Do you have Game of Thrones fever? You aren't alone. We're just two episodes into HBO's new fantasy series, and its intricate tale of dwarves, direwolves, and doggy-styling has already earned it a passionate following. In fact, one fan feels so strongly about it, he's currently sitting in jail.
This guy is very excited about his newly arrived iPad. So excited that he gets specially dressed up for the occasion and creates exciting sound effects for the entire unboxing process.
Harvey Weinstein today passed along the not-so-surprising word that four Weinstein Company films slated for release this fall — Crossing Over, Fanboys, Shanghai and Killshot — will in fact be pushed back to 2009. Harvey's Friday News-Dump Massacre came by way of a phone call to Patrick Goldstein, to whom the schmogul spilled the details with all the crystalline logic we've come to expect — none of which, of course, has anything to do with the fact that he's broke. Find Defamer's handy Weinstein Excuse-to-English Guide™ for your convenience after the jump.· Fanboys: Harvey says the movie has been moved to January "so we can do a major promotion with Comcast, who's arranging for a big advertising tie-in for us on the film." (TRANSLATION: "Bob's a little behind burning DVD's, so we're letting Comcast customers rip their own for a limited time only.") · Crossing Over: "We're moving it to January. The market is just too crowded. Every week there are five more movies coming out. It's too crazy. Spring is much better—there are a lot more wide-open dates. The most important thing is to do well by the movie. Having it out in January gives us the opportunity to play the film at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, which will be a big help to the movie." (TRANSLATION: "We're gonna try a pay-per-view premiere for festival guests at the Park City Marriott. Fresh ideas, Patrick! Hello?") · Killshot: "Everyone has said that Mickey Rourke is amazing in The Wrestler and will be up for all sorts of awards, so we decided to move Killshot to a date a few weeks before the Oscars. That way we can capitalize on all the heat that's going to be around Mickey." (TRANSLATION: "Do you know anyone who might wanna buy a Mickey Rourke movie? Never been opened.") · Shanghai: "It just couldn't be ready in time. The movie wasn't finished shooting until August and the director, Mikael Hafstrom, doesn't even deliver his cut until early November. He doesn't want it out now and neither do we. He needs time to make it as great as possible." (TRANSLATION: "Holy fucking shit, this sucks.") Meanwhile, Goldstein also quotes an anonymous industry heckler who said, "Whenever I'm tempted to take a project to Harvey, I lie down and take a nap and hope that when I wake up, I'm sober again." It's probably safe at this point to cross that "Weinstein-resurgence" prediction off our list for the season.
Relief swept Defamer HQ today as we can finally close the book on the long, tortured saga of Fanboys, the terminal-cancer by-way-of-Skywalker-Ranch buddy comedy whose scissoring (and presumed dumping) at the hands of Harvey Weinstein provoked such authentic fanboy outrage last spring. But now a press release from Darth Weinstein himself announced that Fanboys will receive a second premiere this week at San Diego ComicCon — now with fans' "extensive feedback" added to the final cut.
Picture it: you get a fancy-schmancy director to make a film about one of America's most beloved characters; it has a huge budget, impressive effects, big name talent, and... it totally sucks. Ang Lee's The Hulk immediately comes to mind, as does Bryan Singer's Superman. They were both critical and commercial failures, plus they were boring as all hell. But this summer, the Hulk franchise got a less sucky, more successful reboot. And that got Hollywood's wheels a'spinnin'. Could the same thing be done for The Man of Steel? It's complicated. Watch as we untangle the twisted tale after the jump.
Clive Barker's legions of horror fans have gotten their barbed-wire panties in a bunch. At issue is Lionsgate's release plans for their adaptation of Barker's short story, The Midnight Meat Train. Despite the story being a fan favorite, and a satisfying trailer (mmm...yuppie chops!) featuring the U.S. directing debut of Japanese horror maven Ryuhei Kitamura, new studio president Joe Drake bumped the movie from its May 15th date—which allowed The Strangers to clean up as the only R-rated horror option of the weekend. It was a curious strategy shift, to say the least, and not the least bit helped by a significant conflict of interest. Or as Deadline Hollywood Daily puts it, "Guess who was exec producer of The Strangers? Joe Drake." Fansite shocktillyoudrop.com, meanwhile, has since discovered the grim truth of what's become of Meat Train's remains:
There's been much to-do over the last day about Peter Jackson's hiring of Guillermo del Toro to direct the two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit. Among our favorite dissenting opinions belongs to Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir, who pulls out his Cannes '06 interview notebook to look up del Toro's sentiment at the time: "I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff." Our sister blog Gawker doesn't like del Toro's selection either, but we're optimistic this is a perfect match for everyone because The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien and Guillermo del Toro all fucking suck. Does it really matter which A-list fantasy/horror fanboy with $300 million of Warner Bros.' money and Jackson's imprimatur is going to spend four years jacking off behind a camera in New Zealand? It's going to be unwatchable. Not only that, but didn't Jackson make this movie three times already? Here's our exclusive script excerpt: "EXT. FOREST — DAY. Bilbo Baggins furrows his brow. Visual effects and soundtrack happen. INT. CASTLE — NIGHT. Ian McKellen cameo. More effects. EXT. FOREST — DAY. The end." It's a hit! [Salon]
I don't know why it took LA Weekly so long to get around to filing the definitive coverage of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion/panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, and I don't care. Know why? Cause it's Buffy, mofos! What was shooting "Once More Feeling"-you know, "The Musical Episode"-like? "'I'm gonna go with fun,' says series creator Joss Whedon." He talks just like Xander! "'You guys are remembering this differently,' says James Marsters, who played Spike, the tormented vampire in love with Buffy. 'It was total terror from the cast.'" Love it! But what are their favorite things?
Our day just wouldn't feel complete without an update from the spittle-streaked slapfight surrounding Fanboys, the geek-world equivalent of a cuddly endangered panda being shepherded to its unwitting demise through the dark reaches of Harvey's Ye Olde Butchery and Movie Co. The pimpled purists still plan to boycott Friday's release of Superhero Movie if the Weinstein Company doesn't promise to leave Fanboys' critical cancer subplot intact, but a series of e-mail dialogues published Wednesday on /film indicates that Harvey's designated re-shooter, Steven Brill, has a thin skin that itches like crazy:
After last weekend's flash of rebellion threatening to engulf parents' basements across America with smoldering dork rage, the Weinstein Company announced late Monday that it would in fact release the Star Wars-devotee dramedy Fanboys on DVD in both a cancer-subplot-free edit and the original, disease-of-the-geek version preferred by the angry fans at StopDarthWeinstein.com. But that's not enough for the fanboy offensive, who lashed out in protest yet again this morning:
The slight case of sniffles and coughs making the rounds in SF has been dubbed the Woz Cold. Urban legend has it that Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak appeared to introduce Fake Steve blogger Dan Lyons on the Peninsula a week ago despite a nagging head and/or chest cold, depending on who you ask. Woz shook hands and buddied up for photos at the event. Now we're all snuffling and Apple's stock is ... oh wait, it's back near 170. Never mind.
Paul Boutin, Valleywag's very special correspondent, may act all tough in his fancy glasses and his Beemer. But let me tell you some things you don't know about Boutin: Those are girl glasses. And he rents that Beemer by the hour from Zipcar. Yeah, real fancy, Boutin. Worst of all, get this guy next to His Steveness, and he starts giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl.
