- Sorry to start out your year with tears, but this is too good not to share. Although the Internet is most often used to rip into the flimsy psyche of others or to explore “what’s new in porn these days,” sometimes it does good things. A week or so after a story about a man named Dan who is a huge Star Trek fan and who has terminal cancer was posted all over the web, director JJ Abrams got word of it. Despite his well-known reputation for super-secrecy (we still don’t know the actual name of the villain in the Star Trek sequel and it comes out in like 3 months), Abrams arranged a private showing of the unfinished Star Trek Into Darkness for Dan and his wife, ensuring he would see it before he passed. So, it’s official: If you talk crap on JJ Abrams, you’re a bad person.
- One of the most entertaining films of last year, and one that played footsie with my top 10 list, was The Raid: Redemption, which for some reason couldn’t just be called The Raid domestically (hence the stupid colon). Word has it that writer/director Gareth Evans is not only making a sequel but has cast said sequel, and he now confirms that the movie picks up mere hours after the events of the last film. Given the nonstop, breakneck pace our hero cop faced, it wouldn’t surprise me if the sequel was The Raid: Panting Exhaustion.
- As if Harry Potter fans and Lord of the Rings fans don’t already have enough of an excuse to be the “Sharks” and “Jets” of the fantasy-books-turned-fantasy-epic-movie-blockbuster world, there’s a new rumor afoot (a hairy foot, in fact). Supposedly, Universal Studios, the home of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is in discussion with the Tolkien estate about a possible attraction at their theme park. While the rides and experience may be cool, I, for one, am looking forward to Peter Jackson’s epic 19-film series adapting the construction of said theme park.
Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays at around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (KVNO.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm).