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They discuss how Abrams got involved in Star Trek, the challenges he faced in creating a reboot, the influence of Richard Donner’s "Superman," making a movie for non-Star Trek fans, how Sequels usually rip off “the wrong thing”, and redeveloping the iconic characters. Abrams also discusses how he became interested in film and filmmaking, meeting his idol Steven Spielberg, how technology has changed storytelling, how spectacle can only work to serve the humanity of the story, the importance of the mystery box, how the audience fills in the blanks, and his writing process.
The new "Star Trek" flick is the first major film release to use augmented reality to promote the release of the film.
And this is the cool part...
Paramount Pictures International has created ‘Experience The Enterprise’; a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) application placing a 3D interactive version of the Starship Enterprise in the palm of your hand.
IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND!
If you have a webcam you can take a tour of the Enterprise using the kind of futuristic technology that sits at the heart of perhaps the most popular science-fiction franchise of all time. Once underway, you are given a ‘cadet holo-simulation’ by Starfleet. The experience gives visitors a five minute tour of the Enterprise, including testing the ship’s weapons systems, impulse engines and warp drive.
We saw this one coming... Scandalous pics of that hot little number Miss California Carrie Prejean has hit the interwebs.
So what's the fuss? She is showing off lacepanties and strategically crossed arms over the boobage region. What's the big deal?
The beauty claims she lost the coveted Miss USA crown for admitting on TV that she opposed gay marriage. She also says the pic was taken when she was a teenage model.
She goes on to say that they were given "surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith. I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be."
Prejean has also been making the rounds on TV to defend her position on gay marriage, and says she will work with an anti-gay-marriage group to lobby against same-sex marriage laws.
Just in case you missed it a few weeks back, here's the badass poster pic of Brad Pitt and Eli Roth in "Inglourious Basterds." Pitt stars as Aldo Raine complete with baddass neck scar.
As for Roth? he's playing a character the Nazis will refer to as The Bear Jew. A baseball-bat-swinging Boston-ite with an almost Mr Blonde-esque psychopatic twist to his personality.
Thanks to Slashfilm for pointing this out: Warner Bros just released the official production notes for Termination Salvation, which features an extended plot synopsis. Thanks to Slashfilm... It sounds incredible...
The year is 2018.
Judgment Day has come and gone, leveling modern civilization. An army of Terminators roams the post-apocalyptic landscape, killing or collecting humans where they hide in the desolate cities and deserts. But small groups of survivors have organized into a Resistance, hiding in underground bunkers and striking when they can against an enemy force that vastly outnumbers them.
Controlling the Terminators is the artificial intelligence network Skynet, which became self-aware 14 years earlier and, in the blink of an eye, turned on its creators, unleashing nuclear annihilation on an unsuspecting world.
Only one man saw Judgment Day coming. One man, whose destiny has always been intertwined with the fate of human existence: John Connor (Christian Bale).
Now the world is on the brink of the future that Connor has been warned about all his life. But something totally new has shaken his belief that humanity stands a chance of winning this war: the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger from the past whose last memory is of being on death row before awakening in this strange, new world.
Connor must decide whether Marcus can be trusted. But as Skynet adapts new strategies to end the Resistance forever, Connor and Marcus must find common ground to take a stand against the onslaught—to infiltrate Skynet and meet the enemy head-on.
And here is a bit of the character rundown from the plot synopsis:
“NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE”: THE END BEGINS
The human drama at the heart of “Terminator Salvation” unfolds against a bomb-blasted post-apocalyptic America in the aftermath of Judgment Day.
“We’re telling the story of the world after Judgment Day,” says McG. “This is the story of the becoming of John Connor, the becoming of Kyle Reese, the strengthening of Skynet, and where our humanity ultimately lies. This is the moment when mankind takes a stand against the machines.”
In bringing the long-promised “Terminator” future to life, McG wanted to create a vision that was no less real. “I didn’t want to shoot actors against green screens; I wanted them reacting to physical Terminators,” the director says. “I wanted the desolate American West—an expanse that suggests a world of hardship, so you could taste it and feel it. Because the bombs have gone off and damaged the ozone, the sky’s a bit of a different color. Earth has a different quality, and you immediately realize something is wrong.”
Director Jonathan Mostow closed the first trilogy in 2003 with “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” in which the terrible event Connor (Nick Stahl) and his mother spent their lives trying to prevent—Judgment Day—rains nuclear war across the world at Skynet’s command. “Terminator 3” was co-written by John Brancato & Michael Ferris, who returned to the franchise to write the screenplay for “Terminator Salvation.” Brancato offers, “Since we ended the original ‘Terminator’ trilogy by destroying the world, we knew we couldn’t go back to the well of time-traveling Terminators. The new film had to be about what happens after the bombs fell.”
Ferris adds, “We wanted to write about the long-predicted battle between men and machines, which also gave us an opportunity to change the overall tone of the franchise. The earlier movies unfolded in a familiar, contemporary world; this film is a war movie, set in a darker, post-apocalyptic future.”
“Terminator Salvation” takes place in 2018, 14 years after the nuclear attack that ended the previous “Terminator” trilogy. Producer Moritz Borman, who also served as an executive producer on “Terminator 3,” remarks, “From the start, we made a conscious decision that just as the previous films had been set in the timeframe we know today, ‘Terminator Salvation’ would begin to reveal the future that had only been glimpsed in the earlier movies. So we’re jumping to the time when Kyle Reese is still a teenager and they have not yet discovered what we know comes next, mainly the time travel that set the story in motion. In this film, we are finally in the midst of the war that was forewarned, and we can watch Connor’s rise to become the head of the resistance.” evious “Terminator” trilogy. Producer Moritz Borman, who also served as an executive producer on “Terminator 3,” remarks, “From the start, we made a conscious decision that just as the previous films had been set in the timeframe we know today, ‘Terminator Salvation’ would begin to reveal the future that had only been glimpsed in the earlier movies. So we’re jumping to the time when Kyle Reese is still a teenager and they have not yet discovered what we know comes next, mainly the time travel that set the story in motion. In this film, we are finally in the midst of the war that was forewarned, and we can watch Connor’s rise to become the head of the resistance.”
In “Terminator Salvation,” Bale says, “Skynet is dominant but still in a state of evolution. Humans are definitely on the out. Their backs are against the wall and their circumstances are desperate. This is the last, final effort for the survival of mankind.”
“Everything is difficult for humans now,” McG attests. “It’s difficult to get food, difficult to get energy. Everything is depleted. And you’re always being hunted.”
Nevertheless, Borman states, “There has to be hope for humanity. There has to be something in the way that they live that shows they believe there will be a future after the machines, that the world might rise again out of the ashes. And their hope is, of course, pinned to John Connor.”
Connor fights on the front lines of the Resistance, but is not yet its leader. New developments by Skynet have rocked his vision of the future, as told to him throughout his life by his mother. She believed the future was not set, and his own doubts are growing that he may not live to initiate the events that will result in his own conception, namely, sending Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother.
“John Connor doesn’t know whether he can become the John Connor that his mother talked about,” notes producer Jeffrey Silver, “because he knows there are many possible futures. This is a character with incredible complexity and courage, and Christian was able to deliver the kind of multi-layered portrayal that such an important role demanded.”
The man John Connor has become is at once an extension of his younger persona and someone entirely new. Bale affirms, “He’s definitely a guy with a lot of issues, somebody who has been told the future all his life and bears the burden of that knowledge. But his mother also told him there is no fate but what you make, so knowing that, he can’t just go hide and think everything’s going to be fine. He’s got to be out there fighting. And he is a fighter. I saw him very much like an Achilles-type character. He’s somebody who loves the fray. But he’s battling with what soldiers deal with every day—the loss of very good friends—and his fears that he is not the leader that people are probably expecting at that point.”
In addition to his clashes with the Resistance leaders and fears about Skynet’s strength and innovation, a new element shatters the vision of the future Connor grew up believing in: the emergence of a man whose existence has never been mentioned—a human-machine hybrid named Marcus Wright. John Brancato asserts, “The key to the story was coming up with the character of Marcus Wright, whose internal battle reflects the larger conflict.”
Marcus Wright’s last memory was of being put to death for committing a crime; he has no knowledge of how he came into this world or what his purpose is here. “Marcus had been on death row,” says Sam Worthington. “He was put to death. But then he wakes up in this post-apocalyptic world and has to go on a surreal adventure to figure out why he isn’t dead.”
“Nobody really knows who Marcus is to start with,” says Bale. “He’s somebody with a past, with an awful lot of regrets. There’s a theme throughout the film of desiring a second chance.”
The notion of second chances is what had driven Dr. Serena Kogen to find Marcus on death row. A scientist with the genetics division of Cyberdyne Systems, Serena is played by Helena Bonham Carter. “Helena plays a very proficient scientist who is working on the cutting edge of technology,” says McG. “She’s further motivated by the fact that she has terminal cancer. She truly believes her research could give people like her a second chance, but her research falls into the hands of Skynet, and the consequences of that are quite revolutionary for the machines. But she is indeed the one who enlists Marcus to donate his body for what she will only tell him is ‘research,’ and hers is the last human face he sees before dying.”
Adrift in this strange, new world, wearing stolen clothes and struggling to come to grips with what happened to him after “death,” Marcus is saved from a Terminator aggressor by a young man, played by Anton Yelchin, who identifies himself as Kyle Reese. “Marcus ends up in an abandoned building where this T-600 starts firing at him,” Yelchin describes. “And out of nowhere, a kid runs in, grabs him and saves him. And that kid is Kyle Reese. We hear him say, as he did in the first film, ‘Come with me if you want to live.’”
Kyle, who will eventually travel backwards through time to save Sarah Connor, is at this point still a teenager, struggling to survive himself. “He’s scrappy; he’s a gritty survivor,” says McG. “I needed those qualities to be evident in a younger version of Michael Biehn, who played the adult Kyle in ‘The Terminator,’ because our story takes place some ten-odd years before he’s sent back in time.”
While Kyle listens to the shortwave radio broadcasts delivered by John Connor, dreaming of joining him in the Resistance, Connor is himself searching for Kyle. “Connor is looking for Kyle Reese, who is his father, but is at this point still just a teenage boy,” says Bale. “Kyle has no idea of the important role that he will play in the future, and Connor can’t tell him. Time travel can really mess you up,” he smiles.
But Kyle is not alone in his journey. He’s accompanied by Star, a nine-year-old girl rendered mute by the trauma of war and displacement. Played by Jadagrace Berry, Star has the uncanny ability to sense the presence of a Terminator before it appears, but, more importantly, her presence gives Kyle a greater sense of purpose. “She’s the biggest point of vulnerability for Kyle because he sees Star as his main responsibility,” says Yelchin. “I think if she wasn’t there, he wouldn’t try as hard, regardless of the Resistance.”
“Star sort of embodies innocence in the picture,” says McG. “She embodies hope. You take one look at her face and you say, ‘That’s what we’re fighting for. We want to keep people like this alive. This is the future.’ Unlike those who remember the world before, she has grown up in a world that’s ruled by the brutality of the machines. It’s given her the ability to sense them coming, so she’s able to offer a critical assist every now and again.”
Surviving from day to day, Kyle, Star and now Marcus are alternately threatened and helped by other human refugees they meet along the way, including Virginia, played by Jane Alexander. When the rest of her group wants to turn the trio away, Virginia insists upon sharing what little resources they have. Worthington observes, “The irony, of course, is that it’s only here, where living itself is a challenge, that Marcus experiences true human kindness and compassion.”
Marcus, Kyle and Star are suddenly separated when they’re ambushed by a Harvester—a giant insect-like machine with multiple arms and legs that seeks out its prey and loads them into a Transporter to take back to Skynet. Pursued by an army of Terminators—from the massive Hunter-Killers to the sleek, two-wheeled Moto-Terminators—across miles of open roads, bridges and rivers, Kyle and Star are ultimately captured by the Harvester and deposited in a Transporter, their fate unknown.
“That is part of the heartbreak of the machine world,” comments McG. “You do the best you could ever do as a human being, and it’s still not enough. You just can’t knock these machines down. With everything that Kyle and Marcus throw at them, it’s just not enough. They can’t be stopped.”
Having eluded capture himself, Marcus saves the life of a downed A-10 jet pilot who is forced to eject after failing to rescue the humans from the Harvester. The pilot turns out to be the stunning Blair Williams, who takes Marcus back with her to the Resistance base. “Blair is a wonderful fighter pilot and a survivalist,” says McG. “She really knows how to maneuver, destroy machines and, most importantly, stay alive. She has her life saved by Marcus, so she feels indebted to him.”
On their way to the Resistance base, Marcus is injured by a landmine. Rushed into the Rebellion’s outpost, he is immediately treated by John’s wife, Kate Connor, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. “In the intervening years since Judgment Day, Kate has become a physician, training the best she can in these circumstances,” Howard relates. “She finds books and she’s talked to as many survivors as possible, learning different techniques to enable her to save lives.”
Kate is also Connor’s partner in the ongoing fight. “John is a soldier and Kate is a doctor, and to that effect they’re a very tightly bonded, formidable team,” says McG. “They both have strong intelligence and the will to lead. It was critical to find a Kate Connor that would be worthy of leading the resistance, and I thought Bryce had the elegance and the intelligence to make people believe that she could indeed call the shots if anything ever happened to John Connor. Kate and Blair both are in keeping with the tradition of powerful female characters in the ‘Terminator’ films.”
Kate is the first to see that Marcus’s body has been modified into a new, previously unknown model of Terminator: a hybrid with a human heart, brain, and exterior, but the interior workings of a robot.
Completely unaware of his transformation, Marcus is overwhelmed by the realization that his state execution was only a prelude to a new state of being. “Marcus has metal arms and legs but he still has a human heart and brain, and therein lies the rub,” says Worthington. “Is that enough to protect his humanity? He believes he’s human, but everyone around him other than Blair thinks he’s the enemy, including possibly Skynet. But I think this film explores the power of human choice and free will through this character. Even though he is augmented with machinery, his human heart is real.”
“As soon as they discover he’s a hybrid, there is no trust,” says Moon Bloodgood.
“But Blair sees Marcus’s courage and his struggle. She saw a part of him that they never got a chance to see. He saved her life; he opened up to her. And Blair’s not afraid to go up against John Connor because her values are more important to her than he is, or even beating Skynet.”
Serving as Connor’s eyes and ears, his second-in-command, Barnes, is assigned to watch over Marcus until he can be studied. Barnes is played by actor and musical artist Common.
“Barnes is this spiritual warrior in many ways, fighting to the end by Connor’s side for the future of humanity, and he sees Marcus as a threat,” says Common. “But, by the same token, he’s been through a lot of things that force him to come to a spiritual understanding—about their struggle, about John Connor’s destiny—and much of it is tied into Marcus.”
As the situation on the ground changes, Connor believes his own strategies must also dramatically change, which sets him at odds with the recognized leader of the Resistance, General Ashdown, played by sci-fi veteran actor Michael Ironside. “Michael Ironside, who I worked with before on ‘The Machinist,’ plays the leader of the Resistance, and we come to be at loggerheads in this movie, but he’s somebody you can definitely believe has become the leader of the new sort of scavenger military,” Bale remarks.
John Connor realizes the only way to truly stand up to Skynet’s ever-evolving combat strategies is to fight them where they live: in the heart of Skynet itself. And Marcus may be the key to infiltrating their network. “Connor has this incredibly hopeless task,” says Bale. “Sure, he’s got some weapons, but it’s like just throwing a few sticks and stones at a fortress…except for this character of Marcus. So, Connor has to make this extraordinary leap of faith and break every rule that he has established for himself.
He knows that the machines will use the best parts of humanity against us. So, how does he put trust into somebody whom he knows to be a machine?” Their only hope may be to trust in each other, and that trust alone could be enough. “Where does humanity really lie?” asks the director. “Is it the strength of the human heart? What is it that makes us want to die for one another? That’s what can’t be measured by machines.”
In this past weekend's New York Times, there was an awesome interview with Quentin Tarantino in T Mag.
Whats it say? For starters, Tarantino is quick to admit that "Inglorious Basterds" is indeed the hardest film he’s ever made. From a director who says that he's croak to make his films perfect, this may not come as a big shock. Given that IB is a WWII epic, clocks in at over 2 hours and 30 minutes, and was cast and shot in time for this month’s Cannes, that statement may be true.
What else does Q say? Hold on to your hats...
"I wanted to have a masterpiece before the decade’s out."
Hmmmm, does he consider "Inglourious Basterds to be his only masterpiece this decade. In the Lounge's estimation, both volumes of Kill Bill reached those heights.
On a more curious note, Q also says that he’s working on a 20-page review of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, a film he’s quite passionate and protective over. Wonder why THAT is? And looking back as a member of the jury at Cannes in 2004, he remains pleased with awarding Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 the Palm d’Or.
As a bonus, Webby Award nominated media artist Eclectic Method has thrown all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies in a blender and created “the TARANTINO mixtape.”
Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro trailer has hit the interwebs and at first glance, seems to be a return to form. The second film in the last 12 years, and his first original screenplay since "The Conversation," the flick is being billed as his most personal film yet.
It's said to be based from memories and emotions from his early life and a bittersweet story of two brothers, of family lost and found and the conflicts and secrets within a highly creative
Judging from the trailer, Tetro looks and feels like a film from 60 years ago. The black and white cinematography is absolutely gorgeous.
The plot: Fresh faced and naive, 17-year-old Bennie arrives in Buenos Aires to search for his older brother who has been missing for more than a decade. The family had emigrated from Italy to Argentina, but with the great musical success of their father Carlo, an acclaimed symphony conductor, the family moved from Argentina to New York. When Bennie finds his brother, the volatile and melancholy poet Tetro, he is not at all what he expected. In the course of staying with Tetro and his girlfriend Miranda, the two brothers grapple with the haunting experiences of their shared past.
Big props to USA TODAY, who managed to snag a first peek at Iron Man 2.
It's closer than we think. A sequel to last summer's blockbuster, which began shooting a mere three weeks ago will open next May and takes place just six months after Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark revealed his identity as Iron Man.
Interestingly, the development is playing out with unexpected results, says director Jon Favreau. "How many superheroes are open about their true identities?" he asked in USA Today. "We wanted to play with that idea. But it obviously has consequences — in his relationships, on the team. There are a lot of areas we can explore."
Even though he's sending dispatches via Twitter (one of the few Hollywood directors to utilize the technology) from the set. He hopes to have all other details locked down. "It's never easy with summer movies, but we're trying to keep as much a surprise as possible," he says.
Favreau also said that tackling the franchise a second time is easier because he knows the landscape. Something else would help, too: "I really enjoyed when we were a dark horse and no one knew much about us. ... I hope we can find that place again."
Tomorrow, May 2, comic Book stores throughout the country will participate in Free Comic Book Day. Different shops have policies on how many free comics you can receive, but you will receive at least one free comic if you enter a participating shop location. To find a participating comic book store near you, use the Store Locator on FreeComicBookDay.com.
Here's the scoop: This year’s free comic books include Avengers, Disney/Pixar’s Cars #1, Resurrection #0, Savage Dragon #148, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Transformers Animated/G.I. Joe, Aliens/Predator, TMNT #1 25th Anniversary Reprint, William Shatner Presents #1, Wolverine: Origin among many others.
Sin City showman Danny Gans, 52, an impressionist who sold more tickets on the Strip than the Rat Pack or Elvis Presley, died early Friday, says his his manager.
Gans, best known for his touching impersonation of entertainer George Burns, began a five-year headline gig at tycoon Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas hotel in February. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at the Mirage.
he earned the coveted Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year honors 11 years in a row in the reader poll conducted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal but interestingly was not well known beyond Las Vegas.
The cause of death was unknown, although Wikipedia hints that he may have had a heart attack because he had some shortness of breath. Gans's manager Chip Lightman expressed his shock at the impressionist's passing. "The guy was healthy as an ox," he said. "I spoke to Steve Wynn several times this morning and both of us were shocked. I was with Danny the day before yesterday. Healthy as an ox. I mean, all he ate was egg whites and spinach and worked out religiously."
Gans, a great physical specimen, was a former minor league baseball player who turned to performing after a career-ending injury. He appeared as a player in the film "Bull Durham" and found success in his 1995 one-man show in New York before moving the next year to Las Vegas. He is survived by a wife and three children.
Check out this very short "Inglorious Basterds" clip via Film School Rejects. It was supposed to run on last night's "American Idol" but didn't. Needless to say, this film looks epic and will undoubtebly be another feather on Tarantino's cap. A bloody one at that...
Set photos are starting to trickle in from Sly Stallone's upcoming actioner "The Expendables." Here's writer-dirctor-star Sly Stallone and Jason Statham.
OK, so basically Simon told her to eff off last night. Sad considering she had one of the most interesting and soulful voices to come down the pike (is that right?) in years...
Via Slashfilm: "A trailer for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Homes premiered this morning at ShoWest. This is definitely not the Sherlock Holmes you’ve ever seen before. I was surprised at how comical the footage was. It felt a little like the humor of Disney’s Pirates of the Carribbean films. Fans of Ritchie might be interested to know that the director’s stylish cinematography was definitely intact. During a sequence showing the barenuckle pitfight, Holmes’ punches are executed in a slow motion style reminiscent of the video game Fight Night. And while the film isn’t set in modern day, the trailer had a very contemporary in-you-face edit. Of course, I’m not sure if this was just a trailer cut for ShoWest, or if it might be an early version of the actual theatrical trailer. Some people commented on Robert Downey Jr’s accent, which wasn’t too believable, but I’m sure in the context of the movie it won’t really matter."
As at ShoWest show this week, LatinoReview snapped a shot of the teaser poster for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, which stars Robert Downey Jr. Looks like a promo concept and the theatrical edition may be different.
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