We’ve been hearing rumours for a while now that there may be plans to carry on the Indiana Jones franchise beyond Harrison Ford, with Shia LaBeouf being the logical choice to star in future episodes. If you’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you’ll know that there’s a moment at the end of the film that briefly flirts with the notion while avoiding any solid indication one way or another. However, it sounds like Shia will definitely take over for Harrison Ford if George Lucas has anything to say about it.
He was recently quoted by Fox News (yes, that bastion of journalistic integrity) as having a swell idea for the next installment in the series:
“I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this, but I have an idea to make Shia the lead character next time and have Harrison come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.”
I know a lot of people are very hostile towards this possibility, but I will admit that I don’t necessarily hate the idea. On the other hand, it seems like all Lucas does now is write movies that repeat events from his previous flicks, just transplanted to a different generation. What do you think… would you pay to see Mutt Williams and the Legend of the Swinging Monkeys?
On a related note, Lucas also responded to the mixed reviews for Indy 4: “This movie is the exact same experience as the other three were. The difference is, the novelty of discovery is gone. I get worried when I hear fans say they’re expecting something different that will change their lives. This is ‘Indiana Jones’ just as you remember him.” Thoughts?
School of Rock is one of those movies that you can just throw in the ol’ DVD player at any given time, whether you’re alone or with friends, and be pretty much guaranteed that a good time will be had by all. Screenwriter Mike White wrote it specifically for his buddy Jack Black, and you definitely get the impression that Black didn’t have to do much “acting” in the movie since his character is so perfectly matched to his personality.
Anyway, word on the street is that a second School of Rock movie may be happening in the near future. Jack Black recently had this to say: “I’d really like to do it, the last one was great. We are seriously thinking about it, there’s already a script. In a few weeks we have to decide if we go through with the project or not.” No word on if Mike White wrote the script, although I’m hoping he did… without him it probably wouldn’t feel the same. (Apparently White also recently wrote the screenplay for Edgar Wright’s Them… I didn’t know that.) Also no word on if Richard Linklater would return to direct, although something tells me he’s probably busy with any number of other projects right now. Either way I’m totally game for this… hopefully we’ll hear more about it in the near future.
On a somewhat related note to this week’s Forgotten Films feature on Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., here’s another strange Marvel oddity from the mid-90’s. Jay sent me a link to this strange 5-minute short film showcasing an impressive (although horribly clunky by today’s standards) CG version of the Silver Surfer. It originates from around the same time that those horrible Fantastic Four and Captain America movies were produced, but apparently it was actually three film students who put it together strictly as a labour of love. They did get permission from Marvel to use the character, although at the time they were told that it simply couldn’t be done. Take that Hollywood!
Director Erik Fleming has since gone on to direct episodes of The Surreal Life; if only he would have gotten a chance to direct a sequel, where Silver Surfer comes down all the way from outer space just save some kid’s lunch money! Check out the short film below and “marvel” at the best FX that 1994 had to offer. You can read a more in-depth history of the production over at Comics2Film.
The return of Indiana Jones drummed up just as much business as expected, if not more over the weekend, with the movie unearthing $101 million, making it possibly the second biggest memorial day weekend opening of all time. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was a distant second with $23M, while Iron Man, What Happens in Vegas and Speed Racer held down the rest of the top 5. Just outside the top 10, the documentary Young@Heart has been quietly climbing the charts, sitting at #12 with approximately 2.4M earned to date. Not too shabby for a bunch of oldies!
1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — $101M
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian — $23M
3. Iron Man — $20M
4. What Happens in Vegas — $9M
5. Speed Racer — $4M
6. Made of Honor — $3.4M
7. Baby Mama — $3.3M
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall — $1.7M
9. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay — $915K
10. The Visitor — $781K
0:00 - Intro/In-house Stuff
5:38 - Headlines: R. Kelly Uses Little Man as a Defense in Court, Spike Lee Trash Talking at Cannes, Waco Movie, Uwe Boll’s Darfur Movie?
23:25 - Junk Mail
43:45 - Stuff We Watched This Week: Diary of the Dead, The Bourne Ultimatum
51:00 - Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
1:15:15 - Trailer Trash: Eagle Eye, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
1:21:30 - This Week’s DVD Releases
1:23:55 - Outro
Diary of the Dead
Written and Directed by: George A. Romero
Starring: Joshua Close, Scott Wentworth, Michelle Morgan
After a brief brush with bigger budgets and bigger stars in Land of the Dead, the godfather of the zombie genre has returned to the comfort of his independent filmmaking roots with Diary of the Dead. And what better way to justify a low budget look and feel than to shoot the movie in a documentary-style in the vein of The Blair Witch Project? Diary of the Dead joins movies like Cloverfield, Spanish film REC, and its English language remake Quarantine in a new wave of first-person horror flicks, made all the more relevant in this era of cell phone cameras and YouTube.
Although Diary of the Dead follows the same naming convention as all of Romero’s previous zombie flicks, it’s not a continuation or sequel. He has reset the counter back to zero once again, starting from when the very first reports of “living dead” crop up. A group of college students are out shooting a horror movie of their own when they hear the disturbing news about a zombie outbreak. From here it turns into a road trip of sorts, as they attempt to drive home in an old Winnebago to find their family and friends. Along the way, director Jason Creed seizes the opportunity to capture the horrific events on camera in order to create his ultimate cinematic masterpiece.
Prior to the release of the first Blade and X-Men movies in 1998 and 2000 respectively, the comic book genre wasn’t seen as particularly profitable or worthwhile throughout the movie industry. At the time it was assumed that the public interest just wasn’t there (or had dropped off due to Joel Schumacher’s treatment of the Batman franchise), but the real problem is that no one was giving these stories the talent and the budget needed to make them work.
You may have heard of some of the embarrassing projects that Marvel was involved in throughout the early 90’s, specifically the original Captain America and Fantastic Four movies. These are much worse than Batman & Robin ever was, and in fact, this particular take on the Fantastic Four was never officially released because Avi Arad (then, Marvel head honcho) actually bought out the movie and ordered all of the prints destroyed. (It has since leaked out online via torrents and file sharing sites.)
However, in light of the recent Iron Man and Incredible Hulk movies, which feature Samuel L. Jackson in a small, overlapping role as Nick Fury, I thought it might be fun to take a look at another dubious Marvel film that is probably even less known than the previous two.
Posted by Sean on May 25th, 2008 Filed under: Contests
Congratulations to long time Film Junk reader Drew Nugent of League City, TX, who has just won himself the new 40th Anniversary Edition DVD of Night of the Living Dead!
We asked you guys what your favourite George A. Romero movie was, and the winner by a pretty large margin was Dawn of the Dead. Dawn received 40% of the votes, while Night of the Living Dead received another 25%. It was cool to see movies like The Crazies, Creepshow and Martin also represented in the poll though!
Thanks to all those who entered, and thanks to Marisa from Special Ops Media for providing us with a copy of the DVD. Stay tuned to Film Junk for more exciting giveaways!
Outside of the Indy Fever that swept across the web this week, there were plenty of other things to talk about in the world of film. Jake Gyllenhaal was finally confirmed as the lead role in the upcoming Prince of Persia movie franchise, while a Highlander remake was announced, along with a new movie starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. We also learned this week that Marvel’s Captain America movie would indeed be set during World War II, and a new Flash Gordon movie was announced, along with new projects for Jason Reitman and Noah Baumbach. Scope out the rest of the week’s headlines below.
Every summer, movie fans find themselves faced with more and more movies that are absolutely off the charts in terms of hype and anticipation… and every summer, it seems that very few of these blockbusters are able to fully satisfy their target audience. You may think that this is old news, and that it’s just a given that massive Hollywood productions are empty and unfulfilling, but why should this be the case? Wouldn’t moviegoers eventually stop paying money if they were being consistently disappointed?
I guess there are a lot of ways to explain this, one being the fact that plenty of people just go to the movies for something to do on a Friday night. But I think a bigger factor is the pre-release buzz, which causes people to go in believing that these movies are going to be masterpieces on every level, and hoping for something that is almost impossible.
They’ve done studies on consumer behaviour and found that overhyping a product is a bad thing because it creates unrealistic expectations, and you are more likely to take notice when a product underdelivers rather than when it overdelivers. Huge marketing campaigns may appear to ensure a strong opening weekend turnout, but in the long run they are generating negative word of mouth and quick box office drop-off (not to mention less DVD sales). What do you think, is the hype machine primarily to blame, or are these movies just plain bad? Do blockbusters ever live up to fan expectations? Is Hollywood digging itself into a hole here? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
