First look at Machete

The above, dear readers, is the first look at Jessica Alba's character, Sartana, in Robert Rodriguez's Machete, an adaptation of his fake trailer at the start of the Grindhouse movies. The pic was taken by ComingSoon.net at the the American Film Market (AFM) and although a tad dodgy, it's an exciting peek at what the highly anticipated Machete will look like. From this scrap of an image, I'm thinking a new take on Once Upon A Time In Mexico which excites me to no end. For those of you who have been in a coma for the past few months, the basic storyline is a homage to exploitation films of the 60s and 70s. ComingSoon.net break the plot down as follows;

"Machete (Danny Trejo) a renegade former Mexican Federale, roaming the streets of Texas after a shakedown from drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal). Reluctantly, Machete takes an offer from spin doctor Benz (Jeff Fahey) to assassinate McLaughlin (Robert De Niro) a corrupt Senator. Double crossed and on the run Machete braves the odds with the help of Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), a saucy taco slinger, Padre (Cheech Marin) his "holy" brother, and April (Lindsay Lohan) a socialite with a penchant for guns. All while being tracked by Sartana (Alba), a sexy ICE agent with a special interest in the blade slinger."

For more info, check out my previous posts on the flick here, and here .

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Brad Pitt is a Basterd

Who doesn't love Quentin Tarantino? I mean, besides the church that is. And cenorship boards. Besides those two everyone else is going ape shit over the trailer for his latest venture Inglorious Basterds starring Brad Pitt. Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, Inglorious Basterds is about a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as `The Basterds' who are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. Sounds very Tarantino-esque and no doubt war is certainly going to look different from his point of view. Featuring a stellar supporting cast the film looks interesting, to say the least. Watch Inglorious Basterds trailer here.

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Sin Cities (plural)

Is it Christmas already? No, we're still in November. Then how can all my dreams be coming true? The dreams that exclude Mark Wahlberg from proposing to me that is . . . .

Anyway, the god of awesome has totally smiled upon me due to the news Robert Rodriguez is writing and directing two more Sin City films. TWO! For those of you born in the last six seconds, Rodriguez is just my FAVOURITE DIRECTOR EVER! Needless to say Sin City is also one of my favourite films and it went on to revolutionize the way movies are shot. Films like 300, Speed Racer and The Spirit are a few who have taken a lot from Sin City.If you don't know what Sin City is about you don't deserve to live. Okay, a little harsh maybe but it's that brilliant everyone should know. Adapted from a graphic novel written and drawn by the legendary Frank Miller, Sin City tells multiple stories of the inhabitants of Basin City - a dark, dangerous, neo-noir town. Miller directed, wrote and produced the original along with Rodriguez. Rodriguez's BFF Quentin Tarantino also guest-directed a scene or three. Although Sin City isn't scheduled to be released until 2010, a cast of colossal calibre has signed on for the sequel. The following is a brief list;

Clive Owen is Dwight McCarthy --from original
Mickey Rourke is Marv --from original
Jessica Alba is Nancy Callahan --from original
Rosario Dawson is Gail --from original
Rose McGowan is Ava Lord (rumoured)
Michael Clarke Duncan is Manute --from original
Jamie King is Goldie/ Wendy --from original
Brittany Murphy is Shellie --from original
Antonio Banderas is ??? (rumoured)
Devon Aoki is Miho --from original
Danny Trejo is ??? (rumoured)
Powers Boothe is Senator Roark--from original

As you can see most of the surviving characters from the original Sin City are reprising their roles as well as appearances from Rodriguez regulars Danny Trejo, Antonio Banderas and the smokin Rose McGowan. The plot follows one of the later graphic novels and delves further in to the past of Dwight and Marv as well as the present of the other characters. Rodriguez is commonly known as the `one man film crew' because of how he has a hand in all aspects of the film making process. Just as he did in Sin City he will be behind the cinematography, directing, producing, editing, writing and the music for Sin City 2. What a legend. Seriously.

If the above news isn't enough to get your juices going, Miller and Rodriguez are all aboard for Sin City 3 which is scheduled for release in 2011. This film will be based around the story of an ex-Navy SEAL named Wallace who saves a young woman, Esther, from killing herself. After a night on the town, she's kidnapped by mysterious people and so on and so forth. Johnny Depp is rumoured to have already signed on to play Wallace but no other cast details have come to light.

Santa is awesome.

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Six on the beach

For no other reason besides the fact I can, I’ve complied a list of my top six favourite directors. If I provided explanations behind my choices this post would probably end up three times the size of `The Power of Levitt-ation’ and nobody wants to go through that. The following are in no particularly order and I’ve also included a few notable mentions of directors I love but not as much as those featured in the top six. Some, like Ben Affleck and Rian Johnson still have to prove themselves but from their debut directorial offerings I’m a fan.

Movie Mazzupial’s Top Six Favourite Directors

Robert Rodriguez

Tim Burton
Hayao Miyazaki Terrence Malick Quentin Tarantino
Ang Lee

Honourable mentions: Guillermo del Toro, Clint Eastwood, Brad Bird, Wes Craven, Chris Nolan, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Rian Johnson, Tim Robbins and Ben Affleck.

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Rude, crude and totally attractive

Happened to see a nifty documentary called Not Quite Hollywood yesterday. Now I don't care if documentaries float your boat as much as a carton of lead but if you're a movie lover or Australian then you should see this movie. The film looks at a once flourishing era in Australian cinema, fondly known as Ozploitation, which spawned creations such as Mad Max and BMX Bandits while inspired everyone from Quentin Tarantino to Jamie-Lee Curtis. Although most modern Australian film critics shudder at the very thought of this period in Aussie cinema and happily push the produce in to a dusty draw, Not Quite Hollywood makes for fascinating viewing. If there's one Australian film you have to see this year then this is it.

Director Mark Hartley and co. cover a plethora of Aussie exploitation films produced in the 70s and 80s with interviews from the directors, actors, producers, stunt men and never-ending parade of buxom actresses who appeared naked in the movies to `liberate' themselves (baha whatever makes you sleep at night). Thanks to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino I've long been a massive fan of exploitation cinema which is defined as movies containing content with gratuitous amounts of sex, violence, gore, action and horror often filmed with a fetishistic lens. But Not Quite Hollywood opened my eyes to a whole world of Australian cinema I never knew existed that is a rich part of our cultural heritage, stuffy art house types be damned. These films are celebrated pretty much every where else in the world except in Australia so it's nice to finally have a homegrown tribute which will hopefully give them the exposure they deserve. There are some little gems mentioned in this documentary which I can't wait to get my hands on and see. In particular Patrick, Razorback, Turkey Shoot, Long Weekend, Man from Hong Kong, Mad Dog Morgan and Road Games.

Above: Kirsty Alley makes her cinematic come back. Just joking, this is actually the star monster of Razorback.

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