Yesterday, the first trailer for Tom Cruise ‘s upcoming science fiction film Oblivion was released online, and if you’re anything like us (and the rest of the internet), you’ll immediately note that it has absolutely nothing whatsoever in common with Wall-E . No sir, nothing at all. Oblivion follows Cruise’s Jack Harper (his second Jack-namedm character in a row? Uh oh, typecasting), a maintenance man assigned to clean up planet earth in the aftermath of some kind of terrible apocalyptic event. Jack apparently spends his days wallowing through the nostalgic remains of human civilization. No doubt he’ll end up singing ‘Hello Dolly’ right after the little speech about the Super Bowl he gives in the trailer. His mission is less than a fortnight away from completion when a beautiful – and yes, the official description uses the word “attractive” – stranger crash lands on Earth, drawing Jack into a conspiracy that pits him against the authority he serves, and a group of Leather fetishists led by noted kindness-and-gravitas dispenser Morgan Freeman. Oblivion is helmed by Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski, which is about as neutral an indication of the movie’s overall quality as you can get. I’m guessing it’ll be yet another Logan’s Run ripoff, with the same kind of ridiculous ‘everything’s better and the revolution worked in like 5 minutes’ outcome, minus Michael York’s lithe frame and blond locks. Originally planned for June, 2013, it’s been moved up to April 12, 2013. Until then, Internet: please get to work on the recut Oblivion -as- Wall-E trailer the world desperately needs.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl is heading to the Sundance Film Festival next month with his directorial debut Sound City and he’s wasting no time getting the pic out there. The film’s website is now taking pre-orders for the documentary that will be released via HD digital download and stream February 1st. It will also be released theatrically February 1. Sound City is the brainchild of Grohl who conceived the story after purchasing a custom-built 8028 recording console from Sound City Studios last year. The board was built in 1972 and considered to be a “crown jewel of analog recording equipment,” having recorded such artists as Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Guns and Roses, Fear, Grohl’s former band, Nirvana as well as Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and others. Grohl’s personal connection to Sound City began with the 1991 recording of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, “Nevermind”. Selling over 30 million copies worldwide. Grohl is getting personal with the feature, sending customers who pre-buy Sound City for $10 a letter, which follows: Hey there…. Thanks for scraping up your hard earned dough and buying the movie direct from our site! We’re stoked! Hope you love it as much as we do…. Ummm………Holy shit! I made a movie! I started this project a little over a year ago with ONE of my good old friends (Jim Rota from the band Fireball Ministry). That’s right….just me, my drinking buddy, and a crazy idea that we should tell the story of a studio we had loved hanging around for years, and our heartbreak to see it close. It soon blossomed into something truly epic! I don’t think either of us ever imagined our little project would become what it is now. Like all the best things in life, it just…….happened. From day one, it was the most incredible experience of my life. I swear. Sitting down with Neil Young talking about recording guitars, John Fogerty telling me about the day he decided to become a musician, Stevie Nicks telling me the story of how she joined Fleetwood Mac, Trent Reznor schooling me on the world of computers and digital technology, etc etc etc…..can you imagine? All I had to do was listen…I am the luckiest man on earth. And, being a completely independent film, no one told us how or what to do! Me and my crew of under 20 people did it OUR way. It was like a keg party with a camera. WE got to tell the story of a place we all held so dear. WE wanted to do it justice. And I think we did. But, SOUND CITY is only part of the story….. What is it that happens when 4 people turn on, plug in, and really play that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up? What is it about those moments when you hear something and it immediately puts its hooks in you, and you feel…..understood? What is it that will inspire the next generation of kids wanna do what I did when I was a little punk growing up in Springfield, Virginia? That feeling like, “Wait……I can do this too….. That’s what I’m talking about. That human connection. That human feel. That human sound…that isn’t perfect…but it’s sooooo good. I really feel like SOUND CITY is my life’s most important work. I hope you do too. Psyched that you get to see it! Show it to your friends! Get together, start a band, sound like shit, and change the world. GO! Thank you, thank you, thank you………Dave [ Sources: Sound City , THR ]
Mexican-American superstar, Jenni Rivera , died Sunday , when her plane crashed en route to Mexico City, after the twin-engine Learjet she was a passenger on lost contact and went down near Monterrey, Mexico. Rivera, the chart-topping “diva de la banda,” was a judge on Mexico’s reality TV singing competition, La Voz , and was set to make her feature film debut in the hip-hop drama, Filly Brown , a darling out of Sundance last year, opposite Lou Diamond Phillips and Edward James Olmos. It was Olmos who urged Rivera to make the leap into acting, she revealed earlier this year while doing press rounds for Filly Brown . “Sometimes people have a bigger vision than you have yourself,” she told Celebs.com’s Elliot Kotek. Rivera was tapped to play against type in Filly Brown , portraying the incarcerated mother of Gina Rodriguez’s aspiring rapper in a stripped-down role that ran counter to her glamorous public image, a la Mariah Carey in Precious .”When I go onstage and I do about 40 songs a night, each song I’m acting out as if I’m really living it,” she said of the transition from music to acting (watch the full Sundance interview below). Filly Brown is set to be distributed by Indomina Pictures, although a release date has not been announced. (Follow the film’s Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.) Until then, watch Rivera and Rodriguez in a brief clip from the film: Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
