The Directors Chair

Looks like I need to start saving the pennies.

The sixth season of the TV phenomenon Lost doesn’t even premiere until next Tuesday, and it already has a Blu-ray release date. TV Shows on DVD (citing information posted on Ingram Entertainment’s VideoETA website) is reporting that, on August 24, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will release both Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season and the mammoth Lost: The Complete Collection, with exclusive bonus content.

Special features for Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season include:

* Original scripted content that goes deeper into some of the stories, exclusive to Blu-ray and DVD produced by Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse
* Bloopers and deleted Scenes
* Lost on Location – Go behind-the-scenes and get the stories from the set, on location in Hawaii from the actors and crew who make it happen.
* Crafting a Final Season – Investigation into the goals and expectations of the season through interviews with writers, producers, cast, and crew
* Audio commentaries
* Lost University (BD-exclusive, powered by BD-Live)

Lost: The Complete Collection will include an additional bonus disc with at least two hours of extra exclusive content.

Source: Blu-Ray.com

Flight Of The Conchords co-creator/writer/director James Bobin is rumoured to be the man to handle the new Muppet movie – assuming he wants the job.

According to New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, Bobin, who has also worked on Da Ali G Show both here and in the US, has been offered the gig of bringing Jason Segel and Nick Stoller’s script to life. Stoller had been lined up to direct, but has had to sidestep the job because of his post-production schedule on Get Him To The Greek.

Little is known about the currently untitled new Muppet pic, save that it likely involves Kermit and the rest putting on a show to save their theatre.

But Bobin is a man in demand, ironically, from Segel’s mentor and career-booster Judd Apatow. Vulture reports that Bobin is about to nab an offer to direct Bridesmaids, written by Saturday Night Live stalwart Kristen Wiig, and featuring two women battling to plan their mate’s wedding party.

Frankly, we think he’d be a great fit for Gonzo and co. – and not just because Rhys Darby could nab a cameo. But mostly because of that.

However, until the official announcement arrives, treat either offer strictly as a rumour…

Source: Empire

BRING ON FEB 2nd!

Last week it was reported that (500) Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb was at the top of the list of candidates to helm a Spider-Man reboot. Vulture now has breaking word that Webb is signed on to direct, not only the Spider-Man reboot, but a new Spider-Man trilogy. That’s right, three movies!

The reboot allows Sony to clean house of all the high price-tag cast and crew from the original trilogy. Webb will be paid roughly $10 million for the first film, with reported substantial bonuses built in “if the picture reaches certain box-office milestones.” Sam Raimi was paid $10 million for the original Spider-Man film, but that was nearly ten years ago. The Evil Dead director’s agreement included a percentage of the film’s grosses (nearly 25 percent when combined with star Tobey Maguire on the last sequel).

But most of all, Webb offers a chance to connect with the new/next generation. Lets just hope that Taylor Lautner doesn’t play Peter Parker. If Webb has a choice in casting, I’m sure we’ll be fine (I especially liked all of his choices in 500 Days of Summer.) Sony has been chasing after Webb for a while now. Webb has said that he is a big fan of the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.

The music video turned feature director was almost hired by Sony for the big screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball after Steven Soderbergh departed the project and Capote helmer Bennett Miller was hired.

The full press release after the jump.

Source: /film

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Avatar is one of the biggest grossing films of all time. It has recieved amazing reviews nearly right across the board – unless you’re a reader of Y2Neil.com. It’s visuals are stunning. It truly is a killer at the box office…literally:

A 42-year-old Taiwanese man died of a stroke, which his doctor claims was likely triggered by “over-excitement” from watching James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D. According to News.com.au, the man began to feel sick during a screening earlier this month and was taken to hospital.

Mr Kuo, who had a documented history of high blood pressure, arrived unconscious and a cat scan revealed that his brain was haemorrhaging. The man died 11 days later from the brain haemorrhage, which his doctor claims was triggered “from watching the movie.”

Source: /film

So I’ve just read news that The Crystal Maze (the amazing game show devised and hosted by the brilliant Richard O’Brien) may be making a 2010 return on ITV.

This furthers my anger at the world for being unable to come up with anything original and upsets me greatly when I read that Amanda Holden may present.

What the fuck?

Amanda Holden? She has no personality. No one can replace Richard O’Brien, no one would have that certain, “niave charm”, rapier wit or general energy about them in order to host the show.

It’s also rumoured that the show will be celebrity driven rather than contestants. More rubbish.

I’m a huge fan of Richard O’Brien and the Crystal Maze and think this is a travesty. (Unless of course RoB gets a thick chunk of the profits of course).

WHOA. As I mentioned earlier, Nikki Finke just recruited Variety’s chief newshound Mike Fleming, and now the new duo are coming out of the gate with a massive story. Their first big report is that Sony is scrapping Spider-Man 4 after script and schedule concerns caused Sam Raimi to walk away from the film. The scuttled sequel has already been confirmed by a Sony Pictures press release, and the studio will now go for a full franchise reboot. New director, new cast.

Finke and Fleming’s report says the decision was made just today, and that the studio will start over with a “franchise reboot” script by James Vanderbilt. They quote sources reporting that Raimi said he couldn’t make the picture’s 2011 release date and maintain quality standards.

The Sony press release offers more info. Shorn of back-patting quotes, the core info is as follows:

Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

That means no Malkovich, no Vulture, no Vulturess, and no more Kirsten Dunst. Let’s see what Sony comes up with now; bets on a thinly-translated Ultimate Spider-Man adaptation? Reboot writer James Vanderbilt wrote an early draft of Spider-Man 4, and had been hired to write the presumptive fifth and sixth films.

When that deal for SM5 and 6 came down last August, the possibility of those scripts being the basis for a reboot was mentioned, so this isn’t an utter left-field surprise. Though a studio scrapping a film as potentially massive as Spidey 4 in favor of a reboot is still a huge deal; this is nothing like rebooting the Hulk, or Ghost Rider or Fantastic Four.

What next for Raimi? Will he go directly on to World of Warcraft, the Dennis Lehane adaptation The Given Day, or something else? (Another smaller film?) All things considered, you’ve got to guess that he and Tobey Maguire are both more happy than anything else to get away from increasingly difficult franchise.

Easily the biggest news to hit in recent weeks was the word that Sony has scrapped production on Spider-Man 4 and will reboot the character with a new film (and, presumably, an ensuing series) featuring a new cast and creative team. A general 2012 date has been mentioned, but no specific date has yet been set; expect the studio to stake a claim in May, and for any other films in that region to shift accordingly. Will Sony battle Marvel, which has The Avengers penned in for early May? You bet.

With such big news hitting early in the week, outlets are already crawling around looking for tidbits of info, and there are a few useful things to know about Spider-Man v2.0 that we didn’t cover in our first report.

First up, while I thought the facts were implicit in Sony’s press release, let’s be explicit: the new script by James Vanderbilt has already been written.

Variety notes that Sony “has long had” Vanderbilt’s script ready as a contingency plan. In other words, when he was hired to write Spider-Man 5 and 6, which were mentioned as possible reboot fodder, what he was really doing was writing this fresh start on the character. Given that Sony doesn’t want to do anything that will potentially see Spider-Man go back to Marvel, the studio was smart. (See a note about being ’smart’ at the end of this piece.)

According to EW, the idea was to have the reboot ready to go as soon as Spidey 4 was done. But when discussions about that film went nowhere, Vanderbilt’s new take was given priority. Now they’re ready to go with a script.

We don’t know much about what that script entails, other than it will feature a younger teenage Peter Parker. EW calls the script “gritty, contemporary” and references Batman Begins, seemingly not only in the sense that Christopher Nolan reinvented Batman on film, but in the sense of tone. Which would be a shame. Let’s have anything but a gritty Spider-Man, please. Anyone with a shred of understanding of the character knows that, while the stories can be heavy, ‘gritty’ isn’t what makes Spider-Man universally appealing.

There’s speculation already (as by Devin at CHUD) that this is a grab for some of the Twilight tween energy and fanbase. But I just see this as a cheaper, easier move. Sam Raimi directed three films, so is it easier to bring a new director into his world, or create a new world altogether? The latter, as Anne Thompson suggests, and I think she’s right. This will definitely be cheaper, as Sony has just shed a couple of names with big dollar signs attached. Spider-Man 3 cost almost $300m, and the fourth film could easily have gone that high. Now can the studio make this reboot for $200m or less? One would hope so.

Who directs this leaner, cheaper beast? More important, who has the right touch to follow Raimi, who is a director with both a real soul and a deep, practical background in making comic book-style movies? EW mentions a couple of names, saying that Marc Webb, director of (500) Days of Summer, has cropped up, but doesn’t say in what context. The mag also mentions Gary Ross, hired to write one of the last Spider-Man 4 drafts, and Michael Bay, who has expressed interest in the character. Those latter two seem unreasonable; I’d consider any of the three a surprise hire. (And, to echo Anne Thompson again, let’s hope it’s not McG.)

(Edited to add: One point I forgot is that Sam Raimi has indicated that he knows Spider-Man 3 wasn’t up to snuff. The primary reason I’ve seen to be interested in the scuttled fourth movie is that Raimi had a real creative incentive to make it a killer. Everyone wants to go out on a high note. If he’d been allowed to let that impluse free, we could have come out of this with two great films — 2 and 4. That Sony wasn’t interested implies — implies, mind you — volumes to me. No way of knowing; maybe Raimi’s ideas really weren’t good. But if they were, and Sony would rather go this route? Ouch.)

So: about being smart. From a couple of business perspectives, this is arguably a smart move. The film will be cheaper, and Sony can exert more control. Key talent will know that major names like Raimi and Tobey Maguire were let go, fostering the understanding that Sony’s take on the character is more valuable than anything else. That’s the bottom line. For Sony, that gets the movie made the way the studio wants.

But what made the first two films so much fun? What created the franchise momentum that allowed the relatively lousy third film to earn hundreds of millions? Not Sony’s keen business sense (OK, marketing the hell out of the series didn’t hurt) but Sam Raimi’s interest in and passion for the character. He knew what he wanted, and had good ideas about how to get it. He almost always kept the tone right. Raimi created scenes that will stand as indelible examples of the character. The subway sequence in Spider-Man 2 is a stone-cold classic. Spider-Man can thrive without Raimi and/or Maguire, but not if the approach is a calculating one. The character has always been about heart and impetuous, impulsive energy. Those are the things that Sony is poised to kill by making this into pure business.

Source: /film

How much have I fallen in love with this movie? I was worried about the casting of Mintz-Plasse but he looks like he won’t disappoint. Man 2010 is a good year for films.

In a live webcam chat on Thursday at the Los Angeles Times’ The Envelope, Tobey Maguire addressed reports that production has been postponed on Spider-Man 4 so that Alvin Sargent can do more work on the script.

“Like anything, it’s a process,” Maguire said. “We’re just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We’re just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible. Of course, these movies are a very big undertaking and take a lot more time than a drama or something more straightforward.”

The studio hasn’t given up the scheduled May 5, 2011 release date just yet, but whatever happens, Maguire is excited about the character’s future.

“Not only do I have specific ideas, but the ideas are evolving on the page,” he said. “It’s all happening right now. It’s all sort of coming together. It’s very exciting to me. I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we’ve done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution.”

Source: Coming Soon

As much as I hated the idea of the A-Team movie, this looks pretty kick-ass. The trailer could have done with the voice-over man being more affirmative but otherwise. Bring on June.

I love it when a plan comes together.