Trailer of the Week: Previews of the Super Bowl

Apparently, this year’s Super Bowl was more about debuting previews than football (okay, maybe not totally, but for us, it was). Which to highlight?

The ones I want to see, of course.

I hope the entire movie takes place in WWII. If they try to bring him to the modern era, the plot will spin out of control.

Here’s to hoping!

The other Marvel flick, Thor. While this wasn’t a premiere, it gave us some good nuggets.

This looks good in a weird way. I love Jon Favreau’s work, and anything Ron Howard puts his name on is usually good. Just ask all those jaded Arrested Development fans.

While I have a child-like giddy anticipation for Captain America, this is the trailer that makes my heart beat faster in anticipation. Super 8 has been called J.J. Abrams’ tribute to Speilberg, and this trailer seems to prove that.

I want to see this movie.

Honorable mention goes to: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Limitless, Rango, and Transformers 3.

Pirates and Transformers are a hard sell for me, as I didn’t see the third Pirates nor the second Transformers.

Unless Disney makes a Pirates & Transformers to compete with Cowboys & Aliens. I think I could dig that.

What was your favorite trailer?

Trailer of the Week: Morning Glory

Bad Robot just can’t seem to do anything wrong, as far as I’m concerned. Morning Glory has a powerful cast and, amazingly, Harrison Ford playing a character that reflects his actual age. Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, and Rachel McAdams round out the line up.

The film is about a hotshot television producer is set the challenge of reviving a struggling morning show program, despite the constant feuding of its high-profile anchors.

J.J. Abrams usually backs projects with a notable sci-fi bent. Morning Glory branches out more normal world. Regardless of the content, though, Abrams wouldn’t put his name on it if it wasn’t quality.

The song featured in the trailer is “Strip Me” by Natasha Bedingfield off her album that dropped on November 9th.

Soundtrack of the Week: LOST

The final season of LOST was released on DVD yesterday. So, instead of reeling from watching the finale twenty-four times trying to figure out what the heck happened, maybe you should pause it and take the soundtrack for a ride.

The score is provided by Michael Giacchino. Giacchino seems to have the same relationship with J.J. Abrams that Danny Elfman has with Tim Burton. Giacchino did the music for Alias and Fringe, as well as scoring the most recent Star Trek film.

Giacchino also worked on Pixar films Up, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille.

LOST has such an eerie tone, Giacchino certainly adds to it. While we’re sitting there thinking, “A polar bear? Wha…?”, creepy strains of music are reaching into our brains and missing with our heads. The discordant opening title (written by Abrams) sets your teeth on edge. Most of the titles are tongue in cheek.

“The Eyeland” displays the kind of buildup that fans will recognize. Tunes like “Life and Death” and “Booneral” are bittersweet, even for those who haven’t seen the show.

Giacchino has conducted live performances of the music at several events. Here’s the rehearsal for one of them:

Abrams plans “7 minutes in Heaven”

J.J. Abrams and “Lost” director Jack Bender are developing a movie based on the teen make-out game.

While plot details are being suppressed, it is known to focus on two teens who go into a closet as part of the titular game and find all their friends dead when they come back out. Which is really not at all surprising for Abrams.

The Abrams- and Bryan Burk-led Bad Robot factory is running strong for Paramount, with numerous projects in development. While the company keeps most of them in stealth mode, some are known, including the recently set up “Boilerplate,” a graphic novel-picture book hybrid by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett about the development of the first robot.

Not all of Bad Robot’s material is genre-oriented. The company next has “Morning Glory,” starring Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams, coming out in November from Paramount. The shingle and studio also are working on a remake of “Little Darlings.” This isn’t the first Abrams/Ford collaboration, either.

For someone who has risen to lord of the geek status, Abrams has written some pretty solid normal films. Remember Regarding Henry? Him. And, what about Forever Young? Well, I can see where he started to let the crazy out of the box with that one. And, he was also the writer on a little movie called Armageddon, but I can understand if you’ve never heard of that one.

Why a Tom Cruise paycut is a big deal

Knight and Day, the recent Cruise/Dias flick, hasn’t really had a great showing.

Cruise, who earned north of $90 million for the first Mission: Impossible in 1996 from gross participation and producing fees, is receiving a substantially reduced upfront payment relative to his previous outings with the M:I films.

Paramount is also taking on a financial partner in the form of Skydance Prods., the company run by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

So, why is it a big deal?

It means the studio has lost a little bit of faith in the star power of Tom Cruise, but that’s not all. It’s hard to find an actor these days with actual star power.

And, by star power, I mean, you’ll go see the movie based solely on who’s in it. This used to be the case for actors like John Wayne, Paul Newman, and Liz Taylor. Now, it seems that “star” power is “director” power. Instead of the next “Ian McKellan” flick, you here people dropping names like Scorsese, Nolan, Favreau.

Not only that, but producers have a buzz of their own. I will see the next J.J. Abrams movie because it is the next J.J. Abrams movie.

It’s an interesting shift, but will it really produce work of higher quality? MI:4 will still be the fourth installment of a series and the question remains: “Hasn’t this been done before?”

Who do you go to see?

Comic-Con schedule announced

The 2010 San Diego Comic-Con has announced its schedule.

Thursday morning, composer Danny Elfman will discuss his 25-year collaboration with Tim Burton. Elfman has a long list of soundtracks under his belt, including Beetlejuice, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If you thought Tim Burton’s movies were eerie, they wouldn’t be nearly as chilling without the music.

Another big event on Thursday is the Entertainment Weekly sponsored discussion with J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon. The two visionaries will discuss how technology, gaming, and the global culture have changed the way we consume stories. Joss Whedon is the mind behind Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer while J.J. Abrams is behind Lost, Cloverfield, and the upcoming Super 8. See the trailer below.