Can Steve get the knife Jeff put in his back out?  Will Jeff ever watched the first Paranormal Activity?  Will Ray watch Monsters tonight? This, Tron Legacy, Looney Tunes, Star Trek and Transformers news in this jam pack reel of COL Movies

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News:

• Indiana Jones movies to be next in line for 3-D Upconversion?
• The ACME Warehouse to finally reveal it’s secrets?
• More TRON News…
• No Kahn in Trek 2, but supposedly theres an iconic TOS antagonist on the way
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon?

The Past: Fright Night (1985)

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Director: Tom Holland

Starring: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, Stephen Geoffreys

Trivia:

• The character Peter Vincent is named for two actors well-known for their appearances in horror movies: Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.
• William Ragsdale injured his foot running down a staircase during the last shot filmed on 24 December 1984, just three weeks into principal photography. Ragsdale’s action scenes were postponed until he was healed sufficiently to perform them and the director filmed other scenes to stay on schedule.
• Stephen Geoffreys auditioned for Fright Night (1985) while filming Fraternity Vacation (1985).
• A puppet that was created for, but not used in, another Columbia Pictures production, Ghost Busters (1984), is visible in Fright Night (1985).
• While directing actors, Tom Holland accidentally broke a bat creature, which was fixed and then filmed.
• Tom Holland had total control in the casting decisions. The only suggestion he got was from Guy McElwaine who asked Holland to meet his friend Roddy McDowall, who’d be cast. In an interview Holland said that “it was a terrific suggestion”.
• William Ragsdale went through several callback auditions for the film. On Halloween night 1984, he was told that he had the part.
• In 1985, a novelization, Fright Night, by Craig Spector and John Skipp, was published by TOR Books.
• In 1988, Fright Night was also spun-off into a comic book series by Now Comics. It ran for 22 issues until July 1990.
• An arcade-style computer game was released in 1988 for Amiga computers. In the game, players assume the role of Jerry Dandrige as he attempts to turn his victims into vampires before sunrise.
• Fright Night was well-received, winning three Saturn Awards, a Dario Argento Award, and a critics’ award—special citation at Fantasporto. It spawned a 1989 sequel, entitled Fright Night Part II, with the same two stars. (The sequel was not as well received as the original.)
• In May 2009 it was revealed that DreamWorks would be overseeing a remake of Fright Night. Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig are set to produce. Marti Noxon wrote currently on the script of the remake. The film is produced by Mike De Luca and will screen in 2011. In March 2010 was announced that Craig Gillespie will direct the remake, which be financed by Steven Spielberg with his company DreamWorks. It will be released and distributed by Disney under the Touchstone banner, as part of the 30-picture deal between DreamWorks Studios and the Walt Disney Company.
• Casting for the remake has already gone underway with Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the recent “Star Trek” reboot, signed to play the lead as teenage Charlie Brewster who thinks his next door neighbor is a vampire. Toni Collette is also starring in an unannounced role, that has been presumed to be Yelchin’s mother. It was reported on May 11, 2010 that Colin Farrell would be playing the charismatic neighbor/vampire originally portrayed by Chris Sarandon. David Tennant has also been cast, playing the role of Peter Vincent. In the remake, Vincent will be a Las Vegas magician whose show revolves around horror-movie imagery. Sandra Vergara, the sister of actress Sofia Vergara, plays his girlfriend, the magician’s assistant. Christopher Mintz-Plasse will play Evil Ed. Imogen Poots will play Charlie’s girlfriend Amy. The film will be shot in 3D with Paradise FX’s Tri Delta camera systems and is expected to be released on October 7, 2011. Max Penner (CTO of Paradise FX) will be the Stereographer.

Talking Points:

• Why are they remaking the film?

What We’ve Learned:

• If a vampire moves in next door to you, be cool and don’t get all up in their grill!
• Make sure your parents know when you think you may be targeted by a vampire so they don’t invite strangers into your house.
• People on TV are not the characters they play on TV!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Yawn. Way to dated. 80’s music ruined it for me.
Ray: I consider myself more of a Lost Boys, kinda guy I still like this movie and i’m Intrigued by the remake
Steve: Total classic! Always a favorite!

The Present: Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

Director: Tod Williams

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Brian Boland, Sprague Grayden, Molly Ephraim & Tim Clemens

Trivia:

• On the official site for the film, after the trailer finishes playing, an image of the nursery room appears, and in the mirror, letters written in what seems to blood spell a message. After flipping the picture horizontally, the message says, “What is happening to Hunter?”
• This film was announced shortly after Paranormal Activity (2007) was released into theaters.
• When the trailer ends and the nursery is shown the baby appears in the mirror but isn’t present in the nursery.
• On the official website for the film, play with the trailer by fast-forwarding and rewinding it. There are secret images embedded in the trailer.
• Paramount and DreamWorks hired screenwriter Michael R. Perry to create the follow-up. Oren Peli, the director of the first film, served as a producer for the sequel.
• Kevin Greutert, director of Saw VI, was initially hired to direct the sequel. However Lions Gate Entertainment exercised a clause in Greutert’s contract to have him direct the final film in the Saw franchise.
• Both of the main actors from Paranormal Activity, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, returned to act together again in the sequel.
• Tod Williams directed Paranormal Activity 2, which started production in May 2010.
• After the staggering success of Paranormal Activity in its opening weekend, Paramount Studios executive Don Harris said that there may be a third part in the series, coming soon: “The company is certainly going to take a look at making a third but will be exceedingly careful in how to go about it.” Harris said.
• Paranormal Activity 2 broke the record for biggest midnight gross for an R rated movie with $6.3 million beating previous Watchmen with $4.6 million. On its opening day Paranormal Activity 2 placed number one at the box office, making $20,100,000 and finished with a total of $41,500,000 estimated over the weekend, placing first at the box office.

Talking Points:

• The audience you see these types of movies with really impacts the movie.
• Did you expect the tie-ins to PA1?
• You really need a LFE Channel to enjoy this movie at home..Use of LFE as a tension builder.

What We Learned:

• If you have a ghost or demon in your home…get a dog!!!
• If you have a Latina nanny who thinks your house is haunted, don’t fire her!
• Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
• Don’t make deals with the devil. They’re bad.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Scary as all fuck
Ray: Entertaining, Scary in the.. most annoying sense of the word, but good fun.
Steve: Thoroughly enjoyed it…slow moving, but gained momentum. Have to see PA1 to get it.

The Future: Monsters (2010)

Director: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Whitney Able, Scoot McNairy

Trivia:

• The filming equipment cost approximately $15,000, with the budget coming in at under $500,000.
• As the low-budget production didn’t run to a camera dolly, Reynolds made do by sticking the camera out of the van window, cushioned on some bundled-up clothing.
• Made with a crew consisting of only two people using “off the shelf” consumer level cameras, editors, digital effects programs and other such equipment.
• Each night during the shooting period the editor Colin Goudie and his assistant Justin Hall would download the day’s footage so the memory sticks could be deleted ready for the next day’s filming.
• The film was shot entirely on location: any settings featured in the film were real locations often used without permission asked in advance, and all the films extras were just people who happened to be there at the time.
• As most of the extras were non-actors who were persuaded to be in the film, their action was improvised. “As a result of all this random behaviour, the idea of scripting the film went out of the window. Instead I had a loose paragraph describing the scene with just the main points that had to be hit; how the actors carried this out was left up to them.”
• Edwards had the first idea for the film while watching some fishermen struggling to haul in their net and wondering how easy it would be to digitally add a huge sea creature. He had the idea to make a monster movie set “years after most other monster movies end, when people aren’t running and screaming, but life is going on” and “where a giant, dead sea monster is considered completely normal.”
• Back in the UK, Edwards had over 100 hours of unique ad-libbed footage (rather than repeated takes of scripted scenes which would be very similar) to edit into a coherent film. Edwards did all the special effects himself using off-the-shelf Adobe software.
• The first assembly was over four hours long, and over eight months of editing was trimmed to 94 minutes. Once the film was locked, Reynolds had five months to create all 250 visual effects shots, a process he undertook in his bedroom. “[I was] churning out about two shots a day, which was fine until I got to the first creature shot. Then suddenly two months went by and I still hadn’t finished a single creature shot; it turned out to be the hardest part of the whole process.” Due to time constraints, the sound effects had to be produced before the special effects were undertaken.

Talking Points:

• Based on the trailer, production value looks a lot better than the trivia makes it sound.
• Is this a new and unique concept?
• The Mist?

Summary:
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined. Today, the American and Mexican military struggle to contain these alien creatures. In particular, here, we focus on a US journalist who agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Intriguing.
Ray: Gonna go see if this is still available on iTunes or Zune..
Steve: Definitely looks interesting…a mix of Cloverfield, District 9, and Anaconda.

Coming Attractions:
The Past

The Present

The Future

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