To meteorologists, the term “pineapple express” refers to a strong, persistent northern flow of warm air from the tropics, which induce heavy rains and powerful thunderstorms.

Unlike this atmospheric phenomenon, the upcoming Judd Apatow action comedy The Pineapple Express looks to have sunny skies and nary a drop of rain to ruin the fun.

The film, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, details the explots of two stoners on the run from murderers. While it doesn’t sound like a plot that would easily translate into comedy, the film is apparently going for a lighthearted quirkiness to soften the drama.

The brand new trailer shows off some of the combustible chemistry on display from the script and cast:

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

While Rogen seems to be playing a character similar to most of his previous roles, it’s Franco who is the revelation. He perfectly captures that cool hippie vibe that we all fondly remember from our youth. Add Franco’s natural physical presence, and this could be the role that redefines his career as something more than just a pretty face.

Of course, the role may not be much of a stretch for Franco, whose interesting recent interviews suggest a closer affinity for the greens than simply Method Acting.

Overall, the movie has this peculiar Pulp Fiction -meets - Fargo - meets - a Cheech and Chong film that I quite like. I wasn’t looking forward to this at all until I saw this trailer. Now it’s a priority.

Regardless, the trailer is awesome.

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I meant to write about this the other day but for whatever reason I never got round to it.

Back in 2002-2003, Christopher Nolan and his crew held several massive auditions for Batman Begins, a Warner Bros. blockbuster event movie that was one of the most sought out pictures for both young and veteran actors who saw it potentially as being successful for them as movies like Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings and X-Men had been for their respective casts.

The last seven days has seen both Joshua Jackson and Chris Cooper reveal they had auditioned (in Joshua’s case) or turned down (in Chris’ case) the roles of Batman and Commissioner Gordan respectively something that any self respecting Batman fan who kept up with the pre-production of Begins five years ago will know about already.

Joshua Jackson on loosing out on the role of Batman, from MTV…

“I went and did the screen test,” “Shutter” star Joshua Jackson revealed to MTV News. “I was one the last four or five guys [up for the role of Batman.]”

“I don’t like to lose any job, but they cast the right guy,” he said. “I mean, Christian Bale was excellent. I don’t really think of myself in a sort of comic book hero way, you know what I mean? This might be why I didn’t get that job.”

For those wondering, the other guys who made the final group were…

Jake Gyllenhaal (who screenwriter David Goyer wanted for the part but Nolan wanted Bale… and Goyer later said that was the right decision), Cillian Murphy (who Nolan was so impressed by his intensity, he cast him as Scarecrow), Hugh Dancy and Billy Crudrup. Others had auditioned but I believe those were the final guys it came down too.

Don’t you just wish they had recorded those audition sessions (maybe they did, would love to see them?). Gyllenhaal would have been an interesting choice but he still kinda looks a little fresh faced for me… possibly suiting the role of Spider-Man more. Jackson would have been interesting but his casting would be reminiscent of Michael Keaton but again rewind five years ago and he looked fresh faced too.

Billy Crudrup would have been the only other name I could have seen do the part it’s full justice but of course, this was Bale’s part all along. Everyone could kinda sense it.

Sadly none of these names resurfaced when the Batman role was up for grabs again with the Justice League movie.

And then there’s Chris Cooper who also spoke to MTV about turning down the role of Commissioner Gordon. I’ve said it for years that I thought Cooper would be an amazing Gordon. But hey, we got Gary Oldman so it’s all good…

“I was approached about that and chose not to do it,” he matter of factly confessed.

“If I’m going to choose a particular role and be away from home for months on end — whether it’s a long shoot or a short shoot, I’m going to put my energies into it — it’s something I want to be totally involved with,” he insisted. “I don’t like to work back to back — just work for work’s sake. I like to do one job, go home and recuperate and look for another piece of material once I’m ready.”

“There’s any number of scripts that I passed on — some that got huge recognition — but I have no regrets.”

Even with the talented names that either turned down the picture or lost out on roles to other actors, it’s difficult to really argue against how amazingly well cast the movie was.

Christian Bale, Michael Caine (who looks nothing like the character from the comics but is superb as Alfred), Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson (was amazing), Tom Wilkinson (wish he had more screentime and it sucks he ain’t back for the sequel), Cillian Murphy and even Linus Roache’s performance as Thomas Wayne which should not be under-estimated for it’s value to the picture, were incredible.

The only sour casting was Katie Holmes as the obligatory love interest (which Batman doesn’t need by the way, unless they do a Talia storyline) but she had a likeability about her as an actress before Begins, and you can see why they cast her. And then you see the names he cast for The Dark Knight… and how incredible they look to have been moulded into the universe.

Christopher Nolan is genius at casting, especially but not limited too the supporting roles (David Bowie as Tesla in The Prestige… AWESOME!). Can’t wait for Batman… and can’t wait to see which actors he might one day find for roles like The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman and characters like Talia Al Ghul and Dick Grayson (who I don’t want to see for a VERY long time by the way) if they are ever to make an appearance in his universe.

Nick Stoller (writer/director) & Jason Segel (writer/actor), the two graduates from the Judd Apatow academy whose male-centric comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens next month have struck a deal with Disney to helm the next Muppets movie.

Segel and Stoller will write the script and Stoller will direct.

Are you surprised these guys got the gig? Yeah me too but it would seem their negotiations skills and love for the characters is what won out in the end.

Here’s Variety’s take on the matter…

In “Sarah Marshall” Segel’s character writes a “Dracula” musical performed by puppets. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie when he was invited in for a general meeting with exec Kristin Burr. Segel got a deal in the room and enlisted Stoller to co-write and direct the project.

It would seem that the Muppets make quite a big appearance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

So with them being fans of the Muppets, then we have no reason to think they will write in gay jokes, sexual references or outrageous social misfits… right?

The last Muppets movie was an awful t.v. film The Muppets Wizard of Oz, with the last theatrical effort being Muppets from Space in 1999 which was a financial flop, grossing $2 million less than the production budget.

Muppets are in a dire straight right now and the hiring of these two young, fresh faced guys in the industry to be given free reign on the characters has to be a good thing.

I got an E-mail from the book’s author James Dalessandro who kindly corrects us on a few things…

Thank you for posting the information on 1906, it’s actually been going on for a while over there at Pixar, but Warner Brothers is tight lipped about everything they do..

•  The film is not based on John Logan’s original script: Logan was hired to rewrite but left before writing anything because Brad Bird was busy and unavailable on Ratatouille.

• The original screenplay was written by James Dalessandro, the book’s author….

Original article below… 

Brad Bird, the director with the best track record for great animated films over any other director working today (Ratatotuille, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant) has finally got the go-ahead to work on his next feature, a LIVE-ACTION adaptation of James Dalessandro’s 2005 novel 1906.

Surprisingly, Warner Bros. have jumped onto the project and it will now be a co-production between them and Disney/Pixar, probably because the latter studio have never dealt into live action movies. This might end up being more of a WB production than Disney/Pixar…

The story centers on a college student who begins to investigate the murder of his father, uncovering a web of deceit that has left the city vulnerable to the sort of fire that breaks out when the Great Earthquake of 1906 hits San Francisco.

Bird is now re-writing the original script from John Logan (Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai).

Though I could honestly watch Brad Bird make timeless animated classics for the rest of his career and still be amazed by the worlds he can create, I’m interested as hell to see what Bird will do with a live-action feature.

And real life events worked into fictional tales can often be interesting. Animation has truly lost a master to live-action here (hopefully he will come back soon) but if he can re-create the epic feel of his CGI movies, then we are in for a treat with this.

source - the hollywood reporter

This will probably be the first publicity for the average movie fan who will now be very much aware that Rachel Weisz is not returning for the flick. I wonder how much of an effect it will have on the financial success of the feature.

It certainly will effect the movie quality wise, I think we all know that..

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug, 1st (U.S.) and Aug, 7th (U.K.) from director Rob Cohen and will star Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, Anthony Wong, Luke Ford and Isabella Leong.

source - coming soon

Most creatures in this world serve some sort of purpose. Some are truly inspirational (like dolphins, or Ghandi), some are ingenious (like spiders, or Madonna), and some even unite others due to their own pure wickedness (like Hitler, or Rosie O’Donnell). Hell, even the lowly maggot serves a noble purpose in the glorious chain of life.

And just below that maggot is Corey Feldman.

When your single greatest achievement in life (besides marrying a model) is contributing the character of Mouth in The Goonies, then it’s time to reassess the direction of that life.

And reassess it he apparently has. Not content to rest his laurels upon his misguided and very much dead career, the Talented Corey has decided to revisit one of his more-fondly remembered roles and completely destroy it as well. Fortunately for Mr. Feldman, Hollywood producers rank just underneath him on the food chain, and they are eager to make a sleazy buck to help him do it.

Enter Lost Boys: The Tribe. Although missing Rehab Corey, the production managed to soldier on thanks to Talented Corey’s guiding light. To flesh out the whisker-thin storyline, the “producers” wisely incorporated lots of twentysomething mannequins in various states of undress. BRILLIANT!!

One problem, though: the original Lost Boys was a ridiculously fun guilty-pleasure, filled to the brim with winning performances by a large group of talented young actors. Although rated R, it still felt lightweight, harmless, and charming. This new version looks like something assembled by a craigslist casting call and a scriptwriting monkey, and bolstered by a three minute cameo by Mr. Feldman.

Now, on the eve of the direct to DVD release of the “film,” the producers have released a trailer in order to whet the appetites of dozens of film lovers with titillating shots of vapid models showering together. And here it is:

Check it out!

Watching this stuns me into coma-like incredulity. It makes me renounce a belief in God. It makes me want to go into regression therapy until I forget what my pee-pee does. It makes me want to have a shotgun custom-fitted for my mouth.

NOTE TO HOLLYWOOD: You have all of the money and talent needed to make stunning works of art. STOP MAKING THIS SHIT!

After the Wachowski Siblings released the first trailers for their upcoming live action version of the seventies cartoon classic Speed Racer, many movie fanboys spent far too many hours bashing the kaleidescopic visuals. Nevermind that most of these fanboys were yet to make an appearance as anything other than watery ejaculate when the cartoon was at its peak.

I, on the other hand, was a five year old boy during this time - thank goodness Logan’s Run never came true! - and I know as well as anyone what made the cartoon work: THE CAR, THE CAR, THE CAR.

The characters were basically non-existent, the animation barely moved, and very little of the weekly story made any sort of sense. Yet, that damned car fueled the imaginations of an entire generation of boys in America. “What could you do if you had Speed Racer’s Mach Five?” we would ask ourselves. The answer was, as always, “anything we damn well pleased.”

And yeah, we used the word “damn” at five years old. When Mom wasn’t around, that is.

As a long-term/ancient fan of the cartoon, I was filled with apprehension after watching the trailers. It seemed to me that the Wachowski Siblings spent too much time trying to emulate the crappy animation of the series - something that nobody fondly remembers or ever wanted to see again. Additionally, the Mach Five never really made much of an impression in any of the trailers … and as I’ve made clear, that’s the whole point.

Well, I am happy to report that they have fixed this little glitch with the new domestic trailer for the movie. Not only do we get to see the Mach Five in its full glory - complete with that “yawnk yawnk yawnk” sound we love so much - but we also get to see the characters interact on a personal level.

Here is the brand new trailer for Speed Racer:

Here it is in HIGH DEF!

I think Susan Sarandon looks much better in the Mom role than I had feared. I also thought the action scenes made much more sense visually than I had seen them represented previously. While the plot still sounds like limp catshit, the Wachowski Siblings appear to be on the right track in capturing the feel of racing with this movie.

FULL SPEED AHEAD INDEED!!!

The more Platinum Dunes’ remake to Alfred Hitchcock’s crowd pleasing masterpiece The Birds is put off, the more unlikely it will ever happen.

Which is good news because absolutely none of Hitchcock’s works post Shadow of a Doubt should even be thought of as a remake. Each one of them is such a personal directorial vision and so masterfully crafted that you really are playing with fire when you attempt to remake one of them. Just ask Gus Van Sant, he will tell you all about it.

Speaking to Shock Till You Drop whilst promoting her new movie Funny Games (also a remake, and so soon after King Kong… that will give a girl a reputation) actress Naomi Watts who will star in the role made famous by Tippi Hedren in the original gave us the good news…

“It’s a work-in-progress at this point,” she says. “I think it’s a wonderful film. There are great things in it that interest me. The script isn’t completely there yet, it probably won’t happen until next year.”

“Work-in-progress” is a term I most definitely wanna hear every time this remake is mentioned. It basically translates as “It’s not good enough to film”.

Though I will be honest with you guys. Although I don’t think The Birds should be remade, I DO THINK that if a studio was absolutely intent on remaking a Hitchcock classic then this would be the one to do. I mean you simply can’t remake Vertigo, Psycho or North By Northwest… but if you took on The Birds I think you could probably make a decent adaptation out of it with the right man on board and some seriously good CGI.

Like, really really good CGI. I’m not saying it should be remade because it shouldn’t but if it had to be a Hitchcock… then The Birds is the one that sticks right out at ya.

Martin Campbell, a decent studio director who gave us the last Bond movie and the two Antonio Banderas-Zorro movies is still attached to helm from a script whose last known draft came from Stiles White and Juliet Snowden, two of the writers behind one of the worst horror’s in recent memory with Boogeyman. Naomi Watts is expected to have a big input in the film’s creative progression, as it was rumored to be one of the dealbreakers in getting her on board.

Flashbacks of a Fool does carry that feeling of a first time director’s debut effort but it shows a lot of promise, specifically and maybe only because of the casting of Daniel Craig as a washed up actor when in reality his career has never been hotter than it is right now after playing the iconic character of James Bond.

In the dramatic piece which opens in the U.K. next month (don’t think it’s coming to the U.S. just yet, if at all), Craig plays a fading Hollywood star who after attending the death of a friend begins to look back at his life and how he found himself in the situation he is in now.

It’s one of those regret movies. You know the really tragic ones which I never seem to be able to distance myself from. I love these kind of movies (sorry about the low quality of the trailer, only one I could find)…

Craig looks magnificent here in an intense and extremely physical performance but in a different kind of way to Casino Royale. Sadly, I didn’t find myself caring too much about the actors playing the flashback scenes but I think Craig’s one man show and the addition of Stanley Tucci makes this a must see for me.

The movie is written and directed by Baillie Walsh as a first feature, though his credits do include the recent Oasis DVD Don’t Slow Me Down, and you can see his love for music shine through the feature, not only from the soundtrack but from the visual way it is shot too.

I’ve been interested in this movie from Craig for quite some time, almost foreshadowing and daringly playing a character that so often becomes a reality for actors who play big parts like Bond. I will make the effort to see this, what about you?

First rumored in mid-January and expected to be confirmed tomorrow is the news that the 7th and final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split into two movies, an extremely smart move from Warner Bros. which should see them make another $1 billion on top of the $1 billion they would have made from a single feature.

The plan is to release the sixth book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on November 21st 2008 before releasing the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I in November 2010 and then nearly half a year later Part II in May 2011.

Confirmation has also come that David Yates will return to helm both films (something else we had heard previously) and screenwriter Steve Kloves is also back, making him the writer for seven of the eight Potter movies in total.

Producer David Heymen in his article to the Los Angeles Times claims he got the full blessing from J.K. Rowling who seemed positive for the move, presumably because her novel by the shear running time of the films, should be shot in full because they can’t afford to leave anything out.

Heymen also left us with this quote..

“The question will be, where do you break it? And how do you make them one but two separate and distinct stories? Do you break it with a moment of suspense or one of resolution? These are the interesting challenges. But each book has presented its challenges.”

Finally WB are starting to use their heads.

It solves the problem of finding one of their tentpole releases for 2011 (which they would have to begin sorting out soon) and is a guaranteed paycheck. It also allows them to film as much of Rowling’s last Potter novel completely so they can’t be accused of leaving anything out and of course they want it to be an epic wrap up to their long-ass tale.

I realise I’m not the best person to talk to about this because I’m no Potter fan but after seeing what happened to my beloved Spider-Man and X-Men franchises when the third film in both their respective series totally packed too much storytelling and legendary comic book lore into them, I really do have to support this move… especially if your a fan of the kind of work Peter Jackson made with his extended versions of LOTR.

I’m curious to hear what you Potter fans think about this. I know you weren’t too happy when this news first leaked two months ago, has anything changed? Do you think this is an artistic or financial move from WB and do you agree that it could exist as both?

source - coming soon