Carrie Fisher Confirms (Again) She's in Episode VII

Harrison Ford has been doing the Deer in Headlights routine since last fall and Mark Hamill has been Mark Hamill (That is to say awesome). But it was Carrie Fisher who first publicly confirmed they were returning for Star Wars: Episode VII. Until her people said, "Oh she was joking!"

But the Mystery Box is headed to the Recycling Bin (Kathleen Kennedy confirmed days ago) and Fisher has reconfirmed her participation:

"Yes, Carrie Fisher confirmed to a rapt audience at the BMO Centre Saturday afternoon that she will in fact be reprising her most famous role of Princess Leia in a new series of Star Wars films, which will be produced by Disney. She was the first of the original cast members to announce her participation back in March, although apparently jumped the gun. Her publicist later said she was joking and that nothing had been confirmed.

However, it seems to be a done deal now. But for fans looking for a sneak-peek of what to expect in the new film, Fisher didn’t offer many juicy details. 'I like being bought by Disney, because they never wanted to buy me before,’ she said during a talk at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

'I'm glad they are doing a new movie because they are sending a trainer to my house so I can get in really good shape. So I’m really eating a lot of sugar in advance, as you can see. By the time I really get down to it I will have eaten everything.'"

Disney says Episode VII will be out for summer 2015. I still don't believe them. Whatever the release is, looking forward to seeing, and hearing, more of Fisher in the press.

Source: Calgary Herald (via Coming Soon)

Benedict Cumberbatch Out-Acts Chris Pine in Star Trek Into Darkness Clip

This new promo clip of Star Trek Into Darkness is the much hyped hero/villain facedown between Kirk (Chris Pine) and "John Harrison"/Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch).

He's not William Shatner but Pine has the right combination of charm and heroism for James Tiberius Kirk (Still working on the trademark Kirk swagger). But he comes across as awkward staring down his adversary. Not trolling the guy, long as he continues what he did last time, he'll be great again. But Cumberbatch out-acts him by simply playing it calm.

Weekend Box Office: April 26-28

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Pain and Gain - $20 million

2.  Oblivion - $17.4 million

3.  42 - $10.7 million

4.  The Big Wedding - $7.5 million

5.  The Croods - $6.6 million

6.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation - $3.6 million

7.  Scary Movie 5 - $3.4 million

8.  Olympus Has Fallen - $2.7 million

9.  The Place Beyond the Pines - $2.6 million

10.  Jurassic Park 3D - $2.3 million

It was a quiet weekend at the box office, as Michael Bay's Pain and Gain took the top spot with an estimated $20 million.  That's on the low end of openings for a Michael Bay film - which is likely to happen when the movie doesn't feature any transforming robots - but with a reported $26 million budget, it should have no problem making that investment back. 

The weekend's other new release, The Big Wedding, tanked with just $7.5 million.  Despite a big-name cast, the film received wretched reviews, and failed to attract the female audience it was hoping for.  Opening in limited release was Mud, which, despite some rather unfortunate press for star Reese Witherspoon earlier in the week, still managed to earn an impressive $2.1 million in just 363 theaters.

Oblivion, last week's first place winner, dropped by about 52%, earning $17.4 million.  The sci-fi action thriller has earned $64 million domestically, and an additional $134 million overseas. 

But the real action at the overseas box office this weekend was courtesy of Iron Man 3, which opened with a spectacular $195 million from 42 countries.  That tops last year's overseas-first release of The Avengers, which opened with $185 million.

So will Iron Man 3 be topping any Avengers records when it opens domestically next week?  Early reports indicate that it's going for a huge opening weekend, so we'll just have to wait and see. 

Larry Gilliard Jr. Joins 'The Walking Dead' - Season 4

For those of you who never watched The Wire, remember that kicker from The Waterboy who befriends Adam Sandler's Bobby Boucher?

Good, because the actor who played him is named Larry Gilliard Jr. and he just joined the cast of The Walking Dead for its upcoming 4th season.

Gilliard Jr. will play the role of Bob Stookey, an former Army medic turned alcoholic who - in the graphic novels - was a resident of Woodbury that saved the Governor's life after being tortured by Michonne.

Due to the series having a track record of not exactly following the books, it's safe to assume the character will have a somewhat different storyline on TV.

I for one was pretty disappointed by not just last season's finale, but the show's entire 2nd half once it returned from it's winter hiatus (probably having something to do with yet another showrunner, Glen Mazzara, being fired because AMC is too difficult to deal with).  They better start giving quality talent more creative control when it comes to their one rating's juggernaut or else I can already start to see the steady decline of this show.

The Walking Dead begins production on Season 4 next month under new showrunner Scott M. Gimple (let's see how long that lasts) and is set to premiere this October.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Zack Snyder Hearts Henry Cavill's Superman

As the marketing for Iron Man 3 & Star Trek Into Darkness descends on to the grand finale with both premiere dates approaching the awareness for Man Of Steel is just getting started. As part of the marketing blitz SFX MAGAZINE met with Zack Snyder about rebooting Superman and touched upon Cavill's performance as Superman, flying, and Krypton.

Zack Snyder:

On Cavill's As Superman

"God, he's so Supermanish it's crazy! There was a telling moment – we put him in the Christopher Reeve costume, because we didn't have a suit yet, we just had the old spandex suit. He stepped out of the trailer and no one laughed. It's the difference between being Superman and dressing up like Superman. If I'm dressed up like Superman it's like a Halloween costume. If you're Henry it's your clothes. It's awesome. Watch the movie and you're like 'Holy $!@#, that's Superman.' And it's not weird or crazy, it's just cool."

On Superman's Ability To Fly

"It's a more violent experience. It's raw. It takes effort to do it, and that's what we were really going for. It's almost like there's this kind of Right Stuff quality to it. He's constantly booming around, accelerating. You think he's going as fast as he can and then it's like 'Yeeaahh!' He's always got an extra gear he can use."

On The Look & Feel Of Krypton

"I really wanted my Krypton to be this kind of special place that’s immersive and totally different from Earth, but not unbelievable. And ancient. I really wanted to give this ancient feeling to Krypton. I love technology that's rusty because it's so old. It's so advanced, but it's so old. That was the kind of world that I tried to create. A dying world that’s ancient and torn apart."

The Second "Red 2" Trailer

In Red 2, the high-octane action-comedy sequel to the worldwide sleeper hit, retired black-ops CIA agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. To succeed, they'll need to survive an army of relentless assassins, ruthless terrorists and power-crazed government officials, all eager to get their hands on the next-generation weapon. The mission takes Frank and his motley crew to Paris, London and Moscow. Outgunned and outmanned, they have only their cunning wits, their old-school skills, and each other to rely on as they try to save the world-and stay alive in the process.

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Alice Eve Sexes Up New "Star Trek Into Darkness" Poster

In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of The Enterprise is called back home to Earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

New STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Poster Shows Off Spandex-Clad Karl Urban

A new poster for the upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness found it's way online courtesy of Huffington Post, showing off Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in a skin-tight wetsuit for the film's rumored "deep-sea sexy man party" on the Planet of the Hunky Male Leads. 

In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of The Enterprise is called back home to Earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. 

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 15 in IMAX 3D, and May 17 everywhere else. 

Scarlet Witch & Quick-Silver Basically Confirmed for AVENGERS; Fox Might be Pissed.

Nerd-God Joss Whedon, fresh off stroking his ego from a little indie film that made a modest amount last summer,  The Avengers, has hinted strongly that Scarlet Witch and Quick-Silver, the mutant spawns of Magneto, could possibly appear in The Avengers 2 while talking to Yahoo! Movies today. 

"I've got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They're in the movie."

While this has been speculated for a while, due to the odd legal nature of the two characters being simultaneously owned by Marvel and 20th Fox, allowing them to hypothetically appear in the next X-Men film AND the Avengers films, as IGN has pointed out:

Yes, they originated in the X-Men comics, which is generally 20th Century Fox's purview, but it appears there's more to it than that for the brother/sister duo, who went on to become Avengers in the comics. Instead, Feige reveals both 20th Century Fox and Marvel have legal access to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in their respective films, which is unique to these characters. That's right, Marvel could put them in an Avengers movie, while Fox could also separately put them in an X-Men movie if they so chose to. It's hard not to ponder the oddness if both franchises included them, possibly with different actors - and set in different eras!

That's pretty cool I guess, although w both know Scarlet Witch will appear as a sassy pop-culture savvy goth-girl, and Quick-Silver will be an effeminate smart ass with nice-hair probably played by some unknown British star who will go on to become a Tumblr icon and piss you off after hearing about the 26th fanfiction involving an Iron-Man/Quick-Silver sex scene.

New Trailer For "The East"

The East follows Sarah Moss (Marling), a brilliant operative for an elite private intelligence firm whose top objective is to ruthlessly protect the interests of their A-list corporate clientele. She is assigned to go undercover to infiltrate an anarchist collective known for executing covert attacks upon major corporations. Living amongst them in an effort to get closer to their members, Sarah finds herself unexpectedly torn between two worlds as she starts to fall in love with the group's charismatic leader, finding her life and her priorities irrevocably changed.

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