Director Guy Ritchie has decided to tackle a new movie adaptation based on Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes. The movie, simply titled Sherlock Holmes,is starring Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson. Filming started in early October in London, UK. We may expect the movie Sherlock Holmes to be released during the second half of 2009.
The film is set in 1891 and revolves around Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) stopping a conspiracy to destroy Britain. The film opens with Holmes apprehending the murderous cult leader Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), who promises he will return from the dead and exact his revenge as he is being led to the gallows.
Plot
In a dynamic new portrayal of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country.
Movie Synopsis
The action-adventure mystery Sherlock Holmes is helmed by acclaimed filmmaker Guy Ritchie, for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. Robert Downey, Jr. brings the legendary detective to life, and Jude Law stars as Holmes' trusted colleague, Watson, a doctor and war veteran who is a formidable ally for Sherlock Holmes. Rachel McAdams stars as Irene Adler, the only woman ever to have bested Holmes and who has maintained a tempestuous relationship with the detective. Mark Strong stars as their mysterious new adversary, Blackwood. Kelly Reilly plays Watson's love interest, Mary.
The early press about James Cameron's latest movie, "Avatar" couldn't have been more hyperbolic: this film was going to forever change the way we experience movies. The director -- already famous for wowing audiences with quicksilver robots in "Terminator 2" and sinking an entire ocean liner in "Titanic" -- spent over a decade working on the movie. He reportedly developed a brand new 3-D camera for the flick along with entirely new technologies for motion capture. The movie's budget was reportedly in the ballpark of $300 million. And yet there was almost no word on what the movie was going to be about, and few indications of what it was going to look like.
Though the first sneak peak to a Comic-con audience received raves, the positive buzz for "Avatar" diminished when the first trailer came out in September. It outlined a plot that seemed glaringly familiar and it showed a bunch of half-naked blue people running around a digital jungle. To say it failed to overwhelm would be an understatement. The flick was almost immediately dubbed "Dances with Smurfs" by furious fans on the internet. Blogs made unflattering comparisons between "Avatar" and the CG animated fiasco "Delgo," which is also about half-naked blue people in a forest.
This weekend, "Avatar" will be released on 4,000 screens across the country and audiences will finally get to see what all the fuss is about. Is "Avatar" a landmark of moviemaking or it yet another big-budget Hollywood production with a recycled plot? It turns out both are right.
The movie might have cost the GNP of a small nation but all that money is on-screen: it looks gorgeous. As David Denby of the New Yorker writes, "James Cameron's "Avatar" is the most beautiful film I've seen in years. Amid the hoopla over the new power of 3-D as a narrative form, and the excitement about the complicated mix of digital animation and live action that made the movie possible, no one should ignore how lovely "Avatar" looks, how luscious yet freewheeling, bounteous yet strange."
Cameron's famed obsession with detail -- this is a director who insisted that real Beluga caviar be served during the first class dinner scene in "Titanic" -- is fully on display here. The film takes place on Pandora, a planet filled with lush forests, floating mountains, and a huge moon that fills the night's sky. Each frame bustles with life. And each creature in the movie, from massive hammer-headed pachyderms to six-armed neon lemurs, feels like it has its own evolutionary back story.
Cameron even went so far as to hire a linguist to invent an entirely new language for the Na'vi, the aforementioned half-naked blue people who look like panthers crossed with runway models. And it is with the Na'vi that Cameron's technical wizardry really shines: they are entirely computer generated yet their movements and facial expressions feel almost completely natural. Unlike other live-action/CG hybrids like this year's "A Christmas Carol," the digital artifice quickly falls away and you start thinking of them as real. Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana), the lithe Na'vi princess who falls for Jake the main character, might very well become the first non-human movie character ever to become a full-blown sex symbol.
Where some critics found fault with the movie was with its well-worn storyline. As Scott Tobias of the A.V. Club wrote, "Look past the New Age beauty of Cameron's Pandora -- and whenever the camera swoops through its verdant, psychedelic wonders, that isn't easy to do -- and Avatar is a weak patchwork of his other films." The evil corporation out to pillage Pandora is straight out of "Aliens," the evil general is like the Terminator channeling Dick Cheney, and the forbidden love story between Jake and Neytiri has shades of Jack and Rose from "Titanic."
In short, "Avatar" neatly sums up all of Cameron's strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker. His stories might be trite and his dialogue might be tin-eared, but his visual brilliance is astounding. And it was the film's beauty, not it's storyline, that no doubt nabbed "Avatar" a a pair of Golden Globe nominations. If you see it (and see it properly in 3D), "Avatar" will be unlike anything you've seen.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an upcoming 2010 action/adventure fantasy film written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard, directed by Mike Newell, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film is based on the 2003 video game of the same name, developed and released by Ubisoft Montreal. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton as Tamina, Ben Kingsley as Nizam, and Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar. Currently, it is the fourth film under the Walt Disney Pictures banner to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA (the first three being the Pirates of the Caribbean series). Despite the film being based on The Sands of Time, elements from Warrior Within and The Two Thrones are present.
From the team that brought the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, an epic action-advent...( read more )ure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (JAKE GYLLENHAAL) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (GEMMA ARTERTON) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.
In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's phenomenally successful TWILIGHT series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made TWILIGHT a worldwide phenomenon, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is a spellbinding follow-up to the box office hit.
Movie Review The supernatural tale of star-crossed lovers continues as the Cullen family flees Forks in order to protect Bella (Kristen Stewart), and the heartbroken high-school senior discovers that vampires aren't the only creatures in town. Realizing that Bella will never be safe as long as he's around, Edward (Robert Pattinson) makes the difficult decision to leave his beloved behind shortly after her 18th birthday. Reeling from her loss, Bella embraces self-destruction after being comforted by Edward's image during a moment of mortal peril. But as heavy-hearted as Bella may be, her old friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) distracts her from her sorrows by helping her renovate a weather-beaten motorbike. When Bella encounters a former adversary with a sizable grudge, she's rescued from harm at the last second by pack of enormous, ferocious wolves. Subsequently delving into the history of the Quileutes, Bella discovers the secrets of Jacob's tribe while looking forward to a reunion with Edward that may have deadly consequences.
