Just time for a few items that came up today; no time yet to catch up on the various other items that have come up lately.
1. The first footage from The Golden Compass is now available here, and it looks pretty good. Indeed, I am excited. And I am also distraught, because I know where this story is leading.
2. The Associated Press picks up on the news that Disney may or may not release Song of the South (1946; my comments) on DVD:
The film’s reissue would surely spark debate, but it could also sell big. Nearly 115,000 people have signed an online petition urging Disney to make the movie available, and out-of-print international copies routinely sell online for $50-$90, some even more than $100.
3. ComingSoon.net reports that Don Bluth’s video game Dragon’s Lair (1983) is coming to Blu-Ray on April 9.
4. Ostrov, AKA The Island, swept the Golden Eagle awards in its native Russia two months ago. Now, Variety reports that the film, about an Orthodox monastery, has won some Nika awards too:
The pic, about a Russian Orthodox monastery, won prizes for film, director, actor (Petr Mamonov), supporting actor (Viktor Sukhorukov), cinematography (Andrei Zhigalov, posthumously) and sound editing.
Industry vets gave warm praise to the Nikas, which was celebrating its 20th anni. Actor-director Andrei Smirnov, presenting Lungin with the director gong, remembered the Perestroika-born event as a “first sign of freedom in the country.”
5. Cory Edwards — who says he can’t talk about the fact that he did a major rewrite on the current #1 movie in America (but not in Canada) — announced today that Mike D’Isa, an animator on various Disney cartoons over the past dozen years, has been hired to direct the sequel to Hoodwinked! (2005), which is currently titled Hoodwinked 2: Hood Vs. Evil. “This guy knows more about animation than most of us on the original team,” says Edwards, adding that D’Isa “really gets what we’re trying to do.”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In