Author: dpugh007

Lionsgate/Summit has officially confirmed the lead cast for Now You See Me 2, the sequel to Louis Leterrier‘s 2013 magic heist film. They have also released the first official plot synopsis/logline. Hit the jump to find out the secret behind this magic sequel.

Now You See Me 2 will reunite the ensemble cast from the first film, which includes Mark Ruffalo alongside the four horseman Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco, and also Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. The screenplay by Pete Chiarelli and Ed Solomon will tell the following story:

One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public’s adulation with their mind-bending spectacles, the Four Horsemen resurface in NOW YOU SEE ME 2 only to find themselves face to face with a new enemy who enlists them to pull off their most dangerous heist yet.

Nothing surprising here, a basic teaser that doesn’t really reveal anything. Michael Caine previously confirmed in an interview that Daniel Radcliffe will be playing his so and that the new film will be set in London.

New to the film is director Jon M. Chu (Step Up series, GI Joe: Retaliation), and previously rumored actors Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter series) and Lizzy Caplan (Showtime’s Master of Sex) are joining the crew as Walter and Lula. And a new name has also been announced, Taiwanese mega-star Jay Chou (The Green Hornet) will be joining the magic heist sequel, although his role or character has not yet been revealed. Caplan will be replacing Isla Fisher, who is not returning for the sequel.

Jon M. Chu has me excited about this sequel — the first film had such good ideas and promise but I really don’t like Leterrier’s style and this is finally the perfect film for Chu to show off his action choreography skills. With production gearing up to begin in December 2014, I’m sure we’ll be learning more about this film soon. Summit will release Now You See Me 2 in theaters on June 10, 2016.

The post Now You See Me 2 Cast And Plot Revealed appeared first on /Film.

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The first Chappie trailer is here. The third film from Neill Blomkamp tells the story of an intelligent robot child which may be the next step in evolution. That scares people, and while the cast-off ‘bot’s existence starts off tough, things get even worse when he’s abducted. Sharlto Copley voices the performance-capture main character and Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman co-star. It opens March 6. Check out the first Chappie trailer below.

Here’s the first Chappie trailer from Entertainment Weekly.

Here’s the official synopsis.

Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy.  Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man.  But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.

I think the key to the film is how well Blomkamp can balance humanity and action. He’s good at both, and District 9 was a stellar showcase of how to pair the two. (Elysium is the opposite of how not to do it.) Chappie looks like the tone is similar to District 9, but slightly more sweet. Things start innocent, maybe even funny, but over the course of the movie things obviously escalate to a much larger, much more violent sort of action.

Action with robots obviously works but if if Blomkamp can get us to love Chappie – and from the He-Man stuff and walking around with rappers, it seems possible – he could have something really special here.

Plus, come on, Sharlto Copley as Chappie? So, so awesome. What are your thoughts on the Chappie trailer?

And if you’re not familiar with the South African duo Die Antwoord, which broke out with the single ‘Enter the Ninja’ and has released three albums in the five years since, here’s their latest video. The song is ‘Ugly Boy,’  and this video arrived today, no doubt to coincide with the release of the trailer. This video, like most of Die Antwoord’s work, is deliberately button-pushing and kinda not safe for work.

The post ‘Chappie’ Trailer: Neill Blomkamp’s Latest Takes Robots in a New Direction appeared first on /Film.

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As much as Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight Trilogy helped set the tone for the modern superhero movie, Marvel Studios created the structure for the modern superhero franchise. Specifically the idea of a huge, shared story told over multiple films. It’s not a new idea, obviously, but the particular way Marvel did it on the big screen was. The fact the MCU is still going after six years, and will continue to soldier on, is super-impressive and a testament to Marvel’s success.

One of the biggest tools Marvel uses for this is the post-credits sequence. A scene tangentially related to the movie you just watched, placed in the credits to tease what’s coming next. It’s become a staple of their brand and is mimicked pretty regularly. (Marvel didn’t come up with that, either, but the studio redefined the use of the post-credits stinger.)

One place it hasn’t been mimicked is the new slate of DC Comics movies. Granted, we’ve only seen one so far, but why is that? Well, Warner Bros. asked Nolan, a producer on Man of Steel, about adding one. He said “A real movie wouldn’t do that.” But did he mean that as a blanket statement? Maybe not. Read more about Christopher nolan and credits scenes below.

The quote came from a long Nolan profile with The Guardian. Here’s the quote in context:

 “The Batman movies – that take, that tone – came out of nowhere,” said director Zack Snyder, who first met Nolan on a Warner Bros plane heading to a film industry convention in Las Vegas and leapt at the chance to direct a similarly toned Superman reboot, Man Of Steel – for which he studied, at Nolan’s request, test footage from White Sands, New Mexico, to get a sense of how objects behave at high velocity. When the studio asked if Snyder would add a comedy coda ending, in the style of Marvel, Nolan’s reply was “A real movie wouldn’t do that.”

Now, saying “No” to a “comedy coda” is decidedly different from Christopher Nolan saying no real movies have credits scenes. A comedy tag on a serious movie is different and, frankly, I kind of agree with Nolan. You wouldn’t want a scene of Batman and Alfred telling jokes at the end of Batman Begins, right? That’s against the whole idea of the movie. Man of Steel is also serious. After you completely destroy a city, cutting back to the IHOP employee eating pancakes or something just doesn’t make sense.

Though Christopher Nolan obviously has his own set of tastes, I sincerely doubt he thinks movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy or The Avengers aren’t “real movies.” Each has a comedy coda and but those are in line with the tone of the film.

It’s also important to remember, Marvel Studios movies have post-credits scenes because those stories aren’t done yet. There are more movies to go, and I would be very surprised if Warner Bros. and DC don’t do something similar with at least a few of the movies they have planned through 2020. Then again, Christopher Nolan isn’t involved in those.

What do you think Nolan meant by this?

The post Does Christopher Nolan Hate Post-Credits Scenes? appeared first on /Film.

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Around this time last year, Hans Zimmer was telling press he saw “so many good reasons” not to do the score for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Even after he eventually came around, he admitted that he was struggling to give the new Batman his own sound, distinct from the one he’d created for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies. But now it looks like he’s come up with a solution for the Batman v Superman score.

The composer revealed in a recent interview that he’s bringing in some additional reinforcements in the form of Junkie XL, who he says will “take care of Batman.” Hit the jump for more on Hans Zimmer’s Batman v Superman plan.

Speaking to Comic Book Resources, Zimmer acknowledged the challenges he’d had with Batman v Superman and then explained his plan to work around them.

You know something? I have agonized over it. I agonized over it, so much so that finally, I went, I don’t want to betray what Chris, James Newton Howard and I did. And so I asked Zack [Snyder] if it would be OK if I called a friend in. And I’m going to be working with Junkie XL, who really is a great friend. He just finished the Mad Max score. I said to him, “You take care of Batman. I’ll do the other guy.” And Zack loved that idea. It’s a way out.

Zimmer has been pretty open about the fact that the new Batman has been tough for him to figure out. Here’s what he said about it back in April.

It’s creating a bit of a problem in my head right now. Quite honestly, I’ve gotta sit down with Zack and have a chat with him about what he’s trying to do because what I don’t want to do is go back to that well. It’s a different Batman; Christian Bale and what I did with Chris, that needs to have its autonomous life. I don’t want to go and now appropriate that and put that into the other Batman.

Bringing on Junkie XL sounds like a smart solution. This way, Batman v Superman: Man of Steel gets to keep that familiar Zimmer sound, Zimmer gets to avoid repeating himself, and Junkie XL gets to his chance to contribute a new Batman theme. Zimmer and Junkie XL have worked together several times before, including on The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel. But Junkie XL wasn’t the primary composer on those, so he shouldn’t face the same struggle as Zimmer.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens March 25, 2016.

The post Hans Zimmer to Score ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ With Junkie XL appeared first on /Film.

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At 161 minutes, Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug isn’t exactly brief to begin with. But for those who’d like to spend still more time in Middle-earth, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Blu-ray promises nearly half an hour of additional footage. Want more of Thorin’s backstory, Gandalf’s badassery, or Bard’s cunning? Extra time in Mirkwood, Lake-town, or Beorn’s house? It’s got you covered.

Hit the jump to watch 27 minutes of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug extended scenes.

Removed

The 27-minute video just lumps all the extra footage together without any transitions, so it’s tough to tell how these scenes would have played in the context of the entire film. On the whole, there doesn’t seem to be anything absolutely crucial here for the casual movie watcher — these bits were left on the cutting room floor for a reason, after all — but hardcore Tolkienites may rejoice to see more of their favorite characters and locales.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD / streaming. You might as well enjoy what time you can get in Middle-earth now, because The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies closes out Warner Bros.’ entire six-film Tolkien saga on December 17.

Having survived the beginning of their unexpected journey, the Company continues East, encountering along the way the skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood. After escaping capture by the dangerous Wood-elves, the Dwarves journey to Lake-town, and finally to the Lonely Mountain itself, where they must face the greatest danger of all—a creature more terrifying than any other; one which will test not only the depth of their courage but the limits of their friendship and the wisdom of the journey itself—the Dragon Smaug.

The post Watch 27 Minutes of ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Extended Scenes appeared first on /Film.

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Jessica Chastain is one of the most popular and talented actresses working today. She’s in Interstellar this week, A Most Violent Year after that, then Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak and Ridley Scott’s The Martian next year. And those are just the confirmed ones.

When an actress has that much buzz surrounding her, you know the big guns come calling. And in Hollywood, these days, Marvel Studios has the biggest gun. Chastain confirmed in a new interview she’s spoken to Marvel about some possible things in the future, but she doesn’t want to play a secondary character. She wants to be a kick-ass hero with a costume and action scenes. However, even though she knows the Captain Marvel release year off the top of her head, she later said that was not the role she talked to them about.

But she did talk to them. So below, watch Chastain’s video interview talking about potentially working for Marvel and run through a few possible Jessica Chastain Marvel roles she could go.

Chastain talked to MTV about Interstellar, and then talked about Marvel. Chastain is asked if she ever talked to them beyond what happened with Iron Man 3 (she was up for Rebecca Hall’s role):

And here’s the bulk of the quote, via CBM:

We’ve talked about aligning our forces in the future. And here’s the thing with me… If you’re going to be in a superhero movie, you only get one chance. You’re that character forever. So why do a superhero movie and play the boring civilian? Whatever it is, I want a fight scene. I could be an incredible villain. I could be a hero. I want a cool outfit, and I want to kick ass. There was a thing…I don’t want to say too much – but there was one thing, there was a possibility in the future of the character becoming… And I was like, ‘I understand that, but I want to do it now.

So, if she wants to be a bad ass, heroic character in the upcoming Marvel universe, and she’s an Oscar winning actress working with the best filmmakers in the world, here are a few possibilities, in order of decreasing likeliness.

Captain Marvel

When asked about Captain Marvel, Chastain was very aware of it, but a little uneasy because it’s so far down the road. I mean, this is the obvious one, right? You can read about who the character is here, but this the movie we know is coming. We also know Marvel loves popular actors and that this will be a very sought after role. If Chastain signs on to a Marvel film, she’d have to be a big, major character in it, and what could be bigger than Marvel’s first female solo superhero?

However Chastain took to Twitter to clear this up:

Oops uh oh….I’ve never had talks about Captain Marvel. Was referring to a different film from over a year ago, in my recent MTV interview.

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) November 4, 2014

Well, even if that’s not what she met with over a year ago, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t play something else moving forward. She seemed pretty passionate about it. Which other Marvel roles could Jessica Chastain play? Find out, after the jump!

Continue Reading Jessica Chastain Has Talked To Marvel, Which Role Could She Play?>>

The post Jessica Chastain Has Talked To Marvel, Which Role Could She Play? appeared first on /Film.

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Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is one of the most ambitious, visually spectacular films I’ve sen this year. But it’s also a film with some really deep problems. In many ways, it highlights Nolan’s best and worst tendencies: his penchant for intricate, convoluted stories, his tendency to elide character work to move the plot along, and his knack for breathtaking visuals.

Hit the jump for my full video review of Interstellar. I discuss basic plot details about the film, but nothing I would consider spoilers. That being said, consider yourself warned.

The post ‘Interstellar’ Video Review – Visually Spectacular Thrills Give Way to Shoddy Melodrama and Sentimentality appeared first on /Film.

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