controversy

As if a massively disappointing delay in release date wasn't bad enough, the upcoming Wolfman remake has suffered yet another setback. Dread Central, by way of Cinemusic, is reporting that legendary film composer Danny Elfman is off the project and Paul Haslinger will be taking his place. Technically the word is that "scheduling conflicts" are to blame, but if you buy that nonsense I have a case of werewolf repellent I would love to sell to you. The film opens in February and I am honestly supposed to believe that Elfman plumb forgot he had a previous engagement? Or that he wouldn't be in the final stages of putting the music together anyway? The damn thing was supposed to come out this week. No, this reeks of studio politics and publicity malarkey.

How can you replace Danny Elfman with a guy whose biggest score credit to date is Crank?! Wait, Crank? There was music in Crank? Here's a little tip for Universal, if you are aiming for an old-school horror flick to bring class and glamor back to both the genre and your studio, bailing on Danny Elfman in favor of a guy whose credits include Vacancy and Death Race is not the right move. If I hear one more person bitch about Elfman's scores all sounding the same I may bite their jugular. It's not like John Williams went through a freaking experimental techno phase, but that doesn't mean he isn't a great composer. Elfman understands how to create an exciting, gothic landscape with music that perfectly heralds a classic horror atmosphere. His dismissal from this project, if that is in fact what happened, effectively downgrades this film from something I was highly anticipating to something about which I feel tremendous consternation. But that's just me.

Full story at Dread Central

According to the good folks over at Arrow in the Head, Saw VI is apparently more than the rating boards of Spain can handle. The film has earned itself an X rating despite being wildly successful in all its other incarnations. What is it about Saw VI that has the Spanish MPAA's pantalones all in a twist? Did they get shipped an unrated cut? Or do they just like the idea of pairing it with Debbie Does Barcelona as a double feature? The craziest part of this whole story, in my opinion, is that the company that distributes the Saw films in Spain...is freaking Disney! Oh yeah, and Disney has pulled all its promotional material (television ads, posters, and the like) and is currently in a battle with the Spanish MPAA over the issue.

By William Goss

Another day, another snafu on the ol' political correctness front. It seems that adoptive parents and adoption agencies are up in arms because of a line in the trailer for Warner Brothers' forthcoming thriller, Orphan: "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own."

A full ABC News report has parents calling for the studio to remove the line from the trailers, which it did, despite the fact that the trailer can only play before other R-rated films. But that's not enough, because apparently, the film itself can be and has been taken as one big campaign playing up the stereotypes and exploiting the fears of adoption.

More at Cinematical!