What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the nightly movie news column that cares…
We begin this evening with an image from “Behind the Hollywood Sign,” a photo project from photographer Ted VanCleave that takes you up close and personal with Hollywood’s mountain-top moniker. It’s a gorgeous set of photos by any standard, and a great look at one of the iconic markers of the film industry.
1. John Gets Distributed at the End – Don Coscarelli’s Sundance darling John Dies at the End got long-awaited distribution today, getting scooped up by the folks at Magnet. The good news: you’ll be able to see it on VOD in December before it makes a limited theatrical run in early 2013 (which is one year after it debuted at Sundance — not bad.)
2. Minions in 2014 – I’m a big fan of those little yellow Minions from Despicable Me and its forthcoming sequel, so you can imagine how excited I am by the prospect of an all-Minions movie. Now we know that it will be hitting theaters holiday season 2014. It gives us something to live for.
3. Kevin Costner overdrive - Kevin Costner has joined the upcoming Jack Ryan movie as an idealistic mentor for Chris Pine’s title character, and Christopher McQuarrie’s Without Remorse, a spin-off of the same character in the same Tom Clancy universe. So when are they going to make that Rainbow Six movie?
4. Remembering the joys of Worf – As part of Hero Complex’s celebration of Star Trek: TNG at 25, they’ve got a fun interview with actor Michael Dorn, who looks back in his time as a Klingon. The reference to Worf as “the Frasier Crane of the Federation space” really makes too much sense, does it not?
5. Amy Pond spins-off – It’s now being said that after they depart from Doctor Who during this upcoming season, Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) are going to get a spin-off miniseries called Pond Life. As a fan of everything Karen Gillan, I approve.
6. No 300 prequel for Gerard Butler – Even though the upcoming Battle of Artemisia is a prequel to the events of 300, there will be no Gerard Butler. In fairness, it’s more about the Xerxes character played by Rodrigo Santoro. Am I the only person to whom this makes complete sense? Oh right, slow news week…
7. Which Batman sold more tickets? – According to some math done by Movies.com, The Dark Knight Rises has sold 10 million less tickets than Tim Burton’s Batman did in 1989. Which seems appropriate, because the latter is a much better movie. I’m just saying.
8. Mondo Ambassador – Mondo has released a poster for the upcoming Drafthouse Films release The Ambassador, the wild story of a journalist who lied, cheated and forged his way into one of the most dangerous countries in the world and somehow lived to tell the story. The poster, by Delicious Design League, will be available at a random time on August 23.
9. Another cool Looper poster – Joseph Gordon-Levitt is part Bruce Willis in this new poster for Rian Johnson’s Looper, which will play at this year’s Fantastic Fest. 28 days and counting. Don’t think I’m not counting.
10. How The Dark Knight Rises Should Have Ended – The folks at How It Should Have Ended are taking on Christopher Nolan’s epic finale to his Bat-trilogy, with a special guest appearance by the next DC Comics hero to get Nolanized.