Category: Movies

  • Need for Speed movie hits $100M at box office, becomes 18th best-performing game movie of all time

    Need for Speed, the film based on Electronic Arts’ racing franchise and starring Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, has cruised to over $100 million in total lifetime box office grosses. In the United States, the movie has banked $30.5 million, while international receipts total over $96.1 million.

    Combined, Need for Speed’s worldwide box office performance so far has reached $126.6 million. The data comes from Hollywood box office reporting service Box Office Mojo.

    Need for Speed had a $66 million production budget, so the film has now reached profitability, just two weeks after its initial debut on March 14.

    According to the site’s Video Game Adaptation chart, Need for Speed is now the 18th best-performing movie based on a video game in United States box office history. The number one film, by a large margin, is 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

    I saw Need for Speed and found it to be both great and terrible. Have you seen it? Let us know what you think of the high-octane action racing movie in the comments below.

    Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch
    Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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  • The 10 Weirdest Marvel Movies That Almost Got Made

    The 10 Weirdest Marvel Movies That Almost Got Made

    These days, Marvel has a pretty amazing track record on the big screen. Even if you toss in the films produced by Sony or Fox, most of the movies range from okay to superb. But things could have turned out very, very different. Here are 10 bizarre Marvel film projects that were in development at one point.

    Read more…

        

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  • ‘Avengers 2′ Bits: Hawkeye and Hulk Bulk Up, Script Not Being Changed, Falcon Won’t Appear, Vision

    The Avengers Group

    By now you know the drill. As a new Marvel movie is released, Kevin Feige gives us news on what’s coming up next. The biggest Marvel film on the horizon is Avengers: Age of Ultron, written and directed by Joss Whedon. So during the press junket for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, out April 4, questions about all kinds of thing in regards to the sequel were posed to Feige. Below you can read about the following:

    • Hawkeye’s Phase Two whereabouts will be covered.
    • Hulk and Hawkeye will have a bigger role.
    • Agent Coulson could potentially appear.
    • Whedon will not rewrite the script because of Scarlett Johansson’s pregnancy.
    • Anthony Mackie’s Falcon won’t appear.
    • Feige comments on Paul Bettany as Vision.

     

    First up, in my interview with Kevin Feige we talked about a huge scope of topics, many of which are major spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We’ll run those closer to release, but once you see the film you’ll probably be asking, “Where’s Hawkeye?” Considering it deals heavily with S.H.I.E.L.D, who previously employed Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), his inclusion seems logical. Feige told me it was a conscious decision to not overload this film but not only will Renner have a bigger role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, his whereabouts during Phase Two, will be revealed.

    Feige added to that statement speaking to JoBlo, reiterating what we’d all heard and assumed for a long time, the two members of the Avengers who didn’t get their own Phase Two movies will have considerably bigger roles in Avengers: Age of Ultron:

    Part of the fun of AGE OF ULTRON was saying, you’ve seen another IRON MAN adventure before, you see another THOR adventure and another CAP adventure, but we haven’t seen the Green Goliath again. So that was important in the characters you haven’t seen – Hulk being one of them and Hawkeye being one of them – ULTRON will make up for it. They have very big parts in AGE OF ULTRON.

    It’s difficult to really explain the importance of this next question without spoiling Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but Movies.com asked Kevin Feige the question if Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) could make the transition back from TV to film in Age of Ultron:

    That is a good question that I probably shouldn’t answer for any number of reasons.

    One of the biggest storylines in Avengers: Age of Ultron is now taking place off the screen. Star Scarlett Johansson was recently revealed to be pregnant and many assumed that might influence her ability to shoot her scenes. It will but Kevin Feige told Collider Joss Whedon won’t be rewriting the script:

    Well my first reaction was I was very happy for her and very excited for her, and my second reaction was we’ve gotta move some pieces on the chess board around schedule-wise. But we didn’t change the script at all, which is sort of the most important things for us in terms of the storyline. I think the goal is for us to sit here talking about the fact that you would never know that Black Widow was pregnant during the filming of the movie when you see the final version of Avengers 2.

    That quote is a little odd when you juxtapose it with this one from Captain America star Anthony Mackie. MovieWeb said they’d love to see him appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and he told the following story:

    (Laughs) I wish. Everybody says that but Kevin Feige. Chris [Evans] is a good friend of mine. The movie starts in three weeks. I know he’s read the script. He’s like, ‘Yo, man, I read the Avengers script. It’s good.’ I was like, ‘Really?’ He said, ‘Yeah, Joss (Whedon) is doing rewrites, but it’s good. I was like, ‘Great! So… am I in it?’ And he says, ‘I’ve got to go. I’ll be back.’ What do you mean? Why can’t you just tell me if I’m in the movie? No one will tell me, not one person, so I gave up on it.

    So Falcon won’t be in the movie, but Whedon is doing rewrites? Someone is misinformed here. But I tend to believe the rewriters are probably just natural.

    Finally, back to my own interview with Feige, I ended by asking him if he could confirm the news Paul Bettany was playing Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    I don’t think we’ve officially said anything. But other people said things.

    Sounds pretty official to me.

    Avengers: Age of Ultron opens May 1, 2015. Filming is now underway.

    The post ‘Avengers 2′ Bits: Hawkeye and Hulk Bulk Up, Script Not Being Changed, Falcon Won’t Appear, Vision appeared first on /Film.

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  • ‘Captain America 3′ Release Date Set for May 6, 2016; Will Challenge ‘Batman vs. Superman’

    la_ca_0102_Captain_America

    The answer to the question of what Marvel film would dare challenge Batman vs. Superman has been revealed: It’ll be Captain America 3, directed by the Russo Brothers.

    The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the release date.

    Wednesday, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told /Film, despite DC’s Batman vs. Superman scheduling itself on the same date Marvel had already picked in May 2016, Marvel would not move. At the time, Feige wouldn’t say what film that would be but with buzz on Captain America: The Winter Solider so solid, it tracking for a near $100 million opening weekend and Joe and Anthony Russo already confirmed to direct, Captain America 3 is the furthest along of the rumored 2016 Marvel movies. It taking that spot make senses.

    Captain America 3 will be the first of two Marvel films released in 2016. And, if it holds, odds are Doctor Strange would be the second one. A release later on July 8, 2016 would put less pressure on the new franchise (a strategy similar to Guardians of the Galaxy this year and Ant-Man next year) plus give more time to develop the magical world of the character on the page and screen.

    Now eyes turn to Warner Bros. where Hey U Guys reports there are already rumblings of the Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel potentially moving up one week into April. Reportedly, a Brazilian website says Batman vs. Superman will be released on April 28 in that country and the U.S. release date could move too. That is not confirmed, but it’s a rumor and an interesting one at that. If Captain America 3 and Batman vs. Superman release on the same date, they would potentially suffer on their bottom line. Of note though, big blockbusters opening a week early in foreign countries is a pretty standard practice.

    Let’s be honest here, one of the films is going to move, it’s just a matter of which one.

    Do you think a Captain America 3 release could hold up against Batman vs. Superman? Who is going to budge first in this epic game of box-office chicken?

    The post ‘Captain America 3′ Release Date Set for May 6, 2016; Will Challenge ‘Batman vs. Superman’ appeared first on /Film.

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  • ‘Terminator: Genesis’ Adds J.K. Simmons

    Terminator Genesis JK Simmons

    Last month, Jai Courtney booked the role of Kyle Reese in Terminator: Genesis to complete the central trio of returning characters. (Or quartet, if you count Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Terminator.) Now it’s moving on to some other, less prominent but still crucial, roles — starting with an boozed-up detective to be played by J.K. Simmons.

    Learn more about his character, and get some details on how he’ll fit into this complicated time-jumping narrative, after the jump.

    According to THR, Simmons is currently in talks to join the Alan Taylor-directed franchise reboot. Already cast are Courtney and Schwarzenegger, as mentioned above, plus Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jason Clarke (no relation) as John Connor (yes relation).

    Written by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, Terminator: Genesis weaves together various threads from earlier installments of the series. A rumored plot description surfaced earlier this month, but all we know for certain is that it involves time travel. Which is how 26-year-old Emilia Clarke is able to play the mother of 44-year-old Jason Clarke.

    According to the trade’s sources, Simmons will play “a weary and alcoholic detective who has followed a bizarre case involving Sarah Connor and robots for more than three decades (since 1984, which, not coincidentally, is the year the original movie, directed by James Cameron, was released).”

    Hmm… could that tie into the planned TV show somehow? What we’ve heard about that project is that it’ll hinge on “a critical moment” from the first Terminator, but then take the plot “in a completely different direction.”

    Whatever Simmons’ character does or doesn’t have to do with the TV series, it’ll just be nice to see this versatile actor in the upcoming movie. Over the decades, Simmons has built up the kind of career where you never know just where he’ll turn up next.

    He recently got some Sundance love for the indie drama Whiplash, and is currently leading the NBC sitcom Growing Up Fisher. He’s no stranger to big-budget franchises, either, having played J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.

    Terminator: Genesis is scheduled to start shooting this spring in New Orleans and other locations. It opens July 1, 2015.

    The post ‘Terminator: Genesis’ Adds J.K. Simmons appeared first on /Film.

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  • Sebastian Stan Has a Nine-Film Marvel Deal

    Winter Soldier

    At this point, there’s every reason to expect that an actor with a major Marvel movie role will have signed a six-film deal. So this week’s revelation from Sebastian Stan of a nine-picture deal isn’t a huge surprise, despite the fact that it tops even Samuel L. Jackson’s epic deal. (As far as we know. Other cast members might have similar contracts.) But it does tell us a bit about what to expect from his character. Stan played Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger, and has a significant role in sequel The Winter Soldier.

    Since The Winter Soldier doesn’t open for a couple more weeks we won’t reveal any specifics of Stan’s potential future role with Marvel, but after the break we’ll indulge in a bit of speculation.

    There’s a lot in The Winter Soldier that suggests where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to go in the next few movies. None of that will be discussed here. Not for nothing has Kevin Feige been saying that this movie plots out the future of the MCU, but we’ll leave that talk for after it opens.

    But Stan told Newsarama “I think I actually have nine” when asked how many films he could be in with Marvel according to the current plan. We do know that Chris Evans only has a six-picture deal, and factoring in the second Avengers movie he’s more than half way done with that. He doesn’t seem like a guy who will want to play Captain America forever, and that six-picture deal reflects that.

    Luckily, the original Winter Soldier comic storyline written by Ed Brubaker, and stories that follow, features one obvious solution. Bucky eventually takes on the mantle of Captain America himself. So that’s an obvious solution to the notion that Chris Evans might want to move on. Whether or not Stan can mold himself into the same sort of charismatic leading man Evans has become is another question. He’s got the potential, and The Winter Soldier sees Marvel exploring only one aspect of his capabilities.

    Of course, having the deal doesn’t mean Marvel will exercise all the options. We’ve also heard that the direction of Cap 3 will depend in part on how people respond to this movie. A lot of that probably has to do with audience response to Sebastian Stan. If fans really like him in this movie, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing much more of him in future Marvel phases.

    The post Sebastian Stan Has a Nine-Film Marvel Deal appeared first on /Film.

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  • Watch: Spectacular Animated Short for Superman’s 75th Anniversary

    Superman

    For those who don’t know, it’s Superman’s 75th anniversary, and to commemorate The Big Blue Boy Scout, Warner Bros. Animation teamed up with Man of Steel director Zack Snyder for a cool little animated short that quickly and cleverly covers the expansive pop culture history of Superman. With help from “Superman: The Animated Series” creator Bruce Timm, this short starts with the hero’s debut in Action Comics #1 and moves through things like “Super Friends,” the big screen adventure in Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman, the popular series “Smallville” and, of course, this year’s Man of Steel. ›››

  • Rumor: ‘Lord of the Rings’ Land Coming to Disney World?

    Peter Jackson on the set of The Hobbit

    Wannabe hobbits may no longer have to journey to New Zealand to make their dreams come true. A new report indicates that Disney is close to finalizing a deal with Warner Bros. to bring a Lord of the Rings-themed attraction to Orlando.

    Now, it’s been rumored for years that the Mouse House has an eye on Middle-earth. With no official confirmation from either company as of yet, this update could turn out to mere gossip as well. But it really seems like a matter of time before someone makes a Tolkien park happen, and as of now it looks like Disney is the best bet. More on this possible new attraction after the jump.

    Middle-earth has long seemed like a natural fit for a theme park, and the success of Hobbiton in New Zealand is proof that Lord of the Rings fandom can translate into tourist dollars. Earlier this year, there was word that Universal was negotiating for the rights, but nothing came of those rumors.

    With that in mind, WDW News Today (via The One Ring) writes that Disney has been talking with Warner Bros. since late last year, and plans to make an announcement in the near future. Disney reportedly hopes that a Lord of the Rings park will give them an edge over competitor Universal Studios Orlando, which has found huge success with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

    According to the site, Disney is looking to put the Lord of the Rings land alongside the rumored Star Wars land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Also coming to Walt Disney World Resort in the next several years is an Avatar-themed attraction, which will be located within the Animal Kingdom theme park.

    Again, though, nothing’s been set in stone at this point. And there’s reason for skepticism. J.R.R. Tolkien famously disliked Disney, so the Tolkien Estate may not be eager to sign off on it. Moreover, we’ve heard variations of this rumor for years and years now. There’s no proof yet that this report is any more solid.

    Still, assuming Disney does make it happen — what Lord of the Rings rides and attractions would you like to see?

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  • ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Banner: Many Dwarves, Three Elves, and One Scared Hobbit

    the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-banner

    Bilbo’s unexpected journey continues this winter with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and Warner Bros. has a new banner out to show off some of the sights to come.

    Whereas the last film’s marketing campaign was stuffed with dwarves, only the prettiest and most popular make the cut this time around. (Though you can barely make out a few of the others in the background, if you squint.) Instead, the artwork makes room for a couple of new characters, like Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), along with old favorites like Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom). Check it out after the jump.

    Warner Bros. released the new poster through the official Hobbit Twitter account. Click the image below to enlarge.

    300210id1h_TheHobbit_TDOS_Tapestry_Keyart_7inH_x_38inW.indd

    The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens December 13.

    From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

    The film continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. 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 Mirkwood Forest.

    After escaping capture by the dangerous Woodland 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 before, 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.

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  • ‘The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time’ Trailer: Feature Length Documentary About Classic Arcade Games

    The Space Invaders

    I love a good documentary, but I really love a good documentary about video games. The King of Kong and Indie Game were each on my best of lists their year of release and a new film has now been released exploring a new aspect of gaming. (Or, to me more accurate, an old one.)

    I haven’t watched this film, so I can’t yet vouch for its quality but here’s the good news. We call call watch it right now. The film is called The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time and it tells the story of the golden age of arcades by following several subjects who’ve made it their life’s work to restore and collect old stand-up games. It’s directed by Jeff Von Ward and is currently available for download and via Amazon Instant Video. Check out a trailer below and get a link to the full movie.

    Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads up. Learn more about the movie on its official site, or check it out on Amazon here. Here’s the trailer:

    The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time, a feature-length documentary about arcade game collectors from The Space Invaders on Vimeo.

    Here’s the official synopsis. Are you going to check this film out?

    Beginning with Space Invaders in 1978, arcade games began to appear everywhere. By 1982, there were 13,000 dedicated arcade locations across North America. It was the golden age of arcade games, generating $3.2 billion dollars in 1983. By 1985, revenue had fallen 97%. Atari declared bankruptcy. Arcades closed. Most of the old games were converted or destroyed. A few packed into warehouses where they remained, largely forgotten, for at least another decade. This is the story of arcade video games, and their second life in basements and garages all across the country.

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