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NEWS FROM AUGUST 2014
SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2014
AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS
Need a little help separating the Apocalypse Twins from Kang? Confused over just how Red Skull obtained Professor X's telepathic brain? You're not alone! Check out the informative and enlightening video below courtesy of Marvel Entertainment, which hopes to fill you in on the myriad storylines leading up to its massive Axis teamup event series starting in October. Readers can follow along with the incredible action until this fall's fateful launch in Marvel's Uncanny Avengers, Magneto, Captain America and Loki: Agent of Asgard titles.
Study up and see how Red Skull brings on World War Hate when the blistering battle begins ...
CUB
We seem to be in the midst of a low-budget horror renaissance in recent years, and the freaky little thriller Cub looks poised to take its place in the pantheon very soon.
Directed by Jonas Govaerts, the film basically follows a troop of young Cub Scouts on a camping trip as they run across a wild, feral child. Turns out, that kid is the sidekick of a crazed killer — and you can guess where things go from there.
Despite the fairly simple setup, the first trailer actually manages to pull off some nice scares and freaky cinematography, and it has us curious to see more from this little indie horror gem. The film is making its debut at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Sadly, there’s no U.S. distribution deal in place as of yet. Here’s hoping some TIFF buzz might change that.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Cub is a horror adventure in which a young imaginative twelve-year-old boy named Sam heads off to camp with his Cub Scouts pack, leaders Peter and Chris and quartermaster Yasmin. Once they enter the woods, Sam quickly feels something is not quite right. He soon stumbles upon a mysterious tree house and meets a shifty, masked feral-looking child.
When Sam tries to warn his leaders, they ignore him: the boy often tells tall tales and Sam’s mysterious past which he refuses to talk about makes his leader Peter mistrust him. As Sam gets more and more isolated from the other scouts, he becomes convinced a terrible fate awaits them: the Feral Child, it turns out, is the helper of the Poacher, an evil psychopath, who has riddled the forest with ingenious traps and is intent on slaughtering the scouts… one by one…
NETFLIX ADDS SHOWS TO ITS LINE-UP
We're about to get a lot of new fall TV to watch, but before we do, there's always binge watching.
As Netflix adds a hefty new crop of genre programming to its monthly Watch Instantly shakeup, here is a quick rundown of what's worth checking out, and while there are plenty of movies to catch on the streaming service in September, this list also features a particularly robust selection of TV shows. If you've been waiting to catch up on The Walking Dead, for example, the fourth season will hit Watch Instantly this month, along with the second seasons of Arrow and Revolution, and the third season of Comic Book Men.
ARROW
It was only a matter of time before the Arrow become the deranged object of someone's affection. Next season, the masked hero will encounter an unwelcome admirer named Carrie Cutter, better known to comic-book fans as Cupid. The character will be played by CW vet, and Supernatural alum, Amy Gumenick.
Arrow's executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has been waiting for the perfect time to bring Cutter into the fold. The character previously appeared in his run of the Green Arrow/Black Canary comics.
“I always loved the idea of Green Arrow having a crazed fan,” Kreisberg said. “When I was writing the comic book, my big goal was to create a villain who would last. Cupid has since appeared in the DC Nation shorts on Cartoon Network, and to have her fight our TV Arrow is so much more than I ever could have hoped for the character.”
Gumenick is no stranger to genre television. Not only did she play Young Mary Winchester on Supernatural, but she also appeared on Grimm and No Ordinary Family. Her character is the latest in a long line of villains waiting to make Oliver/The Arrow's life more difficult.
Gumenick joins the likes of Brandon Routh as Atom/Ray Palmer, J.R. Ramirez as Wildcat/Ted Grant and David Cubitt as Mark Shaw/Manhunter. Cutter/Cupid will make her big debut in the third season's sixth episode.
Arrow returns Oct. 8 on The CW.
THE SCRIBBLER
A new, red-band trailer for the sci-fi flick loaded with stars from all your favorite shows has arrived, and we remain cautiously curious to see more of The Scribbler.
Based on Daniel Schaffer’s 2006 graphic novel of the same name, the film stars Katie Cassidy (Arrow) as Suki, a young woman confronting her destructive mental illness using an experimental machine designed to eliminate multiple personalities. But what if the last personality left isn’t someone she wants to be?
It's an intriguing pitch, and the more we see from this new trailer, the more we like the low-budget, steampunk style. Plus, Cassidy is joined by a who’s who of fellow genre alums in this straight-to-DVD sci-fi thriller. The extended cast includes Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse), Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Gina Gershon (Face/Off) and Billy Campbell (Helix).
The latest trailer shows off a fair bit of new footage, mostly a lot of dark action and sci-fi-tinged insanity. There’s also some sexy NSFW bits toward the end, fair warning. The film is directed by John Suits and slated for DVD and Blu-ray release on Oct. 21.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014
HOUDINI
History's latest mini-series "Houdini" tells the story of the great magician Harry Houdini like no one has ever seen before, and there are juicy nuggets sprinkled throughout the two night event for even the most die hard of fans.
Oscar winner Adrien Brody plays Houdini himself, while "House of Cards" actress Kristen Connolly plays his wife Bess, who was often his partner in magic as well as life. Zap2it got a chance to catch up with Connolly to find out just how she went about stepping into the role of Houdini's wife of 32 years.
What can you tease about why people should tune in to this version of the story?
Audiences might know a little bit about these historical people, but I guarantee the general population are going to see things that surprise them. I hope it sparks an interest in Houdini, because the more you dig into who they are, they are so fascinating.
This is someone who became outrageously famous in a time where fame and the media was a very different thing. There were no viral videos or things like that. I think the way he manipulated the media and built a giant following in his career is really cool. As much as his ability as an escape artist was extraordinary, he also was really really gifted in keeping the public interested in him and changing with the times. His ability to constantly keep himself on the front page is a really interesting thing.
HOUDINI airs Monday, September 1st and Tuesday, September 2nd at 9 PM on HISTORY.
WIL WHEATON SHOW CANCELLED BY SYFY
Syfy will not continue on with its Wil Wheaton talk show.
The weekly Wil Wheaton Project has been canceled after 12 episodes, the host announced Friday. Syfy did not immediately return The Hollywood Reporter's request for comment.
"I'm really OK with it," Wheaton recounted on his blog. "I'm super sad that I won’t get to work with my writers and producers, and I’m sad that we don’t get to keep writing jokes, but I did everything I could to help the show succeed. I promoted it the best way I could, I worked hard to write stuff that was funny, and I tried so, so, so hard to get the network executives in New York to understand how they could help the show succeed."
Ultimately he said Syfy executives told him that the series did not have "enough viewers to justify more episodes" of the series.
Syfy announced the series in April for a May debut. The show featured Wheaton dissecting sci-fil film, TV, video games, viral videos and news of interest to the geek community. The half-hour series hailed from Pilgrim Studios, with Craig Piligian and Mike Nichols (Ghost Hunters) on board as exec producers.
The cancellation comes as Syfy has recommitted to going back to the more traditional sci-fi and fantasy genre that viewers had come to expect from the network.
The NBCUniversal-owned network becomes the latest cabler to unsuccessfully attempt to enter the talk show space. While Comedy Central has found success with Chris Hardwick's geek-infused @Midnight and Bravo re-upped Andy Cohen and his Watch What Happens Live for two more seasons, FXX's W. Kamau Bell entry, Comedy Central's Anthony Jeselnik show as well as MTV's Nikki & Sara Live did not fare as well.
AMERICAN HANGMAN
David James Elliott, a star of the JAG TV series for 10 years, has boarded the U.S. indie American Hangman, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.
Elliott is to play Detective James Steptoe in the kidnapping thriller by writer-director Wilson Coneybeare of Los Angeles-based Canoe Lake Films.
American Hangman has already cast Sherlock's Martin Freeman and Brian Cox as leads.
The indie feature will shoot in Canada and the U.K. in November 2014, ahead of a 2015 release.
Marina Cordoni of Toronto-based Marina Cordoni Entertainment has joined the project as executive producer, and will chase pre-sales at the Toronto Film Festival.
Elliott, best known as JAG's Cmdr. Harmon "Harm" Rabb, is also set to play Hollywood legend John Wayne in Trumbo, the Dalton Trumbo biopic starring Bryan Cranston and directed by Jay Roach.
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
While we’ve seen Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman in their Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice costumes — with the latter even being seen in drench-o-vision as part of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge — Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor has been surprisingly absent from any pre-release hype to date. In a recent interview, the actor merely added to the mystique around the new take on everyone’s favorite mad scientist.
“I got to know one of the writers really well, Chris Terrio, and we were able to discuss things at length and figure out who this person is to create a real psychology behind what is, perhaps, in a comic book, a less than totally modern psychology,” Eisenberg told Total Film Magazine when asked about the role, adding “I can only say I've been asked to play an interesting role: a complicated, challenging person.”
The Social Network star did spill the beans that he had to express interest in playing Superman’s long-standing nemesis before even seeing a script for the movie. “They asked me if I wanted to play the part before they sent me the script,” Eisenberg said. “You know, they don't just hand the scripts out.”
Despite his success to date, Eisenberg said that he was prepared for Lex to propel him into another level of celebrity. “To say, I can't do that which will appear in thousands of theaters on opening day, but I can do this which will appear in this amount of theaters... It's arbitrary,” he reasoned, before turning the thought into a compliment for the production as a whole. “I realize how popular comic-book movies are, and now, working on one, I realize why they're popular — the story is really good, the dialogue is really good, the artistry behind every department is high, the acting is really good.”
With the movie still more than a year away from release — and, indeed, still in production — it’s not surprising that we’ve not seen Eisenberg’s Luthor yet, but now that the actor is talking about the role, someone needs to ask the one question that really matters: Is he playing the role bald, as Lex Luthor should be, or in the Gene Hackman method of “supposedly wearing a wig throughout the entire movie for reasons of vanity”?
GREATEST AMERICAN HERO REMAKE
"The Greatest American Hero" is headed back to television with a pilot in the works from the 21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller! Deadline has the news, reporting that the show is being developed for FOX as an hourlong series.
Based on the ABC-TV series which ran from 1980 to 1983, "The Greatest American Hero" follows a nebbishy teacher who becomes a reluctant superhero after extraterrestrials give him a special suit with powers he can barely understand or control when he loses its instruction manual. The original stars William Katt, Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca.
Lord and Miller are working alongside Tawnia McKiernan, the daughter of the original show's creator, Steven J. Cannell. The pair will executive produce alongside Seth Cohen and Rodney Rothman, who is also attached to write.
AMERICAN GODS
We learned in early July that Bryan Fuller, Michael Green and Neil Gaiman are set to executive produce a small screen adaptation of Gaiman's 2001 bestseller "American Gods." Today, CraveOnline caught up with Fuller and learned a few intriguing details about his plans for the series, which he says will likely shoot in 2015 and air in 2016.
"It's basically the following the events of the books," says Fuller, "but expanding those events, and expanding the point of view to go above and beyond Shadow and Wednesday. In that way, as with 'Game of Thrones,' there are dozens of characters that you're tracking through the events and that's probably the biggest similarities between the worlds, in that there's a wide variety of characters at play."
"American Gods" posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of biblical and mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society's modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
Fuller goes on to reveal that the series may also include elements of Gaiman's 2005 quasi-sequel, "Anansi Boys" and jokes that Gaiman "god damn well better" write some of the series' episodes.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 2014
WINTER SOLDIER
Following his introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier has once again become a hot commodity in the comics world — and here’s a first look at his next, positively insane, series.
Writer Ales Kot (Secret Avengers, Iron Patriot) and artist Marco Rudy are teaming up for the new series Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier, which will find the steel-armed antihero sent on a psychedelic journey to become a cosmic assassin — a role previously held by Nick Fury himself. With Kot at the helm, the story should be great — but the art is just on another level. It’s pure, psychedelic awesome.
Along with debuting the first few pages below, Kot chatted with Vulture about the project and why he believes Bucky is such a relevant character for the world today:
“Bucky came back to prominence as, I believe, we as a nation became more disillusioned with America. I believe that Captain America, as an archetype of the do-gooder, all-American boy that is very honest and very present and faces things straight-on, became this almost mythical ideal that he always in some sense was. We get to a place where generations, as they change, start realizing that Captain America is really a myth, and there are other people doing the dirty jobs that were happening …
What Bucky does is he takes over Nick Fury's old job as the "man on the wall," so to speak. On the wall between Earth and the rest of the galaxy. There are certain threats that come and have come close to Earth and might have done horrible things to us if Nick Fury weren't there. And Nick Fury has done horrible, horrible things in order to protect us. At that scale, what I'm looking at is the same basic thing as the American narrative when it comes to the rest of the world. And the narrative is inevitably breaking and transforming into something hopefully more complex and more truthful. We're all in this together.”
The new run debuts in October, and we’re definitely tossing the first issue on our pull list.
SEVENTH SON
Nearly two years after it was first supposed to come out, the movie Seventh Son wants you to know it's still on its way.
Remember hearing about this film? Based loosely on the book The Spook's Apprentice (which is known as the more cumbersome The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch in the U.S.), it stars Ben Barnes as Tom Ward, the "seventh son of a seventh son," who becomes the apprentice of the Spook (Jeff Bridges) and goes on all kinds of mystical, magical adventures with him as they seek to defeat an evil queen (what else?) played by Julianne Moore.
Director Sergei Dobrev shot the picture in 2012, and it was originally scheduled for release in February 2013. Then it was bumped to that October so that the effects work could be completed properly, and shifted again after that to January 2014. Then the company behind the movie, Legendary Pictures, changed distribution partners from Warner Bros. to Universal, who promptly punted Seventh Son all the way to February 2015.
But it looks like that date is going to stick, since a new, and decidedly more monster-heavy, trailer has been released. That means we'll probably all have a chance early next year to grumble about the lack of good fantasy films since the golden days of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and hear Jeff Bridges use the same gravelly voice he's deployed for the last four or five films he's starred in.
MARVEL'S ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: WEB WARRIORS
Disney XD is pulling a soft reboot with its Ultimate Spider-Man series this season by spinning it as Web Warriors, and now we have two new clips from the first two episodes.
The new season (technically the show's third) debuts Aug. 31 with the two-parter “The Avenging Spider-Man,” that Guardians crossover special episode from a month ago notwithstanding, and the network has dropped two new clips from each installment of the premiere.
As the clips show, Spidey is now running with the Avengers gang a lot more, and we can apparently expect some major Marvel cameos on a regular basis. Along with calling the webslinger up to the big leagues, the new season will also introduce some alternative-universe Spider-Men to the mix — including Miles Morales.
But after the long hiatus from the end of last season, it’s nice to see Spidey back in action. Marvel’s Disney XD fare has been fairly hit-and-miss, but Ultimate Spider-Man has proven to be a decent animated series. Here’s hoping things get even better with some alt-Spideys thrown into the mix.
THE WALKING DEAD
While we patiently wait for October to roll around, AMC has started trickling out some tantalizing new footage from season five of The Walking Dead. Want to see?
Over the past week, the network has dropped three 10-12-second clips hinting at everything from the meaty problems the gang will have in Terminus to what will happen once they eventually escape the compound. The clips are creepy, tense and everything we love about The Walking Dead. Also, what the heck is in that house with Tyreese?
What we still don’t know is exactly how they make it out of Terminus, which is one question that still has us champing at the bit for answers. The first full-length trailer for season five showed off a ton of footage, many of which seemed to represent the post-Terminus era. Considering they had no qualms about showing that footage, it likely means they have much (much) bigger twists in the works.
Along with the tantalizing teases, the network has also dropped a nifty behind-the-scenes clip that digs into some of the locations we'll see in season five. You know, new places like a mysterious "urban area" that could play into the quest to get to D.C. Or perhaps the Alexandria Safe Zone. Or ... perhaps something else entirely.
BLINDSPOT
Greg Berlanti is expanding his relationship with NBC.
As the prolific producer prepares to launch Debra Messing procedural The Mysteries of Laura, NBC has handed out a script plus penalty commitment to FBI thriller Blindspot, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The drama centers on an FBI agent who is drawn into a complex conspiracy when a naked amnesiac is found in Times Square covered in fresh tattoos … including his name on her back.
Martin Gero (Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, Bored to Death) will pen the script and executive produce the drama, which hails from Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions, where the producer behind The CW's Arrow and spinoff The Flash is based. Berlanti and Berlanti Productions topper Sarah Schechter also will executive produce. Blindspot marks former WB exec Schechter's first TV project after joining the company in February.
The project marks Gero's latest TV foray following The CW's Canadian import The L.A. Complex. He's repped by WME. Berlanti is with WME and Felker Toczek.
Blindspot marks the second project involving sleep depravation this development season. Fox also is prepping sci-fi insomnia drama Nod.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014
STEPHEN LEE PASSES
Character actor Stephen Lee has died from a heart attack. The acting veteran was 58-year-old.
Lee's career spanned over three decades and his recent TV credits include work on shows "NCIS," "Bones" and "Ghost Whisperer."
In addition, the actor also had notable Television roles on hit series like "Roseanne," "Quantum Leap," and "Nash Bridges." Babylon 5 fans will remember him as Tharg, the Onteen father who refused to let Dr. Franklin operate on his son, in the Season 1 episode "Believers."
Lee also appeared in many films including "Burlesque" (2010), with Cher and Christina Aguilera and "The Negotiator" (1998), with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey.
SLEEPY HOLLOW/THE FOLLOWING LOOK AHEAD "Sleepy Hollow"
Season 2 will pick up immediately after the Season 1 finale, with Ichabod buried alive, Abbie trapped in purgatory, Katrina kidnapped by Headless, Frank in jail and Jenny in a serious car crash.
"This season, fans will be introduced to a myriad of new faces in Sleepy Hollow, including Sheriff Leena Reyes (guest star Sakina Jaffrey) and the enigmatic Nick Hawley (guest star Matt Barr) who add new drama, excitement and intrigue to the ever-thickening story of the mystical town. Sheriff Reyes' no-nonsense attitude threatens Ichabod and Abbie's progress, while Hawley's appearance in town adds romantic intrigue and a touch of scandal. For their part, Ichabod and Abbie face a new slew of netherworld evils and must combat them, at times, using fire to fight fire. Plus, the realization that their No. 1 foe is actually Ichabod's son places loyalties -- and seemingly unbreakable friendships -- to the ultimate test. As always, Ichabod continues to discover more about the modern world around him -- from the joys of the modern-day banking system, to a new, perplexing exercise routine: yoga."
"The Following"
When "The Following" returns for Season 3, a year will have passed since the Season 2 finale that saw Joe Carroll re-captured and sent to death row once more.
"[Ryan is] involved with Gwen (Zuleikha Robinson), an ER doctor and the mother of a 7-year-old girl. But a peaceful life is not in the cards for Ryan as a series of horrific murders rocks New York, sending its residents into a state of fear and paranoia, and the entire city into lockdown. Ryan struggles to balance his desire to be a good partner to the woman he loves and saving the city from one of the worst threats it's ever faced. With Ryan's arch-nemesis, manipulative serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), on death row, and familiar faces -- including psychopath Mark (Sam Underwood) -- appearing in the most unexpected ways, Ryan is forced to ask: What if this is not Joe Carroll's work, but something much bigger? What if Joe Carroll was just the beginning?"
DOCTOR WHO
This Saturday, it's Peter Capaldi versus the Daleks, and we've got an extended look at what's in store.
Rumor has it that the BBC didn't want to bring the classic Who villains back this season, after getting plenty of mileage out of them last year in the Time War-centric 50th-anniversary special "Day of the Doctor" and the 2013 Christmas special "Time of the Doctor." Capaldi's been a fan of the legendary pepperpots from Skaro since he was a kid, though, and reportedly lobbied producers to get an episode where he'd face them. This week, in his second Who story, he gets his wish with "Into the Dalek."
Here's the official BBC synopsis for the episode:
A Dalek fleet surrounds a lone rebel ship, and only the Doctor can help them now… with the Doctor facing his greatest enemy, he needs Clara by his side.
Confronted with a decision that could change the Daleks forever he is forced to examine his conscience. Will he find the answer to the question, am I a good man?
Those who watched Capaldi's premiere episode, "Deep Breath," last Saturday saw a brief trailer for "Into the Dalek" at the end, and a few weeks ago an interview with Capaldi also featured a couple of very brief snippets of footage from the episode. Now those snippets of footage have turned into extended clips, and while they're still brief, they give us a closer look at the themes the episode will explore.
The first clip includes a bit of footage that's been going around ever since the first trailer for the series arrived: Sitting beside Clara in the TARDIS, the Doctor asks her if he's a good man. The second clip is more plot-centric, and features a Dalek that's malfunctioned in a very interesting way. It also reveals that Capaldi's Doctor still isn't very concerned with remembering names during a nice little comedic walk-and-talk scene.
"Into the Dalek" premieres Saturday at 9/8C on BBC America.
EXITS
The director of The Blair Witch Project is going back to the woods with a new found-footage horror flick — but he’s traded in witches for Sasquatch.
Eduardo Sánchez, director of The Blair Witch Project, has been kicking around low-budget horror for the better part of a decade. Now he’s decided to put together a sequel-in-spirit to that groundbreaking found-footage horror tale, and we have the first look below. It looks ... a lot like Blair Witch, actually.
The trailer definitely hits some of the stylistic high notes that made Blair Witch such a fun romp, but we’re curious to see if audiences are still looking for those same shaky-cam horror thrills after scores of imitators. We get attractive young people running, a lot of jumping around, and some tantalizing glimpses of Bigfoot terrorizing the group as if all those "Messin' With Sasquatch" commercials finally got to him and he snapped. The Bigfoot addition is a nice twist, but we need to see more.
The film stars Dora Madison Burge (Friday Night Lights), Samuel Davis (From Dusk Till Dawn), Denise Williamson (Friday Night Lights), Roger Edwards (Captain Phillips), Chris Osborn (Lone Star) and Brian Steele (Hellboy) as the wild Sasquatch.
Here’s the official synopsis:
For five friends, it was a chance for a summer getaway— a weekend of camping in the Texas Big Thicket. But visions of a carefree vacation are shattered with an accident on a dark and desolate country road. In the wake of the accident, a bloodcurdling force of nature is unleashed—something not exactly human, but not completely animal— an urban legend come to terrifying life…and seeking murderous revenge.
Exists is set to open theatrically, and hit iTunes, on Oct. 24.
UNDERWORLD REBOOT
Welcome back to Underworld.
Lakeshore Entertainment is moving forward with a reboot of the vampire action franchise, hiring Cory Goodman to write the script.
Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing.
The first Underworld film, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Kate Beckinsale, was released in 2003. Playing the strong vampire Selena made Beckinsale into a bankable action star, and three films followed in 2006 (Underworld: Evolution), 2009 (prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) and 2012 (Underworld: Awakening).
Underworld: Awakening, the 3D film that saw Beckinsale reprise her role as Selene, was the top earner in the franchise, taking in $160 million worldwide. The vampires versus werewolves franchise has grossed $458.2 million worldwide.
Goodman wrote the script for the 2011 film Priest, starring Paul Bettany. He also penned the script for the upcoming Summit film The Last Witch Hunter starring Vin Diesel, which is currently in pre-production. He's repped by WME, Aperture Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2014
MARVEL NEWS
As Netflix ramps up its ambitious slate of Marvel series, an exec at the service has offered some hints about what to expect.
In an interview with Empire magazine (via Comic Book Movie), Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos discussed the company's Marvel plans, which involve creating four series -- Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones -- before bringing them all together in a fifth show, The Defenders. In other words, it's the Marvel Cinematic Universe playbook adapted for the small screen, which Sarandos himself acknowledged:
"It was really based on the theatrical model of The Avengers. Could you take another group of characters, The Defenders, and go about it the same way? Normally they do the big movie and then eventually they get to the group origin story. Having 13 hours to tell each of these stories, you can go right to the origin story and the action at the same time."
First out of the chute will be Daredevil, which is filming now. Sarandos said that fans can expect a darker tone for this show than the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck:
"The series will not be afraid to go darker than the film did. What we love about this particular set of heroes is that they're a little more down to Earth. Costume wise and also in that these are gritty crime stories, more in the streets than in the clouds."
Up next, apparently, is Jessica Jones -- "Right now, the writers' rooms are open and they're looking at casting Jessica," says Sarandos -- but beyond that the Marvel wall of secrecy surrounds the plans for the other shows. And as for the big question -- whether any or all of the Defenders will get kicked upstairs to the MCU at some point -- Sarandos would only say, "It has definitely been talked about."
PEANUT-GUARDIANS
Artist Matthew J. Fletcher has created a perfect pairing of the classic Peanuts gang and Guardians of the Galaxy's mighty misfits. The cosmic tumblers have aligned to deliver this divine union we never realized we wanted so badly, with Lucy as Gamora, Charlie Brown as Star-Lord, Linus as Drax the Destroyer, Snoopy as Rocket Raccoon and Woodstock as a dancing Groot.
SHERLOCK
Sherlock was a big winner at the 66th Primetime Emmys, taking home three awards (to go with the four the show earned at last week's Creative Arts ceremony), including trophies for stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
In celebrating his win for writing for a miniseries/movie or dramatic special, executive producer Steven Moffat dropped some hints backstage about the British drama's anticipated fourth season, which begins production in January 2015 — the same time Doctor Who will also start filming.
Moffat was confident that the new season would be even more gasp-inducing than the previous year, which ended with an unexpected resurrection of a character presumed dead.
"We have a plan to top it — and actually I do think our plan is devastating," he teased. "We practically reduced our cast to tears by telling them the plan. Honestly, Mark [Gatiss] and myself are so excited with what we've got coming up, probably more excited than we've ever been about Sherlock. … Honestly I think we can [top the last season]."
Moffat spoke of the surge of Emmy recognition the show has received in its third year.
“We’ve won outside of America, which is a place," Moffat deadpanned. "We were just starting to think that that phase of our lives was dying down because as shows get older they don’t win as often — just like people. We’re delighted that we’ve made it here and hopefully this gets more people watching. That’d be great.”
He remained mum on when the new episodes would be premiering. "When they go out is up to the BBC," he said. "And I am their loyal servant. I simply do what they ask me."
Moffat reassured that the creative team behind the show will continue returning to Sherlock, no matter how busy they may be with other projects. "What's happening with Sherlock is unusual," he admitted. "We will keep coming back to it."
WALKING DEAD
AMC has released another 15-second spot for the upcoming fifth season of "The Walking Dead." This one features Chad Coleman's Tyreese.
Based on the comic created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, Season Five of "The Walking Dead" premieres Sunday, October 12 at 9:00pm ET/PT. It also stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Emily Kinney, Danai Gurira and Sonequa Martin-Green.
INFERNO
Cameras are set to roll on Ron Howard's third big screen Dan Brown adaptation in April 2015, Deadline reports. Tom Hanks will reprise his The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons role of Professor Robert Langdon for Inferno, which has been given a tentative release date of December 18, 2015.
The book itself marks the fourth novel to follow Langdon. Published in 2013, Inferno is officially described as follows:
In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces... Dante’s Inferno.
Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust... before the world is irrevocably altered.
David Koepp is providing the adapted screenplay.
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Lucy Lawless has gone from warrior princess to cylon to an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Marvel has released the first photo of the Battlestar Galactica and Xena alum, who will make her debut in the season-two premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Isabelle Hartley, a S.H.I.E.L.D. vet who helps Coulson and the team in rebuilding the organization. But can she be trusted?
“When we meet her, she might not necessarily be on the right side of things,” executive producer Jed Whedon recently told EW.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014
RIDLEY SCOTT UPDATE
Does Ridley Scott ever sleep? He's got some news to share on two of his biggest upcoming films.
As the seemingly tireless 76-year-old director gears up to release one movie this December (Exodus: Gods & Kings) and start production on another in November (The Martian), he's given EW a brief update on a pair of the many other projects on his plate -- the planned sequels to Blade Runner and Prometheus.
Speaking about Blade Runner 2, Scott made a joking reference to Harrison Ford's recent injury on the Star Wars Episode VII set while confirming that the script is finished, saying, "It’s written, and it’s damn good. Of course it involves Harrison, who is a survivor after all these years -- despite the accident. So yes, that will happen.”
Ford, of course, never confirms his involvement in anything until the last minute, but the fact that the script is written and that Rick Deckard returns must mean Scott is pretty confident that his star will come back for the sequel.
As for Prometheus, we've been hearing rumblings for a while now that a script is underway, and Scott confirmed that too, saying, "That’s the problem. I’ve got a lot of ducks in a row. But they’re all written.”
Where either script takes the story is anyone's guess, but both present certain challenges. The Blade Runner sequel has to follow in the footsteps of one of the most iconic and influential sci-fi films of all time, while Prometheus 2 has to repair the damage done by its predecessor, a movie that many felt was gorgeous to look at and full of potential greatness -- only to be let down by a terrible screenplay.
As for his next immediate project, The Martian, Scott is delving into sci-fi again -- although this time on a level closer to, say, Gravity, as Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded and left for dead on the red planet after a brutal storm. Scott explained, "It’s like Robinson Crusoe -- if you were marooned or shipwrecked, how do you survive?”
We'll find out in November 2015. While we wait, start telling us below what you want to see from those Blade Runner and Prometheus sequels, because according to their director, they're really happening.
EMMY WINNERS
HBO and PBS' Sherlock led the way at Monday's 66th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
The premium cable network led the pack of nominees — with 99 nominations — while its fantasy drama Game of Thrones entered the night with a leading 19 mentions. (Thrones ultimately collected four awards on the night while Sherlock collected wins for Martin Freeman (supporting actor in a miniseries), Steven Moffat (writing for a mini) and Benedict Cumberbatch (lead actor in a mini).
The final season of Breaking Bad came in second behind Sherlock, with six total wins, including its second best drama series trophy in a row and statuettes for stars Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn and Aaron Paul.
GONE GIRL
20th Century Fox has debuted this new preview for director David Fincher's Gone Girl, opening in theaters on October 3.
Based on the bestselling crime thriller by Gillian Flynn (who also adapted the screenplay), Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit and Carrie Coon.
On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
EMERALD CITY NIXED
Wizard of Oz fans at Comic-Con last month saw ads promoting an upcoming limited series called Emerald City, NBC’s long-gestating modern take on the magical land over the rainbow. Now that project is no longer moving forward.
EW has confirmed NBC has dropped a house on its plan to go down the Yellow Brick Road in prime-time, though producer Universal Television might still shop Emerald City around to other networks. The project had a straight-to-series 10-episode order in January with writers Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Matt Arnold (Siberia). Sources say the network and writers ended up with creative differences on how best to execute the story.
Based on the 14-book series that first created the Land of Oz, Emerald City was originally described as a “dramatic and modern re-imagining of the tales that include lethal warriors, competing kingdoms, and the infamous wizard as we’ve never seen him before.” The project was to star a “head-strong 20-year-old Dorothy Gale” who is “unwittingly sent on an eye-opening journey that thrusts her into the center of an epic and bloody battle for the control of Oz.” The lead role was never cast. The decision follows ABC’s Once Upon a Time creatively tapping Oz first, with a third season arc featuring the Wicked Witch of the West.
Earlier this summer, another ambitious straight-to-series order, Fox’s Hieroglyph, was also cancelled long before production concluded. As Dorothy might say: My, shows come and go so quickly around here!
MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014
STAR WARS REBELS
There’s some new Star Wars intel making the rounds, and it sounds like Disney has even bigger plans for this franchise than we’d thought.
Badass Digest is reporting some new behind-the-scenes intel that starts to dig into the vision and scope Disney and Lucasfilm are putting into this new-look version of Star Wars on the way, and it sounds ... pretty awesome, actually. According to the report, which cites an unnamed Lucasfilm employee, the company hopes to “redefine longform storytelling.”
So what exactly does that mean? Basically that the entire next decade of Star Wars material will be planned out in advance, with specific arcs, easter eggs and storylines baked in years (and sometimes several years) in advance. But that doesn’t just include the movies. We’re talking Star Wars: Rebels, the tie-in books, tie-in comic books — even videogames. It’s “all going to matter,” according to the report.
Yes, that sounds a bit hyperbolic and wildly ambitious. But after seeing what Disney has pulled off with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and the unfathomable success it’s had), it’s only logical they’d double down on that approach for the relaunch of one of the biggest franchises in sci-fi history. If Marvel is essentially one gigantic season of finely tuned television, it stands to reason Star Wars will follow a similar track.
There have already been rumblings that the upcoming Rebels animated series will have some major connections to the film sequels via bad guys and possibly even character crossovers. It also explains why Disney went to such great lengths to redefine exactly what is in-canon, since they plan on building on that and launching a whole, connected universe of material. Which, again, should sound familiar to Marvel fans.
If this is true, we’re psyched. Like, really psyched. One of the worst things about tie-in material is that it’s often inconsequential. But, by planning everything out so far in advance, you can give those stories more weight and legitimacy to reward (and encourage) fans to make sure that supplemental stuff is a priority. This also explains what that mysterious Lucasfilm "story group" will be doing for the next few years.
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
New set photos from Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice have appeared online, revealing that the superhero flick will also take place outside of Metropolis and Gotham City.
In fact, some of the action will take place in Washington D.C. But why? What can be bringing the Man of Steel to the nation’s capital?
Batman-News have gotten their hands on some pics that reveal part of Dawn of Justice will take place in Washington. Putting the pics into context, they've also added some plot details about what they describe as a “major action scene” that was shot in a studio in Detroit last month.
Apparently the movie will see Superman visiting the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. so that he can answer (finally!) for the devastating events and widespread destruction of Metropolis in 2013’s Man of Steel.
The public blame Supes for all the death and destruction that took place, and they believe that General Zod would never have invaded Earth if it weren't for the son of Jor-El being there in the first place.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will hit theaters on March 25, 2016.
LORD RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH DEAD AT 90
Lord Richard Attenborough, whose 20-year crusade to bring the life of Mahatma Gandhi to the screen culminated in eight Academy Awards for Gandhi, including a best director Oscar for him, has died, his son tells BBC News.
A producer, director and actor, Attenborough won a BAFTA Award for his acting in 1964 (he was double nominated for Séance on a Wet Afternoon and Guns at Batasi). He won two Golden Globes for his acting in The Sand Pebbles (1966) and Dr. Dolittle (1967), and one for direction, Oh! What A Lovely War (1969).
"Richard Attenborough was one of the greats of cinema," said British Prime Minister David Cameron in a statement on Twitter.
An actor who appeared in more than 70 films, Attenborough also won the top acting award at the Berlin Festival for The Angry Silence (1960). Under his direction, a succession of actors scored Oscar nominations, including Denzel Washington in Cry Freedom (1987), Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin (1992) and Anthony Hopkins in Shadowlands (1993).
Richard Samuel Attenborough was born Aug. 29, 1923, in Cambridge, England. He was knighted in 1976 and became a life peer in 1993. During a multifaceted career, Attenborough also served as chairman of RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Attenborough co-starred with Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963), playing the nervy mastermind behind the escape. In 1966, he appeared with James Stewart in The Flight of the Phoenix. He followed up with two Golden Globe-winning performances in The Sand Pebbles and Dr. Dolittle (1967). Back in England, he co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968).
He made his breakthrough in direction in 1968 with Oh! What a Lovely War, a parody of patriotism, which was known at the time for having Beatle John Lennon in its cast. The film went on to win 16 international awards, including another Golden Globe.
Following his lifetime triumph with Gandhi (1982), he directed a number of top films, including the film adaptation of A Chorus Line (1985), the anti-apartheid Cry Freedom (1987) and the biopic Chaplin.
Following Chaplin, he made a return to the screen at the behest of longtime admirer Steven Spielberg, starring in Jurassic Park (1993) as John Hammond. He reprised the role again in Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997) and, in a similar vein, he is featured on Universal Studios' Jurassic Park ride, assuring riders in the short film that precedes the tour that the ride is perfectly safe.
"Dickie Attenborough was passionate about everything in his life — family, friends, country and career," Spielberg said in a statement. "He made a gift to the world with his emotional epic Ghandi, and he was the perfect ringmaster to bring the dinosaurs back to life as John Hammond in Jurassic Park. He was a dear friend, and I am standing in an endless line of those who completely adored him."
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
For the second weekend in a row, the sequel to a hit action movie failed to bring in the expected male audience, and this time, it didn't have the excuse of the movie leaking online early either! Before we get to one of the biggest bombs of the summer, one that barely squeaked into the summer to get that dubious honor, let's look at the amazing close race between two returning movies and one of the new ones.
After settling for second place behind Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for two weeks, Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, directed by James Gunn, moved back into first place with a fourth weekend take of $17.6 million, down just 30% from last weekend. With a total domestic gross of $251.9 million in just four weeks, it has become the highest-grossing movie of the summer domestically, passing Transformers: Age of Extinction with $243.4 million and Disney's Maleficent with $237 million.
As we suggested last week, it's not going to be hard for "Guardians" to surpass what is currently the year's highest-grossing movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which grossed $259.8 million in its theatrical run since opening in early April. "Guardians" is not not only the highest opening August movie of all time but also the second-highest grossing movie to open in August behind M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense with $293 million. Expect Guardians of the Galaxy to cross "Captain America's" gross sometime in the coming week as it goes for the elusive $300 million milestone that no movie this year has crossed.
Internationally, "Guardians" added another $20.7 million to bring its international gross to $237.6 million (playing in 70% of worldwide territories with Japan, China, Germany and Italy still to come) and its global total to $490 million. It's one of the few summer blockbusters that's been doing as well in North America as it is internationally.
The Michael Bay-produced revamp of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles swapped places to take 2nd after two weekends at #1 with a weekend take of $16.8 million--down 41%--and a domestic total of $145.6 million.
The adaptation of Gayle Forman's novel If I Stay (Warner Bros.), starring Chloe Grace Moretz and directed by R.J. Cutler, did the best of the three new movies, taking third place for the weekend with $16.4 million after opening on Friday with $6.8 million, compared to "Guardians'" $4.8 million. Having been produced for $11 million, the young adult drama is likely to be another movie in the genre to turn a nice profit.
Last week's top new movie, the appropriately-named pseudo-police comedy Let's Be Cops (20th Century Fox), starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson, dropped to fourth place with $11 million, down a respectable 38%. It has grossed $45 million so far, which means it's already recouped its $17 million production budget.
So are you ready to hear how well Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For did this weekend yet? No? Okay, we'll wait a bit longer then...
In fifth place came the football drama When the Game Stands Tall (Sony/Tristar), starring Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern, Michael Chiklis and Alexander Ludwig, which opened with an estimated $9 million in 2,673 theaters, averaging $3,336 per site. It also reportedly cost fairly little with a $15 million budget, so it could make that amount back.
Now we're ready for "Sin City," right? Nope, you'll have to wait a little longer.
It might be a tight race for sixth place, but as of now, the Lois Lowry adaptation The Giver (The Weinstein Company), starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Brenton Thwaites, is estimated to take that slot with $6.8 million and $24.1 million grossed since opening ten days ago.
The star-studded action movie threequel The Expendables 3 (Lionsgate) fell 58% in its second weekend to take seventh place with $6.6 million and a total of $27.5 million, still less than what the previous installment made in its opening weekend.
And that finally brings us to the sequel Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (Dimension Films/TWC), once again directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez with returning cast Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis and Rosario Dawson, joined by Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Jeremy Piven and more. Like The Expendables 3, having so many stars didn't do much to convince the film's target male audience to spend their money to see it in theaters as it bombed badly with only $6.5 million its opening weekend in 2,894 theaters for a pitiful 8th place showing.
For some perspective, the original Sin City made nearly TWICE that amount in its opening DAY in April 2005, but obviously, waiting nine years for the sequel wasn't the wisest idea and fans of Frank Miller's comics no longer cared anymore. Ironically, the movie got slightly better reviews than If I Stay and way better reviews than When the Game Stands Tall.
Helen Mirren's popular East-meets-West sleeper The Hundred-Foot Journey (DreamWorks) held its ground for a third weekend in a row with the smallest drop in the Top 10, down just 22% to take ninth place with $5.6 million and $32.8 million total.
New Line's giant tornado disaster flick Into the Storm (New Line/WB) rounded out the Top 10 with $3.8 million and $38.3 million total. It looks like it won't recoup its $50 million budget from North America alone.
Starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina, Ira Sachs' festival favorite Love is Strange (Sony Pictures Classics) took in $127 thousand over the weekend from 5 locations in New York and L.A.
By comparison, the Mark Duplass-Elisabeth Moss romantic dramedy The One I Love (RADiUS-TWC) brought in less than half that amount, $55 thousand, in nine theaters, although it had already been playing on VOD for a month.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 2014
DOCTOR WHO SEASON 8
Finally, the Doctor is back. After waiting since the Christmas special, there's a new episode of "Doctor Who" and the world has been properly introduced to the new Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi.
The first episode of the eighth season of BBC hit show Doctor Who? on Saturday night drew an average audience of 6.8 million, making it the show's most watched season opener in the U.K. since 2010.
The full-episode debut of Peter Capaldi in the lead role of the Time Lord peaked with 7.3 million viewers on the public broadcaster's flagship network BBC One. Its average audience amounted to a 32.5 percent share of the total U.K. TV audience at the time.
The BBC announced the ratings on Sunday morning London time. Capaldi succeeded Matt Smith as the Doctor in the popular sci-fi show, which in the U.S. airs on BBC America.
The overnight ratings for Saturday's episode compared with the 6.4 million overnight average audience that had tuned into the first Doctor Who episode of season 7 in Sept. 2012. The final figure was later reported as 8.3 million.
These figures do not include viewings via iPlayer, the BBC's digital VOD service, which has in some cases added more than 2 million viewers to the reported figure. The new season's opening ratings also compare with the 5.5 million overnight and nearly 7.5 million final ratings for the final regular episode of the seventh season.
In 2011, the opening episode of the season drew 6.5 million viewers, compared with 8 million overnight (and 10.08 million final) in 2010 when Smith made his debut as the Doctor, and 8.4 million in 2008. In 2007, the show's season opener had drawn 8.2 million viewers to BBC One, in 2006 it had reached 8.0 million and in 2005 it had drawn 9.9 million.
In Saturday's episode, Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, who continues to play the Doctor's sidekick, ended up in Victorian London with a dinosaur running rampant.
STAR WARS REBELS
Lucasfilm has released new TV spots for "Star Wars Rebels," which will premiere with a one-hour movie titled "Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion" on WATCHDisneyXD.com and the WATCH Disney XD app beginning Monday, September 29.
The television debut of "Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion" is set for Friday, October 3 (9:00 p.m., ET/PT in the U.S.) on Disney Channels around the world, ushering in the series "Star Wars Rebels" beginning Monday, October 13 (9:00 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney XD.
Set between the events of Star Wars: Episodes III and IV, the story unfolds during a dark time when the evil Galactic Empire is tightening its grip of power on the galaxy. Imperial forces have occupied a remote planet and are ruining the lives of its people. The motley but clever crew of the starship Ghost -- cowboy Jedi Kanan, ace pilot Hera, street-smart teenager Ezra, the "muscle" Zeb, warrior firebrand Sabine, and cantankerous old astromech droid Chopper -- is among a select few who are brave enough to stand against the Empire. Together, they will face threatening new villains, encounter colorful adversaries, embark on thrilling adventures and become heroes with the power to ignite a rebellion.
AMITYVILLE AWAKENING
35 years after the horror classic The Amityville Horror and ten years since the 2005 remake starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George, Dimension Films are giving one of the original "based on a true story" horror movies another go with next year's Amityville: The Awakening, directed by Franck Khalfoun (Maniac, P2) and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cameron Monaghan and Bella Thorne.
This will be the 12th film in the series--many of them, including the last two, The Amityville Haunting and The Amityville Asylum, having gone direct-to-DVD--but Dimension Films has released the first trailer for the film via Yahoo!
THE STAND
Having won an Oscar earlier this year for his very first nomination (for Dallas Buyers Club) and with a possible Emmy coming his way next Monday (for HBO's "True Detective")--not to mention his starring role in Christopher Nolan's anticipated outer space epic Interstellar--actor Matthew McConaughey is clearly going to be in bigger demand than ever, and Deadline has word on two of his potential upcoming projects.
Nothing is official yet, but according to them, Warner Bros. wants McConaughey to play the role of the demonic figure Randall Flagg in the feature film adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, which will be directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars).
Flagg has been a recurring character in much of King's work, sometimes appearing in different guises, but he first appeared in his 1978 novel "The Stand" and then became the primary antagonist of his serialized "The Dark Tower" (which also has been in development to become a feature film or serialized television show). Jamey Sheridan played the role of the character in the 1994 television mini-series directed by Mick Garris, and Flagg has been brought to the comics in recent years with Marvel adaptations of both King works.
The Deadline story also mentions that McConaughey might team with Oscar-winning Traffic writer (and Syriana writer/director) Stephen Gaghan to make Gold for Black Bear Pictures, a movie that previously had director Paul Haggis attached. Written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, it's based on the true story of the 1993 Bre-X Mineral Corporation mining scandal where large amounts of gold were found in the Indonesian jungle. Haggis remains on as producer along with his partner Michael Nozik and Black Bear's Teddy Schwarzman.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2014
BABYLON 5 PODCAST
Ranger Andrew, his wife and a good friend have been doing a B5 podcast since January called "Jumpgate"! It's a spoiler-free re-watch of the series from the beginning to the end, eventually covering the TV movies and Crusade.
They are getting to the end of the first season, right now, so if you'd like to give them a listen, go to http://jumpgate.podomatic.com!.
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
Following the critical success of Orphan Black, BBC America is adding another genre show to the schedule — and they’ve tapped some experts to put it together.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cable network has greenlit The Living and the Dead, a new series developed by the creators of Life on Mars. The period-set supernatural drama will be written by Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, who both worked on the U.K. version of Mars and its sequel, Ashes to Ashes.
As for The Living and the Dead, it’ll be a six-episode series set in Somerset, England, in 1888. According to the report, the plot will explore a land and community on the edge of monumental change and on the hinge between ancient traditional ways and an industrial, scientific future in a land of ghosts and myths, poltergeists and demons. At the heart of the community is Nathan Appleby, a reluctant farmer obsessed with proving the existence of the afterlife.
In a joint statement, the duo said they hope the show will be “moving, tender, sensual ... and very, very scary.” It sounds like it will have a good period angle, which has been a solid niche for BBC America, plus some classic ghost-story potential framed around the town and its inhabitants. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
Filming is set to start in England's West Country in 2015 and casting will apparently begin immediately. So, we’d think think one will probably show up on the schedule in late 2015.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2014
MINORITY REPORT
Move over Extant and Falling Skies; Steven Spielberg has another TV series in the works. This time, he's shifting focus to one of his past projects: 2002's Minority Report. Spielberg has plans to bring the Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell starrer to the small screen.
Minority Report was based on a story by author Philip K. Dick that featured Cruise as "The head of 'PreCrime,' a special police unit that uses three psychics (i.e. 'precogs') to identify and arrest murderers before they commit their crimes." Unfortunately for his character, things go awry when he's indentified as a future murderer. The film is a classic case of the hunter becoming the hunted.
A source claims that Godzilla screenwriter Max Borenstein will pen the series, which will probably be a star-vehicle for a name actor much as Extant has been for Halle Berry.
When Minority Report was released in theaters, it grossed over $358 million worldwide. We hope that success can crossover to television. There's already a sci-fi series with a similar premise on air called Person of Interest, but there's enough difference that we're sure there's room for both.
ANNABELLE
There isn't a whole lot of horror on tap for movie screens this coming Halloween, but the producers of The Conjuring are trying to rectify that.
Just unleashed is a new trailer for Annabelle, which serves as a prequel to last year's horror blockbuster by chronicling the back history of the creepy little doll that was a key element of the original James Wan-directed movie.
To be honest, the explanation for just how Annabelle becomes haunted seems kind of contrived, and I have to question why any woman would accept such a hideous doll as a gift from her husband in the first place. But if you just go with it, then you might find that the movie offers up some of the same kinds of scares that its predecessor did. I have to admit that the final running-through-the-door shot -- which sort of references a similar effect from an obscure Mario Bava film called Shock -- made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Starring no one from The Conjuring, Annabelle opens October 3 and features Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton and Alfre Woodard, with direction by John R. Leonetti, who was the cinematographer on The Conjuring. So at least someone who was on the set of the last one is working on this one as well.
Synopsis: John Form has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia -- a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now...Annabelle.
THE EXPANSE
The cast of Syfy’s upcoming space opera The Expanse is finally coming together, and along with former Punisher star Thomas Jane, they’ve made some high-profile hires ... some of which seem to indicate early deviation from the source material.
The biggest? Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Saddam, 24, House of Sand and Fog). She might not be the most familiar name, but she’s one heck of an actress. She brings some solid credentials to the cast, having nabbed an Emmy and scored an Oscar nomination before heading into deep space. Aghdashloo will play Chrisjen Avasarala, a "smart and passionate member of a political family legacy who has risen high in the ranks of Earth’s governing body without once standing for election." WARNING: MILD BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW. Readers of the The Expanse series will recognize Avasarala as a key player in the second book, Caliban's War. Her appearance this early in the show's run could indicate that some significant changes are in store for the order of events in the show. END SPOILERS.
While Aghdashloo is a big name, it's arguably bigger news that the producers have also signed Steven Strait (Magic City, 10,000 BC) as water-miner-turned-ship's-captain James Holden. According to Entertainment Weekly, the character is described as “a natural leader who’s not sure he wants responsibility, but who will soon have no choice when he is drawn into a dangerous plot.” MORE MILD BOOK SPOILERS ZOMG Holden is sort of the main protagonist of the book series, and while Thomas Jane's Miller is just as big a player in the first book, it's Holden and his crew who are the anchor throughout the existing entries. That being the case, Strait is sort of set to be the face of the franchise should The Expanse succeed beyond its first season. END SPOILERS
The series is set 200 years in the future and is framed around the story of a missing young woman. The case brings a detective (Jane) together with a ship captain (Strait) in “a race across the solar system to expose a conspiracy.” Yeah, we’re intrigued. With both Jane and Aghdashloo on board, we’re definitely anxious to see more.
The 10-episode series is set to launch in 2015.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
Get the Kleenex ready — footage from The Vampire Diaries' sixth season is here.
The CW's vampire drama debuted a brief 20-second teaser of the new season on Thursday with scenes from the premiere picking up after May's emotional finale.
With Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Bonnie (Kat Graham) gone, Elena (Nina Dobrev) is stuck picking up the pieces. As the promo reveals, that journey won't be easy. When Stefan (Paul Wesley) asks Elena to "say goodbye" to Damon, Elena demands to see Damon one last time.
"Elena, move on," Damon (ghost Damon?) tells a teary-eyed Elena. Easier said than done.
Season six will open with a significant time jump, with Elena and Co. forced outside of Mystic Falls, currently under a "no-magic" spell.
"The way we look at it, season six is a beautiful and organic reset. The theme of the season is everybody gets to start over. That's what we're going to do," executive producer Julie Plec told THR in May. "We're trying to take the show away from the massive genre extravaganza, where each season we try to top each other with the bigger, bad, more exciting mythologies and boil it back down to the beginning."
New additions to the season include Eureka's Colin Ferguson and will return fan favorites Michael Malarkey and Matt Davis.
The Vampire Diaries premieres on Oct. 2 on The CW.
FANTASTIC BEASTS
Just when he thought he was out, David Yates is back in the world of Harry Potter.
Yates, who directed four of the eight Harry Potter movies for Warner Bros., is in negotiations with the studio to direct Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the new Potter-based franchise the studio is hoping to launch with author J.K. Rowling.
Rowling is writing the screenplay for the movie, which is set 70 years before the events of the Potter series, and centers on a fictitious author named Newton Artemis Fido Scamander. In Potter lore, Scamander compiled a reference guide to magical beasts, and the movies will follow his adventures after he is commissioned to write the tome. Unlike the Potter stories, which kicked off in London, Fantastic Beasts will begin in New York.
Fantastic Beasts is a massive undertaking for Warners, which is keen on keeping the magic of Potter alive beyond the initial eight-movie franchise, which grossed more than $7.6 billion worldwide. When announcing the Fantastic Beasts partnership with Rowling in September 2013, Warners said the property was being developed across video game, consumer product and digital initiative businesses.
Warner Bros. had no comment.
Yates directed the acclaimed British miniseries State of Play (later turned into an American movie starring Russell Crowe) and several TV movies before making his feature debut helming 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Half-Blood Prince and parts 1 and 2 of Deathly Hallows followed.
Rowling was heavily involved with the movies and developed a strong relationship with the director, so he is a natural choice to take the reins on Fantastic Beasts.
Yates is currently shooting Tarzan, with Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie, for Warners. He is repped by CAA.
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
ABC’s Agents of SHIELD is adding a new foe for Coulson.
Brian Patrick Wade (Teen Wolf) has been cast as super-villain Carl “Crusher” Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, Marvel announced Thursday.
The character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first debuted during the Silver Age and has appeared in various Marvel comics for more than four decades. The character will debut in the season two premiere, set for Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Per Marvel, Creel has the ability to absorb the properties of anything he touches and will serve as a foil for Coulson and company.
Wade joins a rapidly growing roster of season two guest stars. He joins Friday Night Lights alum Adrianne Palicki as comics favorite Mockingbird; Kyle MacLachlan as Skye’s (Chloe Bennet) father; Lucy Lawless as SHIELD veteran Isabelle Hartly; Reed Diamond as Hydra villain Daniel Whitehall (aka Kraken); Nick Blood as a mercenary Coulson reaches out to for help; Henry Simmons as agent Alphonso “Mac” Mackenzie; and Simon Kassianides as Bakshi.
Wade’s credits include episodes of The Mentalist, Hello Ladies and Arrested Development. He’s repped by Pakula/King & Associates, Authentic Talent and Hirsch Wallerstein.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2014
DERRICK STORM
EW reports ABC is in the very early stages of developing "Derrick Storm", a CIA procedural based on the character at the center of Richard Castle's (Nathan Fillion) franchise on the successful series "Castle."
Fans of the show should know, before Castle started working with Detective Beckett, he was a published author, whose most notable works included several novels about CIA operative Derrick Storm that Hyperion Books has since published in real life including titles "A Brewing Storm" and "A Bloody Storm."
The new drama is being penned by "Missing's" Greg Poirier, who is set to executive produce with "Castle's" Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller.
AUTOMATA
Antonio Banderas really, really believes in his new sci-fi movie, Automata.
How do we know? Because he not only stars in it but produced it as well, calling the film "my baby" in a recent Reddit AMA session. He also described the movie as "an approach to science fiction in a very European way, in an independent way," adding that the film is about "a philosophical, scientific concept called singularity, which is the time in which machines actually overcome the human mind. So it’s a very reflective philosophical science fiction, going back to the science fiction I love, like Isaac Asimov. That’s the type of movie we tried to do.”
That sounds like the kind of science fiction I love too, so that instantly raises my level of interest in the film. And Banderas has never delved into the genre before -- unless you count the, uh, Spy Kids series -- so it'll be interesting to see what he does with it. Banderas plays an investigator who is attempting to find out how the programming of robots is being altered -- something that's apparently illegal in the year 2044, when the movie takes place -- and for what purpose.
Automata also stars Dylan McDermott, Robert Forster and Banderas' now-estranged wife Melanie Griffith. Directed by Gabe Ibanez, the film comes out in theaters and on demand Oct. 10.
GOTHAM
Fox's Gotham has already earned its spot on our DVRs for this season. If you're still on the fence about the comic-based drama, this promo may change your mind. The network has released an extended trailer for the series that turns up the crazy. It proves that Detective Gordon (Ben McKenzie) is dealing with a different breed of villain.
The video shows Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) as Gotham's resident mob boss who has connections to the Falcone clan. She tests Gordon's limits with her blatant disrespect for the law and love of violence. Seriously, she beats people with bats, chairs and anything else in arm's reach.
There are also glimpses of future baddies like Edward Nygma/The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy (Clare Foley), Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Camren Bicondova) and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor).
Gotham premieres Sep. 22 on Fox.
OUTCAST
Nicolas Cage has long hair and a blood-covered face but not a care in the world in the first trailer for the upcoming sword-and-top knots flick Outcast.
The film takes place during the Crusades, with Cage playing a rebellious outlaw named Gallain who helps Arken (Hayden Christensen) protect the rightful heir to the Chinese throne. And yes, a lot of people get stabbed.
In a scene you'll have to watch to believe, Cage has quite a colorful reaction when he learns the young heir's actual age. Apparently, birth certificates weren't a big thing back then.
Nick Powell directed the film from a script by James Dormer. Meanwhile, Cage has been a busy man of late, with his apocalyptic thriller Left Behind hitting theaters in October.
Arclight Films releases Outcast on Feb. 27, 2015.
PROMETHEUS: FIRE AND STONE
The expanded fictional universe of Alien and Predator is growing even bigger next month with the release of the first issue of Dark Horse Comic's massive crossover series, "Prometheus: Fire and Stone," continuing after the events of Ridley Scott's Prometheus. Today, Dark Horse has released a trailer for the series, the first issue of which hits stands September 10.
When the Prometheus never returned from her fateful journey to LV-223, the questions surrounding the origins of man went unanswered. Now a new team of explorers seeks to uncover the dark mystery that holds not only the fate of the original mission, but possibly their own damnation.
From the Eisner Award–nominated team of Paul Tobin and artist Juan Ferreyra, the first issue of "Prometheus: Fire and Stone" hits stands September 10.
FLASH NEWS
"The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Star-Crossed" star Greg Finley has joined the cast of The CW's "The Flash" in the role of Tony Woodward, AKA Girder. The site reports that Finley will appear in episodes 6 and 7 of the upcoming freshman series and that he will gain his abilities, transforming his skin into "living metal," in the S.T.A.R. Labs explosion previously seen on "Arrow."
Co-created by "The Flash" executive producer Goeff Johns, Girder first appeared in the DCU back in 2001 and continued to be a pain for both Wally West and Barry Allen as the scarlet speedster over the years. The character also joined up with the assembly of Flash villains The Rogues at one point in the source material. With Captain Cold and the Weather Wizard already confirmed to appear, might we be seeing that group show up on the series?
"The Flash" arrives from co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, who, along with Geoff Johns, wrote the pilot episode which was helmed by "Arrow" pilot director David Nutter. Grant Gustin will star as the titular hero along with Candice Patton as Iris West, Jesse L. Martin as Iris's father, Detective West, Michelle Harrison? as Barry's mother Nora Allen and many others, including John Wesley Shipp, from the original "The Flash" TV series as Barry's father.
"The Flash" premieres October 7 on The CW.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2014
NEW HARRY POTTER STORY
When author J.K. Rowling returns to the Harry Potter universe, as she does on occasion on her Pottermore website, she has a plethora of characters to play with. In her most recent return, she could have chosen to write about the Boy Who Lived (that would be Harry Potter) or the Boy Who Bunny-Hops (that would be Neville Longbottom). But this time she chose a more obscure character: Celestina Warbeck.
Celestina Warbeck is a witch who has only been referred to by other characters. Celestina's real talent lies not in Unforgivable Curses or instant tent-building but in singing. According to Today.com, Rowling said,
Celestina Warbeck is one of my favourite 'off-stage' characters in the Harry Potter series … Although we never lay eyes on Celestina during the whole seven volumes of the Potter books, I always imagined her to resemble Shirley Bassey in both looks and style.
For those of you who don't recognize the fabulous Welsh singer, check out her hit song, "Diamonds Are Forever," from the James Bond movie of the same name, as well as a more danceable hit, "History Repeating," with the Propellerheads.
Rowling's writing isn't so much of a story as a biography. But we get to learn that Celestina is a half-blood, has a larch-and-phoenix feather wand and has been married three times in scandalous circumstances. For example:
Internationally-acclaimed singing sensation Celestina Warbeck (sometimes known as 'the Singing Sorceress’) hails from Wales. Her father, a minor functionary in the Muggle Liaison Office, met her Muggle mother (a failed actress) when the latter was attacked by a Lethifold disguised as a stage curtain.
The character of Celestina isn't just based on a singer. She's sort of based on a real person. According to Rowling,
I stole her first name from a friend with whom I worked, years ago, at Amnesty International's Headquarters in London; 'Celestina' was simply begging to be scooped up and attached to a glamorous witch.
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. NEWS
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to stack its deck of guest stars for its second season. The latest actor to sign on is Wonder Woman-that-would-have-been and G.I. Joe: Retaliation star Adrianne Palicki. She'll play a character somewhat similar to her G.I. Joe role -- super spy Bobbi Morse, also known as Mockingbird.
Palicki/Morse will debut in the fifth episode of the season, but her allegience is unclear. That's worrisome, considering the former S.H.I.E.L.D. team's on shaky ground when it comes to allies. Even though we don't know her motivations, we do know that there may be more Mockingbird in our future.
TVLine reports that the character has the option to return. We're sure Palicki can fit in more appearances between her multiple TV gigs. She recently reunited with her Retaliation co-star D.J. Cotrona for El Rey’s From Dusk Til Dawn series. She also popped up on NBC's About a Boy and Drunk History.
WOLVERINE VARIANT COMIC
You may have seen the spectacular Alex Ross variant cover for Death of Wolverine #1, a new four-issue limited series written by Charles Soule and art by Steve McNiven coming in September, with Wolverine hunted by his fiercest enemies after losing his healing powers.
Now check out this grim, gorgeous variant by Marvel's own Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, who shows he still has the deadly skills to nail a killer cover.
THE STRAIN RENEWED
FX is spreading The Strain.
The cable network has renewed Guillermo del Toro and Carlton Cuse's vampire drama The Strain for a second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The series will return with 13 episodes in summer 2015.
Based on the book trilogy from Chuck Hogan and del Toro, the drama centers on a vampire virus that infects New York and the CDC doctor, Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather (House of Cards' Corey Stoll), who investigates the case. Del Toro and Hogan, who co-penned the three-book series, co-wrote the pilot, with Cuse on board as showrunner. Del Toro directed the pilot.
The series opened in July — after a wave of controversy surrounding its graphic billboards — to 3 million viewers but grew to 4.7 million with three days of time shifting. Factoring in encores, the total grew to 8 million total viewers, with 2.43 million among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, ranking The Strain as the best demo premiere on cable this year. Through five broadcasts, the series is averaging 2.34 million total viewers. FX notes that the series premiere ranks as the most-watched in FX history with 12.7 million total viewers.
For his part, Cuse and del Toro are looking at the series for either a three- or five-season run, with season one covering the first book in the trilogy, with the jury still out on if the final two books should be one season each or split into multiple runs.
For FX, The Strain joins a roster of drama originals including anthology American Horror Story, The Americans, The Bridge, Fargo and Tyrant and as Sons of Anarchy and Justified are poised to end after their upcoming seasons. A decision on the future of Howard Gordon's Israel-set drama Tyrant has not yet been determined and the fates of freshman comedies Married and You're the Worst — both of which debuted this summer — have also not yet been revealed.
For Cuse, meanwhile, The Strain will keep the Lost alum with at least three shows on the air with A&E's Bates Motel and its adaptation of French zombie drama The Returned, the latter of which was picked up straight to series.The prolific producer also has an alien drama pilot in the works at USA and a Civil War drama at Amazon.
OUIJA
Universal Pictures has summoned a new preview for their upcoming supernatural thriller, Ouija.
Directed by Stiles White and starring Olivia Cooke, Douglas Smith, Bianca Santos, Daren Kagasoff, Vivis Colombetti, Ana Coto and Erin Moriarty, Ouija follows a group of friends who must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.
Ouija hits theaters on October 24.
ARROW NEWS
Entertainment Weekly has learned that another archer will be joining the cast of The CW's "Arrow," but this one isn't friendly. Actor Matt Ward (TRON: Legacy, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) has joined the cast in the role of the deadly mercenary Komodo. Unlike some previous villains on "Arrow," Komodo's episode won't exactly be one-and-done as it will have ties to the larger narrative of the show's season.
"He's the villain-of-the-week for the second week of the show, but you'll see that Team Arrow's pursuit of him is part and parcel of a season-long storyline," executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells the outlet. "You're going to know what happens to Komodo at the end of the episode, but it will be a little bit tied in better with the season-long mythology than villain-of-the-week episodes have done in the past."
Komodo was actually just introduced into the canon of the DCU last April. The character was introduced as a young man born with nothing who went on to work for Oliver Queen's father before eventually turning toward greed and becoming a mercenary with archer skills that rival Oliver Queens.
"Arrow" airs Wednesdays at 8 P.M. ET/PT on The CW with the new season set to premiere on October 8.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2014
DOCTOR WHO
The BBC has revealed the names of all 12 Season 8 episodes of "Doctor Who" and they contain some interesting clues, including what may be a hint regarding that Jenna Coleman rumor.
As alluded to in various promos for the new season, the Daleks will definitely be returning, and sooner than you might thing. The second episode of the new season is titled "Into the Dalek." An official description for the episode reads, "A Dalek fleet surrounds a lone rebel ship, and only the Doctor can help them now ... With the Doctor facing his greatest enemy, he needs Clara by his side. Confronted with a decision that could change the Daleks forever he is forced to examine his conscience. Will he find the answer to the question, 'am I a good man?'"
Other episode titles include "Robot of Sherwood," "The Forest of the Night" and "Mummy On the Orient Express." Then there's Season 8's last episode, titled "Death In Heaven." It's the second half of a two-part finale with a very interesting name, considering the reports that Coleman is preparing to leave the series.
Could the impossible girl not only be leaving the TARDIS, but meeting the end of her life as well? Companions have died before, though it's been rare since the show relaunched in 2005. In the 2007 Christmas special, Astrid Peth sacrifices herself, while Adelaide Brooke does the same at the end of the 2009 special "The Waters of Mars." There's also Amy and Rory, who were revealed to have died of old age after leaving the Doctor.
Whether the death in the episode title is Clara or not, chances are it's going to be an emotional episode when Coleman does leave the series. What will the Doctor do without his impossible girl?
You can view all 12 episode titles below.
Episode 1: "Deep Breath"
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Episode 2: "Into The Dalek"
Written by Phil Ford and Steven Moffat
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Introducing Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink.
Episode 3: "Robot Of Sherwood"
Written by Mark Gatiss
Directed by Paul Murphy
Episode 4: "Listen"
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Episode 5: "Time Heist"
Written by Stephen Thompson and Steven Moffat
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Episode 6: "The Caretaker"
Written by Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat
Directed by Paul Murphy
Episode 7: "Kill The Moon"
Written by Peter Harness
Directed by Paul Wilmshurst
Episode 8: "Mummy On The Orient Express"
Written by Jamie Mathieson
Directed by Paul Wilmshurst
Episode 9: "Flatline"
Written by Jamie Mathieson
Directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Episode 10: "In The Forest Of The Night"
Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Directed by Sheree Folkson
Episode 11: "Dark Water"
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Episode 12: "Death In Heaven"
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Rachel Talalay
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
File this one under awesome of the day: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s characters from Shaun of the Dead are coming to the small screen this Halloween. On the Disney Channel.
The Disney Channel has been putting out one of the quirkiest, most interesting kids' shows of the modern era with Phineas and Ferb the past few years, and now they’re adding another feather to the cameo cap.
Pegg has confirmed he and Frost’s characters Shaun and Ed will be popping up in Danville for the upcoming Halloween special of the popular animated series. The show is a lot of fun and has parodied and poked at a ton of different genres and tropes in recent the years. There aren’t a lot of animated shows that could pull this off, but we’re actually pretty psyched to see how this plays out.
Phineas and Ferb has always gone all-out for holiday episodes, and bringing in the Shaun of the Dead gang should be a nice move to attract some parents and adults to check it out this October.
ANT-MAN
As filming finally gets underway on Marvel's Ant-Man, more cast members have been announced -- including a familiar face from a past Marvel adventure.
Disney fired off a press release this morning that cameras were finally rolling today in San Francisco on Marvel's next movie (after The Avengers: Age of Ultron), with director Peyton Reed behind the camera instead of Edgar Wright, who had developed the project for eight years).
While the principal cast of Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne), Corey Stoll (Darren Cross) and Michael Pena has been in place for a while, the studio also announced a fistful of new names -- one of which has shown up on a Marvel cast list before.
That name is John Slattery, who is best known as Roger Sterling on Mad Men, but who played Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark, in Iron Man 2 (Dominic Cooper played a younger version of Howard in Captain America: The First Avenger).
The fact that Slattery is returning has added fuel to recent rumors reported by Latino Review that a prologue sequence in the film will emphasize Hank Pym's ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was something that Wright and Marvel apparently squabbled over before Wright exited the project.
Those same rumors suggest that in addition to Slattery as Stark, Peggy Carter, Dr. Armin Zola and a young version of Alexander Pierce -- the S.H.I.E.L.D. head and HYDRA mole played by Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier -- might all show up in that opening sequence. There's no word on whether we'll see Hayley Atwell as Peggy and Toby Jones as Zola if the rumors turn out to be true.
The other new cast members in Ant-Man are Bobby Cannavale (who may be replacing the recently departed Patrick Wilson), Judy Greer (who might be playing Lang's ex-wife), rapper T.I. and a few other, lesser-known names.
Ant-Man opens July 17, 2015.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY COMIC BOOK
The ongoing run of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy comic is gearing up for a semi-crossover that’ll take us deep into the home world of Spider-Man baddie Venom. Book your ticket to the Planet of the Symbiotes.
This November, the series will dig into a three-issue arc dubbed “Planet Of The Symbiotes,” which’ll take the motley space heroes to the deadly planet where Venom originated before bonding to Flash Thompson in the current continuity. The arc kicks off with issue #21, for those keeping count.
The mini-arc will be written by Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Valerio Schiti, and find Venom heading back to his home planet with the comic version of the Guardians. It should make for a fun story, and as Bendis noted to MTV, it could only happen in the comics: “At least for now, the legality of copyright and trademark would make certain storylines impossible in the movies. I like doing it for the comics!”
Readers will largely see the story from the perspective of Agent Venom, aka Flash Thompson, and Bendis said they’ll be filling in “additive” parts of Venom’s backstory that have been left largely unexplored. We have to admit, it’s an interesting pitch, and we’re fairly psyched to get a peek at a planet full of symbiotes. As Bendis enthuses:
“I looked it up and I was like no, there’s been a planet we’ve seen taken over by symbiotes, but have we not seen the planet of the symbiotes? I called [Marvel Senior Vice President Of Publishing] Tom Brevoort, I go, could it be that even in the craziness of the ’90s when it was Venom, Venom, Venom every five seconds, that this story has not been told? And he goes, yeah we’ve never been there. And I’m like, now I have to do it! It’s crazy.”
Venom was first introduced back in 1984 as part of an alternate suit for Spidey, until Peter Parker eventually realized that super-suit was actually an alien symbiote. Venom has been a fan-favorite baddie ever since, and Bendis promises they'll be throwing some nods to those initial 1984 stories as they explore the character's genesis within the Marvel universe.
STAR WARS REBELS
Ahead of the series’ October debut, Disney XD is releasing a ton of new footage from the upcoming series Star Wars: Rebels. The latest? A sneaky mission into an Imperial compound.
The clip follows the sassy Rebel punk Sabine (Tiya Sircar) — hey, we didn’t write the terrible, archetypal character descriptions — who sneaks into an Imperial base to create a distraction for her pals on the Ghost ship. Her strategy? Start slinging some graffiti to get the attention of the stormtroopers while leaving behind an explosive surprise.
Much as with the last clip we saw from this series, we’re starting to get a feel for the tone of the would-be Clone Wars replacement. Once again, we’re left a bit underwhelmed, as the whole clip just seems a bit silly and widely drawn. But we have to admit the action looks solid.
The series is scheduled to premiere in October 2014 with a one-hour pilot on Disney Channel. After that, it’ll relocate to its permanent home at Disney XD.
SUPERNATURAL
If you're looking for more sweet Demon Dean (Jensen Ackles) action in the upcoming 10th season of Supernatural, then you’re in luck. If you were itching for “a few new doozies” to be introduced to the world, you’re in luck again.
Executive producer Jeremy Carver chatted a few weeks back with Entertainment Weekly, confirming that the Demon Dean storyline would be sticking around for at least the “first run of episodes.” He also mentioned that the Mark of Cain was “very much on the boys’ minds as they plot out a game plan for the next batch of episodes after Dean is healed.”
If you're a bit disappointed that Demon Dean won't be sticking around for ALL of season 10, at least Carver promised that it won't be smooth sailing for the Winchester brothers afterward -- even if Dean is healed early on. “I think just when it seems like things might be starting to settle down, we will introduce a few new doozies to the world,” Carver said.
Uh-oh, that sounds rather ominous … in a good, Supernatural-y kinda way.
Carver also confirmed that “ideas are floating” around for another Supernatural spinoff, although he admitted that “nothing is firm yet.”
Supernatural returns to The CW for its 10th season on Oct. 7.
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2014
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy easily stayed atop the North American box office as The Expendables 3 underperformed in its debut, grossing just $16.2 million.
That's by far a franchise worst. The first Expendables debuted to $34.8 million domestically in August 2010, followed by $28.6 million for the sequel in August 2012. Both of those films were rated R, while the threequel is rated PG-13, meaning it should have seen a boost from being more family friendly.
In addition to potential fatigue, a pristine copy of Expendables 3 that leaked on the Internet hurt the movie's box office performance, much like what happened when X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pirated before its release in 2009.
From Lionsgate and Millennium, Expendables 3 was even beat by 20th Century Fox's Let's Be Cops to come in No. 4 domestically. Let's Be Cops, placing No. 3, took in $17.7 million for the weekend for a pleasing five-day debut of $26.1 million (the R-rated comedy opened Wednesday). The weekend's third new player, YA film adaptation The Giver, rounded out the top five with $12.8 million.
Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies' TMNT remained at No. 1 in its second weekend, falling 57 percent to an estimated $28.4 million for a domestic total of $117.6 million. Overseas, the Michael Bay-produced film earned another $25.6 million for an international total of $67.5 million and world haul of $185.1 million.
Disney and Marvel's Guardians, crossing the $200 million mark in its third weekend domestically, followed in North America with an estimated $24.7 million for a cume of $222.3 million through Sunday (that's ahead of fellow summer tentpole The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which grossed $203 million in North America). Better yet, Guardians raced past the $400 million mark at the global box office.
Expendables 3, featuring a multigenerational lineup of action stars, is hoping to make up ground overseas, where it began rolling out this weekend in a number of markets, including Russia, a haven for action films. Numbers weren't immediately available.
The Expendables series is the brainchild of Sylvester Stallone and Avi Lerner, whose Nu Image/Millennium partnered with Lionsgate on the series. The films have generally cost in the $90 million range to produce and have done especially big business overseas. Expendables 2 took in $220.4 million internationally, compared to $85 million in North America.
This time out, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Jason Statham) and other team members battle villain Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). The sprawling cast includes Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Randy Couture, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Terry Crews, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz and Robert Davi.
Lionsgate distribution chief Richie Fay said he couldn't comment on the impact of the piracy, but said a number of factors played a role in the movie's diminished opening. He noted the series is playing older, despite the deliberate attempt to make the threequel more appealing to younger audiences. Moviegoers over the age of 25 made up 66 percent of ticket buyers this weekend, compared to 65 percent for Expendables 2 and 60 percent for the first Expendables.
"The good news is the A- CinemaScore. The folks that are getting to see it are really enjoying it. I think we're in a good place as far as the older audience coming out over a period of time," Fay said.
Buddy action comedy Let's Be Cops, starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson, cost Fox a modest $17 million to make. Directed by Luke Greenfield, the comedy follows two friends who pretend to be Los Angeles police officers. Andy Garcia, Nina Dobrev, Rob Riggle, Keegan-Michael Key and James D'Arcy also star in the film, which earned a B CinemaScore.
"Honestly, it shows that people want to go to the movies and laugh," said Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson. Let's Be Cops skewed notably younger, with moviegoers under the age of 25 accounting for 54 percent of all tickets bought. Caucasians made up 50 percent of the audience, followed by African-Americans (20 percent) and Hispanics (17 percent).
Going after younger moviegoers and faith-based audiences was The Giver, directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Lois Lowry's 1993 YA novel of the same name. More than two decades in the making, the $30 million film was co-financed and co-produced by The Weinstein Co. and Walden Media.
The Giver, starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Brenton Thwaites, came in slightly less than expected after earning a B+ CinemaScore.
Here are the top 10 estimates for the weekend of Aug. 15-17 at the domestic box office:
Title, Weeks in Release/Theater Count, Studio, Friday Total, Percentage Change, Cume
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 2/3,980, Paramount, $28.4 million, -57%, $117.6 million.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy, 3/3,697, Disney/Marvel, $24.7 million, -41%, $222.3 million.
3. Let's Be Cops, 1/3,094, 20th Century Fox, $17.7 million, $26.1 million.
4. The Expendables 3, 1/3,221, Lionsgate/Millennium, $16.2 million.
5. The Giver, 1/3,003, The Weinstein Co./Walden, $12.8 million.
6. Into the Storm, 2/3,434, Warner Bros./New Line, $7.7 million, -55%, $31.3 million.
7. The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2/2,042, Disney/DreamWorks, $7.1 million, -35%, $23.6 million.
8. Lucy, 4/2,520, Universal/EuropaCorp, $5.3 million, -44%, $$107.5 million.
9. Step Up All In, 2/2,072, Lionsgate/Summit, $2.7 million, -58%, $11.8 million.
10. Boyhood, 6/771, IFC Films, $2.2 million, +9%, $13.8 million.
THE FLASH
We’re just a few weeks away from the premiere of The CW’s upcoming “Arrow” spin-off "The Flash" and to mark the occasion of 52 days left (an important number in the DCU), The CW has revealed a new promo image for the series that shows off Grant Gustin in his Flash outfit.
"The Flash" arrives from co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, who, along with Geoff Johns, wrote the pilot episode which was helmed by "Arrow" pilot director David Nutter. Gustin will star as the titular hero along with Candice Patton as Iris West, Jesse L. Martin as Iris's father, Detective West, Michelle Harrison as Barry's mother Nora Allen and many others, including John Wesley Shipp, from the original “The Flash” TV series, as Barry’s father.
Set to premiere on October 7, "The Flash" will air on Tuesdays this fall.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5
Ving Rhames, who has appeared in all the "Mission: Impossible" movie so far as Luther Stickell, will return in Mission: Impossible 5. The film's director, Christopher McQuarrie, tweeted the following: "Welcome back, Mr. Rhames. cc: @TomCruise @simonpegg @Renner4Real #MI5Diary"
As noted by McQuarrie in the tweet, he's joining Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg in the December 25, 2015 release. Rebecca Ferguson will reportedly play the female lead, while Alec Baldwin is said to play the head of the CIA in the new film.
The last installment, the Brad Bird-directed Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, opened in December of 2011 and earned an impressive $694.7 million worldwide on a budget of $145 million. Rhames had more of a cameo appearance in that film instead of a full role.
DOCTOR STRANGE
Marvel had a screenplay for a "Doctor Strange" movie for several years. Then, in recent months they hired both Scott Derrickson ("Deliver Us From Evil") to direct and screenwriter Jon Spaihts ("Prometheus") to work on the script which was rumored to be starting over.
Appearing on Meet The Movie Press, Devin Faraci of Badass Digest has spoken a bit about Spaiht's script and how it differs from the previous one:
"So, for Dr. Strange they've had a script in-house forever. It is a pretty standard origin story for Doctor Strange. It's got Baron Mordo as the bad guy. That's all gone. Marvel's new thing is no more origin stories.
So, Dr. Strange movie no longer has an origin. It begins in medias res. It has Dr. Strange already established as the Sorcerer Supreme. It is a totally new script. Jon Spaihts is working totally new, On his own, without any of the previous stuff. Not even touching the previous script."
Production on the "Doctor Strange" film is expected to get underway next year.
DOCTOR WHO NEWS
Actress Jenna Coleman is set to make her exit from Doctor Who at Christmas.
The 28-year-old has played the Time Lord's companion Clara Oswald since her debut episode Asylum of the Daleks aired in September 2012, and it is said she has agreed with bosses that an exit later this year will be right for the science fiction show.
An insider told the Sunday Mirror: ‘The conversations about Jenna's exit have started, and a plan is in place which is being ironed out.
‘By the time she leaves she will be one of the longest-standing companions ever. She has been absolutely brilliant in the role but everyone agrees it is a part that should change after a period.’
The decision to end Jenna's time on the show is said to have been ‘mutual’, and all parties feel it will be ‘perfect’ for a Christmas storyline.
The source added: ‘It was very much a mutual decision. It's important to keep the series moving and fast-paced, and the time is just starting to feel right and the feeling is that it could be a perfect Christmas storyline.’
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2014
STAR TREK ACTRESS PASSES
We’re sad to say it, but it looks like Spock will need to find another bride-to-be. Arlene Martel, a familiar face for sci-fi fans of the 1960s genre classics, has tragically passed away at the age of 78.
Martel had various sci-fi roles in the heyday of the late 1950s and 1960s, but she’s best known as the prospective bride for Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in the classic Sept. 15, 1967, Star Trek episode “Amok Time,” which opened The Original Series’ second season.
The episode is revered as a true classic for the series, and found Spock compelled by pon farr to return to his home planet of Vulcan to mate with his betrothed wife T’Pring. She positively stole the episode every moment she was on screen, and that role would make her a Trek legend for decades to come.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Martel was stunned at the lingering Trek fandom that followed her throughout her life, and opened up about it in this excerpt from Tom Lisanti’s 2003 book Drive-in Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties:
“I was just so happy to be working and playing a part that was so challenging in terms of what I had done before. I had no idea it would continue to this day. Fans purchase my Star Trek photos at conventions, where I sign autographs. I had no idea that T’Pring would be so memorable to people.”
Though she’s most recognizable for Trek, Martel also popped up twice in The Twilight Zone, including the 1959 episode “What You Need” and the 1961 installment “Twenty Two.” But that wasn’t all: She also leaves behind appearances in The Outer Limits, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, The Wild Wild West, Mission Impossible, Bewitched, the Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica. There's no way around it — she was a legit icon of the golden age of television.
When word of her passage broke, Nimoy himself took to Twitter to offer his condolences. Rest in peace, and carve out some time for a sci-fi classic rewatch this weekend.
CREATIVE ARTS EMMY
HBO’s Game of Thrones won its third-consecutive Emmy for outstanding special and visual effects.
It topped a slate of nominees that included Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Almost Human, The 100 and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The team that won Emmys for Game of Thrones were JoeBauer, lead VFX supervisor; Joern Grosshans, VFX supervisor; Steve Kullback, leadVFX producer; Adam Chazen ,VFX coordinator; Eric Carney, previs lead; Sabrina Gerhardt, VFX animation producer; Matthew Rouleau, CG supervisor; Thomas H. Schelesny, CG sequence supervisor; and Robert Simon, concept designer.
Black Sails won the Emmy for supporting special and visual effects.
CONSTANTINE
Relative newcomer Michael James Shaw has been cast as Papa Midnite on NBC's upcoming DC Comics-inspired series, "Constantine," USA Today reports. Not really an absolute friend or foe of John Constantine's, Papa Midnite, who made his first appearance in the first issue of the ongoing "Hellblazer" and who was previously played on the big screen by Djimon Hounsou, is an immortal voodoo practitioner with ties to New York's criminal magical underworld. The character is set to reappear throughout the new show.
In "Constantine," based on the comic book series "Hellblazer," seasoned demon hunter and master of the occult John Constantine specializes in giving hell… hell. Armed with a ferocious knowledge of the dark arts and his wickedly naughty wit, he fights the good fight – or at least he did. With his soul already damned to hell, he's decided to leave his do-gooder life behind. But when demons target Liv, the daughter of one of Constantine's oldest friends, he's reluctantly thrust back into the fray – and he'll do whatever it takes to save her. Before long, it's revealed that Liv's "second sight," an ability to see the worlds behind our world and predict supernatural occurrences, is a threat to a mysterious new evil that's rising in the shadows. And now it's not just Liv who needs protection; the angels are starting to get worried too. So, together, Constantine and Liv must use her power and his skills to travel the country, find the demons that threaten our world – and send them back where they belong. After that, who knows… maybe there's hope for him and his soul after all.
From Executive Producer David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises) and director Neil Marshall ("Game of Thrones," The Descent) comes a dark new thriller that proves fighting evil is a hell of a job. The series also stars Matt Ryan, Lucy Griffiths, Harold Perrineau and Charles Halford.
"Constantine" premieres October 24 on NBC.
THE EQUALIZER
Columbia Pictures has debuted the first TV spot for director Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer which features Eminem's new single with Sia, titled "Guts Over Fear."
Starring Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo, The Equalizer opens in theaters and IMAX on September 26.
In The Equalizer, Denzel Washington plays McCall, a man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when McCall meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can't stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.
THE SCREAM
The "Scream" television series over at MTV just recast one of its main characters. The Hollywood Reporter says Bex Taylor-Klaus is taking over for Amy Forsyth as "Audrey," a teen who aspires to be a filmmaker. No reason was revealed as to why Forsyth exited the role.
Added to the cast, per THR:
- Bobby Campo (The Final Destination) will recur as Seth Branson, the hot English teacher at Lakewood High who has an easy charm and is clearly one of the "cool" teachers, who can go with it if a lesson plan gets a little off-track.
- Connor Weil (Sharknado) will be a series regular and portray Will Belmont, an all-American high school basketball player who adores his girlfriend, Emma (Fitzgerald).
- Joel Gretsch ("Witches of East End," "V," "The 4400") is set as Sheriff Clark Hudson, a good guy and good sheriff who is father to Kieran (Amadeus Serafini). David Arquette famously portrayed the lovable sheriff in Williamson's features.
Taylor-Klaus, Campo, Weil and Gretsch will join previously-announced cast members Willa Fitzgerald (the lead), John Karna, Carlson Young and Amadeus Serafini.
Jamie Travis will direct the pilot which was penned by Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin. Jill Blotevogel will serve as showrunner for the series. Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena and Cathy Konrad are executive producers.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2014
INTERSTELLAR
We got a glimpse of it in the most recent (and awesome) trailer, but now a photo has surfaced of Interstellar's alien world.
Entertainment Weekly has just published its fall preview issue, and included inside is a handful of new photos from Christopher Nolan's upcoming sci-fi epic. The one that has made its way online shows Matthew McConaughey in his space suit, trekking across the treacheous and water-heavy surface of the new planet that he, Anne Hathaway and their crew visit via wormhole in order to find a new home for humankind.
According to EW's writeup, the "wastelands of Iceland" stood in for the alien world, which doesn't exactly look like a hospitable choice for a new human civilization. Still unexplained is the strange, black geometric shape also seen briefly crossing the water in the trailer, which is speculated to be some form of extraterrestrial life.
There's a lot about Interstellar that we don't know, but John Lithgow certainly whet our appetites by describing the film to EW as "a thrilling interaction between grand spectacle and intimate, intense relationships," adding, "More so than many films of this genre, Chris found a way to make fantastic drama out of cosmic ideas and current human anxieties."
Interstellar has been my most anticipated film of the year for a long time, and Mr. Lithgow's comments only make the wait for its Nov. 7 release that much more unbearable. Check out the photo and discuss below how much you're looking forward to the movie as well.
ACTION FIGURES RETURNING
If you still miss your old action figures, one company is about to make you very happy.
Last year at San Diego Comic-Con, San Francisco-based toy company Super7 unveiled a set of vintage-style Alien action figures, based on the now-lost line of figures developed for the film by Kenner in 1979. Those figures were such a hit that the company returned to San Diego this year with a much-anticipated, limited-edition Alien Egg Chamber playset, but they didn't stop there.
Super7 has now teamed up with fan-favorite toy company Funko (they make those adorable big-headed vinyl "Pop!" figures everyone loves so much) to create ReAction Figures, a line of action figures meant to capture that late-'70s-early-'80s vintage feel you remembered, but for properties that often either didn't get much in the way of toys at the time (because they were for adults) or didn't exist yet.
"We make stuff we wish we'd had,” Super7 founder and owner Brian Flynn told Wired. “Like we didn't know these existed, then pulled them from under the rafters.”
To get the right vintage feel, ReAction began its design process with the original Kenner specs for the first line of Star Wars figures, but eventually found as they tested the products that fans have a fonder recollection of the figures Kenner produced later for films like The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which featured somewhat more intricate costume design, among other improvements. The end result is something Flynn calls "the proper level of sh---y," in a good way. The articulation is still limited, and the design is still crude compared to the often super-detailed toys produced by other companies today, but there's a throwback feel that's "endearing." Put that philosophy and those designs together, and you get stuff like this:
The official ReAction website simply says "Coming Soon," but a number of figures from the line -- including characters from The Terminator, The Goonies, Firefly, Back to the Future and more -- are already available in the Super7 online store, and they're almost all only $10. They might not be the same as finally owning that giant Kenner AT-AT you always wanted, but they're close.
SUPERMAN COMIC
A near-perfect copy of Action Comics No. 1 — the comic that introduced Superman to the world back in 1938 — is currently being auctioned for sale on eBay. If you're hoping to score a bargain with some last-minute bidding, think again: After just 24 hours on the site, bidding has already topped a million dollars.
The issue, one of less than 50 unrestored copies believed to remain today, is being sold by the appropriately named Pristine Comics in Federal Way, Washington, with proceeds from the sale going toward the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
In a video released to promote the auction, Pristine Comics owner Darren Adams explained how the auction copy remained in such good edition. "There was a gentleman in 1938, buys a copy … off the newsstand. And he lived in a fairly high altitude area of West Virginia and kept the book in a cedar chest," Adams said. The quality of the issue — the pages of which, thanks to being kept in a dark, dry space for decades, haven't yellowed with time — makes the copy "not just a copy of Action Comics No. 1 [but] the copy of Action Comics No. 1," according to the dealer.
Back in 2011, another edition of the issue raised $2.1 million in auction, becoming the most expensive comic ever sold in the process. With nine days remaining on the current Action Comics auction and bidding currently at $1.6 million, it's very possible that record is about to be broken.
GEOSTORM
Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris and Andy Garcia are in negotiations to join Gerard Butler in Geostorm, the sci-fi adventure feature to be directed by Dean Devlin.
Warner Bros. and Skydance are behind the movie, which is eyeing an October shoot in New Orleans.
The story centers on a stubborn but charming satellite designer (Butler) who, when the world's climate-controlling satellites malfunction, has to work together with his estranged brother (Sturgess) to save the world from a man-made storm of epic proportions. As the designer heads into space, the brother discovers a plot to assassinate the president.
Cornish will play Sturgess' girlfriend, a Secret Service agent. Harris will play the secretary of state with Garcia taking the Oval Office as the president.
The script was originally written by Devlin and was also worked on by Kieran and Michele Mulroney.
David Ellison and Dana Goldberg are producing via Skydance. Also producing are Devlin's partners at Electric Entertainment, Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan.
Drew Crevello and Nik Mavinkurve are overseeing for the studio.
Sturgess was one of the stars in the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas and has several films in the can, including London Fields, a British thriller that counts Theo James, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in its cast. He is repped by CAA and Garricks in the U.K.
Cornish (WME, Untitled Entertainment, Australia's International Casting Service) recently appeared in Robocop and TV's Klondike and last shot the Colin Farrell thriller Solace.
Harris is part of the cast of Snowpiercer and has Warners' Run All Night awaiting a 2015 release. He is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham.
Garcia, repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, is currently on screens with Fox's Let's Be Cops.
OPEN WINDOW
Cinedigm has today revealed a new trailer for Nacho Vigalondo’s latest thriller, Open Windows, starring Elijah Wood and Sasha Grey. Check it out in the player below, courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop.com.
Jill (Grey), the most exciting actress of the moment, refuses to have dinner with Nick (Wood), a fan who won a date with her in an Internet contest organized by the distributor of her latest film.
In return, a man named Chord, who is posing as Jill’s campaign manager, helps Nick to follow in the footsteps of the actress from his own computer. Nick starts a game in which he realizes that is only a puppet into the manic plans devised by Chord, to hunt down the star.
The film is told across Nick’s computer desktop and through the various “open windows” a labyrinthine, Hitchcockian thriller unfolds.
No release date has been set, however, we’re hearing it will hit this fall.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014
SIMPSON MARATHON
Are you gearing up for the "Every. 'Simpsons.' Ever." marathon on FXX later this month? Whet your appetite with this fun teaser trailer the channel released Thursday (Aug. 14).
In case you hadn't heard, to celebrate FXX acquiring all "The Simpsons" episodes, the network is airing all 552 episodes plus the feature film in a marathon that will span ... wait for it ... 12 days. The trailer promises, "Every belch. Every welt. Every giant leap for mankind. Plus, 'The Simpsons Movie.' 552 episodes and not one moment of rest. Not bad for mere mortals."
"The Simpsons" marathon kicks off Thursday, Aug. 21 at 10 a.m. ET/PT on FXX.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Guardians of the Galaxy is a massive space adventure blockbuster packed with explosions and high adventure, but it's also the kind of warm-hearted flick that just puts a smile on your face. Fans of the film (including me) have been gushing about their favorite moments -- from a Footloose reference to a Jackson Pollock joke just for the grown-ups in the crowd -- online ever since the film hit theaters nearly two weeks ago, but one moment seems to be reigning above them all. It's been all over Tumblr and elsewhere in gif form for days, but we haven't had high quality video to pass around and watch over and over again...until now.
If you still haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy and you don't want a couple of things ruined for you, be warned that this contains SPOILERS from here on out.
So, if you've seen Guardians, and you read the words "most adorable" in the headline up there, there's a good chance you've already guessed exactly what I'm talking about: The brief scene tacked on to the very end of the film in which Groot -- reduced to a tiny stick living in a flower pot after sacrificing himself during the film's climactic battle -- enthusiastically gets his groove on to The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" as an oblivious Drax sits in the background, polishing his knives. It's a moment of pure delight for viewers who've already fallen in love with the character, and the moment when Groot freezes as Drax looks over at him got one of the biggest laughs of the entire movie at my screening.
(A bit of trivia: Director James Gunn revealed on a recent episode of the Empire Podcast that Groot's dance is actually based on the way he dances)
The scene has gotten such an enthusiastic response from fans that some have actually begun asking Marvel to produce a toy based on it (Please?!), but until today you had to go back to the theater if you wanted to relive it in all its glory. Now, it's finally in a convenient online clip format, and I'm not gonna lie to you...I've already watched it a dozen times.
Keep a link in your bookmarks for whenever you're having a particularly bad day.
Guardians of the Galaxy is in theaters now.
RED DWARF RETURNING
In a world where you can’t kill Community — even by canceling it and forcing it online — you didn’t think they could really stop the crew of the Red Dwarf, did you?
What Culture is reporting that a new season of the British sci-fi comedy classic is officially on the way, slated to air on the Dave network in the autumn of 2015. The confirmation reportedly came at the recent Sci-Fi Scarborough convention, where the cast and crew told fans the new season is definitely on the way.
After Red Dwarf X in 2012, fans have been wondering if we’d ever get more adventures from the zany crew. Word broke a while back that new scripts were being written, and cast members Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn said the new season will start shooting in October 2014.
It’s crazy to think this little, wacky show that first kicked off 26 years ago is still going strong — albeit at a slightly smaller network in recent years. Dave first dabbled in bringing the series back in 2008, and once they realized the fans were still sticking around all these years later, they’ve slowly kept it going one season at a time.
So, while we wait until these episode to actually arrive next year, take solace in the fact that Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and Cat are definitely on the way back.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH SEQUELS
New Line Cinema and Walden media have attached The Conjuring scribes Carey and Chad Hayes to their Jules Verne-fueled Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise. Josh Hutcherson, who starred in the original film and its first sequel, Journey 2 the Mysterious Island, will re-team with the sequel's headliner Dwayne Johnson for an additional two sequels, both of are now looking at potentially filming back to back.
Word of a third film first broke in 2012, following the impressive box office receipts of Mysterious Island, which itself teased that another film would likely be based on Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and/or that book's sequel, Around the Moon. It is noted in the trade's story, however, that a new direction is being eyed for the franchise, so the Moon may no longer be the planned destination.
The Hayes brothers recently teamed with both Johnson and Mysterious Island helmer Brad Peyton for the upcoming San Andreas. That film also stars Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Archie Panjabi, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Ioan Gruffudd and Kylie Minogue and is set for release on June 5, 2015.
GODZILLA SEQUEL IN 2018
Godzilla will return to movie screens with a sequel to be released June 18, 2018, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures announced Thursday.
Gareth Edwards, who directed this year’s Godzilla starring Bryan Cranston, will return to direct the sequel, Variety writes.
Godzilla arrived in theaters May 16, setting a record for 2014 by earning $38.5 million its opening night. The film went on to earn $93.2 million total that opening weekend.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2014
ALIEN ISOLATION
Amanda Ripley is in deep trouble, and it looks like we're in for a great game.
Our excitement has been growing with each passing trailer for the Oct. 7 (please, no delays, Sega!) release of Alien: Isolation. The latest clip only adds to that as it finally focuses so much needed attention on our protagonist.
The game looks so good and feels so much like the original Alien that we kind of wish this was the movie we got instead of Prometheus.
Only two months left to wait.
AQUAMAN
There have been rumblings about a potential Aquaman spinoff film for a while, and now it sounds like DC just put the project on the fast track.
The Hollywood Reporter claims Warner Bros. has hired two separate writers to work up two separate scripts for a potential Aquaman film. They’ve reportedly tapped Will Beall (Gangster Squad) and Kurt Johnston (300: Rise of an Empire) to work up the competing pitches. This also makes it seem pretty likely he might get an intro in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, along with everyone else, apparently.
The dual-writer approach is a clear sign that Warner Bros. is keen to get an Aquaman movie into development quickly, as this will allow them to pursue two different options, then pick the strongest script to push into active development. Considering the studio has a whopping 9+ DC release dates to fill, it's no surprise Aquaman is near the top of the list. Despite the jokes, he’s a big name, and it makes sense Warner Bros. would want to capitalize if they can do it right.
So, where might Aquaman fit in DC’s big list of future release dates? They have dates slotted all the way through 2020, but with Aquaman moving so quickly at this point in mid-2014, we’d think this project could slide into one of those 2016-2017 dates quite nicely.
But who will star in it? The smart money remains on Stargate Atlantis and Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa, though neither Momoa nor the studio has made that official yet. But director Zack Snyder did recently call into a talk radio show to argue why Aquaman is a compelling character, so it makes sense the studio is pushing to make it happen.
IMAGES FROM SPACE
The New Horizon is still a year away from its arrival at Pluto, but the NASA probe is already sending back some footage and pictures from the distant non-planet.
The probe is set to take some close-up shots of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, on July 14, 2015, but scientists have aimed the telescope at the dwarf planet and have processed some footage showing the two heavenly bodies in orbit. The mini-movie is comprised of 12 images taken from July 19 through July 24 and shows the orbit in action.
As New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern noted, it marks a record for getting a peek at Charon:
“The image sequence showing Charon revolving around Pluto set a record for close-range imaging of Pluto — they were taken from 10 times closer to the planet than the Earth is. But we'll smash that record again and again, starting in January, as approach operations begin … We are really excited to see our target and its biggest satellite in motion from our own perch, less than a year from the historic encounter ahead!”
The probe was approximately 265 million miles from Pluto when it took the clip.
If the orbit looks to be close, that’s because it is. As Space notes, Charon orbits just 11,200 miles above Pluto’s surface. For the sake of comparison, Earth's moon is an average of 239,000 miles away.
Though the first round of footage admittedly lacks some detail, it should be very exciting to see what New Horizon starts sending back once next year rolls around.
POWER RANGERS
Lionsgate has given Power Rangers a release date.
The studio will open the movie, which hopes to launch a franchise, July 22, 2016.
The move puts the title on the same date as Warners’ King Arthur, another movie that hopes to launch a franchise.
It also sandwiches the movie in between Universal’s next Bourne movie, which opens July 15, and Fox’s next installment of Planet of the Apes, which is to bow July 29.
X-Men: First Class writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz are penning the script while Haim Saban, Brian Casentini, Allison Shearmur and Roberto Orci are producing.
Power Rangers was a ’90s TV series and global marketing franchise, initially called The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, that used footage from a Japanese children’s show. It first aired on Fox Kids, then in the 2000s on Disney-owned channels. A movie also hit theaters in 1995.
The new movie promises to completely re-envision the Rangers, a group of high school kids who are infused with unique superpowers but must harness and use those powers as a team if they have any hope of saving the world.
LEFTOVERS RENEWED
HBO has ordered a second helping of The Leftovers.
The premium cable network announced Wednesday that it has renewed the Damon Lindelof drama for a second season.
"We are thrilled to bring back The Leftovers for a second season with the exceptional talents of Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said. “It has been truly exciting to see the overwhelming response to their provocative and original storytelling. We look forward to continuing the journey as the show delves deeper into the lives of those who remain.”
The drama, based on Perrotta's best-seller and starring Justin Theroux, enjoyed a solid (if not altogether exciting) premiere audience in June when it opened to 1.7 million viewers. That figure put it nearly half a million south of HBO's previous drama debut, True Detective, from January. But as is the case with most HBO shows, the series has been reaping its biggest ratings from time-shifting, encores and streams on the HBO Go app. The series has surged to nearly 8 million weekly viewers once all platforms are taken into account.
The Leftovers hails from Warner Bros. Television, HBO's first outside studio buy. The cabler, which typically owns all its original programming, is also developing another pilot from WBTV (Westworld) as well as one from 20th Century Fox Television (Ryan Murphy's Open).
HBO originally picked up the rights to The Leftovers in 2011 after Lindelof read the book and tracked the rights back to the network. After signing an overall deal with WBTV, he met with Perrotta and started talking about what a series take would look like.
For HBO, The Leftovers comes as the cabler is poised to say farewell to three dramas. True Blood, The Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire will all end their respective runs with their upcoming seasons. Meanwhile, megahit Game of Thrones has already been locked up for seasons five and six as HBO prepares a second season of anthology True Detective as well as new comedies including The Comeback, Ballers and The Brink, among returning fare Silicon Valley, Getting On, Girls, Veep and more.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2014
THE INHUMANS
"Guardians of the Galaxy" star Vin Diesel is really terrible at secrets. The actor, who plays walking, talking tree Groot in the movie, may have spoiled one of Marvel's upcoming movies.
In a posting on Facebook, he writes, "I get the strange feeling Marvel thinks I'm Inhuman ... Haha." To those who knows a lot about Marvel's comic history, that's a pretty big tease that an adaptation of "The Inhumans" is in the works.
Now, Collider is reporting that the studio is moving forward with the project. According to the site, Marvel has a script they like from writer Joe Robert Cole and they plan to approach filmmakers with it. That's how they handled "Guardians of the Galaxy," with a script written by Nicole Perlman. Eventually, James Gunn agreed to direct the film and did his own draft.
The comic series is about a group of homo-sapiens who were experimented on by the Kree, the alien race Ronan the Accuser belongs to. Those experimented on started their own society once abandoned by the Kree, with Black Bolt becoming their king. His royal family consists of Medusa, Karnak, Gordon, Triton, Crystal, Maximus the Mad and their dog Lockjaw.
Marvel has several announced release dates without titles attached to them, so "The Inhumans" could easily slide into one of them. Chances are it'll be a while before they confirm the movie, though.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII
Star Wars: Episode VII is getting back on course.
The J.J. Abrams film will resume filming later this month, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.
The production went on a two-week hiatus earlier this month due to an injury star Harrison Ford sustained in June. Ford was sidelined after breaking his left leg on the London set June 12 and later underwent surgery.
Ford showing up — and appearing to be back in good health — at Monday's The Expendables 3 premiere in Hollywood had Star Wars observers speculating that he is ready to return to a galaxy far, far away.
Sources could not confirm if Ford was flying back to London to join the production.
Episode VII is filming at the U.K's Pinewood Studios and also stars familiar faces Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker, as well as series newcomers John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow.
It's slated for a Dec. 18, 2015, release.
LAUREN BACALL DIES
24 hours after the shocking news of Robin Williams' suicide, another acting great has passed away. Ms. Lauren Bacall, the Oscar-nominated actress who was a staple during the "Golden Age of Hollywood," suffered a massive stroke at her home and died on Tuesday morning.
Born in New York City in 1924, Bacall has been a mainstay in cinema, television and on stage for seventy years, her most recent work providing her voice for two disparate projects, the Oscar-nominated French-Belgian animated film Ernest & Celestine and Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy."
Bacall may be best known among cinephiles for her work with her future husband Humphrey Bogart in movies like To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo. Later, she'd be a part of all-star ensemble casts for Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974).
Despite receiving only a single Oscar nomination for her supporting role in The Mirror Has Two Faces, Bacall received an honorary Oscar in 2010. She received many other accolades including a Golden Globe and SAG award (both for The Mirror Has Two Faces) as well as Career and Lifetime Achievement awards from the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics.
After Humphrey Bogart died in 1957, Bacall eventually married actor Jason Robards in 1961 although they only remained together for eight years. Bacall leaves behind three children, two from Bogart and one from Robards.
Bacall has had two memoirs published, "Lauren Bacall By Myself" in 1978 and "Now" in 1994.
WARNER BROS. NEWS
Warner Bros. Pictures has adjusted its upcoming release date schedule, announcing that Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, will hit the big screen in a limited release on December 25. It will then go wider beginning January 16. They've also pushed the Guy Ritchie spy actioner The Man From U.N.C.L.E. from January to August 14, 2015 and shifted the Point Break reboot by a single week, moving it from August 7, 2015 to July 31, 2015.
American Sniper's Christmas Day release has it opening opposite Tim Burton's Big Eyes, the comedy sequel Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Angelina Jolie's second directorial feature, Unbroken, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's own second directorial feature, The Interview, the fantasy musical Into the Woods, the children's book adaptation Paddington and, also opening in a limited release, the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic, Selma.
On its new date, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. will now face Jared Hess' untitled armored car project and the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton. Finally, Point Break will open against the Sacha Baron Cohen spy comedy Grimsby and the John Green adaptation Paper Towns.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
We learned last week that movement is finally being made on the big-screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's Jane Austen reimagining, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Today, Deadline reports that the cast has a new addition in "Boardwalk Empire" star Jack Huston. He'll play George Wickham opposite Lily James (Cinderella) as Elizabeth Bennett, Bella Heathcote (Dark Shadows) as one of the other four Bennett sisters, and Sam Riley (Maleficent) as Mr. Darcy.
Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) is directing the adaptation of the best-selling book, which offers an "expanded" version of the Austen classic. The book tells the timeless story of a woman's quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers.
Scripted by Steers and David O. Russell, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will be produced by Natalie Portman, Marc Butan, Sean McKittrick, Brian Oliver, Annette Savitch, Allison Shearmur and Tyler Thompson.
AQUAMAN PROJECTS
Warner Bros. has dueling scripts for a Aquaman feature film currently in the works. The Hollywood Reporter today brings word that Will Beall (Gangster Squad) is working on one version while Kurt Johnstad (300: Rise of an Empire) is doing another. The plan is said to be to develop both scripts in tandem until a decision can be made as to which version will ultimately head to the big screen.
Aquaman's first comic book appearance was in 1941's "More Fun Comics" #73. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, Aquaman went on to become a founding member of the Justice League of America two decades later. Although the character has never before made it to the big screen, Jason Momoa is all but confirmed to appear as Aquaman in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Never before seen on the big screen, Aquaman's sole live-action appearance was as a teen on the WB's "Smallville." The character was planned for a spinoff series, "Mercy Reef," but the property never made it beyond the pilot stage.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2014
REMEMBERING ROBIN WILLIAMS
Robin Williams died Monday (Aug. 11) at the age of 63. How do you pick just one favorite moment from a career that spanned so many decades and so profoundly affected the lives of many?
Over at Zap2it.com shares favorite Williams scenes from his standup, his deeply emotional work, his comedic performances that shaped the senses of humor of so many children of the past 30 years -- from "Dead Poets Society" to "Aladdin," from "Mork & Mindy" to "An Evening At the Met."
I picked my favorite, Mork and Mindy. Which one is yours?
GOTHAM
While The Joker won't be appearing on "Gotham" for quite a while, an extended trailer for the show really hammers the point home that he'll show up eventually.
The minute long clip shows all of the villains you would expect, but it's when Harvey Bullock lifts a sheet from a dead body, with blood soaking through it creating that telltale smile, while laughing is quietly heard.
"Gotham" executive producer Bruno Heller has already said it will be a while before Joker appears. Especially since the first season of the show largely focuses on the rise of The Penguin. Still, it's a little hint to add to the show's marketing, keeping it in the minds of fans that one day it will happen.
"Gotham" premieres Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
DOCTOR WHO
With less than two weeks before the Season 8 premiere of "Doctor Who," the first full trailer for the feature-length episode has been released.
Peter Capaldi is pulling out all the stops for his debut as the Doctor. Traveling to the Victorian era is one thing, but throwing in dinosaurs and robots takes the game to a whole new level. The new Doctor has even redesigned the interior of the TARDIS, so it fits his personality a little bit more. Clara's not much of a fan, though.
"Deep Breath" is shaping up to be one of the most epic "Doctor Who" episodes yet and it premieres Saturday, Aug. 23, on BBC America.
WESTWORLD
When we first heard J.J. Abrams was rebooting Westworld at HBO, we couldn’t help but worry it might slip into development hell due to the sheer ambition of it all. But the series is flying right along — and here’s who’ll be menacing our heroes.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that veteran actor Ed Harris (The Hours, The Truman Show, Apollo 13) has signed on to star in a “pivotal” role as the Man in Black, a character described as the “distillation of pure villainy into one man.”
It sounds like Abrams’ adaptation will make some changes from the original film, but the series is still expected to serve as a “dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” Yeah, count us in for that.
Harris joins a cast that is already studded with other stars, including Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer and several others. Seriously, if Abrams can’t make an awesome Westworld adaptation with this lot, he needs to just get out of the business.
Michael Crichton’s original, 1973 film has become a true genre classic, and we can’t wait to revisit this universe again. Abrams will executive-produce the project with Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk. Jonathan Nolan (Person of Interest, The Dark Knight) co-wrote the pilot and is set to direct.
MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2014
THE OUTLANDER
"Outlander" fans are still talking about the series premiere on Saturday (Aug. 9) and Starz is continuing to feed the fires. A new teaser trailer for episode 2, "Castle Leoch," was put online Monday morning.
We get our first glimpse of the mysterious Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek), Colum (Gary Lewis), a brief glimpse of Jenny (Laura Donnelly) and also, Jamie's scarred back. Ow.Mo
Never fear, Mrs. Fitz fans -- while we don't see her in the trailer, she will be present in episode 2!
"Outlander" airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.
THE FLASH
The Flash has just added another DC Comics character to its cast, and the actor they've tapped already has comic-book experience.
We're still several weeks away from the premiere of The CW's latest DC-based superhero series, but The Flash keeps hitting us with big casting announcements that are setting us up for a show with lots of comic-book flavor. We've already heard about the casting of one half of Firestorm, the classic Flash rogue Captain Cold and Plastique, among others. Now it's time to meet the latest addition.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, season one of The Flash will also feature an appearance from Gen. Wade Eiling, also simply known as the General, a powerful military expert in the DC Comics universe who's sometimes a supervillain and sometimes a bit of a hero. He'll be played by veteran character actor Clancy Brown, who you may have seen most recently in Sleepy Hollow (pictured above), but who's also made appearances in everything from Highlander to Carnivale to Starship Troopers and was the voice of Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Universe for more than a decade.
The comic-book version of Eiling has sometimes featured superhuman strength and a powerful healing factor, but so far Brown's version of the General is described only as "imposing," and as a man with "a face carved from years of duty." As for what he'll be up to in the series, he's reportedly heading up the black ops team on the trailer of Plastique (Kelly Frye), and he's intent on turning her into a living weapon for the government, something we'd already heard a bit about when Plastique was cast. In the comics, the character also has plenty of ties to the Secret Society of Super Villains as well as the Suicide Squad, so who knows what kind of trouble he might be able to cause in the Flash/Arrow universe someday?
The Flash, which is already packed with superheroes and villains and might not be done adding more, premieres Oct. 7 on The CW.
THE AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
The folks at Marvel are beefing up the cast for year two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and it sounds like they’ll be tackling one of the biggest mysteries left dangling in the finale.
No, not the Coulson resurrection stuff, or that big blue alien corpse — we’re talking about Skye’s (Chloe Bennet) bizarre parentage, about which some major breadcrumbs were dropped during season one. TV Line is reporting that the series will introduce Skye’s missing father next season, and he’ll be played by a familiar face for genre fans.
Kyle MacLachlan, best known for his iconic turn in Twin Peaks, has reportedly signed on to play Skye’s dad. With an actor like MacLachlan locked in, it’d seem Skye’s father will play a fairly major role in season two. As far as other details? They’re few and far between.
As fans already know, Skye apparently grew up in an orphanage and doesn’t know much of anything about her mother and father. But we do know she’s classified as an 0-8-4, aka an object of unknown origin, and the season-one finale revealed Centipede’s Raina speaking with a shadowy figure (who’ll now apparently be played by MacLachlan). Her message, while holding a photo of Skye: “I found your daughter.”
Yeah, this should be interesting. The first season was a bumpy ride, but the writers seem to have found their groove with the Captain America: Winter Soldier tie-ins once all hell broke loose. Considering how season one ended, we’re hopeful that momentum will carry over. Sure, Skye's not the most compelling character, but hopefully they're taking her in a good direction.
What do you think of the casting choice? Is MacLachlan a good pick for Skye's father?
The second season of S.H.I.E.L.D. is set to premiere Tuesday, Sept. 23.
THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES
The queen of vampire fiction is heading back to the big screen.
In 2003, Anne Rice published Blood Canticle, which was then set to be the final novel in her acclaimed and bestselling saga The Vampire Chronicles. Rice left her blood drinkers behind, focusing instead on a series of novels about the life of Christ, followed by an angel-based series, Songs of the Seraphim, and two werewolf novels. For many years, she said she'd never go back to the vampires that made her a titan of genre fiction. Then, earlier this year, she announced Prince Lestat, a return to her vampire universe and her hero, Lestat de Lioncourt. The Vampire Chronicles are back, and now they're also heading back to the big screen.
Universal Pictures has optioned all current and future Vampire Chronicles novels from Rice for producers Imagine Entertainment and the team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal encompasses 13 novels, which would mean it also covers Rice's two New Tales of the Vampires books. The option also reportedly covers an already-written screenplay for the fourth novel in the series, The Tale of the Body Thief, which was adapted for Imagine by Rice's son and fellow novelist, Christopher Rice.
It's not clear at the moment if Body Thief will in fact be the first film to go into production after this deal, but Imagine's been developing that for a while, so it seems like a strong possibility. The first novel in the series, Interview With the Vampire, spawned a hit film in 1994, while the second and third novels -- The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned -- were adapted into a single film, Queen of the Damned, in 2002. That one didn't do so well, and that's a shame, because those two novels form much of the basis for Rice's vampire mythos, including the origin of the vampires in her world and the introduction of the most powerful of the immortals. Body Thief, though, is a relatively self-contained adventure for Lestat that could be crafted into a nice jumping-off point for more elaborate films later, so we'll see which direction Imagine, Orci and Kurtzman choose to go.
So we have emerged from the age of Twilight and are perhaps entering an age when Rice's novels could finally be made into a full-on tentpole franchise. We don't know when a new Vampire Chronicles film might actually be released yet, but in the meantime, start working on that dream cast list.
BABYLON 5 REBOOT
There have been rumblings about Babylon 5 coming back to life for a while now, and creator J. Michael Straczynski has heard the call — and he’s already working on a script.
TVWise is reporting that Straczynski is actively writing a script, with hopes to wrap a final draft by the end of 2015 and ramp up production in 2016. The project is reportedly a reboot of the Babylon 5 concept, and not a continuation of the original series, which ran from 1994 to 1998.
The report notes that Straczynski hopes to reuse some of the original cast members, such as Bruce Boxleitner and Mira Furlan.
Thanks to some shrewd negotiating, Straczynski actually owns the film rights to the franchise — so he isn’t beholden to getting a particular studio to sign on. But he is apparently hoping Warner Bros. (the studio that produced the original series) might be interested once the script is complete. You know, assuming it’s good.
If Warner Bros. doesn't bite, Straczynski apparently aims to finance the film through his own Studio JMS, though that might be a tall order to bankroll an $80-100 million sci-fi epic. But considering the franchise’s name cachet with genre fans — not to mention the fact that studios are mining just about any brand they can get their hands on these days — you’d think someone would be interested in co-producing.
Regardless, we’re psyched to hear some new Babylon 5 could be on the horizon, and we can’t wait to see how the franchise might be interpreted in the modern day.
THE BOOK OF LIFE
A new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s animated flick The Book of Life has been released, showing off a lot more of the trippy, Day of the Dead-style fairy tale.
The unique CGI film is produced by del Toro (Hellboy) and directed by Jorge Gutierrez, focusing on a twisted love story about a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart. The wild visuals will carry a journey through three fantastic worlds to face his greatest fears.
The new trailer shows off a bit more of the humor, and it looks like this could be one of the most distinctive animated flicks of the year. Between projects like this and Big Hero 6, it should be a good year for fans of quirky animated fare.
The flick features a solid voice cast, including Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Kate del Castillo and Eugenio Derbez.
The Book of Life opens Oct. 17.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2014
STAR WARS REBELS
Disney XD debuted a highly anticipated first look at its new series "Star Wars Rebels" Monday night, and you can watch it right here as well.
Above is the opening seven minutes of the show, which is set before the events of "Episode IV: A New Hope" and chronicles the beginnings of the rebellion that will eventually topple the Galactic Empire. It centers on the crew of the starship Ghost -- pilot Hera, "cowboy Jedi" Kanan, teenage con artist Ezra, weapons expert Sabine, muscleman Zeb and the ship's droid, Chopper.
"Star Wars Rebels" will have a special hour-long premiere on Disney Channel in October before moving to its regular home on Disney XD.
ARROW NEWS
"Arrow" Season 3 has cast former "Medium" actor David Cubitt to guest-star as Manhunter, a character from DC Comics with a past closely tied to that of John Diggle (David Ramsey).
The character's "normal" name is Mark Shaw, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will be an A.R.G.U.S. operative who crosses paths with Diggle in the third episode of the upcoming season, "Corto Maltese." There is no word yet as to what role Shaw will play on the show -- in the comics, each of the several Manhunter characters were typically darker heroes. One Manhunter alter-ego, Kate Spencer, has already appeared on "Arrow," as a Starling City District Attorney in Season 2.
In addition to playing Detective Lee Scanlon on "Medium," Cubitt recently recurred on "Bates Motel."
"Arrow" Season 3 premieres Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
DOUGLAS ADAMS' DIRK GENTLY
Everyone’s favorite quirky cat-and-pizza-loving detective is making his way back to TV.
IDW Entertainment and Ideate Media just announced today that they’ve optioned the worldwide rights to Douglas Adams’ (The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency novels.
Max Landis -- writer of Chronicle and the upcoming Frankenstein flick starring Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy -- has been tapped to write the pilot as well as executive-produce the new series.
Below is the official press release:
San Diego, CA (August 4, 2014) – IDW Entertainment (“IDWE”) and Ideate Media announced today they have optioned the worldwide rights to Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency novels. IDWE and Ideate have formed a partnership to co-fund development and co-produce with the intent of securing a direct-to-series commitment. Circle of Confusion will Executive Produce.
Max Landis has been tapped to write the pilot and Executive Produce. Max is the writer of feature films Chronicle, upcoming American Ultra starring Kirsten Stewart & Jesse Eisenberg, and upcoming Frankenstein starring Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy. Max will also make his directorial debut with the comedy Me, Him, Her starring Haley Joel Osment and Geena Davis in 2015.
After creating the phenomenon that was The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams went on to write a series of best-selling novels about Dirk Gently, a detective with a belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, a unique relationship with the laws of probability and physics, and a love of cats and pizza.
Dirk Gently is a charismatic, mysterious, troubled, brilliant, figure – cursed with a relentless intellect, psychic powers he doesn’t fully understand or want, a gift for self-mythologizing, and a supernatural ability to detect disturbances in the fabric of reality, Dirk has found a strange calling as a private detective for impossible crimes.
"Alongside the obvious yada yada I'm a lifelong fan, Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul (the second Dirk Gently novel) is one of the best books ever,” said Max Landis. “Douglas Adams is a visionary who forever changed the way science fiction is written and talked about and even thought about and even the way real actual science is thought about and without whom our culture would be noticeably different for the worse, I'd also just like to say holy crap, it's Dirk Gently. This is any writer's ultimate project, and in the current TV space, it fits ridiculously well. Imagine a playground where you could come with any mystery, no matter how improbable, convoluted, or totally insane and then, simply by finding the right connections, you could tie it all down to one man, one private eye. If you're familiar with the property, you know: there's no freaking rules. Ancient gods? Sure. Larceny and petty crimes? Of course. Extra-dimensional aliens? I mean, probably; as long as you can make it funny, Dirk's on the case. This is a dream project of mine, no joke, and I absolutely positively couldn't be happier.”
Ted Adams and David Ozer from IDW Entertainment, Arvind Ethan David and Zainir Aminullah of Ideate, and David Alpert and Rick Jacobs from Circle of Confusion (The Walking Dead) will serve as executive producers.
“Max is one of Hollywood’s most brilliant writers and represents the ideal voice in bringing Dirk Gently to television”, said David Ozer, President of IDW Entertainment.
Arvind Ethan David, Head of Production and Development at Ideate Media, was a friend and protégé of Douglas Adams and brokered the deal with the estate. He commented: “As a student at Oxford, I directed and co-wrote a theatre adaptation of Dirk Gently. To my amazement, Douglas himself came to see the show - and he liked it and helped launch my career. Almost 20 years later, to return to Dirk, and to add the mad genius of Max Landis to the mad genius of Douglas Adams, is a dream come true and proof of what Douglas, (and Dirk), would describe as ‘the fundamental interconnectedness of all things’”.
In addition to the television series, IDW Publishing & Ideate Media will develop a series of Dirk Gently comic books for release next spring.
“Douglas Adams himself always maintained that his Dirk Gently novels had much greater dramatic potential than his better known Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. I think he is about to be proven right -- yet again”, said Ed Victor, Douglas Adams’ long time agent and friend.
This is not the first time that the quirky detective has been brought to TV. The BBC produced a whopping four episodes written by Misfits and Atlantis creator Howard Overman and starring Stephen Mangan (Episodes). The pilot aired back in 2010, and it took the BBC almost two years to finally bring the pilot to series order. Alas, only three episodes were made before Auntie Beeb pulled the plug.
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER
Elijah Wood has joined Lionsgate's supernatural action film The Last Witch Hunter.
The Lord of the Rings alum will star with Vin Diesel, Michael Caine and Game of Thrones actress Rose Leslie in director Breck Eisner's thriller. The film centers on an immortal witch hunter (Diesel) who partners with a witch to stop New York City's covens from unleashing a plague on the city.
Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (Dracula Untold, Gods of Egypt) wrote the screenplay from a pitch by Cory Goodman. D.W. Harper and Melisa Wallack also contributed to the script.
Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Diesel are producing, and Samantha Vincent of One Race and Adam Goldworm are executive producing. Production is set to begin later this month.
Lionsgate will release the film in North America through its Summit Entertainment banner. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erik Feig, Summit president of production Geoff Shaevitz and Lionsgate vp production & development Matthew Janzen are overseeing the project for Lionsgate. Lionsgate evp business affairs Robert Melnik negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.
Wood was most recently seen in the Damien Chazelle-scripted Grand Piano and currently appears on the final season of FX's Wilfred. With his horror-thriller label SpectreVision, he is also a producer of the upcoming horror comedy Cooties, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and in which he co-stars, and the serial killer drama The Boy.
He is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson and Binder.
MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2014
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Rousing the ailing summer box office to life, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy opened to a record-breaking $94 million in North America, the top August debut of all time and besting every other summer tentpole save for Transformers: Age of Extinction in another sizeable victory for Marvel Studios.
Overseas, Guardians also dazzled, debuting to $66.4 million in 42 markets for a global opening of $160.4 million. It's only playing in 50 percent of the foreign marketplace, and saw big numbers in Russia ($13 million), the U.K. ($10.8 million), Mexico ($6.5 million) and Brazil ($5.4 million).
The Marvel and Disney tentpole did far more business than expected after receiving glowing reviews for its originality and an A CinemaScore from audiences. The movie, launching only the second in-house Marvel franchise after the Avengers series, received the widest release ever for an August title (4,080 theaters), and easily surpassed the debut of previous August record-holder, The Bourne Ultimatum ($69.3 million).
"Having a great movie that's original is such a rare thing anymore. This film and its reception around the world proves Marvel can break new ground with unique characters," said Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis, giving a shout-out to Alan Fine, head of Marvel's creative committee.
Guardians secured the best showing of the year so far for an original property, as well as coming in ahead of high-profile summer franchise installments Godzilla ($93.2 million), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($91.6 million) and X-Men: Days of Future Past ($90.8 million). And it's the third best debut of the year so far after Age of Extinction ($100 million) and fellow Marvel movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million).
Paramount's Age of Extinction also made headlines Sunday in becoming the first movie of 2014 to hit $1 billion in global ticket sales, thanks to earning more than $300 million in China. Among other milestones, Godzilla crossed $500 million worldwide, while 22 Jump Street laughed its way past $100 million internationally for a worldwide total of nearly $290 million, almost $100 million more than 21 Jump Street.
Heading into the weekend, Guardians was projected to gross $65 million to $70 million in its domestic debut. Males made up the majority of the audience (56 percent), and especially older teens and young adult men, a coveted demo that is getting harder and harder for Hollywood to please (46 percent of the audience was between the ages of 17 and 34). Fittingly, Imax theaters delivered $17 million globally, an August best.
Still, Guardians of the Galaxy won't be able to rescue the ailing summer overall in North America. Domestic revenue was up nearly 35 percent from the same frame last year -- the first time it has been up in weeks -- but the summer is still down by a large margin.
Featuring a rag-tag group of unlikely galactic heroes, Guardians stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace and Bradley Cooper, who voices the role of Rocket the raccoon. Vin Diesel, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio del Toro also star.
Guardians wasn't a cheap proposition and cost $170 million to produce. That doesn't include Disney and Marvel's pricey and well-waged marketing campaign.
Hype around Guardians has been so high that Marvel and Disney have already announced plans for a July 28, 2017 sequel, with Gunn returning to direct.
The movie's tone is much different than the Avengers franchise, and is laced with humor. "It's much more of a space opera than a superhero movie," Gunn said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
This weekend's other new wide offering, James Brown biopic Get On Up, placed No. 3 with an OK $14 million after likewise earning an A CinemaScore. The movie was directed by The Help director Tate Taylor, and stars Chadwick Boseman as the legendary godfather of soul. Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment produced the $30 million film with Mick Jagger.
Universal is handling the release of Get On Up, and opened the biopic in the same corridor as The Help, which debuted to $26 million, and Lee Daniels' The Butler, which opened to just north of $24 million. Black moviegoers made up 70 percent of the audience; women, 63 percent.
Get on Up came in No. 3 after Guardians and fellow Universal title Lucy, which fell to No. 2 on its second Friday, falling a respectable 58 percent to $18.2 million for a pleasing domestic total of $79.6 million.
Paramount and MGM's Hercules continued to lag behind Lucy, falling to No. 4 in its second outing with $10.7 million for a domestic total of $52.3 million. The action epic tumbled a steep 63 percent. Overseas, the Dwayne Johnson movie took in $14.2 million from 35 markets to jump the $100 million worldwide, ending Sunday with a total $108.8 million.
Fox's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes rounded out the top five, grossing $8.7 million for a domestic total of $189.3 million). Internationally, the sequel grossed $47.5 million from 70 markets for a foreign cume of $260 million and worldwide haul of $449.3 million.
At the specialty box office, Anton Corbijn's spy thriller A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, stayed at No. 10 in its second weekend as it expanded into a total of 729 theaters, grossing $3.3 million for a domestic total of $7.1 million for Roadside Attractions.
Richard Linklater and IFC Films' acclaimed indie drama Boyhood rocketed up to No. 11 as it upped its location count to 311 theaters, earning $2.5 million for a domestic total of $7.6 million.
Here are the top 10 estimates for the weekend of Aug. 1-Aug. 3 at the domestic box office:
Title, Weeks in Release/Theater Count, Studio, Friday Total, Percentage Change, Cume
1. Guardians of the Galaxy, 1/4,080, Disney/Marvel, $94 million.
2. Lucy, 2/3,202, Universal/EuropaCorp, $18.2 million, -58%, $79.6
3. Get On Up, 1/2,468, Universal, $14 million.
4. Hercules, 2/3,595, Paramount/MGM, $10.7 million, -64%, $52.3 million.
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 4/3,283, Fox, $8.7 million, -48%, $189.3 million.
6. Planes: Fire & Rescue, 3/3,241, Disney, $6.4 million, -33%, $47.6 million.
7. The Purge: Anarchy, 3/2,656, Universal, $5.6 million, -47%, $63 million.
8. Sex Tape, 3/2,500, Sony, $3.6 million, -41%, $33.9 million.
9. And So It Goes, 2/1,816, Clarius Entertainment, $3.34 million, -28%, $10.5 million.
10. A Most Wanted Man, 2/729, Roadside Attractions, $3.32 million, +24%, $7.1 million.
GHOSTBUSTERS 3
After a long search, Sony is zeroing in on a director for Ghostbusters 3, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, has emerged as the front-runner, according to sources, and Feig has shown interest in taking on the project. Sources caution that no formal negotiations have taken place and a lot must be worked out before the casual discussions turn serious and Feig accepts the job. But he is the studio's first choice, these sources said. Sony declined to comment.
Sources say the film will be a reboot focusing on female Ghostbusters.
The long in-development sequel previously had Ivan Reitman, the director of 1984's original Ghostbusters and 1989's Ghostbusters II, attached.
On March 18, Reitman exited the project and a new search for a helmer began. Several websites indicated that 22 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were in line for the job but those reports were inaccurate.
The original script was by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg — writers of NBC's The Office and the 2011 comedy Bad Teacher — and has been revised following the death of original castmember Harold Ramis on Feb. 24.
The story introduces new Ghostbusters and hands the baton from at least a couple of the originals. Dan Aykroyd has said he will return but Bill Murray has not committed.
Feig is also directing the action comedy Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, for a Memorial Day 2015 release. He is repped by CAA and attorney Warren Dern.
CONSTANTINE
NBC has revealed a new promo for their upcoming series "Constantine," which features quite a bit of new footage from the supernatural series.
In "Constantine," based on the comic book series "Hellblazer," seasoned demon hunter and master of the occult John Constantine specializes in giving hell… hell. Armed with a ferocious knowledge of the dark arts and his wickedly naughty wit, he fights the good fight – or at least he did. With his soul already damned to hell, he's decided to leave his do-gooder life behind. But when demons target Liv, the daughter of one of Constantine's oldest friends, he's reluctantly thrust back into the fray – and he'll do whatever it takes to save her. Before long, it's revealed that Liv's "second sight," an ability to see the worlds behind our world and predict supernatural occurrences, is a threat to a mysterious new evil that's rising in the shadows. And now it's not just Liv who needs protection; the angels are starting to get worried too. So, together, Constantine and Liv must use her power and his skills to travel the country, find the demons that threaten our world – and send them back where they belong. After that, who knows… maybe there's hope for him and his soul after all.
From Executive Producer David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight Rises) and director Neil Marshall ("Game of Thrones," The Descent) comes a dark new thriller that proves fighting evil is a hell of a job. The series stars Matt Ryan, Lucy Griffiths, Harold Perrineau and Charles Halford. "Constantine" premieres October 24 on NBC.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2014
DICK SMITH TRIBUTE
Dick Smith influenced many of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers, and in the wake of his death they're saying thank you.
Smith, an Oscar-winning and groundbreaking makeup artist who created unforgettable effects for films like The Exorcist, Scanners, Ghost Story and more, passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Almost immediately after news of his death hit, film fans, critics and fellow makeup artists began paying tribute to the man on his work online. Smith was also honored by some of the biggest filmmakers in Hollywood, including one who worked with Smith on one of his most famous projects.
Pan's Labyrinth and Pacific Rim writer/director Guillermo del Toro, who knew Smith for nearly 30 years, penned a personal remembrance for Vulture. Del Toro began the piece by declaring, "Without Dick Smith, I would not be making movies," and recalled how willing Smith was to help young filmmakers fighting to make films featuring their own creature creations.
"Dick came to be like part of my family. He was a guy that changed the way I see the art of making movies," Del Toro wrote. "He wanted to spread the gospel, the knowledge, amongst colleagues and amongst anyone who was interested in learning. Dick had a way of welcoming anyone new without prejudice or snobbery."
Star Trek and Star Wars: Episode VII writer/director J.J. Abrams also took the time to pay tribute to Smith by doing something he rarely does: posting a note to his Bad Robot production company's Twitter page.
Smith's death also brought a fond remembrance from his collaborator William Friedkin, the legendary director who worked with Smith to craft some of the most terrifying film sequences of all time in The Exorcist. Smith didn't work on any other film Friedkin's directed, but the work they did together on that iconic film is the stuff of legend, and Friedkin's respect for Smith was evident in the tweets he sent out following the makeup artist's death.
We already know Smith's a legend who deserves these honors, but seeing the likes of del Toro, Abrams, Friedkin and others speaking up to pay homage to their friend just crystallizes it. He's a guy whose name the average moviegoer probably never knew, but his legacy is being trumpeted by fellow icons right now.
Sleepy Hollow: Season 2 Promo - Evil Takes Holdby dreadcentralSLEEPY HOLLOW
The first season of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow stole our hearts with its perfect balance of darkness, dark humor and all-out wackiness. Luckily for us, season two is looking to keep the formula intact.
A new trailer for the upcoming second season has arrived, showing off where the series is heading when it returns this fall. For one thing, it looks like things won’t be getting any easier, as we see new and returning baddies (John Noble!) wreaking havoc on the not-so-sleepy little town.
Along with all the doom and gloom, we also get some of that trademark Sleepy Hollow wit sprinkled in around the edges. Despite the apocalypse, it’s nice to see Ichabod is learning the fine art of the fist bump (well, mostly). Welcome to the future.
As for getting the team back together, it looks like the gang will have their hands full just finding their way out of last season’s insane cliffhanger — much less actually fighting back against all the wacky evil that’s been unleashed. Yeah, its going to be a fun season.
GOTHAM NEWS
Deadline brings word today that former "Dexter" star David Zayas has joined the cast of FOX's "Gotham" as crime boss Salvatore Maroni. A prominent figure in the comics, Maroni has the distinction of being the character responsible for disfiguring district attorney Harvey Dent, resulting in his transformation into Two-Face. Maroni has also appeared in several of the "Batman" films, most notably by Eric Roberts in 2008's The Dark Knight.
"Gotham" is an origin story of the great DC Comics super villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer Bruno Heller ("The Mentalist," "Rome"), "Gotham" follows one cop's rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.
"Gotham" is based upon characters published by DC Comics and is produced by Warner Bros. Television. Heller wrote the pilot, which will be directed and executive-produced by Emmy Award nominee Danny Cannon (the "CSI" series, "Nikita").
Ben McKenzie, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Zabryna Guevara, Erin Richards, Donal Logue, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Mazouz and Camren Bicondova are set to star in the series, which premieres September 22 on FOX.
CSI: CYBER
Emmy-winner Peter MacNicol has joined the cast of CSI: Cyber.
The Ally McBeal actor will play Stravros Sifter, assistant director for the Cyber Crime Division in Washington, D.C., and supervisor of Special Agent Avery Ryan, played by Patricia Arquette. Sifter is described as “a shrewd and savvy networker” and “a charmer with a hint of malice.” MacNicol joins Arquette and Charley Koontz in the midseason series, the fourth spin-off in the highly successful CSI franchise.
The show—produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television—will premiere sometime in January, airing Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2014
GALAXY QUEST COMIC
It’s been almost 15 years since Galaxy Quest stole our hearts and minds with its pitch perfect Star Trek impression and overdubbed F-bomb — and now, the crew is back for more adventures.
Sadly, we’re not getting a sequel, but the property has been picked up by IDW to become a new comic book series dubbed Galaxy Quest: The Journey Continues. Writer Erik Burnham and artist Nacno Arranz have been tasked with bringing the rag-tag characters played by Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver to life on the page.
Burnham sounds like a true fan of the material, and chatted with Comic Book Resources about the approach he’ll take to adapting the film for the comic medium. Basically, he hopes to maintain the geek-tastic wit we all love, while picking up a storyline that fits perfectly with the film’s finale:
“Well, at the end of their movie, Tim Allen's character, Jason, used the Omega 13 device to rewind time 13 seconds and undo the catastrophic death of his crew. (Um... sorry for the 15 year-old spoilers!) Messing with time. Maybe that affected more than the ship. If it was more widespread, sure, most folks would just have a powerful case of deja vu. But what if it changed something else? That's what we're starting with. They're the reason a new race -- called the Drythans -- seek them out and say, ‘You screwed something up. Fix it.’
As a joke, I played with the conceit of how many sequels reuse certain beats from their predecessor when I introduce the cast in a similar way to the way they were first introduced in the movie. That one may be too meta to see without being told, but it still makes me chuckle … Everyone from the movie will be back. I was even asked to include Brandon, the role Justin Long played, so we got everyone. There will be a new race of aliens, too.”
We’re huge fans of Galaxy Quest around here, and it was voted a better Star Trek film than Into Darkness.
Z-NATION
What does The Walking Dead have that no one else has? It has heartbreaking, plot-twisting zombie badness week after week...and no competition. But now, it's about to get a rival, because Syfy will be airing its own take on the zombie apocalypse.
According to io9,
Z Nation starts three years after the zombie virus has gutted the country, when a team of everyday heroes must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood. Although the antibodies he carries are the world's last, best hope for a vaccine, he hides a dark secret that threatens them all. With humankind's survival at stake, the ragtag band embarks on a journey of survival across three thousand miles of rusted-out post-apocalyptic America.
Z Nation also has something that The Walking Dead doesn't have: A sense of humor. The Walking Dead tends toward the deadly serious, but this show looks extremely tongue in cheek (and other animated body parts). As you can see from the trailer, below, it's a bit like Tremors, but with zombies.
Will this show replace Rick, Michonne, Maggie, and Glenn in our hearts? Not likely - but considering this airs in September and The Walking Dead returns in October, that's a whole month of zombies we wouldn't have had before.
THE SCRIBBLER
t seems like all your favorite female sci-fi stars are coming together in one very cool-looking new cyberpunk flick. Say hello to The Scribbler.
The first trailer for the film, based on Image Comics’ title of the same name, stars Arrow’s Katie Cassidy, almost unrecognizable in the role of Suki. As the sci-fi punk look quickly indicates, this is a far cry from what fans have come to expect from from Cassidy in her role as Laurel Lance on The CW’s Arrow — and we absolutely love it.
Along with Cassidy, fellow sci-fi TV alums Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) and Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) pop up in supporting roles, making this film a fun watch just to get a look at this trio together on the screen at one time, kicking the crap out of each other.
The film itself looks like a trippy little tale, focusing on Cassidy’s character as she tries to use an experimental new procedure to burn out her multiple personalities. It’s loaded with big action, effects work, weird angles and a boatload of cyberpunk style. Go ahead and count us in for this one.
INTO THE WOODS
Walt Disney Pictures has debuted the first trailer for director Rob Marshall's Into the Woods, hitting theaters this Christmas and starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp, Lilla Crawford, Daniel Huttlestone, Tracey Ullman, Christine Baranski, MacKenzie Mauzy, Billy Magnussen, Tammy Blanchard, Lucy Punch, Richard Glover, Frances de la Tour, Simon Russell Beale, Joanna Riding and Annette Crosbie.
Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel—all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them.
STONEHEARST ASYLUM
The trailer and poster for director Brad Anderson's Stonehearst Asylum (formerly Eliza Graves) are now online.
Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine topline the thriller loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." In it, a recent medical school grad who takes a position at a mental institution soon finds himself taken with one of his colleagues, though he has no initial idea of a recent, horrifying staffing change.
Millennium Entertainment will release Stonehearst Asylum in theaters and On Demand October 24, 2014.
Go to the front page.
Welcome and thank you for dropping by. Babylon 5
brought many of us together -- and it remains with us, despite the fact that
is no longer in production. The good thing is that the internet gives a LOT
of ways to stay in touch. Don't be shy. Join in the discussion today or drop
by Facebook or Twitter.
ARROW
HOUDINI
WIL WHEATON SHOW CANCELLED BY SYFY
AMERICAN HANGMAN
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
AMERICAN GODS
WINTER SOLDIER
BLINDSPOT
STEPHEN LEE PASSES
SLEEPY HOLLOW/THE FOLLOWING LOOK AHEAD
UNDERWORLD REBOOT
MARVEL NEWS
PEANUT-GUARDIANS
SHERLOCK
INFERNO
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
RIDLEY SCOTT UPDATE
EMMY WINNERS
EMERALD CITY NIXED
BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
LORD RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH DEAD AT 90
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
THE STAND
BABYLON 5 PODCAST
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
MINORITY REPORT
THE EXPANSE
FANTASTIC BEASTS
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
DERRICK STORM
FLASH NEWS
NEW HARRY POTTER STORY
AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. NEWS
WOLVERINE VARIANT COMIC
THE STRAIN RENEWED
ARROW NEWS
SHAUN OF THE DEAD
ANT-MAN
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY COMIC BOOK
THE FLASH
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5
DOCTOR STRANGE
DOCTOR WHO NEWS
STAR TREK ACTRESS PASSES
CREATIVE ARTS EMMY
CONSTANTINE
THE SCREAM
ACTION FIGURES RETURNING
The official ReAction website simply says "Coming Soon," but a number of figures from the line -- including characters from The Terminator, The Goonies, Firefly, Back to the Future and more -- are already available in the Super7 online store, and they're almost all only $10. They might not be the same as finally owning that giant Kenner AT-AT you always wanted, but they're close.
GEOSTORM
RED DWARF RETURNING
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH SEQUELS
GODZILLA SEQUEL IN 2018
AQUAMAN
So, where might Aquaman fit in DC’s big list of future release dates? They have dates slotted all the way through 2020, but with Aquaman moving so quickly at this point in mid-2014, we’d think this project could slide into one of those 2016-2017 dates quite nicely.
But who will star in it? The smart money remains on Stargate Atlantis and Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa, though neither Momoa nor the studio has made that official yet. But director Zack Snyder did recently call into a talk radio show to argue why Aquaman is a compelling character, so it makes sense the studio is pushing to make it happen.
IMAGES FROM SPACE
POWER RANGERS
LEFTOVERS RENEWED
THE INHUMANS
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII
LAUREN BACALL DIES
WARNER BROS. NEWS
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
AQUAMAN PROJECTS
WESTWORLD
THE FLASH
THE AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES
BABYLON 5 REBOOT
ARROW NEWS
DOUGLAS ADAMS' DIRK GENTLY
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
GHOSTBUSTERS 3
DICK SMITH TRIBUTE
Star Trek and Star Wars: Episode VII writer/director J.J. Abrams also took the time to pay tribute to Smith by doing something he rarely does: posting a note to his Bad Robot production company's Twitter page. 
GOTHAM NEWS
CSI: CYBER
GALAXY QUEST COMIC
