Tuesday, December 9
Summit Entertainment isn't wasting any time in their search for a director for New Moon and Eclipse, the much-anticipated follow-ups to their uber-hit vampire flick Twilight. Deadline Hollywood Daily's resident troublemaker Nikki Finke is reporting that they've offered the job to Chris Weitz, director of one of last year's biggest flops, The Golden Compass. Why? Summit reportedly liked the job Weitz did with visual effects on the film, which snagged a 2007 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. New Moon and Eclipse should both demand higher levels of visual effects than the Catherine Hardwicke-directed predecessor, and Weitz's skills will be especially handy should either film's plot be re-written to involve giant polar bear fights.
Posted 12/9/2008 by reelz
Related: Catherine Hardwicke | Chris Weitz | The Golden Compass | Twilight | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Tuesday, April 29
For those of you willing to tear yourselves away from playing Grand Theft Auto IV long enough to check out a flick, a crop of new DVD releases await. Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman star in the Oscar-winning (for visual effects) fantasy adventure The Golden Compass; Knocked Up's Katherine Heigl plays a perpetual bridesmaid in the romantic comedy 27 Dresses; and the Japanese assault on the Chinese city of Nanking is examined in the documentary Nanking.
Our pick for the week is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel's award-winning true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French magazine editor forced to communicate by blinking his left eyelid after a debilitating stroke leaves him paralyzed.
Posted 4/29/2008 by reelz
Related: 27 Dresses | The Golden Compass | Nanking | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sunday, February 24
The Golden Compass may have bombed terrifically at the box office, but the few people who did see it all were members of the Academy, apparently. They just tossed it a sympathy Oscar®, for Best Visual Effects, tearing the golden statue out of the hands of Transformers in the first upset of the night.
Posted 2/24/2008 by reelz
Related: The Golden Compass
Friday, December 7
The sprawling fantasy epic The Golden Compass storms into theaters this weekend, accompanied by a gaggle of smaller releases, including the highly buzzworthy flicks Juno, Atonement and Grace is Gone.
A rundown of our reviews of this weekend's new releases:
The Golden Compass 
"No amount of CGI wizardry or bear-on-bear action can save this movie from collapsing under the weight of its many structural flaws." [Full Review]
Atonement 
"An epic war-time love story...as beautiful as it is thought-provoking and soulful, Atonement is a December must-see." [Full Review]
Revolver 
"Guy Ritchie's latest is a mind-numbing, sanity-challenging debacle." [Full Review]
Juno
"A charming and sweetly sardonic tale of teen pregnancy...one of 2007's best and most enjoyable films." [Full Review]
Grace is Gone 
"There were times when it felt almost too indie to me...but it's still a noteworthy effort." [Full Review]
The Amateurs 
"Despite a great cast and amusing plotline, The Amateurs falls flat." [Full Review]
Also opening: Noelle, Strength and Honor, Timber Falls and The Walker.
Posted 12/7/2007 by reelz
Related: The Amateurs | Atonement | Revolver | The Golden Compass | Grace Is Gone | Juno
Does the fantasy epic The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Sam Elliott, have what it takes to rival the likes of genre heavyweights The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings? We'll find out this weekend. In the meantime, check out our clips and images from the movie.
(To view the images, head over to our Golden Compass page and click on the "Photos" tab.)
Next Showing: The Golden Compass opens nationwide today.
Posted 12/7/2007 by reelz
Related: Daniel Craig | Sam Elliott | Nicole Kidman | The Golden Compass
Wednesday, December 5
The upcoming fantasy flick, The Golden Compass, can now count itself among the proud books and movies like Harry Potter, The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You see, it is getting protested.
Based on Philip Pullman's novel of the same name, which is part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass is somewhat of the anti-Narnia. That is to say, it is a kids' fantasy story that instead of being a thinly veiled Christian allegory has bad characters such as the power-hungry, world-controlling Magesterium, which is based on the Catholic church.
Despite the fact that the His Dark Materials trilogy is obviously quality writing (The Golden Compass novel won the 1995 Carnegie Medal and another book in the trilogy won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award)--Christian organizations are now out in force protesting the movie and books as seditious. Focus on the Family has branded the stories "blasphemous and heretical" and the Catholic League wants a boycott of the movie.
Considering the tepid reviews The Golden Compass is already garnering, don't you think that all this fuss is just drawing attention to something that could instead just go gentle into that good night?
Source: LA Times
Next Showing: The Golden Compass opens nationwide on Friday, Dec 7.
Posted 12/5/2007 by reelz
Related: The Golden Compass