With Warner Bros. Ninja Assassin set for release next week, the studio held a press day this afternoon here in Los Angeles.  While I’ll have plenty of video interviews for you to watch over the next few days, the first one I’d like to share is with producer Joel Silver.  Also, since Silver is producing tons of other projects like Sherlock Holmes, The Losers, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, Unknown White Male, and The Book of Eli, I figure his interview is the first one I should post.

While I didn’t get any major scoops, I did find out what’s up with Lobo and what does he think of Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the role.  Also, we talked about how Francis Lawrence landed the directing job on Sgt. Rock and does he think it might get made next year.  Of course many other subjects were talked about so watch the interview after the jump:

Finally, here’s a link to some clips from Ninja Assassin.

Joel Silver

• Did he always want to be a ninja
• What was the importance of showing Ninja Assassin at Comic-Con
• Lobo talk - talks about the test they just made and how it’ll play at Comic-Con
• When will we hear about casting on Lobo?
• I ask if he likes Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Lobo
• How does he balance all his movies coming out with stuff he has in development
• Says they are starting to film Unknown White Male in Berlin in 2 months
• What’s been his reaction to the footage from The Losers
• Sgt. Rock talk - how did Francis Lawrence get the job and what kind of film will it be. Says it takes place in the future and it’s a different kind of war film
• Does he think it’ll get made in 2010. Says he hopes so.

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While not quite as massive as the thousands of films the Starz deal provided to Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service last year, IFC Films has signed an exclusive streaming deal with Netflix for 53 of IFC’s films.  Among the 53 films are John Sayles’ The Brother From Another Planet and Return of the Secaucus Seven; Christopher Nolan’s first film, Following; James Toback’s When Will I Be Loved?; the Errol Morris’ documentaries Gates of Heaven and The Thin Blue Line; Susanne Bier’s Brothers (which is the original version of the upcoming Tobey Maguire/Natalie Portman/Jake Gyllenhaal movie of the same name); and Alfonso Cuaron’s first feature film, Solo con tu pareja.  The press release doesn’t say whether or not any IFC Films beyond the 53 they’re adding today will become available on “Watch Instantly”.

For those who don’t know, Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service allows Netflix subscribers who have at least the $8.99/month plan to watch as many streaming movies as they want online-provided that the film is available in their streaming service.  There is a strong selection of movies (I currently have 184 films in my “Watch Instantly” queue), but it can be frustrating to keep checking the “Watch Instantly” page and no new films have been added.  Then again, I already have 184 films I could watch now so I’m not sure why I’m complaining.

It’s unnecessary to poke fun at Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon because both films are funny (albeit unintentionally) enough on their own.  However, parody of these silly movies is always appreciated.  Earlier this week, Conan O’Brien had a very special message for parents as he warned them of some of the risqué behavior in New Moon.

Today, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Martha MacIsaac (Superbad) have a goddamn hilarious send-up of an overlooked question of the Twilight series as well as other vampire-human romance stories: wouldn’t menstrual blood drive vampires insane?  And how could you keep your dumb romance alive if your vamp boyfriend literally wanted to kill you during your period?  The painfully hilarious answers to these questions are after the jump.

I didn’t really understand what Season of the Witch was about beyond being a test case for the credulity of a Nicolas Cage hairpiece.  Now that the first full trailer for the film has appeared online, it looks like 3:10 to Yuma but instead of a posse being besieged by bandits while trying to take an outlaw to a train station, this movie is about a band of warriors besieged by the forces of hell while trying to take a witch to an abbey.  But if you ignore the Rob Zombie music, the dull color palette, and failed attempts at creepy imagery, you still have Ron Perlman kicking ass and getting billed alongside Nicolas Cage and that’s why you should check out this trailer after the jump.

Season of the Witch hits theaters on March 19, 2010.

Head over to Fandango to see the trailer in HD.

Earlier this week we brought you the international trailerfor the upcoming greek gods by way of Harry Potter action-adventure flick, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.  While that trailer was good, the domestic trailer just went online and it is even better.  It’s action heavy and I have to say that the action looks fantastic.  This trailer give you the plot of the film (Percy Jackson discovers he’s a demigod and must retrieve the bolt of Zeus-played by Sean Muthafuckin Bean-in order to prevent a war), and it has me excited for the film.  I’m not saying it’s the next Harry Potter or anything like that, but I certainly have more interest in the film after seeing this trailer than I did before, which is what a good trailer is supposed to do.

Check out the domestic trailer after the jump.  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief hits theaters on February 12, 2010.

Mia Wasikowska (Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) seem to be on their way to becoming two of the biggest rising stars out there right now.  Both actors are now teaming up with director Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) in bringing another adaption of the classic novel Jane Eyre to the big screen.  I don’t know if anyone was really hoping for another one, but the talent involved definitely has me interested now. You can read the details after the jump.

Variety reports that the film will be a period piece and will play up the gothic elements of the story.  Published in 1847, the classic novel tells the story of Jane (Wasikowska), a demure governess who discovers her surly employer Rochester (Fassbender) is harboring a dark secret.  Ellen Page was once attached to the project to play the title role, but has since left the project.

I still haven’t seen Sin Nombre yet, but I’m sure that Fukunaga is a name to watch.  His directorial debut has received nothing but high praise and I’m sure his Jane Eyre film will be on everyone’s radars as it prepares to hit theaters.  This is due in part to the fact that Wasikowksa will next be seen as Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and will also star in Gus Van Sant’s untitled next film, which was previously entitled Restless.  As for Fassbender, he definitely going to garner some attention next year as he stars in Neil Marshall’s (The Descent) Roman action film, Centurion, and co-stars alongside Josh Brolin and Megan Fox in Jonah Hex.

If you are a fan of The Twilight Saga, I don’t have to tell you what a big day this is. It’s probably been circled by a red heart on your day planners since, um, last November. For box office reporters, however, this is a big day for another reason. The release of New Moon at 12:01 am this morning had the potential to overturn the midnight box office record set by The Dark Knight back in July of 2008.  New Moon already had the record for midnight presales so the only question left to ponder was how high Bella and Edward would go. No official numbers from Summit are yet available but it looks like that $18.4 million record The Dark Knight claimed has indeed fallen.

According to Variety, estimates for the 3,514 North American New Moon theatres put the film’s midnight total at $26.3 million.  This means that The Dark Knight opening day record of $67.1 million is in danger of succumbing to Twilight mania. We all knew it would be huge, but huge enough to beat The Dark Knight? That’s a horse of another color. A huge horse.  We’ll keep you updated as the weekend numbers start to come in.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Nicole Kidman was going to co-star with Robert Pattinson in his next film, Bel Ami.  We then found out a little bit later that this wasn’t true and that Kidman was definitely not attached to the project.  However, tonight we have news that Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) has joined the cast and that Uma Thurman will now be taking the role that Kidman passed on.  To find out what this “erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction.” is all about, just hit the jump.

Based on Guy de Maupassant’s short story, the film will tell the story of George Duroy (played by Pattinson), a young journalist who rose from poverty to become one of the most successful men in Paris via the ruthless and calculating bedding of the city’s most glamorous and influential women.  THR reports that Thurman will play the role of Duroy’s friend’s wife who helps Duroy rise to power and later becomes his wife.  Meanwhile, Kristin Scott Thomas has been cast to play a socialite who falls for Duroy as well.

The film will definitely be a test of Pattinson’s talents and will also mark the directorial debut of London theater director Declan Donnellar, who aims to begin production on the film sometime next year.

While many fans of The Twilight Saga just want to hear Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson talk about the mega-successful franchise, the person who can give you the news you really want is producer Wyck Godfrey.  Stewart and Pattinson star in the film, but they aren’t the ones making the big decisions about the franchise, and they definitely aren’t the ones who can tell you if Breaking Dawn is going to be two movies, or if the teaser trailer for Eclipse will be on New Moon.  But Wyck Godfrey can.  And that’s why at The Twilight Saga: New Moon press junket, I specifically requested an interview to talk with him.

After the jump is my extended conversation with the man bringing the Twilight movies to the big screen.  We talked about the constant demand by fandom for knowing everything now, could David Slade or Chris Weitz be brought back for Breaking Dawn, does he think Breaking Dawn could be two movies (”it’s certainly possible,” he says), is the Eclipse trailer on New Moon, piracy talk, and if he and the other producers already have plans for Comic-Con 2010.  It’s cool if you love hearing from Pattinson and Stewart, but this interview with Godfrey is the one that Twilight shouldn’t miss.

Wyck Godfrey

• The difficulty of balancing the medias appetite versus giving the fans what they want
• Talks about why it was smart to film New Moon and Eclipse back to back
• Breaking Dawn talk - are they talking about making the film.  What’s the status?
• Is he thinking about David Slade or Chris Weitz coming back for Breaking Dawn
• 4:05 - Are they thinking about two films for Breaking Dawn.  Says it’s certainly possible.
• On New Moon, how did he juggle as the producer the story, the budget, and the bigger worldwide scope of it
• 6:00 There has been a lot of talk that the Eclipse teaser trailer is on New Moon. Is that true
• I mention that a good idea would be to attach the teaser trailer for Eclipse after the movie has been out for a week, that way fans would maybe want to go back. He smiles and says that’s a good idea.  Could that be the plan?
• 7:05 Piracy talk
• 8:05 - Comic-Con 2010 talk - Since Eclipse will already be out, do they have any plans to be there yet for the DVD or maybe Breaking Dawn

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We’re getting another Underworld movie and there’s no way around it.  I dropped out after the first movie, but it did teach me a valuable lesson: Kate Beckinsale in black leather spandex wielding two guns does not a good movie make.  Also (and I fail to understand this in New Moon as well), why are werewolves and vampires fighting?  I know that there’s some back story explaining it but what makes these two groups inherently in conflict as opposed to any other monster?

Maybe John Hlavin, a writer on The Shield, which is one of my all-time favorite shows, can explain it to me, or at least bring me back to the series.  Thankfully, Hlavin says he aims to do just that (while not alienating the precious fans who must be appeased lest the world suffer their wrath).  Hit the jump for details and wonder if you can include a note on every page saying “Please do not shoot this with a blue filter.”

Heat Vision reports that John Hlavin has been hired to pen the fourth installment of the inexplicably popular and successful franchise.  Len Wiseman, who directed the first two films and produced the third is back on board but still as a producer only.  Currently, the fourth film, which Hlavin says will not be a prequel, has no director attached and neither Beckinsale nor Rhona Mitra, the star of the last film Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, are currently attached to return at this point.

While keeping the plot of the new film under wraps, Hlavin, “It will satisfy old fans and excite new audiences, meaning that we don’t want to redo the first three movies, so steps are being taken to honor what fans have loved but at the same time introduce fresh elements.”  I take this to mean that they’ll be introducing mummies.  Mummies are the fresh element and now it will be werewolves vs. vampires vs. mummies.  Makes as much sense as the previous conflict and you have to introduce a fresh element and you have mummies.  Mummies are the new black.

If you’ve seen The Wire, you know that Idris Elba is a ridiculously talented actor who has yet to become a massive success stateside.  But now that’s just a matter of time as he already appeared last season on The Office (which didn’t really utilize his talent but a lot of folks watch it, myself included), will appear next year in the comic book action flick The Losers and now he’s landed a role in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming adaptation of Marvel’s Thor.

Show some respect to Stringer Bell and hit the jump for details.

According to Heat Vision Blog, Elba will play “Heimdall; as the guardian of Asgard, he stands on the BiFrost Bridge ready to defend the city from intruders.”  Now that’s pretty damn cool, not just because everyone else in Asgard is apparently too lazy to defend their own damn city, but because Norse mythology doesn’t really have any black guys.  As you can see from the image to your right, Heimdall is a Caucasian gentleman, much like the people of Scandinavia who created Norse mythology.  But while they may not have cast Idris Elba in a movie based on their god of thunder, they would have done it in a heartbeat if they had seen an episode of The Wire.  And yes, I’m working under the assumption that ancient Scandinavians would know about film and television.

For those just tuning in, Thor is based off the popular Marvel comic created by Stan Lee.  The movie follows Thor (Chris Hemsworth) a Norse God banished to Earth for his arrogance and reckless behavior in the Asgard, the capital city of the Norse Gods.  On Earth, he falls in love with a nurse named Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), but must become a true hero when his sinister brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) brings the darkest forces of Asgard to wreak destruction on humanity.  Directed by Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet), the film co-stars Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore, Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson, and Tadanobu Asano.

Thor is slated to hit theaters on May 20, 2011.

With Avatar less than a month away, Fox has released a new featurette that has James Cameron talking about the science and hardware that can be found in the film.  As much as I am trying to avoid any spoilers, I do think it’s a must watch.  You really start to get a sense of just how detailed and well thought out the world of Pandora is.  Plus, the small glimpses we get of the action scenes don’t hurt. You can see the clip after the jump.

I’m pretty sure if you are on this site you already know what Avatar is, but for those just tuning in, here is the film’s synopsis.

“Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than 10 years in the making, “Avatar” marks Cameron’s return to feature directing since helming 1997’s “Titanic,” the highest grossing film of all time and winner of 11 Oscars including best picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “King Kong,” will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3-D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.”

Avatar hits conventional, 3-D, and 3-D IMAX theaters on December 18th.

While director Richard Linklater is having problems getting his “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused off the ground, that doesn’t mean he isn’t working.  In fact, last week he was filming some of his secret 13 year project with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as a divorced couple.  Haven’t heard of the film yet? According to Linklater, good.

The reason I say that is when I spoke to Linklater during a roundtable interview a few days ago, he said he wished IMDb hadn’t listed the project.  Because now that it’s on the site, everyone is asking about a project that’s still being written and worked on.

But when I sat down to speak to him during my exclusive interview, when we finally got to talking about the project, he opened up a lot more than I expected him to.  Saying that, since I knew he wanted to keep a lot of the project under wraps, I didn’t press him for info.  But he still told me a lot about it and if you’re curious, hit the jump for what he said:

Here’s the big info:

• Has filmed on eight different occasions
• Ethan Hawke plays a divorced dad and Patricia Arquette plays the mom
• Says, “wanted to make a film about childhood but couldn’t pick one specific moment.”
• I ask if he scripted it many years ago or have things been changing.  He says, “every year I get a year to kind of gestate that year.  I always think, 7^th grade, what’s going on given the history.  It’s set in a contemporary setting and I play off what we did last year and how the actors are maturing and what’s going on.  So it’s a combination of the architecture I’ve already mapped out for the whole film and then the specifics are often worked out at the last minute. A lot of improv.”

While some directors might not be able handle a constantly changing movie, if there is one thing Linklater has shown me, it’s an ability to handle improv and real people dealing with real life situations.  And even though we all will have to wait a number of years to finally see this movie, if it comes together, it’s definitely going to be something special.

Here’s our conversation:

Opening on November 25^th is director Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles.  Based in real theatrical history, the film is a coming-of-age story about a teenage actor (Zac Efron) who lucks into a role in Julius Caesar as it’s being re-imagined by a brilliant, impetuous young director named Orson Welles (Christian McKay) at his newly-founded Mercury Theater in NYC, 1937.  Claire Danes co-stars as Sonja Jones, the unapologetically ambitious assistant to Welles whom Richard tries to woo.

While the film premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, it took awhile for someone to purchase the film for domestic distribution.  While a delay might be a sign of a problem, I saw Me and Orson Welles a few weeks ago and thought it was great.  While all the performances are really good, Christian McKay as Orson Welles is another level.  He absolutely disappears as Welles and his performance alone makes this film worth seeing.  Also, this was McKay’s first movie, and when you factor that in, it makes his performance even more memorable.

So to help promote the film, we’ve been given two movie clips and the trailer.  Check them out after the jump and look for our interviews with the cast very soon.

Me and Orson Welles Trailer

2 Clips Me and Orson Welles

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It seems someone let the cat out of the bag a bit early.  Thanks to William Goss spotting Jackass 3D on Paramount’s 2010 schedule, it seems the adventures of Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera and Steve-O are going to continue on movie screens….but this time we’re going to get them in 3D!  While I thought the first Jackass movie was an amazing cinematic achievement, I didn’t think the second movie was worth anyone’s time and most of it played like a long deleted scene.  Of course I’ll be the first one in line for a 3D Jackass movie…but after my recent experiences on a movie shooting in 3D, I’m not 100% sold this is really happening.   My explanation after the jump:

While I cannot tell you where I was, I can use what I saw and learned on set to explain why this Jackass 3D movie might not happen.

The thing you’ve got to know is shooting in 3D is not like filming a normal movie.  On the 3D set I was on, it took them awhile to set up the shot and figure out how they wanted the 3D to look.  What I’m trying to say is, there was no improv.  Of course as cameras get more technically advanced, I’m sure making a 3D movie will be as easy as shooting with any store bought video camera.  But as far as I know, we’re not there yet.

As we all know, the thing about Jackass is the spontaneity. While things are definitely scripted for comic effect, some of the best gags are the guys walking into a doctor’s office or standing in the street trying to pass themselves off as a regular person.  There is no way to do this when shooting in 3D until a smaller, more agile camera, hits the market.

So here’s what I’m thinking.  If the guys are really making Jackass 3D, I think the film is going to have some scenes in 2D (a regular movie) and some of the stunts that can be carefully staged and worked out ahead of time, those will be in 3D.  These are the kinds of stunts that take careful planning to make sure no one dies.  This way they can say it’s a 3D movie, but only part of it.

As I write these words, Jackass 3D has not been officially confirmed by anyone I know at Paramount.  So take this news with a grain of salt until we post an update.  Also, I don’t want to come across like an expert on 3D technology, because I’m not.  Perhaps there is a way to shoot 3D in true Jackass style and the movie is being done right now in secret.  With the news spreading across cyberspace about Jackass 3 in 3D, I’d imagine in the next day or two we’re going to learn a lot more.

Saying all this, I truly hope they are making this movie, as I think a 3D Jackass movie could be amazing.

Thanks to /Film, Chud and Cinematical.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, like last year’s Twilight, is critic-proof.  We film critics don’t get it, this film isn’t for us, and the fans will love it.  However, none of that means New Moon isn’t worthy of humorous derision or concerned analysis of the disturbing subtext.  New Moon is a bad movie which fails on nearly every level, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fascinating.  The series is one of the most popular young adult stories of the last decade yet the movie, which wouldn’t dare make radical changes to the book, lacks so much: a strong female protagonist, subtlety, joy, a positive message to young women, and above all, shirts.  The men of New Moon need shirts.

The film opens with the 18^th birthday of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), one of the most vapid and irritating protagonists in recent memory.  While most teenagers would be happy to be hitting their 18^th (guns and voting!), Bella can do nothing but sulk and quiver in the presence of her dreamy, pale-skinned, cold vampire love-muffin, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).  In a vain attempt to make Bella smile for at least a second, her best friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) gives her a dream catcher and must explain to her what it does because the film considers her that freaking stupid, although she certainly is.  Bella and Edward whisper to each other during class and he tells her how he wish he knew how to kill himself.  Happy Birthday.

Later that night, rather than spend any time celebrating with her father or her human friends, Bella enjoys (which means she sulks a little less) the company of the Cullen family, all vampires and not blood related other than they all live together and suck animal blood to survive.  Unfortunately, Bella becomes the first person in human history to get a paper cut from unwrapping a present and one of the Cullens goes nuts and tries to attack her, Edward protects her by accidentally throwing her into furniture thus giving her an even worse injury.  Dr. Cullen, the family’s patriarch, patches her up and Bella mentions that they wouldn’t have to worry about this if Edward changed her into a vampire.  Dr. Cullen remarks that he and his family are damned and that changing her would make her soulless.  Remember kids: when Bella says she wants Edward to “change her” it is a metaphor for an 18 year old girl wanting her boyfriend to take her virginity.  Edward, who looks like he’s either going to or coming from a GQ photo shoot, protests.  In fact, the following day Edward (after breaking into her room while she’s not at home), says he’s leaving in order to protect her and that he never wants to see her again.

Bella then shuts down completely and her break-up causes her to become catatonic interspersed with night terrors.  This is odd because not only do teenage break-ups rarely cause such extreme reactions (at least in healthy, well-adjusted teenagers), neither Twilight nor in this movie do we see what Bella is missing.  What makes Edward special other than his looks and brooding demeanor?  There’s nothing substantial to miss and what Twilight and New Moon fail to do is convince us that infatuation is love.  But infatuation isn’t love; it’s a negative manifestation of a fantasy.  I understand the teenage love thing when your emotions are so strong that you feel like there’s nothing more important in the entire world.  But New Moon keeps mistaking that for true love and that Edward and Bella are a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.  I know this because at the beginning of the film, Bella’s reading Romeo & Juliet and she’s supposed to write a paper on Romeo & Juliet and Edward’s birthday-downer-suicide monologue is during a class where the teacher is showing a movie adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.  Subtlety, thy name is anything other than New Moon.

Director Chris Weitz brings three skills to New Moon that Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke sorely lacked: the ability to shoot a movie without a blue filter, well-shot action scenes, and convincing special effects as far as the animals are concerned.  But Weitz makes Hardwicke look like Bergman when it comes to subtlety.  There are moments in New Moon where I laughed out loud because I thought I was supposed to.  I thought Weitz was mocking this overwrought teenage love story by using the cheesiest and clichéd images imaginable like running through fields and laying in a meadow.  But he’s playing it completely straight and while Twilight fans are eating it up, the rest of us are trying to balance slack-jawed amazement with hysterical laughter.  Those moments are at least a reprieve from the Bella’s unrelenting misery.

After five months of dealing with a break-up that should’ve caused hospitalization, Bella finally drags herself out of the house only to discover that the only way she can see Edward is if she behaves recklessly, because before Edward left he told her not to be reckless.  But when she does behave recklessly, Edward tells her that she promised him she wouldn’t and she stops because Bella Swan can’t think for herself or do anything which does not relate to a dominant man.  Also, when she sees Edward, he appears as a cheesy ghost effect which, again, I could not believe they were using.  I understand that they need a way to keep Pattinson around despite his character’s absence for the majority of the film, but reappearing as ghost mist?  Did Weitz think his audience was so dense that they would think a non-misty Edward would actually be there?  And this audience has read the book so they already know he’s not really there!

Thankfully, Bella discovers that she can cling to the other hot man in her life, Jacob.  The beginning of their relationship is one of the few bright spots in New Moon as the two flirt, joke around, and have personalities.  Furthermore, Lautner has charm and charisma which is more than I can say for Pattinson whose performance consists of pensively looking at the ground, sadly looking down at the ground, and bashfully looking down at the ground.

But soon the film realizes the horrible abomination of having a likable character and soon Jacob joins up with the bad boys who don’t wear shirts.  It turns out Jacob and the shirtless bad boys are werewolves.  The shirtless wolf pack is the film’s best unintentional running gag.  No matter the weather, location, or situation, these men will not wear shirts.  I know these guys want to show off their pecks and washboard abs, but you don’t have to show them off all the time.  There’s a scene that takes place in a torrential downpour where Bella is pleading with a shirtless Lautner to stay with her and not go off with the bad boys.  It’s really quite an amazing scene as you can actually see Lautner developing pneumonia.

Bella’s absolutely dependence on men is where I leave the silliness of New Moon behind and begin to actively loathe the property and what it stands for.  This past summer, I dropped my unnecessary hatred toward Twilight fans because their infatuation with cute guys is harmless and nothing new to contemporary American culture. I accepted the following of older fans because I assumed they recognized the series as harmless fantasy and nothing more.  But I didn’t lose my hatred of the books and the message they give to young women and New Moon pushed me to start questioning what was appealing about this fantasy.

Bella is a reactive character and her every action is based on what either Edward or Jacob does.  She behaves recklessly, not as a way to escape from her pain, but so she can keep seeing ghost-Edward.  Later, she tries to kill herself and then cover it up with the excuse she was cliff-diving.  But even that isn’t as disturbing as when Jacob confesses to Bella that now because he’s a werewolf, just a split second of anger could cause him to lose control and seriously hurt her.  Her response: “That will never happen because I will always tell you how special you are.”  This is a girl who will never argue or even question a man she loves because otherwise he may lose control and beat her to within an inch of her life.  It won’t be his fault; he just has a monster inside him he can’t control.  And why does Edward leave?  Because he’s afraid his presence will hurt Bella.  Of course, his big realization is that by leaving Bella, he put her in more harm.

Here are six words you will never hear Bella Swan say: “I can take care of myself.”  This is the protagonist of one of the best-selling books today.  I know author Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon and I find her belief system provides a sickening subtext to her work.  While Mormonism isn’t the only religion to promoted abstinence, I find it an absurd and counter-productive response to burgeoning sexuality.  It’s blatant religious patrimony to tell young women that all sex before marriage is wrong, even if she wants to, is over 18, and her boyfriend isn’t pressuring her.  If a couple wants to wait until marriage to have sex, I have no problem with that.  I have a problem with painting an ideal man as an asexual protector who treats his girlfriend like a child and that if they have sex before they get married, “changing” her will make her lose her soul.

And that’s not even what I find most offensive!  I am appalled that there’s not even a hint of a moment where Bella has an interest of her own other than whether or not a man can protect her and what she can do to serve him.  I find it offensive that Bella is so selfish that she doesn’t care if she hurts her kind and devoted father or pulls away from people who were supposedly her friends.  Parents, is this really the kind of role model you want for your child?  And women who see this as fantasy, is this really what you find exhilarating?  I understand attraction to hot guys but plenty of other movies and stories offer that without the repulsive moral values.

There are moments I don’t hate New Moon.  I like the action scenes, the cinematography, the werewolf CGI, Taylor Lautner (when he’s not brooding), and that they made up an action movie called “Face Punch”, which I would totally see based on the title alone.  But two questions about the movie remain at the forefront of my mind: how troubling it is that this movie will most likely gross over $200 million while having such repulsive messages; and why won’t someone give these hot Native Americans some shirts?

Rating —– F

I can’t help but laugh that the trailer for Remember Me starts with Robert Pattinson’s character quoting Ghandi before getting into a fist-fight.  I’m not exactly sure what the point of the film is other than Pattinson is a rebel without a cause and people beat him up a lot.  I’ll admit that Pattinson good looking and the camera loves him when he looks like a real person and not an albino with orange contact lenses.  He’s obviously trying to find a career beyond Twilight, but I’m not sure another dramatic romance movie where only a good woman can mend his broken soul is going to accomplish that.

Check out the trailer after the jump along with a brief synopsis.  Remember Me is currently slated to open in theaters on March 12, 2010.

Click over to MySpace to see the trailer in HD.

For those just tuning in, here’s a quick synopsis:

Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, a rebellious young man in New York City who has a strained relationship with his father (Pierce Brosnan). Tyler didn’t think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through until the day he met Ally (Emilie de Ravin) through an unusual twist of fate. But soon, hidden secrets are revealed, and the circumstances that brought them together slowly threaten to tear them apart.

Another video game movie?  Huzzah!  Hollywood desperately wants a slice of the gigantic video game profits that industry continues to reap.  When it was released last Tuesday, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 set the record for biggest video game launch of all-time by selling approximately 4.7 million units in its first 24 hours for a total of $310 million from the U.S. and U.K. combined.  That’s a lot of scratch and apparently the only way for Hollywood to get a piece is to adapt games into movies, because it apparently doesn’t work the other way around even though there have been at least two video games which were better than the properties they came from (Goldeneye 007 and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay).  So the score is currently Movie-based Video Games: Two, Video Game-based Movies: Zero.

But Brad Pitt and his Plan B pictures are going to try and put movies on the score board by adapting the upcoming Capcom video game, Dark Void.  According to Variety, the story is about, “a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission and wakes up to find himself in an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization.”  Judging from the box art, this causes the pilot to dress up like the Rocketeer.  The game has a unique “vertical cover” system which is just like the regular cover system except with Dark Void it’s vertical and in mid-air.  Wow, what an innovation.

With Twilight a worldwide phenomenon, Summit Entertainment sent some of the stars of their mega successful franchise around the world to help promote the movie.  One of the places they went was Brazil.  As most of you know, when you watch any video on Collider, you see two logos.  One is ours and the other is for our Brazilian partners Omelete.

So when Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner were in Sao Paulo, Brazil last week, our partners at Omelete got to interview the two of them on camera.  They talked about going to Brazil, would they want to film part of Breaking Dawn there, and what’s been the changes from the first movie to the second.  While you may get to watch tons of interviews with the stars of Twilight here in America, how many of you have seen one that was filmed in Brazil!  Check it out after the jump:

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner

• What’s been their experience so far in Brazil
• What’s been the changes from the first movie to the second.  They talk about they now know what to expect and how they had more time on the 2^nd film
• Sexual tension talk
• Some of Breaking Dawn takes place in Brazil. Do they want to come there to film

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FunnyOrDie hosted a live Q&A online with writer/producer/director Judd Apatow.  At one point during the Q&A, Apatow was asked if he had any plans for sequels to the hit movies Superbad and Pineapple Express both of which co-starred Seth Rogen who also co-wrote the script with writing partner Evan Goldberg.  Apatow says it’s highly unlikely they would ever do a sequel to Superbad because Rogen and Goldberg don’t want to ruin the original.  As for Pineapple Express, Apatow goes a little further and says they might do a sequel but right now there’s nothing planned.  Finally, Apatow does explain that he’s not opposed to building off previous films as the upcoming Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Russell Brand’s character Aldous Snow.

But let’s take a moment for some perspective.  If you watch the clip where he Apatow responds to the question, which we’ve included after the jump, you’ll see that he cuts it with a lot of humor and some slight mockery.  You’re not going to see a lot of enthusiasm from him and it’s pretty clear he has only given the idea the slightest consideration.  We should be grateful for this because we’re already inundated with sequels so why would you want more?  Don’t you trust Apatow, Rogen, and Goldberg to make original comedies?  Let’s admit that Superbad and Pineapple Express aren’t films which require the franchise treatment.  That being said, if Rogen and Goldberg’s latest film, The Green Hornet, scores big at the box office, asking about a sequel won’t be out of the question; it will be the question.

Thanks to ThePlaylist for turning this up: