world of air guitar championships. The project has been in the works at Paramount since 2006 or so, and is cobbled together from the 2006 documentary Air Guitar Nation and Dan Crane's book To Air Is Human. Screenwriting duties originally belonged to Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, but they now are the sole responsibility of Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger. That's all we know about the project so far, except that it'll probably involve a lot of kicks, devil horns, and suggestive tongue movements by its stars. (Does anyone ever do the famous Mick Ronson & David Bowie guitar move? I hope so.)

Paramount hopes that Air Guitar will capitalize on the current be-your-own-rock star popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I think you're seeing the start of a trend, and that Air Guitar championships will become staples of your local clubs until every frat boy has drained the ironic cool out of it. By then it won't matter, because Theroux will have moved on, and quietly introduced something else into the mainstream. As we ponder what that might be, I've embedded the 2007 trailer for Air Guitar Nation below the jump. Watch it, so you can smile knowingly when people in your office start talking seriously about air guitar.

Us consumers of pop culture all know that there are secrets and there is ooze and that there are also secrets in the ooze that bring about man-sized, crime-fighting, Foot-stomping, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but that little fact isn't exclusive to us fans born before 1993. Sure there was TMNT, the recent attempt by Warner Brothers to reboot the franchise for the big screen by swapping out bulky men-in-suits for streamlined CGI, but it wasn't the renaissance resurgence many were hoping for. Enter Nickelodeon, the kid-friendly network, who have just purchased intellectual ownership rights to the sewer-loving franchise from combo owners The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment.

The deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter, went down for some $60 million, and includes plans for a new computer animated TV series as well as a new feature film. The latter will be the result of a team-up between Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures, both owned by Viacom, with an expected release date sometime during 2012 (assuming the world hasn't fallen into the oceans by then).

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has become something of a calling card for my writing in 2009, and an albatross around my neck at the same time. There's little else I wrote this year that got as much attention, and yet it's by far the most misunderstood of my many, many reviews, primarily because one sentence published on Rotten Tomatoes, and later, literally one word used in the its advertising was employed to characterize my feelings about the film. Mind you, I'm not complaining, but it's made for a sort of fascinating study among my friends and colleagues, some of whom took me at those words and those words alone, while others read the actual review I posted here on Cinematical, and for better or for worse, agree or disagree, at least understood where I was coming from.

This week, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen arrives on Blu-ray, and in the interest of thoroughness, I decided to revisit the film to see (a) how I personally felt about the film a second time, and (b) if any of the objections of its critics were explained, justified or otherwise corrected in the bonus materials. After perusing the content on both discs of the Collector's Edition Blu-ray, I'm unsure whether or not its detractors will be any more appreciative of its artistic merits; but watching it again on the small screen and augmented by the thoughts and comments of the folks responsible for the film, I at least feel as if I know where the sources of some of those problems lie.

The Thor rumors are flying fast and furious right now, which means we're due for a few big official confirmations soon. After German whispers flew that Jude Law and Robert DeNiro were part of the cast (again, not confirmed), Movieline is reporting that Dominic Cooper might be joining Thor as part of the Warriors Three.

The Warrior's Three are gods of Asgard, and frequent companions of Thor. They're not based in Nordic mythology like Thor, but drawn purely from the fellows you'd meet in medieval literature or old Hollywood's version of the Dark Ages. You have Fandral, the noble and dashing ladies man , Hogun the grim and fierce, and Volstagg the valiant and cheerful. They go on sturdy, manly adventures together against villains big and small, and undoubtedly do a lot of feasting, drinking, and wenching afterward. They're more than just thinly drawn supporting characters, and if they get a lot of screen time in the movie, they'll be a welcome balance to Thor's bombastic ways.

Cooper let slip that he was "approached" for the part of Fandral, though he stressed that nothing was signed and official. He strikes me as a little young for Fandral (he's a god, but he's seen and done some stuff), and not nearly dashing enough. But hey, one girl's "He seems nice" is another's suave and swashbuckling, so your opinion may very. He's certainly a good actor, which means more in the long run, and is such a reassuring glimpse into how seriously Kenneth Branagh is taking Thor.