Attractions December

The end is near. The end of the year that is, and the big gun films have already started hitting the screen. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire opened with an incredible $102.3 Million, the fourth best-ever opening weekend. Lets face it; Science Fiction and Fantasy films are the big box office tickets. They may not get a lot of attention come Oscar season, but we the audiences love them all the same. So what is on the December platter?

Aeon Flux- Starring Oscar winner Charlize Theron and my favorite Hacker Jonny Lee Miller. The movie is based on the highly popular MTV (shown on YTV) animated series. Set 400 years in the future, in a world whipped out by disease except for one walled, protected city-state, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. The story centers on Aeon Flux the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion, led by The Handler. When Aeon is sent on a mission to kill a government leader, she uncovers a world of secrets. To discover what those secrets are, you’ll have to see the film December 2.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by director Andrew Adamson of Shrek and Shrek 2 fame. The first movie in a series of seven based-on-the-book adaptations in the vein of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but this time starting with the second book in the series, C.S. Lewis first published in 1950, against the advice of his friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien. The series follows three children who are sent away to the English countryside from the bombings in London during World War II. In the midst of a game of hide-n-go-seek one of the children discovers a wardrobe that is a magical portal to another world. Unfortunately Lewis’ death was a footnote in the media, having occurred on the day of JFK’s assassination.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody. From the man that brought us the ultimate fantasy series of movies, comes the biggest ape, King Kong. Jackson retells the Fay Wray classic in the grand special effects way that only his Weta Digital can.

Naomi Watts steps in to Fay Wray’s part, portraying Ann Darrow, an actress from the world of Depression-era New York’s vaudeville who finds herself out of work. Her luck changes when she meets Carl Denham, played by Jack Black. Denham is an in your face entrepreneur, adventurer and filmmaker struggling to make a name for himself in the emerging entertainment industry of the day. Bold, and charismatic, Denham has a natural sense of showmanship and an appetite for his own greatness, which may ultimately lead to catastrophe.

After that there really isn’t anything big in the Sci-Fi / Fantasy genre this year, but there are some other films worth checking out, like Memoirs of a Geisha, Fun with Dick and Jane starring Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni, Munich and on Christmas day, Casanova.

I just found out that Sony's Screen Gems has released a new image from the upcoming Ultraviolet movie. There hasn’t been much information about this shot in China Sci-Fi / Vampire flick staring Milla Jovovich and Nanaimo’s Cameron Bright. The Kurt Wimmer film set in late in the next century, where a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease, giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence. As they are set apart from "normal" and "healthy" humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war aimed at the destruction of the "diseased" population.In the middle of this is the infected Ultraviolet, played by Jovovich, who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy named Six, played by Bright, who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans. There is currently no release date for Ultraviolet but the released image is promising as very little has been seen since the movie was wrapped over a year ago.

If you like seeing trailers for upcoming movies, Apple’s Quicktime website is one of the best sources. Unfortunately many newer movies are using Quicktime 7, which only works on Windows XP, so it looks like I’ll be upgrading, and losing use of my $350 screenwriting program, as it wont work in XP. The first trailer for the locally shot Dungeon Siege by Uwe Boll is available at fantasticfilmsinternational.com/films/king.html again only in Quicktime 7.

Don McCaskill is an entertainment news junkie, as CHUM’s Clint Nickerson once dubbed him. Don has written for The Victoria Star, Cut To: Magazine, THE Magazine, West Coast Entertainment, Extreme FM, The New VI, and for the past six and a half years Attractions A&E. When Don finds news that wont wait for his monthly column he posts it on victoriawood.blogspot.com

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