Club Jade

Since it’s big movie December and it seems people are only capable of talking about Avatar, let’s take a look at the many trailers which debuted this week! (Yes, I do actually have a movie news post to do. Shush.)

Making the most waves is Iron Man 2. It has snark and lightsaber whips, and I still haven’t seen the first one. (HBO is too busy with Marley and Me to show it.)

Tim Burton does his thing with Alice in Wonderland. Can someone tell him that you don’t need a ton of crazy makeup on Johnny Depp? The man is perfectly capable of acting. I believe he’s rather known for it.

And then there’s Robin Hood, which looks awfully familiar. Can Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe capture the Gladiator magic? We certainly know their cinematographer can! (I don’t know how they managed it, but bonus points for upgrading Marian from Sienna Miller to Cate Blanchett.)

Yeah, yeah, Titans will clash. We know. (Hi Liam! We love the line about the kraken, pity he looks like something out of Spawn.)

Anything you can do to draw attention to your mouth is good. Clueless director Amy Heckerling is making a vampire romantic comedy. I can’t believe they found a way to actually might make me kind want to see a vampire movie. (No, Alicia Silverstone is not involved – Krysten Ritter is – but I am not one to resist a cheap Photoshop gag.) In related news Saturday Night Live’s Twilight spoof has been burning up the internet.

Oh, James Cameron. The New York Times claims that Avatar’s price tag is a cool $500 mil. Well, at least the latest trailer actually bothers to make it look like an action movie.

Mumble mumble fourth. The Los Angeles Times’ Geoff Boucher looks at the difficulty of making upcoming films for several different franchises: Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, X-Men and Pirates of the Caribbean. On that note, io9 quotes the relevant parts of a /Film podcast where X2 screenwriter Michael Dougherty describes what X3 might have been.

Shocking! ‘Archival footage’ from that cheesy alien abduction movie actually fake. People, did we learn nothing from Blair Witch?

Also… The ‘lost’ cantina scene of Star Trek; Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen talk The Hobbit; New poster for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

At least the effects are good. The first trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s live action adaption of Avatar: The Last Airbender is not the most captivating teaser ever, but it only blows in the literal sense. (And, well, there’s still that whole racebending thing…) The trailer unveiling (it’s attached to Transformers) also unleashed the film’s official site and a flurry of set visit pieces: MTV, SciFi Wire, io9, SuperHero Hype and IGN. But the movie isn’t out for a year, so don’t go expecting too much just yet.

Oh, Michael Bay. Everyone hates Transformers 2! (Really!) Including Roger Ebert, in fine form. For some reason, this warms the cockles of my black little heart…

The other Avatar. Footage of James Cameron’s Avatar, the 3-D one, was screened in Europe.

And since we’re on a name-brand director jaunt… First look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.