John Landis, who has his possible comeback film Burke & Hare coming out soon, recently weighed in on Inception, saying it was a good film, but not that original.  And he would know, he directed Blues Brothers 2000 and a Honey I Shrunk the Kids TV show.

Take a quote out of context and make a big deal about it, DigitalSpy:

Landis told Obsessed With Film: “Interestingly enough, Inception, which is wonderful, is not original. There have been a lot of movies like it.
“Remember Dreamscape? Oh, that’s bad special effects but almost the same movie. It’s Dennis Quaid, and Edward Albert is the president of the United States, and they insert him into his dreams.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I think Christopher Nolan is a wonderful director, it’s just I think he is yet to make a movie other than Memento that I thought was really original. It’s just very stylish.”
“More power to him. I like smart filmmakers and I think he’s great.”

Here’s a clip from 1984′s Dreamscape, starring Dennis Quaid, in case you wondered what that looked like:

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"Really, a scythe? Pretentious ass."

This is the trailer for Burke & Hare, starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis (aka Gollum, my preciousses), an indie comedy from the UK that so far doesn’t have a US release date.  But who knows, maybe we can find a distributor here who’s not too busy watching Two & a Half men reruns and we can eventually see it. (Oh, I get it, Charlie Sheen wears bowling shirts!  Classic!)

Burke & Hare  is based on the true story of the body-snatchers William Burke (Pegg) and William Hare (Serkis). These two Irish entrepreneurs discover that a dead body can fetch a hefty price when the demands of the leading medical professors Dr. Knox (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Monroe (Tim Curry) reach beyond that of the local supply. Also stars Isla Fisher,  David Schofield, Allan Corduner, Bill Bailey, Hugh Bonneville, Michael Smiley and Christopher Lee. [ComingSoon]

It comes from director John Landis, who had an insane run of hits starting in the late 70s — Animal House, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Three Amigos, and Coming to America, only to flame out in the 90s — Oscar, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Blues Brothers 2000.  According to IMDB, his last feature film was 1998′s Susan’s Plan, starring Billy Zane and Rob Schneider which I hadn’t heard of until today.  To be honest, I probably could’ve gone even longer.  This one looks like it has potential (and has an awesome cast), so here’s to hoping this is Landis’ return to form.  I can’t remember a comeback after a long crappy period ever happening with comedy, but maybe this can be the first.  Also, am I the only one who constantly misreads “Hugh Bonneville” as “Huge Bonerville”?  I think that’s Isla Fisher’s home town.

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DreadCentral picked up an exclusive at the recent “Monster-Mania Convention” (I bet they talk about actuarial life tables there).  John Landis will be producing a movie based on the West Port murders, and Simon Pegg is on board to star.  In 1827 in Edinburgh, Scotland, William Burke and William Hare stole the corpse of someone who owed Hare £4 and sold it to a medical school for dissection.  They made a little over £7.  If my calculations are correct, that’s either around $800 in inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars, or it’s $giraffe.

Recognizing this as a profitable home business, Burke and Hare began killing people in order to sell their bodies, most fetching £8 to £10.  Man, those were the good old days.  Not like now, when you’ve got to pay the big bucks to maintain a crawlspace filled with quicklime.

~ robopanda

As first broken by Bloody-Disgusting, Dimension films has bought the rights to John Landis’ 1981 classic, An American Werewolf in London. (Landis also directed Animal House, Three Amigos, and Coming to America, among other things).

Landis wrote and directed the comedy-horror film, which starred David Naughton and Griffin Dunne as two American backpackers hiking in the Yorkshire moors attacked by a mysterious animal who turns out to be a werewolf. Naughton ends up terrorizing London while Dunne is a reanimated corpse suggesting ways for Naughton to kill himself and stop the curse.  No writer or director is on board but Dimension and the producers hope to make an elevated genre picture that will keep the fun comedy elements of the original as it seeks to be relevant to contemporary audiences [that's business jargon for "we hope it's good" -Ed.]. [THR]

Okay, nerds, set phasers to “incredulous,” because I’ve never seen the original.  (*hold for angry shouts of derision*).   So if nothing else, this is a good reminder to add it to the Netflix queue.  As for the remake, I’m crossing my fingers that it involves Zac Efron, Parkour, and Linkin Park.  Wait, Linkin Parkour? I just had a totally xtreme idea…

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