Harry Potter And The Need For Common Decency

If we really wanted to, we could’ve put a much more disturbing picture of Mr. Radcliffe, so be grateful for small gifts like this:

Anyway, off the back of news that Half Blood Prince has been delayed to July ’09, and the new rumour that the reasoning behind it is due to Radcliffe getting all nekkid and beastial for the Broadway release of Equus, which was due to bow around the same time as The Half Blood Prince‘s original November release, is something even more disturbing:

“At first I thought I’d have pants (underwear) on for the scene, but apparently not. But I’ve sorta done that before on stage, so it’s all old hat now, really.”

Daniel Radcliffe talking there. About what, you ask? Possible an Equus movie adaptation? No. That would be for a scene in the first of the two Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows movies. We knew it was getting dark, but now Harry’s getting nekkid? Dear God, won’t somebody please think of the children?!

Should this guy play The Riddler?

Brian Austin Green might’ve rocked our collective worlds in Beverely Hills 90210, and he might be making something of a “comeback”, if you can call it that, in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but is that enough for Master Nolan to consider him? According to a recent interview with MTV, he believes so. We can but dream.

Harry Potter And The Half Year Release Date Move

Because we forgot to add previously, here is the Potter 6 teaser trailer:

As with all the films, its getting darker, to the point that by the time Potter 7 swings round, you may not be able to see the Warner Brothers logo. Also, at the end of the trailer, the word “Novemeber” pops op. Well…..

“Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films—changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of.  We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.” From the pen of Mister Warner (or one of his PR people, at least).

The real reason, apparently, is because Warners also distributed a little movie called The Dark Knight this year, which made a butt load of money, so they don’t really need any more this year, and have moved it back to July 2009 cos it’ll have little to no competition. The only other film opening on the same day is Will Ferrell’s Land Of The Lost, which Paramount will probably move to a safer date now.

Young Voldemort played by chocolate bar!

New pictures from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are online today, courtesy of USA Today (here). They show Tom Riddle aka the young Voldemort, and Dumbledore in full fiery action mode.

The young he-who-must-not-be-named is played by (see if you can guess which famous fellow cast member he’s related to!) 10 year old Hero Fiennnes-Tiffin.

Let me say that again: Hero Fiennes-Tiffin.

Who. The. Fuck. Names their kid that?! He has not one, but TWO chocolate bars in his name! Voldemort is meant to inspire fear and dread – not make me peckish for a cup of tea and chocolate treat!

Although he does now become our new favourite “child actor with hilarious name”. The previous title holder was Mackintosh Muggleton, the kid from 28 Weeks Later. His always sounded like a makey-uppy Harry Potter name anyway, so now our new favourite is actually in a Harry Potter film – brilliant!

Picture: Dumbledore couldn’t quite remember if he turned off the gas before leaving Hogwarts.

The film’s trailer will be online later today. We’ll have it up later. But only if it’s better than the shit teaser trailer (here).

10 things we’ve learned from Comic Con 2008

1) Fat people should not wear spandex. Or any tight-fitting costumes.

Ironman does like Burger King

2) Kids in costumes are very cute, as are whole families dressing up.

The family that dresses up together, stays together.

Although some are just creepy.

I know a doctor who might be able to help you.

But either way, there will probably be therapy issues later in life.

3) Terminator Salvation may be okay.

The tragic results of excessive exposure to Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Read how McG wowed the Comic Con crowds here. News that Jonathon (brother of Chris) Nolan is the “lead” scriptwriter is encouraging.

4) Hugh Jackman knows how to work a crowd. And is still hot even with shaggy hair and beard.

Hugh Jackman shakes hands with Len Wein, creator of the character Wolverine

5) Comic Con girls dress slutty. But we like it.

Evil cheerleaders

6) Twilight fans are INSANE. And scream too much and too loud. And Robert Pattinson’s hair is ridiculous.

Robert Pattinson's silly hair

You can watch the video below, but Correct Opinion are not responsible for any loss of hearing incurred. You have been warned.

7) Turns out San Diego doesn’t actually mean “whale’s vagina”.

We want to believe...

8 ) There is a very good feeling about Watchmen.

Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II), Zack Snyder (director) and Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) presented well-received new footage

9) Ray Stevenson looks great in a suit. But that still doesn’t mean the new Punisher will be any good.

Titus Pullo scrubs up pretty well

10) Some people get way into their costume. But it’s all cool. Geek cool.

You'll believe a man can wear baby blue

Go on...admit it...it looks fun...right?

For more photos, blogs and videos direct from the event, check out Empire’s Comic Con coverage here.

Christian Bale: not just Batman!

That’s right folks. In the week of The Dark Knight, when all we hoped for it came to pass, another Christian Bale film is sneaking out some teaser stuff. Not content with one mega huge franchise, he’s also part of another little-known, not-that-popular, could-do-with-more-action indie series. What’s it called again…oh yeah….Terminator something.

There are many reasons for our reaction to Terminator Salvation to vary from indifference to skepticism to outright hostility, but most can be summed up in one word: McG. The McDonalds happy meal of the directing world, we have every reason to fear the worst. But at least the marketing team are earning their retainer so far. The previously reported trailer gives some good hints and flashes, without being stupid enough to show us any real, judge-able footage just yet.

And today’s shot of John Connor? Bale’s just doing what he does best – kicking ass and taking names.

And thank jebus they’ve dropped the original cumbersome title for the better-but-not-quite-as-good-as-just-T4 for Terminator Salvation.

Why So Serious?

It seems that all anyone can talk about, whether or not they’ve seen the film seems incidental, is how great Heath Ledger’s performance is as The Joker in The Dark Knight and how it is definitely an Oscar worthy performance, with anything less than Best Supporting Oscar come next February will be nothing but a tragedy. While we have no doubts that Ledger’s performance is most likely incendiary, and he was nothing short of a brilliant actor, is it fair to ask whether or not he will recieve the Oscar based on his performance alone, or based on the fact that its something of a tragedy that it will be award post-humously?

As much as Oscar loves indie-to-mainstream cross over darlings, such as 2008’s split-votes There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men, nothing gets their blood pumping like a big expensive epic. Ben-Hur back in its day and Titanic more recently have shown that you can go overboard on the spectacle and still have your eyes set on more than just Best Visual Effects. And a recent trend-bend has shown Oscar to be more acceptable to genres other than ‘Drama’, with Best Actor nods going to Johnny Depp (Pirates Of The Caribbean) and Amy Adams (Enchanted), not to mention the shock that a fantasy film is now tied at the top with most Oscars won. With The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King beating the likes of Lost In Translation, Seabiscuit and Mystic River, all of which up until that point would’ve been pure Oscar bait, it showed that the Academy was finally willing to open up to the possibility that any and all genres are “potential” winners. And while it’ll be a good while yet before we see anyone from a horror film reading out an acceptance speech, is it such a stretch to think that a “comic book movie” could be nominated for the big one on the big night?

Certainly all early word has it compared to The Godfather Part II and Heat, which is no bad thing, and on the back of the wave of Ledger’s performance, not to mention the “hush hush could it be even better?” performance from Aaron Eckhart, Nolan’s constantly improving directing abilities, as well as writing abilities with his brother. Bale, too, could be in with mention, as he is without doubt one of the greatest younger generation actors working today. It will be one of the two best films released this summer, and since WALL-E can’t possibly win since the Academy decided that Animated movies have their own catagorey, its not such a stretch to imagine it being shortlisted, is it?

Well, that depends. Even though they haven’t been released yet, so their quality can’t be entirely commented upon, but come award seasons, there will be a splurg of Oscar Baiting movies, like The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The Reader, The Changeling, Australia, Revolutionary Road, Che, Milk, Miracle At St. Anna, The Hurt Locker…… and thats just for starters, off the top of my head.

So, Batman, you’ve got your work for you, but lets try and put a smile on that face, Oscar.

Maggie Gyllenhall is The Joker?

I get the feeling that somewhere in the midst of all the pre-publicity hype regarding just how much The Dark Knight is going to be The Godfather Part 2 or The Empire Strikes Back of our time, and how it just might be the greatest film of 2008, and by the way, when was the last time a summer blockbuster could possibly make that statement? For the life of me, I can’t think of one good example, and yes, I know, the second I post this entry I’m going to think of hundreds of them, but still, I’m making a point here. This summer has got one the biggest runs of Hits-To-Flops in recent memory, but between the greatness that was WALL-E and the potential greatness of this, so far, 2008 has been good to us. But, anyway, I’ve found myself on a tangent. Where was I? Oh yes….. Wasn’t Heath Ledger supposed to be playing The Joker?

The more I look at this magazine cover, the more I’m certain that its going to haunt my dreams later. That smile has been scorched on to the back of my eye lids for who knows how long. Unless Tatler are making some kind of weird ass joke about making “Batman’s Babe” look like one of The Jokers’ Henchwomen, and I don’t think they are, then can someone explain to me why she looks like she used some of Jack Nicholson’s nefarious “Smiley” product from the original Batman?

Seriously, her face is freakin’ me out.

Michael Bay’s “The Dark Knight” script?

Chris Nolan too cerebral for you? Thought Batman Begins had too much talky-talk and not enough exploding shit?

Well, we can certainly dream! spill.com got themselves the “exclusive” here.

It’s almost too easy to take the piss out of the various clichéd tics in Michael Bay’s oevre (is the word “oevre” a bit much when describing a CV that includes The Island and Pearl Harbour?!) but there’s no denying the giggles that this offers. While clearly a joke, I’m pretty sure Bay has considered stage directions such as this before:

All it’s missing is a scene involving a 360 degree shot of a helicopter at sunset.

Now let’s go hack the internet!

(and be thankful that there isn’t a Brett Ratner version out there….)

What Burton Did Next

In what seemed to be some kind of retaliation to the criticism to his one commercial idealised movie, which was the mismaligned Planet Of The Apes remake back in 2001, Tim Burton has been going through something of a personal revolution. Dealing with recent father issues with the fantastic Big Fish in 2003, then proving that he actually can make a box office hit out of a remake with Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in 2005. He followed that up with personal pet project and critical darling The Corpse Bride, also in 2005, and then his most recent entry, and again, another remake, another warm critical reception, and the best box office that a violent musical could expect, in the form of Sweeney Todd.

So whats up next? Well, everyone and there Burton fan’s dog knows that his doing another feature length animation in the form of Frankenweenie, an elongated version of his 1984 award winning short. But after that, he has a much more interesting project in the works. Dark Shadows, a film adaptation of the t.v. show which aired over 1,000 episodes between 1966 and 1971, it tells the story of vampire Barnabas Collins, and his daily run ins with the mythical, but very real creatures here on earth such as werewolves, ghosts and other horrific monsters. Burton’s vision is set to star his alter ego Johnny Deep as Collins, and the script is being worked up by Burton regular John August. It’ll also mark Burton’s return to the pure horror genre (Todd doesn’t really count) since Sleepy Hollow in 1999.

If you’re thinking the same thing we are, that it all sounds vaguely Van Helsing, then worry not. Burton seems to have re-discovered his A-game, even if it is based in B-movies.