Star Wars Ep III Deleted Scenes--Part 1

November marks the release of Star Wars Ep III Revenge Of The Sith on DVD. The DVD will be loaded with special features, like the ones before, and there are also a collection of deleted scenes. Like with all movies sometimes the scenes are better of left out, but these all appear to have been worthy of being included. And the first one would have been a major tie-in with the animated series.

This scene is a dialogue between Grievous and Skaak Ti and ends with the death of the Jedi Shaak Ti. Anyone who watched the Animated Clone Wars of Cartoon Network knows of the ongoing battle that Shaak Ti had with Grievous and his guards, especially in the last episode when Palpatine was kidnapped. This scene helps tie the two show together, and we get to see Grievous doing something else besides running away.

Dunst Spills The Beans On Spidey 3

Over the past months, Sam Raimi and the crew of Spider-Man 3 have been tight-lipped when asked questions about villains and story lines. Well, leave it to the the ever spacey Kristen Dunst to be the possessor of the loose lips. During an interview this past weekend to promote Elizabethtown she basically confirmed all the rumors flying around.

"We have really great people though as villains in this film. Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace -- Venom and Sandman", said Dunst. "maybe I wasn't supposed to say that", she added before attempting to reverse her claim. "it's the other way around. You're right", she conceded to a journalist.

Church has the body size and should fit the Sandman character very well. Topher (That 70's Show) on the other hand is small in build and is pretty close to being the same body type as Toby (Peter Parker). In the comics Eddy Brock, who would become Venom, was a large body builder. And the Venom costume was a symbiote that Spider-Man brought back from another planet during the 1st Secret Wars. So some very big character changes are going to have to take place to fit the Venom character in. Both characters could be outstanding villains as long as Raimi handles them right. But with his past track record and his amazing eye for detail, we should not be disappointed. The film is set to start filming in January with a May 4 2007 release date.

Invasion Changes Names Again.

It appears that the new Nicole Kidman sci-fi thriller has changed names again. The film, which is another in a line of many to remake The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was 1st called Invasion. Now the studios have changed the name to The Visiting. This was probably done to avoid it being confused with the new ABC television series Invasion that started airing last week. The movie will be directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (who also directed the excellent Das Experiment) and is set to start production very shortly. No release date has been given at this time.

Aeon Flux Poster Preview.

IGN has posted this peek at the new poster for the movie Aeon Flux starring the very hot Charlize Theron. The movie is based on the animated series created by Peter Chung, that aired on MTV in the mid 1990's. The previews so far make the movie look very impressive, with some very cool special effects and of coarse Charlize in skin-tight spandex. IGN also has posted a special video montage of some of the action scenes and can be viewed here. Also Paramount Pictures has a very nice official website for the film here. Oh yea, and did I mention that Charlize wears lots of skin-tight spandex!!!

Dead Or Alive The Movie.

Here is a look at Devon Aoki on the set of the new video-game adaptation of Dead Or Alive. Devon, who was Miho in Sin City, plays Kasumi in this movie version of the popular Tecmo fighting game. Not too much has leaked out about this movie, but being a straight fighting game, we can probably expect a movie in the vain of Mortal Combat. The film is directed by Corey Yuen, who directed The Transporter, from a script by J F Lawton and Adam & Seth Gross. The movie also stars white trash queen Jamie Pressly as Tina Armstrong, wrestler Kevin Nash as Bass, Kane Kosugi as Ryu, Natassia Malthe (Typhoid from Elektra) as Ayane and Eric Roberts as Donovan. There is no release date posted at this time.

Fantastic 4 Animated & Ultimate Avengers DVD

Here is a peek at some of the new character art being done by French animators Antefilms Productions for the new Fantastic 4 cartoon series. The series will consist of 26 half-hour episodes and will begin in fall of 2006. Looking at the characters, especially the Human Torch, have a very anime feel to them. I do like their Thing art, except for the 4 symbol that seems to be written on his chest.



Also the DVD release date for the Ultimate Avengers animated movie has been posted as Feb. 21 2006. if you are attending the Wizard World Boston show you can catch the trailer which was also shown at Wizard World Chicago. It is very cool and if the entire movie is like the trailer it will be great.

AFI's Top 100 Movies

AFI has released its list of the top 100 most influential movies of the past 100 years. I think the list is pretty complete. There where a few movies I was surprised to see and also a few I thought should have been included. 2 movies that surprised me where Fargo and Pulp Fiction. Both are great movies and this is a large compliment for their respective directors. I think that the original Superman with Christopher reeves should have been on there somewhere, it was a well done movie and the first true super-hero movie of its kind. Also missing, and a worthy movie on any list is Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Below is the list that AFI put together. What do you think ??

Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Godfather, Gone With The Wind, Lawrence Of Arabia, Wizard Of Oz, The Graduate, On The Waterfront, Schindler's List, Singin' In The Rain, It's A Wonderful Life, Sunset Boulevard, Bridge On The River Kwai, TheSome Like It Hot, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, All About Eve, African Queen, Psycho Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Grapes Of Wrath, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Maltese Falcon, Raging Bull, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Dr. Strangelove, Bonnie And Clyde, Apocalypse Now, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, Annie Hall, The Godfather: Part II, High Noon, To Kill A Mockingbird, It Happened One Night, Midnight Cowboy, Best Years Of Our Lives, Double Indemnity, Doctor Zhivago, North By Northwest, West Side Story, Rear Window, King Kong, The Birth of a Nation, Streetcar Named Desire, A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Jaws, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Philadelphia Story, From Here To Eternity, Amadeus, All Quiet On The Western Front, The Sound Of Music, M*A*S*H, The Third Man, Fantasia, Rebel Without A Cause, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Vertigo, Tootsie, Stagecoach, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Silence Of The Lambs, Network, The Manchurian Candidate, An American In Paris, Shane, The French Connection, Forrest Gump, Ben-Hur, Wuthering Heights, Gold Rush, Dances With Wolves,City Lights, American Graffiti, Rocky, The Deer Hunter, The Wild Bunch, Modern Times, Giant, Platoon, Fargo, Duck Soup, Mutiny On The Bounty, Frankenstein, Easy Rider, Patton, The Jazz Singer, My Fair Lady, A Place In The Sun, The Apartment, GoodFellas, Pulp Fiction, The Searchers, Bringing Up Baby, The Unforgiven, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Yankee Doodle Dandy

Goblet Of Fire Trailer Online

IGN Filmforce has posted the new Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire movie trailer on their website. You can go to the page directly here. The trailer looks excellent and this movie does appear to be the most CGI driven movie of the series. The inclusion of the Tri-Wizard Tourney opens up a lot of new characters and some inventive movie moments. Also catch that quick look at Mad-Eye in the trailer! There are some very nice posters that have surfaced to promote the movie. My favorite is above, which is one of the French release posters. I am looking forward to this release on November 18th.

Halo Movie Director Posted (Just Shoot Me Now!)

In someone's idea of a sick sick joke, Imdb has posted that Uwe Boll has been selected as the director for the Halo movie. At least all Halo fans are hoping that it is a joke. Boll is the king of bad video game to movie adaptations. He has already punished us with House of the Dead and Alone In The Dark, and soon with his version of BloodRayne. His name has also been attached to other video game properties like Dungeon siege, Far Cry, Fear Effect and Hunter:The Reckoning.


I am sure at this time this is just a mistake by Imdb. Microsoft paid 1 million for Alex Garland (28 Days Later and The Beach) to write the screenplay and have a very lucrative deal with 2 major movie companies, so why ruin it all by having Uwe Boll on board.

Another rumor running around the net is that Vin Diesel has been cast as Master Chief. Now, I have nothing against Vin, I enjoyed XXX and FaF, and Pacifier was good with the kids, but he is not right for MC. 1st he is too short for the armor, and his voice would not sound right. Really the man in the armor could be anyone. In the game we never see the Chief's face, and it should be the same in the game. Heck, just stick a athletic 6"4 guy in the suit and let the voice actor from the game handle all the voice work. Other Hollywood names that have been flying around are Bruce Willis (too old) and The Rock (ummm,no).

So I will go out on a limb here and say that both these rumors are false. Boll will not direct and Vin will not star. And Imdb,,,,,shame on you.

Happy Birthday Batman !

We would like to wish TV's Batman, Adam West a Happy Birthday. Adam is a 75 years young today.

Holy Bat-candles Batman !!!

30 Days Of Night .

It looks like Steve Niles comic series 30 Days Of Night is moving right along with its adaptation into a movie. David Slade has been snagged to direct from a script hopefully penned by Niles. The movie will be handled by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures with Rami and Rob Tapert as producers. Columbia pictures will handle the distribution. No release date or cast has been announced.

30 Days Of Night was a very different look at vampires, with the monsters moving in and taking over a quiet Alaskin town where the sun doesn't rise for 30 days. The towns Sheriff and his wife must step up and save the town they love. Since it's release Niles has written and released a follow-up series and connecting stories. If Niles handles the screenplay we should see a very dark and exciting movie.

"Suffering" On The Big Screen.

It looks like another video game property is heading to the big screen. MTV Films and Stan Winston (FX master) will be bringing the action-horror game The Suffering to the silver screen. The original game was released in 2004, with a follow-up game being released this month. The game revolves around the character Torque who is a death row inmate who becomes trapped in a hell on earth as the prison falls into ruin and is filled with monsters and ghosts, most of which are based on execution method's. The game was very graphic and pulled no punches as you wandered the halls in search of a way out. One of my favorite parts of the game was when you check a video camera, the camera switches to a view of your character and there is a monster coming up behind you, but when you switch the camera off the beast is gone. Hopefully the movie will capture the claustrophobic and creepy feel of the game. With Winston handling the FX we know the monsters will look great. No cast or release date has been posted as of yet.

Serenity The Movie - Or FireFly Episode 14 !

If you talk about Buffy The Vampire Slayer just about everyone will have heard of it at one time or another. But if you mention Joss Whedon's other TV series Firefly, you might get some strange looks or a shrug. Firefly was Joss's dive into the sci-fi universe and was a very cool show with some impressive FX and CGI. The show garnered a good following, but just as other good shows before it(can you say Farscape), it was cancelled by the network after just 13 episodes. Whedon is now releasing a 2 hr theatrical release to continue the story of the crew of characters that many have grown to love and have missed over the past months. Joss is hoping that this new movie will open the story up for new viewers and still grab the imagination of the existing fan base. Joss states that the movie will be understood by new viewers, but if you are planning on seeing it and wouls like more background, you can find the whole 13 episode series on DVD. The movie is set for a September 30th release.

Also the poster image on this post is of the Australian release poster. It is much cooler than the US poster and by far my favorite image from the film so far. River looks very nice up front in her action pose. You can check out the official movie site here.

Join the Browncoats !

Ant-Man,,With A name Like That It Has To Be Good.

Part of Marvel Comics new multi-million dollar movie deal is the production of over 10 movies in the next 7 years. One of the listed characters is Ant-Man. Ant-Man was originally Dr Henry Pym, who wore many hats in the Avengers, and then the name was passed on to Scott Lang who would later die during the Avengers Disassembled storyline. Ant-man, just like his name says, was able to shrink to the size of a ant and was also able to communicate with them. Not the grandest super-power compared to Thor or Captain America, but still cool.

IGN Filmforce has reported that Marvel has obtained Edgar Wright to direct the Ant-Man movie. Wright is most recently known for directing and co-writing the hit British "Dead Homage" Shawn Of The Dead. It is believed that Wright would like to make Ant-Man a comedy.

Let Us Not Forget .

Even 4 years later the pain is still there for all of us. Let us not forget those who lost their lives and those who fought to save lives in the midst of horror.

Sin City : Recut & Extended Edition

Just a mere 4 months after its essential release with a bare-bones DVD, Frank Miller's Sin City hits the shelves again with a massive Special Edition DVD set.
We new that it was coming, but this is practically on the heels of the first release. Also the new set also features the original theatrical release that was on the first DVD.
The new special edition is set to be released on December 13th and will retail for $39.99. The 2-disc set will have the 125 min original theatrical release and a 147 min extended cut, That's right, over 20 min of added material. Also it will be split up into the 4 separate stories. There are 3 new commentary tracks with the director, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino and 1 with crowd reactions. The second disc has over 14 featurettes with bloopers and a interactive game. The topper on this great set is the inclusion of the complete Sin City graphic novel "The Hard Goodbye" by Frank Miller. The graphic novel alone retails at $17.95 in most comic shops. I did pick up the first release because I just love this film, but it looks like my first copy will be hitting Ebay come December.

Ghost Rider Posters.

Here is a quick look at two of the new posters for the Ghost Rider movie. This comic adaptation looks very promising , with a very star-studded cast which includes Nic Cage, Eva Mendes, Sam Elliott and Peter Fonda. It is directed by Mark Johnson with a script by comic movie master David Goyer. Early shots from the film look good, except for the bad hairpiece cage seems to be wearing when he is Johnny Blaze. For a good look at the bike and a set shot check out my earlier Ghost Rider post in this blog. The release date was recently moved up, so the release date is now July 14 2006.

Blu-Ray Players To Punish Owners .

As the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD heats up, new news starts to surface about some of the new devices. It looks like the first blow will be directed at us, the end-user. I have to admit that over the years I have tinkered with the region setting on my player to view some overseas movies. This could be done by entering codes or other various methods. I never had a problem with this, but eventually broke down to purchase a region free player. Now, with the new Internet-connected and secure Blu-Ray players, the player itself could report that it has been modified and it can be shut down remotely. It is unknown if this will be a permanent shutdown or what you will have to go through to get them back up and running. I would think it would be a easy solution to just not connect the player to the internet, thus the machine has no way to report a change. But I am sure they are going to make this a requirement on most of the high-end players. It will be interesting to see what the future brings as the battle continues. Who will be the winner, and who will become the next beta-max.

Thundercats DVD Recall .

If you purchased the Thundercats Season 1 Vol 1 DVD set you may have noticed the mistake in the second episode. The episode titled " The Unholy Alliance" is missing the background musical score on the English track. Warner Bros. has decided to replace the disk with a corrected one for those interested. You can contact Warner Bros. at 1-800-553-6937 for directions on making the exchange. They will send you a self-addressed envelope to mail the disk in, and a new one will arrive in about 4-6 weeks.

DVD Of The Week.....LOST.

On Tuesday September 06 the surprise hit of the 2004-2005 TV season was released on DVD. Created by Damon Lindelof and JJ Abrams, Lost took TV audience by storm and garnered some of the highest ratings of any show on TV. The show was presented on ABC and kept you on the edge of your seat until the following week.

The Complete First Season DVD set contains all 24 episodes on 7 DVD's. The set also includes tons of extras which range from commentary on choice episodes to over 12 featurettes.

The show itself is an unparalleled achievement compared to any TV show out today. Being able to watch the entire series start to finish makes you realize how complicated and twisting the story really is. This is one of those series you can watch over and over again. The 2nd season starts on ABC on September 21st, so you can pick up the DVD set now and be ready for the next adventures of these modern-day castaways.

What's in that darn hatch ????????????

Marvel Comics New Film Deal And Strange Happenings .

Marvel Comics has announced a new $525 million deal that will finance Marvel's production of over 10 movies based on Marvel characters. The films will be distributed by Paramount and the first release should hit about 2008. This new deal gives Marvel complete creative control and larger profit than it has received in the past by licensing films to other studios. The deal guarantees at least 10 films within the next 7 years and will include 10 Marvel properties. The included characters include Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack and Shang-Chi. Now I can really see some of these characters making great movies, but Ant-Man and Power Pack????? With all the cool characters out there they could have picked some bigger names. Each film is expected to have a budget of up to $165 million and a top rating of PG-13. At this time all are expected to be live-action films. The complete details of this deal are very complicated and if you are interested you can read a complete description here.



In other Marvel news, Lions Gate will make a Dr. Strange direct-to-dvd animated movie to be released in late 2006 or early 2007. This will mark the fourth film in the Lions Gate/Marvel animated movie series. There will be 2 Ultimate Avengers animated movies, the first being released in Feb 2006. The 3rd film will be Iron Man. The Dr. Strange movie is expected to be a origin story. Anything will be better than that horrible live-action Strange movie from years past.

It appears Marvel will be knee-deep in movies for some time . For comic geeks (myself included) the past lot of Marvel movies (X-Men, Spider-Man and even FF) have been very satisfying and we can even forgive the lack-luster Elektra and Daredevil. Let's just hope that they don't get lazy and pump out another Man-Thing.

So Long "Little Buddy" .

Today we are sad to announce the death of Gilligan's Island star Bob Denver. Bob was one of the best recognized TV stars of our time, with Gilligan first premiering in 1960. Bob was 70 and had been hospitalized in North Carolina fighting cancer. Our condolences go out to Bob's wife and children.

Red vs Blue Season 4 Online !

Rooster Teeth Productions has officially started season 4 of their hilarious series Red vs Blue. Episodes 58 and 59 are now online on the download page here. I must say that #58 is one of the funniest episodes I have seen yet (hairy plumbers and all) and #59 follows right behind with some great gags. The guys at Rooster Teeth never fail to impress, with each episode getting better and better. You can purchase seasons 1,2 and 3 on DVD from the store page on their website, or you can still find them online by searching google.

For those not familiar with the series, it chronicles the battle between the Red Army and the Blue Army. (Except in later episodes where both sides finally join) The whole series is done using the Halo and Halo2 game engine. The voice acting is spot on and some of the funniest one-liners hit you one after another. The episodes do feature some "colorful language", but the website does offer censored versions at times. The series has won many awards since it's start. Even if you are not a Halo fan, this is a great series to check out.

Superman Returns !

The big "S" says it all. I am really looking forward to this movie.

Undead ! and loving it.

Every once in a great while a movie comes along that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pulls you along on a wild ride. In the 60's it was Night Of The Living Dead, in the 70's Romero struck again with Dawn of The Dead, and in the 80's Rami and Campbell dragged us around with the Evil Dead. Finally a movie has come along that once again takes the horror genre by storm, and it isn't even a US made film. The film in question is the Australian made Undead, by no way a new movie, but one just being made available to US viewers.

Undead is the work of Michael and Peter Spierig, 2 young Australian filmmakers, who set off in late 2001 to create a totally independent and original film. Over the coarse of 41 days in Queensland, the Spierig brothers, along with a cast, most of which this was their first feature film, brought the world of Berkeley Australia to life (or death depending on how you look at it) and in the process unleashed an amazing film that would soon captivate horror fans worldwide. the film was made on a shoe-string budget, with the Spierig's doing most of the post-production special effects on their home computers. With over 300 SE shots in the movie, the process took almost 9 months to complete.

The story centers around Rene (Felicity Mason), a past beauty queen who is dealing with the loss of her families farm. During her time in town a strange meteor shower falls upon the town and zombies start to take over. Rene falls in with a group of survivors at the home of Marion (Mungo McKay) and soon the group is on the run, following a path of survival and discovery.

The movie covers so many genres that at time you might forget this is at heart a horror movie. There is comedy (most delivered by Dirk Hunter), zombies, aliens, UFOs, and rampant infections. You can tell that the directors are fans at heart, with homages being paid in turn to Evil Dead, Night Of The Living Dead and even a little Close Encounters and Xtro thrown in for good measure. Also thrown in is one of the best and most satisfying endings to grace movie-dom in some time.

The movie premiered back in Feb of 2003 at the Fantasporto Film festival where it was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award. Throught the coarse of 2003 and 2004 it ran at several different film festivals and won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 Melbourne International Film Festival. Lions Gate finally stepped in and the film was given a US release in limited theaters on July 1 2005.

Undead is a gem. Something new and original for those of us suffering from the Hollywood re-hash mill. I haven't had this much fun watching a movie since I first sat through a special screening of Evil Dead in Chicago back in '81. I do have to admit that I received my copy of Undead in Aug of last year, and it sat on my stack of "to be watched" films for some time before I finally watched it. I have to kick myself pretty hard for not watching it sooner. I did a reviews many months back for another website praising the work of the Spierig Brothers and with the US release I thought it was time to bring it to the attention of as many people as I could again.

This movie gets my highest recommendation. 5 stars out of 5. 2 thumbs up and any other positive sign you can think of. Any true horror fan, or just any ceniophile should not miss this film. There is also a very nice official site you can visit here. There are more and more independent first time directors making movies from their heart, on a tiny budget, that are far better than many of the muti-million dollar Hollywoodized movies in theaters today.