Over My Dead Skeleton

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Normally I would be very excited to hear that Crawl director Alexandre Aja was teaming up with Gerald's Game director Mike Flanagan and producer Steven Spielberg to make a haunted house movie. But they had to go and ruin it with a gimmick, the bastard people -- click on over to The Film Experience to hear me ramble and rant like the fogey I am about their brand new idea to get asses into movie seats this time...

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from...

High Tension (2003)

Alexia: The problem is, he's got a girlfriend
he doesn't want to split up with.
Marie: Why are you so interested, then?
Alexia: Someone who's taken must be worth it.
I'm skeptical of single guys.

I never know whether I'm supposed to call this movie "Haute Tension" or "High Tension" -- like, does calling it by the former, the French title version, make me look like some asshole who misplaced his monocle? Whatever y'all know what movie I mean. It's director Alexandre Aja's 41st birthday today, also marking the first time I have realized that Alexandre Aja is younger than me. Bastard person with his accomplishments and shit. 

Anyway Aja's having a good year here in 2019 with his alligators attack flick Crawl getting good notices (here's my brief review) and decent box office -- it's kind of surprising it hasn't do better than the 37 million it's racked up so far but this is a movie that's not going anywhere; we'll be skipping past this sucker on cable for, uhh, as long as there's cable I guess. The world is changing so fast, says this old timer! 

Decrepitude aside I have really been wanting to go back and revisit all the horror flicks of the Aughts that left a mark lately, most of which I haven't seen in a dozen years, High Slash Haute Tension included. Anybody revisited it lately? Even at the time it came out it was deemed problematic by some for its questionable gay content, but I've always had a soft headed spot for questionable gay content -- I've got an entire affectionate tag built around the subject! -- so that never bugged me too much. I just remember it living up to its title, whichever one.

The Inevitable Shirtless Jamie Dornan Shot

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Whether Jamie Dornan likes it or not (and he always seems a little miserable about everything, to be honest) the people making his movies are gonna keep making the former male-model take his top off, at the very least, even in places it doesn't really fit -- so point being I knew that we'd get a glimpse of skin in the trailer for his upcoming psychological horror story The 9th Life of Louis Drax and sure enough...

... thar she blows. Jamie's perfect frame aside I'm interested in this movie for a couple other reasons - one, I very much like Sarah Gadon. And two, it's from director Alexandre Aja -- Aja can run hotter then colder than Paula Deen's butter thermometer, but when he's hot (most of High Tension, the Hills Have Eyes & Piranha remakes) baby he's hot. Here's the trailer:

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The film is out on September 2nd.

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I Am Link

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--- Sex Clown - Whoever's been in charge of Stephen King's It the past few years is absolutely determined Pennywise the Clown be played by a twink of some sort - a little over a year ago 23 year old Will Poulter was cast in the doomed Cary Fukunaga version, while today we're hearing that Mama director Andy Muschietti, who's directing the project now, has just cast Alexander Skarsgard's younger brother Bill in the role. You might know him from Eli Roth's godawful Netflix show Hemlock Grove, where he perked things up by getting his hot ass out. His brother taught him well. Anyway I kind of don't wanna be attracted to Pennywise so this news is weirding me out.

--- Marvel At That - The big news is coming hot and hard today - within five seconds of reading the previous story did I see this here headline, that The Babadook director Jennifer Kent is one of a couple of names up for the gig to direct Captain Marvel, Marvel's first superhero movie starring a (gasp) female. (I mean, can you imagine? Women don't even have penises, I don't know how they could possibly be superheroes.) And if you missed the news last night the rumor going around is that none other than Oscar winner and darling lovely Brie Larson is maybe probably going to be cast in the lead role. All I have to say about that is...

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EXCLUSIVE FIRST FOOTAGE FROM THE CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE pic.twitter.com/bNkH4VZmhE

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 2, 2016

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--- Final Forever - Stacie Ponder is requesting your attention, please! She's going to be celebrating her blog Final Girl's anniversary very soon and she'd like you to email her your Five Favorite Horror Movie Moments. Click on over to read exactly what she means, but this is your opportunity to be immortalized on the best blog in the entire world, so probably you should go ahead and do it.

--- Eastern Boys - Over at Pajiba our pal Kristy is using an interview with the actor Jack Choi, in which he legitimately bemoaned the desexualization of Asian men in Hollywood Movie-making, as a jumping off point to offer up many many suggestions of places that Hollywood could start. In other words, sexy men alert! There are several faces familiar to use here at MNPP offered, including our favorite Byung-hun Lee, whom we've gratuitized on several occasions - click here and then here for the especially good posts.

--- Skeleton Crew - It would be lovely if we could get a proper big-budget film from director Andrew Dominik of Killing Them Softly and The Assassination of Jesse James fame, since those are two of the greatest achievements of the new millennium cinematically speaking, but they both flopped kind of terribly so he's making music docs instead - that said I think a 3D concert film about musician Nick Cave grappling with the death of his son might turn out to be something extraordinary.

--- Who's Pure Now - Daniel Craig is making a twenty episode (spread over two seasons) series for Showtime called Purity, which is based on a book by Jonathan Franzen. (thanks Mac) Variety describes the story as "a morally complex story of youthful idealism, extreme loyalty and cold-blooded murder" which totally reminds me of Kramer reviewing that book on Seinfeld. "Unbridled enthusiasm" much? Anyway what this really means to me is that Daniel Craig and Eva Green, the sexiest Bond couple ever, have taken over an entire television network, and now I'm hoping for a cross-over. Daniel totally needs to show up on Penny Dreadful and make out with Josh Hartnett.

--- French Kisses - Alejandro Aja proved himself a fairly deft horror movie director with High Tension and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and then kind of petered out (although the Piranha remake had its moments). He's got a psychological thriller with Jamie Dornan in the can but it appears he's turning his attentions to a non-genre flick next - it's a period romance called The Marquis, about the "the doomed and passionate relationship between the Marquis Louis Henri de Montespan and his wife Athenais - the ambitious woman who became the mistress of Louis XIV."

--- Peaks Fever - They're really dragging the headlines out on this one but it's worth the hype - David Lynch's new episodes of Twin Peaks will begin to air in "the second quarter of 2017," which means sometimes in Spring, April to June-ish. I suppose eventually we'll have an actual proper date and I will share that too! Speaking of Lynch you should click over to The Film Experience today to consider the opening titles of Blue Velvet, because you literally have nothing better than that to do. I mean it. You don't.

--- Call Coming Later - If I were making a list of the five movies I'm most looking forward to this year JA Bayona's A Monster Calls would most definitely make it - an adaptation of the devastating children's book by Patrick Ness, it stars Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, and the voice of Liam Neeson, and the less I say about what it's about the better. I went into the book fresh and it hit me like a ton of bricks. But you can totally watch the first trailer, which keeps things pretty vague. Anyway the release date just got moved a week further away to October 21st, which is testing my patience. I want it now!
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I Am Link

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--- He's Strange - Sometimes the obvious choice turns out to be the best - Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast (or is in talks, whatever) as Doctor Strange. He knows how to whip around an overcoat with flair already thanks to his days as Sherlock, so he's halfway there. I think he should make for a smart addition to the Marvel universe though - he's not like anybody else they have right now, that's for sure. (Of course, Benedict Cumberbatch, much to his agent's delight, is kind of not like anybody else there is anywhere, period.)

--- Dark Figure - Maybe you've heard me go on and on and on about how much I loved Jennifer Kent's new horror flick The Babadook? I kinda can't shut up about it; I've seen it twice now and it's really everything, I adore it. Well it's spoilery so don't read it til you've seen the movie but there's a really very good interview with Kent over here (thanks Mac) and it shows how much thought she put into everything you see up there on-screen; it all shows. It's out November 28th in the US.

--- True To Form - Although HBO has yet to confirm him, Taylor Kitsch is totally blabbing his mouth about being in the second season of True Detective to whomever will listen - EW has the quotes. He says he turned down all kinds of roles so he'd be available for the show - cut to Xavier Dolan staring at his phone, a single tear running down his cheek.

--- Platinum Anniversary - I've been holding off on celebrating the 20th anniversary of Muriel's Wedding until March because that'll mark 20 years since it came out in the States (in March 1995), but as I've mentioned before a lot of places are going with its release in Australia, which was in September 1994 -- take for example BuzzFeed's gallery of the cast and "What They Look Like Now" (thanks Jarett), especially if you weren't feeling old today. Oh Daniel Lapaine, you'll always have that speedo.

--- Something Borrowed - Alexandre Aja is coming off one of the worst movies of his career with Horns, says me (I never did see Mirrors though), so here's to hoping the movie he just started shooting with Jamie Dornan, Aaron Paul, Sarah Gadon and Barbara Hershey can represent a comeback. That's a lot of cast, anyway. Plus he has just announced his follow-up to that movie - it's called Wedding Gown and weirdly in the plot's description there is nothing about a wedding gown mentioned at all.
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--- My Giant - Even though I am pretty darn excited about Steven Spielberg making a movie out of Roald Dahl's book The BFG, which was one of my favorite books when I was a wee one, I have to admit that until this news broke today it never even occurred to me to cast a human man in the title role. Isn't that weird? I don't know if I was assuming he'd be an all-CG creation or what, but today we found out that Mark Rylance, esteemed thespian, is playing the part, and it was like a slap upside the head to me - oh yeah, obviously there will be an actor in that part. I guess I am just so married to the book's illustrations I can't even begin to picture this.

--- And Finally I'd like to get back to a place where I can look forward to a Terrence Malick movie again - I was so burned out by the as-I-saw-them unworthy hosannas ladled upon The Tree of Life that a filmmaker I once adored just sorta fills me with dread these days. I suppose if he ever releases the one he made where Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender massage each other I'll find my way there. Anyway this movie about the exploits of a boy Abe Lincoln called The Better Angels, which just got a trailer, isn't by Malick, it's by his apparent protege AJ Edwards - so why do I even care at all? Um, Wes Bentley in snug breeches and a shirtless Jason Clarke maybe probably?

Horns in 200 Words or Less

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What is it, what is the inexplicable force, that can take actors you like, source material that's not half-bad, a horror director that's done terrific work in several tones across sub-genres, and mash them up into something unwatchably terrible? Whatever anti-magic it is, Horns has got it in oodles. I feel nasty saying so - Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Heather Graham, Joe Anderson, these are all folks I like; Alexandre Aja gave the world the first 5/6ths of High Tension (he also gave us that last part but let's not talk about that) plus the Piranha and Hills Have Eyes remakes, both of which are far better than they've any right being. And while Joe Hill's book didn't light my ass on fire or anything it's a perfectly fine, oft-darkly-witty read. And yet this movie just lands with a wet thud, a cloud of flies, an embarrassed half-glance away by everyone involved. Dull and damp and headache-inducing at times, milling between overly obvious and purposelessly vague in equal measure, moment to moment, Horns is a poke in the eye.

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I Am Link

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--- Gone Dude - Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly wrote up pretty much the epic tongue-bath you'd expect Richard Kelly to give a David Fincher movie at his Tumblr this week on the subject of Gone Girl. Not to stereotype (a phrase that is always followed by stereotypes) but as a straight white male of middle-class privilege and geeky inclinations, I am not surprised he adored it. How about you just make a movie of your own again, Richard?

--- And Speaking of Gone Girl, author Gillian Flynn is making that US remake of Utopia with Fincher next; we just learned last week that Fincher was directing the entire thing, and we now know that she's writing the entire thing, start to finish. At that link she speaks of speaking to the creator of the fabulous original about it.
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--- Set Love - If there were more to this video that's been making the rounds of Patrick Wilson and Brooklyn Decker proving how awkward it is to film sex scenes on a movie-set for that movie Stretch - you know what I mean... ass is more; Chris Pine in a jockstrap is more - then I'd have posted it days ago, but as is it's just some sweaty shoulder and I have other things to do, yo.

---  Nazi Hour - Martin Freeman is going to star (along with Anthony LaPaglia) in a BBC movie called The Eichmann Show, which is about the two producers who "were responsible for putting together one of the first global television events, televising [the trail of Nazi Adolf Eichmann] to thirty-seven countries over four months in 1961." Now that sounds like an interesting subject I've never heard anything about. Kind of Quiz Show meets Judgment at Nuremberg. I will watch that, but I kind of hope they rename the film to You Can't Jew That on Television.

--- Devil Dan - I was really close to watching Alexandre Aja's Horns with Danny Radcliffe last night but Halloween III: Season of the Witch mood struck me and there's no telling that movie no when it wants in; anyway I'll maybe watch it tonight. Horns, that is. You can watch a brand new clip of it here, which involves Daniel Radcliffe naked as a jay-bird.

--- Vice Squad - Embarrassing admission: I had to run out of the middle of the Inherent Vice press conference at the New York Film Festival because, well, because I'd just sat through a three-hour movie having drank two large coffees beforehand and, well, I had to pee like nobody's business. Sorry, PTA & Co! I tried to hold it as long as I could but y'all were just rambling. Thankfully IndieWire made a nice list of 11 things they learned about PTA from that and the event he did the following day. (thanks Mac)
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Stay Inside With Daniel Radcliffe

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When I bitched and moaned yesterday about all of the groovy junk coming up that I was missing out on I included the screening tomorrow night of Alexandre Aja's movie Horns, starring Daniel Radcliffe, at IFC Center for their so-called "Super Week" in conjunction with New York Comic-Con. But my bitching slash moaning was all for nothing much, because it turns out it's being released onto VOD tomorrow too!

In fact, according to that link, several of the movies they're showing this weekend will be out on VOD before the end of the month - VHS Viral and the Dead Snow sequel and the Nicky Hoult movie with Michael Shannon. Lars von Trier's complete cut of Nymphomaniac is apparently out today, although I haven't checked. Also titles like Nacho "Timecrimes" Vigalando's Open Windows with Elijah Wood as well as Listen Up Phillip, an excellent film with Jason Schwartzmann and Elisabeth Moss that's playing the NYFF that I will probably be reviewing for The Film Experience soon.

And that link doesn't mention A Good Marriage, the Steven King adaptation with Joan Allen, but I have it written in my calendar as hitting VOD tomorrow too. So basically what I am saying is if you never want to leave the house ever again, we gotcha. Let's all rot into our couches together, hooray!
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I Am Link

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--- Miss You Miss Collette - The first image of Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette in Catherine Hardwicke's Miss You Already (which I previously went on about the casting of Dominic Cooper in right here) isn't exactly the quickest way to my heart - it makes the film look like some mid-2000s forgotten rom-com about gal pals and their sassy problems, and hell, maybe that's what the movie will be. But I will see it because Toni Collette is forever.

--- Ding Dong The Man is Dead - Slash followed up with the screenwriter who was tackling the Y: The Last Man adaptation on a tweet he sent out this week calling the project dead, and sure enough, it's dead. The rights have reverted to Brian K. Vaughn and there they sit until who knows what. Well at least we never had the indignity of Shia playing my beloved Yorick.

--- Pressing Vice - In today's edition of "setting this aside to read at lunchtime" here's a nice big chat with Paul Thomas Anderson in The New York Times (thanks Mac), talking about his Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice, which is screening at The New York Film Fest next week. Can't wait!

--- Have Pride - I wish I had gone to see one of the thousand press screenings of Pride I was invited to, it sounds like fun in a very specific throwback to "90s import comedy" way, and I know there's no way I'll ever get my boyfriend to go see it (not his cuppa) - for one of the opinions that got me jazzed about the film, here read what Nathaniel said at The Film Experience.

--- New Detectives - I haven't checked today, maybe they have officially announced it by now, but apparently Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch are any-second-official as the other pair of cops in the second season of True Detective, who'll be joining Colin Farrell (hooray) and Vince Vaughn (boo). Vaughn is playing a criminal who is involved in the big investigation, so I guess he'll be channeling his prissy walk in Psycho, or whatever. I did like him circa the Psycho remake, maybe we can go back in time... (doubt it). As for McAdams, sure why not.

--- Rogue Cut - Some more details on the extended cut of X-Men:Days of Future Fourgy have dropped, read about it at The Playlist - I guess it's ten more minutes of footage, and it'll have a bunch of Anna Paquin as Rogue, who was all-but-cut from the original version. And here I was hoping it would be ten more minutes of Hugh Jackman walking around that room naked, silly me.

--- Peculiar Boy - I'm only surprised it's taken Tim Burton this long to get hold of giant-eyed pale boy Asa Butterfield for a movie - the Hugo star will play the lead role in Burton's next movie, an adaptation of the book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which already has cast our beloved Eva Green as the titular Miss Peregrine.

--- Civil Lady - I very much enjoyed the "Michael Fassbender's giant (not-that-one) head" movie Frank (here's that review) so I am looking forward to what director Lenny Abrahamson comes up with next and hey, look, news - he's going to make a movie out of Laird Hunt's new book Neverhome, which is about a Civil War-era farmer's wife who leaves her husband and transforms herself into a Union soldier. Anybody read it? It sounds like a super-role for the right actress.

--- Life After Enemy - We just told you about The 9th Life of Louis Drax earlier this week when Jamie Dornan and Aaron Paul were cast - Alexandre Aja is directing the script which is from actor Max Minghella. Anyway a new face has joined the cast, one we like quite a bit - Sarah Gadon, Cronenberg muse slash pregnant lady opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy. She's great.

--- And finally, have you seen these IBM commercials starring Dominic Cooper? (again thanks Mac) I think you'll forgive me for thinking the dirtiest thoughts regarding computer technology while watching them since that scene in Halt and Catch Fire where Lee Pace randomly mounted that dude, but come on, look at the way those chefs are about to ravage him.

Nine Lives

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Well this is a curious cabal of collaborators -- Jamie Dornan and Aaron Paul are going to star in Alexandre Aja's next movie, an adaptation of Liz Jensen's bestselling book called The 9th Life of Louis Drax, and the script was written by... Max Minghella?

Has anybody read the book? it's about a young boy in a coma and the psychiatrist (Dornan) who bridges "the boundaries of fantasy and reality" or whatever. Paul will be playing the boy's father. It sounds like a bit of a step away from horror for Aja, who's been pretty much attached at the hip to the genre for his whole career thus far.
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I Am Link

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--- Burn Me Up - As I continue to find the sight of Daniel Radcliffe, a hint of chest fur, and gigantic devil's horns quite the something-or-other, I continue to link when we get new pictures from Horns, his upcoming horror-flick from director Alexandre Aja from Joe Hill's pretty good book of the same name. I didn't realize this movie's out on Halloween - now that Nightcrawler's moved to that date too I'm now expecting quite the ghoulishly sexy weekend.

--- After Enough - Has anybody read The Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson? I hadn't heard of it until news just broke that the wonderful Nicole Holofcener is making it her next movie, following up last year's marvelous Enough Said, but it sounds interesting in that it's a little bit of a departure for her - it's about a man, namely. Oh sure she always gives men plenty of stuff to do in her films, but they're usually focused on the females. It sounds like a great role for an actor in his Sixties though.

--- All About The Girl - The presence of Winona Ryder is enough to flatten out a lot of wrinkles for me, I love her so, so the news that she's joined the cast of a new HBO miniseries from the creator of The Wire is almost getting me over the fact that the main star of the series will be Oscar Isaac, who save a surprisingly meaty rump does very little for me on-screen. Another notch in the "NO!" column is the presence of The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal, who was astonishingly, unwatchably bad on that show and his continued employment perplexes me to no end. That accent he's butchering in the trailer for Fury! God he's just awful!

--- Strange Fellow - It's been several months since I saw Ira Sachs' film Love is Strange at the Tribeca Film Festival and yet as I read this interview with him - the movie's coming out tomorrow in limited release, and you need to see it as soon as you can! - I still managed to burst into spontaneous tears,just from reading his words about the movie. It's so so so good, you guys.

--- Beyond The Belle - I only saw Gone With the Wind for the first time a few years ago and I liked it much more than my Yankee ass ever thought I would but not quite enough to sit through it again in order to participate in The Film Experience's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series, where Nat's splitting the film up over two weeks and choosing the best frames from it. But reading about it is fun!

--- Super Men - In case you want a couple more shots of Henry Cavill strolling around in his Supes costume on the set of the new movie - I posted one here yesterday - The Daily Mail has got them. He looks great but of course he does, ya know? Oh and if you want to see director Zack Snyder do the wet t-shirt contest charity game that's been making the rounds, here's that. His an eensy little bundle of muscles, that one. But why hasn't Henry Cavill done this yet? While wearing white briefs? I demand it.

Good Morning, World

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Yesterday I linked to the trailer for Horns - Alexandre Aja's adaptation of Joe Hill's not-half-bad book - and said I wasn't going to bother watching it unless one of you guys told me Daniel Radcliffe went shirtless in it, since I already planned on seeing the movie. Well one of you, thank you Anonymous, told me just that, and sure enough I watched the trailer and it's like a shirtless-Daniel-Radcliffe-palooza up in there. Sell sell sell!

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Seeing Joe Anderson makes me happy, I love him.
Anyway natch I took a few caps, hit the jump for it...

I Am Link

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--- Neon Gothic - The Playlist gathered up all the information we've got so far (it's not a ton) on what we know about that movie Robert Pattinson's planning on making with Harmony Korine - they seem to think it's a project that HK has described previously, in a couple different ways; basically it's a gangster movie set in the South. But not like Florida-South, so not a Spring Breakers sequel or anything, somebody else is making that. 

--- Eight Is Enough - The first poster for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight is making the rounds, which as Nathaniel points out is kind of putting the carriage in front of the horse (all bloodied, natch) since QT hasn't shot a frame of film yet. Nat also lists QT's films in order of preference, which is giving me agita - Jackie Brown is obviously number one, Nathaniel! Come on now.

--- Horny Devil - A full-length trailer for Horns dropped, which I haven't watched yet (somebody tell me is Daniel Radcliffe takes his top off, then I'll watch it; otherwise I don't need to, I'm seeing the movie); meanwhile director Alexandre Aja is talking about the adaptation of the manga series called Cobra that he really wants to make but needs a big star for, since it will be super-expensive. 

--- Never Been To Me - I never really thought I'd link to an interview with Tara Reid here in 2014, but in this chat with Time (great title) she made me kind of sad, talking about how nobody in the business takes her seriously even though yes, she may have been a party girl, but it never affected her work ethic a la Lohan. Then again, Lohan had talent and Tara... well we're being nice. Maybe she's grown with age and experience. Sharknado 2: The Second One, out soon!

--- Red Menace - I linked to a shitty version of the test footage for the Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds that will never ever happen earlier this week, thinking that would be the best we'd ever get, but no here we have been given it in HD quality now. And yes, his various tight-suited bits and pieces look even better.

--- The Bad Book - The awesome Aussie horror flick The Babadook is opening in Europe this weekend so some new clips and what-nots are getting released; I kind of wish you'd all just listen to me and my words about the movie and know you're going to see it already so you don't click on that link and spoil anything about the movie for yourself, because it was nice personally going into it not knowing anything beforehand save a couple sketchy details. I fear these trailers and clips will give too much away. (And yet here I am linking. I just want to talk about The Babadook when given the chance, is all.)

--- And Speaking of two things we just spoke of in two separate news-bits, now mashed together, here's an article about celebrities walking the Comic-Con floor in superhero costume disguises, and it includes what might be a picture of Danny Radcliffe in a Spider-Man costume? I can't tlel if the first image is real or photo-shopped, and the second image could maybe be anybody in that costume. Anyway, get your Harry Potter Peter Parker slash-fic going.

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I Am Link

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--- Double Oh Nope - James Bond is a quitter! At the last minute he's pulled out of (pause here to imply dirty sexual things... okay carry on) a movie called The Whole Truth, a court-room drama that would've co-starred Renee Zellweger. Insert mean-spirited jokes about how I'd run away from Reneee Zellweger too - it actually does feel just mean kicking Renee these days though, so they're only half-hearted.

--- Afrikaner Queen - I really wish that Charlize Theron would step away from the Sean Penn - I realize her dating life is none of my business but I want so much better for her! Hotter, that is! I want her to be with somebody super hot so I can project wild fantasies upon them! Why won't she let me have this? Blah blah she's making a movie with him about Sudanese refugees blah. Sex panthers!

--- Dirty Dozen - Terry Gilliam's wonderful movie 12 Monkeys is being turned into a series on SyFy, which will star the dude who played Pyro in a couple of X-Men movies, Aaron Stanford. Stanford's always kind of creeped me out, but then it's not like Bruce Willis doesn't always creep me out and that worked out fine for the movie... but then, Terry Gilliam isn't directing this. Also Brad Pitt won't be there mooning us. So many demerits.

--- Sing Carol - I should probably go back and read Patricia Highsmith's book The Price of Salt again - I've been so feverish about Todd Haynes adapting it with Cate Blanchett that it's a little embarrassing how thin my memories of the actual story have actually become; I haven't read the book in several years. Like here the news that John Magaro has joined the cast as a character named Danny - I don't remember who this person or what their place in the story is at all.

--- And Speaking of Miss Blanchett, she's playing the role she was born to play - a woman named Miss Pretty! Specifically Miss Edith Pretty, an amateur archeologist who discovered the Sutton Hoo burial grounds in the late 1930s in Great Britain. This will be for the wonderful director Susanne Bier, from a script by the writer of Byzantium.

--- Bat Lady - The only jobs left for actors now are in superhero movies (or CG ape movies - seeing Gary Oldman in pictures from the new Planet of the Apes movie this morning gave me a start) so here we have the word that Holly Hunter is going to play some lady doctor in the Superman Vs. Batman movie. I'm sure the role will be just as fulfilling as Angela Bassett's memorable turn as a lady doctor in The Green Lantern. As an aside I don't think I mentioned this before my trip but I got to see Holly Hunter and John Cameron Mitchell read Flannery O'Connor stories to me a couple of weeks ago and it was what heaven is.

--- Devil's Due - It's been so long with this one I'd forgotten it was even a thing, but here's word that Alex Aja's adaptation of Joe Hill's book Horns with Daniel Radcliffe as the horny lead will be released in the UK at Halloween and probably here in the US right around then too.

--- Lars On Top - I linked to this yesterday already but it deserves a second linking because I loved Jose's list of his ten favorite Lars von Trier performances over at The Film Experience that much. Although I do feel as if Udo Kier deserved at least a special mention for that time he crawled out of a woman's vagina.

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Peel A Little Poke Coming Through

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It is taking all of my willpower to not make a "Do I make you horny, baby" comment here... and obviously I lost, by making it without making it. I typed it, anyway. We all lose. That is of course Daniel Radcliffe (plus bonus hint of his furry little self) in Horns, Alexander Aja's upcoming adaptation of Joe Hill's book, which was a pretty good yarn from what I recall. There are two more new pictures over at STYD. The movie is showing at Toronto but it doesn't have a proper release date yet,; no doubt we're all looking forward to it though because horny jokes need to be made - they demand it.

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Maniac in 200 Words or Less

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Ya know how you heard that spritely eyeball-container Elijah Wood had been cast as the titular killer in the remake of William Lustig's 1980 sleaze-fest slasher Maniac and you were all, "Wuh in the wuh now???" Yeah you should probably build a time machine and go back to that moment and comfort yourself (with kisses and soft caresses, if need be) because it totally works. In fact pretty much everything about director Franck Khalfoun's take on the material works like gangbusters - Wood's strangely seductive slash harrowing performance (he really goes for broke); the decision to shoot it in first-person; the synthy 80s score; the erratic, lush cinematography from Maxime Alexandre (who also shot High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes remake). 

It's that second thing, the first-person shooting technique, that ends up clinching the deal - it really oughtn't work; Khalfoun sets up a world of obstacles for himself with it. But on most every count he manages to tweak something wonderful and unique and bizarre and totally disturbing out of it. This is a hard film to watch at times, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

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Somebody Revoke My Blogging License, Stat...

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... because the temptation to title this post "Is He Making You Horny, Baby, Rawr" was too great, too great still, it is making me laugh even now, and that ain't right. Ahem. That's our first look at Daniel "Danny" Radcliffe in Alexandre Aja's movie adaptation of Stephen King's son Joe Hill's book called Horns, about a dude who grows horns. Magical horns at that! Not just your run-of-the-mill freak-show horns. It was less than a month ago that we first heard this project was rolling forward with Aja and Dan and here we are. The book is sitting beside my bed now waiting to be read, but I'm working through that book about Ken Russell's movie The Devils first. Devils, Horns... you can tell it's October.
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Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Hit the jump for the NSFW rest...