Freshly Popped Movie Blog Archives - February 2009

Warner Bros. recently acquired the rights to revamp The NeverEnding Story with a modern take, THR reports. Two production companies, The Kennedy/Marshall Co. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, are in talks to oversee the remake of the 1984 classic based on Michael Ende’s novel. The story centers on a boy who discovers the parallel world Fantasia when reading the titular book. As he...

The best that Hollywood has to offer in the way of home entertainment this week is...:What Just Happened This vanity project impish satire gently sends up Hollywood with Robert De Niro starring as a down-and-out producer dealing with crazy exes, vicious studio bosses and snarly agents as he tries to save his failing film. Impressive cast includes Sean Penn, Catherine Keener and John Turturro....

Here are a few comments before I direct you to our Awards Watch for lots and lots of pics, commentary, and more pics. I know by now everyone's heard of Slumdog Millionaire, but it really was fantastic to see the kids from the movie up there onstage after the film's win for Best Picture. It's been a long, hard journey from the almost direct-to-video heap to now several Oscar wins and...

EW put out their list of the 25 greatest active film directors this week and in the top 10 are usual suspects like Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg (no, I'm not giving away Number 1). But hold everything. Zack Snyder and Quentin Tarantino rank higher than Clint Eastwood and Paul Thomas Anderson? Terrence Malick and Woody Allen don't even rank, but Jon Favreau does?...

We've been waiting for this bundle of joy since 2004—when the last installment of the Focker franchise opened. Little Fockers is rapidly maturing at Universal, but director Jay Roach of the first two Fockers films has his hands full with DreamWorks' Dinner for Schmucks. Roach will reportedly pass his $800 million-making baby on to another helmer, possibly comedy great Paul Weitz (In...

I'm not a Bill Maher fan, nor am I invested in this subject matter. Given that, I set myself up to immediately dislike Religulous on the assumption Bill would gun for decent, unsuspecting religious folk who just want to play nice and answer his questions. I was wrong. Sure, there's some snide in there, but overall Maher investigates people who feel strongly about their religion with the...

Academy, schmademy. This Sunday, the Oscar for Best Picture goes to Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Frost/Nixon or The Reader (bet on Slumdog). Here at Fandango, though, we have a much more scientific way of gauging such things. We leave it up to you, the box office moviegoer, to tell us which film truly deserves the honor "2008 Movie of the Year." Unlike...

The latest casting rumor for Iron Man 2 has Scarlett Johansson up for the role of Black Widow, aka Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff. Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada), who was first rumored for the femme fatale, may have scheduling conflicts with Fox's Gulliver's Travels. Variety reports Fox holds an option on the actress and may force her require that she grace it with her presence. If...

Superstitious types always get a bit jittery on Friday the 13th, but for fans of the seminal slasher series featuring hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees there is a lot of bloody good fun this holiday weekend. The Friday the 13th remake, directed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake’s Marcus Nispel, slashes its way to theaters this weekend and actually delivers the goods (i.e. blood,...

The tenth Disney/Pixar feature, Up, looks like another lucrative crowd pleaser. Last night, Disney had another screening for the first 45 minutes of the film, introducing a handful of us media outlets to 78-year-old grouch Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner), a persistent 9-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell, and other colorful and quirky animal characters. The story starts off with...

Judging by the scale and attendance of the fourth annual NYCC, this east coast cousin to San Diego's event is becoming a solid contender in its own right. Previews of major movies like Watchmen and Terminator: Salvation? Check. Sneaks of video games like X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Check. Sexy babes decked out for the fanboys? Check.Saturday’s main event kicked off with a triple knockout...

In keeping with the dark-is-the-new-cinema theme, the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince posters are doing their job--making fans hungry for more as the days drag on toward the July release.The close-up of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and shot of Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) don't reveal anything new... ...but take a closer look at this one. What's that reflection in Harry's...

Here's a rundown of new releases coming your way... • W. Josh Brolin gives a startling, brilliant performance as George W. Bush, portraying the embattled prez as a guy who was just in way too far over his head from the get-go. It's better than you'd expect from direct Oliver Stone (who had major cojones to put this out when the Bush administration had only one foot in the...

By now, if you haven't heard Christian Bale's on-set tantrum and its many edited incarnations online, you're probably one of those people who still has rabbit ears on their TV. But the news isn't over yet.... "I'm trying to do a ####ing scene here!"Bale tried some damage control gave an interview to KROQ-FM's Kevin & Bean Show this morning that they'll...

DVD is great, but Blu-ray's even better, and who doesn't like to be a winner? Especially when the prize is a fun-filled family pack of five animated films, including the brand-new release Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (out Friday) and the Oscar-nominated Kung Fu Panda?Also included are:MadagascarShrek the ThirdBee MovieSo it's simple. All you have to do is comment on this blog using the...