Snyder delivers a Sucker Punch to your pants

That Snyder, he sure is one stylish motherfucker. This image hit the net a few days ago via an Emily Browning fansite and is the first look at the bad-ass babes of Zack Snyder’s new film Sucker Punch. It’s scanned from a spread in Entertainment Weekly where they give an overview of the films appearing at Comic Con this week (insert jealous grumble here). Thoughts? If I wasn’t a straight woman, I would have a boner by now because frankly, it looks fetish-aboulous. It’s a shame Browning has had to revert from brown to blonde locks, but I’m willing to overlook that cliché in light of the general wickedness this film promises. So, in a similar vein to my overall wraps on Inception and Tomorrow, When The War Began, here is what we know about Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch so far:

The Plot

Sucker Punch is a reimagining of Alice In Wonderland in the 1950s when a young girl, Baby Doll, is institutionalised by her wicked stepfather who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. She escapes to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, and in that universe she starts to plan her escape from the facility with her newfound inmate friends. Needing to steal five objects to achieve freedom, Snyder famously described the film to First Showing as “Alice In Wonderland with machine guns”. Apparently dragons, B-52 bombers and brothels also feature. Snyder came up with the story and wrote the script with Steve Shibuya, a former special-effects and tech whiz. It’s Snyder’s first original film without any source material from comics or previous films.

The Business End

Snyder, whose previous credits include the Dawn Of The Dead remake, 300, Watchmen and the up and coming animated owl flick Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole, is producing the film with his regular collaborator and wife, Deborah. Snyder has been an active filmmaker since 2004 and in that short time he has established himself as one of the few who can consistently deliver style and substance. He’s a visionary who pumps out films more often than the Octomum pumps out babies. It’s also good news that despite Warner Brothers announcing the film would be converted to 3D post-production, the Snyder husband and wife team have fought, and won, to keep their baby in 2D (the way it was filmed and intended). There will be no Clash Of The Titans-muddle here folks. Music is set to play an integral part in the film and mark the transition from reality to alternative-reality. The cast trained in 3 months to be able to perform the stunt and fight scenes before production kicked off in Vancouver from September, 2009 to January, 2010. Sucker Punch has a budget of $85 million.

The Cast

Emily Browning: Baby DollOne of my favourite Australian actresses, 21-year-old Browning stepped up to the role after Amanda Seyfried dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Thank heavens for that, because as far as I’m concerned Seyfried has ruined herself with all the atrocious rom-com’s she has starred in of late. After a bunch of appearances in Australian TV productions and films such as Ned Kelly, Browning broke into the Hollywood market with her captivating performance in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Followed by her role in supernatural thriller The Uninvited, Browning will be one to watch after Sucker Punch and her role as Lucy, a university student who becomes a prostitute in Julia Leigh’s erotic version of Sleeping Beauty due for release next year.

Jena Malone: RocketReplacing Evan Rachel-Wood, who also dropped out over scheduling conflicts, is former child star Jena Malone. Having amassed an accomplished body of work, Malone is just another feather in the bow of accomplished young actresses at the fore of Sucker Punch.

Abbie Cornish: SweetpeaWhat can you say about Cornish? Except that she is ridiculously awesome and my favourite Australian actress behind Cate Blanchett! Since her breakout performances in Australian flicks Somersault and Candy, with Heath Ledger, Cornish has gone from strength to strength in mainstream Hollywood blowing me away with turns in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Stop-Loss and, her Oscar-deserving role in Bright Star. Mainly a dramatic actress, I’m looking forward to seeing Cornish in an action-flick where her attitude and beauty are just as important as acting chops. She has worked with Snyder previously, voicing one of the central characters in Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole.

Vannessa Hudgens: BlondieOkay, so I’m not her biggest fan, but this is clearly Hudgens effort to make the transition from slutty Disney teen-starlet, to slutty Hollywood actress. But hey, if she shows some teeth in an action film I might be willing to overlook her previous efforts (hello there High School Musical and Bandslam). The jury is still out on her Twilighty-looking Beastly.

Jamie Chung: AmberChung has proved herself to be a sufficiently meaty action babe after Dragonball: Evolution, Sorority Row and her decency in Grown Ups. Toting a lollipop and fishnets in this though, she’s sure to bring that hot-Asian chick flavour a la Lucy Liu amongst a largely Caucasian cast in Charlie’s Angels.

Carla Gugino: Mrs ShulzThe lass with arguably the best natural rack in the industry (remember her topless scene as Lucille in Sin City?), Gugino plays a nurse in the asylum. Like Cornish, she has worked with Snyder previously, but as the original Silk Spectre in Watchmen.

Others Along for the ride are Scott Glenn, Oscar Isaac, Jan Hamm and Black Dynamite himself Michael Jai White (above)! Woo!

Exclusive clips from the film are being screened at Comic Con this week, so as soon as some lucky bastard who’s attending posts them online . . .as will I. In the meantime, stay tuned for Sucker Punch news, updates and trailers.

Sucker Punch is tagged with a March 2011 release date. Sigh.

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Who watches the Watchmen? I do!

Watched Watchmen yesterday (pun intended). Consensus? One of the most faithful novel to movie adaptions I've seen. The characters are spot on and the visuals are simply delicious. I could eat this film up! It's great to look at and Zack Synder has done an absolutely stellar job of making every scene look like it has been lifted straight from the pages of the graphic novel. In the film-maing process, Synder hasn't lost the apocolyptic-noir feel of the source material and the result is a comic-book movie unlike any other. The main thing fans will notice is the major adjustment to at the end of the plot which, personally, I think doesn't detract from the movie and was a smart move to make Watchmen more compatible with audiences and those unfamiliar with the graphic novel. The soundtrack is taken straight from the original comic with awesome results plus the opening credits are so, so, so clever they compact the background story perfectly. Overall Watchmen is a movie experience fans of the graphic novel and adult newbies alike will enjoy.
Warning: those easily distracted may find Dr Manhattan's swinging appendage a little, erm, distracting. Above: A quick visually summary of the sleek, flawles costuming of Watchmen's lead characters.

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Tick tock, tick tock

The count down begins. It’s hard to believe Watchmen is only 16 days away from coming to a cinema near you! Man, it feels like forever since news of the nifty project drew legions of internet nerds to it faster than Perez Hilton to cock. Those of you born last week might not know Watchmen is the long-awaited and highly anticipated adaptation of Alan Moore’s award-winning graphic novel (largely considered as the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time). Personally, after reading Watchmen I thought it would be too complex to be made in to a film. Then in rode Zack Synder guns blazing and dedication flaring, fresh off the his success with his Dawn Of The Dead remake and 300 adaptation. Apparently Synder is a massive fan of the graphic novel and was obsessed with trying to match up every scene in the film to panels in the comic book, which sounds like a good thing to me. Anyway, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a disturbing conspiracy with links to their past and catastrophic consequences for the future. The trailers have gone viral on the net and it’s clear that Synder has brought his signature stylised approach to project. Watch the trailer here. One of the other integral factors of the Watchmen graphic novel was the music and lyrics from folk legends like Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens which is also featured in the trailer. Love em or hate em punk group My Chemical Romance have even jumped on board to do a cover of Dylan’s Desolation Row as the official single for the film. It’s very different from the original but I think it’s worthy none the less. You can listen to it here but just make sure the volume is turned down otherwise your speakers might bleed. Personally, my favourite aspect of the original Watchmen was the characters as they’re essentially the most important thing about the story. Well kudos to the casting directors as just going off the trailers alone, it looks like the actors have encapsulated the unique super-heroes perfectly. I look forward to seeing more of my favourite character, Dr Manhattan, in the feature length version which is out nation wide on March 5. Oh! I almost forgot the wicked tagline: `Who watches the Watchmen?'
Perfection me thinks.

Below: some of the latest images off the Watchmen set

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Easy on The Spirit's

Saw the highly anticipated The Spirit.
Reviews have been positively terrible and box office earnings in the US glum. The Spirit is about rookie cop Denny Colt who returns from beyond the grave as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City. The cast is wicked cool with Gabriel Macht as the title character, Eva Mendes as Sand Saref, Jaime King as Lorelei Rox, Stana Katic as Morgenstern, Samuel L Jackson as super-villian The Octopus and Scarlett Johansson as evil sidekick Silken Floss aka the best name ever.

Consensus? The plot is ridiculous. The dialogue is as corny as a crate of Dorritos. The action scenes are laughable. Infact, my instincts are telling me it’s a bad film but I just can’t help love it. The whole film is kitsch beyond belief and is essentially so bad, it’s good. Don’t get me wrong, the visuals are beautiful. The Spirit is ingeniously brilliant to look at and goes beyond the initial groundwork seen in Sincity. Frank Miller is the director and people will be more familiar with him due to his reputation as a ground breaking graphic novelist. His version of Batman titled The Dark Knight Returns is largely credited with reinvigorating the winged crusaders comic book series and graphic novels Sincity and 300 were both hugely popular and spawned film adaption’s. I honestly don’t know how Frank Miller was able to sell the concept of The Spirit to studios because the ridiculousness of it obviously stems from the source material. I put down the films existence down to Miller’s previous work doing so well on the big screen. This definitely has the feel of an exploitation film and the trademarks are there: deadly babes toting deadly weapons, indulgent action sequences and an insane plot. Therefore I can understand why mainstream audiences and critics wouldn’t respond to this, the same way they didn’t respond to Grindhouse products Planet Terror and Death Proof. The only lyrical song featured in the film is called Falling In Love Again and is belted out by Christina Agulira who gives a seductive, Marilyn Monroe-esque performance during the end credits. Importantly, Miller also gives a shout out to Robert Rodriguez in the `thank-you’ credits (Movie Mazzupial #1 favourite director) who taught Miller how to direct and operate camera equipment. For a good laugh and sheer entertainment value I recommend The Spirit. Be sure to leave a portion of your brain at the door though and don’t question the dialogue! Notable mentions also need to go to the costume designer because the outfits of the femme fatales are mind-blowing (just like Mendes and Johansson’s lady humps).

Note: I also adore the fact that Miller credits the cat that appears in the film as Arthur the Cat: Himself in the credits.

Best Lines:

The Spirit (to Octopus): I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead.

Comissioner Dolan: Is every goddamn woman in this goddamn hell hole out of her goddamn mind?
Morgensten: No, sir. We're just equipped.

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