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The trailer for Transcendent Man, a documentary film about Ray Kurzweil that’s based on his book, The Singularity is Near. You may recall that Kurzweil plans to never die.
Update: Two reviews: Transcendent Man Wows At Tribeca Film Festival Premier and Film About Kurzweil Gets Two Nano-Enhanced Cyberthumbs Up. (thx, david)
The trailer for Julie and Julia is out, based on the blog and book of the same name.
I can’t figure out if Meryl Streep is almost nailing her Julia Child impression or completely blowing it. Also, Streep is ~5’7”….I don’t know what they’re doing in the movie to make her look so tall, but it doesn’t work.
Update: Michael Ruhlman has seen the movie and has positive things to say about it.
The whole-earth nature documentary space is quickly becoming crowded. We’ve got:
The Blue Planet, 2001
Deep Blue, 2003
Planet Earth, 2006
Earth, 2009
Nature’s Great Events, 2009
Oceans, 2010
The last one on the list is from Disney. If you watch the trailer, the company is attempting to say, “Planet Earth? Ha! Disney was down with nature all along!” Pfft. A point in Disney’s favor however is that Oceans is being done by Jacques Perrin, the man responsible for Microcosmos and Winged Migration. Points against: the film has cost $75 million so far (for a documentary!), the footage in the trailer looks like it was lifted directly from The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, and no David Attenborough narration.
Update: I added Earth to the list, also from Disney. Here’s the trailer. BBC and Discovery are listed as partners so it’s likely that the footage in the film is from Planet Earth. (thx, @gjdsalinger)
Update: Earth is indeed mostly material taken from Planet Earth. Disney helped bankroll the production in the first place.
Update: I added Deep Blue to the list as well, a feature-length version of The Blue Planet. (thx, @aknock)
I am hoping that Moon will be awesome and not just a mashup of 2001 and Solaris. The score is by Clint Mansell, who has scored all of Darren Aronofsky’s movies, most notably Requiem for a Dream. Moon opens on June 12 in NYC and LA. (via sarahnomics)
How to Take a Beloved Children’s Classic Book and Screw It All Up, Exhibit A: based on the trailer, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Except for the food falling from the sky, they changed everything else. But it’s IN 3-D!!! *pffft*
Trailer for a new film called Guest of Cindy Sherman. It’s a documentary about a man who becomes romantically involved with the famous artist, only to find that his ego can’t handle her fame. I wonder if we actually get to see the real Sherman in the film…the trailer is very teasing about it.
Update: Unsurprisingly, Sherman’s not happy about the film. (thx, paul)
Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers, Sam Mendes, John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, Catherine O’Hara. Movie. Trailer.
In this trailer for Terminator Salvation — more like salivation, which is what I’m doing waiting for this movie to come out, amiright? — we’re led to believe that perhaps Christian Bale turns out to be a Replicant or a Mecha. (via fimoculous)
During the closing credits of the Academy Awards, a clip was shown previewing some movies that will open in 2009. None of them look like they’ll win any Oscars so I presume this was paid advertising and not editorial on the part of the program. Fun though! (via /film)
Tarantino’s latest film is about Nazi-killing American soldiers and stars Brad Pitt. I can’t decide if this movie is going to completely suck or be really great. Vampire movies notwithstanding, Quentin always gets the benefit of the doubt from me so great it is.
My favorite ads during the Super Bowl broadcast are the movie trailers. Here are the trailers they showed this year:
Transformers 2 (Electric Bugaloo.)
Race to Witch Mountain (The Rock + alien kids.)
Up (New Pixar flick.)
Star Trek (JJ Abrams.)
Land of the Lost (No more Will Ferrell, please.)
Year One (No more Jack Black either. Michael Cera, your clock is ticking.)
Angels and Demons (Hanks/Howard follow-up to DaVinci Code’s prequel book.)
Monsters vs Aliens (Kids like aliens. Kids like monsters. Why not give ‘em both at once?)
Fast and Furious (It’s the first film, minus two thes.)
GI Joe
With the exception of the two animated films and Year One, all of the above are either sequels or remakes. And Hulu, in a stroke of highly irritating genius, has inserted advertising before each of the trailers linked above. Advertising *in* advertising…the 20th century has officially ended. Welcome to the future.
Update: I’ve switched out the Hulu links for ones at Apple; they’re higher quality and can be seen outside of the US. I wish the Apple trailers would have been live last night; it would have made for a lot less whining in my inbox. I just go where the links take me, folks. Oh, and I added the GI Joe trailer. (thx, david)
The trailer for Objectified, a new documentary film about industrial design by Gary Hustwit, who also made Helvetica.
The HD trailer for Wolverine (or, more formally, X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Looks mighty sweet. (via airbag)
The trailer for Carts of Darkness, a documentary film about Vancouver bottle collectors that have taken to racing shopping carts downhill. More excerpts are available on YouTube.
Trailer for The Wrestler, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Mickey Rourke.
Back in the late ’80s, Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey. Estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and unable to sustain any real relationships, Randy lives for the thrill of the show and the adoration of his fans.
Rourke looks great in this and Aronofsky appears back on form. I’m not saying that The Fountain was bad…but it probably was. (thx, kabir)
Oh, Roland Emmerich, you know how to push my buttons. As an unapologetic fan of The Day After Tomorrow, I am vibrating on my chair in anticipation for 2012 (click for HD trailer, yadda yadda).
Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. ‘2012’ is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.
And John Cusack is in it! BTW, the music is from the trailer for The Shining. (via sarahnomics)
You might have seen the grainy cockeyed bootleg trailer over the weekend but now the real deal is up on Apple’s site in various HD-grade qualities: the second trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie. From Wikipedia:
It is the eleventh Star Trek film and features the main characters of the original Star Trek series, who are portrayed by a new cast. It follows James T. Kirk enrolling at Starfleet Academy, his first meeting with Spock, and their battles with Romulans from the future, who are interfering with history.
I’m not a proponent of the idea that any Trek is good Trek so I really want to hate this movie but it looks kind of awesome. At least f’ing McG didn’t direct.
New trailer for Pixar’s Up. I hope I’m wrong, but this seems like the first Pixar movie that won’t appeal to adults and kids at the same time.
Anytime is a good time for a well-cut movie trailer mashup: here’s The Dark Knight version of the Toy Story 2 trailer. (via buzzfeed)
The trailer for Synecdoche, New York, the first film directed by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. A.O. Scott liked it at Cannes. The film will be out in limited release (NY & LA?) on Oct 24. Say sih-NECK-duh-kee…kinda like Schenectady. (via crazymonk)
Update: I removed the embedded video…I didn’t know it came with all that extra cruft around it.
Update: The video is back, YouTube-style.
The R-rated trailer for Kevin Smith’s new film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Promising!
Don LaFontaine, the voice of countless movie trailers, is dead at 68. I liked this tribute from the Washington Post:
In a world of people who all have some sort of private omniscient voice-over running things inside their heads, sometimes God, sometimes Mom, and sometimes Don LaFontaine…
In a world where marketing is far more important than content…came one man…with a Voice.
Check out a brief bio video of LaFontaine with his voice in action.
The first trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been released, featuring a wee Voldemort. Movie is out in November.
They’re making a fourth Terminator movie with Christian Bale? Although I didn’t actually mind the third one so bring it on, I guess. (via goldenfiddle)
Update: McG is directing? I take it back…put it back in the can. Also, Joseph, isn’t it time to stop using that name?
Trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Pitt’s character starts off as an old man and ages backwards. Is it possible to buy tickets for this *right now*? BTW, the full text of the Fitzgerald short story on which the film is based is available online.
Re-cut trailer for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off using music from Requiem for a Dream. (via shaun inman)
Lucas finally does away with all those pesky human actors in an animated sequel to Episode II that no one was clamoring for. But I had to look at the trailer.
The second trailer for Hancock, the Will-Smith-as-apathetic-superhero movie due out this summer, is up on Apple Trailers. I believe this is the same one I linked to on YouTube a month ago, but watch it again anyway. I am hoping against hope that this one isn’t going to be as stupid as I think and instead will be as awesome as I hope.
I’ve got Will Smith action hero fatigue, but HOLY CRAP does Hancock look awesome. I am into apathetic superheroes. There’s a second trailer available on YouTube…and its quality is surprisingly good. (You can tell I don’t make it out to the movies a lot these days…the first trailer has been out since December.)
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