Clint Eastwood As Jersey Boys Director?

The big rumor out there is that Clint Eastwood might direct the newest adaptation of Jersey Boys.  According to CinemaBlend.com:

          With Jon Favreau as director and a shift from Sony to Warner Bros., it looked like a fast track to  
          success, but then the film went into turnaround, and only the crickets’ songs could be heard. But
          sources are telling The Hollywood Reporter that Clint Eastwood is finally postponing his
          troubled A Star is Born remake on purpose, and that is in talks with Warner Bros. and GK Films
          to step in as direct. Without confirmation, this is of course still just a rumor, so if it turns out to be
          false, we don’t want anyone crying, big girls or otherwise.

I'm curious to see if Eastwood get's the job and if so, exactly how the finished film will be.  He's an awesome director, so I'm sure it will be a hit.

42

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a big sports fan.  So of course, I'm pumped for the new 42 movie that chronicles Jackie Robinson's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  This film looks like it's going to be really good and the screenshots I've seen really give the movie an old look.  The movie is set for an April 12th release and it's directed by Brian Helgeland.  While Brooklyn Dodgers hat logos look just like the Red Sox's, I know I'm going to enjoy this film.  I like the title of the film as well, mainly because it has a cool feel to it.  I hope the final product is enjoyable and factual!

Evil Dead Remake

Well, a remake of Evil Dead is coming out April 5th, which makes me want to discuss horror movie remakes.  I haven't been a fan of some horror movie remakes, including Rob Zombie's current Halloween flicks.  I usually feel that something is lost in the modernization of older films.  You just can't replicate the original Halloween, it's just wrong.  I hope the new Evil Dead does well and I hope they don't change too much from the original.  What do you guys think of remade horror films or remade films in general?

Olympus Has Fallen

 

So the new movie Olympus Has Fallen is out now and I'm wondering how it is.  The movie got a 50% rating from critics and a 79% rating from users, on rottentomatoes.com.  That's kind of how I expected the film to do.  The trailers and commercials looked cool, but I didn't know if the full version would stand up or not.  I don't always listen to film critics, so I would probably fall in the 79% rating.  It seems like Morgan Freeman is in every movie nowadays and I'll have to see how he is in this film.  The theme of Olympus Has Fallen is a bit fantastical for sure, but it's not entirely far fetched.  The theme certainly wouldn't be presented in the 1900's, that's for sure.  If anyone has seen it, let me know how it is!  I'll be checking it out soon enough too.

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Home Theater and 9.2 Surround Sound

As a tie-in with our chapter 9 readings in our text, I wanted to talk about home theaters and 9.2 surround sound.  Widescreen projectors and TVs are the norm now and home audio is continuing to get better and more advanced.  The new 9.2 surround sound setup is the wave of the future, but available now.  The "9" in 9.2 refers to the speakers only, not subwoofers.  The added two speakers of 9.2 channel are the upper front speakers.  The ".2" refers to two subwoofers.  The 9 speakers include two front (left and right) speakers, two upper left and right speakers (left and right) one center speaker, two side speakers (left and right), and two back speakers (left and right).  The back speakers can be at ear level but I believe they should be above ear level, and the side speakers should also be above ear level.  The new upper front speakers add a level of musical and special effect soundtrack depth to the front sound field.  I have 7.1 surround sound and I'm amazed at all the new technology that has come out over the last few years.  It seems like just yesterday I bought my reciever and now they have 9.2 ones out.  I find it amazing that many years ago color TV was the newest thing, now 3D is available for home use.  We have come a long way and it's only getting better.  The diagram below shows a 9.2 channel setup.

 

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The Departed...A Remake?

When I first saw The Departed, I had no idea it was a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong film, entitled, Infernal Affairs.  Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Infernal Affairs is a movie with a fun play-on-words title.  The literal Chinese meaning of Infernal Affairs is actually "Unceasing Path."  Director of The Departed, Martin Scorsese, along with the help of re-writer William Monahan, made the Chinese classic into an American classic.  I felt that this tied in perfectly with our foreign film sections in our text.  I've never seen Infernal Affairs, but The Departed is one of my favorite films of all time.  I was surprised to learn that the film was a remake, but Scorsese had a great idea to make this movie.  The Departed stands as one of the best adaptations/remakes in recent history.

Man of Steel

So I'm pretty pumped for this movie!  During The Dark Knight Rises an interesting trailer was shown, and, at first, I had no idea what film it was for.  Towards the middle I knew that this was a trailer for a new Superman movie.  The style of the trailer looked a lot like the style of the Batman movies by Christopher Nolan; dark, edgy, and more serious.  I'm excited to see a new adaptation of a classic super hero.  Already, I can tell that the Superman suit is much darker and more Spider-Man-like.  There is texture to the material and reminds me of Batman's suit in the Christopher Nolan trilogy.  Man of Steel also seems to follow Clark Kent from boyhood all the way up to his Superman days.  I loved the previous Batman television shows and films (with the exception of maybe one of them), and I feel that this movie will be awesome.  Check out the latest trailer below and let me know if any of you guys are excited for this film as well!

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Some of you may know this or not, but I'm a big Steve Carell and Jim Carrey fan.  Of course, I'm very excited for the new magician movie, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone movie, which puts Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as rival magicians to Jim Carrey's character.  The trailer for this film looks hilarious and I hope the movie is even better than the trailer and commercials.  I've loved Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, and Jim Carrey's movies in the past and I hope their roles are equal or better than their previous roles.  Anyone else excited for this film?  P.S.  The glass box in the air scene looks awesome!

Hollywood in Massachusetts

I've been excited about movie studios coming to Massachusetts for a while now.  My hopes were dashed when the creation of the film studios in Plymouth were put on hold, but now I've heard that it may be happening again.  I'm not sure on the exact current status of the studios being built here, but I think it's been long enough.  Also there were talks about a studio at Southfield in Weymouth.  Of course, traffic is going to one of the more annoying aspects of having movie studios here.  With all of the movies being filmed here recently, such as Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Here Comes the Boom, as well as, movies The Departed and The Town, I think it makes sense to have some movies studios here in MA.  What do you guys think?