Film forum off topic/random chat thread

Agent Coulson

Omniplex is buying up cinemas in the UK as it expands into the UK market

https://deadline.com/2023/12/omniplex-cinema-group-empire-cinema-uk-ireland-1235649823/

pixelburp

Huh. I didn't know OmniPlex was Irish and that's kinda neat of takeovers and buyouts happening in the opposite direction it usually goes in. Hopefully the takeovers keeps the cinemas running at a good standard.

CastorTroy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121452091#Comment_121452091

Similar to how The Descent 2 was based on the American ending of the first?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121450700#Comment_121450700

Started of King's books in release order last year. The plot of The Long Walk. Didn't sound exciting and even if you were to explain it, it sounds boring, but it was one I had no trouble getting through and was easy listening since was an audiobook. But I'd say, at most, it would be a movie on a streaming service.

Electric Nitwit

Three of the six nominations for Best Actor (Drama) at the golden globes are Irish, that's pretty cool 🙂

https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1734205918789992919?t=B0IV0uUVG25Wr0FdA59NEg&s=19

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Surprised to see Keoghan in there again. He was predicted earlier in the year but Saltburn got very mixed reviews so I thought he'd fallen off a bit.

Barbie having 3 songs in the Best Original Song is gas.

JP Liz V1

I'd say it's between Leo and Cillian, hoping Cillian takes it

CastorTroy

Do we have a Christmas films recommendation thread?

I've seen the usual like Elf, Die Hard, Christmas Vacation, It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone 1+2, Scrooged, many versions of A Christmas Carol, Love Actually.

And modern favourites like Klaus and plan a rewatch of Christmas Chronicles.

I know there are a few horror/slashers/action I need to see. I watched It's a Wonderful Knife and Violent Night.

What are some underrated or lesser known films?

Or just what are your favourites?

Maybe I'm missing ones that I keep meaning to watch but never got around to. I only watched Love Actually last year for the first time.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488658#Comment_121488658

Christmas forum has some threads eg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488363#Comment_121488363

Lefty2Guns

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121454901#Comment_121454901

Being a big Stephen King fan and having read majority of his books, The Long Walk is actually a really good story IMO, I had read a few years ago that it was due to be made into a film but haven't seen anything mentioned since.

Enjoy reading Stephen King's books, an absolute master of story telling. I'm actually now collecting his books (2nd hand versions) and regret getting rid of the one's I have read throughout the years. My favorite being The Stand. Hearts in Atlantis is also an excellent read.

CastorTroy

Not saying it's not a good story but that has a lot to do with the telling. I enjoyed it.

I got as far as the first Dark Tower book then decided to just concentrate on reading it and any that were connected like The Talisman. Just finished Dark Tower 3.

Anyway, on topic, I'm also watching adaptations as I go along. So have to try and rewatch It. Rewatched the miniseries but want to do the films as well.

There are others that I'm surprised haven't been adapted.

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488658#Comment_121488658

Cross-posting this from the October/Halloween/Horror Recs thread:

The '74 Black Christmas and original Silent Night, Deadly Night are both good fun as festive slashers.

A Christmas Horror Story is an anthology festive horror - some stories are better than others, but William Shatner as a radio presenter who provides the connective tissue between the stories is very entertaining.

The Advent Calendar is a good, fairly dark horror thriller.

Violent Night is a fun riff on Die Hard.

Rare Exports is a cracking Christmas-set film with a unique take on Santa Claus

El Dia De La Bestia is a Spanish black comedy/horror about a priest who is tasked with preventing the birth of the Antichrist - which is due on Christmas Day...

I don't generally go in for "regular" Christmas films, I find them a bit too twee.

Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers is a tragicomic story about three homeless people in Tokyo finding an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve.

Sad Professor

Word is Jimbo might have gone a bit mad in the mastering booth for the 4k versions of True Lies and The Abyss. Removed all the grain and invited in Peter Jackson's AI guys to tinker with the image...

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121515477#Comment_121515477

Well that sounds utterly terrifying!

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121515477#Comment_121515477

Oh dear...

pixelburp

Well this came outta nowhere: Warner Brothers and Paramount discussing a merger. Jaysus. Nikolodeon is owned by Paramount, as is the Star Trek IP.

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-merger-talks-1235847958/

Agent Coulson

Ethan Hunt joins the DCU.

He is Batman.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121520333#Comment_121520333

Ha. Wonder if Tom Cruise is a fan of David Zaslav; such a cinema purist like Cruise must surely find Zaslav's perspective on "content" nauseating

Agent Coulson

Both compaines have a combined debt of just under $60B.

Paramount $15.6B

WBD $43.5B

That Warner Bros - Discovery merger must been seen as a complete failure at this stage.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121520351#Comment_121520351

the one thing you can guarantee with a merger of 2 financially stressed companies, they will be shedding a lot of staff to pay for it

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121520333#Comment_121520333

I read "Ethan Hunt" but my mind processed "Ethan Hawk", and I was like, "hmmm, that's some bold casting!"

Agent Coulson

There is one I did not expect a big screen remake of 70's Emmanuelle film based on the same novel starring Noemie Merlant & Naomi Watts and directed by Audrey Diwan has finished filming and due to arrive next year at some stage.

CastorTroy

But when do we get the Emmanuelle in Space remake?

Tony EH

I've never understood how 'Emmanuelle' was/is even a thing. I saw the first one, donkey's years ago, and it was absolute trash. I've no doubt subsequent ones were even worse, especially the Laura Gemser movies.

A remake of it is baffling to me too.

johnny_ultimate

Audrey Diwan's Happening is a fine film, and Merlant is a major performer, so I absolutely would not write it off at this stage. I would also imagine given the people involved and the preoccupations in many of their films, it is likely to be a more interesting, female-gaze take on the material.

pixelburp

If you thought Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was objectionable, it's about to get even more interesting. On January 1st, Mickey Mouse will become public domain. You'd have to imagine there are already projects lined up - hopefully some decent ones and not just all exploitative rubbish.

Steamboat Willy to be exact(?), so I believe later depictions of Mickey won't wash. Still, that's a pretty huge milestone reached and it's not like Mickey changed all that much across the years.

Mickey and Minnie will enter the public domain on Jan. 1. From then on, Disney will no longer enjoy an exclusive copyright over the earliest versions of the characters. Underground cartoonists, filmmakers, novelists, songwriters — whoever — will be free to do what they want with them.

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/mickey-mouse-public-domain-disney-copyright-lawsuits-1235844322/

CastorTroy

If that's going to be in the public domain, would that mean Oswald is already public domain?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121534050#Comment_121534050

Seemingly so, only this year. Can't imagine too many people are as stoked about Oswald as Mickey tho'

In January 2023 the copyrights on several of the original Oswald shorts, as well as the character, expired. Those movies and the character are now in the public domain.[10]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit

dublinman1990

I have read online recently that the BBFC have prevented the sale of the 4K Edition of James Cameron's The Abyss in the UK because they wanted the scene of the rats going down the sewer to be cut from the film. James Cameron subsequently refused their reasons to cut it out of the film. This decision means that if you want to buy the 4K Blu-ray of The Abyss in future; you will have to import it from another country instead.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121562557#Comment_121562557

It's being denied a release because of an old 1930's UK law prohibiting the display of cruelty to animals.

The scene in question is where a guy puts another guy's pet rat in some breathable liquid to show that oxygenated fluid works. But the rat is clearly in some distress. You can see the scene on YouTube and it's intact on various DVD and Blu Ray releases.

All a bit of a silly storm in a teacup, really, considering the rat has probably been dead for about 30 years at this stage.

pixelburp

Plus, what that rat went through was only marginally worse than what the humans themselves endured during the shoot for The Abyss. That whole production sounded like a waking nightmare.