Snow White and the seven ... shaolin monks?

When I first heard this I had to assume it was a joke, but perhaps not. And, after all, doesn't just about everything in life go better with kung fu?

According to Variety, Disney has signed Francis Lawrence ("Constantine") to helm the fantasy-adventure "Snow and the Seven." The live-action project inspired by the "Snow White" fairy tale focuses on a British girl raised in 19th-century Hong Kong who realizes her destiny is to conquer an evil force. She then prepares to fight by training with seven Shaolin monks.

Stop laughing if you can and imagine this. The "seven" concept may be more than a little tired, but the more I think about this idea (rather than anything having to do with the day ahead of me) the more it just sounds like the perfect kind of fun.

Why? Well, for one, Hong Kong fight choreographer extraordinaire Woo-ping Yuen, who oversaw the action for, among many others, "Fearless," "Kill Bill" and, perhaps most importantly, "Kung Fu Hustle," is already on board for this.

Now, if they can get Stephen Chow's acrobatic running mates, and maybe Mr. Chow himself, to play the seven monks, I'll definitely be on board. Besides, no matter how silly this all turns out to be, no kid should live too long without learning at least a little karate, so I can just say bring it on.

"Godfather IV"? What could have been

No one comes out looking out too good in this rather sad story.

According to the IMDB, when Mario Puzo was very sick and nearing death, Francis Ford Coppola approached Paramount Pictures with a pitch for a Puzo-written "Godfather IV" to give his old friend some much-needed cash. Paramount, understandably after the rather disastrous "Godfather III," balked at investing lots of money in a new chapter, and therefore passed.

Coppola, so desperate to help the ailing Puzo, apparently went to Paramount in 1999 with the offer to help Puzo write a final chapter for free. He said, "He and I cooked up an idea for what there would be for The Godfather IV and we went to Paramount... and we said, 'Look, Mario is not well. Hire him to write this Godfather IV script, I will help him, do it for nothing...' Mario was very concerned to leave his kids some money and they just never made the deal... Mario died and it was heartbreaking."

Now, there have certainly been worse reasons to make a movie, but I don't see how you can possibly blame Paramount for this. Who would have taken on a "Godfather IV" at that point? Either way, I guess we're all just left to imagine our own ending, which may be for the best.

Does Hollywood fear the black superhero?

Given that John Singleton has directed what I have quite often cited as my least favorite film of all time, I have to take this one with a huge grain of salt, but I fear the man may have a point.

Along with bankrolling some fairly great flicks ("Hustle & Flow" among them, so thanks!), Singleton has been struggling for a while now to direct one of two superhero flicks. The first is "Luke Cage," which is set to star Tyrese Gibson as a man who, wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn't commit, escapes from prison to become a superhero mercenary. That one has, according to Singleton himself, undergone several script revisions already and is slow to get started.

Another possibility for Singleton is "Black Panther," the black Marvel superhero created by Stan Lee who made his first appearance in the "Fantastic Four" comics. That's admittedly all I know about the character who is largely credited as being the first black superhero.

Which got me to thinking ... have there been any black superheros on the big screen? I can only think of Samuel L. Jackson's Frozone in "The Incredibles," but I'm talking about in a starring role. I certainly can't think of any, and Mr. Singleton thinks he may know why. Here's what the director had to say to
blackfilm.com:

JS: There's scripts on it. Hollywood has a very limiting view on what makes a pop culture picture. If you put a black face on it, they think it's black thing; but yet we have all these movies that have come up and whenever they any black people in it, they make all this money. That's the thing that's holding 'Luke Cage' up. They think it's a small superhero movie. It's not going to be a small stupid movie like 'Meteor Man'. I'm trying to make 'Luke Cage'.

Amen brother. I'm definitely pulling for him on this one, even with my doubts about his directing skills. So, what was that Singleton movie I just hate so much? "Higher Learning." Just typing out the words gives me painful flashbacks!

Two posters worth drooling over

The first of these comes courtesy of the great Froggy film site Cinempire.com, which despite being in French is simply one of the best movie resources on the planet. Want proof? It's the only place I could find this utterly cool poster for "Hellboy 2" this morning. After "Pan's Labyrinth" I'll follow Guillermo del Toro just about anywhere, and I could definitely do with more Hellboy. The art for this was done by Mike Mignola and presented at Comic-Con.


Next comes a simply cool poster for that J.J. Abrams monster flick that's apparently not called "Cloverfield" or "1/18/08," but actually "Overnight" (yawn.) I'd be more quick to dismiss this as the next "Snakes on a Plane" flop waiting to happen if it weren't written by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" vet Drew Goddard. This poster is swiped directly from Aintitcool, where you can go to see more pictures from the movie set.


R.I.P Michaelangelo Antonioni

I have to confess that I know very little about Italian director Michaelangelo Antonioni, but I was still sad to hear that he had passed away Monday at age 94.

In fact, the only Antonioni movie I have seen is "Blow Up," but that alone is enough to make him a legend to me (yes, I know, I should see "L'Aventurra" asap.) "Blow Up" was such an odd movie that it just stuck in my mind much longer than most flicks do. What made it so memorable was that, despite Antonioni's clear hatred of the modern world, he still managed to craft something so singularly cool.

Here, in his honor, is one of its best scenes, in which David Hemmings stumbles into an underground party only to find the Yardbirds tearing things up and bringing (in Antonioni's eyes) the world down with them. Enjoy!