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Archive for April, 2010
-- Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse won't explain the ending of "Lost" after it airs. Lindelof says: "We're going to be as definitive as we can be and say this is our ending, but there's no way to end the show where the fans aren't going to say, 'What did they mean by this?' Which is why we're not going to explain it." [The Live Feed]
-- It is necessary for Shia LaBeouf to die in "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman," his upcoming "romantic actioner" about a man who falls in love with an irresistible but potentially lethal woman. [Collider]
-- Dwayne Johnson is rolling up his sleeves and getting back into the action game with "Protection," a new thriller directed by Simon West about a Mexico City security operative's attempts to smuggle a high-ranking judge's daughter across the border while being chased by dangerous assailants. [The Hollywood Reporter]
-- Kevin James and Sony are teaming up for "Here Comes The Boom," a closely guarded action comedy project written by James and "Zoolander" writer Rock Reuben. Adam Sandler will produce the film through Happy Madison. [Variety]
-- Kristen Bell is still fighting to bring a "Veronica Mars" movie to the big screen, saying that fans needs to convice Warner Bros. that the film would actually turn a profit. [E! Online]
-- Actor Joel Edgerton says that the upcoming prequel to "The Thing" will feature several nods to the previous movie but will also "stand alone as its own entity." [Ain't It Cool News]
-- John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore are sailing with "Whales," director Ken Kwapis' fact-based movie about the 1988 rescue of a trio of whales trapped in the Arctic Circle. Jack Amiel and Michael Begler wrote the script. [Deadline]
The script is finished, the cast seems largely in place and filming is set to begin at the start of July. But that doesn't mean everything about "Transformers 3" has been settled. While director Michael Bay has been exploring the possibility of making the film into a 3-D release — either shooting with 3-D cameras or doing a post-production conversion — no decision has yet been made.
That's the word coming from producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who chatted with MTV recently about all things 3-D, the upcoming film's exploration of its core mythology and the truth about the allegedly testy relationship between Bay and star Megan Fox.
MTV: So there's been talk about shooting "Transformers 3" in 3-D or converting it after the fact. Where are you at in terms of that discussion with Bay and Paramount?
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: We're literally in the middle of that. There's no definitive answer. I think the answer is that as James Cameron, who had plenty and plenty of time to do it, even he converted some of it [edit: first we're hearing that "Avatar" had 3-D converted elements!]. So I think the answer is that, as with most movies, you're going to do some kind of combination if you end up doing it. I'm sure 3-D cameras are going to get lighter and more manageable and all the things that get in the way right now. Over time, that may change. But I think in the near and medium term, most movies will do a combination when and if they do it.
MTV: You're a veteran of the big summer movie. What are your thoughts about 3-D in general? Is it here to stay or is it just another fad?
di Bonaventura: I think that it's an inevitability. As a technique, it has room to grow, and that's the rub right now: how soon can you make it grow? There are some movies that were willing to compromise quality. There are some directors that are not willing to compromise quality. If you do it without a very thoughtful plan, you sacrifice quality. It's going to be a main stay of what we do.
MTV: We've been hearing a lot about the third film's return to the core mythology.
di Bonaventura: I didn't think we veered away from the mythology in the second one. We stay pretty close to mythology in general, sometimes we add to it, as we did on the first and the second one. In second one, we're dealing with the matrix of leadership, a very clear mythological component. The Fallen is one of the original 13 Transformers. We were sticking fairly close to the mythology. We are going to continue to explore the past in the third one and that will continue to inform the present. I think it's pretty much the same thing we did on the first two: you try to get as close as you can to the lore and sometimes you run into pieces where there's not enough information to make a judgment, so you make you own call. That's a necessary component. By and large, the fans have accepted and embraced what we've been doing.
MTV: Around when the second one came out, there was all this hubbub about a feud between Bay and Megan Fox? Do you have any concern about their relationship going into "Transformers 3"?
di Bonaventura: I think the Internet had a lot of fun with that. Michael and Megan get along great. Like in any creative endeavor, there's not always total agreement. Michael doesn't agree on everything with me or Shia [LaBeouf]. He's the captain of the ship. But I think that's much ado about nothing. I even read that we were thinking about not casting her. Come on! It's so silly. As though we would want to mess with such a successful combination.
Daniel Logan was just 13 years old when he introduced "Star Wars" fans across the world to a young Boba Fett in 2002, in "Attack of the Clones." Now, 10 years later, he's back to voice a teenage version of the notorious bounty hunter-to-be in the three episode arc that will close the third season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." We got our first look last Friday; the season closes tonight with an hour's worth of episodes focusing on Boba and his bounty hunting pals.
For his part, Logan enjoys the opportunity to further develop this character he first played almost a decade ago. "He had his father all throughout Episode II. He was more or less confused," Logan explained. "He was like any child, he wants to be by his father's side and always be backing his father no matter if he's in the wrong or in the right." Some years have passed now; the last time we saw young Boba, he was broken up over see his father beheaded by Jedi Master Mace Windu. Years later, the changes wrought on him in that moment are still rippling outwards.
"Now [on 'The Clone Wars'], he's transitioned into being almost a solo character trying to create his own individual family base, his own group of people... to try to figure his way around the galaxy," Logan continued. "He's still a little confused, but I see him as more of a vengeful, determined character."
Vengeful is certainly right. In last week's episode, Boba followed through on a plot to kill Windu, planting a bomb in his quarters aboard a Republic cruiser. Unfortunately, the one question I desperately want an answer to is so spoiler-y, Logan didn't really want to touch it: will we see Boba put on his armor tonight? Or at least wield a disintegrator?
"Anytime Boba returns to the screen or the cartoon, it's always going to be a big impact," Logan said. "I guess we're just going to have to wait and see where Boba Fett goes in [switching from] the old jumpsuit to the armor. I don't want to ruin it for anybody."
He doesn't leave us completely hanging though: "I can say we're going to be able to expect a whole lot of blasting and Boba Fett going through the galaxy, terrorizing all the Jedi." Sounds good to me.
That leaves just one more question. What's up with Boba Fett's lameass death in "Return of the Jedi," when an errant swinging stick shorts out his jetpack and sends him hurtling into the Sarlacc Pit on Tatooine.
"I came up with my theory, that Boba Fett was sick that day," Logan explained. "As we all know, if you have a cold, you're coughing. And the moisture in the helmet would have [fogged up the visor], so it would've been hard to see."
I'll take it. Tune in to Cartoon Network tonight for the two-part season finale of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."
One of the surprise successes of 2009 was "Sherlock Holmes." Not because it wasn't any good (it was great) or because it featured a cast of unknowns (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law anyone?). No, "Sherlock Holmes" was a surprise success, to the tune of $515 million in worldwide ticket sales, because it came out a week after and went up against the record-shattering blockbuster juggernaut that was James Cameron's "Avatar." So it shouldn't come as any surprise to hear Downey, speaking to MTV's Josh Horowitz at the junket for next week's surefire summer hit "Iron Man 2," talking about the coming sequel.
"Yes, I think we'll be abroad," he said, referring to rumblings that Holmes would be leaving London behind for his next adventure. "A bit of Paris, a bit of Switzerland by the end, if I'm not mistaken."
Less certain is which characters will be returning. Holmes and Watson are essential of course, but the first movie featured a number of other key characters who aren't necessarily staples of Arthur Conan Doyle's original tales. "It's hard to say [who is coming back]," Downey said. The biggest question mark is on Holmes' love interest in the first outing, played by Rachel McAdams. "Because Irene Adler only appeared in one of the stories of Doyle's reservoir of activities. But we'll find out quickly."
Downey confirmed that he'll be doing "Gravity" next, with director Alfonso Cuaron, and then following that up with the "Holmes" sequel. Given the competition the first movie faced at the box office with "Avatar," Josh also asked if we might be seeing round two with the great detective in 3-D.
"It's hard to say," Downey said. "Certainly, if you don't do it as an option, then you don't have that option. If the last six months have shown anything, it's that audiences like options, and they will take advantage of them. And you're leaving a bunch of dough on the table if you don't shoot something in 3-D."
Jessica Alba is hot. That's pretty clear to every man and woman. So, when news spread that she'd be playing twins in the upcoming Robert Rodriguez directed flick, "Machete," she got America's collective pulse pounding. Just imagine a world where two Jessica Albas exist. I know, right?
So, at the New York premiere of her flick, "The Killer Inside Me," she gave away a few more details about the relationship between the two girls.
"They're sisters, obviously." She laughed. "They're best friends, but they certainly fight a lot. But they love each other."
With some rumblings that one of Alba's twins may find love with Machete, (played by Danny Trejo) I felt the need to get to the bottom of it. "Well Danny's character is an incredible man and my character understands that," she hinted. "And looks up to him."
With Steven Segal (and a ton of awesome people like Lindsay Lohan, Robert De Niro, Don Johnson) also in the cast, it seems pretty obvious that the "fierce" and "badass" flick will rely heavily on action. "There's a ton of action in it," she explained. "My character does a bit. I got to do some action finally again."
She added, "This movie is Robert Rodriguez, old school at its best."
The Real American Heroes are on their way back. But almost nothing is known about the sequel to last summer's $300-plus million grossing "G.I Joe: The Rise of the Cobra" other than the names of the writers penning the script: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick ("Zombieland"). In a far-ranging conversation with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, MTV News set out to shed a little light on the upcoming flick.
MTV: Have Reese and Wernick delivered a script yet?
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: We're not that far. I think it'll be pretty soon. It'll need a lot of work. They all do. I've had an occasion to read some of their pages, so I know the quality is there and the sense of tone is there. Paramount is very excited about us getting it going. No dates have been set. In our heads we think 2012 — that summer.
MTV: So then you'd start shooting when?
di Bonaventura: We'd probably start next spring.
MTV: Are Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the rest of the main cast going to return?
di Bonaventura: We haven't defined it yet. We're gonna keep that under wraps for the moment. They all did great and we liked them all. It's hard to manage as many characters as we tried. It would make life a little easier to have a few less. It'd be a hard decision to lose anybody, because they all did great.
MTV: One of the things that was really cool about the first one is that it was really global and took us to all these different locales. Is that globe-wide setting part of the plan for the sequel?
di Bonaventura: Oh yes.
MTV: The first film showed us the genesis for many of the G.I. Joe uniforms, weapons and vehicles. Will the second movie show us items and vehicles that more closely resemble the toy line?
di Bonaventura: You always want to evolve things forward. We're not just going to settle for the same weaponry or the same toys that we had before — I mean that more in a military sense than in a kid sense. I think 's part of the component of "G.I. Joe." are those advanced technologies — what can they do and how do they work? — and just some fun to the gizmos. It's part of that brand.
MTV: Has "G.I. Joe" comics writer Larry Hama been involved in the writing process at this point?
di Bonaventura: Not yet. The decision is always how do you balance letting him have some objective distance and also at the same time getting his opinion? What we did on the first one is that we waited until we got the first draft and then had him read it and comment and we fixed what he didn't like. That's probably the same thing we'll do on this.
MTV: Have there been any conversations about doing the sequel in 3-D?
di Bonaventura: No, I mean we're still working on getting the script. I'd definitely be open to it, but that's Paramount's decision. But myself and whoever the director is would have a big say in that. But at this point, we haven't gotten into that conversation.