UK-based artist Olly Moss has a faultless track record in adding his own truly unique visual stamp to a host of stunning posters for past iconic genre features, and this one below for the 1981 John Landis classic, An American Werewolf in London, is no exception.

Offered as a gift for those who purchased tickets for a special screening of the film at this year’s Fantastic Fest at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, Moss has once again managed to breathe new life into a very familiar film.

Not sure how cinema lovers from Wales and the North West of England will react when they see they’ve been obliterated from the map all in the name of art but nonetheless, it’s another impressive addition to the artist’s collection.

Thanks to Movies.com

“We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses….Hit it!!!”

That immortal line was one of the many attributes which helped The Blue Brothers attain the status of cult classic before such a term was commonly discussed and debated about. It’s also a film whose iconic poster adorned the walls of student residences across the land well before likes of Transpotting and Pulp Fiction infiltrated the scene.

Turning two key members of the Saturday Night Live alumni, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, into fully-fledged movie stars, and further cementing the reputation of director, John Landis (who had scored a huge hit the previous year with Animal House), the film still has its many fans and followers some thirty plus years since its initial cinema release.

Now out on Blu-Ray, we recently caught up with Landis to talk about the film’s enduring appeal.

Hi John. Thanks so much for taking time out with HeyUGuys to talk about Blues Brothers.

It’s my pleasure. I’m both amazed and incredibly happy to see that the film is still receiving this attention after all these years.

It’s a unique movie in many ways, but the car chases are still what everyone picks up upon and really loves. There’s an unadulterated joy in watching the Bluesmobile evade a huge fleet of cop cars, all of it achieved in-camera.

The stunts were really time-consuming. I don’t know if you remember the scene when the car lands on its roof, but we had to contact the federal aviation authorities of the city of Chicago and assure them that the car would land where we said it would. I remember (laughs) we had to drop cars in a cornfield first to show we could do it safely. That shot is probably my favourite in the whole movie, and there’s a moment in it where you see this Pinto falling and suddenly the image of the Sears tower comes into view, which at that time, was the second tallest building in the world. It was crazy, but you know, we were drunk with power and we were able to get away with stuff like that, and I’m very grateful for having that opportunity.

Nowadays a scene like that tends to be created by someone sitting at a desk on a computer. Do you think there’s a kind of fun missing from the production side in modern cinema, which is less interested in capturing the real, physical stuff?

My friend Rick Baker, who is a brilliant make-up artist, always says with the state of CGI now, you can basically do anything, but just because you can have two hundred werewolves crawling across the ceiling, doesn’t mean you should have two hundred werewolves crawling across the ceiling! I think CG is a terrific tool but its way overused.

Blue Brothers has a truly eclectic cast, and you also populated it with all those legendary R&B recording artists. How difficult were they to corral and get onboard?

You have to remember that in 1979 when we made the movie, rhythm and blues was basically over, and the number one music in the world was Abba, The Bee Gees and disco, so when people ask, how did you get the likes of Aretha Franklin and James Brown, it was easy. We just called them and said “wanna job?” One of the things I’m most proud of in the film is the music reflected Danny and John’s passion for those sounds and they did something unique, which is they exploited their own celebrity to basically shine a light on these great American performers.

To give you an idea of how outré it was at the time, Universal Studios and Decca Records refused to release a soundtrack album! They said no one would buy the music from the film. Atlantic records, which was a so-called ‘race label’ took on the soundtrack album, but even the label boss, who I ended up having a big fight with, would not put John Lee Hooker on the album. His exact words were he’s too old and too black. About four years later when John picked up his first Platinum album, the first call I made was to Atlantic’s boss, who picked up and said immediately, “I know – you told me so!”

You mentioned that Aykroyd and Belushi were huge fans of the music, but did you feel the same?

Sure! I loved all that music. I put Cab Calloway in there. Of all those guys in the film, Ray Charles was the only one at the time who was having great success, and at that moment he was doing country western music!

It was a strange time for those artists, but I’m really thrilled the movie succeeded. If you talk to any of the surviving musicians from the film, they would tell you the movie really brought it all back with a vengeance.

When Blues Brothers 2000 came along, that was my first experience with the new Hollywood and the corporate studio system, who didn’t get what we’d done in the original. The problems I had with that film were mainly why I didn’t make another film for so long afterwards. I was really pissed off because they didn’t understand at all what we were trying to do once more.

I’ve read Animal House is also due to receive a Blu-Ray release. I know the anniversary DVD is pretty chock-full with addition material, but is there anything more which is being added?

I’m not sure what extra material is due for the UK, because Universal international is not the same as Universal domestic. There was a lot done for Animal House at both the 25th and 30th anniversaries, so much so in fact that Martha Smith, who plays Babs in the film, said during the last time we met up to produce material, “you know John, if we do this again, we’re going to have to call it Animal Home” (laughs).

More hilarity from Comic-Con as Joe Lynch’s Knights of Badassdom brings its LARPing fun to San Diego and here’s what the gathering army of fans have been waiting for as the first trailer for the film has been unveiled.

Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn and Summer Glau lead the field in this tale of role players who unleash a furious demon and have to send back to hell. A Comic-Con audience is the perfect place to showcase the first trailer of Lynch’s geek infused fantasy film and Lynch’s heavy metal horror film looks to have made good on its promise.

Here’s the trailer, which pretty much sells me on the film.

Yet more images from the gift that keeps on giving as Entertainment Weekly publish one of the few pictures we’ve seen for Joe Lynch’s Knights of Badassdom and here we get our chance to see Firefly favourite Summer Glau stand up with True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, and there’s also a bonus image of Peter Dinklage.

Last September Craig posted 5 Reasons to be excited about Knights of Badassdom, and it’s recommended reading if you’re not sure what the fuss is about. Director Joe Lynch has talked about his influences for the film (An American Werewolf in London among them) and the cast he has assembled, including Steve Zahn and Sorkin favourite Joshua Malina, promise much.

The film’s Facebook page gave this one up and keep an eye as they have been known to release things on their page first. Click to make it go big.

“Any movie can be great at 2 1/2 minutes!”

For those of you who may be wondering what Trailers From Hell is but have taken the time to read this review, you are about to be introduced to what will probably be one of your new favourite sites. Trailers From Hell is a site for people who love films, made by people who love films (and make films). Conceived and created by the likes of director Joe Dante, Trailers From Hell draws on the knowledge of a variety of gurus (generally notable genre directors) who provide commentaries for film trailers.

The Trailers From Hell website can be found here and I can highly recommend you check it out, if you haven’t already. Make sure you have a few hours to spare before clicking on the link though.

In addition to the site, a DVD was released last year by TFH which collected together a number of these trailer commentaries and although a great release it did not add too much to what was already available on the site. For the the second volume though, TFH have filled the disc with a selection of trailers and commentaries exclusive to the DVD release, thereby making it more of a special one off release.

The selection of film trailers is absolutely fantastic and the gurus brought in to comment on them provide a lot of background information on the films and their trailers. The commentaries are never just dry and factual though and filmmakers such as John Landis, Brian Trenchard-Smith and Joe Dante have great senses of humour and this shines through in their commentaries.

On this new volume Trenchard-Smith’s commentaries on two Hammer oddities, Devil Ship Pirates and Stranglers of Bombay, are almost certainly my personal favourites but listening to Del Toro speak about his love of Argento (delivered in both English and Spanish) is also an absolute treat and Corman’s recollections of the production of Ski Troop Attack and Premature Burial are also both amusing and insightful.

The disc allows the viewer the option of either watching the trailers with the commentaries/talking heads included or on their own and the option to play all or jump to a particular trailer. The play all function with the commentaries switched on is the way to go as they are incredibly moreish and like the famous BBC mission statement they constantly inform, educate and entertain.

Perhaps appropriately the extra feature on this disc of what could be considered a compilation of extra features is an actual feature film. Presented in a new anamorphic widescreen transfer, the original Little Shop of Horrors is included as a bonus on the disc. This early feature from Corman is a lot of fun and features a particularly memorable performance from a young Jack Nicholson. The print is the best I’ve seen the film look and it’s surprising how enduringly entertaining the film is. A great addition to an already hugely entertaining release.

Trailers From Hell Volume Two is available to buy on DVD from Shout! Factory on the 5th of July and will hopefully be followed by a Volume Three very very soon.

Please note that this disc is Region 1.

***** (5/5)

A full list of the guests and the trailers can be found below,

Roger Corman on trailers for Ski Troop Attack and Premature Burial.

Joe Dante on Donovan’s Brain and The Invisible Ghost.

Guillermo Del Toro on Deep Red and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Ernest Dickerson on The Creeping Unknown.

Mick Garris on Fire Maidens from Outer Space and Flesh Gordon.

Jack Hill on Pit Stop.

Larry Karaszewski on Last Summer and The Tenant.

Lloyd Kaufman on Terror Firmer.

Mary Lambert on Godzilla vs. Mothra.

John Landis on Gorgo.

Josh Olson on Jaws and The Lineup.

Michael Peyser on Seven Days in May.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on Devil Ship Pirates and Stranglers of Bombay.

Slowly but surely the Badsassdom bandwagon is hitting its stride with the second official image from the film released today.

Spitting the pics as their Facebook ‘army’ lunges past numerical milestones, the Knights who say ‘Larp’ gifted us this delightful image of Peter Dinklage about to lay waste to Ryan Kwanten’s larynx. In the background is a van, which may as well have a supporting actor credit given the amount of attention it has garnered online – it certainly seems that Joe Lynch and his team have done their research.

If you missed the first image from the film click ye here, and if you’re into the whole Facebooking thing check them out here.

Crane open those eyelids and feast visually on this, then click on it to make your delight bigger,

Keep abreast of the badassery on  Twitter or the official site

The answer is clearly yes, yes you do.

With the film’s official Facebook page reaching the requisite fan count of a thousand souls the team have released the first official image from the film showing off the brooding eyes of Lord Peter Dinklage* as Sir Hung. Dinklage stars alongside Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, Summer Glau, and Margarita Levieva.

Joe Lynch’s film takes the premise of live action role players who summon a demon and take on their assumed roles to fight it back to Hell or wherever. In order to enthuse you further, or convince you of the many reasons why you should be looking forward to this one I can do no better than Craig Skinner who posted his 5 Reasons to be Excited about Knights of Badassdom – it’s well worth a read.

Follow along on Twitter or the official site as more is promised to be revealed soon, and if the title Knights of Badassdom doesn’t get you interested well… you’re already dead.

Click it to get it big and show to your friends,

*Not officially a Lord, but the title seemed to suit the name.

Michael Jackson may have shuffled off this mortal coil more than a year ago, but interest in him and his music is still very much alive.

GK Films are currently in negotiations for the rights to his hit song Thriller, which they plan to weave into a feature length narrative. Little is known about the actually story as yet, but the film is budgeted at around $50m, and it’s being written by The Hangover scribe Jeremy Garelick

Kenny Ortega (who directed the singer’s documentary film This Is It) is attached to this one, so there is some continuity here in regards to the keeping it within the Michael Jackson brand, but it seems like a tall order for audiences to get behind a film like this when the hugely iconic John Landis-directed promo is such a well known part of pop culture.

Who knows, maybe the makers are intending on taking the film in an entirely different direction to that of the music video. Whatever the plans, they certainly have their work cut out.

As reported by Deadline.

On Friday 29^th October the John Landis directed Ealing dramedy Burke & Hare has its UK release.  You may read our review of the film here.  The slightly true story of Edinburgh’s most notorious killers has, in this case, been retold as a comedy of errors with a pair of romantic leads engaging in wrongness of the mass murdering kind.  A wrong com if you will!  The leading men in question are Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg. Though we were not entirely mad about the film we are mad about the boys and were excited to have a chance to sit down with them.  They did not disappoint.

Our allotted time with Andy and Simon was cut frustratingly short and we lost the opportunity to get Simon’s scoop on Star Trek and Paul and to ask Andy how he is preparing to make the transition from Rise of the Apes to reprising Gollum. (Keep it HeyUGuys for news on all four projects as it breaks!)  But, overenthusiastic stopwatches aside, the talented pair kept us most entertained.  They were refreshingly informed and considerate about the true lives Burke and Hare had led and spoke with candour about the forces that drove them.  Nerd Do Well author Simon Pegg is an enthusiastic social networker and he also shared with us the way Twitter has altered his relationship with fans.  Andy Serkis has yet to tweet but seemed intrigued at the prospect of dipping his toe in the “twattering” waters.

They were also hilariously frank about a rather unusual bedroom scene.  I think we’ll leave it to Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis to tell you that story themselves…

In 1820 Edinburgh stood at the centre of the modern medical world.  It was a pioneering city in which anatomical demonstrations were the theatre of choice for any discerning academic.  In a world where medical innovation bestowed immediate renowned and prosperity, competition was rife to attract the attention of the King with ever more dramatic displays.  However this theatre was staged in a time before preservation techniques had been truly perfected.  With a corpse as the star of the show and a body shortage depleting the talent pool some progressive doctors would do anything it took to ensure that the show could go on…

William Burke and William Hare are two Irish grifters scratching out a living in the slums of the city.  Surviving on the chickenfeed profit made from their hit and miss cons, the two rely upon income from Mrs Hare’s lodging house to keep them fed, whiskeyed and watered.  Serendipitously the pair encounter a dead tenant ripening under her roof just as the city’s doctors are crying out for cadavers.  Mourning the loss of a jolly good income Burke & Hare set out to dispose of the body and confront the pressing issue of precisely how one crams a grown man into a barrel.  Stopping en route to drink to their misfortune they discover how very lucrative their loss has been and garner a fiver for the poor unfortunate soul into the bargain!  Perceptive William Hare understands the value of their new venture and determines to find a way to replicate the events of the day.  His sweet-natured sidekick understands the value of the coins in his pocket and bumbles along for the ride.

The Williams do their very best to keep the whole unfortunate business away from Mrs Hare leaving her face down in her porridge, and conveniently unaware, to recover from a minor case of severe alcoholism!  A few failed attempts to make a killing do nothing to thwart their ambition, though their initial enthusiasm for grave robbing is somewhat dampened when Ronnie Corbett and his toy soldier militia disrupt their dig and foil their cunning plan.  Mrs Hare eventually sobers up supportive and suspicious and enterprisingly demands her cut.  Meanwhile true love comes calling for William Burke when Isla Fisher’s comely actress Ginny sees in him a future patron.  In the face of such gentle feminine persuasion the two Williams graduate from confidence tricksters to (dis)honest to goodness entrepreneurs.  The siren whisper of cold hard cash grows louder than the voice of their consciences and lo a business is born. Hasn’t it ever been thus?

By choosing to tell the story of Edinburgh’s notorious mass murderers as a romantic comedy of errors, writers Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft and director John Landis have challenged both the expectations of their audience and the strength of their delivery.  The film opens well enough with Bill Bailey lurching on screen as our hooded narrator – a ghoulish Henry Fielding sent to share the terrible story of Burke & Hare with the world.  The rivalry between the medical old and new schools, played out between Tim Curry and Tom Wilkinson, is great fun and the two have a beautiful bitter chemistry.  However not all the casting is as strong.  Simon Pegg, while eminently likeable, is a little too nice to truly convince as a murderer for profit – even playing lesser of two evils Burke – and one wonders if things might have been different had Mr Bailey been persuaded to stick around and take on the meatier role.  Andy Serkis too seems ill at ease, though better cast, struggling to inject true depth into manipulative Hare.  His darkness is diminished by Pegg’s earnest face and “what me?” wackiness and the production tips off kilter in the wake of their mismatch.

Happily there are some excellent early examples of toe-curling, bone-crunching, death and here the two are given the chance to shine.  My personal highlight was a deadly threesome perpetrated in bed with Christopher Lee but be reassured there is a body count high enough to satisfy even the most blood thirsty among you!

By the halfway point I was still struggling to engage with Burke & Hare, desperate to find a foothold in the insubstantial story.  I wanted to like it yet struggled in vain.  Somehow the film has taken all the right ingredients and combined them in all the wrong proportions.  I had a sudden flashback to Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – to Monsieur Baldini endlessly, desperately, mixing notes of scent trying to emulate Pelissier’s Amor and Psyche – of grubby Grenouille appearing in his basement workshop and shaking a note-perfect bottle at first attempt.  In craftier hands the story might have been perfection, in these it ever so slightly stinks.

Where Sweeny Todd or Sleepy Hollow were note-perfect in their mastery of the macabre Burke & Hare is tone deaf.  Wrong chords of timing and tone distract the mind’s eye from the sticky footprints of treacle-black guilt and glee left in the wake of Burke and Hare’s crimes and turn your head towards the wacky antics gurning for attention at centre stage.  Packed with some of Britain’s finest actors and a clutch of jaw-dropping cameos it seems a woefully light-hearted way to treat such gorgeously gothic subject matter and a waste of a talented cast.

Undoubtedly Burke & Hare is an unconventional twist on a horrible history.  It offers a vaudeville version of a notorious story and the intention, if not the execution, is worthy of praise.  I can picture it rebranded as a BBC Boxing Day drama – it is unobtrusive and harmless enough.  The fluffy tone, energy and enthusiasm would make an ideal companion for fighting hangovers and digesting leftovers and the sport of cameo spotting is well suited to the Christmas spirit.  As cinema however it falls far short of the mark.

Burke & Hare is released in the UK on 29^th October

Yesterday evening the streets of Chelsea played host to the cast and crew of Burke and Hare as the film had its world premiere.

London’s own invasion of the body snatchers drew in the crowds eager to see stars Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis and Isla Fisher who were joined by director and legend John Landis and co-stars Ronnie Corbett and Jessica Hynes.

Our review of the film will be up on the site this Friday, the 29th and day of the film’s release. We also had the chance to sit down with Messrs. Pegg and Serkis to chat over the film, and that video interview will also hit the site shortly.

Our good friends at Upbeat were covering the event last night and their excellent footage is below. On Friday we’ll have our review and the interview that Emily did sat down with the two stars of the movie but until then…..

Earlier today, Em got to interview Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis from their new movie, Burke and Hare which gets it’s UK release this coming Friday, 29th October. The movie is directed by legendary director, John Landis and also stars Isla Fisher, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, Jenny Agutter, Ronnie Corbett, Christopher Lee.

Synopsis: Based on the true story about the famous murderers, ‘Burke And Hare’ follows the hapless exploits of these two men as they fall into the highly profitable business of providing cadavers for the medical fraternity in Nineteenth Century Edinburgh, then the centre of medical learning. The one thing they were short of was bodies.

You’ll be able to see the video interview on the site in the next few days but in the meantime , here’s a couple of clips from MovieWeb and Bloody Disgusting from the new movie.

Puting Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis before the camera of John Landis seems to be a stroke of genius and their ressurectionist comedy Burke and Hare goes before the waiting public on the 29th of October.

In order to tempt those souls still not convinced the curious combination of talents are worth shelling out good money for there’s a new clip which looks to give a good indication of what Landis and Co. have in store.

Other trailers, images and all sorts of good stuff for B&H are just a click away.

Burke and Hare stars Simon Pegg,  Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Hynes, Bill Bailey, Stephen Merchant, and Ronnie Corbett. Yes – Tim Curry! Worth the price of admission alone.

Here’s the clip, (which is temperamental – if you can’t view it here click the Sky Movies link below)

The good folks over at Sky Movies dug this one up.

Burke &  Hare had a brand new trailer released yesterday and to coincide with that, Entertainment Film Distributors have released a brand new International poster for the  movie via Blogomatic3000.

Burke and Hare stars Simon Pegg,  Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Hynes, Bill Bailey, Stephen Merchant, Ronnie Corbett and is directed by John Landis. It’s scheduled for release in the UK 29th October.

Synopsis: Based on the true story about the famous murderers, ‘Burke And Hare’ follows the hapless exploits of these two men as they fall into the highly profitable business of providing cadavers for the medical fraternity in Nineteenth Century Edinburgh, then the centre of medical learning. The one thing they were short of was bodies.

Click the poster below to enlarge.

Up until now, we’ve only been able to marvel at the beauty of Burke and Hare but looking at still images but today, Entertainment Film Distributors have sent us the first and brand new trailer for the movie. Burke and Hare stars Simon Pegg,  Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Hynes, Bill Bailey, Stephen Merchant, Ronnie Corbett and is directed by John Landis.

The movie is based on the real men who murdered 17 people between 1827 and 1828. After the murderers, they would sell the bodies to Dr. Robert Knox who would then dissect them in his anatomy class.

Check out the new trailer  which is as funny as we were all expecting with my favourite line already consisting of:

“I had confidence in a fart once, and I shat all over myself!”

Burke and Hare is released in UK cinemas 29^th October. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Way back at Frightfest 2009 news broke that Joe Lynch was going to be working on a new film, incredibly entitled Knights of Badassdom.

It was John Landis who ‘announced’ it on stage and explained how the script had originally been brought to him but deciding it wasn’t right for him, he recommended Lynch.

Lynch actually described the tone of Knights of Badassdom as “very much, An American Werewolf in London”.

A year has passed since then and this summer Lynch shot the film in Spokane and is currently immersed in editing it.

Although there have been no posters or trailers yet (the kind of things that normally get people excited) anticipation is beginning to build around this film and potentially rightly so as this really could be great and here are five reasons why.

1. Joe Lynch

Lynch has actually only directed one feature length film and it was Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, a straight to video sequel to a pretty terrible film. What was so surprising about Wrong Turn 2 though was that what looked on paper to be destined for mediocrity turned out to be a darn sight better than anyone was expecting. With a hit and miss script and a spirited but slightly lacking cast Joe Lynch managed to pull something quite remarkable out of it. His enthusiasm and love for genre cinema is apparent in the film and it is these qualities that could help make Knights of Badassdom a really enjoyable film.

2. The premise

Knights of Badassdom is written by Matt Wall and Kevin Dreyfuss and Lynch describes the film as a “heavy metal horror adventure”. The film involves live action role playing that gets very real.

Here’s a breakdown of the plot (Supplied by Matt Wall via AllianceLarp)

STORY LINE: A huge group of dedicated, costumed LARPers (Live Action Role Players), dressed like knights, elves and various characters, give up their cell phones and take to the woods for the Central New Jersey Knights of Badassdom Adventure Society, where they are set to re-enact a dungeons and dragons scenario right out of the mythical Middle Ages. After being dumped by his sexy girlfriend Beth, Joe reluctantly decides to join Eric and his Larping friends in the woods rather than stay behind and feel sorry for his newly single status. There he meets hot, ass-kicking, intimidating huntress LARPer Gwen, and finds himself a surreal adventure wilder than he ever imagined when a make-believe wizard casts an all-too-real spell from an ancient book he bought on Ebay, releasing an actual demon with a taste for human blood — and souls — that starts systematically decimating the players in this suddenly deadly “game.” Will our guys become the heroes they have been pretending to be before time runs out?…

3. The gore/special effects

With special effects supplied by Spectral Motion (who have worked on the Hellboy films amongst other things) combined with large swords and Joe Lynch’s love of inventive kills, Knights of Badassdom is sure to splatterific (if that’s not a word it should be) and contain some pretty great practical effects and a lot of fake blood. Coming via Joe Lynch’s blog the below image gives us an idea of what we might be in store for.

4. The cast

Lynch has assembled a great cast for Knights of Badassdom, with Summer Glau, Steve Zahn, Ryan Kwanten and Peter Dinklage all confirmed. You can see Miss Glau pictured above holding a really big sword (lets be honest, for a lot of us that picture alone sells the film). Although there’s no information on the roles that each actor has in the film the list of actors is a pretty interesting selection.

Steve Zahn has had a recent peak in his career thanks to appearing as a recurring character in David Simon’s Treme and is a really solid and likeable actor.

Ryan Kwanten seems to be destined to be a star with his popular performance in TV series True Blood and his fantastic performance in Red Hill and after the latter in particular I’m really looking forward to seeing what Kwanten does next.

Peter Dinklage is an intelligent actor who seems to have a great eye for picking interesting films and this could be one of them.

5. The music

Bear McCreary (who is probably best known for scoring Battlestar Galactica) is scoring Knights of Badassdom and with Lynch’s affection for metal and the description “heavy metal horror adventure” I think we can expect something loud and heavy with shredding and some nice drop D power chords.

We will of course be bringing you all the news on the film as soon we have more.

Let us know in the comments if you’re excited about Knights of Badassdom.

Photo source : Joe Lynch’s blog. Lynch with swords photo taken by Matt Wall.

Simon Pegg has been a very busy man, and along with the images from Paul which we posted here, the first promotional still from his resurrectionist comedy Burke and Hare surfaces.

B&H is a welcome return to the big screen for John Landis whose previous form practically guarantees guffaws and gore galore, and with a wonderful cast conspiring around Pegg and his fellow body snatcher Andy Serkis, this will be one to watch when it arrives on the big screen.

USA Today ran this image, and for comparison I’ve included the promo poster that was doing the rounds are Cannes earlier this year which uses the same idea with a slightly more Carry on Resurrecting feel to it.

There’s a lot going on down in Cannes, our man on the ground Simon Gallagher is doing us proud (you can follow all of his coverage here) and keeping up with the whispers is quite a challenge but there’s good things to be found all over the place, including our first look at the poster for John Landis’s forthcoming body snatcher comedy Burke and Hare.

Snapped by /Film while doing the rounds this poster has a hint of the Carry On Ressurecting about it, but the team of Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the titular grave robbers is too good to pass up. There’s something of the Sherlock Holmes about this poster, but there’s bond to be a world of difference between the two films.

Keen to draw in the eyes of the male audience there’s an awkwardly Photoshopped-in Isla Fisher but the tag line is funny and I’m certainly hoping this will be a return to form for Landis.

Here’s the poster, looking forward to seeing a trailer before long.

A little while ago we showed you some images from Simon Pegg / Andy Serkis’ new movie, Burke and Hare. This morning I wake to find that Empire have now released the first official image for the movie which shows the two of them dressed in their period character costumes looking rather dapper.

Burke and Hare also stars John Cleese, Isla Fisher, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson and is directed by John Landis. Burke and Hare is based on the real men who murdered 17 people between 1827 and 1828. After the murderers, they would sell the bodies to Dr. Robert Knox who would then dissect them in his anatomy class.

Still no release date but we think we can expect to see it around the latter half of 2010. You can click the image below to enlarge.

Official Synopsis: WILLIAM BURKE and WILLIAM HARE are scratching out a living in 1830s Edinburgh.  After yet another failed business venture, they return to Hare’s lodging house to find that their tenant has suddenly died on rent day.  As the boys decide how to dispose of the body over a drink, they discover that a corpse can fetch a hefty price.  Edinburgh is the centre of the medical universe and the city’s doctors are crying out for more cadavers for their educational lectures.  First they try the infamous DR. MONRO, but he’s not interested, so they sell the corpse to DR. KNOX, his vain and ambitious rival who urges them to bring any more ‘unfortunates’ they may stumble upon.

Entrepreneurial Hare is quick to realize they’ve hit on a great money making venture and despite the more sensitive Burke’s misgivings, they embark on a series of plans to secure more bodies.  They arrange a series of deadly ‘accidents’ for the local unfortunates and to celebrate their success, they go out on the town to celebrate.  There, Burke meets GINNY, a beautiful and spirited aspiring actress.

Drive on by the promise of romance, Burke agrees to step up their operation; branching out into “ethical” murder.  The professional rivalry between Knox and Munro is creating a very lucrative trade for the boys as Knox needs extra bodies for his groundbreaking photographic map of the human body.  In a series of hilarious comic misadventures Burke and Hare begin to secure a steady stream of bodies and the cash starts rolling in.

With the authorities closing in, Hare promises Burke he’s got a new plan; they just need a bit more money and then they can go legit and open a funeral parlour.

The pressure builds when Knox is arrested after dissecting some well known locals and he immediately implicates Burke and Hare as his supplier of fresh corpses.

Burke and Hare sweat it out in the cells as a crowd gathers baying for bloody.  In a wild, but romantic gesture, Burke volunteers to take the rap to save his friend and the love of his life, Ginny.  As the hangman’s noose goes around his neck, our hero is smiling bravely and when asked for his final words, he pronounces “I did it for love.”

The feature length documentary and directorial debut of Elijah Drenner, American Grindhouse, will première at the South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas on March 13^th.

American Grindhouse is a project from Drenner born out of a passion for grindhouse cinema in which he investigates the tradition of grindhouse film in American cinema over the past 100 years.

Although not lucky enough to experience the grindhouse cinema experience first hand (I was born after its heyday in the 70s) I have watched many of the films closely associated with the tradition of the grindhouse and there are many fantastic films with even those that are truly terrible often having a hook that makes them worth a watch.

Following Tarantino and Rodriguez’s 2007 Grindhouse there is a renewed interest in these kind of films and it looks like this documentary will provide a great introduction for the uninitiated and a further insight for existing fans into the people behind the films.

Drenner has assembled a great selection of people to interview, including Jack Hill (the project began as a Jack Hill documentary), Herschell Gordon Lewis, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Fred Williamson and John Landis and the film features clips from over 200 films. Here’s hoping the film will be a worthy tribute to grindhouse cinema and help bring many of these often ignored titles to a wider audience.

Check out a preview from the film embedded below.