Tarantino vs Takashi Miike

Here are a couple of looks at Japanese horror master Takashi Miike’s upcoming Japanese Western “Sukiyaki Western Django”, which was shot entirely in English, and even features a cameo appearance by Miike pal Quentin Tarantino. So what’s it about? “Set during “The Genpei Wars” at the end of the 1100s, the Minamoto and Taira gangs face off in a town named Yuda, while a deadly gunman (Ito Hideaki) comes to the aid of the townsfolk.” Sounds a lot like Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars”, aka Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo”, aka Dashiell Hammett’s “Red Harvest”. Then again, I could be wrong.

Billed as “Japan’s first true Western” and shot entirely in English (an interesting turn, given that Miike doesn’t speak the language himself), the film stars Hideaki (PYROKINESIS) Ito, Koichi Sato, Yuseke Useya, Masanobu Ando and Kaori (MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA) Momoi (with whom Tarantino shares his scenes). The title’s a nod to one of the most famous of Italy’s spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, in which Franco Nero played the title role.

Batman e a Carripana Nova

A Carripana Nova...

Prince of Persia vai ao Cine

Robert Sanchez over at IESB.net shared the scoop, naming Bay as director on the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced project and confirming a projected summer 2009 release date. IESB also points out that the Bay-Bruckheimer alliance has produced past blockbusters like "The Rock," "Armageddon," and both "Bad Boys," meaning this "Prince" will surely be as big as they come.

The film is adapted from the "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" video game, and will follow the titular hero, "an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world" (per IMDB). According to the report, studio heads hope that Bay will head to work on "Persia" as soon as he's done with a little summer project about warring robots. Script comes courtesy of video game creator Jordan Mechner, who also wrote the three installments of the game series; Jeffrey Nachmanoff ("The Day After Tomorrow") also worked on revisions.

Jerry Bruckheimer has been busy as of late with his Pirates franchise and his countless hit TV shows but still he has been working hard to get other film franchises off the ground. The IESB can exclusively report that his upcoming film, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, has found a director and a release date!
So I am sure you are wondering by now who Jerry has tapped to direct the adaptation of the best selling video game, right?
Bruckheimer has teamed up with him in the past to bring you Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, Pearl Harbor and Armageddon. Yes, that's right, Michael Bay is directing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for a Summer release.
The IESB was able to confirm with Disney Studios that they are hopeful that Michael Bay will indeed direct the picture right after he is done with this Summer blockbuster, Transformers.
You might remember a couple of years ago when we confirmed that Bay was behind Transformers just as he was finishing The Island. So now, just as he is finishing up Transformers, we are announcing that he will in fact be behind Bruckheimer Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
This feature film adaptation is “based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.
The original creator of the game, Jordan Mechner, has said that "Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as 'Pirates' [of the Caribbean] did with the theme park ride."
Mechner wrote the first draft of the screenplay for the feature film with subsequent drafts by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.

A Branca Acorrentada

Black Snake Moan employs a provocative story premise - a black man chaining up a young white woman - to tell an intelligent and quite sweet story about a relationship between two wounded souls. It's a little like the 2002 bondage drama Secretary in that way - that film was a touching love story that happened to be between two people who liked kinky sex. There's no sex between Lazarus and Rae. This is not the Russ Meyer remake of Jungle Fever the posters are suggesting! Rae comes on to him like she does to every man but he's too kind-hearted to take advantage of her. The film does suggest at times that he may be punishing her as a substitute for his errant wife but for all his flaws, Lazarus is a good guy. And Rae is genuinely disturbed, a woman with a self-destructive need to be used and abused by men. So this is a bit more complex than the average Hollywood relationship drama, however it's not an arty psycho-drama any more than it's soft porn. Black Snake Moan is a character drama that's funny, good-natured, occasionally shocking but always entertaining. Gifted writer-director Craig Brewer, who won some acclaim for Hustle And Flow, takes some pretty twisted subject matter and finds the humour and the humanity in it. It's simultaneously taboo-breaking, thoughtful and fun.

I'd go as far as to say Black Snake Moan is the best film I've seen so far in 2007. It engaged me like nothing else I've watched this year. I do worry that the advertising material, cool as it looks, is drawing in a crowd that won't get what it expects and will put off many people who would appreciate the film. This is not a shameless attempt to whip up a controversy. While Christina Ricci stripped to her panties is not exactly unpleasant to look at for two hours, this isn't really a sexy film (she's also bruised and bloody for much of that time). Ignore the posters and teasers and give this a try and you'll find a warm and sensitive character drama that has more in common with Of Mice And Men than Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

O Regresso da Noiva

Ever since 2005, writer/director Quentin Tarantino has been promising that "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair" would see the light of day and even mentioned releasing it theatrically with an NC-17 rating. For those who don't remember, The Whole Bloody Affair was meant to be both Kill Bill films put together with some additional/alternate footage including The Bride slicing through the House of Blue Leaves in full color (as it was released overseas). Well, according to Amazon.com, we may actually see this release happen. "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair" is now listed for DVD release on November 6th of this year by Genius Products/Weinstein Company. All that is known about the release right now is, the running time will be 247 minutes and will include 4 discs. Knowing Tarantino, it is hard to say how much this release will change or if it will even change at all but no matter what happens, it better be worth the wait.