Thursday, January 5, 2012

2012: New beginnings

New year = new beginnings. That's how the saying usually goes... This year I am directing Beyond Therapy, light designing Cinderella, graduating from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, (hopefully) finding a grown up job, and going where life takes me. Okay, I suppose there are some new beginnings there.


Other new beginnings are coming from Hollywood this year:
The Amazing Spiderman:
The reboot of the movie franchise has brought about quite a bit of hullabaloo. Why reboot the franchise so soon? Why hire a redhead to play the blond love interest? Why isn't Donald Glover going to play the title hero? (see http://tinyurl.com/76f232l
I'm really not sure why they're completely rebooting this series, but it probably has to do with some bureaucratic rights crap. I'm very happy with Emma Stone being cast, but I'm fairly indifferent at the choice of Gwen Stacy over Mary Jane. This is probably to distance this film further from the whiny Mary Jane portrayed by Kirsten Dunst. I think Andrew Garfield will be great as Peter Parker. I think Donald Glover would make an amazing spiderman. He is fantastic in "Community" (If you haven't watched it yet, stop reading this blog and go watch all of "Community" and then come back and finish reading.) 
In short here's my analysis of the film based on the trailer and premature judgement.
Good: The casting of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone will be an improvement on the previous trilogy, while I'm not sure Sally Field will be able to be as good an Aunt May as Rosemary Harris. It looks darker and more serious than the other films, and I love darker superhero movies. 
Bad: We get to see Spiderman's origin again!!!!! I'm not sure the Lizard will be a great villain for the realistic superhero villain approach, but I'm hoping to be proven wrong. There's a Mirror's Edge-esque first person scene shown in the trailer, and I'm not sure how that one's going to work out, but we will see on that one. 


As far as other reboots (of sorts) we also have an updated version of 21 Jump Street coming out, Three Stooges, Dark Shadows, Prometheus, Total Recall, Dredd, Red Dawn, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and The Great Gatsby




Well, I've never seen "21 Jump Street" or "Dark Shadows", but an undercover cop story in High school and a soap opera about werewolves, vampires, and other such creatures both sound quite intriguing. 21 Jump Street stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as undercover cops. While I'm not a huge fan of either of them, it does look pretty hilarious and Johnny Depp will be in the film adaptation of the TV show that gave him his start. Dark Shadows looks like a mystical/creepier "Addams family" meets "Beverly Hillbillies" kind of movie. I'm not sure how it will go, but Tim Burton  directs and Johnny Depp, Eva Green, and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this upcoming film. 


Let's step over to remakes of movies I've never seen. Total Recall is a Science Fiction film based on a work by Philip K. Dick. Dick wrote The base stories for Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, Minority Repot, and The Adjustment Bureau. Total Recall has Colin Farrell playing Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man who begins to think he's a spy in a power struggle between 2 reigning nation-states, but he doesn't know which side. Also starring  Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel, this movie looks quite promising.


Dredd looks like an alternate take on the comic character rather than a direct remake of the original Stallone film. This movie, like the first, sounds interesting and stars Karl Urban (Bones in Star Trek) as Judge Dredd. It is a drug war film that takes place in a futuristic city. I'm sure I will go see this me as I like a good science fiction movie and Karl Urban. 


World War III is a scary possibility. Sure, it was a lot more prevalent at the time the original Red Dawn was made in 1984 while the country was still coming down off of the Vietnam War era. The movie follows a bunch of teenagers as they work to save their town from an invasion. It stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor in Thor) and Adrianne Palicki (Almost Wonder Woman in the "Wonder Woman") show, so how awesome will that be?


The Three Stooges looks like what you'd expect from a modern day three stooges movie. 


The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey looks like Peter Jackson really wants to make a great prequel to his amazing trilogy. So far, this looks like an excellent prequel.


Ridley Scott returns to the epic science fiction horror franchise that he created in Alien with his prequel Prometheus. This movie is so big, it had a trailer that was counting down to the day that the actual trailer was released. I'm not sure what to expect with this movie, but it should be good.


The Great Gatsby is looking to be a fresh adaptation of one of the greatest classic books about the American dream. A good way to end off the year, if we get to live long enough to see the opening on Dec. 25.


Well that's about it for fresh starts in Hollywood. I'll be back to look at all the other movies I want to see I'm sure, but I don't know when. Until then, cheers!



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