Film at Eleven

Sina.com (via) is reporting that Donnie Yen is currently in talks to take the lead in a Bruce Lee movie biography, initiated by Lee’s four brothers and sisters.

The project’s financial backer demands the actor plying Bruce Lee must be a Chinese, a real martial-artist, a good actor and someone has Hollywood experience. According to the website, Donnie Yen is very much interested in playing Bruce Lee.

I’m not entirely convinced about this. Donnie Yen’s Hollywood experience really doesn’t add up to much at all, and why is this important anyway? As far as acting goes… he’s not the greatest actor in the world, is he?

True, he is a real martial artist and this - of course - does matter if you are making a Bruce Lee biopic, but it’s not the be all and end all of the role. I can’t help feeling that the project’s financial backer has simply leapt towards the first person who’s reasonably young, reasonably competent and not completely unheard of.

They would be better off going with a complete unknown.

I briefly mentioned Jonathan King’s horror/comedy, Black Sheep way back in October.

Black Magic (via) has more…

Henry Oldsworth is coming back to the family farm — unaware that something baaaad is going on: his brother’s reckless genetic engineering program. Angus is buying is younger brother out, just hours ahead of the unveiling of his ‘ultimate sheep. Terrified of sheep and closed up on therapy, Henry doesn’t want to hang around.

But when a pair of inept environmental activists release a mutant lamb from Angus’s laboratory into the wild, thousands of sheep are turned into bloodthirsty predators. Henry finds himself stranded deep on the farm as his worst nightmare comes to life.

Battling their way to safety, Henry, farmhand Tucker and greenie girl Experience discover there’s worse to come: one bite from an infected sheep transforms people into weresheep!

With Angus infected and sprouting wool, a delegation of international investors gathering at the homestead and a hungry flock descending from the hills, Henry must find the farmer within to defeat his brother, take control of the farm and save New Zealand’s pastures green.

They also have a stack of photos and some very striking concept art. How can you not love a film about killer sheep?

And, following on from the last post, JoBlo has seen the poster for Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse segment, Death Proof

Solace in Cinema (via) have seen a pair of incredible looking posters for Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez half of the Grindhouse double feature.

I am really looking forward to this film.

Chuck Bowman’s The Tooth Fairy is due to be released on August 8th by Anchor Bay and looks like it could be a lot of fun… especially if you have any kids who are about to lose their teeth.

Remember the innocence of putting a tooth under a pillow at night and finding it mysteriously transformed into a reward the next morning? My, how times have changed…Anchor Bay Entertainment, an IDT Entertainment Company, extracts the dark side of a beloved childhood ritual with The Tooth Fairy! Co-written and produced by legendary producer Stephen J. Cannell (“The A Team”, “Hunter”, “Profit”, “21 Jump Street”) and featuring such horror alums as P.J. Soles (Halloween, The Devil’s Rejects) and Jesse Hutch (Freddy Vs. Jason) , The Tooth Fairy turns the innocent fairy tale into the ultimate nightmare! Presented uncut with never-before-seen footage, The Tooth Fairy also offers bonus features, including an audio commentary and behind-the-scenes interviews, that viewers can really sink their teeth into! Open wide for The Tooth Fairy on August 8, 2006 , with an SRP of $19.98. Pre-book date is June 28th.

Directed by Chuck Bowman from a teleplay by Stephen J. Cannell, Corey Strode and Cookie Rae Brown and starring Carrie Fleming (“Masters of Horror: Dario Argento’s Jenifer”), The Tooth Fairy rips to shreds the whimsical icon. Amid the idyllic splendor of the Northern California woods, a quaint country inn offers respite for the weary traveler. It also harbors a dark secret. Almost sixty years earlier, it was the crumbling home of a malevolent witch who lured in children, stole their teeth, butchered their bodies, and cursed their souls to wander the earth forever. Now, the witch’s slumber has been disturbed, and her vengeful spirit seeks the slaughter of all who stay there. And for one eleven -year-old girl with a loose molar and an active imagination, the ultimate horror begins with a visit from The Tooth Fairy…

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The character posters for each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are now online at SuperHeroHype (via).

On the whole they look pretty striking, although I’m not too sure about the Michaelangelo one.

The plot outline for 28 Weeks Later… has been revealed by Digital Spy (via)

The film picks up six months after the Rage virus has decimated the city of London. The U.S. Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection, wreaking havoc on the entire population.

This film is the sequel to Danny Boyle’s excellent 28 Days Later and will be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the man behind Intacto.

Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales garnered less than stellar reviews, so it’s good to see the director taking a sideways step into the horror genre with The Box.

In the film, which Kelly wrote with Eli Roth a troubled married couple finds a small wooden box on their doorstep. They open it and become wealthy instantly. What they do not know, however, is that opening the box also instantly kills somebody they don’t know.

Eli Roth was originally slated to direct the film but with Hostel 2 and Cell (probably) on his plate, Kelly has agreed to take over.

This is good. The Nightmare Before Christmas is to get a 3D touch up and a re-release in October.

Scribble King has the full size poster.

Guy Ritchie has signed on to direct yet another gangster caper.

The British film-maker is to direct Static, the story of a wrongly imprisoned gangster who must testify against the bent cops who put him behind bars. Standing in the way to the courthouse, however, is an assortment of crooked policemen and rival criminals who’d rather he shut up.

I have to admit that the plot of getting someone from police custody to a courthouse sounds rather familiar.