Cults are always bad news, but they do make great subjects for movies, which is why I’m kind of looking forward to the recently announced movie Waco. As you can probably guess, the movie is based on the 1993 Waco Massacre, which started with an attempted raid on a compound near Waco, Texas that housed David Koresh and his followers, and ended 51 days later with the entire place going up in flames, killing 76 people. The subject was previously covered in the documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement, and producer Mike McNulty is returning to co-produce this project as well.

The thing that has me worried, however, is the fact that Rupert Wainwright, director of Stigmata and The Fog, has signed on to direct. Those two previous films alone are enough to keep me away from just about anything else this guy might touch, even if the subject matter is compelling. It sounds like the production will be fairly small by Hollywood standards, with a budget of approximately $30 million. For the time being, I’m playing this one by ear. Who do you think should play David Koresh?

A new trailer has just arrived online for a strange little mystery/thriller called Quid Pro Quo starring Nick Stahl (Carnivale, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). The concept is a little bit out there; Stahl plays a wheelchair-bound radio reporter who receives an anonymous tip one day that leads him into a strange subculture of able-bodied people who pay to have their limbs amputated. It is the first film written and directed by Carlos Brooks, and the trailer definitely has a noir vibe to it which I kind of dug. Magnolia Pictures will be giving the film a limited theatrical release on June 13th, so keep your eyes open for it. Check out the trailer below.

Looks like those rumours about Clint Eastwood possibly returning to the Dirty Harry franchise one last time have proven to be bogus. Someone tracked him down at Cannes this week, where he was showing off his new film The Changeling (starring Angelina Jolie), and asked him whether or not Harry Callahan was actually on the comeback trail. His response: “No. That rumor’s incorrect.” It seems that after all these years, Eastwood’s still a man of few words.

Angelina Jolie joined in the fun by implying that she would, in fact, be the new Dirty Harry, after which Eastwood said, “Dirty Harriet. The Tomb Raider will play it. I have no intention. There are certain things you have to be realistic about. Dirty Harry would not be on a police department at my age so we’ll move on from that.” And there you have it… Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is not a codename for the newest Dirty Harry film. The rumour’s source seemed a bit questionable to begin with, so I suppose this news isn’t all that surprising. Nonetheless, there are probably more than a few fans who will be disappointed to hear this.

The first Highlander movie is regarded by many as a sci-fi/fantasy cult classic, and it developed a strong enough fanbase on home video to eventually spawn four sequels, two TV shows and an animated series as well. Unfortunately, all of those things kind of ran the franchise into the ground, and the most recent film Highlander: The Source ended up nothing more than a made-for-TV Sci-Fi Channel movie. So, as it goes with Hollywood nowadays, the solution is simply to reboot that sucker.

Summit Entertainment have acquired the rights to develop a remake of the original Highlander, with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone) on board to write the script. They plan to keep things fresh by incorporating some additional back story elements, turning the remake into a prequel of sorts. But here’s the thing that might worry the primarily male audience that this movie is aiming for: producer Peter Davis says that the key to the film is romance, which he promises will be a central theme. “The issues of an immortal falling in love with a woman and knowing she’s going to grow old and die in your arms, those are very romantic issues to deal with,” said Davis. No word yet on who might star, but let’s hope Christopher Lambert at least gets a cameo because the guy is pretty much hilarious in everything he does. (Just check out his role in Southland Tales if you don’t believe me.)

The act of running a blog carries with it a few minor benefits, one of which is the discovery, acquisition and storage of useless information. Yes, we bloggers are a noble and courageous bunch, and as self-appointed custodians of human culture we’re always in search of a higher purpose for all of the meaningless junk that has accumulated in our brains. So far, the only thing I’ve come up with is trivia games.

Needless to say, movie trivia games are pretty much the ultimate trivia experience for myself and the Film Junk crew, and we have indulged in more than a few heated matches of Trivial Pursuit and Scene It! in the past (most of which ended in shouting matches and/or fist fights). Last year, Scene It! even released an Xbox 360 version of the game that came packaged with 4 buzzer devices. This innovative idea blew my mind, until I found out that they actually ripped off the concept from another video game series that has existed for years on the Playstation 2.

Relentless Software have been doing the Buzz! series of games since 2004, and in that time have released Buzz! The Music Quiz, Buzz! The BIG Quiz and Buzz! The Mega Quiz (among others). Their latest release is Buzz!: The Hollywood Quiz, and let me just say that if you were a fan of Scene It! on the Xbox 360, this game trumps it on almost every level.

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One of the 2008 movies that I’m most looking forward to is premiering at Cannes this week, and that would be Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. We haven’t really been hearing much about it so far and in fact, I’m not even sure if it has a U.S. distributor yet, much less a release date. However, thanks to the Cannes website, there are three intriguing clips from the film now available online for your consumption and discussion.

It’s often difficult to fully grasp a Charlie Kaufman film even after you’ve seen the whole thing, so just watching a few short clips from this movie certainly leaves you with more questions than answers. Still, at the very least we get a glimpse of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the theatre director Caden Cotard (including an old version of the character in the third clip). From what I understand the movie is about this guy who is writing a play about everyday life, but slowly the play becomes reality for him. Either way it sounds like another one of Kaufman’s self-referential and multi-layered stories, with the difference being that he’s also behind the camera this time, in addition to writing the script. Check out the clips via the link below and see what you think.

Like a lot of people, I tend to knock director Uwe Boll despite the fact that I have yet to sit down and watch any of his movies from start to finish. I don’t think I’m out of line, as it seems a safe assumption that his movies are just as bad as everyone says they are. Personally I don’t have much interest in taking the time to double check, but that said, his upcoming movie Postal is the first one that I could actually see myself sitting through, just because it is intended primarily as a comedy and seems so outrageous that I am curious to see how far he pushes the envelope. Unfortunately, it looks like I may not get the chance to see this movie until it hits DVD, because the wide theatrical release that was planned for this weekend has just been scrapped!

Postal was originally supposed to open in 1500 theatres this Friday, but now will open in just 4, which is obviously a huge drop in support. The exact reasons remain unclear, but Boll’s explanation is that “theatrical distributors are boycotting Postal because of its political content”. I don’t know if I completely buy that, because Boll has been very clear from the start that one of the main goals of the movie is to offend people and stir things up. On the other hand, everyone should also have known way ahead of time that they were going up against the new Indiana Jones flick, so I don’t see them backing out at the last minute just because of that either. Is it a conspiracy against Boll? He seems to think so. He recently posted a long rant about the situation on the Postal website, and it’s totally worth reading. Here’s an excerpt:

“To all of you writing now about me and the fact that POSTAL is not getting screens.

its okay ..its fun kicking a guy nonstop who is on the ground

you are all not getting it that i’m the guy who made it against the big hollywood system and you are all only busy to destroy me and finish me up
and then you YOU WON WHAT ? the attention of the studios, michael bay .. ?????
if you damage me you feel closer to Hollywood ? what is your game plan?

you want only movies like JUMPER , SPEED RACER , WHAT HAPPENDS IN VEGAS …? then keep going and your dreams will be fullfilled. POSTAL makes some very important points ..but you dont wanna see that …. : that Bush used the SEPTEMBER 11 to start a war against a country what had nothing to do with Bin Laden etc…. but this all doesnt matter because you are all busy to THINK that INDIANA JONES or NARNIA are important movies … but in real they are empty shells of an industry what wants to make money and what wants to keep you looking “escape movies” with nothing in it.”

I love this guy, and you know, buried in among the bitterness I think there is a decent point to be made. If only he was promoting something other than a movie based on a video game where you can piss on corpses, maybe people would be a little more receptive to his crusade against Hollywood.

The major new release on DVD this week is National Treasure 2, coming out just in time to compete with the original adventure franchise, the far superior Indiana Jones series! Also out this week is the Happy Madison comedy Strange Wilderness, George A. Romero’s latest zombie film Diary of the Dead, and Justin Lin’s mockumentary on Bruce Lee’s final film Finishing The Game. A few interesting documentaries this week including one about an Australian surf gang called Bra Boys, and a mini-series from Brett Morgen (Chicago 10, The Kid Stays in the Picture) about a small-town high school basketball team called Nimrod Nation (note that Operation Homecoming: Stories from the Heart is a TLC special, and not related to the Oscar-nominated Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience as far as I know). All this plus the third season of The Muppet Show and Short Circuit on Blu-ray! How can you go wrong?

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (DVD, Blu-ray)
Diary of the Dead
Strange Wilderness
Finishing The Game
Night of the Living Dead: 40th Anniversary Edition
Hamburger Hill: 20th Anniversary Edition
Bra Boys
Operation Homecoming: Stories From The Heart
Park
Charles in Charge: The Complete Third Season
The Muppet Show: Season Three
Nimrod Nation: The Complete Series
Square Pegs: The Complete Series
Exes and Ohs: The Complete First Season
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!: The Fifth Season
JAG: The Sixth Season
The New Maverick (Pilot)
Anger Management (Blu-ray)
Bee Movie (Blu-ray)
Blades of Glory (Blu-ray)
Company (2007) (Blu-ray)
National Treasure (Blu-ray)
Short Circuit (Blu-ray)
V for Vendetta (Blu-ray)
WWE: Wrestlemania XXIV (Blu-ray)