Actually, you saw that other “The Wrestler” poster that leaked on Friday? Apparently that was a rough comp that wasn’t supposed to distributed to anyone. Apparently this is the real poster. What can we say, we liked the previous one better, but the differences are minor. Too much negative space at the top and that silly, “Mickey Rourke comeback” stamp at the top throws the alignment out of order. It feels rushed and or delivered too early, but whatever, the film has a poster, good enough, right? It’s not like it’s going to hurt the film, or at least it shouldn’t.
Is Baz Luhrmann’s romance adventure outback epic, “Australia” 165 minutes or 155 minutes? Hmm, we’ll all hopefully find out soon enough, it apparently screens to press in New York on Wednesday and Thursday. We will kill to see this. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
Aaron Eckhart will star in a sci-fi film called, “Battle: Los Angeles,” about a Marine battalion battling an alien invasion in the streets of L.A. Eckhart is apparently the leader. God, Eckhart as an action star? The film is laughably called, “‘Indepedence Day’ meets ‘Black Hawk Down,’ ” which could actually be decent if they remove all traces of the former. [THR]
Guillermo del Toro and Jim Henson’s muppet people will create a new creepy version of “Pinnochio” mean to spook children. del Toro will just executive produce the stop-motion animated film. [Variety] Speaking of del Toro, here’s his top 5 films, they include “Blade Runner” and less appreciated fare like Luis Buñuel’s “Los Olvidados.”
“Lawrence of Arabia” is available for free on Hulu.com, however, it’s not pleasing everyone. “The so-called ‘restored director’s cut‘ of Lawrence of Arabia that’s now up and viewable on Hulu doesn’t include Maurice Jarre‘s overture. Which means it’s not the “restored director’s cut.” This is a gross error on Hulu’s part. It makes them look like they don’t have a clue.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]
Spoutblog (along with the Onion A/V Club) are the kings of doing random features for no apparent reason. Ok, this one’s tied to the success of “Slumdog Millionaire,” so they’ve listed out the 10 Most Accessible Foreign Films which includes pics like “Amelie,” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” but we maintain they’re missing things like “Cinema Paradiso,” [Spout]
Christopher McQuarrie, screenwriter behind, “The Usual Suspects,” and the upcoming Tom Cruise WWII film, “Valkyrie,” has been tapped to write two more projects for United Artists, “The Champions” and “The Monster of Florence.” The former is based on a ’60s U.K. TV series about a “group of government agents who encounter a hidden civilization that grants them superhuman talents” and Guillermo del Toro will produce (the Mexican director is now apparently attached to everything). The latter is apparently based on surreal-but-real account about two authors investigating unsolved murders in Italy and somehow their investigations lead to their implications in the crimes. [THR]
BTW, if you’re a fan of Blu-Ray and the Criterion Collection, you might have to wait a bit longer. The tastemaking DVD company has delayed their upcoming Blu-Ray releases (“Bottle Rocket,” “The Last Emperor, ” “Chungking Express”) by about a month each. The earliest any of them hit is now mid December instead of November. [HiDefDVD]