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Speed Racer

Craigslist

  • uh- miami yeah, yeah...south beach, bringing the heat- jig it out, uh I don't love Noah's writing, but his Summer Movie Preview is pretty complete, if nothing else.  I find myself looking forward to Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones, Get Smart (why open this on the same day as another huge comedy, The Love Guru?), Wall-E, Wanted, Hancock (could be Will Smith's first misfire in some time), The Dark Knight, Step Brothers, The X-Files sequel, Choke, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, The International, Towelhead, Hamlet 2, and finally, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (no, not really).
  • David Poland handicaps and predicts the box office of the summer hits.  If Hancock hits $250 million, I'll be stunned.  Also, I think he's underestimating the geek quotient on Wanted.  I mean, if 300 can hit a massive opening weekend, then don't you think Wanted will gross more than $62 million all up?  Finally, if Sex and the City only makes $60 million, someone's getting fired at New Line Cinema.  Oh, wait - nevermind.  See David's full box office chart here.
  • Dilbert author Scott Adams hated No Country for Old Men and proposes a new system for reviewing movies.
  • The first full-length movie has been launched on YouTube, and the creators have an interesting business model behind it.  And by interesting, I mean "no way in hell will this work."
  • David Poland again, talking about the Juno Blu-ray DVD.  It comes with a "bonus digital copy" that you can put on your iPod, PC, etc, etc.  This is brilliant, and I'd love to see every DVD come with this.  I mean, if I buy the DVD, and I want to put it on a different platform - can the studios save me some frustration and do the extra work for me?  I don't want to go find special ripping software, potentially breaking several laws... I want to put 17 Curious George episodes on my laptop or iPod for the airplane trip with my kids, but there's no convenient way to do this today.

New Speed Racer and The Incredible Hulk Trailers

Yesterday, the internets brought us the new trailers for two potential franchises, Speed Racer and The Incredible Hulk.

imageI don't know what to think about the Hulk.  Ed Norton always, always does powerful work, and as you know I'm a big fan of putting "real" actors into superhero roles (Christian Bale, Robert Downey Jr.).  But this trailer really didn't bring anything terribly interesting to the table.  There are lots of reports of trouble in the editing suite on this one, and anyone who is surprised by this hasn't been reading about Norton's involvement on past films.  I'm gonna wait for the next trailer before raising my expectations.

As for Speed Racer, I just think it looks unbelievable.  Yes, it's cartoony and video gamish, but that's exactly what they're going for, albeit in an incredibly fresh, creative way.  Just awesome stuff.

Speed Racer Trailer

Leave it to the Wachowski's to change the rules again.  I don't care what you say - I think Speed Racer looks intriguing.  Just the color palate alone from the trailer is fascinating.

...and there's even a monkey!

Random Bunch o' Links

Really?  There's a market for two films about Che Guevara?  Really?  I love Steven Soderbergh, but how much money did The Motorcycle Diaries make again?  Who makes these decisions?  Because I bet I can do their job for a much smaller salary.

The Wachowski brothers are finally directing again after The Matrix Trilogy, and it's Speed Racer.  These guys are going to make a "family friendly" film, after Bound, The Matrix, and V for Vendetta?  The mind boggles...

Will Smith comes into his own, according to Kris Tapley and David Poland.  I've got to say, when I think about my days as a junket whore (I was young, I needed the money), the best five minutes I spent was interviewing Will Smith.  The passion, energy, and humor that he exudes is a rare quality.

Finally, NPR's Kim Masters does a good job talking about why she thinks Borat isn't the next Snakes on a Plane, but I'll throw some other data at you: 

1) 72% of this week's Fandango tickets were for Borat.  Second place was Santa Clause 3 with 9%.  Yep - 8 times as many people bought tickets for Borat.

2) Rotten Tomatoes.com gives Borat a 95% approval rating from the critics.  Something tells me this film might be good.  Snakes on a Plane... 69%.  That would make Borat the 8th best reviewed film of the year.

Oh, and if you're offended by Borat's humor, you should definitely make your voice heard at this site.