Posts Tagged ‘First’

After spending the last six years spinning their wheels in self-parody, Clive Owen and Katherine Heigl are now teaming up in the hopes of doing something decent again with Survivor. V for Vendetta‘s James McTeigue is directing the film, returning to the world of politically-inspired explosions to tell the story of “a State Department employee [Heigl, it seems] newly posted to the American embassy in London whose entire team is killed in a bomb blast.” Lest the story stray too far from either actor’s wheelhouse, it then reportedly goes into Owen’s classic action-thriller mode with a conspiracy involving a frame job against Heigl, killers chasing her down, and plans for a “catastrophic attack.” And because this is still a Katherine Heigl film, that attack is planned for the once-romantic ensemble holiday of New Year’s Eve.

Owen’s role hasn’t yet been revealed but, scientifically speaking, he’ll play a gun-toting savior/womanizer who will at first quarrel with but ultimately fall for Heigl’s uptight state department worker. I did the Survivor Punnett square.

As promised with a trailer earlier this month, Funny or Die has beaten Aaron Sorkin and Ashton Kutcher to market with a Steve Jobs biopic, today releasing iSteve in its full 78-minute length. Given that it’s a Funny or Die production, it’s not exactly accurate, but then, according to Steve Wozniak and common sense, neither is the Kutcher version, so why not just watch the one that starts with a ridiculous old janitor archetype? (Note: this one has that, and you can see him here.)

District 9‘s Neill Blomkamp returns to sci-fi, just as Matt Damon returns to selling films with the back of his head, in this August’s Elysium. Here’s the film’s first poster, depicting a future dystopia in which Damon has become Vin Diesel, and Vin Diesel has become a muscular digital camera. Or maybe it’s about something else. We’ll find out tomorrow when the first trailer debuts. In the meantime, here’s the poster:

BASKET CASE The Trilogy STEELBOOK 3 Disc Blu Ray UK Release NEW grindhouse gore

$29.99 (0 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 8:41:38 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

$14.95 End Date: Thursday Jun-13-2013 23:48:21 PDT Buy It Now for only: $14.95 Buy It Now | Add to watch list

$11.51 (5 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 9:00:32 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

BASKET CASE The Trilogy STEELBOOK 3 Disc Blu Ray UK Release NEW grindhouse gore

$29.99 (0 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 8:41:38 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

$14.95 End Date: Thursday Jun-13-2013 23:48:21 PDT Buy It Now for only: $14.95 Buy It Now | Add to watch list

$11.51 (5 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 9:00:32 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Producer Michael Bay and director Jonathan Liebesman have reportedly found their first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to join Megan Fox in Alan Ritchson, the Hunger Games sequel star whose Abercrombie-model good looks have made him the ideal candidate to get covered in sensors and replaced with a CGI reptile.

According to Deadline, Ritchson will play Raphael, motion-capturing the part and assumedly also providing the voice of the character. On the former point, he apparently already has some experience mimicking Raphael’s moves, as his role in Catching Fire is said to involve his wielding knives, which is the same darn thing as a sai (source: my mom, after complaining about stepping on a small toy knife). And on the latter, it turns out he’s already something of a vocalist, too, as he previously made it through the first round on American Idol, where he noted that his name being “Alan” was close enough to “American” to mean he was fated to succeed. Could his wearing green considered any less prescient?

With their Jekyll-and-Hyde drama Do No Harm coming and going over the span of two episodes and about thirty “looking into the mirror and seeing his duality” shots, NBC is quickly moving on to their next dismal offering of a doctor with a cartoonishly-dark side. As such, here’s the first promo for the struggling network’s Hannibal, the Hannibal Lecter-based series that will take over this April, even as those ubiquitous Do No Harm posters still hang to forlornly gaze at their lost Thursday night timeslot.

The series stars Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, a criminal profiler that seems a lot like he’s just Dancy’s head pasted on another generic procedural guy’s body–both figuratively and quite literally. Laurence Fishburne co-stars as the FBI’s Dr. Jack Crawford–who is definitely a different character than his CSI guy, Dr. Raymond Langston–while Casino Royale‘s creepy villain Mads Mikkelsen takes on the cannibalistic title role. As you’ll see below, the part is mostly chewing-based:

Cinema’s last John le Carré adaptation, Tinker Tailor Gary Oldman, ended up being an amazing-looking, well-crafted thriller that didn’t get nearly the broader recognition it deserved. Anton Corbijn’s The American didn’t have quite the careful construction of that film, but likewise showed an admirable stylishness often lacking in the spy genre. I mention these things because they give good reason to have some interest in Corbijn’s latest, A Most Wanted Man, which will see him now apply his touch for style to the plotting of a le Carré–and with a solid cast too. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, and Robin Wright star in the film, which takes place in present-day Germany, and sees Hoffman playing a spy on the trail of an ex-prisoner whose agenda isn’t clear. And as you can see from this first look at the film, it will also see Hoffman looking sad and weary, which is undoubtedly the most classic, beloved PSH experience. U.S. distribution isn’t yet secured, but will probably be worked out soon now that everyone has been promised a dejected Philip Seymour Hoffman. Come on, who can resist that adorably beaten face?

BASKET CASE The Trilogy STEELBOOK 3 Disc Blu Ray UK Release NEW grindhouse gore

$29.99 (0 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 8:41:38 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

$14.95 End Date: Thursday Jun-13-2013 23:48:21 PDT Buy It Now for only: $14.95 Buy It Now | Add to watch list

$11.51 (5 Bids) End Date: Sunday May-26-2013 9:00:32 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list

Hey, remember Shane Carruth? After delivering arguably the most thoughtful if obtuse time travel movie to date with 2004′s Primer, the writer/director/producer/editor/actor/composer abruptly stopped doing all those things, presumably to give everyone some time to digest what exactly happened in Primer. Eight years later, he’s finally back with Upstream Color, a new film set to premiere at Sundance and described thusly: “A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.” So you will probably have to watch this multiple times to really get it, too.

Here’s the film’s poster, as well as a couple stills. Does Upstream Color involve ice water, you ask? Ask no longer! It fucking does!

First Three Stills From Shane Carruth’s ‘Primer’ Follow-Up ‘Upstream Color,’ Plus Debut Teaser [TheFilmStage]