Battlestar Galactica: The Plan – When Will The UK Get it?

Okay, so right now there are countless sites carrying reviews of the new Battlestar Galactica TV movie, The Plan, but no news of a UK air date or DVD/Blu ray release. How come? I would have thought, with Christmas on the way, that the film would get a full release round about now? It came out on October 27th in the US, but what about all of the loyal legions of Battlestar Galactica fans in the UK? For that matter, what about everyone else that loves the series and the characters? We need our fix! Now that the series has ended, these ‘filling in the blanks’ TV movies are the only thing left for diehard BSG fans to look forward to, so when do the UK fans get thrown a bone?

Doctor Who: waters Of Mars Air Date Confirmed

The next Doctor Who special episode, The Waters of Mars, is to be shown on BBC1 on the 15th of November. This was stated by David Tennant and later confirmed. This is to be the last Doctor Who story David Tennant’s tenth Doctor will feature in before the first part of his two-episode exit from the show, namely The End Of Time. While initial footage from The Waters Of Mars wasn’t too enticing, the more we have seen and read about the episode, the better it looks and sounds. This should be fun!

Terminator movie rights up for sale

Feel like having a go at making a better film than the mixed bag that was Terminator Salvation? Feeling rich? Then you may be in look, as the rights to the Terminator movie franchise are about to be auctioned off. It seems that the franchise is in dire straits after the reception of Terminator Salvation, and while the film was better than T3, it didn’t do the same sort of business as the legendary Terminator 2: Judgement Day (then again, could anything replicate the genius of that masterpiece?). The rights to the terminator franchise are up for auction later this month.

Blair Witch 3 on the way?

After the success of Paranormal Activity and similar low budget fare doing so well recently, apparently Eduardo Sanchez is looking to resurrect the Blair Witch Project franchise with a third film that is said to follow on from the first, effectively ignoring the sequel, Blair Witch 2: Book Of Shadows. While doing away with that second film is a great idea, does anyone really care enough to see a third film? Hello?

At long last, the legendary Hammer Horror name is being resurrected and new films will be made. The studio, famous for its iconic and genuinely classic films starring the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, saw something of a revival in 2008 with the online series Beyond The Rave. While that series was a valiant effort to make something new and current, it wasn’t what hammer fans wanted by a long way.

Now, it has emerged that Hammer Films are back to doing what they do best- at long last! The first of their new films that has gone into production stars two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (man, she’s come a long way since The Next Karate Kid, hasn’t she?) alongside Jeffrey Dean Morgan (of Watchmen fame). It’s called The Resident and will be released in 2010. So, with that news and Halloween next month, isn’t it time to check out those Hammer horror films again? Oh hell yes.

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We’ll be covering as much of the San Diego Comic Con news as we can across our many blogs, so stick with the Starstore blogs for a unique British perspective on the latest developments from SDCC 2009!

We swear one day we’ll make it there and report to you live from the event itself, but until then, we’ll be scouring the net for the best news and announcements so that you don’t have to!

This year’s event runs from the 23rd to the 26th of July, with a preview night on the 22nd before the shenanigans commence for real. There are some suitably awesome panels, previews and product unveilings going on this year, and we’ll cover as many of the big ones as we can.

There are some fantastic workshops and signings right across the event, but the big ones for many fans will be the TV previews, movie previews and merchandise previews. We’re personally really looking forward to finding out what Sideshow Collectibles have on offer this year in the way of new products.

Other panels and stuff of note throughout the SDCC weekend? Summit’s Astro Boy preview, the reveal of details on the next Tetsuo movie, a preview of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a look at the groundbreaking new James Cameron science fiction epic Avatar, the next developments in the Halo franchise, a presentation of material from Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr Parnassuss, a Doctor Who panel with Russell T Davies and David Tennant, a panel on the Kick Ass movie, a talk with fantasy legend Terry Brooks, the premier of the animated Green Lantern movie, The Guild, Farscape’s 10th Anniversary, a look at the new version of The Prisoner, Star Wars Day, Sideshow Collectibles‘ panel, Dr. Horrible The Totally Rad Show Live, Ray Bradbury… gah, so much!!!

We’ll be covering as much as we can right here! It may not be as cool as actually being there, but we’ll be bringing you as much of the AWESOME as we can.

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Have a look and see some sneak previews of the greatest movie collectibles from Sideshow - Visit now!

Oh man, say it ain’t so. John Landis and Dimension have apparently cut a deal which will allow Dimension to remake the horror comedy classic ‘An American Werewolf in London‘. excuse my outbursts, but WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!!! The original is one of those iconic films that really should NOT be tampered with. Okay, remake Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Leatherface, anything, just not this! It’s the sort of film that is held in the same regard as things like Withnail and I. It’s perfect as it is. Didn’t the studios learn from that godawful sequel? The original film, which of course told the story of two American tourists getting caught up in the middle of the English countryside with a motley cast of locals and some very nasty lycanthropes is a work of art that any remake can only tarnish. Seriously people, don’t do it. If anything, clean up a print of the original and release a special edition.

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Have a look and see some sneak previews of the greatest movie collectibles from Sideshow - Visit now!

I am not a fan of remakes, and even less so of sequels to remakes. Rob Zombie’s remake/reboot of the HALLOWEEN movie franchise didn’t set my world alight, well, not in the conventional sense. I was certainly ready with some net-based Flames, though. Anyway. That’s by the by. The trailer for Zombie’s sequel, H2 (what the hell is it with all these daft abbreviations in films? Man I feel old) is out, and it actually looks rather impressive.

I’m thrilled he’s kept the feel and the locale of the original Halloween 2 (A classic of the genre). Once again, this version of Halloween 2 picks up where the last film left off. Michael Myers is back with a grungy new look, which I think actually works quite well. Tyler Mane seems to be having a blast in the role of Myers, even though after I met Tyler back when he’d done the first X-men movie, he was so friendly that I have trouble taking him seriously as a bad guy. Anyway, go check out the H2 trailer at Yahoo movies and see what you think. Looks like Zombie has finally hit his stride (or indeed his Strode).

As we mentioned on one of the other Starstore blogs yesterday, Jackie Earl Haley, aka Rorschach in WATCHMEN, was in the running to play Freddy Krueger in the new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street. That has now been confirmed! This is a great piece of casting, and bodes well for the future of the rejuvenated Elm Street franchise.

I was really skeptical about this remake, and still am to a certain extent, but now that Freddy is to be played by such a powerful performer, I have a little more hope for it. He has the right build, voice and presence to bring Springfield’s notorious dream demon back to the big screen, but will he have the right script?

That’s the thing that is worrying me more than anything about this film now. I, and many other fans of the original Elm Streetmovies, would have to see it come back as some throwaway piece of remake fluff. The original movie, and indeed the legendary third entry, Dream Warriors, remain strong horror films to this day, with some great characters and some great ideas.

I really, really hope that this new version of the franchise sticks to having these elements too, and avoids the typical slasher rush-job we are currently having to make do with in some films. Done right, this could be excellent. Mind you, either way, it couldn’t be worse than Freddy’s Dead. Gaaaaahhh.

A live action movie adaptation of Blood – The Last Vampire is on the way this summer, and there are a lot of people out there interested in checking it out. For those of you that haven’t heard of the name, Blood The Last Vampire was a 48 minute animated movie from 2000, originally intended to be little more than a testing ground for a number of new animation techniques involving the blending of traditional cel animation with CG elements. Upon its release it was something of a hit amongst anime fans and since then it has become a cult classic in its own right. In its first week of release, Blood The Last Vampire sold 100,000 copies in the US alone.

Trailer for the original animated movie:

That animated feature spawned a manga book sequel and also a fifty episode anime series that dealt with an alternate timeline, but was still well received by fans of the original film. Now, we have a full on movie adaptation of the classic anime to look forward to. Featuring Gianna Jun as lead character Saya, the film follows an expanded version of the original’s premise. The idea of a character who appears to be little more than a teenager actually being a vampire secret agent with incredible abilities and a hell of a skill with a sword is something that hit a nerve with anime fans, and the movie is looking absolutely spectacular. Check out the full trailer below:

Trailer for the live action movie:

From the new poster and the official trailers for this anime movie adaptation, it seems to me that Blood – The Last Vampire is about to get a heck of a lot more fans all over the world once the movie hits. While it may stray from the anime’s original plot in order to provide a more coherent story for moviegoers, this asian-produced action flick may well be the best anime adaptation ever. The effects look fantastic, the cinematography looks very promising, and the action looks top notch, but will it hit a similar nerve with fans? I think so, and I do believe this will be one of the surprise cult hits of 2009.

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Wes Craven, the horror movie legend behind such genre classics as Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, has said that he won’t be checking out the remake of his most famous creation- A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The director, also known for kicking off the SCREAM horror franchise as well as a catalogue of other productions outside the horror genre, has stated to Moviehole.net that he has no interest in seeing the new remake of that incredible first Elm Street film once it hits the screen, saying “That’d be a tough one to re-see… If you move on from the films you’ve made – which I have tried always to move on – then it’s like, ‘That’s in the past. It’s had his life.’

Personally I can’t say I blame him. If you’d made something as perfect and genre-defining as A Nightmare on Elm Street, I can’t imagine you’d be too into watching some half-assed remake that has been made to cash in on hard work you did 25 years ago. That first film, and the third one, incidentally, are near=perfect pieces of genre cinema that it seems more than a little wrong to screw around with.

I swear, if they get Shia LaBeouf to be Freddy Krueger, I’ll scream, and not in a good way. Is Billy Bob Thornton still attached to this project?

]]> http://starstoreblog.com/movies/wes-craven-creator-of-the-original-nightmare-on-elm-street-wont-see-the-remake/feed/ 0 http://starstoreblog.com/uncategorized/movie-roundup-watchmen-tomb-raider-predator-ghost-rider-2-the-thing-resident-evil-4/ http://starstoreblog.com/uncategorized/movie-roundup-watchmen-tomb-raider-predator-ghost-rider-2-the-thing-resident-evil-4/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:55:22 +0000 starboy http://starstoreblog.com/?p=723 LARA CROFT TO RETURN…. BUT NOT JOLIE
The TOMB RAIDER movie series is to be rebooted with a new leading lady. The third film to feature the legendary computer game character will see the series get a fresh start, and the character be given a new origin. No word on who will be playing Lara yet, but many would love to see Emily Blunt in the role. Then again, maybe it is time for Olivia Munn to start acting…

GHOST RIDER 2
A sequel to Ghost Rider is moving forward and is due to go into production in the coming months. While the first film wasn’t exactly a huge hit at the box office, it did well enough on DVD to warrant a sequel. The new film will again star Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider.

THING PREQUEL
The remake/prequel to John Carpenter’s version of THE THING is heading into production soon too. The film, which takes elements of the original version, Carpenter’s version and new prequel material, is set to start off a series of THING movies for a new generation.

RESIDENT EVIL 4
Sony are developing a fourth entry in the RESIDENT EVIL movie series. The project already has a script, written by Resident Evil veteran Paul WS Anderson, but that’s about all there is in the way of details so far, other than it will apparently take place in Alaska.No word yet on whether Milla Jovovich will be involved.

PREDATOR REBOOT
The trend of remaking everything in sight continues with the news that the PREDATOR movie series is to start over again with a proposed remake of the 1987 movie that saw Arnold Schwarzenegger face off against the ruthless hunter alien. This will apparently not get in the way of the next Alien Vs Predator film, which is said to be entitled ALIEN Vs PREDATOR: DARK FORTRESS and take place on a derelict prison ship.

FINAL WATCHMEN POSTER
To get the bad taste of remakes out of your eyes, check out the final poster for WATCHMEN here…

A second film in the series was rumoured a while ago, which would have involved Ash from the EVIL DEAD films raise a chainsaw to the two terror titans. That would have been awesome, but sadly the project never got past the concept stage.

The new series of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street films, once they have both got maybe two films out each, would be a great place to put another crossover. It would be nice to see the characters come face to face again without thew baggage of seventeen previous films in total (ten featuring Jason, seven featuring Freddy). So, once these new eras for the horror classics are well underway, how abut a REAL clash of these infamous horror icons, one the true fans won’t be quite so brutal towards.