Movies
[News Bites] ‘Total Recall’ Shootout; Asian Gay Zombie Movie; And ‘Snow Piercer’ Wraps
Screen Daily reports that Bong Joon-ho (The Host) has wrapped shooting what looks to be Korea’s most expensive film to date, Snow Piercer. According to investor/distributor CJ E&M, the shoot wrapped over the weekend in Prague and Bong will finish post-production in Korea. They aim to release the sci-fi thriller next year, although specific dates are still in the works. Budgeted at roughly $39.2m (KW45bn), Snow Piercer will be Korea’s most expensive film by far. Kang Je-gyu’s war movie My Way currently holds the record with a $24.5m (KW28bn) budget. Based on the French graphic novel “Le Transperceneige,” the film is about the microcosm of human society surviving on a train that goes around in a snow-covered, post-apocalyptic world. The film was shot entirely on location in the Czech Republic, except for a day’s shoot in Austria for some scenery. Park Chan-wook is producing with his company Moho Film. Snow Piercer features a multi-national cast with Captain America star Chris Evans in the lead. He is joined by Song Kang-ho, who previously worked with Bong on The Host, John Hurt, Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell and Ewen Bremner.
German sales outfit Raspberry & Cream has picked up Asian horror title Remington And The Curse of the Zombadings, a gay zombie film from the Philippines, says THR. Raspberry & Cream will handle world-wide sales on the title, a low-brow comedy about the homophobic Remington who is cast under a spell and becomes gay himself. The film has proved a box office hit on its home turf, earning close to $1 million with 250,000 admissions, making it one of the most successful indie features ever in the Philippines. Director Jade Castro also produced Remington through the Manila-based writer/producer collectives ufo Pictures and Orgin8 Media. Star Mart Escudero won the Golden Screen Award, the Pilipino equivalent of the Oscar, for best actor in a musical or comedy for his performance.
Lastly, below we’ve added a second clip from Len Wiseman’s Total Recall remake, in theaters August 3, that pits Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel in a shootout against Kate Beckinsale and her Imperial troopers (seriously, does it not look like a scene out of Star Wars?)
Movies
R-Rated ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Director’s Cut Gets New Title and Streaming Premiere Date
After a slight delay, Disney has finally announced a new streaming date for the R-Rated director’s cut of The X-Files: I Want to Believe. According to Gizmodo, it’ll also come with a new title.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn begins streaming on Hulu on August 14.
The new cut was first teased in an interview with director Chris Carter on the Fail Better With David Duchovny podcast from last year, where he teased a much scarier movie he intended.
“Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended to make,” Carter explained last year. “It’s not just doing a Director’s Cut to do a Director’s Cut. It’s really kind of bringing to life something that for me was on the page and never got to the screen.“
The director’s cut of the film was initially set to arrive on Disney+ in June, but quietly disappeared from the schedule without a word. Polygon reported the delay was “due to some last-minute adjustments being made to the film.”
The release’s new “Vrach Frankenshteyn” title certainly suggests those adjustments have been made, likely referring to a Frankensteining of bonus footage.
In the film, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been out of the FBI for several years, with Mulder living in isolation and Scully having become a doctor at a Catholic hospital, where she has formed a bond with a critically ill child patient.
When an FBI agent is mysteriously kidnapped, and a former Catholic priest who has been convicted of pedophilia claims to be experiencing psychic visions of the endangered agent, Scully is asked to bring Mulder back to the bureau to consult on the case because of his work with psychics.
The brand new R-rated cut will “faithfully restore the filmmaker’s original vision.”
Look for it on Hulu next month.