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New Rise Clip with Lucy Liu

2007-04-10T00:37:00.000-05:00

Today a new clip from the vampire flick Rise just hit youtube. We were lucky enough to track it down and I gotta tell ya this flick keeps getting better and better. Not to long ago the lesbian scene was discovered and this time around we got Lucy Liu waking up naked in a morgue.

So yea this is probably not safe for work. Enjoy the clip and remember the film opens on June 1st.

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True Blood for HBO

2007-04-10T00:32:00.000-05:00

Today it was announced that Alan Ball will be adapting the "Southern Vampire" book series by Charlaine Harris for HBO. The pilot episode will have Ball writing, directing as well as executive producing the project. The cast includes some familar faces in Anna Paquin, Brook Kerr and Stephen Moyer.

"True Blood" takes place in a world in which vampires can buy Japanese-made synthetic blood. Their integration into a small Louisiana town causes quite a stir, and a love story ensues between Bull Comton (Moyer), a vampire, and Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin), an innocent waitress who can read people's minds.

Kerr's role is said to be that of "a beautiful, smart, articulate young woman" who takes a job in the bar with Paquin's character Sookie. I am largely not that big of a fan of romantic horror especially when it comes to vampires so whether or not this pilot will get off the ground is unknown at this point. We'll keep you updated.

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Clive Barker Quits Movies!

2007-04-10T00:26:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently after getting stretched in too many damn directions, Clive Barker has finally decided to cut back a little bit. When Phil & Sarah Stokes interviewed him on his official site, he announced he was moving away from his involvement with Seraphim Films, the company behind his upcoming films MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, THE THIEF OF ALWAYS, and TORTURED SOULS.

Barker said, “I would never pitch a project again, I decided. I would never go to a studio to pitch a project - if they wanted to come to talk to me about something, then of course, I would listen, but my pitching days, with all the anxiety attached to them, and then often the sense that it wasn’t really worth the effort you put in anyway, or else the idea you find is stolen from you and used somewhere later - which has happened to me countless times - I’m just over that.”

Hopefully, Barker will finish the long gestating “Abarat” series, the Pinhead adventure novella “Scarlet Gospels”, and the screenplay for the 2008 HELLRAISER remake.

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F13 on Friday the 13th

2007-04-08T12:29:00.000-05:00

What’s a more appropriate way to spend this coming Friday, April 13th than actually watching Friday the 13th 1 & 2 on the big screen? Well, unless you’re in or near Arlington, TX or have a very cool theater near you, you’ll have to settle for watching it at home.

If you are in Arlington, though, you can head out to the Studio Movie Grill at 225 Merchants Row this Friday to see the latest in Pit of Horror’s ongoing Friday Night Frights screenings; the first two killing sprees of the Voorhees family! And these ain’t no DVD screenings, either; the Pit of Horror freaks will be showing actual 35mm prints of both movies for the enraptured crowd! Now that’s how you celebrate Friday the 13, fiends!

Check out the Friday Night Frights MySpace page for more info and keep your eyeballs peeled here for news on the next installment; a double feature of The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness!

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AWIL Doc to Feature Transformation!

2007-04-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

We’ve been keeping you as up to date as we can on the new independently financed documentary on An American Werewolf in London called Beware the Moon. How we doing so far? Filmmaker Paul Davis is traveling all over to interview as many people involved with John Landis’ groundbreaking film as possible and so far he’s amassed a pretty impressive lineup.

Three brand-new interview clips are now up on the Beware the Moon’s MySpace page, including interviews with John Woodvine (the doctor) Brenda Canendish (Judith) and a look behind the scenes on the actual moors used in the movie. Check those out right here!

We also just got some very cool exclusive info from Davis about the documentary’s finale. He’s hired on effects artist Mike Hill (official site) to come in and actually make him transform into a werewolf! The doc is being shot at 9 of the film’s original locations in chronological order as they appeared in the movie, and it will end in a darkened alley on Clink Street, which is where the film ended as well. That is where Paul will be transformed right in front of our eyes!

We also just learned that this summer's first annual HorrorHound Weekend will feature an exclusive first look at the doccumentary followed by a Q&A session with Davis and some of the crew. So make sure you check it out if you plan on going!

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Rob Zombie’s Halloween Trailer Online Finally!

2007-04-07T02:18:00.000-05:00

Hurry over to Yahoo and watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween trailer.
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Three new stills of Michael Myers

2007-04-06T18:01:00.000-05:00

B-D scored three new stills of Michael Myers from Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN that hits theaters on August 31. Check em ´out above and below, and here's the synopsis for the flick.
"After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, is mistakenly released from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger."

‘Grindhouse’ vs. grindhouse

2007-04-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

Though you’ve probably never heard of Bare Knuckles or its director-writer-producer Don Edmonds, Quentin Tarantino is a big fan. And he wants you to be, too.

That’s why Tarantino and his buddy Robert Rodriguez created Grindhouse, the double feature homage to sleazy ’60s and ’70s flicks. But how does their big budget exercise in hiply ironic fanboydom — lots of wink-and-nod scratchy-looking film, et cetera — match up to the 30-year-old source material?

asap sat through the three hours of Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof and then another three hours of two of the films that inspired them, Lady In Red and Bare Knuckles. The latter, on loan from Tarantino’s personal collection, were screened as part of a grindhouse festival at the New Beverly Cinema revival theater in Los Angeles.

Our advice: Don’t go in expecting much. There’s entertainment, sure. You can’t really go wrong with Rose McGowan firing away at zombies from a machine gun clamped onto her amputated leg, or gratuitous prison body search scenes.

Just remember, this is supposed to be lowest-common-denominator stuff. Thrills and gross-outs and sex. Just the kind of thing that gets a former movie rental store clerk like Tarantino all juiced up.

Edmonds says the Pulp Fiction director did a double-take when they met for the first time at a business meeting. He excitedly asked Edmonds if he directed Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, and then promptly listed every movie Edmonds had ever made.

“They appreciate the old films and what us guys were doing at that time,” Edmonds said after his 1977 blaxploitation film Bare Knuckles was shown this week. “These are rough films to make. They’re harder to make than a $120 million picture. A $120 million picture you just order, call it up and someone brings it to you.”

Here’s our comparison below of the old and new grindhouse.
Plot Points (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

Showing as a double feature before Bare Knuckles was the 1979 action movie Lady in Red, about 1930s gangster John Dillinger’s last girl. A young Pamela Sue Martin — best known for television work as teen sleuth Nancy Drew — portrayed title character Polly Franklin. The poor girl loses her virginity to a slimy Chicago Tribune reporter, nudes up for a prison strip search and becomes a prostitute — all in the span of about 20 minutes. For her trouble, she gets to see her boyfriend Dillinger gunned down outside a theater. In the climactic moment of the film, she screams hysterically as people dab their handkerchiefs in his blood as mementos.

In Death Proof, Russell plays a stuntman-turned-serial killer who uses his reinforced stunt car to claim his victims. First, he hangs out in an Austin, Texas bar and finagles a lap dance from a tipsy girl. Then he crashes his car head-on into a vehicle carrying the very same girl and a few of her friends. Tarantino delivers the crash in slow motion from several different angles so viewers can see each and every severed limb or head. The message from both old and new: Gore is good. Gore preceded by sexy ladies is even better.

Cost

In Edmonds’ film, underrated B-movie actor Robert Viharo stars as LA bounty hunter Zachary Kane. There’s a masked serial killer on the loose and Kane enlists the help of a black sidekick, named “Black,” to track down the man murdering women with kung-fu moves. Edmonds said he didn’t get any permits for the movie, made for $25,000 with another $25,000 in goods and services. “It’s a lot of movie for 50-grand,” he noted.

Tarantino can take years to shoot, re-shoot and edit his films, but he worked with the efficient and thrifty Rodriguez at his Troublemaker Studios outside Austin. (Rodriguez is cinematographer, composer and editor of many of his movies.) Grindhouse was reportedly made for $50 million to $60 million. It’s likewise a lot of movie for the cost — particularly Planet Terror, which packs in explosions and gun battles aplenty, along with a military helicopter with overhead blades used at one point to chop off zombie heads.

Stepping Stone

The old grindhouse movies served as a launching pad for many Hollywood careers. Lady in Red was written by John Sayles, who went on to a lengthy career including creating the 1984 cult classic The Brother From Another Planet, 1988’s Eight Men Out and 2002’s Sunshine State. He even won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1983.

J. Michael Riva, who did production design for Bare Knuckles, later did the same job on 1987’s Lethal Weapon and last year’s Will Smith flick The Pursuit of Happyness. His work can be seen in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 and Iron Man movies. Bare Knuckles cinematographer Dean Cundey has worked on dozens of films and received an Oscar nomination for the 1988 live-action animation breakthrough Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Tarantino and Rodriguez were in a better position to hire well-established talent. Oscar nominee and frequent Tarantino collaborator Sally Menke edited Death Proof. Russell stars alongside actresses including Rosario Dawson in that movie, while Josh Brolin and Bruce Willis appear alongside younger stars like Freddy Rodriguez and Marley Shelton in Planet Terror.

Courtesy of Ryan Pearson and Paul Chavez, asap reporters based in Los Angeles who can grind it better than you.

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New Ichi the Killer Special Edition DVD

2007-04-06T01:00:00.000-05:00

Ichi the Killer is one of the most popular Asian films besides maybe Battle Royale. It comes as no surprise that a long overdue Special Edition DVD will be relased by Media Blasters sub-label Tokyo Shock. According to DavisDVD, this two disc edition will be released on May 29th and will have a suggested retail price of about $38.95.

The Icihi the Killer Special Edition DVD will be packaged in a collectors edition blood bag. The film itself will be presented fully uncut with a 1.85 anamorphic widescreen transfer, Japanese Dolby Digital Surround audio and English subtitles. Bonus materials include an audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and writer Hideo Yamamoto, a making-of featurette with director and Miike fan Eli Roth, behind-the-scenes footage, trailers and a photo gallery.

The packaging art comes courtesy of DC

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The Psycho Legacy Doc In The Works

2007-04-06T00:41:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows almost every single story told about Hitchcocks Psycho. So where's the love for the sequels? I always felt that while they were inferior to the original, how many films can really stack up against Psycho anyway! Robert Galluzzo will be the man conducting the interviews and heading up the documentary and he seems to agree.

"I was inspired to start this documentary for a number of reasons. The main one being a lack of one. For me, and I'm sure plenty of other genre fans out there around my age, I grew up watching repeat screenings of Psycho II, III and IV on cable and those movies always had such an impact on me. I will cover the original movie, but there's already so much material out there about Hitchcock's PSYCHO. I'm really interested in answering all the burning questions fans have had through out the years about the sequels. And I can safely say that I have already uncovered stories from the filmmakers that no one has ever heard."

Several interviews that have already been conducted include Tom Holland, Mick Garris, Katt Shea, Adam Green and Harold Schechter. Some upcoming interviews that are still tentative feature Greg Nicotero, Tony Timpone, David Schow and Tim Sullivan. Looks like something ANY Psycho Fan can look forward to!

Even better is they are looking for dedicated fans to send in photos or stories about Psycho so that they can include them into the documentary. You can check out a lot more info about the flick at its Official MySpace page or the launch of the Official Psycho Website.

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