The Hitlist Movies Blog

Sam Raimi Moves Into MGM's 'Poltergeist' Remake

Oh, yeah, and they're remaking 'Poltergeist' now

By Kate Erbland Apr 29, 2012 8:40PM

It was really only a matter of time before remake-happy Hollywood sank their teeth into a modern horror classic, but at least this time around, a modern horror master is getting in on the game. THR reports (via ComingSoon) that Sam Raimi is coming on board MGM's "Poltergeist" remake - but only in a producer capacity. The "Evil Dead," "Army of Darkness," "Drag Me to Hell," and "Spider-Man" (the entire Tobey Maguire-starring franchise) director will produce the film alongside Nathan Kahane, Roy Lee, and Robert Tapert. Though Raimi is decidedly not directing, he will help with the studio's search for a directing talent.

Raimi also has a connection to the screenwriter penning the project, still described as focusing "on a family whose house was built on a holy site and whose daughter is taken by ghosts" (just like Tobe Hooper's 1982 film) - it's David Lindsay-Abaire, who also worked on Raimi's next film, "Oz: The Great and Powerful." The rest of Lindsay-Abaire's resume is quite varied, with credits on films like "Inkheart," "Rabbit Hole," and the upcoming "Rise of the Guardians." There's not a horror flick in the bunch - but that could just mean the screenwriter is bringing fresh perspective to the new film.

The original "Poltergeist" (and, to a lesser extent, even its first sequel, "Poltergeist II: The Other Side") is a modern horror classic, directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Steven Spielberg from his own original story. The film was nominated for three Oscars, and it forever associated the name "Carol Anne" with "abject freaking terror." Few movies have haunted me as much as "Poltergeist" did. While there's certainly room for the sort of seminal work that set "Poltergeist" apart from other horror flicks in the genre-heavy eighties in the current climate, horror films these days seem entrenched in all kinds of gimmicks. Remakes aside, Hollywood loves shoe-horning 3D or found footage into new horror films, and both seem like the sort of thing that could get forced on a new "Poltergeist." Frankly, I'd be shocked if the film doesn't receive either treatment - which is a damn shame, because the film was a success as a straightforward tale in 1982, and it could be the same in 2012.

Though the attachment of Raimi to the film does give it some very-necessary horror cachet, it's important to note that, for all of Raimi's work, he was never involved in the original "Poltergeist" or its subsequent sequels. Which begs some questions, like - where are Steven Spielberg or Tobe Hooper?

Do you want to see a new "Poltergeist"?

Weekend box office: Number one in the galaxy

'Star Trek Into Darkness' beams to the top of the pack

By DannyMiller 1 hour ago

J.J. Abrams’ second entry in the rebooted “Star Trek” franchise had no trouble taking a huge lead in the North American box office this weekend. But even with a whopping $70M haul during its first three days, studio execs seemed disappointed that the new film didn’t have bigger numbers, and critics were hotly divided over the film’s merits. But there has to be rejoicing at Paramount that the younger Kirk, Spock, and gang brought in more than twice of what Tony Stark managed to earn in his film's third week.

“Star Trek Into Darkness,” the #1 film, earned $70.5M (at 3,868 theaters) proving that the franchise is anything but dead, despite some dire predictions by Trekkies who are less than ecstatic about the latest adventure by the Enterprise crew. The #2 film, “Iron Man 3,” was still able to amass $35.1M in its third week (at 4,237 theaters) for a new domestic total of $337M. Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” at #3, added $23.4M (at 3,550 theaters) to its now $90.1M domestic gross. Those top three films are miles ahead of the rest of the movies on our list. The #4 film, “Pain and Gain,” pulled in only $3.1M (at 2,429 theaters) while “The Croods,” at #5, made $2.75M (at 2,373 theaters) for a new domestic total of $176.7M.

The Jackie Robinson drama “42” slipped to #6 in its sixth week, earning $2.73M (at 2,380 theaters) for a domestic gross of $88.7M. At #7, Tom Cruise’s “Oblivion,” earned $2.2M (at 2,077 theaters) and a new domestic total of $85.5M. “Mud” stayed put at #8 this week, earning $2.16M (at only 960 theaters) while “Tyler Perry Presents Peeples” plummeted to #9, with $2.15M in ticket sales (at 2,041 theaters). At #10, “The Big Wedding” brought in $1.1M (at 1,442 theaters) for a domestic total of $20.1M in its fourth week.

As we move closer to summer blockbuster time, we’ll see three big movies open next weekend: the Wolfpack returns to Las Vegas for more crazy antics in “The Hangover Part III,” a motley group of retired criminals reunites for one last job in “Fast & Furious 6,” and a teenage girl tries to save the world in the animated 3D “Epic.”

'Ultimate Gangster Collection' Giveaway

Enter to win a Blu-ray collection of the great gangster movies, classic and contemporary

By SeanAx 5 hours ago

Warner Bros. created the modern gangster movie in the early thirties, when they were the kings of high-energy, street-smart filmmaking. The genre remained dear to the studio throughout its history.

They pay tribute the best of their gangster films, yesterday and today, with two Blu-ray box sets: "Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Classics" (Warner) and "Ultimate Gangsters Collection: Contemporary" (Warner). Both debut on Tuesday, May 21.

Bing: 'Ultimate Gangster Collection' Blu-ray

To celebrate the release, MSN and Warner Home Video are giving away a gift set of both volumes: nine films in two sets.

"Classics" offers the respective Blu-ray debuts of four landmark gangster movies -- "Little Caesar" (1931) with Edward G. Robinson, "The Public Enemy" (1931) with James Cagney, "The Petrified Forest" (1936) with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, and the incendiary "White Heat" (1949) with Cagney -- plus a bonus DVD with the documentary "Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film."

"Contemporary" collects five films that have previously been released on Blu-ray, including three by Martin Scorsese -- "Mean Streets" (1973), Oscar-nominated "Goodfellas" (1990), and Oscar-winning "The Departed" (2006) -- plus Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables" (1987) with Kevin Costner and Robert DeNiro and Michael Mann's "Heat" (1995) with DeNiro and Al Pacino.

See a clip for "Heat" below.

Enter to win by following these steps:

1. Like MSN Movies on Facebook and Twitter

2. Tweet and comment the following message: I want to win the @MSNMovies #ULTIMATEGANGSTERS giveaway!

3. Email msnmovies@hotmail.com with the following message: I want to win @MSNMovies # ULTIMATEGANGSTERS giveaway!

4. Stay in touch with MSN Movies Facebook to see if you’ve been selected as the winner

Entries are accepted until Monday, May 27. Good luck, MSN Movies fans!

In the meantime, enjoy a clip from "Heat" after the jump. Click on "More" below.

Yay for divorce, poverty and suicide!

By William Goss 14 hours ago

And then... the sun came out. Just as the rainy waits had made the frequently good-not-great selections of the festival so far seem all the more disheartening, Friday's mostly gorgeous weather outside and the solid films inside had combined to finally make Cannes feel like... Cannes.

And much more in Videodrone's first monthly round-up of documentary and non-fiction releases

By SeanAx Sun 3:31 PM

"Mel Brooks: Make a Noise" (Shout! Factory), the new profile of the legendary writer / director / actor / producer / all around funnyman from filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg, premieres on the PBS arts showcase "American Masters" on Monday, May 20, and debuts on DVD the next day. "A raconteur of the first order, Brooks is also gifted with near-total recall, and a wit that hasn’t ebbed with the passage of time," writes Variety TV critic Brian Lowry. "In Robert Trachtenberg’s film, Brooks concedes every bad review is like “a knife through your heart.” In savoring this valentine, that organ and every other can rest easy."

Shout! Factory has been doing right by Brooks, with its deluxe five-disc set "The Incredible Mel Brooks" (featuring some other standout documentaries and specials on Brooks) released in 2012. This joins the ongoing tribute, and the disc features bonus segments filmed for but not included in the documentary.

"Citizen Hearst" (HBO) profiles William Randolph Hearst, the legendary media mogul and yellow journalist, and the empire that continues on in his wake. "Sometimes "Citizen Hearst" feels as breezy and electric as the newsreels Hearst pioneered," observes Village Voice film critic Alan Scherstuhl, "other times it feels like the video they'll make you watch during orientation on your first day at 300 West 57th." Leslie Iwerks directs and William H. Macy narrates. DVD, with 30 minutes of bonus footage and the "Heart Castle" episodes of the A&E series "America's Castles."

Theatrical:

"Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters" (Zeitgeist) profiles the acclaimed photographer as he worked on his magnum opus, a collection of massive prints he called "Beneath the Roses." "For those unfamiliar with Crewdson’s oeuvre, the docu serves as a delicious eye-opener, while for fans it furnishes an unprecedented look at his long-secret methods, utilizing crews and budgets suitable for independent features, by which his eerily frozen moments of Americana come into being," writes Variety film critic Ronnie Scheib. The DVD includes deleted scenes, bonus interviews, and a Q&A at a screening at LACMA with director Ben Shapiro, Crewdson, and writer Jonathan Lethem.

Continue reading at Videodrone

Cannes Film Festival Review: 'The Congress'

A superb Robin Wright dominates Ari Folman's trippy Hollywood satire

By William Goss Sun 4:03 AM

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Last year saw a distinct uptick in films about the unwitting and ultimately nebulous roles that characters themselves would play, a theme epitomized by the likes of "Holy Motors," "Cloud Atlas," "Ruby Sparks," the long-delayed "The Cabin in the Woods," hell, even "Wreck-It Ralph." I'm happy to report that Ari Folman's piece of satirical sci-fi, "The Congress," is very much of that theme, committing to Big Ideas of identity and integrity with Robin Wright remarkably anchoring it all as... well, herself. (Sort of.)

The Coen Brothers' latest film brings the '60s NYC folk scene back to life with a lot of love

By William Goss Sat 6:45 PM

Rating: 4/5 stars

As major American filmmakers, the Coen Brothers -- Ethan and Joel -- have had their share of distinctly minor films, while others have earned a greater reputation following repeat viewings and prolonged consideration. To call "Inside Llewyn Davis" a minor work doesn't render it any less a pleasure to watch; it's to admit that the film's melancholy depiction of the '60s folk scene in Greenwich Village (and beyond) may only improve in the interim.

Five features celebrating the glories of French silent cinema

By SeanAx Sat 4:40 PM

"French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928" (Flicker Alley) presents of the DVD debut of five silent classics from Film Albatros, a French studio founded by Russian artists: "The Burning Crucible," "Kean," "The Late Mathias Pascal," "Gribiche," and "The New Gentlemen."

Three of the films star Ivan Mosjoukine, the great Russian actor who fled the revolution and landed in Paris, and the other two are directed by Jacques Feyder. All of them are examples of the sophisticated filmmaking coming out of France in the twenties.

Which is not to say that they are all masterpieces -- "The Burning Crucible" (1923), which not only stars Mosjoukine but is written and directed by the actor, is inventive and full of lively images and playful techniques but is all over the place and jumps willy-nilly through styles and episodes -- but they are all tremendously entertaining and full of filmmaking energy. Mosjoukine plays eleven roles in "The Burning Crucible," including the leading role of Detective Z, a man of many disguises, and Mosjoukine the director rolls Russian formalism, German expressionism, and French surrealism together in a simplistic but richly imaginative story that at times borders on craziness of Louis Feuillade's serials of the previous decade.

Mosjoukine also stars in "Kean" (1924) as the great 19th century stage actor Edmund Kean and in "The Late Mathias Pascal" (1926), the fantasy epic directed by Marcel L'Herbier that Flicker Alley released on Blu-ray earlier this year. I reviewed it for Videodrone here.

The final pair of films in the set are from Jacques Feyder.

Continue reading at Videodrone

For more releases, see Hot Tips and Top Picks: DVDs, Blu-rays and streaming video for week of May 14

Cannes Film Festival, Day 2: Young and beautiful and old and brutalized

The fest's first full day offers tricks, teens, trains and technological wonderment

By William Goss Sat 8:25 AM

Another colleague -- a different one from he of my first dispatch -- had greeted me at the Nice airport earlier in the week with a smile and a word of warning: "Everything in Cannes is hard." I suppose that a reality check might be better appreciated by a first-timer than delusions of convenience, but as the days went on, each new hurdle only seemed to further validate that notion.

The rainy weather continued as I made my way down to the Palais for a press screening of François Ozon's "Jeune et Julie (Young & Beautiful)," due to take place in the Grand Lumiere, perhaps the most iconically featured of the festival's venues. (The steps of the nearby Debussy are similarly clad in red carpet, but each is devoted to different arenas of programming.) The film was fine, a slight yet enjoyable coming-of-age tale concerning 17-year-old Isabelle (a very good Marine Vacth), whose loss of virginity results in a voluntary year-long stint as a supposedly 20-year-old prostitute in a discreet effort to earn some extra money and satisfy her burgeoning sexuality.

The Lumiere's mandate that all bags and umbrellas must be checked before entering the auditorium resulted in a lengthy post-movie wait at the coat check counter, forcing one to hastily relocate to the umbrella-friendly Debussy, proceed through identical security procedures and scamper for a seat in time for Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" (my review) to begin. I joked after the film that it was tempting to follow the gang's lead and rob the celebrity yachts of Cannes as their owners walked the red carpet at pre-listed call times, but then someone went and beat me to it.