Wow!

I have been a fan of Zach Snyder's work, ever since his exciting and well-made take on Dawn of the Dead in 2004. Less successful (artistically, at least), his CGI landscape for his 2006 adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 was lovely to look at (in more ways than one), but rather thin on substance. His last big release was the mostly excellent Watchmen, which I really loved. And no matter what some overly-sensitive people have to say, I have never found his work to be overtly homophobic, and anything which might have been misconstrued as such is there because of the source material.

Snyder has an all-CGI family movie about owls coming out later this year, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

But it's his next film I'm most interested in: Sucker Punch, Synder's first film that is not adapted from or based on other material. The script by Snyder and first-time screenwriter Steve Shibuya is based on an original story by Snyder and concerns young women imprisoned in a 1950's insane asylum and their plans for escape. Here's the official synopsis:

"Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of Baby Doll (pouty-lipped Emily Browning), who is trying to hide from the pain caused by her evil stepfather and lobotomy. She ends up in mental institution in Brattleboro, Vermont and while there she starts to imagine an alternate reality. She plans to escape from that imaginary world but to do that she needs to steal five objects before she is captured by an unknown adversary. She has 5 days to escape before being lobotomized. In order to cope with the situation, she enters the hyper-real world of her imagination, and the lines between reality and dream begin to blur. She is joined with friends who are inmates from the institution. Lessons learned in the said fantasy world could help the girls escape their real-world fate." (via)

It sounds like Heavenly Creatures meets Girl Interrupted meets Lord of the Rings as a live-action manga. And that's exactly what it looks like in the trailer below (the first to get me this excited since the trailer for Watchmen - make sure I hire that trailer company for my first movie). Watch this in full screen and turn up the volume; this trailer is friggin' awesome:



No matter what you may think of Snyder's films, you must admit that they always look amazing, as evidenced by that trailer. And what a cast! The highly underrated Jena Malone (Donnie Darko; The Ruins); Abbie Cornish; Scott Glen; the smokin' Carla Gugino and the very hot John Hamm. When I can buy a ticket? Sucker Punch is scheduled for release in March of next year.

So? What do you think? Excited to see Sucker Punch? Or completely bewildered by it? I'm going to have to install a poll app, someday... You could always just leave me a comment. I love it when we dialog!

More, anon.
Prospero

Disney-Pixar Presents: "Frank Miller's '300?'"

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about tonight, unil I visited my old friend, YouTube. And because I had been recently viewing re-cut trailers, it suggested one I hadn't seen before. I was thinking I might do a follow up to the Classic Horror? post from a few days ago, but then found something that took me on a different path toward sort-of the same destination: Mash-up trailers. And for some reason, I found a plethora of trailers which mashed the 300 trailer's audio to any number of other trailers' visulas. Even more interesting was how many Disney/Pixar films get the the treatment. The first one of these I came across was a Toy Story/300 mash-up:

Funny, yes? Well, linked to that mash-up was this one, for Monster's Inc./300:

And it doesn't just work for CGI. Here it is brilliantly realized in The Lion King/300:

It's not even limited to animated films. I can think of any number of westerns and action films that would work, but this Star Wars/300 mash-up is probably my favorite:

And let's not forget those afflicted with "gamer's thumb." Here is Mortal Kombat/300:

But it isn't just mash-ups. I suppose the bombastic trailer for 300 was just perfect fodder for parody, as evidenced by how many there are on YouTube alone. Here is Ninja Asylum's hilarious parody:

Or this immigration-themed parody from The Latino Comedy Project:

Finally, from YouTube poster "mynameisthad300," this delightfully absurd, MST3K meets the British "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" parody "Where's My Cat?"

So what are your favorite 300 parodies? Or what other movie parodies do you love? Please share any links in the comments. And I promise another follow-up on re-cut trailers, including the one that led me to all this 300 nonsense.

More, anon.

Prospero