The genres include romance, comedy, and family melodrama, and primarily satirical type of comedy is portrayed in European Cinemas.  The strong story lines are either taken from leading and best-selling novels and sometimes the entire film is poetical.

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The Dark Knight Rises Could Occupy Wall Street

According to the Hollywood Reporter, LaNasa, whose recent TV credits include Two and a Half Men and Big Love, is set to play the role of Will Ferrell’s wife in Dog Fight, a political comedy that also stars Zach Galifianakis. This news follows the recent announcement that Sarah Baker was joining the cast and set to play Zach Galifianakis’ wife.

While the above role puts her in funnier territory, it doesn’t sound like The Frozen Ground will be any laughing matter. The film, which stars John Cusack, Nicolas Cage, Vanessa Hudgens, and 50 Cent, is based on a true story about a girl who teams up with an Alaskan state trooper to track down the serial killer who tried to murder her. John Cusack plays serial killer Robert Hansen, a man who lives a seemingly normal life when he isn’t capturing young girls and letting them loose in the woods where he then hunts and kills them. LaNasa has been cast to play Hansen’s wife. Whether or not this is a big role remains to be seen, however it does sound like an interesting one, assuming Hansen’s wife is unaware of what her husband is up to.

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Katherine LaNasa Cast In Dog Fight And The Frozen Ground

The Delorean Motor Company, DMC, have unveiled and allowed media test drives of their new DMCEV, a relatively high powered electric version of the classic 80s Delorean made famous by Doc Brown and Marty McFly. This new model won’t travel anywhere in time, but with 200hp and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds it’ll get you anywhere in this timeline in a hurry, without needing the qualifier “for an electric car”. Jalopnik’s Kevin McCauley got to spend some time with the weighty car saying that it remains true to its 1980s Delorean roots, but comes with modern conveniences like a built in iPod dock, presumably so you can blast Alan Silvestri’s iconic score.

DMC is working with electric car company Epic EV and with Flux Power (fitting) to develop a strong battery that will take it farther than the current parameters which limit the DMCEV to “70 miles comfortably and 100 if driven extra efficiently” per charge. The team has prototypes in road tests and car shows, but a finalized version of the vehicle won’t go into production until 2013, so start saving now.

As expected, the gullwing doors are still present in this new model, but lacks some of the other modifications we remember from Back to the Future. I can’t wait for the day when one of these passes me on the highway with a Mr. Fusion sticking out the top and a flux capacitor in the back seat. That will be awesome.

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A.M. Awesome: DMC To Produce Electric Deloreans In 2013

Short Circuit, the series about Johnny 5, a robot with a heart of gold, has been set for a remake at Dimension since late 2009, and earlier this spring director Tim Hill came on board. Hill’s most recent hit Hop made $183 million worldwide, but his most impressive credit, for the young at heart like myself, is the 29 episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life that he wrote. He’s also been writing for Spongebob Squarepants.

A part of a feature on Guttenberg, LA Times learned recently that Fisher Stevens, who played the eccentric scientist who created Johnny 5 in the original Short Circuit, has been contacted by the studio and is willing to reprise his role for the remake. Nothing is penned, but it’s a strong possibility that the slightly racist character of Ben Jabituya will return, albeit less racist this time around. But even with his 80’s box office pull, Steve Gutenberg, the original film’s star, has not gotten that same call. Clearly interested in returning, The Gute had this to say about what happens in these situations:
Stevens has been keeping busy recently not only as an actor, but he also produced The Cove which won best documentary at the 2009 Academy Awards. Not many people will know him by name, but his proverbial “that guy” status may be enough to garner a little interest in the film. More on Short Circuit as the film nears production.

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Short Circuit Remake Wants Fisher Stevens To Return, But Less Racist This Time

Now you can add a third set of toys to that list, and like the G.I. Joes, they’re from the Hasbro family. Deadline reports that Reese and Wernick have been set to write a film based on the toy line Micronauts, for producer J.J. Abrams and Paramount Pictures. The movie was mentioned yesterday in the early news about plans for a Transformers 4, and while it’ll be a while before the Micronauts are bigger news than the return of the Autobots, their existence in development means Hasbro is still really, really serious about turning as many of their toys as possible into movies.

None of Reese and Wernick’s films beyond Zombieland have made it to theaters, so its unclear so far how their personal voices will translate when speaking for giant multi-national franchises. And really, Micronauts is such a blank slate, a little-known toy line with not even a fraction of the back story assigned to the Transformers, that they could potentially do whatever they want with it. But it is a little sad to see two fresh new voices emerge in screenwriting, only to launch right into the remake and franchise machine that so often sucks the life out of screenplays. Hopefully Reese and Wernick have been toiling away these last two years at breaking the mold.

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Zombieland Writers Reese And Wernick Handling The Micronauts Movie

Remakes of vintage properties were attempted, and we don’t appear to be out of those woods just yet. Craig Brewer’s Footloose, the most recent, performed admirably at the box office last weekend, and updates on such films as Dirty Dancing and National Lampoon’s Vacation are on the horizon, whether we want them or not. But the recent trend on studio production slates actually suggests that prequels – not remakes – are the new sequels. Get used to it.


 Between now and this point next year, there are roughly 8 to 10 prequels heading to theaters to join the likes of last weekend’s The Thing, a lead-in for John Carpenter’s 1982 classic, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a back story for exactly the movie it sounds like. We’ll have two new prequels — Paranormal Activity 3 and the animated Puss In Boots — in theaters before October’s over!

Revisiting a beloved character’s early years isn’t a fresh concept. As early as 1955, author C.S. Lewis turned back the clock on his Chronicles of Narnia series to explore the story’s beginnings in The Magician’s Nephew. Though it was the sixth book in the ongoing series, it was the first chronological chapter in the story. Others have followed that lead. Francis Ford Coppola couldn’t bring back Marlon Brando’s deceased Don Corleone for his Godfather: Part II, but he did cast a young Robert De Niro for a subplot that allowed him to explore Vito’s rise to power. Steven Spielberg, who gets chastised for whiffing on Crystal Skull, gets bonus point for introducing us to young Indiana Jones in the opening sequence of The Last Crusade. (The late River Phoenix even deserves an induction into my imaginary Hall of Fame for his spot-on Harrison Ford impersonation.) And who could forget the most animated prequel of all time, the Muppet Babies?

Animated prequels will continue. Unsure where to head with the Monsters Inc. story, Pixar animators are heading back to school with Monsters University to explain how Sully (John Goodman) met Mike (Billy Crystal). The beauty of only needing those actors’ voices means you can devise younger versions of beloved characters without having to digitally de-age a popular performer (which usually comes off looking creepy).

Other franchises aren’t so lucky. Peter Jackson and Ridley Scott have had to repopulate their series with fresh faces as they tell The Hobbit and Prometheus, respectively. Both are prequels to classic movie franchises in The Lord of the Rings and Alien, and both will attempt to expand on the existing story with chapters that occur before the action we’ve already seen.


 Prequels aren’t replacing sequels and remakes altogether. We still have Men In Black 3, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Dark Knight Rises, Step Up 4, The Bourne Legacy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, a new Total Recall, The Expendables 2 … you get the idea. But now, when people want to complain that there are no new ideas coming out of Hollywood anymore, they can add “prequels” to the list of reasons they’re disappointed in the industry’s weekly output. Or maybe I’m wrong. Do you like prequels? Are they a legitimate excuse for re-entering a particular franchise? And if prequels are inevitable, which existing series would you like to see a filmmaker explore? Let us know in the poll below and in the comments, and come back tomorrow for the CB Staff’s take on the prequels we’d actually like to see– including some of the real ones mentioned in this story already.

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Why Prequels Are The New Sequels

Juraj Jakubisko – Director
I decided to make this film because Countess Elizabeth Bathory is the most famous Austro-Hungarian aristocrat that lived in what is Slovakia today. She is so well known that she is also included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most prolific mass murderer, a legend I personally believe is not true. She supposedly murdered 650 people during her lifetime. I think this theory is absurd and thought of creating my own legend, which would show her in a completely different light, very tender, and tenderness is related to art… The film is essentially a mix of genres. What is interesting about this story is that it doesn’t even lack humour and it is also a kind of crime story as there are two monks investigating what is actually going on with Bathory. But there is also political intrigue, and the drama of an intelligent woman too weak to face all the odds she had to face… It is the story of a woman, Elizabeth Bathory, who, in short, was unfortunate to have been born at the wrong time in history…

Deana Jakubisková – Producer
Financing of the production is definitely the most difficult problem. The fact that we are actually filming locally but involved in an international co-production is increasing the budget: we have to keep certain production standards and criteria of an international production. The crew is working under different terms in an international production and this only adds to the total cost. Historical films are very demanding financially and that alone explains why our budget is so high. On the other hand, I believe that, in Europe, we are still committed to making films with reasonable budgets – if our film was to be shot outside Europe it might have cost $100-120m. We are filming in Slovakia and Czech Republic, but not in Hungary. Hungary is just part of the co-production. That is also because the story actually took place in what is today Slovakia, even if Bathory was Hungarian. As for the renaissance castle interiors, these are filmed in the Czech Republic but we had to re-create the underground part of Bathory’s castle in Bratislava’s Koliba Studios. It’s funny, but if we hadn’t done so our actors might have walked off and abandoned us. Because when the temperature outside is, for instance, 40 degrees, in a real castle, in the catacombs it can be as low as three degrees…

Kevan Van Thompson – Line Producer
Bathory is certainly the biggest international production made in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is a co-production with UK and Hungary and it is under the Eurimages banner as well. When you’re shooting entirely in the Czech and Slovak Republics it is quite difficult. But we have quite a few English-speaking people on board and of the leading four actors, three are English and one of them is Czech – Karel Roden, who is a great international star as well. In terms of how big it is really though, it is probably the most ambitious film that’s ever been shot here. The period and the fact that there a lot of international stars makes it much more difficult than shooting just a Czech-language film. We are also using a lot of Czech actors that have to speak very good English; otherwise we’d have to re-dub the whole film. We also have a dialogue coach from the UK for the main stars and we have a dialogue coach to look after all the Czech actors, so they’re here all the time, working night and day to make sure that the over 100 speaking parts all speak enough English to be able to keep it a proper English-language movie.

Anna Friel – Actress
I play Elizabeth Bathory, who is a real historical character, but we tell a very different story, we think she is very misjudged and she wasn’t guilty of all the crimes attributed to her. There is a lot of folklore and Bathory is a strong, warrior-like heroine who has a duty to her marriage and her country, which stretched from the borders over Moravia all the way to the Adriatic Sea, and she basically had to do it single-handedly. This is the first time I’ve ever made a movie with a director that doesn’t speak any English, but I’m enjoying it immensely. I think the entire Czech crew we have are the hardest workers I’ve ever come across. We’re doing mad hours, like 16 hours a day, and they’ve been so collaborative and so helpful and warm; and the translation has been fantastic. It is very complicated, the story spans over 25 years – in the morning we’re doing chapter one and in the afternoon we may be doing chapter three when she was 54 and we all have to stick together and I think the English blending with the Czech is working quite nicely. Europe is beautiful. I think the nicest thing is that they are still paying attention to making films look beautiful, which is quite rare these days.

Jiri Mádl – Actor
I play Cyril, a young monk who is taught by Peter, the older monk. He is still a boy looking for new beauty and exploring life – he’s more a boy than a monk. They’re like spies, they’re working for the monastery and arguing because I support Elizabeth Bathory and Peter is against her; but we work together. I still have to travel between Prague and Bratislava because I’m doing another film in Prague, so I always have to jump from one city to the other, from a contemporary film to a historical film, from Czech to English; so, it’s really difficult. I think this is a big chance for me, and a big challenge, because the roles I’ve played before have been absolutely different. And I’m also happy to play in a film “older” than my previous or present ones; it is also historical and in English so there’s the extra challenge. Maybe it’s more difficult because it is in English but we are still practicing and training. I hope it will help the film because it will be more international.

Lucie Vondracková – Actress
My name is Lucy like in real life, and I’m Countess Bathory’s maid. I like her very much and… I survive. From my point of view, from Lucy’s point of view, Bathory is the greatest person in the world… I like it because the script isn’t about the legend; the script is about how it could have been. This is the third film I’m making do with Juraj Jakubisko and in every film that we’ve made together I was crystal and pure in the film – just like here. So, if you can imagine the renaissance era and the evil things being done around Bathory – I’m absolutely the opposite. Here, what I find tough is that you’re around many people from the Czech Republic, they always speak our language, Czech, but I have to act in English, which drives me crazy…

Darko Mitrevski – Director
The story of Bal-Can-Can is based on an urban legend about an old woman rode in a stolen carpet. I have heard about that story, like ten years ago maybe. And in those times I considered it like a true story that really happened to some people. And then I found the same story not only in Macedonia, but in Serbia, in Hungary, in Croatia, in Romania– all over Balkans. And at the end, I found an article written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In that article he mentions the story of a grandmother — that grandmother rode in a stolen carpet… the story he heard about in Columbia, France, Viet Nam. Of course, we did a little make up so I invented the background of it, actions that begin like fifty years ago and then in present times
I also use it to tell the story of the Balkan underground– criminal underground today. Like a comic version of (and not only comic because it ends pretty seriously) to tell the story about the corruption, the story of crime, the story of little people lost in the time of crime.

Giacobbe Gamberini – Editor
I immediately started to collaborate on the film. The script was not yet finished. I met the filmmaker here in Rome, he told me about his script project and then our collaboration started. I proposed to work as an editor to the director and the production and I then started to follow the project especially because it isn’t exclusively in Italian. It’s a film in several foreign languages, in Macedonian, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegran… We could think indeed that there is only one language in the Balcans, the situation is however quite identical to ours regardind the linguistic variety, perhaps even more since there are distinct languages with totally different roots.
I asked them to be able to follow the shooting in order to be well-prepared for the editing. I handled a bit the publishing, I contributed to the “continuity” during the shooting, I became sub-editor. I appropriated each dialogue. They translated from Cyrillic to English and I translated from English to Italian and I then reached the editing stage while knowing each picture.

Sandro Verdecchi – Producer
It begun by chance. I have been invited to a film festival in Macedonia, in Skopje and I happened to meet this young Macedonian screenwriter, Darko Mitrevski. He told me his idea, he did not even handed over a script and I told him to write one. He did it in a few days time and I must say his originality and freshness convinced me. His script was different from those I usually get. I trusted him in the sense that I could not foresee what would have happened next but the script sounded to be a good project. As a director he was in the same wavelength than the script since the project is very original, it exactly reflects the script. It is grotesque, it reveals a historical and social period for Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Albania and all the neighbouring countries involved in that war. It is a story which demystifies, a grotesque story as I already said, that strongly underlines the film originality.