Battle Royale’s coming out March 20th. This will be mine. Oh yes, this will be mine.
Don’t really care about owning Battle Royale 2, but the set’s got a lot of nice extras-
Battle Royale: The Complete Collection’s four disc set in collectible high-end packaging will include: • Battle Royale Director’s Cut with both Japanese and English language tracks and English subtitles • Battle Royale Theatrical Cut with both Japanese and English language tracks and English subtitles • Battle Royale II with Japanese language and English subtitles • Battle Royale Bonus Content with Japanese language and English subtitles
SPECIAL FEATURES: • The Making Of BATTLE ROYALE • BATTLE ROYALE Press Conference • Instructional Video: Birthday Version • Audition & Rehearsal Footage • Special Effects Comparison Featurette • Tokyo International Film Festival 2000 • Battle Royale Documentary • Basketball Scene Rehearsals • Behind-The-Scenes Featurette • Filming On-Set • Original Theatrical Trailer • Special Edition TV Spot • TV Spot: Tarantino Version
The Battle Royale release will include: • Director’s Cut with Japanese and English language and English subtitles
Fan films
Has there ever been a good fan film? I can’t think of one. It seems like they crop up every month, and I watch as fans of the property drool over the short or trailer or whatever, regardless of quality, just because it’s cool to see their favorite characters brought to life. But I’m having trouble thinking of a single good one.
Case in point, the utterly awful Bioshock trailer that’s been making the rounds. Just because it features a familiar character and music people seem to ignore that it doesn’t say anything.
Then there was that Portal film, the Mortal Kombat one, Batman Vs Predator, the Resident Evil Machinima series… there’s just so many terrible films out there that draw incredible numbers of viewers. I just don’t understand it. I’d rather watch an original piece or even a satire of a famous franchise rather than any of these.
The book’s not that great, but I was surprised to see how Lovecraft-influenced it is. It starts off as a spooky Lovecraft story and ends as a kid enrolls in Xaviar’s School For Gifted Youngsters, which sounds great but it really offers nothing new. It’s also basically an origin story that promises (threatens) more installments.
But I was just horrified when I realized that Johnny Depp could play the main kid’s father (DADDY ISSUES BUILT IN) and that Helena Bonham Carter could do Ms. Peregrine. Yikes.
Netflix’s lowest moment.
Doubling the price of the service and losing a million customers in the process? Splitting the service into two different companies and further alienating everyone?
That’s nothing. Netflix’s lowest moment as a company was on September 1st, 2010. On that date we were promised a streaming version of the previously unreleased Fish Story, Yoshihiro Nakamura’s stunning punk rock opus. The Netflix Instant listing had all the credits and even right the cover art, but when people tried firing it up they found themselves watching a 53 minute PBS documentary called Fish Story.
Many tears were shed, many wives punched in anger. The Western World mourned.
Today, however, is a bright and shining day. Fish Story is finally up on the service and you can finally see the movie I’ve been gushing about for two years (here and here) since it played the New York Asian Film Fest, an absolutely perfect film that deserves to be seen by everyone.
Lucio Fulci’s Zombie is playing theaters on the 21st and 22nd with a brand new print that’s supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I am not missing this.
You thought Kirk Cameron’s Fireproof looked bad? Just wait for Courageus.
TriStar Pictures and Sherwood Pictures are pleased to announce that COURAGEOUS, the latest installment from Sherwood Pictures, has reached more than $2 million in pre-sales ticketing in anticipation of Friday’s national release.
Pre-sales numbers for COURAGEOUS more than double that of Sherwood Pictures’ most recent film,Fireproof, which opened at $6.8 million and went on to gross more than $33.4 million at the box office.
COURAGEOUS is the fourth release from the moviemaking ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. The first release was Flywheel (2003), followed by Facing The Giants (2006) and Fireproof(2008). With each release, Sherwood Pictures continues to entertain moviegoers with films that affect lives through heartfelt stories of faith and hope.
“Such great advance momentum reaffirms that the topic of fathers is universal and that COURAGEOUS touches a nerve,” Sherwood Pictures Executive Producer Michael Catt said. “Present or absent, fathers shape lives and we’re excited to use drama, adventure, humor … to inspire men to the high adventure of full-on parenting.” COURAGEOUS is the story of four police officers with one calling: to serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, the men are confident and focused. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. With God’s help, they struggle to be able to find a way to serve and protect those that are most dear to them. COURAGEOUSis rated PG-13 (for some violence and drug content) and runs 129 minutes.
It’s good to have you back, Don Coscarelli. Phantasm is easily my favorite horror series (Name a more consistent one! It’s impossible.) and Bubba Ho-Tep was a pitch-perfect Joe Lansdale adaptation, so you know how much I loved that one.
Lucky attendees at Fantastic Fest got a chance to see this first footage from John Dies at the End, based on the book of the same name from Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin (under the pseudonym of David Wong, and written in the first person). Darkly humorous, utterly violent, and one hell of a dreamy drug trip- it’s pretty much perfect for Coscarelli. Absolutely can’t wait to see the final product.
I’ve been a fan of the book since Permuted Press put it out in 2007 but thousands of people originally read a serialized on Wong’s website before it got taken down when he got it published.
There’s a sequel to the book on the way called THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS: Seriously Dude, Don’t Touch It, so you might want to jump on the first one now.
Jackie Chan’s 100th Film
Seems like there should be more excitement about this, right? That’s one helluva milestone, and one can only hope that people haven’t given up on Chan yet. After all, in between The Spy Next Door and The Karate Kid last year he released his most exciting film in years, Little Big Soldier, which proved that the old man still has a few moves.
1911 certainly looks like the kind of overblown period drama that’s so pervasive in Chinese cinema but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Creature was one for the record books. At 1,507 single-screen locations, the horror movie scared up $327,000, which was the fifth lowest-grossing opening on record for a nationwide release and the second-worst in terms of per-location average. To put it another way, it was the worst ever for a movie playing at 1,500 locations or more. Its per-showing attendance was less than six people, though Bucky Larson wasn’t much better at a little over eight.
I’m absolutely stunned that Creature managed to open in 1,507 theaters. Did they not have a marketing budget after buying all those prints? Christ, no one knew about this one. Not even the horror sites really covered it.
On a positive note, the failure of this film is decent news for my former CHUD.com co-worker Josh Miller, since his (horrible, horrible) flick Transylmania is no longer the worst film that’s opened at over 1,000 theaters.
Sometimes it feels good to have waited on picking up a classic movie or two.
On November 1st it will finally be mine.
Check the stats and weep-
Brand-new HD digital transfer of the 24fps version of 1929 reissue (Academy Aspect Ratio; 16x9 pillar-boxed) from the 35mm negative, with tinted sequences including the Bal Masque sequence in two-strip Technicolor. Featuring a brand new music score by Alloy Orchestra, plus Gaylord Carter’s famous theatre organ score, released for the first time in stereo;
Brand-new HD transfer of 20fps version of 1929 reissue with tinting, Technicolor and hand-coloring. Symphonic score composed by Gabriel Thibaudeau, performed by I Musici de Montreal, conducted by Yuri Turovsky with Claudine Cote, soprano presented in stereo, along with a new full-length audio essay by Dr. Jon Mirsalis;
Standard definition presentation of the original 1925 release from a 16mm tinted source copy. Accompanied by a new piano score by Dr. Frederick Hodges.
Creature was one for the record books. At 1,507 single-screen locations, the horror movie scared up $327,000, which was the fifth lowest-grossing opening on record for a nationwide release and the second-worst in terms of per-location average. To put it another way, it was the worst ever for a movie playing at 1,500 locations or more. Its per-showing attendance was less than six people, though Bucky Larson wasn’t much better at a little over eight.
