Movies – Page 215 – StuffWeLike

Goosebumps Headed for the Big Screen!

Sony Pictures will be doing the big screen version of R.L. Stine’s hugely popular Goosebumps line of books. I’ve read dozens of these as a kid, so I have a reason to be excited, you know. There are 62 books in all, written over the years 1992 through 1997. That’s a lot of content to pick from, almost as much as a comic book franchise.

Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander have been signed on for writing the screenplay. This early, we have no idea on which story will be adapted. If you ask me though, an anthology or a series of loosely connected segments wouldn’t be such a bad idea either, considering the source material.

The tone of the movies is also up for debate. Goosebumps is largely a children’s horror series, which means that you can’t have anything overly horrific or sadistic. For quick reference, they are nothing like Saw or Hostel. The point is, which was the last horror movie you saw that looked like it was perfectly safe for an 11-year old?

Still, the Goosebumps series can perhaps be best appreciated for its eerie settings and the situations that the protagonists encounter. While the resolutions may end up being a bit cheesy or mild, they definitely get you thinking on what Hollywood could do with them and a bit of gore and dark stuff.

Let’s just see how this turns out, then.

Kevin Smith Vouches the Watchmen

Everyone’s having doubts about this. Zack Snyder is doing risky business by adapting to film the greatest graphic novel of all time. Will he succeed? Nobody can be sure, because you can’t have the film take too many liberties from the novel, and you can’t capture all the subliminal hints and qualities of the novel fully in the film.

In any case, Kevin Smith, dude extraordinaire, has watched the Watchmen (don’t worry, the use of that pun is going to increase exponentially as we approach March 2009). A paltry NDA stops him from saying anything, but he definitely has words to share about the experience:

“I saw Watchmen. It’s fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. have pulled it off. Remember that feeling of watching Sin City on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you’ll come close to watching Watchmen. Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book. March can’t come soon enough.”

Now I am one of the pitiable souls who has not watched Sin City yet, but I can tell that the guy is saying that it’s going to be a great movie. I don’t know how many changes will be made to the movie upto release date, though. It’s still a good 7 months or so away, so you never know. Still, seeing Smith’s reaction, I think we can all expect something extreme.

J.J. Abrams doing Cloverfield: Earthquake?

After awing the cellphone-owning world with this year’s Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams will be looking into another disaster movie. Except this time, we won’t have any mysterious monsters. This time, it’s all going to be natural, ’cause Abrams will be doing an Earthquake film.

Signed on is David Seltzer, who will be writing the script with Abrams. Seltzer can be best known for his scripwriting expertise on all of the Omen movies (yes, even the crappy new remake). As usual, since this is a fresh announcement, we have very little knowledge of what the movie itself will be about other than earthquakes.

Abrams hints that relationships will be at the core, like in Cloverfield. While I can’t imagine a disaster movie that doesn’t involve emotions (Day After Tomorrow, perhaps?), Abrams did a decent job on Cloverfield, so I’m hoping for something here. Still, a notch higher than Cloverfield would be appreciated.

We’ve also no confirmation that the movie will use the handycam-style from Cloverfield, but that’s just some wishful thinking on my part. I mean seriously, that style makes all standard disaster movies look outdated.

Of course, still no info on Cloverfield 2. Perhaps Abrams is secretly developing it under the guise of this earthquake movies? Perhaps a viral marketing campaign will reveal clues? The mystery never stops!

Is “The Dark Knight” Cursed? Five Reasons to Ponder

The latest Batman blockbuster, The Dark Knight, is on its way to beating Titanic as the top-grossing movie of all time. But at what cost? Over the course of the production and after its premiere, it seems as if the main cast of The Dark Knight has some sort of curse on them. No, not some voodoo, Magic: The Gathering sort of curse, let’s just say a streak of bad luck.

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