The second trailer to the much-anticipated Iron Man 3 has hit the web, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. This trailer steps it up quite a bit from the first one, which was pretty decent on its own. We get to see a great deal more of the various characters of the film, and a clear change in direction after Iron Man 2. A step away from the character driven humor into a more serious but still action-packed film. Why am I still talking right now, let’s watch the trailer.
If you had to ask me about my most anticipated ape related movie of the year, the answer by far would be Dawn Of The Planet of the Apes. My follow-up would be how many ape related films are they releasing this year, and if you had a list of titles I’d probably shut up and stand there bewildered. The thing about these Apes movies is, damn are they intriguing. Something about the combination of weird talking apes, time travel, social commentary and horrific dystopian ape societies really seems to resonate with audiences at large. Why shouldn’t it? What’s not there to love? To make it better, the cast for Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, is a growing list of names that is spelling out another great Apes film in the long line of Non-Tim Burton related Apes films. Recently cast [Via THR] is beloved character actor Gary Oldman, who all should know by now as Commissioner Gordon from the Nolan Batman trilogy.
This is Grizzly Bomb’s Trailer Round for March the 5th in the year of 2013…
[tabgroup][tab title=”The Company You Keep”]
This new film centers around Jim Grant (Robert Redford), a former member of a radical anti Vietnam War group known as the Weather Underground. Though he has successfully remained off the FBI grid for thirty years as an Albany attorney, Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) aggressively pursues answers from Grant and ultimately stirs up a giant mess involving several members of the WU. The only way for Grant to keep everything he loves is to clear his name.
Both produced and directed by Robert Redford, this thriller is based upon the 2003 novel of the same title written by Neil Gordon.
Director: Robert Redford
Stars: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Jackie Evancho, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Susan Sarandon, and Anna Kendrick.
Release Date: Limited U.S. release April 2013
[/tab][tab title=”Trance”]
We have already seen the first trailer for Danny Boyles new film Trance, but with the release of its red band counter part we are exposed to a deeper grit. Simon (James McAvoy) partners up with the wrong crowd to steal a piece of precious art. Sure enough, the plan goes awry, and Simon gets knicked only to have forgotten everything. Insert the attractive hypnotherapist to find out where the painting went, and you’ve got yourself a nice little action film filled with deception and intrigue.
The new red band trailer shows the psychological affects that this venture will have on Simon. There will be a dance between reality and fiction. That is, unless people can really talk with only half of their head left. Call me presumptuous, but I assumed this is a dream sequence of sorts.
Scarlett Johansson, Melanie Thierry, Eva Green and Zoe Saldana were considered for the role of Elizabeth which ultimately went to Rosario Dawson.
Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel, Tuppence Middleton, Wehab Sheikh, Danny Sapani, and Lee Nicholas Harris.
Release Date: March 27, 2013 UK
[/tab][tab title=”The Host”]
All you have to say is Twilight’s Stephanie Meyer and you have got yourself a box office success. The name alone will lead to some kind of financial prosperity. So, of course, this movie had to be made. It doesn’t look all that terrible, but it certainly hasn’t wowed me with some kind of new concept.
In this typical science fiction action film, a parasitic alien race has attached itself to the human race. A resistance has been established and is linked to the aliens by Melanie, an individual who has partnered with her host (Wanda) rather than succumb to it.
Director: Andrew Niccol
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Marcus Lyle Brown, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Boyd Holbrook, and Chandler Canterbury.
Release Date: March 29, 2013
[/tab][tab title=”The Internship”]
I love it when the same movie is repackaged and sold as if it is something new. I am, of course, referring to the comedy duo of Wilson and Vaughn. It’s not like this isn’t an acceptable practice in Hollywood. We have seen it time and time again, and the audience is truly okay with it. Consider it a wonderful chemistry that can be enjoyed in countless scenarios even though plot points rarely deviate.
The trailer itself points out that this is the mental Hunger Games against a bunch of genius kids for a hand full of jobs. So let’s just call it that. This is NOT Wedding Crashers II: Crashing Harder!
Director: Shawn Levy
Stars: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, John Goodman, Rose Byrne, Dylan O’Brien, Chuti Tiu, JoAnna Garcia, Swisher, Jessica Szohr, Josh Gad, and B.J. Novak.
Release Date: June 7, 2013
[/tab][tab title=”Byzantium”]
I was surprised when the word “Byzantium” did not come up as requiring spell check. It turns out that it is an ancient Greek city.
Byzantium is the name of the guesthouse in which the mother, daughter vampire duo portrayed by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan take refuge. The story unfolds when Eleanor (Ronan) reveals her secret to Frank (Caleb Landry Jones).
Director: Neil Jordan
Stars: Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Jonny Lee Miller, Caleb Landry Jones, Same Riley, Tom Hollander, Thure Lindhardt, Christine Marzano, and Daniel Mays.
There will no doubt be mixed views about the THR news that Daniel Radcliffe is in final negotiations to play Igor, the famous hunchbacked assistant of Doctor Frankenstein. This is a tale that has gone through countless cinematic retreads and revamps since its inception by Mary Shelly all those years ago, and has even had successful theater runs, the most recent starring UK Sherlock star Bennedict Cumberbatch, and US Elementary star Jonny Lee Miller. But Igor himself was actually a cinematic creation and became immortalized in our minds because of great performances from the likes of Dwight Frye, Bela Lugosi and many more that all helped to create this hunchbacked helper.
1931’s FRANKENSTEIN – Dwight Frye as ‘Fritz ‘aka the first Igor…
Max Landis (Chronicle) is on writing duties, while Paul McGuigan (director of Lucky Number Slevin and Push) is at the helm to direct. Max’s own father John Landis (Blues Brothers, Thriller) is on hand in a producing role. So if nothing else this new version has some pretty good talent behind the camera. Max Brooks version of this tale is told from Igors perspective. Aint It Cool News has a great interview with Max about his plans. One of the more interesting things said was his plan to make the film a version we have never seen before.
[quote] “That’s when the idea came to me: instead of trying to do some high minded ‘revisionist’ Frankenstein, why not try to stay true to a version that only lives in the zeitgeist, and has NEVER REALLY EXISTED.
And why not do it in an intelligent, hopefully, thoughtful way, about friendship and science, genius and madness, love and ambition, life and death?
Why not use that imaginary, fairy dust framework of ‘guy with hunchbacked assistant makes monster’ and make it fun, sad, scary and hopefully, I really hope this, moving.” [/quote]
This seems like a really fun and maybe even more heartwarming version of the story than we have seen before. I doubt it will go as funny as Young Frankenstein, but this will certainly be an exciting version of the tale and this will make a change from the more downbeat versions we have seen in recent years.
On Igor’s appearance:
[quote]He is described as pathologically dirty, with long hair and wearing old clown clothes. (A circus tone permeates much of the project, according to sources.)[/quote]
So quite a departure from the clean cut Mr Potter, but still a great piece of casting if it all goes through. Ratcliffe has also pushed the envelope in the past, most famously on stage in Equus where he performed a nude scene. It is not uncommon for actors to want to break type (Jim Carrey and Elijah Wood have done it countless times) and it normally harbors interesting results. It should be fun to see how Daniel gets to grips with a more horrific, tormented character and how he interprets the circus feel this new Igor is alluding to. When you read about Max’s thoughts on Frankenstein you cannot help but feel his energy for the project. To see if it lives up to his plans we will have to wait, but a more refreshing approach to the tale could be just what movie fans are looking for.
Over at Uproxx we saw the arrival of some new Iron Man 3 posters (via Empire Magazine). Marvel has recently put a lot of different ones out there leading up to the films release on May 3rd.
The poster that most people will get excited about is a full shot of Ben Kingsley as the most famous Iron Man villain, The Mandarin.
This poster is simply incredible. I love the elements of the Mandarin’s back drop, with the elephant statues and his robe. It pays homage to the comic design, but also modifying it and making it more up to date and taking out a lot of the racial overtones the original character had in the comic books. But with this is also the inclusion of camouflage trousers, showing the more militant side of his character, grounding him more in reality. The next poster is Gwyneth Paltrow as Peppers Potts cradling a destroyed Iron Man helmet.
The molten ash flying across this poster helps add to the atmosphere of this darker instalment, but also is a continuing factor throughout the other posters. Not an amazing poster by any means, but it does show that Pepper is going to have a very emotional journey throughout the new movie. Guy Pierce is next as Doctor Aldrich Killian.
For people unaware of Doctor Killian, in the comic he is one of two scientists who create The Extremis, a techno organic virus that rewrites genetic code. Though the poster is quite uneventful, Killian will no doubt have a big role to play in the new movie. Finally we have Don Cheadle in his new armor, doing the standard Hollywood action pose.
Overall the posters are pretty amazing. The only downside could be that the Mandarin poster is so good that it steals some of the other posters’ thunder. They also shared even more of Empire Magazine’s posters, with a few photos thrown in for good measure. The photos are slightly uneventful with Tony Stark looking a bit worse for wear and Pepper Potts and Doctor Killian having a moment. One interesting bit that is worth noting about one of the stills is that Tony is seen wearing an AIM T-Shirt. AIM stands for Advanced Idea Mechanics and is a group of super intelligent scientists who use their knowledge to gain power. They also created MODOK, an artificial mutated human killing machine. It will be interesting to see if any more information about this comes to light before the film’s release. The most promising piece out of all of this is the new poster (actually Empire magazines cover) which has Tony Stark in his wrecked Iron Man suit (again with ash flying everywhere). It is a great view of his new Iron Man armor. No doubt there will be more information coming out very soon so keep checking with Grizzly Bomb to find out more.
After the recent news about the possible Star Wars spin offs in the works from Disney (see here for more details ), we now have even more news on the subject. Total Film shared some incredible news for Star Wars fans world-wide. The first was a piece of news from scooper El Mayimbe (writer for Latino Review) who announced on Fox News that Harrison Ford was returning as Han Solo and that it was a “done deal”.
This is shocking news, especially as Harrison was famously quoted as wanting to kill of his character in Empire Strikes Back. Maybe Fords return to the Sci-Fi genre with Cowboys and Aliens got him excited about the Star Wars universe once more, or maybe he was of a mind-set “If you want something doing right, you have to do it yourself”. He could also just be in it for the money. Before too much speculation could take place however, more news was released (again from Total Film), with an Entertainment Tonight interview with Mark Hamill. Hamill had a slightly different story to tell. Though George Lucas had been in talks with him about role reprises, nothing had been signed at this time.
Hamill said in his interview…
[quote]“They’re talking to us. George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed – on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.”[/quote]
This shows a certain level of respect for the original actors. The fact George Lucas has spoken to Mark Hamill about what could happen in the new franchise would indicate that he really wants the original cast back to play their parts. The fact that they would write the characters out of the timeline, if no one was interested in reprising their roles again also shows a certain level of respect, but this time for the fans (as well as the actors) who are going to have trouble seeing these beloved characters played by different actors, especially when all the original cast are still alive.
[quote] “And another thing I’d want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie [Fisher] and Harrison [Ford] and Billy Dee [Williams] and Tony Daniels, everybody that’s around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody’s on board here, rather than just one.”[/quote]
This is also great news, with Hamill wanting all the crew on board we would have continuity throughout the series of movies. This is exactly what the fans want to see, the old chemistry of our favorite Jedi’s and smugglers all in the same movie. It is great news that Hamill knows what the fans want, and the fact he to only wants to work with his fellow Star Wars cast members. Hamill pleased the fans even more by saying he favored practical effects over CGI, something that worked against Episode 1-3.
[quote] “I’m assuming, because I haven’t talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring – like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character.”[/quote]
A lot of the stories told after Episode 6 do focus on Luke Skywalker taking a more Obi-Wan role in the universe and a lot of the other stories focus on Leia and Hans children who are also gifted with the force. This would open up a great wealth of story possibilities as well as the fun fact we would be seeing how these characters have evolved since Episode 6. Though it is not clear if Harrison has signed or not, it is looking incredibly likely that we may see a return of the old cast, possibly with a married Han and Leia fighting over who is going to take the kids to Jedi training, while a white-haired Chewbacca plays chess with C3P0.
Grizzly Bomb 