Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 March.

A busy screenwriter in Hollywood during the ’80s and ’90s, when he churned out various horror, science fiction, and action pictures (CRITTERS 2, WARLOCK, THE FUGITIVE, TERMINAL VELOCITY, WATERWORLD), David Twohy made his directorial debut with 1992’s TIMESCAPE and followed up four years later with THE ARRIVAL, starring Charlie Sheen (during the decline in Sheen’s movie [...]

This is strange entry in the careers of George A Romero and Dario Argento, as fans expecting an anthology along the lines of Creepshow were instead given essentially 2 almost completely unrelated hour-long features based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Romero’s episode is about a wealthy patriarch who dies while under hypnosis; his gold-digging wife [...]

Lots of stuff science fiction, fantasy, and horror arrives on home video this week: a package of “eight films to die for,” a fantasy-comedy starring Adam Sandler, a scary time-travel thriller from Spain, plus some old titles making their debut on Blu-ray or DVD. Continue at your peril…
When it made its debut in November 2006, the [...]

Regarded as Lucio Fulci’s 8½, CAT IN THE BRAIN is a late-career film for a director whose best days were behind him. Fulci began doing yeoman’s work in the Italian film industry in the early ’60s, doing everything from lowbrow comedies to westerns. It was an undistinguished career, marked only by the occasionally interesting thriller [...]

Purportedly restored from a rare 35mm print “discovered in a janitor’s closet at the Danish Film Institute”, Severin’s DVD release of THE SINFUL DWARF proves that the well of Euro sleaze is indeed bottomless. The titular dwarf (a phrase I had planned on using, just not today) runs a boarding house with his mother, a [...]

Variety reports that Paramount is already preparing a sequel to STAR TREK, their franchise reboot that does not open until May 8. Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof have been hired to script the follow-up, which will be produced by J. J. Abrams, who may or may not return to the directing chair. A [...]

According to Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider, actress Emily Browning (most recently sceen in the ghost story THE UNINVITED) will takeover the role SUCKER PUNCH, which was vacated by Amanda Seyfried, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with her HBO series BIG LOVE:
Seyfried had received the offer and was very interested in the starring [...]

During a press junket to plug his new movie with Jack Black, Harold Ramis discussed plans to fashion a second GHOSTBUSTERS sequel. The sequel is being scripted by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (THE OFFICE), in consultation with Ramism Dan Akroyd (who created the franchise), and Ivan Reitman (who directed the originals). Judd Apatow will [...]

Hollywood Reporter tells us that Screen Gems is negotiation to hire Paul Bettany to play the title role in PRIEST, a Western-Horror film produced by Michael De Luca, Josh Donen, and Mitchell Peck. The film is to be directed by Scott Stewart, who directed Bettany in LEGION, a supernatural thriller about angels trying to wipe [...]

In an article about licensing deals for the 700-title library of films from the Shaw Brothers, Hollywood Reporter mentions that Celestial Pictures will try to pitch the studio’s horror efforts to European television stations. Although Shaw Brothers is most well known for kung-fu movies, they have dabbled in horror. Perhaps the example most famous to [...]

This year’s installment of the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors is coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center in April. Hollywood Gothique and Cinefantastique Online are teaming up to get you into the convention for free. We are giving away two pairs of tickets, which can be redeemed for any single day of the convention, which [...]

The Los Angeles Times has posted a profile of the screenwriting team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Much of the article focuses on how the pair met and forged a partnership that has lasted through such projects as TRANSFORMERS, THE ISLAND, FRINGE, etc, but they do get around to saying a little bit about [...]

Google Alerts just made me aware of a fairly new blog called Stone Age Cinema, which started in January. As the name implies,  the blog is devoted to reviews of caveman movies, set in both the past (ONE MILLION B.C.) and the future (TEENAGE CAVEMAN). So far, reviewer Tom Meade has made his way through silent films [...]