Source: Capcom Resident Evil 2 currently has gamers clutching their pearls and now news of TV series based on the fan-favorite survival horror franchise has surfaced. Deadline exclusively reports Netflix is developing a scripted series loosely based on the video game franchise “that will explore the dark inner workings of the Umbrella Corporation and the new world order caused by the outbreak of the T-virus.” Constantin Film, the studio behind the highly-successful Resident Evil film franchise helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson starring his wife Mila Jovovich as the main protagonist Alice will also be working on the show. Per Deadline: “The drama series will explore the dark inner workings of the Umbrella Corporation and the new world order caused by the outbreak of the T-virus. While the project is in the early stages, the series is expected to incorporate all of Resident Evil’s signature elements, including action sequences and “easter eggs.” No word on whether the show will be in the same universe of the movies or will starts fresh. This news also comes on the helms of a report of the studio hiring Johannes Roberts to write and direct a Resident Evil reboot with a new cast that will reportedly be based on the Resident Evil VII game taking the franchise back to its horror roots. — Photo: Capcom
Drop everything- including your pants- Lovelace (2013) is out on Netflix streaming! Six spectacular nude appearances from the amazing, all-natural Amanda Seyfried as she recreates scenes of Linda Lovelace ’s suppressed gag reflex. It’s hard to compete with that, but we’ve got Milla Jovovich ’s GNATs, a.k.a. the Greatest Nipples of All Time, in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), and Lady Gaga ’s butt in Lady Gaga & the Muppets’ Holiday Spectacular (2013). Tetro (2009) is black and white and boobs all over with Maribel Verd
Samuel Hadida is taking on the Wolfenstein video-game franchise. Considering that his Resident Evil movies made more than $500 million, that’s big news. If you didn’t spend the early ’90s introducing Nazis to bullets, Wolfenstein 3D is the grandaddy of all great first person shooters.If you’ve ever pointed a gun at a bad guy, you owe Wolfenstein royalties. The game came out a year before the similarly influential Doom , was made by the same company (id Software), and, thanks to the involvement of Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction co-screenwriter Roger Avary , who will write and direct, the movie should be much better. Reports of a Wolfenstein adaptation have been kicking around since 2002 when trade reports of video-game movies being developed were more plentiful than TSA pat-downs. Like so many of those projects, however, the film did not materialize. In 2007, news of Avary’s involvement with the film broke, although his arrest and subsequent imprisonment on vehicular manslaughter charges the following year put both the project and its director out of the public eye. But now they’re back, and there is reason to hope. Five of them, actually. 1. The Players The press release for the latest incarnation of Wolfenstein promised a blend between Inglourious Basterds and Captain America , and that’s not just an intern throwing out the only Nazi movies he could remember. Avary’s collaboration with Quentin Tarantino won the pair Oscars for their Pulp Fiction script. He also directed the neo-noir bank-heist classic Killing Zoe . If you’ve got a hero whose only personality trait is “shooting people,” which Castle Wolfenstein does, Avary is the right man to give the guy character and dialogue. He also has a long history of working with Samuel Hadida, who produced Killing Zoe. They worked together on Silent Hill and Rules of Attraction as well. Hadida’s video-game credentials also include producing three of the Resident Evil movies, the most profitable video game movie franchise out there, as well as one with fairly high production values. Which means Castle Wolfenstein won’t be another Uwe Boll -style low budget insult. 2. The Plot Many saw the Doom movie as a disaster because it messed with the plot. It’s a fair charge because Doom , the video game, is essentially “Doomguy versus the demons of hell” and Doom , the movie, had neither. The script was fun, and had a great twist, but calling it The Rock And A Gun would have been more accurate. It would also have been a better plot than most of his other movies. The plot of Wolfenstein has always been “B. J. Blazkowicz shoots Nazis”. Even his name sounds like an explosion. The simplicity of the game should actually benefit the movie. Avary can be as innovative and provocative as he likes with the plot and still easily integrate it with the fundamentals of the franchise. 3. The Nazis As villains, Nazis are almost as tired as zombies. They’ve been trudging around the cinema screens for even longer, and are popular for the same reason: you can do anything to them without fear of political repercussion. (Especially when you combine them, as in Dead Snow .) The 2001 game reboot, Return to Castle Wolfenstein , rejuvenated the franchise with the awesome idea of the SS Paranormal Division, an enhancement expanded on in the 2009 sequel Wolfenstein . That’s right, psychic Nazis! This explained the undead mutants of earlier games and allowed the introduction of all kinds of new monsters and events. It’s also an aspect of the game that should have special effects coordinators salivating. 4. No Baggage Wolfenstein is the perfect video game franchise for a Hollywood scriptwriter. The game is famous, but it doesn’t have a complicated canon to get in the way of the storytelling. The franchise has also never suffered from the sequelitis that has, for instance, bedeviled Resident Evil . There’s no massive cast, no reality-flouting retroactive continuity and no convoluted twists and turns. Instead, you’ve got a good guy, bad guys, explosions, and… 5. Mecha Hitler The greatest game villain of all time, and we’ll get to see it come to life on the big screen via big-budget, special-effects. Mecha Hitler is Castle Wolfenstein ‘s secret weapon. In addition to being an armored cyborg and probably a clone, it (he?) is a viral advertising bonanza. Luke McKinney loves the real world, but only because it has movies and video games in it. He responds to every tweet. Follow Luke McKinney on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs: The New York Critics Circle sets its voting date for 2012’s best pics; Queen biopic moves forward after delay; And, John Leguizamo eyes Universal action comedy with Ice Cube . New York Film Critics Circle Set to Vote December 3rd The New York Film Critics will vote for their 2012 Film Critics Circle Awards on Monday, December 3rd. The awards will be handed out during their annual ceremony to be held on Monday, January 7, 2013 at Crimson. Additions to the group are new members Bilge Ebiri (New York Magazine), Nick Pinkerton (Village Voice) and Keith Uhlich (Time Out New York). Commented Chairman Rothkopf, “We’re always happy to see the group grow. Criticism is as vital as ever; our group celebrates the movies but also the art of response and interpretation. We’re looking forward to deliberating on the best of 2012 in the weeks to come.” Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is the oldest such group in the U.S. Around the ‘net… Robert Pattinson Joins Hold On To Me Pattinson will star with Carey Mulligan in the film to be directed by James Marsh. Marsh’s Man On Wire won Best Documentary in 2009. Based on a true story, the project centers on a couple who kidnap and ransom the town’s richest man. They bury him in a box and things go wrong. Pattinson will play the flashy supporting role of the woman’s life love who isn’t involved in the crime, Deadline reports . Beyoncé Set for Super Bowl Halftime The singer/actress will perform the Halftime show at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans on February 3rd. Last year’s choice, Madonna, actually had more viewers than the overall game average, Deadline reports . Sacha Baron Cohen Shooting Freddie Mercury Biopic This Spring Despite a couple year delay, the project appears to be heading to production. Queen guitarist Brian May said that “the pieces are falling into place,” and that production will begin in Spring. He added that the film will hopefully have an early 2014 release. Cohen will play Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, Cinema Blend reports . John Leguizamo Eyes Ride Along John Leguizamo is in negotiations to join Ride Along , Universal’s action comedy starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart. The story centers on a risk-averse second grade teacher who plans to marry the woman he loves but first must go along with his over-protective future brother-in-law on a tough “ride from hell,” THR reports .
Microsoft and 343 industries aren’t getting into the cinema, they’re sidestepping it entirely as an obsolete technology. Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a 90-minute, $10 million dollar movie , and if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard about its upcoming release, it’s because it’s already out . The new movie follows the a squad of military cadets as they gradually learn how to be soldiers and then, very suddenly, learn that they’re under alien attack. Finally, they learn that Master Chief kicks ass. But gamers already knew that. Master Chief is the ultimate tough guy. A bulletproof power-armored soldier, faceless by design behind his golden visor, all he does is sleep and fight. Literally: They keep him in cryosleep until its time for him to open another can of interstellar whoop-ass. He’s so self-sufficient an action star that he even carries his own damsel in distress with him, Cortana, a smokin’ female AI that’s been loaded into the computers in his armor. (This enables her to call him long-distance when the bad guys get her.) Given those credentials, how insane is it that he and Halo haven’t been in the cinema? Think about it: Halo is one of the most popular gaming franchises in history. It’s the face of an entire console generation, a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon that generates block-long lines with the release of every new chapter of the game and opening weekend sales that would make most movie producers and studios weep into their cayenne-pepper cleansing smoothies. Even novels based on the game have been bestsellers, and novels based on games have a worse reputation than the used socks of gamers. Halo would seem to have all the ingredients for an awesome summer tentpole picture: An inscrutable tough guy teams with unlikely allies to battle invading aliens and, along the way, encounters enough twists and support characters to support a full trilogy. (Sergeant Johnson alone deserves his own movie). And yet, Halo has been knocking around Hollywood production hell for seven years. In that time, the franchise has produced five more games, including a remake of the original 2001 game, Halo: Combat Evolved . An early script was written by Alex Garland, whose merciless Dredd 3D demonstrates that he’s the perfect writer for tough-guy-in-helmet-kills-everything plots. In 2005, Peter Jackson came on board as executive producer and Neill Blomkamp, who would go on to make District 9 , was set to direct, and for a few months gamers were certain their dreams of a Halo movie were about to become computer-generated reality. Given the sweeping battles that Jackson depicted so vividly in LOTR , we envisioned breathtaking footage of the epic space combat only hinted at in Combat Evolved, alongside the and close-range futuristic firefights the game was all about . (Even fanfic that combined both franchises sounded possible. Imagine a crossover in which Legolas swings up around the turrets of a giant Covenant Scarab to shove an Energy Sword through its core, while Gimli clubs Brutes with their own gravity hammers and shouts “That still only counts as one point!”) Ironically, the huge financial potential of the Halo film is what ultimately doomed it. Microsoft saw the property as nothing less than the ultimate game movie and wanted to be compensated accordingly. Twentieth Century Fox and Universal initially partnered to take on the challenge, but the project collapsed over costs. The rights reverted to Microsoft, which was left with a money-minting game franchise that no one wanted to make mint money from. Which may be why Microsoft has decided to test the waters on its own. The company has a can’t-miss franchise and a vast entertainment network already wired to Halo’ s target market. It’s no secret that Microsoft and Sony have been positioning their Xbox and PS3 consoles as home-entertainment centers for years now. Gamers can stream Netflix movies through the former and watch Blu-Ray discs on the latter. And now here comes Microsoft with its very own content: Halo: Forward Unto Dawn, a live-action web series tied to the Nov. 6 release of Halo 4, which also bears the Forward Unto Dawn subtitle. Microsoft-owned 343 Industries has produced five 20-minute webisodes, which if you add them up clock in at the length of a feature film. Then again, the shows are released weekly and distributed through Machinima , host to several popular video game series. The series is essentially an extended advertisement for the Halo games, but that doesn’t make it any less good. George Lucas kept Star Wars fans coming back to the cantina by expanding the universe and telling the story of brand new characters. With Forward Unto Dawn , the lines between advertising and content are blurred enough that it’s possible to enjoy both. This advertising pedigree also helps with production – they’re using everything they know about internet marketing, building interest in the series by slipping in hints about the hotly-anticipated Halo 4 game. Guaranteeing that every player will watch. The teaser trailer told fans everything they need to know: We’re sure a certain officer Lasky will turn up the upcoming Halo 4 . Impressively, Microsoft is now taking the “pay if you want to” model of many independent internet creators. The entire series runs free for everyone on YouTube, and will later be available for sale as a standalone DVD or — much more likely for most fans — an extra in a Collector’s Edition of Halo 4. That’s the exact opposite of cinema: you get to see whether you like it first, then you can pay some money. Most modern movies wouldn’t survive under those conditions. This is a test. Microsoft has a can’t-miss canon, an established fanbase, its very own distribution network, and a healthy love of making money. The producers of Resident Evil: Damnation recently avoided cineplexes entirely (possibly because it’s offended by the live-action movies), and marketed the movie directly to its hardcore fanbase through — via their consoles — a week before the DVD was released. If this series succeeds, it won’t just be a good collection of YouTube clips — it’ll be proof that movies don’t belong exclusively to the movie industry. Luke McKinney loves the real world, but only because it has movies and video games in it. He responds to every tweet. Follow Luke McKinney on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
After box office doldrums in late summer and the start of fall, Hollywood finally had a weekend it can celebrate. Hotel Transylvania and Looper debuted to great numbers, helping to end a five week slump. The top ten accounted for just over $104.4 million with the top two titles accounting for $64 million of that total. Another newcomer, Pitch Perfect also opened robustly, ranking sixth in the chart despite being in only 335 theaters. Won’t Back Down , however, opened weak, providing a bit of a reality check. 1. Hotel Transylvania Gross: $43 million Screens: $3,349 (PSA: $12,840) Week: 1 Hotel Transylvania soared atop the box office, ending a five week slump in the overall chart. The Columbia/Sony title had the biggest September roll out ever, beating 2002’s Sweet Home Alabama and its $35.65 million debut. 2. Looper Gross: $21 million Screens: 2,992 (PSA: $7,086) Week: 1 The sci-fi action thriller had a solid debut. This is a great showing for Joseph Gordon-Levitt who clearly has crossed over into film stardom vs. a niche sensation. 3. End of Watch Gross: $8,000,265 (Cume: $26,168,897) Screens: 2,780 (PSA: $2,878) Week: 2 (Change: – 39%) Word-of-mouth helped keep End of Watch strong in its second weekend. Last week’s box office topper added 50 theaters and grossed a solid $8 million-plus. Not bad for a pic with a production budget estimated at $7 million. 4. Trouble with the Curve Gross: $7,530,000 (Cume: $23,726,000) Screens: 3,212 (PSA: $2,344) Week: 2 (Change: – 38%) The Clint Eastwood-directed pic remained in the same number of venues in its second turn and dropped to fourth from third in its initial run. 5. House at the End of the Street Gross: $7,154,000 (Cume: $22,224,969) Screens: 3,083 (PSA: $2,320) Week: 2 (Change: – 42%) Last week’s number 2 film stayed in the same number of theaters and had a less than robust weekend with a 42% drop. Still the thriller’s production budget was an estimated $10 million, which it has already doubled, minus P&A etc. 6. Pitch Perfect Gross: $5,212,600 Screens: 335 (PSA: $15,560) Week: 1 This is a huge opening for the Universal comedy. It has by far the least number of theaters among the titles in the top ten, yet it still managed to land in the sixth spot. The feature had the biggest per screen average in the top ten and indeed any title in theatrical release over the weekend. 7. Finding Nemo (3-D, re-release) Gross: $4,066,000 (Cume: $36,475,000) Screens: 2,639 (PSA: $1,541) Week: 3 (Change: – 58%) The 3-D re-release of the Disney animated film lost 265 theaters in its third round and suffered a steep 58% drop compared to the previous week. Likely no surprise that it will not do the huge business The Lion King 3-D re-release did last year, which cumed over $94 million. 8. Resident Evil: Retribution (3-D) Gross: $3 million (Cume: $38.7 million) Screens: 2,381 (PSA: $1,260) Week: 3 (Change: – 55%) Last week’s number 5 film lost 635 theaters and had a hefty 55% drop in its weekend take. Still, better than the 68% drop it had in its second turn and it will be unlikely it can make the lifetime gross of the previous three installments of Resident Evil , though it should surpass the first version of the series, which grossed just over $40.1 million in 2002. 9. The Master Gross: $2,745,000 (Cume: $9,633,070) Screens: 856 (PSA: $3,207) Week: 3 (Change: – 37%) The smash record-breaking open added hundreds of theaters last week and another 68 screens this weekend. However, it appears to have reached its limit, with a 37% drop in gross despite still being in a relatively small number of theaters. Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood cumed over $40 million in ’07, but now there may be some question as to whether his latest will do the same. 10. Won’t Back Down Gross: $2.7 million Screens: 2,515 (PSA: $1,074) Week: 1 The fourth weekend opener in the top 10 was also by far and a way the weakest. The Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal starrer should drop a large number of screens going into its second week and will likely have a short theatrical run. [ Sources: Hollywood.com , Box Office Mojo ]
Pixar’s 3-D re-release of ‘Finding Nemo’ was #2 during the second-worst weekend of the year. By Ryan J. Downey Milla Jovovich in “Resident Evil: Retribution” Photo: Davis Films/ Impact Pictures
