Yesterday, Zombietron shared that Lionsgate has announced a release date for the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ book The Hunger Games.

Mark your calendars for March 23, 2012.

The Hunger Games is the first book in a trilogy, and the saga seems to be incredibly popular, though it has not yet produced fanatics the way the Twilight books have.  Book 1 follows the adventures of a teenage girl named Katniss Everdeen as she competes in an annual event called, not surprisingly, Hunger Games.  The games are held to keep the 12 Districts under control, and teenagers are chosen by lottery to battle each other to the death.  One male and one female from each district are chosen, which means that there is a chance that neighbors will be forced to kill each other, since only one person can win the games.  23 people must therefore die.

I’ve read all three books in the series, and I heartily recommend them to anyone.  Though marketed towards young adults, the books are filled with enough tension to satisfy any reader.  I literally could not put the books down until I reached the end, and several of my co-workers have also thoroughly enjoyed the series.

And, unlike the young adult Twilight saga, The Hunger Games should appeal to both guys and gals.  While there is some romance, the primary storyline focuses on Katniss’ survival and the politics behind the Hunger Games.  And, unlike Bella Swan, Katniss proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that she is intelligent, resourceful, and likeable.  Though tough and focused, she obviously adores her mother and sister, and she does what she can to protect her friends.  She is a heroine to be admired.

The film, if properly translated from the book, should include plenty of action sequences, some violence, drama, and a romantic subplot.  The role of Katniss Everdeen has not yet been cast, but it’s likely to be coveted by every young starlet in Hollywood.  If an unknown fills the role, it could catapult her into instant fame.

This could be one of the most highly anticipated films of 2012.  I can’t wait to see it.

Who do you think should play the role of Katniss Everdeen?

It pains me to do this, it really does, but there’s a wishful thinking side of me that hopes this is true . . .

Over at ComicBookMovie.com, a reader sent them a “scoop” that could possibly elude to the rights of the Daredevil character reverting back to Marvel studios:

I was looking for something on Wikipedia and I wanted to check something on Daredevil and this is what caught my eye…

“In February 2010, reboot news was further reported by Deadline Hollywood who announced 20th Century Fox and New Regency are looking to develop the reboot with News Corp. Vice President Peter Chernin producing and David Scarpa writing the script. Intentions are said to move forward so that the film rights to the character would not revert back to Marvel. 20th Century Fox has lost intrest in the film and the rights have reverted back to Marvel Studios.”

Fox has done next to nothing with the property and it has been eight years since the film was released. Usually written into these contracts is that the studios must utilized these properties to keep the rights (i.e. make a film every [blank] years), and it has been quite a while since we have even heard any rumors about a new DD film. Keep in mind though, this is something that was stumbled upon in Wikipedia, and when I checked it out for myself it said exactly as it does above, but there is no citation as to where this information may have come from.

I would love for the DD rights to revert back to Marvel. This would be the best chance of this character getting into some very capable hands and getting a potentially awesome movie franchise off the ground. Not to mention, theoretically if the rights to Daredevil are back at Marvel, he could exist in the same movie-world as Iron Man, Thor, Cap, etc. now! Even just the thought of a Daredevil cameo in an Avengers movie or tie-in character film gets me excited.

That all being said, and being that this “story’s” source is Wikipedia, we did a little digging (and math!) with the help of our favorite movie critic, Jeff Vice (Jerk-bot). Jeff is pretty certain that the deal FOX signed for Daredevil was a 7 year deal, meaning, if the movie was released in 2003 the rights would have indeed reverted back to Marvel by now . . . BUT! (there’s always a ‘but’) The Elektra movie, which was released in ’05 and included a Matt Murdock cameo, is tied in with the Daredevil rights – meaning that the contract is up at the end of 2012.

So, it begs the question. To get a Daredevil film out before the end of next year, FOX would need to start moving pretty quickly on one, and there hasn’t been much said about this franchise in the last few years, so are they going to allow the contract to lapse? In the meantime, the way we figure it here at BSR!, it appears the rights do still belong to FOX, but may be expiring next year, and that’s when the rights would revert back to Marvel.

Barring any unreleased news that FOX has relenquished the rights ahead of schedule, it appears the rights remain at 20th Century Fox for the time being.

On September 14, 2008 Scholastic Books released “Hunger Games”. Since its release there are 3.3 million copies in print in the United States, and it has been licensed in 41 countries. Lions Gate films announced today that it will be releasing the film adaptation on March 23, 2012. HeatVision Blog reported the following:

By going out in theaters in late March, Lionsgate is looking to prosper from spring break and the Easter holiday (Easter Sunday falls on April 8 in 2012). So far, Hunger Games has the March 23-25 weekend to itself.
While teenagers make up the core demo of the Hunger Games franchise—divided fairly evenly among females and males—Collins’ books resonate with adults as well.
Set in post-apocalyptic America, Hunger Games introduces 16-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen, who must participate in a fight-to-the-death annual event called the Hunger Games. The battles are televised, and pit youths from each of the Capitol’s 12 Districts against each other.
Nina Jacobson is producing Hunger Games via her Color Force banner.
Lionsgate nabbed worldwide rights to the much-anticipated film project last year.
Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) is set to begin shooting the film in late spring or summer, although no cast has been announced, including the coveted role of Kantiss.
Hunger Games will open one week after Sony debuts 21 Jump Street (March 16, 2012), and one week before the bow of Warner Bros.’ Clash of the Titans 2.

Judging by the volume at which the book sold, the speed the Mrs. blasted through the trilogy, and by the release date scheduling, I think the film will do exceptionally well. I’m kinda feeling that we may have another book trilogy gone movie trilogy coming soon.

Scarlet Robotica has a detailed analysis posted here. and as always post your thoughts below and keep checking back for more news.

The folks responsible for 99% of the on-set Spider-Man photos you’ve been seeing, onlocationvacations.com, have posted a new set of Spider-Man photos featuring some stunt work of Spidey swingin’ around!

Nothing really groundbreaking, but kind of fun to see none-the-less! You can check out a few of the photos below, and then head on over to onlocationvactions.com to see the rest!

For those of us Oscar watchers here are the list of nominees thus far!!

Natalie Portman, Colin Firth and Christian Bale were among the contenders when the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced today in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Best actor nominees include James Franco (”127 Hours”) , Jeff Bridges (”True Grit”), Colin Firth (”The King’s Speech”), Jesse Eisenberg (”The Social Network”), and Javier Bardem (”Biutiful”).

Best actress nominees include Annette Bening (”The Kids Are All Right”), Michelle Williams (”Blue Valentine”), Nicole Kidman (”Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (”Winter’s Bone”), and Portman (”Black Swan”).

Best supporting actress nominees include Amy Adams (”The Fighter”), Helena Bonham Carter (”The King’s Speech”), Melissa Leo (”The Fighter”), Hailee Steinfeld (”True Grit”) and Jacki Weaver (”Animal Kingdom).

Christian Bale (”The Fighter”), John Hawkes (”Winter’s Bone”), Mark Ruffalo (”The Kids Are All Right”), Geoffrey Rush (”The King’s Speech”) and Jeremy Renner (”The Town”) are all in line for best supporting actor.

The movies up for best picture are “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “Inception,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “The King’s Speech,” “127 Hours,” “The Social Network,” “Toy Story 3,” “True Grit,” and “Winter’s Bone.”

Anyone else wondering where Mila Kunis is for best supporting actress in Black Swan?

The best picture awards seems to be a tight race this year. Personally speaking I think True Grit, Toy Story 3, Black Swan, and Inception are the top of my list. I wouldn’t even be able to decide from there. Would it be the only animated film to make me cry? The first sci-fi/dream related movie to make me wonder how 1 scene was even shot? A western remake for a guy who absolutely loves westerns? Or a movie that made me feel a little bit crazy all the way through. These are great nominations, and I’m sure after the Academy awards February 27th, we’ll have plenty of coverage on the outcomes!

Jeff Vice (known as Jerk-Bot around these parts) from The Big Movie Mouth-Off had a chance to see Kevin Smith’s new picture up at Sundance. I was bracing for this interview, because Jeff was pretty outspoken about his anger on the last BMMO Podcast about the cancellation of press screenings for this film.

This is the full review, excerpted from a larger blogpost that Mr. Vice provided to X96’s Sundance Blog. He’s blogging the whole festival from there and I suggest you read him. We’ll be back on the Mouth-Off podcast and the show this week for the full Sundance recap.

Jimmy Martin, the other half of the Big Movie Mouth-Off, also reviewed the film for his home publication, SLUG Magazine. You can read his review here.

You can listen to the Sundance preview show here.

But without further ado: Jerk-Bot reviews

The most pleasant surprise of the festival has to be Kevin Smith’s already controversial “Red State,” which got protested Sunday night by a “street team” representing the wackjob Westboro Baptist Church group. Jimmy and I got up bright and early to check out a Monday morning public screening at the Park City Library.

You may recall that I was prepared to hate the film. Especially after Smith’s anti-media antics, including refusing to do press interviews and not allowing for a press and industry screening of his latest movie. Surprise, surprise, though … this is unlike anything the “Clerks.” and “Dogma” writer/director has done to date. None of his goofy cast of characters shows up. The dialogue doesn’t even sound like it came from his pen.

And as for the story and performances are concerned, this is easily Smith’s most accomplished movie. It helps that he has a first-rate cast (including Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak and Stephen Root), plus subject matter that he clearly cares about.

Once you experience “Red State,” you’ll understand why the Westboro group wanted to protest. It’s gutsy, blood-and-guts stuff … a successful melding of sex comedy elements (think “American Pie”), so-called “torture-porn” films like “Hostel” and satirical thrillers. If you thought “Dogma” was sacrilegious, you haven’t seen anything yet. Organized religion, governmental and law-enforcement agencies, the American education system, the middle class. Smith spoofs them all.

And sure, it’s occasionally heavy-handed. But you can’t shake it off easily. Especially not after seeing Parks’ on-fire performance as an Eternal Damnation threatening “holy man.”

Still, I was prepared to put Smith on the spot during a post-screening Q-and-A. I wanted to ask why he refused to promote and press screening such an obvious passion project. But he answered before I could even ask. Turns out he’s self-releasing the movie, under his own new production company (named for his wildly popular “Smodcast”).

He’s planning to “tour” the film in certain cities, beginning in March at Radio City Music Hall. These “tour stops” will also feature lectures and programming, much like his “One Night With Kevin Smith” events. And then, he’s mulling over an actual theatrical release in the fall. By which time he may have already recovered the reported $4 million production budget.

Love him or hate him, Smith is truly an original. And this is a really ballsy move on his part. I still hope he’ll do more press, since the film deserves a lot of discussion. It’s outrageous stuff, and something that needs to be seen and talked about by as many people as possible.

So this is me saying I’m sorry … at least to a certain degree … for my earlier, inflammatory comments, which included a cheap dig at the portly Smith. All is forgiven on my part. Even for his previous film, the awful “buddy cop” comedy “Cop Out.”

You can watch my (Swank’s) interview of Smith from Comic-Con here.

We’d also like to take this moment to publicly offer Smith help or advice about the self distribution angle. Clang! Boom! Steam! and I have released two films ourselves (Killer at Large and This Divided State, look them up on Netflix) and with the help of Jeff Vice we’re currently booking Sons Of Perdition, which is a great documentary about polygamist kids. We’re familiar with the world of self distribution and would like to help make Red State successful.

Regardless on how you feel about the Matrix films, they introduced the world to some pretty gnarly stuff in regards to action sequences. Personally, I liked the first film quite a bit; I even enjoyed the second film as well. It wasn’t until the third film that it all fell apart for me, and I was rather disappointed. The ideas seemed to be pretty forced and it was as if though the Wachowski’s really hadn’t really developed out their story all the way and it all just kind of collapsed around them as the desperately tried to recover by shoving in every religious aligory they could think of. Despite the disintigration of the story (in my eyes), I still thought it was a fun movie to sit through – and it looks like we may get two more . . .

According to AICN Scooper “El Nino”, Keanu Reeves was the key note speaker at the London School of Performing Arts a few days ago and mentioned that there may be two more Matrix films in the works – in 3D (sigh)!

[Keanu] Says he met the Wachowski’s (no emphasis on the word brothers), for lunch over Christmas and stated that they had completed work on a two picture script treatment that would see him return to the world of the matrix as Neo. Says the brothers have met with Jim Cameron to discuss the pro’s and con’s of 3D and are looking to deliver something which has never been seen again. keanu stated that he still has an obligation to the fans to deliver a movie worthy of the title “The Matrix” and he swears this time that the treatment will truly revolutionise the action genre like the first movie. Wachowski’s are working on a movie called “Cloud Atlas” at the moment, once that concludes they will talk again.

God knows I loathe 3D and, frankly, can’t wait for the fad to pass (. . . again), but the one film that I saw that I was actually impressed with the 3D in, and thought it was well-utilized, was Avatar. So if they are talking to James Cameron about 3D, at least they are talking to the right guy. As far as making two more Matrix movies my thoughts are, “Go ahead.” I know things were “wrapped up” after the third film, but it was quite obvious there was a door – or at the very least, a window – open to continue the story, and I’m hardly surprised the Wachowski’s may go back to that well once more. I don’t know a lot of people that were pleased with the third film, or how it ended, so my guess is fans of the first film or two probably wouldn’t mind seeing if the Wachowski’s can better expand on this story and universe – a “second try” if you will. If nothing else, if the plot is horrible, I’m willing to bet we will at least be treated to some pretty cool action sequences, and if they are taking notes from James Cameron I might even be willing to see these in 3D.

I can hear Swank-mo-tron already groaning from across the valley, but what do YOU all think of the possibility of two more Matrix films?

The LA Times’ Hero Complex is reporting as breaking exclusive news that they are surprised to confirm that Captain American: The First Avenger will be released as just “The First Avenger” when it comes out in a few foreign territories this summer. Namely Russia, South Korea, and the Ukraine.

We’ve been speculating about this for months, as has Jeff Vice from The Big Movie Mouth-Off, and it’s nice to get a confirmation finally.

Really, it seems to be common sense. The last decade has been rough for America in the eyes of the rest of the world and we’re not exactly the good guys we used to be. It makes good business sense to not rub it in the noses of foreign audiences.

From the LA TImes piece:

In private, Marvel insiders said that early on in the project’s planning there was talk that the title might need to be changed in numerous international markets but that there was a ”pleasant surprise” — the brand recognition of the comic-book superhero was so strong that it overrode those considerations in many places. That was not the case in Russia, South Korea and the Ukraine.

This is really not surprising at all. Marvel is very savvy about their brands. If nothing else, it’s proof positive we know what we’re talking about.

We’ve all seen the official release photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, but it wasn’t exactly a “full shot”. Well, MTV got their hands on a photo from the set of a stunt Spidey doing his thing!

Now, keep in mind this is most likely a costume specifically for stunts, but it gives us a great view of what the new Spider-Man costume will look like!

In particular, this Spider-Man costume has red eyes for some reason, if I were a betting man, I’d guess the eyes on the “main” costume will still be white – and the sneaker-style boots could also be an aspect of this stunt suit (also, note the “web shooters”!). But just like anything like this, we will have to wait and see!

Personally, I know it’s a pretty wild departure from the classis suit we saw in Raimi’s films, but I am kind of digging this new take. To me, it seems to mix classic Spider-Man and ultimate Spider-Man with a twist of something new.

Update: Mr. Derek Hunter just brought up an excellent observation in the comments that I am, frankly, embarrassed that I missed! There are definitely touches of the 2099 Spider-Man costume integrated as well it looks like! Could just be the way it was designed, could be totally intentional . . .

Another great observation by commenter “MattDoc” on the color of Spidey’s eyes:

It almost looks like the red in the eyes is coming from some red lighting in front of him. Notice the red hues on the blue section of his upper right arm? The entire head looks like there is some extra red light on it, especially when you look closely at the shadows.

Share your thoughts on this new Spider-Man costume in the comments below!

I got this email today from a reader:

So, I found a random website with what looks to be a movie poster, and I’m wondering if you guys know what the hell this is?

http://www.stormageddonmovie.com

I know of your fondness for the obscure, and it looks like there’s hockey, pizza, and.. well, a crowd of arms involved.

Any ideas?  Stormaggedon.  Sounds like something Klaus Kinski would star in.

– Doc Derz

I did a little google style detective work and can’t find anything on a movie anywhere… all I can find is links and articles about that “Storm of the century” that only hit a small part of the country, but the media went apeshit over… So… WHAT IS THIS!?

Is it a poster for a legitimate film being made? Is it just some fan art that a guy, who’s really good at mimicking Saul Bass, went through the trouble of buyiing a domain and posting a poster for something that doesn’t exist? I need to know!

The thing that gets me is the domain: stormageddonmovie.com… specifically the movie part… okay… time for some more detective work.

Okay- so- I see a guy holding a hockey stick and what looks to be a pizza box… he’s staring down an army of what I’d like to assume is zombies… I mean, the name Stormageddon denotes… well… a storm… mixed with some sort of Armageddon-like event, and in light of the recent “media frenzy” over a blizzard that didn’t actually happen, I could see someone trying to cash in on current events, and I can also see someone trying to cash in on the recent zombie craze AND I can see someone trying to mix the two together- I mean… this poster doesn’t really point in any other direction… at least to me.

Let’s not mention the “tagline”…  biting? come on! it’s got to be zombies! Maybe its all about zombies attacking in Canada! The whole hockey stick/frost bites twice/crazy arm thing is a bit too  prominent for it not to be something Canadian AND zombie related! COME ON!

Maybe I am just hopeful that someone out there is working on a “Zombie Snow Storm Movie” called Stormageddon.

What do you guys think? Do any of our readers have any information on this project?