With the Oscars now gone, one of the next big events in the film season is the The Cannes Film Festival, and to open it this year, they’ve gone for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe. Cannes has a history of picking big headline grabbing movies to open the festival, even if the film in question can be a bit hit and miss (e.g. 2009 – the wonderful ‘UP‘. 2006 – the less than wonderful ‘Da Vinci Code‘…)

Still, that doesn’t stop a long line of the non opening film-makers using everything in their toybox to pull the media attention back to them. The tradition goes as far back as 1953 when Brigitte Bardot started a whole new swimwear trend by turning up to a photoshoot wearing just a bikini in 1959 to promote her latest flick. Thankfully Sacha Baron Cohen’s lime green mankini to promote ‘Borat‘ in 2007 didn’t have the same effect… Over the years there’s been a number of weird and wonderful promo’s. From actor/producer Jacques D’Azur rolling up to the premiere of ‘Les Quatre Cents Coups‘ with a group of natives from the Yamamena tribe in tow in 1959, to Disney turning Cannes into a winter wonderland to promote ‘A Christmas Carol‘ in 2009. Anything goes when your trying to grab headlines.

We’ll just have to see what Cannes 2010 brings…

Hopefully no more mankinis…

Ultramarines - Warhammer 40k movie!

Hot on the heels of the announcement that this years E3 could have some Warhammer 40k space marine action in the form of a W40k MMO, I get tweeted about Ultramarines, a Warhammer 40k CGI animated movie! (The tweet appeared to come straight from Sean Pertwee, but his account is not verified, so I won’t post a link to it, just in case it’s not him… if it is though – Hi Sean! )

Ultramarines is being written by best-selling author Dan Abnett. Although Dan is probably best know for his million+ selling Warhammer fantasy and 40k novels, he was also responsible for relaunching Legion of Super-Heroes for DC, created Sinister Dexter for 2000AD, and a bunch of work for Marvel, and has written his own original fiction.

Ultramarines Movie

The movie also has an impressive cast list, including Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and the aforementioned Sean Pertwee (who’s also starring in the awesome looking Slingers project.)

Other key roles are being played by Donald Sumpter (most recently seen as  Being Human’s nasty priest Kemp), Steven Waddington (Duke of Buckingham – The Tudors, Sleepy Hollow), Johnny Harris (Dorian Gray, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Ben Bishop, Christopher Finney, and Gary Martin.

Vanessa Chapman, managing director of the production company, Codex Pictures, is delighted to have attracted such a prestigious cast to Ultramarines. “Our goal has been to give the characters distinctive and authoritative voices, fitting to these superhuman men of war,” she says. “Coupled with the authentic and engaging facial capture provided by Image Metrics, these outstanding actors are going to do so much to bring the Warhammer 40,000 universe powerfully to life on screen.”

For more info, have a look at ultramarinesthemovie.com

New Iron Man 2 trailer is out. More Whiplash. More Sam Rockwell (which is always a good thing), and more Iron Man suits! Looking like it’s going to be a great sequel!

Just been sent a few updates on the soon to be released remake of Clash Of The Titans, based on the Greek myth of Perseus. It’ll be getting it’s World Premiere in London on 25th March, with a general release on 2nd April 2010.

“In CLASH OF THE TITANS the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods.  But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world.  Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld.  With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.  Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds.  Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.”

Clash Of The Titans Photos

Andrew Koenig

As many of you will have heard, after having been missing for 2 week, the body of Andrew Koenig, son of Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov in Star Trek), was recently found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Sadly, it appears that he took his own life having been suffering from depression.

When twitter first starting going into overdrive with tweets of his disappearance, the name Andrew Koenig sounded familiar, so I did a bit of googling, and realised where I’d first heard it. Sandy Collora’s brilliant 2003 fan film ‘Batman: Dead End‘, where Andrew put in a superb performance as Joker. As much as i loved Ledger and Nicholson’s versions of Joker in the movie versions, Andrew’s portrayal in Dead End is, by far, the truest to the actual comic books.

Batman: Dead End was made for $30,000, and shot in 4 days on 35mm as a director’s demonstration reel for Collora. He followed it up in 2004 with ‘World’s Finest‘, using most of the same cast and crew.

Batman: Dead End pre-dates Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ by 2 years, and at the time, the last thing we’d seen of Batman on screen was Clooney and O’Donnell haming it up in ‘Batman & Robin’. Collora was the first person to give us a gimse of the tone the movie franchise should have been taking.

Click the clip below to see Batman: Dead End in full.

World Premiere of Alice in Wonderland

Last night Geektown reporter Sam dug out her glad rags and headed to Leicester Square to attend Sky 3D/Sky Movies HD and Walt Disney’s Royal Premiere of Tim Burton’s newest fantastical creation, Alice in Wonderland.

World Premiere of Alice in Wonderland

Walking the green carpet with the stars of the film surrounded by giant topiary animals and screaming fans with bunny ears and painted faces definitely set the scene for the weird and wonderful world ahead. Of course, being England, umbrellas were an essential part of the outfit, but despite the foul weather, the glamorous cast made huge efforts to meet and greet fans, Johnny Depp in particular spending almost an hour standing in the rain signing autographs. He is lovely isn’t he (I was slightly concerned we’d just get 100s of photos of Johnny Depp back from Sam, but she managed to restrain herself – Dave ).

Once inside and away from the glitz and soggy paparazzi, the audience watched Alex Zane interview the cast from the warmth of their seats before viewing a short documentary on the work of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & The Arts. Attended by Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, the event was in aid of the charity with two thirds of proceedings being donated. The Royal Party, arriving last, were welcomed by important film bods and chatted to Tim Burton and the cast before being presented gifts by Burton and Boham-Carter’s children. They entered the cinema to the sound of trumpets and God Save the Queen before Tim Burton himself introduced the film and its key cast members on stage. Finally, buzzing the with excitement, we donned our 3D specs and the film began…

Review of Alice in Wonderland

Of course, being Burton, you can not expect a straight retelling of the original Lewis Carroll story. In fact, it is more of a sequel seeing Alice, now 19, return to Wonderland with only a faint recollection of her previous adventures down the rabbit hole.

Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska) escapes an unwanted marriage proposal by following a strange white rabbit and is once more plunged into a fantastically eccentric world of spectacular creatures. Growing up believing that her dreams of blue caterpillars and vanishing cats were just that, she does not remember anything she learnt on her last visit, leading the inhabitants of Underland, as it is correctly called, to excuse her of being the wrong Alice. She is quickly reunited with old friends like Dormouse and Tweedledum and Tweedledee and starts a journey that she is told will lead her to slaying the Jabberwock dragon, the only thing that stops The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) reclaiming her crown and ending the terrible reign of her sister, The Queen of Hearts.

Australian Wasikowska is brilliantly cast as the curious and dreamy Alice, she is more demure and less spoilt than the Alice we knew before. Burton’s favorites Depp and Bonham-Carter, prove why they are so with fantastic performances as the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. The screeching demands of the over sized royal head are reminiscent of Blackadder’s Queenie and are just as amusing whilst Depp brings new depths of emotion to his character, highlighted by his mood reflective, colour changing clothes. You will hear plenty of familiar voices throughout the film, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry and Christopher Lee, all chosen to perfection. Burton, admittedly a big Eastenders fan, shows his love of British TV by casting Barbara Windsor as the feisty Dormouse and Matt Lucas as the Tweedle twins, I mean… was that part made for him or what?!

The film does not make too much of its 3D element but it is definitely the right kind of genre for it. As you move through Burton’s imaginings of Wonderland you feel yourself taken in by the characters and scenery as Alice does. That coupled with a Danny Elfman soundtrack makes Alice in Wonderland a sensory delight that is definitely worth a trip to the cinema. It was everything we’ve come to expect from a Tim Burton film. Original, enchanting and captivating.

8/10

Photos from the World Premiere of Alice in Wonderland