Your Highness: Pineapple Express meets Princess Bride?

What would happened if you crossed Princess Bride with Pineapple Express? We might just get the answer in Your Highness, a movie scheduled for 2011 release directed by David Gordon Green (who also directed Pineapple Express and the Eastbound & Down series). And guess who's in it?




James Franco and Danny McBride are back! Woohoo. And joining them are Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel. McBride (who's also in Eastbound & Down) is an an arrogant, lazy prince named Thadeous who goes on a dragon-slaying quest to save his father's kingdom. Joining him on the quest is his more heroic brother, played by Franco, and Belladonna, Franco's "virginal bride," played by Deschanel. Along the way, McBride meets and falls in love with a warrior princess played Portman. At this point, you should be going, "what?!" To me, Franco, Portman and Deschanel are awesome - talented & attractive actors who are kooky and unique in their own way. And McBride is hilarious.

And to top it off, according to FirstShowing, director Gordon Green explained that Your Highness is "about a prince that smokes weed and fights dragons." Can't wait!

PS: I can't wait to see Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer!

Coffee Clicks!

• Sci-Fi Hotties of 2009. Can't believe I'm saying this, but Zachary Quinto's kinda hot. It's totally the eyebrows. [EW.com]


• Season 6 of Project Runway starts on August 20! Big changes this season though, with the series moving over to Lifetime (I know, what the hell, right? Lifetime's worse than Hallmark) from Bravo and the contestants will be designing out of Los Angeles instead of New York for the first time. [Access Hollywood]


• First Transformers, then Smurfs & Monopoly. What next? The Furby Movie? [LA Times]


• Thinking of Oreos? You might after this! 10 Awesome Guerrilla Marketing Videos

Stranger than fiction: Smurfs and Green Hornet

More news on The Smurfs movie. Yup, you read right, someone from Columbia Pictures and Sony Animation actually thought it was a good idea to make a 2D and 3D feature-length movie featuring the topless blue fellas (except Smurfette who stole Minnie Mouse's heels) in strange white beanies. And the lucky guy who will be directing it? Raja Gosnell, who also directed great movies such as Beverly Hills Chihuahua, both Scooby-Doo movies and Big Momma's House - yes, I am being sarcastic. Don't get me wrong though, I used to love Smurfs as a kid, but now that I'm an adult, it seemed a tad weird that it was a community of all men and one woman. Shudder. Can't wait for someone to make My Little Pony. Hello people, Thundercats please!


If I had to use one word to describe the remake of The Green Hornet, it'll be "huh." Michel Gondry (Be Kind, Rewind, Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is directing, Seth Rogen plays the lead and co-writes the screenplay, Stephen Chow Sing Chi plays Kato (yup, Bruce Lee may be rolling over in his grave right about now) and Cameron Diaz will be the female lead. Don't get me wrong, I think Gondry's style is really unique and Eternal Sunshine is one of my all-time favorite films and Seth Rogen is a funny man. But what an odd pairing for cast members and director for a movie like The Green Hornet! It's scheduled for a 2010 release, so I guess I'll just have to wait till more stills and a trailer pop by before I pass judgment.

Creepy, funny, in-your-face - Whatever it takes to make a good ad

I love good ads, like the ones below. Whether it's funny, smart or just plain creepy, if it catches your attention - it's a good ad. Even better if it's so good that you can't help but take a photo of it to share with your friends!

True Blood Wall Promos


Schizophrenia can be treated. Seek help.


LOL - FedEx delivers UPS?


Found these 3 fun ads above and more from Belinda Ang's Twitter. Check out more here at 25 Funny Advertisements With Great Recall.

Coffee Clicks!

• 170-year-old Canadian luxury retailer Holt Renfrew's window displays celebrate fashion bloggers. One more reason to move to Canada! In the words of bryanboy - feroush! Besides Bryanboy, other bloggers getting their personal homage are The Sartorialist (love!), Sea of Shoes, Garancedore, I Want I Got and Jak & Jil. Why are they celebrating fashion bloggers? According to Holt Renfrew Creative Director John Gerhardt, "Bloggers have become the fashion world's new celebrities. They're knowledgeable and influential contributors to the modern media landscape. Their opinions and visuals are relevant, creative and thought-provoking, providing a constant source of inspiration. We are honoured to pay homage to their style." [Bryanboy]


• Disney launches interactive video game based on classic "A Christmas Carol" for Nintendo DS. What's interesting is that it'll be base on the new version of the movie with Jim Carrey as Scrooge (according to IMDB, it's slated for release in 2009 in IMAX 3D as well), which makes sense, considering that "players will guide Scrooge on his supernatural adventure, by blowing and shouting into the microphone and using the Nintendo DS stylus to pull, shake, drag, rattle and tap the different environments." Would love to see someone playing it on the train. :) [Film Guide]


• Happy Birthday 81st birthday sliced bread! [Mental Floss]


• Netflix-style service for fashion in Singapore. Ahh, so they finally figured what to do with those LV and Prada bags that were taking up the extra room in the HDBs. Can't tell much from the web site though! [Springwise]

Goodnight and sleep well, Michael

Was up all night watching the memorial for Michael Jackson. It was unreal yet so apt as a final farewell for the king of pop. From his gold casket to his brothers wearing a single bling-ed out glove, the memorial at Staples Center was a beautiful send-off. What was interesting was that you would have expected throngs of who's who would show up to pay their respects, after all, he was a legend. Speakers and performers include Berry Gordy, Mariah Carey, a preggers Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder, Usher (he did a heartbreaking version of Gone Too Soon), Al Sharpton, Kobe Bryant & Magic Johnson (who strangely left out Joe Jackson in their speech but covered everyone), Brooke Shields, Martin Luther King's children and a handful of other people. You would have expected Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross or Beyonce to attend, but nope, they were no-shows. But interestingly, the fact that it was quite a "low-key" farewell felt right.

For most people, the best moments will likely be Brooke's speech ("What's up with the glove?), Usher's "Gone Too Soon" or the first time the public has heard Michael's daughter Paris speak, telling her Daddy that she loves him in between sobs. To me though, the most heart-wrenching moment was at the end of Jennifer Hudson's performance of "Will You Be There?" where they flashed the final verse of the song with Michael Jackson's voice reading the lyrics. It gave me chills.

Absolutely beautiful words and painful but valid questions to ask of someone, especially one who claims to love you.

[Spoken]
In Our Darkest Hour
In My Deepest Despair
Will You Still Care?
Will You Be There?
In My Trials
And My Tribulations
Through Our Doubts
And Frustrations
In My Violence
In My Turbulence
Through My Fear
And My Confessions
In My Anguish And My Pain
Through My Joy And My Sorrow
In The Promise Of Another Tomorrow
I'll Never Let You Part
For You're Always In My Heart

Blog needs a re-design.

Getting bored of my blog layout, but too under-skilled to give my blog a fresh new look. I used to love the colored spots on my blog and the uncluttered look; but I'm ready for a look that's more elegant and organic, yet slightly eccentric and funky fun. Oh wait, that sounds like me - haha. Thinking of something along the lines of Toki Doki meets Orla Kiely meets Marimekko meets Audrey Hepburn?

Design mavens - where are you?!

Coffee Clicks!

• 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time. Shudder. - Guy Kawasaki's Twitter.


• GDGT.com: Pronounced "gadget" or G-D-G-T, check out the new site, social networking meets gadget geeks. The site's founded by tech writers Ryan Block (Engadget) and Peter Rojas (Engadget, Gizmodo).


• Best Practices for Effective Design of About Us Pages: I love great design ideas! - Guy Kawasaki's Twitter


• Character posters for 9 - First Showing

Coraline Blogger Boxes: This is what I call marketing!

The irony. I just realized that in my previous post I said, "I'm not a big fan of animation" and here I am going nuts over a whole bunch of stuff from Coraline! Coraline is based on a book by the same name by Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors (Follow @neilhimself on Twitter)!

I was jumping out of chair when I found that 50 extremely lucky bloggers (not me obviously, boo hoo) each received 50 handmade, customized boxes from the Coraline team. And the boxes are gorgeous and fascinating! I want one sooo bad, even if it's an imitation one! Each of the boxes holds a key that unlocks a door welcoming us into Coraline's world, as well as what goes on behind the scenes, for examples, costumes, stop-motion etc. What's more fun is that everybody's trying to hunt down all the boxes! See below for my favorites, as well as links to each blog for more photos. Notcot did a wonderful job of compiling the 50 boxes and the photos below are all from Notcot, head over to Notcot now!


Box #2 from More Everything

Box #5 from Fashion Piranhna

Box #8 from Knitty Blog

Box #10 from Stop Motion Magic

Box #27 from Neatorama


Also not forgetting, the A to Z posters from Coraline, see the A version above. Check out the high-res versions and complete set of A to Z Coraline posters.

Trailer: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

I'm not a big fan of animation, but I fell in the love with the title of this new animation from Sony Pictures. It's based on a children's book and is about aspiring inventor who tries to save his little town from having to eat just sardines by inventing a machine that creates food. And lo and behold, before you know it, food starts falling from the sky! The trailer makes me hungry!

Coffee Clicks

• Twilight Barbie and Spock (the Zachary Quinto version!) Ken? - IMDB


• Optimus Prime - Bedazzled. Inside joke: For the Singaporeans, this is what would happen if Xiaxue got her hands on Optimus Prime. LOL. - CNET Asia


• Leighton Meester aka Blair Waldorf in "Good Girls Go Bad", new music video by Cobra Starship. Song co-written by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi. Leighton - Hot! DioGuardi's writing skills - Not so much.


• Ooo, more stuff on Adam, one of those movies that I can't wait to see. Take the Adam Relationship Facebook Quiz. Adam is about a man with Asperger's Syndrome, who develops develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor Beth, played by Rose Byrne. View Adam trailer. - Fox Searchlight's Twitter


• Taking bets - Drew Barrymore & Justin Long, on or off when their new movie Going The Distance hits theaters? - Adam Shankman's Twitter


• 10 Simple Tips for Managing Twitter as Your Usage Increases - @GuyKawasaki Twitter

Coffee Clicks is a compilation of random items on the web that catches my attention as I have my morning cuppa.

Swoon: The Evolution of Johnny Depp

What's better than Johnny Depp? 17 versions of Johnny Depp through his films! Woohoo, Total Film rocks for compiling this.

What's the best part about this list? Well, if you call yourself a Depp fan, you better know this list and seen all the movies at least twice (except Public Enemies, coz us folks in Singapore don't have it yet, sigh)! From Pirates of the Caribbean to Benny & Joon, this list is an excellent list to kick off your very own Johnny Depp-themed movie night.

My faves are Johnny as Wade Walker in Cry Baby and as JM Barrie in Finding Neverland. Hard fight, but I also loved Johnny in Ed Wood and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Yes, as you can tell, my ideal man is one who has a heart of gold but is slightly off his rocker :)

See the complete Evolution of Johnny Depp at Total Film.

Guillermo del Toro's "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark"

Guillermo del Toro is the only reason why I would pay $10 for a movie ticket to watch Hellboy 1 and 2. Growing up, I've always been fascinated with strange, horrific-looking creatures, creatures that are not necessarily monsters, but unforgettable images that burn into your mind, the type of creatures that you don't want to meet in a dark alley, even if they are good (or appear to be). Growing up, I remember my fascination with Lord of Illusions, Hellraiser and all of Jim Henson's creatures in Labyrinth. That same fascination came back when I watched del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth - to this day, I cannot get the image of Pan or the Pale Man out of my head.

So news is slowly coming in that Guillermo del Toro is producing and co-writing an updated version of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a 1973 TV movie. A young girl is sent to live with her father and his new girlfriend discovers creatures in her new home who want to claim her as one of their own. If the plot sounds familiar, I don't blame you - my first thought was, "Wait, this sounds like The Orphanage, we just need to substitute scary dead children with creatures." But it's still too early to tell - Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is scheduled for a 2011 release and the latest news is Guy Pearce has signed on to the movie, joining Katie Holmes. If you know me, you'll know I cannot stand Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce is a hit & miss for me. Holmes drives me nuts (bad nuts) with her I'm-a-lost-puppy-please-take-home look and marrying Tom Cruise or being best buddies with Victoria Beckham has in no way helped her image, nor her soon-to-air Judy Garland dance routine on So You Think You Can Dance. So I'm keeping an open mind and hope that del Toro will not disappoint!

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark will be the first feature for director Troy Nixey. Check out the trailer for his short Latchkey's Lament, which blends CGI animation and live action. It's too little to go by, the keys are slightly too cartoon-ish for my taste but I don't hate anything about it. Completely random, but am I the only one who thinks it's weird to have a trailer for a short film, considering that I've seen trailers that are as long as some short films?

Watch the short film Mama to get a taste of del Toro. Mama is a short Spanish film by Andy Muschietti, who del Toro is mentoring to produce a feature-length version of the same film. Seriously, it's the scariest 3-minutes of my life. I dare you not to jump in your seat. Watch Mama.

Micmacs A Tire-Larigot: New Jean-Pierre Jeunet film!

UPDATED: 7 new teaser trailers from Twitch!


Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? What’s the human cannonball world record?

Yeah...that's part of the French synopsis for my fave director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's new film, Micmacs A Tire-Larigot. For those who know Jeunet, you probably know what to expect and the synopsis will barely raise an eyebrow. Most people will know Jeunet from Amelie, but from what I can tell from the trailer (from Twitch), I think Micmacs A Tire-Larigot will be closer to his older works such as The City of Lost Children and Delicatessen than Amelie.

According to Babelfish, Micmacs A Tire-Larigot roughly translates to mean "An Intriguing Car Larigot" -- my French is awful but somehow I don't think that sounds right. /Film says that the movie is a satire on the world arms trade and it's a story of a guy with a bullet in his brain. Synopsis according to IMDB: A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.

If I had to choose, I'm a bigger fan of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement, which I recently re-watched. Although all of Jeunet's films share the same quirky vein, Amelie and A Very long Engagement were "prettier" and I love the use of colors in both movies. I'll definitely catch Micmacs A Tire-Larigot if it ever comes to Singapore, but I won't expect a beautifully shot piece, but more of a a grittier, darker quirky piece.

Check out L'Express for more film stills and on-set photos.