Thursday, October 30, 2008

Iron Man 2 in April 2010



Iron Man 2Emboldened by the recent success of the first Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Marvel has given its green light to a second Iron Man movie (there are even talks about making a third movie).

Iron Man should reprise most of the initial cast, Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow, under the direction of Jon Favreau. The Iron Man sequel is slated for an release at the end of April 2010.

No official synopsis has been unveiled yet. But some tracks are likely for Iron Man 2:

- a first job with
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in a struggle against some evil mastermind, before getting more involved in the Avengers initiative in an other movie: indeed, if you waited for the end credits of Iron Man you may have seen Nick Fury making an offer to Iron Man.

- the
Mandarin: he is Iron Man's nemesis and the leader of Ten Rings, the secret organization we've already had a glimpse of in the first Iron Movie (The Afghan terrorist was indeed wearing the ring of the evil group).

-
Demon in a bottle: in the comic book Tony Stark vainly strives to cope with his guiltness of selling weapons in the past and is depressed after loosing Pepper Potts who fell in love with an other man. So Iron Man 2 could dwell on this darker side of Marvel's superhero.But it may not be attractive enough for the marketing team... Besides Jon Favreau would have asserted that such a theme has already be done in Hancock.

-
War Machine: In Iron Man 2, Don Cheadle (who is replacing Terrence Howard because the guy was to greedy for Marvel), in the role of Jim Rhodes Tony Stark's friend and pilot, may get a wider role as War Machine, giving a hand to a temporarily weakened Iron Man.

Mostly speculations for now but details about the plot of Iron Man 2 should leak out in a not too distant future. But maybe you have a suggestion to Marvel and Jon Favreau about Iron Man 2?

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Max Payne

Max Payne

Theaterical release poster
Directed by John Moore
Produced by John Moore
Scott Faye
Julie Yorn
Written by Beau Thorne
Sam Lake
Starring Mark Wahlberg
Mila Kunis
Beau Bridges
Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Music by Marco Beltrami
Buck J. Sanders
Metsuo[1]
Cinematography Jonathan Sela
Editing by Dan Zimmerman
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) Australia:
October 16, 2008
United States:
October 17, 2008
United Kingdom:
November 14, 2008
Running time 100 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $35 million [2]
Gross revenue $38.2 million

Monday, October 27, 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Death Race (film)

Death Race is an action film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. The film is a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000, based on Ib Melchior's short story "The Racer", and stars Jason Statham in the lead role. The remake had been in development since 2002, though production was delayed by disapproval of early screenplays then placed in turnaround following a dispute between Paramount Pictures and the producer duo Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Death Race was acquired by Universal Studios, and Anderson re-joined the project to write and direct. Filming began in Montreal in August 2007, and the completed project was released on August 22, 2008.

[edit] Plot
Within four years from 2008 the economy of the United States has fallen into disaster, Unemployment and crime rises, and private corporations run most prisons across the nation for profit. The movie focuses on the Terminal Island Prison, which broadcast "Death Race" to the world via a popular paysite on internet. Death Race is not only a race to the finish line, but a battle pitting car against car.
The film begins by showing a race near its end between Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) and a famous masked driver known as Frankenstein (David Carradine in a cameo appearance), who is accompanied by a female navigator. Frank's defensive systems fail, and Joe destroys Frank's car (his navigator ejects), presumably leaving Frankenstein critically wounded, or dead.
Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) is framed for his wife's murder on the same day that the steel mill he works at closes; the murderer is actually a masked intruder that points a finger-gun at Ames as he leaves. Ames is sent to prison where he is coerced by the sadistic prison warden, Hennessey (Joan Allen) to become the new driver of Frankenstein's Ford Mustang. She tells Ames that she knows of his baby that was left in foster care, and that prisoners are freed upon winning five Death Races, but since he will take on the mask of the legendary Frankenstein, who had 4 wins at the time of his death, he will only need to win one race. The races are broken apart into three stages: Stage 1 and 2 are races in which the driver must survive, and Stage 3 you must win the race in order for it to add to the count towards freedom.
Just before the Stage 1 Race, Ames is introduced to his navigator, Case (Natalie Martinez), who happens to be Frankenstein's previous navigator. During the race, Ames see another driver, Pachenko, make the same hand gesture as the intruder that killed his wife. Three drivers are killed during Stage 1: Siad, Grimm, and Travis Colt. Ames finishes last after taking a hard hit from Machine Gun Joe.
Ames learns he is part of a plot to keep the legend of Frankenstein alive, solely for the personal profit of Hennessey. He confronts Hennessey about the driver, but instead she shows him pictures of his baby living with foster parents, asking him if he thinks he could provide for his baby better than the foster parents. Angered, he takes one of the pictures and leaves. The night before Stage 2 he makes a trip to the garage of Pachenko's team to confront him. He is beaten down by a few members of the team but is helped by a member of his garage allowing Ames to retaliate and nearly kill Pachenko. His revenge is thwarted by the prison guards telling them to save it for the race.
Ames goes into the Stage 2 race and immediately questions Case on her intentions. She tells him she was ordered to sabotage Frankenstein's defense weapons so he would not win his freedom, and thereby earn her own. Ames realizes he is not meant to survive the Death Race at all, but is meant to die so another "Frankenstein" can be brought into the prison to keep viewers paying to see the races. He seeks revenge during Stage 2 by crippling and rolling Pachenko's car allowing him to turn around drive back and to get revenge up close and personal by snapping Pachenko's neck as he crawls away from the car wreck. Five drivers remain until 14K, Carson, and Riggins are killed by 'The Dreadnought', Hennessy's secret weapon, the Dreadnaught, (an 18 wheel tank truck filled with massive machine guns) that had been in production for months. Ames and Machine Gun Joe are able to destroy The Dreadnought and finish Stage 2. Realizing that Ames knows what's going on, Hennessey has Ames' car armed with an explosive before the Stage 3 Race as insurance to make sure he does not cross the finish line alive. However, Ames devises his own scheme from an image shown by one of his crew members of a destroyed billboard in an earlier race, and tells Joe that he and Frankenstein should talk.
The Stage 3 Race begins with only two drivers remaining: "Frankenstein" and Machine Gun Joe. The race begins, and Ames soon takes the lead. However, the odds are against Ames as Hennessey rigs the track to benefit Joe. Throughout the entire lap, Joe keeps hot on Ames' tail, and as they near the beginning of the second lap, Joe preps newly added missiles and fires an RPG in Ames' direction. However, they seem to miss the car and instead hit the billboard at the first turn of the track. It is shown that the image Ames saw was a pathway to the bridge leading off the island to the mainland behind the destroyed billboard.
Ames and Joe escape onto the bridge, pursued by police cruisers and helicopters. As the cruisers close in on the two cars, Ames releases his exposed fuel tank, causing it to explode and stop the pursuing cars. Turning to her back up plan, Hennessey then orders that the explosive under Ames' car be set off, but nothing happens because Coach (Ames' crew member) had found, removed, and deactivated the bomb prior to the start of the race. Escaping past the bridge, Joe and Ames separate, and Hennessey orders the helicopters to focus on Ames, but he switches seats with Case when she tells him that Hennessey had already signed her release papers for her work, and that she owed one to the old Frankenstein. He jumps from the car leading the helicopters to believe he is still inside. Joe meets up with Ames and they board a train to escape, lamenting on Hennessey's continued existence. Soon, Ames' Mustang is stopped and "Frankenstein" is apprehended.
Later, Hennessey believes she still won after all, as a guard notifies her about presents sent to her for the record number of viewers subscribing to the Death Race. However, the explosive that was put on the Frankenstein car is inside, and Coach blows them up.
Six months later, Ames and Joe are shown working in a junkyard in Mexico, when Case unexpectedly arrives. The two men are happy to see her, and Case meets Ames' baby, Piper. The movie closes with Ames explaining that even though he knows he's far from being the best parent in the world, no one could love his baby more than he could.

[edit] Cast
Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, a prisoner coerced to drive in the arena, becoming known as Frankenstein.[1][2]
Tyrese Gibson as "Machine Gun Joe" Joseph Mason, a sociopathic racer who looks to escape from prison and has a habit of killing his navigators.[2]
Joan Allen as Hennessey, the sadistic prison warden.[2]
Jason Clarke as Ulrich, Hennesey's right hand man
Ian McShane as Coach, Frankenstein's loyal mechanic.[2]
Natalie Martinez as Elizabeth Jayne Case, Frankenstein's navigator.[3]
Jacob Vargas as Gunner, Ames car repair man.
Fredrick Koehler as Lists, another member of Ames's pit crew and a bit of a nerd
Robert LaSardo as Grimm, a certified psychopath taking part in the race
Justin Mader as Travis Colt, a disgraced ex-NASCAR driver seeking to rebuild his career by winning the race
Robin Shou as 14K, another contestant and tenth-generation Triad
Max Ryan as Pachenko, a rival driver Ames clashes with several times
John Fallon as Neo Nazi, one of the thugs in Pachenko's gang
David Carradine as Frankenstein in the beginning of the film (voice over)age rate:12 yrs old

[edit] Production
In March 2002, director Paul W.S. Anderson revealed that he was directing a remake of Death Race 2000 (1975) entitled Death Race 3000 at Paramount Pictures based on a script by J. F. Lawton. The remake would be produced by the producer pair Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. Anderson described the remake as a riff on the first film. "It's not a straight remake at all. The first movie was an across-America race. This will be an around-the-world race. And it's set further in the future, so the cars are even more futuristic. So you've got cars with rockets, machine guns, force fields; cars that can split apart and re-form, a bit like Transformers. Cars that become invisible," the director explained.[4] Two years later, Roger Corman, the producer of Death Race 2000, elaborated that he had an option agreement with producer Tom Cruise, and that Cruise would portray the lead role. The director said that Cruise had not been happy with the first two screenplays and that a third one was underway.[5] In June 2006, producer Jeremy Bolt reported that Anderson would direct the remake of Death Race 2000 after completing Resident Evil: Extinction (2007). The producer described the remake's new tone: "We've basically taken the idea of reality television and extended it twenty years. So it's definitely a comment on society, and particularly reality television, but it is not as much a parody or a satire as the original. It's more straight."[6] The following August, Paramount ended its relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions, and Death Race was placed in turnaround. According to reports, when the project was discovered available, Universal Studios acquired it. Cruise and Wagner resumed their roles as producers, and Anderson returned to write and direct the film.[7]
In April 2007, actor Jason Statham entered negotiations to star in Death Race, with production slated to begin in late summer or early fall.[7] Anderson described that Death Race would take place in a prison, and that the film would be "super-violent" like its predecessor. "It has little echoes of the original – a lot of people get run down, but rather than having the points system, which had no pay off anyway, it’s a pure race. It’s more like Gladiator, with the last person standing – or driving, winning," explained the director.[8] Filming on Death Race began in Montreal in August 2007.[2]

[edit] Release
The film was originally scheduled for release on September 26, 2008, but was moved to August 22.[9]

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Bangkok Dangerous (2008 film)

Bangkok Dangerous is a 2008 crime film written and directed by the Pang Brothers and starring Nicolas Cage. It is a remake of the Pangs' 1999 debut film of the same name, a Thai film for which Cage's production company, Saturn Films, purchased the remake rights.[2] Known by its working title, Big Hit in Bangkok,[3] and also as Time to Kill, it began filming in Bangkok in August 2006, with locations that include Soi Cowboy.[4][5]
The film was financed by Initial Entertainment Group, with Lionsgate acquiring its North America distribution rights.[6]


Plot
Hitman Joe (Nicolas Cage) goes to Bangkok for a month-long assignment, to kill four people for Bangkok ganglord Surat.
He hires pickpocket Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) as his go-between, a condition of the contract being that the gang will never meet Joe. Contracts from the Bangkok gangsters go through Kong via a nightclub dancer, who becomes romantically involved with Kong.
Joe's first execution is done in traffic with him riding a bike and stopping in front of the car. He then shoots the target and everyone in the car with an machine pistol. His second target is a hotel owner. Joe sneaks into the penthouse and kills the target by drowning him in the pool.
Originally he plans to kill Kong before he leaves but after Kong gives him information about the second target he begins to train Kong. For the third execution Kong assists Joe, the kill does not go as planned, with the target nearly getting away before Joe catches him and shoots him after a chase in front of many shocked onlookers. Before the third kill the gang attempt to identify Joe, he warns them off.
His fourth target is the Prime Minister of Thailand. Joe is about to make the kill when he has second thoughts, is spotted, and escapes through a panicking crowd. Joe is now a target and is attacked at his house by four gang members. He manages to use explosives to take them out and is faced with the choice of rescuing Kong or leaving the country unharmed. Joe decides to rescue Kong, so he sets off to the gang's headquarters with one of the half-alive attackers who was injured in the explosion at Joe's safe house.
Joe goes to the gang's headquarters, kills most of the gang and saves Kong and the dancer. The fearful gang leader flees to his car with three other accomplices. Joe spots him and shoots the gang members at the front of the car dead. After one of the gang in back of the car attempts to run to safety, Joe kills him. Joe gets into the back seat with Surat, the gang leader.
As the police arrive at the location, Joe is again in a difficult situation; he decides to use what is believed to be his last remaining bullet to kill himself by putting both his and Surat's heads together. Joe then puts the gun up to his temple and pulls the trigger, killing himself and Surat.

[edit] Production
The original film's main character is a deaf-mute hitman whose disability makes him a fearless, unflinching gunman. That character has been changed in the remake.
"We'd like to keep him the same, but we understand that from a marketing point of view Nic needs to have some lines," Oxide was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune. "So what we’re going to do is transform his girlfriend instead into a deaf-mute. This switch will maintain the drama of communication between the two main characters."[7]


Bangkok Dangerous

Directed by
The Pang Brothers
Produced by
Norman GolightlyGraham KingWilliam SherakJason Shuman
Written by
The Pang BrothersJason Richman
Narrated by
Nicolas Cage
Starring
Nicolas CageCharlie YeungChakrit Yamnam
Music by
Brian Tyler
Cinematography
Decha Srimantra
Editing by
Micheal JacksonCurran Pang
Distributed by
Initial Entertainment Group(all countries except North America)Lionsgate (North America)
Release date(s)
September 5, 2008[1]
Running time
100 min.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Saturday, October 11, 2008

bangkok dangerous

Directors:Oxide Pang ChunDanny Pang
Writers (WGA):Jason Richman (screenplay)Oxide Pang Chun (1999 film)more
Release Date:5 September 2008 (USA) more
Genre:Action Crime Thriller more
Tagline:There's only one way out. more
Plot:A hitman who's in Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs falls for a local woman and bonds with his errand boy.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Dark Knight

Director:Christopher Nolan
Writers (WGA):Jonathan Nolan (screenplay) andChristopher Nolan (screenplay) ...more
Release Date:18 July 2008 (USA) more
Genre:Action Crime Thriller more
Tagline:Why So Serious? more
Plot:Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits.