Category: Movies

Nicolas Winding Refn‘s female-led horror film The Neon Demon has found a new star in Abbey Lee, who’ll join previously cast lead Elle Fanning. That’s the pretty good news. The really great news is that with her comes a host of new details about the mysterious project. To sum up, this film sounds bonkers in a good way.

Get the latest Neon Demon plot details after the jump.

Deadline got the scoop on Lee’s casting, and they also got to reveal some verrrry interesting details about her character Sarah. Since it’s unclear how exactly these plot points fit into the movie, it’s also unclear if they’re big spoilers or just minor details. Consider yourself warned.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s how the trade describes Lee’s Sarah:

In Neon Demon, she plays a cool ringleader that other girls want to follow. Envious, emotionally unstable and a tad delusional, she shows her true maniacal colors in the end. After first creeping Jesse out by sucking the blood out of her wound, she ends up killing and later eating Jesse to absorb her virginal youth and beauty.

Fanning will be playing “an aspiring model who is caught in a world of beauty and demise.” Her character’s name was not given, and we don’t know if she’s Jesse.

Refn scripted Neon Demon with Mary Laws. He’s been rather vague about the plot so far, but here’s what he had to say about it last year:

One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty. After making Drive and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of The Neon Demon. This movie is a manifestation of the strong ties between us and will lead to many more adventures.

Now we have a much better idea of what exactly he means by “vicious beauty.”

Lee is an Australian supermodel-turned-actress who makes her film debut this year in Ruben Guthrie, Brendan Cowell’s adaptation of his own play. She’ll also be seen this summer in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road and next spring in Alex Proyas’ Gods of Egypt.

Refn is coming off of the indie drama Only God Forgives, which reunited him with Drive star Ryan Gosling. The Neon Demon shoots this spring in Los Angeles. No release date has been set.

The post Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Neon Demon’ Casts Abbey Lee; More Plot Details Revealed appeared first on /Film.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens December 18 of this year. The first Star Wars standalone film opens December 16, 2016. After that, we have a good idea of what the next few years have in store for Star Wars but nothing is 100% set in stone. For example, though every single outlet in the world has confirmed Rian Johnson is directing Star Wars Episode VIII, along with the filmmaker himself, the company has yet to acknowledge it. And though we’ve heard there will be a Star Wars movie every single year, only the two dates above are confirmed.

However, the long-term future of Star Wars was recently mentioned by Disney CEO Bob Iger. In a Disney shareholders report, he talked about seeing footage from The Force Awakens, confirmed the release years for the next two films in “this” trilogy, and failed to mention the second standalone film. There’s more, too. Read the extremely loaded Star Wars sequel trilogy quote below.

Get Your Geek On (via Star Wars Underworld) got the report, which includes this statement from Iger:

As one of the few people allowed to visit the set during filming….and one of the fewer who’s seen most of the footage…I can assure the millions of Star Wars fans who have spent the last decade hoping for a new movie this one will be worth the wait. And it’s only the beginning of a new era of exceptional Star Wars storytelling; next year we’ll release our first standalone movie based on these characters, followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII in 2017, and we’ll finish this trilogy with Episode IX in 2019.

I’m almost shocked at how much information and speculation is possible in those two long sentences. Let’s run it down.

1. Iger has seen most of the footage from The Force Awakens.
2. He believes it’s “worth the wait.”
3. He mentions the 2016 standalone movie.
4. He hints the 2016 standalone movie is about “these characters,” potentially meaning characters from the new movies.
5. Star Wars Episode VIII will be out in 2017.
6. There is no mention of a second standalone movie, directed by Josh Trank, hypothetically in 2018.
7. Star Wars Episode IX will be out in 2019.
8. He refers to that film as the end of “this trilogy.” That makes it sound like there will be more.

Now, of course we assume there will be more Star Wars after Episode IX concludes the Star Wars sequel trilogy (which Rian Johnson will also most likely direct). But to hear the head of the company hint at stories beyond that, and give us further confirmations of the years to expect those movies, is exciting.

As for the standalone movies, his tease about the 2016 film is curious, as is the omission of the second standalone movie for 2018.

Nevertheless, very cool stuff here. What do you get out of Bob Iger’s Star Wars sequel trilogy statement?

The post Disney CEO Confirms Release Years for ‘Star Wars Episode VIII’ and ‘IX,’ Teases More Trilogies appeared first on /Film.

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Tyler Stout is one of the most popular poster artists out there today but, in 2014, he was relatively quiet. Kind of like space. Which leads us to his first poster of 2015, Ridley Scott‘s Alien.

The poster was revealed Wednesday night at a special screening of Alien at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas and the remaining posters will go on sale Friday January 30 at a random time. See the full images of the Tyler Stout Alien poster below.

Here’s the regular and variant editions of Tyler Stout’s Alien.

Both posters are 24 x 36. The red regular is an edition of 510 and costs $60. The green variant is an edition of 235 and costs $110.

The post Cool Stuff: Tyler Stout’s ‘Alien’ Poster For Mondo appeared first on /Film.

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In the past few weeks, Kevin Spacey has picked up both a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for House of Cards, on which he plays a politician who’ll manipulate, blackmail, screw, and murder anyone to get to the top. Needless to say, it’s a pretty heavy affair, and it’s totally understandable if Spacey wants to do something a little lighter with his time off.

So Spacey is now set to star in Nine Lives, a high-concept comedy in which he’ll play a man who turns into a cat. Yes, you read that right. Barry Sonnenfeld is directing. Get details on the Kevin Spacey cat movie after the jump. 

According to TheWrap, the script by Daniel Antoniazzi and Ben Shiffrin centers on a workaholic businessman who becomes trapped in the body of a housecat following a terrible accident. Whether this means the cat’s mind is now in the businessman’s body, or whether both the cat and the businessman are now sharing one feline body, is unclear.

Sonnenfeld describes Nine Lives as a “funny, emotional, commercial comedy.” The “commercial” part is important so we know it’s not going to be some kind of highfalutin indie black comedy or mind-bender.

Although Spacey is an esteemed dramatic actor with two Academy Awards (for American Beauty and The Usual Suspects) under his belt, he’s also done plenty of sillier roles. His last big-screen appearance was in Horrible Bosses 2. And one of his next movies is Boss Baby, an animated comedy about an infant businessman trying to stop a dastardly CEO voiced by Spacey.

In that light, a film about a businessman who turns into a cat seems like less of a stretch. And to be fair, it’s not like Sonnenfeld was the first guy to cast Spacey as a kitty — that delightful header image comes from Jimmy Kimmel’s 2014 post-Oscars spoof Ameowadeus. Besides, it’s not like Serious Spacey is going anywhere. House of Cards Season 3 hits Netflix February 27.

Below is Ameowadeus, co-starring Christoph Waltz as Hamster on a Piano.

The post Kevin Spacey Will Be a Man Trapped in a Cat’s Body in ‘Nine Lives’ appeared first on /Film.

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Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 36 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness.

Header Photo: Steven Spielberg, John Matuszak, Bari Dreiband-Burman, Tom Burman and Ellis Burman, Jr. on the set of The Goonies

The ‘Gone Girl’ Paradox: Why Being The ‘Cool Girl’ Won’t Make You Happy

Making of ‘Lego Movie‘: 7 Years, a Trip to Denmark and a Race-the-Clock Against Disney’s Lucasfilm Deal

Aliens Power Loader….in Studio Scale

The Cord Cutter’s Best Friend Has Problems

7 Sites That Help You Choose What to Watch Next

Coming Soon: Big Trouble in Little China Funko Pop!

The 15 Most Anticipated Films of 2016

The Epic Uncool of Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s Career

“@Thendetta: They can’t take the sky from me!“@NathanFillion @KabaLounge @josswhedon pic.twitter.com/cLGuL1Wei7”

Had to hurt.

— Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) January 26, 2015

Nathan Fillion Knows That Being A Firefly Fan Can Hurt [Tattoo]

Virtual Reality at Sundance: The Long-Delayed, Inevitable Future Is Bright, Empathetic, and Already on Your Phone

30 Stories from Behind the Scenes of Blockbusters

Nick Jonas Joins Ryan Murphy’s ‘Scream Queens’

This Guy Has Turned His Apartment Into A Star Wars Fan’s Dream

How the perfect shot can ruin a film

Top 10 Horror Movie Musical Themes

Keanu Reeves couldn’t kick in The Matrix–and six other factoids

Continue Reading Page 2 >>

The post Page 2: Goonies, Alien, Big Trouble in Little China, Firefly, Star Wars, Benedict Cumberbatch, Transformers appeared first on /Film.

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Angelina Jolie has just booked a big A-list star for her next directorial effort: her husband, Brad Pitt. He’s just entered talks for Africa, a biopic of paleo-archaeologist Richard Leakey. More on the Brad Pitt Africa casting after the jump. 

TheWrap reports Pitt is currently in talks. Pitt and Jolie recently finished shooting By the Sea, their co-starring turn since 2005′s Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Jolie’s third film as a director.

Scripted by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Africa follows Leakey’s clashes in the late ’80s with ivory poachers threatening the existence of the African elephant population, as well as “the very soul of Africa.”

In a statement last fall, Jolie spoke about her connection to the project:

I’ve felt a deep connection to Africa and its culture for much of my life, and was taken with Eric’s beautiful script about a man drawn into the violent conflict with elephant poachers who emerged with a deeper understanding of man’s footprint and a profound sense of responsibility for the world around him.

Africa reunites Jolie with her Unbroken cinematographer Roger Deakins. In addition to directing, Jolie will also produce with Jon Peters and Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg. Although Africa isn’t yet set up at a studio, Skydance’s involvement makes Paramount a likely home.

Jolie’s most recent release was the Louis Zamperini biopic Unbroken. Though pegged early on as a potential Oscar contender, it opened last month to mixed reviews and has mostly gone ignored by awards voters. As an actress, she was seen last year in Maleficent, her most commercially successful film to date.

Pitt is currently in Best Picture race with Selma, which he produced. He won his first Oscar last year for producing 12 Years a Slave. His last acting role was David Ayer’s World War II pic Fury.

Jolie and Pitt’s By the Sea does not yet have a release date, but is likely to hit later this year. Production on Africa could begin as early as this summer, in which case it’ll likely open in 2016.

The post Brad Pitt to Lead Angelina Jolie’s ‘Africa’ appeared first on /Film.

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Forget all those cute little indies from Sundance — let’s dive into some big blockbuster sequels. After the jump:

• Get details on Arnold‘s big fight scene in Terminator: Genisys
• Resident Evil: The Final Chapter will shoot this summer
• Colin Firth “might be ready” for Bridget Jones 3
• Now You See Me 2 picks up Henry Lloyd-Hughes
• Christine Taylor‘s Matilda will return for Zoolander 2
• Chris Pine likes Simon Pegg as the Star Trek 3 screenwriter
• Watch the trailer for The Man with the Iron Fists 2
• The Divergent sequel Insurgent gets one more poster
• A Hot Tub Time Machine 2 TV spot warns against deflated balls
• Ted 2 gets a poster and a certain Patriots quarterback

Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 will be facing some pretty formidable foes in Terminator: Genisys, not least of which will be (spoiler alert!) his own younger self. A source has leaked details on the key fight scene between two versions of the T-800:

The young digitally enhanced T-800 is doing a forward lunge double fist punch and/or crushing the aged T-800′s face with both its knuckles pile-driving into the real Arnold Schwarzenegger’s metal skull, like something out of a wrestling match. The aged T-800 has its left arm locked under the T-800′s right shoulder as if it is going to make a deadly move on the younger T-800.

The older one wins out in the end, but sustains serious damage: “It will be the first significant stage of battle damage for Arnold’s character and it will be a stage familiar to fans of T2.” Terminator: Genisys opens July 1. [The Terminator Fans via Coming Soon]

***

Milla Jovovich is gearing up for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. The actress confirmed on Facebook that the sequel will begin shooting this August, after getting postponed last year due to Jovovich’s pregnancy. She wrote:

I’m really proud of myself for not gaining the same amount of weight that I did with our first child (75 lbs.) because I have to be ready to start filming “Resident Evil- The Final Chapter” in August of this year.

Jovovich’s baby is due this spring, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter should be out next year or so. [Facebook via Coming Soon]

***

Hugh Grant has said to count him out for Bridget Jones 3, but his old co-star Colin Firth seems a bit more amenable:

It would have to have somewhere to go. Back at the time, I said that a third one should only happen if we were telling a story about having moved into a different generation when we were all beginning to deteriorate a little bit. I think we might be ready for that moment!

But that moment might be a little ways off. Bridget Jones 3 has been stuck in development for years, and it’s been quite some time since we heard of any real progress. [The Independent]

***

Now You See Me: The Second Act has picked up another new cast member. Henry Lloyd-Hughes is set to play tech wizard Allen Scott-Frank in the sequel. He joins returning stars Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and Michael Caine, and franchise newcomers Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, and Jay Chou.

Lloyd-Hughes is known for his roles in The Inbetweeners, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now You See Me: The Second Act arrives June 10, 2016. [Deadline]

***

Derek Zoolander will be reuniting with his lady love Matilda Jeffries for Zoolander 2. “I can tell you that I’m involved, but that’s all I can say,” said actress Christine Taylor. “I can tell you it’s happening, but I can’t tell you where Matilda’s at and where their relationship is at. It’s all top secret!”

Taylor’s real-life husband Ben Stiller will reprise his role as the really, really, ridiculously good-looking yet extremely dim-witted male model. Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson are also expected to return. Justin Theroux, who played the evil DJ in the first film, is directing. [EW]

***

Chris Pine couldn’t be happier that his Star Trek co-star Simon Pegg has taken over scripting duties on Star Trek 3. “We’re all really excited,” he said. “What we enjoy about it is that we have a laugh. We want to make sure that that’s still embedded in there, so to have Simon writing it is the perfect fit.”

That said, Pine isn’t without his concerns. “We are worried,” he joked, wondering whether the threequel would consist of “vast, vast Simon Pegg monologues.” Watch the full interview below:

[MTV]

***

RZA is back in the new trailer for The Man With the Iron Fists 2. Directing duties went to Roel Reiné this time around, though RZA still co-wrote the script and stars.

In the sequel, Thaddeus (RZA) turns up badly wounded in a 19th century Chinese town. He’s taken in by a miner (Dustin Nguyen) and his wife (Eugenia Yuan). As his condition improves, he helps the miner and his town fight back against the evil Master Ho (Carl Ng).

The Man With the Iron Fists 2 hits Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand April 14. [Universal Pictures]

***

Shailene Woodley is shattering the glass ceiling in the new poster for The Divergent Series: Insurgent, with a little help from Theo James. (Who, I have recently realized, looks exactly like Ryan Guzman from The Boy Next Door. But that’s neither here nor there.)

Robert Schwentke is directing The Divergent Saga: Insurgent, which opens March 20. [via ScreenCrush]

***

“Deflategate” is a headache for the NFL, but a boon for jokesters. Paramount’s Super Bowl commercial for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 gets in a good crack about going up against the Patriots with “fully inflated” balls.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 opens February 20. [Paramount]

***

Meanwhile, the Ted 2 team reportedly considered changing their Super Bowl spot to work in a crack about Deflategate, but realized it’d be too much work to change the animation.

Fortunately, they already have a plotline involving Tom Brady‘s balls. The ad airing this weekend will feature Brady as a possible sperm donor who gets involved in Ted’s quest to have a baby.

Oh, and speaking of Ted 2 marketing materials referencing genitals, here’s the poster for Ted 2.

Ted 2 hits theaters June 26. Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg return. [THR]

The post Sequel Bits: ‘Terminator: Genisys’, ‘Ted 2′, ‘Zoolander 2′, ‘Star Trek 3′, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2′ appeared first on /Film.

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The last thing you probably ever want to see is a literal recreation of your deepest, darkest nightmares. In The Nightmare, director Rodney Ascher (Room 237) has done just that. The film explores the condition commonly referred to as “sleep paralysis.” That’s a condition where someone is in bed, but totally physically immobilized. Some who suffer from the condition – including the eight subjects in this documentary – feel they are visited by something evil during these periods. Ascher lets these subjects tell their stories, then we watch them play out on screen. It’s absolutely horrifying, if not wholly rewarding. Read more of our The Nightmare review below.

The Nightmare uses much of the energy and technique that Ascher displayed in Room 237, his documentary about people obsessed with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. He uses voiceover and there’s a lot going on visually, both in the frame and with the frame itself. The main difference between the films is that here, we see the subjects. Ascher is frequently on screen himself, interacting with these people. He speaks to them in their homes, and often in their bedrooms, where they’ve experienced some of the most terrifying things imaginable.

As each successive sleep paralysis story unfolds you’ll begin to see a pattern. Some people have the same physical sensations. They describe visitations from eerily similar beings. Sometimes, the stories are predictable; other times they take unimaginable twists and turns. Events happen that are so insane you’d swear they were fake. Maybe they are; but maybe they are not. Ascher’s film never judges these people for their experiences. It just wishes to present them. And Ascher’s recreations bring those descriptions and visions to life on screen. The Nightmare is almost a monster movie in that way.

The biggest problem with The Nightmare is, even at only 90 minutes or so, it gets repetitive. No one really has any answers. There’s no big revelation. After the 5th or 6th time these people are visited by the same spirits, it feels a little repetitive as an audience member, especially without a big payoff. But the stories are incredibly interesting, very scary, and mostly unpredictable. Ascher presents them in a very unique, entertaining way.

The Nightmare is an off-beat horror tale that rides the line between reality and fiction. There’s a good chance it’ll make it hard for you to sleep.

/Film rating: 7 out of 10

The post In ‘The Nightmare’ the ‘Room 237′ Director Recreates Our Deepest Fears [Sundance 2015] appeared first on /Film.

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When it rains, it pours. The very first official images from Fantastic Four hit today, and now we have even more new details from the so-far mysterious superhero movie.

Director Josh Trank has confirmed that Philip Glass is scoring the film with Marco Beltrami. In addition, he cites David Cronenberg as an influence on the look and feel of the film. More about the Fantastic Four Philip Glass score and David Cronenberg inspiration after the jump. 

Speaking to Collider, Trank revealed how Glass and Beltrami got involved with Fantastic Four:

I got his manager’s number and gave them a call! Philip Glass is one of my heroes. Whenever I’m writing or drawing I always put on Philip Glass. This is my first time making a movie with a score and I thought, “why not give it a shot?” So I asked the studio, “what about Philip Glass? Would you guys be okay with me giving him a call?” And they were totally cool. He’s a really significant celebrity in the music world. I got his number from his manager, I sent him Chronicle and had a call with him. It was one of the coolest calls I’ve ever had in my life because he’s fucking Philip Glass and he had just watched my movie. The first words out of his mouth were, “I just saw your movie and it’s very philosophical.” We were talking about the philosophy of Chronicle and it gave me goosebumps. We invited him out to set and he came to set for like three days and had a great time. He was blown away by the scale of the film. I’ve been working with him for almost a year now and he’s so inspiring. He’s such a humble, amazing guy.

Glass is a three-time Best Original Score Oscar nominee, for Kundun, The Hours, and Notes on a Scandal. His other high-profile credits include the Qatsi trilogy and, most recently, the Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee Leviathan. A big-budget superhero pic like Fantastic Four is definitely outside his usual wheelhouse.

Beltrami has much more experience on that front, having worked on The Wolverine, Blade II, Hellboy, and Jonah Hex. Outside of comic book adaptations, he’s also scored Snowpiercer, The Hurt Locker, 3:10 to Yuma, I, Robot, and the last two Die Hards.

Trank additionally told Collider how Cronenberg influenced Fantastic Four:

Maybe the biggest influence for me in terms of an overall view and communicating tool to the various department was Scanners or The Fly. In terms of the feeling of what these powers are. Because the drama speaks for itself in terms of the script or the story but the look of the movie and the feel of the movie has to be more evocative.

In other words, he wanted Fantastic Four to have a real-world feel. He further explains:

I would say that the science fiction of it is a big thing that sets it apart from most of the other superhero genre films. I’m a huge David Cronenberg fan, and I always viewed Fantastic Four and the kind of weirdness that happens to these characters and how they’re transformed to really fall in line more with a Cronenberg-ian science fiction tale of something horrible happening to your body and [it] transforming out of control. And the potential for a hard sci-fi take on that material makes me really excited.

Of course, pretty much every superhero movie director promises ahead of time that his film will be different. But to Trank’s credit, Cronenberg isn’t a typical superhero movie influence, and Glass isn’t a typical superhero movie composer. Plus, Trank actually has delivered one very unique superhero film before — the excellent Chronicle, which got him the Fantastic Four gig in the first place.

Fantastic Four opens August 7. Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Toby Kebbell star. The first teaser will hit with Kingsman: The Secret Service next month.

The post ‘Fantastic Four’: Philip Glass Writing Score, Josh Trank Cites David Cronenberg as Influence appeared first on /Film.

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Of the three major superhero films opening this summer, Fox’s Fantastic Four is the most mysterious. We’ve yet to see a still or poster, let alone a full-fledged trailer. Happily, that starts to change today with the first official behind the scenes look at the movie.

Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell lead the superhero pic, which is directed by Josh Trank. Simon Kinberg and Jeremy Slater wrote the screenplay. Get your Fantastic Four behind the scenes peek after the jump.

The trailer for the film will be attached to Kingsman: The Secret Service next month but Collider debuted the first official behind-the-scenes images from Fantastic Four. The first shows Jordan with Kinberg. The second has Trank on set.

Interestingly, Jordan’s costume lines up pretty well with Nerdist‘s illustrations of costumes from the movie, which you can see below. These aren’t official concept art, but an artist’s rendering based on information from an inside source.

Human Torch’s outfit looks close enough that it stands to reason the others probably aren’t far off either. Jordan had previously described the costumes as “containment suits.”

In an accompanying interview at Collider, Trank explains why they “consciously decided to not release anything official” until just now:

This isn’t like The Avengers. Even when the first Avengers came out, there were four other movies that people were familiar with. The suits and the tone and the look and the feel. So they could release those things or drop them on Twitter. With Simon on the X-Men movies, there were other movies that came before the last X-Men movie so Bryan [Singer] could feel more confident in tweeting teases of what’s to come. But this movie, we really want the audience to have the proper reaction to this material seeing it for the first time. You’ve really got to put your best foot forward. You can’t just leak an image to strike up a conversation. You want people to see something that has thought behind it. And the teaser should do just that. With conversations online, you can’t really control it. In this day and age people have come to expect that artists are going to give everybody information on Twitter about what they’re doing, but not every artist is like that. I’m not really like that. If I was painting a picture I wouldn’t want to take a picture of a single paint stroke. I’d rather show people what it looks like when it’s done.

We’re still waiting to get our first taste of the actual film, but these behind-the-scenes pics sure are doing a great job of getting us hungry for more. Fantastic Four will be in theaters August 7.

The post First Look: ‘Fantastic Four’ Behind-the-Scenes Images Reveal Human Torch Costume appeared first on /Film.

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