Amalgamated Zen

Jessica Biel, "Professional Stripper"

Calm down, calm down! It's not entirely true... well at least not now. Biel, who had to learn how to work the pole for her part in Powder Blue, is apparently so convincing, that her dance coach has suggested that if Biel's career in Hollywood dries up, she has an alternate career path. For now, we'll just have to settle for watching her part in Powder Blue (due out in limited theaters on 08MAY09 and DVD release on 09JUNE09) and we'll be the judges of her talent. For now, here are some stills to whet your whistle.

A New Darko Story...

"Donnie Darko", the movie from 2001 that became a cult classic, has spawned a sequel - a straight to video sequel due out July 2009. The movie which spurred actor Jake Gyllenhaal's career has somehow warranted a sequel... which stars none of the original cast - save for Daveigh Chase who is reprising her role as Samantha Darko(albeit 7 years later). The movie "S. Darko" follows Samantha as she deals with her brother's death and the fact that her family is falling apart. She leaves her family with a friend to straighten out her life and along the way has visions of the end of the universe and learns that she isn't really a Darko. Now while Donnie Darko was an absolutely fantastic movie, it in no way, warrants a sequel. It was cut and dry, one take and finished. But to have a sequel, with a plot like this, along with being straight to video, I don't see good things happening. And I don't need someone in a giant rabbit suit to tell me that!

Wanna Write for Marvel?

Following the incredible success of Iron Man which earned over $500 million worldwide, Marvel Entertainment is taking a page out of the Disney play book and assembling a team of new writers to develop scripts for their vast stable of characters.
Emphasis will be placed on the second and third tier Heros such as such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and  the Vision, with the hope of catching Iron Man type lightning in a bottle.
Marvel will be bringing in up to five writers each year to work on specific projects under a fellowship program similar to the one Disney has been running since 1990. They will be paid an annual salary that is estimated to be twice the $50K Disney is paying with Marvel owning the rights to what they've written over the course of the year.
Time to start firing up the spec scripts.

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.

Moon Bloodgood to get "Burned"

With Tricia Helfer's departure at the season 2 finale of Burn Notice (pause for a moment of silence), Jeffery Donovan's character Michael Westen is going to need a new antagonist. Enter Moon Bloodgood. The Terminator: Salvation starlet is stepping in to replace Jennifer Esposito who was cast as a Miami Detective trying to discover the real Michael Westen - Esposito is said to have dropped out for health concerns, though the exact nature wasn't given. Production for the third season of Burn Notice started last week.

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

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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.