Lionsgate

Video: Trailer for ‘The Expendables’ With Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke

BrianTT — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:47:04 -0600

CHICAGO – Since its was announced, Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables” has promised to be one of the more over-the-top, ridiculous action movies in years. The film unites some of the most high-profile action stars in the business including Sly, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke and more. Don’t miss this preview and mark your calendars for Aug. 20, 2010.

Editor’s note: We have been contacted by Lionsgate with a request to remove this trailer. Per the request, we took this trailer down at 11:16 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2009. It leaked from the Venice Film Festival. We will post the Lionsgate-authorized trailer for “The Expendables” when it is released.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Slideshow: 7-Image Gallery For ‘My Bloody Valentine 3D’ With Jensen Ackles, Jaime King

BrianTT — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:54:37 -0700

CHICAGO – This 7-image slideshow contains official press images for Lionsgates’s “My Bloody Valentine 3D,” which stars Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Betsy Rue, and Megan Boone from writers Todd Farmer and Zane Smith and director Patrick Lussier. The film opens on Jan. 16, 2009.

“My Bloody Valentine 3D” is a horror movie about a brutal coal mining accident and the sole survivor who turned into a serial killer years later on Valentine’s Day. In the town of Harmony, the man who caused the accident (Jensen Ackles) returns home ten years later to confront his past when a man in a miner’s mask and armed with a pickaxe starts killing again. The film is presented in stunningly real, cutting edge 3D. and is rated R. It opens on Friday, January 16th, 2009.

You can click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through this slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All photos credited to Michael Roberts and courtesy of Lionsgate.

MyBloody Valentine01: Jaime King stars as Sarah Palmer in My Bloody Valentine 3D.
MyBloody Valentine02: Jensen Ackles stars as Tom Hanniger in My Bloody Valentine 3D.
MyBloody Valentine03: Axel Palmer (Kerr Smith), Burke (Tom Atkins) and Sarah Palmer (Jaime King) in My Bloody Valentine 3D.
MyBloody Valentine04: A scene from the trailer of My Bloody Valentine 3D.
MyBloody Valentine05: A scene from the trailer of My Bloody Valentine 3D.
MyBloody Valentine06: Theatrical Key Art.
MyBloody Valentine07: Teaser Key Art Version 2.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Slideshow: 13-Image Gallery For ‘Transporter 3’ With Jason Statham

BrianTT — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:00:00 -0700

CHICAGO – This 13-image slideshow contains official press images for “Transporter 3,” which stars Jason Statham, Robert Knepper, and Natalya Rudakova from director Olivier Megaton. The film opens on Nov. 26, 2008.

“Transporter 3” features the return of Statham’s Frank Martin, a driver for hire. Frank finds himself pressured into transporting Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Frank has to deal with deadly Russians, the evil Americans behind the plot, and the general resistance of his kidnapped passenger. The film opens on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008.

You can click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through this slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. Unless otherwise noted on an individual photo, all photo credits for this slideshow belong to Magali Bragard.

transporter3_1: Jason Statham stars as Frank Martin in Transporter 3.
transporter3_2: Frank Martin (Jason Statham) and Johnson (Robert Knepper) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_3: A scene from Transporter 3, starring Jason Statham as Frank Martin.
transporter3_4: Frank Martin (Jason Statham) and Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_5: Tarconi (Francois Berleand, right) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_6: Jason Statham stars as Frank Martin in Transporter 3.
transporter3_7: A scene from Transporter 3, starring Jason Statham as Frank Martin.
transporter3_8: Frank Martin (Jason Statham) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_9: Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_10: Johnson (Robert Knepper) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_11: Frank Martin (Jason Statham) in Transporter 3.
transporter3_12: Director Olivier Megaton on the set of Transporter 3.
transporter3_poster: Theatrical Key Art.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Eli Roth in ‘Hostel: Part II’ Flirts Fiddly Line Between Tasteful Terror, Repugnant Repulsion

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:33:11 -0600

CHICAGO – “It’s the difference between hunting a lion and a deer.”

Eli Roth, director of “Hostel: Part II,” articulated in an interview with Adam Fendelman that view of his “Hostel” men as weighed against his “Hostel: Part II” women. The tellingly revealing statement touches not only on his muse for the sequel but also his take on the female kind and people’s darkest secrets.

Eli Roth (center) with Lauren German (left) and Bijou Phillips (right) in “Hostel: Part II”.
Photo courtesy of Rico Torres and Lionsgate
The concept to calculatingly ferret and torture women was conceived from “Death Proof” – Quentin Tarantino’s half of “Grindhouse” – because Roth so fancied Tarantino’s violent femmes. Roth regarded the “Death Proof” girls as the new bar for females in horror films. Tarantino executive produced “Hostel: Part II” and Roth acted in “Death Proof” a week before shooting his hostile sequel.

Parlaying a threesome into his own ferocious film world, Roth – who as a horror director fears real blood – seized the opportunity to strike back and grow his successful empire. Undaunted by being dubbed as a masochistic misogynist and forever burdened to dangerously flirt the thorny line between tasteful terror and repugnant repulsion, Roth is a fiddly lad to tag.

On one hand, he’s one of the most profitable directors in Hollywood. As the business is exactly that – a business – and as a business is in business to make money, Roth has a knack for translating relatively low-budget films into box-office surprises that send investors to cloud nine.

“‘Hostel’ was a total one-off movie that was supposed to be a little movie I did between movies,” Roth said. “The average budget for a movie is now $80 million. ‘Hostel’ was made for $3.8 million. Even if it had only come out in a few cities and did $8 to $10 million, it would have been a home run. We didn’t even know if it’d come out in theaters.”

When “Hostel” opened at $20 million and knocked out “The Chronicles of Narnia,” Roth says he was floored at the voracious appetite for his ideas. In total, “Hostel” has raked in $80 million in worldwide receipts.

On the other hand, you get the sense from speaking with him that he’s either selling you an alternate reality or he’s unaware of what his reality really is. He speaks of greatness he hasn’t yet achieved and his dossier hasn’t yet produced the timeless classics as he’d like to think.

“In ‘Hostel: Part II,’ I wanted an unbelievable climax,” he said. “The last moment of the film needed to be a showstopper – the end all, be all of horror films – with a great kill and one of best endings ever in a horror film.”

The groin yank was at least vile, foul, odious, sadistic, inhuman, malicious, malevolent, wicked, heinous, nefarious, sinful, fiendish – let’s see – what other adjectives are there on Thesaurus.com for just plain sick? Let us not forget the silent, slow scene with a grown man pointing a gun at the heads of children in a lineup.

At least he used a silencer. That was kind.

In deliberating the sequel, Roth says he sought to make the “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” of the “Hostel” series. In truth, though, grouping the two in the same sentence is like contrasting a fine wine that has aged to perfection with a tasty glass of Red Bull that has its thrill rides but may or may not stand the test of time.

Bijou Phillips plays Whitney in “Hostel: Part II”.
Photo courtesy of Rico Torres and Lionsgate
Timing is very much on Roth’s brain. He describes the ability to be scary to audiences as that which is scary to him. He also plots his stories squarely around what America fears at a given moment in time.

“I was in Prague when Katrina hit. It was like ‘Dawn of the Dead,’” Roth said. “Bodies were flowing down the street and there were no police. People went right to a primal state of killing, raping and looting. The army didn’t show up for five days. That terrifies me.

“Look anywhere where there’s no law. What do people do? They go right to killing. It’s something in human nature. Under the right circumstances, anyone can become a killer. When no one’s looking, people have that need inside them to control and torture another human being.”

With the plot of obscenely moneyed people who drool at the opportunity to bid on the torture and ultimate death of random overseas female tourists, Roth makes the stretch of comparing his fictional story to President Bush’s real-world war in Iraq.

“Why is that war happening? It’s for oil. It’s for money. Halliburton is making those decisions. Do you really think any of those decisions are being made for the good of a country? It’s blood for money. It’s capitalism to its most extreme. It’s very real. We’re in Iraq because that’s where the money is. That’s scary.”

Roth bills his work as not just scary but intelligently so. To up the gore ante, he says all you need is another tool – such tools are inspired by torture devices used by the church – and another body. The tough part is making it smarter, he says, and what’s really terrifying is the look on the actor’s face. It’s not the actual graphic brutality.

“I have to compete with films with $100 million ad campaigns along with ‘24,’ ‘Nip/Tuck’ and ‘CSI’ on TV. A great horror movie kill can trump everything. If you can do the shower scene in ‘Psycho,’ the opening in ‘Jaws’ or another signature scene, then it doesn’t matter what movie stars you have or what you spent on special effects because people have got to see that moment.

“That’s what ‘Hostel: Part II’ has. At the end of the film, people will come out saying: ‘I’ve never seen that in a movie.’ The ratings board didn’t know what to compare this to and that’s what people like about me. People see my name and they look for intelligence and originality. ‘Hostel’ was the one that raised the bar and pushed the envelope further than any film had at that point.”

The bitterly divisive debate about the “R” rating for “Hostel: Part II” by the MPAA – instead of “NC-17” – is unsurprisingly viewed by the film’s maker as a democratic breath of fresh air. He eulogizes the association’s autonomous process.

“With ‘Hostel’ and ‘Saw II,’ the MPAA got many complaints. We were under the microscope this time. Before we were under the radar. When ‘Hostel: Part II’ came in, they were ready for it. It’s ‘Hostel: Part II’. It’s not ‘Happy Feet: Part II’. People know what it is. What they built it up to be in their minds was so much worse than what it actually was. We had a great discussion about it.

Heather Matarazzo plays the innocent role of Lorna in “Hostel: Part II”.
Photo courtesy of Rico Torres and Lionsgate
“I really feel lucky that we have a system like the MPAA. In Germany, they’ll say: ‘Take these scenes out or the movie’s not going in theaters.’ It’s government censored.

“In Japan, ‘Hostel’ didn’t come out. They said: ‘We’re not going to have a movie where an American disfigures a Japanese girl’s face.’ That’s it. There’s no discussion. You watch a movie and they say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Ukraine? No. Singapore? No. In the U.S., we can have a discussion about it and can recut it. It’s run by the studios and not the government. It’s the only system by which I have a voice and a process.”

Whether you deem Roth to be a tormented soul or an explicit genius, there’s a method to his madness.

In his view, the stories touch on what people really feel and do – but often don’t say or show – and the realities about the most menacing parts of life. To bring what he perceives as such raw honesty to theaters, Roth paradoxically makes his actors feel “comfortable” and “safe” in their bloodied environments.

“These actors go to a very dark place,” Roth said. “When they’re crying and screaming, it’s real. They’re stirring up deep trauma and mental anguish. The most horrible, darkest thing in their life is right there on the surface and they’re reliving it.”

As culture changes, Roth’s terror changes.

Next, Roth is fixated on honing in on the dying of the world’s bees in the upcoming film “Cell”. From human torture to bees? Yes. He’s terrified by it. He says a quarter of the bee population is currently dying potentially because of cell phones knocking out the radar of the bees.

“Einstein says the human race is four steps eliminated from the extinction of bees,” Roth said. “Once the bees go, flowers won’t get pollinated, vegetables won’t grow, we won’t get oxygen and the human race will die without bees. Cell phones could be killing off the bees. I want to show there’s something brewing.

“With all this wireless stuff that’s pumped into the air to make our lives convenient, there’s a fear that it’s doing something we can’t even see. ‘Cell’ explores that fear. You have to know what the fear is going to be to know what the horror will be. It’s not a movie about the fear of technology. It makes the human behavior real. Then the film is timeless.”

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Comprehensive Film Release Schedule Through 2008

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:37:00 -0600

Updated: 5/1/07 11:39 p.m.
I have compiled as many upcoming films from as many studios as possible as I can currently confirm through 2008.

Lions Gate Entertainment
“Away From Her”: May 4, 2007
“Delta Farce”: May 11, 2007
“Captivity”: May 18, 2007
“Bug”: May 25, 2007
“Hostel Part II”: June 8, 2007
“Fido”: June 15, 2007
“BRATZ”: Aug. 10, 2007
“Good Luck Chuck”: Aug. 24, 2007
“Ladron Que Roba Al Ladron”: Aug. 31, 2007
“Trade”: Sept. 7, 2007
“Earth”: Fall 2007
“War”: Sept. 14, 2007
“3:10 to Yuma”: Oct. 5, 2007
“The Eye”: Oct. 12, 2007
“Saw IV”: Oct. 26, 2007
“Foodfight!”: Nov. 16, 2007
“Thomas Kinkade Presents the Christmas Cottage”: Dec. 14, 2007
“Tenderness”: Fall 2007
“Why Did I Get Married”: Feb. 2008
“College”: March 14, 2008
“Borderland”: Coming
“Five Fingers”: Coming
“Forbidden Kingdom”: Coming
“A Jazz Man’s Blues”: Coming
“Right At Your Door”: Coming
“Teeth”: Coming
“Tulia”: Coming

New Line Cinema
“Hairspray”: July 20, 2007
“The Time Traveler’s Wife”: Shooting begins Aug. 2007
“Rush Hour 3”: Aug. 10, 2007
“Shoot ’Em Up”: Sept. 7, 2007
“Mr. Woodcock”: Sept. 21, 2007
“Rendition”: Oct. 12, 2007
“Martian Child”: Oct. 26, 2007
“Love in the Time of Cholera”: Nov. 16, 2007
“The Golden Compass”: Dec. 7, 2007
“Pride and Glory”: Jan. 4, 2008
“Semi-Pro”: Feb. 29, 2008
“Inkheart”: March 19, 2008
“Be Kind Rewind”: April 4, 2008
“Journey 3-D”: Aug. 8, 2008
“Ghosts of Girlfriend’s Past”: Coming

Warner Bros.
“Lucky You”: May 4, 2007
“Ocean’s Thirteen”: June 8, 2007
“Nancy Drew”: June 15, 2007
“License to Wed”: July 4, 2007
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”: July 13, 2007
“No Reservations”: July 27, 2007
“The Invasion”: Aug. 17, 2007
“Micahel Clayton”: Sept. 14, 2007
“The Brave One”: Sept. 28, 2007
“Trick ’R Treat”: Oct. 5, 2007
“Fred Claus”: Nov. 9, 2007
“I Am Legend”: Dec. 14, 2007

Paramount Pictures
“Shrek the Third”: May 18, 2007
“Transformers”: July 4, 2007
“Hot Rod”: Aug. 3, 2007
“Stardust”: Aug. 10, 2007
“Untitled Farrelly Bros. Project”: Oct. 5, 2007
“Stop Loss”: TBD
“Bee Movie”: Nov. 2, 2007
“Beowulf”: Nov. 16, 2007
“Things We Lost in the Fire”: Fall/Holiday 2007
“Sweeney Todd”: Dec. 21, 2007 (limited); Jan. 11, 2008 (wide)

Sony Pictures
“Spider-Man 3”: May 4, 2007
“Surf’s Up”: June 8, 2007
“Superbad”: Aug. 17, 2007

Warner Independent Pictures
“Introducing the Dwights”: July 4, 2007
“December Boys”: Sept. 14, 2007
“In The Valley of Elah”: Sept. 21, 2007
“Rails and Ties”: Dec. 21, 2007

Rogue Pictures
“The Strangers”: Summer 2007
“Balls of Fury”: Sept. 14, 2007

Focus Features
“Evening”: June 29, 2007
“Talk to Me”: July 13, 2007 (limited)

Fox Atomic
“28 Weeks Later”: May 11, 2007
“The Comebacks”: Aug. 24, 2007

Fox Searchlight
“Waitress”: May 2, 2007
“Once”: May 28, 2007
“Day Watch”: June 1, 2007
“Joshua”: July 6, 2007
“Sunshine”: Fall 2007

Black Diamond Pictures
“September Dawn”: June 22, 2007

MGM
“The Flying Scotsman”: May 4, 2007
“Home of the Brave”: May 11, 2006 (limited)
“Mr. Brooks”: June 1, 2007
“Rescue Dawn”: July 4, 2007

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com