Creepy ‘Apollo 18′ Poster

Due to budgetary constraints, scheduling issues and other various setbacks, the final few Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s were cancelled. Apollo 18, 19 and 20 were all planning to take astronauts to the surface of the Moon again but it just wasn’t meant to be. In early 1970, they pulled the plug on the Apollo 20 mission and later that year NASA also put an end to the Apollo 18  & 19 missions.

But what if Apollo 17 wasn’t actually the last Apollo Lunar mission? What if Apollo 18 actually did happen covertly and conducted its scheduled landing in February of 1972 and found alien life? This is the story behind the upcoming film written by Brian Miller, simply titled Apollo 18.

The Weinstein Company picked up the rights to Miller’s Apollo 18 screenplay and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) is attached to produce. Trevor Cawood, a visual effects artist who worked on such films as The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, was attached to direct the “found footage” documentary-style, sci-fi thriller, but the latest news has Spanish director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego stepping in to helm the project.

IGN has the exclusive on the first Apollo 18 poster which depicts a footprint of an astronaut beside the foot print of… something else.

The plot of Apollo 18 is not dissimilar from Cloverfield and revolves around archived Russian footage discovered from the 1970s which reveals that President Nixon didn’t actually cancel Apollo 18 and that it did happen, offering a new reason as to why the Apollo missions ended after that. Here’s a snippet from the press release which offers more detail about the plot:

A quintessential Cold War story, Apollo 18 casts light on the covert and undocumented lunar mission that officially “never happened.” Bekmambetov, hired by Russia to shoot a documentary about the Russian space station, recently came across footage in its space archives that bolsters the idea that an Apollo 18 mission did, in fact, take place, and reveals startling evidence of extraterrestrial life forms. This actual footage will be part of Apollo 18, a paranormal thriller that will interpolate fact and fiction.

As long as the footage doesn’t involve a seizure-inducing style of film like Cloverfield than I am absolutely on board with Apollo 18 and its story. Apollo 18 is in early production but hasn’t begun shooting yet for its early 2011 release, giving it a very short window for completion.

Apollo 18 is scheduled to release March 4, 2011.

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Source: IGN

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Creepy Cool ‘Black Swan’ Music Video

Arguably the most anticipated movie until TRON: Legacy hits theaters is Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The film has been greeted with early rave reviews from nearly every person who has seen an advance screening. Fox Searchlight now presents a new music video that seconds as an updated trailer for the film, complete with flashy, frenetic shots set to intense music.

The marketing campaign has introduced Black Swan as a psychological thriller that keeps your heart beating. Aronofsky’s style has always been unique, typically favoring an unconventional story that is twisted into an even more unconventional film. Yet, his most acclaimed film, The Wrestler, was also his least complex (in terms of form, at least). Black Swan appears to be right in the middle.

The first Black Swan trailer grew more intense as it progressed, peaking at an emotional ending that sent chills through my body. The new music video reinvigorates those chills, but the intensity is present from start to finish. It plays out like a trailer version of the viral website, I Just Want To Be Perfect. Each day, the site adds a short clip from the movie as a countdown to the December 3rd release date.

If you are still skeptical that Natalie Portman can be scary as all hell, you haven’t seen this short video. Watch the flashy music video below, courtesy of Apple.

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I didn’t need any more reason to see Black Swan, but that moment at :50 mark in the music video has me wondering if Portman will jump from my dreams to my nightmares. She is one of the most charming, beautiful woman in Hollywood, in my opinion. Her petite frame and wide-ranging abilities on screen make her endlessly appealing. But Portman appears instantly believable in her insanely enraged mindset.

Coupled with a fantastic director, she has been heralded as the frontrunner for Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards. If her apparent rise to insanity in Black Swan is as enthralling as the trailers suggest, Portman may walk home with an Oscar.

The other unseen star of Black Swan has been the music. We don’t really know what it sounds like just yet, but Clint Mansell, who frequently collaborates with Aronofsky, explained some time ago that his inspiration was Tchaikovsky’s original “Swan Lake”. If the opening beat to this music video is a part of his original score, we may be in for yet another special soundtrack – did you honestly expect anything less, though?

Like the movies, there are no other original scores I look forward to more than Black Swan and TRON: Legacy. Snippets of Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy score have been presented in music videos similar to the one above, but Clint Mansell’s Black Swan tracks have been kept under wraps. Murmurs on Twitter from other movie critics have been loaded with praise.

The music of ‘Black Swan’

If the music video is any inclination of the drug-filled sexual encounter between Portman and Mila Kunis in Black Swan, we are in for one trippy scene. The entire movie will likely play tricks on your mind with flash cuts and optical illusions, but the music video is our closest look at the style of Black Swan and the high-powered dramatic attack the film offers.

Are you desperately awaiting the release of Black Swan or will you hold out to see how the masses feel about it?

Black Swan releases in limited theaters on December 3rd and opens wider over the following weekends.

Source: Apple

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