SUCKER PUNCH TRAILER!!!!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! THE SUCKER PUNCH TRAILER IS UP! WOOOOOOOOW!

DRAGONS! GUNS! BABES! DRAGONS! SWORDS! SNYDER! WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!

Now excuse me while I go and wipe the torrent of drool that is streaming down my face. Ta.

P.S. I definitely have all the weapons I need.

P.S.S. The full list of delicious character posters are here.

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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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Cooking up a storm

Above: (L-R) Harrison Gilbertson, Geena Davis and Harry Cook in a scene from Accidents Happen.

They say too many cooks ruin the broth, but emerging talent Harry Cook might just be the right ingredient. For any 18-year-old actor, starring alongside Geena Davis in your first movie role would be a daunting task. But Sydney based Harry Cook was more focused on stealing her best supporting actress Oscar.
“I want her Oscar, I would steal it,'' he says.

In reality, the bubbly teenager was in awe of her acting talent when he starred alongside her in Accidents Happen, a black comedy from Australian director Andrew Lancaster.
“She's amazing, one of a kind and so down to earth,'' says Cook.
“I still find it hard to believe I got to work with her.
“Everyone was so nervous working with her and we wanted to make her proud.''

Coming from a background in theatre and minor TV roles, Cook (below) cracked the big time when he auditioned for and got the part Larry Conway, one of Accidents Happen's central characters. After hearing about the project, Cook's agent at the time tried to stop him going for the part because it was a `big movie and Geena Davis is in it.' With a new agent and a new film, there is now a lot of `buzz' surrounding the teenager's performance as the troubled older brother.
“He could have been played as a real asshole in a way, but I wanted people to feel for sorry for him,'' he says.
“The kid had difficult things happen to him.
“It's so cool to have people talking about the film because we shot it all here in Australia.
“It's weird and so fun to think people all over the world are watching it.''
Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, Accidents Happen has gone on to screen at the Sydney Film Festival, Branchage Jersey Film Festival, the Cinéma des Antipodes festival and the Sitges Film Festival. The films producer, Anthony Anderson, also produced the critically acclaimed Somersault, which helped launch Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington's careers. Cook says he would be happy to follow in their footsteps.
“I'll just wait and see,'' he says.
“If Accidents Happen goes well and Hollywood wants me, then I'm there.
“All those guys are doing so well for themselves and they're all really nice people.
“It would be awesome to do a big budget movie like Sam in Clash Of The Titans.''

In case he does make the big time, Davis gave him some quality advice about surviving in `the acting business'.
“She said just stay yourself and don't let anything get above you or freak out.
“It's such a fragile industry because you never know what your next job is, so stay grounded.''

Since Accidents Happen, Cook has been jumping from one job to the next, including ABC series My Place, a play called Citizenship and adventure film Caught Inside which filmed in the Maldives. His next projects are two dramatic Australian movies, A Father's Choice and The Birth of Anna Armstrong, which begin filming this year.
“Australian films are great and really raw,'' he says.
“You get to stop worrying about your problems for a while and worry about someone else's.
“These two are both really heavy as well.
“I would love to do comedy or an action movie next.
“I'll just wait for the right script to come along, like Die Hard 7 or something.''

Above: A scene from the film.

Accidents Happen opens today.

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