by A.J. Focht

With The Amazing Spider-Man set to release this coming July, it might seem a little early to be thinking of a spin-off movie for the series, but it looks like Sony already is. The company is negotiating with Josh Trank, director of this year’s indie superhero hit Chronicle, to take the lead on the Venom movie. The idea of a Venom movie has been tossed around by Sony since 2008, but they are hoping to use the success of the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man to launch the spin-off. Trank has already shown us he knows how to handle the hero-to-villain transformation so a Venom film should come as natural to him.

Speaking of The Amazing Spider-Man, last week, Stan Lee revealed he is a playable character in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man videogame. There is no word on who Stan Lee’s character in the game will be, or if this will tie into his cameo in the movie. But fear not true believers, The Amazing Spider-Man game will be released on June 26 and all will be revealed then.

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by Fred Topel

If Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s TV show is Awesome, Great Job!, you know their movie has to be even bigger. So their movie is bigger than awesome, it’s Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. However, the movie is not a collection of sketches like their TV show. Billion Dollar Movie is actually about Tim and Eric blowing a billion dollars filming an unreleasable movie. So to pay back the investors, they have to revamp a mall full of crazy stores to make it a billion dollar business. The film still breaks the fourth wall and takes breaks for weird sketches, but there’s sort of a plot in there.

Heidecker and Wareheim premiered Billion Dollar Movie at Sundance, promising the audience it had been de-Rango-ed, which I didn’t get. They actually had two films at the festival. Heidecker stars in the experimental film The Comedy, which is named ironically. Set in a community of hipsters in Williamsburg, New York, the film is a statement about hipsterism. Wareheim has a smaller part in The Comedy too.

Wareheim and Heidecker were understandably exhausted when they did interviews on Main Street. Not only had they had midnight screenings the night before, but they stayed for the Q&A (where the audience gets a chance to ask them questions) and their own after party. I, at least, skipped the Q&A to get some sleep and prepare questions. Both films were notorious, with many audience members walking out. The Shrim scene in Billion Dollar Movie was probably the breaking point for many. I don’t even want to describe what it is, just look it up.

Read our exclusive interview with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim on SuicideGirls.com.

by Fred Topel

Eric Schaeffer has a history with SuicideGirls. We interviewed him for his book, I Can’t Believe I’m Still Single, in 2007 and then featured him as a “sexpert” for a few weeks on the radio show. The author, TV producer, actor and filmmaker just released a new movie, After Fall, Winter so we got to reconnect.

Winter is the second in Schaeffer’s anticipated quartet, where every 15 years he will tell another story in Michael (Schaeffer)’s life. In Winter, Michael moves to France where he meets Sophie (Lizzie Brochere), who he doesn’t know is a professional dominatrix. Their manipulative relationship shifts as Michael explores masochism separately from Sophie.

A lot has happened for Schaeffer in the last five years. His dating blog tied to the release of his book became scandalous as women publicly challenged it. He’s also produced two more TV series and has another on the way. I’m sorry this interview becomes two guys complaining about dating. We felt each other’s pain, but came to a happy, hopeful place.

In fact, just before my phone call with Schaeffer, he’d reconnected with Betsy Fine, a girl he loved in 7th grade. She found him on Facebook and it turns out she’s a life coach, he’s researching a new show, Eric Schaeffer: Life Coach, so he spoke to her for research. She told him everything he imagines is true. So after Winter, there’s hope for Spring connections.

Read our exclusive interview with Eric Schaeffer on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

As a horror nut I first discovered Peter Jackson when Dead Alive was released on VHS tape back in the early 90’s. After viewing that first film I knew Jackson was destined to become one of the great filmmakers. I immediately saw his other works such as the Oscar nominated Heavenly Creatures and Meet the Feebles. When his first Hollywood film, The Frighteners, was going to be released I thought that the entire world was going to discover him then. But I was dead wrong because that film tanked. But as everyone knows, Jackson beat the odds and created a near perfect movie trilogy with the Lord of The Rings films.

Now Jackson is releasing his interpretation of the movie King Kong. He has kept the film set in the 1930’s and cast Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, Jack Black as a crazed filmmaker and Adrien Brody as the screenwriter whose jungle script takes them to deadly Skull Island. With King Kong, Jackson has created a spectacle that may change the world almost as much as the original Kong did back in 1933.

Read our exclusive interview with Peter Jackson on SuicideGirls.com.

by A.J. Focht

The Avengers | Samuel L. Jackson | Robert Downey Jr. | Chris Evans | Movie Trailer | Review

A new trailer for The Avengers came out today, and a new official movie poster has been released. The movie hits theatres on May 4, and will launch the summer superhero season.

There has been a lot of talk about Ryan Reynolds reprising either of his super powered rolls as the Green Lantern or Deadpool. While promoting his upcoming movie Safe House, Reynolds gave us some more insight on both projects. Deadpool is a work in progress, and Reynolds thinks the script is fantastic. Thankfully, he mentioned the new script has nothing to do with the Wolverine movie. The main concern is getting the producers to cut a check for a rated R superhero movie. As far as Green Lantern, Reynolds knows nothing of plans to do a sequel after the horribly received first film, but he did immediately turn the conversation back to how awesome a rated R Deadpool movie would be.

A new member has been added to the cast of The Walking Dead. David Morrissey has been cast as the Governor on the show. The Governor is the dreadful leader of another group of survivors and will be a regular next season. The third season has also been expanded to sixteen episodes.

To go along with the first photos from the set of Star Trek 2, a behind the scenes video has hit the web showing Spock getting the shit beaten out of him by Benedict Cumberbatch’s character over and over again. While we still don’t know who Cumberbatch is, it’s clear he is a villain able to overpower Spock – which is no easy feat.

Despite the years of backlash and ridicule Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has received since its release in 1999, it is now on its way to being the 10th highest grossing film ever worldwide. Due to the fact the 3D version sales are being added directly onto the original movies sales (a cheap move if you ask me), The Phantom Menace has been gradually climbing the charts since its extra dimensional release. If it makes just $1.5 million more it will overtake The Dark Knight, which currently hold the #10 spot.

While Star Wars is cheating its way into the record book, The Hunger Games has legitimately broken the record for most advance tickets sold a full month before its release. With a major following growing to match that of Harry Potter or other such fan backed literature, we can only hope The Hunger Games will take the spotlight away from the Twilight series.

The first official trailer for The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra animated series has been released. It takes place seventy years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the new Avatar, Korra. The trailer still doesn’t give a firm release date, but it does say coming soon.

After the incredibly successful Black & White sequels to the Pokémon game series, Nintendo has now announced two more sequels currently titled, Black & White 2. This is an odd move for the Pokémon games as their past sequels have always been titled after different colors on different islands. This may mean these are the first Pokémon games to directly sequel previous games (if we don’t count offshoots like Yellow, Crystal, etc.) and if they keep the title, it will be the first to have a number moniker in the title. The game is scheduled to release in Japan in June 2012 and here in August 2012.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Jack Black is about ready to pop as a major movie star. He of course has his previous hit, School of Rock, but the release of Peter Jackson’’s reinterpretation of King Kong should send Black into the stratosphere. Black has nearly as much screen time as Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts.

Jack Black first came to notice as a character actor in such films as The Jackal, Mars Attacks! and The Cable Guy. But he is best known as one half, with Kyle Gass, of the humorous rock band Tenacious D, who had three legendary episodes on HBO and is set to release their first feature film next year.

Read our exclusive interview with Jack Black on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Jim Carrey is of course known as one of the funniest people on the planet. He first came to fame doing nutty features like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. In recent years he has really expanded his repertoire with movies such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

His latest picture, Fun with Dick and Jane, is a return to form because it is pure wacky nuttiness. Dick (Jim Carrey) and Jane (Téa Leoni) are in love and living the American dream. But then the company Dick works for becomes involved in an Enron-like scandal and he is confronted with the prospect of losing everything. Now Dick and Jane are forced to steal to get it all back.

Read our exclusive interview with Jim Carrey on SuicideGirls.com.