I Am Link

--- Here comes the giant croc! Rogue, the second flick by Wolf Creek director Greg McLean, has finally gotten its release date: April 20th, aka 4/20, aka National Pot Smoking Day. Buy me a giant bag of popcorn and some Snowcaps, I'm there already.

Anyway, I think we can maybe expect to see a trailer or a poster someday soon? Something besides those same tired four pictures I've been staring at for months? Maybe???

--- It's... sorta... Pantalaimon!!! Well it's a photograph of the packaging for a plush version (you can see Salcilia too!), anyway. But it's the closest we've yet gotten to seeing any of the Daemons from The Golden Compass. I hope it's just the fact that this is a stuffed animal that transforms that makes Pantalaimon look so... broad... I really pictured him more lithe.

Now I'm just dying to see that creepy Golden Monkey... shudder...

--- Casting is getting going on the film adaptation of Susan Cooper's second book in her The Dark is Rising series, called, funny enough, The Dark Is Rising, and I think this is damned good casting at that: Ian McShane of Deadwood infamy to play Merriman Lyon. Very good indeed. And McShane, or at least his voice, is in The Golden Compass as well. Popular guy.

I really don't understand how they expect to have The Dark Is Rising out by the end of the year, though; I think they're in some sort of bitchfight to beat The Golden Compass, but isn't the world big enough for two wonderful Fantasy series? Well, four, if you include Harry Potter and that Narnia nonsense. But these are not films you want to rush out. You need to build this world convincingly, or it's right down the crapper.

And what's the deal with the order? Are they really shooting the second book first? I am really confused, apparently. Anybody got any more info? Will they shoot the first book at all?

--- Director/Hunk Richard Kelly, of Donnie Darko, spoke up a lil' bit about what's the haps with Southland Tales on his MySpace blog:

"I have been inundated with requests about the trailer for Southland Tales... and I am sorry to say that it does not yet exist :( Sorry everyone... but I promise we are getting closer! We are still in the process of getting the budget approved to finish all of the additional visual effects in the final cut. There were many missing and incomplete visual effects in the Cannes version, so expect lots of improvements! Fingers crossed that we get the additional money... Release date has not been decided upon, as the distribution plans are still in the works."

He also says that he's working on a screenplay for a "big" director that'll be a remake of a film made in 1971, but definitely not The French Connection (thank god!). Any guesses what it could be?

--- And finally, a new and more official trailer has appeared, via Twitch, for The Signal, that horror movie that bowled 'em over at Sundance which I've spoken of before.
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