Anyway, you can read more about the film over on that post because what I wanted to highlight here was the YouTube competition that was organised around its release.

The concept was simple but it was pretty cool. They wanted to find the UK’s spookiest ghost story. They invited people from all over the UK to sumbit videos of their original ghost stories to The Woman in Black YouTube channel. Stories had to be under 2 minutes but the videos could be as simple as someone just making a recording from their phone’s camera. It was open to all ages but as far as I can see there was a rather youthful bent to the entrants.

Just before the Christmas the 10 finalists were announced, chosen on the basis of their story’s creativity, originality and writing style. Those 10 went to a public vote… The prize? The winner of the competition would get a trip to the world premiere in London but better yet their story would be read out by Daniel Radcliffe himself for inclusion on the DVD release of the film. Not bad hey?

Well, the competition was quite the success and it was great example of a company doing something a bit more original with social media to promote a film. I don’t know how many entries they got in total but there are 175 on their playlist on the official YouTube channel – youtube.com/thewomaninblackmovie. You can see all the competition entries over there but I’ve got the top 10 here for your viewing pleasure.

The winner in the end was Nicola Torch, a 16 year old from Lancashire, with her story entitled “Fear of Hue”, which you can see below. Congrats Nicola, hope you enjoyed the premiere and looking forward to seeing your ghost story on the DVD!

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 10 Feb 2012
director: James Watkins
writers: Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)
cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer
genre: thriller, ghost story
running time: 113 minutes

Official website: www.thewomaninblack-movie.co.uk
Official facebook page: facebook.com/TheWomanInBlackUK
Official Twitter feed: @WomanInBlackUK

The Woman in Black YouTube ghost story competition finalists

Candy Bones by Paul Bristow
The Woman of the Graveyard by Lukas DiSparrow
The Treehouse by Holly Knowles
The Fall by littlemonkeygun
HACK by mothergoose8619
Cassie’s Ghost by Cinzialix
The Calming Mist by Alice
A Ghost Story by Natiekins
The Dead House by Jasmine Thorburn
Fear of Hue by Nicola Torch (winning entry)

See the rest of the competition entries over here.

Candy Bones by Paul Bristow

Well, Thursday was a happy day for me because it saw the debut of the trailer for Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson’s latest offering. It’s written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, who last collaborated on The Darjeeling Limited so I’m taking this as a good sign.

There’s not loads of information out there at the moment so here’s the official synopsis:

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

Anderson has assembled some big names for this one; the cast is led by the two young newcomers, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, but Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton and Harvey Keitel all feature in various fun looking roles.

Fans fear not though, he also has a couple of his usual suspects in Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman as well as his regular cinematographer Robert Yeoman.

Watching the trailer it looks like absolute classic Anderson so I, for one, can’t wait to see it. To forewarn you though, I did tune out a little toward the middle because it was starting to look a little spoilery.

Undoubtedly there will those out there who would rather hear nails on a blackboard than watch a new Wes Anderson film. To ye I say… fair enough. Just don’t go see it.

Sadly there is no Irish / UK release date yet announced but you can rest assured I will let you know as soon as I hear.

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 23 May 12 (US), UK & IRL TBC
director: Wes Anderson
writers: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola (writers)
cast: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton, Harvey Keitel
genre: drama, comedy
running time: TBC

Official website: TBC
Official facebook page: TBC

… Not that this has anything to do with Mickey Mouse.

Instead, John Carter (formerly John Carter of Mars) is based on the series of Mars adventure stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, published between 1917 and 1943. In the books Mars is known as Barsoom by it’s inhabitants, a variety of different coloured Martians, and the planet is portrayed as one troubled by strife as the various races fight for the scarce resources available. It’s not entirely clear if the races will all be different colours in the film but I thought I saw some blue ones and some green ones. To be honest I’m surprised I’ve never heard of the series, in any case the books certainly seem ripe for film adaptation*.

As far as I can gather, this movie is drawing from Burroughs’ first book, A Princess of Mars but there may be elements from some of the others. The premise is simple enough… John Carter is a Confederate Captain in the American Civil War who find himself somehow transported to Mars and landed in the middle of a heated conflict. He soon discovers that he may be the only person who can bring peace to the tortured but majestic planet.

I’m always up for a sci-fi adventure but I’m very curious to see what audience they’re going to target. Watch the trailers and you won’t be able to miss the sniff of Avatar (despite the very different setting) and I would consider Avatar as an older, at least 12+/15+ audience… But then again it is Disney and in my eyes TRON: Legacy ended up being pitched younger than that. Are we looking at a 12A or a PG here…? I don’t mind either way but it will, of course, shape how I personally view the film.

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 09 Mar 2012
director: Andrew Stanton
writers: Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon, Andrew Stanton (screenplay) Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel and characters)
cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Dominic West, Mark Strong
genre: adventure, sci-fi, action
running time: TBC

Official website: disney.ie/john-carter
Official facebook page: facebook.com/JohnCarterMovie
Official Twitter feed: @JohnCarter

Video clips available
Teaser trailer #1
Teaser trailer #2

teaser trailer #1

I can’t say I was enamoured with the idea. I hated the first Mission: Impossible film. Hated it. Somehow I ended up going to see it in the cinema 3 times that summer, so my hatred of it became properly ingrained. I never saw the other two. I didn’t think I could take it if they were anything like the first.

But that was 15 years ago.

I am older now… and I like to think I have becoming more forgiving, more accepting, with age. I no longer rage at bad movies. I try to see the good in all films… well, sometimes.

And so, I am vaguely looking forward to Mission; Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Ever since Tropic Thunder I’ve felt far more positive about Tom Cruise. Now that he’s older he doesn’t seem half as smug. Mind you, I haven’t actually seen a Tom Cruise film since Tropic Thunder…

… No matter, the big thing for me is that Jeremy Renner is in this. It’s the first of his big upcoming action roles – the others being The Avengers (Avengers clips and trailers) and The Bourne Legacy – so it’ll be all eyes to see if he can handle it. IMO he was fantastic in The Hurt Locker, a movie which (dare I say it?) I thought was vastly over-rated, so I’m all up to see what he can do.

There are quite a few clips, trailers and featurettes available for Mission Impossible 4, so have a look below and let me know what you think…

update (14 Dec 11): 4 new clips added (Girl Fight, From the Outside, Open the Door and Sandstorm) and added film running time.

update (07 Jan 12): 1 new clip added (Getting on the Train and 4 new featurettes, Meet the Team, Brad Bird Q+A, Jeremy Renner Q+A and Paula Patton Q+A

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RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 26 Dec 2011
director: Brad Bird
writers: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec (written by) Bruce Geller (tv series creator)
cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
genre: action, adventure, thriller
running time: 133 mins

Official website: www.missionimpossible.com
Official facebook page: facebook.com/MissionImpossibleUK
Official Twitter feed: @GhostProtocol and @GhostProtocolUK

Video clips available
Teaser trailer #1
Theatrical trailer #1
TV spot #1
clip: I’ll Catch You
clip: Fan Jump
clip: Girl Fight
clip: From the Outside
clip: Open the Door
clip: Sandstorm
clip: Getting on the Train
featurette: Behind the scenes at Burj Khalifa
featurette: Simon Pegg
featurette: Meet the Team
featurette: Brad Bird Q+A
featurette: Jeremy Renner Q+A
featurette: Paula Patton Q+A

teaser trailer #1

Then when the movies came out though, I was curious. It had become too massive a phenomenon to ignore. It’s probably worth noting here that I spend a lot of time in the cinema… not the book store. So, I thought I would give them a watch.

I tried the first two. They were not good. Well, I remember there were some decent scenes in Twilight but mainly I was left with a feeling of confusion – why did they look like they were going to throw up every time they saw each other? And, New Moon? Well, New Moon was just shockin’.

A long Twilight hiatus ensued.

Then the trailers for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 came out and they looked kinda interesting. And people around me, who weren’t girls in the decade below me, were saying that the last book was pretty decent… So, with mere days to go, I thought I’d better try Eclipse.

To my surprise, it was… alright. You get used to Kristen Stewart’s “style” of acting after a while.

Ok. All this is just a round about way of saying, I’m kinda looking forward to Breaking Dawn – Part 1 now… And thus, here are all the Twilight Breaking Dawn trailers and ads I could muster up for you.

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 18 Nov 11
director: Bill Condon
writers: Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay), Stephanie Meyer (novel)
cast: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli.
genre: romance, drama, fantasy
running time: 117 minutes

Official website: www.breakingdawn-themovie.com
Official facebook page: facebook.com/twilight
Official Twitter feed: @Twilight

Now this is the one I’ve been waiting for. And it’s coming out on my birthday! Yay!

I was never a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings novels growing up. Mainly because I never read them when I was growing up. I only read them just before the movies came out. I thought it would be a bit of a disservice to them if I didn’t. I did however read The Hobbit…

… And I loved The Hobbit. Which is not to take away from The Lord of the Rings or the subsequent films. I still believe that they were some of the greatest movies ever made, the scope and the scale laid out in those films was incredible… but this is the story I want to see told.

It’s a little early to be doing a clips and trailer post, since they’re still in the middle of filming it… so there aren’t any clips and trailers. Luckily though, Peter Jackson has been keeping us up to date with what going on in New Zealand. He has been releasing production videos telling us about filming for 3D, the RED Cameras he’s using and giving us little peeks and looks at the sets. It’s all very exciting.

Have a look at the videos below to keep up with the production, I’ll be sure to add new videos as they are released.

update (21 Dec 11): Just letting you know that I have now created a new post for the clips and trailers that will be coming for The Hobbit. I’ll still be updating this one with production videos but there is an all new teaser trailer now over on clips and trailers: The Hobbit (2012).

update (23 Dec 11): New production video added – video: The Hobbit, Production video #5.

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RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 14 Dec 2012
director: Peter Jackson
writers: JRR Tolkien (story), Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Jackson (screenplay)
cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett
genre: fantasy, adventure
running time: TBC

(un)Official website: facebook.com/PeterJacksonNZ (no official website just yet)
Official facebook page: facebook.com/TheHobbitMovie

The Woman in Black is an adaptation of a Susan Hill novel that’s been given the Jane Goldman treatment (Kick-Ass / Stardust). The film is being directed by James Watkins who’s only directed Eden Lake before this but he has written a few other features. I haven’t seen Eden Lake but Goldman has certainly done some good work with Kick-Ass and Stardust and, in my opinion, X-Men: First Class so I am pretty hopeful.

I’m also hopeful that Radcliffe can act. It’ll be interesting to see what he can do with another character; it certainly sounds like a bit of a departure from what he’s used to anyway. I’m somewhat suspicious that he’s playing a character that has a son, but sure, these things can happen…

Briefly, Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a lawyer who has to leave his young son in London and go to a remote village to tie up the affairs of the deceased owner of a large estate, Eel Marsh House. All alone in the eerie mansion, he starts to notice something strange about the village, it’s inhabitants and the mansion itself…

… undoubtedly, scares ensue.

update 21/11/11: There is a quite a cool competition running for budding horror writers out there. Up until Dec 20th, writers are invited to submit a video of themselves reading their original short stories to The Woman in Black youtube page. 10 finalist will be chosen and voted on by the public and winner will get a trip to the UK premiere in Feb 2012 and their short story read out on the DVD by Daniel Radcliffe himself.

update 23/11/11: New teaser trailer added – Teaser trailer #3

update 26/01/12: TV ad spot added – TV ad spot #1 and the YouTube competition closing message from Daniel Radcliffe – clip: Competition closing message from Daniel Radcliffe

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 10 Feb 2012
director: James Watkins
writers: Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)
cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer
genre: thriller, ghost story
running time: 113 minutes

Official website: www.thewomaninblack-movie.co.uk
Official facebook page: facebook.com/TheWomanInBlackUK
Official Twitter feed: @WomanInBlackUK

Video clips available
Teaser trailer #1
Teaser trailer #2
Teaser trailer #3
TV ad spot #1
clip: Daniel Radcliffe reads an extract from The Woman In Black
clip: Daniel Radcliffe wants you to Submit Your Ghost Stories!
clip: Competition closing message from Daniel Radcliffe

teaser trailer #1

Or! OR! If you miss it you can have a listen on the new look Phantom 105.2 website – here’s last week’s show.

The Raven

planned release date: 09 Mar 2012 (US)

This week we’ve got a first trailer for The Raven. An upcoming thriller from director James McTeigue, long time collaborator of The Wachowskis and director of Ninja Assassin.

The film isn’t an adapatation of his stories or a biography of his life as you might expect, it’s kind of a fictional mixture of the two. It stars John Cusack as Poe and follows an investigation by a detective (played by Luke Evans) into a series of murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.

When a mother and her daughter around found murdered in exactly the same manner as the women in Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue suspicion first falls to Poe, until the serial killer start sending messages, taunting Poe to solve the case.

It looks like a decent ol’ flick. Well… it looks like it could be a decent flick. I sincerely hope it is anyway. It has a kind of Zodiac vibe about it and I loved Zodiac… It also seems to have a bit of a Saw thing going on as well, and as much as I love the first 4 Saw films, the last 3 were muck. I really hope McTeigue doesn’t mistake shocks and gore for a plot.

Here’s the trailer, let me know what you think.

If you want to hear it (and my voice) live, listen to the show online on the Phantom 105.2 website or through the iPhone or Android. Or of course, if you have one of those old fangled radios and you live in the vicinity of county Dublin, Ireland tune into FM 105.2.

This week I only talked about one of these but I talked a lot about it. So. That’s something. I might talk about one or two of the other two next week. That’s only if I can’t find any interesting news this week though… and there’s always something going on in the World o’ Movies!

Paranormal Activity 3

release date: 21 Oct 2011

Last week they released the first full trailer and now they have released a couple more of their “viral” clips… but the big thing they are talking about is their Tweet to see it First social media campaign. It’s an interesting concept and is keeping in theme with their Demand it! campaigns for the first two films.

The idea is, you go to the website and use their functionality to tweet the message:

Tweet to see it First! Bring Paranormal Activity 3 to your city early. #ParanormalActivity #Dublin Vote: http://www.paranormalactivity3.co.uk

The top 20 cities at the end of the campaign will get special previews of the film. It’s actually finishing today and Dublin needs something like 1600 more tweets to get into the top 20 so I guess there’ll be no previews for us… but I thought it was an interesting way of a company trying to engage with fans through social media.

Personally… I don’t like the Paranormal Activity (review #1, review #2) films that much. It’s strange really. I really like the stories in the films and I love the idea that they’re going back to look at the sisters’ childhood in this one but… I just don’t like the execution at all. Oh well.

As always, I hold out hope for horror, so I’ll be along to this one for sure.

Noah

planned release date: TBC

Last week also saw the announcement that Darren Aronofsky and Paramount Pictures and New Regency will be teaming up to film a big screen version of the story of Noah’s Ark.

Aronofsky has said that this the story of Noah has been a interest of his for a long time. In school he even won a competition with a poem he wrote about the end of the world through Noah’s eyes. Back in 2007 he said of the project:

“So I think it’s got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He’s a really interesting character. Hopefully they’ll let me make it. Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk. It’s there in the Bible – it was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor’s guilt going on there. He’s a dark, complicated character.“

and when this latest announcment was made he said…

“Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family’s journey. The imaginations of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It’s my hope that I can present a window into Noah’s passion and perseverance for the silver screen“

Aronofsky currently has a few projects on his plate and this one is tentatively listed as a 2014 release so it’ll be a while before we see. Unsurprisingly so, there are scant details about it, however Christian Bale is one of the names being bandied about for the project. Exciting! More solidly it is also being reported that Aronosky and his writing partner, Ari Handel, from The Fountain have a finished draft and are handing it over to John Logan (Gladiator, Last Samurai) for re-working.

I shall keep an eye on the proceedings and be sure to update when there are more details


That’s all for this week, hopefully I’ll be a bit quicker with the news next week

Well I do. I’d even go so far as to say he’s the most consistently good director working today. Is that going far? Well it’s going far for me… I was going to say he’s the best director working today, but I chickened out. Anyway, the point is, he’s great.

That’s why, when I heard that they were making an English language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor), a mere two years after the original, it did not make me upset and maudlin for the state of cinema today. I’m still not that happy about it but at least it should be a good film.

Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, like the first, is based on the first novel in the best-selling Swedish language trio, the Millenium series by Stieg Larsson. Whether this one will be followed up by the other two (as they were in Swedish) remains to be seen. Undoubtedly they’ll need to see how this one does first, then find time in Fincher’s busy schedule to do it. Or find a new director and hope that Craig and Mara have time too.

It doesn’t seem that likely really but if there’s the cash there’s a way I suppose.

There’s only the two trailers and a TV ad out at the moment but I’ll be adding clips, or anything else that might appear around the place, when I see them.

update (01 Nov 11): New TV spot added

update (12 Dec 11): New Super Extended trailer (8:24) and film running time added

update (21 Dec 11): Two new clips clip: Framed Flowers (0:44) and clip: Visit Armansky (0:52)

RELEASE DETAILS

release date: 21 Dec 2011
director: David Fincher
writer: Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Stieg Larsson (novel)
cast: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgård
genre: drama, thriller
running time: 158 mins

Video clips available
Theatrical trailer
Theatrical trailer
Super Extended trailer
clip: Framed Flowers
clip: Visit Armansky
TV spot #1
TV spot #2

And I couldn’t resist putting in this one too…
Muppets’ parody trailer

Teaser trailer