Caffeinated Clint
Welcome to the second Mailbag of 2014. I’ve heard* I’m even better the second time around, so you’re guaranteed to enjoy this one.
* How YOU doin’?!
We welcome your letters at clint (at) moviehole.net or at our Facebook inbox.
WIN! The three best letters this week win a copy of Dolph Lundgren’s latest action extravaganza “Battle of the Damned” on Blu-ray, thanks to Anchor Bay.
In “Battle of the Damned”, a military blockage surrounds the city. No one is allowed to enter or leave, including the unafflicted. Following a deadly viral outbreak, private military soldier Max Gatling leads a handful of survivors and a ragtag band of robots against an army of infected Zombies.
With action superstar and martial artist, Dolph Lundgren (THE EXPENDABLES, BLOOD OF REDEMPTION, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER), this robots verses zombies sci fi actioner is available to rent or buy on Blu-ray and DVD from January 15.
Winners will be notified by mail.
Are you guys really giving away a trip to the Gold Coast – air fare, resort – and all? for real!? How much has your budget increased this year!!? – Shelley
Shelley, We are indeed! Welcome to the all-new Moviehole! Have you entered? You can thank my newly-acquired pole-dancing skills for the increased budget (and you can thank it by slipping some twenties into my Batman boxers as I do a little spin around this cold, steel pipe for you).
Think there’s any chance we’ll ever see an “Elm Street” reunion film with Freddy and Nancy, as played by Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp, again? – Shaven3
Even with the inane codename, you know the feds will track you down sometime, brother… right!? While I very much doubt we’ll see Englund and Langekamp reprising Freddy and Nancy, respectively, there’s a very, very, very good chance you’ll see them working together again – and soon; I hear that one-time “Elm Street” franchise alum Tuesday Knight has rounded-up some of the faces from the films, including Englund and Langenkamp, to appear in a new indy comedy she’s putting together called “Getting the Kinks Out”. Not sure if Johnny Depp has committed yet – but only because he usually only responds to offers that include the words “Native American”, “Franchise” and “France” in them these days.
I thought I heard on the radio that Holden had shut down? – Michael S.
Ha! I like what you did there.
mail bag do u think they will shoot the robocop sequels back to back like they did with the iron man trilogy do u think they will do that maybe – Holden
Firstly, *sniffle* nobody’s called me ‘mail-bag’ since high school. Man, that brings back so many memories; how I wish I could return to the school-yard for more antics with my brothers-in-arms School-Locker, Jewellery-Box and Sock-Drawer. As for your question about the two “RoboCop” sequels shooting back-to-back – considering the studio has yet to greenlight a sequel, and probably won’t until the February release hits a certain figure, it’d be silly of me to guestimate what the next move will be.
mailbag if the veronica mars film becomes a big hit do u think they shoot the sequels back to back u think that would be so awsome tho if they did that tho of the franchise – Holden
Say it, say it again.. ‘Mail Bag’. I love it. It’s been so long since someone’s whispered those words. You don’t know how much it means for me to hear you call me that again. But onto your question – which, I believe, is the exact same question as the one before it, only with the word “RoboCop” switched for “Veronica Mars”. The answer is… yes! After all, Keanu isn’t getting any younger! Peter Jackson is preparing the scripts as we speak!
but u think tho that robcop will shoot the sequels back to back tho that would be awsome mailbag – Holden
I have just changed my IMDB name to ‘awsome mailbag’. I think that’s the key to boosting the Starmeter on IMDB Pro.
How many emails do you get on a given day? – Alyse
Alyse, because I have a few different accounts – a personal one, a work one, a Moviehole one, another for my production company, and one as the head of the ‘Jazzy Jeff’ fanclub, it’s a lot; somewhere between 800 and 1500 emails. Would you like a job?
Hey Clint, I was wondering what happened to “Oldboy” – wasn’t that supposed to be coming out in the cinemas in Australia in December? – Lee
Straight-to-DVD, Lee. Seems I was the only one interested in seeing Elizabeth Olsen nude-wrestle a Goonie.
If that’s you on your Facebook page.. what are your Valentine’s day plans? – Mish
I’ll be watching this, of course… SURE to suck!
Hey Clint, you’re in-the-know. I’m beginning to think that the original three “Star Wars” stars aren’t in the new films at all; because why haven’t they been announced, yet? – AstroBoy
AstroBoy, meet Shaven3. You guys will click – guarantee it. I can assure you that Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford have indeed signed on for the films – there’s just been a hold-up in negotiations; In addition to SAG scale, the actors have asked for some extra bits and bobs from the studio – Fisher has asked for a lifetime’s supply of Twinkies, Hamill has asked for a “Corvette Summer” sequel to be greenlit, and Harrison Ford has asked for Shia LaBeouf’s severed penis in a box; obviously, it’s going to take a few more weeks to fulfill those wishes. In all sheerreousnash, Carrie Fisher tells TV Guide that she, Hamill and Ford are expected to begin work on the film in March or April, so it shouldn’t be too long before we hear something… even if it’s the sound of a reversing Twinkies truck.
I read that Joe Carnahan’s “Stretch”, which stars Chris Pine and Jessica Alba, is going straight to DVD probably. This must be the first time this has happened – a major movie with big stars going to DVD!? – Matt
Sure is. Thank god we got to see “Fire with Fire” and “Set-Up” starring Bruce Willis, “Empire State” starring Dwayne Johnson and Liam Hemsworth, “Killing Season” starring Robert De Niro and John Travolta, “Stolen” starring Nicolas Cage, and “Vamps” with Alicia Silverstone at cinemas! (psst! none of them went theatrical)
Matt, many, many movies featuring big-name actors and/or big-name directors are going direct to disc these days. Today’s must-see movie isn’t yesterday’s must-see movie – studio marketers live in an unpredictable world where A-list names don’t necessarily put bums on cinema seats anymore (Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, Kevin Costner, Jim Carrey.. all those guys don’t seem to mean as much to today’s cinemagoers as they did to us a decade or so before), and studios just aren’t willing to shell-out on the marketing costs of a theatrical release if they’re not convinced the movie isn’t going to make money. Instead, they’ll send it to DVD and Blu-ray instead; by bypassing cinemas, they’ve saved themselves some money, and will likely make an OK profit.
As recently as a year ago or so I would’ve said the ‘brand-name’ blockbuster was still safe, but as we’ve seen in recent times – with films like “Battleship”, “Lone Ranger”, “TRON Legacy”, “Jack Ryan : Shadow Recruit” and “Jack Reacher” failing to attract an audience – the winds of change have come into effect there, too.
This shift is making movie-makers work harder to simply come up with better product – and product that comes with less risk (which is why you’re seeing so many of these low-low-low budget “Paranormal Activity” and “The Purge” type movies being made); sure, there’s still such a thing as a ‘sure thing’ – most of the Marvel movies are considered easy bets to succeed at the box-office – but by-and-large, any of those big films – ones that might’ve otherwise had been huge hits in the ’80s or ’90s – could flop faster than a tired triathlete. Heck, nobody even knows what these new “Transformers”, “Terminator” and “Superman” films – that we all discuss every day here on the website – are going to do yet!
Sequels have usually been pretty safe bets – especially if they’re follow-ups to a big movie, but they’re an unpredictable commodity now too. There’s a reason Disney haven’t rushed into doing another “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Fox have been going to-and-fro over the “Independence Day” sequel – they know they could be blowing a shit load of money!
As for “Stretch”, Universal haven’t decided if they’re putting it direct-to-DVD – they’ve simply decided not to release the film at the moment. Yeah, that does suggest that it’ll probably end up getting a DVD-only release, but there’s always hope for a wider bow.
Get it right! Stephen Amell never said he WASN’T doing “Justice League”.. just they took him out of context! GOD, YOU’RE GOOD. – Anton
That’s what your girlfriend said last night.
Hey, we haven’t chatted for a while! If you had to pick any teen comedy from the ’80s to watch right now.. what would it be? – Renee
Damn, I can only choose from the ’80s? So, I can’t go with “On the Line” starring Lance Bass from N’Sync?
Okay, I’d go this one – I’m in a “pay you to come see broken planes with me” mood.
And that’s it for this week, all!
Email, Facebook or Knock on my window at 2am if you want to ask a question or get something off your chest (insert smarmy sexy movie line here) for next week’s Mailbag!
Until next week…
…I’m off to do the African Tribal Dance at our get-together downtown!
