IESB reports that Stephen Sommers has turned down directing GI Joe. Apparently he demanded 10 million bucks for the job. Much like the rest of us, he must’ve blocked Van Helsing from his memory and not realized he’s lucky anyone in Hollywood would even talk to him anymore.
But all the same, Len Wiseman is now the top pick. He directed Underworld and Live Free Or Die Hard. Not much of a huge step up. Wiseman is also expected to announce he’ll direct the remake of Escape from New York with 300’s Gerard Butler as Snake Plisskin or the adaptation of Epic Games’ Gears Of War. Obviously of these three movies, he can only do one at a time, so if Escape happens first, GI Joe won’t hit the screen until 2009 at the earliest.
Can anyone buy Kate Beckinsale as Lady Jaye?

After waiting day after day for any type of recap as to what went on and what was announced at the Mattel He-man panel at SDCC 2007, He-Man.org finally came out of its slumber to post a recap. I had little luck finding any information on the panel prior to this posting including in several different forums, he-man.org forums included.

The basic rundown is that nothing was announced that we didn’t already know. There is a movie in the works, but no details to report. They wouldn’t even say if it was definitely a live action, cgi, or animated. They could only posture and say that it was looking like it would most likely be live action.

The DVD news we were all waiting for eagerly? All they divulged was that they are working out the details and will have more to report when all is finalized. Any sort of details of substance that are currently floating around seem to originate from the BCI representative that posts on the He-man.org forums. He mentioned a widescreen format and a couple of other small tidbits, but most of the real details that everyone wants to know about are really still being worked out.

Continue reading for the actual rundown of the panel as posted by He-Man.org.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

CNN reports the Senior Senator from Vermont has been cast in a cameo in The Dark Knight, the next Batman movie.

Patrick Leahy is professed comic book fan, and this will be his third appearance with Batman. He was an extra in the movie Batman & Robin and was the voice of the Arizona Governor in the Batman: The Animated Series episode “Showdown”

Like the rest of the cast, he isn’t talking about his role, except to say that he did share the scene with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger(Batman and The Joker, respectively).

BillyVsSteve.com is the official site for “The King Of Kong: A Fistfull Of Quarters” a documentary film about Billy Mitchell, the worlds greatest Donkey Kong player; and Steve Wiebe, the man who set out to beat him.
The movie opens this weekend in select cities and will be expanding in the weeks that follow. You can see the schedule here, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask your local indie movie house if they’ll get a print soon.

OK, this is the messy part I didn’t want to talk about in my GI Joe update from yesterday. The GI Joe movie has to appeal to an international audience, so it can’t be all US Military. If Mark Wahlberg is Duke, then they need his British counter part, Action Man. Not the most creative name in the world, but its historically correct. The Crank, The Snatch, and The Transporter Jason Statham could be that Action Man according to IESB.

But wait, we’re talking about an adaptation of the old Real American Hero line, right? That was Action Force, and those comics and cartoons were just rebranded by title; Duke, Flint, General Hawk and the rest were still the same guys. Maybe Statham can play Big Ben?

I’ll follow this story to the bloody end, but I’m just going say now that this movie needs fans to speak up and save it like Transformers did. Tom Desanto and Don Murphy understood the rabid fanbase and tried to find some middle ground in Transformers and whether you loved the movie or hated it, they did balance the classic with the new pretty well. GI Joe needs fans to start writing studios and start making ridiculous message board proclaimations now if they want this movie to even remotely resemble the Real American Hero series or comics.

Now that we’ve opened up the casting call, who would you like to to see? Michael Clarke Duncan as Roadblock? Scarlett Johansson as Scarlett? Shia Labeouf as Duke Jr? Leave a comment!

Can lightening strike twice? And by asking that I don’t mean can another toy become successful movie, I mean can a director of critically panned fair win over legions of fans by balancing a mainstream and hardcore audience?

Stephen Sommers, the man behind the Brendan Fraser “Mummy” movies and the absolutely dreadful Van Helsing is now rumored to be the pick for directing Hasbro’s GI Joe.

Now Transformers essentially had its hardest work ahead of the effects team: making convincing characters came easy once you were convinced they could be real. GI Joe has some great characters too, but they are merely human, and it’ll take more than a guy dressed like Snake Eyes who doesn’t talk to get audiences to show up. Theres also that huge problem of this being a military movie and keeping it safe for kids. Transformers got away with all the violence and gunplay because it never showed a drop of blood and most of it was between non-human performers. Lets not kid ourselves, the villains need to be Cobra Commander, Destro, and The Baroness leading thousands of disposable soldiers.

Is Sommers up to the job? I honestly don’t think so, but I’ve been surprised before when Bryan Singer dropped the ball on Superman and Michael Bay surpassed expectations on Transformers. Getting Mark Wahlberg would help, but this needs to be handled very carefully.

From IESB

From the news still slowly leaking out from the remnants of SDCC department, the MTV Movies Blog have a limited edition Hellboy 2 movie poster by none other than Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola. See above.

Its a fair assumption that all of the Powet Crew are fans of Michel Gondry. If it wasn’t his films like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, it was his music videos like “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters

This is the trailer for Gondry’s latest movie “Be Kind Rewind” starring Jack Black and Mos Def. These actors from the world of music are video store clerks who through tragic circumstances must recreate classic movies to keep their store open.
Find High Definition verisons of the trailer on Yahoo Movies.