▪ Lionsgate to Distribute Kick-Ass

LIONSGATE, the leading next generation studio, announced today that it has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to KICK-ASS, the hotly anticipated action-comedy from writer/director Matthew Vaughn (LAYER CAKE, STARDUST). Based on the groundbreaking, best-selling comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., KICK-ASS stars Nicolas Cage (the upcoming SEASON OF THE WITCH, KNOWING, NATIONAL TREASURE), rising star Aaron Johnson (the upcoming NOWHERE BOY), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (SUPERBAD) and Chloe Moretz ((500) DAYS OF SUMMER). The screenplay is written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. The producers are Matthew Vaughn, Brad Pitt, Tarquin Pack and Kris Thykier; Millar and Romita Jr. are co-producers. The announcement was made today by Joe Drake, Lionsgate President, Motion Picture Group, and Co-Chief Operating Officer, and Jason Constantine, Lionsgate President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions. KICK-ASS was the buzz sensation of the July Comic-Con in San Diego, where early footage was shown to wildly appreciative fans. The film is a privately financed independent production from Vaughn’s Marv Films and Plan B Entertainment, and is currently in post-production. Lionsgate anticipates a wide release in 2010.

▪ Bryan Singer to direct Battlestar Galactica

“Battlestar Galactica” appears to be on a fast track and sources said that Singer could be looking at a $10 million paycheck to sign on to the film. Singer has long been intrigued with “Battlestar Galactica” and flirted with relaunching it into a TV series right after he directed the original “X-Men.” Back in 2001 I wrote about his plan, which involved teaming with Tom DeSanto to exec produce the series. Singer planned to direct the pilot of the new version of a series that originally launched on ABC in 1978 and ran two seasons. It is possible that the timing of the series went awry because of the World Trade Center disaster that occurred later that year. Certainly, it made a series that launched with the attack and destruction of earth unpalatable.

▪ Doctor Parnassus gets distributor

Variety is reporting that the Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group is about to sign on the dotted line to acquire Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which the studio will likely distribute in theaters through its Sony Pictures Classics branch, maybe as early as this year.

▪ Tarantino Updates ‘Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair’

Quentin Tarantino is still on the road to bringing us the long-awaited, full, four-plus-hour version of Kill Bill that he originally intended. Even though we still haven’t seen Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair materialize in stores, Tarantino has updated us on the status of the project, continuing to promise that it’s still on its way. Last time we reported on the promised full version of Kill Bill, several different details were revealed about what would differ from the separate Vol.1 and Vol.2 releases. Some of the details were that the black-and-white “House of Blue Leaves” fight sequence will be in color; that there will be gorier anime sequences; and no “baby cliffhanger” that’s at the end of Vol.1. However, one of the biggest changes to the full version will be the addition of a newly created sequence that will take place during the anime segment featuring Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii. Tarantino is still finishing up Inglourious Basterds (since it still hasn’t had it’s theatrical release), but says he’ll move onto The Whole Bloody Affair straight after that. Here’s what he told SciFiWire:

“I need to do one thing with it, though… I’m not going to monkey around with the movie itself, but we’ve actually done a whole new section for the anime as the last thing [we added]. I actually wrote a much longer script for the anime section during O-Ren’s revenge chapter. Remember the guy with the long hair that kills her father? It’s like, what happened to that dude? Well, I wrote it and it was the biggest, most elaborate thing I wrote-her taking him down.

Tarantino says that this added anime sequence was conceived back when he had the four-plus-hour movie in mind, as opposed to it being split into two separate ones. He says that the reason they never had the full anime sequence is because it was so big (read: would add to the already VERY long runtime). However, Tarantino reveals that he more recently showed Harvey Weinstein exactly what he had written before shooting the Kill Bills and they went ahead and made the extended anime sequence with the same team (Production I.G.) that made the existing sequence within Kill Bill Vol.1. Tarantino claims that all that’s left to do is go over it a bit with the anime team, to make sure everything’s right.

▪ Avatar Teaser Trailer is almost here

▪ Tranformers 2 Robots Announced
Paramount Pictures has released the full listing of Autobots and Decepticons in the upcoming Transformers sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Yahoo and USA Today. I have compiled all the details and a few new photos after the jump.

Autobots
Optimus Prime: The Autobots’ leader – alternate form: Peterbilt truck (see photo).
Ironhide: Weapons specialist – GMC Topkick.
Ratchet: Medic – Hummer H2.
Bumblebee: Friend and mode of transportation for Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) – 2010 Chevorlet Camaro.
Arcee: A female Autobot – Megan Fox’s hot-pink motorcycle.
Jetfire: A fighter plane crash-landed on Earth a long time ago, and he will become a reformed Decepticon now fighting for the humans. His alternate form is the SR-71 Blackbird, a sleek Cold War spy plane. “He’s old, craggy, forgetful … doesn’t work very well. Can’t transform very well, because he’s very geriatric. They get stuck with him a lot,” Bay says. “He knows the plan of the bad guys, but he forgets all the good parts of the plan.”
Sideswipe: A candy-apple red Lamborghini in the original, joins the cast this time as General Motor’s silver Corvette Stingray concept car.
Jolt: the original toy was a Decepticon, but in the movie he’s a good guy – Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.
Skid & Mudflap: a.k.a. “The Twins” – Chevrolet Beat and Trax concept cars. “Some of the junior Transformers are just dumb,” Bay says with a laugh. “But it’s great for kids because they’re like the Little Engine That Could. They’re (screw)-ups, but they get really heroic at the end.”

Decepticons
Starscream: Formerly Megatron’s second in command, he escaped at the end of the first movie; F-22 Raptor jet.
Scorponok: The mechanical scorpion that attacked the American troops in the desert.
The Fallen: An ancient robot, sort of the Transformers’ version of Lucifer. He’s one of the original robot aliens, and his defiance and arrogance led to his banishment into another dimension. The screenwriters call him “the most elemental bad guy” and say that The Fallen holds the key to life on both Earth and Cybertron, the Transformers’ home planet.
Sideways: The Audi R8 seen crashing through a building in the trailer.
Soundwave: A cassette player in the original toys. An evil communications expert but this time in the form of an orbiting space satellite.
Ravage: The ultimate spy. A four-legged, cat-like robot. Ravage doesn’t turn into anything. “In the spirit of ‘more than meets the eye,’ Ravage isn’t just lethal because of his sharp teeth,” says screenwriter Alex Kurtzman. “There’s actually another skill set Ravage has that didn’t exist before, so there’s going to be a surprise for fans.” He doesn’t talk like the other Transformers.
The Doctor: A spider-like droid that transforms into various implements of torture.
Wheelie: A small, radio-controlled truck.
Demolisher: One of the Constructicons that transform into construction vehicles.
Devastator: A giant robot formed by the Constructicons joining together; individually, they are: Scavenger, Scrapper, Hightower, Longhaul, Rampage, Overload and Mixmaster. “He’s made of vehicles designed to build, and he turns into is someone who loves to destroy,” Orci says. “He is an agent of absolute chaos.” Michael Bay says that when Steven Spielberg saw Devastator, he said “This is (expletive) awesome!’ ” Bay says, “It’s always nice when you can make him swear.”
Megatron (unannounced)

▪ Sony Confirms Men in Black 3 and Ghostbusters 3
During Sony’s presentation today at ShoWest, Sony president of worldwide distribution, Rory Bruer, mentioned that not only is Spider-Man 4 in the works for 2011, but so are a new Men in Black and a new Ghostbusters.

▪ Magnolia Thinks Bloggers Should Chill Out About Let The Right One In’s Subtitles
About a week ago, we reported on the fact that the North American DVD/Blu-Ray release for Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In had its subtitles completely butchered. Understandably, many fans of the DVD were incensed and took to the interwebs to voice their discontentment. The din grew so loud that Magnet/Magnolia responded by adding on a theatrical English subtitle track to the discs, although it would not offer exchanges for the hardcore fans of the movie who undoubtedly went and purchased the initial inferior discs right after they were released. Well, at least they were being sensitive to some of the fans, right?

As it turns out, no.

A comment post at Icons of Fright reveals an internal communication about the topic of the subtitles that Magnolia Pictures sent to Mongrel Media, who is handling the Canadian release of the film. It reads:

Yes the bloggers are having a field day on this one. Normally they like to pick on the English Dub tracks, but in this case it’s the subtitles. Obviously online tend to get rowdy and bandwagon mentality without knowing all the details. The current subtitle track is not altering the context of the film at all, in fact it’s a more literal translation than any prior version of subtitles. It’s not a defective or faulty subtitle file. Just more literal and larger in size for the small screen. Both English and Spanish subtitle files were produced for this dvd release. Frankly it’s not all that uncommon to have the subs vary from prior releases, typically go unnoticed as subs are purely a translation of film dialogue. This wouldn’t have been a blip had it not been for one particular horror blog doing a side by side and claiming that they are wrong. They are not. We are not doing a recall or anything of that nature, again, these are not defective. Title came out two weeks ago and general public don’t notice and don’t care – bloggers are well known for jumping on something, making an issue of it and moving on. We have decided that based on the feedback that we will be making a running change, so that going forward (once inventories deplete), we will be making that subtitle version available. Options in set up will be; English Subtitles / English (theatrical) Subtitles / Spanish Subtitles”

Great job marginalizing the biggest fans of your movie, Magnolia! I haven’t had time to do a side-by-side comparison, nor do I know Swedish, but from what I’ve heard, Magnolia’s claim that the new subtitles represent a “more literal translation” seem inaccurate at best and disingenuous at worst. Also, Icons’ side-by-side comparison speaks for itself, despite this statement’s attempts at dismissing it. But it’s okay because the “general public” won’t care, so fans of the movie shouldn’t either, right?

On top of that, I would say to Magnolia/Magnet that there are two things you shouldn’t do if you want to shut bloggers up regarding a specific topic: 1) Acquiesce to their demands (as you did, and rightfully so), and 2) Call them mindless, bandwagon-hopping drones. I’m guessing that doing either or both of those probably won’t make us go away, and in fact, will probably just make us raise our voices even louder. In any case, I would encourage you to continue down this path, Magnolia. It’s clearly bearing fruit.