Jeremy Smith

THE UNDEAD LIFE OF REILLY

At some point, every fantastical tome littering "Young Adult" shelves in bookstores all over the world will be in development at one studio or another, and I’ll no longer have to spend twenty minutes browsing through reviews in order to ascertain whether each series is halfway original or, as is typically the case, hopelessly derivative. … Continue reading

JEWSPLOITATION IS BURGEONING

Where the hell was I when the Jewsploitation genre began to burgeon? I thought it was just a jokey term invented for the marketing of Jonathan Kesselman’s Semetic Shaft comedy, The Hebrew Hammer. Now it’s a full-blown movement? And Judd Apatow had nothing to do with it? As a huge fan of the chosen people, … Continue reading

SHAWN LEVY WILL BE YOUR FATHER FIGURE

And this, you’ll agree, is preferable to ruining The Flash. It’s surprising that, with all the frenzied pre-strike activity of September and October, we weren’t completely bombarded with news of the next spirit-hollowing projects from the clods of the industry – i.e. our pals Adam Shankman, Marc Lawrence, Howard Deutch and so on. Or maybe … Continue reading

STEPHEN CHOW RUNS A MANGA HUSTLE

If I ever watched an episode of Dragonball Z, it certainly wasn’t on purpose. And if I ever did this detestable thing, I definitely didn’t enjoy it. And I know this to be the Non’s honest truth because, last I checked, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii and Katsuhiro Otomo never put their name to … Continue reading

MO-MO-MOLOCH THE MY-MY- MYSTIC

Edgar William Jacobi, also known as Edgar William Vaughn, also known as William Edgar Bright, also known as Moloch the Mystic will be played by Max Headroom, also known as Matt Frewer (also known as Gene Kranz!). Okay, so it’s not a terribly pivotal role in Zack Snyder’s film version of Watchmen, but there is … Continue reading

RIDLEY’S GOT STONES

This is Spinal Tap completely ruined the mystery of Stonehenge for me, but I’ll give the elaborately stacked group of rocks another shot if Ridley Scott’s interested in divining their purpose. The big question here is "if", since Scott has a tendency to attach himself to more projects than he actually makes. Stones, based on … Continue reading

THOMAS CROWN GOES DUTCH & DIRTY

While John McTiernan’s remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (co-written by CHUD fave Kurt Wimmer) was one of summer 1999’s more pleasant surprises, the clamor for a sequel wasn’t exactly deafening. And, yet, Pierce Brosnan persisted, figuring that Eric Ambler’s novel The Light of Day (subsequently made as Topkapi by Jules Dassin), would be perfect … Continue reading

DYLAN WALSH IS STEPPIN’ TO THE O’QUINN

If Screen Gems opts goes PG-13 with its remake of Joseph Ruben’s The Stepfather (as they’re currently doing with the new Prom Night), well… who gives a shit? The original film was a nasty little piece of work that benefitted from taut direction, a Donald Westlake screenplay and Terry O’Quinn turning in one of the … Continue reading