Cineworld Pass On 3D Price Hike Early - Watchmen Boycott

You may remember that we reported that this year Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks planned to start charging $5 extra for the 'privilege' of seeing 3D movies in your cinema, beginning later in the year with Monsters V's Aliens. Well Cineworld have decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and have already begun to charge up to €5.30 extra into 3D films.

According To Katzenberg, they want to charge extra because it cost them extra to make. Even though, the reason they are spending that money in the first place is to provide an extra attraction that will bring punters into the cinema and make them bucket loads of money. Consider this analogy. If a studio spends $20 million on Tom Cruise's salary are we going to be charged an extra $5 for the privilege of seeing the flick? No! Studio's (perhaps incorrectly in the case of Cruise) assume that the attraction of Cruise will bring audiences in and pay for his salary and make them a bucket load of money to spend on coke and hookers. If a movie spends extra money on an expensive action sequence are we going to be charged extra for the privilege of seeing it? Of course not. 15 year old boys will go see the movie for the very reason that it includes said badass action sequence. The same should hold true for 3D.

Cineworld may argue that we are paying for the technology in cinemas. Funny I don't remember ticket prices being raised by over 50% when sound, colour, technicolour, widescreen, panorama, digital projection or any other development was brought upon us.If it had, we'd now be paying 50 quid for a ticket. These things were done to attract audiences and they did. This is the thin end of the wedge folks. You could maybe justify a euro/dollar extra for the price of the glasses...maybe but as a Welshman more articulate than myself once said, if you tolerate this, your children will be next.

We say this pointedly and loudly. We will not go to a single 3D movie where the price is increased. The boycott starts here. Spread the word and speak up if you've anything to say on the matter.

Brendan & The Secret Of Kells - French Trailer

At last, an Irish animation studio that has a strong sense of style and quality. Some of us may be a bit biased, but ‘The Secret of Kells’, directed by Tomm Moore and produced by Cartoon Saloon, is looking like the best animated film to come out of this country to date. There are certain influences that can be clearly seen from the trailer, Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) and Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) to name two, which are not the worst guys in the world to have as your benchmark. Unfortunately only the French Trailer has been released so you can’t enjoy the smoky voice of Mike Lally and strong tones of Brendan Gleeson. But that just gives you something to look forward to this March.

Walsh's 'Chatroom' To Be Filmed By Hideo Nakata

Hideo Nakata, the director of 'Ringu', 'The Ring Two' and 'Dark Water', is being lined up to bring Irish writer Enda Walsh's play 'Chatroom' to the big screen. The film will mark Nakata's first original directing effort in the English language.

Walsh is one to watch. His plays are consistently ambitious from his debut Disco Pigs, which he adapted into a film directed by Kirsten Sheridan to more recent efforts like the brilliant Walworth Farce. To add extra fire to his hot streak, he recently co-wrote the screenplay for the Cannes Camera d’Or winning 'Hunger' (see what we think of that in our reviews section). Walsh himself has adapted the script for the psychological thriller about teenagers who urge each other to engage in destructive behaviour. This sounds like every teenager we know but I'm sure Walsh has found something interesting to do.

Hunger Review

Check out our review of award-hoovering debut of director Steve McQueen. The review of Hunger is up in our reviews section here

'Eden' Gets American Release

Good news for Irish Film. Eden has secured a release in the U.S.A. Eugene O'Brien has adapated his own hit stage play and Declan Recks directs. We caught this in the Dublin International Film Festival and were seriously impressed. It's particularly notable that it has managed to travel, given how there is almost no hook and no unique selling point. It's simply about a couple having relationship difficulties in Ireland. That's it.

As with any story, though, it's all in the telling. Check it out ASAP.

'I Sell The Dead' Isn't Getting The Hard Sell

For some reason this movie is slipping under the radar in Ireland (and pretty much everywhere else). OTo be fair, it hasn't been released yet but scarcely a word has been said about it, while any other minor Irish achievement gets guaranteed column inches and air time. It's called I Sell the Dead, it's a stylish horror comedy and it stars a hobbit and Hellboy! Okay it stars Ron Perlman and Dominic Monaghan but close enough. The main point to note is that it was written and directed by Irishman, Glen McQuaid.

McQuaid is a digital FX and compositing specialist who made a number of notable shorts before landing funding for this, his feature debut. Now we know there are Irish people like John Moore who have broken Hollywood via the world of commercials and are making a successful living as directors (or in some cases writers for hire) and there are some who enjoy success with Irish made films that allow them to take on Hollywood projects (Sheridan, Jordan et al) but McQuaid seems to be one of the first Irishmen to go straight to Hollywood with his own project and direct it himself.

It looks inventive and original, which is a nice way of saying it will be either bold and brilliant or awful and embarrassing. Let's hope it gets proper backing and a serious release in America either way.

One acknowledgement: We say Hollywood, but we realise this is more of an independent picture and was apparently primarily made out of New York but we mean Hollywood in the general sense of that abstract world where the magic happens, cocaine flows like water and dead hookers are never a problem, as opposed to the world of Irish film where even a hot lunch for the crew is a problem.

Leap Year To Be One Giant Leap (backwards) for Ireland

Good news for the Irish film industry. Bad news for haters of twee Oirish clichés. Amy Adams is to star in Leap Year, a full scale Hollywood production that will be set and shot in Ireland. Given the title it should come as no surprise that she'll play a woman who plans to travel to Dublin to propose to her boyfriend on that date, because according to the film it’s an Irish tradition. That's news to us and nearly every other Irish person but let's not pick at the details. Anyway, her plans are ruined by weather (presumably the most accurate part of the film's depiction of Ireland) and she’s forced to undergo a cross-country trek, accompanied by a surly Irish innkeeper, in order to make the proposal in time.

A fuckin innkeeper?! Is it set in the 1800's? Expect Guinness and Leprechauns and vomit washing down the aisles of Irish cinemas. Maybe we're being overly cynical but
but the film has been written by Harry Elfont and Deb Kaplan, the screenwriting duo behind Made Of Honor , a film that managed the remarkable feat of being more annoying than it's title (okay we didn't see it but the trailer was grating enough). We'll say one good thing about this movie. Amy Adams is in it and she's a great actress and a seriously likable screen presence. Maybe she'll distract us from the crimes against Irishness.