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Dead Channel
Compiled By Zuul - February 2009
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Alice In Wonderland - If you thought Tim Burton casting Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka was sublime and only topped by Sweeney Todd – how about this: Johnny as the mad hatter himself in Alice In Wonderland. Yet another 3D film in production this year, it won’t be out until 2010, and will also feature Anne Hathaway as the White Queen (Hmm…) and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen (Cool…another arduous casting call eh, Mrs. Burton?). One more bit of perfect casting Matt Lucas (of Little Britain) is (of course) Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I for one can’t wait to see Mr. Burton’s take on what is already a pretty freaky tale. Altogether now: “It’s going to be dark…”.
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Bloodcar - Something of an eco-friendly vamp(-ish) movie this: One man’s search for an alternate fuel source when the price of oil goes sky high – and (yes!) that fuel source is Blood…Human Blood. Genius! Now, how am I gonna fill that tank? This one is available on DVD import from the US, but no official release over here yet. More at www.bloodcar.com.
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Zombieland - A horror comedy starring Woody Harrelson this. Woody plays “the most frightened man on earth” a zombie fighter named “Alburquerque” (Hot Dog, Jumping Frog…). Not much more info on this yet, due out at the end of 2009 it’s named after a tourist attraction that goes badly wrong.
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Blood Brothers - Now Woody H. might do a nice line in slacker characters, but the king slacker is of course Owen Wilson – there are none more horizontal than he. So news that he’s starring in a new vampire buddy comedy is very welcome. Wilson plays the human trying to prevent his befanged best friend from indulging in what comes naturally.
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Angel Heart Remake - Ah, yet another pointless remake. No matter what you might think of the car crash career and recent redemption of Mickey Rourke (he’ll probably have won an Oscar to add to his Bafta for The Wrestler by the time you read this) I thought he was superb in Angel Heart and the mood of the original was simply stunning. So why bother? No names up for this yet, but they’ll not top Robert de Niro as Louis Cyphre or Mickey as the sleazy private eye in New Orleans backwaters. Put me down as a “No” please.
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Repo! - The Genetic Opera - The trailer for this was amazing – can it live up to the hype? With an (all singing) cast featuring Anthony Head (Buffy), Sarah Brightman and (oh yes) Paris Hilton this could be anything from wonderful to terrible. The story is set in a (not that unlikely) world where people borrow money to pay for organ transplants and revolves around repo(-session) men who reclaim organs when people have defaulted on the loans taken out to pay for them. The trailer looks like a feature length Marilyn Manson video and the whole thing looks luxurious and louche with lavish set design and costumes. It will be out on DVD (March 9th) by the time you read this. See more at www.repo-opera.com.
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Franklyn - This looks very interesting – with a superb stylised look to it – in fact it reminds me somewhat of Dark City – one of my favourite films. Set in a current and (potential) futuristic London with church and state fully merged this is the story of four lost souls fighting to find and lose love and people – the hollow-eyed mask of the anti-hero has something of the Rorschach about it – find out more – but not much more – the trailer gives little away - at www.franklynthemovie.co.uk – the film is in cinemas now (Feb’09).
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Lesbian Vampire Killers - Clearly the best movie title ever (and given the acronym LVK, I now realise what LVG stands for!), and not a film to take itself too seriously – this is a british horror comedy (no, wait!) starring Mathew Horne and James Corden (Gavin & Stacey) as luckless sacrifices sent to save a small Welsh village from the blood suckers that have enslaved their women-folk. As daft as it sounds, this will probably do exactly what it says on the can. Let’s hope its more Shaun Of The Dead than Carry On Dracula. To save you some embarrassing google searches, the website is: www.lesbianvampirekillersmovie.co.uk.
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Being Human - So the vampire/ghost/werewolf sharing a flat series gets a full outing – it aired February 2009 and it was superb. The setup sounds like a bad sitcom, but surprisingly it’s not played for laughs – though it does have moments of hilarity as the three friends attempt to lead relatively normal lives given their circumstances. What makes it good are the leads (some of whom have been replaced since the pilot) – they are all excellent actors and the scripts are witty and tightly written. It’s an attempt to write in an adult way about a supernatural scenario – and it works. I hope it’s a success and they make a second series. Hints about a coming war and the vampire and werewolf having to take sides against each other (or humanity in general) certainly wet the appetite.
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Lost Boys 2: The Tribe - This long promised sequel finally arrived sans one of the two Corey’s – a sequel to the classic 1987 horror comedy starring Kiefer Sutherland. Kiefer wasn’t available for this low(er) budget sequel, so his brother Angus stepped in. It certainly doesn’t have the cool factor of the original (or was I just the right age?) – and the leads are nowhere near as engaging. It does have its (surprisingly gory) high points, but no classic soundtrack and the fairground set original is superior in most ways. The reappearance of the bizarre oiled up saxophone player from the original beach party as a portly street busker was worth a chuckle though. Any fan of low budget horror will find it adequate. Out on DVD now.
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Underworld 3: Rise Of The Lycans - Another unsurprising sequel – if you were a fan of the first two you’ll probably enjoy this Rhona Mitra (who was Lara Croft for a while) replaces Kate Beckinsdale as the lead – this is a prequel set many years before the other films. More of the same, but is glossy enough and does the job.
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Epilogue - Epilogue is a graphic novel / comic with a superhero vampire as the main character – nice idea – and it is from Steve Niles the guy who created the original 30 Days Of Night comic – so you never know, it might be a HBO series or Movie coming soon. From the creator himself, here’s how he describes the plot "It's about a family man, Ethan Smart, who's very happy with his wife and two kids. One night they're attacked by vampires. Ethan escapes while his family is murdered and he becomes a vampire. He doesn't like vampires and he's a moral man, so he has to come up with a way to cope with this, so he decides that he'll only feed off of people who hurt others. When he's not fighting crime to stay alive, he is hunting for the vampires who killed his family, while attracting a lot of attention from the human and vampire worlds, neither of which is thrilled with his activities."
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Preacher - After all the hype, another one bites the dust: The proposed Preacher TV series has been killed. Not a huge surprise this one – even HBO, who like to think of themselves as pretty near the (bleeding) edge fought shy of a series which would ultimately climax with the hero murdering God. So now we’ll never see the splendour that was arse face and his globe spanning singing career.
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