FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Twentieth Century Fox's genre superpowers pic Chronicle goes head to head this weekend with CBS Films' horror-thriller The Woman in Black, but both are looking at a narrow playtime because of Super Bowl Sunday.
The third new film of the weekend is Universal's family friendly whale pic Big Miracle, starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski. Super Bowl weekend is always a popular landing pad for genre fare, along with family friendly titles like Big Miracle.
Tracking suggests Chronicle and Woman in Black could end up in a relatively close battle for the No. 1 spot, although some give Chronicle a slight edge. They're both expected to open in the low- to mid-teens, although both Fox and CBS Films are giving more conservative estimates. Big Miracle should follow with an opening gross in the high single digits or low teens.
Chronicle, about a group of friends who acquire superpowers and use them to make mischief until one of them begins using them for darker purposes, is tracking best with younger men. Produced for a modest $12 million, the edgy film was directed by Josh Trank and stars Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan and Michael Kelly.
Woman in Black, based on Susan Hill's novel of the same name, was produced by Hammer Film Productions and preemptively acquired by CBS Films just before the Cannes Film Festival last year. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer, the ghost story was directed by James Watkins and is showing impressive strength among young women.
Insiders at CBS Films, which acquired Woman in Black for a modest $3 million, say the movie played much broadly than expected during test screenings.
Universal's campaign for Big Miracle has targeted moms and girls, the latter being the demo least interested in football (that's why Disney opened Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour over Super Bowl weekend).
Directed by Ken Kwapis, Big Miracle is based on the 1989 book Freeing the Whales, and tells the story of the international rescue effort to rescue three gray whales trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska. In the movie, Barrymore and Krasinski play a nonprofit aid worker and a government worker who develop a romance.

REVOLUTION
According to the Hollywood Reporter, NBC has given pilot orders to Revolution, a dramatic thriller from J.J. Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.
Described as an epic adventure thriller, the Warner Bros. Television project follows a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist. The project puts him back in the NBC fold, where Undercovers, his short-lived CIA series starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe, aired for a few short months before getting the ax.
Kripke will pen the script with Abrams and Bryan Burk (Fringe) on board to exec produce via their Bad Robot shingle.
The project marks Abrams' second pilot order this season, coming just days after the CW ordered Shelter from the Lost creator and One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn. That project is is set at an historic New England summer resort where the new and returning staff attend to the practical, emotional and often comical needs of the guests while navigating friendships, rivalries and romances of their own.
The drama also gives Abrams projects in various stages at all of the broadcast networks except ABC: CBS has given a full-season order to rookie drama Person of Interest; and Fox's Alcatraz has been a solid performer on Mondays. Abrams' last NBC project, CIA drama Undercovers, failed to catch on with viewers last season.

MERLIN'S EPISODE TONIGHT
Arthur faces his first true test as King when he incurs the wrath of the formidable Queen Annis. With the lives of thousands hanging in the balance, Arthur must find the strength to be his own man and become the leader Camelot so desperately needs. With the help of his Trusty sidekick Merlin and The Knights Of Camelot can he conqure the trubbles he faces?

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012

RED LIGHTS
Take sci-fi icon Sigourney Weaver, add Greatest Actor of All Time candidate Robert De Niro, throw in a little Cillian Murphy, mix it all together with psychics and paranormal spookiness and you've got Red Lights. It was one of the most talked-about genre pictures at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and now the first trailer is here to creep us out.
Weaver stars as renowned paranormal investigator Dr. Margaret Matheson, who has quite a reputation for traveling and debunking psychics the world over. But she may have just met her match in the form of blind psychic Simon Silver (De Niro), a legend of the paranormal who's just come out of a 30-year exile.
Matheson's assistant Dr. Tom Buckley (Murphy) urges her to launch the ultimate investigation into Silver and develops an obsession with the psychic as more and more unexplainable strangeness begins to surround him.
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes (responsible for the acclaimed Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried back in 2010), the film was picked up for distribution by Millennium Entertainment last week. No release date yet, but with a cast like this Red Lights is definitely a film to watch for.

MOTOR CITY
Gary Oldman, riding high from a best actor Oscar nomination for his work in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is in final negotiations to play the villain in Motor City, a Dark Castle revenge thriller being directed by Albert Hughes. Warner Bros. is distributing.
Dominic Cooper, who caught the town’s eye with his performance in The Devil’s Double, and Amber Heard are starring in the pic, about a small-time hood who is framed and sent to prison, only to exact revenge years later to get back the woman he loves.
Oldman, who worked with Hughes on Book of Eli, will act as a kingpin-type who has his hooks into the woman.
Chad St. John wrote the script. Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing. Douglas Urbanski and Ethan Erwin are exec producing.
An April start in Berlin is being eyed.
Oldman, repped by APA, Douglas Urbanski Group and Loeb and Loeb, next reprises his role as Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises. He also has the ensemble period crime movie The Wettest County in the can.

NOAH
While no deal has been signed at this point, Deadline is reporting that Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is hoping to get Oscar-winning Australian actor Russell Crowe to play the title role in his reenvisioning of the classic bible tale in Noah, which is scheduled to start filming in the spring.
It also reports that he's hoping to get Liam Neeson, who is coming off his box office topping The Grey for another key role. Again, no deals have been made and nothing's been signed but after the success of Black Swan and with a studio like Paramount backing him, it seems like a fairly safe bet that Aronofsky will be able to get what he wants.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012

THE AVENGERS
Mere hours ago, writer-director Joss Whedon joined his Avengers cast members Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg to field some questions from the Twitterverse. And what could've been a stale marketing initiative turned into something both newsworthy and hilarious.
Newsworthy in that Whedon cleared up the rumor floating around that a certain webslinger might appear in The Avengers. And hilarious ... well, see for yourself.
Q: Is the movie's plot going to reference any classic Avengers stories or be a more "ulitmate-ized" story?
JW: "It's a combo platter: classic, Ultimate, plus a little "Richie Rich" & "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
Q: Was there an Avenger you wanted to put in the movie but couldn't make it work for whatever reason be it budget or time?
JW: "I'm a fan of the Wasp. She's goofy and sting-y."
Q: What about the Spider-Man cameo?
JW: "There is no Spider-Man cameo. But the Avengers do turn off the dark."
Q: Has the ante been upped on Easter Eggs? And if so, how attentive will movie goers have to be to stop them?
JW: "There will be actual dyed eggs. Try to find them all!"

Q: Everyone always asks what the hardest part of directing the movie was. What was the easiest?
JW: "Controlling the meat puppets. ... I mean, actors."
Q: Will the female characters, esp. Black Widow, remind the boys how strong they are, and how?
JW: "The females will spend their time whimpering and baking and being befuddled by math." #sarcasm
Q: What was your first reaction to getting the chance to direct The Avengers?
JW: "What moron would take a job that hard? Show me this moron, so that I may mock him."
Q: Can you enjoy Avengers without seeing all the other films?
JW: "You don't need to see any @Marvel movies to enjoy #Avengers! But you need to see Steel Magnolias, like, six times."
Q: How long did it take to shoot the movie?
JW: "I started when I was 12 and should be done by May 3rd at 11:59 pm."
Q: Who was the jokester on the set?
JW: "I had the jokester put down on day 3."
Yes, there were questions to and answers from the cast members, but there weren't nearly as "special" as Whedon's. And to top it all off, we got a teaser for the Avengers' Super Bowl commercial.

NEW DRAMAS FOR THE CW
The Hollywood Reporter writes that in a bid to broaden its reach, the CW has picked up three hourlong dramas from established industry players including J.J. Abrams, Mark Harmon and Kim and Eric Tannenbaum.
Abrams' Shelter hails from the Lost creator and One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn and is set at an historic New England summer resort where the new and returning staff attend to the practical, emotional and often comical needs of the guests while navigating friendships, rivalries and romances of their own.
Schwahn, whose One Tree Hill is currently airing its ninth and final season, will write the project and executive produce Maine via his Mastermind shingle, with Abrams and Bryan Burk's Warner Bros. Television-based Bad Robot also exec producing.
Shelter reunites Abrams with CW president Mark Pedowitz and executive vp drama development Thom Sherman, all of whom worked together on ABC/ABC Studios' Lost. The project marks Abrams' return to the network where he started. One half of the former WB Network was home to his first series, the Keri Russell starrer Felicity, which ran from 1998-2002. Abrams, who is also behind Fox newcomer Alcatraz, has the adventure-thriller Revolution set up at NBC with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.
For its part, The Selection, based on the forthcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, is an epic romance set 300 years in the future. The project, set up at Warner Bros. TV, centers on a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.
Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, whose credits include Vampire Diaries, Dollhouse and Secret Circle, are on board to write and executive produce the hourlong drama. They have drama project Beautiful Girls in development at Fox.
Finally, Joey Dakota hails from Easy A scribe Bert Royal and is based on the Israeli format Danny Hollywood. The romantic-time travel musical revolves around a documentary filmmakerk who travels back in time to the 1990s where she meets and falls in love with the rock star subject of her film. When she unexpectedly returns to present day, she must find her way back to the past to reunite with her love and prevent his untimely death.
NCIS star Harmon is attached to executive produce the project, from CBS Television Studios in association with Harmon/Tannenbaum, alongside Eric and Kim Tannenbaum (CBS' Rob) and Martha Haight (Chaos).
For the Tannenbaums, the project is their second ordered to pilot this season behind CBS' Find Me.
This brings the CW's hourlong picks to a total of eight. Others high-profile projects include Arrow, from Greg Berlanti, and Carrie Diaries from Gossip Girl's Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012

LOCKOUT
Even if you believe Lockout is a shameless ripoff of Escape From New York, you can't deny that this prison-in-space extravaganza packs some serious testosterone.
Luc Besson co-wrote the kinetic, hard-boiled adventure with a wink to John Carpenter's classic, and the new American trailer promises a bumpy ride to a maximum-security nuthouse.
Buckle up and check it out.
Guy Pearce, sporting antihero stubble and a bad attitude, stars as Snow, the loose cannon aimed at saving the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) from the clutches of an insane gang of arch-criminals aboard an orbiting Supermax. The old-school effects and raw tone give us hope that this homage to Kurt Russell could provide an adrenalized dose of awesomeness this spring.
Co-directed by Irishmen James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, it was originally titled MS One: Maximum Security and Section 8 and seems to be branded with a well-earned R rating.
Lockout goes into zero-gravity riot mode when it opens wide April 20, 2012.

X-MEN NEWS
The massive commercial and critical success of X-Men: First Class meant we were almost guaranteed to see a sequel sooner or later, we just didn't know when or (perhaps more importantly) if director Matthew Vaughn would come back to helm the project.
Well, we still don't know when, but we do know that the sequel IS happening, and that Vaughn is back for more mutant madness.
In a story announcing a new multi-year deal for 20th Century Fox's Production President Emma Watts, Deadline also reported that a deal to get Vaughn back in the director's chair for another mutant flick was "just closed." Bryan Singer will also return as producer on the flick, and Simon Kinberg—whose previous experience with mutants includes co-producing First Class and co-writing X-Men: The Last Stand—will write at least the first draft of the script.
That last name might seem a bit surprising. We all thought we'd see First Class co-writer and frequent Vaughn collaborator Jane Goldman sign on for this flick too. But of course, the production is young, and we could very easily see her showing up to collaborate and/or rewrite a bit later in the game.
Of course, the big question now becomes just where the next film will pick up. We've heard the possibility that the first sequel could be bumped all the way up to the 1970s, and Vaughn himself has said that he'd like to see the second film open with Magneto controlling the fabled "magic bullet" in the JFK assassination. Whatever the plot, the sequel finally has a team in place to make it happen, and we can't wait.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST NEWS
The CW is rebooting the adored, classic Ron Perlman/Linda Hamilton urban fantasy series Beauty and the Beast. Which isn't the worst idea in the world, really. But if this is the plan ...
Moviehole iss claiming to have the Beauty and the Beast's plot particulars—verified by an actor who's auditioned for the new pilot. And they seem to differ wildly from the 1987 original:
Catherine and Vincent first meet when she's younger. When Catherine's mother was killed in a car-jacking (or whatever it was—Catherine's never been convinced it was a simple car-jacking) Vincent was the one who snatched the young girl and saved her from the same fate. As the newspapers tell us, Catherine claimed "the beast" saved her but nobody has laid eyes on him since.
Years later, they'll meet again under different circumstances. Catherine is now a feisty, slightly troubled (She can't keep a relationship; struggles with her mother's passing) New York City cop who comes across Vincent, the beast, at an old abandoned chemical warehouse.
She's there to speak to a man named TJ, whose car was spotted at a crime scene nights before—a young woman was poisoned. Dead. T.J isn't there, but instead, she speaks to his "roomie" ... who remains shrouded in shadows for the most part.
Catherine is alarmed to discover her "Beast"—the one that saved her as a youngster—is the one behind the shadow. She is taken back by Vincent—once he emerges from the shadows—but despite his features, trusts him when he declares he and his friend did not hurt the girl, but only tried to help her (just as he had done numerous other times; Vincent's become sort-of like a local "Batman" to the people). At his request, Catherine promises not to let anyone know his whereabouts, let alone that he's alive.
Vincent worked as a doctor at the New York University hospital—and was working on September 11, 2001 when the towers came down. Long story short, a wounded Vincent ends up in a medical clinic where he's injected with a DNA-changing drug. The drug turns him into an unstoppable soldier type that is used in Afghanistan. Think "Captain America" or a "Universal Soldier." Unfortunately, the strength and stamina comes with a price...it also changes Vincent's look—in particular, hair sprouts hair everywhere. When he returned from Afghanistan, looking like he is, he hid himself away—with the help of T.J.
Vincent now lives with friend TJ and ... a Wii and an endless supply of beer.
Yeah, it was a foregone conclusion that in any NYC-based reconception of Beauty and the Beast would be colored by 9/11, but I wouldn't have guessed that the tragedy would be used as a catalyst to turn Vincent into a super-beast.
This new version is being written by Jennifer Levin (Felicity) and Sherri Cooper (Brothers and Sisters) and co-executive produced by Ron Koslow, creator of the '80s series—if Koslow's good with it, we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.

JOHN CARTER SUPERBOWL AD
Viewers who are interested in entering the "John Carter Journey to the Super Bowl" sweepstakes should tune into the game and watch for the John Carter commercial. During the airing of the 30-second spot, a code will be revealed. Viewers can then go to http://NFL.com/JohnCarter and input the code to be entered in the sweepstakes.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, the big screen adaptation of the classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs hits 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9. The film features a cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe.
John Carter tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 2012

CHRONICLE
FOX is teaming up with Eventful to let college students across the country determine which 10 colleges get a free advanced screening of “Chronicle." Now through January 30th at 5:00 pm PST fans can cast a vote for their school at eventful.com/chronicle. The top ten colleges with the most Demands will host a free advanced screening this coming Wednesday at midnight before Chronicleopens.
Chronicle tells the story of three high school friends that gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012

THE PARTNER
In development for some time, John Grisham's novel The Partner has found a director. Deadline reports that John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) is now set to helm the New Regency adaptation.
Published in 1997, The Partner is officially described as follows:
They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; a simple life in a modest home, certainly not one of luxury. Certainly no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. He spoke a different language, and spoke it very well.But Danilo had a past with many chapters. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes.From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm’s offshore account. And Patrick fled some more. But they found him.
It is noted that, while he's committed to The Partner, Hancock may first direct the Bonnie and Clyde film Highwaymen.

THE HUNTER
Magnolia Pictures has released the official domestic trailer for The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Frances O'Connor, Morgana Davies, Jacek Koman, Dan Wyllie, Sullivan Stapleton, John Brumpton, Callan Mulvey and Finn Woodlock.
Opening in theaters on April 6, The Hunter is the story of Martin, a skilled and ruthless mercenary sent into the Tasmanian wilderness on a hunt for a tiger believed to be extinct. Hired by an anonymous company that wants the tiger's genetic material, Martin arrives in Tasmania posing as a scientist. He proceeds to set up base camp at a broken-down farmhouse, where he stays with a family whose father has gone missing. Usually a loner, Martin becomes increasingly close to the family; however, as his attachment to the family grows, Martin is led down a path of unforeseen dangers, complicating his deadly mission.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012

NEW CBS DRAMAS
CBS has ordered to pilot dramas from Nicholas Pileggi, Chris Columbus and Ilene Chaiken.
The first, the untitled Ralph Lamb project, is a period piece set in the 1960s revolving around the true story of the former cowboy turned longtime Las Vegas sheriff.
Lamb, who served as sheriff from 1961 to 1979 helped form the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. HeŐs known for confronting the Mafia and HellŐs Angels, who in his 18-year legal career, never shot anyone. While often engaging in fistfights with crime personalities, Lamb grew up working on ranches.
From CBS Television Studios, GoodFellas scribe Pileggi and Without a Trace writer Greg Walker will pen the pilot and executive produce alongside Walk the Line's James Mangold, who will also direct. Cathy Konrad and Arthur Sarkissian will exec produce.
Second, the network will produce a pilot for Applebaum, an hourlong drama based on Ayelet Waldman's Mommy Track Mysteries series of books in which a former public defender becomes a private investigator to keep from being bored to death as a stay-at-home mom.
Columbus will executive produce and direct the project, alongside Jennifer Levin, Sherri Cooper and Waldlman, who will pen the script for the CBS Television Studios project.
Columbus (Stepmom, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone), who recently inked a three for one deal with CBS, is also involved with the network's Rifleman.
Third, The L Word creator Chaiken will write and executive produce Quean, which revolves around an edgy and independent millennial hacker girl who teams with an Oakland police detective to solve crimes.
Joel Silver will executive produce the Warner Bros. Television project, which is one of two Chaiken has this development season. She had the female PI drama Hail Mary in contention at the network last pilot season.

DISNEY SPACE ADVENTURE
Walt Disney Pictures has picked up an untitled sci-fi project from screenwriter Max Landis, Variety reports.
Said to be an adventure film set in space, the script focuses on a brother and sister. Further details are, at this stage, unavailable.
Landis, who scripted February 3rd's Chronicle with Josh Trank, is also responsible for the upcoming Untitled Frankenstein Film and Pied Piper, both at 20th Century Fox.

MIRROR, MIRROR
Relativity Media has released an international trailer for the new Snow White film, Mirror Mirror.
In the March 30th release, wicked enchantress (Julia Roberts) schemes and scrambles for control of a spirited orphan's (Lily Collins) throne and the attention of a charming prince (Armie Hammer). When Snow White's beauty wins the heart of the prince that she desperately pursues, the Queen banishes her to the forest, where a ravening man-eating beast hungrily awaits.
Rescued by a band of diminutive highway robbers, Snow White grows into an indomitable young woman determined to take back her realm from the treacherous Queen.

THE WALKING DEAD
Following last week's debut of a new clip from the midseason premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead" comes, from the channel's official site, a new trailer for the upcoming television event.
Titled "Nebraska," the eighth episode of the second season marks the first new one since last November. Catch it at 9:00 PM EST on Sunday, February 12th.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012

WIDOW DETECTIVE
CBS has added another drama to its pilot orders.
Widow Detective, which counts CSI mastermind Carol Mendelsohn as an executive producer, certers on a decorated police detective who becomes a surrogate husband, lover and father to the families of three partners lost in the line of duty.
David Hubbard (Noel) is attached to write and executive produce the CBS TV Studios project, with Julie Weitz, head of development at Mendelsohn's production company, on board to executive produce.
Widow is one of four dramas Mendelsohn has in development at CBS. The others include Two Badges, based on the book by Mona Ruiz and Geoff Boucher with The Good Wife writer Ted Humphrey, Murder Room with feature scribe George Nolfi and the Rifleman reboot with Chris Columbus set up at CBS.
In addition, TNT picked up her Missing to pilot in September, and she has projects in development with both CW and FX through her overall deal with CBS Television Studios.

BANSHEE
Alan Ball is working double time for HBO.
The premium cabler's sibling network, Cinemax, has given a series order to Ball's crime drama Banshee, ordering 10 episodes of the project that will be executive produced by the True Blood showrunner.
Jonathan Tropper and David Schicker will pen the drama, which revolves around a criminal who steps into the identity of the Banshee, Penn., where he continues his shady ways while being hunted by gangsters he crossed in his past.
House's Greg Yaitanes will direct the pilot and executive produce with Ball, Tropper, Schickler and Peter Macdissi.
Ball will juggle Banshee with his duties on HBO's campy Anna Paquin vampire drama True Blood, which is in production on its fifth season.
Cinemax has been making a bigger push into original scripted fare with Strike Back picked up for a sophomore season, Melissa George action drama Nemesis and a reboot of the feature series Transporter, starring Chris Vance.
In addition to Banshee and True Blood, Ball also has Wichita, an hourlong medical drama in development at HBO about a Kansas surgeon who inadvertently becomes the focal point of a contemporary political, cultural and ethical war surrounding late-term abortions.
Ball inked a multiyear deal with HBO in July.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Columbia Pictures has released the official synopsis for director Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man, opening in 3D, 2D and IMAX theaters on July 3. This is how the studio describes the film:
One of the world's most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in "The Amazing Spider-Man." Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.
"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
Stay tuned for lots more on the movie as we get closer!

JOHN CARTER
A fifth TV spot for Walt Disney Pictures' John Carter is now online.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, the big screen adaptation of the classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs hits 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9. The film features a cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe.
John Carter tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

MERLIN NEWS
For six seasons, he played the traitorous Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica. This Friday, James Callis brings his acting talents to the international hit series MERLIN, playing the equally unscrupulous Julius Borden.
And in his first scene in this Friday’s episode, titled “Aithusa,” Callis comes face to face with the man who was once his mentor – fittingly, court physician Gaius.
Once the pupil of MERLIN’s Gaius, Borden left Camelot during the Great Purge, but in the darkness returns to Camelotlooking for the third part of the Triskelion – an ancient object that promises to reveal the location of the last dragon egg.
Despite a stern warning from Gaius, Merlin offers to help Borden if it means he can fulfill his obligation as the Last Dragonlord to ensure the survival of the species. But the task turns deadly when Merlin realizes exactly why Borden wants the egg.
Although the Great Dragon, Kilgharrah (voiced by John Hurt), figured prominently in the first season of MERLIN, in the last two seasons his primary function has been to give advice to Merlin and help him in times of greatest threat. It was Kilgharrah, for instance, who cautioned Merlin that “your determination to see goodness in people will be your undoing.”
In “Aithusa,” however, the Great Dragon assumes a much more prominent role in the story. In the last two seasons, MERLIN “has shown his separation, his independence from the Dragon,” says actor Colin Morgan, who plays Merlin. “At the beginning of Season One, the Dragon was a confidante, someone Merlin needed help from. Slowly and slowly, they grew apart, and the Dragon’s motives became slightly unclear, so there has been a question of trust between them.”
And yet, Kilgharrah and Merlin are inextricably linked, Morgan says. “As Dragonlord, Merlin can always command the Dragon, which is a great quality. What’s going to be interesting to see is if Arthur ever meets the Dragon – what his reaction would be.”
While the Dragon doesn’t meet Arthur in “Aithusa,” he does meet a new character … though just who (or what) that is remains to be seen. Viewers will discover the identity – and his or her role in Camelot – in “Aithusa,” the next episode of MERLIN, which airs Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT (9 p.m. Central), only on Syfy.
All three seasons of MERLIN are now available on DVD and on iTunes. Be sure to follow the latest news on MERLIN at the Official Merlin page on Facebook.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012

ELEMENTARY
When news broke that CBS had approved a pilot for a modern-day reimagining of the Sherlock Holmes story called Elementary, it seemed like just another part of the Holmes resurgence—falling in line with the successful film series starring Robert Downey Jr. and the BBC's hit series Sherlock. But it could have some slightly more nefarious origins, at least according to a producer from the BBC series.
Sherlock executive producer Sue Vertue told The Independent that her team was actually approached by CBS to create a licensed U.S. version of Sherlock a while back, but they turned the U.S. network down. Not soon after, CBS announced Elementary was in development.
According to Vertue, the timing seems like more than just a coincidence.
"We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes," she said. "It's interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn't resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying."
If there is too much of a resemblance, Vertue noted every recourse could be taken—and hinted that could even mean a potential lawsuit against CBS.
"We are very proud of our show, and like any proud parent will protect the interest and wellbeing of our offspring," she said.
For those unfamiliar, the BBC series takes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's turn-of-the-century detective and places him in modern-day England, solving cases with everything from CSI equipment to cellphones. Plus, his partner Dr. John Watson publishes their exploits online via his personal blog.
As for the now-in-development Elementary, Holmes and Watson will be solving cases in modern-day New York City. Additional details about the show have not been released.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
For months now, we've all been wondering whether actor Liam Neeson was going to be in The Dark Knight Rises. With the actor playing coy—or rather, playing the ''comatose amnesiac patient'' card regarding the fate of his character, Ra's al Ghul—we almost never thought it would happen! Until we finally got to hear exactly what we wanted.
The actor has confirmed to showbizspy that he's indeed back as Ra's al Ghul in TDKR and that he had filmed some scenes. However, the Irish actor has no idea what's really in store for his character:
"I can tell you nothing about Dark Knight Rises, seriously. I was on set for maybe an hour-and-a-half and the director didn't tell me anything of what it's about. So, I'm being very honest when I say I have no idea what's going to happen."
An hour and a half is a short time to film anything, making us think that perhaps we may only get to see Ra's al Ghul in flashback scenes (after all, the character appeared to die in that spectacular train crash at the end of Batman Begins; try to get out of THAT alive) with his beloved daughter Talia al Ghul. (Joey King plays the character as a young girl, and Marion Cotillard as the older Talia.)
Neeson may also have some scenes with a younger Bane (Tom Hardy), or he may also appear in flashbacks about Bruce Wayne's (Christian Bale) past with the man who was his former mentor.
No matter how he appears in TDKR, it is really exciting to have him back as Ra's al Ghul.
The Dark Knight Rises will soar into theaters on July 20, 2012.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Daniel Radcliffe stepped out without his trusted wand and wizardry for the world premiere of his first post-Harry Potter role in The Woman in Black in the British capital Tuesday.
For his first spell after Potter, Radcliffe stars in the spooky Victorian England-set picture which also includes Janet McTeer, who was in Los Angeles at the time, in its cast.
McTeer is fresh from learning she has been nominated for a supporting role actress Oscar for her turn in Albert Nobbs.
Radcliffe drew a crowd -- albeit smaller than he's used for at the height of Potter mania -- for the premiere held at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank.
The dank, damp weather did nothing to dampen the spirits of the crowds all waiting to see the Potter star.
Before the film unspooled, Radcliffe said it turned out scary enough to "make me jump."
The James Watkins-directed ghost story adaptation is penned by Jane Goldman and backed by Alliance Films, Hammer Films Productions, Cross Creek Pictures, Exclusive Media Group and Film I Vast.
It is a long-anticipated return to British horror stories for Hammer.
Radcliffe also said he will next play poet Allen Ginsberg in the independent film, Kill Your Darlings on the big screen next.

SIDE EFFECTS
First announced in November (under the title The Bitter Pill), Steven Soderbergh's medical thriller, Side Effects has now, according to Deadline, added Catherine Zeta-Jones to its cast.
Zeta-Jones, who previously teamed with Soderbergh for Traffic in 2000, joins Jude Law, Blake Lively and Channing Tatum.
The film, which also reunites Soderbergh with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, Contagion), is said to be set in the world of psychopharmacology (the study of how drugs affect the human mind). Zeta-Jones and Law are said to play doctors with Lively a woman who becomes addicted to prescription drugs and begins an affair with Law's character. Tatum, meanwhile, plays Lively's character's husband, a convict who is due to soon be released from prison.
Lively remains the sole cast member not to have worked alongside Soderbergh in the past. Law appeared in last year's Contagion and Tatum just appeared in Haywire and will soon star in the director's Magic Mike, arriving June 29th.

CHRONICLE
Twentieth Century Fox has debuted a third TV spot for their upcoming Chronicle.
Opening in theaters on February 3rd, the movie stars Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell and Michael Kelly. In Chronicle, three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to them developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities, and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2012

MAN OF STEEL NEWS
Zack Snyder's Man of Steel has added another famous character from the Superman mythos to the production, albeit in a younger form than fans might have been expecting. Superman Super Site confirms today that 13-year-old Jadin Gould will play a young Lana Lang in a flashback scene to Clark Kent's Smallville childhood.
First appearing in 1950's Superboy #50, Lana is the teenage girlfriend of young Clark. She was a central character in the television series, "Smallville" (played by Kristin Kreuk) and has also appeared as a teenager on the big screen in 1978's Superman: The Movie (played by Diane Sherry) and later as an adult, re-entering Clark's life in Superman III (Played by Annette O'Toole, who would later play Martha Kent on "Smallville").
At her young age, Gould already boasts an impressive resume, having appeared on television shows like "Chuck", "Rizzoli & Isles", "The Mentalist" and on the big screen in Battle Los Angeles.
Now filming, Man of Steel's cast also includes Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Antje Traue, Christopher Meloni, Harry Lennix and Laurence Fishburne. It is targeting a June 14, 2013 release.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2012

DA VINCI DEMONS
Starz has found its da Vinci.
British actor Tom Riley has been cast to play a young Leonardo da Vinci in the network's upcoming original series, Da Vinci's Demons.
The historical fantasy drama, a co-production with BBC Worldwide, follows what is being labeled the "untold" story of da Vinci during his turbulent youth in Renaissance Florence.
"Given that da Vinci was the model for the 'Renaissance Man,' these were incredibly large shoes to fill. Leonardo had to be smart, witty and incredibly confident --without coming across as arrogant. He also had to be tormented, because, as a true visionary and polymath, he was ostracized for his ideas as much as he was celebrated," said the series' scribe David S. Goyer. "As soon as [Tom] finished his audition, we knew we had found our man."
Added Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik, "Tom showed us that there are many dimensions to this man yet to be explored, and, at the same time, make him believable, suprising and unique to a world-wide audience."
Riley, who is the first actor cast in the series, is well known in UK circles where he's a regular at London's Royal Court Theatre. His small screen credits include ITV's Monroe as well as Bouquet of Barbed Wire and Lost in Austen. On this side of the pond, he was nominated by the Drama Desk Awards for his performance as Septimus Hodge in Arcadia.
The project, the first to enter production under the multi-year pact between Starz and BBC Worldwide Productions, is set to premiere with eight episodes in 2013. It will join a schedule that currently includes Boss, Spartacus and upcoming Magic City. BBC will distribute Da Vinci's Demons internationally.
Goyer, whose other works include Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, is already on board as the series' showrunner. Julie Gardner and BBC Worldwide Productions' head Jane Tranter are attached as executive producers.

THE LAST EXORCISM
It looks like The Last Exorcism wasn't the last exorcism. A good box office performance in 2010 made sure of that, so now we have a sequel in the works.
Shooting is expected to begin very soon, using a script by Damien Chazelle. This weekend, the director of the sequel was revealed and it's not Daniel Stamm, who helmed the first entry.
Ashley Bell is returning to reprise her role as Nell, however.
According to Deadline, Ed Gass-Donnelly (Small Town Murder Songs) is in the director's seat this time.
And while story details are being kept under wraps, it is known that the events that take place pick up three months after The Last Exorcism.
The producers - Eli Roth, Eric Newman, Marc Abraham and Tom Bliss - are mulling over titles for the sequel. The Last Exorcism 2 isn't going to cut it, apparently.
A Studiocanal (the company financing the film) exec tells Deadline: "This much bigger scale movie will unravel a profoundly scarier chapter to Nell’s battle between good and evil. God have mercy."

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2012

BOX OFFICE REPORT
Box Office Report: 'Underworld 4' Wins Friday With $9.4 Mil, 'Red Tails' Flies With $6 Mil. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" grosses $3.2 million as it expands nationwide; Steven Soderbergh's upscale action pic 'Haywire' comes in No. 5 after scoring D+ CinemaScore.
Screen Gems' Underworld: Awakening and George Lucas' Red Tails are fueling a strong weekend at the domestic box office, which could be up as much as 30 percent over last year despite bad weather in the Midwest and East.
Underworld Awakening, the fourth outing in the Kate Beckinsale vampire-werewolf franchise, grossed $9.4 million on Friday, benefiting from being released in 3D and IMAX runs. The horror action pic is course to gross $23 million to $24 million for the weekend -- better than two of the three previous titles.
Threequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycons debuted to $20.7 million in January 2009, a franchise low. The original Underworld opened to $21.8 mllion, followed by $26.9 million for sequel Underworld: Evolution.
Awakening, co-produced by Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment for $70 million, also opens in a number of overseas markets this weekend.
Fully financed and produced by George Lucas, Red Tails grossed a better than expected $6 million on Friday for a projected $16 million weekend. Fox is distributing the movie, which came in No. 2 behind Awakening.
Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airman during World War II, received a glowing A CinemaScore. Awakening and Warner Bros.' Extremely Loud & Incrediby Close, which is expanding nationwide this weekend, both received an A- CinemaScore.
Lucas spent 20 years pursuing the project, and recently revealed he couldn't get any studio to finance the film because of an all-black cast. He finally decided to put up the money himself, and spent $58 million on the production budget and another $35 in distribution costs. Lucas produced with Rick McCallum.
The cast of Red Tails includes Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard. Recently, the producers and cast were recently at the White House for special screening of the film, along with director Anthony Hemingway.
Stephen Daldry's post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud, starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, came in No. 4 on Friday, grossing $3.2 million as it expanded from six theaters, where it's been playing since Christmas Day, to 2,630 locations. Projections show Extremely Loud grossing $10 million for the weekend.
Universal's Mark Wahlberg starrer Contraband came in No. 3 on its second Friday, grossing $3.7 million for a projected $12 million weekend. The pic's domestic gross through Friday was $37.6 million.
Steven Soderbergh's upscale action film Haywire, the weekend's other new player, came in No. 5 on Friday after scoring a dismal D+ CinemaScore. The Relativity Media pic grossed $2.9 million for the day, and is expected to gross $8 million to $9 million for the weekend. Relativity says the film only cost $23 million, with much of the budget covered by foreign presales.
Headlining Gina Carano as a female covert operative, Haywire also stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Chaning Tatum and Michael Douglas.
Haywire opens in a handful of foreign territories this weekend, including Russia and the U.K. Alliance is distributing the movie in Canada.

THE NORMAL HEART
Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin, Matt Bomer and Jim Parsons have joined Ryan Murphy's ("American Horror Story," Eat Pray Love, "Glee") next film, an adaptation of Larry Kramer's semi-autobiographical play The Normal Heart, says The Hollywood Reporter. The film is being produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B production company. The play is described as follows:
"The Normal Heart" is the explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubling medical crisis today: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrendering ordeal of suffering and doom - an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality."
Mark Ruffalo will play the lead character Ned Weeks. Roberts plays Emma Brookner, "a wheel-chair bound doctor who is one of the only doctors in New York talking the new disease seriously." Baldwin will play Weeks' brother, "a lawyer having a hard time dealing with his sibling's sexuality." Bomer's character is Felix Turner, "a gay fashion journalist who becomes Week’s boyfriend and tragically contracts the disease," while Parsons is reprising his Broadway version of "a Southerner who is a gay activist and part of a gay men’s health crisis group."
Kramer wrote the screenplay.

NOTHING TO FEAR
Anchor Bay Films has made a deal at Sundance with Slash's new company Slasher Films to distribute Nothing to Fear. The full press release:
Anchor Bay Films announced today the pick up of Slasher Films’ Nothing to Fear. Slasher Films is the new horror label conceived by legendary guitar hero Slash and the producing team of Rob Eric and Academy Award™ winning producer Michael Williams (Session 9, Transsiberian, The Fog of War). Nothing to Fear is the first film to be produced in the Slasher Films slate and is based on an actual town in Kansas, which, according to legend, is one of the seven gateways to Hell. The film will be directed by Anthony Leonardi III. Leonardi has been the lead creature artist and storyboard artist for such films as Constantine, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Rango and the upcoming 47 Ronin. His vision and tenacity have made him one of the most talked about new directors. Slash will be co-producing the score of the movie.
“Anchor Bay is thrilled to be working with the Slasher Films team,” commented Kevin Kasha, Executive Vice President, Acquisitions and Co-Productions for Anchor Bay Films. “We knew we wanted to work with Slash when he announced the formation of the label back in September at Toronto and after having read this script, we are even more excited. Anchor Bay Films is the PERFECT home for Nothing to Fear.”
“The team that we’ve put together for Nothing to Fear is nothing short of excellent,” added Slash. “Anthony Leonardi’s vision of this story is exceptionally unnerving and dark. It will keep you totally engaged from the first second of the film to the last. It’s guaranteed to scare the hell out of you.”
“Slash is one of the biggest music icons in the world,” remarked Josh Thomashow, Director of Acquisitions for Anchor Bay Films. “Anchor Bay is so proud to be a part of the brand that makes him an icon in the horror world as well.”
Nothing to Fear is about a family whose journey towards a better life in a small town is savagely derailed by a charismatic but emotionally conflicted man of the cloth.
Stemming from folklore surrounding the actual town of Stull, Kansas, generations of residents and outsiders alike have proclaimed Stull to be one of the seven known gateways to Hell, where once a year, the Devil will rise from the town’s modest graveyard to walk the Earth. For decades, television, music, movies, and more have cautiously addressed the town; its horror is so infamous, even Pope John Paul II refused to fly over its grounds. Nothing to Fear finally pulls the folklore to the forefront and reveals the unsettling fact and fiction rumbling beneath the surface.
The deal was negotiated by Josh Thomashow on behalf of Anchor Bay and by Executive Producers Shaun Redick and Ray Mansfield of Movie Package Co., and Jackie Eckhouse of Sloss Eckhouse LawCo on behalf of Slasher Films. Content Media Corp. is currently handling international sales for the picture.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

THE CONJURING
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are in final negotiations to star in The Conjuring, a supernatural thriller from New Line.
The casting will reteam Wilson with director James Wan, who directed the actor in Insidious, another supernatural creepfest that was one last year's most profitable movies.
In Conjuring, written by Chad and Carey Hayes, Wilson and Farmiga will play a husband and wife team of demonologists and psychic investigators who enter the most horrifying case of their career, spirits in a Rhode Island farmhouse.
The story is based on the real life tale of the Perron family and their ordeals in the 1970s. When New Line acquired the pitch from the Hayes, it included life rights to the Perron family and the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
A March shoot in North Caroline is being eyed.
Pete Safran, Rob Cowan, and Tony DeRosa-Grund are producing.
Wilson, currently seen on screen in Jason Reitman's Young Adult, is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Hansen Jacobson.
Farmiga, who appears in next month’s Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds action thriller Safe House, is repped by CAA, Authentic Talent and attorney Jodi Peikoff.

RESIDENT EVIL 6
Here is a trailer for newly-announced video game Resident Evil 6 from Capcom. Coming to stores on November 20, 2012, the game is described as follows:
It has been ten years since the incident at Raccoon City and the President of the United States has decided to reveal the truth behind what took place. Raccoon City survivor and personal friend of the President, Leon S. Kennedy, arrives to find the President transformed beyond recognition by a bioterrorist attack. Leon is forced to make the hardest decision he has ever made.
At the same, Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance Member, Chris Redfield arrives in China, itself under threat of a bioterrorist attack.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012

BEING HUMAN
The stakes are high, there's no escape, the vampires are coming.'' That's what we're being ominously told in this first exciting and full-on emotionalŃand may we add, a bit trippyŃBeing Human U.K. season-four trailer.
Returning for this fourthŃand perhaps even lastŃseason of the popular BBC Three supernatural drama series created by Toby Whithouse are actors Russell Tovey, as werewolf George, and Lenora Crichlow, as ghost Annie.
The remaining twosome is joined by new posh vamp Hal (Damien Molony) and young werewolf Tom (Michael Socha), who was first introduced last season.
Annie, George, Tom and newcomer Hal find the fate of humanity in their hands as Being Human returns for it's fourth series.
Have a look:
From the looks of things, George is NOT in a good emotional place, having lost both his best friend Mitchell (Aidan Turner) last yearŃGeorge became the prophesised ''wolf-shaped bullet'' and staked his bloodsucking BFFŃand his girlfriend Nina (Sinead Keenan; the departure of the character will be made off-screen).
If that wasn't enough, our poor George also has to deal with the new vampire-authority-in-town that wants to kill his baby daughter because ''werewolves have only ever been made, not born.'' Awesome.
Being Human season four will air on BBC Three in the U.K. in early February (date still to be determined). Let's keep our fingers (and toes) crossed that it'll air sooner rather than later on our side of the pond.

RESIDENT EVIL RETRIBUTION
As they've gone on, Milla Jovovich's Resident Evil movies seems to have become less and less tethered to anything resembling sanity. Thing is: We don't care. Insane is precisely what we want, and this first snippet from Retribution doesn't disappoint.
I'm particularly fond of the use of Patrick Stewart's dulcet voice to soothe you into a kind of tech-commercial stuporŃand that is a whole lot of Sony products this teaser is sellingŃbefore all hell breaks loose.
It's a long way until September 2012, but I'm marking my calendar.

ARTHUR & LANCELOT ON HOLD
In a surprise move, Warner Bros. has taken David Dobkin's Arthur & Lancelot off its release calendar in order to iron out several issues, including a large budget.
The new take on the King Arthur legend, starring Kit Harington and Joel Kinnaman, was supposed to open March 15, 2013.
In a second major move, Warners moved back Bryan Singer's fantasy Jack the Giant Killer 3D by nine months to March 22, 2013. It had been set to open June 15, 2012. In a more minor tweak, New Line and Warners' Rock of Ages is being pushed back by two weeks, from June 1, 2012, to June 15, 2012.
Dobkin called talent and crew Wednesday night to inform them that Lancelot "wasn't looking good."
The studio says it is trying to address the movie's issues. "We are trying to make it work. It's not dead," says a Warners insider.
The reimagining of the King Arthur myth is new territory for Dobkin, a helmer best known for comedies including Wedding Crashers. After an exhaustive search, Harington and Kinnaman were picked to play King Arthur and his most loyal knight, Lancelot, respectively. The film is intended to be a lighthearted action pic, similar in tone to Warners' successful Sherlock Holmes franchise.
But the budget for the project soared from less than $100 million to $130 million, prompting Warners to ask for cuts. Adding to the complication was the untested box-office power of the two actors, both of whom have drawn raves for their television work but have yet to carry a movie.
If the film does move ahead, it could be without one or both actors because of scheduling issues (Dobkin was supposed to start shooting in spring 2012).
Kinnaman is shooting AMC's The Killing and was due to segue into Arthur & Lancelot, but Harington was meant to do the movie before returning to his hit show Game of Thrones, which is due to start shooting in the spring. If ironing out the issues takes too long, he could be the first casualty.
Warners can likely afford to move back Jack the Giant Killer because of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, which opens in July. And pushing the film back gives the studio more time for special effects, as well as a chance to attach trailers for it to Peter Jackson's Christmas tentpole The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
Universal Pictures has released, through the film's Facebook page, a new sneak peek from their upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman. The footage debuted as part of Charlize Theron's guest appearance on "Top Chef" and, while it contains much of the same footage as the first trailer, it also has a few brand-new shots as well. Check it out in the player below! Directed by Rupert Sanders, the fantasy take on the classic fairytale also stars Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Stephen Graham, Ray Winstone, Lily Cole, Sam Spruell, Liberty Ross and Noah Huntley.

ATLANTIS RISING
Platinum Studios Inc. chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and producer Mark Canton (300, Immortals) announced today that they are immediately putting the Platinum Studios comic book Atlantis Rising into development for a new, ongoing film franchise. Atlantis Rising is just one of the titles in Platinum Studios' international library of thousands of comic book characters which it adapts, produces, and licenses for all forms of media.
Created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Atlantis Rising was first published as a five-issue mini-series that had been previously optioned to DreamWorks. Platinum Studios recently regained the production rights, allowing them to reboot the series and to team up with Canton. The film is set against an undersea civilization that began over 10,000 years ago, and whose presence is unknown to the surface population.
"'Atlantis Rising' has the franchise potential of 'Men in Black,' which I green lit for Scott while at Sony's Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Companies," says Mark Canton. "I'm looking forward to bringing it to the screen with Platinum as a dynamic, state of the art action thriller."
Canton, who is chairman and CEO of Atmosphere Entertainment, has been on the Platinum Studios' board of directors since 2010. Atmosphere Entertainment's recent films include Relativity's Immortals which has grossed over $210 million in worldwide box office sales; Warner Bros.' 300, based on the best-selling graphic novel by Frank Miller; and The Spiderwick Chronicles, based upon the best-selling book series, for Paramount Pictures.
"'Atlantis Rising' is a provocative sci-fi thriller that at its core brings up the question: whose planet is this?" adds Scott Rosenberg. "We hope to duplicate that achievement after the enormous success of the 'Men in Black' franchise."

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012

SYFY GREENLIGHTS TWO-HOUR PILOT FOR TIME TRAVEL ACTION THRILLER REWIND FROM BERMANBRAUN AND UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS
NEW YORK - January 18, 2012 -- Syfy has given a two-hour pilot greenlight to the action thriller Rewind from BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions, it was announced today by Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy and Co-Head of Original Content for Universal Cable Productions.
"We couldn't be happier to be back in business with BermanBraun. Justin Marks has created a time-travel series with an exciting innovative approach that really exemplifies Syfy's commitment to bring compelling storytelling to life," said Stern.
The thriller revolves around a team of military field operatives and civilian scientists who must use untested technology to travel back in time to alter past events in order to change the future and avoid a devastating terrorist attack. Justin Marks wrote the pilot and will executive produce with Tom Spezialy, Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun and Gene Stein. BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions also produce Syfy's original hit series Alphas, currently entering its second season. Rewind is set to begin production in April 2012.

THE STAND
A new report from Vulture says that the Warner Bros. adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand has landed screenwriter David Kajganich.
Kajganich (The Invasion, Blood Creek) also worked on an as-of-yet unproduced adaptation of King's It, which is likely what brought him to director Ben Affleck's attention.
Previously adapted as a television miniseries in 1994, "The Stand" tells the story of a full-scale apocalypse, driven by the accidental release of a biological weapon and the ensuing struggle of good versus evil carried out by the world's final survivors.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012

IN YOUR EYES
As part of what seems to be an increasingly urgent bid to become the hardest-working man in show business, Whedon is gearing up to kick out another post-Avengers flick. And he's tapped a Mad Men star for the lead in a supernatural-flavored romance.
Whedon seems hell-bent on carving out a niche for himself in movies, much the way he did in television: a smart, genre-savvy creator who can churn out lots of high-quality material rather quickly. (Let's not forget that, for one golden year, Whedon had Buffy, Angel and Firefly on TV all at the same time.)
So, even while prepping The Avengers for its May release, and nudging Cabin in the Woods to open the South by Southwest festival, and shooting Much Ado About Nothing in secret, Whedon wrote and will produce the supernatural romance In Your Eyes (which'll be directed by Brin Hill).
Starring Abigail Spenser, who just wrapped up Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful, In Your Eyes is allegedly about two people who are preternaturally or supernaturally connected, despite being polar opposites. Vague, huh? Well, if we've learned anything, it's that the Whedon moves in mysterious ways.

ONE NIGHT STAND
Though he's best known for his acting resume (most recently appearing in Warrior and The Thing), Joel Edgerton has, according to The Hollywood Reporter, now sold his screenplay entitled One Night Stand to New Regency and will stay involved as executive producer. Edgerton previously co-wrote the screenplay for the crime-thriller The Square, directed by his brother Nash Edgerton.
One Night Stand is described as a comedic drama that focuses on a one night stand between a man and a woman and the ensuing consequences.
Edgerton is not intending to star in the project, though he can soon be seen back on the big screen in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and in Peter Hedges' The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2012

SKYFALL
You can watch a countdown until the release of the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, on the newly revamped site. In case you're wondering, there are currently 296 days of waiting left.
The website, 007.com, also provides the first official video about the film. Long-time Bond co-producer Michael G. Wilson hosts the slick video, which features images of men with guns in front of a blue-lit background.
While the sleek site doesn't give much away about the top secret plot, it will feature production videos and stills, casting updates and also a look back at the history of Bond films. 2012 is the 50th anniversary of the James Bond genre, so the site should have plenty to celebrate.
Daniel Craig is back as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Skyfall, which is helmed by Sam Mendes, also features Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe and Ben Whishaw.
The highly-anticipated film will begins its worldwide roll-out in the U.K. on October 26 2012, and will reach North America on November 9, 2012.

CATCHING FIRE
It's always a little strange when a sequel is greenlit before the first installment of a movie comes out, but that's what Lionsgate did with the sequel to the soon-to-be-released adaptation of Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, announcing a release date for its sequel Catching Fire last August. That release date set was November 22, 2013, and now, The Wrap's "Deal Central" reports that Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) has been hired to write the adaptation for Collins' second book. It also reports that Gary Ross who co-wrote and directed The Hunger Game (out March 23) is overseeing Beaufoy's work and has been confirmed to return as director for the sequel. Furthermore, they're confirming that four of the cast--Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson and Liam Hensworth--will also be returning, although that's probably not that strange since they all were likely to sign multi-picture deals, since that's standard operating procedure these days.
The Hunger Games is out on March 23 and now, it looks like its sequel Catching Fire is still on track for its planned release date of November 22, 2013.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Going into the second weekend of January, the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, it seemed like it might be a close race between two very different movies, an adult crime thriller and a Disney 3D rerelease, but on Friday, it became quite clear that Mark Wahlberg's Contraband (Universal), which he co-produced and starred in with Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Foster, would win the weekend and that it did with $28.8 million in 2,863 theaters over the four day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. With a per-theater average over $10,000 per site, it's officially the highest opening movie for the film's primary producer Working Title Films, topping the opening of Sidney Pollack's The Interpreter.
After the successful rerelease of The Lion King 3D last September, Disney gave it another go with Beauty and the Beast 3D (Disney), a 3D conversion of the Oscar-winning film which had already been released on DVD and Blu-ray. That didn't matter to family audiences who went out to see it over the extended holiday weekend, amassing $23.5 million in over 2,600 theaters. This is added to the nearly $400 million the film already made in its theatrical runs since opening over 20 years ago.
The Tom Cruise action movie Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (Paramount) continues to do big business as it took third place with $14.2 million over the four-day holiday, bringing its own total to $189.5 million.
Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton teamed for the musical comedy Joyful Noise (New Line/WB), which ended up in fourth place with $13.8 million in 2,735 theaters, averaging roughly $5,000 per site.
Guy Ritchie's period action sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Warner Bros.), starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, continued its run as the second-strongest holiday rerelease, bringing its running domestic total to $172.1 million with the $10.5 million it made for fifth place.
Paramount Insurge's low-budget horror movie The Devil Inside, which began the year on top, tanked in its second weekend, losing over 70% of its business and dropping all the way down to 6th place with $9.2 million and $47.5 million. Clearly, bad word-of-mouth spreads fast and those interested in seeing the movie rushed out opening weekend.
David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sony) continued to bring in business with $8.1 million for seventh place, $89.3 million total, while Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks - Chipwrecked took eighth with $7.8 million and $121 million total since opening before Christmas.
Steven Spielberg's War Horse (DreamWorks) and the Cameron Crowe-Matt Damon family drama We Bought a Zoo (20th Century Fox) continue to vie for position as they settled on ninth and tenth place, respectively, War Horse earning $7.1 million to Zoo's $6.8 million. They both have earned in the $65 to 68 million range since opening over Christmas weekend.
After a successful platform release, Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady (The Weinstein Company), starring recent Golden Globe winner Meryl Streep as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expanded nationwide into 802 theaters, but it just missed the chance to get into the Top 10 (at least going by the four-day weekend), taking in $6.5 million, roughly $8 thousand per site.
The Top 10 grossed an estimated $129 million for the four-day weekend, which is right in line with the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend last year, when Seth Rogen's action-comedy The Green Hornet (Sony) beat Vince Vaughn and Kevin James' comedy The Dilemma (Universal) by double, $40 million to $20 million.

MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2012

FRINGE NEWS
Just because season 4 might be the last for Fringe, don't think that the show is going to even think about slowing down. The show returned on January 13 with an awesome midseason premiere, and things are only going to get better from there. In fact, Fringe is about to introduce one of its best bad guys yet.
Michael Massee has been cast in Fringe season 4 in a role that is very shrouded in mystery. All we know about the role, in fact, is what we've heard from executive producer J.H. Wyman. "His character promises to be one of the most memorable, guest bad guys we've ever had," he told TV Guide. The episode Massee's character will be featured in will be "a terrifying journey with a man pushed to the limits by intense loneliness," Wyman confirmed.
Massee has previously appeared in Se7en, 24, Alias, Supernatural, and Carnivale. Genre television fans might know him as baddie Dyson Frost from ABC's short-lived FlashForward.
Massee's as-yet unnamed character won't be the only bad guy of the second half of Fringe season 4, though. As confirmed back in November, Jared Harris is returning to the series to reprise his role as season one's big bad guy David Robert Jones, who is still alive in the show's new timeline. Harris made his (re)entrance in January 13's episode, "Back to Where You've Never Been."
Fringe returned with all-new episodes starting January 13, starting with "Back to Where You've Never Been" at 9/8c on FOX.

GAME OF THRONES
After picking up the Emmy for HBO's fantasy drama Game of Thrones, Golden Globe supporting actor in a drama or miniseries winner for Peter Dinklage said he hopes the win gives fantasy dramas more credibility.
"Hopefully it will give that genre a little bit more respect," he told reporters backstage.
Based on the best-selling series by author George R.R. Martin, Dinklage credited the willingness of the series to take risks adds to Thrones' addictive nature. "You never know what's going to happen when you kill the protagonist," he said, referencing the death of Sean Bean's Eddard Stark in the penultimate episode of Season 1.
"That's really smart narrative. … You've got to push the envelope and challenge expectations and ideas of what's going to happen next. That adds to the addiction of the show -- you never know what's around the corner."
As for what's to come when Thrones returns April 1, Dinklage offered this gem: "In Season 2, we're not done killing off people," he told reporters.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2012

FRIDAY NIGHT RATINGS
It was business as usual for the returns of several Friday programs, including Fringe and Grimm.
Fringe returned to match a series low, drawing only 2.9 million total viewers, and a 1.1 rating in adults 18-49 demographic. The poor showing came nearly a week after Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly admitted that the network lost money on the heavily-serialized multi-universe drama.
"At that rating, on that night [Fridays], it’s impossible to make money," he told reporters during the winter Television Critics Assoc. press tour, "and we’re not in the business of losing money.”
Meanwhile, Fox's Kitchen Nightmares won its time slot at 8 p.m. with a 1.7 rating. The Gordon Ramsay series lured 3.8 million.
NBC's Grimm (4.6 million, 1.4) returned after several weeks off the air, down slightly from its most recent episode in December. Airing against Fringe in the 9 p.m. hour, Grimm placed second in its time period behind ABC and CBS which tied for No. 1. Grimm lead-in Chuck (3.2 million, 0.9) stayed flat as it nears the series finale.
CBS' A Gifted Man (8.7 million, 1.3) and CSI: NY (10.5 million, 1.7) both dropped from last week's returns. Blue Bloods (11.9 million, 1.8) remained the same.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition wrapped up its series run on ABC with 6.3 million viewers tuning in from 8-10 p.m. and a 1.6 rating, relatively steady from the previous week. Newsmagazine 20/20 (5.6 million, 1.7), however, saw an uptick at 10 p.m.
The CW's Nikita (1.5 million, 0.5) and Supernatural (1.5 million, 0.6) both slipped.
In a rare tie, ABC and CBS top Friday with a 1.6 primetime average. Fox followed with a 1.4, with NBC (1.2) and the CW (0.6) trailing.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
The extended 4-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend has started off strong with Mark Wahlberg's crime-thriller Contraband (Universal) winning Friday with an estimated $8.7 million in 2,863 theaters, besting Disney's rerelease Beauty and the Beast 3D, which took in $5.6 million in 2,625 theaters. While the latter should gain some ground over the weekend with many schools out on Monday, Contraband should still come out on top with roughly $29 million Beauty and the Beast should end up somewhere between $25 and 27 million.
The Queen Latifah-Dolly Parton musical mash-up Joyful Noise took third place with $3.3 million, but it has Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol nipping at its heels for third place over the weekend with both of them expected to be in the $13 to 14 million range.
Paramount's The Devil Inside took a massive tumble from its enormous opening weekend, making just $2.7 million on Friday, down 84% from its opening day last week.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012

THE FADES
Get ready for a new monster to haunt your nightmares, says Scottish actor Iain De Caestecker, who stars in BBC America's latest Sci-Fi Saturday series, The Fades. The series does its own spin on the horror genre with the spooky Fades, which don't quite fit into the normal monster categories.
"These new kind of creatures have been created, and I think that's a really exciting thing. You've got vampires and werewolves and things like that, and now you've got the Fades, I suppose," said De Caestecker. "There's a lot of rules, things that are associated with the Fades that you need to become aware of to really understand them ... So there's a mythology behind it now."
The Fades, which premieres tonight, is about 17-year-old Paul (De Caestecker) who suddenly finds himself facing the terrifying Fades, which appear to be a cross between ghosts and zombies. Unfortunately, his friends and family can't seem to see them AND he's having apocalyptic nightmares. The high schooler is quickly drawn into a war that's brewing between the Fades and the only people who can see them, the Angelics. After the Fades lead a devastating attack against the good guys, Angelic Neil draws Paul into the fight after realizing that he can see things he shouldn't be able to see.
Still, for Paul there's something more terrifying than ghostly zombie monsters that are trying to break into the real world and eat people ... high school and girls. The Fades also stars Daniel Kaluuya as Paul's best friend, Mac, Johnny Harris as the Angelic Neil, and Sophie Wu as the girl Paul has a crush on, Jay.
According to De Caestecker, when it comes to creator Jack Thorne, "he's got quite a lot of balls, and he's not scared to do something that you're not expecting. There's a couple times I remember reading the scripts and going to myself like, 'Oh really?' and then turning the page, 'Oh, no! You've done that?' So, that's one good thing about it. There's lots of twists," he said.
"Paul has been given these powers which he can't really explain, and it doesn't really fully know their purpose yet, and that's really interesting. That's something that I've never come across before. I've never experienced myself in my life and I don't know if I will," said De Caestecker with a laugh. "So that adds something really different, the supernatural element."
The teen has "all the normal worries that a 17-year-old kid does. Coupled with the fact that he's got this really huge burden on his shoulders of ... is he going to have to do something to try to save mankind or what? You know, he doesn't really understand what exactly it means, him having these powers," he said.
Paul's other big challenge is how to reconcile possibly being the savior of the world and telling his friends and family what's going on.
"How do you tell someone that? You know, when you find out that this is the way the world ends and there's all this other stuff going on ... first, of all do you believe it? Secondly, how do you explain that to someone who doesn't have the same connection as you do with the Fades?"
Probably the most important relationship Paul has is with his best bud, Mac, who's a big nerd and movie fanatic. "Mac's quite content to stay in that world with Paul and not meet anyone else, and I think Paul is yearning for something a little bit more. So there's that, yeah, and there's also growing up and living up to the responsibilities of these powers that he's been given. ... I think he has to become a man and he has to become selfless, and learn what the difference between right and wrong is. I think starting the story he's quite impressionable. He can be manipulated because he's quite innocent, and I think he starts to learn to make decisions for himself for the greater good, or what he perceives as the greater good," said De Caestecker.
While this might initially sound like a Buffy knockoff, not so. The Fades is filled with the language and sexual situations that the British are used to, but that might have challenges when it comes to what the American audience is accustomed to.
Beyond that, De Caestecker feels the show is adult in other ways as well. "I think it's really deeply rooted with some adult themes, and there's a lot of different ways you can interpret some of the messages that come across, maybe. But that was one of the things I always found so great about it, was that it had a real sense of purpose around in it in whatever way you took it. It's got a lot of depth to it."
The role has given the 24-year-old actor plenty of meaty material to sink his teeth into, including using an English accent for the character.
However, his biggest challenge involves dealing with "so many sci-fi elements and the special effects. There's loads of practical things you've got to be very aware of whilst trying to mesh yourself into a scene," said De Caestecker. "I think there was, at one point, we shot a sequence for about two days that only probably lasted 10 minutes. I remember it being really grueling. Me and the other actor had bruises all over us, and but I felt at the start if you didn't have a few bruises, you weren't really doing it properly, I don't think."
Here's a look:
BBC America premieres The Fades' six-episode first season tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Episodes run 75 minutes long. After the premiere of The Fades at 10:15 p.m., BBC America will air The Nerdist, hosted by Chris Hardwick, who will interview The Fades castmember Lily Loveless, who plays Paul's sister, Anna.

JOHN CARTER
A new TV spot for Walt Disney Pictures' John Carter is now online.
Directed by Andrew Stanton, the big screen adaptation of the classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs hits 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9. The film features a cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe.
John Carter tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

FANTASTIC FOUR
It's been some time since it was first announced that 20th Century Fox is planning a reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise. Today, Variety has an update with word that the studio is eyeing Josh Trank as a potential helmer.
Trank makes his big screen directorial debut with Chronicle on February 3rd and, with it, already has a connection to both the studio and the superhero genre.
Fantastic Four, Marvel's self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Comic Magazine", first hit the stands in 1961. Its debut is generally considered the beginning of the "silver age" of comics and the real beginning of the Marvel Comics universe that exists to this day.
The property has been adapted twice before for the big screen with Fantastic Four in 2005 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. Both were directed by Tim Story. A 1994 feature-length version was also infamously produced by Roger Corman and never released.
Trank's involvement in the reboot is likely contingent on Chronicle's box office performance and a decision is not expected to be reached until next month at the earliest.

THE LADY
A new trailer for Luc Besson's The Lady is now online, courtesy of iTunes Trailers.
Starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis, The Lady is an epic love story about how an extraordinary couple and family sacrifice their happiness at great human cost for a higher cause. This is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. A story of devotion and human understanding set against a background of political turmoil which continues today. The Lady also is the story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma's democracy movement.
The Lady hits theaters on April 13th.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2012

CHANGES COMING AT DC COMICS
It's been nearly five months since DC Comics rolled the dice on a companywide reboot that took every superhero in their stable back to issue #1. The gamble seems to be paying off overall, but DC's not done tweaking. They just announced six new series to replace six outgoing ones, and one of them is written by fantasy novelist China MiŽville.
The new titles will launch in the spring, after each of the outgoing series has a chance to publish an eighth and final issue. According to DC's editor-in-chief Bob Harras, the new titlesŃwhich DC is branding "The Second Wave"Ńwill focus more on expanding the world of the New 52 than the titles that launched last fall.
"The excitement of the initial launch of DC ComicsŃThe New 52 was in seeing the re-imagining of these classic characters and concepts," said Harras. "The 'Second Wave' is all about world-building."
The titles we're losing are Men of War, O.M.A.C., Static Shock, Hawk and Dove, Mister Terrific and Blackhawks, all of which will conclude in April. In their place, we get these:
Batman Incorporated, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Chris Burnham, will continue Morrison's concept of Bruce Wayne taking the Batman brand to an international scale to combat a global threat.
Earth 2, written by James Robinson and drawn by Nicola Scott, will star a Justice Society fighting evil on an Earth parallel to our own.
Worlds' Finest, written by Paul Levitz and drawn by George Perez and Kevin Maguire, will continue the parallel world theme by following Earth 2's Huntress and Power Girl as they try to get back to their world after they're stranded on our Earth.
Dial H, written by China Mieville and drawn by Mateus Santoluoco, will feature a "bold new take" on the concept of an ordinary man who gains superpowers and becomes a hero.
G. I. Combat will feature the return of the classic soldiers vs. dinosaurs story The War That Time Forgot, written by J. T. Krul and drawn by Ariel Olivetti, along with rotating backup stories The Unknown Solider by writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Dan Panosian and The Haunted Tank by writer John Arcudi and artist Scott Kolins.
The Ravagers, by writer Howard Mackie and artist Ian Churchill, will spin off from both Teen Titans and Superboy to tell the story of four teens with powers on the run from a group that wants to turn them into supervillains.
The biggest news here is MiŽville's entry onto the comics scene. He's won virtually every major award a genre novelist can win for novels like The Scar, Iron Council and The City & The City, so it'll be interesting to see if he can make the same kind of impact on another storytelling medium. Of course, this is a sad day for fans of titles like Static Shock and O. M. A. C., but Harras says fear not. Those characters might not be starring in their own books anymore, but they're not leaving the DC universe.
"Many of the characters from our canceled books will appear in DC ComicsŃThe New 52 titles, and in some very surprising ways," Harras said. "We're developing stories that reach from cultures around the globe to parallel worlds. We're just getting started."

FRINGE RETURNS TONIGHT
When Fringe finally endsŃif it ends wellŃwe may look back and realize it was perhaps the best sci-fi television series ever. There's been plenty of discussion today about the possible cancellation of Fringe because Fox is losing money by airing it. So if you're a Fringe fan, dig in and enjoy what's left of this amazing series. One way or another, either being canceled this year or being given a few episodes a la Chuck, its days are certainly numbered.
As for this episode, it looks like another great mythology story which has Peter making a dangerous journey to the alt-verse to have a chat with Walternate. Meanwhile, Olivia is paid a visit by the Observer, and he has an ominous message for her.

MERLIN'S BACK
Conclusion to the two-part season-four premiere! After throwing himself in front of a Dorocha to save Arthur, lucky Merlin's only mostly dead. As Lancelot tries to get him back to Camelot so Gaius can save him, strange creatures called Vilia delay their journey. Meanwhile, Arthur continues his efforts to sacrifice himself to stop the Dorocha.

GREEN ARROW TV SERIES PLANNED
A "Green Arrow" television series is being planned for The CW with Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg writing and executive producing, EW reports.
Dating all the way back to 1941 when he made his first appearance in "More Fun Comics" #73, Oliver Queen is a billionaire who leads a double life as expert archer and costumed hero Green Arrow. Over the years, Queen has been a member of the Justice League and even Mayor of his hometown, Star City.
Justin Hartley previously played a television version of the character on "Smallville", becoming a regular cast member in later seasons. It's not mentioned whether or not the new series will connect in any way, but it is noted that Hartley is not being sought to play the role at this time.
"Green Arrow" isn't the only DC superhero being planned for the small screen. Plans for a "Booster Gold" pilot were announced late last year with "Blue Beetle", "Deadman" and "Spectre" series still believed to be in various stages of development.
Of course, just because a network expresses an interest in a pilot doesn't mean that a series will see the light of day, as was the case with last year's proposed "Wonder Woman" series.

TANGLED EVER AFTER
Walt Disney Pictures has debuted a second clip from their upcoming short film "Tangled Ever After."
A follow-up to their 2010 hit animated feature, Tangled, "Tangled Ever After" will premiere before the theatrical release of Beauty and the Beast 3D, beginning January 13th. The official synopsis is as follows:
By popular demand, directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard are bringing back some of DisneyŐs most beloved characters when "Tangled Ever After" picks up where "Tangled" left off. The Kingdom is in a festive mood as everyone gathers for the royal wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn. However, when Pascal and Maximus, as flower chameleon and ring bearer, respectively, lose the gold bands, a frenzied search and recovery mission gets underway. As the desperate duo tries to find the rings before anyone discovers that theyŐre missing, they leave behind a trail of comical chaos that includes flying lanterns, a flock of doves, a wine barrel barricade and a very sticky finale. Will Maximus and Pascal save the day and make it to the church in time? And will they ever get FlynnŐs nose right?
"Tangled Ever After" is the perfect accompaniment to "Beauty and the Beast", which is returning to the big screen in Disney Digital 3DŞ and introducing a whole new generation to the Disney classic with stunning new 3D imagery. Beauty and the Beast was nominated for six Academy Awards¨, winning Oscars¨ for Best Song, by the renowned Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and Best Original Score (Menken).

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

DEVIL INSIDE DUO PLAN NEW PROJECT
Despite having signed on for The Vatican earlier this week, William Bell and his The Devil Inside co-writer Matthew Peterman are planning an additional horror project. According to ShockTillYouDrop.com, the film will shoot this April in Romania.
Plot details are few, but the film is said to apply the same Devil Inside filmmaking approach to another horror subgenre.
Set up at Sierra/Affinity, the film is currently being called The Untitled Bell/Peterman Project. The production outfit will finance and produce the film with Steven Schneider, Peterman and Morris Paulson.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012

PSYCH GETS NEW SEASON
Everyone's favorite crime-fighting team is coming back for a seventh season. "Psych" has been renewed, announced stars James Roday and Dule Hill Tuesday (Jan. 10) on Facebook, via a lovely pineapple puzzle and hilarious video.
Roday is also looking for a new belt. He says, "Yeah, it's me, it's Roday. It's so big I didn't want you to hear it from anyone but me. And that includes Pat Dempsey ... I have decided to get a new belt ... Oh, almost forgot. 'Psych' picked up for a seventh season."
Hill adds, "'Psych' is coming back for season 7. Whaaat?! You know that's right. Seven seasons, that's what I'm talkin' about."
We can't wait. We hope the "Clue" episode, if it does not appear in the remainder of Season 6, is in the works for Season 7.

ARCHER NEWS
He's played a drug dealer. He's played a downtrodden father. But Bryan Cranston has a new role on the horizon, astronaut.
The multi-time Emmy winner is slated to appear in the animated series "Archer" as an astronaut commander during a two-episode arc to close out Season 3.
In a recent interview, Executive Producer Adam Reed said, "Archer and the gang are going into outer space. There's a problem on the International Space Station. This commander [Cranston] comes in to enlist ISIS's help and...not surprisingly things don't go planned."
Cranston is only one of many guest voices that the show has planned for its upcoming season. They've also enlisted Patrick Warburton, Burt Reynolds and Jack McBrayer to join the spy comedy at various points during the season.
Reed explains that McBrayer plays Ray Gillette's (Adam Reed) brother who has "gotten in trouble with local law enforcement over a marijuana farm. So Ray and Archer have to go to West Virginia to help him out of it."
When the season kicks off on Jan. 19, Burt Reynolds plays Malory Archer's (Jessica Walter) love interest. Whether he wants to or not, Reynolds manages help save Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) from a squad of Cuban assassins.
Just another wacky day at ISIS.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
Screen Gems has released the official plot synopsis for Resident Evil: Retribution. Once again, Alice is on a mission to take down Umbrella one zombie at a time. Unfortunately, she hits a snag when she uncovers a huge secret—about herself!
Here's the synopsis for Resident Evil 5:
"The Umbrella Corporation's deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of the flesh eating Undead. The human race's last and only hope, Alice (Milla Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella's most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex.
Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true. Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun."
It looks like Alice's past is coming into question—again. This could be the perfect setup for flashbacks, which would explain the return of Resident Evil stars Michelle Rodriguez and Colin Salmon.
On the other hand, we're not sure what the "mind-blowing revelation" is, but it sounds interesting. Maybe the Umbrella Corp. isn't the Big Bad? Maybe Alice is more involved with the T-virus than she thinks? And how does Jill Valentine fit into all of this? There are so many possibilities. Resident Evil: Retribution opens Sept. 14.

FRINGE RETURNS THIS WEEK
The countdown to Fringe is on! The sci-fi drama returns Friday with all-new episodes, starting with "Back to Where You've Never Been." Fox has released a featurette and three preview clips, which include Peter's fantasy, Olivia's revelation and a trip to the other side.

This five-minute recap narrated by John Noble (Walter Bishop) explains what happened to Peter, the differences between the alternate universes and the traumatic events of the last episode. This clip should get you up to speed.
More clips tomorrow.

THE LEGEND OF HELL'S GATE
Phase 4 Films and Lightning Entertainment have picked up all rights to director Tanner Beard's The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy. Starring Eric Balfour, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jenna Dewan, Summer Glau and Henry Thomas, the Western is based on how Hell's Gate at Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas came to have its name. Produced by Suzanne Weinert and Jay Michaelson, Beard's film premiered at the Dallas Film Festival last March.
The full synopsis is below:
In 1870s Texas, a ruthless bounty hunter and an Irish desperado flee the law with a young criminal claiming to possess a treasure more valuable than gold. Crossing paths with some of the West's most notorious figures, the three outlaws fight for their lives in the pursuit of fame and fortune. Fueled by an ensemble cast and inspired by actual events, The Legend of Hell's Gate blends legend and history into a Western spectacle that recounts a treacherous existence in post Civil War Texas.
The plans are to release the film using Phase 4's ultra VOD model with plans for release On Demand and in theaters sometime during the Spring.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

STAR WARS UNDERWORLD
Attention Star Wars fans! (And that's everybody, right?) The live-action television show we've talked about? As of now, it has a title (well, a working title). And it's called ...
... Star Wars: Underworld!
IGN interviewed producer and George Lucas' right-hand man, Rick McCallum, who spoke about the direction the series will take:
"They take place between Episode III and Episode IV, that 20-year period when Luke is growing up. It's not about Luke, but it's about that period when the Empire is trying to take things [over]."
The characters are criminals and gangsters within a shady government. When the interviewer said the characters were akin to pyramid-schemer, Bernie Madoff, McCallum said, "Exactly."
Lucas and crew are sitting on 50 one-hour scripts, each "bigger than any of the prequels were. ... They're complex, they're dark, they're adult." But McCallum says they need to keep costs to $5 million an episode. And until the technology matures, Lucasfilm—and those lovely, lovely scripts—will wait.
McCallum also spoke about the delivery system of the show, that is, he doesn't know exactly how it will air. Will it appear on network television or cable? If so, it means Lucasfilm may have to give up a certain amount of control of their work, and as we know, George isn't big on compromise. Will it appear as a digital download? "iTunes isn't the panacea that we thought it would be," McCallum said. And Netflix, according to McCallum, doesn't have enough viewers for them to recoup their costs.
Right now, Lucasfilm is taking a wait-and-see approach about Star Wars: Underworld.
And as that happens, we fans will also be waiting. We just hope that we'll eventually be seeing.

WONDER WOMAN
A couple of months ago we told you about Smallville co-star Erica Durance's chance to play Wonder Woman, albeit briefly, in a guest appearance on David E. Kelley's legal series Harry's Law. Now the episode is ready to air, and we finally get to see Durance in action.
As we already know, Durance doesn't actually get to play Wonder Woman herself (if she did, Harry's Law would certainly be a more interesting show). She guest stars as Annie Bilson, a mentally unstable woman who dresses up as the DC Comics heroine to dish out her own form of vigilante punishment. In the clip, we see her on trial for breaking into a man's house and beating him senseless, all while dressed as everyone's favorite Amazon.
"The way that I was able to work with the character Wonder Woman in this is through the eyes of a woman who desperately needed a strong female archetype to look up to, and she had gone through such terrible things and this was her alter ego," Durance told TV Guide back in December. "I would challenge anybody who said that she didn't think she was Wonder Woman. This is how she found her way out."
"So, as an actress, getting to put on the suit and play Wonder Woman was fantastic and then I got this whole other layer because of the way David E. Kelley had written it, to ground it in this kind of humanistic viewpoint, which was lovely."
Of course, because this is David E. Kelley's show, a little bit of his failed Wonder Woman pilot had to leak through to Durance's appearance. You'll notice that her costume is basically identical to the second Adrienne Palicki model that NBC rolled out after the first costume was the subject of so much internet revulsion. But hey, at least a Smallville fan favorite is in the suit this time.
Durance's episode of Harry's Law will air Wednesday at 9/8 Central on NBC.

NBC ORDERS NEW SERIES
NBC is going seriously sci-fi these days, and it's working on several new pilots to prove it. The ratings-challenged network released the official descriptions for five pilots and promised that more would be coming our way.
While we won't bother with the Sarah Silverman description, the rest of the shows feature mechanical human beings (as in robots?), a dramatic version of The Munsters, a comedy about a middle-class family with a magical teen, and a woman who creates miracles.
We don't know if NBC is going to finally come up with a great new series or two out of the bunch, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. Here are the descriptions:
Beautiful People is an imaginative and thematically rich ensemble "what if" drama set 10 minutes in the future where families of mechanical human beings exist to service the human population -- that is until some of the mechanicals begin to "awaken." Michael McDonald (Cougar Town, MADtv) is the writer and executive producer, Robert M. Sertner (Revenge, No Ordinary Family) is the executive producer and Stephen Hopkins (Californication, Shameless) directs the pilot. Beautiful People is from Universal Television and ABC Studios.
From writer-executive producer Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies, Heroes), The Munsters is an imaginative reinvention of The Munsters as a visually spectacular one-hour drama from Universal Television. Bryan Singer (X-Men: First Class, House) is the director of the pilot and an executive producer; John Wirth (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) also is an executive producer.
Isabel is a comedy centering on an otherwise normal middle-class family that wrestles with the challenges of everyday life while raising a daughter (Sophia Mitri Schloss, Grimm) who has magical abilities. Abigail Mavity and Skyler Gisondo also star. Howard Busgang (The Closer, Boy Meets World) and Tom Nursall (Single White Spenny) are the executive producers and writers. Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) directs the pilot and is an executive producer. Karey Burke (Free Agents), Aaron Kaplan (Terra Nova) and Jocelyn Deschenes also are executive producers. Isabel is produced by Universal Television, Kapital Entertainment and Sphere Media.
Save Me (cast contingent) -- A woman who lets herself go while in a broken marriage goes through a transformation where she becomes the best version of herself and creates miracles along the way. The single-camera project is from Sony Television and Original Film & Television. John Scott Shepherd (The Days) is the writer-executive producer and Scott Winant (Breaking Bad, True Blood, Californication) is the director and executive producer. Neal Moritz (The Big C, Prison Break) and Vivian Cannon (The Big C) also are executive producers.

FOX SERIES IN TROUBLE
Things are not looking good for Fringe, and the fate of Terra Nova will be decided soon, Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said at the TCA Winter Press Tour yesterday.
In a flurry of announcements, Reilly gave out frank assessments of where the network stood on many shows, including Fringe, Terra Nova and several non-sci-fi shows. The animated Allen Gregory was canceled.
Regarding the possibility of a fifth season for Fringe, Reilly said: "The hesitation in my voice is that it's an expensive show. We lose a lot of money on the show. At that rate, on that night, it's almost impossible for us to make money off it. That's been the case now over the last season. We're not in the business of losing money. So we really do have to sit down with that entity as well and figure out 'Is there a number in which it makes sense, or will this be it?'," he said.
"Please don't start the letter-writing campaign right now, everybody. I don't, I can't take it. ... I'm not now quietly doing a soft cancel here. I'm just telling you where it stands," added Reilly.
As for Terra Nova, the news seemed more positive to a point.
"We made money on it, the studio made money on it, and the audience enjoyed it," said Reilly. "The show looked fantastic, it's clearly a conceit people wanted to watch. They had ample opportunity to reject it. They didn't."
The news wasn't all good, however, as Reilly addressed the creative issues that the dinosaur adventure series has struggled with. "There were a lot of chefs in the kitchen going in. That did make for a little bit of a challenge. The show was hunting for itself creatively through the season. ... We are going to decide very soon, because it does need to get back into production over the next month."
In other Fox programming news, Reilly announced that the network is putting together an ambitious slate of original programming, including alternative animated shows, shorts and user-adapted material for a new late-night animated programming block on Saturday nights and a new digital multiplatform network. The block is expected to launch in January 2013 and will premiere four new animated series per season.

NEW FOX PILOTS
Fox's buying spree continues with two more pilot orders.
The network has opted to move forward with an untitled serial killer drama from The Vampire Diaries creator Kevin Williamson and legal drama Guilty from Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim.
Williamson's thriller centers on a diabolical serial killer who uses technology to create a cult of serial killers, and the FBI agent who finds himself in the middle of it. Williamson will serve as writer and executive producer on the project, which hails from Warner Bros. Television and his Outerbanks Entertainment.
Berlanti's project, which stems from his overall deal with Warner Bros. Television, revolves around a smart and ethically questionable defense attorney who uses his unique methods to solve cases he’s been banned from handling after he’s stripped of his license to practice law after being falsely convicted of fraud.
Guilty continues the duo’s history of legal projects. Former attorney Guggenheim’s credits include Eli Stone and Law & Order; Berlanti’s legal work includes Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money.
Earlier Monday the network picked up Dana Fox’s comedy, Ben Fox is my Manny.

MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2012

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
In a boost for the domestic box office, Paramount's horror pic The Devil Inside opened to a record-breaking $34.5 million, helping to drive up theatrical revenues by more than 25 percent over last year.
The R-rated movie--acquired by Paramount for only $1 million--scored the best opening ever for early January, and the third biggest for the month after fellow Paramount title Cloverfield ($40.1 million) and George Lucas' 1997 reissue of Star Wars ($35.9 million). Those two films were released in late January.
The Devil Inside is as polarizing as it is successful. Overall, it received a F CinemaScore on Friday night. The overall CinemaScore report showed the film receiving either an F or a D- across all demos.
Underpinning The Devil Inside's strength were younger moviegoers, who have been largely absent from the multiplex. Nearly 60 percent of Friday night's audience were under the age of 25, while 85 percent of the audience was under the age of 34.
Males made up 54 percent of the audience.
Paramount president of domestic marketing and distribution Megan Colligan said the campaign for Devil Inside focused on making the film seem real, evidenced by the slogan "the film the Vatican doesn't want you to see." And on Christmas Eve, the studio released an online trailer that prompted worldwide chatter.
"The campaign was very scary and it was intended to push the envelope," Colligan said. "The conversation online became very robust."
The Devil Inside took the No. 1 spot away from Paramount title Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which itself stayed strong.
Ghost Protocol, which had topped the box office chart since opening nationwide on Dec. 20, dipped 30 percent from New Year's weekend to $20.5 million for a hefty domestic cume of $170.2 milion. Overseas, the movie grossed $27.7 million for the weekend for an international cume of $287.9 million and worldwide total of $458.1 million.
The Tom Cruise pic wasn't the only holiday title still enjoying good business in North America.
Warner Bros.' sequel Sherlock Holmes--Game of Shadows also stayed high up on the box office chart, falling 33 percent to $14.1 million for a domestic cume of $157.4 million.
David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made news for Sony, sporting the best hold of any film in wide release and falling only 24 percent to $11.3 million for a domestic cume of $76.8 million. Dragon Tattoo continued its rollout overseas, grossing $12 million from 33 territories for an international total of $29.3 million and word cume of $106.1 million.
Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked grossed $9.5 million for a domestic cume of $111.6 million. Internationally, the 3D family film enjoyed its strongest weekend yet, grossing $30.1 million from 62 markets for a foreign total of $128.4 million and world haul of $240 million.
DreamWorks and Disney's War Horse, from Steven Spielberg, grew its domestic cume to $64.4 million, followed by Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo with $56.4 million. War Horse has only opened in four international markets, grossing $7.6 million to date for a world total of $64.4 million. Zoo has earned $2.6 million internationally from 14 markets for a world total of $69.9 million.
Spielberg's second holiday film The Adventures of Tintin, from Paramount and Sony, has jumped the $300 million mark worldwide. It's earned $61.9 million domestically and a hefty $271.8 million overseas for a total $333.7 million.
Making news at the awards box office on Friday was Focus Features and Working Title's arthouse hit Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which came in No. 9 for the weekend as it expanded from 57 theaters to 809 locations, grossing an estimated $5.8 million for a domestic cume of $10.4 million.
Tinker Tailor flourished in surburban markets--a theater in the surburbs north of Oklahama City was No. 5 in the country--as well as continuing to thrive in holdover art house locations.
The Devil Inside, which is being released via Paramount's micro-budgeted Insurge label, was acquired by the studio for a mere $1 million. Insurge was launched after the phenomenal success of another low-budget Paramount horror film, Paranormal Activity.
Heading into the weekend, Paramount indicated that The Devil Inside would open in the $8 million to $10 million range, but that number was revised upward in light of the film's midnight performance Thursday night, followed by strong Friday business. The Devil Inside earned $2 million in its midnight runs.
Directed and co-written by William Brent Bell, the documentary style Devil Inside is about a woman who becomes involved in a series of exorcisms after her own mother was supposedly possessed, killing three people. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider, a producer on the Paranormal Activity franchise, brought the project to Paramount. The Devil Inside was the only new wide release of the weekend.
Domestic Box Office Jan. 6-Jan. 8
Title/Weeks in Release/Studio/Theater Count/Three Day Weekend Total/Cume
1. The Devil Inside (1) Paramount/2,205, $34.5 million
2. Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol (4), Paramount/3,555, $20.5 million, $170.2 million
3. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (4), Warner Bros./3,603, $14.1 million, $157.4 million
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (3), Sony/2950, $11.4 million, $76.8 million
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (4), 20th Century Fox/3,425, $9.5 million, $111.6 million
6. War Horse (3), DreamWorks/Disney/2,783, $8.6 million, $56.8 million
7. We Bought a Zoo (3), Fox/3,170, $8.5million, $56.4 million
8. The Adventures of Tintin (3), Paramount, Sony/3,006, $6.6 million, $61.9 million
9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (5), Focus Features/809, $5.8 million, $10.4 million
10. New Year's Eve (5), Warner Bros./New Line/1,864, $3.3 million, $52 million

24 MOVIE
It was nearly a year ago that star Kiefer Sutherland confirmed plans to bring the television series 24 to the big screen. Today, TV Line has an update from Sutherland that includes a tentative start date and some plot details.
Planning to shoot in late April or early May, the 24 film will continue directly from the series' finale, jumping forward in time by about six months. Like the show, the film will be set over a 24 hour period but (of course) will not actually play out in real time.
Written by Mark Bomback and Billy Ray, 24 does not yet have an announced director and no one outside of Sutherland has been confirmed to be returning. Expect that to change in the very near future and check back for details as soon as they become available.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012

FRIDAY NIGHT RATINGS
The Hollywood Reporter writes that as the networks return to business as usual, the returns of several key Friday scripted series bounced back from the December doldrums.
According to preliminary numbers, Fox will take an easy victory on the evening with a broadcast of the 2012 Cotton Bowl. During the 8-10 p.m. hours, the college football postseason game averaged 7.8 million total viewers and a 2.2 rating in adults 18-49, topping its competitors in the 8 and 9 p.m. slots.
Even so, the football game didn't prove to be an issue for CBS' dramas, which all returned from a monthlong hiatus. A Gifted Man (8.5 million, 1.5) ticked up a few tenths to notch a demo rating slightly higher than its series debut. Will that help it in the future? The jury remains out on that one.
CSI: NY (10.5 million, 1.8) had the biggest jump from its last original, up nearly half a point. At 10 p.m., Blue Bloods (11.2 million, 1.8) saw an uptick. CBS placed second at 8 and 9 p.m. (after the Cotton Bowl), but topped the 10 p.m. time period.
ABC took third place on the night, with a 1.4 ratings average. Winding down the series, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition(5.7 million, 1.5) also saw an improvement. 20/20 averaged 5.1 million viewers and a 1.3.
The CW's returns of Nikita (1.5 million, 0.6) and Supernatural (1.8 million, 0.8) both notched slightly higher demo ratings since their last originals.
NBC's Chuck (3.4 million, 1.0) saw a boost from last week's episode. To note, it was the only original scripted offering to continue through the holiday lull on broadcast networks. Dateline lured 5 million viewers and a 1.4.

MALEFICENT
Walt Disney Pictures has found its director for the new Maleficent film, to which Tim Burton was previously attached, and it's Robert Stromberg.
Stromberg was the production designer on Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Disney's upcoming Oz The Great and Powerful. He's also worked as visual effects supervisor for "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Pacific." He won Oscars for Art Direction for Avatar and Alice in Wonderland and was nominated for visual effects for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Maleficent, which is being developed as a starring vehicle for Angelina Jolie, will be his directorial debut. Joe Roth is producing.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2012

RUSSIAN FALLING ROCKET
A few months ago it seemed like space junk was falling out of the sky every other week or so. Start watching the skies, because Russia's crippled Mars probe is about to come tumbling down.
The Phobos-Grunt (doesn't that sound like the name of an intergalactic supervillain?) probe was launched into orbit around Earth back in November. The plan was to get it into orbit, fire its engines and head for Mars. Only that didn't exactly work, and now the thing's just up there, spinning around, waiting to fall back down again.
The guys and gals at Russian mission control have been trying for more than two months to save Phobos-Grunt, but it's a lost cause, and now Russia's space agency is giving the probe a projected re-entry date of Jan. 15, a little more than a week from now. There's no exact time yet, but a little mystery just makes all that fiery metal hurtling down from the heavens more fun, right? Right?
As with NASA's fallen UARS satellite and Germany's ROSAT, a good portion of Phobos-Grunt will burn up during re-entry. But somewhere between 20 and 30 pieces of varying size will likely make contact with Earth. As for where they'll hit, that's a fun guessing game too, because it could be as far north as Calgary, Canada, or as far south as the tip of South America.
Of course, all of this could go splashing down harmlessly in water or in some deserted portion of the planet. But this is 2012, so it doesn't seem too crazy to think we might see a little space-induced mayhem to kick off any apocalyptic year.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Paramount's R-rated horror pic The Devil Inside is scaring up massive business at the domestic box office, where it's now on course to open as high as $30 million.
At this rate, the film will easily take the No. 1 spot away from fellow Paramount title Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol, which has ruled the box office since opening nationwide on Dec. 20.
Devil Inside, which is being released via Paramount's micro-budgeted Insurge label, was acquired by the studio for a mere $1 million. Insurge was launched after the phenomenal success of another low-budget horror film, Paranormal Activity. One note of irony--Devil Inside received an F CinemaScore.
Heading into the weekend, Paramount indicated that Devil Inside would open in the $8 million to $10 million range, but that number has been revised upward in light of the film's midnight performance Thursday night, followed by strong matinee business. Devil Inside earned $2 million in its midnight runs.
Directed and co-written by William Brent Bell, the documentary style Devil Inside is about a woman who becomes involved in a series of exorcisms after her own mother was supposedly possessed, killing three people. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider, a producer on the Paranormal Activity franchise, brought the project to Paramount.
Early January is a popular landing spot for genre fare; in 2009, The Unborn opened to $19.8 million, while Daybreakers opened to $15.1 million in 2010.
Devil Inside is the only new wide release of the weekend.
Ghost Protocol is expected to gross roughly $5.8 million on Friday for a $19 million weekend, putting its domestic gross at nearly $170 million.
At the awards box office, the news will be Focus Features and Working Title's arthouse hit Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which makes a major push in expanding from 57 theaters to more than 800 as awards season heats up. The espionage pic, starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, has earned $4.5 million to date domestically.

LAST RESORT
ABC has made it official, picking up Shawn Ryan's futuristic project Last Resort to pilot.
From Sony Pictures Television, Resort revolves around the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who, after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles, wind up being hunted and escape to a NATO outpost where they declare themselves to be the world’s smallest nuclear nation.
The pilot, which received a pilot production commitment in August, is written by Karl Gajdusek and Ryan, with The Shield creator on board to executive produce. The pilot order was expected, with the project enlisting Casino Royale director Martin Campbell to helm the project earlier this week.
Resort becomes the second drama project to receive a pilot commitment from the netwok, joining the untitled Roland Emmerich election drama. The Disney-owned network has also picked up a pair of comedy projects to pilot: Dan Fogelman's untitled alien family comedy and the Kirstie Alley starrer The Manzanis.
Resort is one of two projects Ryan has in contention this development season. The Chicago Code creator also has a crime procedural with Criminal Minds’ Simon Mirren set up at CBS. That project, also from Sony Pictures Television, revolves around a genetic scientist who uses his own psychopath gene to assist the FBI. It’s based on the real life story of IC Irvine processor/scientist James Fallon.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012

2012 - SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE - VOLUME TWO
The formal announcement and preview pages for the next volume of Superman: Earth One... http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2012/01/05/dc-comics-in-2012-superman-earth-one-%E2%80%93-volume-two/.

AKIRA SHUT DOWN
Welcome to a new age in Hollywood, where studios are putting major projects on hold if the numbers don't line up. The latest victim? The new live-action version of Akira.
According to Heat Vision, the film is being shut down while Warner Bros. Pictures and the filmmakers reassess its budget. The production offices in Vancouver are being closed and the staff is being sent home, while director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) and the producers will take the next two weeks to go over the script and find ways to squeeze a few more dollars out of it.
The budget right now is reported to be around $90 million, which is half what it originally was when director Albert Hughes (Book of Eli) was ramping the movie up a while back. Apparently the studio wants to knock another $20-30 million off the current price tag.
The reason? Star powerŃor lack of it. Garrett Hedlund from Tron: Legacy has been cast in the lead role, but it's not like moviegoers broke down the doors and rushed to see him in that underperforming sequel. The other potential cast membersŃKristen Stewart (Twilight), Ken Watanabe (Inception) and Helena Bonham Carter (Dark Shadows)Ńaren't exactly blockbuster names either (Stewart's movies have all bombed outside the Twilight franchise), and in any case they're still working out their deals.
Sources say that the project could have the plug pulled permanently if the budget cuts aren't made, which would be a shame since this is the third time that Akira has come close to becoming a Hollywood feature film. But those famous inside sources also say that "Warner Bros. just won't let" the movie collapse completely, so maybe there's hope yet that Akira won't join At the Mountains of Madness, The Dark Tower and all the other big genre projects that have hit hard times lately.

MERLIN'S MORGANA SPEAKS
Remember that sweet and somewhat spoiled girl who was King Uther's ward in season one of Syfy's Merlin? Well, she's gone, and the Morgana that's replaced her is dripping with evil and back with a vengeance when the show's fourth season premieres tomorrow at 10 p.m. on Syfy.
Morgana is "just better in every way," said Irish actress Katie McGrath, who plays Morgana. "Fourth-season Morgana is this confident, self-possessed, self-reliant, driving-force-behind-her-own-story, confident woman. And to be able to play that when I'm totally not like that in real life is such a wonderful thing. I can't even tell you. Coming to work is a joy."
And she gets to be more than a little bit evil.
"I get to be a lot evil. It's so much better," said McGrath with relish during an exclusive interview with Blastr.
"I think the fourth season is where you start to see the telling of the legend as you know it. You start to see Arthur becoming king, Guinevere becoming queen, Merlin becoming this great sorcerer, Morgana becoming this sort of dark, evil presence," she said. "It's more grown-up. The producers areŃrather than sort of resting on their laurels and accepting that they had a formula that worked and staying with it that might have gotten staleŃthey evolved it every year, and season four is exactly that. It's just gotten bigger, bolder. It's more filmic. We're shooting on 35mm film. All our sets are bigger. Our locations are more vast. Our cast is bigger. It's our most ambitious yet, and I think to their credit they've really managed to pull it off. There was no sleeping to be had for eight months."
As far as specifics about the upcoming season, McGrath gets cagey.
"Well, I will say that possibly in the fourth season you might see the evolution of the love triangle between Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot. That might come in. I'm not saying it definitely will, but it could. You might see more story about the sword and the stone. Again, can't tell anything, but that might happen. And you might possibly, possibly see the evolution of some prince into some type of king. Again, not saying anything," she said with a laugh.
"What's amazing about Merlin is that it gives you all those parts of the legend that you know and you love, but not how you expect it. It's this new twist. Even if you know the legend, and even if you are so familiar with it, you can still watch Merlin and enjoy it and find something new," McGrath added. "That's the thing about Merlin, it never plays out like you expect. You can't take anything on faith, and nothing is ever as it seems, and nobody ever really dies in Merlin."
In fact, expect Merlin and the villainess Morgana to surprise you a lot and through at least one more year. Merlin's been picked up for a fifth season.
"I know the producers as well didn't want Morgana to be this very two-dimensional bad guy. I think it was very important to everybody that in a way, you see her point of view. You sort of understand. While you may not agree with how she goes about it, you can almost see where she's coming from and how she's been driven to what it is that she's ended up doing. I mean, for her on season four, she's pretty much entirely running on revenge. That's all she's got, and I think her reckoning is going to come at some point, and I think that's going to be possibly later in season five, because right now all she wants to do is to make everybody pay for how she's been treated and what has happened to the people that she loves," she said.
"I think every story is only as good as their bad guy. It's only as good as the person that drives forward the story and drives forward the heroes. And I think that's what Morgana does. ... So essentially what I'm saying is that it's my show. You may think it belongs to Colin [Morgan as Merlin] and Bradley [James as Arthur], but it's actually my show. It's really called Morgana: The Merlin Years. But we don't tell Colin that, because he's very sensitive and we don't want to upset him," joked McGrath.
Merlin airs on Syfy on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.

CHRONICLE
20th Century Fox hosted a special showing of the studio's February 3rd release, Chronicle.
In the film, three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to them developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities, and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over. Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell and Michael Kelly star.

84th ACADEMY AWARDS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the trailer for the 84th Academy Awards in conjunction with Funny Or Die. The trailer features host Billy Crystal and cameo appearances by Robin Williams, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, William Fichtner and Vinnie Jones.
"We wanted to try something a little bit different this year instead of a traditional, clip-based piece," said Academy Chief Marketing Officer Christina Kounelias. "The trailer has a fun twist that conveys how excited everyone is to have Billy back."
Crystal has one of the most distinguished track records of any host in Oscar¨ history. His upcoming appearance will mark his ninth turn hosting the Academy Awards. The enthusiastic response to the announcement of his return was the inspiration for the trailer.
"Our team had a great time working with the Academy and joining forces with Billy again," said Mike Farah, Funny Or Die's president of production. "We think the trailer really speaks to the excitement around this yearŐs Oscars¨, and Funny Or Die was honored to be a part of it."
The trailer will have a one-month run in more than 2,000 theaters beginning January 6.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center¨, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

THE BOURNE LEGACY
Universal Pictures has released the first official image of leading man Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross in the upcoming The Bourne Legacy.
An expansion of the popular film universe started with the 2002 film, The Bourne Identity (in turn based on the series of novels by Robert Ludlum), The Bourne Legacy also stars Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach and Scott Glenn and is planning an August 3rd release.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2012

PILOT FOR EMMERICH
Not sure if this is a sign of the coming apocalypse or not, but the Independence Day and Godzilla director is hatching another adventure in which a young scientist learns unimaginable secrets about the true nature of the universe. And, most likely, things will blow up.
Emmerich will direct the pilot for the as-yet-unnamed drama, which will hit ABC's airwaves this coming fall. Written with Harald Kloser—who collaborated with Emmerich on the stalled Singularity movie—the show is described thusly by Variety:
Set in New York City, the story is set against the backdrop of the presidential race of 2012, when a young astrophysics student learns his destiny lies not in science but somewhere between heaven and hell.
It's unclear just how much of Emmerich's trademark destructo-porn style will be achievable on a TV budget, but I'm sure it'll be worth watching to find out.

THE EVIL DEADbr> There's finally been some movement on The Evil Dead front. The remake has found its leading lady, and (surprisingly) she has a fairytale past.
Up-and-comer Lily Collins is the first actor to join the new Evil Dead. According to Bloody Disgusting, she's been cast as Mia, one of five friends who find themselves stranded in a remote cabin. It's there that they discover the Book of the Dead, which unleashes evil spirits that possess them one by one.
Collins' character is a bit rough around the edges. She's a drug addict who thinks a vacation could help her detox. But when the trip takes a supernatural turn, her past comes back to haunt her. When she tells the group she's been attacked by "coyotes and trees," no one believes her. They assume she's under the influence and hallucinating.
Speaking of the group, the other characters yet to be cast are David, Natalie, Olivia and Eric. David and Natalie are engaged, Olivia is Mia's best friend, and Eric is the unlucky one who unleashes the demons from the book.
Before joining The Evil Dead, Lily Collins played Sandra Bullock's daughter in The Blind Side, Paul Bettany's niece in Priest and Taylor Lautner's girlfriend in Abduction.
Next up, she'll appear in Tarsem Singh's Mirror, Mirror as the fairytale princess Snow White.

CULT
CW is back in business with the team behind the CW's Monday night pairing, Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie. The network has ordered to pilot Cult, a sudsy crime drama from executive producers Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein. Rockne O'Bannon (V) is attached to pen the pilot script as well as EP the potential series that would center on an inquisitive, young female production assistant on a wildly popular television show, Cult, who joins a journalist blogger in investigating the show's rabid fans. Together, the duo find the fans might be recreating crime scenes from the show in their real lives - behavior that has lead to a rash of disappearances and a likely murder.
In keeping with the younger-skewing network's plan to rethink the network's once narrow strategy with new chief Mark Pedowitz at the helm, a knowledgeable source suggests the network is considering doing a cable-style, limited-run 13 episode season, if the project is ultimately picked up to series.
Schwartz and Savage's Fake Empire, in association with Warner Brothers Television, will produce the project. It joins The Carrie Diaries, another Schwartz-Savage collaboration, adapted from author Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City prequel, in contention at the CW.

THE GREY
ShockTillYouDrop.com has an exclusive first look at a clip from director Joe Carnahan's thriller The Grey, hitting theaters on January 27.
In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements – and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt – before their time runs out.
Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, James Badge Dale and Nonso Anozie co-star.

WORLD WAR Z
Since Paramount Pictures announced their adaptation of World War Z, fans have wondered how director Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace) and screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom) and J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling), who wrote the initial script, were going to take Max Brooks' dense novel and turn it into a movie. Eschewing a typical narrative structure, the World War Z novel is comprised of a series of fictional interviews with survivors of a zombie apocalypse that span the globe. How that becomes a movie was any fan's guess, though many have their own "must-have" scenes picked out.
With the novel's unseen narrator turned into Brad Pitt as U.N. employee Gerry Lane, fans rolled their eyes when the movie's brief synopsis revealed that Pitt's character would be traveling "the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself" — which essentially throws out the novel's post-zombie apocalypse setting for one that starts during the initial outbreak. Now, it turns out that Forster's plan for the movie could be more than just one movie — instead, it could become a franchise.
In a retrospective of Pitt's work as actor and producer on Moneyball from The LA Times, it was revealed that the plan for World War Z is to turn it into a trilogy of movies.
For Pitt, the big sci-fi thriller also represents his strongest bid to have a big film franchise of his own, which might be viewed as the missing piece of his career jigsaw puzzle. Forster and Paramount Pictures each view World War Z as a trilogy that would have the grounded, gun-metal realism of, say, [Matt] Damon's Jason Bourne series tethered to the unsettling end-times vibe of AMC's The Walking Dead.
Looking at World War Z as a potential trilogy should appease fans, especially if their favorite scenes are not included in the upcoming movie. Of course, World War Z will have to be a financial success to actually become anything more than a single movie, but, should it find box office success, at least there is plenty of material in the novel for a trilogy, unlike many movies that find success and are suddenly turned into a franchise (Paranormal Activity and The Hangover, for example).
Without even a trailer released, however, fans have yet to see if the movie is trilogy-worthy, and it won't reach theaters until December. The rest of the World War Z cast includes Mireille Enos (The Killing), Matthew Fox (Lost), James Badge Dale (The Departed), and Elyes Gabel (HBO's Game of Thrones). World War Z opens December 21st.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2012

CHRISTOPHER LEE ON CURRENT PROJECTS
What a wonderful way to kick off the New Year! Here is a video message from the legendary Christopher Lee, who remains as busy as ever as he approaches his 90th birthday.
Sir Christopher posted a YouTube two-part Christmas message to his fans and followers, with the first part focusing on his recent film work. With his 90th birthday approaching on May 27, the great British star has no less than four films that he's appearing in this year. One, Hugo, is already out, while The Wicker Tree—a follow-up to the 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man—is still awaiting a release date.
Lee also has a small role in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows, which comes out on May 11, but his most eagerly anticipated appearance has to be in December's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in which he reprises the role of Saruman the White.
The actor reveals that he's completed his scenes for An Unexpected Journey and the second part, 2013's There and Back Again, both of which, he says candidly, "I hope I live to see." Lee admits that at his advanced age he only takes small parts requiring just a few days of shooting.
Perhaps for the benefit of his fans who are not familiar with The Hobbit, Lee adds, "What is extremely important is that in these two films, which of course are long before Lord of the Rings ... Saruman, who I play again, is indeed still Saruman the White, but he is a good and noble man, and the head of the Council of Wizards, as he always was."
You can find a bit more in the video about his other roles, and there's also a second part in which he speaks about some personal accomplishments outside acting. Age has certainly slowed Lee down, but he's as sharp as ever and still has that unmistakable voice. We hope Sir Christopher gets to see both parts of The Hobbit as well—and is around with us for a long time to come.

MERLIN RETURNS ON FRIDAY
Part one of the two-part season-four premiere! This season a new age returns and Arthur decides to use magic ... at least according to the preview. As the season opens, Morgana is up to her trouble-making ways as she summons Callieach (Gemma Jones) to help her unleash creatures that can kill with a touch. It looks like Arthur and Merlin have their hands full once again.

LOOPER
Director Rian Johnson has given us a sneak peek at the time machine that appears in his latest film, Looper.
Looper is a sci-fi thriller that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. The film takes place in the near future and centers on a group of hitmen called—you guessed it—loopers. Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, one of the killers who works for the mob and helps them "dispose" of bodies. In the future, the mob uses time travel to send victims to the past (about 30 years), where loopers wait and eventually kill them.
This is a great plan, right? Nothing could possible go wrong. That is, until Gordon-Levitt spots his latest victim—himself! Willis plays future Joe, who's captured and transported through the top-secret time machine. The younger Joe can't pull the trigger on his older self and allows him to escape.
Rian Johnson has revealed the first photo of the Looper time machine in all its glory. He posted it on the film's official Tumblr as a new year's gift to fans.
Aside from Gordon-Levitt and Willis, Looper stars Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano and Garrett Dillahunt.
Looper opens in theaters Sept. 28.

GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGENCE
Columbia Pictures has released the first TV spot for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Opening in 3D and 2D theaters on February 17, the Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor film stars Nicolas Cage, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Idris Elba and Johnny Whitworth.
In the new film, Johnny (Cage) - still struggling with his curse as the devil's bounty hunter - is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when he is recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the devil (Hinds). At first, Johnny is reluctant to embrace the power of the Ghost Rider, but it is the only way to protect the boy - and possibly rid himself of his curse forever.

THE HIVE
According to Variety, The Hive is now moving forward with The Machinist director Brad Anderson.
The project, from Exit Wounds and Thir13en Ghosts screenwriter Rich D'Ovidio, is said to focus on a female emergency line operator who, in trying to help a young girl, comes up against a killer from her own past.
New casting is expected to be announced soon with a production start targeting this spring.

EMPEROR
Variety reports that Matthew Fox has joined the cast of Peter Webber's Emperor. He'll play the role of General Bonner Fellers, who served under Douglas MacArthur in Operation Blacklist at the conclusion of WWII.
Webber's film is said to detail the days following Japan's surrender whereby MacArthur, effectively in command of the nation, sought to have Emperor Hirohito and his family exonerated rather than be charged as war criminals. The story will likely be told with the character of Fellers as the lead.
Fox, best known for his role on "LOST," will soon appear on the big screen in both I, Alex Cross and World War Z.
Written by David Klass and Vera Blasi, Emperor will begin filming shortly in both New Zealand and Japan.

DRAGON TATTOO SEQUEL
Sony's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which cost about $90 million to make (not counting marketing costs), has earned $60 million at the domestic box office and will still be hitting many international territories in January. So, while some are saying it's underperforming, it's no surprise that the studio is moving forward with plans to make the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire.
“[Dragon Tattoo] continues to do strong business and nothing has changed with respect to development of the next book,” a Sony rep told Entertainment Weekly. "Development continues” on the sequel and Steven Zaillian is still working on the script as planned.
It is unclear whether David Fincher will return to direct at this point, but Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig are both signed for the other two films.

ARABIAN NIGHTS
Liam Hemsworth (upcoming The Last Song) has been cast in director Chuck Russell's action-adventure Arabian Nights.
Written by Russell and Barry P. Ambrose, the 3D period epic centers on a young commander (Hemsworth) who, after his king is murdered in a coup, joins forces with Sinbad and Aladdin to rescue Queen Scheherazade.
Inferno Entertainment's Bill Johnson is producing with Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray of Mayhem Pictures. ROAR also is producing.
Filming is targeted for an end-of-summer start.
Liam's brother is Chris Hemsworth, who is now shooting Marvel Studios' Thor.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2012

THE WOMEN IN BLACK
A new TV spot for The Woman in Black has arrived. Opening in theaters on February 3, the film is directed by James Watkins from a script by Jane Goldman. The horror film stars Daniel Radcliffe ("Harry Potter" films), Ciaran Hinds, Liz White, Janet McTeer, Alisa Khazanova, Tim McMullan, Roger Allam, Daniel Cerqueira, Shaun Dooley, Mary Stockley, Cathy Sara, David Burke, Victor McGuire and Lucy May Barker.
The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client's papers. As he works alone in the client's isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true intent.

JAMES BOND WEBSITE REOPENS
In preparation for the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall (opening November 9th) and this year's 50th Anniversary of 007 in movies, 007.com has been relaunched with a countdown clock to the new movie and an introduction by producer Michael G. Wilson that shows a bit of behind-the-scenes footage.
In related news, Ralph Fiennes talked about his role in the film to the Sunday Mail and said that he was only allowed "to say that I'm a government agent."
In Skyfall, Bond's (Daniel Craig) loyalty to M (Dame Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory and Ola Rapace also star in the the Sam Mendes-directed movie.

JOHN CARTER
The full new trailer for Walt Disney Pictures' John Carter is now online!
Directed by Andrew Stanton, the big screen adaptation of the classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs hits 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9. The film features a cast that includes Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy, Daryl Sabara, Polly Walker, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Hayden Church and Willem Dafoe.
John Carter tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
The official site for the film has also been updated and can be checked out at Disney.com/JohnCarter!.

MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2012

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Paramount's Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol continued to tower over the competition as moviegoers rang in 2012, grossing $31.3 million for the three-day New Year's weekend for a domestic total of $134.2 million.
Paramount estimates that Ghost Protocol, directed by Brad Bird, will earn another $8.7 million on Monday--a national holiday--for a projected domestic cume of $142.9 million. Overseas, the tentpole has sailed past the $200 million mark, although final figures for the weekend won't be available until Monday. All in, Ghost Protocol will likely earn $600 million globally, a franchise best.
Steven Spielberg's War Horse made news when moving up the box office chart to No. 4, grossing $16.9 million for the three-day weekend and putting the film's eight-day cume at $43 million. The DreamWorks film, which Disney is distributing, was up more than 22 percent on Saturday, the biggest jump of any film in wide release and indicating the pic is playing well with adults.
At the specialty box office, the Weinstein Co.'s Meryl Streep-starrer The Iron Lady bowed to impressive numbers over the three-day weekend, grossing $221,752 from four theaters in New York and Los Angeles for a screen average of $55,438. Phyllida Lloyd directed the film, about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Sony Pictures Classics also did nicely with Iranian film A Separation, which debuted to $66,598 from three theaters for a screen average of $22,199.
In welcome news for the film business, New Year's Eve weekend was up at least 3 percent over last year. However, the year-end uptick wasn't enough to close the gap in domestic box office revenues. Ticket sales came in at an estimated $10.21 billion in 2011, down 3.4 percent from 2010, or roughly $370 million.
More grim was the drop in attendance, which tumbled to a 16-year low in 2011. An estimated 1.28 billion people went to the movies, down 4.21 percent from the 1.33 billion who went in 2010.
Ghost Protocol has dominated the global box throughout the year-end holidays, followed by Warner Bros.' Robert Downey Jr.-Jude Law sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and 20th Century Fox's threequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.
Returning Guy Ritchie to the director's chair, Game of Shadows grossed $22.1 million over the three-day weekend for a domestic cume of $132.1 million. The sequel should end Monday north of $137 million.
Chipwrecked grossed $18.3 million for a domestic cume of $94.6 million. The 3D toon should near $100 million on Monday. Both Game of Shadows and Sherlock have made up ground after muted openings over the Dec. 16-18 weekend.
Sony's R-rated adult drama grossed $16.3 million for the three-days for a domestic total of $57.1 million. The David Fincher-directed film, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, is expected to end Monday just north of $60 million. MGM is a partner on the film.
Fox's second holiday film We Bought a Zoo, directed by Cameron Crowe and starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, grossed $14.3 million for a domestic cume of $41.8 million. The movie should be right around $45 million by the end of Monday.
We Bought a Zoo, designed to be an all-audience film, has lagged since its debut on Dec. 23 and found itself bunched in with fellow family-friendly film The Adventures of Tintin, also directed by Spielberg.
Tintin, opening on Dec. 21, grossed $12 million for the weekend and is projected to end Monday with a domestic cume of $51 million. The film is a runaway success overseas, where it has earned nearly $250 million, pushing the movie's worldwide gross to $300 million.
Zoo cost just under $50 million to produce, while Tintin cost well north of $100 million. War Horse's production budget was north of $70 million.
As with wide releases, Monday should be a strong day for Iron Lady and other awards contenders, including Focus Features' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which has quietly blossomed into an arthouse hit. The British film, produced by Working Title, grossed $1.2 million over the three-day weekend from 57 locations for a domestic cume of $4 million and screen average of $20,360.
The Weinstein Co.'s awards darling The Artist also posted impressive numbers, grossing $1.4 million from 167 theaters for a cume of $5.1 million and weekend screen average of $8,432.
Warner Bros.' awards entry Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close grossed $106,00 from six theaters for a cume of $308,000 and screen average of $17,667.

THE HOBBIT
Here is another segment from Peter Jackson's video blog for making of THE HOBBIT. Watching these clips gives you an appreciation of the magnitude of this movie. How do you move some 500 people around New Zealand? This is one daunting task!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2012

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2011

I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve and usher in 2012 with hope and anticipation for what lies ahead.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2011

17th Precinct from ddt73 on Vimeo.

ALBATROSS
ComingSoon.net has provided the exclusive first look at a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette on Albatross, the Niall MacCormick drama starring Felicity Jones, Jessica Brown Findlay, Sebastian Koch and Julia Ormond. The film is now available to watch on SundanceNOW and Cable VOD ahead of its theatrical release on January 2nd.
Albatross is the story of Emelia Conan-Doyle (Jessica Brown Findlay, "Downton Abbey"), a cheeky force of nature and the 17-year-old heir to the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle. Harboring an ambition to follow in the literary footsteps of her grandfather, Emelia writes while working at a stuffy seaside hotel populated by another blocked novelist Jonathan (Sebastian Koch), his put-upon wife (Julia Ormond) and their daughter Beth (Felicity Jones, Like Crazy).
Instigating a whirlwind of change, Emilia first befriends and emancipates the bookish daughter Beth (Jones), alarms her career frustrated mother (Ormond), before bewitching Jonathan himself.

THE AVENGERS
Thanks to YouTube, we don't have to just watch Russia's MSN trailer for Marvel's The Avengers. We get more of a look at some of the main characters in this movie with a much anticipated May 4th release. Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the action adventure stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan SkarsgŚrd and Samuel L. Jackson.
Marvel's The Avengers is the superhero team up of a lifetime. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2011

BLACK SUNDAY
Thirteen years after he battled Satan himself in End of Days, Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to the supernatural (as an angel?) for his next movie.
The former governor of California has thrown himself back into acting since leaving office last year, and told followers at TheArnoldFans that in his next project, titled Black Sunday, he'll play what he called "kind of an angel," although he added, "I can not currently say more about this film." The site described the movie as a cross between Commando and Constantine, with Schwarzenegger "raging [sic] war against weapons dealers as an immortal instrument of death."
What's odd about this whole thing is that Black Sunday was originally called Black Sands, with the script said to be in the mode of films like the Denzel Washington action thriller Man on Fire and the classic Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter. Somewhere along the line—either at the star's request or through the rewriting stage or both—the supernatural came into the mix.
Well, whatever it ends up being,Black Sunday starts production in New Mexico on April 1. It will follow Schwarzenegger's two already completed projects, The Expendables 2 and The Last Stand, into movie theatres, presumably in 2013.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2011

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2011

PROMETHEUS
Only yesterday, we brought you a first exciting look at the upcoming 1st official trailer (yes, it's a teaser trailer FOR the trailer) for Ridley Scott's upcoming sci-fi tentpole Prometheus. Today, we get another sneak peek at what's coming up in part-deux of that teaser.
This second teaser trailer features even more exciting footage that seems to amp-up everything from the sense of danger to the break-neck action.
And while yesterday we had Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) and Idris Elba (Thor), today we get to see Charlize Theron's (Snow White and the Huntsman) baddy CEO Meredith Vickers and a glimpse at Noomi Rapace's (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) Elizabeth Shaw in a blink-and-you'll-miss-her explosive sequence.

THE RIVER
The ABC Studios TV series Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli stars Canadians Bruce Greenwood and Leslie Hope, along with Joe Anderson, Jeff Galfer, and Thomas Kretschmann.
The action adventure series will be simulcast along with the ABC airdate stateside from February 7, 2012 on CTV.
The River joins a CTV mid-season schedule that includes FoxŐs American Idol juggernaut returning for its 11th season on January 18, and the debut of the previously-announced rookie shows Smash, the Debra Messing-starring musical drama from Steven Spielberg, the mean girls comedy GCB, and the action-drama Missing, which stars Ashley Judd.
And returning U.S. series on the CTV and CTV Two schedules include Whitney, Pan Am, Up All Night, The Big Bang Theory, GreyŐs Anatomy and Two and a Half Men.

FAST AND FURIOUS 6
Rumored for some time, leading man Vin Diesel confirmed today to The Hollywood Reporter that both a sixth and seventh film are being planned for the Fast and the Furious franchise.
"With the success of this last one," he explains, "and the inclusion of so many characters, and the broadening of scope, when we were sitting down to figure out what would fit into the real estate of number six, we didn't have enough space... We have to pay off this story. We have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages. The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'"
Last year, when ComingSoon.net visited the set of Fast Five, Diesel was already setting his sights on a sixth film, which he envisioned as the end of a second trilogy.
"I've always had kind of an allergic reaction to taking a reactionary approach to a sequel," he said of why he didn't immediately return after the first film. "My gut feeling about sequels is that they should be premeditated. You should try to write a trilogy first or at least sketch out a trilogy if you have any faith in your film. You should think about where the film is going over a series of films... This is a trilogy... When I was thinking of this 'Fast & Furious,' I thought of it as three stories. The one that you saw, this one and the final one."
Whether that planned finale is still the arc that both upcoming sequels will follow remains to be seen, but Universal is currently set to begin production on at least Fast & Furious 6 next year with Justin Lin back behind the wheel as director, aiming for a May 24, 2013 release. It is possible (and has been rumored) that both sequels will shoot back-to-back to take advantage of scheduling around the sizable ensemble cast.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2011

PROMETHEUS
In what feels like a movie-marketing first, here's a warmup for the first full trailer for Ridley Scott's science fiction flick—and we get our first looks at Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and freaky alien goo in action.
"So here we are ... I'm back again" is how Scott kicks off this strange little piece of advertising, which seems to star the director as much as anything he's directed. But I don't particularly care. What brief flashes of Prometheus we do get look fantastic.
Face melting! Specimen examining! Doors opening! People screaming! We'll get a better sense of why all those things are happening when the real trailer hits Apple (which also has the HD version of this teaselet) on Thursday, but for now, excitement is afoot.

WRATH OF THE TITANS
It's time to dust off your sword and sandals. All Hades has broken loose in the first official trailer for Wrath of the Titans. There are new gods, new foes and a whole lot of family drama.
Sam Worthington is back on the scene as Zeus' bastard, warrior son Perseus. A lot has changed since we last saw him. The story takes place a decade after the first film and has him living a quiet life as a farmer and father to a 10-year-old boy. Unfortunately, the life of a demigod isn't meant to be easy.
A war is brewing between the gods and the Titans, and the Titans are winning. Without the humans' unwavering devotion, the gods lose their strength and power. The plot is riddled with daddy issues because guess who's the leader of the Titan's rebellion? It's none other than Kronos, the father of brothers Zeus, Hades and Poseidon.
Zeus' other son, Ares, makes a deal with Kronos and helps kidnap and imprison his father. Perseus may not have the best relationship with his dad, but he's not going to ignore this betrayal. He joins forces with Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell) and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy) to invade the underworld and rescue Zeus.
As you can tell from the trailer, Andromeda is no longer a damsel in distress. It looks like someone has taken some self-defense classes. She's rocking warrior gear and is ready for battle. One-eyed giants (cyclops) and fiery dragons are just some of the creatures they encounter on their quest. There seems to be a lot more action in this sequel than the original (who knew that was possible?). We have to admit, this movie looks slightly better than its predecessor.

Wrath of the Titans hits theaters March 30.

THE HOBBIT
Although we've been anticipating the Steven Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin for some time, we now have another reason to head toward the theaters, because when Tintin opens on Dec. 21, it's how we'll get to see the trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
There are some details from the trailer for the upcoming The Hobbit—it starts off with Bilbo (Ian Holm) retelling his adventures to Frodo (Elijah Wood)—we haven't seen the Precious for ourselves. According to Coming Soon, Tintin will be giving us that window of opportunity.
Sadly, there's no news as to when the trailer for The Hobbit will appear online. It's just as well. Considering that The Hobbit won't be released until Dec. 13, 2012, having more time to watch the trailer over and over again will just make the year seem that much longer.
Peter Jackson produced Tintin and directed The Hobbit. In other words, watching the trailer for The Hobbit while waiting to see Tintin is kind of like having a Jackson festival. We recommend viewers bring a King Kong toy to the theater to make it a complete Jackson experience.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Revealed in theaters with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Warner Bros. Pictures has now posted the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises online.
Opening in theaters on July 20, 2012, the Nolan's highly-anticipated third Batman movie stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata, Nestor Carbonell, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti, Joey King, Brett Cullen, Chris Ellis, Josh Stewart, Christopher Judge, Adam Rodriguez and Rob Brown.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2011

TIM & ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE
Following the recently released teaser trailer and the full-length Red Band trailer, Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie has released, through iTunes Trailers, the full Green Band version.
A spin-off of Cartoon Network's "Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!", the comedy stars Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, John C. Reilly, Robert Loggia, Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte, William Atherton and Erica Durance.
In the film, Tim and Eric are given a billion dollars to make a movie, but squander every dime... and the sinister Schlaaang corporation is pissed. Their lives at stake, the guys skip town in search of a way to pay the money back. When they happen upon a chance to rehabilitate a bankrupt mall full of vagrants, bizarre stores and a man-eating wolf that stalks the food court, they see dollar signs - a billion of them.
Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie will be available on VOD on January 27, 2012 and in theatres starting March 2, 2012.

WE BOUGHT A ZOO
(20th Century Fox)Release: 12/23/2011
Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna and Cameron Crowe, based on the book “We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo and the 200 Zoo Animals that Changed Their Lives Forever” by Benjamin Mee This holiday season, acclaimed filmmaker Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) directs an amazing and true story about a single dad who decides his family needs a fresh start, so he and his two children move to the most unlikely of places: a zoo. With the help of an eclectic staff, and with many misadventures along the way, the family works to return the dilapidated zoo to its former wonder and glory.
Directed By: Cameron Crowe
Produced By: Julie Yorn, Rick Yorn, Cameron Crowe

NEWS THIS WEEKEND: SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17-18, 2011

RITES OF SPRING
IFC Midnight is acquiring U.S. rights to director Padraig Reynolds' thriller "Rites of Spring".
The story follows a group of kidnappers who abduct the daughter of a wealthy socialite and hide out in an abandoned school in the middle of the woods. As guilt divides the group, they all become fodder for a mysterious creature that requires springtime ritualistic sacrifices.
AJ Bowen, Anessa Ramsey, Sonny Marinelli, Katherine Randolph and Marco St. John star. Reynolds also penned the screenplay.

THE DRIVER
According to Heat Vision, Voltage Productions and Solipsist Films have acquired Spenser Cohen and Zach Luna's spec script "The Driver".
The story centers on a man whose suburban existence is flipped on his drive to work when he finds himself coerced to be the wheelman of an assembled group of criminals. The man learns that thieves were not randomly assembled and that the heist leads to a larger mystery.
Cohen will direct while Stephen L’Heureux, Nic Chartier and Craig J. Flores are producing. Casting will begin in the new year.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
With three new sequels opening this weekend, the industry is hoping that last weekend's painfully quiet Box Office will show improvement -- and it will.
At No. 1 "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" scored an estimated $14.7 million on opening day -- $1.25 million of that coming in from midnight showings on Thursday night. Though this doesn't necessarily make "Sherlock" the blockbuster that the original was, there's a strong chance that the word-of-mouth on this one will keep it considerably successful through the holiday season.
The latest "Alvin and the Chipmunks" sequel, "Chipwrecked," is one of few (mostly) animated films this year that does not have a 3-D option, but that seems to be working for family audiences. The movie drew $6.8 million on Friday night to come in second place, and of course as a family-friendly film, it's likely to pick up the pace throughout the weekend with matinee showings and the Saturday night crowd.
As for Tom Cruise's most recent "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol," which was well-reviewed, numbers are coming in high. Opening this weekend in only 425 theaters (300 of which are of the IMAX variety), the "MI" sequel still raked in $1.1 million at midnight and a total of $4.1 million for Friday.

ENDER'S GAME
The casting for the film adaptation of the Orson Scott Card sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game, is heating up. And an inside source tells The Hollywood Reporter that Canadian teen star Brendan Meyer has joined the OddLot project.
Meyer will play Stilson, Ender’s (Hugo’s Asa Butterfield) classmate who taunted him during ground school in the futuristic film.
The 17-year-old actor has starred in the titular role of Adam Young on the YTV and Disney XD series, Mr. Young, as a child prodigy who graduated from college at 14 and returns to his area high school as its science teacher.
Ender's Game is described as the story of “a young boy, a genius strategist, who is drafted by the International Fleet to destroy the alien Formic race.”
Hailee Steinfeld and Ben Kingsley are currently in negotiations to join the film.
Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) wrote the script and is set to direct the film. The producing team includes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (2009’s Star Trek, Transformers), OddLot’s Gigi Pritzker and Linda McDonough, as well as Lynn Hendee, Robert Chartoff and Card.
The film will be executive produced by OddLot’s Bill Lischak, K/O’s Mandy Safavi, Digital Domain’s Cliff Plumer and Ed Ulbrich. Summit is the domestic distributor and is co-financing. Digital Domain is also a financial partner in the movie. The production is set to start shooting early next year in New Orleans with a March 2013 release date.
OddLot also co-produced the film, Drive, which just scored a supporting actor Golden Globe nomination for Albert Brooks.

THE LONE RANGER
British actor James Frain, who recently recurred as vampire on HBO’s True Blood, has joined the cast of Disney’s The Lone Ranger.
Johnny Depp toplines the Gore Verbinski-directed pic, which also counts Armie Hammer, Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Wilkinson among the cast.
Frain will play a tough foreman overseeing Chinese and Indian rail workers who works for the story’s chief villain (Wilkinson).
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the adventure movie which begins production in about six weeks.
Frain, who appeared in Water for Elephants, was one of the stars of NBC’s short-lived series The Cape and portrayed Thomas Cromwell for three seasons of Showtime’s acclaimed drama The Tudors. He is repped by APA.

ACT OF VALOR
Relativity Media has premiered, through iTunes Trailers, the new trailer for action-thriller Act of Valor.
Opening in theaters on February 17, the film stars a group of active-duty Navy SEALs in a powerful story of contemporary global anti-terrorism. Inspired by true events, the film combines stunning combat sequences, up-to-the minute battlefield technology and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate action adventure.
Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle and Nester Serrano co-star.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2011

DOCTOR WHO UPDATE - SPOILER WARNING
Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has just announced that everyone's favorite couple in the TARDIS and Who companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) are set to leave Matt Smith's Time Lord next season.
The sad announcement was made by Moffat at the BBC TV Centre in London at a screening for the upcoming Christmas episode ''The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe'' that is set to air on Christmas Day.
"The final days of the Ponds are coming," Moffat said. "I'm not telling you when or how, but that story is going to come to a heartbreaking end."
Wait! Heartbreaking end? What on Earth can you mean Mr. Moffat? We're not sure we're liking the sound of that.
Steven Moffat also added that The Doctor was going to meet "a new friend." The role has apparently not yet been cast.
About Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill's departure from the series next year, Matt Smith said:
"We had the most incredible journey. We took over the show and we've really had to hold hands and help each other through it.
"So it's very disappointing, but one has to remember that this show is about change and regeneration, and that's what galvanizes it and pushes it forwards."
And here we were, really getting to love the Ponds, Doctor Who's first married couple in the TARDIS ever. We'll be sad to see them go.

DRACULA
Italian horrormeister Dario Argento has never exactly been known for his subtlety, so we were sure his new Dracula 3D project would pack plenty of over-the-top vampire awesomeness. The first (slightly NSFW) footage from this opus has finally hit the 'net, and with Rutger Hauer heading up the cast as an intense Van Helsing, it doesn't disappoint.
We've heard that the flick won't be a direct adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel (we have enough of those), but this footage certainly packs plenty of bloody punch. It's got much of the look and feel of the classic Hammer Horror Dracula pictures, the ones with Christopher Lee as the red-eyed bloodsucker and Peter Cushing as the fearless vampire hunter.
This time the role of Dracula is being filled by German actor Thomas Kretschmann (who you might know best from his role as Captain Englehorn in Peter Jackson's King Kong), and Argento's own daughter Asia has the role of Dracula's victim Lucy Westenra. But the real star is definitely Hauer, and he looks damn badass decked out in Victorian waistcoats chasing bloodsuckers.

HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE
It's all about sequels, threequels and fourquels at the box office this weekend.
Tom Cruise reprises his role as U.S. agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the fourth entry in Paramount's action franchise. This time around, his team of agents trying to thwart a villain who believes that a nuclear winter would be in the natural order of things. Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner co-star, which marks The Incredibles director Brad Bird's first live-action film. The movie opens Friday in Imax theaters before expanded wide Dec. 21.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. releases its Sherlock Holmes sequel, subtitled A Game of Shadows, in which Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprise their roles as detective Sherlock Homes and his close associate Dr. Watson, respectively. The movie finds Holmes pitted against his most formidable opponent, the diabolical Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris).
Alvin and his furry friends Simon and Theodore also hit the big screen once again in 20th Century Fox's family comedy Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked. The threequel finds the trio wreaking havoc about a luxury liner, much to the eternal chagrin of their "dad" Dave (Jason Lee).
Sony Classics opens Roman Polanski's Carnage in limited release Friday. The movie, which has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, is an adaptation of Yasmina Reza's award-winning play God of Carnage and stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz as the parents of two kids who have been involved in a playground fight.

ALL IS LOST
According to Deadline, Robert Redford is interested in playing the lead role in the upcoming All Is Lost. The film is set to be directed by J.C. Chandor, who recently directed Margin Call.
Plot details are currently few, but the story is said to take place on the water and will feature a man surviving the elements all alone.
Zachary Quinto's production company, Before the Door, will produce the project, which is potentially planning to shoot in Mexico.
Redford's next is The Company You Keep, which he will both direct and star in opposite Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Richard Jenkins, Susan Sarandon and many more.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2011

BEING HUMAN
Can't wait until Jan. 16 to see what the cast of Syfy's Being Human gets up to in the show's second season? Neither can we! But until then, here's the first official photo from the new season, which will definitely remind you to mark your calendar.
Syfy described the new season as follows in an earlier press release:
Being human: nobody ever said it was easy. But when you're a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf, like the three twenty-something roommates of Being Human, it may be completely impossible. The second season of Syfy's hit drama picks up where the explosive season finale left off. Aidan tries to steer a leaderless Boston while resisting his deadlier vampire instincts, as he finds himself tempted and tormented by a figure from his past. Sally must face the consequences of missing her door, while figuring out how to navigate life on earth as a ghost. Werewolf Josh searches for a cure for his condition while struggling to maintain his relationship with Nora and, like the rest of his roommates, trying to build a future for himself beyond simply being a monster.
Being Human stars Sam Huntington (as werewolf Josh Radcliff), Sam Witwer (as vampire Aidan McCollin) and Meaghan Rath (as ghost Sally Malik), and will premiere Monday, Jan. 16, at 9 p.m.

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
We still have a looong year to wait until we can finally go back to Middle-earth again when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey makes it to theaters. But in the meanwhile, the studio's just released the first official synopsis for the film.
If the blurb released by the studio exactly a year to the day before the premiere doesn't raise your anticipation for The Hobbit at least a little, we don't know what will. Oh yeah, we do. Maybe a boatload of pics would do the trick ... but there are none to be found today. (Sorry!)
Anyway, we're pretty darned excited about what we've read below. Gollum's mentioned A LOT in there. And we simply can't wait to see Sherlock's Martin Freeman as the younger Bilbo Baggins, and all the returning characters we know and love from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Here's the synopsis:
From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of two films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The second film will be The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.
Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever...Gollum.
Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities ... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Martin Freeman in the central role of Bilbo Baggins. Also reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; and Andy Serkis as Gollum.
The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order) Richard Armitage, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Evangeline Lilly, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O'Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner.
The screenplays for both The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson. Jackson is also producing the films, together with Fran Walsh and Carolynne Cunningham. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Ken Kamins, Toby Emmerich and Zane Weiner, with Boyens serving as co-producer.
Under Jackson's direction, both movies are being shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Filming is taking place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.
Among the creative behind-the-scenes team returning to Jackson's crew are director of photography Andrew Lesnie, production designer Dan Hennah, conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe, composer Howard Shore and make-up and hair designer Peter King. The costumes are designed by Ann Maskrey and Richard Taylor. The score is being composed by Howard Shore.
Taylor is also overseeing the design and production of weaponry, armour and prosthetics which are once again being made by the award winning Weta Workshop. Weta Digital take on the visual effects for both films, led by the film's visual effects supervisor, Joe Letteri. Post production will take place at Park Road Post Production in Wellington.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again are productions of New Line Cinema and MGM, with New Line managing production. Warner Bros Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television licensing, being handled by MGM.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released beginning December 14, 2012. The second film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release the following year, beginning December 13, 2013.

THE EXPENDABLES 2
Lionsgate has released the teaser trailer for The Expendables 2! with an August 17, 2012 release.
Directed by Simon West, The Expendables 2 stars Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and is described as follows:
The Expendables are back and this time it's personal...
Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Lee Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) -- with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard -- are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time - six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that's nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE
Universal Pictures announced today that it has acquired the worldwide rights to the young adult fantasy novel Daughter of Smoke & Bone written by National Book Award Finalist Laini Taylor. The book was published this September and is the first in a trilogy. Universal's Co-Presidents of Production Peter Cramer and Jeff Kirschenbaum made the announcement.
Daughter of Smoke & Bone has been sold in over 25 countries so far to critical acclaim and has been one of the most well-received books of the year. Honors include an Amazon Top Ten Books of 2011, Amazon's #1 Teen Book of 2011, a Publishers Weekly Best Books 2011, a Huffington Post Top 10 YA Book of 2011, and a New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2011.
Since its release, Daughter of Smoke & Bone has been hailed with rave reviews across the board. A review from Entertainment Weekly said, "This smartly plotted, surprising, and fiercely compelling read will hook you from its opening pages." The New York Times called it "A breath-catching romantic fantasy about destiny, hope and the search for one’s true self that doesn't let readers down." And the Los Angeles Times noted, "It's to Taylor's great credit that evil incarnate and its love match in 'Daughter of Smoke & Bone' are such imaginative interpretations and that the worlds in which this romance unfolds are likewise so unique."
At the news of the acquisition, Laini Taylor said, "My goal is always to write stories that readers will want to climb inside of and live in, and which – I hope – will allow them to just lose themselves in the page. It is a hugely thrilling prospect to think about Universal and filmmakers translating my world onscreen and giving it a second life in such a grand way. I'm over the moon."
Jane Putch, Taylor's manager and producing partner, said, "Taylor is a stunning visual writer, whose superbly developed characters shape a plot filled with intrigue, epic wars, love, betrayal and 'teeth.' I can't wait to see her world on screen!"
Daughter of Smoke & Bone is published in the U.S. by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a division of Hachette Book Group and in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton. The second book in the trilogy will be published in September 2012.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

REVENGE NEWS
Even the cunning Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) can’t go it alone as this new casting shows.
An ABC spokesperson confirms that William Devane has joined the series in a guest role, as first reported by EW.
He’ll play Conrad Grayson’s (Henry Czerny) father, Edward. And here’s the twist: Victoria called on the Grayson patriarch to help her in the divorce proceedings against his son. He joins the series for Episodes 14 and 15 airing in January.
And apparently, Episode 15 will be a big one as it addresses the murder scene from the series pilot.
Devane played James Heller on 24, but primetime soap fans will also remember him as the plotting politician, Gregory Sumner, on the Dallas spinoff, Knots Landing, from 1983-1993. His movie credits include Marathon Man, Payback, and Hollow Man.
Revenge returns on Wed., Jan. 4. on ABC.

TRUE BLOOD NEWS
An HBO spokesperson confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that Chris Meloni is joining True Blood as a series regular for Season 5. Executive producer Alan Ball, the maker himself, broke the news first to TVLine.
Ball describes Meloni’s role as “an ancient, powerful vampire who holds the fate of Bill and Eric in his hands.”
Ever since the news broke that Meloni was negotiating for a role, fans have suspected he may be part of The Vampire Authority, the council which rules over all vampires and gives its royalty their power.
Meloni recently left Law & Order: SVU after 12 seasons on the show. This casting represents a homecoming for the actor after starring in the HBO series, Oz, from 1998-2003. He has also starred on several other series, including NYPD Blue, The Boys, and The Fanelli Boys. He’s also appearing in the next Superman flick, Man of Steel, due out in 2013.

VIRAL
Recent UCLA graduate Tim Schechmeister has sold the rights to his short film, Viral, to Screen Gems, says a story at The Hollywood Reporter. The film has been enjoying a successful film festival run over the last year, however, it wasn't until a known horror scribe saw it and passed it along to the right people.
Schechmeister met writer Stephen Susco (The Grudge) at screenwriting event this year and gave him a copy of Viral. An impressed Susco, in turn, passed it along to Roy Lee, producer of The Ring and The Grudge.
Lee and two other producers rallied behind the project and took it to Screen Gems where the feature rights were sold. Now, Schechmeister and his brother Matt are penning a feature adaptation for Tim to direct.
In the short film, two young ladies - Julia and Alexis - are supposed to be studying. But Alexis gives in to the temptation to go online and provoke someone... or something... that should have been left alone.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011

DRAGON SPACE CAPSULE
Great news, space enthusiasts: Dragon will be flying on February 7, 2012. What's Dragon? It's a capsule that will be flown to the International Space Station (ISS). And if all goes well, Dragon and its Falcon 9 launch vehicle will serve as the new replacement for the 30-year-old space shuttle, which was retired in July.
When we say "private," what we mean is "not public," that is, not government-based. SpaceX, the space transportation company that developed Dragon, won a $1.6 billion contract as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project, which would bring non-government vehicles to the International Space Station.
(Previously, the only craft that have made its way to the International Space Station are the United States' former Space Shuttle; the Japanese vehicle, H-II Transfer Vehicle; Russia's Soyuz, and the European Space Agency's ATV.)
In fact, SpaceX isn't the only winner of NASA funding. Orbital Sciences earned $1.9 billion from COTS. Its Cygnus spacecraft was due to launch in late 2010, but that date has been postponed.
According to SpaceX's website,
Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft being developed by SpaceX under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, the Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members.
Note the "and/or crew members." Dragon's first flight will be unmanned.
But according to Wired,
SpaceX is one of several private firms that are vying to take over Nasa's supply runs and astronaut transport to the ISS following the discontinuation of the Shuttle programme earlier this year. The US is currently having to buy seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, so it is looking towards using SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation for future trips.
In other words, private industry will be taking passengers. And with so few astronauts admitted to NASA and other government spaceflight programs, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences may look to paying passengers to help with their bottom line.
It looks like there's going to be a race to see which business can send unmanned vehicles to the ISS. The winner? The first business that can successfully flies manned vehicles, of course.

HEMLOCK GROVE
Netflix is going gory.
In the streaming service's continued and aggressive foray into the original content business, it is nearing a deal for Eli Roth to direct and executive produce hour-long horror series Hemlock Grove. The project, which will be granted a 13 episode order, is based on Brian McGreevy’s upcoming gothic horror novel by the same name.
The project, which hails from the newly launched Gaumont International Television, centers on the body of a young girl who is found mangled and murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, Penn. McGreevy is on board to co-write and executive produce the script with his writing partner Lee Shipman. Mad Hatter’s Michael Connolly will serve as a co-executive producer on the series, with Strike Entertainment's Eric Newman attached as an EP.
The news follows Netflix's other original projects, David Fincher's House of Cards, Jenji Kohan's Orange is the New Black and the resurrection of Fox's cult comedy Arrested Development, as well as its continued efforts to lock up deals with content providers such as the CW and AMC. "There are no signs of us reeling in spending," Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
More recently, Netflix has been at the center of still more news. This time, rumblings about a potential sale. The company's shares briefly jumped more 7 percent in afternoon trading Monday as reports surfaced that Verizon is interested in acquiring the company.
Roth, whose credits include Discovery's docuseries Curiosity, The Last Exorcism, Grindhouse and Hostel, is repped by CAA.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
The end is near. Warner Bros. has released an epic new teaser poster for The Dark Knight Rises. It features Tom Hardy as Bane, lots of rain, and a trail of shattered debris. The man's out for blood and there's nothing we can do to stop him!
Aside from Bane's intimidating presence, the poster features Batman's broken cowl and the tagline "The Legend Ends." If that's not a foreboding advertisement we don't know what is. The shattered cowl definitely alludes to "The Man Who Broke the Bat" storyline Bane is known for. It's no secret that Batman's going to be incapacitated at some point, we just don't know how or when.
What if Christopher Nolan deviates from "breaking The Bat" and takes him out another way? Since this is the final entry in his Batman series, we'd like him to exit on a somber but still hopeful note. He could let Bruce Wayne take a hit, while leaving the door open for a replacement. The possibilities are endless. We're both excited and terrified to see what happens next.
The Dark Knight Rises is directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film opens in conventional and IMAX theaters July 20.

NEW JURASSIC PARK
Tt has been over ten years since Jurassic Park 3 hit theaters and with rumblings of them finally getting around to doing Jurassic Park 4, something hinted at by original director and producer Steven Spielberg at this year's Comic-Con, fans of the successful franchise and dinosaur enthusiasts have been itching for any good news that it really was going to happen this time.
While out promoting The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg answered questions about his adaptation of Hergé's globe-trotting adventurer and we tried to quickly get in a question about their progress on Jurassic Park 4.
"I haven't been active in the last year because I've been so busy obviously on 'War Horse,' 'Tintin' and now I'm currently shooting 'Lincoln,' but right now, it's on the schedule to bring out another 'Jurassic Park.'"
Will it continue on from the last movie or reboot and start from scratch? All he could tell us was "It's just another boring secret," he chuckled.

THIS WEEKEND: DECEMBER 11, 2011

BATTLESHIP
A hurricane of speculation has surrounded this project since its inception, and for good reason. How could a simple hide-and-seek geometry game you play on boring camping vacations while swatting away meat bees have any chance at a narrative adaptation to film?
The result may be a stitched-together fusion of equal parts Armageddon, Independence Day, Transformers and Battle: Los Angeles, but Berg and his team seem to have a confident ace up their sleeves with what may end up being a decent popcorn pageant of destruction.
Yes, an alien armada force field, star-crossed lovers, toppling skyscrapers and razor-tailed attack drones destroying military bases all seem painfully familiar and do bring to mind the more unmemorable moments of recent sci-fi fiascos, but let's be optimistic. The broad, candy-colored canvas and deja-vu feel could give Universal's $200 million tentpole a steady foothold with its spring opening. (Or it could sink to an early, watery grave.) Anchors aweigh, and save us a lifeboat seat just in case.
Launching May 18, 2012, Battleship stars Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna.

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
Here is a new and thrilling Snow White and the Huntsman trailer that's so cool you'll hardly notice this one's in Spanish—even if you don't speak the language of Don Quixote.
This new trailer seems to be featuring a bit more of Twilight's Kristen Stewart as ''Blancanieves,'' aka Snow White, and overall it seems a bit more dramatic and dynamic.
Chris Hemsworth (Thor) is still rocking it as El Cazador, or the Huntsman, and he's again accompanied by Snow White's faithful dwarves.
But it's still Charlize Theron who rules as the Evil Queen—we think SHE might be the fairest of them all! Even if she's a whole lotta evil and really, really bad.
Snow White and the Huntsman opens on June 1, 2012.

THE DIVIDE
Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia is back with a violent, post-apocalyptic thriller The Divide.
Anchor Bay's The Divide centers on nine strangers, all living in a New York high-rise apartment, who escape a nuclear attack by hiding out in the building's bunker-like basement. After being trapped for days waiting to be rescued, the nine tenants spiral out of control, each turning on each other -- and one survivor holds onto the small chance that they'll be able to escape.
Genre legend Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator), Lauren German, Ashton Holmes, Courtney B. Vance and Rosanna Arquette co-star in the thriller directed by Xavier Gens (Hitman), set for theatrical release on Jan. 13. The film received buzz at last year's SXSW film festival.
The Divide has an explosive and chaotic opening, with people trying to get to safety after their city is under attack. The ominous score doesn't help matters, adding to everyone's impending doom.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2011

THE ANNIHILATOR
There are plenty of superheroes and superhero teams that deserve their own movies. But the next superhero to get the big-screen treatment isn't one you're familiar with: It's Stan Lee's newest hero, The Annihilator.
Back in July, Stan Lee joined forces with a Hong Kong investment company to create "a new superhero franchise aimed at Chinese and foreign audiences." The Annihilator, about a Chinese superhero, is their first project.
Screenwriter Dan Gilroy, who wrote Real Steel, the upcoming The Bourne Legacy and the 1992 film Freejack, has been hired to bring The Annihilator to life.
When he's not forming international partnerships, Stan the Man has kept busy. Today Variety reported that he sold rights to an "original superhero property" to Lionsgate. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who produced Smallville, will be writing, directing and producing this property.
Variety writes,
Details of the untitled project are being kept under wraps, but it's described as a multigenerational superhero movie that spans several decades.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX UPDATE
Twentieth Century Fox has a lot of Marvel on its plate right now. We've been waiting for a while to hear something definite on a sequel to the acclaimed X-Men: First Class, and we just heard earlier this week that its Daredevil reboot isn't dead. Neither of those have so much as a vague release date yet, but according to exec Tom Rothman, they're well on their way.
Speaking at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, Rothman offered some encouraging enthusiasm for the X-Men followup, and said that, when it comes to how soon it gets done, it all depends on how soon they can get a killer script done.
"We're trying like hell. We're trying as hard as we can. We really want to do it. We're planning to do it," he said.
"The reason, in addition to those two guys [James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender] and Matthew Vaughn, that it was as good as it was is that the script was really good. The key to making a great continuing franchise is to have a great script, so we're working hard on it."
As for that Daredevil reboot, we saw 30 Days of Night director David Slade confirm on Twitter earlier this week that he's still working on it. Rothman basically confirms that's happening, but adds talk of one more reboot to the mix.
"Daredevil is still with David Slade," Rothman said. "It's in development now. We're working on it and Fantastic Four."
If it seems like FOX is dragging its feet on some of these projects, Rothman has a simple explanation. Superhero flicks aren't just popcorn fare anymore, and they've got to live up to high expectations.
"I think for all of us, the bar has been raised, so we've got to aim high now. Marvel's done a terrific job with their films. Where our Marvel movies are concerned or other movies like that," he said. "It's like what we had with Planet of the Apes this summer. I think it's important for us to really aim high and deliver an A-level experience to the audience."

CASTLE FANS GET MORE!
Good news for Castle fans: ABC has ordered an additional episode.
That means the episode count for the Monday night procedural, starring Nathan Fillion as a mystery novelist and Stana Katic as a New York detective, will go up to 23 for the fourth season.
Castle recently wrapped the first half of its current run with the episode "Cuffed," which found Castle (Fillion) and Beckett (Katic) handcuffed together with no recollection of how they got there. The crime drama returns with the second half of season 4 on Jan. 9.
When Katic spoke to THR in early November, she teased that in an upcoming episode of the show, viewers would finally "see Ryan finally get married" to Jenny.
Castle airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

HAWAII FIVE-O NEWS -- OLD MEETS NEW
After 36 years, Ed Asner is returning to Hawaii Five-0.
The Emmy winner (Mary Tyler Moore, Lou Grant) will guest star in a spring episode of the CBS drama, reprising his role of August March, the network announced Thursday.
The episode will for the first time feature original footage from the 1975 episode, "Wooden Model of a Rat," in which Asner originally guest starred, explaining his back story as an up-and-coming world-class smuggler.
?It is thrilling to, for the first time, merge the original Hawaii Five-0 and our new show by having the classic, versatile and award-winning actor Ed Asner reprise his role of August March, a character Mr. Asner first played 36 years ago. There is no better way to form a bridge between our reboot and the original series,? executive producer Peter Lenkov said in a statement announcing the casting.
Five-0 detectives Alex O'Loughlin and company will lean on March, now a reformed man living in Oahu after serving 30 years in prison for murder, for assistance with a new smuggling case.
Hawaii Five-0, now in its second season, airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on CBS.

ENDER'S GAME
Ben Kingsley is in talks to join the cast of Ender?s Game, Odd Lot?s sci-fi film adaptation of the novel by Orson Scott Card.
Hugo actor Asa Butterfield is starring in the pic (Hailee Steinfeld is in negotiations to join it), set in a future where the Earth is under attack by an insect-like race and mankind has created a battle school to train fighting forces. In this environment enters Ender Wiggin (Butterfield), a kid who is tormented by bullies and an older brother but proves to be a master at a three-dimensional, zero-gravity laser tag-like game. That sets him on a path as a possible savior of the human race.
Kingsley will play a legendary war hero presumed to be long dead.
Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is directing and also wrote the script. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing along with Gigi Pritzker and Linda McDonough of OddLot Entertainment. Card and Lynn Hendee are also producing.
A February production start date is being penciled in.
Summit is the domestic distributor and is co-financing. Digital Domain is also a financial partner in the movie.
Kingsley, repped by CAA, Jackoway Tyerman and Independent Talent in the UK, can be seen portraying cinema pioneer George Melies in Martin Scorsese?s Hugo opposite Butterfield.

HORNS
It was some time ago that Mandalay Pictures first announced their plans to develop Joe Hill's novel, Horns, into a feature film. Today, The Hollywood Reporter has word that Alexandre Aja has signed on to direct.
The novel, released last year, is a horror love story about a young man named Ig Perrish who wakes up one day to find that horns have grown from his head. What's more, they're still growing and are somehow tied to the unsolved murder of his girlfriend.
Shia LaBeouf was, earlier this year, attached to the role of Perrish, but there's no confirmation yet as to whether or not he's still involved.
Aja recently directed Piranha and is known for his past horror efforts such as Mirrors, The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension.

THE FOLLOWER
According to Variety, Katherine Heigl is making plans to headline a thriller entitled The Follower. Details are few, but the project arrives from a spec script by Tony Giglio and is being developed by Millennium Films.
In addition to starring, the New Year's Eve actress will produce alongside her mother and creative partner, Nancy Heigl.
Giglio directed the 2005 Jason Statham film Chaos and, more recently, wrote the direct-to-DVD sequels Death Race 2 and Death Race 3.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011

BATMAN 4 AND 5?
Director Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale may be finished with the Dark Knight, but Gary Oldman thinks we'll probably get a fourth and even a fifth film right after the third opus, The Dark Knight Rises, comes to theaters next July.
Even though it's also the end of the road for Oldman in the role of the much-beloved Commissioner Gordon, the British actor, whom we'll soon see in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, believes the studio will want to continue with the franchise :
Yeah, yeah. For us I think it's the end. Whether they will make more, my guess is probably. I mean, they don't have Potter anymore. So, there could be a Batman 4 a 5. It may be Chris overseeing it in a producorial position, but for us and for Chris I think that's it. It's a great way to go out though. It's a great story. Epic, epic thing it is.
With Warner Bros. milk cow—aka the Harry Potter franchise—out of the picture, the studio will look to another viable money-making franchise, and Batman is definitely one.
I think Chris strikes me as someone who's too smart and he's sort of too classy to just sort of make a third for the sake of making it. I don't think that's who he is. I remember way back saying to him, '"Is there going to be a third?" He said, "If I can get the story right. I've got to outdo myself. I've got to do it better than The Dark Knight. I've just got to get it right." He set the bar very high, and so he said, "If I can find a story that interests me I will do it." I think also it's genius that he's picked Bane as the villain, that he didn't go with The Riddler or The Penguin. I think right there is a wise choice.
We're not exactly surprised to hear this, since we know Warner Bros. and DC Comics are looking to finally make that Justice League movie. And with rumors that Nolan may be killing off Batman at the end of the trilogy, we still think they'll be ''rebooting'' the Batman franchise rather than going the sequel route IF they plan to make more Batman films.
The Dark Knight Rises comes to theatres on July 20, 2012.

SNOW WHITE: A DEADLY SUMMER
The first trailer for Snow White: A Deadly Summer finds our fair maiden trapped inside a mundane world haunted by Velveeta-like acting and stale-breadcrumb storytelling. But just try and resist. It's more tempting than a ripe red apple.
With next year's showdown between competing big-buck fairy tale flicks Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror, it seems everyone is crowding on the enchanted bandwagon.
The wafer-thin plot chronicles the bland adventures of a suburban teen named Snow (Shanley Caswell) and her wicked stepmother, played with drama-club gusto by Maureen McCormick. Snow is sent away to a badgirl bootcamp where some supernatural shenanigans occur with seven doomed campers. No dwarves apparently allowed.
The direct-to-dvd gem Snow White: A Deadly Summer slinks into stores next year.

THE IRON LADY
The new trailer for director Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady is now online.
The film is an intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world.
Opening in limited release on December 30th, the film also stars Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloy, Olivia Colman, Nicholas Farrell, Susan Brown, Roger Allam, Anthony Head, Julian Wadham, Pip Torrens, Nick Dunning, Richard E Grant, David Westhead, Angus Wright and John Sessions.

THE LONE RANGER NEWS
Although Tom Wilkinson was originally cast back in June, the delays that hit Gore Verbinksi's The Lone Ranger threw the supporting cast into question. Today, Deadline confirms that Wilkinson is back aboard and that the Jerry Bruckheimer production is keen on getting back everyone who was originally attached.
Wilkinson's part is said to be that of Latham Cole, a villainous railroad tycoon. He'll appear opposite Armie Hammer as the titular hero and Johnny Depp as the Ranger's legendary sidekick, Tonto.
Though unconfirmed at this time, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper and Dwight Yoakum are likely to return as well.
"It's sort of 'Don Quixote' told from Sancho Panza's point of view," Verbinski told ComingSoon.net last year, suggesting that Tonto will, in many ways, be the lead.
The Lone Ranger will begin production shortly, aiming for a May 31, 2013 release.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011

JOHN CARTER OF MARS
Even though the first adventure based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic tales is still months from hitting theaters, director Andrew Stanton and Pixar have their eyes on more John Carter cinematic exploits.
A total of 11 books make up Burroughs' Barsoom series, from 1917's A Princess of Mars to 1964's John Carter of Mars, and if Stanton has his way, they're not going to stop at just one:
"We bought the rights to the first three books when we first started. I thought, let's set it off right because you never get time back. ... The worse case scenario is that you'll plan for more but only make one. But what I'd hate is that you'd plan for one with no preparation for the others, because it'll show. It'll really bite you in the back end.
"I never expected anyone to say we'd definitely do more than one. It's a huge risk for them ... and It's a huge chunk of change to make any of these movies, something this big. So it made complete sense to me, from their side of the fence, to wait until the movie's out.
"So if the worst is that it was just a writing exercise for me to plan the others and then I never get to do them, I don't think I'll have any regrets. So we've been planning out all three all along, just on the chance that they do go ahead. ... My fan wish is that we'll go to all 11 stories and make more."

DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS EPISODE
We've been waiting for the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe," about as eagerly as we've been waiting for Christmas itself. This new one-minute prequel video will have us stewing like a plum pudding.
There's a million miles of tension packed within this one-minute video, and as we know, time and space are things the Doctor is absolutely familiar with. He is not, however, familiar with the workings of this particular spaceship.

TRANSFORMERS 4
Michael Bay will be back behind the lens for a fourth Transformers film, Vulture reports. He's said to be close to finalizing a deal with Paramount Pictures and will likely begin work after shooting his smaller-budgeted passion project, Pain and Gain.
Word of a fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise first popped up in October, suggesting that Shia LaBeouf is unlikely to return in a leading role and that a fourth and fifth film could be shot back-to-back. Those reports remain unconfirmed.
Just yesterday, a report suggested that Bay is close to locking his leading men for the dark crime comedy with Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. Because of it's significantly smaller scale, Pain and Gain is planned for a shoot towards the beginning of 2012, leaving the end of the year open for work on a fourth Transformers.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011

SYFY HOLIDAY EPISODES
Merry Christmas! Tuesday night, Syfy is giving us its annual Christmas present via special holiday episodes of its summer shows, Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Haven. So what does that mean for us? Well, how about an animated Eureka, a world where Pete was never born on Warehouse 13 and Christmas in July for Audrey on Haven?
Considering all the shows are in the middle of storylines and cliffhangers, you might think it'd be difficult to spin out a heartwarming Christmas tale. Not so much. All the shows are set "out of time" and are non-linear according to the stars of the three shows, Eureka's Colin Ferguson, Warehouse 13's Eddie McClintock and Haven's Emily Rose.
"You want it to be perennial. You want it to be something that can air every single year. So if you lock it in the continuum of a show, you almost make it outdated by the next year. So I think I you do a service to the holiday. All of our [shows] exist out of time," said Ferguson, who plays Sheriff Jack Carter on Eureka.
"It's like a little gift to the fans, kind of a holdover type of intermission episode where it's just its own little gem of an episode. So if you miss the characters and you've missed the world, you could hop into it," said Rose, who plays Audrey Parker in Haven.
For Ferguson, it is an especially special episode, considering he gets animated.
"It was really, really fun, really fun to see, for myself to be a Rankin and Bass [claymation] character," said Ferguson. "It brought me back to when I was a kid. I haven't seen that stuff in a long time so it was really, really fun to watch."
In his episode, Jack and the gang turn into animated characters when a mysterious Kaleidoscopic wave of color washes over the town of Eureka. That leads to several animation styles, including anime, claymation, Looney Tunes-inspired animation and modern CG.
"For us it was more of a concept than a reality. We took one of the sets that we usually shoot in, Café Diem, and we sat there for six hours one day and blew through 30 pages of dialogue or something like that. That's awesome. I mean if I could shoot like that everyday that'd be the greatest. So we loved, loved that."
As for Warehouse 13, Pete touches an artifact and suddenly discovers he was never born. Talk about complications, especially when the new Warehouse agents think he's an intruder and someone from his past shows up in charge of the Warehouse.
"I liked this year's Christmas episode better because I just felt it was a little too, dare I say, 'Schmaltzy' last year. Not that it was a bad episode. I enjoyed it, but I just like this one better," said McClintock, who plays Pete Lattimer on Warehouse 13. "I mean Roger Rees is back as MacPherson. There's an actual bad guy and the stakes are much higher this year."
There was "more great writing from Jack Kenny and company, to give Pete the depth that I think that he needs to have longevity in regards to the show. Don't get me wrong. There's still some good lighthearted, funny stuff and there's some good heartfelt moments, as well. It's not that dark, but I think what it primarily does is it gives you the same feeling I think that It's a Wonderful Life provided for viewers. Kind of that sense of redemption and struggle, and at the end I think it'll leave everybody nice and happy and ready to go see Santa," he said.
And if offered up a moment that fans might not forget soon. "I think any chance for Pete to nestle his head between Mrs. Frederic's ample bosom, I think that'll be a fan favorite. And that kind of comes out of nowhere," said McClintock.
While Eureka and Warehouse 13 have both gotten into the Syfy Christmas spirit before, this is the first time we'll see a Haven holiday episode.
In the Haven episode, everyone in the town thinks that it's normal to have Christmas in July, until people start vanishing in thin air. Audrey is the only one that "thinks that it's foolish and why would it be happening in July? So again, she's feeling on the outside and has to try to solve things and get everything back on track on her own. But she's pretty good at that, so nothing to worry about," said Rose.
Audrey has other reasons to feel ambivalent towards Christmas, considering she's living with another woman's memories. "I think that's the great chestnut about that character is that the past for her is something that is really hard for her to literally wrap her head around. But what she does remember, whether they're her memories or not her memories... what she does remember isn't exactly the most pleasant thing. So how does she overcome that and deal what's going on in the day? And I think it makes for a pretty interesting episode," she said.
So what are the actor's Christmas wishes for their characters?
"I guess I'd like Pete to find himself a good woman. You know, he gets tired of being alone at night back at Leena's," said McClintock.
"I would wish a great holiday online shopping [spree] for Audrey, that there would be some great accessible stores for her to go and shop in so that she can continue to have a really amazing wardrobe for the consecutive seasons," jokes Rose. "No, I think I would always hope for Audrey that she would find out more about her mother or her previous memories, or whatnot. I will always be begging the writers to dive more into that... because it's so intriguing. And whenever I do get to look into her past, I get to dress up in really cool period costumes. So that's what I would hope for for her."
"I think for Jack it would be a simpler wish of just raising a family again, in a sense, properly and continuing to do what he does in the town. I think he belongs there. I think the town should sort of go off and do what it does forever. So my wish would be that he gets to settle in and have a real family community small town life. I think it would do well for him to have that," said Ferguson.
Of course, the real Christmas wish for Rose and McClintock might just be that they could actually be animated like Ferguson.
Rose jokes that she's jealous, "a little bit, yes. I'm having to deal with that right now. I'm having to keep the jealousy down now."
"I'm drawing a picture of you. I'm drawing a picture of you right now. There we go then," said Ferguson.
"I kind of am not as bent out of shape as I could be just because they've done a Warehouse 13 comic book. And apparently Jay Leno and I have the exact same chin," said McClintock.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2011

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
The Cabin in the Woods, a horror film from Joss Whedon and Cloverfield scribe Drew Goddard, has been promising an unexpected take on a familiar premise since it went into production in early 2009.
Now, approaching the release, Lionsgate is playing up the tongue-in-cheek slasher flick with new artwork.
First posted by AICN, the new poster finds the titular cabin has been turned into an architectural Rubik's Cube. It boasts the new tagline, "You think you know the story."
For all the time it's gone unreleased, not much is known about Cabin in the Woods. Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Kristen Connolly, Brian J. White, Amy Acker, Fran Kranz and Jesse Williams also star in the film.
It also marks one of the first starring stateside vehicle for a then unknown Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in Whedon's upcoming Avengers.
The story follows two white-collar co-workers (Jenkins and Whitford) stranded in the woods while a group of college kids spend the weekend in the mysterious cabin. At some things likely go very, very wrong.
The Cabin in the Woods finally makes it to theaters April 13, 2012.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN
Most of Charles Dickens' acclaimed work as an author is well known, whether it's "Oliver Twist" or "A Tale of Two Cities" or "Great Expectations" or "A Christmas Carol," all stories that have been adapted to the big screen either directly or influencing other movies. What some may not know is that he had a mistress named Nelly Ternan for 13 years right up until his death, something accounted by Claire Tomalin in her book The Invisible Woman.
According to the UK's Daily Mail, actress Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) will be portraying her in an adaptation helmed by Ralph Fiennes, whose directorial debut Coriolanus is getting a one-week Oscar run in New York and Los Angeles starting today.
Jones is fresh off her win for Breakthrough Performance at the Gotham Independent Film Awards earlier this week, and according to the story, they will start filming sometime during the spring or summer of 2012 with BBC Films producing. This will follow Jones' starring role in Warren Beatty's biopic of Howard Hughes in which she'll play a young woman who had a romance with the eccentric millionaire.

SAN ANDREAS: 3D
24 Frames is reporting that New Line Cinema is developing an earthquake disaster film titled San Andreas: 3D, written by Allan Loeb. Loeb's credits include 21, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and the upcoming Rock of Ages.
The film is about the Big One and is described as follows:
[T]he hero is forced to go on the road to reconcile with his children and his estranged wife, who's moved away and taken up with another man a la John Cusack's character in "2012." (According to a person who's read the script, the "San Andreas" hero makes the trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco using some rather, er, unconventional transportation.)
The movie is being produced by Beau Flynn (Journey to the Center of the Earth, Red Dawn).

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2011

HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS
Hansel and Gretel are all grown up! The fabled storybook siblings are dressed in leather and packing heat in the new film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as the tortured pair.
Entertainment Weekly got first dibs on an exclusive photo of the new Hansel and Gretel. Renner and Arterton headline the latest adaptation of the German folktale, which centers on adult versions of the characters. After almost being eaten alive by a sadistic old woman, the duo have turned into butt-kicking vigilantes.
Renner describes his version of Hansel as a Han Solo type, while Arterton's Gretel is "a thinker," and more "open-minded than he is." Even though this revamped story will focus on the siblings' adult lives, Arterton says there will be flashbacks to the original story: They shot a scene that re-enacts the terrifying event, complete with a candy house and ugly witches.
With a childhood like that we're not surprised Hansel and Gretel become professional killers. According to Arterton:
"In our minds, these are two people who grew up with no parents and they only have each other and the bond they have, and with the complexities of that, some resentment."
The first trailer for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is rumored to debut next Thursday, while the film itself opens March 2.

STARSHIP TROOPERS
Robert Heinlein's somewhat controversial 1959 book was made into Paul Verhoeven's rather divisive 1997 movie: Some saw it as an insightful satire on the media-readiness of modern war, while others saw it as a candy-colored betrayal. But now Sony has retained the writers of Thor and X-Men: First Class to fashion a new take on a classic tale.
Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz will be fashioning the story, which, in Heinlein's original, followed young Johnnie Rico as he went from a raw recruit in the bug-fighting Mobile Infantry to a hardened battle veteran. Verhoeven veered wildly from the text, casting a roster of mostly forgettable pretty people—the great exception being Neil Patrick Harris—and turning to a childhood forged in the fascism of World War II for inspiration.
It's too soon to tell what path Miller and Stentz's adaptation will take, but there's is still a great war movie to be made from one of the best military sci-fi novels ever written.

ENDER'S GAME
Director Gavin Hood's take on Orson Scott Card's sci-fi classic seems to be doing what no other attempt at adaptation has: move forward. After the news that Hugo's Asa Butterfield will play Andrew Wiggin and Harrison Ford is being courted for General Graff, True Grit's Hailie Steinfeld might join the Battle School, too.
Steinfeld is in negotiations to play Petra Arkadian, the rare female student at the Battle School and one of Ender's dearest friends. While she wasn't the youngest actor ever nominated for an Oscar—that'd be Kramer vs. Kramer's 8-year-old Justin Henry—Steinfeld is definitely one of the most promising fresh faces to come down the pike in a long while.
We're getting more optimistic about this Ender's Game flick all the time.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011

COMIC BRINGS RECORD PRICE
The Holy Grail of comic books is now even holier. A stellar copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938, once owned by Nic Cage, shattered auction records this evening in New York when the smoke cleared and a final bid of $2,161,000 was announced.
Within its fabled pages, Superman was first introduced to the planet, ushering in the Golden Age of superheroes. Stolen from actor Nicolas Cage in 2000, the comic was recovered in April of 2011, found inside a storage locker in the San Fernando Valley by the Los Angeles Police Department's Art Theft Detail. Fewer than 10 copies of the precious book exist in this condition. The famed specimen is the highest officially graded edition in the census, weighing in at 9.0 Very Fine/Near Mint, inspected by Certified Guaranty Company in New Jersey, the gold-standard of comic book grading services.
Back in 2010, a lesser, 8.5-rated CGC copy sold for $1.5 million, smashing the record for most expensive comic at the time. This auction was predicted to obliterate the previous record and didn't disappoint. Fifty bids were recorded before the gavel fell.
Cage purchased the storied comic in 1997 for a then-astounding $150,000, solidifying his rank as a self-described comic book geek. He eventually settled for his lost "national treasure" and was paid off by the insurance company ten years ago when it was first stolen.
ComicConnect Corporation in New York City hosted the auction and will take a 10% commission on the final sale.
Owner and COO Vincent Zurzolo was thrilled to have the opportunity to sell this once-in-a-lifetime piece of history.
"This copy of Action Comics #1 is the Holy Grail of all comics and we're proud to be auctioning it off here at ComicConnect," he said. "We were fortunate enough to sell the former world-record holder, Action Comics #1 in 8.5 back in March of 2010 and this current copy is unequaled. This is a historic day and we're very excited to see where this lands."

STAR TREK 2 NEWS
With J.J. Abrams finally getting to work on his second Star Trek film, the director has just cast a female role that is said to be new to the Trek universe.
Variety reports that Abrams has offered the part of a brand new character to British actress Alice Eve, who has been seen in She's Out of My League, Sex and the City 2 and HBO's Entourage. She reportedly beat out Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) and Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger) for the role.
As usual with Abrams, no one is saying who Eve's character is or what she's doing, but the word is that you won't find this person anywhere in the 79 original series episodes.
As previously reported, Abrams is also close to nabbing Benicio del Toro to play the villain in Star Trek 2 (or whatever it ends up being called), and there's a lot of chatter out there on the intertubes that del Toro is going to appear as Khan Noonian Singh of "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan fame. (Does that mean that Eve won't be playing Lieutenant Marla McGivers?) That has been neither confirmed nor denied, however.
The director apparently has one more major role he needs to cast, and it's said to possibly be another villain who's "older and more of a supporting character" to the one played by del Toro. Of course, the rest of the cast is locked in, with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, etc. all returning as the command crew of the starship Enterprise.
All will be revealed when Star Trek 2 warps into theatres on May 17th, 2013 in 3D.

JOHN CARTER TRAILER
Fans awaiting Disney’s John Carter have gotten some nice little goodies before the holidays. Earlier this week, a new poster for the film premiered and on Wednesday, star Taylor Kitsch made an appearance on Good Morning America to tease the first official trailer for the film.
The action-epic, based on the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, follows a former Confederate captain (Kitsch) who is mysteriously transported to Mars, and must resolve a conflict between warring nations.
On Wednesday night, the first full-length official trailer was released.
And oh what an adventure it is! Kitsch's character will be challenged with fighting massive alien creatures to prove his worth, and helping solve the ongoing battle between warring Martian nations. "We did not cause this, but this very night, we will end it," screams Kitsch's character in the trailer as he prepares for battle.
The film is the first live-action project for director Andrew Stanton, who helmed Pixar’s Wall-E and Finding Nemo.
Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch told THR that taking on such an epic role was a challenge for him. “It’s by far the most challenging gig I’ve ever had in my life,” said Kitsch. “It’s the most rewarding as well.”
The film, which also stars Willem Dafoe and Lynn Collins is set for a March 9, 2012, release.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Variety is reporting that Invictus and Sherlock Holmes writer Anthony Peckham is in final negotiations to write The Twilight Zone for Warner Bros. Pictures and Appian Way.
Peckham will rewrite the original draft by Jason Rothenberg. Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In) is set to direct.
Appian Way partners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran will produce with Michael Ireland, while Matt Cherniss will executive produce.
Based on the classic Rod Serling TV series, the movie is expected to start filming in the summer of 2012.

THE DEVIL INSIDE
The first TV spot for Paramount's The Devil Inside, hitting theaters on January 6 is out.
Directed by William Brent Bell, the horror film stars Fernanda Andrade, Isabella Rossi, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Ionut Grama, Suzan Crowley, Bonnie Morgan, Brian Johnson, Preston James Hillier and D.T. Carney.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011

THE MUNSTERS
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Bryan Singer is moving from mutants to Munsters.
The producer-director-writer, who has been involved with three of the X-Men films in the superhero franchise, is closing in on a deal to direct and executive produce NBC's The Munsters.
The project, which received a pilot order earlier this month, is billed as an imaginative reinvention of the classic comedy series as a visually spectacular one-hour drama.
Singer will executive produce alongside Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies), who also is writing the Universal Television-produced project.
Fuller and NBC first made an attempt to revive the 1960s CBS sitcom last year, with the network ultimately passing. His newer version is said to be an edgier and slightly darker take exploring origins of Herman and Lily Munster (originally played by Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo) and how they arrived at the famed 1313 Mockingbird Lane address.
The original series, produced by Universal Studios, aired 70 episodes from 1964-66 on CBS.
Singer directed the first two X-Men films and produced the second and third in the series. He also helmed and produced Superman Returns and Valkyrie and directed the upcoming Jack the Giant Killer.
On the TV side, he directed the pilots for Fox's House and ABC's Football Wives. His executive producing credits include House and ABC's Dirty Sexy Money.

OUIJA
Ouija may not have a studio home, but the supernatural project is still very much alive and kicking, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Hasbro, which is financing development, and Platinum Dunes, the shingle producing the project, have hired well-regarded scribe Marti Noxon to work on the script.
Noxon cut her teeth and gained geek cred with her work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and most recently wrote the remake of Fright Night.
Ouija was set up at Universal but was untethered in late August due to budgetary concerns. The move followed Universal's letting go of another Hasbro property, Monopoly.
But Noxon’s hiring shows Hasbro is still very keen on the Ouija project, and is unafraid to spearhead its own development, mirroring moves already made on the Monopoly project. In September, Hasbro and Ridley Scott, who is producing Monopoly, set Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski to pen a script.
Ouija is still envisioned as a family adventure in the tone of The Mummy centering on a family who has to deal with otherwordly chaos that is unleashed.
Noxon, who also did a pass on Lionsgate’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, is repped by WME and Hansen Jacobson.

BITTER PILL
A week and a half after parting ways with Warner Bros. over a planned remake of Man from U.N.C.L.E., Steven Soderbergh is bouncing back.
The prolific filmmaker is reteaming with his U.N.C.L.E. writer Scott Z. Burns for The Bitter Pill, a new project that is being pitched to studios now and is fielding multiple bids.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing with Soberbergh’s longtime producing partner Gregory Jacobs and Burns. Soderbergh, Jacobs and Burns are the director-producer-writer, respectively, behind the recent Warner Bros. films Contagion and The Informant!
Little is known about Bitter Pill, although it is described as a thriller set in the world of psychopharmacology.
Soderbergh, who has the spy action movie Haywire coming out in January and the male-stripper dramedy Magic Mike set for June, was due to direct U.N.C.L.E. next year but left the project over differences in budget and casting.

ENDER'S GAME
Recently rumored for the role, Hugo star Asa Butterfield confirmed earlier today via Twitter that he's officially joined Summit Entertainment's big-screen version of Ender's Game. Now, Variety has word that the next major bit of casting is the role of Colonel Hyrum Graff and that the producers are keen on getting Harrison Ford for the part (though there are said to be other unnamed possibilities as well).
To be directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Ender's Game is based on the science fiction novel series by Orson Scott Card, officially described as follows:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Though his casting is far from a done deal, Ford is no stranger to sci-fi worlds. He made iconic the role of both Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Recently, Ford merged sci-fi with action adventure in both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Cowboys and Aliens.
Ender's Game is slated for release on March 15, 2013.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011

DUST AND GLORY
Top Cat Films may have found a director for their upcoming racing tale, Dust and Glory. The Hollywood Reporter has word that Simon West has entered negotiations.
Based on a novel by Evan Green, the film adaptation is officially described as follows:
"Dust and Glory" is the story of a car race… the longest, roughest, toughest craziest car race in the world … a 10,000 mile event, right around Australia. It is set at a time when roads around the coast were outback tracks of appalling roughness and a journey like this was more a pioneering adventure than a motor sport.
The redex Trials of the 1950s captured the imagination of post war Australia like no other event. Through regular radio updates the entire country followed the fortunes of the competitors during the race, and huge crowds turned out along the routes to cheer cars and drivers. Competitors were feted at every stop like movie stars.
"Dust and Glory" combines the best of the actual real life characters, events of the three actual redex Trials, along with harrowing and dynamic fictional character amalgamations which weaves a tapestry of hilarious and gripping adventure that might have happened – had there been a fourth race!
As in the actual trials, "Dust and Glory" depicts the zaniest collection of contestants ever to get behind a wheel – showbiz celebs, wealthy amateurs, criminals, raving lunatics, and even a few bona fide professional drivers!
West last directed The Mechanic and is currently in production on The Expendables 2.
Dust and Glory boasts a screenplay adaptation by Robert Lewis Galinsky and plans to begin production in Australia in Summer of 2012.

BROKEN CITY
Kyle Chandler is the latest name to join the cast of Allen Hughes' upcoming Broken City. Variety has word that he's set to star alongside Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The film, written by Brian Tucker, centers on a cop-turned-P.I. (Wahlberg) who is hired by the Mayor (Crowe) to find out if his wife (Zeta-Jones) is having an affair. When he confirms that she is, her lover soon turns up dead and the P.I. is drawn into a vast political conspiracy.
Chandler, who recently appeared in J.J. Abrams' Super 8, will play the campaign manager for a rival mayoral candidate (played by Barry Pepper).
Broken City is also set to star Justin Chambers, Griffin Dunne, Natalie Martinex, James Ransone, Alona Tal and Jeffery Wright and is currently targeting a January 18, 2013 release.

JOHN CARTER
Walt Disney Pictures has debuted, through iTunes Trailers, a new poster design for their upcoming sci-fi adventure John Carter, which will have a new trailer arriving Wednesday, December 30th at 9 p.m. Pacific Time.
Opening in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D theaters on March 9, the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic novel tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2011

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the action franchise, will debut in Australian cinemas on the night of Wednesday, December 14, giving Australian fans the opportunity to be the first in the world to see the film.
"Ghost Protocol" will play these special sessions in IMAX cinemas, VMAX at Event Cinemas, VMAX at Village Cinemas, Titan Screens at Reading Cinemas and Xtremescreen and IMAX at Hoyts locations around the country ahead of the broad national release on Thursday, December 15. These cinemas have been chosen to showcase this first look at the spectacular action sequences, daredevil stunts and stunning cinematography of the latest film in the "Mission: Impossible" series.
Directed by Oscar winner Brad Bird and featuring an all-star cast including Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and LĂ©a Seydoux, "Ghost Protocol" has been described as the most inventive, action-filled and visually arresting yet.
In the film, the IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name. No help, no contact, off the grid.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2011

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011

DISNEY ON YOUTUBE
The studio joins Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers as major content providers on the Google-owned website. Google announced Wednesday that Walt Disney Studios has partnered with YouTube as the latest rental partner on the streaming video hub.
Available on YouTube and Google TV platforms, Disney follows Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers as the fourth major studio to distribute titles on the service.
Hundreds of movies under Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks Studios will be offered on the site, with a soft launch including Alice in Wonderland, Cars and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
The titles join YouTube's growing rental library, which is available to users in the U.S. and Canada.
More Disney offerings are expected to join the site in the coming weeks.

JOURNEY: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
Following the domestic trailer and behind-the-scenes featurette, New Line/Warner Bros. has released this new international trailer for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Directed by Brad Peyton, the 3D family adventure stars Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman and Kristen Davis.
Opening in theaters on February 10, the new journey begins when young adventurer Sean (Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist--a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from going, Sean's new stepfather (Johnson) joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2011

STAR TREK SEQUEL SCHEDULED
Two pieces of news today about the long awaited "Star Trek" sequel, which writer/director J.J. Abrams will be shooting in 3-D. First of all, the film has a release date, finally. We'll be seeing the further adventures of Spock, Kirk and friends on May 17th, 2013 according to Deadline.
Abrams couldn't make the original release date June 29th, 2012 that Paramount had originally set because he was still working on "Super 8." This news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that filming was set to begin in January.
But that's not all. In an interview with MTV, Abrams said that, though we don't yet know who will be the villain of the story, he has an actor in mind for some secret role. He's hoping to get Benicio Del Toro to come on board.
"Well, we're just in negotiations, we're in discussions," Abrams said. "It's not even negotiations -- just in discussion. But I would love to work with him. I've wanted to work with him for years, and this felt like a good opportunity."
He wouldn't say what role he has the Oscar-winning actor in mind for, but he did say, "It's too early to talk about what the role is, but he's such an amazing actor," said Abrams. "He's so versatile. He could sort of do anything. Except play Uhura," he joked. "I wouldn't buy that."

JOHN CARTER
Disney's John Carter promises to pit its Civil War-era Earthling against all sorts of alien threats on the surface of Mars, but one of the largest is sure to be this massive pseudo-simian—and director Andrew Stanton explains why they had to divert from the original book to make this ape full of blind rage.
Given that the last time Stanton directed a film that left Earth we got the masterpiece that is WALL-E, we're inclined to listen to his reasoning behind making the white apes different than in Edgar Rice Burroughs' original text. As he told Entertainment Weekly:
"They were always cool, just from a visceral standpoint, [but] they don't really have a narrative function in the first book. So what we did is we made the White Apes a formidable creature that you kind of hear about throughout the movie, but you never really witness. There's a subtle sense of anticipation for what these things might be like. Then Michael Kutsche—who did a lot of the designs on Alice in Wonderland—came up with this design on his own, for just their scale. He made them nocturnal, almost like moles—they stopped using their eyes, and just had a heightened sense of smell. We just love that. We needed a scene where Carter was going have to get out of his execution sentence in order to move the story forward, and we thought what better than having to go up against this formidable creature?"
As I said, Stanton and Pixar have spent more than 20 years delivering some of the finest stories moviegoers have ever seen, animated or not. But there's something about this that reminds me a little too much of Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, specifically the arena on Geonosis.
Dusty, orange-brown arena, ringed by alien spectators: Check. Prisoners attached to the ground by chains: Affirmative. Huge alien beastie as the executioner: Yep. Now, it's entirely possible Lucas was inspired by the John Carter books. But the similarities are ... striking.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011

BOOSTER GOLD COMING TO SYFY
After getting gritty and realistic with superpowers on Alphas, Syfy will take a dip in the other end of the pool by greenlighting a pilot script for a live-action take on DC's light-hearted time-traveler, Booster Gold.
Created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, Booster Gold is really a former athlete from the future named Michael Jon Carter who gambled on his own games and got banned from football. He stole some time-travel and crime-fighting tech from a museum and slipped back in time to the present, where he planned on becoming a beloved and well-compensated hero. Instead, he became a laughing stock.
Presumably, the hour-long series—the pilot for which will be written by Warehouse 13's Andrew Kreisberg and executive produced by Greg Berlanti (No Ordinary Family, Green Lantern)—will track Booster's transformation into the real deal.
This isn't the first time Booster has made the jump from page-to-screen: He also popped up in an episode of Smallville during that show's final season.

GOLDDIGGER FOR THE CW
According to the Hollywood Reporter, The CW is going on an adventure. The young female-skewing network has given script orders to Golddigger, an hourlong adventure series that’s part Indiana Jones and part National Treasure.
The drama, from Rizzoli & Isles executive producer Bill Haber and his Ostar Productions, will revolve around a young female treasure hunter who tracks down artifacts for a variety of mysterious and interesting clients.
The Day After Tomorrow’s Stephanie Germain will executive produce, with Lauren Horowitz (Abducted: Fugitive for Life) is attached to pen the project.
Golddigger joins a development slate that includes the Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, a Beauty and the Beast remake, Deadman, an untitled Truth or Dare drama and a pair of projects from CSI’s Carol Mendelsohn, among others.
Haber and Germain are repped by CAA; Horowitz is managed by Plumeria Entertainment.

THE AVENGERS
Marvel's The Avengers for Disney does not open in theaters until May 2012, but Disney has been dropping plenty of breadcrumbs to keep fans satisfied. The first trailer came out in October, and now Disney has provided character posters showing stars Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson in costume. Directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963.

THE CORRECTIONS
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Ewan McGregor has been tapped to star in HBO's drama pilot The Corrections.
The Star Wars and Moulin Rouge actor will co-star alongside Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper in Noah Baumbach and Scott Rudin's adaptation of Jonathan Franzen's best-seller.
McGregor will play Chip, the middle child of an elderly Midwestern couple (Cooper, Wiest) who reunite the family for one last Christmas.
Rudin optioned the film rights for Paramount to the National Book Award-winning novel in 2001 and would executive produce the project.
Baumbach and Franzen will pen the project and exec produce, with Baumbach directing the drama, which is currently in production.
McGregor's TV work includes guest starring on NBC's ER in 1997 as well as appearing as himself in the U.K. TV docuseries Long Way Down.
McGregor's upcoming features include The Impossible and Jack the Giant Killer.

HOUSE OF HORROR NEWS
"Frontiere(s)" and "The Divide" director Xavier Gens has been selected to direct the upcoming found footage scare feature "House of Horror" for Icon Entertainment reports STYD.
Max La Bella penned the script which focuses on the aftermath of a horrific massacre - five college students have been found brutally murdered inside a decrepit, abandoned home.
It's discovered the group are amateur ghost-hunters, seeking out paranormal phenomenon at the abandoned house believed to be haunted. What started out as a harmless activity turned into something truly terrifying.
Gens replaces Javier Gutierrez ("Before the Fall") who was once attached to direct. The project marks the first deal under an agreement between Icon and "Saw"/"Insidious" filmmaker James Wan who will produce.

AREA 51
"The Walking Dead" executive producer Gale Anne Hurd and her Valhalla Entertainment banner have optioned and are developing an hourlong dramatic TV series based on Annie Jacobsen’s book "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base" reports Deadline.
The story follows two men working on the base who are thrust into danger when they uncover secrets that the government will protect at any cost. Unlike its portrayals as a base holding alien technology in many sci-fi shows, this series will focus on the actual technology being developed and tested in Nevada.
Jacobsen interviewed 19 men who served the base and another 55 who had links to it. Karl Gajdusek is penning the script and will serve as showrunner.

WAR HORSE
DreamWorks have announced that special word-of-mouth screenings of Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" will be held this coming Sunday, November 27th in ten U.S. cities.
The key screening will take place in New York City, to be followed by a Q&A with Spielberg himself. Said session will be beamed via satellite to the other nine screenings, as well as streaming live on MSN.com.
The sneak preview is being utilised to generate word-of-mouth a month ahead of the official Christmas Day release.
Fox is using a similar albeit wider approach the day before with Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo" screening in several hundred cinemas on Saturday November 26th ahead of the general release on December 23rd.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011

THE HOBBIT/SHERLOCK HOLMES
If you're thinking about going to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows when it opens next month, you might want to plan to get there early. And if you are not sure about seeing the movie, you may want to reconsider.
That's because rumor has it that the first teaser trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first half of Peter Jackson's mammoth adaptation of the Tolkien novel, will go out to theaters with all prints of the Sherlock Holmes sequel.
Star (and second unit director!) Andy Serkis recently hinted that we might get our first look at The Hobbit in December, and with Sherlock Holmes being the only big budget blockbuster coming out around the holidays from the same studio as The Hobbit, it sounds like a perfect match.
According to the same source, Sherlock Holmes will also be bringing a new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises along for the ride.
As previously reported, a six-minute prologue for Christopher Nolan's final Batman epic will play in front of IMAX screenings of Mission Impossible IV: Ghost Protocol. But this trailer will undoubtedly be different and give us a taste of more footage from Christian Bale's eagerly awaited third adventure as the Caped Crusader.
No one's confirming any of this, of course, but the bottom line is that you should go see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows when it opens on December 16th and get there very early. Then go see Mission Impossible in IMAX—which opens the same week—for a double dose of Bat-mania!

STAR WARS: IDENTITIES
Last week, we heard about some new Lucasfilm domain registries for a project with nothing but a name: Star Wars: Identities. Now we've got the official word on what the project is, and it sounds like just the thing for Star Wars geeks.
Lucasfilm announced today that Identities is a brand-new interactive museum exhibit set to debut April 19 at the Montreal Science Centre. Focusing on the pivotal developments of Anakin and Luke Skywalker, the exhibit will combine material from the Lucasfilm archives with a scientific approach to the concept of identity to present an interactive experience for fans.
"The Star Wars saga continues to captivate audiences who find connection to its richly diverse cast of wonderful characters," Kyra Bowling, Lucasfilm's Exhibits Manager, said in a press release. "Star Wars provides a natural lens through which to explore the themes of personal identity and character. This innovative exhibition lets visitors of all ages investigate, in a fun and educational way, the factors and forces that help shape who we are as individuals."
The exhibit will explore three major themes of identity: "the origins of the characters, the influences that shape them, and the choices they make during their life." These themes will be explored through extensive use of material and artifacts from Lucasfilm—among them Anakin's full-sized podracer—and research from experts in the fields of genetics, neuropsychology, health sciences and psychology.
All this is designed to both explain what made Luke and Anakin tick throughout their adventures and provide Star Wars fans with a new way to experience the saga. Tickets are already on sale at StarWarsIdentities.com.
And hey, if you can't make the exhibit, you can always wait for the special edition with CG-enhanced psychology experts.

GRIMM NEWS
NBC has given freshman fairy tale procedural Grimm a full-season order.
"We are very pleased to be making a full-season commitment for �Grimm,’” NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said in announcing the news Monday. “This series is turning the traditional procedural drama on its head and is attracting a loyal following for us on Friday nights. We love where it’s going creatively and we’re excited to deliver more episodes to our audience.”
In addition, the network will test the fantasy starring David Giuntoli, Bitsie Tulloch, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz and Russell Hornsby on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 10 p.m.
The news comes days after the network ordered additional scipts of the series, from Universal Television and Buffy scribes David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf. Since launching amid heavy competition in the Friday at 9 p.m. slot, Grimm has averaged a 2.3 rating/7 share in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, drawing 6.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
When factoring in Live Plus Seven results for its Oct. 28 premiere -- where it faced stiff competition from Game 7 of the World Series -- Grimm is the No. 1 new drama so far this season, growing 47 percent in the demo.

Be sure to catch three episodes of GRIMM tonight on Syfy.

THE ICEMAN
Deadline reports that Chris Evans is set to replace the previously announced James Franco in The Iceman. He'll appear opposite Michael Shannon in the true serial killer tale.
Ariel Vromen (Danika, Rx) is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Morgan Land (Rx), based on the book "The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer" by Anthony Bruno and on interview footage from the documentary "The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer" by Jim Thebaut. The film is officially described as follows:
"The Iceman" is the electrifying true story of Richard Kuklinski (Shannon), a notorious mob contract killer and loving family man. He earned his nickname by freezing the bodies of his victims, disguising the time of death, and throwing police off-track. He was a man who used his tendencies toward violence and detachment from consequence to create an idyllic family life. His family and neighbors believed he was an average businessman, having no idea about his deadly alternate life. Kuklinski killed over one hundred people during his life. He never felt remorse for anything he had done, except hurting his family.
Evans, who next appears in Marvel's The Avengers, plays a mentor assassin known as Mr. Softee.

WOMAN IN BLACK
Creepy like Black Friday, but with more vengeful homicidal spirits and fewer discounts - here is the NEW :60 Sneak from the thriller about a young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) who travels to a remote village in to settle the estate of a recently deceased woman who is terrorizing the locals. Have a Happy Thanksgiving... because The Woman In Black is coming February 3rd.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2011

DEXTER RENEWED
Showtime has announced that they've renewed their hit series “Dexter” for two more seasons.
Michael C. Hall is locked to be returning as the titular Dexter Morgan with production on the seventh season beginning in 2012 in Los Angeles. Both seasons will consist of 12 episodes each to air as usual throughout the final quarter of the year.
The current sixth season is averaging 5.12 million weekly viewers on all platforms, making it the highest rated season yet.
Showtime president David Nevins tells Deadline that the producers have a three year trajectory creatively with the character mapped out, one which includes the current sixth season and the next two years. Once that was figured out the deals quickly locked into place.
Does this mean the show will likely end once this extension is complete? “I’m not going to say with absolute certainty that this is the end, but that is the likely scenario, that the series is moving towards a definite end.”

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2011

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
David Fincher has what seems like dozens of future projects in the works right now, and one of them is a return to sci-fi with an adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Disney. The flick may or may not be Fincher's next work, but he's at least found a screenwriter: his Se7en collaborator Andrew Kevin Walker.
Disney has been working for a while now on finding a compelling way to revisit the classic Verne tale, which was made into one of the company's most successful early live-action efforts in 1954. Though Walker is best known for Se7en and the almost equally creepy 8MM, he's also worked in more fantastic realms with flicks like Sleepy Hollow and The Wolfman, so he might be a good fit, especially if Disney wants to go a somewhat darker direction with a new version of the classic story.
As for Fincher, there's really no telling what he'll do. His next release is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in December, but he's been attached to so many other possible future projects that it seems difficult to peg which one will be his next release. Among the things on his plate: a TV series called House of Cards, a remake of Cleopatra with Angelina Jolie, this film, and Dragon Tattoo's sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire (if the first one is profitable enough and he still wants to work in that world).
Regardless of when it happens, it'll be interesting to see what these two combined do with a Captain Nemo story.

THE ENDER'S GAME
The upcoming adaptation of Ender's Game has found its Ender ... and you can get a good look at him about a week from now.
According to Deadline, 14-year-old Asa Butterfield has been offered the title role in the big-screen version of Orson Scott Card's classic 1985 novel.
Who is Butterfield? He's a British actor who has appeared in movies such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, but is about to become much better known as the title character in Hugo, director Martin Scorsese's 3-D period fantasy.
Hugo opens six days from now, on Nov. 23, so you'll have a chance to take a good, long look at the young man who will almost certainly play one of sci-fi's most beloved characters of the past 30 years. Once Butterfield's deal is official, we're sure that more casting announcements will be on the way.
Production is scheduled to begin next year to meet the film's March 15, 2013, release date, with X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood behind the camera.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Bringing the domestic box office to life, Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 grossed $72 million on Friday for a projected weekend opening in the $140 million range. Bowing day and date in 54 territories, the film has grossed another $66 million internationally.
The Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner starrer is performing a tad behind The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which opened on the same weekend two years ago to $142.8 million after grossing $72.7 million on Friday.<
Breaking Dawn scored the third biggest opening day ever after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($91.1 million) and New Moon.
The weekend's other new wide entry, Warner Bros.' Happy Feet Two, got off to a slower-than-expected start domestically, grossing an estimated $5.9 million on Friday for a projected weekend gross of $22 million to $24 million. The 3D family toon -- which opened to half of the original Happy Feet on Friday -- hopes to make up ground during Thanksgiving week.
At the specialty box office, Alexander Payne's George Clooney starrer The Descendants did brisk business on Friday as it expanded into 29 theaters. The comedy-drama, which opened Wednesday in five theaters, grossed $318,638 -- enough to come in No. 11 for the day. The pic's cume is $397,000.
Breaking Dawn will become only the second film this year to jump the $100 million mark in its debut after Deathly Hallows Part 2, which opened to a massive $169.2 million.
Directed by Bill Condon, Breaking Dawn began playing in 3,251 theaters at 12:01 a.m. Friday, earning $30.3 million in midnight grosses before moving into a total of 4,061 locations by mid-morning.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011

ULTRAMAN
Japan's Ultra Series just won't die. The superhero franchise is celebrating 45 years of campy, sci-fi action that culminates in the new film, Ultraman Saga. The movie's first trailer has been released and it has monsters, masked heroes and explosions—lots of explosions!
The first trailer for Ultraman Saga has all the over-the-top action we know and love. The movie features appearances from Ultraman Zero, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Cosmos plus the five Ultra Brothers and the newbie Ultraman Saga. The group has their work cut out for them as they go against the dangerous Hyper Setton and his monstrous army.
Ultraman Saga is a sequel to 2010's Ultraman Zero: The Revenge of Belial. And the latest film's tagline is "We Still Have Glittering Hope!!" Despite the repetitive nature of the series with its various heroes and villains, people can't let it go. Ultraman Saga's first trailer takes us back to the days of bad lighting, old school effects and the excessive use of smoke machines.
Ultraman Saga will be released on March 24.

RATINGS NUMBERS
We've entered that magical time of year known as November sweeps, when all the shows start thinking up ways to surprise, impress and pull in more viewers before the holiday break. This week, Terra Nova enjoyed a big rebound, Grimm continued to slide and American Horror Story won its night on cable. Meanwhile, Once Upon a Time and The Walking Dead continue to rule Sundays.
Terra Nova (FOX)
7.75 million viewers/2.6/7 share
Terra Nova bounced back big from its Halloween loss last week, creeping closer to the 8 million mark, which may end up being the default position for this show. The numbers aren't earth-shattering, and the show is still getting kicked by the CBS sitcoms in its time slot, but Terra Nova is still fighting.
The Vampire Diaries (CW)
3.17 million viewers/1.4/4 share
The CW's vampire hit has been struggling this season, but the struggle seems to be waning at least a little. The show dropped a share point and a few hundred thousand viewers this week, but still managed to come in above the three million mark, above its season premiere numbers a few weeks ago. Now the question will be if they can maintain this when they come back after November sweeps.
The Secret Circle (CW)
2.17 million viewers/0.8/2 share
This show seems to have stabilized its numbers at just over two million viewers, which isn't bad for a CW show. But when you consider that it's still dropping one million viewers from its lead-in show, The Vampire Diaries, you have to wonder how long it's going to stay around. The shows were packaged as sisters, but viewers clearly are less interested in the younger one.

A Gifted Man (CBS)
8.25 million viewers/1.2/4 share
A Gifted Man's numbers are definitely stable, hovering right around 8 million viewers, but its rating might be cause for concern in the future. It's not bad for a Friday show, but it is low when you consider the other Friday shows in the CBS lineup. Younger people just don't seem as interested in watching this one.

Chuck (NBC)
3.13 million viewers/0.9/3 share
Here's a show that looks like it might be doomed to languish in low ratings for the rest of its lifespan. In its third week, Chuck picked up a few viewers but broke even in its share and rating. Maybe sweeps will cause a spike, but it seems like Chuck's final episodes are only going to be seen by a small but loyal viewership.
Fringe (FOX)
3.03 million viewers/1.1/3 share
Fringe dropped again this week but managed to stay above the three million mark. It also managed to keep itself over the one point mark in its 18-49 rating. It's a sign of stability, but will the numbers the show is keeping be enough?
Grimm (NBC)
5.18 million viewers/1.6/5 share
Though it's still doing better than a lot of Friday shows, Grimm lost nearly a million viewers, a share point and two tenths of a ratings point in its third week. It's too early to tell, but if this slump continues it could spell trouble for the fairy tale procedural.
Supernatural (CW)
1.85 million viewers/0.8/2 share
Supernatural's numbers this week look almost exactly the same as its numbers last week, so there's some stability there. The problem is the numbers weren't that high to begin with. This is the CW we're talking about, so we can't measure it in the same way other networks do, but Supernatural is definitely not what it once was.
Sanctuary (Syfy)
1.31 million viewers/0.4
Sanctuary picked up a few viewers this week but held steady in its rating. It might seem like the numbers are low, but the show is still consistently breaking the top 25 cable broadcasts on its night, so it doesn't look too bad.
The Walking Dead (AMC)
6.12 million viewers/3.2
We've almost reached the mid-season point with The Walking Dead, and it continues to dominate Sunday night cable. It dropped two tenths of a ratings point this week, but it's still miles ahead of everything else it's competing with. The zombies still rule Sundays.
Once Upon A Time (ABC)
11.36 million viewers/3.8/9 share
Though it's still the Sunday night leader for scripted television, Once Upon A Time has been dealing with a slow slip in viewers. It lost almost 100,000 this week, but held steady in its rating and share. It's still doing great, so no cause for alarm, but if viewers keep falling away little by little, by the end of the season there may be a problem.

THUNDERSTRUCK Not content to swallow up genre viewers with zombies, AMC is moving into alien territory, buying the UFO-centric Thunderstruck, with one of Battlestar Galactica's masterminds on board.
Along with Eick, Thunderstruck will be executive-produced by Paul Boardman and Scott Derrickson (who wrote and directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose), and, according to Deadline, the show will follow:
"Powerful and enigmatic entities that begin appearing all over the world. After one shows up in the town of Great Falls, Montana, the local citizens must grapple with the dramatic effects and growing mystery of repeated visitations."
AMC's development process is a little kooky—they hold a "bake-off" with a number of different projects they've already bought and choose the few they want to actually put on the air—so there's no telling if or when this'll be on the air.
Luckily for Eick, he's still got the Hulk pilot he's co-writing for Marvel, ABC and Guillermo del Toro to keep him busy in the interim.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011

STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION
Since the original Star Trek series was remastered in 2006, fans have been chanting for a similar treatment of their beloved TNG and now their wishes have been granted.
A new extended spot for the Star Trek: TNG Blu-ray transfers is teasing our Trek sensibilities with tantalizing digital images of four key episodes. All 178 episodes are being converted to high-definition 1080p and will be released in Seven Season Sets beginning later in 2012. The sampler disc being launched January 31th, 2012 will be called Star Trek: The Next Generation—The Next Level and includes the two-part pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint," "Sins of the Father" and "The Inner Light," which won a 1993 Hugo Award.
The wizards at CBS Paramount are returning to the original negatives of the show, working from over 25,000 reels of footage, and will recut film for transfer to high definition with a 7.1 DTS Master Audio mix. Warn the neighbors and crank up the sub-woofer!
The image quality in comparisons between Standard and High-Definition is amazing with a bold color palette and deep blacks that provide a more balanced picture that intensifies the visceral appeal of the Star Trek universe. By using recomposited shots instead of simply upcoverting the video material, this project will create true HD masters with true HD special effects. Also, before anyone blows a galactic gasket, the episodes WILL be presented in their original 4:3 fullscreen aspect ratio.
The sampler disc engages fans January 31, 2012 as part of The Next Generation's 25th Anniversary.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
Milla Jovovich tweeted this video featuring a first look at Li Bingbing as Ada Wong on the set of Screen Gems' Resident Evil: Retribution along with Milla's own Alice.
Coming to theaters on September 14, 2012, the Paul W.S. Anderson film also stars Sienna Guillory, Colin Salmon, Michelle Rodriguez, Shawn Roberts, Boris Kodjoe, Johann Urb, Oded Fehr and Kevin Durand.
"Retribution" is the fifth installment in the film series.

h2>TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011 STAR WARS: IDENTITES
Lucasfilm has registered domains for a new mystery project from the Star Wars franchise, so let the speculation begin!
Three domains—StarWarsIdentities.com, StarWarsIdentites.com (typo) and sw-id.com—were registered by Lucasfilm on Nov. 7 through brand protection firm Corporation Service Company. We have no details at all on any of them except a name: Star Wars: Identities.
What is this mystery project? A film? A series of films? A TV show? Those don't seem that likely, since the TV side of Lucasfilm is pretty busy already with Clone Wars and that Robot Chicken comedy show in development. It's also likely not a film, since Lucas has for years denied any possibility of a sequel series to the original trilogy (and we have dozens of books that cover that time period anyway).
So that leaves other media. Are we talking about an MMORPG, a new incarnation of Star Wars Galaxies? The "Identities" element seems to suggest that could be the case. How about an official online database, or new merchandise, or a web series? Sadly, nothing really points strongly in one direction or another on that front. All we know from the registration record is that at least one of these domains is set to expire in two years. Hopefully we won't have to wait that long to find out more, but the rest is up to Lucas at this point.

NEW DOCTOR WHO?
Director David Yates, who ably guided the last four Harry Potter films to meteoric success, is working with the BBC to fashion a big-screen adventure for the last of the Time Lords. Good news, yes? Perhaps ... unless you like any of the actors or continuity developed for the TV show.
Yates' plan, being hatched with the BBC's cooperation, is to break Doctor Who down to its components—which presumably include an immortal time traveler, his time machine and an attractive female companion—and rebuild it:
"It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena. ... The notion of the time-travelling Time Lord is such a strong one, because you can express story and drama in any dimension or time."
And that transformation (which Yates expects to take two or three years to develop) means that Yates will be ignoring most if not all of the continuity of the current TV series—which has, mind you, become one of, if not the single biggest and most profitable properties the BBC controls:
"Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch."
So that means that Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvil will definitely not be a part of the Doctor Who film future.

HUNGER GAMES
The first full trailer for The Hunger Games has been released ... and it's grim. Watching kids prepare to fight to the death is no laughing matter. And the trailer shows the uncertainty that surrounds the dog-eat- dog world of Panem.
The Hunger Games is directed by Gary Ross and based on Suzanne Collins' popular book series. The dark story centers on a group of children who are trained to compete against each other in a televised sport called The Hunger Games. The catch? They fight to the death!
North America no longer exists. It's been replaced by Panem, which contains 12 Districts and a Capitol run by the twisted President Snow. Each year two minors (male and female) from each District between the ages of 12 and 18 are picked to be a Tribute and participate in the games.
Katniss Everdeen (the film's heroine) is an expert archer who's chosen to compete against some of the best players Panem has to offer. There's nothing cool or attractive about kids killing kids, so the trailer plays up the angst and sadness surrounding it all. There's a lot of build-up but not much action. We assume they're saving all the good stuff for later.

MORE GIFTED MAN EPISODES
CBS has opted for three more episodes of A Gifted Man.
The Friday night rookie, which stars Patrick Wilson in his first series television role in a spiritual-tinged medical drama, has been a modest performer in its end-of-week 8 p.m slot.
Thus far this season, the series has averaged 8.4 million viewers and a 1.2 rating in the coveted 18 to 49 demo, making it consistently the most-watched program in timeslot and more than doubling its nearest competitor.
No decision has been made about what will fill its place when its 16 episode season run is complete. (CBS announced mid-season premiere dates for its Rob Schneider comedy and Undercover Boss earlier Monday.)
The network had already granted full season orders to its other freshman offerings, 2 Broke Girls, Person of Interest and Unforgettable. The fifth, How to Be A Gentleman, was quickly canceled.

Q
Columbia Pictures is in final discussions to acquire the rights to the novel Q, by Evan Mandery for writer/director David Gordon Green and producer Matt Tolmach. The book is described as follows on Mandery's official site:
Shortly before his wedding, the unnamed hero of this uncommon romance is visited by a man, claiming to be his future self, who ominously admonishes the protagonist that he must not marry the love of his life, Q. The author doubts this stranger, but in time becomes convinced of his authenticity and leaves his fiancée. The resulting void in his life is impossible to fill. One after the other, future selves arrive urging him to marry someone else, divorce, attend law school, leave law school, travel, join a running club, stop running, study the guitar, the cello, Proust, Buddhism, opera, and eliminate gluten from his diet. The only constants in this madcap quest for personal improvement are the author’s love for his New York City home and for his beloved Q. Q turns the classic story of transcendent love on its head, with an ending that will melt even the darkest heart.
Tolmach previously collaborated with David Gordon Green when the two worked together on the hit film Pineapple Express.
Pouya Shahbazian, who manages Mandery, will produce the film with Tolmach. The book was discovered by Matt Tolmach Productions executives Robert Kessel and Kate Checci, who will also work on developing the project. Andrea Giannetti is overseeing Q for Columbia Pictures along with Hannah Minghella.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

DJANGO UNCHAINED
Variety reports that actor/comic Sacha Baron Cohen is in final negotiations to join Quentin Tarantino's star-studded Western Django Unchained, playing a gambler named Scotty who buys the title character's wife as a companion. It's reportedly a small role but Tarantino was adamant on having Baron Cohen play the part.
The slave-turned-bounty hunter Django himself is played by Jamie Foxx while Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz are the other primary leads in a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Don Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kerry Washington, Anthony LaPaglia, RZA, and more.
In the meantime, you can see Baron Cohen in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, opening November 23.
The Weinstein Company will release Django Unchained on December 25, 2012, with Sony releasing the movie internationally.

LEGO MOVIE
Warner Bros. is working with Australian-based animation company Animal Logic (Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians) to move forward with a live action-animated hybrid movie based on the popular LEGO building blocks with plans for a 2014 release. With an incentive from the Australian government and the state of New South Wales to make the movie entirely on the continent, the new movie will be an action- adventure set in a world made up of LEGOs with casting for the live action actors starting in January.
The project has been in development at Warner Bros for over three years when the studio began working with the LEGO Company on developing a family comedy written by Dan and Kevin Hageman, and then brought on Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) to write and direct in 2010. They recently brought "Robot Chicken" stop-motion director Chris McKay on as a co-director for LEGO under Lord and Miller.
Working closely with the Danish company--LEGO VP of licensing and entertainment, Jill Wilfert, is one of the executive producers along with Seanne Winslow of Lin Pictures--the film will continue the relationship between Warner Bros. and LEGO that has produced numerous toys and videogames based on Warner Bros. properties including Batman and Harry Potter. It was announced at Comic-Con that LEGO will have access to all of DC Entertainment's comic book characters and stories to launch DC Universe figures and playsets starting in January, which will include Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and others.

ACT OF VALOR
Relativity Media is premiering the new trailer for action-thriller Act of Valor during the 2011 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic game between the Michigan State Spartans and North Carolina Tar Heels.
Opening in theaters on February 17, Act of Valor stars a group of active-duty Navy SEALs in a powerful story of contemporary global anti-terrorism. Inspired by true events, the film combines stunning combat sequences, up-to-the minute battlefield technology and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate action adventure.
Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle and Nester Serrano co-star.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
While many in the industry thought that DreamWorks Animation's Puss In Boots had a chance at pulling a threepeat, both new movies fared better with Tarsem Singh's Greek Gods war epic Immortals coming out on top with an estimated $32 million. Starring Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff, Isabel Lucas, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz and John Hurt, the movie which had transitioned over from Rogue Pictures opened strong on Veteran's Day Friday with $15 million (including $1.4 million on Thursday at midnight) then tailed off over the weekend. It still has a long way to go before it makes back its reported $75 million production budget.
Second place may be too close to call but for now, Adam Sandler's cross-dressing PG comedy Jack and Jill is claiming it with an estimated $26 million in 3,438 theaters, averaging $7,500 per site.
Puss in Boots, came in a close third with an estimated $25.5 million, down less than 30% in its third weekend, with a total gross of $108.8 million. It could eventually get to the $150 million mark of last year's Megamind although it has a lot of family competition over the next couple weeks.
Brett Ratner's action-comedy Tower Heist (Universal), starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, dropped to fourth place with $13.2 million and $44 million total.
Opening in fifth place, Clint Eastwood's biopic J. Edgar (Warner Bros.), starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the former FBI director took in roughly $11.5 million this weekend in 1,910 theaters after opening in select cities on Wednesday.
The R-rated comedy A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (New Line/Warner Bros.) dropped three places to sixth, down 54% from last week to bring in $5.9 million with $23.2 million total.
Justin Timberlake- Amanda Seyfried's sci-fi thriller In Time (20th Century Fox) took seventh place with $4.1 million to bring its total to $30.7 million.
Paramount Pictures' Paranormal Activity 3 was in eighth place with $3.6 million as it joins Puss in Boots in this year's $100 Million Club, while Craig Brewer's remake of Footloose, also from Paramount, fell to ninth with $2.7 million and nearly $49 million total.
Rounding out the Top 10 was Shawn Levy's action-adventure Real Steel (DreamWorks), starring Hugh Jackman, with $2 million and $81.8 million total.
The Top 10 grossed around $127 million which was actually up 15% from the same weekend last year when DreamWorks Animations' Megamind won for a second week in a row with $29 million followed by Tony Scott and Denzel Washington's Unstoppable (20th Century Fox) with $22.7 million.
Opening in select cities, Werner Herzog's new doc Into the Abyss (IFC Films) brought in $50.8 thousand in 12 theaters, averaging roughly $4,200 per location.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS
Leave it to the folks who brought us Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Flushed Away to bring a delightful blast of fresh air to the conventional Christmas genre.
Aardman’s Arthur Christmas is that and more — an endlessly amusing 3D, CG-animated Yuletide romp with lively innovation at every turn and a dream voice cast headed by James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Bill Nighy.
While longtime Aardman adherents might find this Sony Pictures Animation collaboration to be slightly more mainstream than some of those earlier productions, there’s still sufficient evidence of an agreeably subversive spirit lurking just beneath the obligatory ribbons and bows.
The story of the heroic journey undertaken by Santa’s youngest son upon discovering an undelivered present may dutifully hit all the seasonal emotional posts, but the route it chooses to take is anything but predictable.
Audiences should be cheerfully transported, especially across the pond, where the film opens Friday. It opens in the U.S. one week later.
The forecast for North America, meanwhile, is for solid but likely more modest numbers, given all the British accents (not to mention comic sensibility), as well as a marketing campaign that really doesn’t quite capture the essence of the film.
Starting off by addressing the nagging question, “Just how exactly does Santa deliver all those presents over the course of one night?” the film depicts the seemingly impossible mission by doing it up Mission: Impossible style, complete with millions of elves schooled in covert ops and a hi-tech sleigh equipped with stealth cloaking technology.
The sequence moves like the dickens and effectively sets the pace that follows back at the North Pole, where Santa’s (voiced by Jim Broadbent) headstrong firstborn son Steve (Laurie) runs the Christmas Eve command with crack precision while coveting his aging dad’s gig.
Despite his not-so-secret ambitions, Steve is destined to be the subordinate Claus while sweet but klutzy younger brother Arthur (McAvoy) contentedly heads up the Letters to Santa Department.
But when a wrapped bicycle destined for a little girl in Cornwall turns out to have missed the big shipment, Arthur, determined that no child be left behind, goes on a rogue mission to personally deliver the present with the help of his not-quite-with-it Grandsanta (a terrific Nighy) and his old-school sleigh.
In her first feature animated outing, director and co-writer (with Peter Baynham) Sarah Smith not only successfully keeps this intricate operation humming, she instills a welcome female sensibility long missing from the boy’s club that is Santa’s workshop.
This time, Mrs. Claus (Imelda Staunton) is no longer the only woman in town thanks to the presence of Bryony (a wonderful Ashley Jensen), a fiercely devoted member of Santa’s Giftwrap Battalion — and likely the only elf ever presented sporting an eyebrow ring — who manages to steal most of her scenes.
Visually, Arthur Christmas is splendidly state-of-the-art and vividly appointed right down to the tiniest detail.
The frosty milieu may at times be reminiscent of Polar Express but with much more personality.
Maintaining the warmly playful tone is Harry Gregson-Williams’ buoyant score; while Justin Bieber’s Jackson 5-flavored take on “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town” manages to sneak along for the ride without feeling gratuitously out of place.

GODZILLA REMAKE
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Max Borenstein has been tapped to write the planned remake of Godzilla.
Gareth Edwards, the director of the indie sci-fi movie Monsters, is attached to direct the creature feature centered on the giant city-destroying and monster-fighting lizard, which is in development at Legendary Pictures.
Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers. Warner Bros. will distribute per its deal with Legendary.
David Goyer (The Dark Knight) previously worked on the script.
Borenstein, who just turned in his script for Art of the Steal for Warner Bros and producers Kevin McCormick and Zac Efron, is well acquainted with Legendary. He worked on the company’s in-development Jimi Hendrix biopic, Jimi, and rewrote the outfit’s supernatural fantasy The Seventh Son. The latter, based on the Joseph Delaney YA book, is due to go into production with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Ben Barnes attached to star.

ASTEROIDS
The Hollywood Reporter writes that screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos has been hired to work on the script for Universal's Asteroids project.
The studio outbid other suitors for film rights to the simple, late-'70s Atari video game two years ago. The plotline for the film adaptation has evolved into the story of two estranged brothers that must team up to save Earth from an alien race.
Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) originally worked on the script.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers: Dark of the Moon) is producing.
Universal has Battleship, inspired by a Hasbro board game, hitting theaters in May.
Repped by UTA and manager D.J. Talbot, Spiliotopoulos worked on the script for the Universal film Snow White and the Huntsman, which hits theaters in June, and he is writing Charles Fort for producer Robert Zemeckis, also set up at Universal.