Man of Steel gets its PG-13. Is the high-profile live-action PG-rated film an endangered species?

As of this morning, Zack Snyder's Man of Steel has been awarded a PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language."  That's not a surprise, as pretty much every major comic book film since Bryan Singer's X-Men has received said rating.  Even if the content seemed more appropriate for the more kid-friendly PG rating, such as I'd argue was the case with Fantastic Four and Thor, studios don't want the potential kiddie-flick stigma that's still somewhat attached to live-action PG-rated films.  Unless you're dealing with fantasy that's somewhat aimed at families, such as The Chronicles of Narnia or four of the eight Harry Potter films, or high-brow family adventures like Hugo or The Life of Pi), it's PG-13 or bust. Part of that is the way in which Shrek turned the PG rating into an acceptable 'for all rages' status for animated films back in 2001.  Part of that is merely the fact that getting a PG-13 doesn't seem to be making parents think twice about bringing their very young children to the likes of Transformers: Dark of the Moon or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  

Disney hires Zack Snyder to helm a stand-alone Star Wars film. Three (3) reasons why it's great news.

Update: Hollywood Reporter just debunked the story.  Apparently you can't trust a blog post from the frigging New York Magazine!  And *this* is why I don't generally comment on breaking news!!!  Anyway, all the opinions below still stand.

Well, we now have a big clue as to what Disney has in store for the Star Wars universe and it's the best news I could have hoped for in this capacity.  Vulture is reporting that Zack Snyder has been hired by Disney to make a film that exists in the Star Wars universe aside from the promised "Episode VII" and the related ongoing 'episodes'.  It will apparently be a loose remake of The Seven Samurai which of course makes all-too much sense if you've ever seen The Hidden Fortress.  The secret hope that I had when Disney acquired Star Wars is that we'd see a whole host of interesting filmmakers try their hands in the Star Wars galaxy.  And this announcement seems to indicate that this is indeed the plan, with side-films in the Star Wars mythology helmed by the likes of well, Zack Snyder.  We now have the hope of any number of dynamic filmmakers trying their hand, be it obvious contenders like Joss Whedon or Brad Bird, or the old-guards of the film school generation like Spielberg, Scorsese, DePalma, or Coppola, or somewhat off-the-grid choices like M. Night Shyamalan, Tim Burton, or Kathryn Bigelow.  Depending on how often Disney is pumping these out and/or how reasonably budgeted the off-shoot films are going to be, we may end up seeing a Terrence Malick Star Wars movie after all!  

Why Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar snub is a moral outrage.

For a general discussion of the Oscar nominations, go HERE.

In the broad scheme of things, the only Oscar snub that qualifies as an outrage is the omission of Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director.  Not because it's a bigger slight than snubbing Ben Affleck or Samuel L. Jackson or the like, but because her omission is clearly the result of the kind of smear campaign against the film that has made politics next-to-impossible for the last decade or so.  It's the same kind of baseless campaign that prevented Susan Rice from being nominated for Secretary of State, it's the same mud-slinging that caused Obama to (wrongly) dismiss Van Jones early in his term, thus providing the GOP their first scalp.  And to add insult to injury, Bigelow has been deemed wholly responsible by those who wrongly believe that Zero Dark Thirty endorses torture, leaving screenwriter Mark Boal (who got a nomination) off the hook.  If this kind of stuff happens every time someone tries to make a challenging film for adults, then we can kiss such things goodbye from those who seek award recognition.  If this is a sign of things to come, where Hollywood becomes as frenzied and maddening as politics, then that is a troubling thing indeed.

Zack Snyder's Man of Steel gets another mythic trailer...

I'm genuinely surprised that they didn't just release the Comic Con footage as a second trailer, but kudos to Warner Bros. for cutting something new anyway.  There's not much to say other than how primal and effective this is.  Obviously the use of soaring music (from Gladiator, I've just been informed) is almost cheating, but it's clear that Snyder and Nolan are going for a genuinely grandly epic tale of a God come to Earth to serve rather than lead.  I still think there is much that seems like it comes from Superman: Birthright, and that's a good thing.  I still like that the trailer spends little time on the usual 'action montage', giving away only bits and pieces while introducing both Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon as General Zod in brief glimpses (along with Chris Meloni, Richard Schiff).  Anyway, this is still at the top of my 'must see' list for summer 2013.  Yes, the general outline arguably follows the Batman Begins template (overly reverent and real-world origin story), but more importantly we are hopefully looking at a superhero adventure by way of Terrence Malick, something that actually feels like a grand myth, a true story of legend, with pathos honestly not seen since, yes, Richard Donner's Superman.  And it's doing it without the iconic John Williams themes.  Man of Steel opens on June 13, 2013.  As always, we'll see, but I frankly can't wait.

Scott Mendelson

Trailer Analysis: Man of Steel gets a cryptic and real-world teaser from of the Batman Begins school of marketing.

Old news, for sure, but I was on vacation last weekend and then returned home to find my son had a stomach bug (he's fine now, natch), so I'm only now getting around to this teaser (and a couple other trailers of note.  As you all surely know by now, Warner Bros. released two teasers attached to The Dark Knight Rises this weekend, one with voice-over provided by Pa Kent (Kevin Costner) and the other by Jor-El (Russell Crowe).  While the intitial response was that Zack Snyder is basically making Terrence Malick's Superman: The Movie, the truth is that this initial teaser is merely emulating the play book of Batman Begins. Please watch the first teaser for Batman Begins after the jump and then we'll continue.

Scott Mendelson

Zack Snyder's Man of Steel gets a teaser poster.

Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel, just premiered its teaser trailer at Comic Con and the reviews are mostly positive, with the somber, large-scale drama being compared to Terrence Malick.  Since the teaser premiering with The Dark Knight Rises is said to be pretty similar to what the SDCC attendees saw about an hour ago, I'll refrain from commentary until I can post the actual teaser (I'm hoping-against-hope that Warner screens said teaser before my Tuesday night Dark Knight Rises IMAX press screening). So yeah, here's the dark and moody poster.  Looks fine to me, but it's just a poster and we'll know more once we all get to see whatever it was that set Comic Con aflame.

Scott Mendelson

Weird summer 2013 release date silliness leaves two summer events in the wrong slot. Why Jurassic Park 3D and Man of Steel should play musical chairs.

As somewhat expected, Universal announced today (via Jeff Snyder of Variety) that they would be releasing Jurassic Park in 3D next summer, in time for the film's 20th anniversary.  Fine, whatever, I'm sure it will look just as 'eye-poppingly' cool as The Phantom Menace did earlier this year (read - not at all from reliable sources).  The 20th anniversary of Jurassic Park is indeed somewhat of a milestone, as it was one of the last old-school blockbusters, a genuine word-of-mouth sensation that played in theaters for over a year and whose domestic and international dominance paved the way for the modern four-quadrant tentpole.  It was also the last notable hit film to actually play for longer than six months or so (Titanic played for around six months), as it came around just as the second run theater business was dying.  But this isn't about waxing nostalgic for Steven Spielberg's epic dinosaur horror adventure.  This is about the beyond weird release date.  The film is not opening on June 14th, 2013, which would approximate the 20th anniversary of its June 11th, 1993 theatrical debut (when it became the first film to score $50 million on its opening weekend).  Instead it's opening on July 19th, 2013.  So what's opening on June 14th, 2013?  Well Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, of course!  So let me get this straight.  Jurassic Park can't open on its actual 20th anniversary because that slot is taken with Warner Bros' Superman reboot.  So instead Universal is opening on an empty weekend that was once Warner Bros' prime summer opening weekend slot for six straight years.

Best news: He'll be almost 30! Henry Cavill is Clark Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel!

By Hollywood standards, the newest last son of Krypton is actually kinda old. By the time Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel (or whatever its called) comes out in December 2012, Mr. Henry Cavill will be 29 years old. If, as I predict, the film gets pushed back to July 19th, 2013, then the newest Clark Kent will be a whopping 30 years old when the film is released. I jest a little of course (obviously 39-year old Jon Hamm never had a chance), but Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh were both 26 years old when Superman: the Movie and Superman Returns went wide in America in December 1978 and June 2006 respectively. Dean Cain was 27 years old when Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman debuted on ABC back in September 1993. Other than that, I have little to add on this one. Cavill is a fine actor who has impressed on The Tudors, Stardust, and elsewhere. He auditioned to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins back in the day, was among the front-runners for what eventually became Superman Returns when McG was set to helm the picture, and was actually author Stephanie Meyers's first choice to play Edward Cullen in Twilight, but he was 25 years old by the time casting began. Hopefully this will be a case of the right person being cast in the role the second time around, ala Pierce Brosnan's belated run as James Bond (no offense to Timothy Dalton and Brandon Routh, as they both did their respective franchises proud). And that's all I really have to offer on this one at the moment. I'm certainly glad they didn't go with a teenager, or someone who looked barely out of high school.

Scott Mendelson

Blu Ray review: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole 2D (2010)

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2D version)
2010
97 minutes
rated PG
Available December 17th on DVD, Blu Ray, 3D Blu Ray, iTunes, and Download

by Scott Mendelson

I missed this one in theaters, and seeing it now on this stunning Blu Ray makes me wish I took the time to sample the IMAX 3D version. The film is a pretty generic hero's journey, Lord of the Rings mixed with The Dark Crystal, but it is a visual marvel that never talks down to its young audience. While the locations are striking and the film is occasionally intense, the film reserves most of its overt violence for the final act of the picture, and even then most of the carnage is suggested rather than shown. What is notable is how openly it deals with the glorification of combat. Time and time again, we are told that war is an ugly and terrifying pursuit. Fighting and killing for the side of righteousness is not considered noble or heroic, but simply doing the right thing. There is no glory in battle to be found here, and even the heroic triumphs are viewed as tragic, either in terms of lives lost or having to kill another creature in order to win.

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch gets a full trailer.

This is obviously a longer, more plot-specific trailer. There's nothing wrong with what's here (more Scott Glenn is a plus), but the original teaser was more enticing, with snazzier music that created an oddly haunting bit of marketing. Still, this is a visually dazzling bit of business. What's nice about the campaigns is the somewhat 'no big deal' nature. In that, I mean that the idea of five young women embarking on an epic and violent adventure is not seen as anything revolutionary, and the women in question are not presented as sexual objects per-se. It's a small thing, but its appreciated. Anyway, this one looks like just the kind of movie that IMAX was made for, so that's the ideal way to see it on March 25th.

Scott Mendelson

Zack Snyder gets the job to direct Chris Nolan's Superman.

I made a comment a couple weeks ago regarding the soft opening for Legends of the Guardians, basically saying that if Sucker Punch faltered next Spring that Zack Snyder would have to take a paycheck 'one for them' gig, jesting that there was an opening to direct Chris Nolan's Superman project. To those who scolded me for even suggesting such a thing, fearing that my offhand comment would get the executives thinking... Sorry. I'm a bit late to the show, but as most of you know by now, Zack Snyder has been chosen to helm the Chris Nolan-produced and David Goyer-written Superman reboot for Warner Bros. Yet more proof that David S. Goyer reads this site on a regular basis...