Raw, gripping suspense and intricate, apolitical authenticity make The Hurt Locker the best narrative about the continuing war in Iraq.  The film is immersive in setting and story, while they both develop through each careful shot.  Director Kathryn Bigelow went to great lengths to reenact the tense reality of combat, the physical and emotional stresses of deployment, and the unquestionable bravery of American soldiers.  She was successful on all three missions.

Bigelow embedded her cast and crew in the Middle East to shoot the film as close to the conflict overseas as possible.  The gritty cinematography and dusty locations create the feeling of sand in your shoes and intense heat on your skin.  Cast members grunt and sweat under 70-pound equipment in sweltering 100-degree temperatures.  Sounds of heavy machinery rolling into place fill the eerie silence when the citizens and livestock vacate the blast zone.  Luckily hand-held cameras capture everything for you.

The plot is more of a series of missions focused on a bomb squad counting down their last days in Iraq.  Screenwriter and journalist Mark Boal shadowed an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team before writing the magazine article the script is based on, picking up the lingo and the atmosphere first hand.  Jeremy Renner, who plays Staff Sergeant William James, trained with an EOD squad before putting boots on the ground.  This is a taut example that the best stories come from real life, not the media’s typical, filtered version of the truth.

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Something happened to movies in the past few decades where good ideas started to disappear.  Characters played by solid actors have given way to special effects and CGI.  You don’t see a mega action hero like Arnold Schwarzenegger anymore or even an A-list star like Tom Cruise drawing crowds.  It’s all about recognizing the nostalgia in the flimsy source, not the talent involved in adapting it.

When studios began risking hundreds of millions on blockbuster titles, they minimized potential disasters by churning out sequels and adapting well-known properties.  It has worked for quite a while, selling it back to the public as more of what they paid to see before.  Comic books and video games dominated the silver screen until the major names were squeezed.  Then studios moved to toys, cartoons, and board game movies.  Which brings us to the next bad idea: Arcade games.  Because it worked so well with Street Fighter, right?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures is bringing the Atari game Asteroids to the big screen. That’s right, the same studio willing to turn Candyland and Stretch Armstrong into the next marketable movie is steering the controls on this new, plot-free game-to-movie.  What’s worse is they won a four studio bidding war for this crap, meaning other companies thought “Oh man, we have to buy that!”  Lorenzo di Bonaventura (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is producing.

I thought Universal would just grab a science fiction script and change the name, but I guess I was wrong.  Newcomer Matthew Lopez (The Sorceror’s Apprentice) has been tasked with turning the 30-year-old game about a spinning spaceship shooting rocks into an epic adventure for all ages.  Hopefully he does a good job because we wouldn’t want Nicolas Cage looking silly again (you know he’ll be all over this).  Michael Bay, Universal will be calling you to make basically Armageddon 2.  Don’t worry, it has explosions.

After a few rumored choices on a short list of directors, producer Robert Rodriguez has selected his pick to film Predators.  Fox and Rodriguez have narrowed the position down to Nimrod Antal (Vacancy).  (If you’re wondering about the first name, it’s Hungarian.)

In an interview with AICN, Rodriguez said he didn’t base his decision on the hotel thriller but on Antal’s upcoming heist movie Armored, which stars Laurence Fishburne, Milo Ventimiglia (from “Heroes”), Matt Dillon, and Jean Reno.  Antal’s ability to handle the cast and action while making it look “effortless” is what Rodriguez was looking for in telling this “character driven action movie.”  He even compared the relatively new director to Quentin Tarantino.

While Antal will be managing the shot-by-shot arrangements, Rodriguez’s position will be very “hands on” as the production gets underway here in Austin, Texas.  Fox has agreed to film it at Troublemaker Studios, RR’s setup away from Hollywood and it sounds like his original treatment from 1994 is the framework for the new script (Alex Litvak is writing an updated draft that doesn’t include Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character).

The “new take” on the franchise will involve another team of commandos, only this time they’re pitted versus multiple predators.  The team becomes stranded on a Predator planet and discovers “unspeakable horrors.”  Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to elaborate how much will change from his original script.  Fox has already announced a July 7, 2010 release date for Predators.

The New York Times is reporting Steven Soderbergh has been removed from directing duties on Moneyball, an adaptation of Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book about baseball statistics, manager Billy Beane, and the Oakland A’s.

Five days before Soderbergh was supposed to start shooting with lead actor Brad Pitt, the Oscar-winning director turned in a new draft of the script that included a “radical departure” from the approved version written by Steven Zillian.  Subsequently Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal pulled the plug on the $57 million production.

The decision cost the studio $10 million in script development and other costs, while Soderbergh is left holding hours of interviews with real ball players like Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson, and Darryl Strawberry.  A similar report by the LA Times describes clashing expectations from money men looking for enough appeal in a more traditional narrative and Soderbergh, hoping to make an artistic piece with authentic accounts of the events.  The director felt he was taking it in a more creative direction while winning the support of Major League Baseball with its factual accuracy.

Pascal, who has a close personal relationship with Pitt’s agent (Bryan Lourd), allowed them to offer the project to Warner Bros, Fox, and Paramount.  They all passed.  The project remains at Sony, who is still hoping to keep Pitt on board after Soderbergh moved on to other ideas this week.  It’s not likely Pitt will stay on board considering how loyal the actor is to his friend after making three Ocean’s movies together.  Even if he stays, Pitt has director approval on his films, so a new pick would have to be okayed by him and the studio.  At this point the movie happening at all is a longshot.

Meanwhile Warner Bros has rolled out the trailer for The Informant, a comedy by Soderbergh starring another of the Ocean’s crew, Matt Damon.  It tells the true story of Mark Whitacre and how he blew the whistle on price fixing in the grain industry in 1992.  It opens October 9, but you can watch the funny trailer right here and now.  Or at Apple.com.

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An unnamed source sparked rumors today by dropping hints to Nuke the Fridge about Jessica Biel joining Marvel’s adaptation of Thor.  The “god of thunder” film is scheduled for May 2011 under the direction of Kenneth Branagh.

The scooper says Biel would play a love interest for the title character, who has been confirmed as Chris Hemsworth.  The site speculates on the female lead as Jane Foster, the nurse and girlfriend of Thor’s alter ego Donald Blake.  However, previous reports have suggested less of the alter ego story from the comics and more of the Norse deity struggle in Asgard with his adopted brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

The other logical choices would be Sif, an Asgardian warrior and the more likely choice for Thor’s love interest, or Amora the Enchantress, one of the villains the hammered hero regularly faces.  “The Enchantress” has also been known to team up with Loki.  Natalie Portman has also been rumored numerous times for the female lead, so either Biel is knocking her out of the picture or there will be some sort of sexy face-off right out of nerd fantasies.

In 2007, Biel turned down an opportunity to play Wonder Woman in the now shelved Justice League adaptation.

I have yet to see anything impressive about Biel’s actual acting ability.  Like Megan Fox and Jessica Alba, she’s all looks and very little talent.  Her last two movies ended up canceled and direct-to-DVD, so she might not be the sort of A-lister Marvel is looking for to put this on the map.  Of course, this could be totally bogus and the menfolk will go back to ogling Biel while the women stare at her boyfriend Justin Timberlake.  Just like old times.

Right now, as I type this Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is nearing one kagillion dollars at the worldwide box office, a total so large it has gone into made up numbers.  At this point it’s fairly well documented that I wasn’t a fan of the sequel, so I won’t reiterate how there was no story and most of the critics got it right.

But Transformers got me thinking about how I used to take Soundwave in the tub with me and, while surrounded by bubbles, dive bomb the rubber ducky.  Then, after I finished reminiscing about last weekend, I reflected further back to my childhood.  Those were the good times before I had responsibilities and other things I procrastinate.  However, now that 80’s adaptations are successful in theaters, Hollywood will milk that cash cow dry until we’re all sick of hearing about the toys we used to throw out our siblings.

I’ve compiled a random list of everything I could remember after years of drinking and rotting my brain with modern television.  Then I researched the latest news on how a movie studio will take that memory and squeeze the joy out of it.  After looking over the list, I wish I had gone outside and maybe, I don’t know, read a book or two.  As you’ll see, I’m clearly an 80s kid, so I apologize to you in advance if I missed one of your favorites.  However, I will not accept Care Bears as a viable option because no one liked them. Also I had to leave off comic books because otherwise this list would be huge.

If anything this will be a bittersweet trip down memory lane.  Thundercats, ho!
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is currently drawing monstrous numbers at the box office, passing the $400 million worldwide mark on Monday and climbing to the third largest movie of 2009 domestically.  While I’m sure it will easily top the charts over the holiday weekend, fans are already clamoring for details on a third Transformers.

In an LA Times profile of Ramon Rodriguez today, director Michael Bay “hinted” at a larger role in Transformers 3 for the young actor who played Leo Spitz, the conspiracy theorist roommate of Sam (Shia LaBeouf).  The role was originally offered to Jonah Hill (who might have been much better suited for the comic relief), but he passed on the opportunity.  After Hill declined, Bay discovered Rodriguez who the filmmaker describes as having a “street edge.”  Like those controversial Twin robots?

In the interview, Rodriguez talks about how he auditioned for the part: “For 90 minutes, he had me jumping, running, diving over the furniture in his office — that was the audition. I was drenched in sweat. He told me, ‘OK, hide behind the desk!’ ‘Now, run over here!’ And man, I was looking in his eyes, and he was enjoying it. He’s got a passion for action. It shows in the movies too.” This sounds similar to Megan Fox’s “screen test” for the 2007 original where she was asked to pretend to work on Bay’s Ferrari while he filmed her.  I guess he liked what he saw.

There’s no doubt Rodriguez’s career is heating up.  He appeared in eight episodes of the best HBO series “The Wire” as Omar’s gun-toting sidekick and recently as a henchman aboard the hijacked train in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

Unfortunately, while Bay is busy winking about an expanded role for Rodriguez, the script hasn’t even started yet.  Writing partners Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman have publicly stated they are done with Transformers and won’t be returning for a third screenplay.

Of course, they could possibly be lured back with more money, but Paramount will have to shell out the big bucks to bring back Bay sooner rather than later.  The director has repeatedly insisted on taking a break to work on a smaller project, which is likely an adaptation of “Pain & Gain” about a gang of criminal bodybuilders.

20th Century Fox has released a trailer for Alvin and the Chipmunks 2.  (I refuse to refer to this movie as “The Squeakquel” as Fox insists in the awful title.)  It’s just about as awful as it sounds.  There’s high-pitched singing, CGI rodents, and the Chipettes.  What, no eating feces this time?

The original Alvin and the Chipmunks made $217 million in the U.S., which means another one was inevitable. Jason Lee returns to sell another piece of his dignity as their owner, Dave Seville.  While the rodents are all still voiced by celebrities for some reason (can you even tell?)  The chipmunks are: Justin Long (Alvin), Matthew Gray Gubler (Simon), and Jesse McCartney (Theodore).  The Chipettes are: Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, and Amy Poehler.

This is all great news if you have kids or time to waste.  Watch the “trailer” below:

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 is out Christmas Day 2009.

There have been rumors since the massive success of the first that Summit Entertainment would shoot the second and third movies in the Twilight saga back-to-back.  They turned out to be false, but not far off.  Several reports have indicated an early summer shooting schedule for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which wrapped in May, followed by a late summer start for the next Stephenie Meyer novel adaptation, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

The Production Weekly twitter page has announced an August 17 start date through October 31, 2009 for Eclipse.  Like the last one, filming will be underway at Vancouver Film Studios.  Also shooting there (starting in September) is Zack Snyder’s new girl power movie, Sucker Punch.

Directing is David Slade (30 Days of Night) who once joked he’d rather be shot than watch the original Twilight.  Joining him in Canada for the agony of screaming fans are the usual cast of characters, including Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), Taylor Lautner (Jacob), and more.  The story centers on Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre from the first movie) creating an army of new vampires to get her revenge on Bella and the Cullen family.  They must join forces with Jacob’s werewolf pack in order to defeat them.  The third installment is slated for a June 30, 2010 release.  Is anyone excited for this?  I can’t tell.  I haven’t heard anything from fans…

Expect more casting announcements soon and the crew rounds out in the next month and a half.  Meanwhile, Stewart is shooting her rock biopic The Runaways and Pattinson is filming a drama titled Remember Me.

Last week Disney released a slew of concept art pictures and character shots for Tim Burton’s re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland.  The first look brought us creepy versions of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), plus several concept pictures of the Tweedles, the White Rabbit, and more.  Then two more trickled out later.  A french website has a few more images to give you an idea of where his vision is headed.

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