This is going to be good!

"The film is Zwigoff's second adaptation of a comic story by Daniel Clowes, after 'Ghost World,' for which they shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002.

Official site with trailers!

Click here for a bigger version!

AICN.Com on "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" - The Stop Motion Movie: "Got this sent in from the director, Dave Borthwick, genius behind THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMB. Seems that in about 5-6 days out of Berlin we should be hearing the latest news on the advancement of this monumental production of earth-shattering importance and coolness."

Meanwhile the masters of clay animation Aardman Animation ("Wallace and Gromit") and Dreamworks Animation ("Shrek") have joined forces to bring you "Flushed Away" a movie about rats in the sewers of London. It's the first pixel-movie for Aardman. FLUSHED AWAY - Links for the sneak peek from the "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" DVD available today in the U.S.

Tags: Freak Brothers, Animation

"Rob Williams and Black Power tells the dramatic story of the often-forgotten civil rights leader who urged African Americans to arm themselves against violent racists. In doing so, Williams not only challenged the Klan-dominated establishment of his hometown of Monroe, North Carolina, he alienated the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, which advocated peaceful resistance."

-> Independentlens

Made by the guy who gave us "Napoleon Dynamite"! Poster and trailer-links at aicn.com for this really cool looking mexican wrestling movie.

The Super Bowl Trailer kicks ass!

Another good reason to hate Bollywood!

We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight and we would especially like to welcome all the represantitives of the internatonal weblog police department who have chosen to join us at this time and we hope you all enjoy his show and no matter who you people are and what you do to fight, live and survive, there are still some things that make us all the same, you, me, them, Brother Jake, everybody....

Dear journalist, it's such a sweet story after all! Where does the mainstream-interest in Soul, R&B & black music really come from?

Come on, kids, 25 years of "Blues Brothers" and you missed it! Before "The Blues Brothers" the white mainstream gave a fuck about James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker etc.

Blues Brothers Central has some really cool extra-shit if you register! And Dan Akroyd has a newsletter for the posse, ok?!

"Each Participant film has its own social action campaign here at Participate. The important issues raised in our films reflect the ongoing real-world struggles that affect you every day. Participate provides you with specific actions you can take, and the tools you need, to get active in your communities. In each campaign you’ll have the support of issue experts and nonprofit partners that lend resources, ideas, and increased exposure to your efforts." Participate.Net

"A documentary on the history of Sesame Street and its cultural, political, and social impact throughout the world. " (imdb.com)

"To hear Hollywood tell it, 2005 was a total disaster: Box office shrank, $100-million-dollar "event" pictures repeatedly tanked, and everyone agreed that the movies stank. But one Tinsel Town group perversely ranks the year that was as The Berry Best Ever: The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation, whose RAZZIE® Awards celebrate Worst Achievements in Film. The hardest part for GRAF members this year was keeping their list to just five nominees in each of 10 categories." -> razzies.com

"Synopsis: About Jason's origins." Wow, that sounds just great.

"The most successful pin-up of the 1950s, Bettie Page’s legendary photographs made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography, and turned her into one of the first sex icons." Trailer for the upcoming movie!

Adrien Brody plays a detective investigating the mysterious death of 1950's TV-Superman George Reeves. Ben Affleck will play the role of Reeves. Diane Lane plays Toni Mannix, the wife of a studio exec, who may be having a romantic relationship with Reeves.

The original title was "Truth, Justice, and the American Way", but then Warner sued. So, the movie has no title right now.

straightdope.com: Was "Superman" star George Reeves a suicide--or murder victim?

Tag: Superman

"Name any big-title movie that's come out in the last four years," Soderbergh said in a recent interview. "It has been available in all formats on the day of release. It's called piracy. Simultaneous release is already here. We're just trying to gain control over it." (Steven Soderberg)

Quoted from a story on alternet.org.

A short film from China found among Sundance Shorts

The trailer for the first movie based on german cannibal Armin Meiwes is out. The film, starring Keri Russell and Thomas Kretschmann as the cannibal looking for victims on the internet, finally got greenlighted on friday. Armin Meiwes, who turned down various offers from Hollywood for his story, sued the producer Atlantic Streamline Premiere in Germany will be on march the 9th, the day the retrial starts. Stampfwerk, a small company from Hamburg, got the official rights to the story for free. Meiwes wants to cooperate with them to produce a documentary about his case later on. Meiwes also sued German rock band Rammstein because of their song "Mein Teil" (My Piece).

Tags: cannibal, Rohtenburg, Du bist Deutschland, Germany

I just read this long article buzzing around. It's a pretty good description of what's wrong with Hollywood. The movie "Superman Returns" will cost $320-390 million and it took them 19 years to make it. "Superman V: The Whole Sordid Saga" is a very funny story with an impressive line-up of people involved.

Some quotes: WB turned the project over to their pet producer Jon Peters—an illiterate, violence-prone wild man (I wish I was making this up, but I’m not—this is all true, every word of it) who got his start as Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser/lover and produced the Tim Burton Batman films. Peters, who hates the classic Superman in every way imaginable, set out to reinvent Superman in the "sex, killing, rock & roll, and whatever movie was a hit last weekend" style that all of his movies are based in. So he hired Jonathan Lemkin to write the script. (...) Lemkin’s script—which even he proudly boasted was campy and silly—was scrapped because WB thought it was too similar to Batman Forever. So Peters hired porn veteran Gregory Poirier—who scripted Peters’ Rosewood, and has since written the bomb See Spot Run and served as writer-director on the much-derided Tomcats—to start over. Poirier’s script had an angst-ridden Superman visiting a shrink in order to deal with his feelings of being an outsider and a freak by virtue of his alien heritage, ditching his red and blues for a black suit, using Kryptonian martial arts, and being killed by a Doomsday who bled kryptonite, Brainiac, the Silver Banshee, and the Parasite.

Peters also hated the FX in the 1978 Superman film with Chris Reeve, so he wanted to get rid of Superman’s ability to fly. So Smith tried to get around this by portraying Superman as a red blur while in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he took off (he took this from The Dark Knight Returns). Peters then told Smith to have Brainiac fight polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude, demanding that the film be wall-to-wall action. Smith thought it was a stupid idea, so Peters said, "Then have Brainiac fight Superman’s bodyguards!" Smith responded, "Why the hell would Superman need bodyguards?" Peters wouldn’t let up, so Smith caved in and had Brainiac fight the polar bears.
Then Peters demanded that Brainiac give Luthor a hostile space dog as a gift, arguing that the movie needed a cuddly Chewbacca character that could be turned into a toy. Then, after watching Chasing Amy, Peters liked the gay black character in the film so much that he ordered Smith to make Brainiac’s robot servant L-Ron gay, asserting that the film needed a gay R2-D2 with attitude. Then Peters demanded that Superman fight a huge spider at the end of the film, which Smith refused to do—he used a "Thanagarian Snare Beast" instead.

Read: "Superman V: The Whole Sordid Saga"

Tag: superman

He's supposed to present THE PROPOSITION by John Hillcoat with Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Danny Huston, David Wenham ( Music: Nick Cave)

The Proposition OST by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is released by Mute in the UK on 6h March. The album will be released in Europe on 10th March and in North America on 21st February. The film will be released in the US in April." Tags: Berlin, Berlinale

Kinderarbeit! Tag: Bollywood

"The portrait of the legendary Primitive Rock ‘n’ Roll label “VOODOO RHYTHM” (records to ruin any party), its founder and one-man band Reverend Beat-Man and several bands on the label." By slowboatfilms

The trailer is here!

Trivia: Beat-Man was a guest-star in "Bullets over Bremen" (Violent Fun), but the movie never got finished.

Tags: Music, Voodoo

"New Line has purchased Mike Rich's spec script, Nativity, with plans to develop the project into Passion dollars.The story is said to revolve around Mary, Joseph and their 100-mile trip to Bethlehem for the birth of that troublemaker, Jesus. Rich claims he came up with the idea after watching Passion of the Christ collect over $600 million worldwide." Cinematical

They got internet in hell now!

The trailer for the sequel is pretty funny.

"The six US men and one woman also pleaded guilty to criminal conduct in allowing an eighth person to obtain the film and upload it onto the internet.

They each face a maximum penalty of a $100,000 (£56,000) fine and one year in jail when sentenced on 12 April." Story at the BBC

The Japanese are just crazy!

"After a heady two weeks exposing James Frey, Web site the Smoking Gun and parent company Court TV are making ambitious plans in Hollywood.

The investigative site could soon become the basis of a scripted series on broadcast television. Court TV has been in negotiations with at least one network for a series that would draw on the premise and name of the popular site."

The good old Huffington Post reporting.

"A chat with Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer about meeting George Lucas, being in the middle of a toy riot in Japan and explaining why Chewbacca is the George Harrison of Star Wars" Read the interview by bonniegrrl right here.

"This morning, Bush gave a speech defending his domestic spying program. After the speech, a member of the audience suggested that The President would enjoy the movie 'Brokeback Mountain.' Question: You're a rancher. A lot of us here in Kansas are ranchers. I just wanted to get your opinion on Brokeback Mountain and if you had seen it yet... You would love it. You should check it out.

Bush: I hadn't seen it. I would be glad to talk about ranchin' but I haven't seen the movie... I've heard about it... I hope you go.. you know.. heh, heh.. I hope you go back to the ranch and the farm is what I was going to say... I hadn't seen it." Video at Bradblog

"It's now on the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary. Cinematical recently caught up with Gribney for a phone interview about his film."