Any news about upcoming Henry Selick projects is good news. Except when it’s bad news. Like the news yesterday that his latest film– The Shadow King— came to a halt after it lost funding not once, but twice, and from two entirely separate sources. That’s pretty much the definition of a “king bummer” right there, at least if you ask me. The one-two punch started first when Disney yanked its funding from The Shadow King after deeming it “too dark” for their liking, even though production had already commenced, and continued when Laika– the studio Selick parted ways with in 2009 to work with Disney in the first place– offered…
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'Warm Bodies' and the 'Twilight' Factor
We’ve passed the point where adapting young adult novels has become a simple trend in cinema, so pointing out the increase in proliferation of YA movie adaptations since 2008 is something of a pointless exercise. Of course YA has won its own cinematic categorization and earned the boon of increased cultural prominence; the success of Twilight alone justifies its ascendance, which started as a slow burn before recently erupting with a massive slate of releases for 2013 (notably: Beautiful Creatures, The Mortal Instruments, The Host, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters) and beyond (Vampire Academy, The Night Circus, Matched, and of course further installments in…
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Chris Pratt Leaving Seal Team Six, Joining the Guardians of the Galaxy
We’ve been running around casting rumors about Guardians of the Galaxy for over a month now, and while we have an idea of who may (or, of course, may not) be filling out secondary roles, no progress has been made in casting the film’s lead— until now. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a warm welcome and a round of applause to Chris Pratt, our new Star Lord. Reading that sentence fills me with a sense of bemusement even more than the idea that Jim Carrey and/or Adam Sandler might be involved with a James Gunn-directed superhero picture. Andy Dwyer? Star Lord? If you asked Dwyer himself whether or not he’d want…