Movie Muser

Have your say about cinema

David Koepp Writing Snow White and the Huntsman Sequel – With Universal hoping Rupert Sanders will direct

By

Universal must have confidence that its action fairytale flick, Snow White And The Huntsman, will be a success, as while the movie isn’t released until June 1st, Deadline reports that the studio is already in talks with screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park) to write a sequel to the revisionist tale. The word is that Universal wants to fast-track the sequel, and is trying to secure director Rupert Sanders to make it his next project.

In Snow White And The Huntsman, Kristen Stewart stars as Snow, who teams up with the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who was originally sent to kill her, so they can take down the Evil Queen (Charlize Theron) stepmother. While the film retains many elements of the original fairytale, the action and scale has been amped up significantly. The three primary actors are believed to have deals in place already to return for a follow-up.

It isn’t known when the sequel might shoot, but presuming the first film is a success, Universal wants to the sequel as soon as possible.

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Henry Selick Directing The Graveyard Book – He takes on Neil Gaiman’s novel

By

It seems stop-motion master Henry Selick (Coraline, Nightmare Before Christmas) has a new movie, as Disney has secured the rights to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book for Selick to direct, according to Deadline.

We just reported that Steve Kloves was writing and directing a live-action version of The Jungle Book for Warner Bros, and The Graveyard book gives a spooky take on the same story. However rather than being about a boy raised by wolves, this take follows a young lad who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered.

A while ago, Neil Jordan was to direct a live action version of the Newberry Award-winning novel, but now Disney and Selick have taken over the rights, with the film presumably planned as a stop-motion flick.

It may be a while until the director gets around to The Graveyard Book, as he won’t start making it until he finishes work on a top-secret movie with Pixar, which he’s currently putting together.

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (DVD) – Ethan Hunt is back and as action packed as ever

By


Tom Cruise hasn’t had a great run recently. Mission: Impossible II in 2006 was his last bona fide hit, so it’s not surprising that he was keen to return to the franchise in the hope of keeping his star shining following the likes of Lions For Lambs and Knight & Day. What’s perhaps more surprising is that it works, as this well be the best Mission yet.

Ethan Hunt is called up for a new job – breaking into the heavily fortified Kremlin in order to retrieve some information. However after having failed to get what he went in there for, the building is destroyed in a devastating explosion. The agent quickly realises that he’s been set-up so that someone else could steal sensitive info from the Russians, destroy the building and then having everything blamed on Hunt and his team. The frame job has worked though, as the IMF is being shut down and Hunt and his crew disavowed. Ethan realises his only hope is to find the man responsible for the Kremlin attack. He calls on team members Jane (Paula Patton), Benji (Simon Pegg) and the somewhat mysterious and reluctant Brandt (Jeremy Renner), to help him find out what’s going on.

Their quest takes them across the world, most notably to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, slowly uncovering a plan that will result in a devastating nuclear attack on US soil unless Ethan and his rogue team can stop it!

Although having The Incredibles and Ratatouille director Brad Bird making his live-action debut on such a high profile project was a bit of a risk, he pulls it off magnificently. Bird seems to have studied the action cinema of the late 80s and early 90s, when filmmakers had a knack of creating movies that move along at a relentless pace, so that even though there’s a faint sense that it’s all rather over the top and silly, it pulls you in with its constant kinetic energy and keeps hold of you until the satisfying if slightly cheesy conclusion. Although they’re very different films, the early sections of Ghost Protocol brought to mind the efficiency and drive of Terminator 2.

With some ace setpieces, there’s certainly no lack of action. The swooping, vertiginous camera shots as the Cruiser climbs the outside of the Burj Khalifa are wonderfully done, and you can certain see why so much of the marketing concentrated on this section of the film. To be honest the now 49-year-old Cruise is starting to look slightly oddly shaped and he still looks daft running, but it’s a role he could do in his sleep and which he knows how to hit out of the park.

While there was much talk before the film’s release about Jeremy Renner coming in as a character who’s essentially the co-lead in the movie, that’s not quite how it turned out. Renner’s Brandt is still second fiddle to Ethan Hunt, although there are plenty of hints that if Cruise decides to step away from the franchise, Renner could take over, even to the point of getting the character to mimic some of Hunt’s signature moments from earlier movies. It’s rather like in The Avengers though, where Renner isn’t the lead but creates a character you’d like to see more of.

Simon Pegg is once more the comic relief and does that with aplomb, while Paula Patton is okay in a slightly underwritten role that mainly calls on her to be sexy and suggest she’s baddass while not having to do much to prove it.

Although there was talk of this being Cruise’s swansong as Ethan Hunt, with Ghost Protocol becoming his highest grossing movie ever, it’s little surprise there’s already talk of him coming back for another go round, although we’ll have to wait and see if Renner comes along for the ride too.

The DVD release includes a couple of featurettes, one of which concentrates on the very cleverly constructed Dubai sandstorm sequence, while the other is about the film’s props. They’re both surprisingly interesting, with the latter in particular intriguing for showing how many of the stunts on the Burj Khalifa Cruise performed himself and which weren’t green screened.

Overall Verdict: Mission: Impossible is such a generic franchise that by the normal rules of Hollywood it should be on its last legs by now. But with great talent behind the camera, along with a good cast and Cruise’s goofy charm, Ghost Protocol is great fun and filled with excellent action sequences.

Special Features:
‘Impossible Missions: The Sandstorm’ Featurette
‘Impossible Missions: The Props’ Featurette
Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

The Dictator – Opening Scene – Obama doesn’t like Sacha Baron Cohen

By

I have to admit I wasn’t a big fan of Borat or Bruno, but The Dictator looks like it could be a lot of silly fun, but with a bit of a serious point to it. Now the opening scene of the movie has popped up online, which gives you a hint about what the movie is all about. The Dictator, which bizarrely enough is partially based on a book by Saddam Hussein, sees Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen of Wadiya, and tells ‘The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed’. It’s due out May 18th, 2012!

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Josh Gad Joins Steve Jobs Biopic – Playing Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

By

There were a few raised eyebrows when Ashton Kutcher was cast as Steve Job in a new independent biopic – until pictures of the two of them at the same age were compared, and it suddenly made a lot more sense. However there will probably be fewer people who’ll wonder if Book of Mormon and Love & Other Drugs star Josh Gad will be a good fit for Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Jobs and ‘Woz’ first became friends as Hewlett Packard in 1970. While Wozniak wasn’t sure about Jobs’ idea of selling computers as fully assembled, off-the-shelf bits of kit, he eventually threw his lot in and the two set up Apple in 1976. That was the beginning of a 12-year business relationship, where it’s said the duo never became close friends, but did develop a bond that remained until the end of Jobs’ life.

Joshua Michael Stern is directing Jobs, which will follow Steve from his early, hippie days, through the founding of the enormous tech giant. Shooting will begin next month. (Source: Variety)

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES:

Christina Ricci Set To Be A Naughty Smurf! – She joins the sequel as it starts production

By

Sony Animation has announced that Smurfs 2 has started production and that Christina Ricci and J.B. Smoove have been added to the cast, voicing the new Smurf-like naughty characters, Vexy and Hackus. Also up for a live-action role is Brendan Gleeson Patrick Winslow’s stepfather, Victor Doyle.

Most of the cast of the first film will be back, with Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow, Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow, Sofia Vergara as Odile, and Hank Azaria as Gargamel. On the voice side, Katy Perry is back as Smurfette, Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Alan Cumming as Gutsy, Fred Armisen as Brainy, George Lopez as Grouchy and Anton Yelchin as Clumsy; in addition, John Oliver, who took a cameo voice role as Vanity Smurf in the first film, returns to voice his now primary role.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘In this sequel to the hybrid live action/animated family blockbuster comedy The Smurfs, the evil wizard Gargamel creates a couple of mischievous Smurf-like creatures called the Naughties that he hopes will let him harness the all-powerful, magical Smurf-essence. But when he discovers that only a real Smurf can give him what he wants – and only a secret spell that Smurfette knows can turn the Naughties into real Smurfs – Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette and brings her to Paris, where he has been winning the adoration of millions as the world’s greatest sorcerer. It’s up to Papa, Clumsy, Grouchy, and Vanity to return to our world, reunite with their human friends Patrick and Grace Winslow, and rescue her! Will Smurfette, who has always felt different from the other Smurfs, find a new connection with the Naughties Vexy and Hackus – or will the Smurfs convince her that their love for her is True Blue?’

Raja Gosnell is directing with a release date already set for July 31st, 2013.

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARCHIVES: