movie news: Beetlejuice 2, World War Z and Retreat

Unless you’re a fan on the facebook page you probably don’t know this… but I actually do a weekly movie news spot on Cinerama, the movie show on Phantom 105.2. If you’re not in Dublin you can listen to the show live online on the website or through the iPhone or Android apps. Oh, it’s at 7pm Irish time on a Thursday.

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.

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.

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.

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.