Robert Rodriguez, the multi-talented writer, director, composer, cameraman, editor and tea boy, is heading into the future with his new film, Nerverackers.A futuristic sci-fi thriller that Rodriguez will write and direct for his old chums at Dimension, Nerverackers will take place in the year 2085, when society has become a blissful utopia. That is, until something, or someone, embarks on a crime wave, prompting the authorities to assemble a special unit, led by a guy named Joe Tezca, to fight back.Rodriguez has always been something of an enigma to Empire. There’s no doubting his prodigious talent, and several of his films, including From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids and Sin City, are enormous fun. But, sadly, he’s never seemed to aspire to anything beyond that, and indeed had seemed to dwell in self-indulgence recently with the likes of Planet Terror – so let’s hope that Nerverackers will finally

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I've seen a lot of film critics take swipes at Leonard Maltin for the mini-capsule reviews that are found in his annual reference book. But that's pretty stupid, considering that Mr. Maltin has a team of editors who write those, plus the book is not about deep and insightful film criticism. It's a reference guide for people who want quick info, and it's a damn good one, too. Beyond that, it'd be pretty hard to quantify the excellent work Maltin has done as a film analyst over the years.
So I say all that so that you don't think I'm being rude here: Maltin's quote regaring Coraline is "The Best Movie I've Ever Seen in 3-D!," which is the sort of blurb that publicists would kill for. But under a little more scrutiny ... what is Maltin actually saying? That this film is better than Amityville 3, Comin' at Ya!, Friday the
Scott Weinberg

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It's not the sort of movie that would ever get released in 3,000 theaters, so Repo: The Genetic Opera spread the word another way. Director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III, and IV) took the movie around the country on a whirlwind tour, hitting different cities every night and appealing to the midnight movie crowd.
The film is an unusual mix of a musical, a horror flick, and a post-apocalyptic dystopia movie, and its cast is just as peculiar: Classically trained singer and actor Paul Sorvino, Bill Moseley from the Rob Zombie movies, Paris Hilton, musical theatre legend Sarah Brightman, and one-time Spy Kid Alexa Vega.
The Big Picture recently caught up with Alexa to talk about Repo, which is now available on DVD.

Big Picture: I thought the plan to release Repo the way they did was really unique. It made it more of an event, and I know in certain cities,
Colin Boyd

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Desire Under the Elms at the Goodman Theater just opened last night, Monday January 26th, 2009, but the New York Times is reporting plans for a Broadway mounting are already being worked out. The Times' Arts Beat column has revealed that producer Jeffrey Richards announced today, Tuesday January 27th that he was hoping to transfer a major new production to New York - a revival of the Eugene O'Neill classic "Desire Under the Elms" - despite the current grip of fearful economics of the Rialto. The show has been extended at the Goodman and will now play through March 1. Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls and renowned actor Brian Dennehy bring their artistic partnership to new heights with Eugene O'Neill's haunting drama, Desire Under the Elms-marking their fifth collaboration on O'Neill's work over two decades. Falls' cast includes stage and screen stars Carla Gugino (Entourage, Spy Kids, Sin City) Pablo Schreiber (Vicky Cristina Barcelona,

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A couple of weeks ago when the trailer for Disney's Old Dogs [1] hit the web, I noted that Robin Williams really isn't funny anymore. While I've actually kind of liked him in some of the dramatic roles he's taken on as of late (Insomnia, One Hour Photo, The Final Cut), his recent comedies still leave much to be desired. Perhaps World's Greatest Dad can change all that? Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, I remember a lot of people saying that it was both dark and hilarious when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Robin Williams plays a high school poetry teacher who dreams of becoming a writer. When faced with a family tragedy, he secretly turns the situation to his benefit. I do worry that this is may be a movie that goes for shock value, playing off the novelty of having actors like Robin Williams and Daryl Sabara
Sean

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Robert Rodriguez has another kids movie coming to theaters pretty soon. It was quite a surprise when the guy who made From Dusk Till Dawn created Spy Kids, but for a couple movies, that turned out to be a pretty good change of pace for him. Now with Sin City and Grindhouse under his belt, Rodriguez has gone back to the toy box for Shorts.

Like Spy Kids, this has a rather broad comedic sensibility and might make a pretty good family flick. The story involves a put-upon grade school student who stumbles upon a gizmo called a Black Box, which acts essentially as the genie granting wishes. Anything you want, the Black Box can muster.
But it can be used for good and evil. Well, PG evil, anyway. Here's the second trailer for Shorts, which premiered on Nickelodeon.
Colin Boyd

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A second trailer for Robert Rodriguez' new PG family adventure Shorts is out and about in web world, complete with a (pretty intense) introduction from the Rodriguez family.Rodriguez said he wanted to make a movie for his kids before embarking on Sin City 2 (apparently Planet Terror didn't do the trick) and Shorts certainly seems to have the kind of Spy Kids-style technicolored imagination to keep youngsters happy. The movie sees Black Falls resident 11 year-old Toe Thompson empowered when a mysterious 'rainbow rock' falls from the sky and makes all his wishes come true.Along with the trailer, Warner Bros. has also released a new Shorts poster which has enough going on to excite even the most world-weary tween, including giant hornets, flying saucers, some little green men, a pterodactyl, a giant robot that seems to have wandered off the set of Transformers 2, and a kid called Toe.

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Warner Brothers has debuted the second trailer for Shorts, the new kids movie from Robert Rodriguez. The first trailer debuted back in April. This second one follows that one up with a lot more finished CGI and visual effects shots. The concept is simple - a group of kids get their hands on a wishing rock in the town of Black Falls, but when it falls into the wrong hands (read: adults), all heck breaks loose. It looks very fun, but maybe only fun if you're a kid, so I don't know if I'll like it. I'm not necessarily a fan of Rodriguez's kids films (like Spy Kids), but I'll probably see this in theaters anyway. Watch the new trailer on Nick right now! Watch the second trailer for Robert Rodriguez's Shorts: A young boy's (Jimmy Bennett) discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban
Alex Billington

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If Robert Rodriguez wasn’t a busy enough man, he goes and adds yet another project onto his to-do list. He has his first ever fully fledged sci-fi movie coming out next year called Nerverackers, his full-length version of the Machete fake trailer from Grindhouse currently in development, he’s heavily involved with the Predator sequel/reboot (retitled Predators) which has a tentative release for next year, and of course there’s the long awaited sequel to Sin City (which Rodriguez says he’s already talked with some of the key players about).
So what has Rodriguez added to his already overflowing plate? A live-action Jetsons movie.

 
Rodriguez’ 21st century live-action Jetsons movie, an update of the classic ’60s and ’80s cartoon, has apparently been in development for some time. Rodriguez even mentioned it himself as upcoming when news first broke of the Predator reboot that he’ll be helping to produce.
Ross Miller

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Yes, you read that right. Directly from the “please don’t ruin my childhood. . . again” department comes word, via MTV Movies Blog, that director Robert Rodriguez will begin filming a live action adaptation of the classic 60’s Hanna-Barbara cartoon The Jetsons sometime next year.
According to Rodriguez, he will be pushing forward on his sequel to 2007’s Grindhouse with Danny Trejo in Machete and he’s also working on the sci-fi thriller Nervrackers for the Weinstein Company set for release next April. No word on where this fits in with Rodriguez’s reboot of the Predator franchise or what this could mean for a sequel to Sin City, but the Texas native says that filming for Jetsons could start as soon as 2010.
The director has already stated that he’s dropped a remake of Barbarella due to the amount of time he’d be away from his family, so doing
Matt Raub

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