Tuesday, November 17

• Death Race 2 Is Happening

  A long casting notice discovered by SpoilerTV revealed the title, storyline, and characters of the prequel to Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race. For anyone familiar with Anderson's remake of Roger Corman's 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000, and even for those unfamiliar, the story for Death Race: Frankenstein Lives shouldn't come as a huge surprise.

  Newly arrived at Terminal Island, a prison for the most nonredeemable of convicts, CARL "LUKE" LUCAS must prove his mettle in a race to the death...

  Much like the remake, "death" and "race" aren't arbitrary words in the title. The casting notice describes the two lead characters Lucas, replacing Jason Statham, and September Jones, filling in for the Warden character Joan Allen played in the remake.

  [CARL "LUKE" LUCAS]

  In his 20s-30, American, European, British, Australian, Latino, etc., handsome and confident, with a hint of danger, Lucas has been in trouble since the age of 12. Right-hand man to a notorious mobster for twelve years, he is sent away for life after killing a cop in the course of robbing a bank. Offered a deal by the DA if he turns state's evidence, Lucas opts to take his chances behind bars, where he soon captures the attention of a violence-peddling television producer. Possessed of some serious driving skills, assertive, strong, and charismatic, Lucas is a natural fit for the ultimate test, aka, the "Death Race."...LEAD (2) STAR NAMES PREFERRED - ANY NATIONALITY, ANY ETHNICITY

  [SEPTEMBER JONES]

  In her 20s - early 30s, a model turned journalist, September is "insatiably ambitious and eye-poppingly gorgeous," a woman who knows how to use what she's got to get what she wants. She's callous and self-serving, dressed provocatively, with the soul of an ice-pick, but the brains to know how to market violence to the masses. When ratings for her gladiator-style television show begin plummeting, September is quick to come up with the "Death Race" concept, thrilled by its stunning success sptv050769...LEAD (2) STAR NAMES PREFERRED - ANY NATIONALITY, ANY ETHNICITY

  Screenwriter Tony Giglio told ShockTillYouDrop that Death Race: Frankenstein Lives is an "an origin film, in every sense... not simply of the Death Race or Frankenstein, but of [characters] Lists and [Elizabeth] Case." Both characters are listed in the casting notice along with Gunner and 14K, all of whom were characters in Anderson's version. Whether or not the original actors will return is uncertain.

  Giglio says the prequel will be closely tied to Anderson's Death Race.

  I also took painstaking efforts to make certain that this prequel organically sets up a lot of the stuff that was in the original. Frankenstein is a bad ass. Unlike Statham's character in the original, Carl Lucas is a bad guy. He wasn't framed. He's not fighting to get out to save his children. He's a convicted cop killer. A guy who's worked for the mob his whole life. A true anti-hero. The idea was Mad Max. He'll do the right thing, but only if it serves him. I hope that gives this film an edge most don't.

  Death Race: Frankenstein Lives is currently seeking a director. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt will executive produce the movie, which will start production on February 22, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 11/17/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Tony Giglio | Death Race | Death Race 2 | Death Race 2000

Friday, November 6

• Resident Evil: Afterlife Set Photos, Tweets, and Casting News

  Resident Evil: Afterlife is currently shooting in Toronto, and Milla Jovovich has begun using her Twitter account to update fans on their progress. She began by mentioning a scene with Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller "on a skiff approaching the huge ship" with the cast enduring freezing temperatures. Just a day later, a few photos from that set have surfaced online.

  Missing from the photo is new cast member Sergio Peris-Mencheta, who ShockTillYouDrop reports was recently added to the cast in an unspecified role. If he's "lucky," he may end up in one of Jovovich's tweets.

  so, Wentworth, Ali and i are doing this scene right now where chris r.[Miller] and clair r.[Larter] run into the V22 hangar, guns blazing, trying to shoot Wesker [Shawn Roberts], but to run in groups firing weapons is VERY dangerous. and the last time we all did a scene when we were all firing together, i could feel my hair flying up from the guns behind me.and one of Wenty's shell casings pegged Boris Kodjoe right on the ear. ouch.

  and its supposed to be super heroic with all of us shooting thru a wall of undead as we run towards a potential escape route...but in the end we all end up looking like such a**holes, cause we're all trying to dodge eachothers bullets and shooting one another...tripping and sliding thru the gravel, falling in a most unimpressive manner! lol!so stupid! we look like such imbeciles!

  And it was all captured in 3-D by writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson. Well, the whole episode might make the DVD.

  
  
  Next Showing: Resident Evil: Afterlife is scheduled to open August 27, 2010

  Posted 11/06/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Boris Kodjoe | Sergio Peris-Mencheta | Milla Jovovich | Ali Larter | Wentworth Miller | Resident Evil: Afterlife

Wednesday, November 4

• Milla Jovovich Tweets from the Set of Resident Evil: Afterlife

  Milla Jovovich is using her Twitter account to update fans while shooting Resident Evil: Afterlife in Toronto, Canada.

  wow, just finished a scene with Ali Larter and Wentworth Miller on a skiff approaching the huge ship.to say its cold is a joke.a bitter joke

  ofcourse Ali and I aren't wearing much and to make matters worse Wenty is driving the boat himself and crashing it repeatedly! lol!

  Jovovich is reprising her role as Alice from the previous Resident Evil movies, while Larter is returning to her Resident Evil: Extinction role of Claire Redfield, and Miller is making his Resident Evil debut as Larter's brother, Chris. Paul W.S. Anderson is returning to direct Afterlife from his own script, which he is shooting in 3-D. From Jovovich's tweets, it would appear that Anderson is planning a good deal of action.

  the cast is going on set and we have a lot of weapons.

  
  
  Next Showing: Resident Evil: Afterlife is scheduled to open August 27, 2010

  Posted 11/04/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Ali Larter | Wentworth Miller | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Resident Evil: Extinction

Friday, September 18

• Surrogates's Boris Kodjoe Joins Cast of Resident Evil: Afterlife

  Boris Kodjoe, who appears in the upcoming Surrogates and spent four seasons on Showtime's Soul Food, is relatively unknown in horror circles, but that's all about to change. Kodjoe Tweeted about his latest gig:

  In Toronto meeting with the director of my new movie Resident Evil: Afterlife. Very exciting!!! Lots of stunts, shooting guns, monsters...

  What role Kodje is going to play is unknown. But after battling with Bruce Willis is Surrogates, not to mention giant alien bugs in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, Kodjoe seems ready to the tackle the one, or possibly several, zombies that writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson surely has in store for him.

  
  
  Next Showing: Resident Evil: Afterlife opens August 27, 2010

  Posted 09/18/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Boris Kodjoe | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Surrogates

Thursday, September 10

• Resident Evil to Reboot?

  

  A mere eight years since it kicked off, the Resident Evil series may be getting the reboot treatment.

  According to Bloody-Disgusting, the series may reboot after the fourth movie, Resident Evil: Afterlife, opens on August 27, 2010. The decision may be a financial one, with current Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich possibly being too expensive to keep, even if her husband Paul W.S. Anderson has either written or directed every movie in the series.

  Tentatively called Resident Evil Begins, the movie will follow a special military unit that fights an out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of infected scientists mutated from a laboratory accident. And for anyone paying attention, that's more or less the exact plot of the first Resident Evil.

  While this decision seems to come from Sony's Screen Gems studio, Capcom, publisher/developer of the Resident Evil video games, may also be asking for the reboot. Capcom already made a reboot of its own with the CG-animated Resident Evil: Degeneration, which ignored the live-action movies and stayed more faithful to the games, so it could also be coming at the game-maker's behest.

  
  

  Posted 09/10/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Resident Evil | Resident Evil: Degeneration

Friday, September 4

• Enjoy Another Three Musketeers

  The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of friendship and sword fights, has been adapted countless times for the big screen, starting as early as 1903. But has it ever appeared in 3-D with Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson at the helm? Not yet, but it soon will.

  Anderson, best known for horror/sci-fi movies like Resident Evil and AVP: Alien vs. Predator, has also written the screenplay, along with Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones's Diary). Production will begin next year for a 2011 release, after Anderson has finished Resident Evil: Afterlife.

  For those thinking Anderson's Musketeers will be anything like Disney's 1993 production that starred Chris O'Donnell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Charlie Sheen, think again. Besides possibly being one of the few movie properties to start its life in the silent era and then end up in 3-D, Anderson has a whole new Musketeers vision:

  We are definitely modernizing The Three Musketeers without compromising the fun of shooting a period piece. But in our film, corsets and feathered hats don't take center stage. Our version is rich in eye-popping action, romance, and adventure.

  
  

  Posted 09/04/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Andrew Davies | Resident Evil: Afterlife | The Three Musketeers

Thursday, August 20

• Resident Evil 4 Gets a New Release Date

  

  Looks like the fourth installment of the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, has been bumped from its initial release date of September 17, 2010, to three weeks earlier on August 27, 2010, just making it into the summer line-up of 2010.

  Resident Evil: Afterlife will again see the return of Milla Jovovich and Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson, who also wrote the script. Afterlife should arrive on schedule, as long as Jovovich is able to make it through the production without hurting any of the cast or crew. Jovovich apparently has a habit of giving out black eyes while shooting Resident Evil movies:

  I gave my fiancé Paul a black eye when he was directing me in the first Resident Evil. He was trying to plan the shot and said, "Punch straight at me and pretend I'm the camera." Of course I got too closed and punched him straight in the eye. I gave the director of photography a black eye on the set of Resident Evil 2.

  Ironically, no zombies were hurt on the Resident Evil sets, though Jovovich also admitted that she can "hit the stunt men a bit too hard."

  
  

  Posted 08/20/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Resident Evil | Resident Evil: Afterlife | Resident Evil: Extinction

Wednesday, August 12

• Pandorum Promises Alien-esque Horror (and a Bloody, Naked Cam Gigandet)

  In an interview with MTV, Pandorum producer Paul W.S. Anderson addressed comparisons between his upcoming deep-space horror flick and the granddaddy of them all, Alien.

  It's a very scary movie set in space and there are creatures in it. It introduces an unexpected terror to the audience. Any buzz floating around that this is a bit like Alien, I take as a huge compliment.

  It is not just "some Alien knock-off" though, he insists. For one thing, the monsters, at least from what we have seen of them in the trailers, are a bit more Nosferatu. Then there's that whole weird skin-peeling thing. And as far as plot is concerned, an element of mystery is added with the missing crew.

  On top of all that though, he reveals that there is a nude scene with Twilight star Cam Gigandet:

  For fans of Twilight, there's a scene where Cam's completely naked. He's covered in blood, of course. There's more Cam nudity in this than there is in Twilight! There's this great scene where Dennis finds Cam and he's naked and covered in blood and Dennis covers him up and he says to Cam, "Is that your blood, Corporal?" and Cam says, "Some of it," and of course the question is, "Whose blood is it?"

  Given what happens to his character James at the end of Twilight, it seems rather unlikely that Twilight fans will be put off from seeing Cam that way, no matter whose blood it is or how much there is of it.

  
  

  Posted 08/12/2009 by Bill

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Cam Gigandet | Alien | Pandorum | Twilight

Thursday, August 6

• Milla Jovovich Talks Resident Evil: Afterlife

  Milla Jovovich's latest movie A Perfect Getaway opens August 7 and its press junkets provided Jovovich the perfect opportunity to update fans about her next project: Resident Evil: Afterlife. Returning director Paul W.S. Anderson has called Afterlife "a continuation" of the previous movie, Resident Evil: Extinction, and Jovovich confirmed to Bloody-Disgusting that the clones of her character Alice found at the end of Extinction will indeed be a part of Afterlife, though other changes are still in store:

  Let's just say this. The clones are definitely in it. You've got multiple Alice's kicking serious butt. There's the clones and it's going to be a lot of work. I'm gonna be working every day for the next four months on this and it's gonna be bigger than ever. It's super-exciting. And definitely the real Alice has some pretty major things happen to her that change the stakes a little bit. It's definitely going to be a different Alice than who we're used to.

  Jovovich is appearing for the fourth time in the Resident Evil series, and while her fiance Anderson will be directing for the first time since the initial Resident Evil, he has scripted all the movies. So why do they keep coming back? Jovovich told ShockTilYouDrop that their return was done for the purest of reasons:

  The movie makes money. If it makes more money than the last one, you'd think that people want to see another one, so we'll do another one. There's been a lot of interest online, there's been a lot of letters from fans ... It's not like I said, "Hey, honey! Let's do another one right away!" I mean, it's an expensive film and it's all business and if the third one didn't do well, there wouldn't be another one.

  One of he biggest differences for Resident Evil: Afterlife will be its use of 3D, for which Anderson will be using the same system as James Cameron's Avatar. While 3D seems a curious choice for what is essentially a zombie movie, Jovovich thinks the medium is perfectly suited for Afterlife:

  Especially for a movie like this, because it's wild and a lot of action and a lot of potential for 3D to use the medium at its best.

  Quite a claim from someone who also admits that she's "never actually seen a 3D movie," but it's easy to understand Jovovich's enthusiasm for Afterlife considering how good the Resident Evil franchise has been for her:

  You know what, every two years I get a steady job and, as an actor, that's a huge relief. Then I get to do all my little independent movies that no one sees. I get more versatile things for myself. And then, every couple years you get the Resident Evil to kick your butt and get you in shape and it's fun and exciting.

  Resident Evil: Afterlife starts production this September and will hit theaters September 17, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 08/06/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Resident Evil: Extinction | Resident Evil | Resident Evil: Apocalypse | A Perfect Getaway | Resident Evil: Afterlife

Friday, July 24

• Paul W.S. Anderson to Direct Resident Evil 4

  

  Production Weekly reports via their Twitter feed that Paul W.S. Anderson will return to the director's chair for Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth movie in the live-action series. Anderson confirmed the news to IGN at Comic-Con and previewed some of his big plans for the movie:

  In many ways it's a continuation of the last movie. Milla [Jovovich]will be returning, we'll also have some kind of unexpected characters from the video game making an appearance and also from some of the earlier movies. It's going to be a bigger and better Resident Evil. They're giving me more money to make it than ever before. We're gonna do in 3-D using the same camera system that [James] Cameron used in Avatar, you know, so it's going to be new and improved and I'm very, very excited about it.

  Using characters from the video games? What will Anderson think of next? When asked if Anderson had ever used 3-D, the director stammered a bit: "I-I haven't shot in 3-D before, but I certainly spent the last few months immersing myself in it." Anderson also claims to be drawing a lot of inspiration from Resident Evil 5, the latest video game, which is confusing since Resident Evil: Extinction ended in Tokyo while the video game takes place in Africa. If Afterlife is a "continuation" of Extinction, how will that work?

  To see the rest of the interview, head here.

  Resident Evil: Afterlife starts production in September and will hit theaters September 17, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 07/24/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Resident Evil: Extinction | Resident Evil | Resident Evil: Afterlife

Sunday, July 12

• Resident Evil 4 to Arrive in 2010

  Milla Jovovich has fought zombies in an underground bunker, in Raccoon City, and in the Nevada desert. Now with Resident Evil 4 getting a confirmed release date for next year, she'll be fighting them in Tokyo as well. The writer of all three Resident Evil movies and the director of first, Paul W.S. Anderson, is writing the script and may return as director. Jovovich will be returning as well.

  The popular series, based on the zombie-killing video game franchise, has been critically trashed in the past, but it hasn't stopped people from watching. Even the third entry, Resident Evil: Extinction, grossed $147 million worldwide, making the Resident Evil movies proven moneymakers.

  Resident Evil: Afterlife will open September 17, 2010, and, should it follow the ending of Resident Evil: Extinction, will take place in Tokyo, though Alaska has also been a rumored location as well.

  
  

  Posted 07/12/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Milla Jovovich | Resident Evil: Apocalypse | Resident Evil: Extinction | Resident Evil | Resident Evil: Afterlife

Wednesday, August 20

• Racing into Theaters this Friday

  With 50-caliber Brownings and Vulcan cannons blasting from the sides of tanks and cars, the firepower in Death Race is impressive...and very real. Director Paul W.S. Anderson prepped for more than a year to achieve his goal: "The most spectacular car stunts ever on film." See our our interview with director Paul W.S. Anderson for other interesting "making of Death Race" bits.

  
  

  Posted 08/20/2008 by reelz

  Related: Paul W.S. Anderson | Death Race | Death Race 2000

Monday, July 30

• Blonde ambition: Scarlett, Paris and Allen

  Hollywood.com is reporting that Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Match Point) has been tapped to star in a film adaptation of porn star Jenna Jameson's biography, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. Word ist that Jameson personally picked the buxom 22-year-old to play her.

  However, People is stating that Johansson's rep is denying that she has been cast, or that she has even seen a script. Says the rep: "She has no interest in playing the role."

  And speaking of famous blondes, Paris Hilton has signed on to join Paul Sorvino (Nixon, Bulworth) and Alexa Vega (Spy Kids, The Deep End of the Ocean) in the cast Repo! The Genetic Opera reports Variety. 

  Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw), Repo! is a thriller/musical set in 2056 when the only humans who can survive a plague are those that can afford organ transplants. Hilton, who will sing in the piece, plays the daughter of an organ transplant magnate. Sounds interesting...

  And finally, MTV reports that Tyrese Gibson (Transformers) and the unlikely Joan Allen (The Contender, Pleasantville) will be joining Jason Statham (Crank, The Italian Job) in Death Race 3000, Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of the 1975 David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone cult classic.

  Gibson and Statham will play two tough guys (in a cross country race where you score points by running over pedestrians) who have to go up against Allen. Said Anderson of his female lead: "She kicks the most ass out of everybody."

  
  

  Posted 07/30/2007 by reelz

  Related: Jason Statham | Scarlett Johansson | Tyrese Gibson | Paul W.S. Anderson | Jenna Jameson | Paris Hilton | Paul Sorvino | Alexa Vega | Darren Lynn Bousman | Joan Allen | Untitled Jenna Jameson project | Death Race 3000 | Repo! The Genetic Opera