Amalgamated Zen

Who Ya Gonna Call...GhostBusters 3

In a conversation with MTV news Harold Ramis has confirmed a new Ghostbusters movie is in the works. The Original cast is expected to reprise their roles with their characters becoming "sage mentors" to new a new team, in a passing of the proton packs to a new generation of Ghostbusters.
Though the first draft of the script is apparently still in the works, Judd Apatow is signed on as at least a producer so thus far the casting rumors have been hovering around members of the "Apatowverse" Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen being tapped to take up the fight.
Taking into consideration the track records of the parties involved, I believe this will be a worthy sequel/reboot of the franchise and I'm actually enthused about this project coming together.
What do you think?

Simon Pegg's a weasel

Don't worry... this isn't a slanderous attack on Simon. Quite the contrary. British actor Simon Pegg has confirmed that he is part of the cast for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs which is due out in July of this year. Pegg, who joins original actors Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, and Ray Romano along with Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott and Josh Peck from the second installation, will be voicing the character Buck. As Pegg describes him, "Buck is a one-eyed, swashbuckling weasel who's personality is reminiscent of Captain Ahab". Most of Pegg's movies are oriented towards the older audience, but the funny-man wants to do something a little more family friendly so his child (due in June) along with his nieces can see what exactly he does. And if that means being a weasel, it's a good start.

Box Office Hits & Misses

The fans have spoken and the box office tells their story! Nic Cage's new movie Knowing sits at the top of the box office bringing in $24.6 million in the opening weekend. The anticipated film, directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) is all ready half-way to budget and still has plenty of time in theaters. Following another dismal weekend for a movie that was so highly anticipated, it seems that word-of-mouth has failed The Watchmen. The movie brought in a mere $6.8 million this weekend bringing it's gross box office to $98.1 million... still significantly short of the $130 million it cost to make. Meanwhile in comparison, the movie Taken which cost 30 million Euros ($40.6 million) has grossed $133 million in seven weeks out and Tim Burton's Coraline has grossed $73 million in six weeks for a movie that cost $35 million to make.

Watchmen sinking fast?

After having a ground-breaking opening weekend with $55.2 million, Watchmen struggled throughout the week and into the weekend and has only raked in another $31 million with $18 million coming in over the weekend. And while it still sits in a comfortable second at the current box office, if the movie continues to drop off at this rate, trying to break even at $130 million will be more of a challenge than producers would have hoped. The highly anticipated movie opened with a bang, but word of mouth seems to have failed this movie. From my experience, the movie was good, but not great and if it passes budget, it won't be by much. The movie started slow and when it picked up, only hit a few points I felt should have had more focus. It was a good attempt, but for me it falls short.

Star Wars Live-Action TV Series Casting Underway

Good news or bad news for Star Wars fans. Depending on how you feel about the three previously released live action prequels, Episodes 1-3 and the current animated Clone Wars series, casting has now officially begun for the live action sequel/prequel Star Wars tv series.
The series is to be set between Episode 3 "Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4 "A New Hope". The series will serve as a bridge between the two series featuring secondary characters and focusing on the Rebel Alliance. So while we can expect to see Storm Troopers, No Jedi, new or old will be on hand, including Darth Vader...for now...and depending on story arcs and and of course the almighty ratings.
Personally the series concept appeals to me for this type of project. I enjoyed the prequel films overall, especially the birth of the empire aspect so I fairly stoked to witness the birth of the Alliance. I've also watched and enjoyed most of the animated Clone Wars episodes, which feature the Clone Troopers as much as the Jedi. This to me bodes well for the series.
What do you think?  
Follow the link below to the MTV moviesblog post.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Star Wars’ Live-Action TV Series Casting Underway

Posted using ShareThis

Academy "Awards"

In a surprising turn of events, which no one saw coming, Slumdog Millionaire practically swept the Oscars last night with eight awards including "Best Picture". Oh wait, everyone knew that was going to happen. The movie has been an unstoppable force - it had a limited release in November 2008 but quickly became a popular movie that it moved to a wide release on 22JAN09 - and since then has critical acclaim and won just about every award available. The other surprise award was for late actor Heath Ledger who won an Oscar for his dark performance as the Joker in Dark Knight.... wait, that wasn't a surprise either. And while Ledger's performance as the Joker was brilliant, almost perfect (I never would have guessed he could act)... you have to wonder if people are just handing him the awards because he passed away and not because of the actual talent he showed. Because it seems that if he had lived, while he may have added one more nomination for the Dark Knight (which had far fewer than it deserved), I doubt he would have actually won the award. Which is my problem with these award shows and the people who organize and vote for them. Movies like Gran Torino, which could easily be one of the greatest movies ever, never nominated. It's sad really. But hey... at least Slumdog Millionaire won.

Questionable Movie Decisions

With the upcoming release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, one begins to wonder at what point did this script seem like a good idea. The new Street Fighter film will focus on Kristin Kreuk's version of Chun-Li... but don't worry, Jean-Claude Van Damme won't be in it. However, like the first movie, the directors instead choose to focus on the wrong character. For those that ever played the video game or remember the old anime cartoon, Street Fighter was about Ryu - who had a minor role in the first film and doesn't appear in this new one. Following Street Fighter will be the release of Dragonball Evolution this spring. Now while this movie looks a little more promising than Street Fighter, it honestly looks questionable, in particular, Justin Chatwin's casting as Goku (Canadian/Asian... same difference). And finally we come to this summers release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra which looks rough because it's been largely modernized. G.I. Joe is more of a period piece and may very well be over done with the overly modernized technology. While the cast list in all three movies features some rather impressive names in the major roles, it seems as though the filmmakers thought the names would be enough to carry these films while leaving the story on the shaky side. If everyone's lucky, they won't be complete flops like Super Mario Bros. (Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper), Double Dragon (Mark Dacascos, Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick) or Street Fighter (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia).... it might be a stretch, but one can hope.

Jason Vorhees Slashes the Competition

The ever indestructible Jason Vorhees is back slicing and dicing his way to the top of the box office for the weekend beginning on Friday 13th. With an opening 4 day weekend total over $43M, Jason easily slaughters the competition, nearly doubling up on the RomCom He's Just Not That Into You. The real test for this re-imagining will come this weekend based on actual reviews and word of mouth, and without the gimmick of an opening on a holiday weekend corresponding with the film's title.

Stars defend Bale

Hollywood stars Terry Crews and Whoopi Goldberg are among the few defending Christian Bale after a tape was released recently in which Bale lets loose an angry tirade against Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut. Hurlbut apparently walked on set twice, while Bale was in the middle of filming different scenes for his new movie Terminator: Salvation distracting the actor. An angered Bale flipped out and tore into the DP and even asked Director "McG" to fire him. Maybe it's just me, but even if you are DP on a film, if you want to make changes you either wait to the scene is finished or you address it with the director. Seeing as this isn't Bale's first film, it's apparent he expects the same thing.

What If Casting: Star Trek

Star Trek Casting That Almost Happened
It's fun to learn what actors might have taken certain roles, but didn't. Here are some of the biggest Hollywood stars who were almost cast in Star Trek.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/506199/star_trek_casting_that_almost_happened.html