November 2011

Mini Games Hit the Big Screen

FarmVille, Angry Birds movies in development

It must be getting harder and harder to convince studios to greenlight completely original projects. There are so many untapped brands out there, so many potential reboots and adaptations with guaranteed profits attached. Starting from scratch is a big risk; you don't always know if you can get an audience to buy into a story that's never been told before in any way, shape, or form. So we see a lot of corporate regurgitation on the big screen. Maybe it's an inevitable course the industry must take at this point. But do we really need to see a FarmVille movie?

True Trivia: Westerns

Who said What?

My father raised me on westerns with actors such as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Alan Ladd. I still have an appreciation for a good western and have added countless titles to my personal collection. My knowledge of movie quotes sometimes borders on the “have no life” edge but I thought I would challenge one and all to a test their knowledge against mine.

Natalie Wood

Re-Opening a 30 Year Old Hollywood Mystery

Once upon a time the world had fallen in love with Natalie Wood. The starlet was known for her roles in Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, and West Side Story. Despite her beauty and talent she was probably more famous for her marriage to Robert Wagner and her subsequent death while in his company.

At the age of 43 Natalie Wood was found floating in a Santa Catalina cove on November 29, 1981.

Read more about Natalie Wood

Kristen Stewart Offered Role in Akira

I've written before about why the remake of the classic anime film Akira is a terrifically gross artistic and political move on the part of its creators. Taking an iconic Japanese cold war story and mutating it into a flimsy post-9/11 blockbuster is just a huge bucket of nope. I had some hope that this project might collapse under the weight of its own pointlessness somewhere in pre-production, but that hasn't happened yet. The movie keeps blindly chugging along. Roles have been offered. To the wrong actors.

Twilight's lip-gnawing heroine may just star in Akira if it does eventually open in 2013. Kristen Stewart has just been offered the role of Kei. This should make you angry not just because Stewart can't muster more than two and a half facial expressions to save her life, but because of what it probably means for the character she's set to play.

Where's Waldo? Movie in the Works

It looks like Carmen Sandiego isn't the only hard-to-find cartoon with a penchant for red set to have her very own film soon. MGM and Classic Media have just announced that they are currently planning a live-action adaptation of Where's Waldo?

Cary Grant as James Bond

It has been rumored for decades that Ian Fleming used Cary Grant as an inspiration for his character James Bond. Though grant and Fleming were acquainted, neither ever confirmed or denied the rumor. The fact that Fleming was responsible for inviting Grant into William Stephenson’s Hollywood celebrity spy ring during World War II does lend some credence to the speculation.

Jennifer Lopez to Produce Live Action Carmen Sandiego Film

We never did find Carmen Sandiego, did we? That fedora-rocking anti-heroine hid throughout the entire world and then throughout all of time and space (remember that bizarre, Doctor Who-esque knockoff? With the dude in the shiny jumpsuit? What on earth were the '90s doing with themselves?) and yet we still never quite got her behind bars for very long. She's a slippery one, that eternal menace to worldly monuments. And while her television days might be over, she might soon be seeing her debut on the big screen.

Film Industry Trivia

Fun facts about film, movie spoofs and goofs, and the best gag reels on the web

Account