MiniSky: Thoughts About Everything

Why 10? I don’t know, it seems like a good number, I know there’s probably more than that, which forces me to make decisions and keep the list short. The following films will be released probably over the next year or so, but I decided not to include films that are rumours or in the very early stages of pre-production such as the batman sequel ‘The Dark Knight’. The films i’ve included are either being filmed or are done and dusted and set for release whenever their captors decide to let them taste freedom.

If movies were sugar i’d have diabetes.

1. 300

It’s no secret i’m excited for this film. I’m a big proponent of Zack Snyders, I think he did a great job with the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake, and the small glimpses of footage we’ve seen from ‘300′ look amazing, slow motion blood splatter, and kids fighting giant wolves (check it out).

The comic one-shot is brilliant, bloody, violent and full of total macho bullshit. It’s Awesome. If you’ve seen any of the video diaries as well you’ll know that all the guys in this film are now proper warriors. The diaries are like a gay man’s wet dream just full of the most ripped dudes i’ve ever seen wrestling each other and doing pull-ups. Now give those guys spears and make them start stabbing persians, and count me in.

There were also some early reports over on AICN, that were nothing short of glowing about the film (here)

2. Hot Fuzz

Shaun of the Dead is probably in my top five favourite comedy films of all time, and it probably even edges into my top ten horrors. I was also a big fan of Spaced before SOTD came along. Edgar Wright is one of us, a fanboy that makes fanboy films.

Edgar has said he wanted to make the British equivalent of an 80’s Tony Scott film , but he’s also cited Domino (from an editing perspective) and Michael Bay films such as Badboys and BadBoys 2 for ’stuff falling off the back of trucks towards the camera’ scenes as influences. So basically it’s Bad Boys 2 in the west country.

This film will rock balls.

3. The Prestige

Batman and Wolverine in a magic fight to the death. Nothing could be awesom-e-r….Christopher Nolan after making ‘Memento’ has just launched himself into the stratosphere, and become one of my favourite directors. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play rival magicians, but then Bale’s character performs ‘the ultimate trick’ and we see a little supernatural edge thrown into the mix. It’s best explained by the trailer.

I was looking forward to ‘The Illusionist’ but ‘The Prestige’ just seems more interesting in everyway.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Casino Royale

Daniel Craig will be a great James Bond, The guy is more english than a very english thing. He can drink tea and then headbutt you in the face and garot you with a piece of wire coming out of his watch.

The ‘Beginnings of Bond’ angle for the film will be interesting, and I think Craig is the right man to deliver the Raw more violent version of 007.

Check out the trailer here 

 

 

5. The Science of Sleep

Everytime we get to see a new clip or a new batch of stills from ‘The Science of Sleep’ I start raving about it. Gondry is one of the most creative directors (I hesitate to call him that, as I have a feeling he does a lot more than just direct actors) working in movies today. The film looks to contain heaps of Gondry’s typically weird style; sets made out of cardboard and tinfoil, and skiing down mountains made from cotton wool(those could be lyrics to a Beatles song).

‘The Science of Sleep’ was scheduled to be released in the UK in August but has been pushed back to November for undisclosed reasons (so they can initiate the hype wagon I suspect). The sooner it arrives the better.

Check out the trailer here

 

6. The Fountain

What is the fountain about? I have no fucking idea… something to do with time travel and lost love and the search for the fountain of youth/eternal life, either way it looks incredible. Darren Aronofsky has made some good films, depressing yes, but he manages to always keep me enthralled while driving me into that hole in the ground.

I was unsure at first, it looked confused, and still does, but after seeing the trailer I have some eye-crack to go with that confusion. There’s shots of Jackman looking like a conquistador being carried by natives through the jungle, then shots of Bald ‘THX’ Jackman cruising through space in a bubble. Madness… beautiful madness.

Check the trailer here

 

7. The Children of Men

Alfonso Cuaron hit the international scene hard with ‘Y tu Mama Tambien’, not his first film, but the film that made people sit up and notice. How he got appointed to direct the third (and best) Harry Potter film i’ll never know, maybe someone saw something very ‘Potter’ in the group sex scenes in ‘Tambien’.

Cuaron’s next film “The Children of Men’ looks amazing (I Know I’ve said that about every film on this list so far, but … well… i’m excited), set in the not-so-utopian future of London, all men are sterile, as the population ages the human race faces extinction from lack of reproduction. Looking to be taking it’s lead from film’s like Gattica, Code 46 and ‘1984′, bringing a very human story to the screen with the science fiction edge. ‘The Children of Men’ stars Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Check the trailer here

 

8. Grindhouse

Death Proof/Planet Terror

The joint Tarantino/Rodriguez love letter to grindhouse cinema of the 70’s and 80’s 

The Official promotions for Grindhouse kicked off at comicon this year. People are excited for the new Tarantino film ‘Death Proof’, people are excited for the new Rober Rodriguez film ‘Planet Terror’. The two films released together, played back to back, fake trailers for fictitious movies before each feature and the whole lot sitting under the banner of ‘Grindhouse’.

I have a feeling ‘Grindhouse’ will not be so much a film but more of a cinema experience.

Tarantino’s ‘Death Proof’ will star Kurt Russel as ‘Stuntman Mike’ and a whole bunch of girls… the he kills with his car. Awesome. There was also a brief rumour that John Carpenter was going to work on the score.

Rodriguez’s ‘Planet Terror’ is a zombie film, not much more is known about the plot, but the word is that it will star Michael ‘Hicks’ Biehn.

 

9. Babel

Alejandro González Iñárritu brings another ‘multiple story line’ film to the big screen. Three intertwining stories set in Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico and Japan.

‘21 Grams’ was a really good film with some heavy performances from Naomi Watts, Shaun Penn and Benecio Del Toro. Babel seem’s like a suitable follow up with Inarritu coaxing the same kind of performances out of actors like Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet

Check the trailer here 

 

10. Zodiac

The first David Fincher film for 5 years, and it’s been too long.

Based on a book by Rober Graysmith, the film is a (loosely) based on reality account of the ‘Zodiac killings’ in the 60’s and 70’s. The Film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. I hope Fincher has done the story justice and not just overloaded the film with crazy camera movements.

I have my fingers crossed for substance over style (that sounded wrong coming from me, but there you are)

 

 

Ok so there were too many films I had to leave off this list, and a quite a few that very nearly made the cut but were edged out at the last second. Some honourable mentions (in no particular order): 

- The Departed

- Rescue Dawn

- Spiderman 3

- Where the Wild Things Are 

- Texas Chainsaw Massacre: the Beginning

- Talladega nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (still not out this side of the atlantic)

- 30 days of night

- The Transformers

- The Black Dahlia

- American Gangster

- Black Snake Moan

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