Just forget the words and sing along

Friday, November 16, 2007

The Latest on my Favourite Filmmakers

Wow, no blog entries for a week? I must have a life or something....

Anyway, some big announcements in movie news this week. Firstly, one of the most anticipated announcements for us Kevin Smith geeks...Smith has finally revealed who'll be playing Zack and Miri in his next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Zack will be played by Seth Rogan. Rogan, of course, one of the rising young stars of comedy, having starred in The 40-Year Old Virgin, this past summer's Knocked Up, and the forthcoming Star Wars homage Fanboys. Smith has been an admirer of Rogan's for some time now...in fact, when I saw Smith in Edmonton a year and a half ago, Smith made it quite public that he wanted to work with Rogan some day.

Meanwhile, Miri will be played by on-the-verge-of-superstardom Elizabeth Banks. Banks was also in The 40-Year Old Virgin as the hot bookstore clerk who had a memorable scene in a bathtub. She's currently on screen as a hot elf in Fred Claus. But to my fellow geeks, she will always be remembered as a scene-stealingly cute Betty Brant in the Spider-Man films.

Of course, the role of Miri already has some infamy about it...Smith has made it quite public that he originally wrote the role for Rosario Dawson. Dawson had to turn down Smith, having already committed to another film. The tabloids tried to make it out like there was a huge tiff between Smith and Dawson, but Smith just shrugged and went, "that's just the way this business is."

For those who don't remember, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is about two lifelong (platonic) friends from high school who decide that the best way to get out of debt is to make a porn movie, starring themselves. But, of course, along the way, they really fall in love with each other and hilarity ensues.

Smith starts filming in January for a release around this time next year.




Meanwhile, my other favourite filmmaker, Tim Burton, has also announced his next few projects.

First up, Burton is hopping on the performance capture bandwagon, and will be giving us a performance capture version of Alice in Wonderland.

when that's done, Burton is going to give us another stop-motion animated epic. Burton's next film is going to be stop-motion animated remake of his 1984 short film, Frankenweenie. For those who've never seen Frankenweenie, it's really cool. It's a parody of Frankenstein. But in this version, Victor Frankenstein is a 12-year old boy, and his monstrous creation is his cute little, recently deceased puppy dog. It's available as a bonus feature on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD.

Burton's latest film, a movie version of the musical Sweeney Todd, comes out Christmas day.

No comments: