IGN.com says so, in its latest report on Star Trek XI. Read more

Last night I saw Helvetica, a new documentary by Gary Hustwit — here making his first directorial effort, after producing films like the Wilco pic I Am Trying to Break Your Heart — and I saw it with the best possible audience: a crowd of graphic designers. The fact that I saw the movie was a happy fluke. My wife happened to get home a bit earlier from the picket line than I expected, so I decided to go see... Read more

Having flopped in North America, it is time for Evan Almighty to flop overseas. I mentioned earlier that the film’s Japanese release had been cancelled altogether. Now it is playing in Great Britain. The Guardian reports that the distributor went after the religious market in England as aggressively as they did here: Helping churches to exploit the faith-friendly content is Universal Pictures, which hired a specialist PR firm to target ministers, Christian publications and websites and promote different ways of... Read more

The Hollywood Reporter says Leningrad-born 18-year-old Anton Yelchin has joined the cast of Star Trek XI as Pavel Chekov, who was first played by the nearly 31-year-old Walter Koenig in 1967. This is interesting, as Chekov did not join the show until its second year — though Chekov must have been on the ship somewhere during the first year, otherwise Khan would not have recognized him years later in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Read more

Twelve days ago, it was announced that 30-year-old Zachary Quinto will play Spock in the new Star Trek movie. The role was created, of course, by Leonard Nimoy, who was 35 when the series began in 1966 — though he had played the role a couple years earlier, too, in the long-shelved first pilot ‘The Cage‘. Now, Ain’t It Cool News claims to have the casting breakdowns for some of the movie’s other characters — including their ages: James Kirk... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — CDN $27,790,000 — N.AM $261,027,397 — 10.6%The Simpsons Movie — CDN $12,410,000 — N.AM $128,060,578 — 9.7%Hairspray — CDN $7,380,000 — N.AM $78,854,798 — 9.4%Transformers — CDN $26,340,000 — N.AM $296,379,328 — 8.9%I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry — CDN... Read more

John Podhoretz of the New York Post was roundly denounced this week when he dismissed Ingmar Bergman, who died on Monday, as an over-rated figure from the past whose “day had passed”. Victor Morton at the Rightwing Film Geek blog called Podhoretz an unproductive “twit”, Gary Susman at Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch Blog called Podhoretz a “spectacular . . . philistine”, and Glenn Kenny at Premiere.com wondered if Podhoretz had any actual pro-Bergman critics in mind when he belittled the Bergman... Read more

Bit late with this one, but anyhoo. As of Friday morning, I believe there were something like 14 reviews of Bratz: The Movie up at RottenTomatoes.com — there are now 46 — so evidently some critics saw this film in time to write it up. But here in Vancouver, the only press or preview screening was on Thursday night — and as we all know, night-before screenings “don’t count”. So this film gets an honourable mention in the “not screened... Read more

Yahoo! Movies and the official website for The Golden Compass have both posted the extended preview reel that played at Comic-Con recently. The actors look great, the visual effects look great, the music sounds great, and darn it, I find it all rather moving. If this were any other film, I would be very much looking forward to watching it. (Scratch that: I am very much looking forward to watching it.) But, alas, all the excellence on display is tainted... Read more

Here are the first two sentences from John Anderson’s review of Daddy Day Camp for Variety magazine: Some former child stars have been known to overdose on drugs, get busted for carrying guns, pose nude for Playboy and appear on late-night infomercials. Fred Savage has directed “Daddy Day Camp.” So, um, comparatively speaking, that’s a good thing, right…? Read more