Week of « Prev | Next »
20 articles
Twisted Pictures Are Overcome With Sorrow
8 November 2009 5:08 AM, PST
According to reports, Twisted Pictures, the 7-year old Los Angeles-based producers of the 6-picture, Toronto-lensed Saw movies and the upcoming remake of Scanners, are developing the Image Comics' graphic novel Sorrow as a feature film. Writer Michael Hildalgo will adapt the new screenplay from stories created by writers Rick Remender/Seth Peck and illustrator Francesco Francavilla. Focusing on 'spirit possession', Sorrow is a ghost story about two young girls that get trapped in a town "where nothing is at it seems", following a car crash on a rural road... »
Canadian New Media Awards- December 1
8 November 2009 3:56 AM, PST
The Canadian New Media Awards (CNMAs), Canada's only national competition celebrating accomplishments by the country's digital media companies, has announced this year.s nominees in 19 different award categories. As part of nextMEDIA Toronto, Canada's leading digital media production/development marketplace, the CNMAs gala takes place December 1st, 2009 at the Toronto Design Exchange. New categories introduced this year include Best Online Video Portal, Best Mobile Application and Brand of the Year. "As Canada.s only nationwide new media competition of its kind, we.re proud of the achievements that this country.s innovators have to offer," said Mark Greenspan, Executive Producer, nextMEDIA. The event will be a four-part affair comprised of a pre-awards showcase, cocktail reception, awards ceremony and after party... »
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark on Broadway
7 November 2009 6:43 AM, PST
Rock singer/actor Reeve Carney will play 'Peter Parker' in the upcoming Spider-Man musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, featuring the first stage characterization of the Marvel Comics' villain, the 'Green Goblin'. The $40 million production will open on Broadway in 2010 @ New York City's Hilton Theatre, currently under extensive renovation to accommodate the planned web-swinging stunts, directed by Julie "The Lion King" Taymor. Music/lyrics for Spider-Man is by U2's Bono and The Edge. Carney, who has appeared in several films including Taymor's upcoming adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is the lead singer of the band 'Carney'. Spider-Man cast also includes Alan Cumming as 'Norman Osborn', aka the 'Green Goblin' and Evan Rachel Wood as 'Mary Jane Watson', Parker's girlfriend. »
Clap For The Wolfman
6 November 2009 4:09 PM, PST
Inspired by the classic 1940's feature, Universal Pictures' The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins February 12, 2010. Set in the late 1880's, the film keeps the plotline of the original classic, following 'Lawrence Talbot' (Benicio del Toro) reuniting with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) following the disappearance of his brother. The film then details events during Lawrence's past that led to his conflict with his father as he hunts for a murderer, which turns out to be a werewolf. Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek The Wolfman... »
CBS Is Game For Ghost Whisperer
6 November 2009 3:57 PM, PST
The CBS consumer products division has announced plans to collaborate with a variety of game publishers for eight new video game titles based on current and past TV series, including The Amazing Race, Survivor, Criminal Minds, Diagnosis Murder, The Ghost Whisperer and The Hollywood Squares. Ubisoft previously developed CSI video games. Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek The Ghost Whisperer, a MadTV parody and Ubisoft's CSI teaser... »
Abrams Toys With Hasbro's Micronauts
5 November 2009 9:18 AM, PST
Director J.J. "Star Trek" Abrams is interested in producing a film adaptation of the Japanese action figure line 'Micronauts', recently acquired by toy maker Hasbro. Debuting in Japan in 1974, the plastic/metal 'Micronaut' 3.75 inch action figures were released in North America by the Mego Corporation. Pallisades Toys picked up the toy line in 2002, following a succession of Micronauts comic books published by Marvel, Image and Devil's Due Publishing. According to the first Marvel comic book, the Micronauts originate in the 'Microverse, a microscopic series of habitats linked together in the fashion of molecule chains. The original team comes together in response to the threat posed by former academic and now dictator, 'Baron Karza'. 'Commander Arcturus Rann' (returning from a thousand-year deep space voyage in suspended animation) and 'Biotron', his robot co-pilot, land on the 'Hms' (Homeworld Micro Ship) "Endeavor," to discover Karza has removed the royal family, who are Rann's parents. »
Goyer Gears Up For Ghost Rider 2
5 November 2009 8:18 AM, PST
Writer/director David "Blade" Goyer is drafting a screenplay for Marvel's Ghost Rider 2, following the 2007 feature's worldwide box office take of $228,738,393. Oscar-winner, actor Nic "Face/Off" Cage will return as flaming skull-head biker 'Johnny Blaze', a stunt motorcyclist who is cursed into becoming a demon vigilante. Cage wants to evolve the character into a 'darker' persona for the next go-round. Goyer said the new film will not be a 'reboot', but a serious sequel, picking up eight years after the first film, somewhere in an "existential place." In the first movie, Cage rode a Buell motorcycle for Blaze's stunt cycle and a customized hardtail chopper named 'Grace' that morphed into the 'Hell Cycle'. The 'Ghost Rider' character first appeared in the Marvel comic book "Marvel Spotlight" #5 (Aug. 1972), created by writer/editor Roy Thomas, writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog, which led to numerous Marvel Comics series and character cross-overs. »
Jennifer Beals: The Night Before The Night Before Christmas
5 November 2009 6:33 AM, PST
Actress Jennifer "Flashdance" Beals, the former star of Vancouver-lensed The L Word, is back in Canada to headline the Toronto-filmed, Hallmark Channel original movie The Night Before The Night Before Christmas. The family film focuses on 'Santa Claus' who accidentally leaves the North Pole a day early, only to crash-land on a family's roof. Currently shooting in Toronto, the film is set to premiere in 2010 on the Hallmark Channel... »
Hopkins Is Hemingway
5 November 2009 5:59 AM, PST
Actor/producer/director Andy "Godfather 3" Garcia has signed actor Anthony "Silence Of The Lambs" Hopkins and Annette "Bugsy" Bening to star with him in Hemingway and Fuentes, based on a screenplay Garcia wrote with Hemingway's grand daughter Hilary. The drama will follow the last 20 years of the Nobel/Pulitzer prize winning author, living in Cuba, fishing giant marlin aboard his modified, 34-foot Wheeler Playmate craft 'El Pilar', with his best friend, boat captain 'Gregorio Fuentes'. During that time, Hemingway fell in love with an Italian woman, inspiring him to write the classic short novel The Old Man and the Sea. Garcia will play Fuentes and Bening will play the author's third wife, 'Mary Welsh Hemingway'. Fuentes, who died at the age of 104, as opposed to Hemingway, who died at the age of 61, was the inspiration for the character 'Santiago', the protagonist in "The Old Man and the Sea". Hemingway met »
Sony Takes A Calculated Risk
5 November 2009 5:55 AM, PST
Sony Pictures have acquired motion picture rights to the Hasbro board game Risk. According to Columbia Pictures' Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, the film will be produced/developed by Hasbro.s Brian Goldner, Bennett Schneir and Overbrook Entertainment's James Lassiter. Risk invented in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse as 'La Conquête du Monde' (The Conquest of the World) was published in the Us in 1959 as the first board game to offer 'nonlinear movement'. The 'turn-based' game for two to six players is played on a board depicting a stylised Napoleonic-era political map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, grouped into six continents. Players control armies with which they attempt to capture territories from other players. The primary object of the game is "world domination," or "to occupy every territory on the board and in so doing, eliminate all other players..." »
Emmerich Developing 2013 TV Series
4 November 2009 5:07 PM, PST
According to reports, producer/director Roland Emmerich is developing a TV version of 2012, the upcoming Vancouver-lensed disaster picture. The new show, titled 2013 is in development with Mark "Grey's Anatomy" Gordon attached as executive producer. Emmerich said the show will be set in 2013, focusing on the planet's survivors, attempting to resettle the earth after the world-shaking events of 2012. He said that 2012 the movie addresses the varied reactions people have in the face of disaster, who should survive, how to carry on and what parts of our culture do we save. Click on the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek 2012... »
More Drama For CW's Gossip Girl
4 November 2009 6:34 AM, PST
The Us-based 'Parents Television Council' have issued a statement to the CW Network regarding an upcoming episode of the drama series Gossip Girl. "...By now you must be aware of reports in 'Entertainment Weekly' and elsewhere that the November 9th episode of the teen-targeted drama Gossip Girl will feature major characters in a sexual threesome. To include a story line like this on a program that is expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers is reckless and irresponsible. I appeal to your highest sense of decency, respect and common sense in urging you to preempt this episode. Television is profoundly influential in the lives of children, especially when it comes to sexual decision making - it has even been described by one researcher as a "sexual super-peer" - signifying television's power to amplify, many times over, the peer-pressure teens are already feeling to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors. When television portrays attractive, »
Cfc Creates Cfc North-South Marketplace
4 November 2009 4:58 AM, PST
The Canadian Film Centre (Cfc) has announced the creation of the 'Cfc North-South Marketplace' "...to support, foster and build cross-border relationships for Canadian talent that will enhance a vibrant motion picture industry in Canada..." The 'Cfc North-South Marketplace', supported by the Copyright Collective of Canada, seeks to cultivate north-south relationships for the Cfc's community of talent, alumni and industry, brokering creative/business exchanges and relationships between Canadian talent and industry professionals in the Us. "...The program will also provide incentives for Canadian artists to capitalize on their marketplace experiences by bringing home and sharing their expertise and success in the entertainment community and stimulating creativity and innovation in the production industry in Canada..." .The entertainment business is going through tumultuous change: New technology, new business models, and new audience behaviour," said Slawko Klymkiw, Executive Director, Cfc. "The 21st century realities force us to take a hard look at development, production, »
Ultraman Creator Winning Back Rights
4 November 2009 3:58 AM, PST
The Japanese creator of TV series Ultraman has won another court victory in securing the film/merchandising rights to his otherworldy character, created in 1966 for a live-action TV show in which 'Ultraman' and his family from the 'M-78 nebula' battle space aliens intent on harming humanity. Ultraman's creator was Eiji Tsuburaya from Tsuburaya Productions, a pioneer in special effects who was responsible for bringing Godzilla to the big screen in 1954. The show has since spawned TV follow-ups, cartoon series and theatrical features, generating an ancillary marketing 'bonanza'. Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek Ultraman... »
Connelly And Bettany Monkey Around With Creation
4 November 2009 2:23 AM, PST
Creation is the partly biographical, part fictional account of scientist Charles Darwin's relationship with his eldest daughter 'Annie', as the author struggled to document his evolutionary theories in the book On the Origin of Species. Produced by Jeremy Thomas, the film was directed by Jon Amiel, starring actors Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as 'Charles' and 'Emma Darwin'. Screenplay is by John Collee, adapting author Randal Keynes's biography of Darwin titled Annie's Box. The film had its world premiere September 10, 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival as the opening night Gala Presentation. According to producer Thomas, the Us was one of the last countries to find a distributor due to the prominence of the ongoing 'creation' vs. 'evolution' controversy. Newmarket Films (The Passion Of Christ), eventually acquired distribution rights to the Icon film with plans to release it December 2009. In Canada, D Films will release Creation January 22, 2010. Click the »
The Wild Bunch On Stage- November 12
4 November 2009 12:58 AM, PST
The 40th Anniversary of director Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western The Wild Bunch, will be celebrated at the 'Jules Verne Légendaire Award Charity Event', November 12 @ Los Angeles' 2,000 seat, downtown 'Million Dollar Theater', bringing the ground-breaking feature back up on the big screen. The film's surviving lead actors Ernest 'Dutch Engstrom' Borgnine, Bo 'Crazy Lee' Hopkins, L.Q. 'T.C.' Jones, Alfonso 'Lt. Hererra' Arau and others will be accepting awards on stage. In addition, Melissa Peckinpah will accept a special award on behalf of her father, director 'Bloody Sam' Peckinpah and Camille Fielding will accept a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her late father, composer Jerry Fielding. Celebrities confirmed to attend the event include Ali "The Getaway" MacGraw, composer Lalo "Dirty Harry" Schifrin, director Walter "The Warriors" Hill and actor Malcolm "A Clockwork Orange" McDowell. "It will be the last great ride of the movie," organizers said. Premise of the film, »
Sneak Peek Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
3 November 2009 5:05 AM, PST
Walt Disney Pictures and Bruckheimer Films have released the new trailer for Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time adapting the best-selling Ubisoft video game Prince of Persia. Created in 1989 for the Apple II by creator Jordan Mechner, the Prince Of Persia video game developed a unique rotoscoping process to ensure authenticity of movement during animated sword-play. Following the game's release, Prince of Persia was ported to Amiga, Apple Macintosh, Dos, Nes, Game Boy, Game Gear, Snes, Sharp X68000, Atari St, Sam Coupe and Sega Mega Drive Genesis. In the original game, the 'Prince' is an orphan living in the streets of Persia, until one day he climbs the palace walls to peek at a young 'Princess', comparing her to a "moonrise in the heavens". But when the 'Sultan of Persia' is called away to war, the evil 'Vizier Jaffar' seizes the throne and imprisons the Princess, giving her one »
Eva Green: Cracks
2 November 2009 5:41 AM, PST
The new UK feature Cracks, based on the novel by author Sheila Kohler, is the directorial debut of Jordan Scott, director Ridley Scott's daughter. Both Ridley and his brother Tony are executive producers of the film. In the film, BAFTA-award winning actresss Eva "Casino Royale" Green, plays a mysterious teacher at a girls' school named 'Miss G', who falls in love with one of her pupils. "...Within the confines of a strict, all-girls English boarding school (circa 1930's), a clique of students participate on the swim team not only to pass the time, but to be close to their swimming instructor, the enigmatic, yet charismatic, 'Miss G' (Eva Green). While Miss G originally encourages the idolization and 'crack' (crush) on her, the teacher's attention is quickly focused on the arrival of an exotic and beautiful Spanish foreign pupil, 'Fiamma' (María Valverde). As the new girl rebuffs her classmates, and further rejects Miss G's interest, »
Wift-t: 21st Annual Crystal Awards- November 30
2 November 2009 1:32 AM, PST
Women in Film & Television-Toronto (Wift-t) will honour the winners of their 21st Annual Crystal Awards at a gala luncheon celebration, Monday, November 30, 2009 @ The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. "This year.s winners competed against a slate of exceptional nominees in all categories," said Sadia Zaman, Executive Director of Wift-t. "The winners are a testament to hard work, passion, and creativity. We are honoured to celebrate their achievements.. The 21st Annual Crystal Award winners, selected by an independent jury of former Crystal Award recipients, are: Outstanding Achievement Award Christine Shipton, Senior Vice President, Drama/Factual Content, CanWest Creative Excellence Award Tassie Cameron, Screenwriter/Producer Mentorship Award Lisa Meeches, Executive Producer, President, Eagle Vision Inc., Meeches Video Production Special Jury Award of Distinction Christa Singer, Independent Producer/Director The 2009 Crystal Awards are presented by NBC Universal and CanWest Broadcasting. "...The Crystal Awards recognize the extraordinary achievements of women in film, television, and digital media, »
Vigilante Takes On Ellis' Black Summer
2 November 2009 12:59 AM, PST
Vigilante Entertainment will develop writer Warren Ellis' Avatar Press, 2007 comic book series Black Summer with Ryne "Knowing" Pearson adapting the screenplay. Premise of Black Summer, focuses on the 'superhero' team 'Seven Guns', a group of scientist-adventurers who modified their own bodies for street-fighting, in order to fight a corrupt police force, local government and private security forces. Vigilante is led by Hicham Benkirane, previous head of audiovisual development for French comic book publisher Les Humanoides Associes. Humanoides properties that Benkirane will develop include Miss: Better Living Through Crime, The Book of Jack and Fragile. Click the images to enlarge... »
20 articles
