Burn Off, a Horror flick is in pre-production. “Burn Off” tells the tale of Peter Hansen, a fit man who closely watches his weight like a stockbroker watches his stocks. He marries a fit woman who within a year becomes a fat woman. His desire for her and himself to become the perfect weight leads him to a diet drink called “Burn Off,” which does and does not do what it advertises: the user loses weight but also loses all sense of reasoning. Peter doesn’t know whether to blame the drink or himself for turning into a sadistic murderer and keeping his wife a prisoner in his basement. The screenplay is written by Mark Daponte and directed by Rob Walker. Rick Gonzales (Day of the Dead, The Woods Have Eyes, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! ) is the special effects supervisor. David A. Moore has been tabbed as special effect coordinator. Also assisting in the Make Up Special Effects Department is Mike Emiglio. (Zombie Night, Bottom Feeder, Edison and Leo) Casting: J.D. Valenti, Telepathy Film Productions. Shoots in August in Grand Rapids, MI.
Elcarimat is an Argentinean company that does amazing creature and special effects. They’ve been around since 1990 specializing in the design and integrated production of characters and creatures. Christian Gruaz created and currently directs the company that creates animatronic characters, puppets and makeup special effects.
Harold Ramis film is describedas an Adventure Comedy. “Year One” has a fun tagline: “Meet your ancestors”
Here’s the story: A couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Black and Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.
The stars bring a lot of comedy experience with names like Jack Black, David Cross, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria and many more.
John Blake (Planet of the Apes, Dracula, Pet Sematary) is the makeup department head
Kim Ayers (Angels & Demons, The Office ) is the key makeup artist,
Lisa Reynolds ( Zombieland,The Gravedancers, Boxing Helena ) is the special effects foreman
Collin Fowler (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Van Helsing, Blade Runner) is the visual effects coordinator
Hammerhead Productions (Cloverfield, I Am Legend, Queen of the Damned) contributed with visual effects
Expect a June 19 release for this Apatow Production
Universal Pictures will remake the 1983 David Cronenberg-directed thriller Videodrome, with Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, The Ring) set to write the script and produce with partner Daniel Bobker. The original Videodrome starred James Woods as the head of Civic TV Channel 83, who makes his station relevant by programming Videodrome, a series that depicts torture and murder that transfixes viewers. The new picture will modernize the concept, infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller. Cronenberg has no role in the film as yet. He is currently working on The Matarese Circle as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington.
Videodrome
Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Men In Black, Nutty Proffesor) did an amazing job heading up the Make Up department.
Contributing to the surreal visual effects were Frank Carere (Friday the 13th -TV series, Never Talk to Strangers) and Michael Lennick ( The Fly, The Dead Zone)
An absolute knockout edition of “Star Trek – The Original Series: Season One” (Paramount, 1966-67, $118.00) tops the latest list of titles arriving on Blu-ray this week.
CBS and Paramount have done a magnificent job of bringing the legendary sci-fi television show to the DVD high-definition format. The late Gene Roddenberry, who created the series, would be amazed at the richness of the colors and the sharpness of the details.
In addition, the sound has been converted to 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Purists need not worry; the original mono is also included, although it’s difficult to imagine anyone preferring that over the new stirring sound quality. Fans also have a choice of watching each episode with the new enhanced special effects or seeing them with original effects. The new effects sequences have been excellently woven into the episodes and perfectly match the texture of the older footage.
Those who want to compare the old and new effects will be able to toggle back and forth between the two. After a couple of toggles, the suspicion here is that most will stick with new. Season one comes packaged in a standard size Blu-ray case, although a bit deeper to hold the seven discs that make up the set.
All 29 first-season episodes are included as well as a universe of extras. Each episode is presented the way it was meant it be seen in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Among the many notable episodes are “Space Seed” with Ricardo Montalban as the revived 20th century warlord Kahn; “The Menagerie,” a two-parter edited from the original pilot that starred Jeffrey Hunter; “The City on the Edge of Forever” with Joan Collins; and “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot episode for the series.
For those who might have been stranded in another galaxy for the past 40-plus years, “Star Trek” premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. It stars William Shatner as Captain James Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as first officer Spock who, along with their varied crew, sail the universe in their starship the USS Enterprise. Their mission is to explore other worlds and seek out new life.
Among the other memorable characters aboard are Dr. “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Scott (James Doohan) and Sulu (George Takei).
Although the show lasted only three seasons, it was the beginning of a phenomenon that continues to this day as witnessed by the new “Star Trek” movie scheduled to be released theatrically May 8
A budget soaring toward $160 million has caused Universal Pictures to put the brakes on “Bioshock,” a live-action adaptation of the Take-Two Interactive video game, Variety reported. The film, directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring, The Mexican) from a screenplay by John Logan (Gladiator,Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Time Machine), was in preproduction, but Universal has stopped work, let some staffers go and begun to look for ways to lower costs. One option is to shoot outside the United States in order to take advantage of tax credits, Mr. Verbinski told Variety.
The story is about a plane-crash survivor discovers an underwater utopia of sinister origins.
Catherine Liu (Jumper , Superman Returns) is the visual effects coordinator
Special Effects fans, one of the more exciting new TV shows out there is Fringe. The plot: The FBI teams up with a formerly-institutionalized scientist – who was performing experiments on the fringe of real science – and his son to investigate weird crimes that are seemingly part of a larger pattern, and may be connected with a global company called massive Dynamics.
Lot’s of experience goes into what we’ll see on the small screen:
Kymbra C. Kelley (The Sopranos, Cashmere Mafia) is the makeup department head.
Conrad V. Brink Jr.( I am Legend, Indiana Jones, Cloverfield) is the special effects coordinator.
Christopher Scollard (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Alien: Resurrection, Fight Club) is the visual effects supervisor for the New York crew.
Jay Worth (Cloverfield, Lake Placid, Lost) is thevisual effects supervisor for the Los Angeles crew.
Expect a late August release on this Live Planet production. Final Destination: Death Trip 3D sports a great tagline: The Race of Life Can Be So Deadly. The storyline takes place after a teen’s premonition of a deadly race-car crash helps saves the lives of his peers, Death sets out to collect those who evaded their end.
Gregory Nicotero (The Hills Have Eyes, Hostel, Land of the Dead) is the key special makeup effects supervisor
Robin Mathews (Kill Theory, Five Fingers) is the makeup department head . Your stars are Krista Allen and Nick Zano.
Expect the usual special effects masterwork from KNB EFX.
Robert Rodriguez recently revealed that he will be rebooting the “Predator” franchise by producing the upcoming “Predators” film. It was assumed that he will be directing it as well, but 20th Century Fox has now revealed that no writers or director are on board.
In addition, Fox also set a release date for the reboot, scheduling it for July 7th, 2010. Seems like a short amount of time to go from zero to a complete film, especially since Rodriguez is planning to start lensing “Machete” in June.
Rodriguez is no stranger to the “Predator” franchise. Back in 2004, he spoke about a script he wrote for “Predators,” which was planned as a third installment in the franchise. “It was huge, it was a big, big, big budget. And it was really a cool script, but it will never be made. The studio edited it and said there’s no way we can make this, this would cost — even at that time — 150 million, and no women would ever go see this movie.”
According to Rodriguez, who just spoke with AICN, 20th Century Fox got interested in the reboot after discovering that he had written a sequel treatment 15 years ago. “What I’d like to do with it is expand on ideas I dreamt up back in the original treatment, that had really expanded on the universe both the Predators and other species live in,” said Rodriguez. “We’d create new otherworldly characters while not taking away from the draw our main Predator has.”
It’s a mix of Horror and Porn and it’s out on DVD this week. One-Eyed Monster takes place in February 2007, ten people went to the remote mountains of Northern California to shoot an adult movie. What happened next was something no one expected, but everyone saw coming. Amber Benson, Charles Napier, and Ron Jeremy star in an homage to “Alien”, “The Thing”, and porn.
The Makeup department includes Yoko Nobushi (American Zombie, The Revolting Dead) and Natalia Senina (Snakes on a Train, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift ).
