Monday 26 December 2011

2012 - A Big Year For Movies

2012. Many people may associate this year as the end of the world, or if you live in the UK it is the year of the London Olympics. But for me this is the year for movie nerds everywhere! Next year is the year for cinema, will it finally get back on track with more people going to it? If the films that are coming out next year are anything to go by, then hopefully. Here are my top 10 anticipated films of 2012! And no The Dark Knight Rises is not first!:

10. Chronicle
Chronicle is a found footage film which actually looks different this year! As many of you know, I love superheroes and this film is about three boys who gain super powers. A found footage superhero movie, what more can I say?
9. War Horse
I am a big fan of the book which I read a couple of years ago, and if anyone could adapt it too the big screen it's Steven Spielberg! Even the author has commended it! I want to see this film!
8. Gangster Squad
I love period gangster dramas, and this one has Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone in it! I can't wait!
7. Prometheus
The Alien prequel or spin off film trailer was released last week and looks amnazing! Time to get the watch the Alien Box set I Think!
6. The Muppets
Unless your American this film has not come out yet! And I have to wait till February to see it! Painful but worth the wait by the sounds of it. I love the muppets!
5. The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey
Being a big fan of The Lord of The Rings trilogy how could I not be excited about this one! Love the idea of Peter Jackson upping the frames per second to create amazing 3D. The Trailer came out last week and it looks incredible!
4. The Hunger Games
As you already know I'm a a massive fan of the books and cannot wait to see them adapted for the big screen. I'm hoping it isn't too Twilight but by the looks of the trailer it looks amazing and quite emotional too.
3. The Dark Knight Rises
Who is not excited about this one? The trailer was amazing as suspected and in Nolan we trust!
2. The Avengers
I have been waiting for this film since the closing credits of Iron Man and cannot wait for this film to finally be here! With Joss Whedon on the directors chair this is certain to be one hell of a movie!
1. The Amazing Spider-Man
Yes it is the half man half spider who tops my list! Being a massive fan of the man in red I cannot wait for this film. Marc Webb is a brilliant director and Andrew Garfield is one of the greatest actors of our time. This is sure to amazing! They have gone a little bit darker and have added The Lizard to the mix, cannot wait! Lots of people hating this film because its telling the origin again or because they like Tobey Maguire, Personally Tobey was a great Peter Parker but unlike Andrew Garfield he is not Peter Parker!


And that concludes my top 10 most anticipated films of 2012. I hope you agree! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I will blog my review of 2011 before 2012... hopefully!

Thursday 15 December 2011

Some Of My Film Work

So I haven't really blogged about my own film work yet and if you have read my profile you will have seen that I am a budding filmmaker. I haven't actually made any full feature films yet as I am studying my A-Levels and hoping to do a film course at University next year.

Last year though I did make a film trailer for my coursework called Experiment 66. The trailer was for a made up film I had created which was like Twilight for men, as it has a bromance instead of a romance. And everyone loves a good bromance! I also am editing footage from my school play The Wizard of Oz to make a DVD. I went in to some of the rehearsals to make a trailer though. You can see both the trailers bellow! Experiment 66 is on Vimeo so click the link to go see that one. The school production one has no sound due to copyright issues.

Experiment 66 Trailer








I do however have two short films that are being made, here are the ideas:

Broken Hearts
A found footage film that puts a twist on the romance genre. The film starts with a boy being run over by a car, we then go backward through the footage on his video camera to see a relationship between him and and a girl. We see that the boy had just been in an argument with his girlfriend before his death.

Snow Dream
This is film about a young boy who dreams of himself in a winter wonderland. The concept does not sound very exciting but it is going to be set to a soundtrack of The Killers songs. The things that happen during his dream are all inspired by the music and I want it to be almost like a tribute to the amazing band!

Hope you like my work and ideas and hopefully you might be able to see the short films early next year!

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Would You Like The Good News Or The Bad New First?

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I have had a lot of work to do recently, not that you guys care anyway I'm sure. But my hasn't there been a lot of news recently!

Good News
. The Dark Knight Rises prologue is supposed to be amazing!
. Posters for the new Batman and Spider-Man films have come out and also look amazing!
. Hugo is also supposed to be amazing! (need to see it soooooo badly!)
. First reviews of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo say it is mind blowing stuff!

Bad News
. American Psycho is being remade!?!?!?!?!
. So is Starship Troopers!
. Zac Efron looks like a terrible soldier in that new yucky romance film coming out next year.
. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is going to be an 18 so I am going to have to wait a month till I can see it!
. Battleship looks just as crap as expected, don't check out the awful trailer! (though the effects look ok)

So here are the two posters for two of the most anticipated movies next year. And no they were not produced by the same company! Even though it does look that way. a lot of people have been whining saying the Spider-Man is copying Batman's advertising but it did come out a day earlier and personally I prefer it as I am a bigger fan of the character and it was an unexpected twist in advertising. I suspected The Dark Knight Rises poster might have looked like that. Though don't check out the banners for The Amazing Spider-Man as they kind of make the advertising team look like they don't know what kind of film they are tyring to sell. Both awesome and both very hard decisions as to which one will be my iPod background?

Heres for the worst new I've heard in a while! AMERICAN PSYCHO IS BEING REMADE!?!?! WHY????? The first film was awesome and has massive cult following and nobody can play Bateman like Bale did! Not happy at all, i could go on forever but I told myself to keep this short.

Thanks for reading guys! Follow me on Twitter if you haven't already and follow my blog!

Love to all those who have read!

Monday 5 December 2011

An Amazing Looking Remake!?

No I am not a big fan of remakes. I find that Hollywood just can't come up with anything original anymore or Americans can not read subtitles. Don't get me wrong i would prefer to watch a film without subtitles but if it is a good foreign film then you should give it credit, subtitles or not. I am a big fan of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo book and its follow ups and I was a really big fan of the Swedish film (with subtitles!).

So when I heard that Hollywood were looking to remake it 'American Style' I wasn't too impressed! Most remakes have a pretty bad track record. But I got even angrier at Hollywood at the Oscars where the film (which they loved so much they are going to turn it into a remake) had no recognition or nominations at all! I was fuming! I can feel myself getting a bit angry now.

But the I hear that David Fincher, a legend in the directing world and one of personal favourites, is going to making it I felt much better!

But then the casting. Who could match Noomi Rapace's Lisbeth Salander!? I was secretly hoping she would work on the remakes as well but dreams don't always come true. Then Rooney Mara was cast. The girl from the terrible remake of The Nightmare on Elm Street! The girl who had a 5 minute role in The Social Network. I wasn't happy at all. Even when the pictures of her in character were released, I still wasn't convinced.

But there was a silver lining in the casting department! Daniel Craig was cast as Mikael Blomkvist! Which I think was perfect casting as he suits the role so well! So something to be happy about!

So next came the poster, which had some controversial nudity. But this made me a little bit happier as that meant that David Fincher was not going to hold out on some of the horrific themes that are portrayed in the book, something the Swedish film looked at well but not in much detail.

Then came the teaser trailer. The soundtrack was amazing. The editing was amazing. And it really got you buzzed 'The feel bad movie of Christmas'. LOVE IT!

Then came the full trailer. And it still looks amazing, and Rooney Mara took the role on head first and really looks like she has done a great job, which I was surprised. Daniel Craig also looked awesome, though I was a little confused as to why he had a no Swedish accent like the characters did? And dare I say it... I actually think this film looks better then the Swedish version!

And from the 8 minute extended trailer I just watched, this film definitely looks like it's going to be very true to the books!

I ma very excited about this film! And cannot wait for it to be released on Boxing Day! But unfortunately the film is most likely to be rated an 18, so I will have to wait until January before I will be able to see it. But as soon as I turn 18 I will run out of the house and catch the first bus to the cinema!

Thursday 1 December 2011

Superhero Leaks!

So the last couple of a days have been full of supposed 'leaks' of superhero films; The Amazing Spider-man & The Dark Knight Rises. I will start by saying that I am looking forward to these films so much and have been enjoying reading all the gossip around them. And there has been a lot of pictures and supposed details leaked from the new batman film which is strange for director Chris Nolan to allow this to happen, Because usually he is quite strict on what is revealed as he likes the audience to watch his films without knowing a thing. But I reckon its all part of his plan. In Nolan we trust!

So we know the villain for the new Spider-man reboot film is going to be The Lizard, but until recently the look for the creature has been kept under wraps. Until it was revealed via PEZ Dispenser!
So yes this isn't really a great look but I believe there was a lot of hate for the look? It's a PEZ dispenser guys!? Personally I think it looks pretty awesome! So the next day, there was another supposed 'leak' of concept art of the comic book villain. I say supposed because I believe that Sony were probably pretty mad a PEZ for releasing the image before they had given the fans something better to look at, and due to the bad press it was getting they probably 'accidently' released the concept art to help calm fan boys down.


So more positive reaction to this but again had fans divided. I again personally think it looks amazing and just what I was hoping for, but could do with more of a snout. BUT again this is just concept art, so who knows what could happen. Hopefully an official movie image will be released soon or 'leaked' but until then we'll just have to assume it will be awesome. I definitely recommend watching some of Andrew Garfield previous films, he really is a great actor and will fit into the part of Peter Parker well!

So on to The Dark Knight Rises, a synopsis has been released of the prologue, which will have a look at the new villain Bane. Here is the synopsis: (SPOILERS)

"Bane and his mercenaries hijack a military plane transporting a dictator of a country which is in unrest (think Saddam Hussein type figure).
'He successfully kills the leader, but makes some mistakes along the way and is unable to safely land the plane.
'Because of the resulting injuries from the accident, he has to undergo complicated surgeries and that is how he winds up with that scar down his neck and the need for the mask to numb the pain.'
The source goes on to describe Bane's origin story as reimagined by Nolan.
"'He is raised by Ra’s al Ghul [Bruce Wayne's old mentor] and his up bringing mirrors that of Bruce Wayne.
'It’s a mirror of Bruce, except it’s darker and twisted. Bane is trained to be an assassin for the League of Shadows.
'He kills political figures that are deemed unfit by the LOS. So he is a bit of a Che Guevara/ Jason Bourne type character.'
 
So yeah, sounds pretty awesome! I don't know whether it will be as good as Heath Ledgers prologue as The Joker but only time will tell as it will soon hit 5 IMAX cinemas in the UK before the start of Mission Impossible 4. So if your lucky enough to see it at one of the 5 I'm sure you'll love it but for the rest of us I guess we'll just have to wait until its 'leaked' online!
 
Thanks for reading! If you like my blog please recommend to friends as it would be good to get some readers! Please comment and follow me on twitter @SuperAlexMan .