Blue Caprice Trailer

One viewing of the atmospheric trailer for Blue Caprice, the drama recreating the Beltway sniper attacks, and it all comes back to us old enough to remember. It’s a scary reminder of the paranoia in the air in our post 9/11 environment.

Alexandre Moors, first time director, has a bright future ahead and talk about a comeback for Isaiah Washington (who had bad press this side of Mel Gibson back in the mid-2000s leading up to his firing from the ABC medical soap Grey's Anatomy) displaying a calm, Father Knows Best demeanor-turned-psychotic as real-life monster John Allen Muhammad.

Trailer For A.C.O.D.

"I shielded you! You were a last ditch effort to save this marriage!"
"That's a stupid lie. Darling, you were an accident."

Great exchanges like that fill the trailer for the new comedy A.C.O.D. The title is short for Adult Children of Divorce and centers on how Carter (Adam Scott) learns he was unknowingly involved with a story on children of divorce and years later, on the eve of his young brother (Clark Duke)'s wedding asked to participant in a follow-up study.

Catherine O'Hara and Richard Jenkins co-star as their parents, Jane Lynch as Carter's therapist along with Amy Poehler and Jessica Alba.

Source: Yahoo! Movies

Ninja Turtles Pushed Back to August 2014 - Those Not Born in the 80s Shrug Shoulders

The latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do-over from Michael Bay (and by "Michael Bay," I mean director Jonathan Liebesman) is taking a slight detour.

It will still open next summer, but Paramount moved it off the hot n heavy June 6th slot (They too saw how the overcrowded market chipped away at what would have been higher grosses for mega-hits Man of Steel, Monsters University and World War Z this summer) into August 8th. A time when the folks are more willing to try something different for their genre action fix (like The Expendables or District 9), comedies (like The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Superbad) and horror films as the summer nears its end, and we see nothing but Back to School Sales commercials on TV.

Marvel's trying to same strategy for Guardians of the Galaxy. And since that opens a week prior, it looks like we got ourselves a showdown between two pricey, niche properties. I know I'll get shit for calling Ninja Turtles niche but that hasn't had pop culture relevance since the early 90s.

Red Sparrow Could Be Darren Aronofsky's Next Film

It's impossible to get a gage of what Darren Aronofsky will do next. He's had this back-and-forth flirtation with big studio blockbusters over the years. Thankfully Black Swan did big business, allowing him that "Blank Check" follow-up in Noah that could ("Could" being the key word here; won't have a better grasp until we see footage) prove to be a blockbuster success without a great filmmaker Aronofsky having to slum it, i.e. "One for them, one for me."

While the jury is out on his Biblical epic, he's getting ready to scratch that itch again. What will he do next? He's in early discussions (This is Aronofsky, kids, so don't get too attached to this until filming starts) to direct Red Sparrow, based on the Jason Matthew espionage novel. Here's the plot synopsis of the book courtesy of Amazon:

"In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a 'Sparrow,' a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.

As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and--inevitably--forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate's game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC."

Source: "TOLDJA"

Trailer For Vampire Academy

"Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir: half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely without our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story."

Via Yahoo! Movies

Second Trailer For Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon

"Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old-fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to 'pull' a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn’t compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old-fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she’s determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old-fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt."

Via Yahoo! Movies

International Trailer For 300: Rise of an Empire

"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 Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy."

The Math Doesn't Lie: Why Warner Bros. Wants Bale Back for Batman

It's a story that just won't die.

Since it was announced that Batman would be showing up in Man of Steel 2 - and even long before that - rumors swirled that Warner Bros. would be backing up a BRINKS truck to Christian Bale's house in hopes he'll agree to appear in their superhero team-up film.

Many credible and respectable movie websites (specifically Batman-On-Film), have stated Bale rejected their offer many months ago and that he has no interest in coming back as the Dark Knight unless Christopher Nolan is the man behind the camera.  Basically, he won't return because Chris Nolan said their story is finished.

Numbers have ranged anywhere from $50-60 million flat that WB is offering Bale to come back, and many might think, "Well why?  The film will sell regardless if Bale is Batman."  True, but here's the reality of the situation:

Let's say Bale doesn't come back - which for all intensive purposes is pretty likely to happen - how much is this Batman vs. Superman film looking to make worldwide if a guy like Josh Brolin plays the Caped Crusader?  I'd be willing to bet at the minimum, $800 million.  Not bad, not at all, but for a film teaming up two of the most famous superheros of all-time, that's pretty disappointing.  At most - and this obviously depends on the quality of the film and how much audiences like it - I'd say a cool $1.5 billion, tops.  That's a lot of cash, enough for Warner Bros. to think, "Job well done."

Here though, is where the pink elephant in the room shows his face.

Hypothetically speaking, WB offers Bale an even $100 million for this film and he just can't say no, especially when it guarantees the financial security of his family for generations to come.  You might think, "That's ridiculous.  Why give one guy that much money for one damn movie?"

At face value, Christian Bale returning as Batman for a team-up film with Henry Cavill's Superman, guarantees at the minimum - the minimum - a worldwide box office guesstimate of likely $1.25 billion.

Yes, that's roughly $400 million more than if Josh Brolin puts on the cape and cowl.

Oh, and you ask if the film is actually good, if not great, and is embraced by audiences?

$2 billion, if not more.

Suddenly, that $100 million check to Bale looks like chump change compared to a revenue of about 20x that.

I'm not saying Bale is coming back - because again, I don't think he is - but when you do the math, it becomes pretty damn clear why Warner Bros. is not taking NO for an answer.

Lionsgate Looking For Life After Life

Lionsgate can't quit that Twilight dollar. Who could blame them? Who wouldn't want hundreds of millions of dollars at the worldwide box-office guaranteed year-in, year-out (not to mention, home video and TV sales) and the attention of the lucrative, and still surprisingly underutilized, market of young girls? Sorry, fanboys, but it's not all about you. Girls like big franchises made specifically for them too.

Its good business and they have been in it ever since the Catherine Hardwicke-directed original became a sensation back in November 2008 (Summit Entertainment actually started that before Lionsgate bought them out last year). And you might say "What about The Hunger Games?" Well yeah, that's massive. Bigger than Twilight in fact, but it was purchased under the guise of being "the next Twilight." It just happened to evolve into something larger than anyone could have foreseen, and that’s not even getting into its lead Jennifer Lawrence (Talk about an overnight explosion).

The point being the studio wants to keep rolling with the punches. Lapping up female-geared properties and hoping for "another Twilight." The studio has optioned Life After Life, based on the best-seller by Kate Atkinson with every intention of following that successful strategy. They've even assigned it to Twilight producers Temple Hill Entertainment with Semi Chellas and Esta Spalding commissioned to adapt the book.

The story concerns a young woman with the ability to relive her life set during WWII.

Vin Diesel Has New Potential Sci-Fi Franchise to Geek Out Over/Spread Bullshit About

All this "I'm gonna be in a Marvel movie! No wait, I'm playing Vision in The Avengers 2! No wait, I really gonna voice Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy!" talk from Vin Diesel falls on deaf ears. If Marvel throws a press release verifying his claims, of course I'll believe it. Maybe he's in, maybe he's out, I don't know. The guy has a big mouth and quickly-approaching Mark Millar-levels of bullshit spreading. So anything directing from him, here on out, doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

Not the case here, thankfully. Diesel still hot for sci-fi actioners wants to continue in that direction. He'll headline Soldiers of the Sun, from a spec script by Arash Amel, for Universal. The plot is "set in a post-apocalyptic future and focuses on a squad of soldiers that searches for a fabled city of gold while on a tour of duty in Mexico liberating it from an alien race known as Orcs."

Best case scenario for Diesel and the studio, they get another The Fast & the Furious out of this. Most likely scenario, on the other hand, is another Babylon A.D.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter