Comic book icon Stan Lee has filed suit against the makers of the new Conan the Barbarian film, saying that the rights to the character actually belong to Stan Lee Media, Inc. Lee, who was the wunderkind who brought Marvel Comics to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, says that the rights to the remake of the 1982 hit film were illegally obtained by the producers. He is demanding 100% of the movie's revenue. The film is performing poorly at the boxoffice so Lee may not get enough to buy him a box of expensive cigars. Click here for more

 

For the second time since 2010, the porn industry based in Southern California has virtually shut down because an unidentified performer has been diagnosed with HIV. The industry largely self-regulates and has been quite successful in ensuring that sex performers are free of transmittable diseases. However, a similar case last year also resulted in a shut down. The case means that the sex partners of the infected person will all have to be tested, as will the sex partners of those people as well. There is a drive to get enough signatures for a ballot initiative in the state that, if passed, will mandate that actors in porn films wear condoms. In general, most don't because viewers have indicated they find the practice a turn-off. There is no precise date indicated for when filming on new porn flicks in California will resume. For more click here

 

The New York Times asks a number of prominent directors of horror films to name the movies that have scared them the most. Click here to read

 

Rowan Atkinson returns as a bumbling MI6 agent in Johnny English Reborn. The original film fared poorly in the United States but was a major hit internationally. Click here to view the trailer. The film will be released in October-- and it does look pretty funny.

 

The Huffington Post provides a list of nine completely unnecessary and largely unsuccessful movie remakes. We could add about 5,000 more titles to the list but this is a good starting point. Click here to read and see the trailers.

In the 1960s artist Jack Kirby and his long time friend Stan Lee revolutionized the comic book industry by taking Marvel Comics from the domain of forgettable titles to an icon of American pop culture. By co-creating the great Marvel comic book heroes, Kirby became a legend among fans. In the 1970s he and Lee had creative differences and Kirby committed the unpardonable "sin" of moving over to Marvel's long-time rival D.C. Comics. His heirs have been trying to get financial compensation from Marvel and film studios for projects derived from the characters Kirby helped create. However, to date those efforts have failed. Now the family is appealing unfavorable court decisions and have hired a prominent attorney to represent them. Click here for more

 

Mike Ryan of the Moviefone web site has a bone to pick with Morgan Freeman. He considers the Oscar winner to be a national treasure, which is why he's dispensing some tough love and accusing Morgan of lending his larger-than-life talents to some smaller-than-life feature films. Even though Freeman doesn't star in all of these flicks, Ryan takes him to task for providing voice-overs for sub-standard fare including The Love Guru and the new version of Conan the Barbarian. Click here to read

 

Director George Miller's attempt to revive his Mad Max series of apocalyptic future movies hit a snag last year when torrential rains destroyed the sets he had built in the Australian desert. This caused the film, titled Mad Max: Fury Road, to be delayed indefinitely. However, star Tom Hardy says it now appears the production will begin again in April 2012- though it will not be filmed in the Aussie desert. Who can blame Miller for wanting to find a more hospitable location? The series' original star, Mel Gibson, won't be involved in the sequel. For more click here

In a highly unusual move, Sony Pictures Classics will bring Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris back into 1,000 American theaters this week. Generally, a film that has been out for months would already be the subject of a DVD marketing campaign. However, Allen's modestly-budgeted romantic comedy is having the kind of "legs" in theaters that is almost unheard of today. The film built slowly through fine reviews and word-of-mouth. It's grosses increased for weeks on end and it became the highest grossing film of Allen's long career. The studio feels the re-release will help pave the way for a major Oscar campaign later in the year. Don't look for Allen to show up if it wins: he passed up collecting his Annie Hall Oscar in 1978 because he opted to keep his weekly date to play the clarinet at Michael's Pub in New York. Click here for more

 

It's raining remakes this week. Now there is word that Will Smith may star in a remake of the 1966 sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage about a group of scientists who are miniaturized and placed inside a man's body in order to race against time and save his life. The original film was an early showcase for Raquel Welch. James Cameron will produce the 3-D production. Click here for more

 

Ridley Scott is returning to his 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner and intends to bring a continuation of the story to the big screen. It isn't known whether he envisions a sequel or prequel but don't look for Harrison Ford to be part of it. Unless the iconic star has mellowed, he's always regarding the filming of the original as one of the most unhappy experiences of his career. Click here for more

 

There's bad news coming for classic movie lovers: another unwanted remake is in the early stages. This time, it's personal: director Tony Scott, who hates to have more than 30 seconds go by without a building or car exploding, intends to butcher director Sam Peckinpah's 1969 classic The Wild Bunch. This project has been floating around Hollywood for years but saner heads kept vetoing it. Now it looks like Scott has the film on the fast track...though there's no word whether he'll keep the story in the old West or update it to contemporary times. For more click here

 

Sacre bleu! Legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu was involved in a bizarre scandal on a recent flight. Seems the actor had that "get up and go" feeling prior to takeoff but the airline crew couldn't allow him to use the bathroom until they had ascended from the runway. Not one to be put off, Depardieu casually relieved himself in the first class section of the plane, thus causing a two-hour delay as a cleaning crew had to mop up the mess. Click here for more

 

If you're obsessed with cars in movies, the Internet Movie Cars Database is for you. The new web site lists information and photos about cars that have appeared prominently in films throughout movie history. From James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 to the Batmobile and those Mini Coopers from The Italian Job, they're all here. Click here for more info

 

If you think it's ludicrous that the BBC issues warnings that certain news segments contain flash photography, consider this: Virgin Atlantic will now issue warnings on its flights regarding films that might make viewers cry. According to the airline's research, some passengers are so affected by the emotional content of movies shown on board that they have to take extraordinary measures to conceal the fact that they have been moved to tears. We are not making this up, folks. Click here for more- Lee Pfeiffer

 

Michelle Williams is now filming My Week With Marilyn, based on Colin Clark's memoir about his experience as a young man on the set of the film The Prince and the Showgirl in which Marilyn Monroe co-starred with Laurence Olivier. The movie was shot at England's Pinewood Studios. Click here for more about the forthcoming production.

The remake craze in Hollywood has reached a level of absurdity. They're now remaking relatively recent movies. Eddie Murphy's critical flop from 2003, The Haunted Mansion, is to be remade by once-respected director Guillermo Del Toro, who will write and produce the film, which is inspired by the legendary Disney theme park attraction. The Murphy version overcame the bad reviews and did well at the boxoffice, so Disney is going back to the same well to earn some easy coin. Even worse, there are plans to reboot the Judge Dredd "franchise" which consists to date of one costly flop that helped derail Sylvester Stallone's career for years. Click here for more

 

Writing on the Yorkshire Post web site, Cinema Retro contributor and film historian Tony Earnshaw makes the case for making classic horror movies more accessible to wide audiences. Click here to read

 

Director Joel Schumacher's new thriller Trespass, about a couple terrorized in a home invasion, will premiere theatrically in November. No big news there. What is big news is the fact that it will also go the direct-to-video route on the same day. That's right- despite all that high profile talent, audiences will have little incentive to pay to see the film in theaters since it can be viewed in their own living room. Click here to read writer Drew McWeeny's analysis on HitFix web site.

 

On The Huffington Post site, writer Kris LoPresto makes a thought-provoking argument against the proliferation of unauthorized photos and videos shot on the set of The Dark Knight Rises, saying this trend endangers the quality of future action film epics. Click here to read

The cast of The Big Lebowski reunited in Manhattan earlier this week to celebrate the cult movie's release on Blu-ray. The 1998 was a critical and boxoffice flop when it was initially released but has since cultivated an international following of enthusiastic fans. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, T Bone Burnett and John Turturro were all in attendance at the event where they met with fans of the Coen Brothers' flick. Click here for mor.

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A second man has been killed by a shark while swimming close to shore on a tourist beach in the Seychelles Islands, just 20 miles from where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka William and Kate) honeymooned. The latest victim was a 30 year-old British man who was also on his honeymoon. The government has prohibited swimming or snorkeling on the local beaches until the shark has been found. In a scenario out of Jaws, it is suspected that this might be the work of a "rogue shark" that is responsible for both deaths. Such scenarios are rare, but do happen. In 1916, several deaths of swimmers in New Jersey were thought to be due to one rogue shark. For more click here

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

When I was a teenager, there was a guy in our group, Joey, who would go to highly-anticipated movies with us. He had a juvenile habit of peering through the doors at the end of the movie before the next screening began. Thus, I got to know in advance that James Bond tossed a villain over the side of a ship after placing a time bomb on him in Diamonds Are Forever. I also knew that Sean Connery got shot at the end of The Anderson Tapes. Joey also peered through the doors of the Loews State Theatre on Times Square to graciously inform us that Charlton Heston had just been killed by a spear in The Omega Man. We ultimately excluded Joey from our movie-going excursions but according to researchers at The University of California, he was actually doing us a favor. According to the bizarre conclusions of their recent study, people who are exposed to shock endings in advance reported they had enjoyed a film more than those who were not aware of how the film would end. Maybe- but even after forty years, I still have no intention of seeing another movie with Joey.  Click here for more

 

Entertainment Weekly provides first photos of Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's forthcoming biopic. In an interview, Eastwood says he will objectively examine the pros and cons of the fabled FBI director's 48 year career. Eastwood acknowledges that the only reason Hoover stayed in power so long was because he had something on each of the 8 presidents he served. Simultaneously, he succeeded in keeping his own private life shrouded in secrecy. Eastwood says his film doesn't attempt to definitively answer the question as to whether circumstantial evidence proved Hoover was gay, so there goes those hopes of seeing Leo in a cocktail dress. Click here for more

 

Jonathan Demme will write, direct and produce a big screen version of Stephen King's forthcoming novel 11/22/63 which focuses on an everyday English teacher who travels back in time with the intention of preventing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the titular date. For more click here

 

Based on the hot boxoffice response to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the film's producers have let it be known that they would like to oversee at least one sequel, if not more. Click here for info

 

Jodie Foster is among the donors who have stepped to the fore to help save a program that monitors outer space for signs of alien life. The telescopes involved were cut off from government funding but donors, including Foster, have rescued the program. Foster, who starred in the 1997 sci-fi flick Contact about the search for alien life, wrote of parallels to the film in a statement she released in support of the program. Click here for more

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

Studios are cracking down on pet projects of big name directors by canceling some high profile productions because of budget costs. Ron Howard and Guillermo Del Toro are among the recent "victims". Now Disney has informed producer Jerry Bruckheimer and star Johnny Depp that their long-planned Lone Ranger film is being shut down. Filming was to start in October- but Disney execs got cold feet when the estimated budget hit $232 million. The studio is insisting that the film cost no more than $200. This is how insane Hollywood has become: $200 million for a movie about a guy on horse and it's considered to be too paltry of a sum. The question remains whether Bruckheimer and Depp will have their egos bruised and scale down the budget in order to make the movie. As of right now, it's officially off Disney's schedule. The underwhelming performance of Cowboys & Aliens has the studio nervous- and there are other factors as well. Disney is sinking a jaw-dropping $250 million into next year's John Carter sci-fi epic and there is also the $200 million Oz: The Great and Powerful in the pipeline. Saying "no" to Johnny Depp is almost unheard of in the industry, especially when he has brought billions into Disney's coffers through the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. However, his track record outside of that series is spotty at best and the suits at Disney aren't about to invest a king's ransom just to please him.

Consider how many great directors from years gone by are ready and willing to work but can't find some seed money to bring low-budget projects to the screen. Yet, sums that equal annual budgets of small nations are being routinely spent on films with very dubious prospects. Hollywood executives, like politicians, have devised a remarkable system in which they are handsomely rewarded even if they fail spectacularly. 

Click here for more

 

By Lee Pfeiffer

The web site Hitfix is reporting that Mike Myers has confirmed he will be reviving Austin Powers in a third sequel in the series. The last time Powers graced the screen was in 2002 with Goldmember. The first film was brilliant satire throughout with its on-the-mark homages to the look and feel of 60s spy movies, Casino Royale in particular. The two sequels were juvenile, uninspired affairs with a few genuinely funny moments strewn about. Nevertheless, they made a fortune at the box-office. Myers, whose career has been in decline ever since, wants to regain some of his mojo just like Powers did. Click here for more

 

The young woman who was surreptitiously photographed by Alfred Wertheimer making out with Elvis Presley in 1956 has been identified. She is Barbara Gray and she is finally telling her story about her fleeting, one-day romance with the future king of rock 'n roll. Click here for story and video. For Cinema Retro's original story about Wertheimer's book of unpublished Elvis photos, click here

 

Add Dirty Dancing to the endless list of studio remakes. The 1987 film starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey and became an international sensation. Now there's a feeling it should be updated for modern audiences. Here's a suggestion: just reissue the original. For more click here

 

Fans of the Star Wars franchise have been visiting filming locations around the world for many years- in some cases saving up relatively small fortunes in order to make the pilgrimages. For fans of any movie or series, it's fun to see where the actual sequences were shot. However, there are always extremists such as the fan who equates the statue of Yoda outside the LucasFilm HQ in San Francisco with a symbol as meaningful as the Statue of Liberty. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

Warner Brothers is planning a remake of the 1968 Cold War spy thriller Ice Station Zebra, which was based on Alistair MacLean's bestselling 1963 novel. The original film was directed by John Sturges and had a powerhouse cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown. The new version has been written by screenwriter/producer/director David Gordon Green. As for Green's reverence for the material, check out a quote he gave about working on the project:

"I just finished a script for Warner Bros. that’s a remake of ‘Ice Station Zebra’ that’s a big military movie. And I got to go camp out on the arctic circle with the Navy and explore those kind of… you know just the lingo and the politics of what’s going on in the arctic right now so it truly is a passport. Like literally Warner Brothers says, ‘Do you want to get on a jet with the Navy and get on a submarine?’ and you’re like, ‘absofuckinglutely!’ ”

One of Green's forthcoming projects as producer includes a film titled Olympic-Sized Asshole. 

This is the man that Warner Brothers has entrusted with a beloved story by one of the twentieth century's most respected novelists. In Green's parlance, the decision seems "absofuckinglutely" insane.  Click here for more

The color barrier continues to collapse when it comes to playing traditionally white characters in comic book-based films. Samuel L. Jackson has played Nick Fury and how Laurence Fishburne has been announced to play Daily Planet newspaper editor Perry White in the forthcoming Superman movie Man of Steel. The role of Clark Kent's crusty boss was originally played by John Hamilton in the 1950s Adventures of Superman. Jackie Cooper played the role in the Christopher Reeve films and Frank Langella played White in the more recent Superman Returns. For more click here

 

Cinema Retro has received this press release from the producers of Black Dynamite, the recent hit retro Blaxploitation movie:

All you suckas gather 'round because the 11-minute pilot for Adult Swim's BLACK DYNAMITE: THE ANIMATED SERIES will premiere on AdultSwim.com on Monday, August 8.

Catch the exclusive trailer for the pilot here. 

The series follows Black Dynamite, an ex-CIA agent and certified ladies man avenging his brother's death by battling it out week to week with kung fu masters, drug-dealing pimps and his nemesis, The Man.

Carl Jones of THE BOONDOCKS fame is running the show, with the stars of the movie -- including Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Kym Whitley and Byron Minns -- returning to voice characters for the animated series.

In the next issue of Cinema Retro, columnist Tom Lisanti discusses the weird scenario that took place in 1965 when two rival studios released competing biopics of screen legend Jean Harlow (In fact, Tom has a new book about the rival films due to be released). A similar situation is unfolding with two biopics of the late porn legend and Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace going into production. Olivia Wilde is considering starring in one film, while Watchmen's Malin Akerman is starring in the other. Click here for more

Add Bruce Willis the growing roster of stars trying to revive their blue collar screen heroes that burst upon the scene in the 1980s. Willis will again delve back into the Die Hard franchise with the new flick to be filmed in Russia. Directors are now being sought. Click here for more

If you would like to visit the new Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, all you have to do is drop by Arnie's hometown of Thal, Austria. There, his childhood friend has presented a celebration of the ex-Governator's life and career. Displays include props from films and the home Schwarzenegger grew up in. There is also a replica of his office as Governor of California. Arnie couldn't make it the opening (they probably wouldn't allow him to smoke cigars inside), but he did send a video greeting. Click here for video tour of the museum.

 

Feast your eyes on lovely Anne Hathaway, carrying on the glorious tradition of bringing Catwoman to life. Hathaway plays the sultry villainess in the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises now in production.

 

 

Leonardo DiCaprio has certainly proven he wasn't a flash-in-the-pan heartthrob. His salary is quite titanic. In the last year, Forbes estimates that Leo has earned $77 millon from his films, displacing former top gun Johnny Depp who has dropped to a "paltry" $50 million. Better start a fund drive for him. Click here for more

 

The tragic but not unexpected demise of rock star Amy Winehouse puts her in the category known as "The 27s"-- and it's a club no one would want to belong to. There have been a surprising number of rock legends who passed away at the tender age of 27. Click here to read about them.

 

Clark Gable is back in the news this week....sort of. The only grandson of the man known as The King of Hollywood, Clark James Gable, was arrested for fooling around with a laser and pointing it at a police helicopter patrolling the skies over Hollywood. Lasers can be attached to weapons and it is a felony to point one at a police vehicle of any kind. The 22 year old Gable said he was just fooling around with the device and posed no threat to the helicopter. He was jailed and was bailed out by a bail bond firm that turned his release into a TV publicity stunt. The offspring of the screen's Rhett Butler only turned to acting recently, having worked as a manual laborer for a pet store. His grandfather had gallantly put his screen career on hold when WWII broke out, enlisted in the service  and flew bombing raids over Europe. Meanwhile, the manager for his grandson said that upon being arrested,  the younger Gable broke down in tears, thus proving that machismo is not an inherited trait. For more click here

By Lee Pfeiffer

The concept for Dreamworks/Universals joint production of Cowboys & Aliens must have seemed like a sure-fire, can't miss proposition. Directed by red hot John Favreau, who has a fan following in his own rite, the film also boasts the superstar pairing of James Bond and Indiana Jones leads Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. Add to this the fact that the story has its origins in a comic book at the precise time when audiences seem to be embracing comic heroes, and it's hard to see what could have gone wrong. Yet, the film has opened soft- almost $10 below its estimated take in its first weekend. Worse, the movie's grosses were virtually equaled by the original Blue Man Group- the Smurfs, whose feature film has performed better than expected. The studio brass will be doing some major evaluations of what went wrong. No one is calling the film an outright bomb- yet- but with a budget estimate of up to $200 million, the words "bomb" and "under-performer" are used interchangeably. The film benefited from a massive publicity campaign that began at the 2010 Comic-Con when the movie had just begun production. Harrison Ford, who regards doing PR appearances as though it is root canal surgery, was the good soldier, as usual, and made the rounds to promote the movie. Not so with Daniel Craig, who did little PR for the film despite having top billing. Reviews were predictably mixed but this is not a movie that was conceived to please critics and its doubtful that anyone cleared off a mantle to make room for Oscars. Generally, comic-inspired flicks are designed to be immune to reviews. One factor that separates this movie from other comic-films is that it is based on a rather obscure graphic novel whereas most other productions benefit from the pedigree of a legendary superhero.There is still a chance that grosses might build if word-of-mouth is strong and the overseas market, which loves big budget Hollywood action films, might prove to be a fertile ground for considerable business.

Here's a personal observation that is probably not relevant to the film's overall performance. While in Manhattan a few weeks ago, I observed a massive billboard north of Times Square for the film. Despite being a city block wide, the advertisement featured only the likeness of Daniel Craig. It was apparently felt that Harrison Ford, that legend of action cinema, would not be important enough to feature on the billboard. Obviously, marketing executives associated with the film feel that Ford might be past his sell date as a viable box-office draw. In show business, as in politics, if you value loyalty, you'd better get a dog. For more click here

 

Cinema Blend provides some interesting photos from the set of Christopher Nolan's Batman epic The Dark Knight Rises, now shooting in Pittsburgh. They include shots of Tom Hardy in costume as the villain Bane. Click here for more