'Underworld 4' Gets a Writer

The Hollywood Reporter states that John Hlavin, a writer from the series "The Shield," has signed on to write the script for "Underworld 4."

Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films and poster girl of the franchise has yet to sign on for the film and there is still no director attached either.

However, Hlavin does confirm that the film is a sequel and that it will definitely appeal to fans of the first movies.

“I can tell you it’s not a prequel," he said. "It will satisfy old fans and excite new audiences, meaning that we don’t want to redo the first three movies, so steps are being taken to honor what fans have loved but at the same time introduce fresh elements.”

What we also know about the franchise as reported in August is that "Underworld 4" will be in 3-D, it will kickstar a second trilogy of films for the franchise and it will likely bring back Kate Beckinsale. It's been reported that the movies will again center on Beckinsale’s character of Selene, so none of this comes as a shock.

Don’t be surprised to find out in the near future that Kate will be back. There’s been no talk of Scott Speedman and his character Michael Corvin however. And how can you have Selene without her lycan/vampire hybrid boyfriend?

Sony is hoping to have this ready be January 2011.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: Screen Rant

Idris Elba Joins Cast of 'Thor' as Heimdall

The big-screen adaptation of Marvel’s "Thor" keeps on making headlines, as today we have news of another choice actor being added to the already impressive cast.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Thor" has added British actor Idris Elba to the lineup. He will portray Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost bridge to Asgard. In Marvel’s “Thor” mythology, Heimdall is also the brother of Sif.

Elba (“The Wire,” "The Office," "Obsessed") — recently finished filming his part in “The Losers”, an adaptation of the Vertigo comic by Andy Diggle and Jock.

“Thor” includes Chris Hemsworth in the title role, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Jamie Alexander as Sif and Ray Stevenson, Stuart Townsend and Tadanobu Asano as the Warriors Three. Colm Feore and Stellan Skarsgard have also been confirmed to appear in the film in currently unspecified roles.

Shooting on "Thor" is due to begin in mid-January in California. The film is set for release on May 20, 2011.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: MTV News, Screen Rant

Movie News Mash 29

The Last Days of American Crime
Sam Worthington has signed on to appear in the film adaptation of Rick Remender's upcoming miniseries “The Last Days of American Crime."

Created and written by Remender with artist Greg Tocchini, “Last Days” takes place in the near future where the U.S. government is about to implement a new technology that will make it impossible for anyone to commit a crime. Following the revelation of this plan, a downtrodden career criminal named Graham Brick is forced to quickly assemble a team to help him pull off what may be the last heist in American history.

According to Mania.com, Worthington will portray Kevin Cash, a safecracker recruited by Brick who may be a dangerously unstable sociopath.

After his turn as the Human/Terminator hybrid Marcus Wright in last summer’s “Terminator: Salvation”, Worthington’s next film will be James Cameron's “Avatar." Worthington will also star in next year’s remake of the fantasy film “Clash of the Titans.”

Remender teased that more casting announcements were on the way: "The people that they're bringing in are all big A-list Hollywood people." I can't wait to see who else is joining this project in addition to Worthington.
(MTV News)

Iron Man 2
Twitter has become a huge source for updates and a valuable resource for keeping in touch with filmmakers. A new update from director Jon Favreau's Twitter pertains to the anticipated "Iron Man 2" trailer. He tweeted a reply to a user confirming that the "Iron Man 2" trailer would be attached to "Sherlock Holmes," meaning it would debut on Christmas Day.

The filmmaker has been all over Twitter talking about the sequel. "Digital animated shots starting to come in. The movie is beginning to take on it's final look," he tweeted on Sunday, November 15.
(First Showing, Ace Showbiz)

Guardians of Ga'hoole
Zack Snyder's 3-D animated adaptation of the children's book series "Guardians of Ga'hoole" was announced in early 2008, but there was only some minor casting news then.

Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the cast will be headlined by Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, David Wenham, and Weaving. These guys will be joined by the likes of Aussie folks Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Jay Laga'aia, and Kwanten. PLUS -- three Brit actors with Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, and Jim Sturgess. Unfortunately, there's no cast rundown of who will voice who, and with that many names, I'm not even going to try guessing.

This impressive voice cast will bring characters to life in the story of Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father's epic stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. After Soren is kidnapped by owls of St. Aggie’s, a place where owlets are brainwashed into becoming soldiers, he and his new friends escape to the island of Ga’Hoole, to assist its noble, wise owls who fight the army being created by the wicked rulers of St. Aggie’s.

The series contains 11 books, but the film will condense the first three together. So if any more films are to follow there won't be 11 movies in all. The film is currently in post-production aiming to meet a release date in fall of 2010.
(First Showing, Cinematical)

New 'Avatar' Featurette

IGN UK debuted a new featurette for James Cameron's "Avatar." It's titled Human Hardware and is an impressive featurette looking at the design, development and usage of the various machines that the humans use.



Those badass mech AMP units really remind me of those other machines seen in "Matrix Revolutions." But I guess these ones are supposedly more technologically advanced and shiny than those.

"Avatar" hits theaters Dec. 18.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: First Showing

'The Wolfman' Being Recut

Out of all the big films scheduled for release next year, the one I’m most concerned about is "The Wolfman." I'm excited to see it after watching the badass trailer, but production on "Wolfman" has been plagued from the get-go.

A change in directors, callbacks for re-designs in the creature effects and several delays… It all points to a studio trying to turn a profit from a film that it didn't think would do well otherwise.

It looks like "Wolfman" is still reeling from those problems as new info buried deep in a Variety article (found by SlashFilm) says editors Mark Goldblatt and Walter Murch have been brought in to help salvage this monster of a movie.

I'm starting to wonder how much involvement director Joe Johnston has in these decisions, and whether or not the film will be close to resembling the original vision of the film. Either way, Goldblatt and Murch will be fresh eyes on the project and their extensive editing work speaks for itself.

Goldblatt has had quite the experience in the editing chair having put together both of James Cameron's "Terminator" films, as well as putting together the frantic, abundance of dailies from director Michael Bay's films like "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor." Meanwhile, Murch has won Acaedmy Awards for sound editing on "Apocalypse Now," and film editing for "Cold Mountain," in addition to displaying stellar work as editor and sound editor of films like "The Conversation" and "The English Patient."

While this might not seem all that urgent, this is quite a big deal to rework an entire film this late in the game ("Wolfman" is scheduled for release in three months). I don’t know what kind of mess the film is in, but I am certain that Murch and Goldblatt working together will result in at least a watchable (if not entertaining) film.

What do you think about the editors brought in to recut the film? Good sign or bad?

"The Wolfman" howls into theaters on February 10, 2010.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: First Showing, Screen Rant

'Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief' Trailer

20th Century Fox has released a new international trailer for director Chris Columbus' fantasy adventure, "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief." The fantasy-adventure stars Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, Kevin McKidd, Joe Pantoliano, Uma Thurman and Ray Winstone.

Besides having a really long title, "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" looks like it can be the start of a new franchise.

Based on Rick Riordan's best-selling children's novel, the film follows Poseidon's son, a 12-year-old boy, who sets out on a quest in present-day America to rescue his mother, return Zeus' stolen lightning bolt and prevent a civil war from erupting among the gods.



"Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" hits theaters February 12, 2010.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Latino Review, Coming Soon

Rob Marshall Confirmed as 'POTC 4' Director

So it was first rumored a few months ago that Oscar nominated director Rob Marshall ("Chicago" and "Memoirs of a Geisha") might be taking over Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise in place of Gore Verbinski.

Since then we’ve found out the name of the film ("On Stranger Tides") and that it’s based on a book. "PotC4" is to be based on a 22-year-old book also called “On Stranger Tides” by author Tim Powers, using the plot of the search for the Fountain of Youth. It’s a very fitting thing to build a story around for a "Pirates" movie, and with Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley unlikely to be back for the film, it means they can use that plot to concentrate on Captains Jack and Barbossa.

According to a tipster over at AICN who attended a DGA screening of Marshall’s latest, "Nine," Marshall replied to a question about what his next project would be by name-dropping "Pirates of the Caribbean." Here’s what he said:

“‘Y’know, it’s something that I was offered and never in the world thought I would do but then I was like ‘why not?’… I’m doing ‘ Pirates of the Caribbean….”

On top of that, another nice little piece of info that might be of interest to you Captain Jack Sparrow/Depp fans out there is that Marshall said he, “had a wonderful meeting [with Depp] and that they’re both excited to work together.”

While that's hardly an official confirmation from Disney, it does sound like Marshall is on-board as long as Disney gets this into production in 2010 as originally planned.

But Marshall is a director of glorious, gorgeous musicals, not gritty action-adventure movies, so I have no clue how he's going to handle a project this epic.
I’m not going to lie and say he's an excellent choice. I really have no idea. He’s most definitely not the first name I would think of to pick up the reigns after Gore Verbinski left. However, it’s refreshing to see Disney think outside of the box and get a director who you wouldn’t immediately think of. I really hope Marshall can bring something new to the table and drag this franchise out of the confusing and uninspired pit it wallowed in with the second and third movies.

What do you think of Marshall apparently being the one todirect "Pirates of the Caribbean 4"? Would he be your first choice?

"Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides" is supposedly to start shooting next Spring, and has a general release date set of Summer 2011.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: First Showing, Screen Rant

Warriors Three Cast for 'Thor'

The Warriors Three in Kenneth Branagh's "Thor" movie have been cast, according to Variety, with Stuart Townsend ("The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") as Fandral the Dashing, Ray Stevenson ("Punisher: War Zone") playing Volstagg the Valiant and Tadanobu Asano ("Mongol") portraying Hogun the Grim.

The Warriors Three was a group of Asgardian warriors comprised of ladies' man Fandral, the pessimistic Hogun, and the cowardly Volstagg (but the film could go with the more modern version of Volstagg, who is more fearless).The trio are from Marvel's comic books and are not part of Norse mythology.
They join the already impressive cast headlined by Chris Hemsworth as the title character followed by Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Colm Feore, Jaimie Alexander, Stellan Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins. I mean, it's not hard to look at this line-up and already have expectations even if the idea of a hammer-wielding hero sent to Earth to protect mankind seems a little bit like a risky venture.

"Thor" is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in mid-January, then move to Santa Fe, New Mexico from March till late-April. The film is set to hit theaters on May 20, 2011.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Screen Rant, Rope of Silicon, UGO Movie Blog, The Geek Files

'20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' Dead in the Water

According to Variety, Warner Bros. has halted moving forward with their remake of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." On top of that, McG, who was set to direct, is off the project, and will now concentrate on other things such as the Warner Bros. drama, "Dead Spy Running."

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" seemed to be moving ahead pretty well, with a tentative shooting start of February, 2010. McG even said not that long ago that they’d already looked at different shooting locations including Japan, France and Canada. The "Terminator Salvation" director sounded pretty enthusiastic back in August when he talked about such things as how he was planning on contemporizing the story while still maintaining the spirit of adventure from the original 1870 story and 1950’s movie.

There’s no real word on why Disney has halted "20,000 Leagues," nor why McG has left the project. Apart from having a director, no cast was set.

Are you surprised Disney has put a halt on their "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" remake? I know I am. And I was looking forward to a reimagining of the classic tale (even though I am usually against remakes).

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: Screen Rant

'New Moon' Breaks Fandago Records

Even though there are still 5 more days before Summit Entertainmnent's vampire pic "New Moon," based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book, hits theaters on November 20, the film has already leaped over previous record-holders to become the top-selling pre-release title in Fandango's 10-year history. The new record for Fandango's fastest-selling film was set on Saturday night after 8:00 PM.

The Top 5 Advance Ticket-Sellers on Fandango are now as follows:
1. New Moon (2009)
2. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
4. The Dark Knight (2008)
5. Twilight (2008)

The latest chapter of "The Twilight Saga" is currently accounting for 86% of weekly ticket sales on Fandango, the nation's leading movie ticketing destination. Thousands of Thursday night midnight showtimes for "New Moon" are already sold out across the country. Yet "New Moon" tickets continue to be available. To meet the fan demand, the nation's top theater owners are regularly posting brand new showtimes on additional screens.

"For many fans, it's the year's most anticipated film event," Fandango COO Rick Butler said. "Ever since tickets went on sale in September, it's been among our top five weekly ticket-sellers, as New Moon has a strong pull on audiences. We're seeing a higher-than-usual number of tickets per transaction for this film, suggesting that moviegoers will show up en masse at theaters this weekend with their friends and family."

According to a recent Fandango survey of 2,000+ "New Moon" ticket-buyers:
-- 98% say the action in "New Moon" looks better than the action in "Twilight"
-- 72% plan to see the movie with a group of three friends/ or more.
-- 52% of survey respondents say they dream about vampires.
-- 22% are mothers and daughters planning to see "New Moon" together
-- 10% plan to show up at the theater dressed as the saga characters.

That middle one astonishes me. Over half of the people who bought tickets for "New Moon"'s Thursday night showing dream about vampires. I mean, yeah, guys dream about teenage girls, but they don't dress up like them or want to be them.
Now the question is whether "New Moon" can break through to the top 100 grossing movies of all time. "Twilight" wasn't able to grab a spot on the list, making only $383 million, while the lowest spot is "Die Another Day" with $432 mil. But the first of the series also wasn't trouncing beloved flicks like "The Dark Knight."

What do you think will happen when the werewolves and vampires descend upon the theaters this week? Wait...we already know it will be a box office success.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Latino Review, Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood, Cinematical

'Hack/Slash' Gets a New Writer

The last time we heard about the upcoming adaptation of the comic series "Hack/Slash," producers Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alte spoke about the film at the 2009 Scream Awards last month. The only other news for this film came in July, confirming that Fredrik Bond was attached as director.

Now comes word that a new writer has been chosen to replace screenwriter Justin Marks ("Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li") -- and according to Bloody Disgusting, that person is Stephen Susco.

Susco will pen the comic adaptation about a girl, Cassie Hack, who travels the country with her mysterious bodyguard, Vlad, hunting and killing "slashers," including the likes of Chucky from the Child's Play series and Herbert West from Re-Animator. Susco's previous projects include the American version of "The Grudge" as well as its sequel, and is currently working on the next film in the Leatherface franchise, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3-D."

Though the film is likely still a long way off, I would really like to know who will be playing the lead role. So, let's hear it: who do you want to play killer-cutie Cassie Hack?

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Latino Review, Cinemablend

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

The Twilight Saga: New Moon - When Bella's blood is shed at her birthday celebration, Edward's intense reaction to the event causes his parents to pull up stakes and leave Forks, Washington for the sake of the young lovers. Heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black (Lautner). Danger in different forms awaits.

Planet 51 - The inhabitants of Planet 51 live in fear of alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when astronaut Chuck Baker (voice of The Rock) arrives from Earth. Befriended by a young resident, he has to avoid capture in order to recover his spaceship and try to return home.

The Blind Side - A disadvantaged teenager is taken in by a conservative family who see tremendous promise in the young man. Despite certain obstacles, the attention and inspiration he receives helps him mature into an athletically and academically successful NFL prospect.

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Star Trek
Gone With the Wind: 70th Anniversary Edition
Bruno
My Sister's Keeper
Fight Club: Blu-ray Special Edition

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 2012$65.0 M

2 Disney's A Christmas Carol $22.3 M

3 The Men Who Stare at Goats $6.2 M

4 Precious$6.0 M

5 Michael Jackson's This Is It $5.1 M

6 The Fourth Kind $4.7 M

7 Couples Retreat $4.2 M

8 Paranormal Activity $4.2 M

9 Law Abiding Citizen $3.9 M

10 The Box $3.1 M

The end of the world proved to be a massive attraction for moviegoers as Roland Emmerich's "2012" opened this weekend with an earth-shattering $225 million at the worldwide box office.

Ticket sales in the US and Canada brought in $65 million, with a foreign tally of $160 million from 105 countries.

Sony's Columbia Pictures said the film scored the highest worldwide opening for an original film not based on an established franchise, brand or best-seller.

In global terms, it ranks No. 9 for film openings, behind (from No. 1-8) "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Spider-Man 3," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "The Da Vinci Code."

It surpassed June's worldwide opening for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" but not that film's North American opening of $109 million.

The foreign box office opening for "2012" is the fifth highest of all time. The North American box office opening is marginally below the $68 million for Emmerich's 2004 disaster flick "The Day After Tomorrow," but beat the American debuts of all other movies in the disaster genre including the filmmaker's "Independence Day" from 1996 and "Godzilla" from 1998.

Other films are just surviving the earthquakes and floods. They made some money while worrying about what happens when it really is the year 2012.
Well, NASA is here to quell those fears!

The Truth about 2012 from NASA Lunar Science Institute on Vimeo.

Next weekend, the female audience flocks to "New Moon." Will that film survive the end of the world?
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: The Geek Files