Okay all you film makers out there, here’s your crack at the largest and most important genre film event in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

Fantastic Fest has just opened up submissions for the 2009 edition of the Austin based festival so get crackin’.  You’ll find all the details below the break.

Continue Reading "Here’s Your Shot At Fantastic Fest 2009!"...

Hostess Peaches Christ is thrilled to announce that a great, big, B-movie dream of hers is about to come true!  One night only on Wednesday, December 17th, at San Francisco’s Landmark Bridge Theatre, Peaches will present—not just once, but twice at 7:00PM and 9:40PM—a Midnight Mass produced stage-show featuring cult film icon and genre superstar Bruce Cambell live and in-person.  Peaches has been dying to honor Bruce Campbell—as she says “forEVER”—and is putting together this San Franciscan evening of Idol Worship, preceding the Bay Area premiere of Bruce Campbell’s directorial debut My Name Is Bruce.  Tickets are $10.50 and can be purchased here.

Synopsis for My Name Is Bruce: When the small mining town of Gold Lick, Oregon needs to rid itself of a vengeful monster, they kidnap actor Bruce Campbell—star of the Evil Dead trilogy, Bubba Ho-tep and countless B-movie horror films—and recruit him to be their local savior.  Mortified at first, Bruce eventually goes along with the plan, convinced that it’s all an elaborate birthday present from his agent (Ted Raimi).  But the scheme goes horribly wrong when their hero, known more for fighting directors than mythical warriors, haphazardly leads the town in battle against the beast.  Confronted by a monster that’s not a guy in a rubber suit, and with the blood of innocents on his hands, Bruce has to choose between the harsh reality of Gold Lick and the sanctity of his former, artificial life.  A horror comedy written by Mark Verheiden (Smallville, Battlestar Galactica), My Name Is Bruce co-stars Grace Thorsen and Taylor Sharpe.

This is a match made in heaven … well, maybe hell (as in hella fun)!  See you there!

Cross-published on The Evening Class.

What was tentatively titled Beggar Su is now called True Legend but the same legendary martial arts choreographer is still behind this project. Yuen Woo Ping, a man who can kill us all in his sleep, is bringing back the Wuxia in a big way. And now one of the few men I fear in this world has started his own production blog where he will occasionally chime in and share with us his thoughts about production and filming. Head on over to the film’s web-site for his first entry. After the break though you will find a gallery with costume designs and conceptual sketches. Be sure to watch the behind the scenes video on the site for a look at the costumes as well. The armor attached to the body is especially impressive. Adds new definition to ‘body armor’.

Zhao Wen Zhuo is starring as the eponymous folk hero Su Qi Er. Zhou Xun plays Su Qi-er’s wife Yuan Ying, while Michelle Yeoh, who has just finished her part in the film, cameos as a recluse swordswoman Sister Yu, who is Su Qi-er’s saviour. In possibly another cameo role, Jay Chow will be joining the production later as a peerless martial arts master who imparts his skills to Su Qi-er.

Beggar Su also marks Yuen Wo Ping’s first film as a director in almost a decade and the first time he ever works with Zhao Wen Zhuo. Yuen Wo Ping is also paying tribute to his late father Yuen Siu Tin, who had portrayed Su Qi-er in a few films, through this production.

In the first half of the film, Su Qi Er faces persecution and gets badly beaten up, leaving his right arm maimed while being reduced to begging, undergoing the lowest points and most painful moments in his life. Su Qi-er’s romantic interest deserts him while his stout and kind-hearted wife Yuan Ying remains faithfully by his side. Being preoccupied with vengeance, Su Qi Er runs amok while training too hard in martial arts. During this sharp change of his fate, Su Qi-er’s personality changes drastically too, providing a good challenge to Zhao Wen Zhuo acting skills.

Find the gallery after the jump.

Anxious to see this one?  Well, yes, more than a little bit.  The Good Heart is the English language debut from Dagur Kari, who has previously shot much loved films in both Icelandic (Noi Albinoi) and Danish (Dark Horse).  Here’s the skinny:

Lucas is a good-hearted young man who has come to an existential dead-end. He is homeless, living in a cardboard box under the Brooklyn Bridge. With a total lack of prospects for the future, Lucas tries to commit suicide, but the attempt is a failure like everything else in his life.

Recuperating in hospital, Lucas is forced to share a room with Jacques, a grouchy, cynical bar-owner whose choleric demeanour and less-than-healthy lifestyle have resulted in no fewer than five heart attacks. With no family or friends and a risk of passing away any day, Jacques takes Lucas under his battered wing with the intention of passing on his idiosyncratic legacy.

Lucas begins a hectic learning process: he has to learn to make the perfect espresso and to adopt Jacques’ many bizarre philosophies.

Paul Dano and Brian Cox star.  We’ve run six photos from the film previously but we’ve just landed a seventh and you can check them all out at the link below.

Twitch readers in the United Kingdom should be pleased (hopefully) about the following news. Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain and co-founder of Midnight Eye web site, will present a special lecture entitled The History and Development of Japanese Pink Film at the Japan Foundation in London. The lecture will occur on December 3, 2008 at 6:30 pm. The event is a part of the British Film Institute’s Wild Japan film series, which commences on December 1st. The program of 35mm ultra-rare screenings includes such titles as In the Realm of the Senses, Blue Film Woman, Gushing Prayer (represented by the still image at the left), Watcher in the Attic and Woods are Wet. Interested viewers should note that Blue Film Woman and Gushing Prayer are being screened from newly struck 35mm English-subtitled prints. Until the September 2008 screenings at Fantastic Fest, neither film had screened outside of Japan since they were released in the late 60s-early 70s. 

Sure, everybody in the SF world is going to be talking Trek for the next little while but just because the big boys are out playing doesn’t mean the little guys aren’t having a good time, too.

Our thanks go out to Captain Awesome for living up to his name tonight and sending along a link to the first stills from Hunter Prey, along with an interview with its creator, Sandy Collora.  Think that name sounds familiar?  That’d be because Collora is the man behind Batman: Dead End, arguably the best fan film ever made, with Hunter Prey standing as his first foray into the fiction world.  You’d be forgiven for thinking Boba Fett from those armor designs but, no, this is an original story and original concept cooked up by Collora and hsi writing collaborator Nick Damon.

I know, I know ... I shouldn’t make fun of those who don’t speak English as a first language but it’s hard sometimes and the tag lines on the English poster for upcoming Thai action flick Fireball made me giggle.  But, trust me, if all this film had going for it was a goofy tagline there’s no way I’d be posting about it.

The new film by the director of Opapatika - a flawed but fascinating bit of work - Fireball is the stuff of instant cult hits:  a full contact combat sports movie fusing all out muay thai action with - of all things - basketball.  Yes, it’s a goofy premise but they’re going for it and while there is not yet a trailer that they’re willing to show in public for this yet there is a sales reel that I’ve managed to see and it looks like a crazy good time, a bone crunching blood sport that pushes its premise as far as it possibly can.

So, no trailer but I do have the brand new posters - both Thai and English versions - and a quintet of stills to share.  Hit the link below for those.

My thanks got out to long time regular Twitch reader Glenn for pointing out that Chinese website Crienglish is reporting that Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung - best known in these parts for her frequent collaborations with Wong Kar Wai - will have a minor role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards.  Now, while I’ve generally been trying to stay clear of Bastards rumors and things - yes, there are a few set pictures of Brad Pitt and Daniel Bruehl out there if you go looking for them, no I’m not posting them - this is a pretty intriguing story.

Cheung is one of Hong Kong’s most respected actresses and has been out of the limelight for a good while.  I’m not sure where you would put her in to this sort of film but I’m sure if Tarantino thought he could get her - he’s an outspoken fan, having released some wkw titles on his Rolling Thunder label back in the day and used his clout to get the Weisteins to release Hero, which she has a major role in - that he would create a spot for her.  Why label it a rumor, then?  Well, Crienglish is arguably even less reliable than a trashy UK tabloid when it comes to fact checking and will run absolutely anything so I wouldn’t consider this one money in the bank until confirmed by more reliable sources.

[Updated with a clip from the farewell episode included below the break.]

It’s the end of what has become an unlikely Canadian icon:  responding to multiple rumours and repeated questioning about the future of Canuck cult hit The Trailer Park Boys creator Mike Clattenburg says this on the blog of Canadian broadcaster - and producers - Showcase:

“We have a final one hour television special, “Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys”, which goes to air on Showcase on Sunday, December 7, 2008.  Then after that, our sequel movie, “Countdown To Liqour Day” (working title), is due to be released in Canadian theatres in October, 2009. But, after that, there will be no more.”

It’s the end of the Trailer Park.  We’ll miss it.

Continue Reading "Why Is This Man Sad?  The End Is Near For Canada’s TRAILER PARK BOYS. *UPDATED*"...

After enduring a seemingly insurmountable wave of bad publicity following star-director Tony Jaa’s disappearance from the set of Ong Bak 2 a little while back things are finally looking up for the troubled production.  How so?  Well, all signs are that the film will indeed be ready to meet its December release date, a date that has just been shifted one day to fall on the King’s birthday, which is considered a very auspicious day in Thailand.  So that’s kind of nice.  A little nicer?  Well, take a look at the brand new poster to the left of this.  That guy flying towards Tony with both knees pointed at Tony’s face?  That’s Dan Chupong, star of Born To Fight and Dynamite Warrior and the number two star at Sahamongkol after Tony himself. 

Now, if you’re thinking “Waitaminute, if Dan’s in this film why haven’t we heard about it before now?” then, well, there’s a very simple answer to that.  Dan wasn’t supposed to be in the film, at least not until Jaa’s mentor Panna Rittikrai took over the directorial reins a couple months back.  Suddenly a new character appears and that character is being played by Dan Chupong.  Why create a new character for a film that was already eighty percent complete at the time?  Can anybody say sequel?  Yep, the rumors are flying that a sequel has already been greenlit, that the massive standing set created for Ong Bak 2 will be reused for that film - a very simple way for the producers to cover the cost over runs brought on by Tony’s running off into the jungle - and that Jaa and Chupong have both already signed on.

Now ... if you’d told me this would happen a couple months ago I probably wouldn’t have believed you.  At the time I frankly believed that Jaa had damaged his career beyond repair but now I find this sequel talk entirely plausible.  Why?  Because when I wandered into the Sahamongkol office at AFM I put the question of Tony’s future directly to them and while they didn’t mention this specifically the response was to simply smile and say “Oh, I think he’ll be okay.” Clearly they knew something I didn’t.

Put a smile on your martial-arts loving face by checking out the bone crunching Ong Bak 2 promo reel in the Twitch Player below the break.  It’s even subtitled for your viewing pleasure.

Continue Reading "Who’s That Guy In The New ONG BAK 2 Poster?  It’s Dan Chupong, That’s Who!"...

A trailer would be better but, oh, it does my heart good to post these: the first two images to be released from upcoming French spy comedy OSS 117: Rio Ne Repond Plus.  The second film in a revival of a French series that spanned the 60s and 70s - my glowing review of the first revival picture is here - Rio Ne Repond Plus brings back brilliant French comedian Jean Dujardin as the archetypal 1960s spy and ladies man and the promo that screened at AFM made it very clear that this picture is in no way a step back from the previous.

The appeal of the OSS films is a little hard to explain but I’ll take a stab at it.  First of all the films are a brilliant, absolutely note perfect recreation of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  From film stock to set design to wardrobe and physical mannerisms everything about these pictures is absolutely flawless.  You could very easily be watching an actual lost film from that era and on a technical level that is a fairly astounding feat.  But more than that it is the character as embodied by Dujardin.  Our hero in these films is both a brilliant spy and total buffoon, a man so secure in his belief in the male dominated world view of the 1950s - to say nothing of his own superiority over everything and everyone around him - that he is completely, utterly, blissfully unaware that the world is changing around him and that he is increasingly out of step with reality.  Somehow these films avoid slapstick and parody and end up with unusually good natured satire.  These are just clever, charming, crowd pleasing bits of work.

With the release of this one coming in April more materials - hopefully including a trailer - should be arriving on the scene soon but in the meantime hit the link below for a larger version of the poster plus the first proper still.

To say that Abel Ferry’s Ferrata has been flying beneath the radar is a bit of an understatement.  Despite being a fan of his short films, despite having written about him in the past on Twitch, I quite simply had no clue that this film was even in development, never mind being most of the way through production.  How quiet has this been kept?  So quiet it’s not even listed on the IMDB yet, but while at the AFM I quite literally stumbled across the sales promo for it and pretty much just stared in shock at what I was seeing.  Yes, the footage looks very, very good.

The film is starts off as a man versus nature adventure picture, the story of a group of young mountain climbers who foolishly decide to take a route that has been long closed for safety reasons.  This sort of foolish behavior is the classic starting point for survival film and is more than enough to drive the narrative forward but Ferry’s got a little more up his sleeve.  Before long the climbers realize that fraying cables and weak bridges may not be the only dangers up on the mountain, that they are in fact being hunted and then things get bloody and vicious and violent.

I’m hoping to have a trailer to share before too long but in the mean time we have just been passed the very first image to be released from the picture, a behind the scenes shot of cast and crew working on location in somewhat treacherous conditions.  Safe to say that this one should be a little better than Cliffhanger ... sorry Sly, your mountain dominance is at an end.

Sion Sono’s latest film Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi) is scheduled for special screenings at Tokyo Filmex later in the month. The Tokyo Filmex program describes the film as an “epic love story,” about a young man who “devotes himself to wrongdoing and becomes a legend of sneak photography” after confessing his sins to his priest father. After meeting a young girl, he becomes involved in a religious cult. This description, combined with the film’s 237 minute running time, indicates that something very strange is a foot. This suspicion is backed up by the film’s new trailer (Japanese language), which lies beneath the fold.

Continue Reading "New Trailer for Sion Sono’s LOVE EXPOSURE"...

With Mad Detective - a reunion of sorts for once inseperable duo of actor Lau Ching Wan and director Johnnie To after a few years apart - proving to be one of the most successful films in either of their careers it seemed inevitable that the pair would work together again at some point but with To currently preparing for his big English language debut - a remake of Melville’s The Red Circle - it seemed as though we’d probably have to wait a couple of years for that to happen.

Wrong.

A couple months back word got out that To and Lau had been spotted shooting something together but while it was confirmed that, yes, this was another feature project that Johnnie was at least starting before Red Circle - it may very well have to be finished afterwards - everyone was very tight-lipped beyond that.  Well, no more.

The film is titled Death of a Hostage and it stars Lau as a retired triad hitman forced back into the business by a vengeful mob boss who wants him to kill off everyone responsible for attempting to kidnap his daughter.  Needless to say, things get a little bit complicated.

The first sales art for the film has just been released and we’ve got a much larger version available at the link below.

Hong Kong director Soi Cheang won a lot of fans in these parts with 2006’s Dog Bite Dog, a bleak and brutal film that would have marked a major career turning point for star Edison Chen had he not subsequently destroyed said career with the now infamous leaked sex-photo incident.  The director followed that up with the less successful Shamo - equally bleak but not nearly as emotionally involving - and we’ve been anxious to see what would come next for Cheang.

Well, what came next was initially announced as Assassin, a film that would mark a return to the fold of sorts for the director, who started his career working as Johnnie To’s AD and would shoot this one under To’s Milkyway banner with To himself on board as a producer.  Well, the film has since been retitled Accident and the first artwork from the picture was unveiled by distributors Media Asia at the American Film Market. 

The film tells the story of “The Brain”, a professional hit man who kills his victims by trapping them in elaborately staged ‘accidents’.  He’s good at his job but it plays on his natural tendencies towards guilt and paranoia, paranoia that leaps to the forefront when a botched kill takes the life of one of his own team members and The Brain becomes convinced that someone is using his own methods to eliminate him and his entire team.  Richie Jen, Louis Koo and Lam Suet star.