Time Magazine ran a story looking at the future of 3-D film making with insight from DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, as well as the man working to make 3-D the primary method of movie making, James Cameron. They covered Cameron’s re-working of his own blockbuster, Titanic, in 3-D (with word about how unbelievable it looks); they talk about getting the style past the novelty that it has always been to the adventure into another world that 3-D always promised to be; and they even talk about the belief that one day, everyone will own their own pair of 3-D glasses that they will take with them to the movies.

What really stands out in this look at the future of 3-D, is the stuff about Cameron’s Avatar. The movie is expected to revolutionize film making and the movie-going experience alike — a promise that 3-D has touted on many occasions. Steven Spielberg himself predicts the movie will be the biggest live-action 3-D film EVER. With expectations like this, you wouldn’t be shocked at the likely massive budget, but alas, another surprise! Mentioned in the article is the apparent $300 Million budget of the film. [...]

Who is Mysterion?

In case you missed it, last night’s South Park was pretty hilarious.

They started off by spoofing a bit of Watchmen, then they moved into The Dark Knight spoofing before the re-emergence of the ultra-dangerous villain — Professor Chaos. It’s been a little while since we’ve seen South Park this good, but superhero spoofing mixed with that harsh and patented South Park humor, as well as their always interesting racial silliness… how could it possibly go wrong?

The best part about this episode may have been trying to figure out just WHO Mysterion is. You know it’s a freakin’ cartoon. You know what’s coming. But you just can’t help deducing away and trying to unmask the child hero. Maybe I was the only pathetic soul doing this, but I highly, highly doubt it. I personally had big money on it being either Jimmy, or Mr. Garrison.

If you were one of the unfortunate that missed out, you can always watch episodes in-full online, so we’ve decided to provide the video. [...]

Religulous
DVD
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring Bill Maher
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: February 17, 2009

Bill Maher isn’t shy about his disdain for religion. Though raised by a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, Maher has since renounced his faith and has since turned his sharp wit into combating organized religion.

With Religulous, Maher travels the world, visiting (and frequently being kicked out of) the holiest locations on Earth. Along the way, he makes stops and religious museum and amusement park while taking time to speak to Jews, Christian, Muslims, and Mormons.

Religulous is not an attempt to scientifically disprove all of the world’s major religions. It is a comedy, it is meant to poke fun at religion, all religion, but in the end has a serious reason for doing so. Watching this film for the first time, I got the strong impression that most people of faith will not watch it. I can’t blame them, as they would be almost certainly setting themselves up to be offended.

Nevertheless, I am sure many of those who decide to watch anyway will have similar reactions. When Maher is mocking the aspects of other religions, they will almost certainly laugh at the absurdities, but when he turns on their religion of choice, they will see him as a bully who “just doesn’t get it.” [...]

We love The Boondock Saints and we’re just as anxious for the in-production sequel — Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day — as every other fan out there. While doing my regular scan for any new happenings on the sequel, I found this video from director Troy Duffy announcing a special prop sale they’re running at the official Boondock Saints store. The sale is for a good cause and it’s a damn cool little prop to have, so I figured I would share the video with you.

Basically, what you’re purchasing is one of the empty bullet casings used in the filming of Boondock II. Troy recalls the first movie and all of the casings being swept up and thrown out, so this time around he wanted to do something with them. You’ll receive one bullet casing from the movie in its own sweet pouch along with a certificate of authenticity signed by Duffy himself.

All of the proceeds from the sale will go to the medical bills of Jimi Jackson. Jackson is a good friend of Troy’s, and he was the drummer in gang’s band back in the day, also called “Boondock Saints.” [...]

After a few days in critical condition after a skiing accident, actress Natasha Richardson has died from her injuries at age 45.

Natasha Richardson shined as a Broadway actress, winning a Tony award for her work in a production of Cabaret in 1998. She was also in many feature films, including Nell, The Parent Trap, Maid in Manhattan, and The White Countess — where she starred alongside her Aunt, Lynn Redgrave, and her Mother, legendary Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave. She was married to actor Liam Neeson.

If you’re not familiar with what happened, this is one of the more sad and scary stories we’ve heard in a while. When the news first showed up, all we really knew was that she was in a skiing accident. Eventually, though, we learned that it was a lot more tragic than that. Richardson was out skiing with one of her sons and was actually on one of the beginner hills just learning the basics when she fell and hit her head. Word is that there was nothing serious about the fall and that she may have even laughed about it at the time. [...]

It had been rumored for a long, long while, but now CHUD has confirmation from a source that was able to see an early screening of the movie that Linda Hamilton did indeed record some voice over as Sarah Connor, and that it plays right at the beginning at the movie. Apparently the voice over is, as hoped and expected, similar to the voice over at the end of Terminator 2.

Now that this has been confirmed, all we need to know is how we may or may not see a one Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was also some form of voice over work along with Roland Kickinger — the other, younger Austrian body building look-alike — handling the visual aspects of the T-800.

This is definitely some good news and it makes the possibility of all of those rumors we’ve heard along the line all the more likely! [...]

Just a day after finding out when we may see the trailer for Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are (Read: ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ Trailer In Two Weeks!?), an amazing poster has been discovered.

The poster simply shows one of the beasts with his paw/claw around Max as he screams in frustration. The words “There’s one in all of us.” placed on top of the Wild Thing.

The picture/poster was discovered by a Spike Jonze fan site in Nickelodeon’s Nick Magazine.

Click over for the poster/image. Click for large.

Where the Wild Things Are tells the story of a young boy named Max (Max Records), who is punished and creates his own imaginary world to escape to. In this world, a species of large monsters crown Max as their king. The movie stars Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine Keener, and Catherine O’Hara. It is directed by Spike Jonze and currently set for an October 16, 2009 release date. [...]

Neil Gaiman made a guest appearance last night on The Colbert Report, where host Stephen Colbert conducted one of his least interrogating interviews with the best-selling author.

Gaiman appeared on the show to talk about his children’s book, The Graveyard Book, which recently won the prestigious Newbery Medal this January. During Gaiman’s introduction, Colbert said he was “going to bury him,” but really he went very easy on the author, choosing to humorously question him on why a children’s book would be set in a graveyard.

Gaiman did quite well in the interview and you can tell Colbert obviously likes him. Also, I think this is the first time I’ve seen Gaiman out of his standard black shirt and leather jacket attire donning a suit! It was a fun little segment, so definitely check it out here [...]

Street Fighter
Extreme Edition – Blu-ray
Written and Directed by Steven De Souza
Starring Jean Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming Na Wen
Universal Home Entertainment
Release date: February 10, 2009

As a young child, I was deprived of a lot of things. I never got a puppy like I always wanted. I have never had a sleepover with friends, eating junk food and play video games into the wee hours of the night, and above all else, I was never given the chance see the original Street Fighter movie.

Starring then superstar Jean Claude Van Damme , Street Fighter was Universal’s first and only attempt to try to cash in on the popular video game franchise. Though profitable in the box office, the movie was reviled by many of the fans of the game, which could have been the reason why I steered clear from the picture for so long. Well, since I had the chance to review the latest incarnation, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-L, I think it is only fitting that I also review its predecessor.

When evil dictator M. Bison (Raul Julia) holds a group of government relief workers, a group of heroes, led by Colonel William Guile(Van Damme) are brought together by fate to stop him. Infiltrating Bison’s stronghold in Shadaloo city, Guile and his gang of Street Fighters plan to end Bison’s reign of terror once and for all in an all-out slugfest [...]

Quite possibly the best news in a long time — it seems like the trailer for the highly-anticipated Spike Jonze adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are will finally be seen in less than two weeks! A source wrote in to CHUD and explained that they had seen the full three-minute long trailer before a screening of DreamWorks new animated movie, Monsters vs. Aliens.

The news gets even better. The source even shared how the trailer looked, and let’s just say… it sounds really, really, really good.

Here is the main bit of praise. Be sure to click over to CHUD to read it all.

Try as I might, I can’t verbalize how I felt about the trailer beyond the most grandiose superlatives: ‘beautiful’ and ‘gorgeous’ and ‘breathtaking’, making me sound like Pete Hammond. The environments in particular (there’s a sequence of cutting between 4 shots of Max running through different environments that is absolutely magical) are a work of incredible vision, especially in light of the production methods Spike opted for. [...]

Paramount has released a new photo from their upcoming film Star Trek, due out in theaters on May 8, 2009.

Click the image here at right for the full, larger version, which shows Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) aboard the Enterprise talking to new Trek baddie Nero (Eric Bana) on the big screen.

I haven’t seen much footage from the JJ Abrams-directed prequel/reboot except for the trailers, so I’m not sure if Kirk ever meets his nemesis Nero in person in the film. This could be another Wrath of Khan where Kirk and Khan never actually meet in person, but instead come face-to-face only via their ships’ big screen [...]

Not a ton of news here, but Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson sat down for the official Tintin website in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the red-haired comic character. The two appeared complete with their own umbrellas and bowlers hats.

In the video they explain that principal photography/motion capture work will begin finally in three days and the two joked about how instead of the young Tintin we’re used to, they’ll be using the current 80-year old Tintin… long, white beard and all.

Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is the first film in the planned trilogy, and it’s directed by Spielberg. Peter Jackson will handle the second movie and it’s expected that the pair will tag-team the final movie. The movie stars Jamie Bell as Tintin, along with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thomson, as well as Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig.

If you haven’t done it already, click the link for the official Tintin site. It’s all in French, but just find the button with the green light and the words Voir En Entier. [...]

Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks have gone ahead and set July 1, 2011 as the possible release date for Transformers 3.

Though the thought of plans for a third movie already moving forward is pretty exciting, don’t get too far ahead of yourselves and mark off those calendars. Insiders at Paramount have said that this is not official scheduling, but simply just planning ahead a little and obtaining the date. If Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen scores its expected mammoth numbers at the box office, and if a third movie is officially announced, they will look then at this date and solidify it if it’s the best date. If it doesn’t work, then they’ll likely move it to another date — but don’t count on this, as they absolutely love their 4th of July dates. If it’s changed at all, it would probably be to 2012, and we all know what happens in 2012 unless John Cusack saves the day.

If Transformers 3 stays in the summer of 2011, it adds to what is already looking to be one epic summer. [...]

Zodiac
Blu-ray Edition
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Jake Gyllenhaal
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: January 27, 2009

Serial killers are always an interesting, albeit morbid, subject to follow, and movies have made good use of them in the past as villains. Whether they are fictional killers such as Hannibal Lecter or real killers such as Jack the Ripper, film-goers have always gotten a good scare from the exploits of these intriguing specimens. It’s no surprise to see the director of one of the great fictional killer films take his turn at bringing the story of one of the great historical killers to life. What director David Fincher has created with Zodiac is one the greatest recreations of actual events ever. However, even beyond Fincher’s direction, the actors in this film have created performances that bring the characters and events to life.

For those who don’t know (which was me before I saw this film) Zodiac follows the career of the Zodiac killer, a serial killer in 1960’s San Francisco who killed five people, but was never brought to justice. The film follows the path of San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he tries to piece together the clues that could lead to the killer’s identity. His quest to find the killer is aided by two police detectives, Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), as well as fellow Chronicle journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) [...]

Remake announcements have been flooding in. Some have been painful to hear, some a little amusing, and some just ridiculous. Falling into the “ridiculous” column — it’s being reported that popular ’80s TV show MacGyver will be remade into a feature length movie.

MacGyver told of the adventures of a special agent who was able to get out of the worst of situations and captivity, using only the simplest objects. It starred Richard Dean Anderson.

My only wonder here, is can the title MacGyver really sell in these modern times, or would it be more fruitful to just make a movie using the concept of a super smart dude who gets out of problems using insanely creative methods? I think using the title may just harm this project more than do it good, considering MacGyver for the most part is pretty much used for joke purposes these days.

Raffaella De Laurentis will produce the film, being developed by New Line Cinema. Her father Dino De Laurentis will serve as executive producer. [...]

Well-known actor of stage and screens both big and small — Ron Silver has passed away at the age of 62. He had been battling esophageal cancer for two years when he passed away this morning quietly in his sleep.

Along with his work on the stage, Silver appeared in many movies, including Silkwood, Romancing the Stone, Blue Steel, and Reversal of Fortune, as well as more recent movies like Ali, Find Me Guilty, and The Ten. He appeared on multiple big-time TV shows, with long stints on Chicago Hope and perhaps his best work on The West Wing. He was nominated for two Emmys, one for The West Wing.

Not only did Ron Silver leave us with a lot of great entertainment on many different platforms, he was also a longtime political activist. Most recently he even had his own public affairs show on Sirius satellite radio. Because of his passion for politics, it is likely that his work on The West Wing was his most passionate work, and the work that will leave his greatest mark on our world. [...]

The awesome folks over at TrekMovie have put together a video of Star Trek title logos, starting with the original 1960s television series and continuing through all of the eleven movies, including the upcoming JJ Abrams prequel.

You can watch the video here below, but be sure to check out the link over to TrekMovie.com for their rundown of the history of each variation of the Star Trek title logo [...]

For those who don’t know, the Dark Horse comic from Eric Powell, The Goon, is currently being developed into a feature length computer animated movie. Even better, visionary director David Fincher is acting as a producer on the film.

A couple of new images have been released for the project, and they give you a great look at the work being done. Fans of the comic and fans of movies alike can definitely get behind this.

The Goon follows your typical huge, muscular dude who handles things for a mob boss along with his scrappy little sidekick, Franky. In this world, however, things don’t just come down to dealing with a runner who’s late on his payments or a rival mob trying to slip in. In this world, many problems also include many paranormal beings and creatures, including a dangerous gang of zombies who are lead by a zombie priest.

Be sure to click over for the images. [...]

Penguin has launched the cover for And Another Thing…, the new sequel to Douglas Adams‘ classic series Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It was announced in September 2008 that Eoin Colfer, best-selling author of the Artemis Fowl novels, would pen the sixth Hitchhiker’s novel, to be published in October 2009.

Adams, whose final Hitchhiker’s novel was 1992′s Mostly Harmless, had said in interviews that he’d like to do a new Hitchhiker’s novel that would truly end the series.

‘I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book … I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.’ [...]

As with most people in my general age range, either by way of Stephen King‘s novel, or the 1990 TV mini series, It terrorized my sleep on more than one occasion. It’s being reported that like many others, It will be getting the remake treatment, but this time it will be for the big screen.

The story of It takes place in Derry, Maine, and follows a group of kids and their terrifying encounters with Pennywise the clown, an evil creature of a clown who basically feeds on kids and is unseen by adults. Eventually the group escapes Pennywise and reaches adulthood, but soon come to find out that the clown isn’t done with them. They then decide to band together and fight the dangerous being.

The TV mini series style was used because of the length of the book, so this will technically be the first time the story is adapted into a two-hour or so long movie.

Most remakes are painful to hear about, but I’m actually pretty interested to see how they do this one. If they construct a solid 120-minute story and handle it properly, it could be really f’n scary. The one big issue for me is Pennywise. [...]