Deja Reboot: "Rosemary's Baby, Oh Baby!"

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, my segment titled "Deja Reboot" is when I write about any upcoming remakes (or, yeah, reboots) and review both...or in this case, make a prediction, as this remake is still in the making.
As a huge fan of horror films (please note Leatherface tearin' it up chainsaw style on my wallpaper) I must say that I am absolutely a fan of the original Rosemary's Baby, directed by Roman Polanski. Although I don't typically get into the oldies, as horrible as that might sound, this one is absolutely a classic. Obviously.
Rosemary and her husband, a mildly successful theater actor, are a young couple who have just moved into a brand new apartment. Surrounded by seemingly sweet, but actually creepy, old neighbors, things take a turn for the worst when mysterious things begin to happy to Rosemary. Long story short (mostly because I haven't seen the film for a while) the neighbors have planned a scheme to raise the devil to impregnate Rosemary. In the end, Rosemary comes to find a cult in her apartment after giving birth to Satan's spawn and famously exclaims "Those eyes! Those horrible eyes!" upon first seeing her infant demon child.
With a story like that, and with those unforgettable set pieces, why wouldn't NBC want to remake this classic film into a miniseries?
I must say, reboots don't necessarily rub me the wrong way, because there are instances when they have been done well, but when they're made for the cheap thrills and quick profits, that's when I become bothered by the idea. However, this remake seems to have somewhat of an original spin on it.
Firstly, it's being made into a miniseries which will be composed of four parts, as opposed to a good old fashioned feature remake. I'm interested to see how this translation will play out since we'll have about four hours of storytelling as opposed to about two. But seeing as this was originally based on a horror novel by Ira Levin, it could be a chance to make a more dedicated version of the story.
Lastly, and the reason I'm most attracted to this development, is the casting news of Zoe Saldana as Rosemary. Now, I am absolutely NOT the kind to make any racially driven comments about equality, because I think Saldana is one of the best young actresses in Hollywood right now, regardless of her ethnicity. I simply think she'll make a great Rosemary for this updated version. Although she has done a mix of racy and sexual roles, she also bodes well as an action star and more than holds her own in the drama department. I think this is a testament as to her versatility, and I can't wait to see her explore new territories in this horror/thriller.
Is anyone else as excited as I am about this new project starring the lovely Zoe? I really hope it lives up to the hype (which I've built up in my own head), but maybe others aren't giving it as much hope as I.
No solid release date yet, but only time will tell if this classic will hold up!

Comic Book Movies: Taking Over the Universe

Here's one I've been wanting to write about for a while now, and what better time than in the new year of progress and commitment! 

Anyway, now that that self-plug is out of the way...

I have never been a huge comic book fan per se (with the exception of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which continued on as a comic book series after the TV show...OH! Next blog post idea has been found), but despite my lack of knowledge of the famous comic books from the sixties-ish era, I have been a huge fan of the films since the first X-Men movie came out in 2000.  Granted there were other lesser known comic book movies out before X-Men such as Blade and...well that's all I can think of right now, but I think what really paved the road for the film adaptations was the success of the first Bryan Singer-directed X-Men.  

Shortly after this strikingly original idea (sarcasm) of taking intellectual comic book properties and turning them into movies because of their pre-existing fan bases, we saw the introduction of a slew of new franchises. Forgive my lack of chronological accuracy here, but the following films came in the wake of X-Men:

Hulk (Marvel)

Blade II (Marvel)

Spider-Man (Marvel)

Daredevil (Marvel)

X2: X-Men United (Marvel)

Catwoman (DC)

Elektra (Marvel)

Batman Begins (DC)

Spider-Man 2 (Marvel)

Fantastic Four (Marvel)

The Punisher (Marvel)

Blad: Trinity (Marvel)

Superman Returns (DC)

Ghost Rider (Marvel)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Marvel)

X3: The Last Stand (Marvel)

Spider-Man 3 (Marvel)

Now, as you've probably noticed, I only listed the most popular ones that are strictly based on well-known superheroes or superhero groups, but those are the ones I'm really a fan of.  The time span of that list from Hulk to Spider-Man 3 was bout 2002-2007.  Obviously, the studios decided to do some major ass-kicking of their own by churning out these lucrative properties (emphasis on the word "churn" as several of the aforementioned were pretty horrid).

However, it was in 2008 when Marvel Studios decided to step up their game, and quite on the sly I might add.  With the not-too-impressive results that came with Hulk, the idea of the "reboot" was introduced with The Incredible Hulk. It wasn't a sequel or a prequel, but more of a re-do entirely. With The Incredible Hulk in particular, though, I do remember them keeping it very vague so hat the audience could leave it up to their own interpretation whether it was a sequel or a stand alone film.  I swear these Hollywood hotheads just throw a bunch of mumbo jumbo out at the media wire in hopes of shutting the fans up to stop us from asking questions. 

Anyway, hot on the Hulk reboot's trail was Iron Man.  I remember not getting too hyped up about this one since Iron Man was one of the lesser known good guys...but what a MONSTER success that was! I remember its' opening weekend when it made $100 million in the first three days! Shows how pre-emptive I am.  Which is not at all, in case you were wondering.

That, my friends, is what got the ball rolling. With the Iron Man characters established and the Hulk characters, well, re-established, Marvel had set into motion Phase One of their Marvel Cinematic Universe movement.  Clearly, as you can see from the list above, Marvel had the upper hand on DC well into the game.  But what they've done with the culmination of the other films like Thor and Captain America is really unprecedented.  And who should they choose to helm this massive undertaking but the "Buffy"-est man himself. Joss Whedon. My creative idol.  

Naturally, DC has come in with some well-crafted attempts to compete with this idea, i.e. Green Lantern, Man of Steel and the recently announced Batman/Superman movie, but they just don't have the hype and excitement behind them the way Marvel does.

What I absolutely love about this whole mega-franchise is the concept of the crossover. In each of the previously mentioned films (Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America), there were "easter eggs" after the credits, thus leaving hints as to what everything was building up to; The Avengers.  

I've loved crossover storylines for as long as I can remember. Even back when Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo would tag team it up in their Xena/Hercules crossovers. And don't even get me going all fanboy-ish on what would ensue whenever Buffy and Angel would cross paths on their respective TV shows.  That'll make the geek inside me drool like Pavlov's dog.

As if this wasn't revolutionary enough, last year (2013) saw not only crossovers, but cross-platform crossovers with the TV show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Wrap your head around that! Okay so it's not that hard to wrap, but there was even a special episode dedicated to the Thor sequel which was released in theaters just weeks before the episode aired. That is some exquisite planning on the development front.  

Honestly I think this is what made Joss the perfect choice for such an epic project. He has been a master of creating dynamic characters and then meshing their worlds together seamlessly since the beginning. Heck, it's practically what he has built his career on. 

Now Marvel has moved on to their next endeavor with Phase Two, which includes Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and also introduces a whole new group of superheroes; The Guardians of the Galaxy. I am so excited for where all of this is leading. Not to get too spoilery, for those of you who are sinfully behind on the mythos that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there have been some very tasty easter eggs establishing Phase Two and leading into the Guardians, the first official cast picture of which was just released last week! And which I also posted below for your viewing pleasure...okay mostly mine, but yours too :).  

Lastly, these films are so NOT just for the geeks, or the closet geeks, even.  They are really that well made to have a wide appeal for people of all ages. Kind of like The Hunger Games, but a little less dystopian and depressing (Disclaimer: I also love The Hunger Games).  Anyway, do yourself a favor and get caught up before Phase Two hits full force with the release of The Avengers 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy next year! 

2014: The Year of the Film Jockey

Oh how time flies. Literally. It's sickening sometimes.
I vividly remember three years ago (again with that whole "Hi time. Bye time." scenario) when I began this blog. A family member put the idea in my head and I thought it would be a great way to discipline myself as a writer and to turn my focus more intently on the industry. Man, was that a bust. I must say, over the last couple of years I've had a few decent posts, but the consistency was always the hardest part. I was a junior in college when I started, and naturally school always gets in the way (let's be real here, school = partying most of the time). However, as a young professional now working in the film industry, I find it, not only necessary but, essential to remain relevant via social media in more ways than just Tweeting and Facebook-ing.

So, now that I've finished boring you all with my personal life, I wanted to take this brief moment to explain that I'll be somewhat redefining my goals as "The Film Jockey," as pretentious as that sounds. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know all that much about "what makes a great film." Honestly I think a lot of the critics out there are mostly full of themselves and just like to use big words that will, in turn, make the people reading their reviews think they know what they're talking about. But I digress. What I've done in the past is write about movie news and write reviews. Now, in what I'm calling "2014, the year of progress," I have decided to make this an opinion based blog.  In other words, I don't strive to be the first to break the news to you (whoever "you" are). I just strive to give you my two cents as a creative and entertaining expression. Just go check out my post from August 7th, 2012 about The Mortal Instruments. That's a slightly LESS tame version of what I'm striving for from here on out. But I do plan on getting passionate! So if you're not into passion, get the hell outta my blog-o-sphere! No, not really. Please stay.
Anyway, my goal is to become a more focused and dedicated writer, (much accredited to the "My 500 Words" challenge thanks to Jeff Goins at goinswriter.com) along with some other life goals, but you can read more about that over at my other less film-centric blog Toolbox Central...but probably not until tomorrow, because it's getting late and I have a pilot to work on!
Happy new year everyone!

2014: Progress

Film Jockey Fan Art - "City of Bones" - UPDATED

UPDATE - The last one had a weird pic of Izzy, so I changed it to this one...looks a little better.

Well, I'm not huge on creating my own fan art, but when I get passionate about a certain film or book etc., I like to get creative with photoshop. So, in honor of my crazed obsession with this book series of which the first book is being turned into a movie, here's my first official release of an attempt at fan art. A poster for "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones." (Due out August 2013).
For those of you who are familiar (or not familiar) the characters from left to right are Luke (Aidan Turner), Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), Clary (Lily Collins), Alec (Kevin Zegers) and Isabelle (Jemima West).  I did leave out a couple other key characters, but like I said, this is the first of...well, probably not that many. I just used a bunch of pictures off of Google and Izzy's body is actually a picture of a drawing that I found of Izzy (with Jemima's head photoshopped, haha).  Then there's the logo of course.  I just wanted to take a whack and see how it would turn out. I think it looks alright! Let me know what you guys think!

"The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" film - Forsaken?

For those of you TMI fans who may be, but probably aren't reading this, you get the title of this post. But do you really? As everyone should know by now, The Mortal Instruments is a book series of six fantasy novels, authored by Cassandra Clare, and it's the most recent endeavor to fall victim to Hollywood's book-to-film adaptation frenzy. Although I had my apprehensions when I first heard about my favorite series getting the "celluloid treatment" (just made that one up...pretty good, eh?) two years ago, I quickly warmed to the direction that this film might be taking. However, upon the recent revelation of several casting announcements, my anger reached an alarmingly high pique.  I soon realized that I had no other choice but to turn to the blogosphere. (Spoilers ahead)

TMI: COB Cover Art

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this franchise, "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" is the first in a series of six urban fantasy books about our young, fiery, redheaded heroine Clary Fray. She is a fifteen-year-old, seemingly normal girl just going through the motions of adolescence with her best friend Simon Lewis. She lives in Brooklyn with her mother Jocelyn Fray, who is a single mother and an extremely talented artist; a trait which Clary has inherited to the utmost capacity.  Her mother's best friend Luke Garroway is a father figure to Clary.  He has been there for her ever since she was a toddler and, although he is gentle and understanding at heart, he has a fierce side that you wouldn't want to mess with.
While at a club one night with Simon, Clary witnesses a murder. The victim? A demon, or Downworlder. The perpetrators? Demon killers known as Shadowhunters. Jace, Alec and Isabelle are the three Shadowhunters whom Clary is first acquainted with. She is shocked at what she witnesses and immediately interrogates the three of them, who quickly shrug her off as a "mundie" (Shadowhunter slang for mundanes, regular humans). However, Clary is quickly sucked deeper into this hidden world when her mother is kidnapped by a demon the next night. Desperate to get her mother back, Clary seeks out the help of Jace and his friends and she discovers that there is much to her past that her mother kept hidden from her.
Valentine, the white-haired, rogue Shadowhunter, is the suave and seductive, yet terrifyingly motivated villain. He is the culprit behind the kidnapping. Why? Because he is Clary's father and he knows that Jocelyn holds valuable information that he needs.  Through this journey, Clary realizes much about herself that she never knew existed.

Collins

I remember when I first heard that TMI: COB would be coming to the big screen. I read an article about two years ago which was announcing that Lily Collins would be starring as Clary Fray and that Scott Stewart, of "Legion" and "Priest" fame, would be directing. Naturally, my first instinct was to become overly elated. What crazily obsessed fan of any book franchise wouldn't want to see one of their favorite novels visually translated to the silver screen? I wasn't too thrilled about Lily Collins in the lead, simply because she wasn't (and still isn't) a well known actress and I had no idea how talented she may or may not be. The fact that she wasn't a redhead especially irked me. But once I did some research on her past acting credits (and saw her in a red wig) I became much more confident about the film.  My bigger concern was with Stewart directing.  Although I liked "Legion" and "Priest", neither of them were quality films. They were great, senseless action movies but nothing that I would pay to see in theatres. Little did I know at the time, but this would cease to exist as an issue in a couple years.
Then came the casting of Jace, who is the other main character, and a rather complex one at that.  He is a hotheaded and arrogant know-it-all who becomes surprisingly vulnerable when he meets Clary. Needless to say, a love story ensues. Anyway, the entirety of TMI fandom was dying for Alex Pettyfer to land the coveted role of Jace Wayland.  Although he definitely looks the part, I personally thought he was a crappy actor so I was glad to learn that the role went to Jamie Campbell Bower instead. Keep in mind this is a year after the announcement of Lily being cast as Clary.

Bower

So now both of my main characters are cast and it's thrilling. Bower is another guy who is pretty unknown amongst Hollywood, but he looked the part and considering he had small previous roles in two huge blockbuster franchises, the final two "Harry Potter" films and the "Twilight" movies (which I bloody hate with a passion and can't believe those films were ever successful or even made into films in the first place), I had to keep the faith. The next big news after this was that Stewart had been dropped as director and replaced by Harald Zwart.  He is a director whom I know nothing about other than the fact that he directed the updated version of "The Karate Kid" which I knew got some pretty decent reviews.  Regardless of the fact that I was unfamiliar with this guy, I remained very faithful because I know that unknown directors can still produce great, quality films.  Plus I was mostly thrilled that Stewart had been dropped.
Now, a year after the Jace casting news and just a few months after the switching of directors, the production of TMI is right around the corner.  Casting news is pouring in day after day and all of the major characters' real life faces are becoming seared into our minds. Next after Jace was the announcement of Jemima West as Isabelle. She's another British actor (Bower being the first Brit of the cast) and one that I, yet again, have never heard of.  I was becoming ever more slightly concerned about the film regarding this announcement. She does mostly look the part, but I just have nothing to base her acting chops off of.  Although I remained skeptical at heart, I brushed aside my worries and allowed my elation to continue.
After the announcement of a couple more minor characters, which I didn't really care about because they're so minor, came a huge bit of casting news. YET ANOTHER unknown foreigner was cast as Simon Lewis, Clary's best friend.  Robert Sheehan.  I'm not a huge fan of Simon as a character, although I know many many people love him and he is a huge central character.  I don't dislike him, he's just not one of my favorites. So when I heard about Sheehan it was just kinda like, "Hm, okay, that's random." But then came the BIGGEST announcement to date. We got THREE major characters cast in one week! Jared Harris as Hodge (a mentor to the Shadowhunters and a big character in the story), Godffrey Gao as Magnus Bane (another unknown actor, but he seemed like a great fit for Magnus who is another huge character), and my favorite cast member to be announced thus far...Lena Headey as Clary's mom Jocelyn!!! It's  not that I am even a big fan of Headey, I am just very familiar with her work as an actress because of her roles in "300" and the short-lived TV series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."  Granted I was very excited about Harris and Gao being cast in their respective roles, but Headey became the first cast member whom I was really familiar with, so it was extremely exciting to see a well-known actress cast in something that I have been a fan of for years. It was honestly like one of those things where you wonder who in the world could possibly be the PERFECT actor to portray a character you know so well, and then viola! She is placed in front of me. Headey is perfect for Jocelyn (once the red hair is added, of course).

Headey

But all of this excitement would be shattered when I would learn just a short few days later that Aidan Turner would be cast as my favorite character Luke Garroway, a character so wise and guiding for Clary. He is her father figure and mentor of sorts. He's also a love interest to Clary's mother. He plays a huge, invaluable role in this series. He should be mid-late 30's at LEAST, if not early 40's...and they cast a freaking 29 year old who looks like he's 24 to play this role. Not to mention...HE'S BRITISH!!! Nothing could infuriate me more than hearing this announcement.  As trivial as this casting may sound, this single revelation in the entirety of production on this film is the one thing that has shattered my hopes.  I was clinging to faith throughout all of my skepticism over Bower and West and Sheehan and all of these foreigners taking over my damn franchise! Then all of the anger that I had so willingly and peacefully swept under the rug immediately erupted from deep within my soul and spewed out in a fiery rage so powerful it could reignite a dying star.  WHY WHY WHY!?!?! Why does Hollywood insist on thinking that it knows what is best for a film? WHY would you sacrifice the quality of a character and a story just to make a quick penny? IDIOTS, I say.

Meyers

As if matters couldn't get any worse...Valentine was cast today. Valentine, the villain and obviously another central and pivotal character in the story, will be played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. JONATHAN RHYS-MEYERS!!! Are you kidding me!?!? He is YET AGAIN about ten years TOO YOUNG for this role AND BRITISH!!! I am such at a loss for words.
Granted I probably wouldn't be as angry about Meyers being cast as Valentine if it weren't for my pre-existing anger about Turner as Luke.  I think I am slowly but surely becoming SOMEWHAT okay with Meyers as Valentine simply because I can see him being suave and evil. But he's still too young!!!
I thought I would feel better after getting my anger out in writing, but I'm still pretty fueled up on the hate juice. I guarantee you that they are using the success of the "Twilight" films as a reference for casting TMI.  This sole fact breaches any trust I ever had with any producer or filmmaker that I ever entrusted with this film.  TWILIGHT. IS. AWFUL. Those films are so phenomenally and infinitely and tragically despicable that I would personally pay all of my life earnings to see every millimeter of celluloid used on that film burnt to a poisonous liquid. It nearly brings me to tears thinking that the producers are sacrificing the quality of the story to go with a hot, young, inadequate cast because "it worked for 'Twilight.'" DO NOT compare this franchise to Twilight. EVER.
I must stop here before I say something that will get me arrested.
So there you have it my friends. The way things stand now, this production is as forsaken by me as a Mundie marked with angelic runes.
I guess I'll have to hope and pray that this film will redeem itself once it all comes together in the final product. If not, then by the angel...by the angel...

The Film Jockey reviews: "Our Idiot Brother"

Alright so I'm a couple days behind on this, but I have my reasons...and this will be a pretty short one because, well, I'm tired.
Anyway, my first review of 2012 (simply because it happened to be one of the first movies I saw in the new year) is "Our Idiot Brother."
I'm not a huge comedy fan, as one may have guessed from following this blog, so I naturally was not too thrilled to be watching this film. It's not that I dislike comedy, I just highly prefer horror, sci-fi, action or drama over it...but I still enjoy films of all kinds.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised in this case...for the most part. It was good in some ways, but very flawed in others.
The film opens with the "brother" Ned, played by Paul Rudd, ignorantly selling marijuana to a uniformed cop. Right off the bat we get the clue that he's not a bright guy. Ned goes to his parole officer who tells him that he must live with a family member in order to keep a close watch on him. Ned is survived by his mother and three sisters, who also become central characters in the story. Of the three sisters, there is Miranda (played by Elizabeth Banks) who is a seemingly heartless reporter constantly trying to break a big story at the risk of other people's feelings. There is also Natalie (played by Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (played by Emily Mortimer). Nat is a hippie-like lesbian who is comically unsure of her sexuality while Liz plays an unhappy housewife struggling to come to terms with the fact that her husband is cheating on her.
As they all have their turns at taking Ned in for a period of time, each sister has a way of manipulating him into their lives, whether that be intentional or not.
While trying to adjust to this new "lifestyle," Ned really can't seem to get things right even though he tries to help everyone around him. What it comes down to is that he is too peaceful and too naive. Ned starts to get blamed for many things that were inadvertently his fault as a result of the girls' manipulation. He finally learns to stick up for himself and gets into trouble with the law, but the sisters come to the rescue and all is okay in the world of Ned.
Obviously I summed up a whole lot, but as I previously mentioned as a disclaimer, I am not a big comedy fan. Therefore I don't always know the rules of comedy, but I was sure not to take this one too seriously. Going in with that mindset really helped because there were definitely some elements of decent storytelling in this film. I thought the sisters were all very well developed characters and we actually came to know Ned better through their development. This was one of the big things that I enjoyed about the film. However, this is also where comedy fans may find it to be a flaw. Most comedies, with the rare exception, sacrifice good storytelling for laughs. This one actually had decent storytelling, but not a lot of laughs. I don't necessarily remember laughing out loud one time in particular, but I really appreciated the characters here.
The story itself is rather generic with a hint of originality. The major flaws, story-wise, that I found was that the beginning was way too rushed. We are immediately thrown into the first inciting incident with Ned selling drugs to the cop. We don't get eased in and we never really learn much about Ned until too late into the story.
Overall I give the movie about 2.5 out of 5, just because there should have been more laughs. Had I actually found the film to be funny it might have been raised to 3, or possibly 3.5 if it were really funny...but it wasn't. So this is where I stand.

New year, new goals, new content!

The Film Jockey is back! It's been a while, but I am here to stay!
I first started this blog as a way to keep some kind of regular routine for myself. Something that could help me keep myself in check as I attempted to immerse myself in the world of film.
As cliche as it might be, 2012 is a new year! With a new year comes a clean slate and new ideas.
So, in addition to critiquing films this year, I will also be reviewing some of my favorite TV episodes! Over the past month or so, I have begun watching a number of different television shows, including Dexter, Lost and Once Upon A Time, just to name a few.

Tonight marks the Film Jockey's official return, as I review "Our Idiot
Brother" starring Paul Rudd.
I will also be reviewing one of my favorite new TV series "Dexter" up to where it stands right now. with the 6th season having just ended and the 7th season beginning at the end of this year. I will review one season at a time rather than reviewing the series as a whole. That way I can hopefully do it more justice because there is a lot going on in this show! It's fantastic.

In just a few hours I will be back with full force!
I'll keep you posted! (pun intended)