Lead Roles Cast in 'The Thing' Prequel

Heat Vision reports that Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton will star in “The Thing,” Universal’s prequel on the shape-shifting alien who terrorizes a group of people in a remote facility.

The best-known version of the tale is the 1982 John Carpenter-Kurt Russell cult movie, which was a contemporary remake of 1951's "The Thing From Another World," directed by Howard Hawks. All take inspiration from a 1938 short story, "Who Goes There?" published in pulp mag Astounding.

This new film will tell the story of the scientists that initially found the being with Mary Elizabeth Winstead starring as a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When the unknown alien is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Joel Edgerton) to stop the rampage.

The role marks Winstead's first starring studio vehicle. She appeared in a bit part in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" and was Bruce Willis' daughter in "Live Free or Die Hard." She caught Universal's eye with her work opposite Michael Cera in the studio's upcoming "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," where she plays love interest Ramona V. Flowers. Universal is releasing that movie Aug. 13.

Edgerton's credits include "Smokin' Aces," "King Arthur," "Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith" (he played the bit role of young Owen Lars).

The film is already set for a March 15 start date in Toronto with Matthijs van Heijningen directing a script by "Battlestar Galactica" co-creator Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer, who co-wrote the upcoming "A Nightmare on Elm Street" remake.

While van Heijningen is a virtual unknown, the screenwriting team sounds good enough to make me curious as to how this will turn out. "The Thing" is a beloved classic by many and this prequek has a lot to live up to.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Rope of Silicon, The Geek Files, Latino Review, Screen Rant, THR, Live for Films

'Cowboys and Aliens' Gets Its Release Date

Dreamworks and Universal Pictures have announced that "Cowboys & Aliens" will be released on July 29, 2011, according to The Wrap.

"Cowboys & Aliens" was originally published in 2007 as a graphic novel by writers Fred Van Lente & Andrew Foley and artists Dennis Calero & Luciano Lima. The concept — as created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg — revolves around an alien invasion in the 19th century.

Jon Favreau is directing and Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof are writing the adaptation of the comic series, which pits cowboys against an invading horde of aliens in the 1800s. According to Kurtzman and Orci, the story greatly differs from the original graphic novel.

The movie already has two of its leads in the form of Daniel Craig (replacing Robert Downey Jr. who opted to make "Sherlock Holmes 2" instead) and Olivia Wilde, star of "House" and the upcoming "Tron Legacy." Craig will play Zeke Jackson, the leader of the cowboys and Wilde will play a character named Ella, who helps Craig’s Zeke battle the aliens (and I assume will be some sort of love interest for him).

We’ll certainly have plenty to keep us going in the long summer months of 2011 as "Cowboys & Aliens" joins an exciting list of movies that includes: "Thor," "Captain America," "Green Lantern," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" and "Transformers 3," amongst others.

"Cowboys & Aliens" is will start production in July and is rumored to be shooting in 3D, in part to capitalize on the current 3D rush in the wake of "Avatar."

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: MTV News, Screen Rant

More Super Bowl Ads

[From Screen Rant]
Super Bowl XLIV‎ is over and the Saints won, but we’re not here to talk about that. It’s often said that the majority of viewers tune into the big game just for the commercials, so on that note we have some TV spots for upcoming movies for you.

We already had a chance to see the Super Bowl ads for M. Night Shyamalan’s "The Last Airbender" as well as Ridley Scott’s "Robin Hood," but now that the game has aired, we can show you the latest commercials for "The Wolfman," "Prince of Persia" and "Alice in Wonderland."

We’ll go through this in order of when the movies debut so starting us off is Joe Johnston’s remake of "The Wolfman." which stars Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving.



Next up is Tim Burton’s re-imagining of the classic tale of "Alice in Wonderland." The film utilizes Burton regulars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and stars young Mia Wasikowska as the title character.



Last but not least is the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced video game adaptation "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time." The blockbuster film is directed by Mike Newell and stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the title character alongside Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina.



There wasn’t that many studios forking out the big bucks this year for time during the big game but out of them all, my favorite high above the rest is for "The Last Airbender," which is one of my most anticipated films of the year.

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

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

The Wolfman - Nobleman Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) returns to his ancestral homeland, where his brother has gone missing and villagers are being killed by a nightmarish beast. The search reunites him with his estranged father (Hopkins) and draws him near to his brother's fiancée (Blunt), however, Talbot's lager concern is the discovery of a side to himself which he never could have imagined existed ...

Valentine's Day - Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day.

Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Life changes in an instant for troubled 12-year-old Percy Jackson (Lerman) when he learns his birth father is the god Poseidon and he's looped in on a cross-country mission to settle a feud between his dad, Zeus, and Hades.

Movies coming out on DVD and Blu-ray!

Couples Retreat
A Serious Man
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Stepfather
Serious Moonlight

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Dear John$32.4 M

2 Avatar $23.6 M

3 From Paris With Love $8.1 M

4 Edge of Darkness $7.0 M

5 The Tooth Fairy $6.5 M

6 When in Rome $5.5 M

7 The Book of Eli $4.8 M

8 Crazy Heart$3.6 M

9 Legion $3.4 M

10 Sherlock Holmes $2.6 M

"Avatar" has been knocked off its box office throne after almost 8 weeks of dominating movie theaters. "Dear John" came in at No. 1 thanks to a ton of women looking to do something for Super Bowl weekend.

"The Notebook" opened at $13 M back in 2004, so I'm not sure where the precedent was for this. Could female audiences have been starved for content, and "When in Rome" wasn't doing the trick? The budget here was $25 M, which means you can expect a ton more Sparks' content in your future.

"Avatar" came in 2nd place, so obviously it's now a financial disaster, having only grossed $2.2 billion. (Whoa).

"From Paris With Love" flattened out in 3rd place. Opening a guy focused actioner on Super Bowl Sunday is either crazy insane or insane crazy. I'm not sure which one I'm leaning towards just yet.

The rest of the movies fell as expected, with only "Crazy Heart" being bumped up into the top ten once word of mouth got out on how awesome Jeff Bridges is in it (but he's just awesome in almost everything he's in).

Major Updates on 'Captain America' from Director Joe Johnston

Director Joe Johnston has been out talking to press this weekend for his new movie "The Wolfman" and most of the discussion has ended up focusing on "The First Avenger: Captain America." Johnston spoke with Collider and gave them a lot of details about the direction they're heading with the film. Additionally, ComingSoon confirmed (as did AICN) that the villain in Captain America will be Cap's arch-nemesis Red Skull.

Although the actor who will play Steve Rogers has yet to be officially selected, the direction Marvel Studios is going with will be similar to Kenneth Branagh’s "Thor." Johnston will have an unknown actor as the lead, supported by a strong and familiar set of actors, meaning this movie will launch someone’s career as we’re seeing with Chris Hemsworth whose playing "Thor."

When asked in a press conference about this, Johnston responded with “No. We’re looking for a complete unknown.” Next he was asked to clarify about not casting an A-list type star for the role.

“I hope not. I hope it’ll be somebody we discover and whose never been in…well he’s probably been in something…you won’t know who he is or recognize him. We’ll surround him with more prominent names. That’s who we’re looking for. Will we find him? I don’t know. It’s tough.”

Johnston told Hero Complex about the kind of actors they're looking at to portray Captain America.

"Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23 the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war [are] just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London."

Johnston also told Collider that he's definitely casting an American in the role as well.

"I don’t think we could make without an American playing the part."

Johnston also went on to talk about how they're shooting the movie and a little bit about the style of it.

"We're definitely going to shoot it in a different way than any of the other Marvel pictures have been shot. What I'm trying to do is look at the comics - most of the new ones like the Brubaker series - and to interpret that sort of visual style into a film in a way that I think has been tried before… It always looks a little too on the nose it looks like oh they're shooting a comic book movie. I want to try something a little bit different."

And, of course, there's some talk about the villain and that we can expect Red Skull in it. ComingSoon spoke with Johnston about why they're setting it in WWII and going for the origin story on this.

"Virtually the entire story except the bookends are in World War II because we all recognize we have one chance to tell the origin story of how he became Captain America, you can't tell a modern story and then go back and tell the origin story. If you're going to do it, let's do it. Let's do it first. Everyone wanted to tell an origin story. There was a version where it was a modern story and it didn't work."

Johnston also explained that the film will justify the hero's stars-and-stripes costume by having him as a morale-boosting troops entertainer for the United Services Organizations.

"The costume is a flag," the director said, "but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he's made into this supersoldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it."

"It was never in the comics because they didn't really need it. In comics, he puts on the costume and the reader just justifies because of the nature of the medium."

He continued: "So he's up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can't wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realises that this uniform allows him to lead. By then, he's become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special."

The character later modifies the stage costume to a sturdier, more armored version.

"This approach, it's the only way we could justify ever seeing him on a screen in tights, with the funny boots and everything", Johnston said. "The government essentially puts him up there as a living comic book character and he rips it off and then reclaims some of its imagery after he recognises the value of it. We think it's the best way to keep the costume and explain it at the same time."

That's about all the good stuff on Captain America for now. But you can head over to Collider, Hero Complex, and ComingSoon for more quotes from Johnston and updates on the movie.

How do you feel about the film after hearing Johnston’s words?

"The First Avenger: Captain America" is set for release on July 22, 2011. The character will then appear alongside "Iron Man," "Thor" and others in "The Avengers" team-up movie in 2012.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Live for Films, The Geek Files, First Showing, Screen Rant

Taylor Lautner Will Play 'Stretch Armstrong' in 3D

Deadline Hollywood and THR are reporting that Taylor Lautner has been cast as the strethcy superhero in the adaptation of the Hasbro toy "Stretch Armstrong" in development at Universal.

This isn’t just some rumor created by a "Twilight" fan who has a penchant for ripped abs – Lautner has been officially cast in the role of "Stretch Armstrong," proving that status and fame is more important than acting ability.

Here’s what Universal co-chairman, Donna Langley, had to say about the rising star and his casting as Stretch Armstrong:

“In the past two years, Taylor has emerged as a real star at the global box office. He brings the perfect balance of energy and athleticism to the role of an unlikely super hero with a fantastic super power.”

Since Lautner only had a small role to play in the first "Twilight," and his only other role that I can even think of is Sharkboy, they’re really only going on his expanded role in "New Moon" and how teenage girls everywhere swooned over him taking his shirt off every chance he could get…

But nonetheless, Lautner has a slew of other films he will be starring in including the potential franchise "Max Steel." And let’s not forget he’s starring in two more of the "Twilight" movies, "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn."

There aren’t a lot of details on what the plot of "Stretch Armstrong" will be, other than it features, “an uptight spy who stumbles across a stretching formula, which he takes and must now adjust to in everyday life and when fighting crime.”

I think Hollywood really has finally crossed the line with all of these damn toy adaptations. I mean, a "Stretch Armstrong" movie is a bad idea to begin with, but now with Lautner starring in it? I have zero excitement for this project and will be lamenting its eventual release. Oh and, as you probably guessed, it's coming in 3D as well.

That means everything I hate about 3D – i.e. things coming out of the screen at you for no reason – will be in full effect here. In order to accommodate the 3D, the movie is being pushed back from its original May 15, 2011 date to sometime in 2012. On a related note, another Hasbro toy-based movie, "Battleship," has been pushed back from its original date of August 5, 2011, to Memorial Day weekend (May 5) in 2012.

Ron Howard's partner Brian Grazer is producing and screenwriter Steve Oedekerk ("Bruce Almighty," "Evan Almighty") is working on the script.

What do you think of Taylor Lautner being cast as Stretch Armstrong? Is he right for the role or are they just choosing him to piggyback off the success of the whole "Twilight" craze? Do you agree with me about all these toy-based movies?

Expect new toys of Max Steel and Stretch Armstrong to be coming out in the next few years looking like Taylor Lautner...

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

'Daredevil' Reboot Confirmed With New Writer

Hero Complex has confirmed that 20th Century Fox is moving forward with a "Daredevil" reboot, hiring screenwriter David Scarpa ("The Last Castle," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") to work on a new script. No director has been named yet nor have they started casting, so there's not much else to go on right now.

Ben Affleck starred in the first film in 2003, with a 2005 spin-off centering on the hero's sidekick "Elektra," played by Jennifer Garner.

Rumors regarding a "Daredevil" reboot surfaced back in October 2008 and have been the subject of much online speculation. 20th Century Fox currently owns the rights to the character, but stands to lose the rights if the property remains idle for too long.

So the reboot is only happening so Fox can maintain the film rights to the character. See, by contractural stipulation, if Fox doesn’t put the movie into production, the license to the "Daredevil" property would revert back to Marvel (and Disney would love that).

I just wish this was already back in the hands of Marvel Studios and not Fox. Until there's more news about this, I've got to ask: Is anyone excited about a new "Daredevil" reboot?

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: First Showing, MTV News, Screen Rant, The Geek Files

'Underworld 4' Gets Delayed and Won't be in 3D

The fourth film in the "Underworld" series has been delayed from its original release date of January 21, 2011 to September 23, 2011.

Box Office Mojo says the film is 'no longer in 3D' which begs the question of why its release is being delayed. After all the talk about this film being in 3D and now this delay, I can only wonder if there is trouble brewing behind-the-scenes.

Len Wiseman, who directed the first two films in the series, is apparently returning to direct "Underworld 4," although Kate Beckinsale previously expressed reluctance on returning for the fourth film.

But if Wiseman, Beckinsale's husband returns, than it is most likely that she will return to the franchise as well. If she does, "Underworld 4" might be her last time as Selene as she may hand the reins over to another character or have a different actress portray the lead role.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: The Geek Files