Duncan Jones Accepts the Impossible Challenge of Directing the World of Warcraft Film

The good thing about writing and directing your own film is you have no one to answer to except yourself. However, the funds for your project can be limited. That's why you take on a huge, pre-existing property, and then you can direct a 100 million dollar project. That's exactly what Duncan Jones has done.

Hollywood Reporter announced that Duncan Jones, writer and director of MOON, will be the director of the upcoming 100 million dollar World of Warcraft film. Legendary Pictures will distribute the live-action Blizzard Entertainment's role playing game. WOW has so many different levels, monsters, elements, and story liens, that there is plenty of substance to draw a story from. The script is already finished and is written by Charles Leavitt, who also wrote BLOOD DIAMOND. Legendary is looking for a 2015 release for the film.

I'm not a WOW player, but a world filled with dragons, orcs, zombies, and aliens sounds like a fun science fiction film. Jones definitely has the sci-fi element working for him after his experience with MOON, which if you haven't seen, what are you waiting for!? However, he is a brave soul to take on such a property with a very, very devoted following. Because if he messes this film up, he will have to answer to armies of people like this guy:




I wish you the best..from one fellow Jones to another.


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Drafthouse Films to Release Fantastic Fest Favorite: I DECLARE WAR

You know, it's a shame I never got around to writing that review of my favorite movie from last year's Fantastic Fest, I DECLARE WAR. The movie has a lot of heart, a great sense of humor, and tells a compelling story about the meaning of friendship. The film follows a group of friends in an innocent game of capture-the-flag and quickly begins exploring the boundaries of loyalty and trust.

It blew us away at Fantastic Fest, ended up being one of this site's favorites, and now, Drafthouse Films has acquired this gem of a film. Thank goodness. Seek this film out later this year. You won't regret it.

Check out all the details after the break.

Netflix Instant: TV & Movie Picks: Batman Edition!

This week's column is inspired by the fact that I really like Batman and he will always be better than Superman.

For Funsies: Rob Coddry and the best interview to come out of Sundance for HELL BABY

Real talk, guys. One of the things that have always freaked me out a bit is doing interviews at movie festivals. That's why probably the ones that I have done have not been published. I'm always a little scared out that they're going to sound really generic or I'm not going to know enough about the subject matter to carry on a good conversation. Anyway, all of this is just an excuse for me to talk about this awesome interview I found at EW here. The video and the article are about Rob Coddry and how much of a "jerk" he is while doing press for his upcoming movie, HELL BABY.

Now, I'm not familiar with EW or their style, but to me this video seems to have been done on purpose and the author of the post seems to totally miss that point. I could be wrong, Coddry might be a complete jerk, but considering the actor is called "Robert Coddry" (no one calls him that) and is supposed to be "62"(he's 42), I hope that the writer is just trolling us and is along with the joke. The video is exclusive to EW, so go here to check out the video and have a laugh.

If it is a joke, I bet it's just because the actors are bored as hell from answering the same questions over and over again or maybe it's a way to get publicity for their movie. I know I'm a little bit more intrigued to see the movie now!
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New G.I. JOE RETALIATION Trailer Drops!

The first G.I. JOE film did not interest me. At all. It looked silly and boring. However, after much persuasion, my cohort convinced me to watch it, and man was I shocked at how fun the film was and how much I ended up enjoying it. When the sequel was announced, there was excitement all around the blog. While seeing MISSION: POSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL in IMAX, we saw this trailer and nearly jumped out of our seats with excitement.

Unfortunately, to everyone's dismay, the film got pushed back from a June 2012 release to March 2013. Studios initially said it was to up-convert to 3D; a decision I would assume one would make before releasing a bunch of trailers or a multi-million dollar Super Bowl spot. Then reports came out that producers wanted to cash in on the success of Channing Tatum and expand his part in the second film. That, I can agree with.

But now we're in the home stretch to find out if delaying RETALIATION almost a year will be worth it. Javi seems to think so. This film is one of his most anticipated of 2013.

Thanks to Break.com, we have a new trailer for the film which features more ninjas and Bruce Willis.

#Godzilla2013 Project Entry #1: GOJIRA

Welcome to the first of what will be a total of 29 entries in my #Godzilla2013 project (clever name, huh?). My inspiration for this project came from a number of sources, the two main ones being my movie friends from Austin and my homeys over at PreOrder66. My Austin friends such as @Jenni7283 and @LolaReels always have some very cool themed project. For example, a recent project by Jenni was watching all 45 Sinatra movies. And then the good guys over at PO66 kept on talking about something called "SH MonsterArts" and talking about the Godzilla toys that were coming out of that line, which included other monsters from the franchise, and how amazing they were. They kept on talking about all of these events that happened in the movies, and I just became really curious over time. Now, I'm not at all a Godzilla fan, and I think the last movie I saw with him was that dreadful 1998 version so I figured, why not look into this often-referred and influential franchise?

This particular series of essays will be thoughts and a sort of review of the movie. There won't be a set schedule as all 28 movies are going to be a little bit of a pain to track down, and I will try as much as I can to go in chronological order. Today's entry comes to us via the Criterion Collection, spine number #594. This edition contains both the original movie and the American re-edit, GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS! Today, I'll be talking about 1954's GOJIRA, directed by Ishiro Honda. Check out my thoughts after the break.

For Funsies: ADVENTURE TIME creator Pendelton Ward goes to outer space with the BRAVEST WARRIORS

If you guys follow me on Twitter, (and why wouldn't you?) you'd know I'm a huuuuuuuge fan of Adventure Time, the weird cartoon about a kid and his talking dog in a magical land of anthropomorphic candy. It's a truly special cartoon that needs to be seen by all nerds. It's already gotten pretty big on the Internet. And by the Internet, I mean my Twitter feed and close friends.

Anyway, Pendelton Ward the creator of Adventure Time has a YouTube show on the Cartoon Hangover channel from Channel Frederator studios called Bravest Warriors. It's about "4 teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through galaxies to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions."

I've seen all of the episodes, and I have to say I love the hell out of the really dark type of humor. You see hints of it here and there during Adventure Time but since it is a kid's show, you can only show so much. Check out the first episode below and check out the other shows that Cartoon Hangover has to offer here.

Netflix Instant TV and Movie Picks

Guys. I promise I'm always trying to have a theme for my Instant picks, but I just don't have the theme gene like my cohort does. It's a gift. However, I bring you two thought provoking films this week, and one that, well, isn't. 

Full UPSTREAM COLOR Trailer is as Beautiful and Mesmerizing as You Would Expect

So I am super sad that I won't be attending Sundance this year because I really wanted to experience the joys and cold of Park City. The big reason is I wanted to see the world premiere of UPSTREAM COLOR, the newest movie of PRIMER director Shane Carruth. It is one of my most anticipated movies of the year and I can't wait to see it. Check out the trailer below. Thanks to the folks at Badass Digest for posting the trailer.

Netflix Instant: TV & Movie Picks: #Godzilla2013 Edition

So during this new year, one of the few resolutions I had was to take up more themed movie-related projects. My first one is the best one I could think: watching all 28 movies from the 3 Japanese series. This is mostly due to the fact that my homeys from PreOrder66 talk about the movies and the toys a lot and they sound cool as hell. A lot of them are going to be kind of hard to track down so I'm starting off with the three movies that are on Netflix Instant so check them out below. And look for my write ups of all of the movies here and follow the #Godzilla2013 tag on Twitter.

2013 Academy Award Nominations Reactions

Well, I think some people's Oscar polls are already flipped on their head. With the nominations just being announced by the lovely Emma Stone and the (ugh) Oscar host Seth MacFarlane, the Internet is now free to make predictions and generally complain about the Oscars for the next seven weeks. That's right, the broadcast is still seven weeks away.

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Most Anticipated Films of 2013: Jonesy Edition

Cheers everyone! I don't know about you, but I am very ready for what films 2013 is going to bring. Looks as if there will be the fair share of the popcorn blockbusters (IRON MAN 3, STAR TREK INTO THE DARKNESS, THOR: THE DARK WORLD), but there are some others out there that I am equally excited for. No surprise that my list is full of sci-fi films, but my list also weirdly has two films with Harrison Ford.

Check it out!

Most Anticipated Movies of 2013: Javi Edition

This is just a short list of movies that I'm looking forward to next year. It's not that comprehensive but these should be great fun unless they completely mess them up. The theme of this new year is definitely  "bad ass directors that finally have movies coming out after a long hiatus." Check out my picks below.

New Pacific Rim Trailer from CES has more Jaegers!

So this big techie show is going on right now, CES. I really don't care about most of that stuff they're showing off. The only thing I'm interested about is seeing more alternate footage of the original PACIFIC RIM trailer. This one focuses more on the Jaegers, the robots that the characters pilot. I'm glad to hear that the GLaDOS voice from Portal is still there! Maybe Apperture Science are the ones that built the robots! JK, JK, check out the trailer below.

Top Ten Movies of 2012: Jonesy Edition

2012 was a fairly decent year of movies for me. However, I did have a tough time compiling my list. Not because there were an overabundance of films I wanted on there, but because I couldn't find ten films easily. Even though I saw a lot of really good films, I didn't have many that just blew me away. Most were easily enjoyable, but none I cared to necessarily revisit anytime soon or had too many flaws I couldn't look past.

So, I have my ten favorites from this year in no particular order. I find it difficult to list films in an arbitrary order because how can I really ever compare PITCH PERFECT to CLOUD ATLAS. All these films were released in theatres during 2012. There are a few films that I didn't get a chance to see that I was very much anticipating (LES MISERABLES and ZERO DARK THIRTY), but alas I missed them, which I think every blogger has that issue towards the end of the year. 

All of my picks spoke or have stuck with me in some sort of fashion, and I'm surprised (more at myself) that I don't really have flat out Oscar bait films on here...okay maybe one.

So for better or worse, here are my top ten films of 2012, in no particular order. 

Top Ten Movies of 2012: Javi Edition

So this year was exceptionally fruitful when it came to movies. I have to admit, I haven't had such a hard time picking my top ten movies of the year since we started this blog. It's strange to think that while this year felt like it had a lot of let downs and just downright mediocre movies, there were gems that were sprinkled throughout the year. This year I had more movies on my list that actually didn't end up being as critically acclaimed as they should be either but were just better made.

As per is customary, I wanted to explain how I pick my movies. They have to have had a theatrical release during the current year, and there's no point, in my opinion, in highlight movies I've seen at a festival that other people can't see for another year or so. In addition, there's a huge and glaring omission from my list: DJANGO UNCHAINED. The reason for this being is that while I did see most of the movie, I was not able to see all of it due to the screening being shut down after some assholes got in a fight in our theater and someone pulled out a gun and the cops were called in. Anyway, Jonesy and I turned out to be OK. But that's why I didn't have the movie even in my honorable mentions, it didn't feel right not seeing a movie all the way through and considering it for my top ten.

But check out my top ten below in no particular order with my favorite movie at the end. 

For Funsies: Consider MU for Your HIgher Education!

The new year always brings resolutions and big dreams. It's also the time of year where seniors begin narrowing down their college searches, go on visits, and finalize where they're continuing their education.

In college you makes lifelong friends and memories, so you want to find the best possible fit to spend those four years of your life. Here's a video of a hidden gem of a university where you can be extraordinary and create history as a unique individual.




I totally dig this viral marketing for MONSTERS UNIVERSITY from Pixar. Very creative. I'm filling out my application as we speak! Hope they accept me!


MONSTERS UNIVERSITY will be released June 21st, 2013 starring Billy Crystal and John Goodman.



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Netflix Instant TV and Movie Picks

Greetings from this side of 2013 everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and exciting new years. I'm back this week with a couple of picks that you can watch if you're lucky enough to be getting snow and need a good marathon. And then I have one random pick that will make you feel like you're the worst Scrabble player ever.

Enjoy!

The Redband EVIL DEAD is NSFW or Your Weak Stomach

Confession...I've never seen the original EVIL DEAD or the sequel. I have however seen ARMY OF DARKNESS, which I hear is tonally completely different than the other two. I know. Shame on me. I can hear you scorn and head shaking through my screen right now. It's in my Netflix queue; I swear.

Of course, with any cult classic, you always need to remake at some point. Thankfully with this series, Sam Raimi is back as producer and writer. Judging from this trailer, this will be a film is not for the faint of heart.

Here's the synopsis via ShockTillYouDrop.com:

The film follows five twenty-something friends who become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover a Book Of The Dead. An archaeologist's tape recording reveals that the ancient text was discovered among the Khandarian ruins of a Sumerian civilization. Playing the taped incantations, the youths unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

Check the trailer (NSFW) after the jump.

Disappointments of 2012: Javi Edition!

This year was strangely mediocre year if we take a look back at the majority of the major releases out there. I'm not saying it was a bad year at the movies at all, if you check out my upcoming Top Ten list, it is full of amazing movies. My biggest disappointments of the year range from blockbuster wanna-be's to Sundance/Oscar darlings. I almost find these movies fascinating because they could have been something great, but just didn't get there. The pattern I found myself in was seeing movies that had either no sympathetic characters, or that I just didn't connect emotionally to the characters. What's good is that I don't have that many this year!  My 2011 disappointments can be found here and check out my 2012 picks below:

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Marc Webb directed one of my favorite movies in the past decade. Here he directed what can only be called a good movie that was neutered by the studio system. It had the potential, but then the studio allegedly messed with the script to stretch out certain plot points over to the sequels. What sucks is that I like the actors and their performances so much better than even the Raimi originals (they haven't aged too well), but the more I thought about it, the more I hated the actual final product. I still have to give Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone for bringing such a unique energy and nuances to two characters we know so well.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Lest the Internet eat me alive, I do have to preface this entry a little bit. Similar to the Master, I can understand why people connected with this movie and why it's ranking so high in so many end of the year lists. But for me, just like with THE MASTER, there was very little to no connection for me with the characters or what happens to them. With non-actor Dwight Henry, and his performance that consisted of just yelling, I was annoyed a lot of the time. The community, while they're a colorful cast, just seemed so vaguely defined to me. The story itself was cutsey but the introduction and subsequent use of the Aurochs felt like a weird element that had no pay off for me. Unfortunately, I think that the beauty of the cinematography, the set design, and even the skill of lead actress, Quvenzhane Wallis, was just not enough to make care about their story. I saw so many people being so overjoyed by it, but I'm not sure if it was the very naive and child like nature of the film, but I just couldn't get into it,  and that sort of bummed me out a little

THE MASTER

This one hurt the most for me. I love Paul Thomas Anderson. I love all of his movies including that Adam Sandler one. Hell, he's the reason Jonesy and I became friends and inspired this blog. But with 2012's THE MASTER, I found myself not being at all engaged. by the movie. I know that Joaquin Phoneix is supposed to be doing amazing work here, but having seen I'M STILL HERE, it just felt like he was continuing to play his douche bag persona from that movie. It was definitely a beautiful movie that showcased what could be considered a rather toxic relationship between two men.  But as I mentioned before, there was nothing for me to connect to. Neither Freddie Quell or Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Huffman) pulled me in like says, Daniel Plainview or Eli Sunday. What's crazy is that even people that say that they liked it have claimed to not "getting it" either. I hope that maybe with some repeat viewing,s I might find meaning in this movie, but as it stands it felt disspapointing.

SLEEPWALK WITH ME

I have no clue why I was told to watch this movie, but this one was the one movie that I just ended up not liking at all. Maybe it was the hype around the movie, maybe it's my current mood and the stuff I'm going through, but I just downright did not like this movie. My friends told me the writer, Mike Birbiglia, is a contributor to This American Life and a stand up comedian. I'm sure he's OK with those jobs, but as a movie wirter, this was a total failure for me.  The main character comes off as a total man-child. Sure he's pursuing his dreams, but he does it in such a way that it makes him look like an asshole. He's a 30-something with a gorgeous girlfriend and just now he's acting like commitment and moving in with his girlfriend is the biggest and freakiest thing ever. To quote my sister after she saw this movie, "Get over yourself, dude." I might go into a bigger discussion about this movie later on, but suffice to say, I did not like it.

STEP UP: REVOLUTION

I am an unabashedly huge fan of the STEP UP series. However, this entry into the franchise was not only boring, but it was insanely non-sensical. I get that with each entry the dance numbers need to get crazier and crazier. The movie deals with the dance group trying to stop a corporate buyout of their neighborhood. They're also super poor and money is definitely a problem, and yet somehow the dance numbers become so elaborate that you have to take a loan out to be able to pull it off. The main characters themselves are pretty reprehensible most of the time and it's crazy that the 3D in this movie wasn't as good as STEP UP 3D's. Ultimately, what hurts the movie the most is the fact that there's a very limited amount of Moose in it.

That's it for me. I'm actually pretty glad that my disappointments this ear were mostly movie that had some good intentions but just felt short. Look for Jonesy's next and our upcoming Top Ten of 2012 lists as well.


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