Silver Surfer posters

Here's a couple of cool promo posters of Silver Surfer from the upcoming movie 'Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer'.



In this movie, the Fantastic Four meets their greatest challenge as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost.

The true 'happyness' of Chris Gardner

I have just watched 'The Pusuit of Happyness' over the weekend and I must say that it's one of the most inspiring and touching movies I've seen in a while. We all take what we have for granted....but watching the movie makes you realise that there are so many unfortunate people out there who are jobless and homeless. And with determination, faith and ambition one man breaks free from his chains to become successful.

The movie is based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman whose wife left him to take care of his son alone. In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to try for a stockbroker internship. Together, father and son struggle through homelessness, jail time, tax seizure and the overall punishing despair in a quest that would make Gardner a respected millionaire.

I thought rather than going at lengths about the movie (which eventually all of you will see), I will share some quotes from the real-life Chris Gardner instead.

I asked the guy two questions. One was, ‘What do you do?’ The second was, ‘How do you do that?’

I was homeless, but I wasn't hopeless. I knew a better day was coming.

One of the things young people always ask me about is what is the secret to success. The secret is there is no secret. It’s the basics. Blocking and tackling.

When I look back at the journey from homelessness to prosperity, I hold one thing dearer than all else – my commitment to my son. Doing a movie with the top movie star portraying me, doing a book with an editor who's last book won the Pulitzer Prize – all that stuff is great, but the most important thing that I will have ever done in my life was break the cycle of men who were not there for their children.

As busy as I am wherever I am, I try to get out and walk the streets, to remember how far I’ve come and appreciate every baby step of the way.

I went to some very successful business people when I was trying to open the doors of my company, and none of them would give me the time of day. I made a promise to myself and to God. I said, 'God, if you ever let me get to a certain level, I am not going to be like that.'

The coolest thing in the world is walking up the street in Chicago, New York or San Francisco and having someone say 'Hey, you might not remember me, but thank you for helping me get in the business'. That was 12 or 14 years ago. These kids have graduated from college and gone to law school or gotten their MBAs and are running departments in some of the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street.

You know how mountains get moved? Everyone who can move a couple, move a couple. Those who can move rocks, move rocks. Those who can move boulders, move boulders. That’s how mountains get moved. If every one of us did everything we could, I believe we would be in a different world.

You have to be committed, and you have to find something that you are passionate about. And forget about money. I’ve learned that money is the least significant aspect of wealth.

No matter how much money is involved or no matter how easy it is for you to do, if you’re not happy, you are nothing more than a slave to your talent and money. Do something that makes you happy and makes you feel good about yourself. Do something that makes you feel your work is significant and meaningful. If you just want to make money, that’s a whole different trip. I can’t help you with that.

Living with a baby tied on my back, trying to work, he recalls. It can be done, but you have to make it happen. And no matter what, you have to cling to it like it’s life itself, if that’s what you really want to do.

There's a choice: you eat or you stay in a hotel. We chose to eat. And we stayed in a subway station. We rode the trains. We slept in bathrooms.

I wanted to be world class at it or world class at something. At 18, Miles Davis was in New York playing with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. At the same age, I was playing with some cats named Pookie and Ray Ray. It wasn’t going to happen. But I made a commitment to be world class at something.

We all understand genetics. You get your eyes from your dad, your mom’s nose, there’s nothing you can do about that. But your spiritual genetics you can choose, pick, embrace and commit to. That’s what I did.

Though my mom had too many of her own dreams denied, deferred and destroyed, she instilled in me that I could have dreams. And not just have dreams but had a responsibility to make them reality. My mom taught me from a very early age that I could do anything I wanted to do.

We were homeless, we were not hopeless. There’s a world of difference. A lot of folks don’t realize it, but it’s estimated that 12 percent of all of the homeless people in this country have jobs and go to work every day.

Baby steps count, as long as you are going forward. You add them all up, and one day you look back and you’ll be surprised at where you might get to.

More Asian remakes from Hollywood

Following the success of movies like 'The Grudge', 'The Ring' and recently the Oscar-winning 'The Departed', Hollywood is planning to 'bastardize' more Asian movies. Why do the film-makers think that people would prefer the English version to the original version? I guess maybe Americans can't read subtitles...lol.

Anyway, like it or not, here's a bunch of remakes on the way to your local screens soon.

• One Missed Call: According to Variety, Intermedia has paired with Kadakowa USA to produce and finance the English-language remake of the Japanese horror hit. The story is about several people who starts receiving voice-mails from the future foretelling the date, time, and details of their deaths. The remake will star Edward Burns and Azura Skye.

• Shutter: Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor will star in Regency Enterprises' psychological thriller 'Shutter', which begins shooting March 12 in Tokyo. This is a remake of the 2004 Thai movie. The remake will be directed by Masayuki Ochiai and will be released in 2008.

• Confession Of Pain: After the success of 'The Departed', Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan will be adapting another Hong Kong flick 'Confession Of Pain', which was also made by the 'Infernal Affairs' team of Andrew Lau, Alan Mak and Felix Chong. Leonardo DiCaprio is in line to produce and star.

• The Eye: Jessica Alba takes on the role as the girl who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. This is the remake of the Hong Kong horror movie directed by the Pang Brothers.

• Bangkok Dangerous: The most promising thing about this is that the original movie's directors, Pang Brothers, are going to direct the remake as well. The new version will be titled 'Time To Kill'. Nicholas Cage stars as a hitman who comes to Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs and falls for a local woman.

• My Sassy Girl: The remake combines the original Korean story, the French whimsy of director Yann Samuell, the Indian spice of writer Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), and the American midwestern setting. The remake stars Jesse Bradford and Elisha Cuthbert.

The lowest grossing movie in history

The movie 'Zyzzyx Road' opened at the box office on February 25 this year made history recently...but not in a good way. The movie - which cost $US2 million ($2.5 million) to make and starring Leo Grillo, Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl - has become the lowest-grossing American cinema release ever, with total box-office earnings of US$30. The movie closed six days after it opened.

Wow! With an average ticket of US$5 per ticket, that only means 6 people watched it over a period of 6 days. The reason could probably be because nobody could pronounce the title correctly at the ticket counter...lol.

The following article was taken from Wikipedia.

Zyzzyx Road lasted only six days in release, from February 25, 2006 through March 2, 2006. The film was released in only one theater, in One of the most widely recognized aspects of Zyzzyx Road is its notably low box office draw. The film is possibly the lowest grossing film of all time, earning just $30 at the box office from exactly six patrons. Unofficially, its opening weekend netted twenty dollars. The ten dollar difference is due to a personal refund by Grillo to makeup artist Sheila Moore, who had worked on the film, and her friend.

The release was purposefully shown for a short amount of time in the single theater, which the producers had rented for $1,000, to fulfill Screen Actors Guild rules that allow a low-budget film to pay actors a lower rate as long as that film is released in the United States. This showing in Texas was to fulfill that obligation without compromising the chances for future nationwide distribution through a distribution company.

The synopsis is as follows:

Grant is an accountant with a bad marriage and a daughter whom he loves. He takes to the road to service his accounts in Las Vegas. While there he meets seductive Marissa. They have a week-long affair which culminates in the arrival of Marissa's ex-boyfriend, Joey. Joey attempts to kill the lovers, but Grant gets the upper hand. Grant and Marissa then drive Joey's body to Zyzzyx Road and Grant buries Joey in the desert there. But in the morning the body is missing and something is trying to kill Grant and Marissa.