Movie Make-out

Coming Soon has the exclusive from George Lucas about his long-gestating Red Tails project. John Ridley (Undercover Brother, U Turn) is attached to the project, which tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all black pilot squad in World War II. This is the kind of movie I’ve been hoping to see George Lucas do for years now (however long he’s been talking about them); not more Star Wars. I want more movies by the genius who made American Graffiti and THX-1138.

"I’m working on it tomorrow," he told Coming Soon’s Edward Douglas. "We’re getting towards a script, and probably start shooting before the end of the year, and it should come out next year, maybe" — although he’s been saying more or less that same thing for a few years now (except they do have a writer now, at least).

Lucas goes on to say, "That’s probably going to be the last movie I do apart from my own movies, but my own movies are going to be more esoteric and probably will come and go in a week and be in one or two arthouses. It’s basically the same as what Francis (Ford Coppola) is doing."

That last sentence refers to the series of self-financed projects that Coppola started with last year’s visually mind-blowing but intellectually mind-numbing Youth Without Youth and is continuing with next year’s Tetro. As for the first sentence, unless I’m reading into things too much, I get the impression from the phrase "apart from my own movies" that Lucas still only intends to produce Red Tails, not direct it. Ah well. (No directors are attached yet.)

Lucas talked about Clone Wars a bit, too, but the rest of the interview isn’t up yet.

Update (3/17/08): The rest of the interview is up now, in which Lucas talks primarily about the Clone Wars animated series, as well as its theatrical premier. Star Wars: The Clone Wars hits theaters on August 15th.

Related posts: Quick Cuts: Bourne 4 is “news” to Greengrass; Tetro, Parnassus, The Clone Wars in theaters this August 15

A trailer for the the long-delayed film Chapter 27 has gone up at Yahoo! Movies. (The film first screened at Sundance last year and is already out on DVD in some European markets.) Written and directed by first-timer Jarrett Schaeffer, Chapter 27 centers on the last days of John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, and stars a shockingly transformed Jared Leto in what looks like to be an amazing performance. Apparently some people have a problem with a film being made about Lennon’s killer, but I don’t think making a film about Chapman does any disservice to Lennon’s memory.

The film co-stars Lindsay Lohan and Judah Friedlander. Mark Lindsay Chapman plays Lennon. According to Chapman’s IMDB page, he was previously set to "play the part of John Lennon in [an unidentified] TV movie depicting Lennon’s life and death, but lost the part because he has a similar name (Mark Chapman) to Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman."

The film opens March 21, 2008, in limited release. Check out the film’s poster over at IMP.

Also: Do you like poker way too much? If so, you might be interested in two films coming out soon this spring:

First, the Zak Penn comedy The Grand is about "One-Eyed Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) [plans] to win the world’s most famous high stakes tournament, the Grand Championship of Poker in Las Vegas [in order] to save his dead grandfather’s hotel-casino from a real estate developer." The film co-stars David Cross and Cheryl Hines. The Grand will hit theatres on March 21st, 2008.

The second poker film ups the ante with slicker production values and bouncier pace; Deal stars Bret Harrison, Burt Reynolds, and real-life poker buff Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie) co-stars. The trailer basically tells you the whole plot, but it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Deal was directed by Gil Cates Jr.; the film shows its hand on April 25, in limited release.

On the non-poker-movie front, Helen Hunt’s feature directorial debut, an adaptation of Elinor Lipman’s novel Then She Found Me, has a trailer up at AOL Movies/Moviefone. Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth and Bette Midler co-star. It looks like a very actorly film: the camera just follows the actors around, rather than framing them in any visual way, but the dialogue is pretty sharp, and, as always, Colin Firth exhudes charisma, so it could be worth the viewing.

A Korean-subtitled trailer for the Chinese action epic Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon is up at Sina.com, and it’s pretty much two and a half minutes of awesome. The video is better quality than the earlier trailer and you get a much better sense of how the fights will be executed — and they look good.

The film stars Andy Lau, Maggie Q, and Sammo Hung. The Daniel Lee film is out in April in Singapore and South Korea; it’ll make its way Stateside eventually.

Related post: Trailer Watch: Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon

Variety reports that "acting sibs" Willow and Jaden Smith are following in their father Will’s footsteps of ruining fans’ hopes of seeing proper adaptations of their beloved books. (Just kidding.) Flight editor and Copper cartoonist Kazu Kibuishi’s young adult graphic novel series, Amulet (published by Scholastic, where you can find a preview of the first 16 pages), will be turned in a live action feature, to be produced by Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Jungle and Will Smith and James Lassiter’s Overlook Entertainment.

One of five projected volumes has been released in the series, which tells the story of "a brother and sister who move into their late great-grandfather’s home after their father dies. They must use his amulet to rescue their widowed mother from a beast who lures her into an underground world."

Variety reports that Fight Club and Zodiac director David Fincher is "spearheading" a new movie based on the anthology comics magazine Heavy Metal, which previously spawned a 1981 film and a cheeseball, low-budget 2000 animated film.

The new film will be an anthology, like the original, with eight or nine animated shorts, with Tim Miller and Blur Studios on the animation chores. Also like the original, the film is "being conceived as an R-rated, adult-themed feature": meaning you should expect boobs and violence. Miller and Blur have created several animated short films, including A Gentleman’s Duel (available at iTunes) and the awesome (if plotless) Rockfish, seen here courtesy AtomFilms:

Fincher, Miller, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator and Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman will produce, and each will direct a segment, as well, with other directors to be named later. Miller is also working on a feature-length version of Rockfish, while Fincher remains attached to a billion and one other projects. Paramount Pictures acts as the money men.

Related post: David Fincher signs onto Black Hole, Review: 2008 Oscar-nominated Animated Short Films

Apple just added the trailer for an intriguing documentary by Doug Pray called Surfwise, about a 58-year old doctor who ditched his medical practice to drive around the country in a camper, surfing — with his wife and nine children in tow. It looks fantastic. Surfwise catches its wave on May 9th.

For more on the film, check out its Toronto International Film Festival page,

NOTE: I don’t know about you guys, but for some reason the preview graphic isn’t loading sometimes. The trailer will play; just reload the page or click on it anyway.

AOL Movies has added a very funny new trailer for David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco. (For some reason the embed code is fucking up my site, so you’ll have to click over, sorry.) It’s our best look so far at the film’s plot (a stoner witnesses a murder that the police may have been involved with, so he and his dealer go on the run from the law), and we get enough glimpses of Green’s fantastic shot framing (as seen in his more down to earth dramas like All the Real Girls and Snow Angels) and terrific soundtrack choices that I finally have a good idea why he would bother making this kind of movie. Considering most directors in the genre are content to plop down their cameras and let the actors bring the funny, this could very well be the best-shot dumb comedy ever made.

Related stories: Quick Cuts: Hayao Miyazaki’s next, Shopaholic, David Gordon Green and… Suspiria?! (updated), Trailer Watch: Kung Fu Panda, Pineapple Express, Sex and Death 101, more