Call me Snake...

Hot on the heels of an amazing $70 million opening weekend for 300, Gerard Butler, raging Scotsman and King Leonidas himself has now been linked to the role of Snake Plissken in a remake of John Carpenter's classic film "Escape From New York". According to Variety. Ken Nolan of Black Hawk Down fame is writing the script, and a bidding war has already erupted between rival studios for the rights to the picture.

If you haven't seen the original with Kurt Russell, you're really missing out. EFNY is my third favorite Kurt Russell film, right after The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China. It has action, adventure, snappy one liners, a very cool antihero who knows how to kick all sorts of ass, and its got just that perfect flavor of cheap early 80s sci-fi that makes you love it. It's a real guys movie; one of the best.

So the obvious question remains, does this really need to be remade? I don't know... Generally I'm not really in favor of remakes, but I think I could maybe see a newer, bigger budget Escape From New York being kinda cool. Gerard Butler is definitely good casting for the role, even though Russell is fantastic as Plissken. At least post 300 we know that Butler can kick ass. And despite some cheesy charm (and Bruce Campbell), the actual official sequel, Escape From LA, really didn't live up to the promise of the original. Maybe a remake is the way to go.

I just wonder, how does Gerard Butler look with an eyepatch?

a quick 300 review

Taken from my Flixter page. Please visit to check out my other reviews. I tend to jot down a paragraph, for every movie I see these days. Enjoy...

300
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The argument has been made that 300 is more dedicated to style over substance, and I can't say I wholly disagree with this. That's not to say it's a bad movie by any means, but 300 has such amazing and startling visuals I was hoping for more story to back it up. 300 has little more than a premise, a simple framework of a story, and little to no progression. It is predictable and small, there is zero development in character or motivation. But all that said, I can't help but love this film for what it is. The violence is extremely graphic, and the highly surrealized and muted brown world around the Spartan soldiers is so visually stimulating that I was really in mesmerized awe throughout the film. What holds this film back though, is the lack of story. While a film like Sin City is easily as violent as 300 I felt more connected with that film due to the backing of a solid story. If I was more invested in the characters of 300 I might've cared more about their fates. Overall though, this is a great fun and bloody film. And worth seeing on a big screen if you can.

4/5

300 Trailer and a bonus!

So check out this hardcore trailer for 300. Its just fantastically badass. While I know this can't be as gory as Sin City, this R-rated trailer definitely has me wondering if it might come close. I'm planning on seeing this film on Saturday, so I should be able to let you know what I think of it next week. But seriously just watch this vid.



Damn, that's cool. But why you may wonder exactly is this video like 6 minutes long, when the trailer is only two minutes thirty seconds. Well director Zach Snyder has hidden a little bonus in the filler at the end. It's a single frame of footage visible apparently at the 1:52 mark. The image in question is a test frame from Snyder's next project the MUCH anticipated Watchmen film. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this actually gets made. Its been a really long haul to bring it to the screen, and I had all my hopes up last year when Paul Greengrass was on it, so now I'm just holding back until production actually begins. But wow man. I mean WOW.


Click on the pic for a bigger view. This is a picture, coming from Harry over at Ain't it Cool News, is of the protagonist in Watchman, Rorshach. He is the last active member of a former group of one time superheroes. One of his old partners has now been killed, and he has decided to uncover why. He is the detective, he is the everyman; and the story follows his race to find out who is committed and continues to commit the ongoing crimes against 'masks'.

If you don't read comics you might not know. But Watchmen is considered by many people, including me, to be the best comic of all time. It is the only comic to ever win a Hugo award, was the first great superhero deconstruction story, popularized the graphic novel format, has been taught at university level classes, and has influenced American culture, comics, and film since its publication in the mid 80s. It is an amazing, layered and intricate story that grips you from beginning to end.

Man, now I really want to read it again. Seriously, alongside Maus, and Give me Liberty this book has changed the way I read. I'll tell you, I've got a friend who I've been lending comics to for almost a year now, trying to slowly expose him to the right ones, and its only just now that I think he might be ready to ready and appreciate Watchmen. maybe. It is a book that says SO much and is so important to me, and a ton of other people out there, that I know we all want to see it done justice on the big screen... that is if it can really even be made into a film.

The picture is awesome, the picture is WOW, not because it literally shows anything that spectacular, but in that it represents the farthest development anyone has come towards making this movie a reality.

I know Alan Moore hates the movie adaptations of his work, and in most cases rightly so, but for the rest of us geeks. This is some great news, and a very cool little bonus.

kickass new 300 trailer

Well, it looks like it's trailer time for Christmas. Yesterday we got the cool new Ninja Turtles, and then today I'm seeing this brand new kickass 300 trailer. Incidentally next week we should be seeing trailers for Live Free or Die Hard, The Simpsons, and hopefully (fingers crossed) Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Until then though I think we can all be very content with this piece of cinematic amazingness. 300 looks badass, super-cool. If you remember when I posted about it before, I linked to the soon removed ill-fated comic-con trailer; this new one is much more like that, showing us why 300 is going to rule us come next March. Check it out.

300 trailer

Check out this amazing looking new trailer for the film 300...



The trailer's from iFilm (I didn't realize they offered coding for blogs :) The film is by the man behind Sin City, Frank Miller. It is also based off a comic, although this one I haven't read yet. But after seeing the trailer I think I really would like to. You can find more info on the film over at Superhero Hype! What do you guys think?


UPDATE - god damnit, i hate it when they do that. Looks like the trailer has been taken down. I guess it wasn't ready to go up officially yet. Total BS. Once it's out on internet, and the buzz that it will generate is already in motion, all taking it down does is make people like me (who might blog about it, or talk about it on my podcast) PISSED OFF. Nice job Warner Bros.