According to the Toronto Sun newspaper, studios deliberately kept the 30 movies below from film Canadian critics in 2006.

Usually if a studio thinks a movie will take a savage beating (especially from those notoriously tough Canadian critics!) they’ll keep it under wraps for as long as possible to prevent harsh reviews sabotaging the opening weekend’s box office.

These movies tend to be celluloid dog poop (this means you Snakes On A Plane) but sometimes they’re surprisingly OK (say Crank for example) which suggests studios don’t really know what to hide and what to show. Some movies - like Underworld: Evolution - you just know they’re bad without even seeing them.
Read on for the 30 movies the studios kept from Canadian critics in 2006…

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George Lucas announced yesterday that he and Steven Spielberg completed a script for an as yet untitled fourth Indiana Jones film, which will begin filming in 2007.
An enthusiastic and probably plaid shirt clad George Lucas said the fourth film would be a “character piece” with “very interesting mysteries” which sounds encouraging. But he also said “I think it’s going to be really cool,” which just sounds wrong coming from anyone over 60.

Speaking of which… Harrison Ford says he’s “fit to continue” in the title role despite being 64 years old. Keep your cheap cynical cracks about Zimmer frames to yourself because if there’s no Ford then there’s no Indy. Sly Stallone showed us recently that actors and franchises of advanced years are still good for a final hurrah, so if an aging boxer can do it then an archeology lecturer shouldn’t really have any trouble.

Indy IV is set for a May 2008 release, more details as and when.

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There was a great article in Premiere magazine recently, where Tom Roston argued that less is more with trailers. You can read the full article here, but the basic idea is that a trailer should pique your interest without giving too much plot or detail away.

His example of a good trailer was the 300 teaser, which we covered here. It gave the general mood and idea, but without many reveals.

Luckily, this second trailer (above) for what’s fast becoming one of the most anticipated films of 2007 doesn’t give much away either, despite being a minute longer than the earlier version. You get more of a sense of what’s going on (300 Spartan warriors making a last stand against a million man Persian army) but that all important element of intrigue is still alive an well.

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Talladega Nights Shake and Bake buddies Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly will be reteaming with each other and with writer/director Adam McKay for Step Brothers. They’ll play two spoiled middle aged sons who become competitive step brothers after their parents marry each other.

McKay recently told website Suicide Girls that this time they’re deliberately going for an R rating.

Step Brothers will be R rated. We’re not in any way censoring ourselves on this one. We’re not playing the PG-13 game. We’re not ever stopping language or nudity ever. Already there are a couple jokes that have nudity and just 25 pages into it we’ve already said fuck about seven times.

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News from not always reliable The Sun newspaper is that David Tennant will give up the Tardis and quit as Dr. Who in the near future. The show got a Bond style reboot when Christopher Ecclestone and his leather jacket took the job in 2005, but he quit to be replaced by Tennant after one season.But now Tennant is off, most likely to pursue a film career, The Sun are claiming that, and I quote:

Producers are keen to get another Scot, Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle, 45, to step in.

For those who don’t know, the great thing about Dr. Who is that the change of actor is written into the show as a “regeneration”, so there are never any problems with continuity. Plus each new Doctor is a chance for the show to take a new direction.

No reason Carlyle (pictured) wouldn’t do a great job, and he’s already achieved enough not to be typecast by the role (which was always a possibility with Tennant). Maybe we’ll get a Begbie style violent psychopath for a Doctor this time. Maybe not though. Carlyle (or someone else) will be the 11th Doctor, and the 3rd since the franchise was rebooted.

The only man the BBC can’t afford to lose is screenwriter Russell T. Davies, who more or less resurrected the whole thing from it’s campy past and made it relevant again.

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Neosonik are all set to unveil the world’s first 100% wireless home entertainment system at the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas, January 8th to 11th, 2007.)

Their Wirelss Home Theater System (pictured) is exactly what it sounds like, with no cables, no analogue whatsoever and a Wireless A/V Controller (go here for what seems to be a comprehensive summary of the technology involved) running the entire digital show, promising no compression and a 200 foot range.

Aside from reducing tangle, and “oops I tripped over my speaker cable, why isn’t the cat moving?” incidents this should also deliver massive improvements in quality, with a digital signal pure as the driven snow.

The lucky folks at CNET got a preview and seemed suitably impressed, so looks like this is the real deal wireless wise.

My only question: Is it 100% wireless if you still have to plug it in?

Prices will range from $6,000 to $15,000 depending on your setup.

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Casino Royale became the best box office Bond in history today, taking in $451.8 million in ticket sales. That’s the solid $146.3 million US takings plus $305.4 million from overseas. The second highest grossing bond was Die Another Day which took $431 million in 2002.

Everyone who complained about Daniel Craig and Bond going blonde hang your heads. You know who you are, and you were officially wrong. This is a great payoff for a smart gamble by MGM/Colombia. Another standard gadgets-and-all Bond movie would still have made money, but the grittier back to basics Bond seems to have reignited audience interest.

Best case scenario is that other studios will take note and be braver with their precious franchises in future. Maybe a more violent X-Men or a less violent Saw sequel. And maybe just less altogether from everyone with the Scary Movie franchise.

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This looks more like it. After the extended European vacation that was Ocean’s Twelve Soderbergh, Clooney and crew are back in Vegas. Looks like less in-jokes and more for the audience.

Great to see Al Pacino making his now standard gravelly voiced threats, only to have George Clooney cut him down to size. And Andy Garcia’s lame “I was born ready” is fantastic. Also, with Pacino, Garcia and Scott “son-of-James” Caan returning, this has a strong Godfather connection. If the final film is as smooth as the trailer (and it will be) then this should be worth a laid back trip to the cinema.

What’s interesting about the Ocean’s franchise is that as well as being solid, fluffy entertainment (is that a paradox?) it also gives Clooney and Soderbergh the necessary clout to make more ambitious flicks like Solaris or The Good German.

So you can enjoy Ocean’s Thirteen guilt free, knowing your $10 is funding future artistic endeavors.

Ocean’s Thirteen will be released in the US and UK on June 8th 2007. Official Warner Bros website here.

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The original 1976 (and still the best) Rocky was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress this year. They chose 25 films made between 1913 and 1996 to to be preserved forever, which according to long haired Swedish rocker Yngwie Malmsteem is “a long time.”

The registry was created in 1989 to preserve films of cultural, historical or artistic significance. The Coens’ “funny-lookin” Oscar winner Fargo, Mel Brooks offensive to everyone spoof western Blazing Saddles, John Carpenter’s original slasher Halloween, and best ever Bill Murray film Groundhog Day all made the list this year, as did Hitchcock’s Notorious and (alliteration alert) Soderbergh’s Sundance senstation sex, lies and videotape.

Click here for the complete list of films up until 2005, and here for the 25 films added this year. And forward this to anyone having trouble filling their Netflix list.

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