What's on the Other Side?

Actor Joe Flanigan clearly has a penchant for going through portals of one kind or another. He did it a lot in Stargate: Atlantis and now it's happening again in a creature feature flick from SyFy Channel supplier RHI Entertainment.

The Other Side [aka Ferocious Planet] (US-2011; dir. Douglas G. Davis)

This time Flanigan has John Rhys-Davies (doing his best to look senatorial rather than dwarvish) and Dagmar Doring along for the ride.

But Lord of the Rings or not, the while thing naturally involves nasty creatures. Big, nasty creatures. That is, of course, just what we want.

Synopsis:

It was a groundbreaking device designed to glimpse alternate universes and government commissioned by a brilliant physicist. But the machine malfunctioned on its first presentation, transporting a group of observers into a nightmarish new dimension. The team quickly must use ingenuity and courage to outwit, outplay and outlast the native man-eating creatures of this bizarre new world while doing their best to repair the damaged machine. Even if they stay alive, without a working transport, they may never make it back home.

Trailer:

• Source: RHI website via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood

Raiga is Here!

We've been talking about Raiga, the Monster From the Deep Sea [aka Shinkaijû Raiga] (Japan-2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya) for sometime now -- just check out these posts from Undead Backbrain and Undead Brainspasm!

Hayashiya's follow-up to his own confusingly titled Shinkaijû Reigô [aka Deep Sea Monster Reigo; Reigo vs. Yamato; Reigo the Deep Sea Monster vs. The Battleship Yamato] (2008/2005) is at last coming to DVD.

Synopsis:

Sixty years after the monster Reigo battled the famous Yamato battleship on the high seas, global warming causes the southern polar ice cap to gradually melt, disrupting the ecosystem and luring ancient sea monsters to Japan. An enormous sea monster called Raiga enters Asakusa from the Sumida River and begins to rampage through the city. The army is called into action.

Already available even in the West, is the soundtrack for Raiga -- and Kaiju Search-Robot Avery reckons the image suggests the existence of a "Mecha-Raiga" who "flies like Gamera":

Hmmm, I guess we'll see.

You can download the album from Amazon UK now.

Meanwhile, here's the main theme song, performed live by a typically perky J-Pop girl group, the members of whom also feature in the film:

Beloq are some production pics. It's always cute to see shots of the director and crew interacting eye-to-eye with giant monsters:

Raiga to Hayashiya-san: "Hey, can't you read no-smoking sign!"

"Help! I'm being absorbed into Raiga!"

On set

"Can someone show me to my dressing room?"

Raiga has already inspired some excellent fan art, not least of which is this sculpture by "Fossy" (see more of it here):

And for those of you who can read Japanese, here's a one-sheet advertisement for the film (click to enlarge):

• Sources: Raiga Blog; Starchild Raiga Pages; Official Raiga website; Magical Face and various other.
• Research: Avery Guerra  |  Writing: Robert Hood

Addendum:

Now the Sewer Can Be Chewed in Your Own Home!

Undead Backbrain told you about it here, when it was in post-production. Well, now James Hawley (aka Jack Acid)'s low-budget, high-disgust-factor monster movie, Sewer Chewer, is available for purchase on DVD. And you certainly get your money's worth of sewage. The film runs for just shy of 2 hours, plus there's a second disk of assorted sludge, including music videos, bloopers, outtakes, storyboards and lots more.

Go to the website with your credit card and the DVD will be flushed right back at ya!

Surely this is something you want in your home, right?

What is it?

Sewer Chewer is a tribute to the creature features of the 70's and 80's drive in movies. A space satellite falls to earth and lands in a rural area, radiating the local wildlife into a mutant monster that has a large appetite for humans. An unnamed government agency sends a special agent out to dispose of the satellite and the mutant and any who know of it. (IMDb)

Meanwhile, here's a new, really disgusting extended promo video featuring various members of the cast who happen to make up the band Captain Eyeball. Enjoy!

And for those who are too lazy to go the Undead Backbrain article and read up on the film in detail, here's the trailer again:

• Source: via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood

The 7 Adventures of Sinbad

That's right! Seven adventures, all crammed into the one movie!

The 7 Adventures of Sinbad (US-2010; dir. Adam Silver and Ben Hayflick) tells of a modern-day incarnation of the Arabian-Nights hero, who must complete seven tasks in order to save the world from catastrophe. Naturally the tasks involve monsters -- and from the preview trailer below there appears to be plenty of them, ranging from ogres, giant crabs and the de rigeur giant octopi to dragons and leviathan-like whales disguised as islands.

It is released on DVD on 25 May 2010.

Trailer:

• Source: The Asylum via Avery Guerra

Avatar

James Cameron's much-anticipated (and long-in-development) scifi epic Avatar is now on the way. Here's the newly released trailer, featuring some nice big critters toward the end, as has become fashionable in just about every genre epic:



Synopsis:

In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na'vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture. (IMDb)

New: Ferocious

Just into post-production from Shoreline Entertainment is a creature feature titled Ferocious (US-[2009]; dir. Drew Maxwell).

Synopsis:

In a post apocalyptic world ravaged by feuding warlords, a group of desperate soldiers hatch a plan to steal a Warlord’s treasure and start a new life. Faced with the threat of a horrific death at the hands of the Warlord’s executioners, the men escape into a desolate and forbidden land known only as the Shadowlands. Now the men must flee from the Warlord’s vicious assassins while defending themselves from the terrifying creatures that inhabit the Shadowlands.

No pictures as yet except for some concept sketches like this one:

Yes, the project was once named Shadowlands...

• Source: Quiet Earth via Avery
  

New: Jack the Giant Killer

Variety reports that J.D Caruso (Disturbia) is filming a version of the folktale Jack and the Beanstalk (last lensed in 1962 by Nathan Juran, with Jim Danforth's stop-motion animation), as Jack the Giant Killer, for New Line.

It tells the well-known tale:

When a princess is kidnapped, a long-standing peace between men and giants becomes threatened, and a young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giant kingdom to rescue her. (Variety)

Reportedly, it will take an "adult" view of the story, whatever that means. Variety reports Darren Lemke (a Lost writer) and Mark Bomback as scripters, with Neal Moritz and David Dobkin as producers. No date is given.

This appears to be a different project to one reported by German site Zelluloid, which suggests a modernised version of the same tale:

This action adventure centers around a man, who journeys from modern New York into a more primitive country, in order to protect a village and a princess there from evil and fantastical creatures. (Roughly translated from zelluloid.de)

This site lists Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen as producers, from a script by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. This corresponds to an entry in IMDb, which names Buckaroo Entertainment as the company concerned and describes the film as an action/comedy/fantasy. A release date of 2009 is given on this one.

IMDb also has a Jack the Giant Killer project listed for 2011, though no details are available. Presumably, this is the same one as reported by Variety.

So that's two versions of the same story coming our way. Interesting.