Author Archives: Ryan Laster

Must Watch: Viral video CHARLIE BIT MY FINGER made into a LEFT 4 DEAD short

This is probably one of the coolest things I have seen all day long. Director Jeff Chan was asked by the Canadian Film Center’s World Wide Short Film Festival to remake the viral video Charlie Bit My Finger, and so he did, but with a zombie twist. The director posted his video on the popular website Reddit.com, where he also hosted a Q&A in the comment section of the site.

Chan shot the whole video on a budget of less than $1500. Pretty amazing for such a small budget and such awesome graphics. This video is pretty damn scary and exploits that by using the “first-person shooter” view for the camera shots. Hit the jump to see the video. Continue reading

Casting Updates: Rob Lowe, Zoe Saldana, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent, Bill Hader, Jack Black, and Colin Firth and Emily Blunt all inside

The Cannes Film Festival is currently going on right now, which is the main reason why we have so many casting updates every day. Stick with us as this festival continues on for the next week or so. We’ve got a bunch of casting updates for you from all over the place. In this article you see some confirmed and unconfirmed casting bits that involve Rob Lowe, Zoe Saldana, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent, Bill Hader, Jack Black, Colin Firth and Emily Blunt. Keep reading to find out what projects they may be involved with.

• Rob Lowe has signed on to star in the political thriller Knife Fight coming from director Bill Guttentag. Lowe will play a “political crisis specialist who plays hard and tough in dealing with various October campaign surprises.” The film is set to shoot in June with hopes to release it in October, 2012, just in time for the elections.[Deadline] Continue reading

Andrew Niccol to direct Stephenie Meyers’ THE HOST

The big-screen adaptation of The Host written by Twilight scribe Stephenie Meyer is coming together nicely. Saoirse Ronan is attached to star as the lead character Melanie, and now we have a director. Andrew Niccol was originally attached to direct, but dropped out due to a conflicting schedule. Now, according to EW, it appears Niccol has cleared up his schedule and will direct the film.

The script was also written by Niccol, which follows Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against alien parasites. Basically these parasites invade human’s bodies, take over their consciousness and erase their memories and personalities. Melanie is eventually captured by the alien parasites and is infected by a Soul called Wanderer, who is somewhat of a “star” amongst the Souls. Wanderer tries to get information on where the rest of the non-infected humans are hiding, but ends up becoming intrigued by Melanie’s memories and feelings. Hit the jump to read a bit more on the story. Continue reading

A new poster for GREEN LANTERN shows us Hector Hammond

We’ve got a new poster for the bad guy in Green Lantern, Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard. Wikipedia describes the character like this: “Hector Hammond, in his mutated state, exhibits genius level intellect, potent telepathic and telekinetic abilities, and on occasion displays the ability to absorb and mentally redirect Green Lantern’s emerald plasma.”

The same page also tells us how the character gains and uses his power in the film: “While inspecting Abin Sur’s crashed aircraft, Hammond is affected by the meteorite fragment in its reactor. This leads to his brain growing bigger, and able to read minds, including Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan who Hammond deduces is the Green Lantern. His mental powers keep Hal from using his ring, and is only stopped when Sinestro encases his head in an energy bubble, cutting off his air supply. It is revealed that Hammond wants the power of a god in order to gain revenge on Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.”

Hit the jump to see the new poster for Hector Hammond. Continue reading

New trailer for CARS 2

The fourth trailer for Cars 2 has been released online. I guess the buzz isn’t really prevalent for this film so that’s why Pixar keeps on pushing out these trailers. I’m sure the film will do fine on its own without all of this marketing going on. I mean, come on, it’s a Pixar/Disney film. I’ve said before that I never saw the original, so this sequel doesn’t really have my devoted attention. Sure, it looks kind of fun, but I can’t really get into these films. The just don’t appeal to me.

But for those that are excited, hit the jump to see the newest trailer for Cars 2. Continue reading

Three set videos from the set of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

We’ve got three new set videos coming from The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans. Most of this footage isn’t very revealing so I’d say you don’t have to worry about seeing any spoilers in the videos we have for you. One of them gives us a pretty nice look at Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors (aka The Lizard) with his “green arm” walking down the sidewalk and quickly opening and going into a door leading down, what I’m sure is, a dark alley. Very peculiar! I’m assuming he’s going to do some “doctoring” back there to regrow his missing arm.

Check out the three new videos after the jump. Continue reading

The coolest photo of Ian McKellen as Gandalf that you’ll see all day

Ian McKellen is one cool dude. He’s been around for years and has played so many great characters, it’s impossible to narrow his career down to the most memorable role. Gandalf the Grey will be one of those characters we’ll always think about when we say the name Ian McKellen, and here’s one of the reasons why.

He posted a picture to his Flickr stream yesterday of him in the Gandalf costume while on the set of The Hobbit. He looks great with all of that hair added on, as well as those nifty 3D glasses. This won’t make it into the final film, obviously, but it is fun to look at. Hit the jump to see the full picture. Continue reading

Another new TV spot for SUPER 8

If you watch TV then you might have seen this already, but for those who have decided to cut the cable, enjoy. We have a new television spot for Super 8 coming your way packed with footage old and new. This video leans a bit more towards the action side of the film rather than the dramatic parts we’re a bit more used to seeing.

This is one of my most anticipated movies of the year. The fact that Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams look like they’re taking a trip back to the 80s when Spielberg brought us E.T. and other great films. Hit the jump to see the new video, which runs 30 seconds long. Continue reading

Watch: First trailer for HORRIBLE BOSSES

The first trailer for the new comedy Horrible Bosses starring Jason Bateman, Kevin Spacey and Charlie Day has landed online. The story follows three friends as they conspire to murder their awful bosses when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness.

We’ve all had horrible bosses before, but this film looks to be going way overboard and really making these bosses out of control. I like the cast in this film, so hopefully they’ll be able to pull together a decent comedy. Seth Gordon directed the film which also stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx and Donald Sutherland. You can check out the trailer after the jump. Continue reading

Casting Updates: Rachel Weisz, Aaron Eckhart and Sean Bean, Val Lauren, Katie Holmes and Chace Crawford, Kiefer Sutherland, Matthew McConaughey and Hilary Swank, Elizabeth Debicki all inside

We’ve got a bunch of casting updates for you from all over the place. In this article you see some confirmed and unconfirmed casting bits that involve Rachel Weisz, Aaron Eckhart and Sean Bean, Val Lauren, Katie Holmes and Chace Crawford, Keifer Sutherland, Matthew McConaughey and Hilary Swank, and Elizabeth Debicki. Keep reading to find out what projects they may be involved with.

• First up, double news for Rachel Weisz. The actress has two projects she’s looking at joining, and they should both be pretty big films. She’s looking at taking up a role in The Bourne Legacy which already has Jeremy Renner set to star. In this film, she’d play “an operative from a covert government program that is even more dangerous than the Treadstone brainwashing program that hatched Bourne.” [Deadline]

• Secondly, for Weisz, she’s also being considered for the remake of The Thin Man starring Johnny Depp and directed by Rob Marshall. She’s “somewhere at the top of their wishlist” for the role of Nora, who be Depp’s character’s wife. She has not entered into negotiations as the project is still in development. [CinemaBlend] Continue reading