Every now and then a movie comes along that delights millions, but ticks off just as many with its safe, non-threatening, seemingly formulaic plotline. I'm thinking back to “RV,” “Doctor Dolittle,” even the “Ernest Goes To/Saves [insert location/event here]” films that puzzled so many with their success back in the day. Well the latest in this tradition might just be “Wild Hogs,” a harmless trifle of a family film that employed big stars and scatological humor to attract $169 million worth of viewers in 2007. And now there's a sequel on the way.
Recently, at Disney’s D23 Conference, it was announced that the sequel had been titled “Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride” and that it would begin filming soon. So when I caught up with Tim Allen recently, I had to get the scoop on where he and his biker brothers would be heading next. Read more...
In a few weeks, fans will meet Ramon Rodriguez in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Don’t be surprised if the summer is soon claimed by the Puerto Rican heartthrob, because this week he’s also appearing in the John Travolta/Denzel Washington flick “The Taking of Pelham 123.” We recently caught up with Rodriguez and spoke to him about the high-wattage cast -– and controversial rewrites -– in the remake of the classic Walter Matthau-led suspense flick.
“Working with Denzel, John Travolta, Tony Scott, it was amazing; I got to work with Denzel every single day, which was an unbelievable experience -- I learned so much,” Rodriguez said, beaming. “John [and] I would go back to my room; John would come over and we would just talk for hours -- he was so cool.” Read more...
FROM MTV.COM: I have a problem with "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3." It's the premise: Four bad guys descend into the New York City subway system, hijack a train, hold the passengers hostage and demand that the city bring a $10 million ransom down to the tunnel where the de-coupled train's engine car is now parked. The problem, as I see it, is that there is no way these guys are going to get out of that tunnel and then out of the teeming metropolis above, where a legion of cops is waiting for them to come staggering up with their cash-stuffed duffle bags and attempt to hail a rush-hour taxi.
Continue reading 'The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3': Stop Making Sense, By Kurt Loder
In director Tony Scott's remake of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," which hits theaters this Friday, a New York City MTA dispatcher (Denzel Washington) is thrown into the role of unlikely hero -- really, is there any other kind of hero? -- when hijackers, led by a man named Ryder (a tatted up John Travolta) take over a subway train with the intent of ransoming off the passengers-turned-hostages. In this all-too-brief clip, we can see the situation just starting to derail -- pun definitely intended -- as Ryder and his cohorts start rounding up riders on the moving train.
Last month, we broke big news on John Waters’ bizarre, top-secret script treatment blueprinting the upcoming “Hairspray 2.” The details were so weird, in fact, that as news spread across the Web some people thought composer/producer Marc Shaiman was joking.
Naturally, we had to take the story to the man himself, “Hairspray” director Adam Shankman – who not only confirmed it all, but also told us about a title possibility and the big-name star who won’t be returning when the sequel hits theaters in July 2010.
“It’s crazy,” Shankman laughed. “[The treatment] is amazing, but it’s crazy. There are things in there that I was like ‘Can we do that?’ It’s real John Waters-y stuff, and it was more like a sequel to his movie than to our movie. Which I love, because then that becomes re-interpreted.” Read more...
Tragedy struck the Travolta family this holiday weekend when Jett Travolta, just 16 years old, was found unconscious in the family's vacation home in the Bahamas, later to be pronounced dead. According to a report by the Associated Press the son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston suffered a seizure and hit his head rendering him unconscious in a bathroom at the home. A caretaker at the house found the teenager on Friday morning. After being taken to a local hospital he was pronounced dead.
Police Superintendent Basil Rahming indicated in a statement that Travolta was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday. He had a history of seizures, according to the statement. Read more...
We’ve been hearing rumblings of a “Hairspray” sequel for months. Just last week, director Adam Shankman confirmed that John Waters himself was writing an outline that would take Zac Efron, Queen Latifah and the rest into the late Sixties. Now, MTV has the scoop on all the insanity that could only come from the twisted “Pink Flamingos” mastermind.
“Scott and I are certainly on board,” Oscar-nominated composer/producer Marc Shaiman assured us, saying he’ll once again return with partner Scott Wittman to the musical/movie franchise they helped build from Waters’ 1988 cult film. “John Waters wrote a treatment that is so f--king hysterical!”
Shaiman, Wittman, returning director Adam Shankman and a few others recently read Waters’ outline, and his die-hard fans will be glad to know that the outrageous filmmaker is once again proudly pushing the envelope. “I don’t know how mainstream it would go if he really stuck to his ideas; it would be a real John Waters-style film,” Shaiman explained. Read more...
