Dwayne Johnson -- always The Rock to many of us -- has proven himself to be quite helpful when it comes time to re-imagine a big-screen franchise. Fast Five, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and now G.I. Joe: Retaliation are all films that have taken proven hits and reconfigured themselves with the actor in a major role.
In simple terms, there are basically two types of fantasy – fantasy that came before Lord of the Rings, and fantasy that came after. If you're a fantasy lover, you probably noticed a change in the genre following Peter Jackson's monumental adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novels. No longer was the genre considered niche, but something of real substance, and something destined to earn big bucks for nearly every studio willing to foot the bill on a fantasy title.
Jessica Lucas, of Melrose Place and Cloverfield fame, is currently in talks for a role in director Fede Alvarez's reboot of The Evil Dead. Elizabeth Lucas has also been confirmed for the cast, which already includes Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez and Lou Taylor Pucci.
Watch the video below to behold Woola, the "dog" from the new sci-fi epic John Carter that everyone's suddenly raving about. How did this Martian mutt end up stealing the show? The film's director Andrew Stanton, who also helmed the Pixar classics WALL-E and Finding Nemo, explains.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sony is in negotiations with Chronicle director Josh Trank to helm the Spidey villain's solo feature film.
The studio has been developing a Venom spinoff film for awhile after the character of Eddie Brock appeared in Spider-Man 3 played by Topher Grace. The Hunger Games director Gary Ross was attached to the film for awhile before moving on.
Summer 2012 will be one for the fanboy books, with three of the most hotly anticipated comic book movies ever coming to the big screen. First, Marvel's ultimate team-up film arrives when The Avengers assemble on May 4. Then Spidey himself is reborn as The Amazing Spider-Man spins into theaters July 3. And finally, Christopher Nolan completes his Bat-trilogy when The Dark Knight Rises arrives on July 20.
Although they announced last year that Halloween 3D would finally hit theaters October 26, 2012, Dimension Films has reportedly pulled the oft-delayed sequel from its 2012 release schedule and labeled its status as to be determined.
Sony hasn't even released the first entry in their rebooted Spider-Man movie franchise yet, and already there's talk about a solo film for another popular Spidey character. In case you missed the news yesterday, Chronicle director Josh Trank is in negotiations with Sony to direct a Venom movie. This isn't the first time the possibility of a Venom spinoff has been brought up, but it could wind up being the time it finally comes too fruition.
In case you haven't heard, there's going to be at least one more Transformers movie from director Michael Bay. No big surprise there. One thing that is a little surprising about Bay's fourth outing is that he'll be focusing less on the human characters and more on the Transformers themselves. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but given how many Autobots and Decepticons have fallen in battle so far, the time has come to bring some new players onto the field.
The show is about a "widowed father of two teenagers who, after losing his job in construction, decides to go to the police academy and become a cop at the age of 46." It's been a long while since Lawrence has been on TV, but he did have tons of success at one point with FOX's Martin, which ran from '92 to '97 and amassed over 130 episodes.
Here's proof that John Carter rocks. (We've seen the final film and can attest to that, but that's all we'll say until our review embargo is up!) Check out this four-minute sneak preview scene featuring the original sci-fi hero battling the giant white apes of Mars. (Remember, Star Wars "borrowed" from the 100-year-old story of John Carter of Mars, not vice-versa.)
The nominations for the 32nd Annual Golden Raspberry Awards were announced today, the eve before the Oscars as is customary for the RAZZIES. Adam Sandler dominated this year's crop "honoring" the worst in cinema for the year 2011, receiving a record 11 nominations.
Director Ridley Scott has reportedly revealed the connection between his two sci-fi films, the classic Alien and his forthcoming Prometheus.
Prometheus had begun its development as a prequel to Alien before becoming its own entity, and Scott recently explained to the Hungarian news outlet IC Press the SPOILER that connects the two movies.
The extended TV spot for the superhero epic was the undisputed big winner among movie commercials aired during the Super Bowl, so Disney and Marvel want to keep that positive momentum building towards the film's May debut.
It's been a very good week for fans of the Twisted Metal franchise. After a decade-long absence from Sony's PlayStation consoles, the series finally debuted on the PlayStation 3 with a new sequel, simply titled Twisted Metal. But we also learned this week that Sony Pictures Entertainment is moving forward with a live-action Twisted Metal movie from writer/director Brian Taylor and producers Avi and Ari Arad. (The trio previously worked together on Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance.)
This second piece of news is bittersweet, at best, as video game movies still have a reputation for being cheap, lousy cash-ins that don't do justice to the source material. In this feature, we look at a few ways Sony can avoid the mistakes of the past and deliver an adaptation that fans and newbies alike will want to see.
Of the many fanboy plaudits aimed at X-Men First Class, the 60s and the subsequent shoehorning of everyone's merry mutants into the real world setting of the Cuban Missile Crisis were the most prevalent.
And with director Matthew Vaughn confirming that he's back for more mutant misadventures, there was a global nerdgasm at his off-the-cuff comments that he's already brainstorming ways to incorporate other major historical moments into the action.
The Simpsons is reaching another unbelievable milestone this Sunday, as the show airs its 500th episode. To mark the occasion, we thought we'd take another look at our favorite peripheral characters from the series.
With hundreds of Simpsons characters now introduced, it can be a bit tricky figuring out which are "peripheral" at this point, especially since 23 seasons of the show means that there's now been enough time for even the more minor characters to appear many times. That being the case, to come up with this list, we eliminated characters that are shown often enough to be considered "regulars", including the likes of Moe, Milhouse, Mr. Burns, and Smithers or some of the most frequently seen recurring characters such as Krusty, Apu and Principal Skinner. After all the bigger characters were removed, we narrowed down our list to the 25 peripheral characters we consider the very best.
There's a scene in the new Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds thriller Safe House where Reynolds' character is literally fighting for his life. He viciously strikes his opponent, who returns the favor. They kick, thrust, cut. The two grapple and throw one another around, eventually smashing through a window to the ground outside. But all the while, Washington's character sits in another room in the house, chained up and unable to exit, or help, or flee. But he's not bothered by this. No, he just sits there and listens silently, intently, his head slightly cocked while Reynolds' fate -- and by extension, his own -- unfolds outside.
But since Marvel and DC made big bucks plundering their comic book catalogue, we've had family superheroes (The Incredibles), indie superheroes (Super/Paper Man), drunk superheroes (Hancock), spoof superheroes (Superhero Movie), and rom-"com" superheroes (My Super Ex-Girlfriend – parentheses intentional).
In the last few days fanboys have been treated to new trailers for two upcoming Marvel movies, the extended Super Bowl spot for The Avengers and the new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man.
There's not much to speculate about in the picture, but from the neon lights you can see in the background can we infer that it takes place in Shanghai, one of the movie's confirmed locations? Also, remaining faithful to the franchise, Bond's carrying his trusty Walther PPK.
Liam Neeson leads a ragtag group of survivors stranded in the snowy hunting grounds of man-eating wolves in The Grey. Neeson's character acts as security for the oil-rig roughnecks stationed out in the remote wilds of Alaska. And by security, I mean shooting and killing the wolves that stray into their zone.
After enduring one of the most terrifyingly vivid plane crash sequences since Fearless, Ottway (Neeson) and the other survivors -- played by Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Nonso Anozie and Joe Anderson -- discover that if they don't freeze or starve to death then they will almost certainly be devoured by the pack of grey wolves who claim this desolate area of wilderness as their hunting grounds. So begins the group's frenzied quest to survive.
Be sure to mark your calendars because Sony Pictures will host sneak peek events for The Amazing Spider-Man in several cities around the world on Monday February 6.
Both ComingSoon and Hey U Guys have posted photos of viral projections on the sides of buildings around London that show a black and red Spider-Man logo with the words: "On February 6th, TheUntoldStoryBegins.com."
Click here to select your city -- Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Moscow, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janiero, Rome, Seoul, Sydney or Tokyo -- to sign up for further information!
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) held The 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, a ceremony once again hosted by Ricky Gervais. (Click here to see what won in the television categories.)
Variety says that Josh Trank, director of the upcoming superpowers flick Chronicle, has taken a number of meetings with studio brass about helming the restart of the Marvel superheroes on the big screen.
The trade claims Fox is waiting to see how Chronicle performs at the box office before extending a formal job offer to Trank. "Internally, studio execs expect Trank to land the coveted helming gig," Variety adds.
Hero Complex visited the Sony backlot in Culver City, Calif. where sets have been built. Returning cast members spotted on set included Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Bruce Greenwood.
Fusible reports that the following domain names were recently registered: thebattleofartemisium.com, 300thebattleofartemisium.com and 300-thebattleofartemisium.com. They don't lead anywhere right now, but it would seem that Warner Bros. has its title: 300: The Battle of Artemisium.
Seven years out from the franchise's last big release and Star Wars is still getting cross-promotion. Belgian fast food chain Quick has just added a new Darth Vader burger to their menu, served with two beef patties and cheese between two Dark Side-black buns. (I know there's a Pulp Fiction reference in there somewhere...)
Check out the first photo of Jeremy Renner as the new (not Jason Bourne) protagonist in this summer's The Bourne Legacy.
Renner also chatted with Empire about the sequel, where he plays ass-kickin' asset Aaron Cross "but he ends up having a bunch of different names. For fans of the franchise, [The Bourne Legacy] has that same ticking clock, but it's a new programme and new characters."
Collider claims that the audio for the prologue will be remixed so that the ambient noise won't drown out Bane. Furthermore, they posted a screen grab of a letter that IMAX apparently sent to theater projectionists with an enclosed new DTAC soundtrack for the best possible presentation. Cool, right?
However, New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff tweets that "Warner Bros. says 'no truth' to reports of new Dark Knight Rises prologue trailers going out with fixed Bane audio." What gives?
We're still waiting for an official response from Warner Bros. on the matter, so when we hear back from them we'll let you know!Since posting the original report, we've heard from IMAX execs and an exec for an approved IMAX theater showing the TDKR prologue who said that they have no knowledge of any such letter ever being sent out to IMAX projectionists and they don't believe there's any accuracy to the rumor.
Warner Bros.' live-action retelling of Akira has reportedly been shut down -- for the fourth time in its long development history.
"The project, which has been through several incarnations, is being shut down in the face of casting and budgetary issues. The production offices in Vancouver are being closed, with below-the-line talent and crew told to stop working," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
THR says the producers and director Jaume Collet-Serra will convene for the next two weeks to "iron out the script," although it's unclear which screenwriter will be doing the doctoring for them. Variety's insiders say "that the budget is fine, and studio execs are dithering over the script."
The trade claims that if the issues can't be resolved then Akira will likely be killed entirely. But an insider told THR that Akira is "a very resilient movie. ... Warner Bros. just won't let it die."
