Oh, Uwe Boll. You just can’t catch a break. The infamous director recently announced that his latest film, Postal, is getting an incredibly limited release on May 23rd. How limited? Four screens, and no, that’s not a typo. Why is that? Well, here are Boll’s rantings thoughts on the matter:

Theatrical distributors are boycotting Postal because of its political content. We were prepared to open on 1500 screens all across America on May 23rd. Any multiplex in the U.S. should have space for us, but they’re afraid… We have even tried to buy a few screens in New York and Los Angeles, and they won’t let us even rent the theaters! I urge independent exhibitors to contact us and book ‘Postal’! Audiences have been expecting the film and I don’t think exhibitors should censor what gets played in U.S. theaters.

Yes, it’s gotta be the “political content.” Theaters hate showing controversial political films. Remember Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11? Of course you don’t, because no theaters showed it due to its political content; “too many farting Bin Ladens,” they said. And it certainly couldn’t have anything to do with it being released around the same time as the new Indiana Jones movie. Plus the fact that all of Boll’s previous films have bombed at the box office couldn’t have had any impact on the theaters’ decision at all. I mean, it’s not like movie theaters are in the business of making money.

Via Kotaku

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Konami Digital has announced that they are seriously trying to move forward with a feature film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid, but they aren’t just throwing it out into the depths of Hollywood to let just anyone take on the job. After all, this is one of their most cherished franchises, so they’re choosing who gets the film rights very carefully. The man currently working on the film project at Konami, Aki Saito, explains his views on the matter:

Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.

On this note however, he did mention that Hideo Kojima would not be directing the movie. All he did manage to say really was that Paul Thomas Anderson, director of There Will Be Blood, had expressed interest in helming the feature film. Personally, I hope he does end up directing, at least so I can make a “Snake Drinks Your Milkshake” t-shirt, and have it make a little sense.

Via QJ

Oh, silly Uwe. You make so very many gamers angry with your terrible videogame-to-movie adaptations and box your critics and send angry messages to Wired. It’s all very amusing to me, since I don’t expect the movies he does to be any good regardless of the director, but his antics just make everything hilarious.

Boll’s most recent noteworthy actions were his comments on the inevitable Grand Theft Auto film. I’ll let you read his statement in its entirety, but first, you know who I think would be perfect to do a GTA film?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

With puppets.

Grand Theft Auto would be super interesting for me, and I think I would actually be the right guy to do it, because my movies are all bloody and violent and I don’t have a problem with action scenes. But look, they will go, in the end, with a Michael Bay or a Brett Ratner, and it will be a PG-13 movie made for $150 million. I think it would be better to make a $30 million, very hard, brutal movie without compromising, but I’m not optimistic.

A $30 million Uwe Boll GTA movie, or a $150 million Michael Bay GTA movie. Am I in hell?

via Game|Life

We heard awhile back that Chris O’Donnell had joined the cast of Max Payne — along Mark Wahlberg, Beau Bridges, and Mila Kunis — but now a photo has surfaced showing him on the set. I think the last time I saw him, he was decked out in a Robin outfit, so seeing him as a trenchcoat-wearing executive is a little jarring. Another new photo was also released showing what looks like the aftermath of a shootout (below). I have to admit the combination of fairly high body count and snow flurries does seem to match the Max Payne feel. We’ll just have to see how they pull this one off whenever it hits theaters.

Via FilmSchoolRejects

Like many people, I’m still quite amazed that they’re actually making a new Street Fighter (particularly since I still have horrific flashbacks from the first one). But making it they are, and in fact JoBlo.com got a chance to sit down with the new film’s screenwriter, Justin Marks, to talk about what fans can expect from this new movie. According to Marks, the story for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li will stick to the Street Fighter mythos rather carefully, but will partly delve into Bison’s past and reveal just how he gained his status. Marks also made it clear that they’re not looking to make the same mistakes that other films have made in the past. Besides ignoring the old film completely, he’s taken some of his cues from other films on what not to do, as seen in his response to a question about a possible shower scene like in the vastly superior anime film:

No this is actually a good moment to mention something about Chun-Li’s depiction in the movie. Basically there are two factors at work. First, I’ve never seen a successful action movie (in my mind) that blatantly sexualized its female lead and succeeded for its audience. CATWOMAN, ELEKTRA, the list goes on and on, and I just get a lot of eye-rolling. Then I think back to THE TERMINATOR, or possibly my all-time favorite movie, ALIENS, and I think of how Ripley is depicted in that film. She’s a tough woman, but not because she came from a place of wearing tight pants and beating up men. She’s tough because she had this core emotional story about a life that could have been and never was. To me, that’s the way you write a woman in these kinds of movies.

The second factor is Kristin [Kreuk, who plays Chun-Li] herself. She’s really something special, a fantastic actress and very selective about what she will and won’t do, because she knows that lots of girls out there are really impressionable. So we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure Chun-Li is not just a sex object fantasy for people’s desktop backgrounds. That was something Kristin made very clear, and we’re honored that she’s willing to go that route, because it’s one of the factors that’s going to elevate this above adolescent video-game adaptation.

That said, did I mention Kristin is gorgeous? And there’s one very steamy night club scene where she does… awesome things… to get the information she needs.

Well…damn; I was really looking forward to that shower scene. On the plus side though, it sounds like Marks is taking this project very seriously. Throughout the interview he seemed to constantly reassure everyone that this isn’t another hastily thrown together video game movie. Guess we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves whenever the movie comes out. In the meantime, you canr ead the rest of the interview by clicking the link below.

Via JoBlo

The official blog for the new Street Fighter film has just updated to reveal a couple new details from upcoming Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. First up, there’s a new shot showing one of the main characters…er, Detective Maya Sunee? Yeah, I have no idea how she fits into the new film, but I’m not going to complain about anything involving Moon Bloodgood. According to the blog though, “she’s Bangkok Gangland Homicide. A no-nonsense, fast-talking, half-Thai cop who rocks a Ducati and a set of gold cuffs.” There’s also a new page from the storyboard posted, showing Chun-Li landing a solid hit to Vega (even just looking at the little drawings, it made me go, “ouch”). Hopefully their next update will reveal how Kristin Kreuk fills out the spiky wristbands of Chun-Li herself.

Via Official Street Fighter Movie Blog

One of the bigger pieces of gaming news sweeping the internet over the weekend was a report stating that a technology manufacturer had received orders from Microsoft to construct Xbox 360’s with built-in Blu-Ray drives. Well, now Microsoft has stepped in to temper the rumors, stating once again that they don’t have any such project in the works:

“As we have stated, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360. Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.”

Whoa, whoa, back up there, MS. What happened to all that talk about turning the Xbox 360 into one all-encompassing media center? If you’re all about the games, then why is there a collection of TV shows and movies on Xbox Live that rivals my local Blockbuster? And, er, I think the growing sales of the PS3 compared with dwindling sales of stand-alone Blu-Ray players might have something to say about that “games are why people buy gaming consoles” talk.

Via GamePro

Oh, what’s that, Hollywood? You say the reason your ticket sales are down is because of those darn video games and not because most of your films are terrible? Well then how do you explain Iron Man earning over $100 million this past weekend? That’s $85 million more than this weekend’s other new film, My Best Friend’s Wedding With the Gender Roles Reversed Made of Honor, and $25 million more than most analysts were giving the film credit for. And one of this year’s biggest video game releases, GTA IV, hasn’t even been out a week, so there’s probably plenty of people still playing it.

Could it be all those gamers took my advice (yeah, right) or suffered some catastrophe like a broken controller or a Red Ring of Death that forced them out into sunlight? Or could it be people will actually traipse on down to the theater when there’s actually something good to watch? I don’t know, I’m not an analyst or anything; but I think it’s safe to say that video games aren’t stopping people from seeing movies that are actually worth seeing. Time to find a new excuse for your box office bombs, Hollywood. Or — crazy idea here — take all that creative energy in forming ridiculous excuses and put it into your movies. Just a thought.

Data Via Rotten Tomatoes

I know there’s plenty of game news out there today, but I just want to take a second to talk about something that I’m sure affects most of us. I think it’s safe to say that our sources of entertainment extend beyond video games, to films, for example. And I think it’s also safe to say that the majority of films out there aren’t worth the money it costs to go to a theater these days. Other than not throwing away our hard-earned cash on terrible flicks, there’s not much we can do about that. But this weekend, we as gamers might be able to at least eliminate one of Hollywood’s newest excuses for poor films: blaming low ticket sales on a huge video game release. And that is why, people, I implore you:

Go see Iron Man this weekend.

The thing is, Hollywood has found a new scapegoat in video games. It’s true the video game industry has grown to almost rival the movie industry, but it seems studios and analysts have found this to be a good way to excuse bad films. Last year, in the wake of Halo 3’s release, box office sales seemed to take a dip, which some film executives attributed to the game’s success. What they didn’t seem to consider was that the theaters were at the time flooded with dreck like The Heartbreak Kid and The Game Plan. As such, those same people have already been predicting poorer-than-expected ticket sales for the Iron Man film solely due to GTA IV’s nearby release date. I’m sure most of us can see the major flaw in this logic, and that is exactly why we must prove Hollywood wrong. Read the full article

Yesterday, Chris reported on how Matt Damon had passed on being involved with The Bourne Conspiracy due to the violence in the game. Now it looks like some comments from the actor himself have surfaced showing that there was a bit more to it than that. According to an interview in The Boston Globe, Damon wanted the game to be more of a puzzler than an action game:

“I lobbied hard…to not make a first-person shooter game but to make it more like Myst, which was a great interesting puzzle you tried to solve - you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory,” he told the publication. “They weren’t interested. They made the video anyway, without my likeness.”

In related news, Matt Damon has never seen any of the Bourne movies. What was he thinking while he was filming all those elaborate fight scenes? “Yes, this scene with me brutally beating a guy to death will surely reveal more about my character’s past?”

Via MTV Multiplayer

It looks like there are more original video productions in the works for Xbox Live, aside from the ones being made by Peter Safran’s group. Now it looks like James Gunn — writer for the Dawn of the Dead remake, Slither, and, er, both Scooby Doo movies — is getting in on the action. He recently announced that he is now casting for a production that will debut on Xbox Live, which he hopes to start shooting in late May. The show is being described as similar to South Park and Wonder Showzen and will involve “the wacky adventures of a group of friends.” That and they’re also looking to cast a “super hot” girl for the ever-important role of  “Girl in a Bikini.” And, yep, that gives me a good enough reason to post a picture of Miranda Kerr in a bikini.

Via G4TV [image via Hollywood Tuna]

Let’s take a break from all the video game talk for a moment to look at one of the many buzz-worthy things that came out of New York’s Comic-Con recently. Frank Miller’s work in comics has thus far been adapted into two films — 300 and Sin City — that have already garnered a strong following. But for his latest foray into films, it seems he’s taking a more direct approach. Right now, he’s helming his own adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic, The Spirit, which follows the story of a cop who returns from the grave to battle the forces of evil in his city. It was already suspected that Miller was putting his own distinctive visual style on the film, but this new teaser trailer just confirms it. The whole thing really looks and sounds like an outtake from Sin City. The inner comic book nerd in me is decrying the fact that they’ve apparently strayed from the original comic quite a bit. But if anyone could deviate from the original comic and still make it good, it’d probably be Miller.

Hey, any game company can put together a trailer; but not many can promote their game by rolling out a piece of movie history. That’s exactly what Vivendi decided to do though when they had the Ghostbusters’ famous Ecto-1 roadster make an appearance at a Best Buy in Minnesota. The event was held to promote the upcoming game that will continue the story following the second film. The car is being referred to as a “Restoration Project,” so I’m not sure if that’s the actual car from the films or an exquisite replica. But I think one thing’s for sure: we all missed out on one kick ass photo op.

Via GBFans

Let’s take a quick break from the video game world for a second. Besides, I’m sure most of you can probably agree on one thing: Batman is awesome. The upcoming film The Dark Knight is already looking pretty sweet, but there’s also a side project in the works that’s along the same lines as The Animatrix. Basically six directors and six writers have gotten together to produce Batman: Gotham Knight, an anthology of anime films starring Gotham’s resident badass. The people working on this include some of the top Japanese anime directors as well as some of the leading Hollywood writers. Judging from the trailer, this one might actually be just as great as The Animatrix was (let’s just hope the feature film doesn’t turn out like the Matrix sequels though).

Nothing makes me more giddy than The X-Files, so I’m excited to bring word that the new X-Files flick has finally gotten a name: The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Okay, it’s not the most original title they could have come up with, but it is fitting, to say the least. The title was signed off by 20th Century Fox today, and the film is still on track for a release on July 25.

The slogan will be familiar to anyone who’s ever watched the show. The classic poster that sits behind Mulder’s desk in his basement office (and behind mine, for that matter) bears the words below a picture of a UFO. It appeared as early as the very first episode, and was first spoken during the fourth episode, “Conduit.” I’ll stop there before I get into then number of times it’s actually said.

“It’s a natural title,” said director and co-writer Chris Carter. “It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. ‘I Want to Believe.’ It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith.”

Carter claims it was the title he wanted from the onset, but Fox executives were hesitant as they were unsure if it was a marketable title.

The first film held a loose subtitle of “Fight the Future” due to the way the words appeared on promotional posters. Those words ultimately ended up in an episode later in the series, in the episode “Three Words.” Guess what three words they were.

Alright, I’m stopping now. Seriously.

via ComingSoon.net

There have been several well-made fake trailers for video game movies in the past (Minesweeper, anyone?), but this trailer for Tetris: The Movie from Black20 kind of scares me. It’s almost too well-done; so much so that this is exactly how I could see an actual Tetris movie from Hollywood turning out. The video already looks like a less-colorful Speed Racer, just with flying blocks instead of cars. Of course, you have to wonder, when these “players” complete a line, does their ship explode?

Via Black20

It’s hard to gauge how the Iron Man game will turn out (it is a movie tie-in, after all), but you can bet one thing: the voice acting will be spot on. Sega has enlisted most of the actors from the film to reprise their roles, including Robert Downey Jr., Terence Howard, and Shaun Toub. In this video, we get to see behind the scenes with the voice acting sessions, as well as the actors’ thought on the process. Plus there’s Stan Lee describing the Iron Man character himself; and no one can describe comics like Stan “The Man.”

The upcoming Iron Man movie with have billionaire Tony Stark donning several different versions of the Iron Man armor, but the game will have even more. Aside from the different armor prototypes Stark develops on his way to the final Iron Man armor, players will be able to wear some classic armor from the comic books. These extra suits of armor may be familiar to fans of the comics, from the suit Iron Man wore in his first appearance to the “Hulkbuster” armor (shown above) used to of course fight a rampaging Hulk. Two of the armor suits will be exclusive to different consoles however, with the ”Silver Centurion” suit being exclusive to the Xbox 360 version, while the “Ultimate” suit will only be on the PS3.

You can check out the other types of armor that will be available here.

Surely you’ve heard of the upcoming movie, Fanboys, about a group of friends who travel to Skywalker Ranch in hopes of seeing The Phantom Menace before anyone else. At the very least, you might’ve heard of of the controversy it sparked recently when it was revealed that the Weinstein brothers had bought up the film and quickly excised a whole plot point involving one of the “fanboys” having cancer, reducing it from a film about some friends trying to fulfill their buddy’s dying wish to a movie just poking fun at Star Wars nerds (sorry, Weinsteins, but someone already made that movie; it was called “Anywhere But Conventions and Movie Theaters”). Anyways, one of the screenwriters for Fanboys, Ernie Cline, just had a new movie picked up that seems to be tailored to gamers this time. The movie, titled Thundercade, tells the story of a middle-aged gamer who learns that a record he set as a teen has just been broken by some young kid. So he sets out on a journey with two friends to reclaim his place in gaming history by winning the gaming championship, Thundercade. Cline says the film was inspired by playing games with his nephew, who would often talk smack to him while they played Xbox games:

“I fell in love with the idea of pitting older ‘classic arcade era’ gamers from the ’80s against teenagers — the Atari 2600 generation vs. the Xbox 360 generation,” Cline said.

Hmm, sounds a bit like The Wizard for…well, the people who actually watched The Wizard in theaters when it first came out. Let’s just hope the Weinsteins don’t get ahold of it and turn it into “Video Game Movie” or somesuch.

Via The Hollywood Reporter

Just the other day, Uwe Boll, the director every gamer and movie watcher loves to hate, stated rather off-hand that he would quit making films if an online petition received one million signatures (if you can’t remember, it was THIS PETITION RIGHT HERE). At the time, the petition had around 18,000 signatures. Since he mentioned his intentions though, that number appears to have grown to around 127,000. The infamous director has now responded — in somewhat broken English — to the growing number of signatures the with the sort of tact you’d expect from the man behind films such as Postal and Bloodrayne:

“Look, I’m not a f***ing retard like Michael Bay or other people running around in the business or Eli Roth making the same s***ty movies over and over again. If you really look at my movies you will see my real genius you know, and if you go on May 23 on Postal you will see that I deliver a movie what nobody else delivered in the last 10 years, what is way better as all that social critic George Clooney bulls*** what you get every f***ing weekend. You have to really wake up and you have to see me what I am. I am the only genius in the whole fucking business. Goodbye.”

That’s right, people. It’s not his fault that his movies are terrible, it’s your fault for not “getting” them. He also said that he hopes someone out there makes a pro-Boll petition. Oddly, I kind of agree with his views on movies, particularly where Michael Bay and Eli Roth are concerned. I just don’t agree with his views on his own movies.

Via MovieSet.com