If It's Movies - The best in movie news and previews.

Hey everyone, Ryan here…

The TMNT film that came out earlier this year has done very well at the box office, making decent profits over seas and here in the States. Well, yesterday, the 5th turtle reports that a sequel to TMNT has risen from a 50-50 chance, to a 70-30 chance.

“As of two weeks ago Imagi Entertainment (the TMNT movie animation studio) informed Mirage Studios that there was a 50-50 chance of a CGI film sequel. Last week they upped the odds to 70-30 in favor of a sequel, as talks between Imagi and their distribution partners Warner Brothers and the Weinstein Group seem to be heading in a positive direction…”

Hey folks, Ryan here…

When was the last time the National Lampoon people made a decent movie? I know a lot of people would say VAN WILDER! VAN WILDER! but I would have to disagree with you. I would say their last great movie was CHRISTMAS VACATION, close to 20 years ago.

Now National Lampoon have announced their next film, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S 301: THE LEGEND OF AWESOMEST MAXIMUS WALLACE LEONIDAS, which will be a spoof on sword-and-sandal films like 300, TROY, GLADIATOR, and BRAVEHEART. The protagonist is Awesomest, an out-of-shape Spartan general who fails forward on a path to greatness.

You can read the whole story over at Variety.com.

Hey everyone, Ryan here…

A whole mess of set photos from THE DARK KNIGHT have found their way online and into my email inbox. The photos are from Chicago’s Wabash bridge which show mainly soldiers, police officers and vehicles.

Hey folks, Ryan here…

We have the most recent trailer for David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES, starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. And guess what? Viggo has a Russian accent!

EASTER PROMISES follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Mortensen), who is tied to one of London’s most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

Hey everyone, Ryan here…

Ain’t It Cool News user DRO_MOE sent in some details regarding the HAROLD & KUMAR sequel, basically revealing the entire movie. I have the message he sent right here, so read on if you don’t mind a lot of spoilers!

The movie picks up where the last one left off with H&K in there apartment readying themselves for their trip to Amsterdam to track down Harold’s love interest Maria.

After a few quick jokes there we have them at the airport, after a little stint with security, getting onto their plane. As Kumar walks down the aisle we see him through an old lady’s POV where he is wearing a turban desert clothes and has a boxcutter in his hands.

After the plane takes off and most everyone including the old lady from before is sleeping we see Harold get up and use the restroom. Kumar looks around a bit then grabs his carry on and leaves to join him. Kumar enters the bathroom and pulls out a bag of weed and a paper bag full of tubes and wires and other components.

Harold is all like WTF, and Kumar tells him its parts for a smokeless bong he’s been working on and he had to break it down to get through security. Once built he begins to demonstrate how it works, when all of a sudden the plane hits mad turbulence throwing them both out the door and into the aisle. At this moment the old lady wakes up and sees Kumar holding what to her appears to be a bomb. She yells “TERRORIST” and out of nowhere an air marshal tackles him to the ground causing the device to break releasing the smoke. Cuasing others to yell “POISONOUS GAS”.

Needless to say this stunt lands our heroes in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba where they are mistaken to be a radical Islamic and a North Korean. But this is just the beginning of their trip. After escaping from the prison H&K hitch a ride with some Cubans on a boat made from a car and head to Florida. Realizing homeland security is on their tail they decide they must make it to Texas where there is someone who can clear their name.

Along the way the run into a crazy family with an inbred son, KKK, and NPH in a whorehouse. These are just a few of the exploits H&K are put through.

The movie basically has the same formula of the last (H&K want to go “here” but end up on misadventure after misadventure when things go wrong) but it works.

It feels like it could standalone without the other. There are next to none if not maybe one or two plays of the last film. And let me tell you this one is graphic, it will be hard for them to slide with an R rating, PG-13 is out of the question.

Expect a toned down R rated version in the theaters followed by and extreme unrated DVD. Wow, I just said toned down R rated. Back to point, after [details deleted by Merrick] I am now more excited than I was before for the project.

Hopefully this time around it gets more promo and a wider release because this studio is sitting on a gold mine.

DRO_MOE

Hey folks, Ryan here…

There’s no question that Kevin Smith loves to work with the same group of actors in all of his movies. But according to Smith, there will be no familiar faces in his upcoming horror film, RED STATE, a horror movie in which a group of misfits encounter fundamentalism gone to the extreme in Middle America.

“‘Red State’ I would like to do with completely unknown people. I think it would be tough to settle into a horror movie if you’re like, ‘Hey! That’s the Snootchie-Bootchies guy,’” Smith deadpanned.

Smith went on to say that RED STATE may not be his project, and might get pushed back so he could start work on ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.

“I went to go work on ZACK AND MIRI, so I’m still working on the script for RED STATE. We’re not sure. We were going to shoot RED STATE first and then ZACK AND MIRI second, but we might flip-flop ‘em, [do] ZACK AND MIRI first. Script’s done [and] it’s out to actors now. We’ve just submitted our budget so we’re trying figure out if we’ll shoot in the fall or in the winter.”

You can read the whole article over at MTV Movies Blog.

Hey folks, Ryan here…

This is some of the greatest, and coolest, news I have heard in a long time. Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke have been cast to star in a new vampire film called DAYBREAKERS, which follows the story of two dueling vampires.

Ethan Hawke recently talked to ShockTillYouDrop.com, and he had this to say…

“I’m going to make a vampire picture and I’m going to chew on some necks. Willem Dafoe and I are duelling vampires. It’s a vampire movie set way in the future where everyone is a vampire and we’re all eating our own resources, so we’re trying to get off on foreign humans. We’re trying to get off of trying to create blood substitutes. It’s a big analogy about what’s going on now. It’s really dark and weird and everybody’s sucking each other’s blood.”

That makes me very, very excited for this film. Dueling vampires sounds like one of the coolest things I have heard of in a long time. Australian horror veterans Peter and Michael Spierig (UNDEAD) wrote the script and will direct, with Weta Workshop creating the creature effects.

Head over to ShockTillYouDrop.com to read the whole article.

Hey folks, Ryan here…

Now this is some real cool news happening coming from Variety. Apparently Paramount Pictures have snagged the rights to a comic book, called THE FOUNDATION, which follows a secret organization, originally set up by Nostradamus himself, which deciphers and investigates his prophecies in order to change the future.

If you want to read more about Nostradamus and his predictions, head on over to his Wikipedia site, which is full of information.

You can read the entire article over at Variety.com.

Hey everyone, Ryan again…

Gangster-rapper-turned-softie Ice Cube has been lined up to play the lead role in a remake of the 1970s class television show WELCOME BACK KOTTER.

Cube recently talked to MTV regarding the remake and how it hopes to be a more updated version of the T.V. series so it go along more with today’s society.

“When it came out it wasn’t as sitcomy as it may [have felt]. It was a little hard edge. I mean, it dealt with kids skipping school…all kinds of stuff that you really didn’t see,” Cube said. “They would talk about real life stuff, so I thought it was true to what the nature of the series to do same thing.”

“I think that’s how it can be accepted as a new thing if we go more dramatic with it – dramatic with comedic overtones that makes the ride a little easier,” Cube contended. “Make it more dramatic and not so, ‘Up your nose with a rubber hose type s–t!’”

Cube also said he would like to see cameo’s from the old cast, including John Travolta. Cube is still unsure if this will be his next movie or not, as he said the film still needs some work done.

You can read the entire article over at the MTV Movies Blog.

Hey folks, Ryan here…

Remakes usually leave a bad taste in my mouth, especially recent remakes that have been complete bastardizations of the original. And when it comes to remaking Hitchcock films, they always fall short of the original.

Variety is reporting that new comer David Ondaatje  will write, direct and produce a remake to Hitchcock’s THE LODGER, a silent film based in London that follows a Jack the Ripper-esque serial killer. The remake won’t be completely true to the original as it will not be silent and will be take place in Los Angeles rather than London.

My guess is Ondaatje will follow the same formula that D.J. Caruso used for DISTURBIA, which was loosely based off of Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW. I know DISTURBIA did very well in theaters and it received some very good reviews, so maybe this remake won’t so bad.