If I’m ever fortunate enough to scratch off a big-dough lottery ticket and I’m awarded an endless pool of money, here’s one thing I’ll do: Fund any damn movie that Paul Thomas Anderson ever wants to make. Not because it’d mean that there’d be that many fewer weekends polluted by another Robert Pattinson film, but for the sheer betterment of cinema. PTA, as he’s affectionately coined, makes pictures far too often; to think that we’ll have to wait for something on par with his last work, the 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood, is quite disheartening.

Pardon the mini rant; it’s just unavoidable after reading about the financial blockage that’s currently preventing the writer-director’s potential next film, an untitled religion-centered drama that already has Philip Seymour Hoffman attached to star and recent Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) interested in second-billing. The as-yet-titleless film will be Hoffman’s fourth collaboration with Anderson, following Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002). The production’s reported budget is set at $35 million, which is why it’s having trouble finding a studio willing to pony up the scratch. Many indepedent distibutors have entertained the pitch, but not one has pulled the proverbial trigger.

Good news may be afoot, however—-Deadline reports that River Road Entertainment, the Minneapolis-based company founded by Michael Pohlad in 1987, is in “serious talks” to completely finance Anderson’s 1950s-set religion skewer. River Road’s most notable pick-up of recent years was Steven Soderbergh’s two-part biopic Che. Later this year, Terrence Malick’s heavily anticipated Tree of Life, headlined by Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, will boast the River Road tag. Pohlad is also a partner and primary investor in Apparition, which will release Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning buzz-grabber The Runaways this weekend.

Fingers crossed that River Road closes this deal; Anderson’s film sounds expectedly awesome. A few lucky folks have read the script and continue to gush throughout various film blog message boards. Here’s what’s known as of now: Hoffman will play a smooth-talking intellectual who introduces a controversial new religion in the 1950s; his belief system catches on, inspiring a ton of weak-minded followers, one being a young drifter (Renner, if he signs on) who gradually turns into a skeptic and challenges Hoffman.

Hints of There Will Be Blood, and pounds of Scientology satire. Hell yes.

Source: Deadline

Most of the-world-is-being-destroyed! flicks don’t have budgets like 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow, so I didn’t expect much from the special effects in Meteor Apocalypse.  And to give the creators of the film some credit, the effects weren’t THAT bad.  You know what I mean; they weren’t Superboy; The Complete First Season bad.  Unfortunately though, the plot WAS that bad…and I usually love these types of movies; even the ones that border on being completely asinine.

The film begins with a botched attempt by the government to destroy a massive meteor on course to blast into our planet, breaking it into hundreds of smaller meteors which still blast into our planet.  David Dematti (Joe Lando, of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman fame) is home with his wife and daughter when the first meteors strike.  David is called into work, and once he arrives he discovers his co-worker foaming at the mouth.  The co-worker dies in David’s arms.  Seeing a broken glass of water on the floor, David comes to the conclusion that the water has been contaminated from the meteors.  His wife calls and David tells her about his discovery, to which he then hears his wife ask his daughter if she drank the water.  Then…the phone goes dead.

In the next 75 minutes or so, David’s family and those in the contaminated area are quarantined by local authorities (in an implausibly fast amount of time from the first meteor strikes), he begins a massive search to find his family, David saves a woman (played by Cooper Harris) at some random gas station who then joins him on his quest (he did borrow her Jeep after all), they arrive in L.A. in search of guy who will have the medical cure for the contamination (again, this is all in the same day), they battle F.B.I. agents and rogue guys-with-guns-on-four-wheelers who are all fighting for the seemingly few bottles of clean water left, they dodge more meteors, they find the miracle cure, and… there’s even more after that.  And as a side plot, the CDC (Center for Disease Containment) headquartered in Washington D.C. hears L.A. is going to be destroyed by another meteor (which is naturally where David’s family was taken), so a few noble employees plead to save the citizens while the mean supervisor says no.  I can’t stand mean supervisors.

To top everything off, Meteor Apocalypse is billed as “a Christian apocalyptic thriller in the tradition of 2012, The Day After Tomorrow and Left Behind” as stated directly on the DVD cover.  Well, yes, there was a church in the movie where David and his lady friend stayed briefly, and yes, they even spoke to the pastor of the church (even more briefly), but that hardly constitutes this to be labeled as a Christian film.  The studio behind the movie is Faith Films, so I guess that’s how this became branded as a “Christian” flick.  It just seems misrepresentative, when coupled with other films like Left Behind, The Nativity Story and The Passion of the Christ.

Maybe given an additional 30-45 minutes, all of the plot points in Meteor Apocalypse could have flowed together better and even felt slightly more believable.  But instead, the movie features marginal acting with less-than-grand special effects and moments that simply don’t make sense.  If 2012 is sold out at the store or all of the rental copies are gone and you absolutely need to see a disaster flick, I still don’t recommend renting Meteor Apocalypse.  Look for Twister instead.

What’s that? A sequel to Kick-Ass? Already?

Yes.

While promoting the premiere of Kick-Ass at the SXSW Film Festival, its leads, Aaron Johnson and Chris Mintz-Plasse, said that story creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. have begun work on the second volume of the graphic novel.

The upcoming feature is adapted from the original first-volume, eight-issue mini-series.

“Matthew and Mark have a lot of ideas, and I think they work quite tightly” says Johnson. Mintz-Plasse added “he [Millar] wants it to be very, very dark is what he’s thinking.”

“If you could get any more dark than Kick-Ass is right now, then Mark had even darker ideas. Matthew went with absolutely everything but there were some things that were impossible to film. No one’s going to see it because it’s too disgusting” says Johnson.

Kick-Ass arrives in theaters on April 16.

Source: Coming Soon

The director of the upcoming “re-imagining” of Teen Wolf, Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction, Highlander), recently offered a rebuttal to the online community who has voiced considerable concern over the direction of the project.

“We are not screwing around with the obviously very much beloved 80s Michael J. Fox classic, we are not doing that,” says Mulcahy . “Obviously it’s inspired by it, but the new MTV Teen Wolf takes out a totally different slant, taking more of the slant of The Lost Boys, so to speak.”

With an edgier take, does that mean the comedy will be eliminated?

“It still has humor, but it’s basically got horror and humor. The humor is in the characters and the real situations and the teenagers, it’s very real and not played for any obvious laughs – they come from the situation. So there is definitely humor and horror, we really, really wanted to go for that and also the reality.”

Mulcahy added: “Also it’s obviously pumped up with not only a good scary score, but it’s also pumped up with great music.”

Let’s address the elephant in the online chat room. Teen Wolf wasn’t very funny nor was it very good. If you remember differently then it may be time to take another look with the eyes of an adult. The uproar over this looming project seems a little surprising. It’s not like we are talking about Doc Hollywood or The Hard Way, right?

It’s a treasured moment to our childhood, that’s all.

Source: Den of Geek

Timur Bekmambetov on the set of 'Wanted' with Angelina Jolie

Looks like Summit Entertainment has purchased The Last Witch Hunter with hopes of turning the film into a potential franchise alongside the Twilight series.

The story centers on one of the last witch hunters on earth, a person who keeps the population of witches and warlocks at a manageable level, yet as the witches/warlocks attempt to fornicate and produce more magic-practicing beings, something must be done to stop them.

Or so the story goes…

The Last Witch Hunter was written by The Brood scribe Cory Goodman.

Summit is currently holding talks with Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov to produce and direct, who is already attached to produce Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

The Heat Vision blog at The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Paramount has locked in the film rights to Existence 2.0, the Nick Spencer and Ronald Salas graphic novel from Image.

The Spider-Man 2 and Smallville team, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, will adapt the comic book for screen as well as executive produce.

The big screen adaptation of Existence 2.0 will be handled by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes (the rebooted Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street) as well as David Alpert from Circle of Confusion.

The story revolves around an “amoral, self-absorbed physicist who finds his consciousness transferred into the body of the hitman who just killed him. He begins enjoying the hitman’s lifestyle until his daughter is kidnapped by the same people who ‘killed’ him.”

The good people at /Film spotted a pretty cool fan-made poster for the upcoming Nimrod Antal directed, Robert Rodriguez written reboot Predators. I like the minimal approach of a single predator looking ready to lop your head off and stick it in a pike.

While you’re here, check out the sneak peek video that hit the interwebs a few days ago.

Predators stars Adrien Brody (a good choice!), Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo and Walton Goggins. The movie hits theaters on July 7.

Cynthia Nixon calls the upcoming Sex and the City 2 an “adventure” rather than a “tearjerker” like the first Sex and the City.

“The last movie was more of a tearjerker, and this is really more of a romp — an adventure!,” says Nixon. “I like the caper aspect of the movie, the four of us on the run in a foreign country. It’s fun!”

Last month, co-star Kim Cattrall called the franchise “refreshing.”

“Re-examining what happens to women in their 30s, 40s and 50s is, in some ways, incredibly new territory,” says Cattrall. “I was driving to work and there was a big billboard with Denzel Washington looking like another film about the end of the world.”

Sex and the City 2 stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Chris Noth and cameos from Miley Cyrus and Penélope Cruz.

The movie arrives in theaters on May 27.

Source: In Touch Weekly

Miley Cyrus is taking a note from the Selena Gomez playbook and says that the Internet is a huge “waste of time.”

“I’m telling kids, don’t go on the internet,” says Cyrus. “It’s dangerous, it’s not fun, it wastes your life, and you should be outside playing sports or something.

“I just think it’s kind of lame. I feel like I hang out with my friends and they’re so busy taking pictures of what they’re doing and putting them on Facebook that they’re not really enjoying what they’re doing.”

Last year Cyrus ended her term on Twitter thanks to the demands of her boyfriend, the 20-year-old Liam Hemsworth but revealed that the 17-year-old tweets “vicariously” trough her friend Emily Osment.

“I’ve been tweeting vicariously through my friend who is on my show, Emily,” Miley, says Cyrus. “So I’m like, ‘For all the life that you live on Twitter, I’ll live through you’. So I’m always like, ‘What are people saying?’

“I posted a picture on there the other day. She took my picture and I said just write, ‘Hi from Miley’. I stood by a thing of hay and said, ‘Hey!’ and that was it.”

So, to recap, kids shouldn’t be on the Internet unless you’re a cheese-ball pop star who uses Twitter through the co-star of Disney Channel tween show.

Source: Movieline

Amanda Seyfried will melt your eyes.

Amanda Seyfried, 24, who is the opposite of Kristen Stewart (i.e. attractive), recently posed for Esquire magazine to help promote her upcoming film Chloe (she makes out with Julianna Moore, shows booty).

I approve of these pics (and these), however, I don’t approve of her breakthrough role in Mamma Mia!. Just sayin’.

Here are some blurbs from her interview

Hey Amanda, what’s your diet?

”I’m on a raw-food diet,” she declares, raising her brows to make her eyes even bigger. “It’s intense. And sort of awful. Yesterday for lunch? Spinach. Just spinach. Spinach and some seeds.”

Say, Amanda, I heard you got a dog. True?

“It’s so predictable. I just left him and I already want to run back and see him. Most of the time I just want to go home and throw the dog a stick. Can anything be more obvious than throwing a stick? I need to be needed. I understand that the need is never with the dog.”

So, Amanda Seyfried, what kind of girl are you?

“I would always tell somebody if they had shit on their face. Especially if it’s really feces. Well, I’m a BFF. I play a BFF. It’s what I do. I have an actual necklace from Jennifer’s Body that says BFF. That’s my role right there.”

Tell us more about your move from LA? We’re DYING to know.

“I sacrificed six years in L. A. I did my job out here. I made the contacts and did the work I had to do. But I came here at eighteen. I’m out of here at twenty-four, and I feel lucky it wasn’t longer.”

What are your thoughts on Photography?

“I learned a long time ago that photographs are not theater. This is not acting. It’s pretending. I pretend I’m looking at a man who is looking right at me, a man who sees me as exceptionally clever and adventurous.”