I’m a huge fan of director Marko Mäkilaakso and I have been eagerly anticipating his debut film War of the Dead ever since it was announced some years ago. Today 4th of May the film premieres here in Finland.

I had the pleasure of seeing the film already at Night Vision Film Festival here in Helsinki a few weeks back and it was everything I expected and more. I enjoyed the film so much I wanted to list 10 good reasons why You should see this movie also.

1. It has zombies!

2. Action, action and more action! One thing that surprised me the most was Mäkilaakso’s abilities as an action director. In my mind War of the Dead is not so much a zombie movie but a full blown action flick. The kind of action flick I have been craving to see from a Finnish film maker for ages.

3. It’s a love song to 80′s and 90′s action movies and their stars. And what’s better than action movies from those days? Nothing, I tell you!

4. Jouko Ahola. He is like a mix of young Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme all wrapped into one. Oh and that accent is to die for.

5. Mikko Leppilampi and Samuli Vauramo. They make a great team and I hope to see them together more often in the future.

6. It has zombies! And they are nazis!

7. It’s good old fashion fun. If possible go see the film with your friends, grab some beers and just have fun. Don’t take everything so seriously.

8. Crazy German nazi scientists doing crazy-ass experiments on people! You can’t go more old school than that!

9. Everybody speaking Finglish, that’s English with a Finnish accent. It’s just hilarious – in a good way! Like I said, don’t take everything so seriously.

10. And probably most importantly we need to keep genre films alive in Finland and the only way to do this is to buy a ticket and go see the film!

To buy tickets from Finnkino, follow this link.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that the movie I’m most exited about at Night Visions is War of the Dead. This Finnish Zombie war movie, directed by Marko Mäkilaakso and starring Andrew Tiernan, Mikko Leppilampi and Samuli Vauramo, has been a long time coming and I’m so happy it’s now set a release date to 4.5.2012 in Finnish cinemas. But if you are like me and can’t wait another minute more, you can check out the film in a preview screening at Night Visions tonight!

Screening: Fri 13.04.2012 at 20:45 (Bio Rex)

A platoon of American and Finnish soldiers is driven deep into a Russian forest where its Captain discovers a terrifying secret.

See you there!

Night Visions Back to Basics is only one week away and it just wouldn’t be Night Visions without the Zombies. This spring edition of the festival is once again looking very interesting. War of the Dead, Haywire, The Cabin in the Woods and Innkeepers are just a few of the interesting picks from the catalogue. The festival is held 12.-15.4.2012 in Bio Rex and Kino Engel theaters in Helsinki.

HERE’S THE FULL LIST OF MOVIES:

THE BUTTERFLY ROOM

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

DRAGON ON FIRE

FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE

FU MANCHU – PAHOLAISEN PALVELIJA

HAYWIRE

THE INNKEEPERS

IN SEARCH OF DRACULA

LAST DAYS HERE

LIVID

NINJA TURF

THE RAID: REDEMPTION

REDNECK

RED TEARS

RONAL THE BARBARIAN

THE ROOM

SOME GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE

STAR PILOT

TOKYO EMMANUELLE

WAR OF THE DEAD – STONE’S WAR

For more info about the movies and how to get tickets, click here.

You can check out the the full schedule for the festival here.

I will be writing more about War of the Dead soon and also my picks for the festival are coming up.

See you at the festival.

BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION
Timo: Raju
Essi: Raju

BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED:
Timo: La Luna
Essi: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT SUBJECT:
Timo: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Essi: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

BEST DOCUMENTARY, FEATURE:
Timo: Pina
Essi: Hell and Back Again

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS:
Timo: Hugo
Essi: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING:
Timo: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Essi: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Timo: Hugo
Essi: Hugo

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES, ORIGINAL SONG
Timo: The Muppets
Essi: Rio

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURE, ORIGINAL SCORE:
Timo: The Artist
Essi: The Artist

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP:
Timo: The Iron Lady
Essi: Albert Nobbs

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN:
Timo: Hugo
Essi: Hugo

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION:
Timo: Hugo
Essi: Hugo

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING:
Timo: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Essi: Hugo

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Timo: The Artist
Essi: Hugo

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR:
Timo: A Separation
Essi: A Separation

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR:
Timo: Rango
Essi: A Cat In Paris

BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY BASED ON MATERIAL PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED OR PUBLISHED
Timo: The Descendants
Essi: The Descendants

BEST WRITING, SCREENPLAY WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR THE SCREEN
Timo: A Separation
Essi: The Artist

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING:
Timo: Terrence Malick (Tree of Life)
Essi: Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Timo: Bérénice Bejo (The Artist)
Essi: Octavia Spencer (The Help)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Timo: Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
Essi: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Timo: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Essi: Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Timo: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Essi: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Timo: The Descendants
Essi: The Artist

If you happen to like zombie films, 2012 is not going to leave you dry. No sir. Thirty-plus feature films are marching to the big and small screens, from small indie flicks made with just few bucks, to the biggest zombie film ever made – World War Z. Zombie Room takes a closer look at the horde crawling at us.

Shaun of the Dead opened the floodgates of the zombie comedy (zom com, as they call it nowadays) -genre – and in 2012 they keep on coming like never before. Dave of the Dead is another one of the kind – this time it’s post-zombie-apocalypse world where the undead have became second-class citizens. In Canadian 3D-zom com Dead Before Dawn 3D [ Official Web Site ] a group of college kids unleash a curse that causes people to commit suicide and come back as zombie demons – zemons.

In Detention of the Dead [ Teaser ‖ Official Web Site ] , Breakfast Club meets Shaun of the Dead – a bunch of college kids trapped in detention during zombie apocalypse, and in Stalled [ Facebook page ] a luckless maintenance gopher finds himself stuck in a ladies restroom during one. Last but not least, Corey Feldman jumps in the pants of Zombie King, whose evil plans Edward Furlong has to win in the upcoming British horror comedy The Zombie King [ Teaser ‖ Official Web Site ].

Zombies land also to Europe, with Dutch zom com Zombibi [ Trailer ], where Amsterdam gets overrun by zombies, and the motley crew of survivors go way over the top in re-inventing ways to kill their dead fellow Amsterdamned.

And that’s not all. Zombies are getting more girlfriend and family-oriented as well. A Little Bit Zombie [ Trailer ‖ Official Web Site ] is an indie rom zom com, where an infected, mild-mannered HR manager attempts to fulfill his overwhelming desire for brains and avoid Max, the obsessed Zombie Hunter hot on his trail. All while keeping it together so as not to incur the wrath of his Bridezilla-to-be, In Abercrombie & Zombie a failed Survivor reality show auditioner comes back to life to pursue his dream to become the first zombie supermodel. Same theme continues in Zombie Blondes, where a new girl in the town Hannah gets new friends who all have names starting with same first letter, bleached blonde hair and eerily lightweight bodies… Big players are going Zombie again as well – Paramount is marching boy scouts to fight the zombie apocalypse and save the girl scouts of the neighboring camp in (cleverly named) Boy Scouts vs. Zombies.

It’s not just comedies, though. Good old zombie-smashing takes (probably) place in 100,000 Zombie Heads, starring among others great Vernon Wells (yes, the very Bennett from Commando and Lord General from Weird Science!), and My Bloody Valentine 3D director Patrick Lussier is pitching his new film Condition Dead [ Official Web Site ] as “Saving Private Ryan, with zombies”. In 3D, I would assume. And of course, what would be a zombie-year be without Paco Plaza returning with a new installation to the [REC]-saga – [REC]³ Génesis [ Trailer ]. As a cherry on top, Uwe Boll-produced zombie action flick Zombie Massacre [ Trailer ]is gathering momentum as well, fitted with a nifty trailer.

In animation front, The Living Corpse comic book series – which is apparently a famous one – is being remade into an animated feature film of the same name [ Trailer and Official Web Site ] . And in even bigger news, it might be that James Farr‘s comic book series Xombie gets remade into a major Dreamworks production of the same name, penned by Star Trek / Transformers duo Kurtzman and Orci! That sounds awesome!

Even Jesus Christ (the original zombie) is marching on the big screen: independent, Kickstarter-financed zombie film The Zombie Christ [ Trailer ‖ Official Web Site ] takes us into the 80′s future, where the ultimate weapon is sent to earth: the Zombie Christ. And in Jesus Hates Zombies [ Official Web Site ] – based on a comic book series of the same name – director Eric Balfour (whom you know as an actor with a face in wrong aspect ratio – don’t believe me, check it out yourself!) brings Jesus Christ back to save the humanity. Jesus ends up fighting together with Abe Lincoln, Mother Theresa and Elvis Presley against zombies and werewolves and whatnot.

And finally, the zombie world gets crazier and weirder with legendary 83-year-old cult director Ted V. Mikels who revisits his 60′s film The Astro Zombies in Astro Zombies: M4 – Invaders from Cyberspace [ Trailer ].

It sure looks like the zombie apocalypse if truly here – at least on the big screen. I picked three films to pay special attention to:

Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball)

The biggest-ever zombie film in the history of cinema, World War Z is based on a book with the same name. Staggering 125 million-dollar film is written by the creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, and several people who’ve read the story have appraised it not just being a genre-defining script, but one with Best Picture -potential, if realized the right way. Brad Pitt is the playing the main character, a UN representative who scours the world, interviewing survivors of the zombie apocalypse, referred to as World War Z. No teaser or trailer has yet been released, but there are several videos on YouTube shot by outsiders about the shoot, and even based on that stuff, the film looks like a fucking riot of awesomeness.

Directed by Chris Butler & Sam Fell (The Tale of Despereaux)

From the creators of Coraline comes a new horror stop-motion animation ParaNorman, a film which visual beauty just throws you off your chair. The story tells of a small town that comes under siege by the undead, and of a boy, Norman, who’s the only one with the ability to speak with the dead. The bravely creepy animation seems to be in all charts as one of the most interesting films coming out next year – stylish, fun and something fresh for the animation *and* zombie genre.

Directed by Richard Raaphorst

Having been in production under different names for ages, Amsterdam-based director Richard Raaphorst is bringing something completely new to the field. A WWII Nazi experiment has led to the creation of an undead army, using the test results of historical dr. Frankenstein as its’ basis. The film looks like something I haven’t seen ever before, and might very well become a hugely popular classic to accompany Dead Snow in the hall of best zombie films ever made. The promo reel via Twitch Films looks so beautiful I really have hard time waiting for this to finally become reality. The film – according to promos – is (correct me if I’m wrong!) black-and-white and possibly mute, accompanied with haunting soundtrack and great sound design, and impeccable sense of style.

While Scifi geeks have fun with loads of interesting films coming up in 2012, the low-brow, I-want-to-see-things-explode -audience and the superhero fans have it a bit dry. Yes, there’s new Batman – and it looks cool, I have to admit – but other than that, it feels like an in-between year for the good old blowing-shit-up. I picked the following films not because I’m overtly enthusiastic about them, but because there wasn’t much to choose from.

Directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception)

Wanna guess the most pirated film of all time? The Dark Knight Rises will snatch that title in a heartbeat. Will it be a good conclusion to Bale-starred, Nolan-directed Batmans? Sure it will. Will it be interesting, or fresh, or something radical? Absolutely not. I’m expecting The Dark Knight Rises to wrap up what Nolan started with excellent Batman Begins, and followed with mediocre The Dark Knight. I’m expecting to see a lot of money being blown in the air and Christian Bale (over)doing “the agony of being Batman” like never before, and I expect to be entertained, but I’m not expecting to walk out of the theater feeling like a new man.

And that’s just fine. Bring it on. I’m ready. I don’t care.

Directed by David Koepp (Ghost Town)

A dream for every fixie hipster in New York, Premium Rush is a story about a bicycle messenger who picks up an envelope from Columbia University, and gets chased down by a dirty cop who’s desperate to get the delivery.

The film is all about bicycling as fast as possible among the New York traffic, and at least according to the trailer, they’ve really grasped the life-threatening feeling of traffic-cycling on tape. So much that the main actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost got killed during the shooting: he smashed in the back of a taxi and took a good swan dive into the windscreen.

The film sounds like loads of fun, and David Koepp is a great writer and a his film Ghost Town made a big impression on me few years back. One tip, though. Don’t watch the trailer more than 5 seconds. It’s one of those “let’s scan through the story of the film so there’s no reason to go see it anymore” -trailers…

Directed by Simon West

First installation of The Expendables wasn’t anything to write home about, although I was expecting a lot of the film. My mistake. I wanted to see 80′s action with humor, self-irony and great action scenes, but I got nothing but a boring, noisy mess of a film that took itself way too seriously. The only thing that redeemed The Expendables was Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s appearance. And that’s going to be the only reason I’m walking back to theaters with part 2 as well, eagerly paying whatever they are asking for it. It’s Arnold, for God’s sake, and a bunch of old farts.

Directed by Joel Carnahan (The A-team, Smokin’ Aces)

Directed by Joel Carnahan, The Grey is a Liam Neeson -film about a bunch of plane crash survivors fighting a pack of wolves in Alaska. There seems to be nice, gray, gritty look and feel on the film, ruthless survival action and well, a bunch of wolves, with which I hope don’t follow the “we-have-to-do-wolves-otherwise-we-don’t-exist” -trend which was so popular in the beginning of 2000′s and resulted some of the worst CG creatures in recent history (See: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Day After Tomorrow)

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition)
There’s absolutely nothing interesting or edgy about the new James Bond -movie. Trust me: nothing. Everything about the film smells like well-made but rather boring – only remarkable thing is that Sam Mendes is directing, and we know him being a good and innovative director. But no matter how I look at Skyfall, it’s just another Bond-movie. It’s the same ballet we’ve seen a million times before; Bond falling for a bunch of hot chicks, having trouble with his superiors, a charismatic villain and a lot of explosions. Only this time it’s probably more about the drama and less on the action. Hopefully better than Quantum of Solace, but never going to rise to the excellency of Casino Royale.

We’ve seen so much of that endless superhero bullshit on the big screens lately that I think people are finally getting a bit fed up with whatever Spiderman meets Batman meets Green whoever reboot it’s going to be, nobody really gives a shit. Well, I’m wrong, I know, but as a scifi geek, I’m happy to see that it’s not all that’s coming to theaters next year – 2012 is building up to be quite a phenomenal year for proper good old high-concept space-battling tecnho-babbling scifi movies!

Directed by me

I know it’s a bit cheesy to put your own film to the list of “most anticipated movies” but what the hell. Moon Nazis are about to invade Earth in 2018, and a lot of big-ass CG-heavy space battle and black, politically incorrect humor is to follow. We Finns are not very good at appraising ourselves and our achievements, but I have to say I’m damn proud of Iron Sky, and happy to be able to chip in to the wonderful scifi year of 2012 with a film which I hope will live a long life.

Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachovski

Based on a major award winning David Mitchell novel with the same name, Cloud Atlas is a huge, complex and multi-layered film directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings. The cast is jaw-dropping (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and my pal Götz Otto), the budget mind-boggling (140 million), and the whole story sounds like a really wonderful yet challenging science fiction epic. Take this:

“Cloud Atlas is an epic story of humankind in which actions and consequences of our lives impact one another throughout the past, present and the future as one soul is shaped from a murderer into a savior and a single act of kindness ripples out for centuries to inspire a revolution.”

Wow. That’s a handful! Not too many pictures have yet emerged of the film, let alone a teaser, but it’s already a film that I know is going to swipe the floor with anything else they can throw at it. Save Iron Sky, of course

Directed by Josh Trank

Grabbing the title of the best trailer of 2012, Chronicle is a story that starts small and builds into epic proportions. A bunch of kids find out that they have a special ability to move objects with the power of their mind – telekinesis, that is. And they use it like any bunch of teenagers would – to bug off other people. As always with telekinesis, first it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and then it all goes to hell. Chronicle is the first film for the director Josh Trank, and follows the trend of found footage -scifi, which we’ve seen executed in Cloverfield and District 9.

Directed by Ridley Scott

When Ridley Scott said he’d be rebooting the Alien franchise, I wanted to hit him, but then I rememberd that it’s Ridley Scott, man who brought us Alien, Blade Runner and whatnot, and I realized that if somebody could do it properly, it would be the man himself.

Still, it sounded like a shit idea.

Prometheus production has kept a tight lid on the film, and only the bits that had trickled to the outside world kept people guessing whether the film is going to be an Alien-movie at all – and when the teaser posters and first trailer popped out, it became clear it’s a stand-alone mythology, unconnected to Alien. Phew.

The film is a search of the origins of mankind, and it looks really really good, in the way only Ridley Scott can do. Dark, brutal and gut-wrenchingly scifi.

Directed by Gary Ross (Pleasantville)

I’ve always wanted to do a movie about Stephen King‘s (under pseudonym Richard Bachman) book The Long Walk. The idea is that every year there’s a big competition in US where 100 kids are chosen to walk from Maine to Massachusettes. That’s about 4 days of walking. The rules are simple: if you walk slower than certain pace, you die. If you stop, you die. If you don’t finish first, you die. People volunteer, because the price is that if they win, they can ask for anything they want, and they will get it.

Not surprisingly, somebody (well, by “somebody” I mean none other than Frank Darabont ) has bought the rights for the film.

Anyway, it’s a simple and beautiful story, and The Hunger Games takes similar sort of idea – set in the future, there’s a game where from every state (or district, since USA doesn’t exist anymore) a teenager is picked randomly and set into the playing field with 20-something other competitors, and the idea is to come out as the sole survivor. Directed by Gary Ross, man who wrote Big and directed the awesome Pleasantville, Hunger Games could really be something special.

The next year is going to be quite an exciting film year for Finland. Coming out are two of the biggest films in the history of Finnish cinema - Iron Sky (which I have not added to the list of the most anticipated Finnish films because well.. It’s my film and Mannerheim, and bunch of great directors are back with their new films, which are more international than ever. Although Finland hasn’t quite found it’s “thing” yet for International market, the variety of next year’s films is so vast that whichever of these films makes it big internationally, many similar ones are bound to follow. I might even be so bold to claim that next year is going to be a watershed moment for Finnish films!

Dome Karukoski (Lapland Odyssey, The Beauty And The Bastard)

Talk about an epic project! Mannerheim is a movie about the Finnish marshal and president Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, one of the most beloved and controversial Finns ever lived, and the movie about his life has been in production for ages. The film has a humongous budget of 12,7 million €, and it’s been going through huge financial and artistic troubles along years of the production. The big turning point was when the director Renny Harlin stepped down, and a great Finnish young director Dome Karukoski grabbed the helm. And finally now it seems the film is really about to happen! I’m a bit skeptical on 2012 release, but … crossing fingers!

It’s going to be interesting to see how the filmmakers treat the controversial image of Mannerheim, a man who Hitler admired, who ran Finland during it’s hardest time in history, traveled the world and made decisions that both saved the country and threw it to the wolves.

Aku Louhimies (Frozen Land, Tears of April)

Vuosaari is a collection of dark, gritty love stories in Vuosaari suburb of Helsinki. Directed by Aku Louhimies, one of the best directors of all time coming from Finland, only shadowed by Aki Kaurismäki, the film is probably going to get a lot of international attention as well. And it’s about time for Aku, he’s been doing great films in Finland, and I think he would have a lot to give to the international cinema as well!

Directed by Petri Kotwica (Black Ice)

Rat King is an Finnish-Estonian co-production from another remarkable Finnish director Petri Kotwica, who has always done interesting, edgy thrillers, and Rat King continues this trend. It’s a film about a game addict who get tangled into a web of shit when he decides to participate in one last game. The story is ambitious to say the least, and the film looks really, really dark and beautiful. The film is going to be a good mindfuck thriller, the kind I like, and it’s being shot by Mika Orasmaa, who I worked with on Iron Sky, and the stuff he’s saying about the film sounds amazing.

Directed by Stobe Harju

Remember those great films made by bands? Me neither. Well, Stobe Harju goes bravely with Nightwish where no filmmaker has ever succeeded, and from what I’ve heard, he very well might be the first to actually score. The film Imaginarium is a story about an old composer on his deathbed, remembering his past life. To accompany the film, Nightwish released also an album, which sold like hell and has been said the best album by Nightwish, and according to Metal Hammer, the best album of 2011.

I have absolutely no idea what to expect, other than I know Stobe is a visual director, and Nightwish is a very visual band. So, a visual film, and if the story works, it very well might be a masterpiece.

Directed by Samuli Valkama

A small, cute love story about a guy and his father who both fall in love with the same girl, an American square dance teacher who comes to Finland. The film has nice international appeal to it, and the actress Emilie de Ravin (known from her work at Lost) is fresh sight in otherwise rather monochromatic casting options. This is the first film for the director Samuli Valkama, and it seems like he’s becominge a director who doesn’t necessarily dwell in the darkest corners to find a story, and although Finngrit is a thing of beauty and a nice export coming from Finland, we certainly need directors like Samuli and films like Love and Other Troubles to remind that it’s actually alright to live in Finland!

The key word for Fantasy films in 2012 is “sexy”. We’ve already seen all the beasts the CG can throw at us, all the beautiful mountains New Zealand can offer and heard all the stories your grandparents have been scaring you shitless with. The fantasy genre of today is like the fairy tales most of these films are based on – sexy, dark, gory and by far not meant for anybody under the age of 18.

Directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings-trilogy, King Kong)

This is the very book I’ve read more times than anything else in the world. This very story is the basis for Lord of the Rings, which is my all-time favorite book, and film(s) as well. So not surprisingly, especially with Peter Jackson directing, I’m happy to see The Hobbit bringing back the beautiful landscapes and the awesome cast on the big screen, in a way only PJ can do. Big, beautiful and epic.

Having said that, I wasn’t crazy about the trailer. Everything is exactly as it should be, but it doesn’t feel like there’s anything more. I hope it’s just the first trailer -syndrome, and they are saving the more interesting bits for later, but part of me is scared that the film wouldn’t have been pushed far enough, and could be left hanging somewhere in-between, like King Kong did.

But still, this is the one film I’m waiting more than anything else next year, by far.

Directed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow, Kill Buljo)

Tommy Wirkola directed one of the best films coming out from Nordic countries ever, and definitely the best film in 2009 – a Nazi Zombie comedy Dead Snow. The film went extremely well, becoming a cult classic, and not surprisingly, he got offered a change to direct a major Hollywood film, and Hansel And Gretel‘s classic story got under his fingertips.

It’s been 15 years since the traumatic gingerbread house incident, and the siblings Hansel and Gretel have decided to make sure nobody has to go through that shit again. They’ve devoted themselves in hunting down and killing witches all around the world. The film is loaded with great actors – Jeremy Renner as Hansel and stunning Gemma Arterton as Gretel, and even a Finnish actress Pihla Viitala has found her way to the cast.

I’m excited to see how Tommy Wirkola handles a big, 60-million dollar production, but given how well he did with Dead Snow, it’s probably going to kick some really serious ass. It’s going to look great and have great action, shitload of fun and buckets of blood and gore in it.

Directed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men)

Doing a good trailer is an art form of it’s own, and films shouldn’t be judged based solely on the trailers. But looking at Jack the Giant Killer‘s trailer, I fell instantly in love with the it. Bryan Singer is a wonderful director who knows how to throw stuff at big screen, and it feels like the film could be something to rock your socks off for good.

It’s based on Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer fairytales, where the basic story is that Jack (played by Nicholas Hoult) goes out to kill giants, and a giant beanstalk is somehow associated to the story. Honestly, I haven’t read or even seen either of the stories so I don’t know shit, because they are not that popular fairy tales in Finland, and I don’t like fairy tales anyway, but – having said that – the film looks like a lot of fun.

Directed by Rupert Sanders

This year we have two Snow White -stories coming at us, both in a completely different tangent. Snow White and the Huntsman is a dark-tinted fantasy adventure from a first-time director Rupert Sanders, who’s juggling a massive 70 million dollar budget as his first feature. The plot is a classic one – evil queen orders Thor… I mean Kirk’s dad… I mean the Huntsman to drag Snow White into the forest, and kill. But instead, he saves her life – and because this is a dark action fantasy film, she learns the art of war and gets ready to kick the queen in her pretty ass with the aid of seven dwarves.

The trailer promises some quite unforgettable costume design and stunning performance from Charlize Theron (as usual), and although it doesn’t feel like the film will be renewing the genre in any way, it seems to be extremely well made. Good start for Rupert Sanders, I would say.

Directed by Tarsem (The Fall, Immortals)

The other Snow White films comes from… wherever the films by Tarsem usually come from. Nobody knows. The guy is a visual genius, and brave enough to extend his geniusness to storytelling. Knowing how amazing work he did with The Fall, whatever Mirror, Mirror is, it’s going to be very… special. And beautiful. The only aspect I’m a bit worried about is that it’s a comedy, and I have no idea what kind of a comedian Tarsem is…

And we love it.

These are the five most interesting comedies coming out next year.

Ps. I decided not to include my film Iron Sky here because that would be like president voting for him/herself in the elections.

(Umm… I guess they actually do that.)

Directed by Larry Charles (Borat, Brüno)

I’ve always found Sacha Baron Cohen‘s characters stupidly funny, and The Dictator just happens to hit the politically incorrect nerve exactly the right way. Again, Sacha and his court director Larry Charles go way over the top, but in their world, it seems to work. It’ll be a lot of people who are going to get really angry about The Dictator, and that’s what Sascha and Larry are best at – making films that get all kind of bigots, fundamentalists and nationalists enraged. If The Dictator doesn’t get him a death threat or two, nothing will. Although, I bet he’s swamped in them anyway – even I got some due to my work with Star Wreck, and I’m waiting what fun Iron Sky brings to the table.

Directed by Nima Nourizadeh

Remember the John Hughes films in the 80′s, where a teenager decides to throw a big party to all the kids in the school to become the popular one, but then everything goes to shit? Well, Project X has the same concept, but it’s being updated to meet the demands of today’s viewers. Written by Matt Drake (Tully) and Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) and produced by Todd Phillips, known better as the director of both Hangovers, the trailer promises quite a fucked-up crazy party movie, and in addition for being an extremely well-made trailer, it seems like a hell of a lot of fun for the audience that has already seen everything.

Directed by Seth Rogen

Back in 2007 – that’s centuries ago in Internet time – Seth Rogen did an 8-minute short film by the name of Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse, and released a trailer of it to the Internet. Something happened, and the short film never actually surfaced. But now – centuries later – a film based on the short called The Apocalypse is about to be shot and released, and it has a cast of some of the funniest men in Hollywood. And they all play themselves.

The story is simple – something has gone south in the world, and the apocalypse is here. Two guys – apparently, now there’s more of them, though – have locked themselves up in a shelter. They are the last survivors – and all of them class A assholes.

“It’s going to be a pretty offensive vision of the apocalypse,” Seth Rogen says to MTV Movies. The film has a budget of 30 million USD.

The trailer for the short film is here:

Directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray, The Pacifier)

I don’t like musicals, but I like 80′s hard rock, and I like Tom Cruise. Yeah, I know you want to start whining something about Cruise, but why not shut the hell up and watch some of the great films he’s done instead. Try Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, for example. Or you might say Tom is not very funny – well, one of the best roles he’s done is in Tropic Thunder, and he’s funny as hell. And this time, Tom Cruise is playing a hard rock legend, and although he’s not the main character, his presence somehow cements the fact that this film has a lot of class, style and good meininki in it. Meininki is Finnish and means good times. Sort of.

Every /b/-tard‘s and Redditor‘s wet dream – the film where all the Internet memes become alive and part of the feature film plot – is happening. An American VFX company Nurv has (rick)rolled it’s sleeves and slammed together a concept teaser, by which they hope to get studios and A-list stars interested.

The plot is an Alice In Wonderland -type of story about a guy who gets lost in the wild world of the Internet, in search of a girl he met at an Internet chatroom. The imaginary kingdom of the Internet is hosted by none other than Antoine Dodson – yes, the very Bed Intruder Guy himself – and the film is overloaded with dozens of Internet meme stars (Numa Numa Guy, Boxxy, Tay Zonday and Double Rainbow Guy to name a few). All of them the real deal.

The movie hasn’t been filmed yet, so I’m a bit skeptical on 2012 release, but it has a script, and it’s being actively financed on IndieGoGo, so if you want to see this happen, head on over there and hand them a dime or two.

Anything I missed? Anything that’s not supposed to be there? Let’s hear your thoughts!