While this guy looks like Gandalf the Gray, the film is a tongue in cheek drama about an estranged hermit of a man and the life he lived.

He wants to be there to see what people would say at his funeral, so he throws a funeral party so he can reminisce with everyone else.

This looks really good, and I am looking forward to this!

I started this Movie Blogging thing on the aptly named The Movie Blog with John Campea, and after about 6 years of that I wanted to strike out on my own. Thus, The Stub was born. The original plan I had with John was to build some content here with my posts, and eventually we would announce the spinoff and see what happened.

But then John started expanding into other ventures, and as always I was in full support mode and stepped up my involvement on the site from a few posts a day to becoming pretty much the only person to write on the site for the last year. The Movie Blog had “guest appearances” by John until he found himself named the Senior Editor over at AMC’s Script to Screen. John chose to move on exclusively with that venture leaving The Movie Blog in the hands of the financial owners.

The official launch of The Stub came sooner than I hoped and I was thrilled to see some of the loyal TMB crowd make the leap to join me here. But my grand opening was short lived as the owners of The Movie Blog contacted me and offered me the role as Senior Editor.

At first I was conflicted. I had this new site all up and running, all excited to be moving forward. And then here I was being handed the keys to the site I helped create and sustain for 6 years. It was a brief conflict and a new era for The Movie Blog has arrived as I accepted the title.

For the last few weeks I have been mirroring my content from The Movie Blog here, but things are moving forward with solid effort. We are making changes to the site and building TMB up to become the ultimate spot for your movie news and sharing opinions.

And that brings us to today. The Stub is mine and she only had a short presence online, and The Movie Blog will be my new home now.

From now on I will be at The Movie Blog

Thanks for being around. Come join me there!

Its a good thing they optioned a script already.

Movie Moron shares:

Warner Bros. actually commissioned a script for Sherlock Holmes 2 three months before the first movie was even released. It’s becoming increasingly common for studios to do this for movies with pre-release ‘buzz’ as it enables a sequel to get into production faster, for less cost.

Since they did that they’re now in the process of locking down the cast for a June start date. Downey Jr. recently passed on the lead role in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys And Aliens to free up that time.

While I really wanted to see RDJ take on some Aliens in a Cowboy era film, I really do want to see him reprise his quirky Sherlock Holmes and they have to fit this between his very busy Iron Man appearances and Avengers roles (as well as everything else they have him lined up for)

They laid enough groundwork incorporating the superior evil mastermind of Professor Moriarty in the first film, so I anticipate there will be some of that in the sequel.

As much as I always want to see more Rachel McAdams, I don’t anticipate her return. Her character is already established as a wanderer, so she might show up again, but maybe not in the sequel.

I liked how Moriarty was concealed in shadows in a less than subtle introduction, but not the main antagonist in the film. I hope to see more of that. It adds even more mystery if no one ever really knows what Moriarty will look like.

Its not known if the sequel will draw inspiration on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work or if this will be an original story.

Obsessed with Film says:

Universal comedy that will star James Marsden as an unemployed slacker who accidentally runs over the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) with his car, and takes him under his wing to nurses him back to full health.

Tthe movie will be part live-action/part CGI and it comes from the director who blended the two in Alvin and the Chipmunks

While this trend of mythical creature family friendly films is amusing if you are 12, I can’t stand them.

Oh who am I kidding! I love these family friendly light films. Not every film has to be The Dark Knight, and frankly I really like James Marsden, and I actually am one of the few who is not irritated by Russel Brand… so while I dont expect many to follow me, the kids and I will likely go see this.

I know. But some of you go to the Jackass films too and I still let you breathe.

Oh, and a wolfman. He’s there too.

The previous posters were as unremarkable, but at least they lacked photoshopped floating heads. That cliche needs to die.

I don’t like this poster at all. Thankfully for them I do like Del Toro, and Hopkins.

Via

Will it have Khan? Orci has said bluntly “We would never do a remake…” so that appears to rule out Khan as a badguy, but they are not ignorant to the impact of a strong villain in the film.

FirstShowing quotes:

“I think our idea on this is that the first of any series is about them coming together or the formation. I couldn’t really tell you what Jeff Bridges was doing in Iron Man, but it doesn’t matter at all because it is all about Iron Man becoming Iron Man. Whereas I think sequels are very much about the villain. Because while [in the first one] the villain serves to bring the crew together, the second one I think has to be a true challenging of what that family is about. That is why Wrath of Khan was so amazing. Khan tested each one of them and ultimately asked for the [ultimate] sacrifice, and that is why that movie held up so well.”

I like how they are insistant that it will not be a remake of the sequel in the original film series. I really want them to go all fresh and new and NOT just recycle the old storylines with the new cast.

Hop ahead to where Kirk has become a phenom and the youngest Captain in Federation history. Have others challenge his sudden rise in ranks, have doubt and plenty of character interaction, but have his crew solidly behind him. Then bring in a villain worthy of the format.

Should it be Khan. No. We know in the timeline that he is out there, as are his genetically created superpeople. But will Kirk even cross paths with him now that will trigger the events of Wrath of Khan? Who says there is any wrath now?

I like how they illustrate how Nero was an unimportant villain. I felt that way, but they made it obvious as to why he wasn’t played up as a major presence. Its not what their film was about.

I look forward to seeing what they do with a villain in Star Trek 2. They seem to have their head in the right place here. Origin is over, now lets have a serious conflict!

I vote for a badass Klingon Warlord!

Avatar has far exceeded the boxoffice results that I had anticipated. All along I thought the movie was going to be as ground breaking as the rumours implied, but I honestly didn’t see it killing at the boxoffice this much.

And the excuse that it doesn’t deserve it considering the rise in prices, and the additional income brought on by the premium you pay to see it in 3D? I don’t think that takes anything at all away from the achievement.

The 3D added to the appeal of the movie to showcase the technology in a medium in which it truly shines. So that appeal earned it some extra money? Isn’t that what all films do? The appeal of a film makes you go when its not Cheap Tuesdays, and the appeal of the film makes you see it before its a cheap rental at the corner Blockbuster. The 3D made you go see it and the extra 25% premium some paid to see this would still put this film ahead of the previous #2 Worldwide (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King) assuming everyone paid for 3D.

Yes, those numbers are to be considered, but I think that it is the appeal that makes the difference. The only thing I am wondering (if anyone knows how to calculate it) is market value. How is the change of the value of a dollar impact this?

In other boxoffice news, Alvin And the Chipmunks the Squeakquel is sitting at $364m worldwide right now, which squeaks it just past Sherlock Holmes at $363m. Alvin is beating Sherlock. Go figure.

Via

Oh, its also the redband trailer, but aside from a bare bum and some suggestive sexual acts, there is little “red” about it.

A woman thinks her husband is cheating on her, so she hires Chloe – an escort – to make advances on him to see what happens. Chloe goes too far and goes all single white female, causing more problems than they had before.

I really like Amanda Seyfried, and Julianne Moore with Liam Neeson too? Hell, they didn’t even have to throw in a lesbian romp with Seyfried and Moore to get me interested. But that helped.

Via

ThinkHero has it out for us to see:

I like the gritty edge to it. I don’t want a candy coated World War 2 picture so I hope that this reflects how it will go.

I am half anticipating that they might use the traditional kite shield shape, but seeing the perfectly round frisbee shield on Tony Stark’s workbench implies to me he uses it in dubdubtwo and that at the end of the film they might recover it (and somehow makes its way to Stark’s collection – he is a patriot, and people would know of the legend of Captain America). When Tony joins Fury in approaching the freshly thawed legendary hero in Avengers, it would be a proud moment for Tony to hand him his shield.