Guillermo Del Toro to Direct 'Hulk' TV Series on ABC

Guillermo Del Toro, Director of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, is now set to direct an ABC TV series based on Marvel Comics' Hulk.

Del Toro, prasied for his previous creature creations, will oversee the design of the title character. The design will draw from the comic books as well as the Incredible Hulk TV Series that starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Thankfully, instead of just using CGI, the show will also use puppetry and prosthetics.

The series will retell the origin of the Hulk, and feature a Bruce Banner in his mid-twenties.

It isn't expected to hit airwaves until after the July 2012 release of The Avengers, which features the Hulk as a central character.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! Trailer

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! is the new documentary from Mark Hartley, the director of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. Where NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD chronicled the exploitation cinema of Australia, MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED! is an exploration of Filipino exploitations films from the '70s to the 90's. Expect Kung Fu, monsters, midgets, and women in prison! It makes it's U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.

American Grindhouse Trailer

Here's the trailer for American Grindhouse, a documentary exploring that seedy, sleazy, and fucking awesome side of cinema, the exploitation movie. Currently on the festival circuit, coming to DVD soon:

Machete Review

The wait is finally over! Here it is, the moment I've been waiting for! Well, sort of... As far as over-the-top action, blood, and nudity are concerned, Machete delivers for sure. And I can't say it isn't entertaining as hell, because it is. It's just that its not exactly the movie I expected. I was going into this movie thinking it would be Robert Rodriguez's Kill Bill, but what I got was Robert Rodriguez's Black Dynamite. It is as much a parody, if not more so, as it is an homage. I knew there would be some laughs thrown in with the bloody, limb-chopping violence, I didn't anticipate the level of comedy in Machete. I didn't mind it, in the first two acts of the film, but by the third act it began to run a bit thin in my opinion. For example, there is a scene in Machete, where he and Sartana are trying to figure out the password to open some secret files on a computer disk. When they crack the code, the computer screen reads "BINGO". Kinda corny.

Beyond the overly comedic tone, the movie is exactly what I wanted to see. Plenty of gore, splattered brains, and hack-offed limbs.

I think Danny Trejo pulls off his first starring role very well as Machete, and hope Rodriguez comes through with the sequels promised at the end. It's definitely one of the funnest movies I've seen in a long time. *** out of ****

The Walking Dead TV Series Coming To AMC

Finally, a TV show about the zombie apocalypse! Based upon the Image comic book series, The Walking Dead is premiering Halloween night on AMC during it's annual AMC Fearfest. The first season will consist of 6 episodes, which are an hour long.

The series follows police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln),who, after being wounded on-duty, wakes from a coma to discover the dead have risen! Officer Grimes finds a group of others who have survived the zombie plague, and together they fight for survival against flesh-eating zombies.

Robert Kirkman, writer of The Walking Dead comic books, serves as executive producer for the show, with Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) as writer, director, and executive producer.

I can't wait for this show to come out, give me zombies over vampires anyday!

Trailer For Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch

Alright, I've been slacking lately, so this isn't "new' news, but Zack Snyder's (300, Watchmen) next film is titled Sucker Punch, and the trailer has been released online.

The movie stars Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone, Jamie Chung, and Abbie Cornish. According to director Snyder, Sucker Punch is: "Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of Baby Doll (Browning),who is trying to hide from the pain caused by her evil stepfather and a lobotomy. She ends up in mental institution... and while there she starts to imagine an alternate reality. She plans to escape from that imaginary world but to do that she needs to steal five objects before she is captured by an unknown adversary. She has 5 days to escape before being lobotomized. In order to cope with the situation, she enters the hyper-real world of her imagination, and the lines between reality and dream begin to blur. She is joined with friends who are inmates from the institution. Lessons learned in the said fantasy world could help the girls escape their real-world fate."

The trailer gives us a glimpse of what to expect, including dragons, giant mechs, guns, samurai swords, B-52 bombers, and plenty of explosions. Unfortunately, there also seems to be a singing/dancing number...

I think this movie could go either way. It will undoubtedly look cool, but I'm not sure how I feel about the whole fantasy world angle. It's a bit cliche', and Inception's release isn't helping the plot seem anymore original. I am, however, digging the anime, video-game, and comic book influences, and the CGI work and overall look is incredible.

Unlike 300 and Watchmen, which were both adaptions of graphic novels, Sucker Punch is entirely the brain child of director Snyder and co-writer Steve Shibuya.

Check out the trailer:

New Machete Footage/Comic Con Bootleg

Here is some "exclusive" footage of Robert Rodriguez's upcoming film Machete, captured on some fanboy's cellphone this weekend at the San Diego Comic Con. The 7 minute clip has really poor audio, but it gives us the best glimpse, so far, of what this movie will be like. It seems like it is going to be more over-the-top than I imagined.

Check it out: