Tommy Lee Jones Confirmed for Captain America

by Russ Fischer at Slash Film

There was a rumor a couple of weeks back that Tommy Lee Jones would have at least a small part in Captain America: The First Avenger. Now an interview with actress Hayley Atwell, who plays Peggy Carter in the film, has confirmed Jones’ appearance.

Atwell’s comments also suggest other things about the film. She says she’s training six days a week so that it will be more convincing when her character “kicks butt,” so we can expect her to be a part of an action scene or two, which will be a good change from the typical comic book movie female lead. Expect Jones’ part to be fairly small, though — if he’s playing [General Chester] Philips then he’ll likely be relegated to setting the plot in motion and then being around for reaction shots and the occasional bit of exposition.

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Felicia Day Talks Comics And Joss Whedon’s Qualifications For ‘The Avengers’

by Jill Pantozzi at MTV News

[Felicia] Day’s frequent boss and friend Joss Whedon is rumored to be taking on the lofty directors chair for Marvel’s “The Avengers” film. She thinks the pairing is “amazing.”

“I mean, nobody else knows comics better than Joss,” she said, “He loves them with a passion and to throw that many comic book characters in a movie? I don’t know who else could handle it.”

Day has taken on a variety of roles for Whedon through the years, from potential slayer to the love interest of a supervillain hopeful. Even though we don’t know which female characters they’ll use in the film, could Avengers team member be next?

Day said “of course” she’d be in the movie if Whedon asked her but was reserved at the same time. “I’m sort of more the indie side,” she said.

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The Five Candidates for the Spider-Man Reboot

by Jeff Leins at News in Film

The Hollywood Reporter has learned the five candidates on the short list to play Peter Parker in Sony’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. Since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 collapsed over plot disputes in January, the studio and director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) have been searching for a fresh face for the webslinger.

The reboot will return Parker to his high school years and retell his teenage origins. Written by James Vanderbilt and receiving a polish from regular Spidey writer Alvin Sargent, the 3D movie is already scheduled for July 3, 2012.

Andrew Garfield – The breakout star of Boy A and the British “Red Riding” trilogy, this 26-year-old actor has shown tremendous ability in dramatic indies which helped land him parts in Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Fincher’s The Social Network. However, his age could be an issue, especially since Sony is definitely thinking long-term.

See the others here

Brand New “Jonah Hex” Trailer

via Worst Previews

The US military makes a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head an offer he cannot refuse. In exchange for his freedom, he must stop a terrorist who is ready to unleash Hell on Earth.

The new movie is directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!) and is scheduled to hit theaters on June 18th.

Read More here

Remember that Logan’s Run remake? It’s back on!

By Don Kaye at Sci Fi Wire

A long-in-development remake of the 1976 sci-fi classic Logan’s Run is FINALLY back on track with the addition of a new director for the project, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog.

Carl Rinsch is the name now attached to direct the movie, which is being produced by Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman. Silver told reporters last weekend during press interviews for Splice, which he also produced, that he was still eager to remake Logan’s Run. A script has been around for a while, although a new one will probably be written if the movie goes forward again.

Read More here

It’ll be back—new Terminator movie one step closer

By Don Kaye at Sci Fi Wire

A new movie in the Terminator series, which last came to the screen in 2009′s Terminator Salvation, may be one step closer to happening. According to Variety, the current owners of the rights to the franchise, a hedge fund called Pacificor LLC, announced today that it has hired the Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) to help sell the rights to a studio or production company.

Terminator Salvation, which starred Christian Bale and Sam Worthington, was not liked very much by critics or fans, with the movie taking in only $125 million in the U.S. while costing $200 million to make (it made about $246 million overseas). The movie was supposed to launch a new trilogy, and supposedly there is a script for a fifth film floating around and even an outline for a sixth. Salvation director McG has expressed interest in coming back, although that’s probably not in the cards at this point.

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I liked Terminator Salvation. But I also wasn’t totally attached to the original trilogy. I’m not really looking forward to new Spiderman movies though, and the preview will have to look amazing for me to want to see it. I’m just glad that they won’t be making anymore with Tobey McGuire and his emo Spiderman.

What did you think of the new Jonah Hex trailer? Who do you think Tommy Lee Jones will be in Captain America?

Emile Hirsch Joins Alien Invasion Flick ‘The Darkest Hour’

by Jordan Raup at The Film Stage

Into The Wild star Emile Hirsch will star in The Darkest Hour, a new sci-fi action flick directed by Chris Gorak (Right At Your Door) for Summit and New Regency.

Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov and Tom Jacobson. Gorak and Josh Zetumer, who is working on the Bourne reboot script, have written the one for this flick. The film is set in Moscow and “follows a group of Americans traveling in the city when an alien invasion occurs.”

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Predators Scribes To Write A New He-Man Movie

By Cyriaque Lamar at io9

The screenwriters who penned Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming Predators have been hired to write a new Masters of the Universe script. I’m sorry, Hollywood. You can remake MotU, but you’ll never replace Dolph Lundgren. My He-Man killed Apollo Creed.

Mike Finch and Alex Litvak of Predators are writing Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Masters of the Universe. The project had previously gone to Warner Bros – John Stevenson, who co-directed Kung Fu Panda, was slated to direct MotU, but the project fell apart after the studio and Mattel reached a creative impasse. Columbia nabbed MotU this fall, and Mattel has since approved Finch and Litvak’s script.

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Rumor: Percy Jackson star is the new Spider-Man

By Patrick Lee at Sci Fi Wire

Looks like Sony has found its new Spider-Man, and his name is Percy Jackson: Logan Lerman, star of this year’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, is “almost 100 percent locked” to take over the role of the webslinger from Tobey Maguire.

That’s the report today on HitFix.com, citing anonymous sources:

“HitFix has exclusively learned that Logan Lerman is first choice for Sony Pictures and the clear frontrunner to replace Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the reboot of the blockbuster franchise. A source close to the production tells HitFix Lerman is “almost 100% locked” but not in contract negotiations for the role yet.”

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From vampire to Musketeer?

By Raelynn Coombs at The Examiner

There is an abundance of chatter on the net about The Three Musketeers movies. Yes, I did say movies. There are currently two movies, both said to be coming to us in 3D, that are in the works. One will be Warner Bros.’ version of the legend, and the other will be brought to us from none other than Summit Entertainment, the company who gave us the popular vampires from The Twilight Saga.

With two movies happening, who do you think should be cast as the musketeers? Well, there is a new campaign online and the fans are backing Kyle Schmid to play the role of D’Artagnan in either movie.

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The rise of 3-D: Game-changer or gimmick?

By Ty Burr at The Boston Globe

If you don’t get it by now, you really should: The movies are poised to undergo their greatest conceptual mutation since the advent of sound. With the unparalleled commercial success of “Avatar,’’ the 3-D revolution just isn’t upon us, it’s over — and the invaders won. Last year was the watershed, with 10 major studio releases offered in the newly digitized technology and almost all of them posting healthy grosses thanks to premium ticket prices. Since the James Cameron film opened — followed by several other high-profile entries — 3-D has accounted for 33 percent of all film grosses. Quoth Variety in a recent article: “It’s found money.’’

Read More here

After getting used to Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, it seems weird for someone younger to play him. But maybe the movies will be better this time around. And I’m still not sure about 3D, but I’m definitely not paying extra to see movies that way. But I don’t have kids either.

What do you think of the choice for Spiderman? Do you prefer movies in 3D? What do you think of the new He-Man movie?

Amanda Seyfried to play Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood

Emma Rowley at Indie Movies Online

Amanda Seyfried is set to don a red hood and go skipping through the woods. According to the LA Times, the Jennifer’s Body star has signed up to play the lead in The Girl With The Red Riding Hood, a modern-day take on the Brothers Grimm tale.

The script, which was written by David Leslie Johnson (who also wrote the Vera Farmiga/Peter Sarsgaard horror, Orphan) has had a lot of industry and online buzz, and made the 2009 Black List. It’s a contemporary adaptation of the story, with what’s described as a gothic tone (what does that mean these days? Horror? An emo score? A live burial in a cellar?) and a love triangle at its heart.

Read More here

/Film UK – A Special Screening of Moon, An Alice in Wonderland Controversy Exclusive, and Much, Much More

by Brendon Connelly at Slash Films

Coming to you weekly from my vantage point in good old Blighty, it’s Slashfilm UK. Anglos and Anglophiles rejoice as every Friday I’ll be bringing you a round up of news, links and coverage specific to the motion picture comings and goings here in the UK. Sometimes we’ll be talking about films that have already played in the US, other times it will be films that won’t make it to the US for a good while yet, and from time to time you’ll read about films that will never make it to the US at all.

Vue and Odeon have removed all Wonderland posters and standees from their cinemas and have stopped playing the trailers.

Since then, Disney have negotiated terms with Cineworld, so the film is back on for at least some of us. Your 3D options are now Cineworld and IMAX, I believe – though any independents with a 3D screen that will play host to the picture, please do let me know – and there are still negotiations ongoing with Vue and Odeon, so fingers crossed.

Read More here

Bendis: I’m Not Writing Spider-Man Reboot

by Graeme McMillian at io9

Despite tweets and speculation to the contrary, Ultimate Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis would like you all to know one thing: He’s really not involved with the writing of the Spider-Man movie reboot. Honest.

“[I] see quite a few web sites completely making stuff up that i never said or hinted at. i did not say i was now the writer of the movie. the movie has a writer and a damn good one. and as was just announced i am writing my own movie for universal based on my GN fire (on sale now ) all i said was i had an interesting morning over there in spidey land.”

Read More here

I’m excited about the Red Riding Hood movie. And I can see Amanda Seyfried doing it well.

Are you looking forward to Alice? What about Spiderman?

The vampire movie craze continues with Dracula Year Zero and Vlad

By Lauren Flanagan at the Examiner

Sick of the vampire craze yet? I certainly hope not, because despite the recent onslaught of vampire themed movies and television shows, there’s a whole lot more coming our way – and I don’t mean the next installment of the Twilight series.

As mentioned earlier, the new Sam Worthington project Dracula Year Zero is currently in the works. It will apparently be a retelling of the famous vampire story and has a rumored budget of 100 million dollars.

Then there’s Vlad, an upcoming film by Summit Entertainment that will examine the early years of Vlad the Impaler (the original inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula). The film has been in the works for a while now, but news is now coming from The Hollywood Reporter that film scribe Scott Kosar (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, The Machinist, The Crazies) has been brought in to work on the script (originally written by actor Charlie Hunnam).

The movie is said to be an “action-oriented look at Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, as a young prince.”

Read More here

Kate Beckinsale Returns to Underworld, But How Much of Her Will Fans See?

By Sara Cardace at AMC

It’s been said (by, er, us) that 2010 is the year of the werewolf. Though The Wolfman didn’t exactly dominate the box office this past weekend, all signs indicate that those pesky monsters are still on the minds of Hollywood execs. Case in point: Underworld 4.

If you gave up on the Underworld franchise after the first installment (and, let’s face it, some of us did), it bears remembering that, after Underworld and its 2006 sequel, Underworld: Evolution, proved that Kate Beckinsale could put butts in seats, directors Len Wiseman and Patrick Tatopoulos made the odd decision to film a prequel, sans Beckinsale, dubbed Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, starring Rhona Mitra. How did the fledgling franchise’s fans react to the Beckinsale-free flick? I’m sure you can guess.

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James Cameron involved with Spider-Man reboot … sort of

By Patrick Lee at Sci Fi Wire

We know that Avatar director James Cameron once had his own ideas for a
Spider-Man movie, but it comes as a bit of a surprise that the Oscar winner may be a part of the upcoming reboot movie.

Sort of.

MTV reports that Cameron and his Avatar producer Jon Landau met with Spider-Man reboot director Marc Webb.

Not about story points, though: about the technology they used to create Avatar‘s 3-D visual effects:

“Last [week] we met the director of [the next 'Spider-Man' film],” Cameron’s producing partner Jon Landau revealed to us when he stopped by the MTV studio, explaining that the “Avatar” filmmaker and Spider-Man’s new gatekeeper compared notes Wednesday evening. “[Webb] wants to do the next one in 3-D, which they’ve announced that they want to do. So, we want to try to support that as much as possible.”

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Gwyneth Paltrow to Team Up With Kate Winslet in ‘Contagion’

via Ace Show Biz

Another top-notch star has been added to the cast ensemble for “Contagion”. According to The Playlist, Gwyneth Paltrow has officially signed on to star in the Steven Soderbergh-directed flick. She will join Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard who have previously been on board with the project.

There has been no word on what roles that will be played by those actors and actresses, but the film’s story is said to take place over four continents and center on the outbreak of a deadly virus. Scott Z. Burns writes the script for the sci-fi thriller which shooting is planned to start this fall.

Read More here

New Cthulhu Comedy Sneaking Into Theaters This Year

By Annalee Newitz at io9

Though one rarely associates Lovecraft with slapstick humor, that’s what you’ll get in a new horror-comedy about the last living relative of the pulp writer who invented Cthulhu. The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu is coming to theaters this year.

According to Shock til You Drop:

Dark Sky Films has acquired The Last Lovecraft: Relic Of Cthulhu, directed by Henry Saine . . . Dark Sky is looking to roll the film out through a limited theatrical run later this year.

Read More here

I thought I heard somewhere that Vlad wasn’t going to be a vampire movie, but about the actual Vlad the Impaler. And I’d love to see the Cthulhu movie.

What do you think of the movie news today?

via IESB.net: New Images from PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS! Check out Uma Thurman’s Medusa and Her Snakes!

Chris Columbus (“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Home Alone”) directed the epic fantasy-adventure starring a trio of rising young stars — Logan Lerman (“3:10 to Yuma”) as the film’s title character, the brave, fearless young warrior, Percy Jackson; Brandon T. Jackson (“Tropic Thunder”) as the Satyr Grover, Percy’s protector who attempts to earn his very first horns while keeping the young demigod out of harm’s way; and Alexandra Daddario (“Bereavement”) as another demigod, Annabeth, daughter of Athena, who joins Percy on his quest to prevent a devastating war.

Author Rick Riordan, who taught Greek Mythology for a many years in middle school in California and Texas, came up with the idea for the first Percy Jackson book, which led to four additional novels and a huge fan base numbering in the millions, after reading the sagas of the ancient Greek heroes as bedtime stories to his son, Haley.

“When I ran out of myths, my son became disappointed,” the author relates on his website. “He asked me if I could make up some new stories with the same characters. I remembered a creative writing project I used to do with my sixth graders, which allowed them to create their own demigod hero, the son or daughter of any god they wanted, while having them describe a Greek-style quest for that hero.

Read More here

via Sci Fi Wire:

Relatively unknown actor may take over as Spider-Man

Logan Lerman, the 18-year-old actor who stars in the upcoming Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief as a teen who discovers he’s the descendant of a Greek god, may soon discover himself to be the next friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

According to Latino Review, Lerman is in talks to be Peter Parker in Sony’s Spidey reboot.

“Conversations are starting,” said Lerman. “It’s a long process with the studio and the producers and everything. But it’s definitely a project that I’m really interested in, of course. I’d love to focus on the human element a little bit more. It’d be such a fun experience.”

Read More here

New Dune movie could be made in 3-D

That new Dune director sure gets around! Last week, we shared an interview in which Pierre Morel told how he loved the novel as a teenager, read it at least 10 times and intended his film to be faithful to the book. But now he’s spilling even more details about his plans—and those plans could include 3-D!

In an interview with our friends over at IGN, the director of Taken and From Paris With Love talked about how he was intimidated by the project, and that he had to “erase the image that David Lynch did” in order to proceed. But he also said that—

“I’d love it to be 3D, of course. It’s the kind of movie that has the scope to be 3D.”

Read More here

By Charlie Jane Anders at io9: The Complete History Of Pandora, According To Avatar’s Designers

Avatar didn’t sweep the Oscar nominations just because of its amazing special effects — it captured the hearts and imaginations of Academy voters because of its world-building. Here’s the complete history of the movie’s intricate world, from the designers themselves.

We’ve also got some incredible original concept art, much of which hasn’t been seen anywhere else yet.

This is the third installment of our irregular series of interviews with designers and artists who worked on James Cameron’s Avatar.  After we did the first article, we kept hearing from more designers who worked on the film and were eager to talk to us, and then they put us in touch with other designers who’d worked on the film too. At this point, we’ve talked to 17 or 18 people who helped realize James Cameron’s vision of Avatar.

Read More here

While it might be true that not everyone knows his real name, I think “relatively unknown” was the worst way to describe the actor playing Percy Jackson. The ad campaign for Percy Jackson has featured him since the beginning…last summer. I’d say he’s pretty recognizable. And the articles on Avatar are fantastic!

What do you think of Percy Jackson also becoming Spiderman? What do you think of Medusa’s snakes?

via io9:

by Meredith Woerner: Tron Legacy Will Use 3-D The Way The Wizard Of Oz Used Color

Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has just set our minds at ease. He promises that the new Disney Tron will be less like Avatar and more like the Wizard of Oz, in that only the Tron world will be 3D.

Kosinski explained the substance-over-3-D-sparkle mantra on Tron Legacy to MTV, stating:

“Our approach is not like “Avatar,” which I think is 3D from the first shot to the last. Ours is sort of a Wizard Of Oz. approach. Ninety-eight percent of the 3D is in the world of “Tron.” The 3D really starts once we get into the Tron world.”

He goes on explaining that the focus has been on the story, not the effects. And that famous Comic Con teaser video, showing lightcycle racing and the two Jeff Bridgeses, won’t actually appear in the movie — those events take place before the movie starts. In fact, the movie will look much more advanced than that teaser, which a small team put together on its own.

Read More here

By Charlie Jane Anders: Paranoid Cyberpunk Religious Thriller Gets A Movie Deal

Is Trevor Sands the new go-to guy for science-fiction movie adapations? He’s written the screenplay for Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos and the Six Million Dollar Man movie. And now he’s taking on Jeff Somers’ The Electric Church.

Somers’ The Electric Church, the first volume in a series, seems like a slam-dunk cool concept for a movie: it’s got religion, weirdness, dystopian futures and noir. The books follow Avery Cates, a bodyguard/assassin who sometimes works for the police force of the council which oversees this future Earth’s federation of nations. In the first book, Cates is forced to kill the head of a church that converts people by transplanting their brains into more easily controlled religious bodies. The film is tentatively called The Avery Cates Project.

Read More here

By Annalee Newitz: Is Avatar Too Realistic For Its Own Good?

Chinese writers condemned Avatar, a branch of the Russian communist party condemned it, the Vatican has weighed in, and other groups are endlessly debating its political meaning. What makes people respond so strongly to this flick? It’s the realism.

But how can such a blatantly fantastical movie be realistic? This is a movie about blue cat people who ride dragons and bond with six-legged horses. The whole thing takes place on the moon Pandora, whose lush mega-forest is actually wired up with synapses so that the moon can think like a giant brain. Plus, one of the most memorable features of Pandora, other than its bizarre flora and fauna, are its floating mountains that hover inexplicably over a weird magnetic anomaly that’s never explained.

It’s this kind of realism that has inspired Chinese people evicted from their homes to call the plight of the Na’vi their own. It’s what turned representatives of the Vatican into film critics, evaluating whether this piece of fiction undermined Christianity with its portrayal nature-worshiping aliens. And it’s what inspired me to write an essay several weeks ago about the race politics of a story about blue people. Even though we are well aware Avatar is fiction, all of us are behaving as if the events in this movie are woven into the fabric of our real lives.

Read More here

by Helen O’Hara at Empire: Should Spider-Man Have Gone 3D?

So this morning we’ve learned that the next Spider-Man film will have a budget of about $80 million. That puts it on a lower budget than Sherlock Holmes, lower than X-Men Origins: Wolverine (by nearly half). Heck, it’s less than Fast & Furious, which cost about $85m, and only just more (not adjusting for inflation) than the first X-Men movie. So what does this mean for the film, and might Spidey have been better going for balls-out 3D instead?

And of course filmmaking should never be just about money, trying to outspend what went before. Just because the third Spider-Man cost a reported $258m doesn’t mean this one should spend higher. So there’s a sense in which this budget is to be applauded – and you can see why the studio would go for it. Think about it: people will turn out for the Spider-Man name. Even if you count on getting fewer people than the $890m-worth worldwide who went to see Spider-Man 3 (allowing for the loss of Raimi fans, those so disappointed by that movie that they’ve left the franchise, and those who don’t want to see a teenage Spidey) and maybe losing a few more with a trailer that promises less action than before, you could still comfortably project a take of $500-600m worldwide.

Read More here

By Eric Ditzian at MTV News: ‘Let Me In’ Is ‘Darker’ Than ‘Twilight,’ Director Matt Reeves Says

Matt Reeves knows he has a target on his back. The director admits as much roughly two minutes into a conversation about his upcoming film, “Let Me In.” That’s what happens when your movie: A) takes on the pop-cultural theme-du-jour of vampires, and B) remakes a beloved flick that pretty much everyone agrees is as perfect as genre filmmaking gets.

MTV: Is “Let Me In” a remake or a reimagining? What are you keeping from the original and what are you changing?

Matt Reeves: It’s very much an Americanization of the tale that John Ajvide Lindqvist tells. The film touched me. And I read the book, which he also wrote, and it moved me too. It reminded me so much of my own childhood in certain ways. It’s so much about that period of preadolescence, that feeling of being a child and of being bullied, the difficulties of growing up. It’s such a beautiful coming-of-age story, in addition to being such a terrific genre story. One of the things I really wanted to do was find my own way into the story while still being very, very reverent to the beautiful film and to the wonderful story that they created. And so the story in many ways follows the same trajectory. I really wanted to put you, even more so, into the point of view of the boy and understand his childhood as vividly as it comes across in the book.

Read More here

What do you think of today’s movie news?