Blog Posts by Bryan Enk

'Veronica Mars' cast photo courtesy of Jarett Wieselman

The Kickstarter campaign for the proposed (and now fan-funded) "Veronica Mars" movie reached its $2 million goal in about ten hours. Assuming that Warner Bros. stays true to its word, shells out the rest of the cash (99.9% of movies cost way more than $2 million, after all) and goes forward with the project, it looks like we're indeed going to get a "Veronica Mars" movie. But in looking at the history of television dramas that went on to have feature film adaptations, is that necessarily a good thing?

Photo: Everett)

Will Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, teleport himself to the set of "X-Men: Days of Future Past"? While the answer remained as elusive as the wily mutant himself over the past few months, current evidence unfortunately leans toward the negative.

It's been mutant mania as several "X-Men" movie alums have been signing on for director Bryan Singer's return to the franchise, which merges the worlds of the original "X-Men" trilogy and 2011's reboot/prequel, "X-Men: First Class." However, Alan Cumming, who played the scene-stealing Nightcrawler in "X2" (2003), won't be coming back for another semester at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

'My Amityville Horror' (Photo: IFC Films)

"The Amityville Horror" scared audiences when it opened in 1979, but what was it like living in the home that inspired the hit horror flick?

A new documentary, "My Amityville Horror," which opens in select theaters and goes on-demand this Friday, tells the story of Danny Lutz, who moved into the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, in 1975.

Warwick Davis in 'Willow' (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Warwick Davis has traversed the realms of many a sci-fi/fantasy franchise, from the galaxy far, far away of "Star Wars" to the hallowed halls of Hogwarts in "Harry Potter" to the perilous maze lorded over by David Bowie in "Labyrinth." He's also quite the horror icon after no less than six appearances as the ever-rhyming Irish demon in the "Leprechaun" series, which took him from the farmlands of North Dakota to the mean streets of the 'hood and even all the way into outer space.

Davis made his feature film debut at the age of 13 as Wicket W. Warrick, one of the most resourceful and, well, excitable Ewoks in "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" (1983). He reprised the role in two made-for-television spinoff films, "The Ewok Adventure" (1984) and "Ewoks: Battle For Endor" (1985), and it was on the set of the latter that George Lucas first hinted that he may have an even bigger project in mind for the young actor, one that will put him center stage (and without a mask).

That project ended up being "Willow" (1988), a grand fantasy epic directed by a just-getting-started Ron Howard (the "director of 'Cocoon,'" as he was described in the teaser trailer). "Willow" tells the tale of Willow Ufgood (Davis), a farmer and amateur conjurer who finds himself on a dangerous quest after he's tasked with protecting an infant prophesied to end the reign of the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh), an adventure that teams him up with the swaggering warrior Madmartigan (Val Kilmer).

We spoke with Warwick Davis upon the 25th anniversary Blu-ray release of "Willow" about the project's origins, memories of '80s summer movie seasons, some rather impressionable fan experiences and, of course, Disney's resurrection of "Star Wars."

Tobey Maguire, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'The Great Gatsby' (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Leonardo DiCaprio will be doing the Cannes-Cannes.

"The Great Gatsby," Baz Luhrmann's highly anticipated adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel starring DiCaprio, will screen out of competition at the Grand Theatre Lumiere of the Palais des Festivals on May 15 to open the vaunted film fest.

Luhrmann is no stranger to having a film of his be the first out of the gate at Cannes, as "Moulin Rouge!" threw quite the opening gala back in 2001.

(Photo: DC Entertainment)As Warner Bros. is trying to figure out how to best bring the Dark Knight back to the big screen upon the completion of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" series, DC Comics is going the "Batman Begins" route and starting from scratch... sort of.

DC will revisit the origins of the Caped Crusader in "Batman: Zero Year," an 11-issue arc that will commence in June. Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Greg Capullo, "Zero Year" will offer a few new twists on the tried-and-true Bruce Wayne backstory without serving as a complete do-over.

"It's not 'Let's redo the origin,'" said Snyder to Daily Freeman. "We tried to preserve as much of Batman's history as we could and keep what we could of this history intact. It's 'The Zero Year,' the one that no one has told the story of before. We see how Bruce became the Batman, built the cave, faced off with his first super villain."

James Franco at the U.S. premiere of 'Spring Breakers' on Sunday in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP Images)Being an actor, filmmaker, grad student, musician, artist and all-around entrepreneur makes James Franco one of the busiest people in Hollywood. His multilayered career keeps him away from home most of the time ... but that doesn't mean his house isn't being put to good use in his absence.

Franco purchased a compound in the hip Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake late last summer for $775,000, with the Real Estalker reporting a rumor that "Mister Franco has plans to fix up the quirky but kinda dumpy two-unit mini-compound where he's currently shacked up with his long-time b.f.f and producing partner Vince Jolivette." Now, according to his neighbors, the place has been turned into a full-blown production house -- pretty much a nightmare situation for anyone living next door.

Ewen Bremner, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle in 'Trainspotting,' 2006 (Photo: Getty Images)Director Danny Boyle wants to get back some of that old "Lust For Life."

"Shallow Grave" (1994) may have put Boyle on the map, but "Trainspotting" (1996) made everyone actually check that map. Adapted by screenwriter John Hodge from Irvin Welsh's 1993 novel, "Trainspotting" painted a feverish portrait of wandering Scottish youths drowning their disillusionment with the expectations of modern society under a haze of alcohol and smack, a hedonistic lifestyle that quickly leads to harrowing tragedy (set to a hip soundtrack, of course). It made a star of Ewan McGregor and an A-list filmmaker out of Boyle, and you were one of the cool ones if you got to see it.