Film4 Summer Screen returns for 2010

Film4 Summer Screen returns to the glorious Somerset House for 2010. A highlight of the summer calendar, the series features everything from special previews to cult classics, all showing on a state-of-the-art screen with full surround-sound.

There’s more than just the movies. Arrive early; come and picnic in the magnificent Edmond J. Safra courtyard while DJs play or attend one of the companion events in Behind the Screen.

Fri 30 July
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (18) /Enter the Dragon (18)
The Somerset House courtyard becomes an arena for savage stand-offs, kung fu carnage and martial-arts mayhem.

Sat 31 July
Team America: World Police (15) / Special Preview: A Town Called Panic (PG)
Outrageous humour from the South Park gang, followed by a special preview of a brilliantly bonkers new toy story.

Sun 1 August
Manhattan (12A)
Woody Allen’s rapturous love letter to New York: romance, heartbreak and fireworks in luminous black-and-white.

Mon 2 August
Goldfinger (PG)
The 007 series at its best, as Sean Connery’s Bond mixes it up with memorable characters Oddjob and Pussy Galore.

Tues 3 August
Black Narcissus (U)
Powell & Pressburger‘s beautiful tale of a convent’s descent into madness, deep in the Himalayas.


Wed 4 August
Paths of Glory (PG)
Stanley Kubrick's riveting and emotional wartime drama, powerful enough to bring any audience together in awestruck silence.

Thu 5 August
Cabaret (15)
Liza Minnelli steps into the spotlight for high drama, dazzling set-pieces and the decadence of 1930s Berlin.

Fri 6 August
Mulholland Drive (15)
Mystery, magic, fear and desire swirl together in David Lynch’s intoxicating and troubling adult fairytale.

Sat 7 Aug
Let the Right One In (15) / The Lost Boys (15)
A moody modern masterpiece of Swedish-style bloodsucking, followed by cool Californian creatures of the night.

Sun 8 August
Master and Commander
Russell Crowe stars as Captain Jack Aubrey in this stirring tale of naval warfare and spectacular high-seas adventure.

Film4 Summer Screen returns for 2010

Where:
Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

When:
Tues 29 July - Mon 9 Aug, 2010

More info:
Over at the Somerset House website or book tickets directly at Ticketmaster

UK Premiere of BIRDEMIC plus Special Guests

It's the one you have been waiting for! The one that takes it to the next level and then some! Clearly the guys over at Curzon have read my plot outline for the brilliant future classic"BONES" as they thought that this post may be my thing.

The Curzon Soho MIDNIGHT MOVIES presents

From VIsionary Writer/ Director James Nguyen

Master of the Romantic Thriller™

C O M E S

A new breed in terror...

BIRDEMIC

The Curzon Soho MIDNIGHT MOVIES presents the UK Premiere of BIRDEMIC (plus Special Guests)

Curzon Midnight Movies is proud to host the first UK screening of cult sensation Birdemic: Shock and Terror, the new ‘romantic thriller’ by James Nguyen. The film is a horror/action/special-effects-driven love story about a young couple trapped in a small Californian town under siege by homicidal birds, and also tackles topical issues of global warming, avian flu, organic living, sexual promiscuity and lavatory access.

The Curzon Soho hope to welcome director James Nguyen to introduce the film. With thanks to Severin Films.

Join the Curzon Soho from 10pm for Reel Music DJ set (playing all your favourite film tracks) and cocktails.

“The latest hot ticket in America… a cult hit!” - BBC World News

“The greatest Avian Horror Flick since The Birds” - Time Out New York

“Birdemic’s hynoptic charm remains through Nguyen’s secret weapon: sincerity” - The Village Voice

Sign up to the Curzon Midnight Movies mailing list by emailing ‘listme’ to midnightmovies@curzoncinemas.com, join us on Facebook at MIDNIGHT MOVIES @ CURZON or follow us on twitter.com/midnight_movies.

Director: James Nguyen. Starring: Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore, Tippi Hedren. USA 2008. 90 mins.

UK Premiere of BIRDEMIC plus Special Guests

Where:
Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 5DY

When:
10:00pm for Party, Film at 10:00pm, Fri 28 May, 2010

More info:
Over at the Curzon Soho website

Airplane Jameson Irish Whiskey presents a VIP Screening

The timing of this event couldn't be better! Together with their friends at Curzon Cinema Jameson will be showing an exclusive VIP screening of the classic film Airplane at the Curzon Soho tomorrow evening, Weds 21st April.

Loved by millions, this satirical take on the disaster movies of the 70s was an instant hit, with legendary performances from Leslie Nielson and the ensemble cast. Not only was the film a bench mark for future films of this genre, but many of the classic moments have been re-enacted in countless other spoof films and TV series. Who can forget the Auto-pilot, the grandma speaking jive, or the timeless “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley”?

The screening will also be a fitting tribute to Peter Graves, the airplanes captain in the film, who sadly passed away in March this year and will be greatly missed by the film world.

If you would like to get a pair of exclusive free VIP tickets for this screening, along with a free Jameson Irish Whiskey, then please send the names of yourself and your guest to: editor@jamesoncultfilmclub.com

Jameson Irish Whiskey presents a VIP Screening of Airplane

Where
Curzon Soho
99 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5DY

When
6:30, Weds 21 Apr, 2010

Survival of the Dead Red Band Trailer

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Rec2 trailer. The King of the Zombies is back! George A. Romero's latest bloodfest Survival of the Dead has just been given a Red Band Trailer.

On an island off the coast of North America, local residents simultaneously fight a zombie epidemic while hoping for a cure to return their un-dead relatives back to their human state.

More George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead Info

Survival of the Dead is the 6th film in the "Dead" series that includes; Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead.

As with Romero's previous Zombie films Survival starts after it's predecessor Diary of the Dead left off, but is expected to be vastly different and will not be a direct sequel.



Survival of the Dead Red Band Trailer

When
Survival of the Dead has an expected DVD release date of 15 March, 2010

For more info and clips head over to the official Romero Myspace page

Edgar Wright Presents Death Wish 3

It’ll be ‘all-Wright on the night’ when The Curzon invite director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) to personally introduce one of his favourite cult films: Death Wish 3.

We’ll also be screening a selection of Jameson and Empire’s Done in Sixty Seconds entrants. Turn up from 10.00pm for music and Jameson cocktails in the bar, before seeing truly one of the greatest films ever to hit the bargain bin at Blockbuster.

Charles Bronson is back as Paul Kersey, the architect/vigilante with vengeance in his heart. Visiting an old friend in New York, he is soon embroiled in a gang warfare as he faces feral punks lead by the deadly Manny Fraker. The last Death Wish directed by Michael Winner and featuring a soundtrack by Jimmy Page, this is cinema at it's trashiest… and loudest!

Poster by Sam Gilbey (@samgilbey).

Edgar Wright's screening of DEATH WISH 3

Where
Curzon Soho
99 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 5DY

When
11:30pm, Fri 19 Feb, 2010

Info and tickets here!

LOST Reduced

Namaste. If like me you watch fairly little TV, mainly because content/programming has taken a down hill slide since Murder One ended.

However in late 2007 when LOST came along turning every known and overused formula on its head whilst offering a challenging viewing experience Generation X turned the box on and tuned in.

So last week when an invite to Sky HD's LOST season 6 launch event landed in my inbox I was over the moon. At the same time a myriad of questions and flashbacks flooded my mind; Was Locke dead? Would all of the dead character return? Did it work? Did they go back in time - to the beginning? If so, will any of them remember anything? Did Evil Locke kill the other guy who had been on the island for ever? Were the skeletons in the cave Rose and her earnest but bumbling husband? Would the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Julia quadrangle be resolved? How many questions had I forgotten? And would any of these questions matter because the writers flipped the switch and reversed it again? Would I found answers at the launch party?

To make the launch special the Sky team cleverly commissioned The Reduced Shakespeare Company to condense 5 seasons of Lost into 10 minutes. Yes! You read right 104 hours in 10 minutes. This would serve as a refresher prior to Season 6 kicking off as well as a fun night out. To my shame I had not yet seen the The Reduced Shakespeare Company in action so I was excited about finally experiencing them.

Oceanic Airlines check in, Dharma Initiative Crew

We convened at The Hospital Club, checked into Oceanic Airlines to receive our boarding passes and then treated to canapes and drinks by the Hanzo Foundation in what looked like the Swan Station.

Fortunately I arrived on time so the area was empty and I got a chance to take some pictures. As a LOST style clock counted down the minutes the room filled and so did the familiar buzz of geeky anticipation.

Room filling up, Desmond Hume's home in the Swan Station, 4 1 15 16 23 42,
James Midgley & Jenni Falconer, The LOST Initiative's Iain Lee and Paul Terry
Sun Dried "Wild Boar" with Passion Fruit and Basil Vinegar

After drinks the Dharma Initiative crew ushered into the auditorium to be greeted by a short video clip from Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (executive producers and writers of LOST) and without much ado on to the main performance. Below you can view the intro from Lindelof and Cuse as well as the full LOST Reduced performance. Please note this is a YouTube version, the hi res official version can be viewed over at Sky here.

LOST seasons 1-5 in 10 minutes.

From the hilarious but Oh way too short performance - 2 clues I came up with are:
A confirmed yes! "History can be changed if you have a variable, something unpredictable" so some time travel will be involved with but probably with unexpected results and at least one dead Lostee will be back :


I also thought this was pretty funny. As soon as I could - I screen grabbed The Reduced Shakespeare Company's chart of The Dharma Initiative only to find that they are 2 steps ahead of me. Click on the image and view at the largest size and read the text at the bottom of the chart.

Have questions or would just like to vent? LOST writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof can be found on Twitter here @CarltonCuse & @DamonLindelof

Sky's The LOST Initiative can be found here @Lost_initiative
, The LOST Initiative's Iain Lee (@iainlee), & Geeky Tom (@geekytom) here. If anyone knows if Paul Terry is on Twitter please do let me know.

Sky HD LOST launch
LOST is on on Sky1 & Sky1 HD Fridays at 9pm

More info at Sky HD

SLINGERS

Take a measure of Oceans 11, a dollop of Firefly, a pinch of The A-Team top up with a twizzle of high adventure and you'll get SLINGERS.

Not to be mistaken for the Marvel Comics Super hero team! Slingers actually gets "its name from a group of people thrown together on board an experimental spacecraft that is capable of Slinging itself to any point in space. In theory it’s the only craft capable of getting home. In reality the crew are using it to carry out a series of high tech heists and get even with those who are now exploiting their positions in the post war hierarchy - from the Sleepydog Productions website

Slingers is set in the year 2263 A.D., following mankind’s first interplanetary war. Humanity is now clustered into a finite, but still vast section of the universe known as Enclosed Space. Humanity won the war with an aggressive alien enemy, but at a cost. The way back to Earth is now cut off by an impassable barrier – a side effect of the blast that finally pushed the enemy back.

Slingers is the brainchild of writer Mike Atherton and being produced by London based Sleepydog Productions. A little while back they released the Slingers teaser clip directed by Steve Barron. The clip was made for industry promotion but has subsequently blazed it's way across the Internet.

From what I can make out the clip shows Sean Pertwee (Soldier, Event Horizon, Equilibrium, Dog Soldiers, Mutant Chronicles, Doomsday) as Colonel Hall, who once wronged pursues the crew across the galaxy to retrieve the Slinger ship. Adrian Bower as Dominic ‘DM’ Monroe, a special ops war veteran that is the head of the crew. DM's 2ic is Frank a war buddy played by Tom Mison and he's a little gung ho. Haruka Abe is Marti and possibly the Slingers ship pilot.

Whoa! Scratch that Margo Stilley (9 Songs, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People) is Jeannie the holographic pilot of the ship. Two main 2000AD references I can see in the clip - are the characters Junior the glowing green (Hammerstein'ish) robot and GUN the handheld weapon that has a mind of it's own similar to Gunnar from Rogue Trooper.
Looks like filming is kicking off early this year so a couple of full episodes can be expected soon hopefully.

Fan made poster for Slingers

Mike Atherton writer of Slingers can be found here on Twitter @sizemore and his blog is http://www.sizemore.co.uk !

Toby Moores Producer of Slingers can be found on Twitter here @sleepydog and Sleepy Dog productions can be found here!

On Twitter actors Haruka Abe (http://twitter.com/HarukaAbe) and Tom Mison (http://twitter.com/TomMison).

SCI-FI-LONDON: OKTOBERFEST 2009 Festival

Every October SCI-FI-LONDON hold OKTOBERFEST, a Sci Fi based extravaganza. Arguably the most fun and varied Sci-Fi festival in the world. This year you'll be able to catch special events, screenings and their popular All-nighter events.

This year they have some really cool stuff happening including "a co-production we are doing with the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Yup, the home of GMT and all things astronomical, we have created SCI-FI-UNIVERSE, a planetarium show from an SF perspective. Also, at the Observatory we will have some talks and a writing workshop. And to celebrate the release of the DVD and Blu-ray, we will do an invite only screening of the new STAR TREK. Click here for details of how to register for this screening and how to buy tickets for this unique night at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park. Buy a planetarium ticket and you can attend on of the talks or workshop for free - places are very limited and on a first-come-first served basis, so get there early."

This years line up:
Friday 23rd October, 2009
Events held at the Royal Observatory Greenwich

6.30pm: Sci-Fi-Universe
8.15pm: Star Trek (2009)

Saturday 24th October, 2009
Events held at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus

9:00pm: SCI-FI-STAND-UP
Midnight: Anime All-nighter
11:00pm: Aliens and Predators All-nighter
11:30pm: MST3K All-nighter

Classic Screening: Aliens and Predators All-nighter [ SCI-FI-LONDON OKTOBERFEST]

In space no one can hear you scream

A To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the very first ALIEN movie (and their 10th All-nighter!) SCI-FI-LONDON is giving you the chance to see these iconic movies as they should be seen - on a big screen from 35mm prints.

The event starts around 10.30 with DJ's in the bar and the first movie starts just after 11.00 - the whole. show ends around 10am the next day. There will be some very cool spot prizes and give-aways and a packed goody-bag. Throughout the night we keep you full of Redbull, Ice-Cream and coffee to help you make it 'til morning.

The line up:
ALIEN
ALIENS
ALIEN3
PREDATOR
PREDATOR 2 (Oops! Sorry) AVP: Alien vs. Predator
Tickets here!
Where
Apollo Piccadilly Circus
19 Regent Street
London
SW1Y 4LR

When
10:30pm Sat 24 - 11am Sun 25 Oct, 2009

Hitchcon'09 - Celebrating 30 Years of The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Get yourself a ticket for the biggest party the unfashionable end of the galaxy has ever seen and join best-selling author Eoin Colfer – creator of criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl – and actor Simon Jones, the original Arthur Dent, in a celebration of 30 years of the late, great Douglas Adams’ classic British comedy. This’ll be your first chance to see, hear and buy the sixth instalment, And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer.

With other out-of-this-world entertainment throughout the day – including special free screenings of the Hitchhiker’s series in The Clore Ballroom – this is one event no self-respecting lover of classic British comedy will want to miss.

One of the best dystopian sci-fi movies to come out of the 70s, Rollerball focuses on an ultra-violent sport used to keep an overpopulated planet under control and probes its links to politics, the media and big conglomerates. When a star player refuses to obey the owners of his team, the stage is set for a Gladiator-like confrontation between a rebellious individual and the corporate power that seeks to crush him.

Events include:
Photo Call
Start the day at a photocall of the largest number of Hitchhiker's fans ever.

Session 1: The Douglas Adams Chat Show
A full panel of Hitchhiker’s experts and friends of Douglas Adams discusses the great man and his work.

Booksigning: Mega-signing of the fantastic new edition of the first five Hitchhiker's novels.

Sessions 2 & 3 (And Another Thing... & Hitchhikers Live On Stage!)
The sixth book in the series, special guests and a live gig – Sessions 2 & 3 of our day-long celebration of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Booksigning: Eoin Colfer
Buy the new sixth book in the series a day before everyone else and get it signed by Eoin Colfer.



Where
The Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX

When
Sunday 11 October, 2009

The Saints are coming - Trailer for Troy Duffy's Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is an upcoming sequel to the 1999 cult film The Boondock Saints. The director of the original film, Troy Duffy, returned to film the sequel, which sees the return of Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as American brothers who act as vigilantes.

Apparently Maverick Film Troy Duffy has been keeping a video production diary over here!

The Saints are coming - Trailer for Troy Duffy's Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day is an upcoming sequel to the 1999 cult film The Boondock Saints. The director of the original film, Troy Duffy, returned to film the sequel, which sees the return of Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus as American brothers who act as vigilantes.

Apparently Maverick Film Troy Duffy has been keeping a video production diary over here!

Withnail & I... 20 Years On Screening

To mark the 20th anniversary of one of British cinema's best-loved films, we are delighted to present a special screening followed by an on-stage reunion of the cast. The adventures of two ‘resting' actors are detailed in this gloriously funny tale. The protagonists take solace from unemployment with a country retreat and a cocktail of booze, pills and fags. The screening will be followed by a unique event: Richard E Grant, Paul McGann and writer-director Bruce Robinson will be joined by broadcaster Sue MacGregor. Their discussion will be recorded and broadcast at a later date as part of The Reunion series on Radio 4.

Murray Close Exhibition
Internationally renowned photographer Murray Close is exhibiting at BFI Southbank a selection of black-and-white stills taken during the filming of Withnail and I to coincide with the 20th anniversary celebrations.

Withnail & I... 20 Years On Screening

Where
BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road, London, England SE1 8XT

When
6:30pm, Mon 8 October 8, 2007