Sometimes Life Isn’t Fair

There are thousands of failed writers and directors in Hollywood, flipping burgers or waiting tables, living for that one breakthrough that means that, finally, they will be on the receiving end of a Big Mac and fries. But, while they toil away, studio execs green light sequels for movies that haven’t even been released yet. Screw you Guillermo del Torro and your, probably very good, Pacific Rim franchise…

In other news, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is to director in and star in a comedy Western titles A Million Ways To Die In The West. Hot on the tails of this years Ted (read my review of that here), this will be darker in tone, which is good because, as far as Seth is concerned, darker is better. This is also going to be MacFarlane’s first appearance in the flesh, as it were, which will be interesting, if nothing else.  

That’s all for today folks, see you tomorrow for a first look at a brand new Star Trek Into Darkness trailer. Exciting times.  

Steve Jobs vs Guillermo del Toro vs Jamie Foxx

First up, this picture of Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs has appeared online:

Which can be compared to his one, which is Steve Jobs as Steve Jobs:

Pretty neat huh?

The portly Mexican we all know and love has said that the next picture he will direct, after Pacific Rim, will 

be a horror film called Crimson Peak.

He said it will be “very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules.”

He went on to say that it will channel such horror classics as The Shining, The Omen, and The Exorcist.  Which is pretty freakin sweet. 

Finally, we have confirmation that Jamie Foxx will be playing Electro in the upcoming spidey picture. See, sometimes rumours do come true. Until next time folks…

Sci-Fi Super Heroes and Zombies, It's a Winning Combo

You see this new Star Trek Into Darkness poster?

Looks quite a lot like this poster doesn't it?

Well, you know what they say about not fixing things that ain't broke...

In other news: the rumor mill today pumped out the news that the villain for the upcoming Justice League movie might well be Darkseid. Given that Jack Kirby modeled the character on famous historical dictators, he should prove a big enough bad guy for the all star roster this film will have to have. We need more details people!

Finally there is this new trailer for warm blooded, which looks cool.

See ya tomorrow folks!

Review: Gambit

Gambit is properly old school. The characters, sets, even the camera work, hark back to the days of the original, which was made in the 1960’s. Like a lot of Cohen Brothers films, it has a really strong sense of its time, and the comedy also feels like a throwback to that age. The jokes are physical and about ridiculous situations, as opposed to the self-referential irony we get a lot of today (I’m looking at you FamilyGuy).  So although this might not be a remake in the traditional sense of the word, the plot is totally different, it’s true to that age, and  to the feel of the original.

It’s also bloody funny, which is kind of important for a comedy. The plot follows Harry Dean (Firth), a down-on-his-luck art curator, who enlists the help of cowgirl PJ Puznowski (Diaz) in an elaborate con, involving the copying of a famous Monet painting, the target of which is multi-millionaire arsehole and publisher Lord Shabandar (Rickman). While it’s not the world’s most exciting plot, it’s classic rather than innovative, I provides for many, quite frankly hi-bloody-larious, set pieces (special mention goes to the Savoy scene, which is just amazing) and guffaws. You can probably guess that I did laugh a lot, which is saying something because this sort of thing usually is not my cup of tea at all.

It’s pretty difficult to say more than that really, the acting is good, the sets are good, the scripting is tight and everything just works well - it’s just a solid good film. I laughed my arse off and had a great time, and I don't even like farce. Go and watch it basically.  

Watch if you liked: The Pink Panther (the original)

If you liked this watch: BurnAfter Reading 

Sci- Fi Bonanza! Plus Awesome Django Unchained TV spots

Two bits of sci-fi news today for you lovely people today. Firstly, Ridley Scott’s Forever War has got a writer. Dante Harper, who is yet to have a screen play actually delivered onto the big screen, has been announced to help translate the classic sci-fi novel into moving pictures. Untested as he is (although note the releases that will come out soon, on IMDB)I trust RS to deliver on all things sci-fi, especially one that has been at the back of his mind for a looong time. If this isn’t magnificent I’ll eat my hat.

The other bit of news is that the plot synopsis for Star Trek Into Darkness has been released. Official bumbf says: “When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

“With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.” Which all sounds rather marvellous I think.

Now you fine individuals, two cracking Django Unchained TV spots here and here.  

Wikileaks and Scary Aliens

The word is out that Laura Linney is in talks with DreamWorks about their, as yet untitled, Wikileaks project. There is nothing I like to see more than British actors doing important, mainstream films, so the idea of Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy and LL featuring in a project about one of the most important  issues of the last 5 years is really bloody cool.

There is also this trailer, for the film Dark Skies. Which is a horror movie with aliens. I am, basically, fine with aliens, so this might be one horror movie that I actually watch, rather than scrabbling for the off button on the remote when its ad comes on TV…

Men in Tights and Weird Scots News

First up: Zack Snyder has been making cryptic comments that it will be his version of Superman that will appear in a 2015 Justice League film. He said, "I don’t know how Justice League is going to be handled. Honestly, I don’t. But ‘The Man of Steel’ exists, and Superman is in it. I don’t know how you’d move forward without acknowledging that," in a recent interview with The New York Post.  This is on top of confirmation that there will be at least another two Superman films in the current series. It would be pretty odd to have two representations of Superman running concurrently. So I guess this is pretty good confirmation that the Supes we will see in JLA 2015 will be Henry Cavill. I’ll keep you posted.

The other superhero news is a bit of clarification on the tone of Iron Man 3 will be darker, but not as dark as the Dark Knight. Think Mocha, not Espresso. Producer Kevin Feige said, in The West Australian, “It’s not a serious movie, but we do seriously dig into exploring more of Tony”. Which doesn’t make things entirely clear, but it sounds pretty interesting. Bring on 2014.

Finally, Fox Searchlight has secured the rights to a Susan Boyle biopic. Don’t really care about this but it gave me an opportunity for a funny picture. Tune in next time for some more hard hitting journalism and deep analysis.