MGM is changing the villains in its 'Red Dawn' remake from Chinese to North Korean
LA Times has some big news on Red Dawn. It looks like we're not getting invaded by China after all. They are spending around 1 million dollars to digitally change China to North Korea.
"We were initially very reluctant to make any changes," said Tripp Vinson, one of the movie's producers. "But after careful consideration we constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous 'Red Dawn' that we believe improves the movie."
Looks like China won this battle. Well, if anything Hollywood had to make a hard decision. "...potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies..."
So, hoppfully this will help Red Dawn see the big screen.
"If MGM is unable to find a distributor for the movie, it could end up going direct-to-DVD or could even be shelved, never to be seen by the public."
Check out the rest of the story here and we'll try to get some updated info as soon as we can.
Note:
Looks like we'll have to change some things on our site... give me a few days.
The first poster we gave away just got more valuable. We have one more to give away in the future so that will be a hot item now.
Homefront Multiplayer Trailer
While we wait for news on Red Dawn we have Homefront, penned by John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn), coming out a week from Tuesday. Here is the multiplayer trailer.
Don't forget to preorder your copy of Homefront
Obligatory Charlie Sheen post
Lea Thompson Recalls Working With Charlie Sheen On ‘Red Dawn’: ‘He Was Wacky Even Then!’
Sony finalizing distribution with MGM
From the LA Times:
Newly relaunched Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is finalizing a deal for Sony Pictures to handle worldwide distribution of its movies and DVDs and for the two studios to co-finance upcoming films, according to people familiar with the situation...
...Sony would also release all future films made by MGM and the studio's already completed movies "Red Dawn" and "Cabin in the Woods," as well as handle sales of its 4,000-title library on DVD and digital platforms.
While it looks like nothing is final yet, Spokespeople for MGM and Sony declined to comment, this is very good news for those of us waiting for a release date for Red Dawn. Hopefully we'll get some offical news in the coming days.
(Update)
Some readers have pointed out this line in the artice: "MGM will probably not have any movies ready for release until late 2012." It seems they are refuring to co-funded movies that Sony and MGM will produce together. The paragraph is talking about movies in production. Red Dawn is 100% complete and just needs marketing and a release. There would be no reason for them to sit on it and Cabin in the Woods for as long as it will take to film and release the next Bond movie.
Read the rest of the story here.
[LA Times]
Wolverine in Super Bowl ad
Well, we didn't get a Red Dawn trailer tonight. No big surprise there, but we at least got a Wolverine during the Super Bowl. Edwin Hodge (Danny) stars in the Bud Light Hack Job commercial.
MGM names head of film production
MGM keeps things moving now that they are back on track. They have named Spyglass president Jonathan Glickman as president of its motion picture group. The key part of this story for us is this:
It's believed that MGM is also considering a late-summer release for its remake of "Red Dawn," which has been in the can for more than a year due to studio's profound financial problems, starring up-and-comer Chris Hemsworth. Key for the Lion is how to best time the release; should Paramount's "Thor" become a blockbuster breakthrough for Hemsworth in May, MGM could reap a significant benefit by opening "Red Dawn" a few months later.
Lets keep our fingers crossed and go see Thor when it comes out. If it's a hit, MGM would have no choice than to ride on it's coat tails. Read the rest here.
[variety]
5 Best Cold War Films
Screen Junkies has put together a list of the 5 best cold war films. Of course the original Red Dawn is one of those.
“Red Dawn” A 1984 cult classic, “Red Dawn” features an all-star cast of Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Charlie Sheen. The premise of the film is the dawn of World War III, which was ultimately caused by the Cold War. This what-if tale explores what might happen if the Russians really did invade America, specifically Colorado.
Head over here to check out the rest of the list.
New Non-Official Cast Photo!
Update: I just got word that this was a leaked early makeup test photo. No offical marketing material or photos have been released as of yet. We can expect to see a better cast photo in the future for sure.
Red Dawn 2011:
Red Dawn 1984:
Thanks to Daily Blam we now have a Red Dawn cast photo. I will post a side by side of the original cast photo later today for comparison. Here is the original cast photo for comparison. I'm also trying to track down a higher res version of this photo.
