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Is nothing sacred from Hollywood and their “remake machine”? If it’s not un-necessary sequels to classic film series (Rambo, Die Hard, Rocky), Hollywood seems to be getting their grubby little paws into remakes more-and-more.

And horror seems to be getting most of the remake treatment. We’ve seen plenty of horror remakes in the last few years such as The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Ring. It’s worth mentioning that a good majority (let’s say 80%) of these horror remakes have been practically unwatchable.

And to re-assess that percentage in the future, we have the following horror remakes penned for release in the 2 years (I’m not even gonna bother inserting the IMDb links for them.. I’m sure you can find them if needs be):

• One Missed Call (January 2008)
• Day of the Dead (February 2008)
• The Eye (February 2008)
• Funny Games (February 2008)
• Horror High (March 2008)
• Prom Night (April 2008)
• April Fool’s Day (April 2008)
• Scanners (October 2008)
• The Stepfather (November 2008)
• The Changeling (November 2008)
• A Tale of Two Sisters (November 2008)
• Battle Royale (November 2008)
• The Crazies (TBA 2008)
• Friday The 13th (TBA 2008 / 2009)
• Hellraiser (TBA 2008 / 2009)
• The Brood, Cannibal Holocaust, Don’t Look Now, and The Thing (TBA 2009)

And today, reports are circulating of Michael Bay planning ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ remake. Now I’d assume he’d just be acting as producer in the project (unless they bring in transforming robots, numerous wild car chases, explosions and 2 wise cracking cops). And also talks for remakes of ‘Friday The 13th’ and Hitchcock’s classic ‘The Birds’. Full story can be read on Zap2It.com.

Will this trend of horror remakes continue long into the future? By the number of releases penned for the next 2 years, it’s looking likely.

Faith in the movie industry - dwindling… dwindling..!

Maybe it’s the lack of new material coming from the States (due to the WGA Strike) but I absolutely loved this!

It’s basic plotline (from IMDb) is this: “A drama about a high school chemistry teacher who’s suffering from the world’s worst case of mid-life crisis and becomes a criminal.“. That’s an absolutely dreadful synopsis of the show! Firstly, the show is not necessarily a drama (it’s more of a dark comedy drama) and the synopsis is incredibly vague on the plot details. I’d reveal more but it’s better to get a better sense of the synopsis when actually watching the pilot episode.

It stars Bryan Cranston (who we’ll all remember as Hal from ‘Malcolm In The Middle‘) as Walter White (who’s the hero of the show, the high school chemistry teacher as mentioned in IMDb’s synopsis) and he puts in an absolutely fantastic performance in the first 2 episodes. In fact, I’d even say if he continues the series with performances like that, he’ll be up for an Emmy next year without a shadow of a doubt.

The first episode was a nice little opener. It really moved quite slow at the beginning but things soon started to pick up show

The second episode was absolutely fantastic though.. everything from show

to the scene with show

The show really does get it’s tone right. Very funny at times, very dramatic at others.. and it helps to have a good cast (though Bryan Cranston steals the show of course). The scene in the 1st episode with Walt show

And I really enjoy the non-linear timeline in that it hops forward and back in time on numerous occasions in the first few episodes. And how the second episode starts pretty much precisely where the pilot finished. Could possibly be like that for the season I suppose.

Knew I recognised the creator of the series somewhere - Vince Gilligan. Turns out he was a long-time writer and producer on The X-Files. And is also responsible for the script to ‘Hancock‘ (a film I’m really looking forward to this year).

To summarise, I cannot recommend ‘Breaking Bad’ enough. It’s hilarious at times, edge-of-your-seat dramatic at others and the performance of Bryan Cranston makes it just essential viewing.

Rating:

According to JoBlo.com, Guillermo del Toro has indeed entered official talks to direct two back-to-back installments of ‘The Hobbit’.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Guillermo del Toro has entered official talks to direct the two back-to-back installments of THE HOBBIT. Should things get resolved quickly with the WGA strike, HOBBIT would be del Toro’s next film after wrapping up HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY. Because of that pesky strike, New Line and MGM haven’t set a writer to adapt Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” into two films but del Toro and Peter Jackson would “oversee” production of the script. The studios have already set a 2009 start date for the movies, which have been budgeted at $150 million a piece (wowsers). Sam Raimi was an early rumored name for the directing gig after it became clear that Jackson would be too busy to return as director. But it became clear to fans (and obviously studio heads) that del Toro was the man for the job. He brings passion for the material, visual flair and experience in the fantastic.

They’re provisionally scheduled for release in 2010 and 2011. Quite a wait but it’ll be worthwhile given del Toro’s impressive back-catalog as a director (although to be perfectly honest, I only REALLY noticed how talented he was when I saw ‘Pan’s Labyrinth‘).

As the JoBlo article above mentions, ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ director Peter Jackson will “oversee” production of the script.

Absolutely fantastic news if it is confirmed… which it possibly will be at Sundance where del Toro is busy promoting ‘The Orphanage‘ (in which he is a producer of).

So.. best start counting down to Christmas 2010!

Someone’s been doing their research..!

Below is a chart comparing the kills in all 4 ‘Rambo’ movies and it’s clear to see that ‘Rambo‘ (the fourth film in the series) is by far the most violent.

Without a doubt, the “highlight” of last years ‘The Late Late Show‘ (Toy Show) was Jerry Seinfeld’s extremely surreal appearance promoting ‘Bee Movie’. It was odd enough to see as distinguished a celebrity as Jerry Seinfeld make an appearance but even moreso that his appearance be made on the ‘Toy Show’, which although very popular is aimed at kids and no real in-depth interviews do take place on this show.

Jerry Seinfeld was nothing but professional throughout his appearance but it was our own Pat “The Plank” Kenny who just made the brief appearance all that more bizarre. Whether it was:

• Calling him Jerry Seinfield.
• Creeping Jerry out with odd gifts.
• Asking Jerry odd and wholly un-researched questions.

Jerry’s Wikipedia page has the following to say on the appearance:

On November 30, 2007, while promoting Bee Movie, Seinfeld appeared on The Late Late Show in Ireland. However, when Seinfeld came out on stage presenter Pat Kenny seemingly had no clue who Jerry Seinfeld was and engaged in an awkward interview for about five minutes. Kenny would go on to call Seinfeld “Jerry Seinfield” twice before the interview was over and then handed Jerry a cheaply made Superman action figure as a Christmas gift. At first, Seinfeld believed this to be a joke, due to the cheapness of the doll, but soon realized that it was meant to be a genuine gift and seemed somewhat confused. Kenny then asked Seinfeld “what’s next for him?”, a question generally asked to up and coming actors, not renowned stars, such as Seinfeld. Seinfeld later stated that he found the entire incident “highly perplexing.”

The whole appearance was unbearably cringe worthy for those who watching. I don’t think Jerry will be back anytime soon on ‘The Late Late Show’.

Below is the actual video of the incident:

And a remix (watch for Jerry’s facial reactions!):