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Brad Peyton Takes On San Andreas 3D – The Journey 2 helmer may make the earth move

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With Hollwod’s fascination with 3D at the moment, it’s almost surprising it’s taken until now for someone to come forward with the idea of making an earthquake based disaster epic in three-dimensions (if you ignore Brad Bird’s long stalled film about the 1908 San Francisco quake). However now New Line is developing San Andreas 3D, which will rip apart the famous California fault line and cause some major mayhem.

THR reports that Journey 2 helmer Brad Peyton has just been hired to direct the movie, adding it to a slate that already includes a third Journey movie (which is likely to take a trip to the moon) and a live-action film based on the DC Comics character Lobo. Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore wrote the San Andreas script, with Allan Loeb (Rock of Ages, The Dilemma, Just Go With It) brought in to do a re-write. The film will have a budget of approximately $100 million.

Earthquake films always have the potential to be fun, but Warner and New Line seem to be betting big on Peyton being a major new talent. While Journey 2 hit is big, it’s still early to say whether Peyton can follow that up with more successes.

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WIN! The Courier On DVD! – Copies of the Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Mickey Rourke flicks to win

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The Courier hits DVD on June 11th courtesy of Entertainment One, and we’ve got three copies of the action-packed DVD to give away in this competition!

The film stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, The Resident), Josie Ho (Contagion) and Mickey Rourke (The Expendables, Iron Man 2, The Wrestler) and comes from the writers of Wanted, 2 Fast 2 Furious and 3:10 to Yuma and the Executive Producer of Haywire and Limitless.

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad (the Oscar nominated Paradise Now), The Courier sees Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a man offered a million bucks to deliver a briefcase, but what’s the catch? It needs to be delivered to an elusive killer (Rourke) who is so feared that the entire Underworld trembles at the mention of his name. Morgan’s courier is the best there is, and with the life of his family held to ransom, there’s no way he’s missing this drop.

If you’d like to try and win one of the three copies of The Courier we’ve got to give away, sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on June 16th, 2012, so get answering and good luck!

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Blackthorn (Blu-ray) – What if Butch Cassidy survived?

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Ever wondered what exactly happened at the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? You see our two heroes running towards a wall of bullets and certain death – but what if one of them actually survived? That’s the idea behind Blackthorn, in which the great Sam Shepard plays Butch Cassidy, who made it through the bullets and is now living his live in a tiny Bolivian village under the name Blackthorn.

In classic Western style, Blackthorn decides this sleepy existence is not enough, and he wants to see his family again before he dies, so sets off on a classic road trip. However, shortly after setting off, he has a calamitous run-in with Noriega’s Spanish engineer Eduardo, who’s pinched $50,000 from greedy mine owners.

Blackthorn – now depleted off his savings which headed off on the back of a runaway horse – insists Eduardo pay him back by retrieving the loot from its hiding place in an old mine.

Director Mateo Gil, who co-wrote Open Your Eyes, The Sea Inside and Agora, neatly resuscitates Butch’s old quandary – the reluctant outlaw hunted down by implacable bounty hunters – and even brings back the Pinkerton “man in the hat” from 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the form of Stephen Rea’s sozzled lawman.

However, what really grabs the attention are cinematographer JA Ruiz Anchia’s staggeringly beautiful Bolivian vistas, the riotously colourful backdrop against which Blackthorn tries to outrun his pursuers. Shepard is superb as Blackthorn, his weather-beaten face belying his youthful grip on life.

Miguel Barros’ script (much of which is in Spanish) is intriguing, playing a number of cards close to its chest until the final act. It also throws in some enjoyable riffs on George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, echoing lines and situations as well as elements of Paul Newman’s performance.

Overall verdict: For western fans this is a treat, with stunning cinematography, a solid script and great central performance at its heart.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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You Only Live Once (DVD) – Fritz Lang’s classic gets a 75th anniversary release

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Fritz Lang was arguably the greatest director of his era, but his career was cut in half by the outbreak of the Second World War, and when he fled Nazi Germany – having turned down a job as head of Nazi propaganda – his second career began. You Only Live Once was his second American movie. Henry Fonda plays an ex-convict who can’t get a break on the ‘outside’, and marries Sidney, who like her husband is one of life’s losers.

When Fonda’s hat is found at the scene of a robbery gone bad, he is forced to hit the road, with his wife and baby in tow. In trying to avoid capture, Fonda becomes a murderer for real, condemning himself and Sidney to an early demise. Partly based on the legend of Bonnie and Clyde, this remains one of his greatest and earliest forays into the twisted mechanics of guilt vs. innocence and fate vs. free will.

Several stunning set pieces pepper You Only Live Once, with a gas grenade attack at a bank robbery taking top honours. A brief exchange at one point sees a character romanticizing them, saying that Eddie and Joan are “probably hiding somewhere, having a swell time.” Lang critiques such glorification of them by immediately cutting to a shot of them driving through an intense rainstorm, still very much on the run.

The director’s usual expressionistic touches are near the height of their intensity. Rain falls, fog swirls, and shadows impose themselves almost as insistently as Lang’s camera does. Though it is probably a lesser work, You Only Live Once is to its genre what M is to the serial killer film.

Overall verdict: It stands as a clear precursor for such revered love-on-the-run films as Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands and They Live By Night, but is perhaps better than any of them.

Special Features:
Introduction by George Wilson
Audio interview with Lang
Production takes

Reviewer: Mike Martin

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Douglas Booth & Logan Lerman Join Noah – Darren Aronofsky casts two of the title character’s sons

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It turns out the biblical Noah’s sons were pretty good looking, or at least they will be in Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic, simply titled Noah. Deadline reports that hot young actors Douglas Booth (LOL) and Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) have signed on to star in the film.

They are set to play the kids of Russell Crowe’s title character, with Douglas Booth portraying the younger Shem, and Logan Lerman starring as his older brother, Ham. Still to be cast are Noah’s nemesis (a role Liam Neeson was rumoured for, but he now seems to be out of the running), a love interest for Ham and Noah’s third son.

Back in April Jennifer Connelly was said to be in talks to play Noah’s wife. She’s still now signed up but is still a top contender for the role, but there are other candidates in the mix.

Darren Aronofsky is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ari Handel. It’s believed it will shoot later this summer.

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Ashley Tisdale Headlining Scary Movie 5 – The High School Musical star takes over the franchise

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It seems Anna Faris has had enough of the Scary Movie 5 franchise and won’t be returning, as Variety reports that Ashley Tisdale has been cast as the main lead in the latest installment in the highly anticipated, long-running franchise. It’ll start shooting this summer for release early next year.

Tisdale is probably best known for playing Sharpay Evans in High School Musical, as well as the spinoff film Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure. She also voices Candace in Phineas and Ferb and starred in the film Aliens in the Attic. Tisdale joins director Malcolm D. Lee who will be teaming up and working side by side with legendary comedy director David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun) on the movie. Zucker wrote and directed Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 and is also co-writing and producing Scary Movie 5.

The first four Scary Movies grossed over $800 million worldwide, but it’s been six years since the last one, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s still interest in the franchise when the movie is released next year.

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