Well folks, the wait is over. It’s finally here! Hmm… actually, it’s not really a trailer. It’s an announcement piece apparently. That seems like some kind of statement of intent to me. A trailer must soon be following.

As soon as we get another trailer or a clip or two I’ll start up a proper clips and trailers post, but for now you’ll just have to be content with this.

Yesireee, the Step Up guys are takin’ it to sunny Miami.

I am rather upset to see that Scott Speer is at the helm for this one rather than Jon M. Chu. Chu directed Step Up 2: The Streets and it’s surprisingly good follow up Step Up 3D. Unfortunately he seems to be working on G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Bigger and better things… I guess. Well bigger budget anyway.

That said, I’ll definitely be catching this one when it comes out. I know this means there may be something wrong with me but… what can I say? I do love a good dance movie so and Step Up 3D was hilarious fun, so… oh well.

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

Anyway, like I mentioned in the first “movie news” post… I do a weekly film news spot on Cinerama – the movie show on Phantom 105.2 – and I thought, since I’m actually researching movie news every week, I should probably put it on the site.

There are a multitude of ways you can catch the show… you can listen to the show live online on the Phantom 105.2 website or through the iPhone or Android apps. Or, if you’re in the Dublin area, you can stick with traditional media and just use ye olden radiomaphone and tune to 105.2. Oh, and if you have UPC you can go to channel 935. Or of course, you can read it here. In more detail.

Here’s what I decided to highlight on the show on 15th September 2011.

Red Lights

planned release date: TBA

If you remember, last year one of my favourite films of the year was Rodrigo Cortés’s high-concept psychological thriller, Buried. It was his first English language feature and somehow he’d managed to get Ryan Reynolds on board. To be buried in a box for weeks. If you haven’t seen it I urge you to go out and rent it. Now.

Well, Cortés is currently in post production on his next film and this time he’s acting as director and writer. The film is called Red Light, and it appears I wasn’t the only one impressed with Buried. He’s got more than a few names together for this one, Cillian Murphy, Elisabeth Olson, Toby Jones, Joely Richardson and, at the helm, Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver.

Or so it would appear. There hasn’t been much officially released about the film yet beyond a short summary saying that it centers on a psychologist (Weaver), and her assistant (Olsen), whose study of paranormal activity leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic (De Niro). Sounds good to me.

The reason I’m highlighting it is that this week the first teaser trailer was released. Naturally, it being a teaser, it tells you nothing… but I’m still excited. How about you?

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

planned release date: 18 Nov 2011

The “big news” this week was that the first trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (That’s right, a “:” and a “-”) was released out into the wild. There was a teaser trailer a little while ago but now we’ve got the full 2 and a half minute whack to have a look at.

For those of you who know nothing about The Twilight saga, it’s a “vampire-themed fantasy romance” series (description courtesy of Wikipedia). It started life as a set of 4 novels but it’s managed to spawn a series of popular films… I guess those last two sentences were for no-one. It’s been near impossible to ignore the Twilight series, certainly if you live in the UK or Ireland.

Anyway, if, like me, you don’t know what happens after the last movie, this trailer is heavy on the spoilers. They seem to have gone on a different tack from the last two Harry Potter – they seemed to mostly try to avoid showing anything obviously significant in the trailers. Twilight has just gone whoomp, there it is. Fair enough but you probably shouldn’t look at the trailer below if you’re trying to stay spoiler free.

If you avoided the trailer then skip on down to the next news piece but if you don’t care about spoilers then read on.

Like I implied, what I don’t know about Twilight could fill a book so I was quite surprised to see both a wedding and a pregnancy in the trailer, they seem like a lot to be showing straight up in a trailer, but I guess they figure you should know what’s going on by now. And who knows, maybe the situation in the film is way more complicated than what we see in the trailer.

For what it’s worth, it looks like a beautiful wedding.

Abduction

planned release date: 30 Sep 2011

If you can’t wait till November to see the boys of Twilight then you’re in luck. Taylor Lautner makes is debut as a leading man in Abduction next week.

The film is a thriller centered on a young man (Lautner) who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website. Next thing you know, all sorts of shady types are after him while the government are trying to keep him alive – it seems to turns into a Bourne style action flick.

In the last week or so a few new clips from the film have been released. Personally, I think Lautner is a little young to try and wear the action hero mantle but bless ‘im for trying. Robert Pattinson really has the romantic lead on a plate if he wants it so I guess Lautner decided to try a different direction.

The latest clips from Abduction are below – do you think he has a chance being the new Arnold Schwartznegger? What about the new Vin Diesel?

I’ve been doing it for a few months now and I do think it’s kinda funny because I never really do news on the site itself. Anyway, I thought, since I do the prep for it every week anyway, I should probably actually write it up and post it… I’m only about two weeks late posting this but… oh well. I’ll try harder next time!

…So here’s what I decided to highlight on the show on 8th September 2011.

Beetlejuice 2?

planned release date: TBA

From Deadline.com this week came the news that there could be a sequel or reboot or something in the works for the 1988 Tim Burton cult classic Beetlejuice.

The word is that KatzSmith Productions (the production company of David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith) have signed a 2 year deal with Warner Bros. that will see them bring Beetlejuice back to the screen.

For those who are unaware, like I was, Grahame-Smith is the best-selling author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. He currently has two major film projects in production: Dark Shadows – a Tim Burton directed adaptation of the ’60s TV series. It’s filming at the moment and will star Johnny Depp, Chloe Moretz and Jackie Earle Haley, among many others.

The second is the big screen adaptation of his own novel – Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – by Timur Bekmambetov, director of Night Watch, Day Watch and, of course, Wanted

Personally, I loved Beetlejuice and I’m not entirely cool with the current trend of resurrecting classic films and franchises however, I suppose I’m glad to hear it’s not a remake… and… you know what? This guy Seth Grahame-Smith does sound kind of interesting, so if he does end up writing it then, perhaps it will be good? I like to be optimistic.

World War Z

planned release date: 04 Jan 2013

This week we got a tiny look at Brad Pitt’s zombie pandemic flick, World War Z, in the form of a very short unofficial clip from filming. It’s not much to see but it does answer the now obligatory question for zombie films – Are they fast zombies or slow zombies?? It would appear they are fast ones.

I’ve never read the book it’s based on, Max Brook’s World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, but I’ve heard about it for a good while and it really sounds like the kind of thing I’d be into. I do love the ol’ post apocalyptic drama.

Fast zombies are apparently quite a departure from the novel so at this stage we can’t tell how close it will stay to it. The book is basically a look at an alternate future, or rather a look at the past in an alternate future. It’s not exactly a classic narrative but a series of first hand accounts from around the world, gathered by an agent of the “United Nations Post-war Commission” and published a decade after the so-described Zombie War. From what I gather it looks at how the pandemic started, how different nations reacted to it, how it affected certain people. It’s apparently quite a political novel as well, criticising bureaucracy etc. however it’s not clear how much of that will be in the film.

Retreat

planned release date: 14 Oct 11

Small one this, but it looks kind of interesting so I thought I’d bring it to people’s attention. Also it kind of fitted into the (unplanned) undead theme for the week.

It’s a debut feature from writer / director Carl Tibbetts and it stars Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell. Cillian Murphy is a bit of the fave of mine, ever since that other movie about the undead so long ago, weirdly enough this one looks a bit like it.

Murphy and Newton play a couple who have gone to a deserted island for some much needed time to themselves when an injured man (Bell) turns up spouting tales of a plague which has overtaken the rest of the country. Have a look at the trailer and see what you think of it yourself.

First up, if you haven’t heard of this film yet then shame on you. The biggest film of the week, The Expendables.

I have to admit, I stepped up to the hype for this a little late. I heard about it a good few months back but I didn’t really think that much about it. I didn’t like the look of the poster, thought it looked a bit serious and I kept getting it mixed up with The Losers, which I thought looked a bit crap. To be perfectly honest I thought it was going to be just another one of those little crappy action films you see popping up all the time. As a result I missed the fact that Stallone was directing it and that it has the best cast of action legends EVER.

Course when I realised that I was fully on board. I’m a little ashamed that I made those assumptions about it really… but come on! The title isn’t up to much really and the teaser poster didn’t exactly grab the eye. Really! What was a supposed to think?

Fast forward to today (or rather the other day, since I’m late with this) and The Expendables is upon us. Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren? What’s not to get excited about? Ok, Statham is the new kids on the block here but as far as I’m concerned, those Crank films are legendary. Sure some people don’t like them, but those people are wrong.

Now let’s be honest. I’m sure The Expendables isn’t going to be the most intelligent movie in cinemas at the moment… but what I’m hoping is that, with that much muscle on show, it’s going to be the most action packed and hopefully the most fun. Lordi knows action needs it after that mess that was The A-Team.

Oh btw, for those of you who’ve been wonder what Cordelia’s been up to, she’s in this…!

Now, Piranha 3D, on the other hand, I heard about ages ago but I’ve been dying to see it ever since.

Savage prehistoric killer fish. Of course I’m going to see this film. I honestly can’t think of one reason I wouldn’t see this film. The build up to this one has been pretty good too, over the last few months they’ve been releasing tantalisingly gory photos, had NSFW fake website and the director, Alexandre Aja (of Switchblade Romance fame) decided to tell us all that they used 80,000 gallons of fake blood making Piranha. I don’t know how that compares to other films but… it sounds like a lot. It’s a lot right? I think it’s a lot. There’s gonna be a lot of blood in this film. So like I said, why wouldn’t I see this film?

For those wondering about the plot, basically, a whole load of piranhas attack a load of spring break revellers, and Kelly Brook. I assume she’s not meant to be on spring break from college as well… It’s a simple concept, basically a b-movie slasher with killer fish instead of, well, a slasher. I’m off to it this evening so I’ll let yis know how it is on the twitter later.

Other films releasing this week…

Salt – Action spy thriller starring Angelina Jolie. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a spy on the run after being accused of being a KGB double agent. I’ve heard good stuff about this one. I like Jolie and I think she makes a very credible action star so I think this could be one to watch as well. It’s on my list anyway but since the list for this week is fairly long, I’m not sure when I’m going to get a chance to see it. Maybe if it’s still around in a few weeks.

Marmaduke – Family comedy based on the dog-centric comic strip of the same name by Brad Anderson. A nice family moves to a new neighbourhood with their loveable, large and boisterous Great Dane.

The Illusionist – New animated drama from the director of the Oscar-nominated Les Triplettes de Belleville. When a stage performer, one of a dying breed in a world of rock stars, find himself on the fringes of entertainment, he decides he needs to step back to a simpler world. He is living a quiet understated life… till he meets one ardent fan. Looks beautiful.

Mother (Madeo) – I first came across this film when it was featured in the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival earlier this year; in fact I did a little feature on the Korean films which were at the festival. Unfortunately, even though I was dying to see it, I managed to miss it. I was delighted when I heard it was getting a general release. Delighted.

It’s by Bong Joon-ho the director of monster movie, The Host, but more importantly the director of Memories of Murder. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. This is a murder mystery film. I tried to describe in that feature I linked to earlier but I made it sound crap, so I’m not going to bother this time. Basically all you need to know is, it’s a Korean murder mystery. Kind of, I guess. Go see it. Showing exclusively in the IFI.

The Expendables, Piranha, Salt, The Illusionist, Marmaduke and Mother are all in cinemas from Friday 20th August 2010.

So, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Ordinarily I would run a mile from a Nicolas Cage film… but Kick-Ass and The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans have bought him a temporary reprieve. Well ok, I did see Knowing recently (seriously. What was the story with the rabbits?) but since it was on a plane, which isn’t really fair on an action flick, and I had so much fun watching Bad Lieutenant, I’m letting him away with it.

To be honest, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice looks kind of ridiculous.

Nicolas Cage plays a master sourcerer in modern-day Manhatten who decides to recruit an apprentice to help him fight his arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath (played by Alfred Molina). Now this apprentice, (played by Jay Baruchel who starred in the much-funnier-than-i-thought-it-would-be She’s Out of My League) isn’t actually that keen on being a sorcerer but Cage has seen his potential and has put him on a magical crash course whether he likes it or not. Before you know it, our man Jay (or Dave rather) has to save the city, the girl and himself in a deadly magical battle with a girl with shiny eyes, a man with very long nails and the aforementioned Alfred Molina.

Or something like that.

I’m hopeful though that this film will move into that funny space just beyond ridiculous. Good stupid fun.

Despite myself, I’ve really liked all the trailers I’ve seen so far; even though Cage features heavily in them. The effects looks totally cool, Alfred Molina is sufficiently theatrical (which is what you want in a magical evil nemesis) and Cage doesn’t seem to be taking himself too seriously. If it was anyone but Cage I’d be saying go see this film immediately but since it is Cage… well. That said, I never saw National Treasure but I heard it was good so I’m hoping maybe that’s the Nic Cage we’ll get in this one.

Other films releasing this week…

The Last Airbender – I can’t help but notice that M. Night Shyamalan’s name is much smaller on posters than it used to be. This is the biggest film releasing this week but since I’ve heard so many people saying such nasty things about it, and because I don’t want to negative about both the big films out in cinemas today, I thought I’d better not highlight it. I guess it might be a good film, I gather the TV show is very popular amongst kids, but there are plenty of other places you can read about it so I’ll leave it out here. For what it’s worth, it’s a family action adventure flick.

The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) – You may remember this film from such award shows as the 2010 Oscars. I’ve seen this one. It was on the plane on the same trip where I got to watch Knowing. Fortunately for this one, you don’t need a big screen to appreciate the artistry of it.

The Secret in Their Eyes is an Argentinian crime drama. It features some excellent performances from the leads and supports and while, I’m not quite sure if it really deserved the Oscar, it’s definitely a good film. Then again I love the ol’ procedural crime dramas so maybe I’m biased.

Unfortunately you will only be able to see it in The IFI in Temple Bar and The Light House Cinema, Smithfield.

Le Refuge – French drama about a pregnant woman who, after losing her partner to a drug overdose, escapes her life by running to a house far outside Paris. Starring Isabelle Carré. Only playing in, you guessed it, The IFI and The Light House Cinema, Smithfield.

So there you have it. Not much particularly grabbing me there. Well, except for The Secret in Their Eyes, but I’d already seen that. If I’d have known it hadn’t been released here yet I might have held on for the cinema release… but oh well.

Next week is going to be a doozy though. The Expendables, Piranha 3D and maybe, just maybe, this one. Man, I wish they’d moved just one of them into this week. Any one, I’m not fussy.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Last Airbender, The Secret in Their Eyes and Le Refuge are all in cinemas from today, Friday 13th August 2010.

Probably the biggest film this week is the Tom Cruise / Cameron Diaz vehicle – Knight and Day.

Now… I have to be confess, I am not a big fan of Tom Cruise… but he’s grand, I’ll watch him… I am, however, no fan of Cameron Diaz. What can I say? Every time I see her on tv I think she deserves a slap.

This all goes back to that awful bloody travel show she did back in 2005. Trippin’ – where she and her really cool friends went to really cool places to do really cool things and talk about how cool it was to do them. And tell you about the environment. Kind of. Mostly it was about how cool they were. That show made me feel sick. Gah. Look it up on youtube… you won’t thank me.

So… that’s why I was shocked when I saw the trailer for this a couple of months ago and I thought it looked pretty good. I even laughed a few times. Now I’m not trying to say that I think this is going to be a brilliant film. It’s probably not going to be appearing on any top 10 lists any time soon… but it looks like it’s one of the better action comedies to appear in a while. It’s gotta be better than Cop Out, what an waste of time.

Basically, Tom Cruise is some kind of super spy on the run and Diaz gets dragged in somehow. Kind of like Jason Bourne, except less gritty and more funny. Yer man from Buffy is in it as well, Marc Blucas, he played Finn. I wondered what he was up to these days. Actually there’s a pretty decent supporting cast – Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Grace (Lost) and Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) all appear.

Anyway, like I said. I thought the trailer looked pretty funny and there were some great looking explosions so I think there’s probably enough there to keep action fans amused… Then again, I did see a lot of Cameron Diaz in the trailer so personally, I’ll probably stay away… But, I reckon that as long as you aren’t expecting too much and you can stand the sight of Diaz and Cruise, then it could be a bit of a laugh.

Second this week is Step Up 3D.

I’ve never seen a dance movie before. I’ve never even seen Dirty Dancing… But I’ve always imagined that, while the plots might leave much to be desired, the dancing would be amazing. I also presume that if the Step Up franchise has managed to get to a third film then either it’s got a good story or it’s got some fantastic dancing…

Given the IMDb ratings for the last two installments I suspect it’s probably the latter.

No matter though. As long as it’s got the dancing I’m up for it – I may not watch dance movies but I’ve spent enough hours watching So You Think You Got To Dance With The Stars to have a fair idea of what’s hot and what’s not in dance these days…

And let’s face it, you already know if you’re going to Step Up 3D. This film has a built in audience. I imagine that anyone who watches those shows should be on for this. The trailer looks class, the 3D is supposed to be excellent and for about €11 (depending on 3D prices in your local cinema) you get to see some of the best dancers around, probably some of the best in the world. Cheaper than going to a live show so you can’t really complain.

I have to admit I do wonder where all these dance shows came from though. They seem to be everywhere these days. I guess you could probably trace this recent outbreak back to when the likes of Britney Spears and *NSYNC were established and wowing VMA audiences around the world…

I loved *NSYNC, I’m not ashamed of that. I still think their performance at the 2000 VMAs was brilliant. Remember when people used to sing and dance live? Bloody hell, I can’t believe it was 10 years ago though… But anyway, as far as I can see, it’s only really been in the last few years that we’ve seen proper dance crews on TV as performers in their own right. It makes sense though… 10 years for people to grow up with it, establish it on it’s own footing, make movies and then TV shows about it… sounds like a possible life cycle right?

I could go on waffling a little longer but instead I’ll just leave you with this. To mark the release of Step Up 3D here Universal Pictures Ireland got in touch with some of Ireland’s own dance crews; led by Gillian Deegan they created a dance to one of the songs off the Step Up 3D soundtrack – ‘This Instant’ by Sofia Fresh feat. T.Pain. Enjoy.

Other films releasing this week…

I’ve gone on too long already so I’ll be brief.

Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore – Family film. Follow up to 2001′s surprise success Cats and Dogs. The international Cat and Dog networks find they have to team up to take on their mutual enemy. Kitty Galore.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky – another biopic about Coco Chanel. This one starts just after where the Audrey Tautou one left off and, unsurprisingly, it’s about her affair with Russian musician and conductor Igor Stravinsky.

Undertow – Peruvian drama with a supernatural twist. It’s about a married fisherman, outwardly he has a happy life however he is concealing an affair with a male lover. I’m probably not going to do this justice in a couple of lines but it actually looks really good. It won the Audience Award in it’s category at Sundance, over such excellent competition as Four Lions, and it’s rated highly on the websites that matter. Showing in The Screen on D’Olier Street in Dublin only.

Knight and Day, Step Up 3D, Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Coco & Igor and Undertow are all in Irish cinemas from today, Friday 6th August 2010.

I had never seen it before but those of you who’ve read this blog before will know that I’m quite into horror films. I wouldn’t be up on the classic horror films though so it was great to have the opportunity to see one in a cinema.

As you may or may not know, back in the 1920s – 1940s Universal ruled the roost when it came to horror films. They created a whole series of Universal monsters on film all the way from The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923 to Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931 and The Wolf Man and beyond in the ’40s.

Watching the original Wolf Man in 2010 was an enjoyable experience. The one thing that stood out was how much film and in particular acting for film has changed in the last 70 odd years. Not that I’m saying there was anything wrong with the film or the acting. It was just of a different time. This was a horror story not told through shock or gory violence but through atmosphere. I’d heard of Lon Chaney Jr. before but I’d never seen him in action. He was great. Further research proves that he suffered from typecasting after The Wolf Man which is a pity, he really had great screen presence.

Was it a good film though? I thought so, very entertaining. Obviously it has dated somewhat, it’s been 70 years folks, but I don’t hold that against it at all. Ok, being honest there were some parts that were pretty funny. It’s hard to know now if people were genuinely scared of the film at the time. I’d like to think that people were though, as well as finding some parts funny. I loved all the mad old biddys in it, particularly the gypsy woman. Also it had a pure cool silver topped walking stick in it. I think I could really use a cool walking stick… If you think it sounds like the kind of thing you’d be into then I’d definitely recommend giving it a look.

All of this, of course, is a precursor to Universal’s new version of The Wolfman that’s coming out in Ireland on February 12th 2010. It stars Benicio Del Toro in the titular Lon Chaney role as well as Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving and Emily Blunt. Two Oscar winners and a Golden Globe winner there, so a strong cast.

Having seen the trailer it looks as though they are going back to a more traditional style of horror story telling but with the level of special effects that we have come to expect these days. The look and feel of film reminds me a little of Sleepy Hollow; this is a good thing in my mind. I’m sure there’ll be a bit of gore thrown in and it does look as though they are slightly changing and fleshing out the plot a bit more but that’s cool. I for one am looking forward to seeing what they do with it and I hope you are too.

The Wolfman is releasing in cinemas all over Ireland on February 12th 2010.

The Wolf Man (1941) is available on DVD as part of the Universal Legacy and Universal Studios Classic Monster collections.

Finally I want to say thanks to the folks at Universal Pictures and Simply Zesty for a great night. I hope people will still be watching and enjoying the remake of The Wolf Man in another 70 years.

Anyway, it’s been 19 months or so since the first film and we’re getting are first look at the follow up, the imaginatively titled Sex and the City 2. Then again, at least you know what you’re getting with that title, Quantum of Solace as a James Bond title, on the other hand was just confusing.

Provided you liked the first one, it a pretty decent trailer. I see designer outfits, I see beautiful locations, I see glamour and I see Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. What more do you need to know about a Sex and the City film. Obviously the plot is completely under wraps at the moment so they’re not going to be showing us any of that just yet. The release date is 28th May 2010 anyway so it’s probably a bit early for that, maybe we’ll hear more around March / April ’10.

You can see the trailer at the official Sex and the City 2 website.