Final Trailer for '300: Rise of an Empire'

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those films that's going to do really good at the box office, but not as great had it come out about 4 years ago.

Way back in 2007, 300 was pretty damn popular.  I remember seeing it in theaters and everyone I knew talking about it.  Even up until 2010, I say the film was in it's peak in terms of popularity as most who hadn't seen it in theaters discovered it on the home video market.

But here we are though, SEVEN years after the original film hit and it's foolish to think it's sequel will be as big as its predecessor.

They waited too long, period, but the film still looks pretty damn good.

Check it out below:

Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel Xerxes, and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster “300,” this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war.

“300: Rise of an Empire” pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes, and Artemesia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

Warner Bros. Picture presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Cruel and Unusual Films/Mark Canton/Gianni Nunnari Production, “300: Rise of an Empire.” The action adventure stars Sullivan Stapleton (“Gangster Squad”) as Themistokles and Eva Green (“Dark Shadows,” “Casino Royale”) as Artemesia. Lena Headey reprises her starring role from “300″ as the Spartan Queen, Gorgo; Hans Matheson (“Clash of the Titans”) stars as Aeskylos; and Rodrigo Santoro stars again as the Persian King, Xerxes.

300: Rise of an Empire opens March 7th.

Batman/Superman Movie Pushed Back to May 2016

Three weeks into the New Year and its time for a bombshell. Warner Brothers just announced the untitled Batman/Superman film has been delayed from July 17, 2015 to May 6, 2016.

Production was scheduled to begin on the Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck-in-spandex headliner next month primarily in Detroit. It has been officially stalled till the second quarter of this year. The blame, according to the press release the studio released, places the move on giving "the filmmakers time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story."

Not sure what the real reason is though an odd rumor of Affleck breaking his leg and delaying production surfaced on the Super Hero Hype forum yesterday (Batman-News stole it and claimed as their own exclusive this afternoon). If there is any truth to that, nobody from Affleck, Zack Snyder or the Brothers Warners' camp is talking

Don't expect tears from us. This production was sounding more and more like a clusterfuck; hijacking a solo-Man of Steel sequel and morphing into Justice League in all but name to take on The Avengers: Age of Ultron that summer. If an extra year is required for wiser heads to prevail, so be it.

Oscar Nominations Announced (Along with the Usual Snubs)

 

Today was the day for Oscar nominations.

All those great films (well most) from the past year get recognized for their achievement in cinema and below is a list for each category announced (along with some commentary of course):

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity 
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

No complaints here really, though I will say I'm surprised The Coen Bros. Inside Llewyn Davis didn't make the cut considering how many Top 10 Lists it made.

Directing
David O. Russell - American Hustle
Alfonso Cuaron - Gravity
Alexander Payne - Nebraska
Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
Martin Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street

 I'm curious as to how the voters determined how Alexander Payne's 'point-shoot' approach is more impressive than what Paul Greengrass pulled off with Captain Phillips...just saying. 

Actor in a Leading Role
Christian Bale - American Hustle
Bruce Dern - Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

Wow, Robert Redford got snubbed.  That guy was thought to be a lock since Day 1.  I say Leo finally wins his Oscar, McConaughey will get his someday.

Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams - American Hustle
Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock - Gravity
Judi Dench - Philomena
Meryl Streep - August: Osage County

Does Meryl Streep automatically get a nomination every year?  It sure seems like it.  My money's on Amy Adams.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper - American Hustle
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

Even though this is Leto's to lose, how about Jonah Hill, huh?  Who would have thought.  Also, Bradley Cooper proves you CAN still kiss ass in Hollywood and get far.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’O - 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
June Squibb - Nebraska

Does Lawrence win for a 2nd year in a row?  Probably.  She's a Hollywood darling right now.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Before Midnight - Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
Captain Phillips - Billy Ray
Philomena - Jeff Pope & Steve Coogan
12 Years a Slave - John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street - Terrence Winter

If Before Midnight wins, my faith is restored in Hollywood.

Writing (Original Screenplay)
American Hustle - Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell 
Blue Jasmine - Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club - Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack
Her - Spike Jonze
Nebraska - Bob Nelson

No opinion really...David O. Russell I guess?

Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown
The Great Beauty
The Hunt
The Missing Picture
Omar

Animated Feature Film
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest and Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises

No Turbo? (joke)

Production Design
American Hustle
Gravity
The Great Gatsby 
Her
12 Years a Slave

Cinematography
Philippe Le Sourd - The Grandmaster
Emmanuel Lubezki - Gravity
Bruno Delbonnel - Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael - Nebraska
Roger A. Deakins - Prisoners

Another year Roger Deakins will get snubbed...

Costume Design
Michael Wilkinson - American Hustle
William Chang Suk Ping - The Grandmaster
Catherine Martin - The Great Gatsby
Michael O'Connor - The Invisible Woman
Patricia Norris - 12 Years a Slave

Film Editing
Jay Cassidy & Kevin Tent - American Hustle
Christopher Rouse - Captain Phillips
John Mac McMurphy & Martin Pensa - Dallas Buyers Club
Mark Sanger & Alfonso Cuaron - Gravity
Joe Walker - 12 Years a Slave

Documentary (Feature)
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
20 Feet From Stardom

Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
The Lone Ranger

Wow, Bad Grandpa will forever be an Oscar nominated film.

Music (Original Score)
John Williams - The Book Thief
Steven Price - Gravity
William Butler & Owen Pallett - Her
Alexandre Desplat - Philomena 
Thomas Newman - Saving Mr. Banks

Music (Original Song)
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone
Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
“Happy” from Despicable Me 2
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
“Let It Go” from Frozen
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“The Moon Song” from Her
Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity - Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Sound Editing
All is Lost - Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips - Oliver Tarney
Gravity - Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge
Lone Survivor - Wylie Stateman

Visual Effects
Gravity - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 - Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek into Darkness - Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

So The Long Ranger had better visual effects than Pacific Rim?

Documentary (Short Subject)
“CaveDigger,” Jeffrey Karoff
“Facing Fear,” Jason Cohen
“Karama Has No Walls,” Sara Ishaq
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall,” Edgar Barens

Short Film (Animated)
“Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
“Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
“Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
“Possessions” Shuhei Morita
“Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Short Film (Live Action)
“Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
“Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
“Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
“The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

The Oscar will be announced Sunday, March 2nd.

First Clip From ROBOCOP: "Field Test"

The first clip for February's highly anticipated soon-to-be cinematic masterpiece, ROBOCOP has surfaced online thanks to IGN.

Looks pretty impressive, promising the film will contain it's fair-share of crisp and well directed action-scenes, hopefully not exclusively involving only robots.

OmniCorp puts the newly cybernetic Alex Murphy through his trial by fire.

ROBOCOP stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, and Jay Baruchel and will release February 12, 2014.

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years – and it’s meant billions for OmniCorp’s bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

You Might See A GUNDAM Film; More Anime Stuff in Your Theaters

When you hear "GUNDAM" and you didn't grow up watching the series' on Toonami you're probably thinking "what the fuck is that?" well, whatever the fuck it is might be heading to a theater near you, as well as many more anime and manga properties.

KDrama reported from Sankaku Complex:

"Gundam" creator Yoshiyuki Tomino will hold a press conference on January 21 to announce his partnership with Legacy Effects to "bring Hollywood movies based on Japanese anime and manga titles to a global audience".
One of these titles is said to be "Gundam" though it is not sure what part of the huge "Gundam" series Legacy Effects and Yoshiyuki Tomino will make a Hollywood adaptation off.

Legacy Effects has done work on such specia-effects driven films as Pacific Rim, Real Steel, AVATAR, Iron Man, and this summer's X-Men: Days of Future Past so obviously they've had their fair share of experience with nerds and robots.

While nothing is confirmed, we will find out on Jan 21 what exactly they're cooking up in The Land of the Rising Sun.

Previous attempts to bring Japanese anime and manga to American screens have either been developed and never happened, such as WB's AKIRA, a live-action VOLTRON, and WETA's work on Neon Genesis Evangelion; are currently in some sort of planning such as Leo DiCaprio's rumored involvement with ROBOTECH, Guillermo Del Toro's adaption of MONSTER for HBO, and Shane Black's adaption of Death Note; or have been actually made and poorly received such as DragonBall: EVOLUTION, Fist of the North Star, OLDBOY and SPEED RACER (which was actually good).

The article notes:

For those who don't know the "Gundam" series is one of the biggest-if not the biggest-mecha manga/anime series in Japan. The "Gundam" franchise earned over 5 billion yen in revenue based on the sales of the toys, manga, tv shows and movies.

Since Gundam has spawned so many different series, it's difficult to peg what, if any, will be adapted; but I'd lean towards WING as it's the most...."realistic".

Thomas Kretschmann Cast As Avengers: Age Of Ultron Villain

Hot off the heels of NBC's Dracula, star Thomas Kretschmann has been cast (seemingly) as Baron Von Strucker (via THR) in 'The Avengers: Age Of Ultron' -- set to start filming within the coming months. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter has noted that Kretschmann's deal is for the character to appear in several films. However, it's unclear at this time whether or not they are just securing the actor to possible commitments or actually planning to build up HYDRA in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joss Whedon has previously cast The Blacklist's James Spader as Ultron, the titular villain of the film.

The Avengers: Age Of Ultron releases May 1, 2015.

"The Lego Movie" TV Spot Takes Friendly Jab At "Superman Returns" - Channing Tatum Is Superman

The Lego Movie is one of my most anticipated flicks of this year and we're less than a month away, February 7th.  The latest TV spot introduces Superman voiced by Channing Tatum and takes a little jab at Superman Returns

VOICEOVER: "The Worlds Greatest Hero isn't Batman..."

SUPERMAN: "You don't want me, I'm not into it."

VOICEOVER: "...it isn't Superman..."

SUPERMAN: "I'm going back to Krypton."

The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.

After 12 Years, Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood' to Premiere at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival has announced that Richard Linklater's Boyhood will premiere January 19th at the Eccles Theatre at 9:45 p.m.

The film tells the story of a divorced couple (played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, respectively) raising their son (Ellar Coltrane), as the story encompasses the boy's years from 1st to 12th grade.

While the story sounds plain on the surface, you might be surprised to learn this film began shooting way back in 2002 (I remember I was a freshman in high school and first read about this on a site called Cinema Confidential).

You see, Linklater wanted complete authenticity for this project, so he's been filming the actors year-to-year for the past 12 years as they've aged, an approach that frankly, I don't has ever been done before.

How amazing will it be to watch this film as it encompasses how the world has changed over the past dozen years?  From technology, to politics, to society in general.  I certainly hope Linklater touches upon certain events that defined every year since 2002.

Below is the press release from Sundance along with the first two official images from the film (I can not wait for this).

2014 Sundance Film Festival to Host Special Preview Screenings of

Boyhood by Richard Linklater

30th Anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute today announced that the 2014 Sundance Film Festival will host special preview screenings of Boyhood by Richard Linklater, premiering Sunday, January 19, 9:45 p.m. at the Eccles Theatre. The 2014 Festival takes place January 16-26 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

With the addition of Boyhood, the 2014 Festival will present 121 feature-length films, representing 37 countries and 54 first-time filmmakers, including 35 in competition. These films were selected from 12,218 submissions (72 more than for 2013), including 4,057 feature-length films and 8,161 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,014 were from the U.S. and 2,043 were international. 100 feature films at the Festival will be world premieres.

Boyhood / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Richard Linklater) — Filmed over short periods from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood is a groundbreaking cinematic experience covering 12 years in the life of a family. At the center is Mason, who with his sister Samantha, are taken on an emotional and transcendent journey through the years, from childhood to adulthood. Cast: Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater.

Source:  Sundance

Five Actors To Test for Kyle Reese in 'Terminator: Genesis' on Monday

With filming set to begin in the next few months - and the roles of Sarah and John Connor having been cast with Emilia Clarke and Jason Clarke (no relation), respectively - the last major role to fill in the new Terminator reboot, Terminator: Genesis (a strong feeling that title will change to something less generic), is that of Kyle Reese.

Michael Biehn famously played the role back in 1984's original The Terminator as well as Anton Yelchin playing the younger version in 2009's poorly received Terminator Salvation.

The five actors who will read for the part this coming Monday are all relatively unknowns except for one:

• Wilson Bethel (TV's Heart of Dixie)
• Boyd Holbrook (TV's Hatfields & McCoys, The Host)
• Tom Cocquerel (hardly any notable filmmography)
• Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard, Jack Reacher)
• Sam Reid (Also TV's Hatfields & McCoys)

Obviously Jai Courtney is the most well-known of the group having done some notable films the past couple years but I can't really say he fits the look of Kyle Reese that Michael Biehn presented so well in the original film.

It should also be noted that the filmmakers behind the project reached out to both Garret Hedlund (TRON: Legacy) and Nicholas Hoult (Jack the Giant Slayer), but both actors refused to read.  No, that doesn't mean the script sucks (how could they know if they didn't bother to read it).  They probably just didn't want to be bothered with taking on a franchise role (it's not like Terminator is the crown jewel it use to be). 

It's probably a stretch to guess who will actually get the part, but if I had to go off a hunch, I'd say Wilson Bethel (he looks like the spitting image of a young Michael Biehn).

We'll keep you posted on who snags the role.

Terminator: Genesis is set to open July 1st, 2015.

Source:  Variety

The Force Might Be Strong with Jesse Plemons

Casual viewers don't know Jesse Plemons by name, but they recognize his face from Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights or maybe even Battleship or PTA's The Master. Expect that to change, if this goes down.

The Wrap reports he is up for a lead role in Star Wars: Episode VII. He passed the first round, taping an audition for casting directors and will meet with helmer J.J. Abrams next week.

The assumption game suggests he would be Luke Skywalker's son. No, he doesn't have a passing resemblance to Mark Hamill (who, by the time, is still not confirmed to return). Unless Hamill was played by Matt Damon. But they have both have sandy, blonde hair. And that's all you need to pass for movie logic.