Film:
Posted by Brett Clendaniel on February 4, 2013 at 11:33 am
Allentown, PA –Filmmakers John Philapavage and Kevin Kiernan announced the title of the “Unauthorized ECW Documentary”, their independent documentary chronicling the nineties pro wrestling subculture phenomenon Extreme Championship Wrestling and the company’s unique players. The film will be officially called Barbed Wire City, a title the men had had in mind since they were nineteen.
“It feels good to get this out there to those that have funded the finishing of the film, but also those that have been following along via the news sites and social media outlets,” Philapavage commented. “You’ve got a title and a date, and now I can get back to putting the final pieces together.”
Also announced privately to the duo’s Kickstarter.com backers (the crowd funding site that helped fund the film’s completion through fan support) was a release date that doubles as the film’s big screen debut. On Saturday April 20th, 2013, the film Barbed Wire City will premiere in the Philadelphia, PA area. A venue will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets to the premiere, pre-ordering of the DVD, t-shirts, posters, as well as updates and more information will be made available on the film’s official website, Barbedwirecity.com, The site, which had a soft launch today, will be fully operational within the next two weeks.
“Right now we just want to get the business decisions done so we can focus on the last few weeks of post-production, said Kiernan. No more talk about when. It’s happening. Now I’ll be over here editing background noises out if anyone needs me,” he joked.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on August 31, 2012 at 10:37 am
WWE’s website has a new article up touting some of the positive reviews for WWE Studios’ The Day, which opened in select theaters this week. As of this writing, the movie has a 22% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website with just 9 critic reviews counted – 2 “Fresh” and 7 “Rotten.” Out of 2,201 user ratings, 63% of viewers liked the movie.
Here are some highlights from current critic reviews:
Marc Graser, Variety: “‘The Day’ is one of the most effectivehorrormovies made in years, successfully delivering a feeling of dread that so many films in the genre lack these days, along with a unique story and captivating characters. Douglas Aarniokoski doesn’t take the easy out in his direction and never relies on camp or amps up the gore quotient to thrill audiences. He’s an impressive filmmaker who is worth keeping an eye on.”
Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: “The film feels unbelievably long at 84 minutes, and the color-drained, hand-held cinematography serves only as a reminder of just how good “Night of the Living Dead” really was.”
Joel Arnold, NPR: “A savage B-moviethrillerwith unrealized aspirations to profundity…”
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: “Every day is gloomy in “The Day,” Douglas Aarniokoski’s film with a creepy, paranoid atmosphere that’s more effective than the performances.”
Elizabeth Weitzman, NY Daily News: “Towards the end, you might find yourself thinking, “Well, this could have been worse.” And you’ll mean it as a compliment.”
Mark Olsen, LA Times: “”The Day” is just good enough to engage audiences, but it falls well short of remarkable, leaving viewers wishing for a dawn that never breaks.”
John Gholson, Movies.com: “The Day’s cannibalization of other, better films is its downfall; there’s just not enough unique material here to nourish.”
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on June 25, 2012 at 4:03 pm
- The movie titled Magic Mike which stars Channing Tatum and Kevin Nash opens up this Friday. In the movie, both Tatum and Nash play male strippers. Nash made mention of the role on his Twitter account last week, writing, “Just watched tmz, a bunch of Bama cracker strippers says Channing stole their moves. After watching my boy dance, got to say F-ck Them!”
- Over the weekend, former WWE Divas the Bella Twins attended the premiere of Magic Mike. They stated on their Twitter that the movie was a “must see” and that Nash “was awesome” in the film.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on May 9, 2012 at 12:26 pm
WWE SEC filing has revealed the production costs for each of the WWE Studios movie that the company has released so far.
Licensed films
* See No Evil from May 2006 which cost $10.4 million
* The Marine in October 2006 cost $20.2 million
* The Condemned in May 2007 cost $17.5 million
* Behind Enemy Lines 3 in January 2009 cost $2.5 million
* 12 Rounds in March 2009 cost $19.7 million
* The Marine 2 in December 2009 cost $2.3 million
Self-distributed films:
* Legendary in September 2010 cost $5.3 million
* Knucklehead in October 2010 cost $6.4 million
* The Chaperone in March 2011 cost $5.8 million
* That’s What I Am in April 2011 cost $4.7 million
* Inside Out in September 2011 cost $5.1 million
* The Reunion in October 2011 cost $6.9 million
* Bending The Rules in March 2012 cost $5.5 million
Out of all the movies mentioned, WWE did profit only on three of them – The Marine, Behind Enemy Lines 3, and The Marine 2. The first Marine movie is the highest grossing with a profit of $15 million and the other two just $200,000 and $800,000 respectively.
The Condemned remains the biggest money loser with $6.5 million in the red, followed by That’s What I Am at $4.9 million and The Reunion with $4.5 million.
In total, WWE has spent $118.4 million in production for 13 movies, seven of them are self-distributed while the other six are licensed.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on May 4, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Emmett/Furla Films’ feature film, “Empire State” movie starring “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson and Liam Hemsworth is scheduled to film in New Orleans, Louisiana. Filming begins on May 29 and is scheduled to run for 20 days, ending in mid-June. The movie’s casting crew is seeking resumes sent to empirestateresumes@gmail.com.
The Rock’s hectic post-WrestleMania movie schedule includes filming for “Pain & Gain,” which is currently in process, before traveling to Europe to film “Fast Six” this month. He then travels back to the United States for the Empire State shoot at the end of this month.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on April 25, 2012 at 12:27 pm
While at CinemaCon this week this week, the Rock was asked if he would ever go into politics. He had the following to say…
“I wouldn’t rule it out. I think in order for politicians to be successful, you have to be passionate about politics. I care about our country, but right now I can make impact in other ways.”
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on April 22, 2012 at 8:42 am
The Rock spoke to Entertainment Weekly about how the new GI Joe movie that opens in late-June is different than the first:
“I can tell you this one is creatively much different [from the first],” said Rock. “It’s rooted, it’s grounded, it’s real. The studio came to me and I loved the idea of starring in the movie because I grew up on G.I. Joe and it’s a massive property. I spoke to the studio and they told me about the creative shift that they wanted to make with the movie, which made it easy for me to sign on.”
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on April 12, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Warner Bros. is in the process of picking up the adapted screenplay “Lore” reports The Hollywood Reporter. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will star in the sci-fi action film, which is being described as “Men in Black with mythological creatures”.
The report notes that the seven deal went down in a high activity bidding war once Johnson was attached to the project.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on April 12, 2012 at 8:48 am
The Rock will reportedly star in a new movie called Lore, a “hybrid of traditional narrative and graphic novel.”
The movie sounds like a fantasy type of movie and Vulture.com reports that it will do for monsters what Men In Black did for aliens.
No word yet on when filming will begin.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on April 1, 2012 at 10:38 am
Variety reports that WWE Studios will be going from family-friendly movies back to the horror, crime, sci-fi, action and thriller genres because of fan feedback. The new direction comes under WWE Studios head Michael Luisi and differs from the approach that previous head Mike Pavone took.
WWE will keep the PG rating on their TV shows but WWE Studios will bring PG-13 and R-rated movies. WWE Studios is looking to release six to eight films a year with most of them being based on reboots or sequels. WWE Superstars will continue to be featured in movies but mostly in supporting roles.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on March 25, 2012 at 10:56 am
PWInsider reports that Randy Orton is being considered to star in WWE Studios’ “The Marine 3: Homefront.” Officials want a big star to be featured in the movie.
Orton told fans on Twitter a few weeks back that a new movie project might be in the works and the third Marine movie is likely it.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on March 20, 2012 at 9:30 am
As noted before, WWE is remaking “The Leprechaun” horror movies under a new partnership with Lionsgate Films. Warwick Davis, star of the original Leprechaun movies, did a Facebook chat this week to promote the original series being re-released digitally. Warwick says it would be a shame to remake the movies:
“I think it would be a shame to remake the original ‘Leprechaun’ film. It is a cult classic. It should not be touched in the same way the[y] should not have remade ‘Psycho’. I think there is a lot more to explore with the character, so that should be done with a sequel.”
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on January 26, 2012 at 9:00 am
The Rock’s “Fast Five” was listed as the single most-pirated movie of 2011 with an estimated 9.3 million downloads worldwide.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on January 22, 2012 at 10:33 am
The Rock announced on Twitter that his new movie “Journey 2″ is now #1 at the box offices in markets across Asia. As noted before, the movie is also #1 in Australia.
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Posted by Brett Clendaniel on December 26, 2011 at 10:04 am
Credit – PWInsider
The next WWE Studios film “Breaking the Rules” will be released in April 2012. The film, which stars Edge, tells the story of a lawyer who loses his classic car and seeks out to find it. Jamie Kennedy also stars in the film.
Edge is slated to appear at the Wizard World convention in Toronto this April to help promote the film, which will be promoted as part of WWE’s Wrestlemania synergy.
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