Freshly Popped Movie Blog Archives - February 2008

From Stacie Hougland: It's the end of New Line as we know it. The studio that brought you the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Austin Powers and the Rush Hour series is no more...not, at least, in its current incarnation. Time Warner announced today it is consolidating its film businesses, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema, into one company to "enhance our revenue opportunities and drive...

This in from Lizerne Guiting: Christian Bale takes the lead in Terminator Salvation (as the Governator is busy with California) and the release has now been officially set for May 22, 2009. That also happens to be the date Night at the Smithsonian – sequel to Night at the Museum – bows in theaters with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams. We’ll see who wins the box office battle that...

...this year's list of winners! Plus, here are photos from the show, and more good stuff in our Awards Watch site.And now that it's all said and done, I'd like to say one more thing, which is...congrats to the movie I've been plugging and plugging for almost a year now...Once, which won the only category it was nominated for, and probably the best award it could have won: Original...

From Stacie Hougland, live at WonderCon in San Francisco: Iron Man's presentation was the last of WonderCon's movie features, but that didn't mean the excitement had dimnished any. Director Jon Favreau showed the world premiere of the two-minute trailer and some cut footage, and I'm BUZZED for this movie. It goes to show Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect Tony Stark, and the suit,...

More from Stacie Hougland at WonderCon in San Francisco: By FAR the most anticipated screening and panel of the weekend was with the cast and makers of X-Files 2 (I overheard someone saying people had been waiting in line since Thursday!), and we got to see the premiere of the teaser trailer for the sequel out this summer. (Go Mulder!) I mean, I think my ears are still ringing from the cheering...

Any awards show that ends with Rainn Wilson and Philip Seymour Hoffman engaged in a faux wrestling match is o.k. by me. Given that it was the Indie Spirit Awards, the spontaneous and sometimes uneven live telecast (hosted by The Office's Wilson, an inspired choice) made the show itself seem a lot like an indie film. In the end, I'm just really happy that Juno (my second favorite movie of...

This from Stacie Hougland, live from WonderCon in San Francisco: The moment Steve Carell and his Get Smart co-star Anne Hathaway and director Peter Segal entered the room, energy in the room turned electric. "Dammit! Sit Down!" Carell joked, as the crowd inside San Fran's Moscone Center hall "A" booed some guy who requested a photo and autograph. OK, you wouldn't know...

This just in from Stacie Hougland, live from San Francisco: WonderCon, for those of you who don't know, is a humongous convention being held at San Francisco's Moscone Center for comic book and movie fans that also serves as a showcase for upcoming movies. I just stopped in for a presentation of Wanted, that action pic with Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman, which included a...

This in from Lizerne Guiting: Celeb stalkers and movie buffs, the Academy Awards are almost here. And yes, thankfully, there will be a ceremony with actual live famous people. Are you excited? Or has the recently ended (finally!) writers' strike sucked your energy away from all things movie-related? We're betting a lot of you will still be game to see who'll be walking the red carpet,...

This in from Lizerne Guiting: “Tastefully nude” aren’t two words we usually associate with Young Hollywood, but that’s what the NY Daily News is calling Lindsay Lohan’s photo shoot tribute to Marilyn Monroe. This week’s New York magazine splashed the newly made-over Monroe lookalike on its cover and features veteran photog Bert Stern’s pose-for-pose...

Sylvester Stallone has all kinds of characters to revive at your local movie theater. After Rocky Balboa's $70 million box office take last year, and the current Rambo's not-too-paltry $40 million haul, Stallone is in negotiations to bring another tradermark character back to the big screen: Gabe Walker. Wait, who? That's right, the guy from 1993's Cliffhanger...and while that...

This in from Stacie Hougland: Heath Ledger's untimely and unfortunate death left not only the questions "how?" and "why?" behind, but also the state of his movies in limbo. Of course, The Dark Knight is complete and ready for release, but will be considerably trickier to promote. Ledger's passing left a huge hole in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor...

This in from Lizerne Guiting: K-pop star Rain shoots for international stardom as he takes the leading role in the Wachowski brothers’ Ninja Assassin, Variety reports. The Wachowskis are to produce the film with plans for V for Vendetta helmer James McTeigue to direct. Before Rain (real name Jung Ji-hoon) starts assassinating ninjas or becomes a ninja who’s also an assassin...

This in from Stacie Hougland: Lest you worry that, after two decades, our hero Indiana Jones is little more than a Geritol-popping AARP cardholder going through the motions, the just-released teaser for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull shows ol' Indy still knows his way around a bullwhip. The big mystery is what, exactly, is the cranium-shaped MacGuffin in question? South...

The Force will be with everyone one more time starting August 15, 2008. That's the official U.S. release date for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated feature from George Lucas and company, which takes place between the events of Episodes II and III. A couple things will be different for this go-round. The familiar 20th Century Fox fanfare will be absent this time, with Warner Bros. picking...