The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

5 Directors Who Could Replace David Slade On The 'Daredevil' Reboot

By Oliver Lyttelton
|
July 12, 2012 2:55 PM
|
4 Comments

Features

There's a job vacancy going at 20th Century Fox. And one that needs to be filled pretty urgently. Late last night, it was announced that David Slade, director of "Hard Candy," "30 Days Of Night and "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," who'd won the job of helming a reboot of Marvel superhero "Daredevil" for the studio, had left the project, citing a commitment to the pilot of NBC series "Hannibal." Directors leave projects all the time, but what makes this a bit of a problem for Fox is that the clock is ticking on their option on the character, and if a film isn't before cameras before the end of the year, the rights are likely to revert back to Marvel, cutting off a potential cash cow. And so a new director is needed, and needed fast.

By Todd Gilchrist
|
July 12, 2012 8:27 AM
|
18 Comments

Reviews

Remakes and reboots always seem to demand comparisons to their predecessors, but “Dredd” evokes a slightly different relationship: What Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” is to George Romero’s original, Pete Travis’ film is to, no, not Danny Cannon’s 1995 film “Judge Dredd,” but Paul Verhoeven’s “Robocop.” In both cases, gifted visual stylists took fertile, socially-conscious subject matter, pared out the cultural commentary, and left behind an engaging, if empty, cinematic experience.

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
June 7, 2012 12:42 PM
|
2 Comments

News

So...a trailer soon? With the film said to be hitting theaters in three months, there was been dead silence around the somewhat-troubled comic reboot "Dredd." No trailers and only a smattering of images, a few more which have now landed online.

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
October 11, 2011 2:00 AM
|
0 Comments

Just a few days ago, the forthcoming reboot/new vision on "Dredd" became the subject of some ugly advance word. Reports surfaced that director Pete Travis was effectively being locked out of the editing bay, that reshoots were possibly in the works and most surprising of all, that writer Alex Garland ("Sunshine," "28 Days Later") was leading the charge behind the closed doors to get the film put together and was even going to see a co-director credit for his effort. The news was dispiriting for a film that promised fanboys an R-rated gritty take on the hero, but in a statement to 24 Frames released by Garland and Travis, they say everything is fine, without addressing any of the specifics surrounding the post-production of the movie at all:

By Kevin Jagernauth
|
October 7, 2011 4:45 AM
|
4 Comments

It's never good news to hear when a director gets locked out of the editing bay, particularly when it comes to a big budget tentpole movie. While rumors of Stephen Sommers battling executives over "G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra" surfaced and were quickly scuttled, it didn't really matter because the movie made money and has spawned a sequel arriving next summer (though notably, without Sommers this time around). So whether or not this battle will have an effect on the movie creatively or otherwise, it does somewhat poison the well on perceptions of the film for the time being as fanboys will surely voice their concern (even if exact details are hard to come by just yet).