Fred Topel's Blog

Posted by Fred Topel

At first it seemed like doing a sequel a year would create diminishing returns. But the Saw franchise has proven it can work in a rush. Saw III proved successful at the box office so they're not making any haste on Saw IV.

No other details are available yet, like even whether the original writers and actors will participate. Seems that prequels could happen, or a copycat Jigsaw carrying on the mantle. As far as I'm concerned, they did an awesome trilogy, so now if they just want to do some knock-off trap-fests, I'm cool with it. If they can blow our minds a fourth time... wow.

Posted by Fred Topel

Hugh Jackman has six movies coming out this year but the one fans most eagerly anticipate is Wolverine, the origin story of his X-Men character. While promoting his current batch, Jackman teased the script for Wolverine.

“We just now have a final script, final draft from David Benioff which I absolutely love and I know the fans are going to go crazy for it,” said Jackman. “Benioff is an amazing writer. Spielberg and everyone are after him. He was beating down our door to make this movie because he is the most passionate Wolverine fan. He’s followed him since he was nine, so it’s one of those rare combinations where you have a writer who all these Oscar-winning directors are wanting to write, and he’s like, [growling] ‘I want to do Wolverine.’ So he’s written a script which for me is the most superior of them all, and now we have to find a director which we’re looking for now. I’ve got a couple movies coming out so if I see you guys maybe in about a month, I might be able to let you know.”

Giving Wolverine his own movie will keep Jackman away from the X-Men for a while, but even with the Wolverine movie, other mutants might cross Wolvy’s path.

“In the near future, I think the plan is to do the Wolverine movie. I don't know what the future is for that franchise. I’m almost sure there’s no more X-men movies. I have heard talk about a movie about the younger X-men, a more kid orientated thing which I might play a small part in. I’ve heard a story about a Magneto spin-off as well but honestly, I’ve probably heard what you’ve heard. I’ve heard nothing official. But I do know that we’re going to make the Wolverine movie.”

Most actors don’t play the same character four times. What keeps Jackman coming back to Wolverine? “To me, he’s one of the great screen archetypes. He’s like, when I was growing up, Han Solo and Mad Max, Dirty Harry. These were all the kind of roles I loves. And that’s what Wolverine is. He’s that reluctant hero. He is a good guy but he’s not a nice guy. I think we all love that character. He’s the guy you want on your side, but at the same time, there’s no B.S. about him.”

Posted by Fred Topel

Rogue Pictures announced today that thriller master Wes Craven is writing a new psychological thriller for the division of Focus Features. The only details revealed are that it is set in a small town and based on Craven's own concept.

Craven formed Midnight Entertainment to produce films for himself and other filmmakers, and this collaboration with Rogue marks the beginning of a two-year first look deal with the studio. However, Craven's own projects are separate from the first-look deal.

This sounds like good news. Craven writing his own films have turned out classics like <I>Nightmare on Elm Street</I>, my personal favorite <I>The People Under the Stairs</I> and the fun <I>Shocker</I>. Perhaps he has another new social observation with which he'll torment us on film.

Posted by Fred Topel

Once we all got over the mourning of the fact that Jason Lee would never play Fletch, I think most of us got on board with the notion of Zach Braff. Then Kevin Smith suddenly departed the project.

Now, with the Weinstein Company's announcement that Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence is writing the script to Fletch Won for his own directorial debut, Braff seems like a given again.

"I am interested," said Braff. "There's not a person more perfect to do Fletch than Bill. He grew up reading the books. It's one of his favorite movies of all time. There was debate with other directors and with Harvey about whether to go back to the books totally which really don't have any of that broad comedy stuff in them, or to do something in between which was find some of the humor in the broadness of some of the Chevy Chase stuff while at the same time being faithful to the way the books were. So I think Bill is going to do a great job of that. In terms of my involvement, I don't know. I'm not signed on to do it yet but it's definitely something I'm intrigued with."

Braff also became friendly with Smith, but doubts any of that work will remain in the project. "I think Bill will probably start from scratch. That'd be my guess, knowing Bill."

Posted by Fred Topel

Quentin Tarantino already blew our minds when he announced he cast Kurt Russell as the killer in his half of Grindhouse, the serial killer thriller Death Proof. Now the Weinstein Company announces more.

Michael Bacall, Eli Roth and Omar Doom have joined the cast. Omar's name made him a given. Roth is such a personality already that it makes sense for him to join the Tarantino acting club.

Anyone who saw Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse footage at Comic-Con knows that Tarantino already has a lot to live up to. The double feature is still promised to April 6, 2007.

Posted by Fred Topel

When someone lives their life on the edge for so long, the people around them get used to the idea of immortality. So it was surely a surprise to Steve Irwin's family and loyal crew that a routine expedition turned out to be his last.

A stingray penetrated Irwin's heart, killing him instantly. We salute the adventures of Steve Irwin and send our sympathies to those close to him.

Posted by Fred Topel

Well, the Die Hard franchise has done it again. It wasn't enough to turn sequel subtitles on their head with Die Harder. It wasn't enough to go outside the box with Die Hard with a Vengeance. Now they've got Live Free or Die Hard.

Bravo, Die Hard people. I hope the movie lives up to the name.

Posted by Fred Topel

Jeff Anderson didn't want to make Clerks II. He'd only done Clerks as a favor and it was sometimes hard to get him for cameos in subsequent Kevin Smith movies. When Smith came up with the sequel idea, he had to make sure he could count on Anderson again.

"Clerks didn't seem to me a movie that was craving for a sequel," Anderson said. "At the time I think Kevin came to me, it was on the heels of Jersey Girl, I think Jersey Girl still might have been in theatres. He got fairly beat up for Jersey Girl, the reviews and stuff, and I sort of questioned his motives for coming back to it. I thought he was done with those movies. And I think a large part of the success of Clerks is the back story to it. It's the low budget, it was the black and white look, a camera sitting on a tripod and us talking, and how do you replicate that? I just thought it's ten or twelve years since we had done Clerks, I still get fan mail sent to me, and I just didn't want to screw that up, I didn't want to leave a bad taste in people's mouths."

Even after he read the script and saw that Smith was actually making a statement and maintaining his level of humor, Anderson wasn't comfortable for the beginning of filming. Finally, after four days, Smith had enough completed footage to edit some scenes together.

"Literally the first day driving to the set I was in a full panic, sweaty mode. About the fourth day into it I showed up to the set and I went up to the room and Kevin came out, and his hair was all messed up, and he looked crazed. I was like, 'Oh my God, he finally realized we shouldn't do this,' and he was like, 'No, I've been up all night editing, come see what I've done.' And I went in and I watched the first day of filming, which was Brian and Rosario's stuff, it was a scene that I'm in but I just sort of pop in and pop out, so I really didn't watch them film the scene because they were in another room, and in watching the footage together I just really got into it."

Randall's hat became a famous character trait in Clerks, so for Clerks II they had to carefully choose his headwear. "That's when I knew we were dealing with a different animal. It was like in Clerks I, the original, when we were doing it I knew it was supposed to take place all in one day, and I didn't want to have to worry about my hair change or anything, so I was like, 'Kip, can I wear a hat?' He was like, 'Put it on. Okay, you can wear the hat.' This one I had to come over to his house, and there were like 12 hats laid out on his pool table, and there was like hair and makeup girls there. It never occurred to me that I had to consult people about my looks, I went and got a haircut and came in for a reading, and Kevin was like, 'What did you do?' 'I got a haircut.' So they had to attach hair to the hat. It was the smartest thing I ever did, because I'd get to the set in the morning and it was like hair and makeup, okay let's go. "

Despite their consistent dynamic in Clerks's various incarnations over the year, Jeff Anderson does not usually hang out with Brian O'Halloran. "It's the most surprising thing, other than the fact that I know nothing about Star Wars, the fact that I'm not Brian's best friend is the most surprising thing to people. He lives in New Jersey still, I've moved out here and have lived out here for about 10 years, so we really only see each other on this sort of Clerks type stuff."

Anderson's passion is filmmaking, and he is awaiting the release of his first feature. "I wrote and directed a movie called Now You Know that Trevor Fehrman was actually in, that's where Kevin saw Trevor. The Weinstein Company is going to put it out straight to DVD along side of Clerks II I imagine, and I just finished writing another script and hope to direct that."

Posted by Fred Topel

Landing on the wrong island isn't really funny. It's just a mistake. It establishes the plot that he's a f*** up, but it's not a joke.

Michael Douglas's toast isn't funny. Owen Wilson laughing at it isn't funny.

The Best Man patch that says BM with a lightning bolt isn't funny.

Dipping hot wings in milk is kind of funny but only if other things are funny and they're not.

Carrying around a moose head isn't funny.

Seeing Owen's ass isn't that funny.

Clogging the toilet definitely isn't funny.

Ordering HBO is presumptuous, not funny.

Changing the outgoing voice mail message would be funny if it were a cute message, but it's not.

Falling off skateboards isn't funny. What did you think, they'd be Tony Hawk?

Running through the office throwing things at the security guard is not funny.

Posted by Fred Topel

Kevin Smith wrote a Superman Lives script that never got made. Once Bryan Singer finally got Superman Returns going, Smith told a Wondercon audience he was looking forward to a gay Superman. Now that it's finally here, Smith shared his disappointment.

"It's not gay," Smith said. "I made a gayer movie than Bryan Singer. Like Clerks II to me is a very gay movie, maybe the gayest movie ever made by a straight man right down to the musical sequence. It wasn't very gay at all. I was kind of disappointed in it's lack of gayness."

Of course, he kept his real opinion on the non-Smith-written Superman film vague. "You know, how does one put this? I'm just happy that there was any Superman movie.

Contribute to the gay Superman discussion.

Posted by Fred Topel

Owen Wilson may have become typecast as the lovable whiny wisecracker in comedies. After this summer's You, Me and Dupree, Wilson is hoping for a change of pace, perhaps playing a movie villain. "I think it would be fun to play," Wilson said. "I saw Robin Williams in this movie Insomnia. He's like a killer. I was like, 'What is Mork doing? This isn't right.' I would like to do that also but I wonder if people would have a problem with it. Behind Enemy Lines isn't, obviously, a comedy. I think that I could probably pull something off like that if given the chance."

Wilson fans may remember that he played a serial killer in the indie drama The Minus Man. "Yeah, I did play a serial killer, he says excitedly and laughing. Hampton Fancher and I had a great time working with Hampton. He wrote Blade Runner. That's actually the only part that I've ever gotten from auditioning so, I don't know, maybe I was able to tap into my inner psycho I guess to play that part."

Now that he's so well known for comedy, Wilson will have to actively pursue alternative roles. "I would definitely like to do a movie where the burden wasn't on that you had to get big laughs in set pieces. I think it would be nice to do a movie that had funny stuff but it was more sort of from the characters. I loved that movie Sideways. That has really funny stuff but it has a lot of emotional stuff. I think Wes and I tried to do that in some of the scripts that we worked on. I can't imagine ever doing a straight, serious movie that didn't have anything funny in it because I don't think that life is ever really like that. Even in Raging Bull the scenes between DiNiro and Joe Pesci, some of those are hilarious."

Posted by Fred Topel

Movies like Click have always been my favorite since childhood, these fantasy ideas milked for comedy in a modern context. Mr. Destiny meant more to me than It's a Wonderful Life because it was about sports and sex and taking control during the fantasy. Memoirs of an Invisible Man spoke to me about all the real problems such a superpower would bring. More recently, Frequency used time traveling radios to mess with things and save a dysfunctional family.

Click is one of those movies. It sure milks every gag out of the remote control that controls the universe, but it goes to some dark places and achieves the full spectrum of emotions, all the while delivering puerile Adam Sandler shenanigans.

The best Adam Sandler movies have been a little bit dark, with brutality towards small children and random deaths. When he's too nice, it's not funny. Click has a healthy share of child-bashing, with Sandler screaming and swearing, even making a little Asian kid cry.

That's dark comedy, but Click goes to the dark emotional places too. I appreciate a comedy that can force you to think without losing momentum. It gives the jokes more edge because there's something real at stake.

While getting there, Click satirizes all aspects of remote control culture, even into the DVD world. The visual effects make it all work creating an awkward surreal world of live action interacting with manipulated images.

Sandler fans will appreciate all the references to his whole world of film. The O'Doyle family lives next door, semi-regulars Henry Winkler, Sean Astin and Nick Swarsdon show up.

Posted by Fred Topel

Superman Returns is indeed a return to the classic comic book film. The connections to the original series are subtle and wonderful. It's full of great gags, like the film is saying, "Yeah, we're Superman." Now they can put him anywhere and let him do anything. The film relishes the setup of outlandish peril. It's a beautiful film to watch and it's funny too.

Posted by Fred Topel

I would have thought after last year's Constantine opened to $30 million, and the fact that they've put out two DVDs and an HD-DVD of it, a sequel was a sure thing. Not so, says star Keanu Reeves.

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"It's kind of in the air," Reeves said. "Maybe. I'd love to, but I don't know if the producers would want to do it."

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If DVDs are still selling, what's stopping the producers? "Hey. It's a long story. We've got to figure it out."

Posted by Fred Topel

Now that Jon Favreau has been announced as the director of Marvel's Iron Man, it would seem that John Carter of Mars will once again fall into development hell. "I really want to do John Carter of Mars," Favreau said. "I was developing that thing for six months. Ultimately, I think the timing was bad at Paramount because as they said yes to J.J. Abrams doing the Star Trek stuff, they said no to the John Carter science fiction project."

With Iron Man set to begin filming in January for a 2008 release, Favreau hopes there will be time to leverage John Carter of Mars back into play. "I'm hoping that if this Iron Man goes well over there at Paramount, it might get them on a little more ambitious with the chances that they're willing to take on material. If they believe in me and they want Iron Man 2, maybe they'll do John Carter because it's a project they've been trying to make. It's been a very long time with dozens of directors but I really want to try to hang in there and get that thing done. We have a great script and great artwork."

Posted by Fred Topel

The Weinstein Company of all Hollywood studios made the surprise announcement that they have acquired the rights to TV's Knight Rider for film. Something tells me this will go under their Dimension label.

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The Weinsteins bought the rights from series creator Glen A. Larson, who will write the movie script and executive produce. No word on the casting of Michael Knight or whether or not the original KITT voice will be used.

Posted by Fred Topel

The Rembrandts music video is a cool novelty. You get to hear the song done with modern instruments. But this is the band of the Friends theme. Maybe it fits the cheesy tone of the song, but I would rather here some real rockers cover it.

The actual featurette on the music of the show does the music more justice. They profile the original songwriter and then explain what the Rembrandts were doing.

The unedited performance of Bernie Hoffer singing and playing the theme song is the best. It's pure '80s synth and he gives it great energy belting it out through graying hair and wrinkles.

Posted by Fred Topel

With HD-DVD and Blu Ray hitting the market, you don't have to worry about investing thousands more dollars in new players. Regular DVD players with HDMI outputs now do such a good job with the line doubling that you can enjoy your whole collection on your new HDTV.

I'm using a Toshiba DVD player that sells for $100 and I've been enjoying new releases on the JVC HD-56G786. With 56 inches of HDMI goodness, I've been seeing more color than I ever did on a Sony Wega, and even the sound blows away my clunky Dolby Digital setup. This model is only 720p, so if DVDs look this good, imagine how awesome they look on a full 1080p.

I thought Aeon Flux would be a perfect DVD to demo the JVC's range of colors, and indeed the pseudo-utopia scenes are glorious. You'll see minute detail in the white concrete cell walls but most of the movie's locations are muddy. Particularly disappointing was the razor grass.

Aeon's pure black hair and costume looks sleek and shiny, though her definition gets blurry in some of the wide shots. The best scenes to demo in Aeon Flux are the more intimate ones. A glowing orange bedroom scene has more color than most of the nature shots. And you can see all the wrinkles and stubble in everyone's close-ups, except for the perfect Charlize Theron who has no such flaws.

There are some nice sound effects for the JVC's Dolby Digital speaker. You may be distracted from the less than stellar grass as the sounds of darts whiz by creating a full sound from a single front speaker.

Posted by Fred Topel

Wolfgang Petersen was attached to direct World's Finest: Batman Vs. Superman before he made Troy and that's the last I heard of the project. Now Batman Begins and Superman Returns are done, and he's thinking Ender's Game is next, so will Petersen ever do World's Finest?

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Petersen said, "Since now Warner Brothers is establishing Superman again, the question I heard last time and I said, 'Well, I love the concept very much. It might happen but it might also happen when I'm 85.' So who knows because they have to first get their Superman going."

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But don't worry, Petersen would still make a World's Finest: Batman Vs. Superman movie as an octogenarian. "Absolutely."