BUZZES CAFE: 12/31/09

End of Year’s Flash Buzzes: Part Two

>> Dec 31, 2009

Disney’s “Rapunzel” Exposed New Image
DisneyPixar.fr has released the first photo from Disney Animation’s “Rapunzel”, which scanned from French movie magazine Studio Cinelive. Directed by Byron Howard & Nathan Greno (the co-director and head of story on "Bolt" respectively), this new telling of the classic fairy tale, will transport audiences “to a stunning CG fantasy world complete with the iconic tower, an evil witch, a gallant hero and, of course, the mysterious girl with the long golden tresses. Expect adventure, heart, humor, and hair, lots of hair.” Rapunzel is voiced by Mandy Moore while Chuck’s Zachary Levi will play a “dashing bandit” named Flynn Ryder who hits the road with the “rebellious, teenage hair apparent.” The voice cast is also rumored to include David Schwimmer, Matthew Gary Gubler, Kristin Chenoweth, Dan Fogler, and Grey DeLisle. The animation film is scheduled to hit theaters in Christmas 2010.

James McAvoy Attached To Play Ian Fleming
According to Pajiba, the “Wanted” actor has been attached to play Ian Fleming, the man who gave us the world's most famous 007 spy. The movie itself will be based on the book, Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, by Andrew Lycett, who has also written books on Arthur Conan Doyle, Dylan Thomas, and Rudyard Kipling.
The big news here, however, is that the movie — which has been independently financed to the tune of around $40 million — has James McAvoy attached in the lead, which sadly probably takes him out of the running to replace Daniel Craig in the future. McAvoy actually seems well suited to the role — he can do playboy (Bright Young Things), he can do period and war movie (Atonement), and he can do action (Wanted). Plus, he’s an excellent actor with a dry sense of humor befitting not just Fleming, but Bond.

Jeremy Renner Says Playing Hawkeye is only an Idea
About a month ago, Jeremy Renner, the actor who’s found his fame via “The Hurt Locker”, revealed that he had been talking with Marvel about playing the superhero character Hawkeye in the upcoming “Thor” and “Avengers” movies. Now, Renner gave an update to Movieline in a new interview, explaining what happened with Marvel.
"That was just one of those things that got blown way out of proportion. It was an idea. Those Marvel guys, I'm a big fan of them. They're so smart about how they want to do these things — they have Captain America, and Thor coming around, Iron Man 2, and then I happen to know Zak Penn, who's writing The Avengers. So they thought Hawkeye is an interesting role, and asked me if I knew anything about him. I said no, so they gave me their sort of spiel on what he was, and I thought that it was kind of interesting. The only reason it came out this early, because Avengers is two years away, is that they're thinking OK, we may throw him in Thor, we may not, as a cameo. You know what I mean? So there's truth that we talked about it, but there's no truth to me doing it."

Denzel's Fight Training Video for The Book of Eli
"The Book of Eli”, stars Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman in a post-apocalyptic tale in which a lone man, Eli (Washington), fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

Mountain in China Inspired Avatar’s Hallelujah Mountains
Came from MonkeyPeaches, it looks like planet Pandora in James Cameron’s smash hit film, “Avatar” is not completely out of this real world. According to the source probably from Cameron's team, those floating Hallelujah Mountains were inspired by Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in eastern China. In fact, those mountains were created based on real video footage and still photos taken in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan Province of southern China. Jim's team only chopped off the bottom of these rocks and made them float with digital magic. Huangshan and Zhangjiajie are at least 700 kilometers (over 400 miles) in distance and they are not in the same mountain range. Below are some of the shots.

End of Year’s Flash Buzzes: Part One

It’s only a little time left in this 2009, but there is still too many news to catch. So why don’t bundles them in a hefty post of short reports like you can discover below.

Worthington and Reynolds for “Flash Gordon”
A year and a half since Neil Moritz acquired the rights to the “Flash Gordon” film and Breck Eisner was picked to direct, there is no any official developments on the superhero reboot film. But now rumors start surfaced about who is being looked at to play the lead role. Hollyscoop is reporting that an insider of theirs informed them that two hot commodities in Hollywood at the moment, Sam Worthington and Ryan Reynolds, are up for the role of Flash. While, the character is an American icon of sorts and so we can expect some friction with the fact that Worthington is Australian-born, the same friction we saw with rumors of Worthington being a possibility for the role of Captain America. However, if the role goes to Ryan Reynolds, he will be very very busy since two potential superhero franchises from DC Entertainment’s “Green Lantern” movie and Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Deadpool” flick are also officially with him.

Next June, “Captain America” Start Filming
Production on “The First Avenger: Captain America” starts in June, 2010. So, it’s reasonable to think that the casting info should follow soon. The news broke during an interview with Fangoria magazine. “The Wolfman” director, Joe Johnston dropped literally the briefest of tidbits during a promo interview for his latest horror flick. Principal photography was now less than four weeks away. “By the time I got on a plane and arrived, it was three,” recalls Johnston, speaking from the art department of “Captain America”, which he’s readying for a June start.” However. still no word on the script and there also has been plainly nothing solid on who will be dressed shield-wielding, flag-bolstering costume. Beside Sam Worthington who’s been in everything these days, many other names have come up recently including Twilight actor Kellan Lutz, Chuck star Zachary Levi, Jensen Ackles who won a poll on The Geek Files.

Wear your 3D Glasses for “Robin Hood”
AICN (via TheWrap) has reported that Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” film will be the next big thing to be getting the third dimension treatment. A source close to the project told the site that director Ridley Scott "is breathing down the neck of executives" at Universal Pictures to give an approval for making a 3-D version of his action adventure film. Additionally, the site claimed they have got information from a knowledgeable source who said it would cost only an additional $7 to $8 million to create a 3-D version of "Robin Hood." The extra money that will be needed for the 3-D conversion is considerably small compared to $200 million that has been spent on the epic movie.

"Ghostbusters 3" Will Shoot in the Summer
Director Harold Ramis has revealed to Heeb magazine currently that "Ghostbusters 3" will begin filming during the summer and will hit theaters in 2011.
"Something's going to happen," he said. "Dan [Aykroyd] did write a spec GB3 screenplay a few years ago, but no one was motivated to pursue it. Now, 25 years after the original, there seems to be some willingness to proceed and apparently a substantial public appetite for a sequel. We'll introduce some new young Ghostbusters, and all the old guys will be in it, too. Think Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future ... GB3 is progressing with plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011."

An Award-Winning Crew for “Green Lantern”
SuperHeroHype has reported that “Green Lantern” – the first movie being produced under the new DC Entertainment banner – will be shot by award-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe, who won an Oscar for his work on “Memoirs of a Geisha” in 2006; for the look of the movie, director Martin Campbell also has managed to get production designer Grant Major and costume designer Ngila Dickson, both of whom won Oscars for their work on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (Major was also nominated for his work on Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”). If all those still not enough, art director François Audouy, who may not have won any Oscars but has an impressive resume which includes (in various different capacities) such fare as the “Spider-Man” trilogy, “Zodiac”, “I Am Legend” and perhaps most significantly, James Cameron’s recent f/x extravaganza, “Avatar” also rumored has been attached to the project.

"Star Trek 2" to Begin Pre-Production in a Year
It looks like Abrams is following the same schedule as the one used for the first "Star Trek." If pre-production begins in a year, then filming will likely get going in November of 2011 and be released in March of 2013. Currently, actress Zoe Saldana has revealed the plan to MTV, "I spoke to JJ [Abrams] and Bryan Burk, his producing partner at Bad Robot, and they are still in the middle of building the script with Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci," she revealed. "And we'll probably be going into pre-production around this time next year."

”Night and Fog” Turn to Film
A little-known horror comic from publisher Studio 407, “Night and Fog”, may be headed to the big screen. It has been optioned by producer Gil Adler who is familiar enough with the genre since has previously produced “Constantine” and the “Tales From the Crypt” series. Shane McCarthy and Studio 407’s Alex Leung will also serve as a producer on the project. “Night and Fog” is a WWII-era story about an infectious mist released on a military base that transforms its victims into creatures of the night. The human survivors attempt to destroy the creatures, but they adapt and transform again, becoming even more horrific and unstoppable.

For “EL MAL AJENO”, Amenabar Moves To The Producer's Chair
After directed a big budgeted “Agora” which already a smash hit at the Spanish box office but yet to be seen if it will perform well enough internationally to make back its monstrous budget, Alejandro Amenabar now moves to his producer’s chair again to conceives what looks to be a slick little thriller called “El Mal Ajeno”. In the film’s plot, Diego is a doctor so used to dealing with extreme situations that he has become immune to the pain of others. When one of his patients, Sara, tries to kill herself, her partner points an accusing finger at Diego, holding him directly responsible for what has happened. During a tense confrontation between the two, a gun is held at Diego. Hours later, he only remembers the sound of something being fired, and the strange sensation of having been on the receiving end of more than a gunshot. Oskar Santos is directing while two reliable Spanish stars, Eduardo Noriega and Belen Rueda (The Orphanage), are in the cast.

Gladly Present These Our Version of 2009 Best Posters

As a brief introduction of what the movie all about, poster is one most important thing in the show business. Cause No matter how great a film is, no-one's going to see it if they don't get the marketing right. So, for the publicity and marketing purpose, everyday we’ve continuously seen many posters and DVD covers continuing to evolved over time and used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, represented in a wide variety of artistic styles. Since this is the end of the year and recaps are everywhere, here I try to conceives some that I think were the best posters of 2009. However, you can also let me know your picks in the comments section below.

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