Luck

After Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones threw me into the “HBO can do no wrong” camp I decided that I needed to calm my enthusiasm for the Home Box Office. But after checking out the behind the scenes trailer of their new show Luck, I may have to just own up to being a groupie. Michael Mann? Check. Horse-Racing? Check. A cast that includes Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina, Kevin Dunn , and the constantly underrated Richard Kind? You know it! In a perfect world I’m thinking it looks like The Cooler meets The Sopranos.

Red State

Kevin Smith’s detractors thought it was a braggadocios and overly optimistic move to decide to self-distribute his film Red State at this year’s Sundance film festival. Smith has taken his film on the road without spending a dime on promotion, which in today’s hyper-saturated marketing world is something of a rarity.

Let’s do some math:

Cost to make Red State $5 million – $1 million (tax incentives) – $1 million (film tour gross) – $1.5 million (foreign sales) – $3 million ( forthcoming domestic distribution deal) = PROFIT!!

So Kevin Smith may have just paved the way for independent filmmakers to become profitable with a new business model. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to already have a huge fan base to start.

[/Film]

X-Men: First Class

Finally in English, this brand new X-Men: First Class trailer premieres the awesome fighting prowess of Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) in flight and Havok (Lucas Till) sonic blasting away. First Class is already making Last Stand seem like a long-forgotten bad dream.

Related posts on 30ninjas.com:

• Kevin Smith Rants on the State of Red State
• The Experience of Kevin Smith’s Red State Tour — Day 1: Radio City Music Hall
• Wednesday in Action — Dylan Dog, Hobo With a Shotgun and The Robber
• Wednesday in Action — George Lucas, Hugh Jackman, and The Borgias
• Today’s Action in Action — Wednesday, April 15th
• Wednesday in Action — Hell on Wheels, Seven Samurai, and Star Wars